Thirty years ago, the words “adorable” and “Transformers” are two words I never thought I’d ever see used in the same sentence, but that was before James Roberts and Nick Roche got their hands on Tailgate in their More Than Meets the Eye ongoing comic series and made him, well, adorable. What they’ve created in Tailgate is a character who is positively oozing with innocence and naive charm. He has a disarming quality that allows him to penetrate the rough, defensive exteriors certain other characters are known to put up. You’re forced to look at characters like, say, Cyclonus in a different light, and, speaking of Cyclonus, Tailgate’s relationship with him has to be one of the more endearing elements to come out of the comic. It reminds me a lot of the relationship between Arya and the Hound from A Game of Thrones — the innocent and the killer thrown together by circumstance.
And that’s another thing…
What gender is Tailgate, exactly? There’s a strong contingent out there in tumblr-world that asserts that Tailgate is a yet-to-be-identified-as-female character. Discussions of gender in relation to Transformers always feels like a strange thing to me because, you know, robots and all, and then characters like Arcee and Windblade are so overtly female that there’s no question. So I’ve always assumed Tailgate was “male,” but now I’m thinking the character may very well be female, especially when I go back and notice images like this:
There’s a lot about that image that suggests “female” to me, but I guess we’ll have to just wait and see how the character develops in the series. I do think the verdict is still out, though.
Whatever Tailgate’s gender may be (and I’ll be using male pronouns going forward since male pronouns are used in the bio), it’s a joy to see the character’s IDW interpretation released in the Generations line.
Tailgate comes packed with minicon Groundbuster in packaging that features Tailgate’s likeness, but it doesn’t look to be from the current IDW comics. It’s a great image, but it doesn’t quite nail the character as we’re used to seeing him in the comics. Groundbuster seems to be a random choice to pack with Tailgate, but when we look at one of his alt modes a little bit later, it sort of makes sense. Regardless, I love seeing these IDW characters on the pegs in toy aisles. And I’m not gonna lie — going forward, I hope Hasbro never veers away from the IDW characters. I know it’ll never last, but it’s so great to get these characters in figure form.
Tailgate is mostly a solid action figure offering. The sculpt does its best to approximate its comic book counterpart, but he ends up being saddled with a fair amount of obtrusive kibble. The amount of white, unpainted plastic hurts the figure as well because important details just get lost in all the plain white. He needs some detail work done, badly. I’ve already invested in a Gundam marker to add some detailing to him, but now I just need the courage to attempt it because I’m worried about screwing it up. Oy.
Tailgate’s head sculpt definitely looks soft when you look at it in the package and in hand. It almost looks as though it was carved out of a bar of soap. But there are some details there that just get lost in the white plastic. I didn’t even notice the lines sculpted on his faceplate until I looked at the sculpt in the above pic. The close-up is the only thing that made me aware of those little details.
It’s really his arms that suffer from the kibble. It’s difficult to get his shoulders around the panel that forms his back. The huge chunks of car on his thighs aren’t doing him any favors either, but at least they’re not as bad as his shoulders. His legs are decently posable, so he is capable of some dynamic poses in that regard, but overall he can be a frustrating figure to pose.
Regardless, it’s awesome to add this guy to my Lost Light shelf and it makes me happy just to see him posed with Cyclonus, even in plain ol’ vanilla poses, but I do wish he were as well executed as Swerve. Swerve is a home run — Hasbro nailed him and he looks like he stepped straight out of the comic. I expected Tailgate to be just as good, but unfortunately he does fall short of the bar set by Swerve (no pun intended).
Tailgate’s alt mode is a bit of a curiosity because it doesn’t really fit his personality (flames, for crying out loud?), and it’s not an earth-based alt mode he has in the comic. In More Than Meets the Eye, Tailgate’s alt mode is a Cybertronian waste-disposal unit, but what we get here is a throwback to two things: his original G1 alt mode when he was a repaint/retool of Windcharger, and the flames come from his Transformers: Prime deco. It’s not terrible or anything, but it’s not the alt mode I want in a modern, IDW Tailgate.
Groundbuster is actually the G1 character known as “Neutro.” He had a brief cameo in the comic as a Dead Universe Micromaster who went after Hardhead and Nightbeat on Gorlam Prime in Spotlight: Hardhead. It wasn’t a memorable appearance by any stretch, but it’s little things like this that can give a character at least some legitimacy. As for the figure, it’s about as basic as it gets.
If you stand him up, he’s a robot. If you lay him down, he’s a bulldozer. His arms swivel at the shoulder, but that’s about all the articulation he has.
He can transform into a picker-grabber-thing for Tailgate to wield, which is fitting since Tailgate is a waste-disposal ‘bot in the comics, so Groundbuster can be his… garbage-picking tool? Whatever works!
If you’re a fan of the current IDW comics, then it goes without saying that Tailgate is a must have. It’s not the greatest figure in the world, but it fills an important space on the shelf. (Until a third party team steps up and makes a superior version. You listening, MakeToys?)
This set is hitting at Target and Toys R Us stores as we speak, and my set came from Big Bad Toy Store, so that’s an option if you’d rather not spend your time hunting.
