Talisac

He hung by his mouth from a device whose purpose was beyond the Generals' comprehension, his mouth hooked up, as though he were a fish. In his perversity, or his genius, or both, he had created some kind of external womb for himself. A semi-translucent bag hung from the lower portion of his abdomen, down between his spidery legs. There was life inside. "A Mongroid," Camille whispered. Talisac was the biggest cause of controversy with the revealing of the Tortured Souls - originally called "The Fix - Surgery gone wrong" he was the only figure that actually looked tortured, a bizarre mess of a man hanging from his face by hooks, with a fetus of all things in between his legs where his genitals should be. Of course, when the toy came out and we all read that it was actually his will to be hanging in his deformed invention, creating the second coming in a "virgin birth" - we just think of Dr. Talisac as being all the more grotesque. Talisac's machine is over 10" tall, with his figure being slightly smaller at 7", hanging limply from the hooks in his face. The sculpt is great, and it's worth talking about both his contraption and himself separately. To begin with, the contraption is an enormous stand with a spiked base below where Talisac dangles (presumably so he cannot allow himself to get down) with three wheels on the bottom to move it. A pole on the side leads up to the stand that holds Talisac, with an obscure spine-like piece running up to connect to various tubes going into the doctor himself. The top ledge which holds up Talisac has various different pieces, including the six chains that hold the hooks in his face, an IV full of blood, and various surgical tools hanging from a chain at the end (so that Talisac can operate on himself while hanging). The sculpt of this is simple and nice, but Talisac is the really impressive thing here - the good doctor is hung painfully by the hooks on his face, which despite looking good is a chore to put together, and the chains aren't quite the right length to have him 'hanging', but it looks nice none-the-less. His facial expression and eyes are painful - it looks absolutely terrible. Talisac's skin is covered in wounds and torn flesh, where the doctor has no doubt operated on himself - his upper left arm is a particular spectacle, with all the flesh peeled off for some reason. Lovely. Various tubes connect to his body, from the IV and the stand. For those wondering, the Talisac figure doesn't actually hang from the stand - a large bladed arm sticks up into his body from the top of the stand, which holds him in place, and the wound from the blade is stitched up down to the creepy external womb. The womb is made of translucent plastic, allowing us to see the Mongroid inside faintly, which looks great. Even better is that it's removable, and we can take it apart not only to see an enormous cavity in Talisac where his pelvis and genitals should be, but you can take out the Mongroid fetus, which is a vile little piece of plastic. It's disturbingly twisted little fella, with his arms and legs all twisted together and his face stuck in a screaming pose, eyes tightly shut. It's removed from the womb/egg easily and then put back in place with ease - the womb can also be turned around if you don't want to see the little Mongroid staring out. I haven't tried moving him much, but it seems like Talisac is articulated at the wrists, neck, and possibly his legs - but you really wouldn't want to move him anyway. I mean, who's gunna play with this thing?! Talisac is a display piece only, perfect for disgusting anyone, particularly the religious. Overall, I really like Talisac - he's not at all a thing of beauty, in fact he's utterly disgusting. I didn't want to describe his detail too much here, as there's lots to discover about him and it'd take a while to talk about all of it - I dare say he has more features than Agonistes, who is covered with little details and intricacies. The paint application is splendid, highlighting all of these terrible little wounds and details. I really like this figure, but there is something to be said about the comparisons between this guy and the Tortured Souls 2 - The Fallen; Talisac is easily the most risqué of all of the original Tortured Souls, but despite his disturbing nature, he still appears as artful as the rest of the line. Most of the Tortured Souls 2 are disturbing and sick, but they just appear disturbing and sick for the sake of being it, somewhat lacking the artistic edge of beauty in the originals - and without novellas with back-stories, we'll never know more about them except that one is a guy giving birth to worms that are eating him, and another is a guy whose guts are being pulled about by machinery while he's being crucified, et cetera, et cetera. Talisac is art, and that's why I like him - not because he's gross. With that said, I'm intrigued as to how the Tortured Souls 2 will be seen in the media and also to see if collectors will want them as much as they did the originals. Overall Rating: A Shocka's Placing in the Line: 2nd Agonistes | The Scythe-Meister | Lucidique | Talisac | Venal Anatomica | Mongroid TS2: created by design or driven by greed? Will the lack of a novella hurt their sales? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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