A Mini Memorial for Tango

Note to self: I should probably create some sort of editorial category or something for articles like this.

Anyway, I’ve been elbow-deep in working on articles for Nintendo Force recently, so I haven’t gotten to post too much here. But there’s one thing that’s been lingering that I thought I could get out real quick in the meantime.

So, in case you missed it either of the last two times I’ve talked about it (I’m trying not to make a habit of it, but it’s relevant to this, so please trust me), the latter part of last year was kinda rough for me. Of particular note and relevance is back in August, when we got home from traveling to find that our orange cat, Tango, was not doing so well.

I won’t recount the painful memories here, but one thing I mentioned there was that I was inspired to try recoloring a picture of Tango’s namesake into something a little closer to the cat I’d just lost. To that end, my friend and Legends of the Halcyon Era collaborator, Victor, helped immortalize the idea in the following image:

I also mentioned that I’d received some kind words and gestures from the community, one of which I couldn’t show yet.

But I can show it now.

After Tango passed, I lamented on Twitter that “It’s just too bad there aren’t many (any?) toys of Tango out there. I’d love to have one custom-colored like this as a keepsake.”

When word got out, a few folks were inspired to action: Protodude, Asterisk, MegaMac, and in particular RockmanHQ, who dove right in on it and got right to work.

Using a 3D model of Tango (courtesy of MegaMuseum), RockmanHQ posed it and used a 3D printer to bring the model to life, ready to be painted by hand.

Here are some photos of the process, via RockmanHQ:

And this is the result:

Here’s a few angles of Tango. Knowing cats, he’d probably be upset I didn’t get his backside, but alas. Also added a couple for my own amusement of him with another cat figure I got last year, the Autobot cassette lion Steeljaw.

But now, this Tango is residing on my desk, in front of a picture of my wife and I, where I can see him all the time. Suffice to say, he’s now one of the most treasured parts of my entire Mega Man collection.

Thank you, RockmanHQ! And everyone else who looked into helping make this happen! I can’t describe how much this has meant to me.

And thank you for reading!