From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

OOC Background and Inspiration

For those of you "old school" enough to remember him, yes - Cyberman 8 is a direct homage to 8-Man. Or to use his slightly different Americanized sobriquet - Tobor the 8th Man. Given a somewhat different name and tweaked background details to make him fit into the backstory of Paragon City. Surprisingly little effort, really! His powersets even fall nicely in line as well!

His physical design owes much to a costume piece that is part of the Veteran Awards system. The brim on his "Helmet" is from the Samurai Armor Set. I wouldn't have created the character at all if I hadn't noticed how it made the round helmet look during some random fiddling of the costume creator after I received the Veteran Award. I made a character with the round helmet and put that brim on it and before I added anything else, it tugged at my memory. I thought, "that looks familiar somehow" and started experimenting with it. Adding and removing various things until I found the "V" ornament. When I placed that, it finally hit me who it reminded me of and I quickly looked up reference of 8-man across the web to help get reference with other costume details. The rest of the costume just... came together magically. (I attribute any differences between the original version and mine as being due to the upgrades he underwent after his recovery from the excavation site in Faultline.) I've since made other costume slots for him that are less of a direct visual match to 8-Man (The other armor sets mentioned above). Coincidentally, when his basic costume is in the Legendary Supergroup colors (blue and gold), his look is a close match to the videogame version of 8-Man from 1991. A bit of serendipity that I find amusing.

In looking up sources of the original 8-Man, I realized I wasn't going to be able to play him in character the way he was portrayed in the original show. His original personality seems extremely stoic and humorless, and I didn't think I wanted to play him that way. Thus the epiphany noted above in his personality section. and his change in behavior as a result. I still play him as taking his "job" very seriously, but this provided me with an excuse to play him lighter if I wished. In the end, my Cyberman 8, while being an obvious homage to 8-man, has diverged significantly. And he's a lot more fun to play as a result.

Very awesome character.

           from The Havok Brothers

Excellent homage (not ripoff or copy, IMO). --Megajoule 03:56, 16 May 2007 (MST)

Love the homage! A little proud that I got it right away.  :D --Vangelus 11:27, 6 June 2007 (MST)

Heck, I'm pleased that C8 works as well as does! A few people in-game have told me that they recognize him and like the reference. And I've gotten quite a few tells from people who don't make the 8-Man reference who just like the costume. He's fun to play, too! ^_^ Logand 14:09, 8 June 2007 (CST)