Sierra loves a man secure in his masculinity. We hope.
I mentioned the New York theme to most of the NYCC-exclusive Transformers set yesterday. Emphasis on the “most,” unless being pink and white is some Big Apple-y thing I’m not aware of. (I would not rank this as an impossibility.) Bumblebee gets to be a taxi, and the two humans get to wear New York t-shirts. Arcee gets to be pink and white.
Not that I’m against pink and white. It just stands out as an anomaly.
Obviously Hasbro was going for a Classic G1 Arcee color scheme for her, as Arcee is normally black and blue in the show. I’m of two minds with this. The first mind tells me that I don’t really care for G1-inspired redecoes on folks who don’t appear in them and I’m not particularly fond of G1 Arcee in general. Mind Number Two reminds me that toys in these colors happen basically never, and I should savor this. And I do. The toy is gloriously pink. Not red or somewhere in between so little boys might be fooled into buying a girl, but out-and-out Barbie Dream Car pink. It’s a novelty.
My friend Sam reminded me that Arcee in War for Cybertron is pink and white, so this could be Arcee in a transitional form in between then and now. I was happy, frankly, to repurpose this toy as someone else entirely in a recent strip.
The blade weapons are cumbersome, but removeable.
There are many things about this toy that I like. Sometimes motorcycle toys go through insane contortions to get from a passable motorcycle into a passable robot. Animated Prowl is perhaps still the master at this. Arcee isn’t quite as elegant an execution, but she’s not a failure on any scale. I like how simple her leg transformation is. Often this is the annoying part of the motorcycle Transformer, but her legs just sit side-by-side in robot mode, sharing a wheel which splits up during conversion. The arms kind of messily hang off the sides, but they’re hidden well enough. The only thing that really bothers me is the mess of kibble directly behind her head, and how the handlebars located therein conflict with her shoulders. Her shoulder kibble and her back kibble are not meant to coexist. They will be a source of annoyance.
Prime Arcee is one of the Autobots’ most agile and formidable warriors, so I’m grateful that the toy has a large range of movement built into her, short the shoulder/back kibble battle. Her elbows are double-hinged and her hips and knees are versatile. And she has a rotating waist, plus a neck that’s balljointed at one end and hinged at the other!
I really like Arcee, the character. Despite being the only girl on the Autobot team, she’s not characterized as such. Her personality and individualized pathos are frequently showcased, and she became a quick favorite of mine. I’m glad I was able to get an early version of her, even if it will eventually be displaced by a more accurately color-schemed variant. Also I really really really really hope little boys will buy her toys as readily as any other awesome character. (Obviously, her being blue instead of pink would help facilitate that.) If any female Transformer could manage that, it’s her.
Oh god. Cannot wait. Can. Not. Wait.
Got her.
I feel like part of her back kibble should be able to slot into that big hole in her back left by her head. I don’t mind kibble as such; I mind kibble that moves around too much while I pose the rest of the toy, and I get irritated by handlebars and windshields not just forming a nice little compact backpack on my motorcycles.
But this is pretty much my only significant complaint. It’s taking all my willpower not to play “what can Arcee ride?” for several hours, let alone “how many Sailor Uranus poses can Arcee replicate?” This mold is freaking amazing.
I don’t think I mind the colours now that I’ve seen her in person, and up against non-white/pale backgrounds. She needs something to contrast with; she needs to pop. Blue Arcee pops on her own. (I suppose this ends up being a commentary on G1 Arcee, period, not just her colour scheme.)
Agreed on all counts (he said belatedly). The front wheel, if you don’t rotate it from vehicle mode (which the instructions tell you to do), can fold a little bit into her back, somewhat replicating her tiny back-wheel from the show. This leaves enough room to fold the handlebars down so they don’t interfere with the shoulder kibble as much. My big problem with the shoulder kibble is that those parts are more like wings on the show and– more to the point– if you have Arcee moving her arms anywhere forward of her torso, the shoulder parts end up pointing at her armpit. I’m sure the designers explored every other option, but it’s still a bummer.
Def. looking forward to her in blue. I agree, though, that this pink deco pops nicely against a darker background.
Oh yeah, except for the color scheme she’s great (and as you say, even the color scheme’s interesting as a novelty). I’ll so be buying the “real” version of her. Be nice if they released a Jack who was actually to scale and could ride her in vehicle mode.
I’ve had the blades on opposite arms from how you’ve got them, based on screen caps like this: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:TFP_ep18_tag_team.jpg I like that they can slot on her legs in robot mode too, with the other set of peg holes.
Yeah, having a Jack fig, but not one who can ride Arcee is kind of a tease.
I think this colors are because this is the month of breast cancer awareness, right?
I’m still having my ‘that’s…wrong…but I want!’ reaction to this deco. On the other hand, she looks a lot better properly transformed than in the promo shot where most of her front end was stuck behind her back.
i know prowl is more popular (being a show character and all) but oil slick has an equally impressive transformation coupled with an altmode that stands upright on its own and is well sized for hasbro’s million odd 3.75″ human guys. [http://tumblr.com/ZoyDay2Is7dK] dreadnoks, comic style deadpool, clone wars anakin, really i just wish oil slick had gotten about nine redecos.
Well I’ll be darned, so he is. I’ve noticed that Oil Slick is also the right shape/size for Animated Blackarachnia to ride, too. He’s a snazzy mold. Not as much fun as Samurai Prowl, , but for a toy-only character he’s pretty great. Something about him makes him look like he should be fronting a post-(cyber)punk band called My Chemical Robot.
Oil Slick is not strictly toy-only: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:Oilslicktranswarped.jpg
I had Blackarachnia ride Prowl, and then decided that was way too dirty for me.
id dig the kids more if they were made to actually fit into the transformers in vheicle form (like the human alliance figures from the movies)
Oh, cool, they redecoed Arcee into her PROPER colors, from back when Transformers were COOL (trollolololol . . . .)
TRUKK NOT…UM…NEWAR TRUKK, DOOD
Breast cancer awareness month Arcee? I mean, the timing is pretty good.