In a world where Arcee is basically the only girl Transformer who ever gets toys on the regular, while the powers that be are reluctant to redeco toys that aren't originally female into more females, female Transformers sure always look exactly like Arcee, huh?  Heck, just in the past month or so, Fun Publications has given us three female Transformer toys all based on three different versions of Transformers Prime Arcee.  Whoof!

It's BotCon's 20th year, and so BotCon gave us a bunch of toys that reimagined some of the toys of years past (like Shokaract).  Flareup and Flamewar were from Fun Publications' first BotCon in 2005, and both were toys based on Energon Arcee.  (Though Flareup got a new head.)  So here they are again, now as redecoes of two different versions of Transformers Prime Arcee.  

Of the two, Flareup is my favorite, I think.  But then, she's exactly the colors of my luau shirt I wear to conventions (orange, black, orange, and yellow), so I may be a little biased.  She's a straight redeco of Transformers Prime "Robots in Disguise" Arcee, the second version of Prime Arcee that followed the brief "First Edition" toyline.  I prefer this version of Prime Arcee the most, I think.  It's a little simpler than the First Edition and easier to transform, and so it's a little less unwieldy.  And so I'm happy to get it in orange.  

Flamewar is a straight redeco of "Robots in Disguise" Arcee's heavily-retooled Beast Hunters iteration, with lots of wings and sharp edges.  I don't have the retail version of this Arcee, partially in the hopes that we'd get a redeco of her as a different character later for BotCon, and my hedging has obviously paid off.  The Beast Hunters version of the mold also has a giant crossbow weapon which feels about as large as the rest of the toy.  It's kind of ungainly.  It's the reason I prefer the earlier version of the mold.  I mean, I like the wings and talons and what have you, but that huge-ass weapon is often annoying to deal with.  

If you've been following BotCon news, you've probably heard about these two in the convention comic book.  Yeah, they, uh, get pretty objectified in there.  It's kind of distracting.  The comic pushes forward with the plot, as per normal, with pretty excellent art, because everyone else is all dudes, and then suddenly BAM, boobs and contorted torsos and panty-shots.  Oof.  Well, um.

Yeah.

 

Within the past two waves of Legion Class (the smallest!) Transformers toys, there've been some older guys redecoed into new folks who otherwise don't have toys. And I'll pick them up! Why not? New guys!  Plus two of them were molds I hadn't owned before.

Flamewar is the most interesting character choice.  The original Flamewar was a BotCon 2005 exclusive toy and since then she has only appeared in BotCon and Collectors' Club-related materials, until now.  Like before she's a redeco of a motorcycle Arcee toy.  But now she's got a grudge against Arcee as well!  ...basically, she's Airachnid.  But now in that "I hate you and want to kill you but I am also wearing your skin" sort of way.  Her packaging art doesn't dispel any creepiness.

There's also Fallback, which is what Hasbro has to call Outback these days for steakhouse reasons.  (Yeah, it's a restaurant, but they also hold the trademark for toys for some reason.  Probably merchandise.)  Fallback is a redeco of Legion Class Breakdown.  Like Flamewar, he hasn't been mentioned on the cartoon, but in the most recent episode, Optimus Prime ordered his troops to "Fall back!" and so I like to pretend that Fallback is always just off-screen where we can't see him and that sometimes Optimus Prime yells at him.

Tailgate has been mentioned and seen on the cartoon, as he is Arcee's notorious first ill-fated partner.  He was a redeco of Cliffjumper in the cartoon as well, so this is a good use of the Cliffjumper Legion Class toy.  His transformation is crazy and I love him.  It's amazing how much versatility you can get out of a pile of ball joints.  He's seriously impressive for his size.

If you don't care about getting new characters, I'd still get Tailgate just for the hell of it.  He's pretty and his toy is a neat thing to keep around in your pocket.