Cliffbee.com Prime Legends Arcee Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Arcee
Series: Prime
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Motorbike



BIKE MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 7cm Width: 3cm

   A royal blue motorbike with black plastic tyres, Arcee has a black painted saddle while the windshield is painted a light metallic blue. Her weapon is semi-transparent pink, which is typical for Prime Legends. The colours are quite dark & understated, which works well enough although it does Arcee's detail get lost in the colours & scale here.

   This is a stylised motorbike rather than any specific motorbike, and for the most part it's fairly realistic as a racing bike, albeit without the sponsors and team colours. There are cowlings on the sides, although they don't quite sit flush against the rest of the toy. She uses Generations Wreck-Gar's trick of one leg becoming the front and the other the rear, which results in the tyres not quite lining up - basically Arcee is leaning into a left turn.

   There's minimal play value here which is to be expected of a Legends toy. The tyres roll and her pink gun can clip into the cowlings on either side. The bike can't stand on it's own (although curiously she'll easily stand on my leather lounge!).

   A good motorbike mode despite being quite dark, Arcee suffers a little bit from her size as the engineering isn't quite perfect. I don't like that there's no stand mechanism, but the overall styling is good.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   Detach & set aside the gun, if attached. Fold the cowlings forward, pull the front & rear sections down to form the legs. Fold away the tyres into her calves, split the saddle to form her arms, pivot them down to the sides. Fold back the windshield revealing her head & lift the cowlings up as wings. Place the gun in either hand and you're done.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 8cm Width: 5.5cm

   A blue robot with silver on her face, chest & knees, Arcee has mid blue eyes & a tiny red Autobot logo stamped on the left side of her chest. Her thighs and shoulders are black while the rather large gun is pink. I like the paint job although the gun tends to overwhelm the tasteful paint use of silver, so I'd recommend leaving that aside.

   Arcee's bodyshape is generally good although there are blue kibbly spines at the end of her hands. The wings on her back work well visually & stay out of the way as they slant backwards. The shins are asymmetrical as the left shin contains the front mudguard (attached to the front tyre) and the right has the right mudguard. As with many modern Transformers, her feet are design for her stand with her legs slightly apart in a relaxed pose.

   Arcee's play value is simple but effective. Her shoulders and hips are ball jointed while her knees are hinged. The poseability is enough at this size & she stands easily enough.

   A good robot mode only held back by the hand kibble. The bodyshape is good and the wings make for a nice visual feature. The poseability works for a toy this size & the paint job is well thought out.

VARIATIONS

   None that I'm aware of.

OVERALL

   A good little Legends toy - I still recall a time when large Transformer motorbikes were awkward & this one is well executed at the Legends size. Both modes look good, the robot mode's paint job is nice & the play value is good aside from no way to stand the bike mode. The transformation doesn't break any ground but works well which is all I'd expect at this size. Recommended if you like Legends - 8.5/10

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