Name: Arcee
Series: Movie tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Motorbike
Thanks to liegeprime for loaning me Arcee for this review - mine is sealed
MOTORBIKE MODE
Height: 6cm Length: 10.5cm Width: 3.5cm (wider with the weaponry attached)
A blue motorbike with some silver paint applications, a smoky transparent windshield. Arcee has black wheels with dark grey mechanical pieces (chain, brakepads, etc) supporting them while there are some light grey plastic pieces also visible. There's nothing here that really links this bike to the G1 character Arcee - although she is a repaint of the pink Energon Arcee. The blue bike looks pretty good, if not especially memorable. The colours work but are a little to dark to really catch the eye.
The optional weaponry is black, not transparent as on the Energon version. This fits into the darker theme here, and I don't think transparent would have worked particularly well here anyway. The saddle is mostly black, and in front of the saddle is a blue block out of which sticks her spark crystal. You can add the Energon chip here, although it looks out of place on a fairly well shaped streetbike. The Energon chip is a dark (smoky) transparent anyway, so it no longer augments the spark crystal, which was the original intention. Just behind this there's an upside down Autobot logo, which is really for the bot mode but visible here. There are a couple of dials (speedo and tacho, I guess) and handlebars just behind the windshield, which represent enough fine detailing to keep me happy at the basic pricepoint.
The front does not twist, so can't steer as such, but she does roll, with the front wheel rolling better than the rear wheel. Arcee has a silver painted headlight and very subtle orange indicates on the front. On the left hand side is a long powerlinx hardpoint, that can act as a kickstand, allowing her to lean to the side in "park". By partially swinging down her robot feet you can stand the bike upright, and the same effect can be achieved by adding the Energon bits for her Attack Mode. Not only does this allow her to stand upright, it gives her a giant dark grey missile she can shoot, on the right hand side, and giant black exhausts on either side. While it doesn't really fit in with the whole realistic bike thing, it looks pretty cool and works well for an attack bike mode.
A decent bike on it's own merits, and while the name just doesn't really have a place here, I do think the bike is strong enough that it's mould worth possessing. The colours are fairly good, but they're not Arcee and they are a little darker that I'd like - the robot mode's colours work better thanks to more prominent silver. The Energon weaponry compliments her and she can lean _and_ stand - someone paid attention whilst designing this toy. I'm struggling to fault this mode physically, although the rear wheel's spin is bad, it has to split for the robot mode and the versatility of this bike mode is pretty good for a basic sized toy.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Lift out the sides of the bike and swing them over (back to front), straighten them to form her legs, which will more or less stick up in the air. Split the entire back half of the bike, swing the halves out to the sides, revealing the robot head. Swing this head up, push the front wheel to stow it on her back. Rotate the windshield down, so that you can push the legs down. Bring her arms down to her side, stow the rear wheels halves down onto her back, rotate the fists around and give her the crossbow if you like.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 10cm Width: 5.5cm
A blue robot with extensive silver, grey and black, Arcee's colours work very well, although they don't really fit the concept of Arcee. Her face is silver with orange eyes. The black is mainly on her arms, the grey on her feet and hands while the silver is also painted on her thighs and ankles. I quite like the layout here, despite the fact that the colour scheme doesn't fit the name at all.
It's a fairly good robot mode, and the read looks better than the bright pink did on the Energon version of this mould. The Princess Leia buns on the sides of her head are a lot smaller than the G1 animated Arcee's, but are present. The buns are really the only aspect here that tie this robot to its name. The chest shape is similar to that of the G1 Arcee, but the semblance is not readily apparent in these colours.
Arcee's stamped Autobot logo is now on her chest, just above the spark crystal. Adding the dark Energon chip is fairly pointless, since it's barely transparent - it covers the spark rather than altering it, and it gives her a pot belly. Her groin is actually the bike's console, with the speedo and tacho, which is a nice touch.
The crossbow is too big for her to wield properly, it clips onto the inside of her forearm and she has to point it to the side, which can still work but it's huge in proportion. It's a pretty cool crossbow, but the excuse of being designed for larger Energon figures doesn't work for it anymore. The small silver bike exhausts are now blasters protruding from underneath her forearms.
Arcee's reasonably well articulated, her head turns, her shoulders and wrists are ball jointed, although her elbows are hinged in such a way that they only hinge _in_. While this doesn't ruin the arm poseability, it does limit her posing since she can't lift her elbows. The hips are ball jointed, the knees are double hinges and ankles swing a little. Aside from the limited elbows, I'm quite happy with this articulation.
As much as this colour scheme doesn't really fit the name, it's a good colour scheme on a pretty good robot mode. The articulation is generally good, although elbows don't work very well. The weapon is too big for her, although she can hold it in a couple poses.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
A fairly nice if random and uninspired repaint. Arcee is a very good basic, with two solid modes and a kick-ass crossbow - although the latter is too big to work in many poses. If you don't have this mould, I would certainly recommend it, but I wouldn't recommend this toy as a representation of Arcee as such. I'd recommend the Energon toy or the later Elita-One over this version, but if the blue grabs you, the mould is worthwhile despite the weird arms - 6.5/10
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