TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Blackjack's review: Arcee

Name: Arcee
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Gunner; Crowd padding; Female presence
Subgroup: Arcee Bike Gang; ROTF Deluxe Class
Accessories: Sidecar/gun-stand

"Lock and load."

Arcee! She has an identity crisis of sorts. The first movie's lineup was set to include Arcee, who transformed into a Buell Firebolt motorbike. She was dropped from the lineup in favour of Ironhide, as the designers thought she was 'too small' and they can't be bothered to explain gender in the movie. Nevertheless, her design came out in the toyline, like fellow rejected-character Wreckage.

Still, with sequels new characters are introduced, so Arcee made the big screen after all. Apparently she's so awesome that they made THREE of her in the movie. Contrary to what the toy bios say, the novelization and comic adaptation portray them/her as a single character with her mind in three bodies, a la G1 Reflector. The novelization describes her as a 'tripartine' Autobot, and the comic adaptation made her talk like Reflector. No doubt this might be explained in Tales of the Fallen: Arcee. The three bike girls, while at a distance looks almost the same, are actually different designs. The trio are coloured blue, red and purple respectively, and all are unicycles in robot mode, having a wheel instead of legs. It's very reminiscent of Beast Machines' Thrust, and are among the awesome non-humaoid Transformers in the new movie, like Ravage, Rampage, Demolishor and the Doctor to name a few. There are three Arcee bikes, with different alternate modes and slightly different robot modes. In the toyline, Chromia is the blue bike, Arcee the red bike and Flareup or Elita-One is the purple one. And Hasbro just LOVE to mix them up. The Human Alliance and Robot Heroes toys all mix up the character models and colour-schemes. For example, Human Alliance Arcee has Chromia's robot mode but Arcee's bike mode and paintscheme. Robot Heroes Chromia has Flareup/Elita-1's model but coloured like Chromia. The Deluxe class toys are about the only ones who get it correct.

Arcee (I'm sticking with singular in here to reduce confusion) first appeared in her three bike modes, with holographic drivers, in the Shanghai scene. While Ironhide and the human NEST members attacked the massive Demolishor, Arcee and the Twins took off in pursuit after Sideways. The Twins, being bumbling rookies, crashed and separated, but Arcee kept pursuing Sideways, transforming into her three robot modes to shoot Sideways, even when the courier tore through a house, trying their best to fire at Sideways. The chase ended when Sideswipe tore in and bisected Sideways into two equal parts. Arcee appeared later mostly in her bike modes during groupshots. Her next major appearance is during the drop from Stratosphere the Globemaster planes, where she dropped down to Egypt in robot modes. She participated against the Decepticons, and later helped cover Sam and Mikaela's retreat alongside Ironhide. The red and purple bikes apparently got blown up by a Bonecrusher-lookalike. Whether the last blue bike survived the battle is never shown.

The Arcee trio is supposed to combine into a gestalt mode, and it was revealed in the novelization that she would at least use it in the battle against Sideways. The comic adaptation also had a drawing of gestalt-mode Arcee in a groupshot. This gimmick might be carried over to the toys, as the first Arcee bike to be released (Chromia/Blue Bike) and the second toy (Arcee/Red Bike) both have pieces that are practically useless unless... it's part of the combining gimmick. We must wait until the third bike (Flareup/Elita-1/Purple Bike) is released to see whether the combination gimmick is disabled or not.

The name Arcee is first used in Generation 1, as one of the few transformers introduced in the 1986 movie. Arcee's a pink female that changes into a futuristic car. A toy was planned for her, but it never got through the initial stages. In season 4 of the cartoon, Arcee got made into a Headmaster, partnered with Daniel Witwicky. A pink repaint of Chromedome was proposed, but it was dropped as well. Arcee was the Japanese name for Armada Minicon Sureshock. In Energon, a female Omnicon (the 'Queen Bee' of the Omnicons) was named Arcee. She is a Scouts class toy that transforms into a motorbike with an energon crossbow weapon, and got repainted countless times for a lot of other female transformers. The Energon Arcee toy is repainted blue as Movie's Arcee, and Movie introduced a second Deluxe class toy based on the rejected movie design. Animated brought us another Arcee, with a toy that's finally similar enough to G1 Arcee, after 23 years since her character was introduced. Then, the ROTF Movie gave us three Arcees. Or one. Or one-thirds. Whatever.

So, I reviewed deluxe class Chromia some time ago, and she got a very positive verdict from me. I've got a weakness for non-humanoid Transformers, see. Besides, Chromia's design is really similar with BM Thrust, my favourite Vehicon. Arcee, however, is another matter. Concept arts of her really looked as if she had scoliosis and made her look like a snake or somesuch. But being curious (and happy if this has the combination gimmick) I got her anyway. So is she any good? It depends...

ALTERNATE MODE

Arcee's alternate mode is a motorbike. Unlike the first movie's Buell Firebolt or Chromia's Suzuki bike, ROTF Arcee's bike is modeled after a Dugati 848. The main colour for this toy is black and red, with a few metallic red shadings in-between. A massive Cybertronian glyph adorns her sides, just like Chromia.

Arcee's right side seems to be missing a piece. While the left side (the side facing us in the packaging) is highly show-accurate and alt-mode accurate, the right side seems to have a piece missing, so the robot mode claws and spine can be seen. It's not noticeable, but it's there. Detailing is not as impressive as other movie/ROTF toys, but it's there. Arcee rolls rather well on the floor. However, her kickstand is too long and she has a tendency to topple over when the kickstand is deployed. Boo.

Arcee comes with a gun-stand thing, like Chromia. Unlike Chromia's gun-stand, which is cast in black plastic and can be mounted on the back of the bike mode, Arcee's gun-stand marsequerades as a short side-car with two gun-barrels on it. Arcee's side-car has some paint detailing, making it more attractive than Chromia's gun stand. The side-car/gun-stand latches on to the hubcap of the back wheel through a port that is similar to a Minicon plug, but smaller and has an additional groove.

Overall, a satisfying alternate mode, but could be better.

ROBOT MODE

If you could call it a robot, anyway. Unlike Chromia, Demolishor or even BM Thrust (on which the Arcee bikes are based upon, it seems), Arcee is not a unicycle. Both her front and back wheels fold down after a complex transformation, and both become the wheels. They don't peg onto each other, contrary to the instructions. The two side-by-side wheels peg into the sidecar/gun-stand assembly, making the Arcee bikes among the stablest robots out there.

The arms fold out from the side (left arm) and the back of the bike (right arm). The handlebar/windshield assembly becomes a shoulder-guard for the left arm, while the right arm has a shoulder spike made out of the... well, that black piece that holds the gears. I have no idea what that's called. The spine folds out of the twisted black plastic inside the motorbike's body and the result is... very, very odd.

Arcee's left arm is slightly longer than the right, and looks bulkier due to the larger shoulder-guard. The spine has at least three ball joints and form a very twisted feel. When pictures of Arcee first came out, people described her as looking like a snake, or someone struck with scoliosis. To be fair, the character model does have the twisted bundle of a spine, but it's not this pronounced. If you follow the instructions (not stock photography. Hasbro's stock photographers don't know how to transform this toy) you'll get a unique robot mode that's likable. Not as kickass and awesome as Chromia or Demolishor, but it's not as bad as what the stock photos led me to believe.

Gimmicks are okay. Not impressive, but it doesn't get in the way. When you bob Arcee's head, her chest panels move. Um, let's not make inappropriate comments. Also, Arcee has a pop-out spring-loaded energon blade on her right hand. The blue-coloured blade's short, and not as impressive as Chromia's Big Gun, but at least it's there. The head-sculpt is amazing and detailed, moreso compared to Chromia.

Posability. Ah, this is the big question. The head, shoulder and elbow are all on ball joints, and the blade/sheath can spin around. And the spine... with it, she has lots of posability, even if it needs a bit of fiddling around with to get balance. Still, Arcee looks more like a snake (with hands) rearing up instead of a unicycle... now, those who had read some of my reviews of the more exotic designs (Demolishor, Chromia, the Classics Minicon molds) would know that I have a softer spot for non-humanoid transformers. And my all-time favourite non-humanoid designs are those without legs. I mean, four hands (MOV Frenzy) or two heads (G1 Doubleheader) or massive claws or one-arm-is-a-weapon (Lockdown, Megatron) are easy to make into toys. But those with those cool leg designs... From extendable roller blades like Movie Landmine and Jazz, to wheel-feets like Animated Blurr, Movie Bonecrusher and ROTF Sideswipe, to those exotic Vehicon concepts. Single-wheel unicyles, like BM Thrust, the Arcee bikes, and giant 'wheels of doom' Demolishor. Pogo-sticks and centaurs like Rampage. Hovering alien-esque things like BM Jetstorm. Gestalts. Animals like Ravage and insects like Scalpel. And downright bizarre designs like ROTF Hightower. But of all these, Arcee's twisted spine proved waaay too weird for me. Now if her name is Cohrada, it would be a different story. But this is Arcee, a unicycle. It's just way too weird, even for me. But still, an interesting design. Half of me wants to condemn her among the worst toys ever alongside Ultimate Bumblebees and G1 Wheelies, but half of me wants to give her a near-full mark. Really, it's hard for me to be neutral and strike a balance.

Like Chromia, there is the mysterious latch rumoured to be the joint for combination. Whether this gimmick would be enabled or disabled would only be revealed when Elita-One/Flareup is released. Now if Arcee's weirdness is because of a compromise so she could combine, it would be acceptable. If not...

Marks out of ten for the following:

Durability 8/10 Surprisingly, Arcee's quite durable. Her crooked spine is quite thick and unlikely to snap off. Watch out for loose joints, though. Especially in the shoulders and elbows.
Transformation 5/10 Impossible without the instructions, but it's simple with the instructions.
Fun 7/10 Not really as fun as Chromia. After all, the blade's too short and it's a bit frustrating to pose her.
Price 6/10 Meh, I expected less problems with a deluxe class figure. After seeing all the excellent molds in ROTF, at least they could've done something to make her look more cool. I mean, come on! They did an excellent Demolishor toy, which I never thought possible.
Overall I. Have. No. Idea. Honestly... If she is able to combine with her fellow bikes, she would receive a 7/10 or 8/10, for being a unique design. After all, a little compromising for the sake of a gestalt mode is forgivable. If at the end of the day she couldn't combine, she would get a 5/10. She's not bad per se, but there's just too many flaws. Still, being me, I like her design. Chromia still pwns her, though.