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Written by Prodimus
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Saturday, 22 May 2004 |
[TRANSFORMERS: ENERGON]  | FEMBOT: The first female Transformer in Transformers: Energon, ARCEE, is in town. With great homage to the original Arcee from the 1980s, this figure is getting hard to find at the moment. But we manage to get one of the racks recently, and have provided a review on the popular toy, HERE. |
Reviewed by: Prodimus
Pictures by: Prodimus
Date: 20-May-2004
Product: ARCEE
Series: Energon
Company: Hasbro
Released: May-2004
Related Links: TRANSFORMERS.com
[INTRODUCTION]
I guess the name "Arcee" will ring a bell for most Transformers fans. Making her debut in Transformers: The Movie, she's one of the very few female robots in the Transformers Universe, and arguably one of the most popular. For me, Arcee was a love at first sight. I mean, the idea of an ass-kicking female warrior wasn't too difficult to capture the attention of young boys!
Despite my young boy's fascination, a transformable G1 Arcee figure was never released, but we did have some non-transformable Arcee PVCs and MyClones over the years, as well as a Botcon Exclusive Arcee figure (in two variants). There was also a fan-made transformable Arcee that made heads turned, by STUDIO EPILSON, who was a participant at our very own DOTCON ZERO.
In Transformers: Energon, we've a new version of Arcee, who is now an Omnicon. The toy itself is short-packed, so she's quite difficult to find at the moment. But I've managed to get one off the shelves, and am glad to bring you this review.
[VEHICLE MODE]
    
Unlike her G1 counterpart, who was a convertible coupe, the new Arcee is a motorcycle. Her primary color is white, but she does have minor touches of pink to pay homage to the G1 character though. There're also dashes of black, silver, yellow and translucent red that completed the look. She's quite sleek looking in this mode, and generally looks very nice. Her sculpt was reasonably well done, with the edges on her slightly more rounded when compared to other Omnicons. I thought this was deliberately done to create a more feminine feel.
Besides that, there are lots of sculpted details on her, for example, on the wheel spokes, on the exhaust piece, and even on the motorbikes main screen. Arcee is also nicely proportioned, which allows me to get her vehicle mode to stay vertical without any support from the energon weapon accessories. I achieved that by shifting what was her bot feet out to function like a motobike stand. I was pleased it worked fine.
As with all Omnicons, Arcee has an Energon star, as well as her Energon weapons. Her weapons are a missile launcher, and a scope. These could be attached to the sides of the bike for a really nice attacking mode. In fact, Arcee's weapons combine to form such a beauty of an Energon weapon, I'd say they're the nicest Energon weapons so far. But more on that later.
Arcee is nearly in-scale to a 3-inch action figure such as Stifkas. You may notice in one of the pictures, I had a Stikfas G2 Monk in the driving seat. It looks slightly awkward, but still provides some nice alternatives.
[ROBOT MODE]
   
Arcee in bot mode is quite elegant in design. The designers have added a feminine touch to her, giving her features like smaller hands, wider hips and higher heels. However, because of the design, it became difficult to pose Arcee. This is a waste of the some 13 points of articulation. A particularly disappointing aspect of the poseability is her lower arms, which could only move in and out, and not up and down.
The sculpt on Arcee's robot mode, however, remains excellent. Aesthetically, she looks good, with her chest protruding slightly to remind us that she's a fembot, plus some sort of a "collar" around her neck (she likes to wear nice clothes, doesn't she?). Her head sculpt is nicely done, even though it's not something that some will like on first impressions. Upon closer inspection, however, her head sculpt actually has some resemblance to G1 Arcee, which is expected, but still nice.
Arcee's Energon weapons combine to form a huge crossbow. And when I say huge, it's really huge! Energon weapons are actually made in scale with the deluxe/ mega figures, so they do look a tad weird on basic bots like Arcee. Due to the lack of meaningful movements on Arcee's arms, posing her with the crossbow is extremely difficult. The best pose, as seen in the pictures, is to have her hold the bow to her side. Still, despite the difficulty in posing, the crossbow is perhaps the nicest of all Energon weapons so far. It's detailed, and has a nice translucent red color scheme. But most interesting, it's a innovative weapon. I don't think there're many Transformers that have a crossbow as a weapon, if there're indeed any.
[CONCLUSION]
Energon Arcee is a fun toy that pays G1 Arcee a fair bit of respect. The colors are similar, and her head sculpt reminds me of the Arcee in the Transformers Movie. I wish she was more than a basic figure though, which could allow a lot more meaningful articulation. While she's quite difficult to find now, there're rumors that there'll be more Arcee inserted in the later Energon assortments. So for those who're still waiting to find theirs, hold your breath. Arcee is recommended.
Rating: 8/10
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