I had previously pre-ordered this toy through Hasbro Pulse, but when I heard Amazon was already shipping her, I ordered through them instead, and she showed up today! Yay!

So, after years of getting assorted Arcee toys that turned into spiders and motorcycles and things, we finally got the first really good Arcee toy in 2014, which turned into a pink car. And there was much rejoycing. She was arguably the must-have toy of that year, despite some minor aesthetic issues (like the black connectors for her neck and limbs, and the weird random blue patches painted on her vehicle mode). That toy was designed by a Takara employee (Hironori Kobayashi) who had created it back before he even worked there, and it was a good enough fan design that it won awards at BotCon Japan, so that should tell you something right there. It's likely he worked on perfecting it for years.

Then a few years later, when John Warden was hellbent on giving us the definitive versions of Transformers: the Movie characters, we got Earthrise Arcee. It had basically a perfect robot mode in terms of screen accuracy, but to call the toy a Transformer would be a bit of a misnomer. Really, she's an action figure that wraps a car shell around her body. She could either ride the car mode as a surfboard, or she could wear it on her body as the world's largest backpack. Either way was an insult. The emphasis on that toy was clearly the robot mode, but it was done so at the expense of everything else.

It seems strange for them to address Arcee again so soon, after only a couple of years, but the Studio Series places emphasis on screen accuracy, so maybe it was the right time to try again. Hasbro must certainly have heard the fan feedback about Earthrise Arcee, who was one of the worst transforming toys from that assortment. So, this time they went back to the 2014 toy, took what worked well, and rejiggered it a bit to make it even better.

The toy is similar to the 2014 Generations release, at least from the waist up. The shoulder pads with the skinny wheels connected to them, the robot chest, the head sculpt, all these things should seem familiar. But, the rest of the toy got an overhaul. The rounded abdomenal curvature, complete with belly button, that suggested an organic form is gone, replaced with the more stylized, trapezoidal-shaped hips that are consistent with her animation model. Her Deanna Troi labor hips have been reduced in size, and the feet have been redone. In place of the gigantic heel struts on the Earthrise toy, she's taken a minimalist approach and has small balancing tabs on either side of her heel, like a backwards Trypticon. The hands have been redone with an open palm that can still grip weapons, like the Scourge/Sweep toy.

Also, the color mapping is finally correct. This is huge. I get that black plastic has greater tensile strength, but the copious black connector parts all over 2014 Arcee (her neck, knees, hips, etc.) ruined her look. Takara obviously didn't require it, since the Legends equivalent released in Japan wasn't colored this way! But, not even the right colors could eliminate those thunder thighs.

She comes with one small, grey blaster, which is screen accurate—it's the gun she used when shooting at the internal defense systems inside Unicron, and the one she carried in "The Dweller in the Depths" as well.

Her transformation is similar to previous toys, and at first I was confident I could do it without the instructions, but I ended up having to check on a couple of key points. The robot head and chest do the same thing they did with the Generations release. The arms lay underneath the front fenders this time, with the robot hands slipping into the fronts of the fenders. The robot hips are no longer required to shift apart from each other. The robot legs tuck under the rear fenders, with the robot feet clipping together and using the heel struts to plug into the car body. There are a lot of flat panels that unfold—the rear fenders, the car doors, the rear bumper and tail lights. But, it works really well.

The car mode is so much better. The vehicle mode for the Earthrise toy was basically a shell that wrapped around the robot body, and because of that, her vehicle chassis was unnaturally narrow and her fenders were gigantic. The styling of the car mode, as designed by Floro Dery, was totally lost in translation during Earthrise. But, this is a huge improvement. It recaptures the graceful, flowing lines, and they even fixed the way the robot legs interrupted the shape of the trunk on the 2014 toy.

Turn the car mode upside-down, and it actually looks like a Transformer with a capital "T." It doesn't just look like an Arcee action figure with her legs splayed sideways. So, huge improvement.

She does seem to have one flaw, which is that her elbow joints are just held together with plastic bumps, and the right arm on my copy likes to pop apart frequently. I imagine I could run a metal pin through the joint and fix this problem pretty easily.

It took a while, but I think maybe they've finally given us the definitive Arcee toy. They might try again in a few years, I suppose (I'm honestly expecting a rejiggered Masterpiece Arcee one of these years, because she desperately needs it), but it would be difficult to surpass this toy.

I wonder if they could modify this toy and turn it into a Headmaster? The mini-figure that the head unfolded into would have to be pretty tiny, but she's already got an open canopy, so in theory it wouldn't be too tough to modify it slightly to accept a driver. Just a thought!

Zob (I mean, the HasCon toy was great and all, but let's get real, it was a pink Blurr toy)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> I had previously pre-ordered this toy through Hasbro Pulse, but when I
> heard Amazon was already shipping her, I ordered through them instead,
> and she showed up today! Yay!

> That toy was designed by a Takara employee (Hironori Kobayashi) who had
> created it back before he even worked there, and it was a good enough fan
> design that it won awards at BotCon Japan, so that should tell you
> something right there. It's likely he worked on perfecting it for years.

That is deeply weird.

> Then a few years later, when John Warden was hellbent on giving us the
> definitive versions of Transformers: the Movie characters, we got
> Earthrise Arcee. It had basically a perfect robot mode in terms of
> screen accuracy, but to call the toy a Transformer would be a bit of a
> misnomer. Really, she's an action figure that wraps a car shell around
> her body. She could either ride the car mode as a surfboard, or she
> could wear it on her body as the world's largest backpack. Either way
> was an insult. The emphasis on that toy was clearly the robot mode, but
> it was done so at the expense of everything else.

I’m still baffled that they redecoed that toy, and that they included it in
Kingdom. Didn’t they realize that it was a stinker? I don’t know how far
ahead redecos are planned, so maybe Lifeline was already in the pipeline
and it was too late to back out, but the Kingdom release… why?

Glancing over the rest of the Earthrise and Siege lines… literally any
other deluxe would have been better.

Did someone think it was a good toy?

>
> The hands have been redone with an open palm that can still grip
> weapons, like the Scourge/Sweep toy.

The hand remold dates back to the Combiner Hunter Arcee, where they were
remolded so she could hold a sword three times her size. Or a spear. I
forget what weapon she was assigned.

The arms were remolded again with this release, to remove slots for swords.

I am a little confused about them being molded in white plastic, as in
thrilling 30 they matched the pink plastic of her shoulders. A lot of the
interior parts are also white now, so maybe I’m confused by the shoulders.
And the biceps now being a very pale pink used nowhere else on the toy.

The vanishing light piping also confuses me, since I would expect the back
of her head and the windshield to be on the same sprue.

I’m not 100% sure whether this is a remold or a new mold — were they doing
CAD designs in 2014? There are parts that are definitely the same within
some margin of error, but things don’t line up as expected.

> Also, the color mapping is finally correct. This is huge. I get that
> black plastic has greater tensile strength, but the copious black
> connector parts all over 2014 Arcee (her neck, knees, hips, etc.) ruined
> her look. Takara obviously didn't require it, since the Legends
> equivalent released in Japan wasn't colored this way! But, not even the
> right colors could eliminate those thunder thighs.

I really like the black on that toy — it’s not accurate to the G1 cartoon,
but neither was the alt mode or the thunder thighs.

And now we have both an accurate color scheme on a more accurate toy, and a
much more dynamic color scheme on the Thrilling 30. So it turns out will in
the long run.

> She comes with one small, grey blaster, which is screen accurate—it's the
> gun she used when shooting at the internal defense systems inside
> Unicron, and the one she carried in "The Dweller in the Depths" as well.

She needs a second gun. Screw accuracy.

Speaking of accuracy — are the leg detailing bits accurate to the cartoon,
or were they just copying lines from the Thilling 30 toy when sculpting
them?

> Her transformation is similar to previous toys, and at first I was
> confident I could do it without the instructions, but I ended up having
> to check on a couple of key points.

Me too. I remembered the old transformation and couldn’t figure out where
things went when they changed.

> The robot head and chest do the same thing they did with the Generations
> release. The arms lay underneath the front fenders this time, with the
> robot hands slipping into the fronts of the fenders. The robot hips are
> no longer required to shift apart from each other. The robot legs tuck
> under the rear fenders, with the robot feet clipping together and using
> the heel struts to plug into the car body. There are a lot of flat
> panels that unfold—the rear fenders, the car doors, the rear bumper and
> tail lights. But, it works really well.

I love that it uses the stress slots on the shoulders for transformation.
It locks everything into place tightly, and it’s just fun to see it reused.

> The car mode is so much better. The vehicle mode for the Earthrise toy
> was basically a shell that wrapped around the robot body, and because of
> that, her vehicle chassis was unnaturally narrow and her fenders were
> gigantic. The styling of the car mode, as designed by Floro Dery, was
> totally lost in translation during Earthrise. But, this is a huge
> improvement. It recaptures the graceful, flowing lines, and they even
> fixed the way the robot legs interrupted the shape of the trunk on the 2014 toy.
>
> Turn the car mode upside-down, and it actually looks like a Transformer
> with a capital "T." It doesn't just look like an Arcee action figure
> with her legs splayed sideways. So, huge improvement.
>
> She does seem to have one flaw, which is that her elbow joints are just
> held together with plastic bumps, and the right arm on my copy likes to
> pop apart frequently. I imagine I could run a metal pin through the
> joint and fix this problem pretty easily.

Mine is fine. How well does yours hold together at the waist? Mine wants to
start transforming any time I touch her.

> It took a while, but I think maybe they've finally given us the
> definitive Arcee toy. They might try again in a few years, I suppose
> (I'm honestly expecting a rejiggered Masterpiece Arcee one of these
> years, because she desperately needs it), but it would be difficult to surpass this toy.

She’s great. I want her in green.

> I wonder if they could modify this toy and turn it into a Headmaster?
> The mini-figure that the head unfolded into would have to be pretty tiny,
> but she's already got an open canopy, so in theory it wouldn't be too
> tough to modify it slightly to accept a driver. Just a thought!
>
>
> Zob (I mean, the HasCon toy was great and all, but let's get real, it was a pink Blurr toy)
>

When we all know Arcee should be a pink and orange Blurr. I love the Titans
Return Arcee, and all the those Blurrs — it was a great mold and kind of
fun to see how they could alter it so slightly to change it so much.

That Arcee is built like a little tank though, rather than a slender robot.
I can see it as an upgraded form in the future.