It was a bit too obvious this time and also a bit distracting. I do have to agree with that.

 

As long as the toys are in scale, I don't really mind. Of course even those will be wrong, too.   But yeah, usually they have Arcee transform in such a way that you don't really notice the mass shifting, but that one time next to Jack in Speed Metal was just WAY too apparent.

 

all the bots are really oversized compared to their alt modes and partners. plus i thnk the motorcycle looks a bit smaller than normal in that shot.

 

Borrowing from the development they have established thus far: She was really attached to Cliffjumper. She doesn't want to lose someone again. She's more protective of Jack than she leads on.

 

Arcee's hardly a bitch. She just has a bit of a brazen type attitude.

She's sassy.  

 

She hardly has the badonkadonk to be called sassy.

 

Don't all Autobots in Prime mass shift during transformation?

I mean, Bulkhead's wheels are five feet tall in robot mode.

 

According to tvtropes,

Arcee exhibits traits of a Cool Big Sis.

 

Yeah...but mass-shifting!

 

I wonder, if they added a sidecar could Has/Tak make a HA of Arcee? She'll be slightly big in vehicle mode and slightly short in Robot mode, but would anyone really care about that in a HA?

 

I admit the scene in "Speed Metal" where Knock Out threw Arcee off his top in car mode and she transformed into motorcycle mode when she hit the ground did make her vehicle downsizing very obvious. But it really isn't something that bothers me. Arcee's small enough in bot mode as she is amongst the Autobots. Any smaller and she wouldn't be a credible threat against Decepticons in combat. At least we can believe she's pretty light-weight in bot mode which allows her to jump and leap about a lot in battle. I wonder tho', if she, or any other bot for that matter, were to take on a larger alt mode, would her body change size accordingly as well?

And Arcee's hard as nails and fiercely caring of her 'family' and friends. Don't dislike her coz she makes little boys cry in street races!   No offence to her original namesake, but Prime Arcee is more of a "forceful female Autobot" than G1 Arcee ever was!

 

Amen, sister.

Back to the original topic, I agree that the mass-shifting is unusually prominent with her. Maybe she would have been better off as an automobile?

 

Yeah, a futuristic coupe, perhaps in pink and white.

 

Of course, the writers are probably trying to avert Pink Girl Blue Boy trope.

BTW you probably you don't want me to keep talking in tropes. Right?

 

Yes, because that's certainly not going to get Jack teased.

- Coeloptera

 

Too bad he's written so wimpy he can't take it.

 

Really? That´s the character trait I like in her more.

 

Personally i'd love for them to give an explanation for mass shifting. It would be the first show to acknowledge and explain it. From my understanding, the comics have given explanations before. I'm all in favor of using E=mc^2 to say they just have a massive energy storage that they can use to turn into mass if they need it.

That's why the Beast Wars were flat out smaller. It was more energy efficient.

 

It's a two way street. They would need an influx of energy to increase their mass and a decrease in energy to reduce it. So for instance a mass-shifting Transformer would have to carry an energy storage device in vehicle mode that carries energy proportional(1:1) to the increase in mass required to effect the transformation. When reverting to alt mode that energy would have to be discharged or shunted back into the storage device. I like the idea of an attack on transformation that dumps that massive amount of energy into the target of the TFs choice, but with the downside of not having the energy to resume robot form without a recharge.