Back to loving on this awesome yet unfortunately fragile guy!

 

Haha, that's brilliant.

 

Crappy photo but great figure

 

MP-01

 

CW had some duds but it doesn't get enough credit for its home runs.

 

Except for the combined mode.


One of these two. Idk which.

 

Going with TR Gnaw for today:

 

Her.

 

MP Grimlock today.

 

Optimus Prime, on this day!

 

Time to give Nautica the nod today

 

Fav du jour is one of the finest bot from the finest class of the finest line.

 

Still this guy today, although I tried transforming him last night and it’s left permanent emotional scars.

 

I remember a friend that I grew up with telling his Mum she'd know when he was bored of Action Force figures because he'd tell her he wanted Lady Jaye. 'EW GIRLS' was probably a common expression from the mouths of many boys in the 1980's and it doesn't seem like such a massive presumption that this might be why an Arcee toy never got past the concept stage.

So, yeah. Arcee. The pink one. As far as enlightened attitudes towards gender go, Arcee has always been a bit of a blot on the landscape for the Transformers franchise. It's often been noted that Gobots handled gender a lot better by making no real big deal about. Crasher and Pathfinder are female Gobots but don't really look all that different from Turbo or Cop-Tur. Whereas Arcee is pink, curvier than any other Transformer, and has Princess Leia buns.

There's nothing particularly bad about Arcee's characterisation in the movie or the cartoon, though some of the dialogue between her and Daniel in 'The Rebirth' is...ill judged, but the old comics had at least one really bad story (Prime's Rib) and the less said about those early IDW stories the better. Kudos to John Barber for his work in, quite frankly, cleaning up what was a very messy and stupid take on the character and, by extension, gender.

Maybe it'd be an exaggeration to say that Arcee's release in Thrilling 30, some 28 years after her debut, was as big an event as getting Metroplex. It was certainly a big deal. A no shit, G1 faithful, Arcee toy.

It's a truly excellent figure. It really looks like a perfect mix of the old G1 and the new IDW character models. Part of me doesn't want to actually go look at how close the toy is to either version, as I'm kind of happy with how well she aligns with my 'mind's eye' ideal of Arcee.

The articulation is excellent. She's one of the most poseable deluxe figures I won, and was certainly the most poseable deluxe we got in Thrilling 30. And she comes with some really great accessories. Two guns and two swords, a homage to her fondness for a blade in the IDW depictions. I don't normally note stuff like this, but the weapon storage is excellent.

The car mode is wonderful! It feels appropriately retro futuristic, and in this mode all those curves don't seem quite as...awkward. Admittedly she's a bit of a shell former and the wheels are a bit tiny, but none the less it's nice to see a vehicle mode that, much like the 'bot mode, feels like the alt mode from '86.

If there's anything that's not great about this toy, it's the facesculpt. They were probably going for kind and friendly but unfortunately they got derp. A more neutral expression would have worked a whole lot better.

Titans Return Arcee came as a bit of a surprise. She'd been rumoured from the early days of Titans Return, but those rumours often seemed like wishlisting. Towards the end the general consensus was that we were going to get Titan Master Arcee head that would come with the vehicle that Siren/Loudmouth came with. The reveal of a deluxe class Arcee that came with a diecast Magnus and artwork that felt like it was cropped from a larger scene fuelled speculation that what we were seeing was some refugees from an aborted 'intelligence' boxset.

This is yet another rejigging of the Blurr mold. The fourth use, if I'm counting right. In some ways it's nice to see some changes to the mold around the shoulders and a new car front, but in other ways I feel a bit cross that Nautica just got some clip on wings. It's a damn fine quality figure but to me it doesn't actually feel that much like Arcee. Thrilling 30 Arcee was maybe a bit slight, but she did a good job of capturing the character. I guess the big attraction is that fans of 'The Rebirth' can finally complete the full line up of Autobot Headmasters.

 

Yeah, the eww girls stuff is ridiculous in retrospect and a total sign of the brand of masculinity we were brought up in. And now I find myself a Brony. Go figure.

 

A brony?!?! And you admit that in this distinguished forum full of grown adults that actively collect toys designed for children? For shame!

Yeah, the 80s mentalities toward boy and girl toys were a bit nuts. I had a cabbage patch doll I loved, but you better believe that thing never came out of the house when friends were around. Same went for the few Popfuls I had.

 

I thought nothing of having a She-Ra figure or buying the She-Ra comic until other boys started taking the piss.

 

(She-Ra was the very first movie I saw in theater)

 

Him today