Oh, I forgot to mention that my pick for Arcee would be the new Titan Returns one. Azalea looks really nice, but is kind of finicky. The new TR Arcee has really nice paint and is a lot more fun to mess around with. She would be my current pick if I could only have one Arcee.

 

It's what I'm leaning toward, especially since 1) I'm not too concerned with simplified engineering/articulation and 2) could get one very, very cheaply on Taobao.

I'm less decided on Arcee now though, ugh... Azalea I like and is in my price range, but the pink is a bit off IMO, but strangely this varies from pictures to pictures, so I'm not sure what to think on that. TR Arcee reuses an existing mold and because of that, does not look very feminine (otherwise I'd just paint any fodder former pink and call it Arcee). I'm kinda okay with Generations Arcee, but, yeah, the face is a bit scary. Takara's is better in that regard but they got rid of the black which I thought gave Hasbro's a nice contrast of colors... It's more screen accurate but that's not a main concern of mine. I prefer a figure that looks vibrant rather than flat and boring, even if it's more accurate. And then looking at those others you suggested, I saw Perfect Effect DX01... Not being restricted to G1 style, I thought she looked fantastic... but damn expensive for a deluxe sized figure.

On a completely different note... Where can I find a Unique Toys Mania King that ain't sold out...

 

Azalea's definitely got a redder shade of pink than most. She sometimes seems violently pink. If it's color that's bothering you, then I dunno what to say. Everyone perceives color differently, so that's an almost completely subjective standard. Honestly, you could always buy a cheapo second hand Generations Arcee and then get a TT Arcee and swap heads. Would probably run you the same price point and then you'd be happy which is the whole point of this hobby.

Being one of the earliest PE figures, Motobot suffers from a few issues. She's a partsformer. Not a big issue for me, but a lot of people hate that. The age of the figure also has resulted in some of the glue wearing off on my copy. Some of her accessories are literally falling apart. Her accessories are also pretty fragile, even if her figure is pretty solid. So what you end up with is a great figure whose accessories might dissolve at any minute. Really not worth it for what secondary market prices are these days.

As for Mania King... he came out around 2014 and was the subject of more than a few purge sales on TFSource where he went for some pretty low prices. You're stuck with the secondhand market.

 

maketoys giant is a good fill in for a CW sized Devestaor. He's really cool. For Arcee, i wouldn't go 3rd party, i would go Generations Arcee.

 

Ah, the perfect effect motorcycle girls! They're great--really nice use of die cast for really nice balance, though my pink one had an issue where the paint hadn't dried before it was transformed so I actually had to uh... break the paint to get the gun handles on her weapons to fold out. >.> Other than that, very solid figures, with a caveat: to transform them properly you "parts form" the weapons and some of her backpack (if I remember correctly) into the top of the bike. Most of the figure IS transforming, but without the extra weapon parts the final motorcycle mode is a bit sparse. It's still a wonderfully poseable figure and though I now have a few options in my Arcees, I still keep both the blue and pink bikes around for how good they look. I'm not slavishly adherent to G1 styling, but given how different a lot of their design cues are, I almost see them as distinct characters that don't exist in TF fiction.

I have Mania King...and I also have Titans Return Galvatron with a Shapeways crown, and I use the TR Galvatron now instead of Mania King (who I'm keeping for G1 accuracy; the crown is IDW Galvatron's crown). I have a Shapeways pieces to mount his cannon as well, something I highly recommend.

 

I wouldn't touch the NBK nor the Jiu Jiang Gravity Builder KOs. They're pretty crappy as far as quality goes. The NBK one has issues with at least one of the arms breaking off quite easily.

I've only got Hercules at the moment but he's pretty decent, especially for the dirt-cheap prices you can get him for now. That being said, whilst I've only SEEN Gravity Builder in person, not played with it, that's one super-nice Devastator. Alternatively, the oversized Jianbao KO is currently being released and is cheaper than the original, if I remember correctly. He's quite big though.

Can't comment on Arcee because I only have Legends-scale ones, but from what I've heard, pretty much all of the "current" ones are good choices (except ToyWorld's because the QC sucks - wait until Zeta releases it because it might have better QC).

 

The only issues my TW Arcee had was, some tight-er leg joints and such because they were lazy and didn’t clean up the extra gunk/spure stuff. Pretty easily fixable, but agree we shouldn’t have to fix their problems.

Also the arms were installed backwards; another easy fix.

People keep mentioning big/expensive stuff to OP, when he specifically said he didn’t/doesn't want that lol.

The TR Arcee is about the size he is looking for, but is goofy as hell. Another hollow crackerjack prize/repaint.

 

Honestly, of all the Arcees I've had so far none has beaten my Legends Arcee. Definitely not in that scale anyway.

 

Curious, if the thread starter is interested in a 3rd Party Predaking. Seeing as how the upcoming official one also doesn't scale with the combiner wars gestalts.

 

Ain't that the way though? Seems like these sorts of threads always get the same three stock responses amidst any actual helpful posts, regardless of the parameters set: 1) Pay top dollar for the expensive thing ever - paying all the dollars is how you show you're a true fan ; 2) wait for the KO; 3) Buy the thing you explicitly said you didn't wanna buy.

Reading comprehension, thy name is not fandom.  

 

GT Gravity Builder is a beautiful piece of work and would definitely recommend him. If he's too pricey, I hear the KO is pretty good. I believe it's the NBK one, which is also the same size as the official one. Though you may want to break out your paints since he's got some weird trans orange plastic on him and smoother color quirks (unless that doesn't bother you).
He is a bit short (shorter than CW), but the components are all around Voyager size, so if you're a "sum of the parts" type of guy, then the shorter stature excusable.

As for Arcee, it sounds like you're set on Azalea. Personally, I'm using Perfect Effect's Motobot which is also a beautiful piece of work. A little pricey, but it's an option. Also it's a motorcycle, which may be a turnoff. I don't know what your alt mode preference is.