It's to remind people what Azalea looks like compared to MP-51.

 

Its like they halfassed a remould of the T30 Arcee

 

I wonder how the repaint with the darker pink will feel in hand. I bought the original and was not impressed with the overall feel of the toy, also the peg for the fin in car mode was broken out of the box.

 

Jesus. I hadn't seen the face head on(!), until now.

 

It looks like someone took 2 fingers and mushed it.

 

I can tell they are glued together but, I wonder how those hips will work?

 

She looks more voluptious than either of the 3P arcees. I think the face is just plain ugly though. Maybe the lighting is unflattering and she'll look better in person?

 

I think, for me, Takara did a bang-up job... right up until they screwed it up.
So much of the official absolutely destroys FT'r or MMC's effort - the arms, legs, hips and waist all look so much nicer.
Its the chest and the face that kills it (ignoring for the moment the double size backpack)
And even the chest is better than MMC's, it just needs to be raised 3-5mm higher.

For me, these parts of Takara's are spot on. They just need to go back and fill in the gaps with something better (again, trying my best to ignore the backpack, because, the reality is, there's nothing that can be done about that without scrapping the entire figure and starting again):

The one silver lining in all this is that assuming they follow the recent trend of multiple faces, we can always hope for a better toon face (either from Takara themselves or a 3rd party.) And for the sake of display only, abandoning the transformation, you could probably detach the chest and reattach it a little higher yourself.

 

Anything to watch out for when transforming?

 

With MP-51 being announced I decided to pick up this one(I'm still excited for 51 and will end up getting it, I don't have an issue of having different versions of certain characters), I always liked MMC figures and managed to find one of these for a reasonable price

 

I recall someone broke an arm off near the biceps or elbow, but that's all I recall on the OX Arcee

 

out of boredom I kinda put Azalea in a somewhat similar pose to the official
sorry for the bad lighting and camera  
oh and I didn't cheat with a stand because Azalea is a strong independent woman who has no problem standing on her own with one and half of a feet  

 

Personally I hate how Takara sculpted her entire torso/waist too (which is barely toon accurate at all given how they stylized it) and like FT's the leg design came at great cost to more efficient engineering rather than them being integrated like MMC's are.

And its utterly impossible for me to ignore a toy having a backpack of such supreme immensity. She almost makes hasblab unicrons backpack seem modest. Takara mastering the art form of "eh fuck it" transformations these days.  



Contrasted with mmc's, its just no competition at all, the engineering of mmc's obliterates the official effort. Has what, a 3rd or 5th as much backpack? I'm still amazed to this day of how Alex was able to do that.



Which is why the takara one has a stand I think. I'd assume she's very precarious and even final QC pass leg tolerances aren't going to help her much in that respect. I would be surprised if the toy can even stand on its own two feet unassisted.

I think I've also grown pretty damn tired of g1 arcee in general though. Every time she gets a new toy I'm reminded of how shittily her toon self translates to toy making which speaks volumes on how smartly handled Azalea was because she minimized the impact of her inherent nightmarish design nature.

I think even if takara had somehow made a more idealize variation on what Azalea did, which is what I wanted from them but clearly not what they're doing at all, maybe I'd have still passed on it.

I hope someone makes an mp of the movie Arcee design some day though, its about a billion times cooler looking than even the most accurate g1 arcee toy could ever hope of being.



It would make for such an incredibly cool toy. Love that they even put a bit of TFP Arcee in her leg n arm design. Man TFP Arcee getting mp treatment too, that'd be something. Maybe by some chance the kinds of things we can consider for the Infinity line eventually.

 

Meh, most of the things you like about MMC's are things that detract from it for me. But that' all good.

More importantly though, I think you managed to find the inspiration for Takara's Arcee!
Creepy big eyes - check
Pointy chin - check
Low hanging chest - check

 

Her chest isn't low here though. I'm in for a good representation of this design too.

 

A new version?

 

Yeah, Alternate version. They upped the color game on the pinkish-purples. It looks awesome. Can't wait.  
Pre-orders have been up at retailers for a while now if you're interested in it.

 

Thank you!

 

None of those things are true, you've somehow managed to completely misunderstand what you're looking at with her movie design.

 

Damn, and here I thought you might have had a sense of humour. Oh well {shrug}
Movie Arcee's got big buggy eyes and a pointy chin and her chest is a lot less pronounced and lower sloped than the G1 Takara, so no, I don't think I have misunderstood anything. But again... it was a joke .