Nice job! I'll be adding more paint to mine, though not as extensively as you've done! My thoughts pretty much echo others here: good action figure, not a great Transformer. Alt mode just feels like stuffing her limbs as best you can under a shell that doesn't entirely tab well together, with zero clearance for her head (feels like a 5th wheel)! One other downgrade from the T30 toy is she has less ports for her weapons. No hip holsters nor arm blades for her then. That naturally means less potential for Weaponizers and the like, which is also a shame.
Is anyone else’s Arcee missing a big chunk of plastic from her head? Look under her right, uh, hair bun. Looks like someone sliced it out with an exacto-knife on mine. The other side is perfectly fine.
That seems likely. From what I can tell, looking at some video reviews and other in-hand pictures, it seems like every Arcee has at least a little bit gone from that spot. Mine must have just had a little more taken off than most others.
Welcome to the forum Great mods, I’m planning to go a little further with mine by painting the back of her midriff to match the front (bad, lazy Hasbro!) and her anklets. Looks much better with your mods - there is a solid figure here, it just needed that Takara level of detail to bring it out. Here's a few pics of her, pre-op:
@ Acteon & Saucesmithco thanks for your kind words @ Acteon, I am looking forward to see how your extra paint will look on your figure.
After I got mine, I was thinking she might have originally been intended for SS86. I like her. Though I will admit I had trouble getting the "big peg" lined up with her back hole.
That's good to hear and I'm sure I'd like it better getting it in hand. The Arcee design will always be difficult to transition into plastic form and I guess I was just hoping it'd be a little closer to the animation model (the backpack being the main issue). Overall I still think it looks good, just not "definitive" for me.
Made a start, though I'm having to wait on some supplies to really get stuck in. The grill is done and now the grey on her midriff goes all the way around. Once the pink arrives next week I can finish that section, then it's on to the legs. I wanted to buy a "safety" Arcee, but they sold out in York in 2 days, so she's nothing if not popular!
Anyone have any QC issues with arcee? I picked mine up in the UK yesterday and bizarrely she's missing a piece. One of the side panels from the car mode. I've misplaced my receipt so I'm having to email hasbro
I'll go along with the statement that it's a decent action figure (at least in sculpt), but a poor Transformer. As I see it, when Has/Tak makes a new mold of a character, they try to add something or address a shortcoming of the previous toy. The T30 Arcee was a strong design with few shortcomings that are easily addressed without going up in price(-point). In the Earthrise case, they chose to lean hard into screen-accuracy by making her a shell-former (possibly to make updating the mold into new characters easier by reworking the shell or innards too). ER Arcee isn't as 'thicc' or curvy as the T30 mold, and the upper torso is a bit more accurate thanks to not having to double as the car front. The backpack is bulky, but much of it can be detached for a cleaner 'bot mode if you want. The head sculpt is a tiny bit nicer as well, with less of a 'haunted porcelain doll' look. Articulation is roughly equal between the two. T30 offers a bit deeper elbow bend, wile ER has a much greater knee bend, thanks to its double-jointing. ER adds a waist swivel, but the head can only turn even though it appears to be on a tight ball joint. A little more play in that joint would have been welcome. Also, T30 and ER molds can trade their guns/weapons between them for holding, but not storage. For the things that bother me, I don't like that her backpack is hollow and doesn't visually evoke her shoulder 'pods' well at all the way T30 did. Her flat 'heels' look for all the world like she's wearing bathroom slippers that are way too big for her. Car mode is just poor, looking like something carved from a bar of soap, and only vaguely like her screen vehicle appearance. One of the bigger drawbacks for me is the relative lack of paint, with no detail to her face except eyes and only the front side of her pelvis having any color at all, for a figuratively naked rear end. If ER Arcee had a better paint job, her mold issues might be more forgivable IMO. Comparing, I'd say the T30 toy is better in overall score, while ER Arcee has its moments here and there, but overall is just somewhat disappointing.
I've finally given in and bought and Arcee for my G1 collection. First positives: it looks like Arcee, and fits in well with the movie cast, I added a few extra paint apps when I got it, similar to others. Unlike others, I have done an extremely poor job and need to touch it up, maybe it looks worst. I was going to paint the lips red but I'm sure she would come out looking like the joker and I would be left searching for my masculinity. I went for a very light pink on the face and I still want to do the ankles and feet, maybe her nails, I don't know. Negatives: A transformation and feel of quality that would make children glad to receive firecons instead. In fact G1 Wheelie has a better transformation and alt mode than this putrid, lifeless slab of pink disappointment. Even as a shellformer it sucks. You have to wrestle her gangly legs into her shell, it doesn't line up and looks awful from behind. Boooo, poor show! But is Arcee even still a positive role model in 2020? In fact I am officially jumping on the genderising bandwagon and labelling another character from the 86 movie as a femmebot, who perhaps has a more accurate female body type and attitude...... .....maybe it is just round where I live. UK is chock full of Allicons. Ever been clubbing? Ever gone to Home Bargains? Been to the South? 6/10
Still have some pink to add "round the back" but looking loads better already. I hope we get a Takara reissue with more care taken over it. I can dream.
Mine came with an improperly positioned left front wheel panel. When investigating, I noticed the white plastic strip connecting the panel wasn't flush. It wouldn't budge either. Undid the assembly (via soldering iron) and found a relatively large glop of superglue that prevented it from sitting flush. It was extremely annoying scraping it all off. My backup Amazon order had just shipped. I was going to cancel it, but I'll see if it has the same problem or not.
Oh ye gods! That Autobot symbol you added to the back of the car is the ONLY good thing going on back there. Whomever called it a day after designing that rear end needs to rethink their priorities in life - does their house not have a back wall?
