Netflix Elita-1


This is not a full review of Elita-1. This review will focus on differences with Earthrise Arcee and show various pictures.

Elita-1 is not a straight redeco of Arcee. She does have multiple newly molded parts: new head, new shoulders, new front torso, new front pelvis, and new front alt mode hood / small backpack.

Like Arcee, she is molded in 3 base plastic colors, this time with tan, red, and clear blue, with all other details being painted on. Her white thighs are completely painted over. She has more paint overall compared to Arcee.

Her hip and thigh joints are much more stiff compared to Arcee. She has less range of motion in her shoulders due to the shoulder spikes: to get the arms above the head, you need to rotate the shoulder joint upside down. The shoulder spikes also partially interfere with transformation of her car shell. Unlike Arcee's head, Elita-1's head is able to move vertically.


Front view of bot mode:
Again, the extra paint apps compared to Arcee make a huge difference. In this view, the new head, spiked shoulders, front torso, and front pelvis are seen.


Rear view of Bot Mode:
The new backpack / alt mode hood molding is seen here. Butt blaster storage remains the same.


Side view of Bot Mode:
Arcee lacked paint behind her torso and pelvis. There is paint on Elita-1's rear pelvis but not her torso. This view also shows how the back part of her head remains in red plastic and is not painted over. In addition, as the back parts of the torso and pelvis remain the same as Arcee, it does not exactly match the molding of the front parts.


Comparison with Earthrise Arcee:


Alt Mode:
There is actually less paint on Elita-1's car shell compared to Arcee but still works well with her color scheme. As the 3mm pegs are not painted over, one does not have to worry about paint scuffs there. The stiff thighs do make transformation more challenging along with the spiked shoulders getting in the way of the wheel panels.


Another view of Alt Mode:
Rear part is still uncovered.


Another comparison view with Arcee:


Extra picture showing large backpack and custom blasters:


Another extra picture showing Dr. Wu katanas and balancing the large backpack:


Overall:
She definitely does the mold better than Arcee. The paint apps overall make a significant positive difference. Having more newly molded parts aside the head is also nice.

She's still a "shelled" action figure. If that bothers you, then do not buy. Otherwise, if you only want to get one WFC fembot, this is the one you're looking for.

 

I’m so glad that they made small changes to the Arcee mold. I’m getting Lifeline and I didn’t want just repaints.
Thank you for highlighting those differences.

 

Can you swap the car fronts over?

 

What a beautiful deco. I like the small mold changes as well. The new hood piece gives the alt mode a longer more elegant look.

 

You would have to do a complete de-shell. There's one regular pin holding the shell onto the back.

 

A good figure (my first version of the mould so can’t compare to Arcee), the first action figure that is able to hold the gun to the other shoulder without looking awkward

one gripe I have is how tight the thigh swivels used for transformation are, they are super tight which makes transforming and posing sometimes frustrating. Ultimately, alongside Bumblebee (presumably, I missed him) the best of wave 2

 

Awesome review! She definitely appeals more to me than Arcee and I can't wait to pick her up. How's the clearance when you turn her head around for vehicle mode?

 

Yeah, the thighs are really tight. There's already another Elita-1 thread, so expect this one to get merged soon.

 

She should have thigh swivels separate from the transformation ones for articulation. The ones you are referring to being tight is most likely intentional.

 

The head isn’t as much of a problem as the breastplate which sits very close to the floor

 

Netflix Elita-1 is not without her charms, but I'm going to keep MMC Eupatorium as the Elita-1 in my display, primarily due to the size. She should be the tallest of the female Autobots IMO.

Netflix Elita-1 vs. MMC Eupatorium:



And with a couple other figures:

 

I don’t like how this Elita is an Arcee retool. I’m better off hunting POTP Elita instead.

 

it is separate though? There’s one right at the hips and a second one lower down (the second is the transformation one)

 

I picked up Elita this weekend and I was pretty disappointed. This is my first experience with the mold since she appealed to me more than Arcee (plus I love the headmaster Arcee from a few years ago) but the transformation just kills it for me. That backpack is just so floppy and not fun to transform. It gets in its own way constantly. Her joints, on my copy at least, are too lose and it all adds up to a figure that just doesn't feel good in hand. It's especially rough since I picked up Bumblebee at the same time and he feels like the best version of that mold/transformation.

 

This is my first exposure to the mold and I'm really disappointed. This thing is barely a Transformer; no part of the robot actually interacts with the Alt mode! If the arms or legs actually had a dedicated tab in integration of any kind, it would've been a passable figure, barely. I honestly debated if I wanted to return the figure right after opening it, something I haven't done in 13 years or so at the least. I also didn't do that great in the QC department; the backpack on mine won't align entirely, the tabs for the removable backpack won't aline with the slots in the non-removable part, which coupled with it being super loose, means it flops and swings around if left in. Mine also has a super loose right hip swivel joint, which I used future and a needle to work on, so hopefully when that dries, she'll be fine.

I got this figure because I thought the POP figure was so bad and this one looked so much better, but it's a lateral move IMHO. I'll use this one as my Elita-1, but only barely.

I'm definitely passing on Arcee now, Cyberverse Arcee is a million times better than this.

If a third party makes a replacement rear end, I don't know if I'd buy it, even if that would fix the figure, or at least the alt-mode, since I'm not sure I'd want to sink any more money into this thing.

 

She’s a total shellformer and more like an action figure. If you don’t like Arcee mold, this will not change your mind. The usual complaints actually were having joints being too tight.

 

If you hate this mold then Elita here won't win you over compared to Arcee, that much is true. I will say that I have now owned and handled 2 copies of Arcee (the first one was defective and got replaced) and compared to them, Elita feels about 100x better in hand. My Elita feels like it has much improved tolerences with all the panels and joints being nice and tight and fitting together much better in vehicle mode. I also think the paint is applied much more cleanly and the paint/sculpt changes in bot mode really pop.

 

I’ll just keep my POTP version.

 

The one and only sensible review.

 

Am I the only one who actually liked the PotP Elita-1? It was far from perfect but it did the job, had a certain Strika-esque bulky-fembot charm, and made a pretty good set with both Optimus and her fellow fembots. Like, what more do you really want from an Elita-1?

I kind of want to go dig it out and mess around with it again after seeing this thread...