Lol

 

And with everything connected she has a less accurate backpack than T30 or SS86

 

I\'m definitely picking up the Arcee, and possibly scavenging the weapons from my T30 Arcee to go with her. She just looks like an improvement on the T30 in terms of engineering.

I might get the Sideways too. He\'s not the Sideways I like, but I do still like his design.

 

Sharing parts are, at base, what a remold is. They don't actually modify existing molding, they cut some entirely new tools and mix them with unmodified existing tools to make a "retooled" figure. The line between "shared parts," "partials" and "retools" is arbitrary. They're all essentially the same thing.

 

The nonnef feet are 6 parts each opposed to the stock feet being 1 piece each, so the part count actually does increase with the nonnef feet.

 

I just got the Legends 30s Arcee a few weeks ago. Im wondering if that's a good thing after seeing this...

 

Hey remember when we all got super excited about Animated Arcee, bought her, and some of us threw 3rd party G1 heads on her? Yuppp. Those were the days.

I wrote about my theory as to "why now" with the G1 fire hose. Before. Short version: we're getting older and this is the last call. I'm a late G1er (born in 1983). My first G1 year was really 1988. Powermaster Optimus Prime, Micromasters, Actionmasters, Pretenders were my jam. What 1987 figures were still on the shelves were few and far between, but I didn't even get a G1 Devastator until I was 16 (and it was one of those KO sets from Ebay in 2000). But I'm 38, going on 39 (ughhhh). For G1ers older than me, many have families and responsibilities we didn't have ten years ago even though we usually make far more money now. When you're 28 you're not thinking about a mortgage, retirement or often times nowdays kids. At 38 and 48 you certainly are. G1 fans in their early/mid 30s, which we have lived in since let's say Thrilling 30 really had the G1 revival kick into high gear, have been in the "sweet spot" of certain responsibilities and income. We made much more money than our 20s, but our priorities are open to more discretionary things than our 40s. But that window is closing now.

I really do think WFC and Legacy have been a kind of "last call" for Hasbro for extracting maximum revenue from us original G1ers. I think they'll always do G1 of course, but I think the next time around is something more NECA level and premium. Instead of a $20/$22/$24 "Deluxe" Prowl at mass market, it'll be a $50 Prowl in the retro aisle in a far more limited release, designed for adult collectors and a step between Generations and Masterpiece. Instead of 80 G1 releases a year, it'll be 10. Something like that.

I also think that's why Hasbro has been doing Beast Wars, and now Prime and soon Unicron Trilogy, but also Bayverse Studio Series. They're trying to make consistent revenue generation off post-G1 fans who got into the franchise younger. I think, for example, it's no coincidence Studio Series hit in... what 2017, on the 10th anniversary of the first Bayverse film? Anyone 15 years old in 2007 would be 25. Anyone dependent on allowance in 2007 would have their own income in 2017 (which is probably less than it is in 2022 when they hit 30). I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few years we see enhanced re-releases or second-passes of early Bayverse figures in Studio Series, as the "2007 generation" enters that revenue sweet spot. This is also likely part of why the Bayverse MPMs get released through Target at retail, but the G1 MPMs are through Pulse only.

Will we get an G1 Arcee again after this? Probably within the next 10 years at that $50 premium deluxe price point. I doubt at the traditional Generations one. Hasbro will always do Optimus Primes that looks more or less like G1 Optimus Prime because that design has long since transcended association with the G1 specific character (i'd say, if looking for pure-G1, look for white legs). But there are lots of characters we'll never see again now, or only ever see in a rump "premium collectors" sub-MP line. Another Huffer or Tracks? Unlikely. Another Trypticon or Omega Supreme? As we know them, never happening. Also really don't need to.

The broader question is how this sliding scale is for Hasbro. They're revisiting Prime now. Are they going to revisit Animated? RID2015? Cyberverse? The time probably mostly passed for RID2001 except for low hanging fruit (Scourge). Hasbro moved away from having Unicron Trilogy / Prime / Animated / RID2001 style annual "tentpoles" that the entire line was based around, in favor of a parallel structure of Generations - TV show (usually low quality) - Movie (if applicable), but it may really have to go back to that structure to generate new generations of fans whose first transformers experience is *that* TV show.

To be honest, I'm kind of ready for it too. I've been ultra-completionist since Thrilling 30. Thousands of dollars per year on Transformers. I've loved it and it's been incredible amounts of fun. My collection looks entirely different than it did 4 or 8 years ago. I think most of ours does. But what I've discovered, or rather re-discovered lately is the joy in figures that aren't associated with the idea of simply competing the G1 cast. I wrote about this a lot in the BW Appreciation thread, but probably some of my favorite figures of the last year were getting, for the first time ever, the reissues of the original Beast Wars figures at Walmart. I skipped them in their first release (I got back into the franchise in late Beast Wars) and never picked up a loose Optimus Primal or Cheetor or Megatron. But in opening and handling them, there was an immense amount of fun and pleasure in them... and I'd say it was made even more so because the existence of the Kingdom figures freed them from having to be compared against their CG model. For Cartoon accurate BW Megatron, we have Kingdom, so the original release, as inaccurate as it is, gets to speak for itself and is somehow far better for it.

It would be nice to go back to that, where Transformers can speak for themselves more, rather than their accuracy to 35 year old cartoon designs by Flo Dery. I think that's why Prime is my second favorite part of the franchise. Because its aesthetic was entirely different and contained to *just* that subline, every figure spoke for itself, and I felt I could get the ones I liked and ignore the ones I didn't, rather than - in Generations style - completionist collecting of an entire roster of characters.

Transformers collecting has changed so much in just the past 8 years. Who here remembers there were no Generations Leader class figures until Thrilling 30? It was deluxes and sub-deluxes with the occasional voyager for years. I think it's primed to change again. I'm kind of wondering too if that's why Hasbro hasn't tied legacy to a trilogy structure. Because they want to leave themselves the opening for how the line works to hard shift again. And it probably should.
.

 

This one doesn't break the consistency, though. I agree about Magnus, that's an excellent example of the point you're making.

ER Arcee does indeed work for Earthrise and Kingdom to a point. She does not, however, work for SS86 whereas this one does. That's the difference. While they are companion lines and fill in the gaps for collectors by collecting both, this Arcee has the distinction of being able to do both things. She can fit in a CHUG (ER/K) collection but because of the deco change and reshell of the car, she fits SS86 better. The thing is, where she fits in is subjective. Some will love this no matter what, some won't.

A better example of what you're trying to convey would be Animated Arcee or Cyberverse Arcee. Neither one would look good in a G1 display. That's not subjective, that's objective fact because they're meant to do something different. This figure is all subjective. You have to do what makes you happy, but I can't say Has/Tak are wrong for reusing T30 parts over ER parts because it's their property and they feel it fits better.

For a lot of people, she's lacking any and all paint, she doesn't actually transform (which is the biggest flaw), she has a backpack that's ridiculous no matter how you look at it, and she's a shellformer as well as a partsformer on top of every other sin she bears. They can have one or the other on a compromise here and there, they can't have it all. And for all the praises of her articulation, it's not as great as people think it is. No wrist swivel, odd forearms, and her claim to fame is that her waist now swivels and she has functioning ankles. For those two things to exist, they shouldn't have to ruin the rest of her to make it work. Honestly, the best Arcee figure I've seen is the Wei Jiang OSKO of the T30 figure. The backpack comes off if you wish or you can leave it on and she's fully transformable on top of it. This SS86 version is a solid second place. Possibly 1st place as she's obtainable and will be affordable by comparison when she comes out.

That's the thing, though... People want a more comprehensive Transformer. I'll continue below:

But "full-blown action figure" is what the R.E.D. line is for. This is an actual transforming Transformer that's articulated as well. That's what she's supposed to do. Don't get me wrong, you can do what you want with your own figures. Anyone can. But...those are your figures and not everyone else's, nor is yours everyone else's cup of tea. Part of the reason we fell in love with Transformers is that they transform. You take away their gimmick, you take away their reason for being. Without it, they're just another non-descript set of robots fighting some war for some reason and there happens to be a bunch of vehicles that can think and talk like K.I.T.T. thrown in the mix.

I'd much rather have a Transformer such as SS86/T30 Arcee than a half-measure mess like ER/K Arcee.

Even Masterpiece isn't capable of getting away from those restraints. Much like Michael Bay's films, this is the problem with planning on making toys based on impossible designs. The toys should be made first, the toon/CGI around them.

 

So they took the worst parts of the Earthrise Arcee and combined it with tooling from T30 Arcee to make an Arcee that’s still worse than T30 Arcee? They need to understand that Arcee should actually form her vehicle and not just have her backpack turn into the entire car.

 

My takeaway from this thread is.... man I should get a Takara T30 Arcee.

 

Nope. No Earthrise parts are in this figure. Brand new pelvis, hips, knees, new legs, new ankles, new feet.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot it had multiple parts. Still, I don't think that's enough to hit the Voyager budget, it's simply more than the Deluxe budget.

 

Seriously though, the faithful G1 interpretation of Arcee doesn't allow for something without a considerable backpack.

Could they have done a better job with SS86 Arcee?... I honestly don't think so, at least not at the Deluxe budget, even the MP follows the same rules except that it folds the backpack a bit further (but that also comes with its different set of flaws).

 

Man, the first version of the Bee mold I want and it comes with that derpy face instead of his masked face...

 

Was really hoping for a new arcee, not just a rehash of an outdated mold. Hard pass on this. Sideways is okay.

 

well, at least this Arcee fixes what I thought was the most egregious mistake from the previous version

curvier and less flat

(the car mode!)

 

I like how you pulled that off.

 

I know it might be a lot of work, but can someone be a big hero to me and probably a lot of other collectors out there who already own 4 other arcees and are on the fence about getting a fifth and help me out and post 5 side by side pics of T30, Titans Return, Masterpiece, Earthrise, and this SS86 in robot mode, and then post another 5 in alt mode so I can make a final decision? I have all my arcees in storage so I can't compare them. This would be most appreciated.

 

TR version is so far, the only one that manages it, aside 3rd parties of course. The upcoming BB one doesn't look bad at all as the backpack is fairly minimal compared and it's an actual transformation and not shellforming.

 

I own all those toys but half are in storage so I just edited some stock photos of them together