Binaltech - Arcee

Name: Arcee

Faction: Autobot

Toy Line: Binaltech

Robot Mode

Arcee's robot mode is a mostly white and varying shades of pink (supposedly) feminine form which features several pieces of kibble from her vehicle mode visible. Some black pieces are added to break up the pale colours somewhat, and it actually does work in some weird way.

Arcee's torso is made from most of the mid-section of her vehicle mode and her car boot folded in on itself and seems to feature a design that could be interpreted as an abdominal area, and even a chest (not a very feminine chest however I must say). Her Autobot insignia is located dead center of the chest and is surrounded by a silver border.

Her head is connected by a ball joint connector that allows her to nod, shake, bop or anything she needs to. This head uses a different sculpt to that use by Windcharger and definitely seems more feminine in general. The helmet itself is mostly white with a dark pink border, and white forehead cover and chin guard. Her face is a pale pink and features a sculpted nice and mouth, as well as sculpted blue eyes.

The shoulders are attached to the upper torso by a still pivoting joint that limits its movement, but can be raised up and down to make her more broad shouldered if desired. The upper arms are connected to the shoulder pads by a pivot joint hidden behind the wheels that allows them to be raised sideways as needed. The elbow joints are created with a pivoting joint and a hinge that allows them to rotate on the pivot as much as needed, and to bend inwards by about 90 degrees as well. The lower arms are connected to the hands by a ball joint that allows her hands to rotate and fold in as required. Her thumbs aren't articulated, but the index finger is jointed to fold inwards or out on it's own, with the remaining 3 fingers on each hand being sculpted in a single piece that can fold in the same ways as needed once again.

The inside of the hand features a small clip that enables her gun to the held in it, whilst the forearms feature another peg that can be used to hold her shield.

Arcee's legs are connected to her groin area by a pair of ball joints that allow her to move as required, along with a pivot joint near the top of the upper legs that enable her to be posed as needed on awkward surfaces. Arcee's knees are created by a pair of hinges that enable her to bend her legs inwards (though this joint is very stiff), and to also give her a crab-walk appearance if desired (it's actually for her transformation, but we can pretend it was for crab-walks too). Her vehicle mode car doors are positioned like a pair of leg guards down the sides, but otherwise her lower legs feature nothing too remarkable. Her feet are connected by ball joints, and also have a fold-out back support/heel that can surprisingly support her very top-heavy form!

Vehicle Mode

Arcee's vehicle mode is a white licensed Honda S2000 Hardtop sports car with black frames around the windows, spoilers and even roof-hold, and some of the interior to the vehicle mode as well. He chairs are pink (as you might expect form a girly car) and her steering wheel and gear stick is white, matching her exteriors.

This mode features several added features you would expect to find in a Binaltech toy, such as working wheels, realistic designs, opening car boot and hood (which even reveals an engine if it's been placed inside it), rear exhausts, license plate, detailing, side mirrors with reflective silver paint, headlights, rear lights and other smaller details like an antennae near the back, and of course a clear windscreen.

This particular mold of course also features another fun feature, her roof can either be in a hard top configuration, or replaced with a collapsed rood that's been stored away somewhere. The hardtop roof features a rear window as well.

Accessories

Arcee comes with these three accessories, all of which can be utilized as a part of her vehicle mode, or as a weapon or decoration for her robot mode. The engine/exhaust pipe becomes a gun (and even includes the long barrel, unlike her Hasbro brother, Windcharger). Arcee also comes with a collapsed roof clip on, which can be left in it's vehicle mode configuration even in robot mode (unlike the hardtop clip-on). The Hardtop clip on roof can also be used as a shield (like Windcharger can do with his soft top roof as well).

My Final Thoughts

Okay let's be honest here, this figure is nice, but probably doesn't work as the very girly Arcee we all remember from our childhoods. I do like her vehicle mode's design in this case however, as it does look like a very girl-friendly design and colourscheme, but the robot just doesn't work too well for Arcee herself.

I do recommend this figure for anyone's collection however, especially if you like Alternators/Binaltech/any other licensed toys, you can just pretend Arcee forgot to wear her pretty clothes that day or something.

This figure is very heavy due to it being made from metal rather than the more commonly used plastic of today, whilst this makes the toy much more durable, it also makes it a lot more stiff in some places or even dangerous (especially if you're prone to throwing the toys at people who annoy you).

My one main design complaint about this toy (other than the masculine feel to this female character) is that the figure is lacking articulation that is very common today, like ball joints on every joint, instead opting for hingese, which are just terrible for posing honestly...she does look nice with my Alternators Rodimus though, I do have to say!

If you can find her for a reasonable price (like the standard going price for Alternators, with maybe a little more for importing fees etc) then you should get her, but otherwise you may as well just pass her over.