Studio Series '86 #16 Arcee

Ladies first.

 

Fair warning: She's the only one you can expect to see covered, here. I'm not going to lie to you, or string you along. Unlike Toei.

 

In point of fact, I'm genuinely proud of Hasbro's efforts with TF specifically, the last half-decade, or so. Lots of long-existing ladies finally getting figures, some gender-swaps, a bit of non-binary action. In a more sincere way than Sentai, crucially. Maybe I'll end up experiencing some of the newer fiction, and talk about some more ladies and other minorities, but for right now, I still hold Arcee to be the First Lady of the franchise...even though she literally isn't. I don't like Elita-1. You can probably guess why. If not, check back here, next week!

But yeah, in time, I hope to pay homage to G1 Drag Strip, not the Animated one, and Tentakil, not Scylla.

Onward!

If I recall correctly, the last time I bought Transformers was Combiner Wars. That was an incredibly mixed bag. The Stunticons were great individually, but united they were shit. That’s the price of introducing articulation to Combiners. Glaring at you, Sentai. A screw ripped out of my Skydive, filleting his nosecone. I'm not sure why I bought any of the Aerialbots outside of Alpha Bravo, though. I think they're losers.

The flaws I’m going to detail aside, Arcee here is still a HUGE step-up from that (half-)fiasco. I remember being dismayed simply viewing the floppiness of Titans Return and Power of the Primes figures, but goddamn, Arcee is insanely tight, across the board. Naughtiness half-intended~

That sturdiness feeds into one of the problems: working her right forearm makes it pop itself off. It might be slightly warped, which I could fix with some heat (younger folks, ask for an adult’s help, if yours needs similar treatment). Or, there may be a bit of additional flash inside the joint. Definitely ask for help in dealing with that sort of thing, as well.

Relatedly, in a geographic sense, she has no wrist swivels. It’s not the end of the world.

The second big issue is that her upper body doesn’t securely tab into her lower body. There is no friction present between the peg and port on mine. Or Emgo’s, from the look of it. Still, it is a case where gravity makes it, ultimately, a non-problem. She stays together just fine, as soon as you aren’t manipulating her. It’s akin to Reveal the Shield Jazz. I will say that if you don’t flip over the conjoined wheel-well portions of the rear section of the car, the backpack hugs her incredibly closely and makes her ridiculously solid.

You can remove that part if you’d like, but in-person it actually looks a lot more natural than in pictures, or video. They compressed the backpack insanely well.

She is a reworking of the first ‘standard’ Arcee ever released, which was part of the Thrilling 30 line. I like the small amount of black coloration present on that one, but that’s my personal color biases talking, not the screen-dictated truth of how G1 Arcee looks. I.e., I consider this one to be the superior incarnation.

At one point, a friend said they were going to send me an Animated Arcee. Unfortunately, he never did, meaning I’ve been waiting 38 years for this.

Is it worth it?

In spite of a bit of momentary, reactionary whinging/moping over the forearm and waist connection, yeah. Yeah, it is. Especially when set beside Rodimus. I’m now considering going out of my intended order to get a Kup or Springer, next. Because, the movie is just magic.

Feels good man.

(Outside of Jazz) The Original Ark Crew Just Isn’t For Me out of 5

Transformers Trading Card Game (2018-2020)

 

"Look, he's trying to be hardcore. Aww." (x)

It seems I have rekindled my love of giant robots. I clearly wasn’t willing to let Sentai destroy something that has been a part of my life for the entire duration of my conscious memories. We are here primarily because I was gifted a Blu-ray copy of the movie. I was incredibly trepidatious about getting back into collecting, because the fragile clips of Go-Busters and Kyoryuger’s toylines instilled in me a fear equal only to the guilt born of their fiction.

(Not actually a) SPOILER ALERT: I did ultimately end up jumping off of that particular cliff.

However, I can’t be too upset about initially considering settling for these cards. I fucking love cards, and these are wonderful. Not perfect, but undeniably wonderful. I heard about them a number of years ago, listening as I did to Vange1us’s pack opening livestreams, but at the time I wasn’t in the market for alternate physical representations of Transformers characters.

As usual, here are the salient points:

1.) The first important piece of information to relate is that the character cards are double-sized. Fear not, both BCW and Ultra-Pro have you covered with 3.5’’x5’’ (8.89cm x 12.7cm) sleeves and toploaders. There are no screwdown or magnetic frames that I’ve been able to find, but you can’t have everything. BCW also sells appropriately sized 4-pocket card sheets for 3-ring binders. Shit, they even have Toploaders for the Titan-sized characters! Fortress Maximus, Metroplex, Trypticon, and Omega Supreme are the four that I’m aware of, measuring in at 5 5/8″ x 7 7/8″ (14.29cm x 20cm).

This page is a great resource in ordering these particular protectives. Though, it does claim that the regular character card sleeves won’t fit into the Toploaders. I have a fistful of double-armored cards that claim otherwise!

2.) Regular Transformers have their robot mode on one side of their card, with their alt-mode on the other. This is so you can conveniently flip them while playing the game. The robot side is holo-foil. To my knowledge, every character card is holo-foil, unlike in the Final Fantasy TCG. This honestly makes them a bit hard to display, on that side, if your lighting conditions are as abysmal as mine.

Members of Combiner crews are a bit different. One side is divided into two regular-sized card printings, which depict their robot and individual alt-modes. As such, these cards are gently factory creased to facilitate you folding them, should you choose. I absolutely do not choose! The opposite side is part of a large mural of the Gestalt. For these cards, the Combiner side is holo-foil, not the side with the character's individual modes.

The same set-up is true for folks like Dreadwind and Darkwing, who combine into Dreadwing. A similar one is used for the Duocon Skytread (which, is a better name than Flywheels). Triplechangers use one side for both alt-modes, and the other for a large piece of art showing their robot mode. Please see above.

3.) You need to be aware of the fact that sometimes the art of a bot’s robot mode might not necessarily match the art used for their alt-mode. This actually worked out in my favor, as Combiner Wars Motormaster is paired with his G1 truck mode (please see above). Gotta have that trailer, baby!

4.) It’s going to be an absolute deal-killer for some people, but the new members of the Combiner teams are used across the board. Further, the most default combination schemes for Menasor and Superion are not used. Again, for me, this worked out incredibly well: I REALLY like Alpha Bravo and I ADORE Offroad. Plus, the logic of using Drag Strip and him as Menasor’s legs is undeniable to me, given their specific strengths and abilities. Look, when I reacquire the Stunticons’ G1 toys, I will be using the classic arrangement (because Wildrider will be present), but I am equally respectful of, and enamored with the Combiner Wars variation, depicted here. As a sub-set, these cards ROCK and make up for my sadness over the toys being so freakin’ unstable when using the aesthetically-pleasing fan-mode transformation of Motormaster’s legs. I'm still getting a new Offroad, because by himself he is sublime.

 

Who the hell did you lose the copyright for Stylor to, Hasbro?!?

 

5. I personally find the way the Headmasters are presented to be a bit odd. The shoulders of the Transtectors are very strictly aligned with the tops of their cards, whereas the heads are shown moving in a downward trajectory towards them. Given how the Transtectors are depicted, and to avoid having to overlap them, I would have butted the heads up against the side of their cards to make a seamless piece of combined art, while still being able to read the text. Yeah, the heads being sideways would look weird in a vacuum, but unless they are attached to a body, the robot side of their cards are supposed to be displayed, anyway.

 

6. The nuts-and-bolts ability and resource cards used to actually play the game (which are normal-sized) have even provided me with joy, when kindly tossed-in for free by sellers. Grimlock’s cards are ridiculously expensive, but wouldn’t you know, when I was gifted three of the (seemingly) Fall of Cybertron Dinobots, I got an ability card of Grimlock! Guess I have to grab a Sludge!! Cliffjumper also made an appearance in my life this way, and even, of all people, my favorite Micromaster, Detour!

Wild~

Ultimately, I’m insanely taken with these cards, even if they don’t display as well as I’d prefer. I think they made a number of sound decisions when it came to choosing (and mixing) the art for these cards. In general, they’re pretty much as equally pricey as the Final Fantasy cards, but at least they’re twice as big!

If you aren’t going to play the game, I’d say just go for your absolute favorites...assuming they were made. Only 5 waves were released before they threw in the towel.

That said, at least this artwork made it out:

Mwuahahahahaha 😁😁😁

Trying to review things in an objective manner, even when sometimes allowing a little (or a lot) of subjectivity to get in, has really done a number on my mental health. Ergo, no more numbers. Pithy closers, however, that I can still do~

Sometimes the Best Way to Find Yourself Again, Really Is To Just Come Back Home out of 5.