The Transformers Animated line of action figures have been both praised and rejected by fans of the property. On one side, old-school fans of the 80’s original feel that the figures look cheesy and are upset about the choices of weapons such as axe’s and swords over guns and missiles. On the other side, fans of TF Animated find that the great articulation, sculpt and bladed (more kid friendly weapons) are cool and they don’t care about being gung-ho about the originals by liking both versions.

A Toys R Us exclusive, Arcee is the first high quality incarnation of the character. (The other version is a motorcycle from the movie theme, Ive read a lot of negative reviews and she doesn’t look much like the original character.)

The vehicle mode of the figure is built astonishingly well–except for her wings or spoiler which comes off pretty easy. The paint scheme is not pink as it should be, however, the color is fine as it is–making the toy more male friendly!
As a race car, Arcee is pretty solid and has four smooth rolling wheels and a lot of stability for rough play for the young-un’s.

The transformation of Arcee is not all that difficult but I’d still be careful. (This fact makes her not-so kid friendly, I wouldn’t give a kid an aftermarket action figure anyhow).

The details are close to the character in the cartoon and some of the added touches are her 2 translucent blue swords which can be sheathed in two slots in her upper back which is awesome. Her spoiler wings can be set into the back piece also giving her a cooler look.

Almost an impossible figure to find in Toys R Us stores, Arcee is holding at a reasonable price on ebay. I was able to get 2 for $40 after shipping.

As you can see in the pictures, she is quite small, even smaller than Bumblebee. It appears that Lockdown is just towering over her so much that even if she is one of the premiere sword wielding warriors on Cybertron, she doesn’t stand much of a chance against a nasty psycho like Lockdown. Against Megatron–forget it! But, she is a cool character and a great figure which I highly recommend to Transformers Animated fans. I wish they would have released season 3 on DVD–talking about dropping everything for the movies…

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