
Via a Thai Facebook group we have a new set of stock images of the the new Transforrmers Masterpiece MP-51 Arcee.
The new images show the classic G1 fembot posability range and accessories. We can see that Arcee seems to have a good stability for a figure with her design and backpack. The figure will include a gun, long rifle (which can be carried ik alt mode), blast effects and a claw/spike for the alt mode. A very nice addition to the G1 Masterpiece line.
Check all the images after the jump and then sound off your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
Bee427
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Alph
Emgo's comparison shows pretty clearly just how Takara fudged things up with the chest. It looks a million times better with a chest that actually…you know…is a complete chest. Like imagine if they'd just chopped off the top third of Optimus Prime's chest for the sake of improving his butterfly joints, that's exactly what happened here with Arcee. Her chest was never "saggy", it just wasn't complete.
fschuler
The curvy chest on the KO…while a bit gratuitous…actually matches pretty well with her other curves. She won’t look right in alt mode anymore, lol, but the proportions aren’t bad.
Arcee is just about impossible to get perfect. I think TT did a decent job on her overall, and NewAge did as well from a somewhat different direction. I would imagine anything that looks about perfect in both modes would have to be such a mess of panels and complexity that it wouldn’t be any fun to handle…if it could be done at all.
Paco Grande
It looks fine to me in hand and that topic has been beaten to death. Having said that, I think it could have looked MUCH better and avoided tons of controversy if they went with a fake chest. But people are already complaining that she’s a “shellformer” and the chest is the only part of the car that is actually used for bot mode. I believe Arcee absolutely must be a shellformer to do her design any justice at all. TT was most likely trying to make some fans happy by actually using the car hood for the chest piece. Or they ran out of space in the alt mode for a fake chest. TT typically puts a lot of effort into making the alt mode look perfect for car bots (see Hot Rod) and they succeeded in that aspect of her design. Most Arcee designs have really terrible alt modes.
NewAge recently did an Arcee that is pretty much the sculpt of the MP but they went with a fake chest. I think their chest looks much better but the alt mode suffers a lot for that awesome bot mode. And I think the alt mode would have looked much worse at MP scale. At Legends scale it’s the size of a Hot Wheels car so it’s more forgivable.
Nova Maximus
They let the horny get to their brains.
A sad fate that could plague us all.
![[IMG]](https://robotoybase.com/image/cache//data/productphoto3/p30/TB2NDEnewfH8KJjy1zcXXcTzpXa_--250852858-1000x1000.jpg)
Not as bad as FT's marketing team tho.
mrspingly
The chest in my picture above isn't the Takara one. It's the improved one with a better angle.
But I agree, the official chest is an eyesore.
Superquad7
I dunno what TakaraTomy was thinking on that chest. Gracious.
mrspingly
Thanks. I shall give that a go. I already have FT Rouge and MMC Azalea, but I was intrigued to see what the MP was like, as the alt mode is excellent.
I think that Azalea is my favourite, as she by far the most fun to fiddle around with!
4249david
Yeah, those legs need moving back about half a centimetre each. Her centre of gravity is pinpoint accurate. It's like no other figure you've had before
mrspingly
As I said in the post, I know that the backpack wasn't right in that photo. I had hoped that would avoid a comment like this.
She was leaning with it correctly arranged as well. The reason it's not transformed correctly in the picture is because I had been experimenting with making it look less ugly by removing a pin, like this.
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Looks better from the front, but the gap is ugly. She's leaning forward even there, though, with a much lighter backpack. For the photo I originally posted above, I popped the other half of the backpack in.
artimus prime
Not fair to say she likes to lean forward when you have her backpack sky-high and forward. She's really well balanced. *as long as her lower ab joint is toleranced right* If that gives out, she's an alt mode display.
4249david
Keep fiddling. She's actually amazing to pose but you need to move in small increments. You can get almost any pose perfectly if you take your time and tweak each bit
mrspingly
Arcee arrived earlier. I think she needs to put on weight, as she's looking a little … lean.
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I know the backpack isn't right! This was after poking and fiddling around. She likes to lean forwards with the correct alignment too.
MacrossA
Ha ha ha… Looks like it
CobraKai
Is that bacon in the second pic, against the wall?
Mormolyce
Well I'm super late to this party but I finally got around to transforming her and I'm afraid that doesn't look any better in hand. I also really dislike that pinched face, I know she looked like that in some cells where the Princess Leia buns angle sharply inwards but come on Takara. Comparatively, FT has perpendicular buns which makes for a very nice face, and MMC is halfway in between – the buns angle inwards but not enough to squish the face like TT's.
For positives, I think she has the best arms of the three – FT's are a little on the spindly side and marred by peg holes. Though the elbow is a little weird, looks like it should bend in two places but it's only one. It's similar to MMC's arm (though that one has two joints), but let's be honest the MMC figure isn't really in the running – the paint, finish and materials just aren't up to MP standards so she looks very plain next to Takara's. Dull pink and grey plastic which I can only assume is unpainted. Scale-wise the TT is much closer to MMC than FT, interestingly. I guess that just comes down to what size you want your Arcee to be. I think FT's size and "heroic proportions" was always going to make it hard to beat with this scale.
The legs are pretty nice too, there's a LOT of curvature in them though – I think it's down to personal taste whether you prefer that to FT's sleeker but still well-defined legs. One thing I do really prefer is her spatulate feet which help with stability. Or they would, if it weren't for her backpack making her rear-heavy. But honestly none of the Arcees stand very well. I think she might take the win for ease of transformation, personally I don't mind FT's scheme but it's certainly more complicated and has some terrifying "is this going to break?" moments (in fact I lost a minor peg on one of the doors early on, luckily it's not essential to the transformation but man she is fragile). I don't remember MMC's very well though, it's been a while. Ultimately you wind up with a less impressive backpack though, FT's "disappearing car body" transformation is still absolute witchcraft. MMC's isn't as magical but it's still less cumbersome than the MP's, which is bulky and kibbley by comparison (but of course there are much worse offenders). I don't really mind backpacks that much though – I could've forgiven that if the rest of the figure had been great.
TLDR: Some up sides but the face and especially chest REALLY let this figure down, I just don't understand how they thought it could go out like this. It looks broken or mistransformed, the chest throws the proportions way off. I suppose faces are subjective but next to the other two it's really noticeably skinny and pointy.
junkbot
So yes I know this thread is for MP-51, but her head also does well on Rouge. I like Rouge's body and enjoy how Arcee's head can be easily swapped since they share the same peg size base. That is a Hasbro stand and it allows me to make a dramatic pose. Just have to use a counter weight so she doesn't tip over. Mix and match is always fun IMHO. And those guns are from Azalea. I made notches in the hilt so that Rouge could hold them. Amazing what can be done with some precision, a steady hand and a dremel. Yippee!! Cheers fellas…
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franpincho
MP-51 Arcee KO?
junkbot
Indeed. Good idea I must say.
Simp4Arcee
Makes for a great battle damaged Arcee, though.
Sorry to hear about what happened.