Page 10 of 11

Pictorial Review of Transformers Masterpiece MP-51 Arcee

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 7:29 pm
by Bounti76
Good news, Masterpiece fans! MP-51 Arcee is now shipping, and in some cases, has already shown up! I got a shipping notice Sunday, and a scant 36 hours later, she was at my door, thanks to Amazon Japan.

One Seibertronian, -Kanrabat-, got his even earlier, and was gracious enough to send us a fantastic and thorough pictorial review of the latest Masterpiece figure, the second fembot in the line (after Road Rage). Check out what he has to say and show us below!

:michaelbay: GOT HER! :michaelbay:

So here's my review and lots of linked pictures!

The box is your standard MP box. Small yet effective.

Image
Image

She come packed in vehicle mode with her accessories. Obligatory card and manual.

Image
Image

The vehicle is absolutely PERFECT. All the details are there.

Image
Image

Despite the arms hanging a bit low, the car roll flawlessly.

Image

This beautiful BLURRY picture show that this Arcee manage to actually have the rear of the car.

Image

The interior is perfectly detailled, down to even a painted dashboard!

Image
Image

You can see how everything tuck under the car.

Image

Here's a comparison shot with all the previous G1 inspired Arcees (Except Animated whom I forgot.)

Image

The "tire blow" weapon attach firmly and is pretty menacing looking.

Image

Other guns can attach to the car as well but that look daff.

Image

Transformation is long and hard, but surprisignly not frustrating. Also, everything felt SOLID in hand with nothing seeming fragile or about to break. The instructions have large pictures but sometime, some details are hard to make out. The magority of the transformation is to compress the panels festival that is the car shell in the most compact backpack scientifically manageable.

In the end, we end up with a pretty nice fembot with a backpack that is not too bad in person, considering that the car mode have NO sacrifices. Obviously, Arcee is back heavy and it limit some poses.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

The visor is inside her helmet and it's easy enough to put in place. The faces are easy to change but you must mind the alignment of the face inside the head. It's easy to misplace it. But if you do well, the result is pretty nice!

Image

The gun is very easy to place in her hand and it's SOLID. Also, her jointed hands are VERY appreciated. She have the thumb, the index, and the 3 other fingers as a single unit that can move.

Image

Yeas, she have a high collac and "realistic" sagging "breasts". That's an odd design choice but it's not too bad. This Arcee is not the naive young girl, but an hardenned veteran. So it work.

Also....

Image
"Haters gonna hate!"


Yup. She can ballance pretty well. I think her legs may have diecast so it help.

She can snipe.

Image
Image

Compared to the previous Arcees.

Image
Image

Arcee have blast effects compatible with her guns.

Image

And a tiny gun that may reffer to a single episode. Complete with it's dedicated blast effect that can't go to any other gun.

Image

Overall, was she worth the 180$CAN total, shipping and taxes included?
I have to admit, YES. Totally. Contrary to my previous purchase with MPM Starscream, I feel that here, I got the best deal and she's worth every single cents that I paid.

Could this Arcee be better? Maybe yes, but some choices had to be made. Here, it's the vehicle mode that got priority so the robot is a bit compromised with her backpack. As for the saggy chest, it may have been avoided, but still, I love that "older" Arcee.

I highly recommend the official MP. Especially for the Arcee lover who have all the official figures and even some Third Party.

Image

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 7:32 pm
by -Kanrabat-
M. Spector wrote:Thanks for taking the time to write review! I have to say, she does look pretty sharp in vehicle mode and pretty dynamic in robot mode. The back kibble is probably the best looking G1 style Arcee backpack out there, it *really* crunches down and slims up (best it can).



Thanks!
I got around 3 shipping notices today so I was pretty exited. As soon that I came back from work I opened this bad girl to do the review right away, supper be damned!

Glad that I did because she's totally worth it.

I'll make a thread in the 3P forum at a later date to compare her to my other two "Arcees", Nicee and Azalea.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 9:36 pm
by Lucky Logician
Thanks for the review and great pictures. Very much appreciated.

To be honest, I really thought the sag in the promo pictures was due to mistransformation.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:07 pm
by -Kanrabat-
Lucky Logician wrote:Thanks for the review and great pictures. Very much appreciated.

To be honest, I really thought the sag in the promo pictures was due to mistransformation.


Unfortunately, no, the low chest is purely by design. Even if everything pack quite snuggly under the car mode, I'm pretty sure some 3P smart-ass is already planning a "boob job" on ol' Arcee. ;)

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 4:16 am
by -Kanrabat-
I'm glad to have the glory of being the first to post a picture review,

But as usual, Prime VS Prime is the first to post a video review. You can see the transformation in detail here and how it's a small miracle they tuck all this car in such a compact backpack.

Amazing that no one have posted the video review yet.


Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 6:38 am
by MadProject
can't wait to get mine!

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:21 am
by Cyber Bishop
Nice pictorial, but she is an easy pass for me.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 12:36 pm
by sol magnus
The "tiny" gun is from Transformers: The Movie.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:49 pm
by TulioDude
It's not my favorite version Arcee ,but I respect the lenghts the designers went through to make this toy accurate.
Nice review Kanrabat,I look foward to when there is Armada Masterpieces avaliable to review.

Day 365 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:55 pm
by BumbleDouche
Try as I might, I just can't like this figure - I really want to, but I simply can't get past that chest. I think we can all agree that the vehicle mode is the best we've ever seen for Arcee; her accessories & poseability are great, & the attention to detail is outstanding.

Unfortunately, it's all rendered moot by that odd looking chest area, which just ruins the whole robot mode in my opinion. It's not a matter of being pervy or misogynistic, being against the appearance of "sagging boobs," rather it simply looks odd from a proportional perspective & unlike the animation model, which is actually kind of weird considering Takara's recent slavish attempts at cartoon accuracy.

So while the car mode is nice, I display my collection mostly in robot mode, making the vehicular form a secondary consideration when I make my purchases. As such, I consider this figure unfit for my display in robot mode.

I just know if I bought the thing, it'd be a constant annoyance rather than something I can look at fondly & reminisce, as I do with my other figures. With that in mind, I'm gonna pass on this one & start waiting on version 2.0, when it's released 30 years from now (if it ever happens at all).

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 4:39 pm
by Otaku-mus Prime
Can the chest piece be rotated upside down? I would like to see if that looks any better.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2020 5:04 pm
by -Kanrabat-
Otaku-mus Prime wrote:Can the chest piece be rotated upside down? I would like to see if that looks any better.


Forget it.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:23 am
by BumbleDouche
Otaku-mus Prime wrote:Can the chest piece be rotated upside down? I would like to see if that looks any better.


So instead of saggy robo-boobs, she'd have a saggy robo-beer belly? lol

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 8:40 am
by AllNewSuperRobot
For all the detractors, pragmatically speaking, get used to this mold. You'll be seeing it again regardless.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:27 pm
by Rodimus Knight
I got mine yesterday and the saggy chest is an issue, it really looks terrible. The vehicle mode is great, but why did they ad the grey to it on the "door" panels? That look really awful.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 6:32 pm
by Otaku-mus Prime
BumbleDouche wrote:
Otaku-mus Prime wrote:Can the chest piece be rotated upside down? I would like to see if that looks any better.


So instead of saggy robo-boobs, she'd have a saggy robo-beer belly? lol


The screw at the back is high on the chest. If the chest were rotated, it would start higher up toward the neck and gradually come out to form the breast, rather than suddenly jutting out and gradually going in to the abdomen. Plus I think we would see more of the abdomen section.

In any case, I don't own the figure and I don't know what the purpose of that screw at the back of the chest is. It's probably holding other vital body parts in place.

Perhaps the solution is something as simple as adding another piece to the upper chest to make the slope of the breast more gradual, and natural looking. Just a thought.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 6:40 pm
by -Kanrabat-
Rodimus Knight wrote:I got mine yesterday and the saggy chest is an issue, it really looks terrible. The vehicle mode is great, but why did they ad the grey to it on the "door" panels? That look really awful.

I tried googling a cartoon picture of Arcee in car mode but I found nothing.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 3:00 pm
by Cyberpath
Custom face by Makotron --

Image


Image


Image



And custom chest --


Image


Image


Image

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 3:04 pm
by ZeroWolf
Well the custom chest is a definite improvement there, that's what it should have been in the first place.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 3:36 pm
by -Kanrabat-
I wonder how that chest work in transformation?

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:01 pm
by Sabrblade
That helps the front of her torso, but the sides are still sagging. All three sides of the torso (front, left, and right) should have all been higher up from the get go.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:07 pm
by Rodimus Knight
Are those custom bits being sold somewhere or just a one off for the private collection?

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:52 pm
by Cyberpath
Comparison:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Source: @McRapThrone


Rodimus Knight wrote:Are those custom bits being sold somewhere or just a one off for the private collection?

Dunno. The chest piece is on his Shapeways page, but unavailable?

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Thu Jan 28, 2021 4:20 pm
by -Kanrabat-
Not perfect, but it's indeed better.

Re: Transformers MP-51 Arcee Discussion

PostPosted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:54 am
by GrumpyPrime
Nice custom of Arcee. Looks way better.
I Photoshopped how I would like it to be.. very close to yours.

Takara Eat this.png


Till all are one
Grumpy Prime