Here's Azalea, Protoform Special Edition, by Ocular Max!She was supposed to be a convention exclusive but there's no conventions this year because of the you-know-what.
Azalea is their unofficial take at
Arcee, first female Transformers. But not the first one to have a toy. Because boys in the 1980's did not want to play with toys that represent guuuuuuuurlz,
RIIIIIGHT?
The box have nice artwork all over. The back have a bio-card where her stats are "revealed" via the pink filter in the same way as the old 1980's G1 toys. A nice hommage.
This 3P figure is supposed to be in a Masterpiece collection. Bigger scale and show accuracy is paramount. But why the odd colors? Because she's based on the picture of the prototype of a Arcee toy Hasbro planned to make for the 1986 Transformers movie line. Even by changing some pink for orange, she was never made and that picture is all that survived.
So that's all the stuff you get in the box. There's even an alternate head and face for the regular Azalea.... That I won't have. Oh well, box warmers!
The figure have some trouble standing on her own despite having diecast lower legs and feet. Also, her backpack unclip too easily. Appart that, she pose really well.
The hands change very easy but you'll need a tiny flat screwdriver to help separate the head parts to change the faces. She also hold her gun very well. She look bad-ass!
I really love those colors because Azalea is her own character instead of being just an "impostor"
I love that expression! Also, she does have ankle tilts but I didn't saw them at first for reasons.
Now allow me to cheat. Now with an officla Autobots label on her chest, she feel "complete".
The back of the figure is surprisingly clean while the backpack is pretty small compared to cheaper or similarly priced Arcees. I changed her little red nub from the full car antennae.
Transformation is not too complicated if you know what to do. The instruction are complete garbage because it look like at least 2/3 of the steps are missing. So I had to go full detective mode by carefully analysing some other pages a few steps ahead to see how things were supposed to work. I could have cheated and just popped in a video review of the regular Azalea, but where's the fun in that?
Oh, and she must absolutely have her fists as her hands in order to not have silly fingers sticking out of the vehicle.
Final result is a small vehicle mode that is so compact, she look like a deluxe from the regular Transformers line. That's some serious mass-shifting. This futuristic vehicle is pretty clean and appealing. The interior could have better details, but it's all right.
The back of the vehicle is a bit... hum...
suggestive, but it's 1000X better than the first "Masterpiece Arcee", Toyworld's Lea, where she dosent have a rear part of her vehicle at all. Lea is a front of a car with legs hanging of her back. Lea is cheap and have a small backpack, but I don't want half a car. As for the other 3P option, Rouge, she's too big for the character she's supposed to be and ASSPLODE instead of transforming. That's why I've chosen Azalea. Plus I couldn't resist the Protoform colors.
Now with a
symbol and her gun attached as "turbo thrusters", she look complete.
Overall, well worth adding to my Arcee shrine. I'm looking forward to compare her with the official Masterpiece Arcee by Takara that I have on preorder. We will see by around the end of the year 2020.
