ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Wolfman Jake wrote:Stargrave wrote:Also what’s the problem with partsforming? I think it’s rad. Weaponizers, Omega Supreme, Galaxy Upgrade Prime, heck Cybertron Prime, anything that ever combined or armored up, partsforming. I don’t get the grrr over partsforming. Always been around, used by many a beloved character, you all know it deep down you feel the love you feel the love for parts and their forming.
Partsforming is a bit of an art. It can easily be done very wrong, a la our first impressions of Earthrise Arcee. Earthrise Cliffumper's partsforming is borderline, but won me over in the end for two reasons. 1) He can use the back of his vehicle mode as a credible shield. 2) The removable part still stores neatly on his back for a complete look. Arcee's "hoverboard" looks like the back half of a car, period. Hanging off her back, it'll look even clunkier than Soundbarrier, who is probably one of the worst Transformer toys in this century. Characters who "armor up" are fine for partsforming, because the base robot is still a fully functional transforming toy on its own, and the "armor" bits combine to form an accessory for the vehicle or something else, like a weapon or battle station. Earthrise Arcee isn't being "armored up" by the back half of her alt mode under her feet or hanging off her already kibbled back.
It's also easier to embrace partsforming on legacy characters, like Ultra Magnus, where that was his original schtick in G1. Or, on "new" characters like the completely reimagined Brunt, who never had G1 robot mode to begin with. Arcee is not an established partsformer, and unlike Cliffjumper, her use of partsforming is VERY underwhelming, to put it mildly.
Well, I was talking about partsforming in general. I would also like to add the fact that partsforming does mean that it puts TFs at greater risk of losing bits of themselves, so there's that.
Mind you, with regards to characters who partsformed originally, sometimes trying to cut down on the partsforming can actually make things worse. Legends Godbomber suffers a bit from trying
too hard to reduce partsforming. And then there's Combiner Wars Silverbolt, who suffers from having to have the combiner kibble built in.
Looking at Arcee, I'm fairly confident that the detachable car aft will be able to fold up into the rest of her backpack rather than dangle behind her legs. Not the greatest, but still better than it could be. I also think there's a chance it will make a better-looking hoverboard when turned upside-down.
I don't know that making her a shellformer for the sake of a pelvis swivel was the best design call, but she at least looks nice and has fully 5mm-compatible hands (and there's the C.O.M.B.A.T. potential). I still plan to get her. She won't supplant T30 Arcee, of course, but she's got enough going for her to make a fun complement.
I'm in agreement with Wolfman Jake's argument concerning parts-forming. It's understandable on a character like Ultra Magnus, where he's donning armor, but the base figure still transforms. Transformation is at the core of what these toys offer as their primary feature, and to omit that is omitting the
raison d'etre of this franchise. The transformation aspect is what fascinates me, and keeps me collecting. If I wanted action figures with snap-on armor to effect disguise, that's what I'd buy, but I don't. I want integrated transformation that permits elements of the figure to rearrange into another cohesive form via mechanical means without the need for removal and reattachment of parts.
Respectfully, the argument that Earthrise Arcee's shell/parts-formation was necessary to enable waist swivel doesn't convince me, as MMC's Azalea has perfect transformation coalescing her car fenders into her shoulder pods, while maintaining the waist swivel. It's certainly doable. I don't share the optimism that her 'hoverboard', as it were, integrates into the transformation. It'd be a slight improvement, but it's certainly going to add considerable bulk to her backpack if it does, or if it at least snaps onto the backpack, given that it doesn't appear to collapse into a smaller form. I think Takara just gave up on this design, and went the simplest route by making her a nice looking action figure with basically a hinged hoodie and 2/3 snap-on alt mode. To my eye, little to nothing of that robot mode becomes a car, and you could easily remove the top of her backpack, join it to the lower half, and have a complete stand alone car and robot, as neither mode requires anything of the other. As an action figure, she looks really good; as a Transformer, I fear she fails. Perhaps I'm wrong; I hope I am, but I remain dubious.
