Okay, fess up - who else had a crush on Arcee back in the 80s? Just me then? Oh well, onwards. There are evidently some Transformers fans who don't like Arcee - rumour has it that she was to be in the recent (awesome) movie, but her role was given to Ironhide due to negative fan reaction. So let's ignore those fans, because they don't know what the heck they're on about, clearly. Arcee rocks - she's brave, fiesty, quick-witted, resourceful... made out of motorcycle parts, admittedly, but no-one's perfect. (In fact, on Arcee's debut in the 1987 animated Transformers movie, her vehicle form was a streamlined, futuristic car of the sort the designers were sure we'd all be jetting around in by 2005. Poor optimistic souls...) Sadly, she hasn't been blessed with a great many toys over the years. Two, in fact, in general release, of which this is one. Deluxe Class Arcee owes a lot to her namesake from the earlier Energon toy line, which was itself repainted blue and re-released under the movie brand as Scout Class Arcee. Deluxe Arcee is larger, more complex and more detailed, but the fact is, she's still basically the same toy. Not a re-use, as such, but whoever designed her had Energon Arcee on his desk, and copied it nearly step for step. The front wheel folds up behind the torso, the majority of the engine becomes the legs, and the rear wheel and chassis split in half to become the arms. It's rated 3 out of 4 on the box for difficulty of transformation, but in all honesty, anyone who's ever owned a Transformer will get the hang of it in no time - the only 'difficult' part is getting the tight rear wheel to split without breaking something. As a bike, she's a good vehicle - there aren't any obvious robot parts (though you can see her hands, but they're not obvious unless you know what you're looking at), and there's plenty of detail, including instruments, handlebars with brakes, headlights and indicators, brake lights, a working kickstand, and even a license plate (TF 7407, Massachusetts, for some reason). In robot form she's well-proportioned, and has enough detail to fit in reasonably well with the other movie Transformers (those that actually appeared in the movie, that is) - her chest (which is hidden in bike mode) is particularly reminiscent of the movie, with bits and pieces of chassis and frame all melded together, and her face is very much in keeping with the look of her movie comrades. Though the camera flash makes her look fuschia, under normal lighting she's actually a rich purple - so not too girly, then. I tell you, it's a relief to see female robots that aren't invariably painted pink. The bike's fuel tank (I think it's the fuel tank, but then again what do I know about how bikes work?) becomes a crossbow-type weapon, into which the exhaust pipe sticks, and fires out at the touch of a fairly hair-trigger lever which also makes the bow's limbs flip back against the shaft of the weapon. She's got a useful amount of articulation: ball joints at her neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and hinges at her wrists, knees, and ankles. Most of those are limited somewhat by her construction, but it's a good effort overall. So that's the good - but she's not perfect. While there have been some improvements made over the smaller, simpler Energon/Scout Class Arcee - the way her robot-mode chest is hidden in vehicle mode, and the weapon, most notably - there are a few other changes which you'd have to admit could have been done without. Energon Arcee's rear wheel, after splitting in half, folded back behind her shoulders, ending up looking a little bit suggestive of wings - kind of neat, for a simple Transformer. Deluxe Arcee's rear wheel halves end up in front of her arms, which if you ask me wreck the look of her arms and shoulders, and continually gets in the way of her arm movement, and her weapon - in fact, in order to hold the crossbow as shown in the instructions, you have to un-Transform the wheel segment on that arm. If they'd just fold the other way, as Energon Arcee did, it wouldn't be an issue, and the whole thing would look better. In addition, the articulation/transformation joints in the legs aren't quite the same - the upper of the two hinges in her legs now only moves forward, meaning she can't really bend her legs back very far, and the ball joints at her hips have a much narrower field of motion, so she can't take many wide or deep stances. And where Energon Arcee's face was very much in the vein of the cartoons - human-like and uniformly silver (quite pretty, I thought) - Deluxe Arcee, in going for a movie style face, ends up looking a bit less than sexy. It's not helped by the inexplicable black paint on her mouth and cheeks, which isn't on the box art, and which makes her look a bit like she's wearing a ball gag. In the end, she's a good Transformer - in vehicle mode you could glance at her and not realise she was anything but a toy superbike, and in robot mode she looks pretty good, moves well, and has a neat weapon which can be relied upon to satisfy the requirement of boys' toys that they be able to put someone's eye out, with a bit of effort. It's only really when you compare her to her Energon sister that you realise, good as she is, she could very easily have been a lot better - and it's a shame she wasn't. Still, with the scarcity of female Transformers to begin with, it's refreshing to see Arcee getting some love from the toy manufacturers.