Pictorial Review of Transformers Masterpiece MP-51 Arcee
Tuesday, December 29th, 2020 7:29PM CST
Categories: Toy News, Reviews, CollectablesPosted by: Bounti76 Views: 118,942
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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!
GOT HER!
So here's my review and lots of linked pictures!
The box is your standard MP box. Small yet effective.
She come packed in vehicle mode with her accessories. Obligatory card and manual.
The vehicle is absolutely PERFECT. All the details are there.
Despite the arms hanging a bit low, the car roll flawlessly.
This beautiful BLURRY picture show that this Arcee manage to actually have the rear of the car.
The interior is perfectly detailled, down to even a painted dashboard!
You can see how everything tuck under the car.
Here's a comparison shot with all the previous G1 inspired Arcees (Except Animated whom I forgot.)
The "tire blow" weapon attach firmly and is pretty menacing looking.
Other guns can attach to the car as well but that look daff.
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.
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!
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.
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....
"Haters gonna hate!"
Yup. She can ballance pretty well. I think her legs may have diecast so it help.
She can snipe.
Compared to the previous Arcees.
Arcee have blast effects compatible with her guns.
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.
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.
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Posted by -Kanrabat- on December 29th, 2020 @ 7:32pm CST
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.
Posted by Lucky Logician on December 29th, 2020 @ 9:36pm CST
To be honest, I really thought the sag in the promo pictures was due to mistransformation.
Posted by -Kanrabat- on December 29th, 2020 @ 10:07pm CST
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.
Posted by -Kanrabat- on December 30th, 2020 @ 4:16am CST
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.
Posted by MadProject on December 30th, 2020 @ 6:38am CST
Posted by Cyber Bishop on December 30th, 2020 @ 10:21am CST
Posted by sol magnus on December 30th, 2020 @ 12:36pm CST
Posted by TulioDude on December 30th, 2020 @ 1:49pm CST
Nice review Kanrabat,I look foward to when there is Armada Masterpieces avaliable to review.
Day 365 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.
Posted by BumbleDouche on December 30th, 2020 @ 1:55pm CST
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).
Posted by Otaku-mus Prime on December 30th, 2020 @ 4:39pm CST
Posted by -Kanrabat- on December 30th, 2020 @ 5:04pm CST
Otaku-mus Prime wrote:Can the chest piece be rotated upside down? I would like to see if that looks any better.
Forget it.
Posted by BumbleDouche on December 31st, 2020 @ 4:23am CST
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
Posted by AllNewSuperRobot on December 31st, 2020 @ 8:40am CST
Posted by Rodimus Knight on December 31st, 2020 @ 5:27pm CST
Posted by Otaku-mus Prime on December 31st, 2020 @ 6:32pm CST
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.
Posted by -Kanrabat- on December 31st, 2020 @ 6:40pm CST
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.
Posted by Cyberpath on January 26th, 2021 @ 3:00pm CST
Posted by ZeroWolf on January 26th, 2021 @ 3:04pm CST
Posted by -Kanrabat- on January 26th, 2021 @ 3:36pm CST
Posted by Sabrblade on January 26th, 2021 @ 4:01pm CST
Posted by Rodimus Knight on January 26th, 2021 @ 4:07pm CST
Posted by Cyberpath on January 28th, 2021 @ 2:52pm CST
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?
Posted by -Kanrabat- on January 28th, 2021 @ 4:20pm CST
Posted by GrumpyPrime on February 1st, 2021 @ 10:54am CST
I Photoshopped how I would like it to be.. very close to yours.
Till all are one
Grumpy Prime
Posted by Cyberpath on February 1st, 2021 @ 11:29am CST
Posted by -Kanrabat- on February 1st, 2021 @ 11:59am CST
Posted by Sabrblade on February 1st, 2021 @ 12:27pm CST
The sides of her torso need to move up that high too.GrumpyPrime wrote:Nice custom of Arcee. Looks way better.
I Photoshopped how I would like it to be.. very close to yours.
Till all are one
Grumpy Prime
Posted by GrumpyPrime on February 1st, 2021 @ 6:19pm CST
Sabrblade wrote:The sides of her torso need to move up that high too.GrumpyPrime wrote:Nice custom of Arcee. Looks way better.
I Photoshopped how I would like it to be.. very close to yours.
Till all are one
Grumpy Prime
Yes you are right. The side has to move as well.
Like this:
Posted by Sabrblade on February 1st, 2021 @ 6:27pm CST
Arcee's got some space between her upper torso and tummy that this MP smooshes into oblivion.
Posted by william-james88 on February 1st, 2021 @ 8:40pm CST
Sabrblade wrote:Now we're talking!
Arcee's got some space between her upper torso and tummy that this MP smooshes into oblivion.
Yeah hence why we all thought the toy was mistransformed. Raising the breastplate would make it more accurate and have a visible mid section. I'm still very surprised that Takara chose not to go for all this show accuracy in robot mode when that's been their main jam since Magnus.
Posted by Sabrblade on February 1st, 2021 @ 10:58pm CST
As I keep saying, it's not just the breastplate that's too low but the entire upper torso. The front side, the left side, and the right side should have all been higher.william-james88 wrote:Yeah hence why we all thought the toy was mistransformed. Raising the breastplate would make it more accurate and have a visible mid section.
Posted by william-james88 on February 11th, 2021 @ 4:03pm CST