I mentioned the New York theme to most of the NYCC-exclusive Transformers set yesterday. Emphasis on the "most," unless being pink and white is some Big Apple-y thing I'm not aware of. (I would not rank this as an impossibility.) Bumblebee gets to be a taxi, and the two humans get to wear New York t-shirts. Arcee gets to be pink and white.

Not that I'm against pink and white. It just stands out as an anomaly.

Obviously Hasbro was going for a Classic G1 Arcee color scheme for her, as Arcee is normally black and blue in the show.  I'm of two minds with this.  The first mind tells me that I don't really care for G1-inspired redecoes on folks who don't appear in them and I'm not particularly fond of G1 Arcee in general.  Mind Number Two reminds me that toys in these colors happen basically never, and I should savor this.  And I do.  The toy is gloriously pink.  Not red or somewhere in between so little boys might be fooled into buying a girl, but out-and-out Barbie Dream Car pink.  It's a novelty.

My friend Sam reminded me that Arcee in War for Cybertron is pink and white, so this could be Arcee in a transitional form in between then and now.  I was happy, frankly, to repurpose this toy as someone else entirely in a recent strip.

There are many things about this toy that I like.  Sometimes motorcycle toys go through insane contortions to get from a passable motorcycle into a passable robot.  Animated Prowl is perhaps still the master at this.  Arcee isn't quite as elegant an execution, but she's not a failure on any scale.  I like  how simple her leg transformation is.  Often this is the annoying part of the motorcycle Transformer, but her legs just sit side-by-side in robot mode, sharing a wheel which splits up during conversion.  The arms kind of messily hang off the sides, but they're hidden well enough.  The only thing that really bothers me is the mess of kibble directly behind her head, and how the handlebars located therein conflict with her shoulders.  Her shoulder kibble and her back kibble are not meant to coexist.  They will be a source of annoyance.

Prime Arcee is one of the Autobots' most agile and formidable warriors, so I'm grateful that the toy has a large range of movement built into her, short the shoulder/back kibble battle.  Her elbows are double-hinged and her hips and knees are versatile.  And she has a rotating waist, plus a neck that's balljointed at one end and hinged at the other!

I really like Arcee, the character.  Despite being the only girl on the Autobot team, she's not characterized as such.  Her personality and individualized pathos are frequently showcased, and she became a quick favorite of mine.  I'm glad I was able to get an early version of her, even if it will eventually be displaced by a more accurately color-schemed variant.   Also I really really really really hope little boys will buy her toys as readily as any other awesome character.  (Obviously, her being blue instead of pink would help facilitate that.)  If any female Transformer could manage that, it's her.

It's that time again!  And same as last year, the Transformers Wiki is sending me and another fellow over to Times Square in New York this weekend for  Hasbro's Toy Fair 2011 Collectors Event, where we'll be learning about G.I. Joe, Transformers, Marvel, Star Wars, and all sorts of other things.  But, really, we'll be there for the Transformers.  Coming with me this year is Matthew Karpowich, otherwise known as "Monzo" on the Internet.  He's our dude who sets up this stuff, and was the guy who netted us this opportunity for the first time last year, so he's more than earned his right to attend.  Plus he's got a mind like a steel trap.  I won't even have to pay attention.

Because Toy Fair stuff is gearing up, USA Today gives us a look at the first Transformers Prime toy, Deluxe Class Arcee!  Woooooo!  Man, I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to pull these off, especially Arcee, but they really seem to have done it.  I mean, I was trusting Hasbro/Tomy to be able to do so, I guess, since, well, they managed to succeed at engineering Animated-style toys, but it's hard to truly believe until you see it.

So here we are.

UPDATE: Oh, hey, and UGO has Starscream.

UPDATE 2: And IGN has Bumblebee.

UPDATE 3: And Ain't it Cool News has a Prime/Megs/kids giftset.

I always love the "Upgrade" sticker sets that Reprolabels.com offers for Animated figures.  Since Animated toys are cartoony to begin with, stickers on them that recreate unpainted detail stick out less than, say, trying to smoosh old G1 sticker detail across Classics Hot Rod's legs.  And more often than not, Reprolabels manages to provide stickers for stuff I wasn't able to duplicate myself with paint.

Case in point: The "Upgrade" set for Animated Arcee!  Sure, I managed to put in the black under her eyes and color in her lips and chin, but there were lots of little things that are out of the jurisdiction of my ability.  (Basically, anything that isn't black is pretty rough.)  For example, those white areas on the tops of her feet.  Those stickers make me happy.  The ones that cover up the fronts of her behind-the-head shoulder kibble with the proper magenta/white layouts are also much appreciated.  The smaller things aren't so bad, either, like the white and black circles for her shoulders and knees.  And stuff for her back, even though you can't see it usually?  Why not.  Oh, and woo, a colored Autobot logo.

There's always extra stuff on these sets that I don't want or stuff I was able to do better myself.  The set offers a battlemask if you want one, or you can make her head look like it's being opened and probed like in "TransWarped."  A sticker to cover her face with a "normal" face is provided, but I liked my paint better.

Reprolabels has been a long-time sponsor of the Transformers Wiki, so they're awesome in that way, too.  Currently, they have a  special offer running where you get a free faction symbol sticker sheet for every $10 you spend.  Go check them out!