Do you remember Arcee? She’s the pink fembot Transformer who made her first appearance in the movie where Optimus Prime died and Orson Welles ate a planet. Ring any bells?
Not Arcee.
It shouldn’t matter, really. Because we’re not talking about an Arcee toy, we’re talking about ‘CyberFembot A.R.C.” Who is not, in fact, Arcee, despite there being a remarkable resemblance between the two.
If it were Arcee, or close enough to infringe on Hasbro’s (the owners of the Transformers license) intellectual property, the company would be visiting screaming legal death onto Rabid Squirrel Productions, owner of the A.R.C. toy. As it is, Rabid Squirrel can proudly wave a legal document from Hasbro saying that this isn’t the case.
It helps that the Arcee character hasn’t made too many appearances in the various Transformers toylines. Some quick research shows that there was one version of the character in the defunct Energon line, one non-transformable PVC figurine in the Legends of Cybertron line, and one convention exclusive as part of the Beast Wars line. Compared to the something like eleven million versions of Optimus Prime or Starscream that have shown up over the years, it’s not much.
Note: eleven million may be something of an exaggeration.
Arcee: The Transformers' Smurfette
The point is, there hasn’t been a big showing for one of the Transformers’ few notable female characters. To be fair, the Transformers are robots, and gender equality isn’t as big an issue in their ranks as it would be with, say, GI Joe.
All the same, maybe the reason Hasbro lets the A.R.C. survive is because they know they’ve dropped the ball on robot gender equality within their toyline. Or maybe they’re just being respectful of how well-crafted the A.R.C. is. Especially considering it’s a fully realized transforming action figure made by an independent company.
I’ve done some customizing of action figures in times past. New paint jobs, the occasional bit of sculpting clay magic done to make Captain Whatever look like Super Other Guy, etc. I’ve gotten just good enough at it over the years to really and truly appreciate when someone goes stratospherically beyond my own skill level.
And by “stratospherically beyond my skill level” I mean they’ve made a mass-producible, fully articulated female robot that transforms into a vehicle. It’s an impressive feat, for sure. The big question, however, is whether or not it’s $200 worth of impressive. Or $400, if you don’t want to assemble it yourself (that seems like it’d be half the fun, actually).
On one hand, it’s an admittedly well-made toy of a character you can’t easily pick up in stores. And too, it’s nice to encourage the metaphorical little guy to cover things like this that the big fish skip over. There’s someone out there whose Transformer collection is direly incomplete without an Arcee (or reasonable facsimile), and RSP steps up nicely where Hasbro hasn’t.
On the other hand, it’s $200 for a robot car girlbot toy that you have to build yourself.
With those two factors in mind: it’s a worthy purchase if you want to work with your hands on something a little more pop-culture flashy than a ship in a bottle. It’s also a worthy purchase if you’re a die-hard Transformers aficionado or you feel like being a patron of the arts.
If it’s a choice between this toy and say, eating? Food trumps the all-consuming need for a female robot, no matter how fetching her pink paint job is.
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