I’ll admit, I had my doubts about this version of Arcee after seeing the First Edition one.  The FE Arcee looked taller, slimmer and dare I say it…sexier?  No, not really sexy, she’s a piece of plastic, but I did have my doubts about this figure after seeing just how good FE Arcee was.

I’ll start from the top down.  Arcee’s head sculpt is very accurate to the cartoon with a good amount of detail, as well as being on ball joint.  Nothing special here, but nonetheless, very nicely done.  On the torso, you find just what you would expect.  There is a good amount of detail in the chest and waist, and it also provides Arcee with a very high amount of cartoon accuracy.  On the back of Arcee, the seat in alt mode goes down pretty far and almost looks like the stinger or abdomen of a wasp.  Nothing huge, but if you’re dying for show accuracy when you’re taking your risque shots of Arcee from behind, you’re going to be let down, perv.

Now onto Arcee’s biggest downfall.  As you all are likely aware, Transformers Prime Arcee has some little “wings” as we’ll call them, in the show located on her upper back.  I don’t have a problem with these personally, but apparently the engineers that worked on this figure at Hasbro had a back-kibble fetish flare up.  The kibble on Arcee’s back is ridiculous and easily sticks out a good inch and a half.  If you’re viewing her from directly on in the front, your depth perception can kind of help you out in keeping the kibble to a minimum, but if you’re looking at her from anything more than a 20 degree angle, you’ll be hearing Schwarzenegger’s voice in the back of your head shouting “It’s not a tumah!” for the rest of the night.

Arcee’s legs are probably the highlight of the robot mode.  The detail is all there down to the feet, and the articulation allows for a great amount of poses.  The aesthetics look very show accurate and sharp, and I love how the feet give off a little bit of a stiletto vibe, something that compliments Arcee very well.

Arcee’s alt mode is bittersweet to me.  Don’t get me wrong, it looks surprisingly good despite looking about as small as a scout class, but I just can’t seem to get into displaying Transformers that are motorcycles in bot mode.  I didn’t do it with RtS Wreckgar, and I won’t do it with PRiD Arcee.  If you’re someone who doesn’t have a problem with this like I do, then you’ll be very pleased with Arcee’s alt mode.  Having said that, if a 3rd party company like Dr. Wu does a little articulated Jack to ride on Arcee, I may change my mind.

Having said all that, Arcee’s alt mode is what it is.  A solid motorcycle mode with few problems.  My only real gripe is that the front handle bars cannot turn, but the wheel fixture can.  Not a huge deal for a deluxe class Transformer, but if you’re planning on displaying in alt mode with the front wheel rotated a little bit, you may be disappointed.  A huge positive for this mode is just how realistic it does look as a motorcycle; you can’t see any remnants of a robot anywhere, and the detail is spot on.

Overall I highly enjoyed PRiD Arcee.  I was able to find her at retail fairly early, so I didn’t get stuck paying the $20+ premium some places.  My final verdict is that this version of Arcee is very solid for the price point.  Despite having the kibble problem in robot mode, she finishes strong and compliments that with a very impressive alt mode.  I wouldn’t recommend paying more than retail if you haven’t pick her up yet, but it’s a definite buy if you see her at retail.