Even though we never get a good look at Elita-1 in the original cartoon, we saw the front part as a pointed vehicle a bit like Arcee, which is nothing like the square car in Legacy...
...but they did homage her head poking out the top though, so I guess that's one thing. I just don't know why they chose this vehicle mode, as if the previous toys with very odd alt-modes (a boat for BotCon, a Jet for POTP, an Arcee redeco for Netflix toyline) made it okay to keep the tradition alive.
As for the claim that people are saying that Elita-1 is a "pre-tool of Minerva", I find it hard to believe because the car and robot mode of Elita-1 look nothing like the original Minerva toy or JP cartoon appearance (or any appearance that I could see on the tfwiki page for Gen1 Minerva (referring to the non-human component) and Animated Minerva), which would need a major remould t
The original Minerva toy and cartoon appearance looked more like the Jazz car than Legacy Elita-1, but if the focus is on robot modes being accurate, a remoulded SS Jazz toy might look right in car mode, but not in robot mode with the car front on the chest.
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