RotF Bikes Review
Of course only Chromia and Arcee is out for now. When and ifFlare-UpElita-1 gets released, I will update accordingly.
So... Arcee finally making a movie appearance only (like most other robots in the RotF movie) to appear so briefly in the film that if you blink you'll miss them. Not only was there just Arcee but there were 3. Referenced only as a single entity in the movie as "Arcee", it's not until the toys were announced and just recently we found out that the two other bikes were named Chromia and Flare-Up. Then of course the stunned faces we had when we saw their bot modes and the rumoured combined robot mode. Let's see how they stack up as figures.
CHROMIA
Chromia is tough as nails. USed to hang with Ironhide in Cybertron and reuniting back on earth have them both on the frontlines again doing what they do best. Along with her sisters, she's ready to fight.
ALT MODE:
Chromia's alt mode is a blue motorbike that isn't a licensed vehicle, although it is based very closely to the on-screen counterpart. The alt mode is mostly blue and black with some silver and grey for the supposed
"chrome" parts of the bike with some white paint apps for the various "tattoo's" ont he bike. The headlights are clear and the handlebars uses soft rubbery plastic. It has a kick stand for easier display and also comes with the stand that can be positioned underneath the bike for a sturdier stand or fitted on the top rear of the bike as a shain gun and canon combo. Obviously the stand wasn't meant to be part of the design but mainly used to keep the bot mode in a standing position.
The bike itself is a little loose feeling due to the way the parts sit for the conversion. The front wheels isn't exactly in the middle and the side panels of the front tends to just sit there. The rear of the bike is great with room for number plates but sadly left unpainted. The detail on the two mufflers is great with good paint apps. Also notice the clear spring loaded missile attached.
It has little play value outside of attaching the stand. There is no steering due to conversion engineering. So, this is clearly just a display piece. Although a GI Joe figure should be on scale with it.
CONVERSION
Conversion to bot mode is very interesting. As usual, the engineers at HAsbro/Takara excel at making very good motorbike figures and this is no exception. Totally different to the usual motorbike conversion (TFM Arcee, Marvel Spiderman). Chromia's conversion is interesting in that the parts you think will form particular body parts will not. This is mainly due to the bot modes form. It's not a difficult conversion but aligning the parts back into alt mode can be tricky.
BOT MODE:
Chromia's bot mode won't be everyone's cup of tea. She has a wheel for a leg, so she's a unicycle bot, much like Demolishor. While demolishor can use his hands to prop him up, Chromia cannot and hence the need for the stand which does its job perfectly. Chromia is very slender in robot mode although there are huge gaps in particular places. NAmely under the torso and the large gap for the leg when viewed sideways. The head sculpt is great and much improved than the "only-a-mother-could-love" TFM Arcee, with decent paint apps and a sculpt giving her a femenine look. There isn't any extra detail or paint apps that you haven't seen in alt mode but the autobot insignia is prominent on her leg. The tattoo's on her shoulders are nice too.
One of her arms is a giant canon with a spring loaded missile gimmick. Despite the size of the canon, the stand does a very good job in keeping the bot mode from losing balance regardless of how the large canon is posed. The canon also has the "mech alive" gimmick with a sliding portion in the inside of the elbow (think Sideswipes knee-pads). Her other arm is actuallyan arm although there is a large piece of kibble attached tot he forearm which can only be spun in place, so there's no real way to hide it. I guess if you want to give it an excuse, it can be a shield of sorts, but that's pushing it a bit.
Articulation is weak. The arms have limited articulation due to the slender parts. While they are on ball joints their range is limited, especially the canon arm as it's on a right angled bicep. Regardless you can still get some decent poses out of them. The torso can be moved forward or back but no side to side swivel at all. The head is on a ball joint but can only be turned left or right and since it's so close to the torso, tilting it up and down is very minimal. The wheel on top of her head can be positioned to be hidden behind her. I'm not sure what is the oficial bot mode, whether the wheel is up or down. I'm thinking up as it gives her a bit of height and volume.
Overall, I personally love the look of the robot mode and it's slender figure but the lack of articulation outside of the arms hurt it a bit, but it's near impossible to give it anymore articulation for the conversion engineering that is present. It's not really going to convince the naysayers but those with an open mind and don't mind anything beyond bi-ped robots, completists or motorbike TF lovers should definately look in.
ARCEE
Called in to fill in the Autobot ranks and hang with Ironhide. She got given a small team of two other bikes (her sisters) to lead a strike team for mostly stealth missions. Arcee is known to stalk the enemy and strike them real close unbeknownst to them.
ALT MODE:
Arcee's alt mode is a sleek non-licensed sports bike. It is hot-pink, somewhat orangey, with black and a white wash over some of the panels. Like Chromia, she has tattoo's on the panels. The headlights and rear lights (?) are clear plastic. The handlebars is not the soft rubbery plastic though. Like Chromia, the colour scheme is minimal but works. The sculpt detail is ok with a decent engine sculpt. Although the hand in visible ont he right side of the bike. Like Chromia, playability is very limited. It rolls. It has a kickstand and that's it. No steering due to conversion engineering. The side car is really there as a stand for Arcee's robot mode. As a sidecar it looks a little ridiculous as its so low on the ground and has no wheel. For a futuristic bike that is ok but not for the present time. Obviously just an afterthought, but I admire that it can be attached to the bike. Nothing else stands out in this mode, so another display piece.
CONVERSION
Conversion is unique, with an assymetrically engineered conversion that eventuates to having both wheels together as the feet and a snake like curling torso. I personally like the conversion for this figure. It's not complicated, but the assymetrical nature can prove puzzling with no instructions. There is a mech alive gimmick inside the chest which moves about 3 gears when you position the head into place during conversion.
BOT MODE:
Arcee's robot mode is perhaps more appealing than Chromia's or for the bi-ped purists a total horror. Her snake like unicycle look is definately an acquired taste. For those with an open mind you get a very tall imposing figure. Fitting for a "leader" of a team. Her feet are the two wheels together although strangely they don't peg together at all which is odd as there's no reason not to be able to. Her design is assymetrical with one arm full of alt mode panel/kibble, which sadly covers up most of her arm, but at least they fold around her arm instead of beign a giant panel hanging off the forearm. Despite that it reminds me a lot of TFM Jazz's arms. Although Arcee has a real arm just obscured by panels. The left shoulder has the front of bike as kibble. The other arm is smaller but the forearm houses an arm mounted (spring loaded) battle blade. It is a little short, but I guess it fits her assassin persona for this incarnation of her character. The shoulder has one fin for a bit of balance with the other large shoulder. The panels on her leg is on one side, further accentuating the assymetrical nature and the curling waist/torso further enhance this look as well,making her look like a snake. A medusa if you will. The head sculpt is the exact same one as Chromia's, but you won't notice it at first glance due to the paint apps being different. But closer inspections side-by-side will show the exact same head mold.
Like Chromia, there isn't much extra paint apps but the tattoo's are quite prominent in the panels. Articulation is a lot better thatn Chromias with 4 points of articulation on the curly waist alone for some wacky poses, but it does cause balance issues though. The arms could have done with more articulation but the size of the arm blade and the elbow joint being so far up the arm and so close to the shoulders limits the posing for that arm. The bigger arm fares much better with the shoulder kibble being able to split in half to allow the arm for some poses, but again, the kibble on the arm prevents it from having a wider range of poses. The head is on a ball joint and since it's far fromt he torso, can be swivelled and tilted at decent angles.
OVerall, an excellent robot mode and a great alt mode. Much better than Chromia and while not the Arcee everyone wants, it's still a good figure in it's own right.
ELITA-1
(Coming Soon [?])
Formerly was to be called Flare-Up, but now changed to Elita-1.
RUMOURED COMBINED MODE:
Arcee and Chromia sport two struts on their backs that does nothing for either alt or bot mode exclusively alone. This leads to believe that there is a combined mode when and if a 3rd bike is released. Below are the struts with the pegs and grooves:
Chromia:
Arcee:
There's various theories online and actually found a few pics one from the comic and a few possible toy combined pictures but cannot find them at the moment (at work here, not home). Nothing is certain until the 3rd bike comes out. Rumours abound that the 3rd one will just be a repaint of Chromia and or a new mold but no instructions on how to combine. All rumours though. Will update when I can.
*****UPDATE*****
Concept art have surfaced on the combined mode:
http://tformers.com/transformers-con...2361/news.html
Interesting to say the least with the blue (Arcee?) becoming more or less the backpack/link between Chromia and Elita-1.
The Sisters:
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