The Unlicensed Third Party Transformers Thread

[Scyla]

The reason why Seraphicus has these ghostly swords is that he gave the swords to Hexatron. I guess the swords are the ethereal remains of these swords.

[technoblue]

MMC teased the first prototype of their Nova Prime in 2012. I think it was intended to be a contemporary of Hexatron looking at the old promotional material. Hexetron was the better toy, though. Anyway, here is that thread:

http://news.tfw2005.com/2013/08/08/mastermind-creations-seraph-prominion-nova-prime-178183

I think the Seraphicus core bot ended up having a gappy backpack like MP tracks. I guess it can be argued whether or not that was deliberate. I also wasn't fond of the head joint on Seraphicus. It was flimsy, and made the armored head look strange if it wasn't pulled up and away from the shoulder area.

I agree with the cost criticism, but I don't know what Fans Toys has to do with Seraphicus. If you are talking about companies using teasers and pre-orders to get fans to buy into a toy early...yeah I'm not into that way of doing business. It reminds me of pre-orders for video games, and I've been burned on my fair share of those to know better.

*Looks at pre-order list* LoL! I guess I'm learning slowly.

Well I do try to keep my pre-orders to a minimum now, focusing on toys that I know I will keep. If I'm unsure about something, even a Macross toy release, I'd rather wait until release day or after a review is out and pay a little more for that peace of mind.

For third-party Transformers, I have a number of the smaller Reformatted MMC bots and a couple Ocular Max releases, but definitely more from MMC than any other company. My Fans Toys focus is the X version dinobots, but I also have Hound and Reflector. Planet X gives me a set of cool smaller dinos to go with my MMC bots, I also like how PX is branching out to other game characters. For Maketoys, I have their Megatron, Hound (Toy colors) and their Reflector. I have DX9's Mightron and Rodimus (in black). I have BadCube's Sunstreaker and Warpath. Oh! I almost forgot the Master Made SD bots.

That's everything 3P in my collection. The official Takara releases that I buy are similarly picky.

I have sold all my headmasters (MT and FP), as these are not my cup of tea. I'm interested in the 3P minibots that we have seen announced, but I won't order any until I hear more about the retail versions.

Edited December 4, 2016 by technoblue

[Tking22]

I got my Badcube Speedbump/Trailerbreaker in a few days ago, gorgeous figure, the paint apps are phenomenal, but the transformation is complete ass. I was sort of eye balling the MMC version before my Badcube version arrived, it definitely has some sweet spots on it, and it does some things right that I feel Badcube flubbed on, but then I saw these shots of the god awful horribly mis-matched paint, and that is a immediate deal breaker.

That is painfully bad, and I feel this is totally unacceptable for one of the big guys like Ocular Max/MMC. This is glaringly obvious, and I'm baffled this is what they were comfortable with sending out. Depending on your collecting tastes this may not bother you, apparently it isn't noticeable at all in bot mode, but that is a sexy alt mode, and that paint absolutely ruins it. If alt mode isn't a concern for you I think the bot mode still looks fantastic, but that is just too bad for me to even consider, shame on them, they should have done much better then this, especially at the current price point.

[Scyla]

I don't understand what happened here. Black is not that difficult to paint. This is such a weird line. Their Sphinx was what the Transformers Masterpiece line should be from there it was a steady decline. Backdraft was a QC hell and Terraegis has also a bunch of issues. What baffles me most (besides the paint issue) is the gap in the back of the toy. There is literally no reason for it to be there other to make the inside of the feet more rounded. There would be other ways to achieve that without these compromises.

Looking at the image of Terraegis I assume that the whole camper top is a translucent piece of plastic. I wonder why so many toy manufacturers choose to do it that way. wouldn't it make more sense to manufacture the windows and the cover in two molds and glue the window piece to the inside of the opaque framing? You would reduce the number of paint apps. Avoid the issue seen on the image and reduce the number of qc screw ups. I swear half the windows on my Backdraft have paint overspray on the translucent piece.

Oh well December is an expensive month (damn you Christmas) so I will wait and see how MMC reacts to that issue. These toys rarely sell out anymore so I can be patient. I'm sad that this is reaction to the OcularMax line only two releases after Sphinx. I was so hype for that line after I held Sphinx in hand even more after Takara change their designs on the Masterpiece line. Sphinx seems to be the outlier of the line.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Scyla

[Dangard Ace]

Eh, not an issue with me. Truck campers rarely match trucks so it being off works fine. The grey on the doors and windshield, depending on how hard it is to access a bit of black paint and it's all good. I'll have to wait and see what it actually looks like when I get it.

[JB0]

Looking at the image of Terraegis I assume that the whole camper top is a translucent piece of plastic. I wonder why so many toy manufacturers choose to do it that way. wouldn't it make more sense to manufacture the windows and the cover in two molds and glue the window piece to the inside of the opaque framing? You would reduce the number of paint apps. Avoid the issue seen on the image and reduce the number of qc screw ups. I swear half the windows on my Backdraft have paint overspray on the translucent piece.

I think it is done this way because assembly costs are higher than painting costs for small parts.

And if you make the window section larger so it is a simple drop-in affair, you wind up paying for the piece twice over. Once in opaque plastic, a second time for the transparent insert.

In either situation, instead of paint, now you're applying glue. Put too much of THAT in your transforming robot car and it ceases to transform. Makes paint overspray look trivial.

Now, of course, the fact that these are aimed at a higher-end segment of the market DOES cast some doubt on whether "standard" toy construction practices really make sense. I'd be interested to know what sort of profit margin these toys see, and how much of it would be eaten up by higher-end construction.

[Dangard Ace]

Then there's images like this where it doesn't look mismatched at all. Bad batch of paint or screw up at the assembly line?

[anime52k8]

or the color balance of the camera is exaggerating a color difference that only occurs under certain lighting conditions.

[M'Kyuun]

Looked at some other vid reviews of Terraegis, and none of them seem to have the color contrast. Hoping it's just a one-off, bad angle, or otherwise. I'll find out when I get my copy.

[mikeszekely]

Whether you're going for Terraegis or Speedbump, be thankful that 3P has come a long way since the early days. Because tonight, I bring you a reminder of how bad things could be: KFC's Mugan Scope, their take on Perceptor.

Aesthetically, I honestly kind of dig him in robot mode. KFC was clearly going for IDW's emotionally-scarred scientist-turned-sniper (as seen in "All Hail Megatron"), and while there are some differences they mostly nail it. He's not very big, though, standing a little taller than MP Bumblebee and about the same size as a modern Deluxe-class Hasbro figure.

If you're into MP toys and weren't already turned off by the non-cartoon look, or if you're into other modern 3P figures, you'll likely find Mugan Scope too small for your collection, although an argument could be made for fitting him in with Fansproject's Function-X Headmasters.

Since this is IDW Percy, Mugan Scope comes with his sniper rifle, a pair of pistols, and an extra head. It might not be clear from my photos what the difference is, because they're nearly identical. For the record, the installed head has a scope down over his right eye, the extra head doesn't.

Articulation on this guy is pretty good, at least on paper. His head is on a ball joint so he can turn his head left and right and get a little lateral tilt, basically no downward tilt, but enough upward tilt that he can almost look straight up. His shoulders are connected to balls inside his torso, and the balls are actually what gives him a lot of his movement. He can rotate 360 degrees at the balls, shrug or slump his shoulders a bit, and he's even got a little forward/backward butterfly motion. The other end, inside his shoulder, is a hinge that will get you a little over 90 degrees of lateral movement. He's got bicep swivels, and a double-jointed elbow that gets you nearly 180 degrees. His wrists are also ball joints, so in addition to providing rotation he's got some in/out and up/down movement. His waist and thighs have swivels. His hips are on ball joints that can kick all the way forward or backward and spread just shy of a full split. His knees are double jointed and get about 180 degrees of bend. His ankles are ball joints so he's got some up/down tilt, and inward tilt, and rotation that's a little hindered by the shape of the armor around the foot. Additionally, there's a hinge a little past the midway point of his foot so his toes can bend upward or downward. Finally, the scope is connected to an armature on a ball joint, then the armature has a hinge and a mushroom-peg for rotation on it before it finally connects to Mugan Scope's back on another ball joint. This gives you a little freedom positioning the scope, and you can even flip it to his other shoulder cartoon-style.

Both the sniper rifle and the pistols have handles that are angled. They slot down into Mugan Scope's hands just find, as the channels in his hands are also angled. Despite fitting in 5mm hand holes most other toys won't be able to use Mugan Scope's weapons without them looking really odd in their hands.

Mugan Scope's legs have built-in holsters for his pistols. With the pistols in their holsters the lateral movement of his hip is impeded, but he can still get a wide A-stance going. If there's a way to store the sniper rifle I couldn't find it; the directions are very small pictures printed on a single piece of paper that's maybe 5x8" in size, so they weren't the most helpful of instructions to begin with.

Like you'd expect from a Perceptor toy, Mugan Scope turns into a microscope. Kind of. Again, not very big. No storage for any of his guns; the instructions actually tell you that if the pistols are in the holsters to take them out.

And a pretty crappy-looking microscope at that. His transformation is kind of similar to the G1 toys, but manages to be much worse. His legs are especially bad, as the backs of his legs do tab onto his thighs but they don't lock together or lock in place, making for a floppy sort of microscope.

If you'd rather, you can make a tank of out him instead. I think he does look a little better in tank mode, if I'm being honest, but not by much. He doesn't have any sort of wheels so he doesn't roll. And still no storage for his weapons.

Now, just so I'm clear, his alt modes suck. He's too small for a lot of modern collections. But these are far from the only things wrong with this toy. No, the biggest problem with this toy is that it's very poorly made. Most egregiously, the ball joints for his shoulders in his chest are not actually connected to the pegs that the rest of the arm is on. I'd heard this guy was fragile and I was being very gentle, and still his right arm came off right out of the box. From the residue on the post, I'd say they're probably glued into the balls, and I glued it back in and it seems ok, but it's either an awful design or awful execution, take your pick. But generally speaking, the tolerances on this guy are all over the place. His waist joint is so tight I'm afraid of breaking it. The tiny ball joint that connects the scope armature to his back pops off constantly, and turn it at the swivel will often pop the mushroom peg out. The ball joint at the other end is loose, as is his right wrist. His hips pop off their ball joints. Either the flap that his head is on is too wide or the clearance in his back is too narrow; either way I had to file them down to transform him. Likewise, his knee caps grind between his thigh and shins as you force his legs into their alt mode positions.

Long story short, no, I don't recommend this guy. At all. I got him on sale/clearance for $20, and I still feel like I paid $15 too much. I truly pity anyone who bought him at full price back in the day. While KFC does seem to be improving with their newer releases it's probably figures like Mugan Scope that gave KFC a reputation for putting out garbage. Bottom line, there are simply better options if you want a Perceptor in your collection, like FansToys' Tesla if you're hankering for a G1-style MP Percy or Planet-X's Asclepius if you're looking for a more Voyager-sized Percy.

[David Hingtgen]

Titans Return Triggerhappy:

He rocks. But the factory put his wing insignias on sideways. (they're aligned with the wing's trailing edge---which is against common sense/aesthetics, and against the box art and factory artwork diagrams) It's a fairly common issue, even some MP figures have "insignias aligned with the wrong edge". But with Triggerhappy's wings having a 45-degree sweep, they're REALLY off.

[mikeszekely]

Titans Return Triggerhappy:

He rocks. But the factory put his wing insignias on sideways. (they're aligned with the wing's trailing edge---which is against common sense/aesthetics, and against the box art and factory artwork diagrams) It's a fairly common issue, even some MP figures have "insignias aligned with the wrong edge". But with Triggerhappy's wings having a 45-degree sweep, they're REALLY off.

Wrong Transformers thread?

[David Hingtgen]

Sigh. Yes. . (To be fair, there's several official figs in the pics above)

[mikeszekely]

Sigh. Yes. . (To be fair, there's several official figs in the pics above)

If it helps, that's a "Takasa Tony" Wheeljack, not a real MP Wheeljack. But yeah, I do often use official toys for size comparisons on the notion that more people are familiar with them. Honestly, that's why I bought a few KO MP cars- didn't really want the MP cars, but everyone else seems to have at least one so I figured I'd get them for size comparisons.

That's an actual Takara Tomy G2 Bumblebee, though.

[JB0]

He can rotate 360 degrees at the balls...

That sounds really uncomfortable.

*runs for cover*

Both the sniper rifle and the pistols have handles that are angled. They slot down into Mugan Scope's hands just find, as the channels in his hands are also angled. Despite fitting in 5mm hand holes most other toys won't be able to use Mugan Scope's weapons without them looking really odd in their hands.

Compatibility issues aside, that is awesome and more converting robot toys should have gun grips that actually look like gun grips.

...

Ah well, at least we're past the days of G1 Prime, where his rifle had a pistol grip... in front of the peg that went into his fist.

[sh9000]

[M'Kyuun]

Oh, that's nice. In a way, I kinda miss the front wheels perched above the shoulders like the G1 toy- it made his transformation distinctive from the Fairlady bros.

Given the popularity of Jazz, I'm really surprised that TT didn't follow up with him after Prowl. Ah well, fertile territory for the 3P folks 'til an official version is announced.

BTW, what's with all the "ab crunch" fervor these days. I guess it's cool that they can do it, but really, I have no need of a robot that can do a Michael Jackson pelvic thrust.

Edited December 9, 2016 by M'Kyuun

[Dangard Ace]

Was it not because VW/Porsche was being a b***** w/re to licensing out their vehicles for "war" toys? Glad they caved for Bee which means there's a chance that TT will release a MP soon cause it's Jazz wars right now.

Now regarding Downbeat I don't see how TT/OM/FT are going to have a better looking Jazz. The alt mode is slightly off but bot mode, it's pretty much spot on. I consider Downbeat like OM Sphinx. As soon as Sphinx got released it was mic drop. No one else even tried to beat it. Sphinx IS Mirage for the vast majority of the fandom.

[mikeszekely]

I dig an ab-crunching G1 Jazz, but I hope that's not the final paint/plastic. Too matte, looks like cheap KO plastic to me. They don't have to give him the pearlescent paint that J4ZZ has, but a nice gloss white would do wonders.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

What is going on with the rear? Mis-transformation or just a weird looking bumper?

[Tking22]

What is going on with the rear? Mis-transformation or just a weird looking bumper?

From what I've read on TFW2005, that is indeed mis-transformed.

Oh boy! This is DEFINITELY my Jazz, ordered on site, no need to even make an attempt Takara.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

From what I've read on TFW2005, that is indeed mis-transformed.

Oh boy! This is DEFINITELY my Jazz, ordered on site, no need to even make an attempt Takara.

Ok, that's reassuring. Assuming all goes well with Downbeat, I don't know how Takara is going to surpass it. Downbeat looks to be the Jazz toy I've been waiting for since the MP line started.

[David Hingtgen]

???? Everything I've read said it's not mis-transformed. There's a lot of hope that it is, but analysis of the parts/hinges, and mostly importantly, Peaugh, who's handled it, says that's the way it is.

[M'Kyuun]

The only thing I see on Downbeat that I don't like is the lack of mechanical detail on the silver part below his chest. Even the Generations figure from a few years ago has it.

I love that they included his arm winch; I just wish it didn't snap over his hand, but that his hand could retract and the winch attach flush. Minor nitpick on what is otherwise shaping up to be a really nice unofficial Jazz. I like how they designed him to have his wings out or stowed. As noted, this is shaping up to be the Jazz to beat.

Hopefully a preview from Chosen Prime is forthcoming soon. I appreciate the early look, even if they are only working with test figs. It gives a good idea of what the final will be like, enough, IMHO, to justify a PO.

Edit: posted right after David's comment. If that is the way the rear of the car transforms, it makes this thing like 99% spot on, but that gap is hard to ignore.

Edited December 10, 2016 by M'Kyuun

[Tking22]

???? Everything I've read said it's not mis-transformed. There's a lot of hope that it is, but analysis of the parts/hinges, and mostly importantly, Peaugh, who's handled it, says that's the way it is.

See now I've read that while Peaugh apparently did get to handle one, he didn't have instructions and it was brief. I also read nobody from MT was standing by to give him direction or instructions. Either way for me he's bought on site, the back end looking a bit off isn't enough of a deterrent for me, this IS Jazz.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Weird rear end or not, I think I'll end up getting Downbeat out of all the 3rd party Jazz toys. Although Toyworld's Blues ended up not looking too bad, dare I say it even has a slightly better looking alt mode. It only makes me wonder what MMC has in store.

[mikeszekely]

Hate to interrupt all the Downbeat discussion, but I've got one more review for you guys. Here's TFC's Ironshell, their version of Snaptrap/Turtler.

I'm going to open by saying that it's kind of ironic that TFC used gray for Overbite and Skalor's hands, but then lavender for the one guy who's supposed to have black hands... but if we're being totally honest, I kind of like the lavender hands. On the subject of lavender, I think the lavender parts are fine and (aside from his shoulders) were they should be, but like Overbite his pink and "blue" parts are darker and more reddish and greenish than they should be. The elephant in the room is his head, which apes the 2010 reissue's use of the blue/green plastic for the head instead of black. If it bugs you, it looks like it should be fairly easy to split the green plastic from the translucent plastic and remove his head to spray paint it black, and doing so would likely make his head stand out better against the shell on his back, but I find myself wondering if the green really doesn't fit the overall aesthetic better. His cannons, after some fear that they'd be a translucent color, are black.

There's plenty of G1 Snaptrap in his overall form, too. He's still got the cannons on his back, and the turtle head running through the middle of his torso. He's still got turtle legs hanging out on the backs of his legs, although now they're sort of squished up into heel spurs. He's got two circles at the base of each shin as a call back to his G1 feet, but TFC gave him actually feet with translucent blue claws. Speaking of translucent parts, TFC added some translucent blue shin armor that can be hinged up into knee pads (not pictured because I didn't realize they moved until after I'd taken my pictures). And, like the other two, Ironshell trades a lot of the G1 '80s blocky robot appearance for vaguely organic, vaguely aquatic angles. While fans looking for the kind of G1 accuracy that companies like FansToys are known for might be disappointed, overall I think TFC's updated take is pretty sharp.

He's a pretty big dude. Poseidon's limb-bots come up just under his chest, and little MP Bumblebee can't even make it to Ironshell's hips.

He's about even in height with Combiner Wars Leader Megatron, maybe a hair shorter, and just half a head shorter than MP-10. I'd need to take apart all my other combiners to be sure (and I'm not doing that right now), but he may very well be the largest torso-bot in my collection.

He comes with his gun, two blade thingies, and two rods of some sort. Other people have been playing with the gun and trying to combine it with Overbite's and Skalor's, and there does seem to be something to that. For my reviews, though, we'll wait until all six members are in hand and we review combined mode to get into that. The blade thingies, likewise, will combine with the other swords to form Poseidon's sword, and we'll cover that later too. The rods are odd. The instructions don't indicate any use for Ironshell himself, and logically they look like they'll be part of the sword (swords?). Each rod is actually made up of two silver bits, two pink bits, and a gray rod running through the inside, and depending on how the parts are arranged it looks like they can be one long handle or two shorter ones. But again, we'll examine them more when we look at the combined Poseidon.

The blade thingies can sort of pass for tonfas, I guess. He can hold the gun fine, too, but getting it into his hand is kind of a pain. The handle actually splits in half, and the lower part hinges away. You have to work the top part in, clip the bottom half back onto a little peg that I'd be worried about wearing down or breaking in the long run, then wrapping his hand around it. The bottom half of the shell does not come off, and he cannot use it as a shield.

For articulation, his head is on a ball joint for rotation and upward tilt. He doesn't really have any downward tilt, because the point of his chin rest on the hinge for the turtle head. He does have a good amount of lateral tilt, tough, if you like your Transformers to look confused. His shoulders are on ratcheted posts for rotation, with a ratcheted hinge that'll get you a little under 90 degrees. Due to the size of his shoulders you may have to unplug the shell on his back for clearance. He's got bicep swivels, and double-jointed elbows that are ratcheted at the upper joint. Despite being double-jointed, he can still only get about 90 degrees of elbow bend due to the shape of his forearms. His wrists can swivel. His thumb is fixed, and his fingers are all hinged at the base knuckle for opening and closing. His index finger can move independently of the other three, though, and there's a second hinge so he can point. His waist can swivel (and surprisingly is just a friction joint). His hips are ratcheted universal joints that can kick 90 degrees forward, 90 degrees backward (if his shell would let his butt flap move out of the way), and over 90 degrees laterally. He's got ratcheted swivels above the knee, which is good enough, and ratcheted knees that can bend a little over 90 degrees. His feet are on ball joints, but that ball joint is at the end of an armature that's hinged on the outside of his shin. Between the two joints, his foot can tilt up a little, 90 degrees down, rotate at the ankle, and give you all the ankle tilt you could ever want. His toe claws are hinged and can point in or out.

Ironshell's turns into a Blastoise (ok, technically G1 Snaptrap did the dual-cannon turtle thing first, but c'mom). I feel like I can be a little harder on this mode, because it's actually been animated while robot mode I'm just going off of the G1 toy and the old Marvel comics. His head looks more like a snapping turtle than either the G1 toy, Marvel comics, or Masterforce Turtler, and I'm not totally sold on it (or TFC's insistence that the whole head be one color instead of letting the lower jaw be a different color). He's missing (likely for the sake of Poseidon's articulation) the extension off of the back of the shell that looked like a tail. He's got a bunch of extra magenta splashed on the shell that I'm not on board with (although the silver details are fine). But most egregiously, he's missing the lavender shoulders/hips. That effects him visually, both by all but eliminating a color from this mode and by having the legs come straight down from the body instead of out the sides like an actual turtle, but also limits his articulation.

His jaws can open and close, and he can look up and down. If you unpeg the base of the neck, you can fudge in some left-right movement and some rotation as well. All four turtle legs can bend at the knees and have ball-jointed feet for up/down and a little bit of in/out tilt, plus he can rotate at the ankles and his claws are hinged to move independently. There's a little bit of play in the front legs for some extremely limited thigh/knee swivel. He's got silver butt-wings that can either be folded in for a more turtley look, folded out all the way for a G1 look, or folded halfway for a flying turtle look. His guns lack the "pom-pom" gimmick of the G1 toy, but again they do extend so you can simulate the look, plus they have a hinge and a rotation joint so you can aim them as you please. And that's about it. With no hips/shoulders, you can maybe adjust how high the turtle is, or stagger the legs like he's walking, but you can't use his front legs like arms and stand him on his hind legs, limiting his ability to pull off some of Turtler's poses. Or Blastoise's.

Gripes with the turtle mode aside, he's a decent figure. He's got that same "I can't believe this is TFC" quality that their Skalor has. Everything feels solid and there's plenty of ratchets. I love his robot mode. If you were in it just for a Turtler you might want to pass, because I do think his turtle mode could have used a little more work, but if you dig his robot mode like I do I don't think his turtle mode is bad enough for me to tell you not to get him. Besides, I doubt many of us are going to buy a toy just to have Turtler and not King Poseidon/Piranacon, and so far so good there... although you'll have to wait for my full Poseidon review to be sure.

[M'Kyuun]

Toyworld's trying their hand at a MP styled Arcee: http://tformers.com/toyworld-tw-m06-leia-unofficial-masterpiece-scale-g1-arcee-painted-prototype-images/30560/news.html

IMHO, they nailed her bot mode, but after they got the look of the front of her car mode right, they stopped trying on the rear. I'd have expected more effort, esp on a MP styled figure.

The Generations figure sill stands as the best looking G1 Arcee toy to me, even with all her back kibble.

[Dangard Ace]

Gotta say I disagree with bot mode. That's not my MP Arcee. It looks like they took a standard female figure, threw some box shapes on it and called it Arcee. High heels, super feminine curves, tiny head. Nuh uh. Looks more like one of the armored Gundam girls than Arcee.

Totally agree with alt mode and Generations Arcee. I'll take an OS KO Arcee for my MP Arcee.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Yeah, not my Arcee either. Maybe if it had boxier angles bot mode would be ok, but that wouldn't fix whatever is happening in alt mode.

[mikeszekely]

Her curves and heels are a little exaggerated, but aside from that it's a fairly accurate bot mode.

As for the exaggerations, just like with their Devastator and their Optimus they're going with Studio OX.

Personally, I'm ok with the bot mode but the rear is so half-arsed that there's no way I'd consider it (even if it weren't too tall for my collection).

[anime52k8]

Arcee is just a poorly designed character.

Edited December 13, 2016 by anime52k8

[CoryHolmes]

Well, let me see this. It can't be all bad. *loads page* Okay, her bot mode is a tad stylized, more than I'd like but... *clicks images* Meh. *clicks images* Not bad. *clicks images* Looks inter- ohmergard!!! What did they do to her car mode?!?

That's a solid pass from me.

[JB0]

She turns into half a car, with a robo-butt hanging out the rear.

There's not really a nice way to put it.

[M'Kyuun]

Arcee is just a poorly designed character.

Not so much a poorly designed character, per se (I think Sue Blu did a great job giving her a voice and personality), but indeed a very poorly designed Transformer. There was far too much emphasis on making her anthropomorphically proportionate to a slender human female rather than adding on those bits and pieces requisite to actually becoming a car. Animation magic was employed liberally with her character, and I can certainly understand and sympathize with anyone attempting to make a figure that's faithful to both of her G1 modes. As I said, I think the Generations figure was well done, and the car kibble on her back a necessary sacrifice to get as close as possible in that scale to both of her G1 modes. In a MP scaled figure, I think it's possible, with a little imagination and a lot of plastic origami, to get her closer to both modes and still maintain a decent G1 aesthetic. I'm surprised that Toy World even released that pic, as I would think that a WIP shot. Anyway, the gauntlet is thrown, and I hope other 3P folks bring their experience to the table, as I'd love to own a G1 Arcee that lives up to the MP name.

I think Derrick Wyatt's Arcee design for Animated was a nice re-imagining of the G1 character design, and the toy, while not perfect (wish those shins had been filled out better to match the animation), it translated far better from ink to plastic than the original.

I also like TF:Prime's Arcee design, although I was a bit bummed that they changed her alt mode to a motorcycle. Still, I have both figures from the line, and both are pretty well done toys that do a good job matching her animated appearance, mostly. Neither is perfect, and don't even mention scale; however, just comparing her toys to the animation, IMHO, Has/Tak did a good job.