Though small compared to many of her peers and adversaries, Arcee compensates with speed and aggressive maneuvers, making her one of the most dangerous Autobots around. Moreover, Arcee is a born hunter. She honed her speed hunting turbofoxes with other speedsters, challenging herself to get as close as possible before tagging them with her bow. She's a crack shot with said crossbow weapon, and Ironhide has trained her to use her speed to her advantage in battle, striking suddenly and swiftly and then vanishing away again as fast as she appeared.
Arcee believes without question that the Decepticons must be stopped at any cost.
Arcee was one of a handful of Autobots under the command of Bumblebee who desperately fought against Megatron's vast army at Tyger Pax. She was captured and interrogated by the Decepticons but survived the ordeal. She recounted to their Autobot rescuers Bumblebee's heroics in delaying Megatron, preventing Megatron from intercepting the wormhole-bound All Spark.
Arcee was on Earth for a short time at the beginning of the conflict there, presumably arriving shortly after Bumblebee. When the situation on Earth began to ramp up into out-and-out combat, she was reassigned elsewhere, where her stealth skills would be of more use.
Now she fights in the Charii system against a Decepticon splinter cell working on a star-breaking weapon. If she has her way, the only things breaking will be their heads.
Arcee is a redeco of EnergonArcee, replacing her pinks and most of her whites and blacks with blue, and her translucent red with smoky brown plastic. She transforms into a "superbike"-type racing motorcycle. Unusually for a Transformer, she does not hold her weapon in her hands as most figures do. Instead, her Energon Bow mounts on a peg in her arms, with her hands being positioned to give the appearance of her using the bow. The bow itself is spring-loaded, firing a grey missile 'arrow'.
Arcee (and the rest of the Scout wave) are exclusive to Target stores, where they are all part of a Robo-Vision promotion. Arcee comes with a Robo-Vision Decoder which allows you to see the Robo-Vision Code printed on her cardback. Starting June 2, 2007, Target's website allowed users to input those codes to access exclusive content, a concept similar to the online Cyber Planet Key info from the Transformers: Cybertron toyline.
Deluxe Arcee transforms into a purple 2006 Buell Firebolt XB12R motorcycle, genericised to get around licensing issues. Maintaining the high standard of vehicle-mode realism of the movie line, Arcee is perhaps the most realistic motorcycle Transformer released yet. As an off-screen design (though she originally was going to be an on-screen character), Arcee has references tampographed on her vehicle mode, such as her motorcycle's model name, "RC 1100", and her number plate (from the state of Massachusetts) marked TF7407, the original release date of the movie.
The transformation scheme for the character is essentially a scaled-up variation upon the original Energon mold used for the Scout release, with numerous improvements to upgrade the figure to Deluxe standards.
In robot mode, Arcee is quite accurate to the final CG concept design, though with more solid limbs and and a more recognizably feminine appearance influenced by Energon Arcee's sculpt and general arrangement of parts. Reasonably articulated, Arcee features ball joints in her arms, hips and neck, with swivels rounding out her ankles, knees and wrists. Arcee's Automorphing feature is located in her crossbow weapon (formed out of the seat/storage area of the bike), activated when the projectile (the bike's tailpipe) is inserted, which pushes out the recurved lath parts on the sides of the weapon. Amusingly, in robot mode, Arcee is one of the tallest of the Deluxe class figures released in the movie line thus far, which no doubt makes Jazz feel even worse.
The rectangular peg which is supposed to be used to attach her weapon to her forearm in robot mode is sometimes a poor fit, and the weapon may pop off. As an alternative, the round peg by which the weapon is attached in vehicle mode can also be used in robot mode, with a little rearranging of parts.
As with most larger Transformers toys that become motorcycles, Arcee has a kickstand on the left side of the bike. Those seeking a good rider will find it can accommodate 3 3/4-inch G.I. Joe figures, Microman figures, and Revoltech figures with varying degrees of success.
Battle damage three-pack (Sam's Club exclusive three-pack, 2007)
A three-pack, exclusive to Sam's Club stores, consisting of redecos of Voyager Class Optimus Prime and Deluxe Class Arcee], both with a battle damage deco, and an unchanged Voyager Class Starscream.
Arcee Black Version (Deluxe, Japan 2008)
Japanese ID number:MA-20
Not Flamewar, unfortunately. Come on, Hasbro! Let's see some movieverse Decepticon femmes!
This redeco of Deluxe Class Arcee is cast in black in an attempt to match the look of the motorcycle Lennox rides near the end of the film. Surprisingly, it is not evil.
Thus far, only a Takara release of this toy is confirmed, whereas Hasbro has not announced their own version yet.
Like all Japanese "Allspark Power" toys, black Arcee comes with a small Allspark cube accessory.
Or you could pick... WHAT'S IN THE BOX.
This item is currently scheduled for release, but is not yet available at mass retail.
Arcee G1 Colour Edition (Wonder Festival 2008 Winter exclusive Deluxe-sized toy, Japan 2008)
This Arcee is decoed in pink and white, in homage to Generation One Arcee, and is exclusive to the Wonder Festival 2008 Winter in Tokyo, Japan.
Or you could pick... WHAT'S IN THE BOX.
This item is currently scheduled for release, but is not yet available at mass retail.
Trivia
Arcee was originally going to be a member of the live-action movie's Autobot cast, but was later replaced by Ironhide. According to screenwriter Roberto Orci, they would have needed to explain the point behind female robots, which there wasn't any time for in the movie.[1] In another interview, Alex Kurtzman cited "scale issues" as an additional reason for dropping Arcee; allegedly, Michael Bay simply considered her too small as compared to the rest of the Autobots.[2] It's commonly assumed that Arcee's big part in the movie would have been the scene in which William Lennox starts his solo assault on Blackout using an abandoned motorcycle. However, the screenwriters rejected that notion, stating that this scene wasn't written until after Arcee had already been dropped from the script—but if she had remained in the movie, that scene would have featured her as the motorcycle.[3]
In the time before time... As part of BotCon 2007's Hasbro tour, fans viewed "Robot Scale Chart v03", dated 11.22.05, which showed Arcee's height as 9 feet. However, all of the designs on this chart were very early and later revised.
