Arcee (Movie)
| The name or term "Arcee" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Arcee (disambiguation). |
- Arcee is an Autobot from the 2007 movie franchise in the live-action film continuity family.
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.
The events at Tyger Pax created a nagging doubt in Arcee about her abilities. She carries some guilt about Bumblebee's injuries, and part of what drives her is the desire to prove herself, not only in the optics of her friends and comrades, but most importantly in her own.
Fiction
IDW Transformers movie comics
Many, many years in the past, Arcee was a member of Optimus's science division, in charge of excavation site LT34 near the temple of Simfur. While Optimus was showing Lord High Protector Megatron around, her team discovered a mysterious relic with a strange symbol etched into it. She led her superiors to the ancient relic and watched as Megatron and Optimus began to argue when the former demanded the relic be relocated to his private quarters, Optimus relenting due to a sudden alien attack. Arcee assisted with its evacuation from the dig site. Defiance issue 1
"Whatever it is now is not the right time!"
During the war, 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. Prime Directive (IDW) issue 1
Many years later, following the death of Megatron and the destruction of the All Spark on Earth, Arcee was in command of an Autobot assault team on Mars and led Cliffjumper and others in an attack on Starscream's ship. The Reign of Starscream Issue Number Two
While her team made short work of the Swindle, Dreadwing, and Payload drones the Decepticons sent against them, Arcee killed the Decepticon sniper Hardtop before he could snipe Smokescreen. Her teammates were unprepared for the arrival of Thundercracker, however, and he quickly slew Camshaft and wounded Cliffjumper. Remembering her failure at Tyger Pax, Arcee leapt into action, and soon she and Cliffjumper had Thundercracker at their mercy. The arrival of Starscream changed that, as he killed Smokescreen and Air Raid and badly damaged Cliffjumper. As she attempted to pull the last surviving member of her team to safety, Arcee was kicked aside by Starscream. The Reign of Starscream Issue Number Three
However, Arcee recovered an instant later. The Decepticon starship was already taking off, but she jumped and grabbed onto a piece of landing gear, holding on tight...through the space bridge. Wow. Later, she made her way back to an Autobot facility, where she unexpectedly met Clocker and Crosshairs. Along with a large force of Autobots, the three moved in on the Simfur temple, where Starscream was using captured Autobots for a strange project of his. The Reign of Starscream Issue Number Four
She split her troops into two forces: One would attack the city of Trypticon as a diversion, while the other moved in on Simfur. Arcee and her team could only watch helplessly as Starscream drained the life out of the Autobot prisoners strapped onto the replica All Spark, despite her friend Elita-One's pleas for mercy. An opportunity to cause havoc presented itself when Dreadwing's forces attempted a coup. Arcee lined up her sights on the generator holding the life energy of the deceased prisoners, dedicated the shot to Elita, and destroyed it, annihilating the Cube and sending the Decepticons into disarray. Arcee's team fought their way through the disorganised Decepticons, linked up with Wingblade's team, and rolled out just as the crippled 'starship came crashing down on the city. With the destruction of the capitol and the defeat of a significant portion of the Decepticon drone army, Arcee considered this to be the turning point of the war, but as long as Starscream was alive, he was a thread that she had to track down. The Reign of Starscream Issue Number Five
Target Robovision bio
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.
Titan Magazines Transformers movie comics
Originally, Arcee didn't serve either faction, working alone to solve injustices in her own way. Megatron personally decided to make an example of her, and only an Autobot extraction team led by Kup saved her life. This debt saw her join the Autobots. She's chimerical in nature and is constantly changing her alt-mode in an effort to go as fast as possible. She previously had a hover-car form, but on Earth takes a modified bike mode. Once you earn her trust, she's never going to let you down. Arcee bio
Arcee was one of the six Autobot reinforcements hiding on the Moon. Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 1 When Starscream attacked them, the quick-thinking Arcee was the one who took command and rallied the troops. When this still failed to work, she ordered them to Earth (following Strongarm's initiative) and their prearranged targets. Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 3 Alongside Armorhide, she guarded Ratchet while he destroyed the captive All Spark and thus saved Earth from being cyberformed. When the other Autobots had believed they'd lost, Arcee was the only one who outright refused to accept defeat. Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part: 5
And, of course, they didn't lose. However, Arcee was left bewildered by the idea that Humanity would not trust and love the Autobots, and Optimus explained to her that, from a human point of view, all the Transformers are alien horrors fighting on their planet. Following this, she guarded the Savannah, Georgia shelter and was caught in Starscream's ambush. Aftermath Part 1 Aftermath Part 2
Among other engagements to protect the American infrastructure, she served with Bumblebee in protecting an Alaskan pipeline. Dark Spark
She was later part of Ironhide's team in retrieving Nucleon from Cybertron, which ran afoul of Stockade. Return to Cybertron: Part 1 She acted as Bumblebee's distraction, drawing Storm Surge and Fracture away, Return to Cybertron: Part 2 and doubled back to regroup with Ironhide (and pull him out of rubble) when Unicron arrived. Return to Cybertron: Part 3 Later, she got Optimus Prime up to speed on the situation. Return to Cybertron: Part 4
Following the Decepticon re-conquest of Savannah, Arcee was part of the raid to rescue Mikaela Banes. She got off one bit of bravado about how hitting things was her kind of shindig before Blackout hit her. The Decepticon Who Haunted Himself
Arcee runs a lonely-hearts ad column called Arcee's Soulmates in her spare time.
No, really.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Arcee, Chromia and an unknown third bike-bot are seen chasing Sideways in the released trailers.
Toys
Transformers (2007)
Scout Class toys
- Arcee (Target exclusive Scout Class, 2007)
- Accessories: Launcher, missile, scope, 2 tailpipes, "energon" star
- Arcee is a redeco of Energon Arcee, 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 on either arm, with her hands being positioned to give the appearance of her using the bow. The bow itself is spring-loaded, firing a grey "arrow" missile.
- Arcee (and the rest of the Scout wave) were exclusive to Target stores, where they were all part of a Robo-Vision promotion. Arcee came with a Robo-Vision Decoder which allows you to see the Robo-Vision Code ("BULLSEYE") 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.
- This mold also was used to make Superlink Ariel Paradron Type, as well as the BotCon 2005 Descent into Evil set's Chromia, Flamewar, Flareup, and the fellow Target-exclusive movieverse Elita-One.
Deluxe Class toys
- Arcee (Deluxe Class, 2007)
- Japanese ID number: MA-11
- Accessories: Launcher, missile
- Deluxe Arcee transforms into a purple 2006 Buell Firebolt XB12R motorcycle, genericised to get around licensing issues. Arcee has references tampographed on her vehicle mode, such as her motorcycle's model name, "RC 1100", and her Massachusetts license plate marked TF7407, the original release date of the movie.
- 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. 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.
- Undocumented in the instructions, the two shoulder-mounted half-wheels contain a small niche on the edge of the tires. By folding the wheels down with the hubcaps pointing towards the chest and turning the tires towards the shoulders, one can feel the wheels gently click into place via the tire niches and hidden tabs in the shoulders, allowing the wheels to remain in place and more closely resemble the figure as pictured on its packaging.
- As with most larger Transformers toys that become motorcycles, Arcee has a kickstand on the left side of the bike; unfortunately, it's mounted so low that she will fall in the opposite direction if it is fully extended.
- Battle damage three-pack (Sam's Club exclusive three-pack, 2007)
- Accessories: Launcher, missile
- A three-pack, exclusive to Sam's Club stores, consisting of redecos of Voyager Class Optimus Prime and Deluxe Class Arcee, both with battle damage deco, and an unchanged Voyager Class Starscream.
- This version of Arcee later was sold at Asia online retailers and in European retail stores in the same packaging as the first release of Arcee. The packaging did not indicate any of the changes made to the figure, apart from a sticker on the bubble exclaiming "Exclusive! Battle-damage!".
- Black Arcee (Deluxe, 2008)
- Japanese ID number: MA-20
- Accessories: Launcher, missile, Allspark cube
- This Japan-only 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.
- Like all Japanese "Allspark Power" toys, black Arcee comes with a small Allspark cube accessory.
- Arcee Limited Special Color Version (Deluxe-sized toy, 2008)
- Accessories: Launcher, missile
- This Arcee is decoed in pink and white, in homage to Generation 1 Arcee, and was exclusive to the Wonder Festival 2008 Winter in Tokyo, Japan.
Trivia
- 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' (2.7m). However, all of the designs on this chart were very early and later heavily revised (though Jazz was revised far less than the others).
- 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 probably featured her as the motorcycle.[3]
- Arcee came this close to being killed off in The Reign of Starscream, as the trade states that two revisions of the plot had her dying.
