Arcee (G1)
| 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 Generation 1 continuity family.
Arcee is a female Transformer, usually found in the same general area as her friends and fellow Autobots Hot Rod and Springer, both of whom she cares for deeply. The level-headed and logical one of the three, it is usually Arcee who needs to rein in the other two when their egos or attitudes are getting out of control. In addition to being a fierce warrior and talented gunner, she also just might be one of Rattrap's relatives[1].
- Hungarian name: Arszi
- Italian name: Saturnia (Headmasters dub only)
Fiction
Generation 1 animated continuity
- Voice actress: Susan Blu (English), Masako Katsuki → Yōko Kawanami (Japanese), Carmen Sheila (Portuguese)
Although there are many other female Autobots, Arcee appears to be the only one to hold any sort of rank or position amongst the forces found in Autobot City. She seems to share the same basic design as the medical bots on the planet of Paradron. During the assault on Autobot City she was instrumental in helping Springer transform Autobot City to repel the Decepticon invaders, buying precious time for reinforcements and likely saving many lives. She was among the few Autobots to survive Megatron's savage blitz on the city, and was nearly left behind when Galvatron forced the Autobots to evacuate.
Arcee survived the attack, and the crash landing on the planet Junk, all the while going to great lengths in order to protect and care for young Daniel Witwicky, a human friend of Hot Rod's who had wound up on the shuttle with her. Throughout the entire battle with Unicron, Daniel's safety was Arcee's top priority. The almost maternal connection between Daniel and Arcee was a powerful one, which was only strengthened some time later when they became binary bonded as Headmaster partners during an adventure on the planet Nebulos.
The Headmasters
In 2011, Arcee either lost her taste for combat or was slapped into her place by the male Autobots, so she acted as Fortress Maximus's secretary, filing reports, working computers, and monitoring events. At one point, she wanted to go with Rodimus Prime, Blurr and Kup to search for a new homeworld after Cybertron blew up, but Rodimus told her to stay because she's a girl, and girls can't do anything but stand around, worry, and make coffee for the men. During a party shortly afterward, she slow-danced with Chromedome, and the pair had something resembling a mutual attraction. (At one point, Chromedome becomes aroused at seeing her transformation from a car.)
Marvel Comics continuity
Marvel UK future timelines
Arcee was constructed by the Autobots in an alternate future 1995 as a good-will attempt to placate angry humans who thought that they were "sexist" for having no women in their group. After trying multiple times to explain that Autobots, being robots, had no gender, Optimus Prime surrendered and ordered Wheeljack and Ratchet to make a new Autobot who would meet the humans' demands for sexual equality. However, when Arcee was unveiled at a public ceremony, her pink, skinny, pink, curvacious, and pink form enraged the very audience Prime intended to placate. Shockwave, Horri-Bull, Fangry and Squeezeplay who immediately attacked, looking to crush the "secret weapon" that was promised. Prime warned Arcee to stay back, lest she get hurt in battle, but the female Autobot, rightfully annoyed at the Autobots' lack of faith in her equal ability, singlehandedly forced the Decepticons into a retreat. Hot Rod thought that was pretty hot. The feminists were enraged beyond words. Prime's Rib!
Arcee and Hot Rod became quite friendly, but with his ascension to Prime status in 2006, they began to drift apart. She was stationed at Autobot City on Earth and got bored by her duties. The Quintessons attacked in 2008, stringing out the city's population to the wall and using a wounded Arcee as bait to attract Rodimus; when he tried to use the Matrix to heal her, they stole it and he reverted to Hot Rod. Despite her injuries, she assisted him in awakening Metroplex and devastating the Quintesson fleet. Space Pirates!
In 2009, Arcee tracked down Soundwave and the Terrorcons on Earth, where they were planning to use a laser bore to leech energy right from the planet's core. Joining a small Autobot detachment, they destroyed the drill and returned to Autobot City to face the greater threat: a timestorm that threatened 20 years of history with destruction. As Galvatron had spent months back in the 20th century, the universe was unraveling from the anamoly. Arcee, Rodimus and several other Autobots traveled back in time to 1989 in order to retrieve the Decepticon villain. Unfortunately, Galvatron had acquired some allies in the past: Scourge, Ravage, and the mighty Megatron. She joined Kup and Ultra Magnus in trying to triple-team Megatron, but was only swatted aside like a bothersome insect. Arcee survived, however, and managed to take a few cheap shots at Galvatron later on in the fight. Eventually, the timestorm asserted itself on the battle, and consumed Galvatron utterly, ending the temporal distortion. Time Wars
Arcee and the Autobots returned to their time only to find it had reset so Galvatron never time-jumped and had instead conquered Cybertron. Their resistance movement was quickly crushed, and the Autobots were forced to leave their homeworld. Aspects of Evil! Arcee joined a hundreds-strong Autobot team in fleeing to Earth to regroup. When the Matrix-imprisoned Unicron possessed Rodimus, Arcee showed a more ruthless side in being the only one of the Autobots to advocate using lethal force on him. The Void - White Fire As Unicron would go on to possess Rodimus again and devastate Cybertron in 2010 - an event she witnessed - her ruthless attitude appears to have been the right one all along. Yes, Rodimus Prime managed to contain Unicron again, but at what price..? Aspects of Evil!
Dreamwave comics continuity
Arcee can be seen as a member of Hot Rod's underground rebellion team on Cybertron, battling the forces of Shockwave. Both Hot Rod and Springer appeared to be in love with her, though she seemed rather uninterested in both of them. In reality, Arcee was a sleeper agent for the Quintessons.
IDW comics continuity
Arcee was an early test subject of the mad genius Jhiaxus, after he decided to introduce gender into the Transformers just to see the results. Her fundamental CNA was altered, giving her a "maddening maelstrom of contradictory sensory input" and causing all other Transformers to sense a fundamental difference about her and inadvertently use feminine pronouns around her, something that she loathes. (It also gave her fangs and permanent lipstick for some unknown reason.)
She didn't meet Jhiaxus' standards and was dumped. Dangerously unstable and driven by an implacable homing instinct towards her creator's experiments, Arcee cut a mech-fluid swath of carnage across several planets in her obsession with destroying everything Jhiaxus created. She was eventually taken down by Tyrest Accord enforcer Ultra Magnus and incarcerated on the Autobot penitentiary on Garrus-9.
Her spark was kept separate from her body within the penitentiary, as were those of all prisoners. In this limbo, she found a kind of peace. Unfortunately, when the Decepticons attacked to seize the new inmate Monstructor (another Jhiaxus experiment), warden Fortress Maximus freed her as a last resort to stop the attack. She was able to carve her way through the invaders, but not before they left with their target. She headed off to intercept them, with Jetfire convincing Maximus to allow this. Spotlight: Arcee
Arcee apparently knows of the Expansion and Jhiaxus's part in it, and refers to herself as the "servo-wrench in the works".
3H Universe: The Wreckers comics
During a battle against a horde of killer Nightbirds, Daniel and Wheelie sacrificed their lives to end the threat. The death of Daniel took a serious toll on Arcee's personality, turning her into a depressed and brooding stereotype. A pink one. She can foresee other characters' imminent deaths, except when she can't.
After Megatron's takeover of Cybertron, Primal Prime and Rodimus met up with Arcee within some Cybertronian caverns. Still upset over the death of Daniel, Arcee initially refused to join the Wreckers when asked by Rodimus and Primal Prime. Fractyl was soon ambushed by Quake and Blastcharge, nearly killing him. Refusing to lose another, Arcee used her spark to save Fractyl, also reformatting him into a Transmetal body. Arcee departed with the rest of the Wreckers. Departure
Devil's Due G.I. Joe vs Transformers comics continuity
She had a mutual attraction to Bumblebee and was devastated when Serpent O.R. killed him.
Toys
Generation 1
- Despite her being a major character in the movie, no actual transforming toy of Arcee in her original cartoon model was ever made. (Maybe it's because she's a pink girl -- nah, couldn't be.) Images of a hand-sculpted prototype have appeared in several Takara publications, but it appears the toy never progressed beyond that stage.
- The Japanese Transformers Generations book shows a piece of concept artwork of the Headmaster Chromedome car in pink and white labeled "Arcee", a proposal for a redeco of the toy as Headmaster Arcee from "The Rebirth". (Presumably, then, this was a Hasbro-initiated idea.) The idea does not appear to have gone any farther.
Beast Machines
- Arcee (Mega, 2001)
- The very first true transforming Arcee toy (and currently the only official one of the Generation 1 character) is a redeco and minor retooling of the Beast Wars Transmetal 2 Blackarachnia, transforming into a malformed mish-mash of machine and organic parts in the form of a large spider. The spider-mode fangs become a grappling weapon for her robot mode which extend on a retractable string. The robot mode also features a spring-powered waist-swivel for "power kick" action. Arcee lacks the Blackarachnia toy's additional chest armor, and the oddly-placed holes in her... well, chest, that keep the armor in place.
- Arcee was available only as an exclusive to BotCon 2001, and along with Tigatron were the first time since the inception of 3H that they were allowed to use pre-existing characters for convention exclusives. Arcee is also the first convention toy to feature retooling. Preorders received their Arcees with a bonus; the box contained a light-sensitive sound chip featuring voice actress Susan Blu's voice saying "Don't underestimate me, I'm more than just a pretty face. Arcee, MAXIMIZE!". These chips are VERY light-sensitive. Many won't shut up to this day.
Titanium
- A 6" transforming Arcee toy was designed and displayed at BotCon 2007, but its release has been canceled.
Binaltech
- Japanese ID number: BT-21
- Accessories:
Arcee is a retool of Alternator Decepticharge with her traditional color scheme, using Honda's Pearl White for the car bodywork. The obviously Photoshopped image which accompanied the pre-order announcement still featured the Decepticharge head.
A second image surfaced in April 2008, depicting the toy with blue/green accents in place of pink. This lead to speculation of a Paradron Medic redeco, similar to the one applied to Energon Arcee, however with no explanation accompanying the image, it was unclear whether this was a second color scheme, such as those applied to the Meister and Tracks figures, an earlier design idea, or indeed, indicative of a later prototype.
Merchandise
MyClone
- Arcee
Super Collection Figure
- Arcee
Robot Heroes
- Arcee vs. Rumble (2008)
Unreleased
- Super Hybrid Model (unreleased)
Trivia
- When asked about Arcee's design in an interview, Floro Dery's reply was, "Arcee is the naked mechanical equivalent of Princess Leia of Star Wars."[2] Well, that answers that question... while raising a whole bunch of others.
- Arcee has the most romantic attachments of any Transformers character: Hot Rod in the movie, Marvel Comics and Dreamwave continuity, Springer after the movie, Chromedome in The Headmasters, and Bumblebee in Devil's Due continuity. And then there is the weird affection shown toward Daniel in The Rebirth, Part 3, but most fans won't read too much into it, for their own sanity. Damn but she got around.
- Arcee's character model was used to make the Paradron Medic, only without the shoulder-thingies.
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ In the episode "Transmutate", Rattrap says, "What in the name of my great aunt Arcee is going on?".
- ↑ TransFormers Philippines: Interview With Floro Dery
- Pages with image sizes containing extra px
- Articles in need of images
- Pages with broken file links
- Character stubs missing fiction
- Upcoming toy releases
- Autobots
- Beast Machines characters
- Convention exclusives
- Female Transformers
- Headmasters
- Headmasters characters
- Maximals
- MyClone
- Robot Heroes
- Universe characters
- Universe (2008)
- Unreleased toys
- Wreckers
