Transformers Arcee Model Kit

For the Robo/Mecha fans out there. Last week I received the Transformers Arcee kit that I had pre-order from last year. 

For those who are not familiar with this model kit, the kit is by Flame Toys - a China, Hong Kong based company. The kit was released in Asia around July 2023 and was released in the USA August 2023 by Bluefin/Bandai Namco Group who are the US distributor. 

For Transformer fans, they would know her from different reincarnation within the brand. The design for his kit is loosely based on Generation One where she's similar in looks but more feminine in body design. The design was created by Japanese artist going by the alias bansan.

The overall kit was beautifully molded with lots of detail. Of course, we have to remember it's a new kit with a fresh mold. The entire kit is snap-on and color molded. 

The first thing I notice compare to another kit from Flame Toys is that there are no poly cap (PC) parts. It seems with the advancement in mold and designs, many new mecha kits no longer needs the traditional poly caps for joints. The kit came standard with foil stickers as with other kits previously however, I notice there was no Autobot symbol. So closer look around the parts I notice the tiny Autobot symbol was prepainted on the part itself. Further examinations I see 2 more pair of parts were prepainted too. I can't say I'm surprised considering that the kit was designed to be put together straight out of the box and the most you need to paint are probably some panel lines and detailing.

With the above said. The kit is great for people who don't want or do not have the means to fully paint a model kit. The kit itself wasn't really design to be painted because on previous Flame Toys kit, I notice how tight joints/moveable areas are and just have no tolerance for paint. Paint would just scraped off around area of the elbows and knees. However, for modelers like myself, we tend to fully paint our kits and some planning is require to work around minor limitations.

Overall, the kit cost $65 and the engineering looks good. I'll have to put this one together to get an idea how well it comes together. Yet, I had build previous kits from Flame Toys and they do come together nicely. From what I found out, Arcee is hard to get at this time due to her popularity and was sold out from many retailers during the first pre-orders. However, Flame Toys announced it will be doing a second round so expect places that had it on pre-order the first time might be doing round two of pre-ordering.

~Gordon