Making Arcee a Toys R’ Us exclusive was the cruelest thing I think Hasbro could have done to the Animated Toy line.
That said – I looked for her in Toys R’ Us. I looked for her quite often. But, I work normal hours which means I could never make it to the store on delivery days. So, thanks to other rabid fans and scalpers – I was out of luck.
And I refused to pay $30+ or more before shipping for a $12 figure.
Well, one day I got lucky. I was browsing Ebay and saw one for $10, I went ‘okay’ and went ahead and bid. I got outbid immediately so curious of the other person’s High Bid – I went all the way up to $21. And then – I find an Arcee for $9.50 that ends in 20 minutes. I went ‘what the hell?” and bid. And ended up winning her for $11. I was freakishly happy and if you follow my Twitter you probably heard me squealing. (Thankfully someone who knows who he is outbid me on the other figure. XD)
She arrived in the mail and I am, very very happy. This is a nice figure and well worth it. They really should have printed more of her because she would have sold out no matter what.
But – I’m going to show you pictures of the other Toys R’ Us Exclusive figure first just to hold out the suspense!
Cybertron Mode Ratchet – I actually found him in the store. And he’s a cutie:
Ratchet!
But none of you care about him (as noted by the fact there’s still another figure of him sitting on the shelf in my local Toys R’ Us…) So here’s Arcee!!
She is Hard. Core.
I was not a huge fan of Arcee in G1 – sure I adored her paired up with Springer (OTP!) but she was mostly just there. And that thing with her and Daniel later in the series was just plain creepy. Animated Arcee – now her I liked. She was still meek and modest, but you could tell she was well, useful. Girl was a school teacher! You know she had some brass.
She glitters.
And let’s face it – her Animated ReDesign was slick and probably called back to the original G1 design more than most of the cast. This figure just looks good – and it glitters. *_* (See, this is how Glitter is done Edward Cullen! Take some notes!)
Swords
And best of all – the figure revealed some other fun stuff about her, like the fact her weapon of choice is dual swords. You know she used those on her students.
Awesome Duo
And much the way Animated drives me crazy with screwing with my OTP’s (G1 Optimus x Elita-One & BW Silverbolt x Blackarachnia somehow morphing into TF:A Optimus x Blackarachnia) – it does it again messing with G1 Arcee x Springer to the above. Ratchet & Arcee in Animated are ridiculously adorable together.
Blurr is Jealous
And now Blurr is jealous because he’s no longer my favorite TF:A figure. It’s okay, Blurr! Your’e still the second favorite!
So, I got off work early today and tried to get some errands done. Buy a new purse (as much as I loved my disney donald & daisy purse…it was starting to fall apart…sadly.) mail a package and try and get a tiny dent in my Christmas shopping done.
Well, my Christmas shopping took me to a toy store (because my friends and family like toys as much as I do! Yay!) – Toys R’ Us. And I managed to knock two people off my list.
And well, you know me. Can’t go into a toy section now a days without looking at the Transfomers section (Especially with a 1 in 1000 chance of seeing that exclusive Toys R’ Us Arcee figure). And what did I see? Tons of movie figures (Doesn’t surprise me; the movie figures are kinda ugly…though I did sort of like Barricade). Tons of the younger aged toys (the ones for 5 and under) and the big expensive ones.
Transformers Animated Deluxe? Gone. There was one figure left – Oil Slick.
So I bought it.
I love his Chain Barrel Weapon
It worked out well for me because I liked Oil Slick in his very brief appearance in the show, and of course he invented Cosmic Rust. Which is cool.
His Motor Bike Form Is Cool
And the Ram Head on his bike/arm is way cooler than the Cybertronian looking one from the series. I love the horns.
Well, after securing Oil Slick – I went back to browse the movie figures and realized that most of the somewhat attractive ones were gone (Dead End had promise.) So I resigned myself to leaving the store.
And saw the giant stack of Ultra Magnus & Bulkhead Leader Class figures. And there, wedged between them was a movie deluxe figure. I nearly squealed – It was Bumblebee!!
It took me forever to get him out of car mode. XD I suck.
I’ve never actually caught a Deluxe Bumblebee in a store. Out of all the BayVerse bots, Bumble bee is the only design I actually like. He’s cute, I like his mask and his door-wings are darling.
Anyway. I squee’d and snatched it up. So now you can adore his cute as well:
He is freaking adorable.
I need to stop looking at figures. XD This is getting as bad as my obsession with Gashapon figures…
If you follow my twitter you know that I’ve been excited about adopting a new kitty!!
And now she’s finally home! I had to wait about a week because she was catching up on her shots & they wanted to pick up all her medical records, but she arrived at my home about twenty minutes ago.
Right now, she’s in the laundry room hiding in her carrier – which is to be expected. New house, new family – it’s all big and scary.
You’ll see more pictures as she starts wandering about.
Snagged a pic before she could sprint or hide.
Stats:
Name: Cinder
Weight: 12.5lbs
Gender: Female
Age: 1 Year
Anyway- My previous kitty Angel & my pup Mac were loved very much and I hope that Cinder becomes just as much of the family as they were.
Dark, beautiful, and a feast for the eyes & ears – The Cat Piano is eight minutes you shouldn’t miss.
“Jazz singers. Hip cats that went ‘Scat!’” -From the Poem
The Cat Piano is a short film about jazzy cats and the night lives they lead – until they’re interrupted by a man determined to create a piano fueled by cats. But don’t let the surreal plot fool you; this production has the remarkable ability to draw you in and dive right into their world.
What caught me at first, was the animation – it’s lanky and fluid with beautifully detailed backgrounds. The filmography is impressive and takes angles and lighting to new places. The theme of blue that covers the frames makes those all too beautiful moments of white and bits of color even more impressive.
What kept me riveted to my screen though, was the Poem by Eddie White that is recited throughout the film.
The repetition, the rhyming, the timing and the performance. It’s been a while since I was so enamored with a modern poem. It’s fluid, original and I can taste the words rolling off my tongue.
Now, I’d like to set this up for you all – before the movie, I (being the spoiler lover that I am) read up on the plot summary and was instantly excited because I was promised (finally) some talking scenes with both Megatron and Starscream. Plus, Frank Welker is playing Soundwave and Devastator. How could that possibly go wrong?
However, after that I figured I’d read some reviews to get an idea of what I was in for and see how it was being recieved after it’s opening day.
Almost every single review declared it a horrible travesty. It was attacked for being plotless, boring, full of horrible acting and dialogue, offensive, and without any sort of character development. They hated this film. Review after review declaring it a piece of trash.
I laughed after looking at their complaints and had only one thought: They have never seen the cartoon.
All I could think while watching was – this is classic Transformers. At it’s best. Now, it was not without its faults – the Autobots could have had a little more screen time and one or two sex jokes could have been cut, but more or less it was full of everything that made the Transformers cartoon so great.
Let’s begin.
The Plot
In the reviews, they mentioned that this film barely had a plot and it was hard to follow what was going on. I’m not quite sure where they got this – it was fairly straight forward. The Fallen came to Earth millions thousands of years ago to harvest the sun for Energon and was attacked by his brothers for trying to destroy a planet with life on it. Present day, he’s back for revenge and to try again and create energon. The side plot? Get the Matrix (the key to turning on the big machine that makes energon) before the Fallen does.
This is standard Transformers. Season One of the G1 Cartoon was entirely about Megatron trying to collect energon from various sources on Earth from mining gems, to raiding oil rigs or using electricity. All things considered – using a machine to capture the sun’s energy almost makes more sense than what the cartoon did with pouring oil into a clear box.
I’m not sure what else to say. I guess if you’re not familiar with the original cartoon you may not realize that the hunt for energon is a classic plotline in this franchise.
The Characters
I will admit though, there is something to be said for the lack of Transformers speaking roles. There is a bit too much of humans and not enough Autobots. But, compared to the first film they doubled their screen time so I’m not complaining too much.
Though, I have to clarify that it was the ‘Autobots’ who didn’t get much screentime (Aside from the twins, Skids and Mudflap…they got a little too much. They weren’t as awful as people describe them, but I would have preferred more Bumblebee.) – because the Decepticons got a lot.
Megatron and Starscream had three long scenes together. I nearly wept with joy seeing Megatron strangle Starscream. This is Transformers. This is what the first movie was missing – the Decepticons talking and bickering and Starscream being the groveling suck-up he is. I may be a tad biased considering Starscream has always been my favorite character, but the two of them more than made up for one too many scenes with the twins.
Plus, Simmons returned. I liked him in the first film, and I like seeing him on the good guys side in the second.
The one character I was hesitant about was Jetfire (Also known as Skyfire in G1) because he was being portrayed as a senile old man. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry. Jetfire was great. He was crazy and lovable and declared his father to be THE wheel. His greatest moment? Hearing there was a Prime on Earth. He got this puppy dog happy look on his face that was just too endearing.
Oh, and Soundwave as a satellite? Much cooler than I anticpated. I blame it all on Frank Welker and his sheer awesomeness.
As for the humans – seriously. What series didn’t have annoying kids that no one liked who had too much screen time? >.>
The Dialogue/Acting
“I’ll take you all on!” – Optimus
Transformers is built on corny, pun-filled dialogue. The fact that they railed on such things as Simmons going “Not on my watch!” makes me shake my head. Again, going back to the source – it’s always been a mix of the awful and the amazing. Optimus is the only person who can get away with saying both “Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing” and “Let’s roll!”
Awful dialogue blended with moving inspirational statements is the blood of this series. I won’t hear a word against it.
Final Thoughts
I loved this film. The action was amazing – Megatron and Starscream had three amazing scenes together – Optimus kicked ass. There were so many things to squeal about.
And Ravage – did I mention Ravage? That cat was made of win. Made. of. Win.
I wish I could remember where it was, but in one review the author commented he couldn’t understand why such advanced robots with such impressive technology were hitting each other with their fists.
Why?
Because they’re Transformers. They’re not mindless fighting machines, they’re people. And most people will tell you there’s a difference between the satisfaction of decking someone with your flesh and blood fist and just shooting them. Optimus knows this well and he is one kick-ass brawler. Let’s face it – Giant Robots beating the crap out of each other with their bare hands rules.
And we all know that Megatron beating on Starscream just wouldn’t be the same if he shot him instead of slapping him upside the head.
Let’s see…I think that’s it. Revenge of the Fallen is a movie that is most appreciated by those who loved the cartoons, the comics and everything that makes Transformers Transformers.
Dark, beautiful, and a feast for the eyes & ears – 