Friday, June 6, 2008

Arcee.

Transformer Movie production designer Ben Proctor's design for Arcee

Via: transformers wiki
"Arcee is an Autobot from the Tansformers Movie and wasoriginally 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.

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. 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.

In the special edition DVD of the 2007 live action film, the possibility of Arcee appearing in the sequel was mentioned.

She's tough and has a body to die for-Arcee

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.

Ben Proctor's early proposal for Arcee
In the toy world, unusual for a Transformer, Arcee 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'.



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. 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. Those seeking a good rider will find it can accommodate 3 3/4-inch G.I. Joe figures."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Couldn't find an email address for contact - but this comic at "Married to the Sea" reminded me of this blog:

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/051208/wheelmobile.gif

Go monowheels!

Unknown said...

Spy pics of them taking Ironhide to the filming of the sequel look like Arcee will be in this one.