had 2 map this 2 get out of head, orange is stuff that we basically/actually know, black arrows r speculation. this head design map of Arcee only goes up to 2018 & doesnt cover everything. amazed that Blackarachnia is part of this & roots of prime arcee r basically unknown afaik!
would love to know whats going on with prime arcee's lil' upper cheek guard stubs that are like idw1 arcee's but hidden under her pointy cheek guard ridges. she also shares the chin armor that binaltech arcee & art of war #5 arcee were 1st to have followed by idw1 & animated 'cee.
notably, we weren't able to fit Classics, Prime, and Wings Flamewar onto this or anyone else based on the energon and prime molds (besides Elita who shares her mold with SG Arcee)
the arcee singularity is happening again & its happening in the fucking mainline
film rotb arcee is trans by Arcee Singularity logic end of discussion lol (also sincere on the trans iterations of Arcees character &/or physical aesthetic stuff are across Arcees now, starting w/ TR & comic crossovers)
We finally unlocked the Star Saber in Earth Wars so of course we gave it to Arcee! Note the only other thing you can give her the Star Saber in without coming up with Saber stats yourself (which you'd have to for the TTRPG at the moment in early June 2024, you can give her the Forge of Solus Prime though and there is a free Arcee pregen character sheet along with other bonus material if you want to play her without figuring out initial stats) is the Transformers Deck-Building Game (cooperative or competitive) with the core Autobot set (in order to have her character card) and the core Decepticon set (for the Star Saber, iirc, if for some reason its not there its in the War for Cybertron expansion which we'd recommend anyway). It's just, so cool to have art from assets in a videogame showing her wielding it. Before we get to most of the equip animation (we didn't snag the 'bring it' hand wave motion one at the end, you can see most of this in her idle animation in-game though), we want to show one other photo prior to the keep reading:
We're particularly fond of this one because it looks like she's giving a star saber powered thumbs up hehe. very in character. Here's the stills in sequence:
Compiled a list of all the different scoped weapons we’ve seen Arcee use in canon, for reasons, does anybody have any to add? It’s really interesting how vastly different the designs are. Side-mounts, holosight-esque, and whatever the scrap is going on with Earthspark Arcee’s snub-scope. An image of her from WFC the videogame with any of the scoped guns would also be appreciated (or really anything of her from any of the videogames with a scoped weapon)
Close up of images in order of appearance below
IDW1/IDW2005 Arcee (in 2012, three full body reformats so far on her gender journey, currently with a cybertronian car alt-mode) with side-mount stock over shoulder two-hand rifle in Robots in Disguise #9, “Night and the City.”
Same Arcee (2013) with a massive over the shoulder missile launcher or cannon, in Robots in Disguise #23, Dark Cybertron #3, “Winners and Losers.” Honestly this thing may have a scope but it sure seems like she’s eyeballing until she has the go ahead to fire. This weapon is called the Superior Cannon in Wave 2 (2019) of the now canceled Transformers Trading Card Game by Wizards of the Coast.
Forged to Fight Arcee (present in the game at launch in 2017, basically T30 Generations Arcee but lankier with long arms) kneeling to fire her stock mounted round scope blue sniper rifle with a side mounted red laser sight as part of her special attack. The front of the barrel lights up blue when it fires... and what is actually fired is a metal bullet! A nice surprise from a G1-stylized character. Image sourced from this video.
IDW1/IDW2005 Arcee (2018, now five full body reformats so far on her gender journey, currently with an earth car alt-mode that was inspired by the Lotus Elite, this is the form she has at the end of the series we will go off about this some other time) with a fold-up/modular designated marksbot rifle looking gun with a squarish digital sight, in Unicron #2, “Stranger Eons.” It’s funny, we never see her IDW1 iteration shoot any of these three, but we do see her shoot her guns with only iron sights or none at all iirc? IDW2 on the other hand we’ll talk about in a bit, but first, Cyberverse Arcee!
Cyberverse Arcee (in 2020) in Cyberverse Season 3 Episode 13 “The Judge” readying a very large blaster with a drum ammunition barrel (when she isn’t shooting her blaster pistols or in melee, shooting a gun with a drum barrel seems to be her thing, specifically, very large guns, usually minigun/autocannon/rotary cannon sort of deal) that has a sloped forend and ridges under the front of the gun barrel, and either has a narrow scope or ?ammo counter?/probably a scope above the ammo barrel. (remembered her shooting this thanks to @arceespinkgun ‘s post of gifs of Shadow Striker and Arcee fighting together in this episode after seeing the G1 images they reblogged this post with, thank you!!) She also never uses the scope when she shoots the thing in her exuberant battle delight, unlike somebody...
IDW2/IDW2019 Arcee (2021, notes on reformats later)*, has a cybertronian look the whole series), aiming her blocky anti-armor rifle while crouching, the scope is kind of holosight-like, in Transformers #35, “Lord of Misrule: Sea of Rust II”. She shoots this thing several times in the series and gosh you don’t want to get hit by the brief beam of plasma that cuts through a Seeker like butter when she pulls the trigger. RE reformats: possibly one, twice if she did off-screen before series start for trans reasons? like she had a look more like Earthrise Arcee at the beginning mixed with IDW1 but then they went for the An Arcee Sort of Day look that is basically a WFC Chromia/Nightbird retool with outer armor of the backpack made into back stacks instead after Galaxies was over, maybe because she joined the Autobots and wanted to change her look or literally armor up, or the artists just felt like it, we don’t know but would like to know. In any case her alt mode went from a sci-fi convertible to an armored fighting car look. (which we are the only person we know of with a custom or toy of at all so far as of early 2023)
Then from this promotional image from Nickelodeon we have Earthspark Arcee (2023) smiling while one-handing a giant aft pistol that’s all rounded and curved with a TAIL FIN SCOPE in a way that looks like her G1 car mode she doesn’t have since she has a muscle car mode instead. Okay dear you’re cool as frag for having a gun that looks like the alt mode you don’t have while you rock the boxier one you have instead. I’m so trans that I can hold a version of my old body in my hand and shoot it. Like okay we’re just waiting for her to say she’s trans now right that’s the consensus- anyway about the scope:
HOW DOES SHE AIM DOWN THAT SCOPE. IF THAT’S WHAT IT IS. LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING? Like this goes past what her IDW2 rifle’s scope does which lets her comfortably lean her head down a little while resting the gun against her neck guard armor- but this is like, plonking your head down to aim forward unless... unless she eyeballs the scope itself or links up with it via her hand. Which she could. Would not put past sage in martial arts, ethics, and bullshitting Earthspark Arcee to have a weapon that defies expectations while showing her history in the palm of her hand. Gods why do we feel like crying over this promo image, anyway that’s a wrap on this until y’all send us more images.
Also we found the gun thanks to @fancyrobotenthusiast ‘s post of the image and then we did a reverse google image search while we started compiling the other images finding that inspired, so thank you, you by chance gave our trans brain something to do for a few hours that has made us very happy after
Arcana Magnus: for our first post, we thought we'd get some help from the Earth we post on! Transformers media in your world is to sell toys after all (aside from people wanting to tell a story) and we thought some the customs in this photo would help set the tone even though talking via toys won't usually happen (and well, the unofficial Ask Vector Prime 2 has done digibashes paired with prose storytelling, so not new ground really). Please feel free to send us asks, even for things canon hasn't answered! :3
We're talking about canon here besides touching on those two. Here's the alt text/dialogue so people can read it this way, its a bit lengthy because of the amount of dialogue:
Alt text: A photo of transforming toys on a windowsill, with a trans flag for the background flooring, and a dark blue / purple night-time cardboard backdrop of a scifi city of cybertronian inspiration. The figures are engaged in combat and talking:
Titan Returns Arcee has her pistols out and is firing one into Siege Ion Storm's chest point blank, which has a blast effect there representing the impact, with a KABLAM orange-pink sound description above. TR Arcee is looking at Legends Arcee and saying: "So, you used to have a human body and then because you wanted to be a transformer from seeing the toys you became one? That’s so cool. I’m both a gal from Cybertron and binary bonded with a human who’s a dear friend of mine at this point- and our writing has now and my design is inspired from our trans iterations."
Ion Storm: "GAH- yeah your toy is cool as hell, it’s nice that things came full circle and car TTRPG Arcee can use her car hood as a shield.
Legends Arcee meanwhile stands on top of a collapsing Beast Hunters Shockwave, cutting his cannon in twain with a sword while stabbing Shockwave through his mono-optic face with her other sword: "Indeed! And yeah, my writing isn’t too great and I’m sexualized in a way that isn’t very tasteful or about me having agency in that regard, but as a concept me becoming a bot is fantastic, it’s a sentiment that resonates with the nonhuman community particularly human-bodied robot folk. Hopefully I’ll get better writing in a new iteration someday…"
Her attacks have similarly pink-orange sound effects of CLANG and CRUNCH.
Shockwave: Urk- I would hope for more logic… bleh
Behind her, Studio Series 86 Arcee is kneeling, with her pistol on her thigh, and Generations Selects Galvatron's fusion cannon held over her shoulder, firing it with blast effects into staggered Kingdom Cyclonus's shoulder and a SKWOMP sound effect: "Funny that we’re talking about this, besides my binary bond with Daniel, I did have a synthoid human body briefly, though I didn’t sign up for that. I think I wore overalls pretty well and certainly have a better understanding from my binary bond that was voluntary."
Nearby, a T30 Arcee painted in trans and lesbian flag patterns and guns on her backstacks has beheaded a falling T30 Jhiaxus with her sword. Jhiaxus's neck socket has a blast effect exploding upwards like pressured blood/fuel. T30 Arcee is looking at an Arcee customized from Legacy Elita-1 to resemble IDW1 Arcee, and T30 Arcee's speech bubble says: "Hmm, I mean, Transformers has always danced around that with the ‘transformers are humans in robot bodies with alien context’ concept in terms of writing- the toy design two of you are retooled from, me minus my custom pride flag paint job, though, definitely hits that sexualization thing. My concept design was going to be the basis for IDW1 Arcee over there in 4th reformat with a surgery that she was happy with as part of her gender journey, but the comics were so ahead from schedule that there wasn’t much of me to go on. Thankfully the artist wanted to keep in line with the comic aesthetic, so she looks different."
The IDW1 Arcee custom, erstwhile, who has cut into Jhiaxus's wing with her flaming orange blade with a pink and cyan FWOOSH sound and a fiery blast effect on top of her blade, is glancing at Legacy Arcee, and saying: "Yeah, that loops back around to the basis of Titan Returns Arcee, although I’m not sure that’s why she’s a Blurr retool. I mean, I feel like a Legacy Elita retool to Arcee with swords is fairly obvious route to go and it seems there are other people who think that, given the robust look I have from 2014-2018 (and that’s not even counting how other Arcee iterations drawn in Transformers vs. GIJOE, or IDW2, or Transformers vs. Terminator). I dunno, there’s something to be said for how root designs that look ‘overly human’ can work, my second reformat is in that category and outside of one cover with Galvatron that hasn’t aged well it’s not really focused on, which I think is interesting in retrospect even though it wasn’t intentional for a trans narrative. But yeah it is funny to see you on covers sometimes given the difference."
Legacy Arcee, who unlike her pink car bot companions, is a blue motorcycle, is in point blank contact with an unlicensed toy based on Airachnid (APC Night Countess), while Arcee's forearm blades are out, and she has 3D print blasters pointed at Airachnid's chest and head, taking a headshot with a blast effect over Airachnid's face, and Arcee is saying: "It’s still absurd to me that the only appearance of my Legacy form in canon media outside of toy stuff is me in a leotard or a swimsuit. Clothing is cool and all but am I hiding, and if it’s for fun why aren’t any of the guys doing the same thing too? I’m more partial to the fact that most of the time we are all basically walking around nude save for a few of us, and those who do wear clothes don’t do so on a basis of being a gal. I would much rather take being curvy with metal boobs while living sweetly and ferociously."
Finally added some cyan and violet (wish we had lavender, will someday soonish) to BBM model kit 'cee for sapphic & trans vibes, also realized we haven't played much with t30 lately so gave her lesbian colors & added more trans ones! With what we paint and how we paint, top coat takes while to settle so won't transform her yet...
ID 1 of 4: Standing on a trans flag with a scifi polityscape backdrop are a bunch of Arcee transformer toys: BBM deluxe Arcee holding a pistol on the side of her thigh, and pidtol held aloft BBM model kit Arcee with cyan on the forearms and truangular head crest indent and the fromt of her upper thighs in violet like her central chest ridge with a yellow dot in the middle. Next to them is TR Arcee holding hers and with a Matrix of Leadership in her chest, and standing behind are ER Arcee holding her pistol, and Cyberverse Arcee holding two of hers. On the right is t30 Arcee brandishing swords, her thighs in orange-red, white and violet along with the white, and pink side plating. Her head has a spdctrum of orange and purple colors on the sides of the front, and the crest in the middle has a shortened trans flag painted on. Behind her is a sword wielding prereformat Arcee (custom from Gen Selects Galvatron) and an IDW1 Arcee (custom from Legacy Elita). End ID.
Forgot to get the triplet bots in here gah, with the spoons we have right now we seem to forget to get all intended Arcees in a photo, still lovely though and they’ll be in something soon.
ID 2 of 4: On the same backdrop are Arcees with their weapons: Legacy Prime, Armada, PRID, Energon, R.E.D., BBM, BBM model kit repajnted, ER, TR, Cyberverse deluxe, T30 repainted, prereformat custom, IDW1 custom, IDW2/An Arcee Sort of Day custom, S86 with an additional orange sword, Q-Transformers with an arm around World's Tiniest, and Animated. End ID.
Arcee-Arcee intimacy is something we like a lot plus we have so many XD
ID 3 of 4: A zoom in on the same arrangement of Arcees as before, except BBM deluxe Arcee is sharing a hug with BBM model kit Arcee while looking in each other's optics... and T30 and IDW1 Arcee are also hugging, and both leaning to kiss on the lips, T30 Arcee's neck is extended out a bit and she is leaning more. End ID.
And here’s some hints of how the car mode will look when we finally show it to y’all...
ID 4 of 4: A photo of T30 Arcee's backpack from behind with ankles and right thigh visible: the upper center piece of her car hood in fromt of her windshield is painted with a simplified lesbian flag in oranges and purples. Part of TR Arcee's left foot is visible, as are prereformat Arcee's ankles. End ID.
