Arcee is the name of several fictional characters in the Transformers universe.

Transformers: Generation 1

Animated series

Although a group of Female Autobots had already been featured in one episode of the original cartoon series, Arcee quickly became the most famous due to her position as a recurring cast member following her introduction in The Transformers: The Movie. In the movie, it was implied that Arcee might have had feelings for Hot Rod, but since his transformation to Rodimus Prime she seemed to grow closer to Springer.

Arcee was voiced by Susan Blu, who would go on to be involved in several more Transformers-related shows as voice director, even reprising her role as Arcee in Transformers: Animated. Arcee was a gunner and was depicted as being an excellent marksman. In the Season 3 introduction, "Five Faces of Darkness", she accompanies Springer on a mission to track down a sleezoid ship. The mission eventually reunites them with Grimlock and Rodimus Prime. They also go onto rescue Ultra Magnus, Kup and Spike Witwicky from the clutches of the Quintessons.

Arcee would appear sporadically over the course of the season, and even kept her main character status into the fourth season dubbed "Rebirth". She was a major player in "Dark Awakening", being among the crew zombie Optimus Prime betrayed aboard the mausoleum. And, in "Dweller in the Depths", she is seen fighting back against Springer when he is turned into an energy vampire.

In the episode "Only Human", Ultra Magnus, Springer, Rodimus Prime and Arcee found their minds transferred into human-mimicking "synthoid" bodies by the human crimelord Victor Drath.

In the final three episodes of the US television series, when the Decepticons successfully stole the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber and opened the ancient device, a group of Autobots and humans included Arcee and Daniel Witwicky were blasted across the galaxy by the energy release, crash-landing on the planet Nebulos. Quickly siding with a group of rebels engaged in a war against the planet's evil rulers, the Hive, they deduced a process by which they could combine the best of their minds and bodies together, becoming Headmasters. While the other Autobot Headmasters combined with Nebulons, Daniel became Arcee's Headmaster partner.

Despite being the only female truly present in the cast, she was rarely if ever depicted as the damsel in distress, and was usually put on equal footing in relation to her male compatriots.

Transformers: Headmasters

In the Japanese television series called Transformers: The Headmasters, the events of the last three episodes of the U.S. series were ignored. Although Headmasters were introduced, they had a vastly different origin. Arcee did not become a Headmaster, but was a regular on this series, appearing in most of the episodes, from Episode 1 "Four Warriors Come Out of The Sky" to Episode 35 "The Final Showdown On Earth (Part 2)".

Marvel Comics

Arcee was absent from the U.S. Marvel Comics (barring the adaptation of the movie), because the comics had established that in their continuity, Transformers did not possess sexes, thus Arcee's presence as a clearly female robot would have defied this.

Arcee would appear in the U.K. Marvel comic issue #234, "Prime's Rib!" This story is set in the near future, 1995, where Optimus Prime, Jazz and Hot Rod introduce the latest Autobot, Arcee, to the human feminists. She was met with displeasure by the humans, being called a token female and disliked for her pink color. They were then attacked by Shockwave, Fangry, Horri-Bull and Squeezeplay, who thought the Autobot would be unvieling a new weapon. The Autobots fought off the Decepticons, who escaped, but nothing seemed to please the human feminists.

The U.K. comic also set a number of stories directly after the events of the movie. The Space Pirates arc saw Arcee skip guard duty at Autobot City; her dereliction of duty led directly the fall of Autobot City to the Quintessons. She was then used as bait in a Quintesson trap to claim the Creation Matrix from Rodimus Prime. Arcee achieved some measure of redemption by aiding Rodimus Prime, now reduced in power to his Hot Rod form, in his bid to reclaim Autobot City by activating Metroplex.

Arcee later joined Rodimus Prime's time-travelling party, helping in the fight against Galvatron during the Time Wars. Arcee and the other future Autobots returned find to their own time-stream changed to a different, darker future, where Galvatron was alive and ruling most of Cybertron.

Arcee also makes an appearance twice in the American Transformers: Headmasters #1 as a background character in Fortress Maximus's regiment. In order to explain any Autobots introduced during the fourth (then-ongoing) and fifth production years, most of Fortress Maximus's crew on Cybertron and aboard the Steelhaven were unseen, or used generic bodies until readers were "surprised" with them later.

Books

Arcee appeared in the 1986 story and coloring book The Lost Treasure of Cybertron by Marvel Books.

Beast Wars

In the Beast Wars episode "Transmutate", Rattrap referred to Arcee as his great aunt: "What in the name of my great aunt Arcee is going on!?" The character Transmutate was coincidentally voiced by Susan Blu, who also voiced Arcee.

Dreamwave Productions

During the years when Shockwave united most of Cybertron, Arcee was in a resistance group to his rule along with Kup, Blaster, Hot Rod and Wheelie. Later, after Shockwave's defeat, Arcee joined Ultra Magnus in trying to fortify one of Cybertron's moons – but her affections were the subject of a feud between Hot Rod and Springer.

Devil's Due Publishing

Arcee appeared in the Devil's Due third series of G.I. Joe vs. The Transformers. Grimlock, Arcee, Bumblebee and Perceptor were sent to Earth to aid G.I. Joe in removing the influence of Cybertronian technology on Earth. When Cobra attacked the base, the Autobots helped repel the Cobra Battle Android Trooper armies. However, Cobra Commander was able to infiltrate the base and awaken the special project the government was working on - SerpentO.R, a cyborg created using DNA from many great warleaders and parts from Megatron. SerpentO.R. promptly turned on him and escaped to Cybertron via Spacebridge. The Autobots and a team of G.I Joes led by Hawk pursued him. During this an attraction had been growing between Arcee and Bumblebee. This led to Bumblebee's tragic death at the hands of SerpentO.R and Arcee and the others were captured. Freed by Snake-Eyes, Arcee was part of the assault to rescue Prime and proved instrumental in SerpentO.R's (now controlled by Cobra Commander) defeat, ripping his chestpiece off and allowing Hawk to reach the Matrix, opening it and putting Cobra Commander in a coma. Arcee was seen mourning Bumblebee at the end.

3H Enterprises

Transformers: Universe Wreckers #1 starts with a flashback to late in the original cartoon series, where Daniel Witwicky and Wheelie are killed. This puts Daniel's friend Arcee into a sad state. The main story is set in the later episodes of Beast Machines. Arcee, now a Maximal Valkyrie, joins the Wreckers. Fractyl is almost killed by the Vehicons, and Arcee saves his life by sharing her Spark with him, converting him into a new body in the process.

According to the script for the unreleased issue #4 of Transformers: Universe - The Wreckers the Wreckers returned to Cybertron where they helped repel the an invasion by the Quintessons.

IDW Publishing

It is revealed in IDW Publishing's Spotlight issue that Arcee was a part of Jhiaxus's experiements to introduce gender into the Cybertronian species. Arcee was his first test-subject and her creation was due to Jhiaxus altering with her C.N.A. According to Arcee she didn't measure up to Jhiaxus's ideals and was abandoned.

Unlike her other versions, this Arcee is a violent, antisocial killer who is imprisoned by the Autobots at Fortress Maximus for her actions. Released by a reluctant Maximus to buy time for Jetfire's team to get rid of the Monstructor components, her power level appears much higher than a normal Autobot, as she is seen taking on all of the Combaticons single handed and winning, although unable to stop their kidnapping of the Monstructor components due to a teleporter based escape plan. She is classified as a "level 9" threat, the only one present in the prison when the Combaticons attack. Realising there is a link between her and the Monstructor Transformers, as they were all created by Jhiaxus, Maximus and Jetfire release her to track them down.

Other media

Arcee makes an appearance in the Robot Chicken episode "Junk in the Trunk." She gives Optimus Prime flowers before he dies of prostate cancer. Seth Green noted on the commentary for the episode that "Nobody makes an Arcee, so we had to make one ourselves."

Toys

Like all the new characters in the movie (with the exception of Ultra Magnus), Arcee was designed for animation first, but while the other new characters inspired toys that saw final release, Arcee's design never passed early prototype stages.

• Headmaster Arcee

When she became a Headmaster, Takara dallied with the idea of repainting the Chromedome toy to represent her, but the suggestion was abandoned. A few pictures of prototypes have appeared online.

• Heroes of Cybertron Arcee

A non-transforming "Heroes of Cybertron" G1 Arcee was released in 2001. It was later repainted as "Paradron Medic".

• BotCon Arcee

In 2001, Arcee finally received a toy in the form of an exclusive for the 2001 BotCon convention. The toy itself was a recolored version of the previous year's transmetal 2 Blackarachnia toy, and some packaging featured a new sound clip recorded by Susan Blu.

• Transformers: Titanium 6 inch Arcee (Unreleased)

A prototype of a 6 inch tall Arcee figure was seen at a Hasbro factory tour in 2007. This figure has yet to be released and seems to have been canceled.

• Transformers Movie Elita One (2007)

A redeco of Energon Arcee was sold under the name Elita One in the Transformers movie toys line. It's colors are those of Generation 1 Arcee.

Transformers: Armada

The first reuse of the name Arcee was in Japan. In 2003, the name Arcee was given to the Mini-Con known in America as Sureshock (leading to some debate on the Mini-Con's gender - the Dreamwave Comics would later identify Sureshock as female, but the tech specs for Transformers: Cybertron Sureshock would refer to it as male). Sureshock was even repainted in pink and white colors in Japan as X-Dimension Arcee.

Transformers: Energon

In Transformers: Energon, Arcee had a wide-release original mold made in homage to the original character. In the Energon storyline, the character Arcee was a female Omnicon who transformed into a motorcycle and used an energon crossbow. She was created to be a leader for the Omnicons and, as such, was the only Omnicon to have a unique name and body-type. In Japan the toy and character were named Ariel, a name used by the female transformer who was the "girlfriend" of Orion Pax in the original series' episode War Dawn; this Ariel would later become Elita One.

In the original Japanese series Superlink, it is said Ariel took the form of a woman as a symbol of care, who protects all soldiers.

Dreamwave Productions

Arcee also appeared in the Dreamwave Productions Transformers: Energon comics, as one of the four Omnicons watched over by the Mini-Con Over-Run.

Arcee would first appear in issue #19, being introduced to Optimus Prime by Over-Run as the first of the new species — the Omnicons. Subsequently assigned to Earth for training, they managed to annoy their commander Hot Shot beyond reason but subsequently apprehended Snow Cat. Arcee would have further adventures battling Mirage, Sharkticon and Slugslinger to protect Kicker, eventually defeating them with Kicker's help.

Fun Publications

Arcee appeared in the text story from Fun Publications called "Force of Habit." This story explained where he was during the events of the Cybertron story. Ultra Magnus was the commander of various Autobot ships sent to other planets in search for the Cyber Planet Keys. Arcee served as captain of the Azusa which was sent to Gamma Serpentis.

Toys

• Energon Arcee

In 2005, Energon Arcee was repackaged for the Transformers: Universe toy line, although the character has not appeared in the Universe storyline. This toy was identical to the Energon release, but in Universe packaging.

The Arcee/Aerial toy (Arcee's main color was salmon-pink, while Ariel's was Japanese pink) was later repainted green and aqua as the Aerial Paradron Type in Japan, in the colors of Generation 1 Paradron Medic. She was again repainted (black) as Transformers: Timelines Flamewar and her head remolded as Transformers: Timelines Chromia (light blue) and Flare-Up (red).

Live-action Transformers films

2007 film

Arcee was initially set to be in the 2007 Transformers film, but due to negative fan reaction and to the fact that there was not enough time in the movie to explain the presence of a "female" in a robotic race, she was dropped from the script and replaced with Ironhide. Before she was dropped, her alternate mode was slated to be a Buell Firebolt motorcycle; concept art by Ben Procter can be seen on his website.

Even though Arcee wasn't in the movie, a motorcycle was used by Captain William Lennox to attack Blackout (although the bike was an Aprilia RSV1000R rather than a Buell). Arcee was also initially set to battle Blackout in the movie. According to the Hasbro movie toy's tech spec for Arcee (a movie toy was distributed), she received combat training from Ironhide.

IDW Publishing

Although Arcee was not in the film, the character still appeared in the comic book Transformers: Movie Prequel where she fights as part of Bumblebee's squad. She realised that Bumblebee knew more than he was revealing, but likewise said nothing when their squad was captured and tortured by the Decepticons.

In Reign of Starscream the Decepticon Starscream barely made it to the Nemesis on Mars before he ran out of power. His return was noted by the Autobot Cosmos, who alerted Arcee, Cliffjumper, Smokescreen, Camshaft and Air Raid. Aided by Thundercracker on the Nemesis Starscream recovered and sent the information Frenzy had gathered back to Cybertron just as Hardtop spotted the Autobots closing on the Nemesis.

Arcee appears on the cover of Transformers: Reign of Starscream #3.

In Transformers: Reign of Starscream #4 Arcee returned to Cybertron from Mars by hiding in the landing gear of Starscream's ship. Once on the planet she was discovered by a Dreadwing and Payload drone, who she deactivated. Returning to an Autobot training facility she discovered Clocker, who took her to Crosshairs who was planning an attack to free the Autobots at Simfur, which they attempted with the aid of Wingblade, Skyblast, Breakaway and Strongarm.

Titan Magazine

In Twilight's Last Gleaming, Part 1, Skyblast lead the Autobots Arcee, Armorhide, Elita One, Longarm and Strongarm who in resisting the Decepticons who had conquered Earth.

Target Robo-Vision

According to her extended biography from the Target store exclusive Robo-Vision web site, Arcee was only on Earth for a short time before her stealth skills were needed elsewhere. Optimus Prime sent her to another planet to stop Decepticon research on a star breaking weapon.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Arcee is slated to appear in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the 2009 sequel to the 2007 Transformers film. Arcee has been redesigned from the concept art used for her toy and comic book appearances.

Movie toys

• Movie Scout Arcee (2007)

A Target-exclusive toy of Arcee as a repaint of the Energon mold has been released. The recolor is blue and silver with extremely dark brown Energon parts.

The box even recycles the text from the Energon Arcee figure, stating that you can combine her "red" plastic pieces to form an ultimate energon weapon, despite that fact that they are no longer red in this version of the figure and are now more of a brown.

This toy was later redecoed as Movie Elita One.

• Movie Deluxe Arcee (2007)

Unlike the Target exclusive, this figure is fuchsia in color, with a design inspired by concept art/CGI models of the character revealed at BotCon 2007. The deluxe Arcee has a similar bow weapon. An actual Buell Firebolt is 194 centimeters long. With the toy measuring 14 centimeters long it has a scale of about 1/14. Her robot mode would stand about 6 feet 11 inches, however the Hasbro representative at BotCon 2007 said that she would stand at about 9 feet tall.

• Movie Deluxe Battle Damaged Arcee

A special bonus package contains Voyager class Starscream together with battle damaged editions of Voyager class Optimus Prime and Deluxe class Arcee.

• Movie Black Arcee (unreleased)

A black repaint of Arcee exclusive to Takara in Japan, matching the motorcycle in the film. Advertising for this figure uses the motorcycle scene from the film.

• G1 Repaint Arcee (exclusive)

A pink and white Movie deluxe Arcee was revealed at BotCon, said to be released in Japan.

Transformers: Animated

Arcee is a female Autobot who seems to be inspired by her Generation 1 counterpart.

Animated series

Arcee makes an appearance in the "Transformers: Animated" episode "Thrill of the Hunt". During several flashback sequences, Ratchet recalls his first encounter with the rogue bounty hunter Lockdown during the Great War thousands of years earlier. Still a young field medic at that time, Ratchet comes across Arcee, who has been injured in the fighting. He knocks her out to repair her left leg, but then they are both ambushed by Lockdown. After being taken to his hideout, Lockdown divulges that Arcee is carrying important information about the Decepticons to return to base, and that he is going to extract it for his employer, Megatron. After Lockdown forcibly removes Ratchet's medical-use electro-magnetic pulse generator from his left arm as a personal trophy, Arcee manages to sneak it back to Ratchet. She then bravely tells Ratchet to use the EMP device on her to erase her data core so that Lockdown won't be able to retrieve the data from her. After protesting that doing so would also completely erase her entire life and memory, Ratchet is suddenly forced to do so in order to protect them both from Lockdown. After escaping, Arcee's memory has, as expected, been completely erased, including all knowledge of herself. Long after the Great War has ended, a now-older Ratchet honors her by keeping the painful memory of her intact in his own mind. It is not shown in "Thrill of the Hunt" as to what kinds of powers Arcee has, what her alternate form is, or what became of her after the war.

Animated toys

• Animated Deluxe Arcee (2008/not yet released)

A Deluxe sized mold. She transforms into a sleek car. Oddly Hasbro refused to confirm an Animated Arcee toy would be made by SDCC 2008

References

External links

• Energon Arcee, and Ariel Paradron Type at TFU.info
• http://www.cyberfembot.com/ - Unofficial transforming toy of Arcee called A.R.C.
• http://tfkenkon.com/collection/act200/ - Energon Arcee Gallery
• Hasbro Tour Photo Gallery pictures of 2007 movie Arcee
• Arcee at Teletraan-1: The Transformers Wiki
• Buell Firebolt XB12R - 2007 movie Arcee's vehicular form
• Botcon Exclusive Arcee Litho - Botcon Exclusive Arcee Litho at Decepticon-Matrix.com
• Arcee at deviantART