The Wind, the Metal, and the Control

The Fembots: Windblade, Chromia and Arcee

Fans have been waiting years for a generation 1 Arcee for over 25 years and in this review I will discuss her and the other two fembots that Hasbro has recently released. Their alternate modes are a car a jet and a motorcycle. I will go into each of their modes but as per usual I will not describe how to transform them because that will take more time than you probably don't want to read that.



Windblade:

This is a transformer that the fans voted on to create. There were many options as to which mode the figure would take, what their weapon would be and how they transformed. Wanting a female transformer the fans made Windblade as the fans choice transformer. She was introduced in the Dark Cybertron storyline. She is a city talker which means her her race of transformers can communicate with Titan sized transformers which the only existing Titan right now is Metroplex and he is serving as one of the only remaining cities on Cybertron. It is Windblades job to care for and protect Metroplex. 

Windblade is back and red primarily. she has some grey and blue in her color scheme too. I am going to start with Windblades robot mode first then transition into her vehicle mode. As a robot Windblade has many feminine features that actually work well with her robot mode. Just by looking at her head you can tell she is inspired to kind of look like a Geisha with the fan in the back of her head and the markings under her eyes. On her chest plate which is also where her breasts are is the Autobot logo/badge. On her back are the wings of her jet mode with the propellers hanging out there. her shoulder pads are bulky and hinged so they can go up a down. her upper arms are thin but once you get to her forearms they bulk out and have a few more details on them. She has a thin waist and wide hips, She has muscular thighs and really huge boots that also end in heels. Yes transformers females have high heeled boots. 

Windblade is articulated at the neck so she can look sideways and the hinge in the neck which is another part of her transformation allows her to look up and down. Windblade has two different shoulder points of articulation she has shoulder rotation and then she has ball jointed shoulders that allow her a wide range of motion. Her elbows are  only pegged, she has wrist swivel so you can turn her hands around. There is waist articulation with allows her to twist. Ball jointed thighs make it so she can do the splits and also rotate, her knees are single jointed so she can bend at the knee both forward and backward giving her a chicken leg if you bend her leg forward. 

 

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Windblades weapon is a simple one...its a sword but it is translucent from the tip to bottom transitioning from clear to purple near the hilt. The hilt of the sword is designed to look like a propeller of Windblade when she is in jet mode. There is a sheath that her sword can fit in and you can barely tell that the sword is in there. The sheath can either be held in her hand or pegged into her thigh on either the left or right side, it it well designed hat way. Her second accessory is her fan behind her head which is removable and can fit in her hand but not too well and it is hard as fuck to remove.

The alt-mode of Windblade is a plane, but not just any plane, she is a VTOL, vertical take off or land. As a jet she looks good but I have a few problems with it. Her feet stick up above the height of her body as a jet making her not very aerodynamic also her sheath fits in her underside and can double as her landing gear but it makes her off center and unbalanced. As a jet though its a nice design but the pegs used to hold them in place don't stick very well so all in all she is a decent jet. Her nose cone is soft rubber so kids don't hurt themselves. The propellers on her wings spin to give that flying motion look. 

 Chromia:

The second of the three female transformers that. Chromia is blue, grey blue, white and red as her primary colors. Chromia is a complete and massive retooling of Transformers Prime Arcee. Yes I know what is going on with always making Arcee a motorcycle? But this retool is amazing and very nicely done and with her thick armor you can barely tell that there was another transformer she was based from. Chromia's job is to be Windblades bodyguard. Chromia's head is crested as a crown, and she has light piping that actually does not work very well at all, her eyes look black. The armor on Chromia is thick and bulky and works well with Chromia's body style. The upper arms are covered in a piece of armor that does not hinder the motion at all. The forearms are thick with wrist and and elbow guards. The chest plate is thick and nice with her breasts showing not not making her too bulky in the chest area. Her thighs are thin compared to her feet with are very bulky and sturdy. .

Chromia's weapon is a simple blaster that is nicely detailed. Chromia does not have a blaster in the comic as she chooses to use a big wrench as a blunt weapon. The blaster looks great with Chromia though, she can hold it in either hand and it fits loosely in pegs hole on either side of her knees. 

The articulation on Chromia is pretty good. Her head is ball jointed so she can look up, down, left and right. She has double jointed shoulders but one of the joints is used for her transformation the other shoulder joint is ball jointed so she gets a vast range of motion there. Her hips are ball jointed and allow her upper thigh to rotate, her knees are hinged. 

 Chromia's alt mode is a motorcycle that kinda looks like a Tron Light Cycle with a covered cockpit and wheels that have black tires with clear plastic inside of them. As a motorcycle she rolls very well but she tends to fall down if you push her. There is a kickstand that allows her to stand up in vehicle mode so that way she doesn't fall. Her blaster also can help her stand up in vehicle mode. 

 Arcee:

  This is the one fans have been waiting for for 25 years. And damn if she is not beautiful and amazingly made. Her colors are white, pink, black and some blue. Just like the Generation one Arcee from the Transformers movie she has a huge backpack that holds her blasters or something else like maybe her swords. This version of Arcee looks nothing like her IDW counertpart where she has pointed teeth and is more bestial and thinner. Arcee has the Princess Laia buns just like the cartoon and she looks a little more feminine than the other girls I have chatted about in this review. 

 Arcee's bot mode is well done and I like it a lot. She has a balljointed head that makes her able to look up and down left and right. The shoulders are ball jointed and the bicep swivels, her elbows are hinged in ratchet like joints that allow her to bend her arm more than 90 degrees forward. No waist articulation to be had as its not part of her transformation. Her thighs are on rotations as well as a hinge that is part of her transformation. With that part of her articulation can make her cross her legs in a feminine style. Above her knee there is a rotation and then she bends at the knee. Her ankles are hinged so they can go up or down making her toes go into a ballerina stance. 

Arcee's accessories are numerous and great. She has two translucent blue swords a black blaster and a bigger blaster with a pink handle, the blaster also has grey and black. There are many pegs on Arcee's body that can house her weapons in robot mode. Her guns can rest on her hips like they are in holsters. The same pegs that her blasters sit in can hold her swords as if they were in sheaths as well. The forearms also have pegs that can hold her weapons. her backpack also has pegs on the top of it. The ones on the backpack aren't that well devised as they don't hold the swords but they do hold the blasters. 

 Arcee's car mode is pretty great looking and a definite nod to the original. In her car mode she can hold her guns in a special peg on the underside. There is a peg that her little black gun can fit in, the handle rests inside so the two pegs on the outside can be held by her hands so they do not flay about resting under the chasty of the car. The other bigger gun sits on the bumper area of her car mode and isn't notable at all until you flip her over. Her swords can sit on her trunk area or on the sides. There is no other area to put the swords out of the way but in car mode she still looks great with them up there. Her car mode is sleek and gives the look like she could be a very fast car that would give some like Hot Rod a run for his money. But her design is unlike any design ever seen for a car because Hell its a fucking robot to car transformer.

I chose to do these three ladies as we never get very many different female Transformers and I like that we finally get some great designs with some great, tough figures. 

The Devil Cries

Revoltech Devil May Cry Dante 

Revoltech makes revolutionary articulated action figures. The revolutionary part is the joints are ball joints that are ratcheted and can support a lot of dynamic and amazing poses. Dante is no different there with the poses he can reach and achieve. 

 Dante's weapons are awesome. He has his two pistols Ebony and Ivory which are black and silver. He has his giant buster sword that looks like it eats souls. A sawed off shotgun rounds up his next weapon. His guitar doubles as a axe or sycle weapon. The last accessory is a base with post and a ball joint that way he can reach some awesome poses, Honestly without the base Dante doesn't stand all that well. 

The articulation of Dante is pretty amazing I love the range of motion you can get with this figure. Ratcheted ball joint for his head so he can look up and down side to side. He rotates at the upper shoulder, then right below that he has another piece of rotation so if I wanted him to he could draw his sword from over his shoulder. His shoulders are hinged for up and down movement. He has two different points of articulation on his wrists, a swivel at the main wrist base and then a hinge that also helps with the sword draw. He has diaphragm swivel on his chest. He has two swivels on his hips. His knees are the Revoltech ball joint as well as his ankles which are also ball jointed. His jacket is also hinged around the middle of his back. 

The paint apps on Dante are very well done he looks amazing. He has his lavender hair and blue eyes with a sly grin on his face. his skin tone is pale but not too pale to where he looks like a zombie. His red jacket is a blood red, he has a brown band across his chest as well as brown on the shoulder and holsters for Ebony and Ivory. His pants are a brown in color and look like they have pads on his knees. His boots are laced  in gold and then they have silver buckles, the tops of this boots flare out. On the crotch of his pants he has a gold zipper. His jacket has a really nice gold application on it to look like a zipper. There is a silver buckle on the side of his coat where it can be 'buckled' when he has it closed. 

 Dante is a figure I always have on display no matter where I live. He isn't one of my all time favorite but he is pretty damn awesome. While I have never played a DMC game I have always wanted to eventually I probably will but as of right now it is not on my play list.