Of all the 3rd Party Arcee figures out there, this Ocular Max Azalea from Mastermind Creations seems to be the most popular. There are already five variations of her announced (three released so far), and I have a gut feeling there will be more. Mastermind Creations first fell into my radar back in 2015 when they released their Reformatted line of fembots (Eupatorium (Elita One), Salvia Prominon (Solus Prime) and Azalea (IDW Arcee)). They were all fantastic and they marked the first time I ever spent real money on 3rd Party figures. But they were pretty stylized figures that didn't really fit in with official Hasbro or Takara products. Then three years later they shocked me by unveiling one of the most perfect looking G1 Arcee figures to date. It's not a perfect designs by any means, but it sure looks it. I hope they make more fembots, MMC did a deep dive with characters in 2015, so I hope this engineering gets the same longevity (beyond the repaints). Elita 1 would be amazing. Let's check out Ocular Max Azalea below!
Every 3rd Party figure I've ever purchased has pros and cons.
The pros for this are (1) Her overall look. She really captures that G1 feel. (2) Her eyes. The metallic blue paint is simple and perfect. Although I love light piping, it only looks right with perfect lighting. And (3) The scale is great. She measures 6.75" tall and feels heavy and solid.
The cons are the upper chest and head functionality. The top half of her chest plate is hinged and it moves every time you reposition the shoulders. The head and neck are kind of floating on top of an empty chest cavity. The combined effect is that her head and chest will constantly tip forward every time you move her.
Azalea comes with four sets of hands, four alternate faces, two guns, and a removable tailfin for her car mode (I forgot to attach it).
There's something about the aesthetics of third party fembots where one face always looks like a blow-up doll.
I just re-watched the movie and I forgot about her red visor. When it lowers in front of her eyes, she can see really far distances.
This car mode was easy for me because she came packaged that way!
I realized after the fact that the gray seats are not folded into their upright positions (and the tailfin is not attached).
There have been two color variants already released and two more coming.
Ocular Max OX PS-18 Zinnia (TFCon Exclusive 2019)
Ocular Max PS-04S Azalea Stealth (TFCon Exclusive 2018)
Ocular Max PS-04A Azalea Alternative - Darker Pink (2020)
Ocular Max PS-04P Azalea Protoform (Planet Steel Express Exclusive (?) 2020)
For those unaware, that "Protoform" figure is in reference to this super early Arcee prototype that was (thankfully) never made. The colors are so gawdy it's almost perfect. This is the one variant I'm super tempted by.
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here are the three most popular 3rd Party Arcees. From Left to Right: Fans Toys Rouge, Ocular Max Azalea, and Toy World Leia.
And here she is with the original MMC Azalea figure from 2014.
And with the Generations Arcee from Hasbro.
My ever-growing Arcee collection. I excluded all the dark pink and blue ones for aesthetics. From Left to Right: NYCC 2011 Prime Arcee, Dx9 Leah, Ocular Max Azalea, Reformatted Azalea, Fans Toys Rouge, Iron Factory Pink Assassin, Hasbro Generations Arcee, Toy World Leia, Heroes of Cybertron, and Titans Return Arcee.
Cheers!
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