(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original Prime "Robots in Disguise" deluxe Arcee figure. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original Prime "Robots in Disguise" deluxe Arcee figure here.)
With BotCon 2014 being
the 20th anniversary of BotCon, some old "BotCon-only" characters have
been re-done, and Flamewar-- from BotCon 2005--
is one of those characters. To keep her from being a bit too similar to
her fellow exclusive Flareup this time around,
though, FunPub used the Beast Hunters version
of the Prime Arcee mold, which in my eye works a LOT better for the femme
fatale-- plus she already had a mass release
redeco of a Prime Arcee mold! Black and red make for an EXCELLENT color
combo on this mold, and all the black webs and arches-- which looks like
fish scales or fins on Beast Hunters Arcee- look like bat wings on Flamewar.
One slight oddity about Flamewar is that the red is a light version on
most of her plastic and paint apps, but a duller, darker red on his archer
weapon (which is another tie to her original 2005 exclusive version), but
this is a minor issue at most. The orange paint apps-- mostly visible in
vehicle mode, on the "wings" on the sides and rear-- both contrast excellently
against the black and complement the red, as well. Rounding out the oft-used
colors for this scheme is a nice shade of light purple, which of course
contrasts with the black quite well, too, and is certainly an appropriate
color for a Decepticon fanatic. The purple is used just a bit-- on her
motorcycle seat, her lower legs and lower arms-- so it adds to the color
scheme without overpowering Flamewar's otherwise fiery scheme. There's
also a transparent version of this pale purple plastic used for the windshield
and Flamewar's eyes. There's some nice "flame" paint apps on the toy, with
the "core" of the flame paint apps being yellow and the edges being orange.
There's one on the front of the body of the motorcycle behind the windshield,
and another on Flamewar's robot chest (which actually doesn't make a lot
of sense since her chest is molded to look like it's made up the halves
of her front headlight/windshield piece, but it still looks cool). As one
last color, Flamewar has just a titch of silver, used on the sides of her
motorcycle headlight as well as on her abs and face. Her core body in robot
mode looks particularly awesome, with the combination of the red waist,
the silver abs, the flames on her chest, the silver-bordered-by-red face,
and the orange crest on her forehead.
No mold changes-- beyond
the "Beast Hunters" changes-- have been made to the Arcee mold for Flamewar.
Normally, since you could initially only get Flamewar by being a BotCon
2014 Primus package pre-registrant and picking up your package at the convention,
she'd fetch an expensive price even for an exclusive, but she was re-released
a year later in a Club set (see below), so she's not quite as expensive
as you'd think.
BotCon 2014 Flamewar
is an "upgrade" visually from her 2005 version (despite the slight inferiority
of the mold this time around), with the purple toned down a good amount
and the "flame" part of her name emphasized more. She has just the perfect
amount of red, orange, and accent colors to contrast against her black,
and it all works great on the most "evil-looking" of the Prime Arcee molds.
Recommended if you're in the market for BotCon exclusives, as it's quite
a pretty toy.
Review by Beastbot
*Note: This toy was also re-packaged with fellow BotCon 2014 exclusives Apelinq, Flareup, and Shokaract/Hunter as part of a "BotCon Legacy Set" sold via the Club Store with a new comic.