To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

Fantastic! This is the best Shockwave in my collection and I'm surprised it took me so long to own one. For more on third party toys please see: www.kickstarter.com/projects/102137316/transforming-expec...

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/102137316/transforming-expec... Shot for my new book about third party Transformers toys and accessories.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

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Khalifa Bin Salman Port, Bahrain can accomodate many types of vessels.

APM Terminals Mumbai, India

Full Set: www.tfw2005.com/transformers-images/toys/Thirdparty/Fans+...

The gate at QQCT Port of Qingdao China

Laem Chabang Terminal Thailand

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Political poster for Independent candidate and American businessman Ross Perot in the 1992 United States Presidential Election

Taken by sony a700 tilt and shift bellows hama T2 heaton wallace 135mm f3.5 lens

This is a kitbash kit from Top, with a WorldBox body. Really nice set, actually. The jacket is particularly nice, and the headsculpt is quite good. Yes, I know I don't have a proper Winter Soldier hand on him. I need to get him a couple. I could use those from my HT sets, but I just don't want to.

Rok Lox Micro Comp Tires (top) vs Lego balloon tires (bottom) -- Lego 56145 wheels mounted on two Lego 42010 Off Road Racers. The Rok Lox Micro Comp Tires are available from RC4WD ( store.rc4wd.com/Rok-Lox-Micro-Comp-Tires_p_739.html ), along with three other types of Losi Micro Tires on the RC4WD website ( store.rc4wd.com/Losi-Micro-Tires_c_88.html ). For more discussion about using Third-Party RC tires on Lego wheels, see the Eurobricks Technic Forum topic www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=70865&st=0 .

Andy and I always wondered what would happen if a God/Jesus ticket made it on the ballot...

Full gallery @ TFW2005 here! www.tfw2005.com/transformers-images/toys/Thirdparty/Perfe...

Prison officer on landing

Social Issues Photography

Dancing Bear marketing material. Distributed at NeXTWORLD EXPO '94. Helpdesk and customer support software e.g. ServiceDesk (Hmm, any relation with the HP software of the same name and purpose?)

To the surprise of nobody who's ever talked to me, I have eclectic tastes when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, I'll get the things that are generally universally liked, but ultimately shock value and general tastelessness (by puritan US standards) are what kind of guide my collecting path.

About a year ago, there was a company with a dream - Big Firebird Toy - and that dream was to make a transforming Arcee figure that was more Senran Kagura than G1 Autobot. Her name would be Nicee, and would share enough characteristics with her licensed namesake so you could help Hot Rod live out his high school fantasies including a familiar alt mode and a very G1 Arcee head.

People complained, of course, but in this day and age, what else is new? At least this wasn't Flametoys where they were selling licensed figures... this was the Wild Wild West of Third Party Transformer figures. I'll admit the window dressing was might attractive, but the Engineer in me also wanted to know.. just how would they pull off such an ambitious design?

At any rate, preorders were placed and all was well for a while.

First it was COVID causing mayhem and delaying production of everything across the board. Then, rumour has it that Hasbro started actually cracking down on Chinese bootlegs of their figures, and so Big Firebird Toy dropped the Arcee head, and just stuck with their own original content. That all passed, and I finally received my copy of the figure.

So just how did they do? Lets look at the Big Firebird Toy EX-01: Nicee figure.

I ordered mine from TF-Direct, who were the lowest price point at the time. Prices have since jumped up from the $95 USD I paid, which included EMS shipping, but a cursory glance at eBay shows you should still be OK. The figure came in it's own brown shipper, with an art box contained within which houses all the fun stuff.

A quick glance at the art box should very quick establish that no... this is not a kids figure. It's not quite Skytube hentai PVC material, but it is at least Teen territory. Also nice is the Pink foiled letters.

I also have to giggle at the security seal and the quality assurance foil sticker because, well... China.

Nicee is packed in robot mode, and comes in a single layered tray with her accessories. By the time things are said and done, the box is gigantic, effectively 12" x 12" x 4", like something out of the old Toys R Us MP boxes. Accessories include an extra Aheago head, a breast plate with soft rubbery breasts, a laser pistol, an energy arrow, a sword, part of her chasis, the handle for her bow, and six additional hands. Naturally, she has a set of instructions, as well as a nifty art card.

Nicee is a gorgeous figure, and I'm not just talking curves. I had two major concerns - crappy paint work, and crappy build. I've done the best I can on my photos, but one of things I couldn't make out on other photos I've seen is the fact that Nicee has a nice pearl finish on all her painted parts. Try as I might, I could not find any areas of overspray or bleeding, with the only bad paint being a fibre or something being embedded into the forehead of my Aheago head. Even the pink on the wheels are pearl finish. Now, I would ADD some colours to a few areas, such as the blade of the sword and maybe to the face to make the lips turn out better, but that's another discussion - what paint work you do get is pretty damn good and is generally resistant to most forms of contact.

I'm not saying you should break out the sand paper, but you can at least be assured you don't have to worry about actually handling the figure without gloves.

Build quality is a bit tougher to explore, but to put aside any immediate worries, overall things are very good. Nicee has rubber tires, which is becoming more and more of a rare thing. There are some die cast metal parts, though these in high stress structural components. The plastics they used feel like the same stuff you'd get on a Takara Tomy MP figure, but perhaps a bit thinner, maybe due to the sheer number of curved parts on this figure.

The finish on these parts is, without a doubt, phenomenal. very few rough surfaces or mould lines found. My mind is blown at how well the pieces fit together, and that truly the finished product matched the CG renders almost perfectly. QC with regards to accuracy of tabs and slots is almost perfect, but isn't quite up to Takara Tomy standards, so it can be a bit of pain to get things aligned correctly but it can be done, at least, and the parts come together with tolerances that wouldn't be out of place on an MP figure.

Joints in general tend to be a bit on the stiff side, especially the neck and head joints, which can make posing Nicee a bit of a headache..

Finally I feel the hands should have used the more popular method of connection, that is having the ball on the wrist joint itself and the socket on the hand, as opposed to the opposite. This would make things connect more securely, as well as improve range of motion here.

Nicee herself is 19 cm tall, which puts here out of MP scale, as she's supposed to be slightly smaller than Hot Rod. On the plus side, she's that much more visually impressive and has that much more shelf presence.

Articulation is impressive, and is in line with what I'd expect from an MP figure. You get full ankles (two separate points of movement), double jointed knees, thigh twist, hips with pull down for greater range of motion, waist, mid torso, shoulders with lateral movement (so arms can come closer together), bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Provided you can get the joints to cooperate, you can put the figure into many, many poses, though for next time Big Firebird Toy, double jointed elbows, please.

For all the effort put into the design of this figure, I feel that Big Firebird Toy put their C Team on weapons duty. The sword is a bit bland, but more importantly, there's one hand dedicated to holding both the Sword and the Bow, and neither of them are really held that well. The laser pistol is perhaps the only weapon where they did some homework as there's almost no way that gun will ever get loose from that hand, and I wish that they had given her a second pistol, in addition to more useful hands.

Another thing that might cool your enthusiasm for Nicee is that she is somewhat of a Partsformer, like most of the current mainline Transformers. In order to achieve a certain body shape, designers just made unwanted parts removable and convertible into accessories for the main figure.

In Nicee's case, that piece of the car body turns into a shield that is pegged in a way that you either can move the forearm it's attached to, or you hold it like a gun because there's no proper handle. Then there's the bow.... oh that bow.

It's made up of the front of the vehicle mode, which usually hangs on to her behind her neck, giving Nicee those wing looking things. Conversion to a bow involves plugging in a plastic piece that gives it a handle, then squeezing it into the hand that is meant for the sword. It's very, very awkward to say the least, and the fact there's no real dedicated hand for holding the arrow is also a major pain.

Oh right, in the event you don't fancy a bow, you can convert most of the parts into a skirt for... reasons, which unfortunately leaves you with a completely useless panel as well as reduced articulation.

Finally, coming full circle we have transformations, though before I go on I should probably mention that you swap out the breast plates by popping up the shoulders and head and replacing the part.

Conversion into vehicle mode isn't really that complicated once you decipher the instruction manuals mentions of degrees and misspelt words. To their credit, there is a link to a transformation video, which I didn't watch, but I'll presume is more helpful than the instructions. The overall methodology is kind of like TM2 Blackarachnia where you stretch out the body, wrap the legs around the body and cover the entire thing in a shell. IIRC the Generations version had this method and maybe even the other 3P Arcee I have, the Occular Max Zinnia.

I guess I should also mention there was controversy about how the vehicle mode had the visual making of a Vagina or something. I dunno.. I don't looking for the meaning of life in my cups of coffee, and I don't go looking for Vaginas in my vehicle modes.

So in conclusion, the base figure itself is very good, and I'm impressed with the excellent paint work and overall production values of the figure. Weapons really is where the ball was dropped, and even then things could have been saved if the variety of hands was greater and if the bow/shield had actual proper handles so they could do their job. But all-in-all, this is much better than any novelty figure has the right to be.

So if you're an open minded transforming robot fan, I'd highly recommend you give Nicee a try.

Prison officer on landing

Social Issues Photography

Third party Transformer figures are often a gamble. Sometimes they're incredibly bad - sometimes they're very impressive, like with that tiny Arcee a few weeks back.

But most of the time, they're kind of in the middle, such is the case with Night Countess aka Transformers Prime Airarachnid. Not exactly a character I'm familiar with, but I was aware of how the original toy didn't exactly do the character design justice... or most of the cast, if I'm being honest.

So when the prototype photos showed something that actually resembled the onscreen counterpart, I decided to get one just to check it out.

I think the best way of summarizing this figure is if Hasbro decided to remake the character as a modern day Deluxe class release, but somehow not quite hit all of the Hasbro/Takara Tomy QC points.

The overall sculpt is quite nice, in particular the head sculpt. Transformation is effectively a shellformer, but at least it isn't one that has an obscene number of loose parts - it's mainly the two variations of the copter blades - actual rotor form, and spider leg form. Robot kibble is present in vehicle mode, but it's not too bad and is really just the undercarriage.

Articulation is.. weird. I mean, it does hit all the Deluxe class points, save for a functional waist and for some odd reason, there is no ankle articulation. The upper torso can be rotated due to a the need for a joint there as part of the transformation sequence. Also a consequence of the transformation sequence is the use of double jointed elbows. The shoulders let you raise the arms to the side when they're straight down position only.

So overall, it's not great, but it's not the worst I've seen.

From a design perspective, however, there are some questionable items. Really questionable. For starters, the connection point for the spider legs and the figure are some really small and shallow pegs, which, provided they don't break off, just aren't really strong enough to actually ensure that they'll stay in place in a variety of positions. Speaking of breakages, I can forsee the part that secures the arms to the torso being bent and broken over time if you're not careful, as the transformation sequence seems to rely on the flexibility of the plastic and you not snapping the swivel joint at which the part is attached. The waist pieces are held on with pins, which could also be a problem going forward.

Then there's the material choices. The figure feels pretty flimsy, like pre Siege flimsy. It's not the greatest on the main figure, but the material is at least hard enough such that they could sculpt in some fine details. Where it really hurts is in the spider legs, making them pretty flimsy, adding unnecessary difficulty to standing the figure in Spider mode.

Don't get me started on how well the "instructions" turned out...

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

Image paired with the article:

Third Parties Eager to Disrupt the Presidential Race and the Two-Party System

www.truth-out.org/news/item/36024-third-parties-eager-to-...

Prison officer carries out a urine test for drugs

Social Issues Photography

Rok Lox Micro Comp Tires (right) mounted on Lego 56145 wheels vs Lego balloon tires mounted on stock Lego 42010 Off Road Racer (at left). The Rok Lox Micro Comp Tires are available from RC4WD ( store.rc4wd.com/Rok-Lox-Micro-Comp-Tires_p_739.html ), along with three other types of Losi Micro Tires on the RC4WD website ( store.rc4wd.com/Losi-Micro-Tires_c_88.html ). For more discussion about using Third-Party RC tires on Lego wheels, see the Eurobricks Technic Forum topic www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=70865&st=0 .

Full gallery @ TFW2005 here! www.tfw2005.com/transformers-images/toys/Thirdparty/Perfe...

Prison officer carries out a urine test for drugs

Social Issues Photography

This is a kitbash kit from Top, with a WorldBox body. Really nice set, actually. The jacket is particularly nice, and the headsculpt is quite good. Yes, I know I don't have a proper Winter Soldier hand on him. I need to get him a couple. I could use those from my HT sets, but I just don't want to.

Prison officer carries out a urine test for drugs

Social Issues Photography