Fembots!! part1

Although I can’t list every single Fembot, or even recite every comic appearance, I am a big fan and they form a chunk of my collection

There are still some weird ones that always jump out and surprise me, like Manta Ray the ugly ass McDonald's toy, or Freezon the very 1st Fembot figure in the Transformers’ realm.

The poor lass is trapped on an Scalextric-like track racing for all eternity. (Freezon’s gender was only confirmed very recently, and originally the 1st Fembot figure was Minerva).

I'm happy being a female fan in this age of TF collecting. I think we have broken some amazing boundaries recently thanks to the IDW comics, who have written these girls a major roll in their storylines. Gone have the days of the token girl who hangs around a bunch of guys. We have gone from a real slim picking of figures to a massive boom mostly thanks to the arrival of the TF fan created Windblade, and dare I say it… Victorion which have both helped to strike a cord with Has/Tak. We need more figures!

But this blog post isn't about how many Fembots I can name or how many I can google. This is just a look in to one of my favourite parts of my collection, and what I try to focus on.

I will warn you though, there will be a lot of love for these moulds… because I wouldn't buy them if I didn't like them. (Although I still have mixed feelings for Victorion).

The oldest lass I own is not technically a Transformer but one of their cousins the Gobots.

Crasher was one of my favourite Fems as a kid, she was treated as an equal by her renegade comrades. This girl was sinister as hell and rocks a fabulous goth look, I always thought she had a cropped bob with the shape of her head. Sadly her figure never rocked the glam red lipstick, just a big old Lady Gaga visor. She was indeed a monster!

There's a lot of obscure G1 babes in between Crasher and my next lass.

Freezon, Minerva, Roadrage, etc. (I can't google them all).

The next bunch of Fems come from Beastwars: Blackarachnia and Airazor. These girls both got an original Beastwars toy as well as a Transmetal. Blackarachnia lasted till Beast Machines and she also got a 3rd toy.

Plus I'm a big old pervert, because of a design flaw poor old Blackarachnia's TM mould got shunted back (mums didn't like the fact she looked like she was flashing her tatas to the world). So a gross purple bra was constructed to, not only enhance her chest, but cover those naughty looking nips.

Airazor really spoke to me as she doesn’t really look at a Fembot. In the Japanese show she was a dude, which did kind of work out a little weird as she was pretty involved with Tigatron. She has 3 modes: robot, eagle, and a bird pontoon plane. I love how her bird feet double up as a weapon, but a little bummed they don’t come off.

Never genderized, but I like to think she was female, was the tragic Transmutate. Various parts of her were sold in the anniversary Beastwars toys. She was like a builder Marvel Universe toy, but to buy the pieces separately will cost you an arm and a leg.

In my world Beast Machines came next with Blackarachnia sporting a more organic mode (which I'm not a very big fan of but I really love her paint scheme and weird Aye-Aye fingers). Her legs split in to two to make her spider legs up to 8.

Now Strika, who originally came from this series is amazing! Big bulky lass who just enjoyed exterminating every autobot in sight. Alas I don’t own her yet but she's on the list, don't worry.

My next series to pick up Fembots is the Unicron trilogy. The Fembots in this series are slim picking unless you want to track down a million Minicons.

Airazor got a darker colour scheme. She has been stripped of her chrome detail, and Minicon ports have been added on to the tip of her wings, as well as a massive Decepticon brand on her back. She was a double agent for the Autobots spying on the Deceptions. She has all the same gimmicks as her original Beastwars self. Again 3 modes: bird, bird pontoon plane, and robot.

Override is an odd one when it comes to the Fembot world. In the Japanese dub she is male and her toy looks really masculine. However the english dub wanted more females in this series, and like I said the fems are really slim picking. So slim in fact they changed the gender of one.

This girl is another that is a pain in the ass to get to stand, she has really annoying Windblade like heels at the back that just flop back when you try to stand her up.

Even though her body shape is rather masculine, I do feel her face is quite feminine.

Recently she has made an appearance in the IDW world revising her role as the Queen of Speed.

Arcee had a triumphant return and sporting a bike mode that seems to be her norm at the mo. She still rocked her pink paint job though unlike her Prime self. I love the head sculpt on this toy it seems super cute and she rocks the cutest pastel on-trend helmet too.

The only thing i’m gutted about is she is way to small. She is about the size of todays Legends Class so a dot really, consequently her transformation is really simple and quick.

Last in this series is the Queen of the Shellformers…Thunderblast. This barbie pin up bot always chases after anything built like a brick shit house, and had the power to boot! She would shamelessly throw herself at Megatron, only for her advances to be ignored.

Her toy basically carries the shell of a boat on her back which she folds right in and… ‘Blam!’ you've got a boat. Simple.

We roll in to the Bayverse world now. I was never a fan of this when it 1st came out the designs and toys where way to far fetched. I was still pretty stuck on the thought that these where supposed to look more G1ish. Arcee was suppose to be in the 1st film but was scrapped for various reasons. We were lucky to get a toy of this design at all.

I really love her design she has this bad ass G.I. Jane feel to her sporting a military beret. This toy saw 3 different repaints Battle Damage, Black Arcee, and a super limited G1 repaint. I think if i had a massive endless pit of money I would own all 4 because I do genuinely love the look of this mould.

We all know she finally got an appearance in the Bayverse movies but for me it was such a let down, the design, and also the amount of screen time she and her sisters got.

For this post the last series I’m going to be touching down on is animated. So many Fembots cropped up in this series both in the background and foreground, but only 2 figures were released; Arcee and Blackarachnia.

Arcee briefly appeared in the series and she was voiced by Sue Blu the original voice actress. The figure oozes G1-ness. From the back kibble to the princess lea pork pie ears. She also rocks her G1 futuristic racing car alt mode, a big thumbs up for me. She took me so long to track down…auctions after auctions I missed out on, on eBay.

Blackarachnia in the series started off as Elita-1 who sadly met a messy end with some alien spiders and then she re-emerged as Blackarachnia. The animated toy is based on the Beastwars design. Now that we start moving on to these newer models these girls are getting more articulation. With this in mind these animated bots can throw some shapes out. But Blackarachnia is a pain in the ass to get to stand, one of my pet peeves!

She rocks the spider mode with the most simplest of transformations!

This post has been a little bit of a mammoth to write so cheers for sticking it out. There is still a lot more to go through, but I thought to cut it here for today instead of rambling on and on.

#transformers #fembots