When Takara Tomy put this Arcee in a glass case in Tokyo last month, the card beside her gave her a name and nothing else. Release date undecided, retail price undecided. That was the finding in our report from the 64th All Japan Model Hobby Show. Both blanks are now filled. Missing Link C-16 Arcee Rebirth is $149.99, and Hasbro Pulse and BigBadToyStore are both taking pre-orders at that number.
Hasbro sells her under TT Imports, the shelf it keeps for Takara’s Japanese releases, so the storefront is Hasbro’s and the toy is Takara’s. Worth holding on to, because the two shops do not agree about when she ships.
Hasbro’s listing says the item “will be available to ship on approximately July 26, 2027” and gives a day. BigBadToyStore estimates August 2027 and takes $15.00 non-refundable to hold it. A spread like that is ordinary on an import and both pages call themselves estimates, but the direction is the opposite of the one we have been seeing. On the Overgear Grindor last night and on the Jetfire and Sludge reissues last week, Hasbro’s own store was the later of the two. Here it is a month earlier.
Hasbro also runs a clock on this one. At quarter past one Eastern on Tuesday the counter on the product page read 23 days and 10 hours, which runs the window out at the end of 3 December. It is live and it ticks, so the number will have moved by the time you read this.
The toy nobody made in 1987
In 1987 Japan got Transformers: The Headmasters and the rest of the world got The Rebirth, three episodes in which Daniel Witwicky’s exo-suit folds up as Arcee’s head and the two of them run as a Headmaster. No toy of that was made at the time. Takara’s product copy frames the whole release as a what-if: what if a redeco of C-07 and C-08 Arcee had come out as Headmaster Arcee back then.
So that is what you are buying. C-16 is built on C-07 Arcee (Prototype) and C-08 Arcee, with an all new head that converts into Daniel’s Exo-Suit, a combination connector added to the body, a head sculpt taken from the finished animation design instead of the earlier two, and the main pink moved to a shade from The Rebirth. That also answers the question our October piece could not: the Daniel unit is new tooling.
Takara’s own lineup shot is the honest version of the pitch. Put the three side by side and the two pinks sit close enough that the head and the grey on the shoulders are what separate C-16 from C-08 at a glance. Both donors are on that shop’s shelf today: C-07 Arcee (Prototype) is in stock at BigBadToyStore at $98.99 and C-08 Arcee is in stock at $98.99. The $51.00 on top buys the head, the connector, the new sculpt and the deco. It does not buy new guns. The two small laser guns are, in Takara’s words, “identical in design to those included with C-08”.
The box is in English and the code on it is Japanese
Hasbro’s listing sells the set as “featuring original Japanese packaging”, and Takara’s own copy says the package design pays homage to the overseas Headmasters releases, down to the grey inner backing card and the clear blister tray. Both are true, and the photograph shows how. It is a Japanese release in a box dressed as a western one: the 1987 silver wordmark, “MORE… MUCH MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!”, the red grid, a flash reading HEADMASTER C-16 ARCEE THE REBIRTH TYPE, and the Takara Tomy logo where Hasbro’s would have gone. Even the instruction text is in the old translated English, “The Driver the Vehicle transforms into the Head of the Robot”, which is the kind of sentence no 2026 copywriter would be allowed to turn in. A collection card with the same newly drawn art goes in with her.
The box also settles which way round the gimmick runs, in six words beside a picture of her face: “Daniel transforms into Arcee’s head and back!”
The connector is the 1987 one
The combination connector is built to the original 1980s Headmaster standard, so the swap runs both ways, and Takara photographed it both ways: Arcee’s body under Chromedome’s head, and her own head sitting on two Headmasters toys from the period. The small print hedges it, compatibility may vary by product, and the figure has no Tech Spec Meter function. Takara’s caption on that image also notes that the toys posed with her are no longer sold, so the swap is for period Headmasters you already own.
The figure has a stand port in her back for a stand sold separately. In the box with her are the heat sensitive emblem that shows the faction insignia when a thumb warms it, and a foil sticker sheet in the period style.
Two figures, one body
Hasbro’s spec strip counts “2 figs + 2 accessories”. The contents list on BigBadToyStore names an Arcee figure, Daniel (Arcee head), laser gun, collection card, sticker, secret film, leaflet and instructions, and the note Takara prints under its official photographs says the product contains one C-16 Arcee. The second figure is her head. That contents list names parts rather than counting them, so take the guns from the description and the photographs, which both have two.
A second note sits in the same place on every shot Takara has put out. These are pictures of a prototype, and the final specification, shape and colouring may differ.
Where $149.99 lands on the shelf
The related shelf on Hasbro’s own page today has C-09 Cybertron Hero Set in stock at $94.99, C-01N Nemesis Prime in stock at $131.99 and C-10 Ultra Magnus in stock at $194.99. So she sits above the two cheaper Missing Links on that page and well under the Magnus. That is a lot for a redeco. The head is new, the body is the one you can already buy for a third less, and what the rest of it pays for is a box that has been waiting thirty-nine years to exist.
Sources
- Transformers Missing Link C-16 Arcee Rebirth Action Figure, BigBadToyStore, read 10 November 2026 for the $149.99 price, the pre-order state, the live cart control, the $15.00 down payment, the August 2027 arrival estimate, the box contents and the full product description. The C-07 and C-08 prices and in stock states were read in the same session.
- Transformers Takara Tomy Missing Link C-16 Arcee Rebirth, Hasbro Pulse, read 10 November 2026 for the $149.99 price, SKU G75995L00, the approximate 26 July 2027 ship date, the spec strip, the countdown on the pre-order window, the 142 mm height, the original Japanese packaging line and the TT Imports listing. The three Missing Link prices in the last section were read from the related products on the same page.
- New Transformers Takara Tomy Missing Link C-16 Reimagines Arcee, Bleeding Cool, 9 November 2026, where the American pre-order reached the English trade press.
- MPG-28 Megatron and C-16 Arcee (The Rebirth Type): Takara’s own show cards settle the numbering, our own report from the 64th All Japan Model Hobby Show, 3 October 2026.
Product photography: Takara Tomy. The packaging copy quoted above was read off Takara’s own photograph of the box.