Phil's
Classics, United & Reveal The Shield Bumblebee,
Henkei Bumble,
Classics Cliffjumper
and
Botcon Bugbite
Review

Classics Bumblebee

For a character who was so prominent in G1 Cartoon and Comic Bumblebee hasn't had much recent love in the main toy line after a start that beat everyone else. He was a Minibot, a Throttelbot - as Goldbug, a Classic Pretender, an Action Master, a G2 Minibot and a Gobot/Spychanger. Since then he's just been reissued and PVC'd - although his Japanese name Bumble was used for the combined Perceptor form of the Japanese Street Action minicon team.

Bumblebee's new vehicle mode is a modern car vaguely reminiscent of a VW beetle. There's some white detailing round the back, and a pale grey spoiler which covers the rear window. This can be removed but it exposes his face peeking through. He comes with a Wave Crusher jet ski on a trailer that can be towed behind him - Jet Ski not removable from trailer. There's an Autobot rubsign on the vehicle's roof.

To TF to robot mode: Slightly wiggle both doors away from the pegs. Turn the rear wheels but not as if they were going along on the ground, in such a way as the top is going into the car and the bottom is coming out - you'll end up in the wheels being inside the car and the arms - which were inside - being outside the car. Rotate the door panels round the wrists till they're on the outside of the arms - the same side as the little raised bit sticking out the elbow. Turn the door panel round at the wrist until the little peg sticking out the inside of the door is on top of the raised bit at the elbow and then lock into place. Pull the back of the car down, and then fold the roof of the car forward to form the robot chest. There's a black panel visible beneath the rear wind screen - fold this forward to form the top of the body and the neck, then fold the head forward. (it's important to remember to fold the head back before you fold the panel back when reversing the TF) Fold the seats down - yes seats - to cover the upper legs, fold the bonnet forward and then fold the lower legs up through the gap to form the feet.

The resulting robot has features of many of the previous Bumblebee's - the Cartoon/Comic head is present along with the signature roof as chest, front of the car flat on the ground as feet. He's got Goldbug's hood behind his head and the wheels inside the shoulder remind of the classic pretender - who had wheels outside of his shoulder. He is blessed in the articulation dept: Ankles as part of the TF, knees, ball jointed hips, elbows and shoulders, plus the TF joint at the shoulder which allows for the arms to swing out a bit, and a ball jointed neck.

The wave crusher also transforms - split the trailer in 2 and pull out to the side as wings - a very stiff joint on mine. Then rotate till the wheels point down beneath the jet ski. The Wave Crusher then locks into Bumblebee's hood as a jetpack - quite a nice touch as the AM version had a hellipack.

Overall ? best deluxe toy this year. Near perfect upgrade of a classic and neglected character. Haven't got anything bad to say about it apart from the seats occasionally getting in the way in robot mode and the lack of a gun. Buy this toy.

Bumblebee was released in Japan as Henkei toy C-02. This makes the grey forearms yellow, the leg fronts black, removes the white stripes from the car and gold chromes a portion of the the bonnet.

Cliffjumper

Cliffjumper is a simple colour swap with some additional paint applications. All yellow becomes red, as do all the previously grey pieces. The black on the hands, upper arms shoulders/reverse of the wheels and crotch becomes a grey nearly identical to the grey on Bumblebee. The glass becomes smokey, and the headlights are painted. There's a lot of silver detailing on the car bodywork which is a departure from the G1 colour scheme as is the grey on the arms - while black would have looked more like the G1 original I can understand the desire to differentiate from Bumblebee.. Cliffjumper's Wavecrusher doesn't fit on him as a jet pack as well as Bumblebee's does - mixing and matching has shown it's the wave crusher at fault somehow as Bumblebee's is fine on Cliffjumper, but vice versa is unstable again. There's no remoulding on the toy - slightly modifying the head to give it a larger base would have made it more authentic for Cliffjumper.

Cliffjumper was not released as a Henkei toy in Japan.

Bugbite

Bugbite takes his name from an E-Hobby version of G1 Bumblebee availible in an off white car body. Essentially the same colour swap has been applkied to Bumblebee - off white for yellow with the grey becoming black. The car is covered in purple patterning, almost like a tatoo.

Semi odd release - even for a convention - as there are a few more things you can do with a Bumblebee mould - see bellow. But it's got a vague G1 provenance so ...

Wal*Mart Bumblebee

The Legacy of Bumblebee three pack includes three version of the character Bumblebee from three of Transformers different toylines. The Classics Bumblebee uses the original Classics toy but alters the paint decoration. In terms of the plastic used this means that the grey on the wrists, spoiler, feet & jetski/jet pack are swapped for yellow, the previously white stripes become black, bringing them in line with Movie Bumblebee and swaps the clear windscreen for a clear blue one.

I think this Bumblebee is a big improvemnt on the original toy and not looks not too far removed from the Henkei one. For my money this is the best Bumblebee released to the western market.

This version of Classics Bumblebee was an exclusive to Wal*Mart in the US and to Toys R Us in the UK. He came packaged in a box with Premium Movie Bumblebee and Animated Bumblebee, both of whom are identical to their carded releases, making the Wal*Mart Classics Bumblebee the only unique figure in this set.

United Bumblebee

I like that recent Transformers toylines have acknowledged that certain toys are probably as good as they're going to get and bring them back for minor repaints as that character rather than making a new obscure repaint. Classics Bumblebee is one of those toys, and back he comes again. This time he's taking his que from Generation 2 Bumblebee, so that Transformers United Bumblebee almost produces a new version of Goldbug by covering all the surfaces of the vehicle in metallic gold paint.

Hmmm, shiny!

United Bumblebee was sold as Transformers United toy UN-07.

Reveal The Shield Bumblebee

Bumblebee returns in the west just after United Bumblebee came out, as Reveal The Shield Bumblebee.

Similar to the earlier Wal*Mart Bumblebee, the RTS Bumblebee has a yellow & black colour scheme derived from Movie Bumblebee. We loose the coloured panelling towards the back on each side but now have thick stripes, each about a quarter of the width of the roof, stretching back over the toy. The grey is cast in the same colour as the original Classics Bumblebee and the windscreen & headlights are now a clear blue. The seats are now coloured silver again which makes the upper legs in robot mode look odd, none of the western versions have painted them black like the Henkei one. If you look at the Preview Photographs then the toy looks superb. However, when you see the toy in the plastic the yellow on is a very orangey yellow, nearly the same colour used on RTS Grapple and that's just not right.

I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. I thought this was going to be the answer to all my Bumblebee needs.

@Hasbro: Bumblebee is YELLOW not ORANGE. Make me a Classics Bumblebee in yellow, with no black or white paint/stripes and black seats. Thank you.

Philip is off to eBayland to buy a Legacy of Bumblebee set.

More Repaints ?

Repaints ? You could do a gold Goldbug (with a new blue head), a Black evil version or even a G2 Hubcap version before you get into the weird foreign colour variants.

Transformers Animated links Bumblebee with Waspinaor, at one point showing Fugitive Waspinator using a recoloured green Bumblebee. So a Classics Vehicle Waspinaor could easily be a green Bumblebee especialy given the backpack serving as Waspinator's wings.

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