Phil's
Generation 1 Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, "Bumper" & Hubcap,
Mexican Volks, Carerra & Sedan
Generation 2 Bumblebee & Hubcap
Keychain Bumblebee & Cliffjumper
Botcon Glyph & Tap-out
Black Keychain Bumblebee & Cliffjumper
Transformers Collection Bumblebee
and
E-Hobby Bugbite
Review

Microman Origins

This is how this review came about: While writing about Soundwave and his tapes I kept coming across the Mini Autobots. They were there on the same Microman pages I was looking at for the origins of the cassettes and kept cropping up at around the same time as Soundwave's reissues. I'm writing in Transformers Collection #10 Soundwave's entry on the index sheet for my site and there's the un-reviewed Mini bot set right bellow it. "Hmmm" I think "I've got a keychain Bumblebee somewhere in the loft, I could get that out and review it" (it's actually in the trailer for my original Japanese reissue Optimus Prime) Then this morning a big box of Micromasters showed up and in it as a bonus was an original Bumblebee. I figure someone's trying to tell me something ....

I'm covering Bumblebee, Cliffjumper & "Bumper" here - and all derivations of the above as per usual. All three toys have a common history and have stories that are so interlinked that it's worth telling the story together. To the best of my knowledge all three are original moulds and there are no shared parts between them. Though the legs,arms and wheels do look very similar....

The three toys that make up Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and "Bumper" start life together in the Microchange toy line in Japan. Microchange specialised in household objects (like Cassette players, Microscopes and high velocity weapons with silencers) turning into robots to assist the Microman toys. So what are cars doing as part of this toyline ? Our three Transformers are actually part of the Minicar series which is based on the Choro-Q (penny racer) toyline of superdeformed cars. Yes Bumblebee, Cliffjumper & "Bumper" are meant to be toy cars! (If you want to read about Transformers reunion with Choro-Q then TF Wiki's Choro-Q article is a good place to start.)

The seven cars in the Microchange Minicar series are:

01 Porsche 944 - which becomes Cliffjumper
02 Nissan XG 1500 - which becomes the toy now known as "Bumper"
03 VW Beetle - which is of course Bumblebee
04 4WD Truck - Gears
05 Jeep - Brawn
06 Trans Am - Windcharger
07 Semi Truck - Huffer

The first three cars were each available in three colours: red,yellow & blue. Which helps explain some of what follows..... The remaining 4 toys in this series were only available in their Transformers colours.

Generation 1 Bumblebee

The Transformers release of the VW Beetle toy gives the fledgling toyline one of it's most iconic characters due to the work done by both the Marvel comic and the cartoon when they chose to focus on him early on. The official Transformers colour scheme for this car is yellow, but many red Bumblebees were released indicating that early Bumblebee's may have been Microman overstock. The dimensions for the 67 VW Beetle are Length 4,079 mm (160.6 in) & Width 1,539 mm (60.6 in) which emphasises that the Transformers toy - which is approximately 1 inch x 1 inch - is a super deformed version. It still captures most of the familiar features of the rounded VW Beetle design.

Transformation: Pull the front of the car forward to reveal the legs then bend the front of the car up to form the feet. Pull the sides of the car out to form the arms. Fold the back of the car - which would have been the slot for the penny to go in on the Choro-Q version - back to reveal the head. Stand.

The robot mode reveals black plastic on the arms & legs which works well as a good contrast to the yellow of the car body & feet. While the general shape of the head is similar to what we're familiar with thanks to the cartoon & comics the face is different replaced with a face plate & visor. This feature together with Bumblebee's lack of articulation (his arms turn at the shoulders and that's it!) are one of the things that placed Bumblebee near the top of most Transformer's fans redo list.

Bumblebee was available in 1984, 1985 & 1986. He was one of the first Transformers to receive a redesign when a new version was released as the Throttlebot Goldbug after which he returns as Pretender Bumblebee and finally as Action Master Bumblebee. His five versions make him the most released Generation One character in the original toyline: Megatron has 3 (if you count Galvatron alongside the original & Action Master versions) as do Starscream, Grimlock & Jazz (all of which have original, Pretender & Action Master versions) and Optimus Prime (Original, Powermaster & Action Master).

It's a decent small toy for it's age and price.

Generation 1 Cliffjumper

When the Porsche 944 toy was released as a Transformer the intention would seem to be for it to be only released in red to distinguish it from Bumblebee. Well as we've seen Bumblebee got a red version as well and to further muddy the waters Cliffjumper is available in both the preferred red and yellow - the yellow version becoming particularly well known as it was released with the story tape "Sun Run" as part of Hasbro's Listen 'n Fun line. In it's super deformed form the Porsche is a similar shape to the VW released as Bumblebee. Close attention will reveal that the Porsche has a more angular front, three window panels down each side (the rear most panel being part of a curved rear window) and a spoiler at the rear. However while you look at Bumblebee and see a VW Beetle Cliffjumper looks quite different from the real world Porsche 944.

Transformation: same as Bumblebee above.

The robot mode is again similar to Bumblebee using black as the revealed colour on the upper legs and arms. Whereas the artists and animators took liberties with Bumblebee's face, here they've just used the Cliffjumper face directly: the sloped head sides, horns and face are all here.

Somewhat less iconic than Bumblebee due to taking a backseat in the comics he has no re-appearances during the original toyline, not even as a Bumblebee repaint. That trick would be invented later, though I'm sure there's a few Action Master Bumblebees around that have had a red repaint at home.

Generation 1 "Bumper"

We've already seen how red Bumblebees and Yellow Cliffjumpers made it into the wild. But the appearance of the Nissan 1500XG in the western toyline is even more interesting. Any Transformers fan will tell you there were six mini Autobots released in the first year of the line, 1984. But a seventh toy made it's way on to the market on Cliffjumper (and it's believed Bumblebee cards). This was the yellow version of the Nissan 1500xg. Lacking an official name it was initially christened Bumblejumper by concatenating the start and finish of the two names on the cards he was released on. Later on he came to be known as Bumper and under that name he appears in the IDW Transformers comic strip.

I've been unable to find any images of the actual car to compare Bumper too. Alongside Bumblebee and Cliffjumper he's the plainer of the three toys so you can maybe see why he didn't make the grade officially.

Transformation is as per Bumblebee, with the robot parts again being moulded in black.

Bumper's cast in yellow but since the other two cars officially use two of the colour variations on the Microman cars maybe he should take the third colour and be blue !

Generation 1 Hubcap

Hubcap is a remould of Cliffjumper released in 1986 alongside remoulds of the other first year Minibots. You can tell it's Cliffjumper: he's got the same side window arrangements as Cliffjumper, but the spoiler has been significantly reduced in size. Unfortunately Hubcap is painted yellow. why yellow ? Surely this would only cause confusion with the similarly shaped Bumblebee ? ? ?

Transformation reveals a new head in robot mode: much squarer and with moulded vents down the sides of the head and a crest above the face. Unfortunately the face is painted orange which completely obliterates the detail on it especially when compared to the yellow surrounding it.

I love the 1986 repaint series, Unfortunately Hubcap is very much the weak link in the series.

Hubcap does not have an entry in 1986's Transformers universe for some reason.

Brazilian Minibots

The Minibot Transformers were sold in Brazil through manufacturer Estrela where they were divided between Optimus and Malignus factions. Most of the Minibots who were used in Brazil received multiple colourations different to their US versions.

Volks

Volks is the Brazilian repaint of Bumblebee. TFU think he's available in orange or silver while TF Wiki say orange or red. TFU have Photos so I'm going with them.

Carerra

Carerra is the Brazilian repaint of Cliffjumper. There's several colour variations to this toy: green, blue, white & gold !

Sedan

Sedan is an officially released Brazilian version of Bumper. He came in white, blue, green or yellow.

This is the last known appearance of the Bumper toy in any Transformers range.

Generation 2 Bumblebee

As a prominent Transformers character Bumblebee was an obvious choice for a repaint in the early days of the Generation 2 toyline. He's a repaint of the original Bumblebee rather than one of the newer versions of the character. He's one of the better G2 repaints as well: Bumblebee swaps the yellow for a vac-metal gold. This is similar enough to the original colours to work for the character, it feels like a power-up for the toy with gold sort of being the metallic version of yellow and in itself pays homage to his reincarnated form of Throttlebot Goldbug.

G2 Bumblebee was sold as a G2 launch toy in the USA in 1984. He wasn't officially released through Hasbro in the UK but a number of the G2 Minibots were imported by Woolworths. G2 Bumblebee was not sold in Japan.

Generation 2 Hubcap

Hubcap is a more surprising choice as a G2 repaint. This takes the Generation 1 Hubcap, itself a re-mould of Cliffjumper and gives it a new vac-metal red colour scheme in place of the yellow, Now I ask was the red the best colour choice ? Were they actually aiming for G2 Cliffjumper and couldn't get the original mould? I suspect most people treated it as G2 Cliffjumper because that's what the colour says to them.

G2 Hubcap was sold as a G2 launch toy in the USA in 1984. He wasn't officially released through Hasbro in the UK but a number of the G2 Minibots were imported by Woolworths. G2 Hubcap was not sold in Japan.

Keychain Bumblebee & Cliffjumper

In 2001 Fun for All licensed some of the Minibot toys and released them as key fobs. Both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were released as the first wave. They have their original colour schemes but the rear bumper of the car/robot's left shoulder now sport a plastic loop which is used to attach them to a key chain.

The keychain versions were released by Takara in 2003 and again by Hasbro in 2007.

Botcon Glyph

Botcon Glyph is a repaint of Keychain Bumblebee which swaps the yellow bodywork for a metallic blue and the black robot parts for grey. The faceplate is painted yellow.

This figure was an exclusive at Botcon 2002.

Botcon Tap-out

Botcon Tap-Out is a repaint of Keychain Cliffjumper. The red bodywork is replaced with a metallic green while the black robot parts become grey. The face is painted silver.

This figure was an exclusive toy for pre-registrants at Botcon 2002.

Black Keychain Bumblebee & Cliffjumper

When Takara released the four Keychains in 2003 (Bumblebee & Cliffjumper as above plus Brawn & Windcharger) they also issued chase variants of all four characters. All plastic is now moulded in black with the faces or faceplates painted silver.

Transformers fans do love a black repaint.

For completeness sake here's the black Keychain versions of Brawn & Windcharger to complete the set.

Transformers Collection Bumblebee

This Bumblebee is a re-mould of Original Bumblebee. It's a relatively minor change: the face is now a new part that looks much more like Bumblebee's cartoon & comic appearance albeit with a slightly odd mouth.

This version of Bumblebee was first released in 2004's Transformers Collection #12 Minibot set. This set also contains the two 1984 Minibots that weren't issued as keychains plus three 1985 Minibots:

Gears
Huffer
Cosmos
Powerglide
Warpath

The reissue Bumblebee also returns in 2008's Transformers Encore #10 Minibot set. This version has the eyes painted pale blue. The Encore 10 set also contains four of the five Minibot remoulds from 1986:

Pipes a re-mould of Huffer
Swerve a re-mould of Gears
Outback a re-mould of Brawn
Tailgate a re-mould of Windcharger

I find it interesting that between the Keychain reissues, which Takara sold in Japan in 2003, the Transformers Collection, which also includes Wheelie packed with Targetmaster Kup & Recoil and the Encore Minibot set that all but three Minibots have been reissued. The three that haven't made a Japanese reappearance are Beachcomber & Seaspray, both from 1985, and 1986's Generation 1 Hubcap. These three have a prior connection: they're the three Minibots that received a G2 colour scheme alongside Bumblebee (see G2 Beachcomber, G2 Seaspray and G2 Hubcap. Should we suspect something happened to those three toy moulds at that time ? (and if that doesn't make Takara announce another Minibot set then nothing will!)

Bug Bite

Bugbite is a Destron(Decepticon) Repaint of Transformers Collection Bumblebee which is a re-mould of the Original Bumblebee. Bug Bite swaps Bumblebee's yellow for white and gets a Decepticon logo on his chest.

Bug Bite appears in the E-Hobby Destron Minibot set with:

Pathfinder a repaint of Cosmos
Road Ranger a repaint of Huffer
Small Foot a repaint of Gears
Bad Boy a repaint of Powerglide
Treads a repaint of Warpath

All the toys in this set are Decepticons using GoBots toys as the origin of their names.

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