Transform: Place the tape in front of you with the sticker side facing away from you and the Decepticon symbol the right way up. Fold the sides of the tape down 180 degrees to form the legs, then turn each leg in 90 degrees. Slide the feet forward out of the front of the bottom of the leg. Fold both halves of the top of the tape up and out to the sides to form the arms which cause the head to spring up. Turn each arm round 180 degrees at the bicep joint and bend the lower arm down at the elbow so it's parallel to the body. Either plug the weapons into the holes on his back or clip them onto the arm so the clips are round the area just bellow the elbow joint.
Frenzy's robot mode is predominantly dark blue, with the upper limbs, back and inner lower legs being the lighter blue. His feet and the elbow joint between the upper & lower arms are both made of a dark coloured metal with the weapons being chromed silver. His articulation is pretty good by the standards of early Transformers. In fact he's probably the best articulated small Transformer before the advent of the ball joint in 1995: His shoulders shrug upwards, he's got a bicep swivel, double bending elbows, a hip swivel & swing to the side, bending knees and bending ankles.
Detailed sculpting and a mass of articulation make this early Transformer toy a winner.
The Transformers cartoon has created some confusion concerning this toy and his brother. In the cartoon the blue tape robot is constantly referred to as Rumble while the seldom seen red tape robot is called Frenzy. The toys and the comic however are consistent: Frenzy is the blue one.
Frenzy is something of a record holder for the western Transformers toy range being available continuously for the longest time. He was first released in 1984 and continued to be sold in 1985 when he was packed with Laserbeak. In 1986 he was re-released and offered for sale through to the end of 1987, but this time packed with Ratbat where both toys had either silver or gold weapons. The Ratbat & Frenzy release was not sold in the UK at the time but unofficial "grey imports" of the Chinese Transformers line brought a number of this toy to Britain in the early 1990s.
In Japan Frenzy was Transformers release 18, then was re-released as D-58 and also in VSY with Soundwave and Grimlock. TF Wiki's Frenzy pages claims that there's a further release numbered D-103. However this is missing from their own list of Japanese Transformer ID numbers. I'm unable to find any pictures of this on the web and it's missing from the Japanese reference works I have.
Frenzy was re-issued in 2009 as part of Transformers Encore #19: Cassette Big Mission #3 with Rumble , Laserbeak and Overkill. There is some evidence that new pieces were manufactured for the Frenzy & Rumble tapes in this set.
Rumble was sold in the west packaged with Ravage where he was available from 1984-1986. However the official UK distribution of Rumble & Ravage ended in 1985, but that didn't stop a number of Chinese "grey imports" entering the country in the early 1990s.
In Japan Rumble was released with Transformers #17 Soundwave.
Like Frenzy, TF Wiki's Rumble Page claims he had another release as toy numbered D-102. Likewise I can't seem to find any trace of it elsewhere. If you know of a picture of the boxes for either of these toys please feel free to get in touch at the email address bellow.
Rumble was re-issued in 2009 as part of Transformers Encore #19: Cassette Big Mission #3 with Frenzy, Laserbeak and Overkill.
Neither Rumble or Frenzy have had a repaint since the original issue in Microman.