AoE Generations Deluxe High Octane Bumblebee [HAS PHOTOS - REVIEW TO FOLLOW]

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Mon Nov 24, 2014 7:27 pm

While taking photos of 2015 Camaro Bumblebee I thought I may as well do the ones for High Octane Bumblebee too. I'll get round to the review one day...

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:57 pm

Why is it that I'm very attracted towards the high octane version [as a toy] but do not care at all about the newer version?

Which of the two is better? The High octane one looks like the most traditional, TF-Wise, whereas the newer one looks like it tries new things, and I don't like the result :/

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Wed Nov 26, 2014 11:29 am

I like how different the black makes High Octane Bumblebee look compared with the myriad other movie Bumblebees. I also love the old muscle car alternate mode - we've not really had a good modern toy of Bumblebee with a classic car mode (the first movie Deluxe is cool for the time, but looks ridiculously dated next to anything from ROTF onwards).

High Octane follows the same basic transformation design as most movie Bumblebees since the end of ROTF and DOTM. There are a few differences to accommodate the alt mode proportions, but they're not significant. There are a few quirks in the design (e.g. part of the car front staying with the wheel wings, and funny protrusions from the door wings) that don't match the CGI model, and don't serve any purpose for the transformation - leaving you thinking 'why'? And the arms are rather short. Plus the arm cannon is really a bit annoying for me - I wish you could take it off or fold it away. But these are all minor niggles really, and I don't think there are any movie Deluxe Bumblebees without a few issues despite Hasbro having had a million goes at it - you'd have thought they'd be getting it perfect by now, but nope.

I personally prefer the 2015 Camaro version, mainly because he looks so different from previous versions in robot mode, yet has an alt mode very similar to the first movie. The transformation is very different from any previous movie Bumblebee, and works very nicely without be fiddly or complicated. I also like the fold away cannon and flip-down battlemask. But, if you just don't like the design, it's not for you!