TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Additional Image:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

Sadie's review of: Bumblebee (`74 Camaro)

Name: Bumblebee
Sub-Group: Movie Deluxe
Scale: 1/36

”Sent to Earth by OPTIMUS PRIME ahead of the other AUTOBOTS, this tough robot’s job is to do what he does best: gather information, find the keeper of the secrets of the Allspark and remain hidden. BUMBLEBEE works best in silence and solitude, acting as an unseen guardian over his assigned target. Don’t let the fact that he likes to remain hidden fool you though – when it comes to a fight, he rushes in, both plasma cannons blazing!”

Alternate Mode:
Bumblebee’s alt mode is a yellow classic Camaro with blue windows and black racing stripes. I’m not overly impressed with the alt mode- It’s a bit small to be called a “Deluxe” in my opinion and while it is nice that you can store the toys' missile-firing weapons underneath it in alt. mode, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot to justify the classification. The windows and headlights of Bumblebee’s alt mode are painted on, the tires are plastic, there’s no flashy lights or sounds and on the figure I currently have, the black stripes are already starting to chip and fade where the [highly visible] joints for the robot transformation are. There’s also a bit of stray blue paint on the upper part of the hood, it looks like whatever was painting the toy’s windows dripped a bit.

Robot Mode:
The toy is far more interesting in robot mode than it is in alt. mode. Bumblebee is nicely detailed; the colours are a balanced black and yellow, with accents of silver, red and blue. The arms and hips of this figure are on ball joints, which provide a decent amount of smooth movement but the hands are not in any way articulated- the fingers are moulded together, with a hole for you to place the weapon handle in the center of each. The transformation is made incredibly simple with the Automorph feature; flip out the arms, activate both Automorph functions on the feet and around the head, then flip the windshield and doors out to form ‘wings’ on the back of the figure. Remove the weapons from the toys’ hands, place the weapons on the shoulders and you’re done.

The legs are somewhat awkward however- the knees don’t bend far back at all, making posing a bit difficult. The knees are also hinged a tiny bit farther up than normal and with the way the hinges on the feet are placed it almost looks like the figure is supposed to be “bird-legged”. It doesn’t look unpleasant; it just takes a little getting used to.

Transformation: 10. The transformation of this figure is exceedingly simple thanks to the Automorph features. I didn’t need to look at the instructions to figure it out.
Durability: 6. Well, ball joints usually pop back into place… the plastic seems of a reasonable quality, but it's a light figure- I expect the arms and legs to pop out occasionally and I don’t trust the “wing” doors on his back in robot mode to survive rough handling.
Fun: 6. I like this figure but the ugly alt mode is kind of depressing.
Price: 7. I think $12 Canadian wasn’t too bad.
Overall: 6. I really like the robot mode on this toy but the paint job, the plastic tires and the alt mode really don’t do much for the figure. Listing it as a “Deluxe” doesn’t make much sense to me either, to be honest- there’s nothing really “Deluxe” about this figure aside from the Automorph feature. However, for the price it’s decent enough… If you like posing figures in robot mode, Bumblebee’s a good figure to buy in my opinion.