Review #33: Classics Bumblebee (Deluxe & Legends)
(also: Deluxe Cliffjumper and Legends Goldbug)
Tall & Small Month #2!
Ah, Bumblebee. One of the most beloved characters of the G1 days. Something of a bane of collectors these days, as since the first live action movie Hasbro has become intent on making sure every person in the world own at least seven of him, and thus in any wave of Transformers toys must by law contain at least two different versions of him in the assortment. (Seriously... Go to any toy store, and look at the Transformers. If they have a decent amount of stock, at least half of them will be Bumblebees. If they are low on stock, it is not uncommon for there to be only Bumblebees. Seriously, Hasbro... enough of the Bumblebees for a while!)
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But the Deluxe class figure here, part of 2006's first wave of Classics Deluxe Class figures, comes from a more innocent time when people still loved Bumblebee, and yet there hadn't been a new mold toy of this character for over fifteen years.
In the G1 days, Bumblebee was, of course, a VW Beetle. But Volkswagen in more modern times is reluctant to allow Hasbro use of the Beetle design. Not long after this toy, in the live action movies, Bumblebee would instead become a Camero. I've become used to that for the live action continuity, I suppose, but of course as a separate continuity that is a separate character. When considering the G1 character, something so sleek and flashy as a Camero would seem so out of place on Bumblebee... but the generic sporty hatchback that Hasbro designed for him here does work very nicely.
The original G1 Bumblebee was all yellow. Later uses of this particular mold would use black striping obviously inspired by the live action movie's Bumblebee. This version features white striping and a white rear end to help break up the yellow. All yellow would have still worked quite nicely in my opinion, but the white does look good.
The vehicle has an accessory, a "Wave Crusher" jet-ski on a small towed trailer. This accessory will also come into play when we transform Bumblebee into a robot. The vehicle originally sported a spoiler, but it was easily removable without a detrimental effect on the vehicle's appearance, and I thought it made for a better Bumblebee-esque vehicle mode with the added bonus that it allowed for a touch of uniqueness to separate Bumblebee from the Cliffjumper released using the same mold a few waves later in the Classics toyline.
As originally released, Bumblebee sported a rubsign on his roof, but I've chosen to replace it with a standard faction symbol. Also, from Reprolabel's multi-toy "Classics Autobot" set, came a "Bumble-B" license plate and a sticker on the vehicle's rear end matching one from the G1 figure.
Two years later, in the Universe toyline, a Legends Class Bumblebee was released that is a very nice, smaller representation of the character more in line with the scale of the original G1 mini-car, but maintaining the aesthetic of the earlier Classics figure.
In the G1 days, Bumblebee was, of course, a VW Beetle. But Volkswagen in more modern times is reluctant to allow Hasbro use of the Beetle design. Not long after this toy, in the live action movies, Bumblebee would instead become a Camero. I've become used to that for the live action continuity, I suppose, but of course as a separate continuity that is a separate character. When considering the G1 character, something so sleek and flashy as a Camero would seem so out of place on Bumblebee... but the generic sporty hatchback that Hasbro designed for him here does work very nicely.
The original G1 Bumblebee was all yellow. Later uses of this particular mold would use black striping obviously inspired by the live action movie's Bumblebee. This version features white striping and a white rear end to help break up the yellow. All yellow would have still worked quite nicely in my opinion, but the white does look good.
The vehicle has an accessory, a "Wave Crusher" jet-ski on a small towed trailer. This accessory will also come into play when we transform Bumblebee into a robot. The vehicle originally sported a spoiler, but it was easily removable without a detrimental effect on the vehicle's appearance, and I thought it made for a better Bumblebee-esque vehicle mode with the added bonus that it allowed for a touch of uniqueness to separate Bumblebee from the Cliffjumper released using the same mold a few waves later in the Classics toyline.
As originally released, Bumblebee sported a rubsign on his roof, but I've chosen to replace it with a standard faction symbol. Also, from Reprolabel's multi-toy "Classics Autobot" set, came a "Bumble-B" license plate and a sticker on the vehicle's rear end matching one from the G1 figure.
Two years later, in the Universe toyline, a Legends Class Bumblebee was released that is a very nice, smaller representation of the character more in line with the scale of the original G1 mini-car, but maintaining the aesthetic of the earlier Classics figure.
The transformation of both of these Bumblebees is vaguely similar too, but more complex than, his original G1 figure. The trailer that the Deluxe figure towed reconfigures to become a winged backpack that clips onto the robot's back. Jet ski to jetpack, I suppose. Of course, having the figure wear this is entirely optional, and I gather that many don't. But I figure, heck, it's there, while not the nicest thing in the world it isn't ugly, either, so I may as well use it!
Although the Deluxe one is sporting one in these photos, neither Bumblebee came with a gun. Not a huge surprise in the case of the Legends Class figure, but disappointing with the Deluxe one. Speculation is that this is related to the reason Volkswagen is reluctant to let Hasbro use the Beetle design, but it isn't very important. What is, is. |
Fortunately, one of the bonus accessories with Fansproject's trailer for Classics Voyager Class Optimus Prime was a weapon for Bumblebee to use. Alas, because it is an extra, the weapon does not feature storage on the figure's vehicle mode.
Both figures are decently articulated. With the Deluxe Class one, we have the head on a ball joint, ball joints in the shoulders and elbows, ball joints in the hips, pivoting knees, and ankle pivots that, while an artifact of the transformation, can be rather useful. There's no articulation in the waist which is always a wee bit sad, but not something I get to upset about until we hit Voyager Class.
The Legends Class figure here of course has much simpler articulation. He has pivoting shoulders which also have a slight outward movement, ball jointed hips, and ankle pivots for reasoning identical to his larger counterpart. Average for a Legends Class figure. All in all, a decent pair of Bumblebees. |
The main point of this review was to look at the pair of Bumblebees, but I figured, what the heck? May as well take a quick look at the two other figures I have with these molds, one additional Deluxe and one additional Legends.
On Cliffjumper you see the spoiler I removed from Bumblebee. It really does suit Cliffjumper better. He originally had a red spoiler, but when I took off Bumblebee's grey one I thought I'd see how it looked on Cliffjumper and found I rather liked it. Then, some time after that, I thought, "Hey, I have a silver Sharpie, what would that spoiler look like silver?" And I found I rather liked that even more.
Cliffjumper features the same Reprolabels as Bumblebee, except of course that his plate reads, "C-JUMPER," and the sticker on the back of his vehicle is a different design to reflect that found on the original Cliffjumper.
Cliffjumper features the same Reprolabels as Bumblebee, except of course that his plate reads, "C-JUMPER," and the sticker on the back of his vehicle is a different design to reflect that found on the original Cliffjumper.
Cliffjumper originally also had no weapons, and was a straight repaint of Bumblebee without his own unique head. Once upon a time third party favorite Fansproject, as their first release, tried to do something about that with a kit that gave him weapons, a new head, and made some substantial changes to his vehicle mode as well! Alas, as their first effort and one which had a limited production run (with the molds since having been either damaged or lost, leaving a re-release rather unlikely) I missed the boat on that one! It can go for over $300 on the second hand market these days, to which I say, "No thanks!"
Fortunately, a different third party company, Beelzeboss, more recently made their own upgrade for Cliffjumper, called, "Devil Horns Custom Kit." (If you're interested, they've made similar kits to also customize other uses of this mold.) This kit doesn't do anything for the vehicle mode like the earlier Fansproject kit did, but I am fine with that. I pretty much just wanted to have a Cliffjumper with his own unique head and some firepower, and this kit delivers that excellently. Cliffjumper's head looks right out of the G1 animated series, and these guns look like some of the firepower he sported in that show as well.
There was a Cliffjumper made with the Legends figure we've looked at today, but alas it was only ever released in Japan (in a multi-figure set with other figures I've gotten domestic versions of). While I'd love to have a little Legends Cliffjumper, it wasn't worth enough to me to pay import pricing for. I am kind of surprised that Hasbro never did their own Legends Cliffjumper... They do like their repaints, and this would seem an obvious one... Ah, well. So, who are we looking at as an additional use of the Legends Class mold, then?
Fortunately, a different third party company, Beelzeboss, more recently made their own upgrade for Cliffjumper, called, "Devil Horns Custom Kit." (If you're interested, they've made similar kits to also customize other uses of this mold.) This kit doesn't do anything for the vehicle mode like the earlier Fansproject kit did, but I am fine with that. I pretty much just wanted to have a Cliffjumper with his own unique head and some firepower, and this kit delivers that excellently. Cliffjumper's head looks right out of the G1 animated series, and these guns look like some of the firepower he sported in that show as well.
There was a Cliffjumper made with the Legends figure we've looked at today, but alas it was only ever released in Japan (in a multi-figure set with other figures I've gotten domestic versions of). While I'd love to have a little Legends Cliffjumper, it wasn't worth enough to me to pay import pricing for. I am kind of surprised that Hasbro never did their own Legends Cliffjumper... They do like their repaints, and this would seem an obvious one... Ah, well. So, who are we looking at as an additional use of the Legends Class mold, then?
Hasbro called this figure, "Gold Bumblebee," but we all know it is really Goldbug! Mind you, they are the same character, but he did change his name (for in fiction reasons not too dissimilar to what is presented in this slightly NSFW video) so that is the name I think of when looking at this figure. (The real reason for the G1 name change was in part to justify a new toy to sell, where as these days Hasbro has no problem releasing hundreds of thousands of Bumblebees, and I suspect, "Gold Bumblebee" was so that we knew for sure that this was another one!)
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As part of 2011's "Reveal the Shield" toyline, Goldbug here originally sported a rubsign on his roof / chest, but this has been replaced with a standard faction symbol thanks to Reprolabels. The rubsign has been relocated to the vehicle's rear.
Goldbug features very nice coloration, with his gold plastic being rather rich and somewhat shiny, even having a subtle amount of sparkliness to it. His limbs and head have a nice blue to them often associated with the blue used for what was supposed to be black in vintage Transformers comics. Together, the gold and blue make for an aesthetically pleasing combination.
Goldbug features very nice coloration, with his gold plastic being rather rich and somewhat shiny, even having a subtle amount of sparkliness to it. His limbs and head have a nice blue to them often associated with the blue used for what was supposed to be black in vintage Transformers comics. Together, the gold and blue make for an aesthetically pleasing combination.
A season of Get Smart continues to help to offer size comparisons with a DVD case.
All in all, three excellent representations of a Classics-style updated G1 Bumblebee / Goldbug, and a Cliffjumper that, with the third party upgrade, stands out as his own unique character as well. All would look good in any Classics collection. Review added 8 August 2012 by Yotsuya. Please comment! |