Scrapper6
04-06-2011, 08:29 AM
Having run a search and found nothing in this section concerning this figure, and after experiencing his transformation for the first time in the wee hours of the morning, I find that I must comment on this remarkably satisfying figure (after the frustration that is broken-a$$ Terradive.) and so we shall begin.
Concept Camaro Bumblebee, the original Movie toy that I first managed to score back when he was highly popular and so quick to dissapear. A figure that represented Bumblebee at the earliest stages of Movieverse stylings and featured simple transformation with Automorph features and fairly close to movie accurate looks.
His weapon was relatively simplistic and featured the gimmick of either being a cannon or a blade with a simple flip-geared mechanism.
With open palmed permanently sculpted hands and limited poseability due to the demands of the Transformation and other factors the figure was Step 1 in the ever expanding Bumblebee Movieverse representation in plastic form.
After Bumblebee came repaint heaven with Premium Bumblebee, Stealth Bumblebee (who recieved the first battle mask head), All-Spark Bumblebee, Movie Scenes Bumblebee, First Encounter Bumblebee, and numerous others.
Then came Revenge of the Fallen, which featured such notable figures as Alliance Bumblebee, Previews Bumblebee, Cannon Bumblebee and NEST Bumblebee? Or whatever that two-pack with Soundwave figure was called. And I never officially got around to picking up any other version of Bumblebee, mostly because I was focused on new characters and new molds, until yesterday.
Finally I selected the newest iteration of Movieverse Bumblebee in Deluxe scale to join my collection. From what I understand he has numerous glowing reviews already, but let's just make a few comments on a figure most of you probably already know about anyway.
Scale: Bumblebee is quite tall for a deluxe, compared to such figures as HftD Ironhide I'd have to say he's ridiculously tall, but it works wonders for the figure.
Paint Aps: I have no true eye for detail on such things, he's yellow and black with grey interspersed throughout, or something like that, all I know is he looks like Bumblebee should look.
Poseability: Compared to Concept Camaro BB from Movie 1 this toy can bend in more ways than a contortionist and manages to strike some pretty impressive poses... Although I have yet to try anything besides the basic, stand up-right and hold your axe high menacing the nearest Decepticon. However I can tell when a figure has good joints for making awesome poses when I TF him and he definitely has it in spades.
Arsenal: No longer forced to hold his weapon, Bumblebee can now wield both a cannon and a battle blade/axe both of which are cleverly concealed in the arm kibble until you convert them into weapon mode. (Spring loaded for the blade, simple moving of parts for the cannon.) My only complaint is a minor one, the two panels holding together on the cannon arm refuse to stay locked, so the seam is visible when the cannon is stored, I haven't deployed it yet to see if that at least stays pegged together.
Transformation: Much more complex compared to the old movie one figure, but still featuring a nice little automorph on the legs. All of the panels will line up correctly with a bit of careful persuasion, however the right foot on mine refuses to go flush against the upper thigh/leg so the rear right tire won't roll and it was quite a struggle to lock the roof panel in place, still it doesn't break the damn toy like stupid Terradive's QC issue, so I'm happy with the way he is. (I suspect there is either a bit of excess plastic on one of the gear mechanisms or perhaps one of the many screws is just a tad too tight, I'm not sure and a search for a possible fix via Google led me nowhere. But like I said it isn't too big of an issue... So he doesn't roll, so what, he still looks good on display.)
How could I forget the Battle Mask? :banghead: Yes, this Bumblebee has both the regular face and battle mask, which slides down though it does seem to be a tad tricky to get it to move, mine was tight, but I was careful with it so it will slide down without too much effort.
Overall Impressions: A marked improvement on the original Movies' Bumblebee Deluxe, Battle Blade Bumblebee exhibits how far the engineering teams have come since the character/figure was first introduced on the market. He has the full range of motion and even has opposeable thumbs, not that he has any weapons to hold mind you... Unless I could give him CC BB's cannon... Hmmm that'd be interesting to see, BBBB holding CCBB's Automorph Cannon... I gotta try that sometime.
Human Alliance or some other larger scaled figure probably got certain things right/better, but since I don't have HA BB yet and don't really collect them, I mean I wouldn't mind getting them, but they aren't high priority for filling holes in my RotF/HftD collection.
I'd strongly reccomend this figure to anyone still on the fence with him, go to Zellers and get him on sale while the getting's good if you don't already own one. I am well aware that I am late to the party on owning this particular figure, but that's ok.
Now hopefully Terradive's replacement won't suffer any problems so I can appease my anger issues... Either way I think I'll pick up Tomahawk with him too just because I feel a little bad about picking up a figure only to return the broken one and get my money back a day later. (I'd do it the same day, but I've got to at least give the pretense that I'm not simply returning a figure I bought two seconds earlier.)
Battle Blade Bumblebee Scores a 9.5 minus .5 for the right foot issue making transformation slightly difficult.
Concept Camaro Bumblebee, the original Movie toy that I first managed to score back when he was highly popular and so quick to dissapear. A figure that represented Bumblebee at the earliest stages of Movieverse stylings and featured simple transformation with Automorph features and fairly close to movie accurate looks.
His weapon was relatively simplistic and featured the gimmick of either being a cannon or a blade with a simple flip-geared mechanism.
With open palmed permanently sculpted hands and limited poseability due to the demands of the Transformation and other factors the figure was Step 1 in the ever expanding Bumblebee Movieverse representation in plastic form.
After Bumblebee came repaint heaven with Premium Bumblebee, Stealth Bumblebee (who recieved the first battle mask head), All-Spark Bumblebee, Movie Scenes Bumblebee, First Encounter Bumblebee, and numerous others.
Then came Revenge of the Fallen, which featured such notable figures as Alliance Bumblebee, Previews Bumblebee, Cannon Bumblebee and NEST Bumblebee? Or whatever that two-pack with Soundwave figure was called. And I never officially got around to picking up any other version of Bumblebee, mostly because I was focused on new characters and new molds, until yesterday.
Finally I selected the newest iteration of Movieverse Bumblebee in Deluxe scale to join my collection. From what I understand he has numerous glowing reviews already, but let's just make a few comments on a figure most of you probably already know about anyway.
Scale: Bumblebee is quite tall for a deluxe, compared to such figures as HftD Ironhide I'd have to say he's ridiculously tall, but it works wonders for the figure.
Paint Aps: I have no true eye for detail on such things, he's yellow and black with grey interspersed throughout, or something like that, all I know is he looks like Bumblebee should look.
Poseability: Compared to Concept Camaro BB from Movie 1 this toy can bend in more ways than a contortionist and manages to strike some pretty impressive poses... Although I have yet to try anything besides the basic, stand up-right and hold your axe high menacing the nearest Decepticon. However I can tell when a figure has good joints for making awesome poses when I TF him and he definitely has it in spades.
Arsenal: No longer forced to hold his weapon, Bumblebee can now wield both a cannon and a battle blade/axe both of which are cleverly concealed in the arm kibble until you convert them into weapon mode. (Spring loaded for the blade, simple moving of parts for the cannon.) My only complaint is a minor one, the two panels holding together on the cannon arm refuse to stay locked, so the seam is visible when the cannon is stored, I haven't deployed it yet to see if that at least stays pegged together.
Transformation: Much more complex compared to the old movie one figure, but still featuring a nice little automorph on the legs. All of the panels will line up correctly with a bit of careful persuasion, however the right foot on mine refuses to go flush against the upper thigh/leg so the rear right tire won't roll and it was quite a struggle to lock the roof panel in place, still it doesn't break the damn toy like stupid Terradive's QC issue, so I'm happy with the way he is. (I suspect there is either a bit of excess plastic on one of the gear mechanisms or perhaps one of the many screws is just a tad too tight, I'm not sure and a search for a possible fix via Google led me nowhere. But like I said it isn't too big of an issue... So he doesn't roll, so what, he still looks good on display.)
How could I forget the Battle Mask? :banghead: Yes, this Bumblebee has both the regular face and battle mask, which slides down though it does seem to be a tad tricky to get it to move, mine was tight, but I was careful with it so it will slide down without too much effort.
Overall Impressions: A marked improvement on the original Movies' Bumblebee Deluxe, Battle Blade Bumblebee exhibits how far the engineering teams have come since the character/figure was first introduced on the market. He has the full range of motion and even has opposeable thumbs, not that he has any weapons to hold mind you... Unless I could give him CC BB's cannon... Hmmm that'd be interesting to see, BBBB holding CCBB's Automorph Cannon... I gotta try that sometime.
Human Alliance or some other larger scaled figure probably got certain things right/better, but since I don't have HA BB yet and don't really collect them, I mean I wouldn't mind getting them, but they aren't high priority for filling holes in my RotF/HftD collection.
I'd strongly reccomend this figure to anyone still on the fence with him, go to Zellers and get him on sale while the getting's good if you don't already own one. I am well aware that I am late to the party on owning this particular figure, but that's ok.
Now hopefully Terradive's replacement won't suffer any problems so I can appease my anger issues... Either way I think I'll pick up Tomahawk with him too just because I feel a little bad about picking up a figure only to return the broken one and get my money back a day later. (I'd do it the same day, but I've got to at least give the pretense that I'm not simply returning a figure I bought two seconds earlier.)
Battle Blade Bumblebee Scores a 9.5 minus .5 for the right foot issue making transformation slightly difficult.