BBBB is interesting. I can't decide if I loike him or not. His transformation is fun, his robot mode is nice, and alt. mode is pretty good. Yet I don't know. There is going to be some serious thinking on who is gonna be on the shelf: BBBB or HA BB.

 

Personally, I love this figure! I didn't read reviews of him until now, and I also felt that his overall transformation was more fun than HA Bumblebee (which was pretty neat, too). The fact that this figure is a Deluxe yet offers so much is pretty incredible.

I also had that head clearance issue, particularly from robot-to-car transformation, but for some reason today, I managed to turn his head just right and got clearance. There's probably something in the transformation steps that the instructions got wrong, but I haven't transformed him often enough to really get a solid look yet.

Overall, totally worth the $12, even for this guy who owns all the other Deluxes and HA BB. This makes up for that horrible preview BB that was released just before TF2. That thing was just warmed-over. THIS is the real deal in my opinion.

Now, to pit Legends Ravage against him like another poster mentioned...  

 

When going from car to robot-make sure his head is looking straight forward. Push it as far back as it goes. (make sure it stays looking forawrd though.) Then you should be able to pull the little autobot logo peice up. (towards the front of the car). If you have done this there should be no clearance issues.

 

I just ordered him along with some comics off BBTS. Hopefully he's just as good as Leader Starscream (Who I got today).

 

i can get HA BB for the same price as BB Bumblebee, which one shall i go for??

 

^ Well, if you want to get the definitive, very best Bumblebee...

Neither. Wait and see what they do for TF3.

I'm thinking the least we can expect is BBBB with better paint apps (the one out now suffers due to engineering/parts cost), and it wouldn't surprise me to see a new mold in BOTH size classes.

 

is it me or is the blade backwards?

 

Everybody has complained about that part, and is clearly the biggest flaw of the figure. I just leave it unfolded so it looks like some Energon weapon of sorts.

 

Got this guy over the weekend and I really dig him. The transformation is more intuitive than I was expecting and I like that they once again incorporated the auto-morph on his legs, which is one of the few uses of auto-morph that I really like. I didn't have any problems transforming mine to alt mode, aside from popping the head off a couple of times because I was doing it wrong. Once I figured out that the waist panel and head crest sort of groove together I had no problems.

I ended up modding mine. While the fold-out cannon and ax are neat features I didn't really like how either of them look (backwards axe, sort of lame looking cannon) and I didn't like how far the gauntlets stick out in bot mode so I took the arms apart (all you need is a screwdriver and thirty seconds) and removed both. I like how he looks without the gauntlets and he's even easier to transform without having to worry about the weapons being tucked correctly. Also if you use a little imagination you can fold his hands so they look vaguely like seats in alt mode.

Another way to mod his arms is to swap them with the deluxe Bee that has the flip-out shoulder guns (I can't keep the proper names straight, sorry) - just pop the arms off at the shoulder ball and swap. The color isn't a perfect match, but it's close.

 

what pisses me off is on the back of the package the blade faces the right way

 

is it possible to disassemble it and reverse it?

Or is it possible to flip the arms' weapons? i would imagine it is. I'm gonna go home and check that out. if you flip em, theoretically the axe would face the right way.

 

I would get it but I have way to many bumblebees as it is but my favorite repaint is always gonna be the cliffjumper version and I'll just stick to the HA version

 

Nope, the axe only goes on one way as each side of the attachment hole is different.

Nope. Hasbro is one step ahead of us there, too, and they made the weapon pod attachment points different. Would have been a very simple solution.  

 

Does anyone else have trouble fitting his blade into the driver's side door? Mine already has white stress marks from where it's pressing. I'm half tempted to dremel the bottom half off of the axe to fix this.

 

With an exacto knife, it is most certainly possible to give BB a set of double arm cannons! You just have to trim down the nub plug under the gauntlet to fit inside the left forearm and walah!

Oops! Forgot to trim up the yellow paint on his left bicep...

 

I may try to do this. Which screws am I looking to remove?

 

The inside of each forearm (black part) has two screws. Just remove the screws, lift the arm panel, pop out the gauntlet/weapon pod, and screw the panel back on.

If you want to just remove the axe (you mentioned having troubles with it) but keep the gauntlet on, the axe is held on with a single screw. Remove the screw and slide the axe and spring off.  

 

is it possible for his hands to switch arms? if that's the case, remove the entire lower arm, flip it, and flip hands. i dunno, i'm at work, i need to see it in front of me. there's gotta be a way.

 

I thought about switching the axe to the right arm and I think it comes down to a personal preference.

I went with the double arm cannon approach instead of switching the axe to the right arm because I didn't like how exposed the axe is when switched. I went with symmetry instead.

But then again, a person might not mind the axe being in complete view.

 

he is now BBBB Battle Blasting BumbleBee