Not surprising.

Things always change during production.

 

Man it's amazing how a lack of pictures makes so much of this information unusable in my brain.

 

Or it's because it's a CG model used as a product shot, in which the factors of a different paint having to be used don't matter.

 

You expect pics in a review thread?


You're sick in the head man.

 

There ought to be a rule: Pics are MANDATORY if one is to post a review.

I don't think this is unreasonable to ask.

 

We're two pages in and still no pics.


That's wrong on so many levels.  

 

Good news found my camera...now to find my charger, and pics will be good to go amigo

 

HUZZAH!!

 

and Yaujita, post a review anyways, more reviews are better

 

How is there not a single pic yet of this guy? Well heres some pics of Bee, uh but I can't give you alt mode pics cause well... F*** the transformation! I've almost broke this guy three times trying to transform him. But other then that this guy is just about the best Legends thus far in Titans Return. (I don't have Gnaw & Kickback yet though).







Damn it why is it the camera can't focus on this small little guy  

 

Hooray for pics!!!

 

He's a little beefcake!

 

Reminds me that I actually really like the T30 legends fig.

 

Japan version with Cerebro Spike when?
Then I won't need to buy an extra Fort Max for one (I have the comicon one...).

 

And just like that the irresistible urge to get what seems like the best Bee to date is whisked away in further dreams.


Fuck it. I'll just own both versions. Takaras Bumblebeef most likely won't come out until Summer 2017 anyway.

 

Forearms seem a bit stubby, but overall not bad at all.

 

The best guess at he moment is that he'll be remolded as chase, right? I'd be down for that.

 

Titans Return Bumblebee

A new, proper Generations Bumblebee has been a little while coming. Classics Bumblebee was one of the first Classics toys and remains probably the definitive Generations work on the character have been reused four times (Wal*Mart, Reveal The Shield, Henkei & United) over the course of various Western & Japanese lines. He was also done really well in the small Legends size during Universe 2, and I've lost count of the number of times THAT has been redone! Since then however the various Generations versions have gone for versions that are slightly different from the traditional Bumblebee. The first Generations Bumblebee was a Fall of Cybertron toy, while the Thrilling 30 Deluxe and it's repaint Goldfire seem to be Movie Bumblebee inspired. Nobody is quite sure what the original Thrilling 30 Legends Bumblebee is meant to be! But after three Bumblebees in the first three waves of Thrilling 30 Generations the Character has gone away for a bit. It was something of a surprise when Rodimus became the repaint of Blackjack to be paired with Optimus Maximus as I thought Bumblebee would make more sense playing on the Sparkplug (Bumble in Japan) partnership with Armada Optimus Prime. But three years after his last appearance we finally have a new Bumblebee in Generations which was first revealed at San Diego ComicCon 2016.

Straight out the package Titans Return Legends Bumblebee looks like a shrunk down Classics Bumblebee. The only real difference is the upper arms, form from the rear sides of the car and the lower arms, which even from the first photo looked a little too short. With the rear side windows projecting forward from the arms it gives his arms an odd shape and when the arms are bent the 5mm peg hole hands don't come forward of the projecting windows. A minor problem is that the painted yellow on the chest doesn't quite match the yellow plastic. But the head is perfect and the general look really really good.

Articulation: head turns. Ball joints at shoulders, elbows & hips. Bending knees & ankles, the later rather high and more of a transformation joint to be honest.

Transformation: Fold the lower leg down at the "ankle" and back at the knee so the legs fold into the feet, obviously the front of the car. Straighten the arms and twist each lower arm in 90° at the elbow. Fold the neck & shoulders back, which uses the lower joint on the hinge, freeing the chest. Fold the chest forward & unfold it into the roof & rear of the car. Fold the neck & shoulders back up using the upper hinge joint and then shrug the shoulders up forming the sides of the car. Fold the roof back & tab into place in the rear of car.

The reality is somewhat different to the description. The roof & rear of the car will probably fall off due to a slightly suspect hinge but this isn't a bad thing as you can then see clearly what's going on elsewhere. The car is slightly too flexible to hold still stably mid transformation so they'll be some parts massaging. Having completed the car I then had to re-transform the front to get it all to fit together right as the rear of the legs wouldn't both slide into the slot they needed to go in!

But, in the end, I've got a pretty decent car mode Bumblebee out the end looking very much, again, like a shrunk down Classics deluxe. Sadly the slightly mismatched yellow is obvious here again.

Like all Titans Return Legends he is compatible with the Titanmaster figures which pleased me because it meant I could have Blaster's Titanmaster, in effect a mini Blaster, drive Bumblebee, homaging the Blaster/Golbug comic partnership. Access for the Titanmaster however involves folding the entire roof and middle rear of the car forward! But the Titanmaster sits in the quite comfortably.

Really good effort for the scale. We're not quite yet at the 2014 Swerve level of greatness for the Legends size but, slight colour mismatch aside, this feels a better Legend than most of the Combiner Wars offerings.

Bumblebee was released in Titans Return Wave 3 at 3 per case along with 3 of Gnaw and 2 of Kickback. Many fans felt that Bumblebee should have been 2 per case, with Kickback raised to 3, and I've seen some arguments for higher numbers of Gnaw which is generally supported by fans desire to army build him.
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Future Repaints

Where there's Bumblebee Cliffjumper and/or Goldbug usually follow. I'd be very surprised to see this redone as anyone else before them.

However rumours suggest a forthcoming Throttlebot Chase, the red one, which could be a repaint. That in turn suggests his team mates Freeway, the blue one, and Searchlight, the white one, all of whom have similar car & robot mode.

As much as Hubcap is enjoying a popularity surge thanks to the Roche effect in The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers he's just too similar to Bumblebee.