Thanks to SidneyY, my Weaponizers are here! Here's my quick review of Bumblebee.

SIZE COMPARISONS WITH PREVIOUS PRIME BUMBLEBEE FIGURES





In robot mode, he's taller than HA Bumblebee and DOTM Leader Bumblebee (at least at the head) yet smaller than Battle Ops Bumblebee. In car mode, he appears to be somewhere between HA Bumblebee and DOTM Leader Bumblebee (don't have the time to transform them both to compare). He looks pretty flat and wide somehow. The pictures still give you an idea compared to previous Prime Bumblebee figures.

ROBOT MODE













Pretty tall. Some kibble on the forearms, but not too noticeable. Articulation is decent, but the legs are oddly articulated, so action poses from the waist down are a bit limited. No waist rotation, and the arms can't rotate back. No wrist rotation either. Head is on a ball joint though, so it helps a bit with more dramatic poses. Paint apps are limited to black (car stripes, knees, abdomen, front grill, silver (head), red (brake lights) and blue (rear window). The yellow plastic is actually darker than what the pics show and even has a bit of a metallic shine to it.

The odd thing about this mode may be the feet. They feel... and are hollow block of grey plastic (due to transformation). Thankfully, the hollowness is not visible. The cheats are pretty bad too as this mode show 8 wheels (2 fake wheels on the feet, 2 fake wheels on the shoulders, plus the 4 actual wheels on the forearms and chest).

GIMMICK

Press the head and the gattling guns rotate out and spins while a red LED lights up briefly. To reset the gattling guns, pull the middle chest piece down and the red LED will light up again. Gimmick works well and is fun to deploy again and again.

TRANSFORMATION



Pretty straightforward, I didn't need the instructions to transform him from robot mode (as packaged) to car mode. Plastic appears to be sturdy throughout.

CAR MODE

















What's to say... it rolls?   The lack of side windows is a bit of a downer, no reason for them to be missing in action. Again, paint apps are limited to black (car stripes, front grill), red (brake lights) and blue (rear window). Also, the yellow clips on the front wheels look incredibly cheap, as if that's what was holding them in place. Oh wait, they do! Why not just use round pegs like on FE Voyager Prime?

GIMMICK

Press the engine and the gattling guns rotate out and spins while a red LED lights up briefly. To reset the gattling guns, pull on the grey lever and the red LED will light up again. And again, the gimmick is fun to trigger again and again.

PROS

-Easy and intuitive transformation
-Stealth Force-like gimmick in both modes
-good size
-decent representation of the character
-blaster than can be put on the forearm or in the hand
-balljointed head

CONS

-feels pretty light for the size
-LED gimmick is barely noticeable... transformation sound would have been nice
-4 visible fake wheels in robot mode
-forearm kibble (not THAT bad though)
-hollow feet/boots
-no side windows
-articulation could have been better (ankles, wrists)
-could have used more paint apps (rims)
-visually plain chest when weapons are not deployed (because the stripes are painted on the middle piece that ends up being buried in the backpack)
-cheap looking front wheel clips

 

Lack of paint on the chest in robot mode just kills this. I thought he was just an unfinished proto at Botcon. :-/

 

It wouldn't be too bad, if it weren't for the fact that it's horribly underpainted.

 

Im not too fond of it. As everyone else has said, he under-painted, especially on the chest. Its a maybe for me :/

 

man thats a lot of wheels

 

A good, honest review. Thanks, megatroptimus.

 

piece of crap

 

That chest/bumper part looks so wrong.

 

Oh fuck no I'm not buying that or Optimus for 30 bucks.

 

It's not often i see a TF i want so little.

 

Not bad looking at all. Visually, it just needs a little bit of tweaking and detailing with some additional paint apps. I'd probably sculpt something over top of the fake molded wheels as well.

 

Not bad, but in the photos without an obvious scale the toy looks like a deluxe instead of something larger.

 

So...he escaped a car crusher before he was killed, but not before his roof was flattened and his side windows shattered...

Not for me.

 

Windows might just be rolled down for what we know.

 

Even though I know me well enough to say I'll be buying these when they come out, simply based on reviews (yours is great thanks) and pics I'm not blown away. And the lack of chest/hood stripes (as others have stated) is making BB even more plain looking.

 

Honestly, I think it's a good toy but a bad collector's piece.

 

Thanks megatroptimus,

I gotta say, these look great for kids, but have no place on my shelves.

Somthing about that bot mode looks SERIOUSLY off to me. I dont know what it is...Mabye TOO humanoid or something..Just looks freaky to me.

 

Maybe all the large smooth surfaces...

 

What the hell is with his hood stripes?