Hi guys,
I've got a friend who has asked me to get her a Movie-style Bumblebee figure (Any of the films except for Age of Extinction would do).
Because the Movies are the one part of the franchise I'm not interested in, and seeing as there are just so many Bee toys, I wanted to ask you all which figure do you think is the best one, for whatever reasons you may think that?
(Also please no MPM-2 Bumblebee suggestions, thanks.   )
Thanks very much for the help!  

 

Cyberfire bumblebee, aka "murderbee", is my personal favorite

He just looks so gloriously evil!



And the eyes are just so ominous and piecing!

 

Hunt for the Decepticons Battle Blade Bumblebee is probably the most movie-accurate, with arm that transformers into cannon, other arm transforming into blade, and flip-down battle mask, as well as top-notch sculpting, transformation, articulation and paint apps. These can be found on Ebay for reasonable prices.

The 07 movie Bumblebee (and the ROTF retools) is still a good mould but showing his age a little bit. A few repaints of that one, too.

DOTM Bumblebee is actually pretty good, fairly accurate and fun and can be found cheap. The Nitro version isn't quite as good or movie accurate at all, and the Cyberfire evil black version is just insane.

I'd say top of the pile is the HFTD Battle Blades one but if she wants a simpler transformation, the DOTM one might be better.

Those are the deluxe class options, but the Human Alliance Bumblebee is bigger (think somewhere around MP and Alternator scale) and pretty good in terms of detail, accuracy and articulation.

The bigger Ultimate, Battle Ops and Leader versions are OK but often compromised on detail / articulation for their special features like lights and sound, and weapon gimmicks.

 

Human Alliance

 

Not sure if I agree he's the most accurate, but he certainly is one of the very best mainline BB toys we ever got. You can't go wrong with him.

Actually, now that I think about it- if she doesn't need him to transform it's possible revoltech BB might be the best off the shelf toy at a somewhat reasonable price. I always prefered the daul model kitt version (with custom paint- but he needs the paint badly).

 

Yeah, I kind of meant for a deluxe - he's probably one of the more accurate/detailed versions. Apart from maybe regular DOTM Bee.

Human Alliance is probably the most accurate transforming version.

 

HA all day

 

HA is great, especially if you do the thigh mod.

 

Hunt for the Decepticons Battle Blade Bumblebee is my favorite

 

Battle Blades is still my favorite, I like it much better than even the HA version (which I like a lot too). The "gorilla arms" articulation is annoying but otherwise it's pretty flawless IMO.

Special kudos go to DoTM Murderbee, but it's definitely not the conventional Bumblebee if that's what you're looking for.

 

I'll take the original one just because I don't think there is a true standout of the movie bees. There are things that are off putting to me on most of them, so I'll put on my rose colored glasses and say '07 movie Bumblebee.

 

Oh so no AOE Bee? Okay, um my two personal favorites are the ROTF deluxe from the Preview wave and the HFTD Battle Blade deluxe.

 

I like the DOTM mold:

Its easy to transform, but still challenging.

 

You can't go wrong with HFTD Battle Blades. His vehicle mode is highly accurate to the 2007 Camaro, his facemask and pop-out weapons are nice, and the quality of the plastic is superb.

The DOTM Deluxe has its good points, though. He basically has the same transformation, but he's smaller and therefore scales better with many other movie figures. Just be careful what you peg into the holes on his forearms, because they have a tendency to crack.

 

I'd say DOTM or HA.

 

Battle Blades. Like a mini masterpiece.

 

I will also echo the sentiments for HftD Battle Blade Bee. They also did a nice shiny repaint of him in the AoE Movie Advanced line.

 

Overall, HA Bumblebee, all the way.

If it has to be a deluxe, then HFTD Battle Blades Bumblebee.

 

I haven't experienced a few of these molds sadly so I can't way in on Battle Ops/MPM, Battle Blade, or the DoTM molds. I will say Battle Blade does look strikingly good and Battle Ops does come close to a Masterpiece appearancewise in pictures(those two are probably the best. I do have the DOTM black HA figure. That mold is a good representation though in order to be more accurate you do have to swap the legs around and then transformation around the legs becomes very difficult (maybe they intentionally misassembled the figures knowing about that).
Too bad AOE isn't allowed as I'd recommend the second AOE Bee in a heartbeat. That mold really ticked the right boxes for me with a fun transformation and good looking modes (maybe not 100% accurate but still). They way the entire top folds up genuinly surprised me and I think that figured did the folding roof thing best.