Carrying on our series of Robots in Disguise galleries, today we’re highlighting the main character of the new show, the one and only Bumblebee! Robots in Disguise Bumblebee remains a muscle car as he has been of late, but has traded arm cannons for a suitably huge greatsword.
Robots in Disguise Bumblebee is very much a middling release in the line. On the positives, he’s got a good range of movement including a waist swivel, and can strike some good action poses with that sword of his, including a few with a two-handed grip. On the less great front, the car roof on the back of the legs gets in the way on some poses, and the feet lack substantial heels, so some poses are really hard to maintain. The gears on the doors are also a cause for concern – the teeth on mine have already worn down in paces after only a few transformations.
Overall, Bumblebee is a release with personality and poseability, but he is not without flaws by any means. Check out his gallery to see what you think of the leading Autobot in the new show, Robots in Disguise!
Robots in Disguise Bumblebee Gallery
Prime Jetscream
Yep. It's like nobody on the design or creative team cared about the franchise, so they just came up with a formula for designs. All of the designs are phenomenally repetitive, and even when they manage a somewhat memorable design, it's muddled by the repetitiveness of all these blocky, triangular shapes.
DOTM Bumblebee
My thoughts exactly.
MaverickPrime
I like the character in the show, but like many others have said, this is a good toy, but just good, nothing else, it lacks that special something to make it stand out. I'll probably get it if it ever gets released here, but I won't go out of my way hunting him down. Which sucks, because I really liked the show, it should have better toys supporting it, like Prime did, I actually have most of the toys from that line, the only line I have every onscreen character(except Unicron…does the Jet Vehicon count separate from the car one?) and went as far as tracking down repaints and japanese releases, the toys were that good.
All said, I'd LOVE an official Hot Rod out of this mould.
Sol Fury
Except as noted, I don't have the Prime mainline Bumblebee, or the BH Bumblebee for that matter. The one you see there is the First Edition which was designed with the collector oriented line in mine.
That said, you're not wrong, it's very obvious how the team are trying out cheaper ways of doing things like ratchet joints in these toys and not always nailing it. I don't think they've necessarily cheaped out as much as people sometimes express, but there is an obvious drive to do it for less coming out in these toys.
PredaConvoy
I promised myself I wouldn't buy these unless I saw them on offer, as I am opposed to a higher price (£15?? That's like $20, think yourself lucky, stateside) for a simplified figure. Deluxe used to be £10, dammit! But Sainsburys had them on 2 for £20 so I thought what the hell.
I like Bee, generic tho he is he's actually a nice solid robot, though I'm not so keen on car mode, looks like it was carved badly out of a single block of cheese. He'd really benefit from the small and inexpensive paint details Takara are putting on him. Strongarm is good though, she is keeping my Arms Micron Magnus company, I figure they can lay down the law together. Biggest sadface for this line goes to Grimlock though, because he has a really good transformation, but he is SO TINY!! If they can make simplified Voyagers from the Prime Legends, they damn well ought to have upscaled this guy. And I am not willing to shell out for a preschool three step just for scale, because the transformation is way off. Such a shame.
But hey, Combiner Wars continues to make me happy! So Yay Hasbro, even if Boo Hasbro.
[Wing_Saber-X]
Suddenly, putting this new 2015 RID Bee with the old RID/ BH version shows how far deluxes have fallen down the Quality and durability order..
Supertron
That's….certainly a thing.
Seeker
I agree. I also underwhelmed by the concept.
Bumblethumper
I've had this one for a few weeks now. It's basically a solid figure and I like it, even though it doesn't reinvent the wheel or do much in the way of originality.
I find the carmode a bit weird, something about the headlights being maybe too close together. The transformation is a rehash of the TFP vehicon transformation scheme, and the overall design feels all too typical of other recent figures.
Nothing groundbreaking whatsoever, but as a toy, I'd consider it a success.
that puts me in the same boat. I had to stop complaining about it though, because they've been doing it since 2007 and I don't like sounding like a broken record about it. This is probably the most complete break from the past. It's basically yellow Hot Rod.
These days I feel like Bumblebee either needs to take a break or revert to type. Probably won't happen because Hasbro seem to think they've hit on a sure thing.
AOEGalvatronRox
I'm sorry but he looks SO bland and generic. I can see a good amount of repaints coming from this guy alone. In my opinion, this is what happens when you remove car kibble off of the Transformers. The quality of their toys go down and that is what has happened. I was really hoping that Hasbro would have learned from the "simplify the robots to the point you can't even tell what they turn into" crap from Age of Extinction. Don't get me wrong, he looks…ok, but he just falls in comparison to the figures we got with Prime and Animated.
Autobot Burnout
Probably because Hot Rod was supposed to be Prime's successor.
Indeed, looking at this new BB…he would work so much better as Hot Rod than Bumblebee to the point the design appears to be based more on Rodimus than BB himself – pointy block shoulders, angled chest recesses that would work perfectly for a flame deco, lower legs that look very similar to Classics Roddy except even less involved because of the plastic clip wheels…it's so generic anime hero-esque and nothing at all like the Bumblebee he's supposed to be descended from.
I mean, this guy is basically the same basic figure as Animated Blurr, but that toy is both $5 cheaper in its original MSRP yet somehow not only handles kibble far more efficently, but integrates it much better than just having it hang off everywhere while retaining a design that doesn't scream "THIS GUY IS TOTALLY GETTING REPAINTED HE'S THAT GENERIC" and just generally seems a higher quality toy overall.
Autovolt 127
I'll pick him up the next chance I'm able to.
Fallout
how did he go from a round-headed, bug eyed robot to a generic hot rod type?
Shepard Prime
Almost every Transformer I've seen on the shelf ever I've at least considered buying and/or at times surprising me how much better in person it looks or finding something of merit in it to where I changed my mind on it.
This RiD BB was the first one where I literally thought,"Absolutely not buying" when I saw it in the store.
I love my Strongarm tho' (as I suspect I will RiD Jazz and Sideswipe).
Odd thing is I like the car mode tho'. With a few paint apps/touch ups, I think it'd look nice. But that bot' mode is just…ugh.
DOTM Bumblebee
Agreed. The original Bumblebee had the horns and big tummy, the movie Bumblebee had the gas mask face and the battle mask, the Animated Bumbebee had the stingers, the Prime Bumblebee had those soul-crushingly adorable eyes, but this guy… has nothing…
DOTM Bumblebee
Ehhh… I don't hate it, but… it's not the figure, the figure is very good, it's just the design… It doesn't really look like Bumblebee. It's not a bad design in general, it's just a bad design for Bumblebee… Comparing it with the Prime toy, there's almost no similarity. I know he's supposed to be older and more mature, but he should at least look like the same character…
edgs2099
Yep. You could repaint him into any of 15 other car bots and you'd get the same response. "Kinda looks like him i guess".
SPLIT LIP
Even ignoring comparrisons to the movie or Prime versions, this is just an uninspired design. He's so basic. There's nothing unique or memorable. The chest's focal point is just a blank black square, (ignoring the awful sigil) the arms are just blank squares, everything's just really… blank with minimal detail. No unique shapes. An absolutely typical design. Even the head fails to resemble anything approaching memorable. And the vehicle mode's so geometric and bland as well. And this applies to so many characters in the show.
gothsaurus
Agreed. It's too much like a different character like Sideswipe or Bluestreak or Hot Rod. Too muscle car not enough small underdog character.
But, trying to put that aside, it's a kind-of fun coming of age, growing in skills, growing up story. I'll certainly give it a chance.
vlenhoff
Honestly, I've never been a fan of this sort of BB..