MP-21 Masterpiece Bumblebee

Discussion in 'Transformers Feedback & Reviews' started by Sam, Nov 20, 2014.

  1. kaotika

    kaotika Well-Known Member

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    the give away is that the names on the coin are english like sideswipe and red alert and bumblebee instead of japanese like lambor and alert and bumble.
    if you want the coins you go to sellers who get their stock thru hasbro asia.
    usually means hong kong and china sellers or us sellers who source from hasbro asia instead of or as well as takara japan.
    if in doubt email them before you buy and ask if its included but its usually mentioned on listings cos its become a common part of mp collecting.
    sometimes you have to pick between the hasbro asia coin bonus or a japanese bonus like sideswipes amazon piledrivers or prowls launcher.
    if you miss out on a coin or you choose the japanese bonus instead of the has asia one you can also buy the coins seperate on ebay.
    transformers masterpiece coin only | eBay
     
  2. Zer0Prime

    Zer0Prime Well-Known Member

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    Loving this little guy!
     

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  3. Goldimus Prime

    Goldimus Prime Veteran

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    [​IMG]

    Additional armaments for Bumblebee! These are the 3P launchers by Guilty for the Datsun bros. They slide snugly right over the arm kibble for a perfect fit!

    I'd be curious to know if anyone with official launchers knows whether they'd fit the same.
     
  4. Erland

    Erland Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  5. jru42287

    jru42287 Ass Möde is a way of life.

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    This guy is sitting in my cart on Amazon, and I'm trying to convince myself to pull the trigger. ~$72 doesn't seem like such a bad price.
     
  6. Snake_eyes1975

    Snake_eyes1975 Well-Known Member

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    you wont regret it. Im not even that big a fan of G1 bee..but this MP is one that all TF fans should have. Add to that the most excellent exo suit..pull that trigger dude. You wont regret it.
     
  7. jru42287

    jru42287 Ass Möde is a way of life.

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    Stop enabling me, Snakeeyes!

    [​IMG]
     
  8. jru42287

    jru42287 Ass Möde is a way of life.

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    Question:

    Anyone who got this, did you have any issues with Bee's chin being scratched when you first got it? Mine is, I'm guessing due to being packaged in alt. mode the way it is. And if you did, what did you do about it?
     
  9. Dean ML

    Dean ML Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, though my guy's chin was fine out of the box. I scratched it on accident transforming him. Gotta make sure his head's looking up during transform. I put a dot of whiteout on it. It's not a perfect match, but it's only really noticeable if you look for it up close.
     
  10. PORTER

    PORTER energon is just mtn dew

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    mine came packaged with some yellow overspray on his thighs,has this happened to anyone else?
     
  11. Snake_eyes1975

    Snake_eyes1975 Well-Known Member

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    mine was fine..what do you think? pretty cool?
     
  12. Grimlock Dredd

    Grimlock Dredd Not a number...A FREE MAN

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    I haven't seen any mention of Bumblebee MP-21R Red Body. Has anyone gotten this yet? I just bought one on Ebay that says it's Takara original. Has the red version been knocked off yet? How does it compare to -21 and 21-G? I can see it doesn't include the Danny Exo-suit figure (no loss) nor the 21-G jetpack.
     
  13. jru42287

    jru42287 Ass Möde is a way of life.

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    Three months late, but yes! I love him!
     
  14. rego0012

    rego0012 Well-Known Member

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    I waited forever to get this...obviously

    One reason, the price
    And secondly, That face...

    I finally decided to just go for it after coming into possession of some dr wu replacement faces. I am totally glad I did!

    Such a fun transformation and plenty posable, he is just a fun little fiddle former to have around.

    I still cannot stand those stock faces, but that's been resolved so it's a a case of out of sight out of mind.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. aledromo

    aledromo Decepticon at the Gate

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    Not feeling that face, but glad you've seen the light!
     
  16. agp

    agp Well-Known Member

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    I wasn't feeling it at first either. I've had my Dr Wu's for a while and once you adjust to the different color I found it brings out the lines of his face better and helps the eyes pop. The paint Takara used really hid the lines of his face.
     
  17. Powersa

    Powersa Car Robots

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    Late to the game, got mine from TRU after mailed coupon and gift cards. Very faithful representation, I'm impressed. Would've been nicer had they thrown a Carly figure in.
     
  18. tranzfan

    tranzfan Well-Known Member

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    Finally found a Hasbro one at TRU today. I hate that the price was basically the same as importing a Takara, but overall am very happy with it. I haven't been active in buying too much lately, but certainly feel this will go well with the other Masterpieces I have.

    Here's a few photos that I took. The Optimus is the original Masterpiece Prime.
     

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  19. nycPrime

    nycPrime Well-Known Member

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    Hey, random question regarding MP Bumblebee. I lost one of the side mirrors and was wondering if there are any ways to easily replace it. I know it comes with 2, but I'm afraid of taking that out of the box and losing that one too. I did a quick search on ebay and shapeways, but didn't yield any results. I even checked with Hasbro, since there is an American version and I'm sure the mirrors are all the same, but they couldn't help.
     
  20. SaberPrime

    SaberPrime Banned

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    So I was at Toys R Us yesterday and was surprised to find this there. The packaging was a little beat up and it wasn't taped up so I had to open it and make sure everything was actually in the box. But considering the Japanese characters on the packaging and the fact I thought this was a Takara excluse, how did this even end up in an American retail store? It was the only one in the store by the way which is why I picked it up despite the packaging damage.

    Anyway to start off with the little Spike Witwicky Exo Suit that comes with him. The head sculpt is really small and could just as easily be Danial but it's said on the packaging to be Spike and it makes more sense for him to be included with Bumblebee. However I think it scales pretty well with Generations Arcee and could be passable as Danial standing next to her.

    The little bubble helmet is kind of loose on mine. It holds in ok and is's going to fall off of I hold the figure upside down or something but a couple times while transforming the figure it fell off in my hand.

    Articulation is pretty good for the most part. He can do pretty much everything he could do in the cartoon. The only odd part is the knees which bend in the wrong direction. The more natural bend is severely restricted while if you bend them the over way he can kick himself in the chest. At first I thought that it was part of the transformation but those knee joints really have no purpose to bend that way. I feel like the knee joints are backwards some how because the restricted side should have more range and the unrestricted side only really needs to bend as much as the natural bend will allow. That restriction really should be on the other side of the knee.

    Anyway before I get into the vehicle mode I just wanted to point out this guy is easy enough to transform I figured it out without looking at the instruction sheet. I did check to see if the blaster arm mode from the movie was included in the instructions... it's not... I can't remember exactly how that's suppose to look but I think you just take one of the arms and partially transform it as if you're going to vehicle mode. I'll have to watch the movie again later to figure out how that's actually suppose to look but I'm 100% positive that it's possible to achieve that look with all the articulation and transformation joints that are built into his arms. It's kind of weird that they didn't officially include that mode in the instructions considering it is an official mode from the movie. Yet for some reason went completely undocumented on the toy.

    There's not much to say about the vehicle mode. The helmet I mentioned earlier is meant to pop off just so you can get the head into a forward facing position for this mode. Though it can't really look completely straight because there's not enough clearance to get the helmet back on with the head tilted back. So it's still tilted down a little bit but at least he's not looking straight directly at the ground. Other than that, it looks exactly like it did in the cartoon, what else can I say about it.

    I love the transforming exo-suit. I've always loved the concept of it because it allow the human characters to actually be useful in the most realistic way possible instead of either being soft squishy things the Autobots have to protect or unrealistically helpful like they are in the Micheal Bay films. The closest thing we've gotten to this since G1 is when Miko used the Apex armor in Transformers Prime but that doesn't really allow her to have a vehicle mode like the G1 Exo-suit did. I'd love to seen an updated design for this used in another version of Transformers. The G1 versions isn't really the greatest thing it's just the only thing like that. It's kind of weird that the concept was never updated.

    Moving on to the main figure. I started with Spike in robot mode because he's packaged that way but Bumblebee is packaged in vehicle mode so I'll start there this time.

    He comes with a sprew with two TINY little side view mirrors. At first I thought he was suppose to have two because the picture on the box shows him with two. It's kind of hard to see because the mirrors are the same color as the background but it's slightly glossy which the background is flat so in the right light light you can see the passenger side mirror. I also thought there were holes on both sides of the bug to peg them in but then I noticed the passenger side has a pin in it preventing the mirror from going in there.

    I had heard online that he was only suppose to have one but I don't recall ever seeing any vehicles with only one side view mirror. I looked it up and sure enough older bugs like Bumblebee only had one. The newer style bugs have two. I also just noticed that the molding on both mirrors is for a driver side so even if I could put the other one on the passenger side it would be upside down or backwards. It seems the second mirror is just a spare in case you lose one. They are TINY little things like not much bigger than a grain of rice. I had trouble getting them off the sprew and onto the figure because they're so damn small.

    The VW logo is molded on the hood and all four hub caps which is cool. I heard a few years ago that VW didn't want to be associated with "war toys" so it's amazing that HasTak even got the rights to make this.

    He's got a removable license plate and a spare tire that can be placed on the back of him. I don't really like this feature because Bumblebee never had a spare tire like that and since it covers where the license plate is suppose to be it would be illegal were this actually a real car. I also looked this up and the spare tire would never be stored this way on an actual beetle. It actually stores in the trunk which is in the front. The engine is in the back of a beetle. So why is this piece even included when Bumblebee never had it and it's not even realistically accurate?

    Some missing detail that I think should of been included considering the price of this thing and being a masterpiece... The mirrors are just solid black pieces. I kind of wish there was actually some kind of a reflective surface on there. The license plate piece is also a solid black with no real detain. I can kind of forgive the mirror because of how small they are but there's no reason they couldn't have done something more with the license plate.

    These things also typically come with accessories, often times that may have only been seen in one episode of the cartoon... that being the case Why is there no I love NY bumper sticker to go on this guy? I think there's a reprolables set that fixes all these problems but it's kind of weird that these things aren't officially released as part of the Masterpiece set.

    I'm also kind of disappointed there's no place to store his extra accessories in vehicle mode. There is a place to put the license plate should you decide to put on the spare tire but that's really the only storage there is for the extra parts. There is a space between the front tires where the gun could fit to be stored but there's nothing to secure it in place. I mainly just want a place to put the gun.

    MP Optimus didn't really have storage for accessories in vehicle mode either unless you got the Japanese version that actually has a trailer. The MP Seekers do have storage on their flight stands for any accessories you're not using in vehicle mode. Bumbelebee has nothing... The only thing I can really do with the accessories I'm not using is put them back in the box.

    Transformation is surprising easy for a masterpiece. I mostly did it without help from the instructions except for two things. The picture on the box is slightly mistransformed showing the part of the hood with the VW logo covering his crotch. Oddly in the instructions it tells you to fold this part up into the body but the piece is magically covering his crotch again in the final picture. I initially had him transformed the way it is on the packaging until I noticed that there's molding under it that is actually suppose to be seen in robot mode. I couldn't figure out what to do with that panel though and had to check the instructions to find out there's a slot inside the body it fold into before you bring his legs down so I had to undo like half of what I just do to correct it.

    The other thing was I didn't notice there was a joint specifically so I could fold down the rear bumper. I was going to complain about it sticking up behind his head until I noticed this and corrected the problem. I also want to point out that having the side view mirror in doesn't effect anything with the transformation. It looks a little odd being there in robot mode but it's so small unless I'm looking directly at it I forgot it was even there.

    Oddly enough there's a big enough cavity to hold the gun in storage in robot mode when I'd rather have it in his hand... It's not really meant to go in there but the back piece covers the cavity preventing it from falling out.

    I brought down my Classics Bumblebee for a size comparison and this guy is about the same size. Tiny for a Masterpiece that cost over $60. That's actually quite odd considering Optimus was $50 and Skywarp was originally $50 and they're much larger figures. (I only paid $10 for Skywarp because it was on discount and I had a gift card.) I'm also kind of surprised they didn't discount the price because of the packaging being damaged. This was oddly expensive.

    He's also not really the cleanest Masterpiece. He's not as bad as the classics version with the stuff hanging off his arms but the back pack is just as loose and awkward as it is on the WfC Bumblebee.

    The articulation is about what I'd expect from a deluxe class figure. Maybe a little better because nothing is restricted by anything else. The shoulders are on par with classics (When he's not wearing the jet ski on his back.) there is a dedicated swivel joint between the sqare bit of shoulder and the rounded bits of the upper arm and a hinged elbow. Classics has a ball jointed elbow that accomplishes the same thing. He has a waist swivel which classics doesn't have. Knees that aren't hindered by kibble covering the legs. Front to back ankle tilt which classics also has plus side to side which classics can't do.

    The only bad spots are the neck joint which can look side to side or up and down but it moves in two different hinges. Classics Bumbelebee actually has a ball jointed neck which actually allows for more freedom of movement that looks much more natural. Also he has no wrists or fingers which a lot of deluxe Transformers don't have working hands. I'd be totally OK with this if this were a Deluxe class toy but compared to other Masterpiece figures at this price point I seriously would of expected him to at least have a wrist swivel. I don't know about working fingers at this size but is it really that hard to make a wrist work?

    Some things are Masterpiece quality but other things are making me question why this is a Masterpiece toy. It's like he's in some weird limbo where where he's too good to be sold as a Deluxe Generations figure but not good enough to justify the Masterpiece price.

    He also comes with an extra face which just changes him from a closed mouth smile to an open mouth smile. I know there's a G2 version of this that looks more like Goldbug but missing his blue helmet and comes with a lot more accessories. That version also has a more toy accurate face rather than slightly different expression. Why couldn't they give this one a toy accurate face? I'd rather have that as an option that this where I can barely even tell the difference. Actually the more I look at them the close mouth version is a little bit more serious looking. The open mouth looks a bit more like Bumblebee. But I still think the face plate sculpt the toy had would make a better swap than just a different expression of his cartoon face.

    I know it seems like I'm hating on this guy a lot but that's only because I'm judging him based on the Masterpiece price. I still love this figure. He's a great figure for his size. I just can't really justify the price. Even taking into account that he comes with the Spike figure I don't really think it's worth $60. If you can find this set for half price then I would highly recommend picking them up. They're great figures and I don't mind paying a little extra for what is essentially a two pack of Deluxe and Legends class figures but I think $30 would of been a more reasonable price considering everything you get with these and the over all quality of the figures.

    Now with all that said... I think this is going to replace Classics in my Deluxe Bumblebee display so does anyone want to buy or trade for my Classics Bumblebee. It's the one that came in the legacy of Bumblebee set so it has Movie style black racing stripes painted on it.

    And I think I'm going to put Spike next to Generations Arcee and then eventually forget he's suppose to be Spike.