Aaaaaaaand now I cannot unsee.

 

Sorry for the late reply, but here's some alt mode comparison:

(With SS-46 Dropkick)



(With both SS-46 Dropkick and SS-10 Jazz)



In alt-mode, SS-49 Bumblebee is slightly longer than SS-10 Jazz but slightly shorter than SS-46 Dropkick. Height-wise, these three are almost the same height but SS-46 is slightly taller due to the lifted-up chassis look.

 

He looks pretty good. They always find new ways to make me get more goddamn Bumblebees... I really wish the wheels on the back collapsed more though. It really messes with the silhouette of the upper body.

 

Got this today, after a drought of not buying TF's for a couple of months.

In short (yes, he appropriately short), he's pretty darn good!



Car mode is compact and solid (once you get there. That transformation is quite complex but unique enough for a movie Bee to keep it interesting), and has a great likeness to the concept Camaro from 07. The top roof section is a minorly different shade of yellow, due to being painted translucent plastic, but it's hardly noticeable in person.

Robot mode is where Bumbleborg shines though. Aside from the front wheels hanging behind the shoulders, he's a dead-ringer for the TF1 CGI model (moobs and all). The proportions, sculpted details and paint are for the most part on point, and articulation is up there with Jazz (even having a less awkward looking ankle tilt too once you realign the ball-jointed shin armour to match the ankle angle....which I forgot to do in the photo).



I love the fact that the back kibble collapses and secures so well, considering how the last attempt - SS18, turned out (the plastic on my Beetlebee actually sheared apart during careful transformation a few months ago, so couldn't do a comparison here).



Only downsides I'd say are those wheel kibble pieces looking inaccurate on such an otherwise accurate sculpt, and the inside of the shins feeling a little hollow, due to the way the legs unfold for transformation.


Definitely recommended if you're trying to complete the 07 cast like me.

 

Just got him on the way home from work. First impressions: Absolutely better that clunker bee in terms of back pack, standing, joint strength and design. What I dont like is that his waist peg is made up of soft rubbery plastic that is already too tight and feels like I might twist and break the joint. Gonna have to carve it up a bit and add some minor paint and panel lines to make it good for work display. For now, here he is posed next to the original Camaro concept mould (Cliffjumper version). Honestly, the 2007 toy is the only mould that still holds up today compared to the other 2007 movie toys, even if it's farr outclassed by the hundreds of Bee toys that came after it.

 

Has anyone tried a head swap with SS 1 Classic Bee.

 

Am I doing something wrong? The back where the door parts tab into the roof near the back of car mode don't tab in. They spring open due to tension..

 

Interesting note: The head is two pieces, front and back (glued together). The back half of the SS49 head is the same as the back half of the SS1 head. So they're totally swappable as shown above. Feels like a pretty intentional design decision, and kudos to Hasbro for enabling this so easily.

 

I want to love this guy, but every time I see pics of him I can't help but see T30 Sandstorm

Maybe he's better in person, but only time will tell... Aside from that issue and the chest, he's otherwise seemingly perfect.

 

Is the no way to un-peg the wheel wings? Wish they could have made them slide into the shoulders some how... Getting closer to a perfect Bee

 

New wheel pieces that fold in more and an alternate head for those of us who want to keep our clunker Bees intact would make for a great little upgrade kit for this figure. C'mon DNA show me whassup!

 

Despite a couple loose parts I’m pretty happy with this guy so far. I’ve only had a few mins to mess with him. Has anyone found a good solution for the wheels sticking out on the back yet?

 

I wonder if simply painting the inside wells dark gray or black will help improve the appearance from the front. To physically get the wheels closer in would probably require more significant rebuilding / hinge adding / etc.

 

Yeah a couple people on Instagram have done that and it looks great, but to me that’s only a half-measure. I might do it anyways since it’s better than doing nothing.

 

I'm having the same problem. I can not for the life of me get the left side of this thing to stay tabbed together in vehicle mode.

 

Ok I think I figured out my issue. I hadn't noticed that in car mode his robot feet are supposed to slide far enough over towards the center of the car so that they actually tab together. The clearance issue the car is tight and the tabs on the foot parts are not very strong so the main culprit for me was just having the feet pulled far enough out on those gray posts. After I adjusted all that I was able to get the car tagged back together correctly on both sides.

 

Sounds like the same issue that all the SS bees have had so far. Ever since TLK every bee except WWII bee has had the flip over foot thing for transformation. I personally dislike it a lot since the ankles never seem to stay in place for me. This bee, while really nice in some ways, has the same issue.

 

Yeah it would be nice if after you bring the wheels out, the whole fender assembly could rotate down behind his back.

 

That's likely it but its hard to get them to tab together. Managed to get it to go together alright but still a bit of a gap showing the tab.