It would have retcon and removed the Bayverse completely, and be easier with a fresh start. They could have just given him a face like Cliffjumper.

 

I mean, he did get a new face.



It just happens that the new face took inspiration from the Bayverse instead of G1 like his alt mode. And also the obvious fact that this was a prequel at some point and designing an entirely new face and rigging up the animation again when the reboot direction was announced was entirely out of budget. I don't even think the face is that bad. It's at least much better (and less terrifying) than the Bayverse counterpart.

 

Yeah me too. His tweaked face is very sweet and expressive on camera, but kinda creepy in toyform.

I never understood why his eyes got red when he was good and pissed? Unless that was supposed to be a cartoon type cliche'.

 

His new 2018 look is new and I know it may hard to believe but this is what the mainstream audience now associate with Bumblebee.

 

Yeah, would've lost the dumb clearly inspired by his previous design's face and given him a better one. Bayformers is done, let's move onto greener pastures.

 

And he's not the only one - a lot of post-2007 Bee designs have taken inspiration from Bayverse Bee (e.g. Aligned Bee, Cyberverse Bee, Evergreen Bee), more so than any other character.

Bayverse Bumblebee is a strange situation where a new look for a character starts becoming the definitive look - it's like what the MCU did for pretty much all its heroes or the Hesei Mechagodzilla becoming the definitive Mecha-G look.

To my seven-year-old cousin, Bumblebee is mute and turns into a muscle car, just as Captain Marvel is a lady - and they're just as beloved to her as G1 Bumblebee and Mar-Vell are.

Why not just go with the flow? Change is part of the brand - franchises don't last as long as Transformers does without changing quite significantly. And, besides, this isn't really a bad change.

 

He did get a new face. If you compare the face from the Bay movies vs his face in Bumblebee, the latter is much simpler and much cuter. Sure it has some similarities (like the speaker), but it's for all intents and purposes it's a completely different face. Heck, his adorable face in Bumblebee was one of the most widely praised aspects of the movie among the general public. Seeing that face in the first trailer is part of what helped win audiences back. It was a fresh start.

And personally, I find Cliffjumper's face a bit creepy and overdetailed. In fact, I feel like it's far more Bay-looking than Bumblebee's. Easily my least-favorite face in the entire movie. I think people like it because it's G1-accurate...but I just don't think it's an appealing-looking face. And it's certainly not youthful-looking with all those lines and details on it. I guarantee if that face had been on Bumblebee in the trailer, general audiences wouldn't have reacted very well to it. That face worked for Cliffjumper's minute-long cameo. It wouldn't work for the main character's face. Bumblebee's face needs to be more friendly and sympathetic.

 

I wouldn't say its new, as much as tweaked. And his face certainly doesn't look like that in the cartoons as they had their own unique styles with long faces, rounded or angular shapes and no noses for some reason. He certainly doesn't look like that in Animated, RiD15 or Cyberverse. The only permanent changes is his stripes and sports car mode.

 

Cliffjumper's face was scary and horrifying, though.

They made the right choice focusing more on faces without human-like mouths or mouths at all. The uber detailed, segmented faces worked for the overly complex, alien Bay bots, but on these more streamlined designs they stick out as too detailed. Bumblebee's face was smooth, simple, and cute, just like the rest of him. A more detailed, intricate face would've not matched his chubby little body.

And it is a new face. Compare the faces posted above: the old Bayverse Bee looks like a gaunt horror of jagged, emaciated cheekbones and beady eyes. Knightverse Bee is soft and round, with big, expressive, vulnerable eyes befitting his nature. Until they manage to pull off an aesthetic that gives the TFs solid faces without looking like weird puppets, or drops all pretense and gives them "liquid metal" faces, (which I am ALL for at this point) Bee should keep this design. A mouth would just look too weird for him under the current style.

It really made no sense. His eyes weren't red on Cybertron, so it wasn't because he got his memories back.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought CJ's face was kinda off-putting. =^_^='

 

It works for the amnesia/radio voice plot device, would be kind of horrifying if he had a regular face and just stood there expressionless playing radio clips.

 

Yeah, there was nothing wrong with the face - because it was cute, emotive and helped convey his personality. I find CGI non-human characters with human-looking faces creepy - call it residual trauma from Sonny.

And BB Bumblebee isn't unique in this regard - a lot of post-2007 Bee designs have taken inspiration from Bayverse Bee (e.g. Aligned Bee, Cyberverse Bee, Evergreen Bee), more so than any other character. Bayverse Bumblebee is a strange situation where a new look for a character starts eclipsing the old one to become what most people think that character looks like - it's like what the MCU did for pretty much all its heroes or the Hesei Mechagodzilla becoming the definitive Mecha-G look.

And, besides, the new look is just as beloved as the old - Bumblebee's Bayverse look was not "universally despised". To my eight-year-old cousin, Bumblebee is mute and turns into a muscle car, just as Carol Danvers is Captain Marvel - and they're just as beloved to her as G1 Bumblebee and Mar-Vell are.

Rather than pushing against the tide for what we arrogantly believe is the good of the brand (normally because it's something we like), why not just go with the flow? Change is part of the brand - franchises don't last as long as Transformers does without changing quite significantly. We shouldn't go around assuming all change is bad unless noted - because what would we end up with then? We'd end up with dull, repetitive crap with a failure to take risks and innovate.

 

It's probably a reference to Iron Giant, but it could be foreshadowing of the moment Megatron's falls from grace in the 'Cybertron-set Prequel'. In a reference to Transformers: Prime, Megatron's eyes were originally blue in the Pre-War flashbacks during the S1 finale, but after he believes Orion Pax betrays him, his eyes turn from blue-to-red.

 

On the topic of faces, I personally thought Ratchet's face design was interesting in Bumblebee. It's obviously not perfect as they spent probably like a maximum of 2 hours on it, but I do like the direction of making the panel lines incredibly small to make the face appear smoother/simpler. They just need to give him some BB Prime eyes and fix those lips but the general idea is golden in my opinion.

 

I liked the "gas mask" mouth they did on all the Seekers - in fact, I liked the basic aesthetic of a man in a flight suit they used on the Seeker design. They should have kept it on Starscream - his face looked weird without it.

 

I agree about the gas mask concept. It was really neat and gave the Seekers Gundam-vibes (though that's probably due to the rest of the design as well). It's a great example how you can make something look like the source material but with an added interesting touch. However, I personally would like it if Starscream's face is distinct from the rest of the Seekers. Whether that's tweaking the gas mask concept or just ditching it all together.

 

What do you suggest they do for those transformers who do have mouths then because, it seems like everytime we give a transformer facial feature its deemed creepy or weird looking.

 

Ohhh I didn't think of that. Its been a long time since I've seen Iron Giant.

@Music I like BB Ratchet's face.

 

The thing that bothers me is not the fact that there has been a version of Bumblebee other that the G1 version. It’s the fact that G1 Bumblebee has been completely overwritten and reduced to obscurity. After ten years of heehee funny silly not speaking pacifier boy maybe it would be nice to show that people haven’t completely forgotten what Bumblebee was. It is kind of insulting to G1 fans to have BB always be the Michael Bay version, as if to say, “No, your version never happened. That’s stupid anyway! Bumblebee not being an epic muscle car with an annoying speech gimmick? Lame! This is how it’s always been!!!” And that’s exactly what the public thinks. Until the Bumblebee movie came out, “normie” people would look at you in disbelief and say something like, “Bro, that’s literally so gay, bro!!! Bumblebee is a Camaro, bro!!! Michael Bay made Transformers better! Bro, that old shit is gay!!!” (Excuse my use of the no-no word, but that’s pretty much always what they will use to describe things that are not totally fuckin’ sick, brah). Although people are probably more aware of the Beetle alt. mode now, it was immediately done away with at the end of the movie (meaning we unfortunately will probably not get to see Bee as a modern Beetle in the future) and he still has stayed mute, headlight-chested, etc.

I know I’ve ranted numerous times about this, but I will continue to whine about it as long as the Bayverse Bumblebee is all we get.