Bumblebee is a little bit of an odd one in the Transformers: Masterpiece line. He’s one that people have been expecting to see from the start, given the presence of other franchise big hitters like Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream but for whatever reason (likely Volkswagen not wanted to be affiliated with “war toys”) he didn’t get released until far later. The fact that he’s been released this late in the day is unfortunately to his detriment.
Early Masterpiece figures existed in something of a vaccuum with the focus being on the individual figures rather than the line as a whole. And so we had a Grimlock shorter than Optimus and so on. Since the release of MP-10 (a recreated and downsized Optimus Prime) Takara have been trying to get more consistency in scale. Unfortunately trying to get accurate scale in Transformers is like trying to measure rainbows using jam. So right now the regular Autobot cars like Prowl are being made in scale where in robot mode they are a little over half Prime’s height, and can fit into Prime’s trailer, but this means that Soundwave and Starscream also tower over them. And Bumblebee gets maybe the worst of it all, since he needs to be smaller than them. He’s tiny, in short.
As you can see from the above image he comes in a regular-sized Autobot Car box, but takes up less than half of it himself. He comes with Spike Witwicky in an Exosuit (who is spread out to take up space for whatever reason), a pistol, a spare face, a tire cover, and separate wing mirrors (bagged in with the instructions).
(Scaled with Generations Starscream)
If he’d been released in, say, 2005, he’d have probably been a lot larger to reflect his star status, scale be damned. As it stands his robot mode is about right for the other Autobots but his car mode is weeny.
His car mode is very much…okay. Not great in any regard. He does suffer the eternal curse of all yellow Transformers in that the yellow plastic and the parts that are painted yellow just aren’t quite the same shade. There is a pretty distinct transformation crease below his rear windows. There is a fair amount of detail, with the badge, lights and door handles and hubcaps all being nicely painted, but the license plate is plain black plastic, as are the bumpers. The tire cover piece can be added to the rear of the car by removing the license plate piece (that piece can fit inside the tire cover) or, bafflingly, under the chassis out of sight, along with the pistol (unlike the other Autobot Cars he can’t mount his gun on top of his vehicle mode). He also has some pretty fierce arm kibble underneath the very rear of his car mode
Transformation from car to robot is pretty smooth. One part I really like is that the hood flap folds inside the torso. Very inventive. Transforming back to car mode is slightly more a case of lining up panels and pegs but it’s nothing frustrating.
Bumblebee, as I mentioned, is a smaller fellow. The last time I saw a TF this size for this price (that wasn’t third party) was a Disney Label. He does have a lot of articulation though unlike larger MPs his fists are fixed and have no finger movement. The inside of his feet and wrists do have some rather glaring gaps that you wouldn’t see on a larger figure in this line. His pistol is neat, and the tire cover fits on his back, less obtrusively than in car mode.
By default he has a neutral expression, but you can swap his face for an included smiling expression (unlike the other parts the spare face doesn’t appear to be able to be stowed anywhere on the figure). Oddly in person for me the second face looks more nervous than smiling, but that may be a quirk of my office lighting as, in the above photo he looks happy. He does have a very thick torso, which fits the character, but he does look a little gappy from the side.
The third face is an Amazon exclusive and comes separately to this figure. It looks more like the original toy and those works that use the original toy as a model (like some early comics), as well as a scene in Dreamwave comics where he used it as a battle mask over his regular face (the packaging calls it “battle face”). I personally like it the best, because I’m a sucker for toy accuracy.
The Spike figure is a bit of a mixed bag. There are certainly things I’d have rather seen in this set, like, say, Steeljaw, or the Pearl of Bahoudin. Given that it’s essentially a glorified add-on it’s not bad, with a fun enough transformation, decent articulation and a surprisingly solid vehicle mode. The lack of paint on the face is unfortunate though. Again, there are other things I’d have rather seen. There will probably be a few of this guy on eBay soon.
So all in all, this is a purchase I don’t regret. There are little flaws throughout, which is something I wouldn’t necessarily say is true of the other Autobot Cars, and it does seem like almost all of the add-ons, especially the tire cover, are a little gratuitous and pointless. That said he’s fun, if unimpressive, to play with, will look great in robot mode next to any other MPs you have, is slightly less expensive than other Autobot Cars, and is such a vital character that it’s hard to excuse not getting him.
That said I would not be 100% surprised if he got a US Toys R Us release in the future, so if you’re not sure you might want to hold your money. Also I wouldn’t be totally surprised if we get a Goldbug, Glyph, or Bugbite repaint of this figure in future.
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
