Bumblebee
(Activator) [Animated]
Unlike some of the other
Activators, Bumblebee sacrifices surprisingly little in his alternate mode
while still retaining its accuracy to the show. The only extra bits are
the hinges on the back end of the car (which sadly stand out more than
they should due to their black coloration); other than that, Bumblebee
is a pretty spot-on representation in this mode. He also uses a duller
color of yellow than the mainline deluxe
does, which I think looks considerably better on the toy and not nearly
as loud. All of the necessary details are painted, including the siren
and Bumblebee's asymmetrical stripe, which is of course appreciated. To
activate Bumblebee's (mostly) automatic transformation, press his siren--
then all you'll have to do is unfold his feet and arms and he'll be in
his robot mode.
Bumblebee's robot mode
is surprisingly impressive for an Activator. It's a more straightforward
transformation than his deluxe version-- the top of the car actually becomes
his chest this time-- but it still works, and Bumblebee more or less has
proper proportions. The only real problem I have with him are his arms,
though given the simplicity of the transformation I can't see them doing
anything different realistically-- his arms are really two-dimensional,
being particularly flat, and the hands are just molded on the inside of
the car door panels instead of being "real" hands. The panels that hang
off of his arms interfere with some elbow movement as well, since they
clash with each other if you try to move Bumblebee's arms up by the elbows
much. His arms could also really use some paint detailing, even if the
rest of his body of paint apps to add to the usual black/yellow contrast
colors that Bumblebee has. As for overall articulation, he can move at
the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points-- though again,
it's limited), hips (at two points), and knees, which is pretty fair for
an Activator.
Activator Bumblebee
is one of the best molds in the sub-line, with a nice vehicle mode and
a fairly good robot mode, the arms being the only exception. Given that
he's also more in-scale with "normal-sized" Animated figures than the deluxe
version because of his smaller size, if you don't mind the arms I actually
recommend this version of Bumblebee over the mainline deluxe, given the
slightly cheaper price.
Review by Beastbot