For his "Cyber Battalion" version, Bumblebee's the usual yellow sportscar with two black stripes down the middle he's been for a while now, but the proportions are a bit different this time-- the front hood section is a bit more elongated than usual, with a small back end. It is still very definitely recognizably Bumblebee, though, with the yellow being roughly the same shade he usually has, but a shade paler. (Honestly, this works for me-- I'm not normally a fan of yellow, so making the color of it pale agrees more with me.) The black stripes and wheels contrast with said yellow very well, and the light blue windows complement the yellow in a rather happy, kid-friendly manner which pretty much gives you Bumblebee's general attitude, right there. His headlights are also painted the same blue with a silver grill and an Autobot symbol in the middle of said hood, but the taillights are unpainted, sadly. In fact, the mold detailing in general in this mode is very minimal, even for a rather smooth vehicle; there's not even any visible door lines, there there are little door handle details, at least. There also isn't any rear windows molded in, either, so I can hardly complain about them not being painted in this case. Still, proportionally it's a pretty solid mode, quite sturdy, and with the exception of just a liiitle bit of the bottom of the robot feet visible from the back end, there's no robot mode extras, either.
    Bumblebee takes his transformation from many legion-class Bumblebee toys of late, with the sides forming his arms, the front his chest, and the back end of the vehicle mode his legs. The front wheels fold behind the front of his chest rather nicely, but otherwise there's some pretty big "shell bits" noticeable in this mode. The most egregious are the huge pieces of the sides of the car (and even part of the car roof) attached to the sides of his arms, and the back end and rear wheels are attached pretty obviously to his back lower legs and the sides of his feet, as well. Because of his transformation, there's a noticeable gap in between his feet and the bottom of his lower legs, which is a bit unsightly, too. The other extras-- the panel behind Bumblebee's head, and the windshield panel behind the main body-- are relatively minor in comparison, and are fairly easily ignored considering the target audience for the Cyber Battalion toys. The mold detailing is a little bit better on Bumblebee's robot bits, though still quite basic. Yes, he does have hands molded into his upper arms, feet, visible bits that are his knees and the like, as well as a couple of basic details on his abs, but there aren't any intricate details like wiring or anything that you'd expect on a toy this size (roughly voyager), regardless of the complexity. The headsculpt is also... off. The basic G1 Bumblebee details are all there, like the little horns on the side, but his face looks a bit stern and his eyes a bit small for kid-friendly lil' Bumblebee. Following the rest of this mode, his paint apps are pretty basic; his lower arms and upper legs are painted black, and his eyes are blue and his face silver. Other than that, the other visible paint apps on this mode carry over from his car mode. Having a bit more paint on his abs or feet or something would've been appreciated. For articulation, Bumblebee can move at the head, shoulders (at two points), forward at the elbows, and at the hips (at two points). His feet can also move slightly at the ankles due to the transformation, though the lack of knee articulation is a bit baffling. I also would've appreciated a packed-in weapon, as his fists are molded to carry one.
    Cyber Battalion Bumblebee was originally meant for other (generally poorer) markets than the U.S., though he was eventually distributed at a high price as a Universal Studios exclusive for Transformers: The Ride, and later was also distributed via Walgreens as well at a slightly more reasonable price of ~$17. That said, although size-wise he's what you would expect for the price-- maybe even a little bigger-- more paint and articulation would have been appreciated, even considering the younger target audience (likely those just about to "graduate" from Rescue Bots to more complex Transformers). I also wish the bits coming off his robot arms were a bit less egregious, though his vehicle mode is pretty solid, and I don't really have any breakage fears. Still, because of the combination of the price and complexity, I'd only recommend this for 'Bee completists. Otherwise, buy your young one a smaller, cheaper simple-to-transform 'Bee toy.

Review by Beastbot

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