Bumblebee
(Rally) [Wal-Mart Exclusive]
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original movie deluxe '08 Camaro Bumblebee toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original movie deluxe '08 Camaro Bumblebee toy here.)
For Bumblebee's "rally"
redeco, his actual color scheme doesn't change much from the original toy.
The main difference is that there's some more light milky gray in his robot
mode which-- though a blah color by itself-- helps to bring a little more
variation to his normally two-tone robot mode. The transparent plastic
used for his windows is a darker, smoky black color, which helps to hide
the robot kibble behind it a little better but doesn't look as good a color
on the whole thing as transparent blue. What really sets this version of
Bumblebee apart from his many other deluxe-class repaints are his paint
apps- specifically, all the decals on his vehicle mode, which are all nods--
both obvious and obscure-- to Transformers lore. Down the single stripe
on his vehicle mode he's got an Autobot symbol as well as "84" tampos on
his roof and side doors, which are nods to, of course, the year (1984)
when Transformers was first released in the U.S. His smaller decals are
largely more obscure. Going from the front of his car mode to the back:
the "S" with a gear around it is Sumdac Systems' logo, from Animated; he's
got a "Fly (Omega Symbol) Supreme" logo, which of course hearkens back
to the Omega Supreme character; he's got Minicon symbols from Armada; a
white "prehistory" Autobot symbol near the rear tire; a "S.T.A.R.S." logo,
which refers to the Secret Transformer Autobot Rescue Squad, a Transfomrers
club you could join back in the G1 days; the Playskool "Go-Bots" symbol;
and a "Blackrock" symbol with a triceratops symbol sandwiched in between
the two syllables of the name, indicating that Blackrock is an oil company--
and indeed, G.B. Blackrock was an oil tycoon who played a role in some
of the American G1 comics, but the symbol is actually that of the Beast
Machines Dinobots. Finally, on the back end he has a "Maccadam's" logo,
which calls to Maccadam's Old Oil House, a bar on Cybertron that's been
a staple of comic fiction since the G1 days.
No mold changes have
been made to this version of Bumblebee-- interestingly enough, even his
head doesn't have the same movie-accurate changes made to the various post-TF1
versions of this mold, and he has the same blaster/sword weapon that his
original TF1 deluxe toys had as well.
"Rally" Bumblebee isn't
really worth picking up if you're simply looking at the color scheme, as
it's basically just Bumblebee's normal scheme with a bit more gray. If
you love a ton of fanwanks and references on a toy, though, you can't get
much fanwankier than all the logos on this guy's vehicle mode.
Review by Beastbot