(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 deluxe TF1 '08 Bumblebee toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original TF1 deluxe '08 Bumblebee toy here.)

    The main "gimmick" for this subline is that the vehicle modes look like they're in the process of being "scanned/reformatted", utilizing the cool visual effect that was seen in the first live-action movie. It's no different with Bumblebee-- in vehicle mode, the front half of so looks pretty normal, and typical of your usual movie Bumblebee colors and paint apps. The only real difference here with Bumblebee's "typical" car-mode colors is that the yellow is a tad lighter, due to it all being painted on for this release as opposed to being a plastic color. The middle section of the vehicle mode has a really nifty "scanning" effect, with a white line going across the middle and several light blue "circuitry-like" patterns and a bit of transparent light blue plastic used-- this all goes quite well with the yellow, in the minor amount that it's used here. The back third or so of Bumblebee's vehicle mode is completely unpainted clear plastic, as is usual for this subline. This all translates into a robot mode that's largely "been there, done that" from the waist up (except for those really nifty patterns on his door-wings), with the bottom half being mostly clear plastic. To help fit in with the "just-being-formatted" look, Bumblebee's major robot mode color has been switched from black for a light milky gray on this version. It DOES help the solid plastic robot mode bits not look nearly as obvious in vehicle mode, but on the other hand the movie toylines already have way too much of this color; it's boring, quite frankly. As such, the bottom half of his robot mode ends up looking pretty bland as well, with the only paint app really being a bit of yellow on his crotch, and the hubs of his tires. Bumblebee's projectile is a transparent dull orange, however, which does look pretty nice and contrasts against its surrounding colors quite well.
    Scan Series Bumblebee has the same mold changes that the initial Revenge of the Fallen deluxe toy of him had; there are no mold changes made specifically for this release, however.
    Scan Series Bumblebee is a great mold with a really eye-catching and unique paint job in his vehicle mode, though it's a bit less so in robot mode. If this mold hadn't been used oodles of time before this, I'd recommend it without any hesitation; however, as it is, most likely you have at least one version of this mold by now, and if you don't, it's likely you don't like the look of the mold anyways. Recommended for Bumblebee completists or those who (like me) really enjoy these "scan series" paint apps; otherwise, it's a fairly easy pass. Overall, it takes second place for the best color scheme I think this mold has had (behind the Bumblebee in the "Crash Landing Attack" set).

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Dark of the Moon Index