Plasma Punch Bumblebee's Concept Camaro mode is very good, particularly for a Fast Action Battler. It's SLIGHTLY kiddy-fied, as it's slightly wider proportionally than it should be, but it's very, VERY slight to the point where you won't notice it unless you really look at it. The soles of the robot feet are rather obvious on the rear end of this mode, but otherwise there's no robot extras to speak of, and all of the car panels fit together quite well, too. The small hinge on the front end of the side doors is the only "toyish" looking part of this mode from a design aspect. Bumblebee also has all the necessary paint apps you'd expect, including the stripes, painted windows, and a quite detailed front bumper. (The rear bumper could use another paint app or two, though, as only the taillights there are painted.) Bumblebee has the necessary mold detailing as well-- that is, not a lot, as the Camaro isn't a car with a lot of lines or other details going on it. The yellow used for FAB Bumblebee looks quite good-- better than on almost all the other Movie Bumblebee toys in fact, as it has a bit of orange-golden tint to it, just like on the actual car.
    Bumblebee's robot mode certainly simplifies his design-- as is appropriate for a toy aimed at this age range-- but it's still easily recognizable as Bumblebee. Because of the simplified transformation, his car roof merely hangs off his back, and the rear third of his vehicle mode forms rather bulky lower legs, with his upper legs looking really skinny in comparison. Also, his chest is a bit large, and I don't like how his side doors just fold up against his main body-- that's the least-accurate aspect of this design, since Movie Bumblebee's side doors should be mounted on his back like wings, not folded onto the sides of his chest. His arms actually aren't particularly skinny, but they do look it compared to Bumblebee's rather massive chest. His face, while well-detailed, is detailed on the inside of a square piece of plastic, and having the edges of the square stick out from the sides of his face looks rather goofy and unnecessary, in my opinion. I realize this makes the mode seem like it's pretty much all bad, but it's really one of the better FAB robot modes-- even though his proportions are off a bit, they aren't off so much that Bumblebee looks goofy, and such proportions are rather common on more "traditional-style" Transformers anyways. His chest splits in half to make it slightly more movie-accurate, even though it doesn't have to in any way for the transformation, a definite plus. Bumblebee also has rather good articulation for a Fast Action Battler-- he can move at the shoulders, elbows (at two points), the left wrist, the hips, and the knees. He also has the same "turn me right at the waist, but then I spring back" movement that most other FABs have. His shoulder articulation is rather limited to just front-and-back motion because of its construction, but other than that he has a pretty good range of motion, and he's not back-heavy so you can get a fair number of poses from him. The mold detailing on his robot parts is also very, very good, and his paint detailing is fair as well. His gimmick is also fairly cool-- his left arm is in its gun-form on this toy, but instead of being just a straightforward trigger-activated missile launcher, you rotate the nozzle of Bumblebee's gun to fire the projectile. (I don't like the color of the projectile, though-- a dull blue color for plasma? Uh, no.)
    Plasma Punch Bumblebee is one of the better Fast Action Battlers, with a nice golden shade of yellow used to fit in with his black, a nearly flawless vehicle mode, and a decent, if simplified and unoriginal, robot mode design. The perfect choice for kids who aren't old enough to take on the quite-complicated mainline deluxe Bumblebee.

Review by Beastbot

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