(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 Botcon Glyph. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Botcon Glyph here.)

    I'm honestly amazed it took Hasbro this long to reissue G1 Bumblebee. Of course, he came first-- way before Botcon Glyph-- but since that toy was utilized for a Botcon 2002 exclusive which was the first time I encountered this mold, you'll find my thoughts on the design itself in that review. As you'd expect, Bumblebee is almost entirely a dull yellow, with black poking through on his robot bits, like his upper legs and arms, as well as on his windows and rubbery tires. There's some chrome silver on the hubcaps, as well as on both sides of the little square thing that pops out from the back end of the vehicle to become his robot head. It's a pretty basic color scheme, but it still works, particularly for a toy this small. He's got more paint apps than your average Minibot-- some light red on the taillights, silver on the front headlights and bumper, and some silver on his face and light blue on his robot eyes. Like the other G1 Wal-Mart Minibot Reissues, Bumblebee's face has actually been resculpted for this release, to fit his G1 cartoon appearance better. It's a pretty good headsculpt given the toy's limitations-- all of the necessary details are there, from the little horns to the vent on the middle of the forehead to the rather wide face. No complaints there. For stickers, all Bumblebee has is an Autobot symbol on the top of his vehicle mode/chest of his robot mode, and a "spare tire" sticker detail on the back of his head piece that is visible in vehicle mode.
    Even though beyond the headsculpt change this reissue technically doesn't have any mold changes compared to the original, compared to my original review of this mold as Glyph, the small changes made to the rear bumper for the keychain have been of course been eliminated, as well as the keychain itself.
    If you're going to pick up G1 Bumblebee, it's almost assuredly for nostalgia purposes or to get the original design of one of the most popular TF characters ever. The toy itself isn't really going to wow anyone these days, and there's certainly been many, many versions of the character that have done him better since then. Still, there's something about having the original that hearkens back to the original series in a way no other G1 "update" could, and if you're one of those collectors, by all means get the toy-- just don't expect much out of the toy itself, especially given its very subpar robot mode.

Review by Beastbot

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