Goldfire
(Generations)
(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 Generations deluxe "IDW" Bumblebee. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Generations deluxe "IDW" Bumblebee here.)
"Goldfire", in actuality,
is an homage to G1 Goldbug-- apparently they weren't able to get
the copyright back, not to mention that Bumblebee isn't a VW bug anymore.
As an upgraded version of Bumblebee, of course this mold fits the character
perfectly, and the new color scheme (again, hearkening back to Goldbug)
is similar to Bumblebee, but also quite different in many respects. The
biggest and most obvious difference here is that Bumblebee's yellow plastic
has been replaced with-- you guessed it-- gold plastic on Goldfire. Now,
this isn't a brown that sorta looks like gold, or a dull yellow-- this
is bonafide gold plastic, here, with a bit of milky look to it that actually
makes it look even better than flat gold, as well. (There's just a touch
of gold paint on the toy as well, and it fits in with the plastic almost
seemlessly.) There's two major colors that play off the gold, and that's
dark blue and black-- both of which contrast EXCELLENTLY against said gold.
Particularly in robot mode, all the colors come together in a manner that's
quite pleasing to the eye, with no section of one color that's too large
and unbroken. In vehicle mode it's a bit of a different story with gold
being by far the dominant color-- though honestly, given how nice this
shade looks, it's not as big of a negative as it normally would be. I like
the black swept-back stripe along each side of the car, though perhaps
one or two more of those stripes down the top of the vehicle mode would've
helped break it up just a bit more (and to tie the scheme to Bumblebee
a bit more obviously). The transparent plastic here is a very dark blue--
almost to the point where you'd be forgiven for thinking it WASN'T transparent
at first glance-- unlike the first release of this mold, you definitely
can't see anything inside Goldfire's transparent windows. There's also
a few other minor accent colors--like the silver on the headlights and
the dark red on the taillights-- which help add a bit more variety to the
color scheme, but honestly, it looks quite good enough already.
Goldfire does have one
mold change, and that's a new headsculpt-- it's sort of a cross between
G1 Goldbug's headsculpt and IDW Bumblebee's-- it has a silver faceplate
and primarily dark blue coloration like Goldbug's, but individually separate
eyes and a headcrest more like IDW 'Bee's. It's a pretty nice headsculpt
regardless, with nice crisp detailing, and looks well on the figure.
Goldfire is an excellent
redeco, homaging Bumblebee's upgraded form in G1 but adding a few "extras",
like a bit more black, a slightly different headsculpt, and a few more
paint accents than the original G1 Goldbug. The colors all look astoundingly
good next to each other, and this is definitely my favorite color scheme
I've seen on this mold, that's for sure. That said, I do worry a little
long-term about the gold plastic-- it's of pretty much the exact same shade
that was subject to crumbling because of the infamous "Gold Plastic Syndrome",
particularly prevalent in the '90s. Granted, Hasbro have said that they
have solved the problem now, but I still get wary about how this figure
will hold up in 5-10 years. As of this writing, though (4/16), I've heard
of no reports of the gold plastic crumbling.
Review by Beastbot