Bumblebee's Concept Camaro mode is fan-freaking-tastic, and huge-- as well it should be, considering this big boy's the most expensive Transformer released in the U.S. in a loooooong time. The actual mold detailing is rather sparse in this mode, though that's to be expected from the large scale and from the fact that the '08 Camaro doesn't have a whole lot of details on it anyway-- but where details are needed, they're there. The particular shade of glittery golden yellow looks GREAT on Bumblebee here, and is my favorite of the variations of yellow they've used on the Movie Bumblebee toys, as it looks pretty close to a real car finish. The black goes GREAT against this type of yellow, and the couple of accent colors, like red, blue (if his headlights are turned on), and silver also look great and add a bit more color variation to this huge toy. All of the necessary details are here, too, from the Chevrolet sign on the front bumper to the Camaro logo on the sides to Bumblebee's California license plate on the back. The wheels are also made of real rubber, and it's of a very sturdy kind, too-- a definite plus. All of the car pieces fit together in a very sturdy manner as well-- some would argue TOO well, as it requires a LOT of force to get some pieces apart for the transformation. Some people are put off by the fact that Bumblebee has painted windows-- they argue that, at this scale and at this price point, there's no excuse for not having transparent windows. Well, not only would that decrease the sturdiness of the figure, but there's a ton of electronics inside the main body of Bumblebee, and seeing those through transparent windows would partially ruin the look of the mode. I've always said I prefer painted windows over transparent windows that show robot parts inside, and it certainly stands in this case. What really is cool about this mode-- and, indeed, are the main selling points of this toy-- are the electronic gimmicks. If you open Bumblebee's left door and switch him on, them press the Autobot symbol, you'll hear an "engine turning on" noise, followed by a constant hum of the engine. Best of all, this thing has motion sensing-- if you're pushing along Bumblebee at an accelerating rate, the engine hum will get higher, while the opposite will happen if you push him at a slower rate, and the motion sensors are surprisingly accurate at telling the toy how fast the engine hum should sound. Headlights also light up when when Bumblebee's turned on, and his taillights light up when he's moving backwards. Also, occasional radio fake jingles like "Headin' down the highway, better get out oooof my waaay!" will sound. Also, if you suddenly stop Bumblebee, screeching brake noises will sound, or if you bump him into something fairly hard a crashing noise will sound, which is just too cool.
    Bumblebee's robot mode is where he gets nearly all of his points off. It's still GOOD, but it definitely suffers a bit from its animatronic gimmicks (explained shortly); there's a pretty big box for his batteries on his lower back, and pretty much the entire back third of the car mode just hangs behind his legs, which takes away from his otherwise pretty movie-accurate appearance. Proportionally, he's pretty good, with his head and main body right-on, though his hands and legs--particularly his gun-arm-- could stand to be a tad bulkier. His articulation would be decent enough for a deluxe or voyager-sized toy, but it's a bit sub-standard for a toy of this immense size-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points on the right arm, but it can only rotate on the left gun-arm), the wrist, thumb, and at the base of each of his three fingers on his right "normal" arm, the hips (at two points), and the knees (at three points). This sounds better than it actually is, however-- his neck and arms only have somewhat limited movement at their joints, due to the gears and wires inside-- so if you want Bumblebee to raise his arm up above his head, well, you're out of luck. The mold detailing in this mode is exquisite, thoguh, particularly on the chest (and even under the car parts on the chest, though the car parts hang a little below the top of the chest, which doesn't look all that great), with the gray plastic details brought out with nice black paint wash. Pistons, wires, gears, springs-- just about every kind of mechanical device you can think of is molded somewhere on Bumblebee. I also like how his heel-wheels actually fold inside his feet on this toy, just like in the movie-- it looks pretty good. As for Bumblebee's myriad gimmicks, well, that's what this toy is all about, isn't it? If you turn the switch on Bumblebee's left side to "On" and then press on the Autobot symbol on his chest, his eyes will light up blue, he'll move around a bit, and say "Ready!". Pressing the button his chest will cause him to utter several phrases, ranging from snippets of Devo's "Whip It" song to utterances like "The Decepticons will stop at nothing!" and "We must protect the Allspark!" The voice isn't the actual voice used for Bumblebee in the Movie, but to be fair Bumblebee had all of two real spoken lines in the movie and he didn't sound like he should, given his character. Ultimate Bumblebee, however, has a youthful, courageous voice just like you'd expect from Bumblebee. His arms, neck, and "door wings" on his back will all move as he delivers his lines, and though it's a bit noisy with all of the gears whirring, it's pretty darned cool. The toy also has limited voice recognition, so if you say his name or talk loudly near him, he'll move around a bit or play you a little "Whip It". I especially like how his eyes pulse with exactly with what he's saying, and occasionally he'll do a brief "blink" by having his eye-lights turn off briefly and then on again. If you press the large yellow button on his right side, he'll raise his gun-arm and, amidst rifle-bursting noises and pulsating red lights, will fire his spring-loaded missile-- at least theoretically. It doesn't work about half of the time for some reason, and even when it does it only fires about half a foot, though the latter may be intentional for safety reasons. The firing sounds will continue until you let go of the button, at which point he'll say one of a few different phrases like "That will teach them to mess with an Autobot!" before putting his gun-arm back down and resuming his normal posture. Another cool electronic feature they put in that I think is just hilarious is that, if you leave Bumblebee alone for about 30 seconds, he'll start to say things like "Permission to speak?" and "Uh... hello?". If you still don't respond, he'll shut himself off to conserve battery power, to a phrase like "And this concludes our broadcast day".
    In short, the gimmicks on Ultimate Bumblebee, as well as the shiny, exquisite car mode, make the toy. His gimmicks, what with his tons of phrases, firing sounds, motion sensors, headlights, tailights, optic-lights, auto-moving of his arms and head, and more, are easily the coolest we've ever gotten on a Transformer, though because of it his robot mode is a bit kibble-ridden and limited in its movement. Because of the hefty price tag, I'd recommend this toy to huge Bumblebee fans or people who love interactive toys like, say, Robosapien-- but if you just want a highly posable action figure, get the deluxe '08 version of Bumblebee instead.

Review by Beastbot

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