Even though this toy is technically a toy for the 2007 movie, it was released during The Last Knight in 2017 for the movie universe's 10th anniversary-- hence why I'm reviewing it in "The Last Knight" section. Anyways, in vehicle mode, as you'd expect particularly from a Masterpiece with an alt mode, it's pretty flawless. The proportions are completely spot-on in every respect to the 2008 "Concept Camaro" model used for TF1, and kibble-wise things are pretty minimal. There's just a teeny bit of Bumblebee's ankles you can see on the back end below the main bumper, and from a straight side-on view a couple of his robot pieces underneath the body of the car, but they just barely stick out and don't interfere with rolling him on his tires (which are plastic, not rubbery). Since this is a Masterpiece toy, everything on the car is detailed pretty exactly. The two stripes with small borders around them are certainly accurately on the front hood and back bumper, and all of the minor details-- from the small red taillights and license plate near the back end to the door handles to the "CAMARO" logo on the sides-- are all appropriately colored. The front grill has headlights that are a light shade of blue; otherwise the windows and other transparent plastic is all a pretty straightforward clear color. Unfortunately, there wasn't an attempt made to make the interior of the car realistic-- open up the side doors (and the rear side windows with them) and you'll just find a bunch of robot parts inside, which is a bit of a shame. The wheel hubs have a rather shiny, dark metallic gunmetal gray paint on them, rather than the more straightforward silver you'd see on them on other Bumblebee toys. It honestly has a bit more of a "car finish"-y look to it, so I like the change. The main yellow plastic, however, is a more straightforward, slightly dull shade of the color (not orangish like on many of his other toys), looking very much like plastic and not like a car toy finish. Still, the painted yellow parts match up great with the plastic pars, so that's always good.
    Transforming Bumblebee to robot mode, as you'd expect from a Masterpiece toy, is quite complex. The upper body isn't TOO intricate, mostly following the basic steps from your average movie 'Bee toy, but adding in some smaller little extra bits, like the folding down of the rear side windows to make a more complete, accurate "four-wing" look behind his main body and adding little thin faux bumper parts above his chest. The unfolding of the rear of the car mode into his legs is more complex, but also more impressive, with some pretty cool accordion-ing of parts and even adding little bits like the sides of his rear ankles. The end result is fantastic, with very little not accurate to the movie model. His main body probably goes a teeny bit further back than you'd expect behind his head, and the little panels connected to his front wheels aren't really accurate, and there's some minor bits sticking out on his legs, but that's it. Every piece of kibble here is so minor I wouldn't even bother mentioning it if this was a mainline toy. It's especially nice to see his arms completely kibble-free-- no body panels on the back of them or anything. His entire windshield and roof accordion up rather impressively to form the mass of his main body, and yes, there is a little peg hole on the back end if you have an appropriate display stand and want to have him in an aerial jumping pose or something. The chest does crumple up a little TOO much-- it's a tad too narrow-- but otherwise the main body looks good, and the head is very accurately detailed, with blue eyes and his flip-down mask. (That said, simply because of well-- reality-- having the mask there makes his head look a bit bigger on the top when it's retracted.) You can also attach a cannon piece around either of his lower arms, by rotating the hand in and then flipping the cannon piece over the stump. (The cannon piece stores on his butt if you don't want it on his arm in this mode, and it stores split in two below the body of the vehicle.) There's also some nice diecast on his lower legs to give him extra mass down there-- which is good, as he's slightly back-heavy, and the diecast on his lower doors would definitely have made him unstable without the metal on his legs, too. The mold detailing is all completely accurate to the movie, and paint is used where appropriate-- from silver on the arms to some darker gunmetal gray on some of his other robot parts, to the faux "broken" license plate on his pelvis. Articulation is exquisite; he can move at the neck, at the base of each of those smaller faux vehicle pieces above his chest, at each pec, at the shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), wrists (at two points), at the base and mid-point of each thumb, index finger, and his smaller two fingers (the two fingers as one piece at each point), waist rotation, movement at the hips (at two points), knees (two points), ankle (two points), and a bit of movement at the toes and each heel spur. Really, you can't ask for anything better. The slight back-heaviness is the only real limit on his poseability.
    Sure, Masterpiece Movie Bumblebee is quite expensive for the size (somewhere between voyager and leader class), but you get what you pay for. He's exquisitely detailed in each mode, with stellar proportions, very minimal kibble in either mode (at least that's not on his model), some neat extras like the mask and cannon (without going overboard like some Takara MP releases), amazing articulation... The only real downside for me is that his vehicle mode doesn't have a realistic interior. If you're a collector and don't mind spending a decent amount of both money and time for the transformation, this is definitely the movie 'Bee toy for you.
 

Review by Beastbot

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