Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Cyberverse Vehicle Set
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Very Easy
Difficulty of Transformation of Vehicle: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Yellow and some dark charcoal gray, bluish black, silver, metallic gunmetal gray, transparent blue, and moderately light metallic blue
Figure Rating: 7.8
Vehicle-Armor Rating: 7.7

(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 the original Prime "Robots in Disguise" legion Bumblebee. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original Prime "Robots in Disguise" legion Bumblebee figure here.)

    When it comes to the legion class Bumblebee toy that's included with the big ol' Battle Suit, not much has changed about the figure compared to the original release-- it's more of a slight variant, sharing generally the same colors but using slightly different shades of them. The yellow is a bit lighter and "lemony" than on the original, while the black is a bit more impure; the black paint actually looks a little blue if you shine a light directly on it, while the tires and a few minor interior parts are honestly a rather ugly shade of charcoal gray now.The front of the grill is metallic gunmetal gray, not black, though the headlights, face, and engine block continue to be silver. The paint detailing on 'Bee's chest is now bluish black instead of silver, and the two short stripes that were in front of the engine block on the original release of this mold are absent on this version. The paint used for the windows also scales more towards the blue end than the silver end of the spectrum, this time around. So, largely, this is just a slightly lighter-shaded Bumblebee with dirty-looking tires. Overall I feel this one is SLIGHTLY inferior to the original version, given that the yellow doesn't look as accurate and the few aforementioned odd choices about ugly dark gray on the wheels, but they certainly aren't big complaints; he's more or less on the same level as his original release.
    No mold changes have been made to this version of Bumblebee.

    The Battle Suit has two modes, and we'll start with the one he's packaged in-- the "armor" mode. It's certainly a big, buff, Bumblebee-colored exosuit-- though the cockpit/chest cavity is big enough for pretty much any Cyberverse-scaled figure, so Bumblebee doesn't necessary have to use it. (That said, the downside of this is that there's no place for Bumblebee to "plug in", so he just sort of stands rather loosely in the chest/cockpit area and jiggles around a bit when you play with the set.) For a hulked-out armor suit, the proportions are quite good with beefy limbs and legs that are a little shorter than normal proportionally to help give it that "buff" look. Other than the obvious handles on the sides of the shoulders, there aren't really any major kibble issues in this mode either, with all the pieces that show themselves in the vehicle mode folding up against the body or behind the back quite well. The Prime aesthetic comes through loud and clear here, with a lot of the mold detailing being a bit stylized and rather minimal in some parts, while quite intricate in others, like the vents and the like on the upper back. The color scheme is typical Bumblebee, with the yellow plastic and silver paint fitting that on the little toy it comes with exactly, and the "black" plastic actually being a very dark blue as well. The ugly greyish brown plastic also makes a return here, but thankfully it's only on the tread-feet, where it's a more fitting color. Added in here is a bit more silver paint-- particularly on the chest and the guns that are stored behind the back in this mode-- and transparent blue plastic is used on the top of this mode as well as on the tip of a rather large spring-loaded missile gun and the armor suit's fists. The added blue goes nicely enough with the yellow, but it's primarily used for the little transparent gun-on-a-wire that can be held in either of the suit's hands or plugged in behind the top of this mode. It's supposed to shine a green light through the blue plastic when you press down on the black piece on the top of this gun, but as is sadly the case with the vast majority of Cyberverse toys incorporating this gimmick, it barely works, if at all. (It's also worth noting that the large gun can split into two separate handheld guns-- one with the missile-firing gimmick and a smaller one with the light-shining gimmick.) This toy has Cyberverse-scaled handles and ports out the wazoo, so TONS of other Cyberverse weapons and figures can hang on/attach to this mode if you want to beef it up even more. As far as articulation, this mode can move side-to-side at the shoulders, as well as front-to-back at the knees and hips. Not outstanding articulation, to be sure, but it's a big bulky gimmicky armor suit, whadaya want?
    Although not a nearly-automatic transformation like the Energon Driller and Starhammer playsets, the transformation of Bumblebee's battle suit to vehicle mode is still very simple. Pulling out on the shoulder handles causes the cockpit to fold down while large silver guns fold forward over the shoulders and some smaller guns rise up from the back. Bumblebee's fists are them flipped around to show large transparent cannosn, and his legs are separated and spread out to create the treads. The result, however... well, this is definitely a secondary mode to the armor mode, that's for sure. If it wasn't for the treads, I don't even think I'd recognize it as an actual vehicle-- it's way too bulky, doesn't have any recognizable cockpit, and just looks like his armor mode sitting down with the chest down. And unfortunately, this "flipped down" chest/cockpit is a really bad idea-- as loose as the Bumblebee toy was in the cockpit in armor mode, here there's NOWHERE for him to stand in the center of this mode at all, and will easily fall out of the center area by himself with even a little movement. Luckily, there's all those aforementioned handles I talked about, and a platform lifts up behind the back to allow Cyberverse figures to stand on it and hold the handles on the upper back more easily without clinging onto them for dear life. The large silver guns and flipped-around transparent blue guns do add some definite firepower that the armor mode doesn't have, though I wish you could flip out the silver guns without activating the part of the transformation that flips down the cockpit/chest, so that the armor mode could have all the weapons displayed if you so chose. The handheld gun from the armor mode simply pegs into the center area rather unceremoniously, in a bad attempt to cover up the huge gaping area in the middle of this mode-- at least it gives the vehicle even more firepower, though. The shoulder bits stick out even more obviously because of the transformation process, and the treads are also pretty weak, being just waaay too obviously the feet split in half lengthwise, and don't look like they'd work in real life. (I suppose it is worth mentioning that they aren't real treads, having just wheels on the bottoms to help the vehicle mode roll along.) Like other Cyberverse Vehicle sets, in this mode there are clips on the sides to connect it with other Cyberverse Vehicle sets in their base modes if you want to make a "mega" base.

    I'm torn on the Bumblebee Battle Suit set. On the one hand, the armor mode looks great, does its job well, has a ton of points for extra weapons or Cyberverse figures to cling/peg onto, and the Battle Suit's got a lot of weaponry. The armor/vehicle set also legitimately transforms, as opposed to a simple slider changing the base in between two slightly-different variants of the same mode. On the other hand, it's got a barely-different redeco of Bumblebee as the "core" figure that's pretty much just an extra if you already have the original Legion-class Prime Bumblebee, and the vehicle mode is pretty darn poor in nearly every aspect beyond "even more guns". Everything the vehicle mode does, the armor mode does better. If you're more into bases from these sets, I'd recommend one of the other Cyberverse Vehicle sets; however, if you want more of big accessory for a character, this mold is more suited for you out of the three 2012 releases in this assortment.

Review by Beastbot

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