Bumblebee's sportscar vehicle mode-- at least in terms of its general proportions-- is spot-on when compared with the show model, with a nice angular design with small fins on the rear sides, a relatively low roof, and is just a fairly unique car. The mold colors are your usual yellow and black-- nothing special here, your typical Bumblebee colors. Beyond the black windows, there's some nice angular details on the sides that help break up the yellow, as well as some black paint apps around the three "vent"-like details on the front hood. They're not the full-fledged stripes like on the show model, but given the transformation of the front section using black around the front might've scratched the paint, so I understand the lack of paint there. The blue and red headlights look quite nice, and they're a bit darker than normal for headlight shades, so they contrast against the yellow a bit better. That said, the lack of any paint on the taillights or rear window is a bit of a bummer. Additionally, the way the front hood connects with the main body of the car mode-- i.e., where the legs slide out and separate-- it doesn't all quite click in. There's just a bit of a gap there, like there's one little notch that it just can't slide over to make the vehicle mode nice and clean. It's not a major issue, but it is rather visually annoying in this mode. On the back end the back of the robot head is pretty obvious, with no real back of the vehicle beyond the taillights.
    Bumblebee's transformation is simple yet intuitive, with a few swift motions being all that are needed-- slide the front section out, rotate it around at the waist, and then plug it back in, which causes the shoulders and head to pop out. Especially for such a simple transformation, this is a pretty solid robot mode, with pretty solid proportions (though the shoulders could stand to pop out just a BIT more from the sides of the body). For some reason, Bumblebee's head doesn't fold up enough to look straight forward-- he looks downwards just a little bit. If this really bugs you and you don't mind fiddling with the toy a little bit, unscrew the screws on the sides of the waist juuuust a bit, to the point where you can pop the tab on the bottom of the neck up above the chest, then screw the screws back in. (Do NOT unscrew those screws all the way, or you'll mess up some of the springs 'n parts that help keep the transformation automatic). This means that the head won't flip down in vehicle mode, but that's basically a useless motion anyways-- the head is still obvious from a back view anyways, and it's not otherwise obvious in vehicle mode. The color breakup is a bit better in this mode, with the black plastic and paint scattered around the yellow a bit more, with a black waist, middle arms, and black paint on the chest and shoulders (though some black is missing from further down on the chest). There's also some silver paint on the abs and face, some nice blue on the eyes, and a black vent on the forehead. There's some light gray plastic used for the upper legs and the extending rod section for the transformation, but thankfully there's a bit of a metallic tinge to it, so it doesn't look boring like most light milky grays. The angular car molding on the chest is quite well-done in particular, and the RID2015-usual "divots" on places like the upper legs help add a bit more visual interest to the otherwise fairly simple design as well. As far as articulation, Bumblebee can move forwards a bit at the elbows, but that's it. A bit disappointing even for a 3-step changer, honestly, but again, articulation isn't the point of these simplified Transformers.
    Bumblebee is one of the best 3-step RID2015 molds, looking pretty good in both modes and with a very satisfying yet simple transformation. He's got some minor QC issues in both modes, though (the head not looking straightforward in robot mode and the slight gap in vehicle mode), and his articulation is a little too limited even by simplified Transformer standards. Still, for a young 'un who wants a decent-sized Bumblebee toy that you're confident they won't break and is in show-accurate colors, this is a solid choice. (Though if you don't care about show-inaccurate colors, there's a bunch of better-colored redecoes of this mold as well.)
 

Review by Beastbot

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