(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 RID2015 warrior Bumblebee toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original RID2015 warrior Bumblebee here.)
Night Ops Bumblebee is
your usual reverse-colors Bumblebee toy, with the black taking the place
of the yellow and visa versa. As a general rule, I love the reverse colors
deco, as I do love black a lot better as a color than yellow. Plus, I feel
yellow is better as an accent color than as a main color. However, I also
like it when the reverse colors redeco does some unique things beyond simply...
well... reversing the colors-- add in some flames, some unique paint apps,
etcetera. The thing is, for this version of Night Ops 'Bee literally the
only changes that have been made are reversing the black and yellow.
The transparent blue and blue paint is the same and in all the same places
as on the original warrior toy, as is the light milky gray plastic. Same
with the silver paint. The shades of black and yellow also seem to be the
same as on the original warrior Bumblebee toy, too. Although the alt mode
still looks pretty slick, in robot mode this doesn't look as great, as
there's just a bit too much yellow here on a "Night Ops" toy for my liking,
and combined with the light milky gray doesn't give him quite enough contrast
on several parts. I think overall he still looks better in that mode than
the original warrior Bumblebee, but there are a few issues with simply
doing the color swap and not changing ANYTHING else about the toy. The
transparent blue could also have stood to be lighter to provide better
contrast against the black, too. One thing I DO love about this redeco
that alot of others seem to hate, though, are the yellow tires. I mean,
it's not a realistic car, and the whole look of RID2015 is a little cartoony,
so as a themed redeco I actually kinda like the yellow tires. They help
contrast against the black in areas that wouldn't have received such contrast
otherwise.
No mold changes have
been made to Night Ops Bumblebee.
The warrior version
of Night Ops Bumblebee IS my favorite version of the mold simply because
I like the black being more dominant than the yellow on 'Bee, but simply
swapping two colors is admittedly a bit lazy, particularly for a full-fledged
retail release. I wish the gray and blue had been moved around, and the
toy had been given some unique paint apps-- something to make him a bit
more stand-out among the many "reverse colors" 'Bee redecoes.
Review by Beastbot