Bumblebee
(Cannon)
Cannon Bumblebee is actually
a brand new toy and NOT a remold of the deluxe
Bumblebee mold used up to this point, but it's pretty hard to tell
that from the vehicle mode. The proportions are exactly the same, as are
the colors and (generally) the paint apps, as well. It's Bumblebee as a
Camaro-- you know by now quite well whether you like the look or not. I
do like the schnazzy blue used for the windows-- it goes great against
the yellow, and hides all those unsightly robot parts on the interior of
the car. As far as actual mold differences, two machine guns can pop up
from the sides of the vehicle in front of the windshield, which gives Bumblebee
some nice firepower in vehicle mode. Not all the changes are positive,
however-- due to the different transformation, Bumblebee's arms poke out
a bit from the underside of his vehicle mode, leaving not nearly as much
clearance for the wheels.
In robot mode it's more
obvious that Cannon Bumblebee is a new mod, as from the waist up he's a
completely different design. (The legs, however, are the exact same design
as on the original deluxe '08 Bumblebee mold-- I mean EXACTLY the same,
they were likely brought over from the previous design.) His cannons can
extend out over his shoulders, giving him, again, some added firepower,
though both of his arms are "normal". They're definitely better arm designs,
though, and though they could stand to be a tad beefier, they definitely
aren't as skinny as on the original deluxe version of this design, and
it's far more detailed too, both in terms of mold and paint detailing.
Plus, he can also move each thumb on its own individual joint, which is
certainly unexpected and cool. The waist is also decidedly more solid on
this version-- it has more mass to it, and doesn't hinge all on a ball
joint that makes it seem too skinny, like the original deluxe design. However,
the downside to that is that Cannon Bumblebee doesn't have waist movement.
As for the rest of his articulation, he can move at the neck, shoulders
(at two points), elbows (at two points), hips, knees, and ankles-- so slightly
less poseable than the original deluxe '08 Bumblebee design, but not by
much. Bumblebee borrows his head mold from the initial
RotF deluxe release, which looks fine to me, but his new chest design
I'm definitely less fond of. It doesn't fragment at all, and it's pretty
big and bulky compared to the original '08 deluxe design due to the inclusion
of the cannons behind his head. He also has about half of his roof just
folded up behind his butt, which can get in the way of movement and doesn't
even remotely fit into the shape of the surrounding parts-- it's pretty
blatantly kibble. As far as his color scheme, Cannon Bumblebee gets one
change from his traditional, movie accurate color scheme in this mode--
instead of black, many of his interior robot parts are a dull bluish gray.
It's not exactly a particularly exciting of toy-changing color swap, but
it works well and helps to distinguish him color-wise from the other deluxe
Bumblebees at least a little.
Cannon Bumblebee has
a bit more firepower and it's an interesting use of parts of the '08 deluxe
Camaro design while incorporating new elements, but ultimately it's a downgrade.
Although certainly not a bad toy, the more obvious undercarriage pieces
in vehicle mode, plus the larger, un-fragmented chest and butt kibble make
him a bit less desirable and outweight the positives.
Review by Beastbot
*(NOTE: The initial releases of Cannon Bumblebee have the semi-opaque windows seen above and mentioned in the review, but later releases of the toy gave him transparent blue-- thus letting one see the robot innards inside. As such, I recommend the later release a bit less.)