Bumblebee
(Ultimate Battle Charged)
(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 Ultimate Bumblebee. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original Ultimate Bumblebee here.)
Ultimate "Battle Charged"
Bumblebee is less a repaint of the original Ultimate Bumblebee than a re-release
with a few minor modifications to make him more accurate to his Revenge
of the Fallen appearance. As far as deco changes go, there's extremely
minimal-- pretty much every paint and plastic color hue is the same on
this release as on the previous one, with a few minor exceptions. The Chevrolet
symbol on the front bumper is now red-rimmed instead of silver, and there's
a bit more silver paint on his arms and a few VERY minor other paint app
changes on his robot mode. Most of what's interesting about this new version
comes from the new sounds and slight mold changes.
The first mold change
isn't a big one-- the front of the car mode has been remolded with the
new headlight design to reflect the accurate Camaro design in RotF. What's
cooler is that his head's been remolded to have the flip-down battle mask
(that you have to pull out of his head and THEN flip down-- it can come
off easily). It's quite accurate and cool-looking-- and something the original
should have had! Blargh. Anyways, as for sound effects, when you turn him
on, he'll say one of many phrases (made up of "different radio soundbytes"),
"Reporting for duty, sir", "I'm here to save-- the world as we know it",
"We got a great team here, I think we can beat just about anybody this
year!", "*knock knock knock* Helloooo?", and the like. He'll also play
snippets of Stan Bush's "The Touch" now instead of "Whip It". His general
movements in response to YOUR movements are the same, though, and his lights
and the "blinking" eyes remain the same as on the original release. His
vehicle mode sounds and reactions to movement are also pretty much the
same as on the original release.
Overall Ultimate Battle
Charged Bumblebee is a decent pickup for a kid who likes lights and sounds
more than articulation, and although minor, the new touches are nice for
someone who didn't pick up the original version. Still, he's quite expensive
for what you'd get-- even if you're in the situation where you like gimmicks
over articulation, I'd wait until he's on clearance, as $80-90 is hefty
price tag to swallow for an oversized Camaro toy.
Review by Beastbot
(Images from Hasbro.)