Bumblebee may be omnipresent
in the more "mainstream", kid-oriented lines, but that doesn't mean ol'
Bee doesn't make an appearance now and then in mainline Generations, as
well. This version of Bumblebee is more of a compact car compared to the
sportscars he's been depicted as recently, which hearkens back to this
more strictly being a G1 update and not a "modernized" version. The proportions
of this mode are MOSTLY solid, but a bit off when you compare the height
of the door to the height of the windows; 'Bee looks a bit chunky down
on the bottom half of this mode, though to be fair this does make the kid-friendly
'Bot look more... well... kid-friendly without having him cross into Rescue
Bots territory. He also has a spoiler that's a bit too undersized on the
back (though this is mostly due to his transformation). There's no extras
in this mode at all, which is a big plus, though there's some mildly distracting
cracks in his front hood because of the transformation. The mold detailing
is fairly minimal beyond what's required-- which mostly fits him being
a fairly sleek car -- but most of his major details are highlighted with
paint, which is always good. (One detail that sadly ISN'T highlighted with
paint but should be is his license plate, which reads 100STRA-- close to
his Movieverse license plate.) He's got some silver on the headlights,
as well as some moderately dark milky gray on the front grill and on small
details in front of the rear wheels. His taillights are painted red-- something
I'm rather grateful for, given how often taillights are overlooked in the
paint department. Of course, there's some black paint, used for a stripe
along each side. (It would APPEAR that the windows are painted black, but
actually the rest of that central section is painted yellow-- the shade
of the yellow paint is pretty darned close to the yellow plastic for once,
always a plus.) The dull gray and red contrast well against Bumblebee's
usual yellow-and-black scheme-- there's nothing majorly new here in terms
of colors, though, so you're probably pretty familiar with whether you
like this color scheme or not by now. The big draw for this 'Bee when compared
with the many other Bumblebee toys out there is that you can actually have
a Titan Master ride in him in this mode-- if you pull open the roof from
the back end, you'll find a nice cavity in there for a Titan Master to
sit. Given that the windows are opaque, though, it's not like you can see
it in there when 'Bee's all closed up.
Bumblebee's transformation
hearkens back to his G1 form, with the legs extending out from the front,
the roof becoming his chest, and the sides becoming the arms. The whole
back section folds up quite nicely behind his chest panel, though, which
is pretty cool. Thus, he has very little kibble in this mode, with basically
all of it being bits on his arms-- I don't mind the shoulders being made
of sections of the rear sides of his vehicle mode, but the shoulders point
forward a bit too much because of the window halves on top of them, and
this doesn't look that great. What looks worse are the side panels bolted
to the bottom of his somewhat flat, undersized lower arms, which is the
weakest part of this mode, if you ask me. His head is well-sculpted, being
pretty much perfectly G1, along with a light milky gray color on his face
and friendly light blue eyes. However, it's a bit undersized, particularly
in comparison to that wide hood-chest. He's got big, clunky feet made up
of the front sections of his vehicle mode, but his legs are a bit skinny
and short, even given that Bumblebee's not supposed to be a big guy-- his
legs really should've been a bit bulkier and longer. For articulation in
this mode, Bumblebee can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows,
hips, and knees (at two points). Most of these are ball joints, so he's
got a pretty decent range of motion in his legs, though given the structure
of his arms he's a bit limited there.
The main draw of Titans
Return Bumblebee when compared to his myriad toys is that you can have
a Titan Master ride inside of him. Otherwise, though his car mode is pretty
solid, his robot mode has some proportional issues, with legs and a head
that are too small and some minor kibble on his arms. He's still a decent
toy, don't get me wrong, but with this character in particular you've got
a lot of better choices out there unless you're adamant about wanting a
Bumblebee toy that can hold a Titan Master.
Review by Beastbot