Buzzworthy Bumblebee continues to be a strange, but compelling line of figures, basically a grab bag of extra stuff that doesn’t have a home anywhere else. At least this Creatures Collide set has a Bumblebee in it, unlike a lot of current releases in the line. This is a writeup that’s been a long time coming in my backlog of things to talk about, largely due to how big and complicated tackling it is. I also didn’t think I’d actually get the full set of figures in this box, but circumstances conspired to make the whole thing come to me in chunks.
The contestants.
So, Creatures Collide also happens to be the latest entry in a dubious HasTak tradition stretching back to at least Titans Return (I think my Nautica review was the first time I talked about it), of big box sets of figures that are all random, barely related character pulls. The problem is always that, in an attempt to create box sets with broad appeal, HasTak almost always produces groups of figures where few fans actually want everything in a set, and there’s usually one or two high demand figures that wind up being sold separately for mad money on the aftermarket, with the lesser ones going for a pittance. In this case, few fans really wanted the actual creatures in Creatures Collide, everyone wanted Goldbug.
It’s about the Beetle, not the Bugs.
But, since I wound up with the whole box, let’s have a look at the full set and see if it’s worth grabbing, especially since I can still find the whole thing on shelves at my local Toys R Us for full price. Because there’s a lot of ground to cover, I’m going to get a bit more cliff-note-y than usual, but also, most of these figures are repaints of stuff I’ve already reviewed, anyway.
Goldbug
I’ll start with the figure everyone wants. Goldbug is Bumblebee’s newer, rebuilt form, obtained after suffering a near-fatal accident, the circumstances of both these events depending on the continuity.
The G1 original made it feel like a downgrade, really.
While the 1987 original Goldbug figure was a brand new tooling, this is a retool of the often-used Earthrise Cliffjumper mold (reviewed here, when it was retooled into Hubcap). In particular, what makes this version of Goldbug especially sought after is that this version of the tooling is using the licensed VW Bug altmode that was previously only available on the Netflix Bumblebee release (reviewed here), a figure that was already rare and in demand because of that. As for me, I wanted Goldbug because of his story arc in the Marvel comics, where he and Blaster went rogue for awhile during Grimlock’s disastrous reign as Autobot leader. Funny thing, for several issues, the artist forgot he had a new body, and drew him as Goldbug’s head on Bumblebee’s body, making this figure, in a way, Marvel accurate.
How he was supposed to look.
One of those times where they just stuck the Goldbug head on the Bumblebee body.
So, how’s the figure? To be straightforward, this is one of my favorite toolings ever, and it still holds up after so many passes.
The lad himself!
He’s a short deluxe, but he’s dense, and loaded with joints, feeling a lot like a shrunken-down version of the first Masterpiece Bumblebee, which he actually has more articulation than! (Those ankle tilts let him do the splits faaaarrr)
Can Grimlock do this?
The new bit of tooling here (well, new for me, it showed up on Shattered Glass Goldbug already) is the Goldbug Head, and it’s a good-looking one.
Into the Bumbleverse.
It’s a bit of a riff on a G1 toy-accurate Bumblebee face, keeping the horns, but adding a mouthplate and visor.
Not as menacing as you’d think.
And it’s very well-painted in person, too, with a dark blue base, silver mouthplate, and light blue eyes.
A dramatic Marvel re-enactment.
The rest of him ought to be solid gold, but it’s hit with production realities. Parts of him are gold-painted, sure, like his chest, shoulders, and feet, but the rest of him (namely his limbs) needs to settle for a sort of butterscotch color, presumably since they can’t be painted. At least they didn’t chrome anything on him. Still, they maybe could’ve taken a page from the Marvel comics and made his limbs blue, like his fists and shoulder joints are.
After all, I got him for Marvel reasons.
That goes double for his shoulders, which suffer from a problem I thought they’d recognized back in the Hubcap days: They peg into the back of his alternate mode along a pair of tabs, and if those tabs are painted (like they are here, and pointedly weren’t on some other repaints), the paint is going to scrape off (it’s already started on Goldbug). Outside of that, he’s got an Autobrand on his chest, along with some clear bits on his windows. In terms of making him more accurate, I’ve seen people flip his detachable backpack around to simulate the “hood” the original toy had, but I’m not too fond of the way it sticks out of the back of him, so I usually leave it in the official shape.
It’s kinda awkward.
For accessories, Goldbug’s still got the five-piece deconstructable bazooka that originally came with Cliffjumper (because he used it in an episode of the show). It doesn’t make a ton of sense with Goldbug, but I’m not complaining, because it’s a very good set of accessories.
The whole Bazooka.
You’ve got two barrel-shaped guns, a couple of brackets, and a rear portion that can be unfolded into a Whacking Stick, giving you a ton of possible weapon configurations, or the six weapons ports across his body (seven, if you pop the backpack off and use it as a riot shield, though I never do that outside of photos).
“Rocket me closer, so I can whack ’em!”
Bottom line: He’s got a lot going on.
“Fire in the hole!”
The transformation’s one place where the VW version of the tooling suffers a tiny bit. Put simply, he’s a bit of a shellformer, and the VW shell bits don’t quite fit as well as the original Generic Muscle Car bits did, though it’s a very minor inconvenience, and mostly a visual thing. What’s a major inconvenience is a case of potential breakage unique to the VW tooling during transformation: Basically, there’s two “teeth” below the windshield, and when you’re flipping his roof piece into place, you need to be careful squeezing them into place, because they can, and will break, being made of transparent plastic.
It’s those two stickey-out bits below the windshield, on either side.
I’m very cautious each time.
One of the big reasons everyone’s after him.
As for the VW mode we thought we’d never see again? Yeah, it’s still pretty good, and surprisingly detailed for its small size (considering the difficulty behind licensing it, it better be).
I didn’t notice until they were side-by-side, but he’s got a lot fewer paint apps than Bee. That or the gold paint ate the budget.
No rear headlights feels unsafe.
I do wish there weren’t so many gappy panel lines due to the aforementioned dodgy fit, though.
Hubcap may have a fake car mode, but it all fits together way nicer.
Plus, while it probably couldn’t be avoided, the Autobrand formerly on his robot chest feels upside-down now.
When he’s really had enough.
And for features, that cannon can still see use, either by flipping up his rear section and turning it into a deployable cannon…
All Blaster can really do here is play inspiring music.
….or by breaking it into chunks for a “waterskiing mode,” again, based on something Cliffjumper specifically did.
Nyoooooom.
Overall
The VW retool of this figure does introduce a couple flaws, like those poorly-fitting panels, and the potential breakage point below his windshield. And yeah, I kind of disagree with the color layout choices in robot mode.
Hubcap’s actually after his gold.
But those issues don’t really cancel out the inherent goodness and fun of this super-articulated, super-adorable tooling, with its intensely playable little accessory kit. Everyone should own at least one version of this tooling, in my opinion, even if it’s not this one, though this one’s a good one, like the rest. I’d go so far as to say he’s good enough to be worth paying a bit of markup, if you’re getting him separately. There’s a lot to love.
Ransack
Next, there’s the only tooling in the set I haven’t handled before. This guy was originally released in Legacy as the Insecticon Kickback, and I’m going to be honest (and apologize to their fans), but I don’t really care much for the Insecticons. There’s nothing wrong with them, I just find them dull for some reason. I even sold off the old Titans Return ones I previously owned. This retool, meanwhile, gives a member of the b-squad a chance to shine.
B-squad, Grasshopper squad, whatever.
The Deluxe Insecticons were a larger, more complicated, and more diverse-looking team of Bug Baddies released at the same time (1985) as the smaller ones. Unlike the little guys, because the Deluxe Insecticons were actually re-releases of Bandai-owned toolings (it’s complicated), they weren’t allowed to appear on the original cartoon, and never made it to the comics, either. As a result, despite being a Year Two G1 Character, Ransack and his gang are on the obscure side, with this retool being the first time Ransack has got any kind of update in the years since.
What a glow-up!
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to like this figure as much as I do. In robot mode, the fact that he was Kickback seems to vanish instantly. I think it has to do with the really nice-looking headsculpt.
Hamsom.
It’s a visor and mouthplate setup, with bug eyes and antenna, but what it really has going on is a really specific retro-Japan-mecha look that’s hard to describe. It’s very non-Transformers, and it combined with his whole sculpt to make him look like something very different, in a way that I like. This feels like a piloted mech from an old anime, almost (so, it’s a shame that, despite having a translucent chest, there isn’t actually a cockpit there, like there was on the original Kickback).
“Let me in!!!!”
He’s got a really nice set of colors on him, too, mostly yellow (with admittedly poor plastic and paint matching) and black, with a little bit of red for his eyes, and clear amber wings on his back. It adds to the whole “retro 80’s mech” look of the thing.
He’ll thank you not to pay attention to his weird arm.
In terms of articulation and construction, what’s there is good, and he’s got all the expected, bendy joints, but his arms are extremely oddly constructed. Basically, they split just below the shoulder for transformation, so he’s got a swivel at the shoulder, and an elbow joint below that, but moving it which splits the arm in half. You can also dip his wrist, but that exposes an insect foot. The whole setup works, technically, but it doesn’t look or feel great.
Back to the positive stuff.
On the flipside, his accessories are another highlight. First off, he’s got a black pistol with a tommy-gun-esque magazine. But more interestingly, he’s got a pair of huge, yellow, serrated swords. Now, these things are fun.
Pictured: Fun.
He looks great duel-wielding them, or you can plug them into 5 Millimeter ports on his arms as arm-blades (he’s also got ports on his shoulders, shins, the bottoms of his feet, and one on his back).
What’s a Sentai mecha without a ludicrous battle mode? (Powerdasher Zetar used here).
Personally, I like combining his swords via the pegs-and-holes on their inner edges. Doing so makes for a Huge Anime Sword-type weapon, albeit one with an uneven shape. I’ll call the lowered front half a wrist-guard.
He’s got really strong wrists.
One other thing he has: An alternate head.
“Alas, poor Kickback. I’d be lying if I said I knew him.”
In something I’ve never seen in Transformers outside of this set, all the non-Goldbug figures have an entire extra head, on a ball joint, with the expectation that you can pop the other one off, and swap it for the alt head. But in Ransack’s case, honestly, it doesn’t really work, because his regular head is on there so tightly, that I don’t want to risk breaking it. It’s not a big deal anyway, the extra head is Kickback’s, apparently a more “toy style” face you’re meant to give to Legacy Kickback, instead of this guy. And speaking of Kickback, a big criticism of him that had reached my ears was that his transformation was bizarrely simple. And yeah, it is. You’re just flopping him onto his back, and making tiny adjustments to his head, wings, and legs, until he’s vaguely grasshopper-shaped.
You just do this, then tweak a few things.
But, you know what? This guy looks like a vintage 80’s mecha, and those things tended to have really basic transformations, so in this context, I think it actually works for him.
See?
And yeah, it’s a pretty basic grasshopper mode. You attach the blades to him to make his insect backside, the gun beneath him for an attack, and reveal some rear insect legs. It’s basic, but it works, and it still has that retro-robot look. This is something that would appear as an articulated model in an older Power Rangers or Super Sentai episode, summoned by that team’s Yellow Ranger.
He’s about to become Shining Hopper.
A shame I don’t have a Horobi for the very appropriate purple scorpion.
If I had any criticism here, it’s that this bug’s articulation doesn’t feel especially meaningful in this mode. He’s got all the same joints, but it doesn’t feel like there’s much to be done with his insect legs.
He can do, like, this.
Still, at least his weapon mounting points are a bit more useful now, thanks to how his feet-bottoms are now at the back of his insect legs.
My favorite part of this is the rolling tank treads.
Overall
Again, it’s odd how much I dig this guy. I was totally disinterested in him as Kickback, but slap a new head and some good colors on him, and the whole thing becomes something else. He has a unique retro-robot sensibility to him that even turns his weaknesses (his really simple transformation and what it does to his arms) into strengths. If anything, he feels too heroic to be a Decepticon.
Kamen Rider Zero-One is a good show, one that you can watch for free on both Tubi and Tokushoutsu.
Whatever he is, while I wouldn’t call him essential, he’s surprisingly fun, and worth checking out.
Scorponok
Alright, here we go into the drudgeries of this set. I’ve made no secret that out of all the Kingdom Beast Wars releases, I’d considered Scorponok (reviewed here) to be the weakest. And, for this repaint, all those weaknesses are still here.
Oh, don’t be so sour about it.
He’s still got oddly stumpy, short-legged proportions, a mass of beast legs at his back that don’t have any defined position….
“Ack, they came loose again!”
…and a general sense of rickety, bad handfeel, on top of a sculpt that does a poor job of looking like his show design (aka the whole point of the line). But what he does have going for him this time around is a nicer set of colors, and a neat alternate head.
Scorponok and…..well, like, not the cooler Scorponok.
In terms of colors, this repaint goes original-toy-accurate, since the Beast Wars TV show changed up his look a lot.
The deco being referenced.
He’s now decked out in a black torso and inner limbs, a slightly transparent purple at his claws, shoulders and legs, and red accents on his stinger and beast mode legs. It’s a good look, and it really pops, particularly when you hold him up to the light and see the purple glow.
One light you don’t want to go towards.
Another tiny bit of redecoing I appreciate are his accessories. His red missiles now have a pair of Maximal symbols on them (not a toy thing, but a reference to the TV show, with them sometimes bearing the logo of their intended targets), and his Cyberbee is now black (instead of gray), and switches the painted wings for a painted stinger (nicer, in my opinion).
A legit upgrade.
This time around, his alternate head is both something you can easily swap, and something that improves the figure. His show-accurate frowny head has less deco than the retail release, even! I will say that, while swapping the two heads out is actually doable, unlike Ransack, it’s still tough enough to pop one off and squeeze the other one in that you can tell this wasn’t an intended feature when he was originally designed.
Worth it, though.
So, his alternate head is based on his “mutant head,” a feature most first-year Beast Wars toys had where they could swap their robotic head for a more animalistic one, something the show ignored. In Scorponok’s case, he now has a bullet-shaped, masked face with yellow eyes that looks way more interesting, and menacing, and has a lot of that nice red-and-black deco.
A classic Beast Wars showdown!
“Well, that was easier than I thought. Wanna grab lunch?”
Scorponok’s got the kind of transformation where I had to squint at some photos to figure out what I was doing with his robot legs, and to confirm that, no, the robot head doesn’t totally hide.
He really does look like this from the bottom.
At the end of it….you get a really good-looking Scorpion mode.
Yeah, this still rules.
This frighteningly-sculpted hellbeast of a creature was the highlight of the original version, and these new colors (now mostly black, with only some red and purple accents) make him look even cooler.
The only thing he loses is the legitimately scary blood-red fangs.
I did some internet searching to figure out what the color scheme reminded me of, and the answer is, an old playset from a 90’s toyline called Mighty Max, by the name of Stings Scorpion.
I never had this as a kid or anything, I must’ve seen a commercial, or seen it in stores.
There’s no playset in there for these minifigures, though.
That being said, while it looks great, this mode still has the same problems of the prior release, namely those same loose legs that don’t even touch the ground, mad amounts of undercarriage, and a stinger with neutered articulation thanks to how he transforms.
It all falls apart from the back.
Looks good, but doesn’t feel good, is all I can really say.
Overall
Well, this is an upgrade over the standard retail Scorponok, if only because the colors are nicer. But a new coat of paint can’t really save the figure from its problems, and it’s still not one I’d really recommend.
He’s mad as heck about that.
The most I can say is that if, for some reason, you want a Scorponok to fill out your Beast Wars show cast, and don’t have the Kingdom one, this is the better version, since the sculpt isn’t especially accurate anyway, you might as well get the nicer-looking one. But outside of that, yeah, no.
Skywasp
Finally, we have another Kingdom Beast Wars repaint, in this case, of Waspinator, a figure that, as I said in my review, wasn’t bad the way Scorponok was, but was definitely at the lower tier, quality-wise. In terms of who Skywasp is, he’s the companion piece to Legacy Nightprowler (reviewed here), in that his deco is based off of a canceled repaint of Transmetal Waspinator that was supposed to be a Wal-Mart exclusive in the early 2000s Transformers Universe line, as a Halloween Horrorcon.
The cancelled original.
That figure was just supposed to be Waspinator, though, and the name Skywasp (an obvious play on his colors looking like the Decepticon Skywarp), and him being a repaint of Waspinator’s first non-Transmetal body both come from an old BotCon exclusive doing a homage the same thing.
The Purple Pain.
As I mentioned above, the Waspinator tooling was fine-but-not-great. While he looks decently show-accurate, and poses well, he has a problem with his beast legs always getting in the way (because he can’t just schlorp them into his robot limbs like on the show). Plus, he’s got a waist section that loves to come undone if you mess with it too much. So, he looks decent, but doesn’t feel good, especially when you’re posing him, which is a shame, because he’s got a good amount of joints, but you feel inclined not to use them when his kibble keeps bumping, and his waist keeps coming undone.
Waspinator is in awe of his cool colors.
Like Scorponok, the big story here is the colors. And let me just say, this is a really nice-looking repaint. The photos didn’t do it justice, in person, it really pops. The obvious comparison that he got his name from is Skywarp, which makes sense, since he’s mainly black and purple.
Summoning his ancestor.
But it’s all in the accent colors, in this case, gold, transparent red, and a bit of normal red. It’s hard to explain, it just works. Like Nightprowler, I can’t really say for sure what they were going for back in the early 00s, but this time, it came out way better.
We know who wins deco-wise, in my books.
For accessories, he’s still got his little pistol, and it still has the issue of barely seeming to have any kind of barrel on it at all (the one sculpted on the bottom is effectively invisible).
He’s also got a couple weapons ports on his arms.
He’s also got a real good set of lightpiping on his head, and on his other head!
The Waspman.
As the last of the three pack-in headswaps, Skywasp also comes with an alt head based on Waspinator’s original Beast Wars toy’s non-Mutant head (the show used his Mutant head as his default design). It’s a mostly-generic robot head with a red lightpiped visor, a frowny-faced mouth on a gold face, a purple helmet, and most interestingly, a set of big honeycombed “ears” on either side, painted a unique shade of metallic blue.
He can hear everything!
When he hears you talking smack.
This is also the easiest headswap of the bunch to actually pull off, which is good, because this is one circumstance where I can’t decide which headsculpt works better for this guy, they’ve both got their charms.
Well, maybe charm isn’t the right word.
For the transformation, this is one I was able to remember without instructions or reference photos, and was elegant until it came time to plug his robot arms and legs securely around his midsection, at which point it became a mess of “popping things in in the right order.” Still, it is easier and more fun than Scorponok.
And you get this thing at the end.
And you’re left with a wasp that has a bit too much undercarriage, but otherwise looks good.
A more murderous hornet.
He’s got his poseable head, wings, and mandibles, and marginally his legs, at the joints.
So he can do whatever this is.
Again, the colors are the star here, even if no wasp has ever looked like this.
It’s like a pulp sci-fi story.
He’s a bit less red (it’s all in the wings now), and a bit more black, with those purple and gold accents. Is this the mythical Murder Hornet? If I saw a wasp like this in the wild, I’d certainly be running
Overall
Like his companion piece, Nightprowler, Skywasp is hardly essential, and is perhaps the one thing in this set with the least reason to exist.
Outside of Companion Piece purposes.
And the tooling he’s repainted from is just fine. Not good, not great, just fine. But, dangit, these are some really good-looking colors that really sing in person. And because, unlike Scorponok, the tooling wasn’t terrible to begin with, they actually elevate the whole thing. I wouldn’t break the bank trying to get this guy, but if he’s a part of whatever iteration of the set you’re getting, it’ll be a good part.
Another reason to get him: Part of a cheap Botcon 2015 re-enactment.
Or, maybe you can find him for cheap, since he’s one of the less-sought-after bits of this menagerie.
The Entire Set
So, is the entire set worth going in on?
They’re about to all go in on Goldbug.
Honestly, at the end of the day, probably not, or at least not at full price. Goldbug is excellent, and definitely worth the extra cash, and Ransack is surprisingly great. Meanwhile, Scorponok is bad (but nicer than his retail release), and Skywasp is just fine, albeit pretty.
It basically shakes out like this.
It really is a case of them selling a thing everyone wants packed in with a bunch of less-interesting stuff, and you’re either going to have to pay for a bunch of stuff you don’t want, or just get saddled with it if you find it on sale. Really, that’s my recommendation: Get it on sale, or see if you can find the bits you actually want for a price you think is fair.
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