Well, after spending so much time talking about Kingdom, and retro-figures, I’m back at it again with my other fixation: The cast of the Bumblebee movie. As the Studio Series continues to occasionally loop back to it, it continues to mine new figures from that big opening scene on Cybertron everyone talks about, which makes it surprising that they took this long to get to Bumblebee, the most prominent robot in that bit other than Optimus, and one of the only ones with a dedicated, on-screen Cybertronian altmode.
Seen here all stanced up.
This version of the yellow guy was originally released with a different head as Cliffjumper, who was a re-use of Bumblebee’s CGI model anyway (and whom I reviewed here), and before that, a vastly different version of the tooling was used for Offroad Bumblebee (also reviewed here), so this is a mold I’m already pretty familiar with. Frankly, I’m a bit of a mark, considering I was kind of lukewarm about Cliffjumper, but collecting figures from media you like gets like that sometimes. But what the hey, let’s look at my (potential) folly, even if I’ll mostly just talk about what’s different about this version. I’ll say one thing: It was cute of them to call him B-127, his alternate Cybertronian name, until Charlie gives him the one we know.
Robot Mode
Also stanced up.
As I mentioned before, this is just Studio Series Cliffjumper with a new head, so he’s got most of the same ups and downs, and, disappointingly, they didn’t fix the biggest downside, the fact that the panels on the outside of his lower legs still don’t stay pegged in, thanks to how short the pegs are. It seems there was a bit of an effort to fix this, in that the hinges they’re on are noticeably tighter than Cliffjumper, but they’re still not secure, and still like to flop around when you pose him.
Bee examines the troublesome panel.
Since Bee and Cliff used the same body, this figure’s still nicely screen-accurate, save for the inevitably necessary backpack and leg panels, understandable for the needs of the transformation, and it’s still a design I wish had a bit of a stronger visual identity of its own, but is fundamentally good-looking, at least.
He’ll thank you not to stare at his folded-up shell.
The big bit of new tooling is, of course, his Bumblebee head, which, curiously, is of his masked face. The weird thing about this is that he never actually used his battle mask while in this body (only briefly being shown with it in a hologram Shatter displays later on), making it an oddly inaccurate choice.
Less of a sweet boy, and more of an insectoid warrior.
On the other hand, ignoring the film, and just looking at the figure, it does look good, and its more jagged, high-tech look actually fits with the stylings on his body pretty well. Still, it feels a bit like him and Offroad Bumblebee should have had their heads swapped around, and, in fact, I’m tempted to see how it looks. The head’s on a tiny, tight balljoint on top of an unsecured panel, so once I’m done writing and photographing, I’ll report back on whether it’s a success, or I broke it. (Later update: Success!)
Before….
….And after!
For colors, Bee is an almost-direct swap from Cliffjumper, just replacing the red with a bright yellow. I say “almost,” because while Cliffjumper was nearly all red and black, Bee swaps that solid black out for a few different shades of dark metallic silvery-grey, making for some improved color variance on some of his limbs. Also, the little bit of transparency in his chest is a bit more dark and smokey. It’s still a fairly plain look, but it works for him. His face got the lion’s share of new paint, with dark grey accents on his eyes and cheek vents, and an incredibly miniscule autobrand on his forehead.
Brothers from the same planet.
The one weird thing I noticed, though, is that it’s actually a different shade of yellow from Offorad Bee. B-127’s more pale and bright, Offroad’s more warm and orange. It’s not really an issue, but it does make the mismatch that comes with that headswap a little bit vexing.
Those big feet must make kicking really effective.
He’s still very well-articulated, coming to you with the full Siege suite (minus wrists, but including ankle tilts), with his big, sneaker-like feet to keep him stable. I just wish those leg panels actually stayed in, they make his legs a bit of a chore to pose, though, again, they’re slightly tighter than on Cliffjumper.
On his way to steal your heart!
His lone accessory is that same arm blaster as the last two toolings, which snaps over his hand to give the impression that it morphed into a weapon.
It works just as well, and even has the same two-tone paint apps as Cliffjumper. And he’s still got slots in his arms for the arm blade that came with the original Studio Series Bee movie Bee, with colors that actually match.
For close encounters.
I’ve still got no earthly idea how it’s supposed to fit into his backpack for storage, though.
It says to do this, but it really doesn’t stay in.
Transformation
Well, Cliffjumper was the annoying kind of shellformer, where you have to massage a ton of panels together, while hoping other ones don’t pop out, and Bee shares the design. That being said, I don’t know if I’m used to it, or his tolerances are better, but it feels like less of a chore this time around, and this transformation does sometimes come with one of those “big crunch” moments where everything finally pops into place.
After said big crunch.
Still, as far as transformations go, it’s just bothersome enough to turn me off from doing it frequently.
Vehicle Mode
Ready for the War for Cybertron.
I’ve always loved the fact that this mode’s a homage to Bumblebee’s egg-shaped Cybertronian form from High Moon’s War for Cybertron games. Even if I have trouble getting his panels to line up, even if I find myself squeezing and fiddling whenever I pick it up, it still looks really nifty, and I like the detail of his twin racing stripes being re-invisioned as clear windows.
So, compared to the medley of colors in his other mode, Bee’s now almost entirely yellow, with only a few black and clear bits, and it does drive a bright side of the figure home: Unlike Earthrise Sunstreaker, his plastic yellow and his painted yellow actually match each other really well, and don’t clash at all, something that I’ve heard is hard to do with that particular color, and it’s something I appreciate here.
See? Was that so hard to do?
The other bit of color I’m still amused by is his painted yellow wheel rims, a detail many Earth-mode Transformers don’t get these days.
Mustard and Ketchup.
It helps that, despite his shellformer-y nature, he rolls really well, with tons of ground clearance, which helps make him feel better in-hand than a lot of overly-complicated carformers.
Hard to believe this is a retool.
His other kinda-sorta-feature is that his weapon can stash underneath the top shell of his car mode. Like with Cliffy, I do wish he could do the pop-out twin cannons that he did in this scene in the movie, but if you want something along the same lines, you can crack his shell, and raise his hood up to point the gun forward, giving him a giant, Attack Pack-esque fanmode.
It’s like he’s going to take a big bite out of the ‘Cons.
Overall
A swarm of bees.
I’ll admit, I like B-127 better than Cliffjumper. Maybe they managed to fix a few of his partsfits and tolerances. Or, maybe I just knew what to expect going in this time around, and was ready for it. Heck, maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome. Either way, I’m more fond of him than it feels like I should be. He’s not bad, he’s just kind of overly busy, with a big design flaw they really should have fixed by now.
Still, there’s definitely better Bumblebees out there right now, so unless you’re like me, and want this design specifically, there’s plenty of better choices.
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