Review – Transformers Prime Bumblebee

The Transformers Prime toys (Amazon.com search*) are now hitting stores and this last weekend I spotted Bumblebee in ToysRUs. And even though I still haven’t seen the series Bumblebee looked good enough that I grabbed him. Unfortunately, I am starting to suspect that Bumblebee is not the first toy anyone should buy from this new series.

Good Vehicle Mode

Transformers Prime Bumblebee looks good in vehicle mode, with rolling wheels and everything pretty much locking nicely into place. The doors need some extra work to snap into their perfect positions, but it was only the doors that gave me some pain when transforming to car mode. I really dislike that we can see Bumblebee robot parts through the windows; this is a time when I would have rather had opaque windows instead of these clear ones. But overall I’d say Bumblebee’s car mode is a success.

Robot Mode, the Source of Frustration

Transformers Prime Bumblebee looks good once you get him into robot mode, but the transformation is a little more complex than I like and his chest design just doesn’t work great. Look closely at the photos of Bumblebee’s chest and follow the lines down from the headlights. You’ll see a seam running beneath the lights; what’s supposed to happen is those pieces are meant to swing down slightly. What’s really happening is those parts are fused in place and won’t budge. Maybe if I used a knife to slip in the seam and force the parts to move it would work, but there are rules when it comes to me and knives.

And it’s not just that part that is frustrating. The yellow clips that obscure Bumblebee’s Autobot symbol look terrible, but from what I can tell from the instructions and photos the Autobot symbol is supposed to be hidden when he’s in robot mode and I kinda have the parts transformed correctly. What’s even more annoying to me is that the first official photos of Bumblebee (see this post at TFW2005) show that Hasbro’s photographers had the same problems with the toy that I’m having.

When the official photos don’t even get the transformation right then you know there’s a problem. Last week I mentioned problems transforming Perceptor (review here) and now I’m having problems transforming Bumblebee. And difficulty transforming a toy always makes me question my intelligence; at least I know I’m no worse off in the smarts department than the Hasbro photographers.

A Weak Arm

The last problem with the Transformers Prime Bumblebee toy is that the right arm has a weak shoulder joint and the toy can only support the weight of the arm for a moment or so before the arm drops down. I suspect this is a specific flaw with my toy and not a flaw with the design, but I guess we’ll have to wait until a lot of these are out there before we’re sure what’s happening with that shoulder.

Articulation and Paint

But let’s stop talking about problems and give you guys some actual information on the toy. Bumblebee’s articulation is adequate, with ball-joints at the elbows, hips, and neck, hinges at the knees, and a few swivels at the shoulders (which are designed more around his transformation than his poseability). The feet have some action going on but that’s all related to his transformation and doesn’t open up much in the way of poseability.

Bumblebee’s coloring is exactly what you would expect and mostly okay. The yellow and gray plastic bits are fine, but those black details get sloppy in a few places and spill over into parts of the body where they shouldn’t. But again Transformers Prime Bumblebee is acceptable; and that’s the biggest problem with the toy. It’s not shockingly awesome and nothing about it is cool enough to overcome the transformation problems I mentioned.

Closing Thoughts

The Transformers Prime toys (Amazon.com search*) have what appear to be some neat designs but the line needed a stronger start than it got with this Bumblebee toy. Bumblebee looks good in both car mode and robot mode, but that annoying chest transformation takes it from being a great Transformers toy to just a good Transformers toy.

I suggest holding off on buying a Transformers Prime Bumblebee and wait until you see more reviews. I may be unfairly harsh when it comes to that chest, but if you’ve ever had problems transforming a newer toy then I suspect that Bumblebee will give you the same problems that it gave me. And no matter what you do you’ll still wind up with that ugly chest design where the Autobot symbol sits there kinda hidden and making it look like you tucked something under where you should have folded it over.

Philip Reed finds that whenever he reviews an awesome toy he gets excited about the entire series. At the moment he is not excited about Transformers Prime.