Review – iGear’s Unofficial Bumblebee

It’s time to look at another unofficial Transformers release from iGear (website, Facebook), creators of the Kup heads (review here) and the unofficial Cosmos (mentioned here) and unofficial Seaspray and Huffer toys (last mentioned here). This time we’re looking at Bee, an unofficial Bumblebee that takes the Generation One car design and merges it with the Transformers Universe Bumblebee (review here, “gold” version reviewed here) to create a decent little guy that makes a nice addition to any Bumblebee collection.

Packaging

A simple black box with a clear plastic insert, the Bee packaging is functional but dull. I would have loved to have seen iGear put some effort into illustration and design, but at least their upcoming Seaspray and Huffer toys are packed inside what appear to be professionally-produced and wonderfully-illustrated boxes (see the boxes here).

A Familiar Transformation

When I opened the boxes I was a little concerned about the lack of instructions, but I quickly discovered tha Bee transforms exactly like the Reveal the Shield Gold Bumblebee so it only took a moment to convert this guy to robot mode. But let’s hold off on that and instead take a look at his car mode.

The Buggiest of Bees

Above you can see the reissue Bumblebee from the Encore Minibots Set*, the iGear Bee, and the Transformers Universe Bumblebee all in a row. This unofficial Transformers Bumblebee is actually the longest of the group, but in the end all three are roughly the same size. This little guy fits in just fine with Legends-sized toys.

As you can see, Bee is more like a VW Beetle than any of the other three toys I’m comparing him to today. I’m sure this is because iGear didn’t go after any license from anyone — it would be strange to get a VW license to create an unofficial toy — and if you slap an Autobot symbol or two on the car it will actually work just fine for your Generation One Bumblebee in vehicle mode.

Robot Mode

Transforming to robot mode is, as I mentioned, pretty easy if you’ve transformed the Universe Bumblebee before. The trick is to pop the arms out of the sides first and then swing the legs out. And once you get this guy into robot mode he makes a pretty good but not amazing cartoon-style Bumblebee. There are some things you just can’t do at this scale — like hiding a feet that are reduced in size from the front of the vehicle mode — but in general iGear did a good job with this piece.

The plastic and construction of the toy is excellent and Bee feels durable and playable and not like a fine art object that’s going to break if you touch it too much. This gives me hope for their upcoming line of unofficial minibots and makes me happy that I’ve already pre-ordered Seaspray and Huffer.

Closing Thoughts

iGear (website, Facebook) seems to have made some changes since they released their Autoscout Cassette (review here), because where that toy used what felt like a cheap plastic this Bee and the Kup heads (review here) feel like sturdier, higher-quality works and if I didn’t know better I would think the cassette was from a different company. Bee feels and looks good, and at less than $20 the toy’s a reasonable price for its size and its origin as an unofficial Transformers toy from a very small company.

Philip Reed has a reason that he has been posting all of these reviews of unofficial Transformers toys and upgrades . . . but he’s not yet ready to share that reason.