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| As a filmmaker, I can't deny
that Michael Bay has a fantastic eye for
action…but as this movie and a few other of his outings have revealed,
left to his own devices, Mr. Bay can get a little out of hand. Seen his
Verizon “Awesome” ad? That pretty much sums up the entire viewing
experience for ROTF.
Ok so the movie may have left a little to
be desired, but Hasbro has done some phenomenal work on the toys. Its
easy to just pull out the old molds and box up the old figures and make
a mint. But the ‘Bro decided to re-engineer the figures literally from
the ground up. You can tell they have learned a lot from the TF
Animated line when it comes to the transformations and how the ‘bot
looks once its fully transformed. For example, the new Optimus Prime is
almost SPOT ON with his CGI movie counterpart. Once he is in robot mode
there is very little wrong with that figure. I am not sure if Hasbro
had access to the ILM files or not, but they did a damn fine job of
capturing the look and feel of these characters.
And that brings
us to the subject of tonight’s review. Human Alliance Bumblebee. As I
said a few paragraphs ago, this was the ONE figure in the new movie
line I was looking forward to the most. Why? Well it’s the FIRST
Transformer to feature a human counterpart that can actually fit inside
the vehicle AND is in scale with it in robot mode (AND in scale with
Optimus and the other TF leader and voyager class figures). While other
TF figures have had spaces for human figures in the past, when Hasbro
imported the different figures from Japan, those human figures, were
absent. Finally after 25 years, we get a figure designed for a
Transformer and in this case it’s a mini Shia LeBouf as Sam.
So does Bumblebee make up for a less than stellar movie? Lets…(wait for
it)...Transform…and FIND out!
Packaging - **1/2
You have seen this packaging
before. It was featured in the first movie line 2 packs and is re
purposed here. It’s a very attractive packaging, no doubt and shows off
Bee in his Camaro mode and Sam standing next to him. Problem is, there
is a TON of wasted space and of the 5 that were on the shelf I managed
to get the only one that didn't look like Megatron had it in a death
grip. These are no where near collector friendly and like usual, you
almost have to destroy the box to get to the figures. There are only 2
twist ties holding Bee in, but getting inside that bubble is harder
than finding Energon.
Sculpting - Bee ***(Camaro) ****(robot), Sam ***
I am going to break this down into two categories for Bee. One for his
Camaro mode and the other for his robot mode. Both are extremely
detailed sculpts but one scores a little hire than the other. Lets
start with his Camaro mode first. As a vehicle, Bumblebee is VERY
similar to the Alternators line from a few years ago.
On the outside, Hasbro did a
phenomenal job capturing the look of the new Camaro while making all
the spots that accommodate the transformation, feel organic and a part
of the car. Nothing feels junky or odd in car mode and all the seems
are tight with very little gaping along some of the major
transformation points. The biggest hit this mode takes is the interior.
You may recall one of the cooler aspects of the Alternators was a
fairly detailed and well sculpted interior. Here, there is a sculpted
steering wheel, small dashboard and two seats, that’s it. There isnt
anything inside that feels like this is a car. It works for the
intended purpose, I am just not sure it was executed the best way. Due
to the interior being made up mostly of compressed parts to form the
robot, Sam has a hard time fitting in the car and some of the sculpt of
the robot interferes with how well he sits in the drivers seat.
The robot mode, is another story and in a category all its own. I have
collected a lot of Transformer toys since I was a kid. I am by no means
a super fan, but I do have at least ONE figure from every line from G1,
on. Most of those figures are Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Time has
been kind to ‘ole Bee and every incarnation is getting better and
better. Enter 2009 and THIS version. He is, hands down my FAVORITE
version of Bee ever. Not only does this figures robot sculpt NAIL how
he looks in ROTF, but he also has all the little details that just make
this figure stand out. One of the pluses for this figure, is its size.
Next to the “Ultimate Bumblebee,” this is the largest figure of Bee we
have gotten. This allowed Hasbro’s designers to sculpt in all the wires
and hoses and brake calipers, rivets, bolts and yes…even springs and
shocks for when he is vehicle mode. There are so many small little
details here that it would take a day to describe them all,
small things like his shoulder cannons that flip out and detail up and
under his torso, so I will try to just focus on the big ones. First
off, Bee’s face looks great. It’s a perfect design match to his CGI
version and the sculpting is sharp and clean. He also doesn’t suffer
from the pin-head disease that many, many, many TF figures have
suffered from over the years. The proportions of his head seem right
witht he rest of his body. In addition to the sculpting on his head,
Bee’s battle mask (which is also moveable, more on that in
articulation) also has a great sculpt, looking just like it did on
screen. Bee also has a poseable left hand and thumb and all the small
details are there. On his right hand is his plasma cannon and it too is
a sharp well defined sculpt. His torso and legs have a great design and
ALL of the sculpted pieces work perfectly with the articulation. There
are also several small hidden spots that are sculpted to handle
carrying Sam while Bee is in robot mode. Like on his arms, hand and on
Bee’s back.
Sam also is a well sculpted figure. Keep in mind he is ONLY 2 ½ inches
tall. Smaller than most Star Wars figures. He strongly resembles LeBouf
and has small details such as the stripes on his kicks.
Paint - Bee- **½, Sam- *½
This is the only category that really holds these two back. Oddly
enough for totally opposite reasons. Bee doesn’t have ENOUGH paint…and
Sam has too much SLOPPY paint.
Bee is mostly cast in the color
of the respective part. All his yellow is done in a thinner than normal
plastic which when lit from behind is sort of translucent. Some paint
here would have helped make it look a little less “toy-ish” and more
realistic. The paint that Bee does have, his racing stripes, the silver
highlights and all the little details like the Chevy bowtie are all
well done and there is no bleed into the other areas. Bee’s big issue
is lack of paint. As I said earlier most of his parts are cast in
color. But there is no wash, or any highlights on him, which means
there are some really cool details that are very hard to see, because
they aren’t highlighted enough.
Sam does have a fairly passable paint job and only up close can you see
the slop and thick paint. His hair is a solid brown with nothing to
give any definition or texture. His eyes are clean and straight, but
they are only small brown dots. His shirt and jeans are done in a
glossy paint making him look very much like an action figure and less
"human."
Articulation - Bee-
***1/2, Sam ***
Both figures get a nice score here. Bee is extremely well articulated.
As I stated above in the sculpt section, his articulation works well
with his sculpt. There is so much here. Ball jointed neck, his
shoulders have several joints and at the hood section is a pin to move
it up and down, and then the arm has a pin/post style ball joint. Cut
upper arms, pin elbows, a pin and post wrist that allows for a swivel
and a forward and backward movement of his left hand and cut joint at
his thumb and pin joint at his fingers. He ALSO has a cut waist, pin
and post style hips, cut thighs, double pin knees and a pin joint at
his shin which is used for his transformation, but also helps in posing
him in some deep stances. PLUS (yes there is more!) pin ankles. OH and
since his Battle Mask is also able to slide up and down add that.
WHEW…count all that and you get around 31 points of articulation that’s
HUGE for a transforming toy! Bee can take some serious battle stances
and looks amazingly natural just standing straight. I only have two
small issues with the articulation. The first one is Bee’s head. Yes
it’s a ball joint, but it doesnt have a huge range of movement. He can
tilt SLIGHTLY forward and back and side to side. It operates mostly as
a cut joint, but gives you enough options to make Bee look cool. My
other issue is the fact that in order to accommodate his action feature
we lose Bee’s right hand. (see more on that below) Those two issues
drops him half a star.
I do want to make note of
something on his articulation. Recent TF figures have been using ball
joints where if enough pressure is applied the piece is designed to pop
off and on easily. Bee moves away from that trend. The only joint that
pops on and off is his head. The rest are securely attached with metal
pins or other screws and will not pop off. While his joints are
designed in a way to make his transformation easy, with enough pressure
applied the wrong way, they COULD break. The upside to this is that he
has VERY tight joints and can hold some great stances with no fear of
him toppling over. Just keep that in mind.
Sam also has some pretty damn good articulation. Keep in mind he is
only 2 ½ inches tall, but has a ball jointed head (it is a ball joint
and he does have side to side movement but for all intent and purposes
it works as a cut joint), pin/post shoulders, cut torso that allows
forward, backward, left, right and side to side movement, pin/post hips
and pin/post knees that also allow them to swivel . So for a 2 ½ inch
figure you are looking at around 10 POA. That’s WAY more than ANY of
the 5 inch Dark Knight Figures and ALMOST on par with the larger GI Joe
figures. His arms have no articulation but it isn’t really missed and
he doesn’t have ankle articulation, but he is able to stand just fine
on his own.
Accessories - *
I guess you COULD count Sam as an accessory to Bee, OR Bee as an
accessory to Sam. But since the selling point is to have BOTH of these
figures the only real accessory are the two missiles for Bee’s plasma
cannon which have a hiding place on his arms.
Action Feature - *
I hate action features. I think they are un necessary and ruin the
overall fun of a figure. Thankfully Bee’s action feature is small and
un obtrusive BUT it does mean we have to live with one hand permanently
in plasma cannon mode. The feature is a spring loaded gun and fires
like you’d expect it to.
Fun Factor - ****
There is no denying this is a fantastic toy. Its well constructed, well
designed and will give kids (ok, ok I admit AND adults) hours of play
time and it doesn’t loose that all important “wow” factor after its out
of the box. In fact, that continues the more you transform and pose him. |
