Transformers Classics Bumblebee

Hasbro reformatted the original Transformers toy line and introduced the Transformers Classics. This review is for the excellent Classics Bumblebee.

Bumblebee has always been a major character in the early Transformers universe. He was a dominant figure on the TV show and one of the figures that is always mentioned from the toy line. That figure was very small and the transformation included turning the car up on his nose and pulling his arms out. The Classics Bumblebee is not only 3-4 times larger than the original toy, but is also much more complex to transform. This review however will focus on the figure itself and not the actual transformation. Bumblebee has two modes and a little bit extra. First up is the vehicle mode:

Car:

Bumblebee's car mode is based off of the Peugeot 207, but has been modified to give it a sportier feel, and I'm sure to bypass copyright infringement. Volkswagen will no longer allow Hasbro to use the any of their vehicles as toys because they do not want to contribute to "war machines." That's why they changed car formats. The front of the car has ground effects and a hood scoop. The whole car has clear windows and the headlights. The hood has a small scoop that the rub-sign sticks to. (Later molds had a wider scoop to accommodate the sticker with no overlap) The rear of the car has a cut off cab section with a large wing attached to it. The tail lights are red plastic and are not transparent. There is also a license plate/ trailer hitch section for attaching the included wave-runner with trailer. The car is very low to the ground and looks like a lot fun to drive.

Robot:

Bumblebee's robot mode is worth buying just for this mode. It captures all of what Bumblebee was in the original cartoon and amplifies it through a great, poseable figure. The head is taken straight from the cartoon, complete with horns and human-ish face. He has clear blue plastic eyes, but they do not let light through them like other Transformers lines' figures do. The rear of the car becomes Bumblebee's back and though it is a Little chunky, it fills out his body nicely. There is an unfortunate gap behind his head created by the spot where his head flips back into his car mode, but this is necessary later on. The hood section flips down to become his chest and belly and the doors become the arms. The front of the car turns into the feet and the spot where the seats were is now the thighs. The seats fold down to give him metallic silver thighs. An additional feature Bumblebee has is the wave-runner. It can transform into a set of wings that fill up that gap behind Bumblebee's head. The wings are an odd accessory, but since Bumblebee has always been a spy, it makes sense that the doesn't have a weapon.

I love this figure most out of all the Classics that I own, but I do not own them all. He is a great showing of what properly thought out Transformers can be.