Toy Review - Age of Extinction Bumblebee (Deluxe, Concept Camaro)
BUMBLEBEE
Series - Transformers Generations
Sub-line – Age of Extinction
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco – New
Wave – 3, 2014
Released here - July 2014
Approximate Retail Price - $25
Approximate Size – 13cm to top of head (+1cm to top of back mounted bonnet kibble)
Allegiance -Autobot
Alt-mode – 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Concept
Main Features/Gimmicks – flip out cannon-arm, flip down battle mask
Main Colours – yellow and black
Main Accessories – x2 shuriken
Pictures
Stock image
Vehicle Mode
Typical of Age of Extinction, there are some nice features in the mould which become lost due to a lack of paint apps to highlight them. There really is just too much yellow on this toy which really needed to be broken up with some gunmetal grey, black and a tiny smidgen of silver, as per the real life vehicle. The unpainted hubcaps is accurate to the real life vehicle's black hubcaps though. The headlights are metallic electric blue, and the windows are all transparent blue. Bumblebee sports his signature black racing stripes on the roof and bonnet, which helps to break up the yellows. Yes, I know I used the plural. As usual, Hasbro seems unable to get the painted yellow to match with the yellow plastic parts, and thus we have two different mismatching shades of yellow on this toy (much like how Crosshairs has two different mismatching shades of green). Bumblebee's vehicle mode is very "panelrrific," and there are some seams that don't sit exactly flush. It doesn't look too bad to the naked eye, but becomes more noticeable in photography. The two shuriken clip on the bottom of the vehicle, but it can be tricky, and ultimately they have a tendency to lift the rear half of the vehicle up and potentially impede with rolling, particularly on carpet. It's just easier to set them aside.
Robot Mode
Thankfully the robot mode does introduce more black to break up the yellows, but the forearms still look rather plain. The flip down battle mask and flip out cannon on the right arm were nice surprises. There's also a tiiiny Autobot insignia painted on the forehead. Overall, this toy shares the same inherent weakness that most (if not all) Age of Extinction Transformers suffer -- being based on such a difficult to translate screen model. With barely any vehicle kibble on the screen model, the designers of this toy have been forced to try and stow the alt mode parts away, and for the most part, they've done a commendable job (I just wish that they didn't have to do it in the first place). The leg kibble rests on the calves of the legs, and there's now more kibble on the arms and shoulders (which would've been on the chest and back in previous Bumblebees). There's a considerable amount of kibble on the back which folds up, and in all honesty, it's no better or worse than previous Deluxe movie Bumblebees... but I think that the smaller frame of this Bumblebee's robot mode makes it more noticeable. The main part of the formation of the robot mode that I personally don't like is the chest. The chest panel opens up, and the front grill of the car tucks inside the chest before being covered up by the chest panel. While this in itself is a neat way to hide the grill panel on such a small toy, I personally would've preferred to see the grill itself just form the robot chest rather than being covered up by a chest panel.
Overall
An admirable attempt to translate what is such an untranslatable design. However it has necessitated certain compromising design elements which makes this toy less impressive than most other Deluxe movie Bumblebees. The mask and arm cannon gimmicks are really nice, though the shuriken weapons are just lame. I would've rather seen those weapons been omitted in favour of that money being spent on further improving the core design of the toy, including additional paint apps on the vehicle mode. A nice try of a toy with some neat surprises, but the overall result is fairly ordinary.I got the Toys R Us version of this toy, which comes with Generations Legends Bumblebee. In terms of value for money, I'd recommend getting this version as it's $5 cheaper than a full priced Deluxe, plus you get an extra Legends figure with it.
<---if below RRP
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I really hope that for the next movies, they go back to having more "toy-friendly" screen designs that'll make it a lot easier for HasTak to 'translate' into products.
<---y u no hav alt mode parts?!
