Phil's ROTF Legends Bumblebee Review

[Philip Ayres]

ROTF Legends BB, due to his presence in several DOTM sets has wandered onto my reviewing radar. My goodness he's been repainted a few times.....

[Philip Ayres]

Hmmm. This is takin slightly longer than planned.

[Philip Ayres]

Phil's Revenge of the Fallen Legends Bumblebee Review

ROTF Legends Bumblebee isn't a toy I've set out to own. But somehow I've ended up with three versions of it and have a friend in America hunting for a pack with a fourth version of the mould in. How did this happen?

ROTF Legend Bumblebee

The first version of ROTF Legends Bumblebee is a completely new toy for the second Bay Transformers film, not using any parts from Movie Legends Bumblebee (which I also own without trying to!).

Packaged in robot mode, transformation to car mode is simple: fold the chest up, point the arms up, pull the arms down to form the sides of the car, push the legs together and recess the upper legs into the lower legs.

They've done a good job of capturing the concept Camero design in the car mode, no criticism there. The bodywork is yellow with two black stripes up it.

Return to robot mode by pulling the back of the car out & separating to form the legs. Pull the sides of the car out to form the arms. Fold the bonnet forward to form the chest. Stand, and fold the arms down.

The robot mode for this toy shows some simplifications compared to Deluxe Revenge of the Fallen Bumblebee. The doors are swept straight back, not out to the sides, and this makes him resemble several other Legends toys like Movie Barricade or Universe Jazz. Bumblebee's chest is made up of the solid front of the car, not split in three like the deluxe version. Personally I think this looks better but then I don't like a lot of the Bay movie design quirks. Articulation isn't bad: ball jointed shoulders & hips plus a little motion at the knees and the shoulders shrug downwards. He's got one small Autobot symbol in this mode one his right knee.

Not a bad toy at all, at the time you really couldn't expect much more from that size.

Bumblebee was sold on a single card and if you look you still should be able to find him in some shops.

Recon Bumblebee

Oh dear. The problem with the majority of the repaints of this Legends Bumblebee mould is they are essentially the same with the paint deco slightly tweaked. This one gives the stripes their thin outline, adds an Autobot logo contained in a triangle, a design the doors and moves the Autobot symbol from his right to his left leg.

Clear Bumblebee

This Bumblebee is made with his yellow plastic parts cast in clear yellow plastic, but uses the same opaque black plastic and paint applications as the normal carded version.

I like clear repaints but unfortunately this toy was only available with the transforming Bumblebee case version of the Revenge of the Fallen DVDs purchased at Tsutaya stores in Japan.

NEST Bumblebee vs Shadow Striker

Now this is the first version of ROTF Bumblebee that I owned. I bought the pack for Shadow Striker, a black & red repaint of Universe Legends Wheelie. The Bumblebee has the two stripes, again with the thinner outer edges, an Autobot symbol on the bonnet, stripe along the vehicle side and once again a swapped Autobot symbol on the leg.

This pack was a Target exclusive in early 2010.

Stealth Bumblebee

If in doubt, make a black version. That's what happened here: all black plastic, yellow stripes with an edge, yellow shins & forehead Autobot symbol, silver robot face & waist and no Autobot symbol on the legs.

EZ Collection Stealth Bumblebee

Oddly the Japanese version looses the outer edge to the stripes, has the Autobot symbol painted red and adds one to his right knee. This is more like the paint design used for the original ROTF Bumblebee but has the black paint swapped for yellow.

Hunt for the Decepticons Cyberfire Bumblebee

The single stripe along one side of the vehicle betrays this as being inspired by Animated Bumblebee. Animated is yet to return the favour with a 2 striped version, even in the Legacy of Bumblebee 3-pack where an Animated deluxe version was packed with a Movie deluxe and a Classics deluxe in Movie colours and paint decoration.

Premium Bumblebee

This version of Bumblebee cast his yellow parts in gold chrome and was available as a bonus pack in toy with the Costco exclusive Battle Ops Bumblebee, itself with gold chrome.

Dark of the Moon
Cyberverse Bumblebee vs Soundwave with bonus Rodimus

Despite a new Bumblebee Cyberverse Legion figure appearing early in the Dark of the Moon toyline, ROTF Legends Bumblebee contiues to live out an existence in the new film's toyline. His first appearance is in a Wal Mart exclusive 3-pack with a G1 themed repaint of ROTF Legends Soundwave and an orange Universe Legends Rodimus. Bumblebee swaps yellow for bronzey gold and black for pale grey.

Sorry, this one doesn't really work for me. But the set does get Legends Rodimus back into circulation and that's a good thing.

Cyberverse Bumblebee vs Megatron

Bumblebee returns in a VS pack featuring a black repaint of Cyberverse Commander Megatron.

Again in car mode this Bumblebee is similar to the rest, with black stripes & black fire details on the doors. Transforming to robot mode we find that Bumblebee has been remoulded: he now has a 3mm c-clip for his right hand enabling him to hold Cyberverse weapons. He comes with a recoloured Robotmasters gun to use, which was previously held by Ligier, previously Machine Wars Mirage & Prowl and Robots in Disguise Skid-Z.

The inclusion of the remoulded hand & gun is nice, but lets face it the reason to buy this pack is the black Megatron.

This set was an exclusive for Target in the USA and Tescos in the UK, and was twinned with a 2-pack containing Legion Leadfoot & blue Commander Ironhide which came with another recoloured Robot Masters gun, that used with Airhunter, previously Machine Wars Megatron/Megaplex gun.

Cyberverse Evolutions Bumblebee

The Evolutions set, an exclusive to Toys R Us in the UK & USA features repaints of two previously Legends toys, Legends of Cybertron Starscream and Bumblebee together with "Scanning" version of Movie Legends Starscream and Revenge of the Fallen Legends Bumblebee.

This version of Bumblebee swaps his yellow plastic for a clear plastic, most of which is overlaid in a blue grid pattern with just the front of the car/head & chest of the robot painted yellow. I can see what they're getting at here, it's a Bumblebee that's in the process of being reformatted for his Earth mode, but I'd have preferred a Bumblebee that was completely clear than a half clear/half yellow one. The same effect is used on the Starscream in this pack and Toys R Us' exclusive Trans Scanning series.

There are two weapons included in this pack for the remoulded Legends figures to use, both of which are sourced from Robotmasters toy: We have the 2-part gun, previously seen with Wingstun, and before that Machine Wars Thundercracker & Skywarp, Beast Wars II Dirge & Robots in Disguise Skyfire. The other weapon is the original gun, formerly cast in clear green and then chromed silver that came with R-Blade, the Jetfire coloured repaint of Cyberjet Hooligan.

Cyberverse Bumblebee Bolt

The remoulded Bumblebee appears again as a stand along Cyberverse Legion toy, numbered 011. The deco on this version includes lightening bolts on the bonnet. Publicity photos show it with two remoulded hands but reports from those who have him indicate that just his right hand is remoulded like the VS and Evolutions packs.