Bumper, Bumblejumper and all things Minibot

[Bogatan]

Mar 3, 2014 13:06:53 GMT Philip Ayres said:

What is the going rate at present?

At least £50 I think and possibly higher. I'm sure ebay listing have been much higher, but don't know at what price they get bids. Yeah plenty on ebay US most selling for Between $80-130.

A green Sedan sold for $500

I think I paid around £50-70 for bumblejumper (I can't remember if it came with a cliffjumper card or not) that was 5-10 years ago probably.

[The Huff]

Bumblejumper/Bumble was the first Transformer in my household as my younger brother bought one.

To this day, I never understood why Hupcap wasn't a different colour in 1986 as it was confusing enough. Even when the toy did get a recolour in G2 they went for red which didn't help.

[Shockprowl]

Mar 3, 2014 13:46:36 GMT Bogatan said:

Mar 3, 2014 13:06:53 GMT Philip Ayres said:

What is the going rate at present?

At least £50 I think and possibly higher.

I think I paid around £50-70 for bumblejumper (I can't remember if it came with a cliffjumper card or not) that was 5-10 years ago probably.

HOLY COW!!!!!!!!

[Shockprowl]

Mar 3, 2014 15:23:00 GMT The Huff said:

Bumblejumper/Bumble was the first Transformer in my household as my younger brother bought one.

DOES HE STILL HAVE IT?!?!?!!!

[Philip Ayres]

Mar 3, 2014 13:39:36 GMT Bogatan said:

And while I'm at it I want that green and Purple Pick Up (Gears).

It's at this point we should crack open TFU's Minibot page and break a few minds with the Brazilian/Peruvian/Mexican madness on display there:

www.tfu.info/subgroup/minibots.htm

[Philip Ayres]

And some more

www.tf-1.com/mini_template.html

tfsource.com/blog/the-world-of-minibots/

Yeah and that Gears is the real good stuff. Oh yeah

[Shockprowl]

*TTTTHHHUUDDUUUMMPP!!!!*


.....need.... .....defib..... .....help.....

[legios]

I remember that Diaclone Pick-Up release. In fact, I owned that in lieu of Gears. He is long since vanished though. The Stirling Toymaster had those in about 1986, along with the Cassettes. (If I had a time machine I would go back to the afternoon of theSaturday I saw them with a pile of money, and then take a side-trip to the winter of 85, when the same shop had a load of Bandai Macross stuff in and spend the rest of the pile - Mind you, I am sure that the Sylvester McCoy Doctor would be most unhappy to see me returning to his T.A.R.D.I.S with -1J Max and Millia types showed under my arms :-). )

I take it Shockprowl, that you are aware that the Diaclone Minibots are disguised as Choro-Q toys - released over here as "Penny Racers"? (Just in case that information was still needed to blow your mind a little further. :-)

Karl

[Toph]

Guys, if you're not careful, you're going to accidentally lobotomize poor shockprowl!

[Pinwig]

See, bizarre South American repaints I can cope with. With those early moulds you kind of expect it with the diaclone heritage, I'm just stunned that I've gone all this time under the misapprehension that Bumblejumper was a yellow Cliff just because I'd not paid close enough attention to the pictures, and there's a whole mould there that hasn't ever been officially released. Why remould Hubcap from Cliffjumper when there was a totally unused figure going begging? Must have been a reason.

[The Doctor]

The day that I learned that some of the minibots were super-deformed Choro-Q penny racers, my mind imploded. For 20 odd years my mind had not noticed.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

I recall that great day, possibly even involving the Microchange article above!

I recall how I felt when I discovered that Megatron's gun parts made a cannon for a Microman(Micronaut) to sit in!

[kayevcee]

Mar 3, 2014 17:30:30 GMT Shockprowl said:

*TTTTHHHUUDDUUUMMPP!!!!*

.....need.... .....defib..... .....help.....

Easy, big fella. The South American Minibot variants can be a lot to take in on your first exposure. The first time I encountered them there were a rash of them carded on eBay- a warehouse find I think. A couple of weeks later I had a red Bumblebee, white Cliffjumper and Windcharger in yellow and blue. They are superb. The guys who did the minibot keychains in 2002-2003 could have kept cranking them out forever in every colour of the rainbow. They were so cheap to make, folks like us would have bought them all and the general public would probably have picked them up as novelties.

Mind, I've always thought the same about the cassettes.

-Nick

[Philip Ayres]

Nick, do you own every Hasbro Takara cassette version yet?

This might be an apropriate time to ask a Mini autobot question: Are the 1985 Mini Atobots from? Every other toy in the first two years is a re-release from another line (albeit in one case it never got round to appearing in the other line) apart from the mini Autbots which look to be Hasbro originals...... or are they?

[kayevcee]

Nope. I don't have the 1987 dino cassettes or the ones that came with eHobby Blaster and Soundwave. I'm not bothered about the mirror universe repaint, but I'd still like to get the dinos someday. Ideally when they're reissued

-Nick

[The Huff]

Mar 3, 2014 15:52:38 GMT Shockprowl said:

Mar 3, 2014 15:23:00 GMT The Huff said:

Bumblejumper/Bumble was the first Transformer in my household as my younger brother bought one.

DOES HE STILL HAVE IT?!?!?!!!

No - I do!

(Actually the original didn't survive - this is one I purchased from The Spacebridge back in the '90s.)

What the..! HUFFER! GET OUT OF THAT SHOT! THIS ONE ISN'T ABOUT YOU!!!

[Philip Ayres]

It's all about Huffer and you know it Matt!

[Pinwig]

Mar 4, 2014 8:16:48 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Nick, do you own every Hasbro Takara cassette version yet?

This might be an apropriate time to ask a Mini autobot question: Are the 1985 Mini Atobots from? Every other toy in the first two years is a re-release from another line (albeit in one case it never got round to appearing in the other line) apart from the mini Autbots which look to be Hasbro originals...... or are they?

That poses an interesting question in itself then: what was the first original Hasbro wave (if not the 85 mini's)? And what were the first purpose designed Takara figures not reused from another brand?

[Philip Ayres]

Hmmmm. IIRC Astrotrain is an unused Diaclone design.

The Movie toys are definitely Hasbro/Takara originals for TFS: Galvatron, Hot Rod, Blurr, Kup, Scourge & Cyclonus. The Autobot Cassettes and Ratbat. Wheelie.

Magnus is Diaclone while the special teams and Metroplex are unused Diaclone.

I wonder if Octane and the Autobot Triple Changers are too?

Sky Lynx is the prodict of a firm called Toy Box, who also made the original of Omega Supreme.

Trypticon just doesn't feel like a Hasbro toy somehow and I wouldn't be surprised if he had origins elsewhere. Ditto the Predacons.

of the 86 toys that leaves the Battlechargers: Runamuck and Runabout MIGHT be the first Hasbro originated TFs that Japan didn't get, but there's something about the design that make me wonder about the origins.

If it's not them then the first Hasbro built toys exclusive to the west are the Dual Targetmasters and Second Wave Pretenders

The first Takara built toys for TFs exclusive to Japan are the Dino tapes followed by Metalhawk and GodBomber. Raiden, Stepper, Artfire, Soundblaster & Broadcast all have Microman/Diaclone origins if modified.

[Nigel]

Huh. I thought everyone knew that Bumblejumper was a unique mould. That's why he's got that name - physical similarities to both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. At least, that's what I always understood it as - the Wiki entry says it's down to the belief that he was available on both characters' cards, but I suppose either explanation is pretty nebulous.

I bought a carded Camaro (yellow Windcharger) for £20 at cardiff Comic-Con last year.

[Philip Ayres]

Evidentally not!

IIRC the Bumblejumper name was publicised by Lee's toy & action figure news & review using it in their price guides during the 1990s.

(I preferred Tomart)

[Jim]

Mar 4, 2014 8:16:48 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Nick, do you own every Hasbro Takara cassette version yet?

This might be an apropriate time to ask a Mini autobot question: Are the 1985 Mini Atobots from? Every other toy in the first two years is a re-release from another line (albeit in one case it never got round to appearing in the other line) apart from the mini Autbots which look to be Hasbro originals...... or are they?

I had a sense of deja-vu here, so did some digging around and found some threads elsewhere from a few years back. It seems there is nothing 100% conclusive regarding them bar some speculation based on design details, but the patent applications are out there, and were filed in 1985 with 1984 priority by a Takara engineer. e.g. Seaspray:

www.google.com/patents/USD290481?dq=ininventor:%22Akio+Kitamura%22+inassignee:%22Takara+Co.%2C+Ltd.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VQgXU9mlLdKwhAf994DADw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA

So it seems likely they are original, but you couldn't be 100% certain they weren't designed for an earlier toyline and just patented later. Apparently their designer has no other Transformers credits which could explain why they look a bit different.

-Jim

[Pinwig]

Mar 5, 2014 9:30:37 GMT Nigel said:

Huh. I thought everyone knew that Bumblejumper was a unique mould.

I had assumed it was Cliffjumper in Bumblebee's colour and Cliffbee sounded crap. I'd just never looked closely enough at the pictures.

[Shockprowl]

Mar 5, 2014 20:02:58 GMT Pinwig said:

Mar 5, 2014 9:30:37 GMT Nigel said:

Huh. I thought everyone knew that Bumblejumper was a unique mould.

I had assumed it was Cliffjumper in Bumblebee's colour and Cliffbee sounded crap. I'd just never looked closely enough at the pictures.

Same here! I still can't believe he's a DIFFERENT MOLD!!!!

[Toph]

You guys know he was in the dreamwave G1 comic, right? They called him Bumper since bumblejumper sucks as a name.

[Toph]

tfwiki.net/wiki/Bumper_(G1)

[Marc Graham]

Lets not mention the DW comic again! Ugh!

Shocking that Hubcap a toy with a cool bio and much better looking than Bumper (too many straight lines) hasn't gotten the love he deserves.

[Bogatan]

Mar 5, 2014 20:54:37 GMT Toph said:

You guys know he was in the dreamwave G1 comic, right? They called him Bumper since bumblejumper sucks as a name.

Much prefer Bumblejumper.

Mar 6, 2014 13:39:37 GMT Marc Graham said:

Lets not mention the DW comic again! Ugh!

Shocking that Hubcap a toy with a cool bio and much better looking than Bumper (too many straight lines) hasn't gotten the love he deserves.

I agree the body is too straight lined, but the head looks great.

I think hubcaps problem is that he and Cliffjumper are so similar and it was CJ that got a bit of screen time in the cartoon so relegating Hubcap to the third yellow guy (even thought CJ is more commonly red). He should have gotten his own colour.

[Toph]

Hubcap shoulda been green. Don't know why but even as a kid, he always felt like a green guy, and there never were enough green guys in G1.

[Jaymz]

Mar 4, 2014 8:16:48 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Nick, do you own every Hasbro Takara cassette version yet?

I'm close, but my dino cassettes are KOs, and I've not bothered with weapon or slight colour variants. I do have doubles of Slamdance and Squawktalk though, for separate and combined "robot" mode displays. But I just couldn't bring myself to buy the butterscotch coloured Linkin'Park Soundwave.

Picked up a Bumblejumper recently, and would love to get some of the crazy colour South American variant Minibots, but can't justify the coin they go for. Still trying to find the ehobby Minibot set for a decent price.