Bumblebee

So let’s start with my biggest gripe right off the top. Paint Application and Paint Quality. I have only transformed the toy about a dozen times and if you look carefully at the picture below you can see the black paint is already come off, particularly wherever you have to “handle” it during transformation. Combine that with the generally shabby paint application to begin with and you have a pretty sloppy toy.

As a transformer it’s decent. Transformation is fairly intuitive and straightforward and looks good in both robot and car mode.

Unlike other Transformers from the movie I have gotten this year, there are a lot of parts and pieces that can easily pop off which I think really kills this as a “toy”. His lower half pops off easily and the yellow pieces of detail on his shoulders fall of during Transformation. In general, it’s a mass of fiddle bits.

Like I said he looks good in both modes, poses well and comes with a gun that “looks” much like his morphed cannon arm from the movies. The gun can be stored in the underside of Bumblebee and can be converted to a blade. A nice touch.

So as you can see it’s a real mixed bag. If you can get it for retail on the shelves it’s worth looking at (just check the paint detail), but DO NOT pay the outrageous aftermarket prices for it, it is so not worth it.

I did shoot video but it came out a bit blurry. Being as unimpressed with this as I was I am too uninspired to re-shoot it; I’ve included it so you can see the fiddly bits.