Post by Carn on Aug 3, 2007 20:08:05 GMT
Ok I've had this figure for over 24 hours now and I have to say, I think it's incredibly well designed. Been transforming it back and forth (mainly cos I just can't decide which form I love best, might have to get two) and posing it in all sorts of cool battle stances, finding it easy to get it looking good and standing upright. The design work of the robot form is very, very close to the superb CGI model of Bumblebee in the movie and I was particularly impressed they even got the chest side pieces able to move up (comes packaged with them down) and it looks far closer to the on screen appearance than the far costlier Ultimate Bumblebee. For a Deluxe class figure he's pretty complex to look at but very easy to transform partly due to the very well intergrated 'automorphing' in his chest and legs which take some of the tedium out of transforming a figure and just looks cool when you're moving one part that moves others at the same time. Unusually even his weapon has a kind of 'automorph' feature, changing from his gun (again much closer to the movie's model than the twin rocket launchers of the 70's Camaro Bumblebee) into a pretty cool looking translucent blue bladed melee weapon. Articulation is great too, and like I've said I've found it easy to pose him in plenty of poses that reflect the movie version's more 'hardcore' Bumble. I think the only criticism I'd have with the design of the toy is that Bumbles feet show up a bit in under the car in vehicle form. But they don't interfere with the rolling of the wheels and they're easy to ignore. The actual color scheme of the figure somehow looks richer than the previous movie Bumblebee toy. He's a bit more orangey and also just looks nowhere near as cheap as 70's Bee. Us in the west also don't get the cheap looking solid windows as we did with the 70's version. I might add some silvery drybrushing to some of the black areas, particularly his gun to give a more metal look, but that doesn't mean I wish he was in die-cast as to be honest I really dislike the recent metal transformers such as Binaltech, Masterpiece and Titanium as I found (on figures I've purchase anyways) that the weight of the metal affects the articulation in a bad way, causing some floppiness and hard to pose properly (indeed my 20th Prime was too heavy to even crouch, as his torso kept tilting backwards at the hip joint from the weight). I just think a lil metal looking effect on the gun could add some extra class to this figure but it's not all that necessary.
All in all I'm extremely impressed with this figure, probably moreso than any other Transformer I've ever come across. Certainly I rate him far, far higher than the already very good Classics incarnation of Bumblebee, and easily among the best if not the very best car based Transformer. He's great value for money and even though I paid for the double pack to get him I think he's worth every penny and even at the crazy prices for a Deluxe he's been getting on ebay in last month or so I'd still be happy with it. Definitely moreso than I was paying £50 for 20th Anniversary Prime (which to be honest I wasn't fond of even before the leg came off on mine... least that gave me perfect reason to get a refund). Stands with movie Leader Optimus Prime as my favorite Transformer toy of all time, and shows what a long way toy technology has come from similarly sized car Transformers back in G1. I've been very happy with most of the Movie line and indeed it's lately raised itself just a bit higher than Classics as my number 1 TF toyline, especially now with this figure.
This was going to be a review of the double pack of Bee and Prime but to be honest I'm just not all that keen on the Voyager Prime, especially since I placed it next to the Leader version. It's a decent enough figure, but I just don't feel like it needs to be Prime when I have a superior Optimus Prime already. Tempted to repaint it as an existing G1 truck character (Huffer, Pipes or maybe even the Micromaster Powertrain as his truck form is similar anyways). For me it was worth buying the pack for Bumblebee alone with the Prime as a bonus.
Sorry this was just gonna be a short review... but damn... I really do like this figure
Probably made some typo's too as I am very tired. Got back into running after a short break... forgot how hard it is to start again even after a month or so...
All in all I'm extremely impressed with this figure, probably moreso than any other Transformer I've ever come across. Certainly I rate him far, far higher than the already very good Classics incarnation of Bumblebee, and easily among the best if not the very best car based Transformer. He's great value for money and even though I paid for the double pack to get him I think he's worth every penny and even at the crazy prices for a Deluxe he's been getting on ebay in last month or so I'd still be happy with it. Definitely moreso than I was paying £50 for 20th Anniversary Prime (which to be honest I wasn't fond of even before the leg came off on mine... least that gave me perfect reason to get a refund). Stands with movie Leader Optimus Prime as my favorite Transformer toy of all time, and shows what a long way toy technology has come from similarly sized car Transformers back in G1. I've been very happy with most of the Movie line and indeed it's lately raised itself just a bit higher than Classics as my number 1 TF toyline, especially now with this figure.
This was going to be a review of the double pack of Bee and Prime but to be honest I'm just not all that keen on the Voyager Prime, especially since I placed it next to the Leader version. It's a decent enough figure, but I just don't feel like it needs to be Prime when I have a superior Optimus Prime already. Tempted to repaint it as an existing G1 truck character (Huffer, Pipes or maybe even the Micromaster Powertrain as his truck form is similar anyways). For me it was worth buying the pack for Bumblebee alone with the Prime as a bonus.
Sorry this was just gonna be a short review... but damn... I really do like this figure
Probably made some typo's too as I am very tired. Got back into running after a short break... forgot how hard it is to start again even after a month or so...
