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TF: P Beast Hunters Deluxe Bumblebee Review!


Well, as it turns out I did something a bit sacrilegious. Earlier in the day I bought Beast Hunters Soundwave (review seen here: http://bdeinonychusden.runboard.com/t17969 )from my local TRU, only to find that he's actually crap. So...I returned him for another Beast Hunters figure instead: Bumblebee.

Yes, you read that right: Bumblebee.

I'm not a fan of him, but from what I heard on the net he's actually an improvement over his old Prime counterpart; and I had to see for myself. Plus my girlfriend wanted me to get an actual Bumblebee figure (not just his evil version) and I don't have enough money to afford both him and Soundwave at the moment, so...BH Soundwave had to go. :pac

Packaging:

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As with the BH Soundwave figure, the bubble is considerably smaller than an old Prime figure. He comes packaged in robot mode, as is the norm now with most TF figures (the exception for this wave being Laserback who comes in dragon mode).

Comparison:

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As I had stated in the BH Soundwave review; the backer card is much smaller than the old deluxes; which makes it look like the figure is a lot smaller than it is (almost a basic size). In fact the toy's bubble is nearly the same size as the old deluxe; but it is, in fact, much thinner (the only exception, once again, being Laserback who's bubble is the same thickness as an old deluxe).

Card back:

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Thanks to the smaller card back the bio has become ridiculously short now; barely descriptive enough for anything other than a generic line or two about the character (although Bumblebee's bio does state that he discovered the new armor that the Autobots possess now).

Robot Mode:

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He is actually the same mold as the old Revealers deluxe from Prime (more on that later), not the First Edition though. He comes with an impressive arsenal (way more than BH Soundwave's simply grappling hook); with several missiles, guns and a bow. He still retains all of his range of motion despite an extensive retooling.

The only thing I don't like about the robot mode is the eyes. His head design isn't bad, but they put little dots where his eyes are and it looks silly. They should have painted it fully or colored it a different color (maybe red or something), but as it is it stands out like a sore thumb; at least to me. :P

Comparison:

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Since I don't have the original Bumblebee to compare to; I will compare it to Terrorcon Bumblebee which is, in fact, the same exact mold as the original with no retooling.

BH Bumblebee has a ton of newly retooled parts including his head, front fenders, shoulders, car doors, roof and back car halves. The biggest change (outside of the obvious weapons) is that his car roof is now one piece instead of two; it does not fold in half anymore. This is probably to accommodate the new peg-hole on top for the bow in vehicle mode or when it's not being held in his hand.

There are certain aspects of the robot mode that make it look like a different mold, the foremost of which being the front grill. The truth is that it's a retool as well; allowing room for the spikes that comes out of the fenders to poke through the front of the vehicle mode. This actually is a good feature IMHO as it makes Bumblebee look like he has a much thinner chest instead of the old wide one.

Accesories:

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As I stated before he comes with a lot of new accessories; including a bow with 6 missiles, two arm cannons and two missile clips that attach to the doors. The arm cannons can connect into one four-barreled cannon that can be attached to one arm only. This is actually a great feature since the cannon can get in the way of the bow when it's hand-held and knock it off completely.

Also while he does have 6 missiles for the bow only one can be loaded at a time. Unfortunately, like BH Soundwave, Bumblebee's bow has a hair trigger and it's rather easy to set off his bow when the missile's loaded. Plus there is a pair of wings on the bow (the bow part of the crossbow, if you will) that do fold back and into the body of the bow but it can only do so when the missile is not loaded into the chamber.

Vehicle Mode:

No accesories:

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Without the accessories, Bumblebee's retool doesn't give him a smooth old Prime TV series look; he still has some spikes that are molded into the plastic and can not be removed.

With accesories:

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Unlike BH Soundwave, BH Bumblebee actually fits together perfectly as a car and holds together! He isn't made from the same weak plastic as BH Soudwave, but his plastic isn't the same strength as Terrorcon BB's either (somewhere in-between).

That being said the plastic quality isn't an issue at all as he's easy to transform and hold together. The only difficult part is his shoulders which now lock into a slightly upward angled position and have to be pushed down and un-clicked from their position in order to transform him back into a car and that can be a bit difficult (but not frustrating or cringe-worthy/applicable to breaking though).

Comparison:

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With the armor attached and weapons loaded; BH Bumblebee looks drastically different from his old Prime counterpart. All of the parts are used with the extra missiles attaching to the doors, the bow on the roof and the cannons on the hood as one piece. The bow can still be loaded and fired in this mode and the option to fold in the bow arms still exists as well. The door missiles do not fire, of course; they have to be manually pushed out of the holder.

The only real complaint about this mode is the lack of color on the rear window. I know it's a minor complaint but since the roof is now one piece the old rear window (which was a clear window) is now just a solid piece of plastic the same color as the roof itself. A simple paint app could have fixed this, like with the windshield, but alas it's a minor problem.

Overall:

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As it turns out the rumors are true. This is actually a great version of Bumblebee and a toy truly worthy of the title 'Upgrade', unlike BH Soundwave. :beat This version of Bumblebee has a lot of weapons that actual work (albeit still with a hair trigger), plenty of spikes and Mad Max/Apocalypse feel to the vehicle and robot modes and a new retooling that doesn't sacrifice plastic quality nor connection strength at all.

I would recommend this figure even though it is still Bumblebee. If you want to get at least one BB for your collection, I'd say make it this one. It does cost about $1-2 more than an old Prime deluxe, but it's really worth it. Save your money and don't get BH Soundwave, get this guy instead (and possibly the others from this wave). :D

 emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon and a half emoticon out of 5 emoticon 's.

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1/12/2013, 6:15 am Link to this post Send Email to MetalSamamon   Send PM to MetalSamamon
 


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