Death's Head
11-09-11, 09:52 AM
Great Stephens, Cannon Bumblebee is a bunch of arse. Every toyline has figures like this; whether its Barbie with a new hairstyle of handbag or some ridiculous deep sea armour for Iron Man, ‘special power’ versions of various characters designed to pad out a range and relieve you of your money have been present since time began.
Packaged in vehicle mode, Bumblebee is still a Chevrolet Camaro Concept vehicle. It’s still a slick looking muscle car and a nice looking design. To differentiate this version from the earlier ROTF figure, this version has blue, rather than smoked, windows. It looks alright. The doors can open and as they are not used to maintain the structural integrity of the car, the vehicle mode doesn’t sag into a pile of parts. Due to the nature of the transformation and arrangement of the robot limbs, something approaching seats and a dashboard are visible inside, which is a nice touch. As it is packaged in ‘attack mode’ the key feature of the toy is revealed straight away. Two ‘canons’ can be flipped out of the bonnet. Sadly, they are not as impressive as the beefy efforts seen on the stock photography, leaving Bumblebee looking like he’s deploying two doughnuts. The reasons for trimming these down by half their depth is baffling, as there’s clearly enough storage and clearance for larger –and more impressive – cannons to have fit.
The transformation to robot mode is fairly straight forward. As the legs are exactly the same as those on the previous ROTF deluxe they just automorph into place with no bother. The arms swing out from the centre of the vehicle mode and the bonnet flips down revealing the head. The roof parts fold up and just dangle about. All of which leaves you with a rather disappointing robot mode. The legs are fine , but the collection of ‘faux parts’ used to make up the torso seem too wide, leaving the waist looking enfeebled. To accommodate the canons, Bumblebee’s bonnet no longer ‘crumples’ to match the CGI model leaving you with a very traditional looking car front = chest arrangement, which wouldn’t be so bad were the entirety of Bumblebee’s chest not as empty as fresh air. Glimpsed at the wrong angle and you can see daylight through it. The arms also fall foul of repeating one of the most frustrating elements of some Beast Wars toys. They are nicely sculpted and detailed, and have movement at the shoulder and elbow – but not the wrist. This means that whatever you do with his arms, his hands will always be outstretched as if he’s begging for money or signalling to someone that it’s okay to reverse into a space. They are also a tad too short, coming down to just below his waist. The greatest sin is how poor the cannon deployment looks in robot mode. Because those flaps of bonnet to which the canons are connected aren’t particularly sturdy they just flap about. Mainly they just sink into the bonnet if they aren’t busy making Bumblebee look like Pat Butcher.
‘Special Power’ toys like Cannon Bumblebee are always going to be compromised b the ‘action feature’ that they sell themselves on. For these types of toys, the gimmick has to be good to make it worth the time, effort and expenditure. This version really isn’t. Maybe if the canons flipped out at the push of a button I’d be reviewing this differently, but as it is you just end up with a feeble looking attack mode and a robot that looks like its dabbling with cross dressing.
699700701
Packaged in vehicle mode, Bumblebee is still a Chevrolet Camaro Concept vehicle. It’s still a slick looking muscle car and a nice looking design. To differentiate this version from the earlier ROTF figure, this version has blue, rather than smoked, windows. It looks alright. The doors can open and as they are not used to maintain the structural integrity of the car, the vehicle mode doesn’t sag into a pile of parts. Due to the nature of the transformation and arrangement of the robot limbs, something approaching seats and a dashboard are visible inside, which is a nice touch. As it is packaged in ‘attack mode’ the key feature of the toy is revealed straight away. Two ‘canons’ can be flipped out of the bonnet. Sadly, they are not as impressive as the beefy efforts seen on the stock photography, leaving Bumblebee looking like he’s deploying two doughnuts. The reasons for trimming these down by half their depth is baffling, as there’s clearly enough storage and clearance for larger –and more impressive – cannons to have fit.
The transformation to robot mode is fairly straight forward. As the legs are exactly the same as those on the previous ROTF deluxe they just automorph into place with no bother. The arms swing out from the centre of the vehicle mode and the bonnet flips down revealing the head. The roof parts fold up and just dangle about. All of which leaves you with a rather disappointing robot mode. The legs are fine , but the collection of ‘faux parts’ used to make up the torso seem too wide, leaving the waist looking enfeebled. To accommodate the canons, Bumblebee’s bonnet no longer ‘crumples’ to match the CGI model leaving you with a very traditional looking car front = chest arrangement, which wouldn’t be so bad were the entirety of Bumblebee’s chest not as empty as fresh air. Glimpsed at the wrong angle and you can see daylight through it. The arms also fall foul of repeating one of the most frustrating elements of some Beast Wars toys. They are nicely sculpted and detailed, and have movement at the shoulder and elbow – but not the wrist. This means that whatever you do with his arms, his hands will always be outstretched as if he’s begging for money or signalling to someone that it’s okay to reverse into a space. They are also a tad too short, coming down to just below his waist. The greatest sin is how poor the cannon deployment looks in robot mode. Because those flaps of bonnet to which the canons are connected aren’t particularly sturdy they just flap about. Mainly they just sink into the bonnet if they aren’t busy making Bumblebee look like Pat Butcher.
‘Special Power’ toys like Cannon Bumblebee are always going to be compromised b the ‘action feature’ that they sell themselves on. For these types of toys, the gimmick has to be good to make it worth the time, effort and expenditure. This version really isn’t. Maybe if the canons flipped out at the push of a button I’d be reviewing this differently, but as it is you just end up with a feeble looking attack mode and a robot that looks like its dabbling with cross dressing.
699700701