Toy review - Masterpiece Bumblebee and Spike

[Starscream77]

Finally got around to opening him today.

Great representation of G1 Bee but damn is he small

And yes I get that he is in scale but in my mind I just expected a little bigger

[M-bot]

Small, but pretty awesome. I think he scales quite nicely. Considering he's so much smaller than the other MP cars, I would have liked to have seen him sold at a more appropriate price point (I've paid pretty much the same for him as the other MP cars). Only just worth the money.

[GoktimusPrime]

The Hasbro version of MP Bumblebee seems to be selling despite being about double the cost of import. On Saturday I spotted just one MP Bumblebee at TRU Moore Park, yet there were loads of MP Prowls still sitting there shelfwarming. MP Wheeljack seems to have sold out pretty quickly too. It seems that the timing of releasing MPs into the Australian market has a greater affect on generating sales than price alone.

This is likely why Hasbro AP/AUS has decided to do direct-to-market releases of Japanese MPs rather than waiting for Hasbro USA. Hasbro AP/AUS is striking while the iron's hot, which seems to be a good strategy for them so far. It'll be interesting to see how MP22 sells here come February.

[drifand]

Guess someone knows some business sense finally and realised they have been missing out.

[griffin]

As some one else mentioned, one of the two elbow ball-socket joints on my Daniel keeps popping out when you twist it (to transform it). The other one is actually quite stiff... it just doesn't take much variance in production (or even cooling) to create a loose socket joint when the ball/socket is so small.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

It's Daniel in the suit, actually. Although the instruction sheet and box doesn't identify who it is, apparently the MP Generations book states that it's Daniel, and the image from the cartoon in the sheet is Daniel too IIRC.

The Japanese Box and Instructions stated that Spike was in the exo-suit. Although I think the face looks more Daniel-y. Spike makes more sense if we go from the movie, as they are together on Moonbase um something... But I don't recall Spike getting much Exo-suit time.

[griffin]

The Japanese Box and Instructions stated that Spike was in the exo-suit. Although I think the face looks more Daniel-y. Spike makes more sense if we go from the movie, as they are together on Moonbase um something... But I don't recall Spike getting much Exo-suit time.

When it comes to the pairings of Exosuits and humans to Autobots, Spike is best known with Bumblebee, while Daniel is best known with Wheelie.
Since this is a Bumblebee toy, it would make more sense for it being Spike.

Fortunately for TakaraTomy and Hasbro, the head sculpt is so vague, and both characters have brown hair in the cartoon/movie, the toy could be labelled as either (or both later).

[drifand]

I would thought this is spike but I think it doesn't matter.

[Trent]

Instructions say its Spike. Yes, the bouffant looks more like Daniel than Spike, but they are close enough that it doesn't matter.

And it what episode have BB and Daniel EVER hung out together?

[christalcase]

I am impressed with Bumblebee's engineering. The designer did a great job at this small size, not too fiddly but complex enough to be fun and interesting. Bumblebee looks great in both modes too, better in person than pictures.

Exo-suit is a write-off, the elbow design is horrible and means that his arms will always be at an awkward angle.

Since I don't care much for scale, I would have preferred it if they got rid of the exo-suit and made Bumblebee bigger, to the same size as the other MP cars since Bumblebee just feels so tiny, even smaller than a Deluxe.

Overall, still a fantastic toy and recommended.