Quote Originally Posted by Tilarta View Post

It's hard to imagine a VW bug like vehicle without being an actual bug, the front end and boot are fairly distinctive.
So it's Volkswagen we should be holding responsible for all the Swift and Camero Bumblebees?
Because they won't Hasbro make him what he should be?

And if they didn't want a Beetle Bee anymore, how did this toy get approved?

When you think of war though, Bumblebee isn't the one who springs to mind immediately, he's normally the non-combative scout or the unofficial emissary.
Well, yes. If they don't have the licence for it, not much they can do without risking a lawsuit. If the company doesn't want to work with them or they have exclusive rights with another toy manufacturer, like Ferrari and Mattel, then tough luck. It's why weren't able to get a Ferrari mode Dino from Dark of the Moon.

The fact that the Beetle is so distinctive didn't help either since they couldn't even try get close without VW presumably getting angry.

The Swift ones would pretty much be VWs fault but the Camaros were more than likely their attempt to appeal to kids (and general public) who'd seen the live action movie.

As I said, things changed with the Masterpiece Bumblebee released in 2016, 2 years before MPM-7. Seems VW is much more willing to slap their logo on Transformers nowadays since the G1 reissue even has one on the card back.

Could be wrong but pretty sure that even if Bumblebee was canonically the biggest pacifist, they still would've disallowed it because the whole toyline is associated with guns and war. I have to imagine they wanted to distance themselves from war because of their founding.