Review 10-007 - Human Alliance Bumblebee w/ Sam Witwicky

[griffin]

(didn't realise the chest wasn't transformed properly when I took that photo - see the third photo for how it should be)

Review 10-007 - Bumblebee w/ Sam Witwicky
Series - TF2 Movie
Sub-line - Human Alliance
Size - (voyager size)
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - October 2009 (Kmart excl, plus some independants)
Approximate Retail Price - $50
Approximate Size - 25cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Camaro Concept
Main Features/Gimmicks - Human figurine, Battle Mask, Missile Launcher
Main Colours - Yellow, grey, black.
Main Accessories - Sam figurine, 2 missiles.
My Difficulty rating (out of 5) - 3
Stability - A bit tricky to convert to vehicle mode, so unless you have everything squeezed into place, the car panels don't hold together well. Both Bumblebee and Sam stand well enough though, and Sam has a few places to sit if the leg joints become loose over time.
Poseability/articulation - Slight chunkiness, and probably too many gimmicks, affects posing, but decent articulation.
Playability - Human figurines, finally. And ones that can actually interact in play, in both modes! Very nice. Adds to the play value if you can re-create scenes from the medium that inspired you to buy the 'merchandise' for in the first place (from the perspective of the majority of the consumers). Heaps of weapons, and the Battle Mask from the Movie too.
My Thoughts - Fans have been begging Hasbro for human cast figures for years, and now we have them, and I think it worked out well. Pity about the over complex engineering though, which affects the play value (the more fiddly to convert, the less fun playing with your toys). This is the only Human Alliance figure I have so far, so I'm looking forward to more. Sam's zombie face looks off to me though.
My Overall Recommendation Rating (out of 10) - 7.5 (buy it)


.

[Grievous]

I love this toy...its so amazing...


I agree with your statement about the "over complex engineering"
but I think this Bumblebee is better used as a display piece than a
toy...but that's just my opinion.

[griffin]

Re-released for the Kmart sale this month... anyone new to the toy wanna comment on it?

[Golden Phoenix]

Got the original release a while back. Not bad. I wish the chest wasn't so sensitive, it tends to pop back to how it is in your first pick. It can be a bit annoying.
I also wish the seats could fold down like on HA Skids or Alternity Prime. They just stick out and look lazy.

Other then those he is a solid figure. Transforms nicely. Looks pretty alright (minus the seat arm guards)
Worth getting if you can pick him up for $30-35, not worth anything more

[griffin]

Found the earlier detailed review here.

And an official product pic:

[SpeedBreaker]

Awesome figue IMO, well worth getting. It's good enough that I have no desire to get another movie Bumblebee now. I got one of the recent releases and haven't had a problem at all with the chest bits springing back.

[PascTF]

In life you need 3 BB figures : Battle Blade, Battle Ops and this one.

[SharkyMcShark]

Fantastic representation of Bumblebee.

Apart from the seats not folding away the only bad thing I can say about it is the same criticism I have about the HA line in general - they feel slightly simple for their size (they're a bit bigger than a voyager but they feel a bit chunky generally)