Okay, I’m not very happy. In fact, not happy at all. First, adding another movie BB to my son’s collection isn’t a good thing. Then, this is a leader class toy in a very bad design that is much worse than smaller ones like HA or deluxe class or bigger one like the Battle Ops. As a collector, I will never ever buy this toy for neither myself nor a gift for my son. But there are always things going out of my hand especially if I’m not around. I still think my son shouldn’t ask for this toy that he cannot transform by himself now and I also think the grandpa shouldn’t spoil him. Anyway, here comes the toy review and beware, there will be rants.

 

The Camaro itself is still nice looking. It really isn’t that big as it is only about an inch longer than the HA version. The bottom piece still sticks out too much but okay. It can also make the stealth mode like what Bee showed in the movie with opening car parts with weapons sticking out. It actually looks quite cool. What I really don’t understand is why Hasbro gave him a useless, huge, heavy, and almost-as-big-as-the-car MechTech weapon. Again, this weapon is just totally useless. All the electric lights and sounds are on it, nothing on Bumblebee. It only can be clipped on top of the car and nothing else. And it doesn’t make him look any better. Just totally waste of plastics and wires.

 

Bumblebee’s transformation isn’t that difficult but certainly not for my son to transform by himself, yet. The robot mode looks really bad. His is slightly taller than HA Bee and much shorter than leader Prime. His limbs are too thin while his chest is too thick. That makes him top heavy but at least doesn’t give him too much balance trouble (this will be covered or ranted later). Still, he has no right hand but an ugly cannon. The cannon can be extended but that’s all. The side panel can be flipped forward to look like a blade but was badly designed, plus this should be on his left hand. Now talking about the left hand, it is a monkey arm which the wrist cannot rotate. Again, what was Hasbro thinking? The toy designers should just get fired or knock their head on the wall. Moving down to the legs. The knees are placed way too high that they cannot bend much. Come on, this is no Sailor Moon girls. Also the inner back toe is way too long that doesn’t provide any help on the posing and balance, too. Now here comes the worst part. The MechTech weapon pack can be clipped on his back. But, it is so huge and too heavy which makes Bumblebee totally cannot stand at all since he has quite thin legs. Unless leaning forward a lot but that makes him look ridiculous either. Or just have to always put him again the wall. Again, how could Hasbro design a toy like this? If can’t do it, just don’t do it. Why added a useless thing to make the figure worse?

 

Transformation: 8 – Not difficult and the stealth mode is nicely done.
Fun: 5 – Car mode is quite nice, stealth mode is fun, and robot mode is okay. Adding the weapon backpack, in theory, should add up the score but it actually brings the score down.
Display: 6 – Car mode still looks sleek and stealth mode looks cool. Robot mode unfortunately looks bad and adding the weapon backpack makes everything worse.
Value: 1 – Even not my money, this toy totally is not worth buying.
Overall: 3 – Bumblebee himself is mediocre, but the terribly designed weapon backpack makes everything worse like I said many times. If you like a big Bee with light and sound, go for Battle ops. If you like a smaller Bee with good looking car/robot mode and fun to play with and display, just go for the HA version or pick any from the many deluxe class version. They are all better than this piece of junk.