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Gustavo mutters about Masterpiece Bumblebee
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Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Aug 23, 2015, 1:59:12 AM8/23/15
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This is the most recent addition to my collection, along with Masterpiece Smokescreen, but there's not much to say about Smokescreen other than that he's awesome. Actually, there's probably a lot to say about Smokescreen, but that's not why we're here is it?
Bumblebee comes with a rather large and complicated accessory -- Spike, in the transforming exosuit he apparently wore incredibly briefly in TF:TM. Daniel wore one in a much larger scene, but this is Spike. You can tell by the hair. Also, the box allegedly refers to him by name, but that's all in Japanese.
The exosuit looks like it stepped right out of the cartoon. It is immediately recognizable, and then when you look at the actual cartoon footage, it is clear how much effort went into getting the sculpt perfect. A little more effort could have gone into getting the engineering perfect, however, as there is a problem with the right elbow popping apart. This problem is apparently common, as I have heard it mentioned in reviews. But, aside from that, it is great.
The exosuit looked entirely goofy when it appeared, and this continues that tradition. The cartoon, even in it's most serious movie incarnation, always tended to be lighthearted and somewhat ridiculous, and this is no exception.
Articulation is a little weak, as there is no waist, the elbows are on completely restricted ball joints, the knees are blocked by panels, and the shoulders are merely hinges lifting the arms away from the sides. But, despite all of that, it's still a plausible toy.
If you fold down his chest panel (required for transformation), there are two panels on his chest that can be opened to reveal that Spike has no body. His body has apparently been lost, and the suit is controlled by Spike's severed head.
Transformation is surprisingly intricate for such a small toy, but not all that difficult. The only real trick is that you need to remove Spike's helmet and tilt his head up, and that's less of a trick than a weird level of detail. Also, Spike's neck would be really hurting.
He rolls well enough, and he is very silly. He's a toy that you probably wouldn't buy if offered on his own, but he's nice enough that I like that I do have him. He is a nearly perfect representation of something so very cartoony.
And so, when we come to Bumblebee, it is a little jarring that his vehicle mode looks nothing at all like the cartoon model. The Masterpiece toys have tended to straddle the line between cartoon accuracy and realistic vehicles, and usually the models used in the cartoon are close enough to real vehicles that it can be assumed they are real vehicles. But Bumblebee looked nothing like a VW Bug.
The model of Volkswagon chosen to represent Bumblebee is a Type 1, from around 1960 or so, which has a longer hood than we would expect for Bumblebee. The color is a rather nice orangy yellow, which looks more like the color of the modern movie Bumblebee than the bright yellow of the cartoon.
It's actually a really, really jarring vehicle mode since it is simultaneously too close and too far from the Bumblebee we all know and love. Also, there is bright yellow kibble hanging down in back, which looks odd. I can't figure out whether he looks like he has sagging pants, or whether he a a Volkswagon Beetle that just shit himself.
The body is made up of unpainted orangy yellow plastic panels, and various other plastics painted to "match". Different color plastics bleed through the paint differently, so nothing matches at all. Very poor for a Masterpiece. In retrospect, I should have gotten the G2 version, where everything is painted with a metallic gold paint, and so it has to match -- at least, we have seen silver paint on toys show up the same no matter what it is painted over.
Windows are a dark translucent blue, and the bumpers are now black. I can see a lot of the Generations(?) Deluxe Bumblebee coming through here.
He is also tiny. Really, really small compared to Prowl, for example. It makes some sense, as Bumblebee is a much smaller character than Prowl, but the car itself is not that much smaller. A Beetle is roughly 60"x160", and the Fairlady Z was about 64"x173", depending on year, etc. Bumblebee is much, much smaller than Prowl.
I know that scale has always been an issue with Transformers, but this bothers me. It also bothers me that we never got a G1 Prowl and a Movie Barricade in the same scale, but that's a separate issue. Completely separate. Barely has any rationale for being mentioned here, actually.
He also doesn't have any of the heft of Prowl.
There are visible transformation lines and panels on the vehicle, and they are made more prominent by the different colors of yellow.
But, other than that, the vehicle mode is quite nice. This is a licensed VW Beetle design, and they made sure to make him as accurate as possible.
You have an option of a spare tire on the back, or a solid black license plate. The tire appears on Bumblebee's robot mode back in the cartoon, and the vehicle mode is so far from the cartoon model that I don't mind adding another inaccuracy.
You can also attach a side mirror that is accurate to the car, but would get in the way of his arm movement.
Transformation is relatively straightforward, but has a few interesting bits. One completely novel bit involving hiding a bit of the hood. It's a fun enough bit that I want people to experience it for themselves. There is also a window partition inside the car, like a NYC taxi, which is needed for robot mode -- I'm not sure how it would work in vehicle mode on a two door car.
The robot mode manages to capture most of the details of the animation model, but a lot of the proportions of the G1 toy. He was frequently drawn with a very, very tiny chest, so the designers were pretty stuck.
There are two face sculpts to choose from -- or you could go with the intensely creepy lack of face. Neither face really captures Bumblebee. The face is painted pale gray, which matches the animation model, but hides any details that evoke the facets around his face the G1 animation model had.
The choice of gray is a little odd, as we have seen other Masterpiece toys with silver faces, where they were also represented as gray in the cartoon.
Hands fold out from the forearms leaving unsightly holes. The forearms also have lumps of kibble attached to them. That just doesn't feel like a Masterpiece toy to me.
The feet are intensely off model, but only because the model is so far from what is remotely plausible. Bumblebee was drawn with large yellow sneakers, basically, and how he has half the hood of a car for each foot. We always knew it was supposed to be that, and there is probably some scene somewhere where he was drawn with more plausible feet.
The shoulders want to sag any time you move the arms. The joints are stiff enough to hold their position, but they stop at the proper robot position but don't have anything to make them snap into place.
He does come with a nifty little gun. And articulation is excellent. And his robot mode is give-or-take the right scale compared to Prowl and Optimus.
Ultimately, while this is a good toy, it doesn't quite match the level of the Classics Bumblebee, or the 2011 Generations/RTS/Whatever version. Bumblebee was never a Volkswagon, he was some weird interpretation of a Volkswagon, and this just seems wrong. A freer interpretation is no less accurate, and allows him to have a bit more of the feel of the character model.
It's also possible that in a few weeks I will like him more, as my initial disappointment fades. He does seem like a toy that I might grow to like more. It really is an excellent toy, and a good representation of the character in robot mode (just not a great representation, and there is that weird actual vehicle vehicle mode).
Bumblebee comes with a rather large and complicated accessory -- Spike, in the transforming exosuit he apparently wore incredibly briefly in TF:TM. Daniel wore one in a much larger scene, but this is Spike. You can tell by the hair. Also, the box allegedly refers to him by name, but that's all in Japanese.
The exosuit looks like it stepped right out of the cartoon. It is immediately recognizable, and then when you look at the actual cartoon footage, it is clear how much effort went into getting the sculpt perfect. A little more effort could have gone into getting the engineering perfect, however, as there is a problem with the right elbow popping apart. This problem is apparently common, as I have heard it mentioned in reviews. But, aside from that, it is great.
The exosuit looked entirely goofy when it appeared, and this continues that tradition. The cartoon, even in it's most serious movie incarnation, always tended to be lighthearted and somewhat ridiculous, and this is no exception.
Articulation is a little weak, as there is no waist, the elbows are on completely restricted ball joints, the knees are blocked by panels, and the shoulders are merely hinges lifting the arms away from the sides. But, despite all of that, it's still a plausible toy.
If you fold down his chest panel (required for transformation), there are two panels on his chest that can be opened to reveal that Spike has no body. His body has apparently been lost, and the suit is controlled by Spike's severed head.
Transformation is surprisingly intricate for such a small toy, but not all that difficult. The only real trick is that you need to remove Spike's helmet and tilt his head up, and that's less of a trick than a weird level of detail. Also, Spike's neck would be really hurting.
He rolls well enough, and he is very silly. He's a toy that you probably wouldn't buy if offered on his own, but he's nice enough that I like that I do have him. He is a nearly perfect representation of something so very cartoony.
And so, when we come to Bumblebee, it is a little jarring that his vehicle mode looks nothing at all like the cartoon model. The Masterpiece toys have tended to straddle the line between cartoon accuracy and realistic vehicles, and usually the models used in the cartoon are close enough to real vehicles that it can be assumed they are real vehicles. But Bumblebee looked nothing like a VW Bug.
The model of Volkswagon chosen to represent Bumblebee is a Type 1, from around 1960 or so, which has a longer hood than we would expect for Bumblebee. The color is a rather nice orangy yellow, which looks more like the color of the modern movie Bumblebee than the bright yellow of the cartoon.
It's actually a really, really jarring vehicle mode since it is simultaneously too close and too far from the Bumblebee we all know and love. Also, there is bright yellow kibble hanging down in back, which looks odd. I can't figure out whether he looks like he has sagging pants, or whether he a a Volkswagon Beetle that just shit himself.
The body is made up of unpainted orangy yellow plastic panels, and various other plastics painted to "match". Different color plastics bleed through the paint differently, so nothing matches at all. Very poor for a Masterpiece. In retrospect, I should have gotten the G2 version, where everything is painted with a metallic gold paint, and so it has to match -- at least, we have seen silver paint on toys show up the same no matter what it is painted over.
Windows are a dark translucent blue, and the bumpers are now black. I can see a lot of the Generations(?) Deluxe Bumblebee coming through here.
He is also tiny. Really, really small compared to Prowl, for example. It makes some sense, as Bumblebee is a much smaller character than Prowl, but the car itself is not that much smaller. A Beetle is roughly 60"x160", and the Fairlady Z was about 64"x173", depending on year, etc. Bumblebee is much, much smaller than Prowl.
I know that scale has always been an issue with Transformers, but this bothers me. It also bothers me that we never got a G1 Prowl and a Movie Barricade in the same scale, but that's a separate issue. Completely separate. Barely has any rationale for being mentioned here, actually.
He also doesn't have any of the heft of Prowl.
There are visible transformation lines and panels on the vehicle, and they are made more prominent by the different colors of yellow.
But, other than that, the vehicle mode is quite nice. This is a licensed VW Beetle design, and they made sure to make him as accurate as possible.
You have an option of a spare tire on the back, or a solid black license plate. The tire appears on Bumblebee's robot mode back in the cartoon, and the vehicle mode is so far from the cartoon model that I don't mind adding another inaccuracy.
You can also attach a side mirror that is accurate to the car, but would get in the way of his arm movement.
Transformation is relatively straightforward, but has a few interesting bits. One completely novel bit involving hiding a bit of the hood. It's a fun enough bit that I want people to experience it for themselves. There is also a window partition inside the car, like a NYC taxi, which is needed for robot mode -- I'm not sure how it would work in vehicle mode on a two door car.
The robot mode manages to capture most of the details of the animation model, but a lot of the proportions of the G1 toy. He was frequently drawn with a very, very tiny chest, so the designers were pretty stuck.
There are two face sculpts to choose from -- or you could go with the intensely creepy lack of face. Neither face really captures Bumblebee. The face is painted pale gray, which matches the animation model, but hides any details that evoke the facets around his face the G1 animation model had.
The choice of gray is a little odd, as we have seen other Masterpiece toys with silver faces, where they were also represented as gray in the cartoon.
Hands fold out from the forearms leaving unsightly holes. The forearms also have lumps of kibble attached to them. That just doesn't feel like a Masterpiece toy to me.
The feet are intensely off model, but only because the model is so far from what is remotely plausible. Bumblebee was drawn with large yellow sneakers, basically, and how he has half the hood of a car for each foot. We always knew it was supposed to be that, and there is probably some scene somewhere where he was drawn with more plausible feet.
The shoulders want to sag any time you move the arms. The joints are stiff enough to hold their position, but they stop at the proper robot position but don't have anything to make them snap into place.
He does come with a nifty little gun. And articulation is excellent. And his robot mode is give-or-take the right scale compared to Prowl and Optimus.
Ultimately, while this is a good toy, it doesn't quite match the level of the Classics Bumblebee, or the 2011 Generations/RTS/Whatever version. Bumblebee was never a Volkswagon, he was some weird interpretation of a Volkswagon, and this just seems wrong. A freer interpretation is no less accurate, and allows him to have a bit more of the feel of the character model.
It's also possible that in a few weeks I will like him more, as my initial disappointment fades. He does seem like a toy that I might grow to like more. It really is an excellent toy, and a good representation of the character in robot mode (just not a great representation, and there is that weird actual vehicle vehicle mode).
Zobovor
Aug 23, 2015, 9:36:10 PM8/23/15
to
On Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 11:59:12 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> The exosuit looks like it stepped right out of the cartoon. It is immediately
> recognizable, and then when you look at the actual cartoon footage, it is
> clear how much effort went into getting the sculpt perfect.
I never, ever thought we'd get an official transforming toy of this silly exo-suit thingy. We had the PVC figure, which was fine, but it amazes me that they actually developed a transforming version.
> The exosuit looks like it stepped right out of the cartoon. It is immediately
> recognizable, and then when you look at the actual cartoon footage, it is
> clear how much effort went into getting the sculpt perfect.
> And so, when we come to Bumblebee, it is a little jarring that his vehicle
> mode looks nothing at all like the cartoon model.
For them to slavishly copy the super-deformed proportions would have likely upset a lot of collectors who would, no doubt, complain that Takara had produced a gigantic Masterpiece Penny Racers toy. So, I accept the decision that they made. There would have been a certain inevitable degree of wrongness, regardless of which direction they went in.
> The color is a rather nice orangy yellow, which looks more like the color of
> the modern movie Bumblebee than the bright yellow of the cartoon.
> Windows are a dark translucent blue, and the bumpers are now black. I can see
> a lot of the Generations(?) Deluxe Bumblebee coming through here.
> He is also tiny. Really, really small compared to Prowl, for example. It
> makes some sense, as Bumblebee is a much smaller character than Prowl, but
> the car itself is not that much smaller.
> I know that scale has always been an issue with Transformers, but this
> bothers me. It also bothers me that we never got a G1 Prowl and a Movie
> Barricade in the same scale, but that's a separate issue. Completely
> separate. Barely has any rationale for being mentioned here, actually.
> You have an option of a spare tire on the back, or a solid black license
> plate. The tire appears on Bumblebee's robot mode back in the cartoon, and
> the vehicle mode is so far from the cartoon model that I don't mind adding
> another inaccuracy.
> The robot mode manages to capture most of the details of the animation model,
> but a lot of the proportions of the G1 toy. He was frequently drawn with a
> very, very tiny chest, so the designers were pretty stuck.
> There are two face sculpts to choose from -- or you could go with the
> intensely creepy lack of face. Neither face really captures Bumblebee. The
> face is painted pale gray, which matches the animation model, but hides any
> details that evoke the facets around his face the G1 animation model had.
> The choice of gray is a little odd, as we have seen other Masterpiece toys
> with silver faces, where they were also represented as gray in the cartoon.
> Hands fold out from the forearms leaving unsightly holes. The forearms also
> have lumps of kibble attached to them. That just doesn't feel like a
> Masterpiece toy to me.
> The feet are intensely off model, but only because the model is so far from
> what is remotely plausible. Bumblebee was drawn with large yellow sneakers,
> basically, and how he has half the hood of a car for each foot. We always
> knew it was supposed to be that, and there is probably some scene somewhere
> where he was drawn with more plausible feet.
> Ultimately, while this is a good toy, it doesn't quite match the level of the
> Classics Bumblebee, or the 2011 Generations/RTS/Whatever version. Bumblebee
> was never a Volkswagon, he was some weird interpretation of a Volkswagon, and
> this just seems wrong.
Does the toy seem like it could be reasonably re-shelled to create a Masterpiece Cliffjumper toy?
Zob (and Hubcap, and Bumper, and Blow-Out, and Ladybug, and...)
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Aug 23, 2015, 10:42:38 PM8/23/15
to
On Sunday, August 23, 2015 at 6:36:10 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 11:59:12 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > The exosuit looks like it stepped right out of the cartoon. It is immediately
> > recognizable, and then when you look at the actual cartoon footage, it is
> > clear how much effort went into getting the sculpt perfect.
>
> I never, ever thought we'd get an official transforming toy of this silly exo-suit thingy. We had the PVC figure, which was fine, but it amazes me that they actually developed a transforming version.
It really is remarkably awesome. I never would have thought they would make it, and I would have never thought that I would like it so much.
> On Saturday, August 22, 2015 at 11:59:12 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > The exosuit looks like it stepped right out of the cartoon. It is immediately
> > recognizable, and then when you look at the actual cartoon footage, it is
> > clear how much effort went into getting the sculpt perfect.
>
> I never, ever thought we'd get an official transforming toy of this silly exo-suit thingy. We had the PVC figure, which was fine, but it amazes me that they actually developed a transforming version.
> > And so, when we come to Bumblebee, it is a little jarring that his vehicle
> > mode looks nothing at all like the cartoon model.
>
> Long before Takara had officially announced that they were working on Masterpiece Bumblebee, I always wondered whether they would try to go cartoon-accurate or license-accurate. Really, the only way to appease both camps would be to make the toy collapsible, so you could scrunch the front end and the back end together (sort of like what you do with the wheel base for the Throttlebots). Another problem is that while the G1 Bumblebee toy was all cutesy, the Goldbug toy was actually pretty normally-proportioned. How in the world could they devise a Masterpiece toy to represent one character but not the other?
> For them to slavishly copy the super-deformed proportions would have likely upset a lot of collectors who would, no doubt, complain that Takara had produced a gigantic Masterpiece Penny Racers toy. So, I accept the decision that they made. There would have been a certain inevitable degree of wrongness, regardless of which direction they went in.
> > The color is a rather nice orangy yellow, which looks more like the color of
> > the modern movie Bumblebee than the bright yellow of the cartoon.
>
> Hmm, it's unfortunate that they're allowing the Michael Bay movies to inform the new G1-based toys. Everybody knows that it was Sunstreaker who was an orangey-yellow in the cartoon, while Bumblebee was a bright canary yellow.
> > Windows are a dark translucent blue, and the bumpers are now black. I can see
> > a lot of the Generations(?) Deluxe Bumblebee coming through here.
>
> Bumblebee's front bumper was always black in the cartoon. Always, always.
> > He is also tiny. Really, really small compared to Prowl, for example. It
> > makes some sense, as Bumblebee is a much smaller character than Prowl, but
> > the car itself is not that much smaller.
>
> The contention that Bumblebee is the smallest Autobot has never resonated with me. (The Gears toy is shorter.) Once you un-scrunchify him and make him a normal-shaped Volkswagen Beetle, suddenly there's nothing particularly tiny about him at all.
> > I know that scale has always been an issue with Transformers, but this
> > bothers me. It also bothers me that we never got a G1 Prowl and a Movie
> > Barricade in the same scale, but that's a separate issue. Completely
> > separate. Barely has any rationale for being mentioned here, actually.
>
> You and your pet issues!
> > You have an option of a spare tire on the back, or a solid black license
> > plate. The tire appears on Bumblebee's robot mode back in the cartoon, and
> > the vehicle mode is so far from the cartoon model that I don't mind adding
> > another inaccuracy.
>
> I like that they included the spare tire. I've personally never seen it as such (it's just the die-cast plate on the back of the Microchange toy) but it's nice that they actually factored that into the toy's design.
> > The robot mode manages to capture most of the details of the animation model,
> > but a lot of the proportions of the G1 toy. He was frequently drawn with a
> > very, very tiny chest, so the designers were pretty stuck.
>
> Unless they did something completely crazy, like hiding a tiny pair of feet inside the halves of the hood, and including a faux tiny cabin with tiny windows to serve as his chest, there's no way they could design a toy that captures the proportions of both the robot and vehicle modes.
> > There are two face sculpts to choose from -- or you could go with the
> > intensely creepy lack of face. Neither face really captures Bumblebee. The
> > face is painted pale gray, which matches the animation model, but hides any
> > details that evoke the facets around his face the G1 animation model had.
>
> It's difficult for me to imagine that anybody actually clamored for this toy to have a G1 toy face. That just seems so preposterous to me. It's like insisting that Masterpiece Starscream would have a jet nose cone poking out of the back of his head.
Masterpiece: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rp94ozwKic4/VVpA0HYd7wI/AAAAAAAAHVU/l727fFK8xZc/s1600/masterpiece-bumblebee-faces.jpg
Two faces, both failing to capture the details of the cartoon face. Also, there is almost no difference between them. I have chosen "Mouth Breather Bumblebee", or "I Just Won't Shut Up Bumblebee".
Also, if he runs into Movie Optimus...
http://lh4.ggpht.com/-c-KLeYhj1jM/VHncrqygSiI/AAAAAAAAlCw/FMPUjffrajc/MP%252520Bumblebee%252520%2525289%252529_thumb%25255B7%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800
Or there is an exclusive that comes with a more toylike face, which people were clearly clamoring for!
http://lh4.ggpht.com/-AC_TuropJ0k/VHncoqV8b7I/AAAAAAAAlCQ/Qy6Py9zpAJc/MP%252520Bumblebee%252520%25252811%252529_thumb%25255B3%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800
> > The choice of gray is a little odd, as we have seen other Masterpiece toys
> > with silver faces, where they were also represented as gray in the cartoon.
>
> I have read that the biggest problem with Bumblebee's face is that the mouth does not have lips.
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/images/products/aux2/large/TAK12027.jpg
> > Hands fold out from the forearms leaving unsightly holes. The forearms also
> > have lumps of kibble attached to them. That just doesn't feel like a
> > Masterpiece toy to me.
>
> I wonder if this is partly due to the size of the toy? A bigger toy, with bigger forearms, might have panels or something that close up to hide the fist-gaps.
Do you know what else bothers me? The entire back. It doesn't resemble the animation model, and it doesn't resemble the toy.
> > The feet are intensely off model, but only because the model is so far from
> > what is remotely plausible. Bumblebee was drawn with large yellow sneakers,
> > basically, and how he has half the hood of a car for each foot. We always
> > knew it was supposed to be that, and there is probably some scene somewhere
> > where he was drawn with more plausible feet.
>
> They usually cheat the robot-mode proportions right before a character transforms. There's probably an episode where Bumblebee has gigantic feet right before he changes to car mode.
> > Ultimately, while this is a good toy, it doesn't quite match the level of the
> > Classics Bumblebee, or the 2011 Generations/RTS/Whatever version. Bumblebee
> > was never a Volkswagon, he was some weird interpretation of a Volkswagon, and
> > this just seems wrong.
>
> Maybe this is why they put off doing the character in Masterpiece format for so long... because they knew they'd run into these problems.
The toy is a weird collection of reasonable decisions that I think I would have wanted made differently. Also an odd orangey yellow with bad paint matching.
> Does the toy seem like it could be reasonably re-shelled to create a Masterpiece Cliffjumper toy?
Oh, wait, are they the same model?
Eeew. Cliffjumper's real car looks terrible. It turns out I know nothing about Porshes.
> Zob (and Hubcap, and Bumper, and Blow-Out, and Ladybug, and...)
Avaran
Aug 26, 2015, 7:40:24 AM8/26/15
to
> I know that scale has always been an issue with Transformers, but this bothers me. It also bothers me that we never got a G1 Prowl and a Movie Barricade in the same scale, but that's a separate issue. Completely separate. Barely has any rationale for being mentioned here, actually.
Well, the Human Alliance Barricade is probably your best bet...:
http://tformers.com/transformers-mp-17-prowl-scale-comparison/19715/news.html
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