Review: #857
Name: Origin Bumblebee
Brand: Transformers
Allegiance: Autobot
Line: Generations - Legacy: United
Year of Release: 2025
Size Class: Deluxe (Wave 5)
Mold Status: re-release of Buzzworthy Bumblebee Origin Bumblebee
VEHICLE MODE:
A re-release of the fast-selling Buzzworthy Bumblebee figure, Origin Bumblebee is based upon his very first appearance in the G1 cartoon, transforming into a flying saucer type Cybertronian vehicle.
At first glance it is a nice vehicle, although he's quite hollow and flat. If you look at the back from a lower angle, you can see the gappiness.
The flatness and hollowness translates into a small and light toy, which feels like a bit of a rip-off that they're selling this as a full priced Deluxe (it's nowhere near Core class, but not up to Deluxe class either).
From the side you can see more clearly the flatness of it. This vehicle, with the sides folded up, can fit into Origin Wheeljack as well.
The robot weapons can peg onto the top and the side.
Yes, there is some mismatch of the yellow paint against the yellow plastic, but that's always the case. It's a unique vehicle mode so he gets a tick here, despite the small size.
TRANSFORMATION:
As you can expect, Origin Bumblebee is a shellformer, and the transformation relies a lot on the panels just folding up around the robot limbs. The whole vehicle is a shell, none of the vehicle parts make it onto the robot mode. This leads to some fairly complex engineering, which is where it justifies the Deluxe price point a bit more (although they still could have made the figure bigger, as can get fiddly with the small pieces).
ROBOT MODE:
Origin Bumblebee looks like Bumblebee. He even has faux kibble such as the chest mimicking a car's roof, and the feet mimicking a car's hood.
As a result, he carries a lot of kibble in the form of the vehicle's panels. It's not as bad as it could have been, the bulk of it is compacted surprisingly so around his legs.
The head sculpt is classic G1 bumblebee. Despite having clear windows in vehicle mode, the chest windows are painted over. Makes you wonder what the point of transparent windows were in the first place.
If you thought he was small in vehicle mode, he is absolutely tiny here. It's quite disappointing just how small he is. While he is more complex, the smaller size makes it more fiddly to pose him as well.
He has the standard articulation of joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.
To help justify the price point, he comes with five energon rods, a gun, and a jetpack (which is hollow despite the large size).
The gun can be held in either hand.
The jetpack can also be held as an oversized gun, it does not look great there.
He can technically hold the energon rods by hugging them. He cannot actually hold them properly though, either in his fists or pegged in somewhere. So it's a bit awkward and kind of pointless after you use them once, since you're more than likely to store them away afterwards.
The jetpack can peg on his back, which looks much nicer there. While the gun can peg on his shoulder for storage.
It's not a bad figure, in fact, he is quite impressive. It's just the small size, and the pointless energon rods, that let him down.
A good robot mode that due to the transformation scheme, you won't be able to tell what he transforms into, which is neat in a way.
OVERALL:
Origin Bumblebee is a good choice for a re-release, given the original was an exclusive and sold out so fast (although being in the last wave of Legacy United, that also saw somewhat limited release wasn't super amazing either). The engineering and design of the figure is good, just let down as per usual, but the cost cutting so he is absolutely tiny for the size.
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