Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Comparison with Bandai 1/144 and 1/100.
It's smaller than I expected.

Tomy Bumblebee - Detailed upper body detail (1/4)

Tomy Bumblebee - Detailed upper body detail (2/4)

Detailed upper body detail

Head

Arms

Back section

Legs

Tomy Bumblebee - The sculpting is outstanding, as expected. (1/3)

The sculpting is outstanding, as expected.

The face can be assembled or swapped between open face (left) and battle mask (right).

A Solar Accelerator is included, which swaps in place of the hand.

Two sets of hands are included: open hands and fists.

Outer armor removal shot

Photos of just the frame section, packaged pre-assembled.

The articulation on the bare frame is perfect.

On the bare frame, the front-to-back range of motion on the shoulders is impressive.

The frame body assembled without any armor parts.

The upper body frame. Looks pretty good, as expected.

Head.
It kind of reminds me of the Terminator.

Back section frame.

Leg frame

Detailed look at the leg frame.

Articulation on the frame is off the charts!

The ankle's front-to-back tilt range is pretty good.

Once you add more frame parts, the shoulder's front-to-back range of motion is reduced somewhat.

The waist tilt range.

Tomy Bumblebee - Not quite as good as Optimus, but still a pretty solid deep-squat pose. (1/3)

Not quite as good as Optimus, but still a pretty solid deep-squat pose.

Tomy Bumblebee - Action poses. When you actually handle it, the leg articulation and ground contact are excellent. (1/5)

Tomy Bumblebee - Action poses. When you actually handle it, the leg articulation and ground contact are excellent. (2/5)

Tomy Bumblebee - Action poses. When you actually handle it, the leg articulation and ground contact are excellent. (3/5)

Tomy Bumblebee - Action poses. When you actually handle it, the leg articulation and ground contact are excellent. (4/5)

Tomy Bumblebee - Action poses. When you actually handle it, the leg articulation and ground contact are excellent. (5/5)

Action pose.
When you actually handle it, the leg articulation and ground contact are excellent.

Articulation with all the armor on.
Not quite as good as the bare frame, but still solid articulation.

The armor pieces do restrict the ankle's front-to-back range of motion a bit.

The neck's front-to-back tilt range is quite large.

The doors and wheels on the back can move at various angles, but the wheels tend to pop off easily.

Tomy Bumblebee - Striking a cool pose! (1/3)

Striking a cool pose!

Running pose.

Tomy Bumblebee - Solar Accelerator equipped! (1/4)

Tomy Bumblebee - Solar Accelerator equipped! (2/4)

Solar Accelerator equipped!

Attack pose.

Kneeling pose

Tomy Bumblebee - Aerial action poses. Also compatible with Bandai's Action Base 2. (1/5)

Tomy Bumblebee - Aerial action poses. Also compatible with Bandai's Action Base 2. (2/5)

Tomy Bumblebee - Aerial action poses. Also compatible with Bandai's Action Base 2. (3/5)

Aerial action poses.
Also compatible with Bandai's Action Base 2.

Together with the dual kit Optimus.
The size difference is quite a bit more than I expected.

The second entry in Takara Tomy's Transformers dual kit lineup is none other than the beloved Bumblebee.
Optimus and Bumblebee are the main characters of Transformers, so this was pretty much a given, right? The overall concept is the same as the Optimus kit — no transformation, but with detailed sculpting, proportions, and a hefty amount of partial painting to recreate the official colors.

As you can see in the photos, this kit is only about half the size of Optimus. There's a height difference in the lore too, but seeing them side by side in person makes Bumblebee feel even smaller — it's just a tiny bit bigger than a Bandai 1/144 Gunpla. (And yet the price is MG-level... yikes.) Thanks to the smaller size, the part count is much lower and the frame is more compact, but it still feels packed with content for its size.

True to its focus on proportions and accurate colors, the straight build alone already shows off a pretty impressive level of detail — same as Optimus. Unfortunately, most of the downsides are also the same as Optimus. (-.-) The molded colors are very cheap and candy-toy-like, some parts don't fit together cleanly, and a bit of glue is needed here and there — all of which remind you that this is part of the same lineup.

That said, maybe because of the smaller size... overall it feels more stable than Optimus, and the assembly is relatively easier too. Of course, even so, the build experience is worse than not just Bandai, but even early Kotobukiya kits. ㅡ_ㅡ.. Just keep in mind that the Takara Tomy dual kit series is the kind of thing you build by giving up on a smooth, satisfying build experience and bracing yourself for a bit of a trial.

But just like Optimus, the quality of the finished product after all that struggle is better than you'd expect. The articulation is actually better than Optimus — the natural movement of the legs and the ground contact feel even better than most Bandai kits, honestly.

As for options, you can swap the face between the open face and battle mask, though the parts are small so swapping them in and out is a bit of a pain. There's also Bumblebee's weapon, the Solar Accelerator, which replaces the right hand.

Overall, I actually like Bumblebee a bit more than Optimus. The assembly is relatively easier and the articulation is great — it's got that small-but-packed kind of feel. If you can get past the molded color situation and the price-to-volume ratio, I think this would make a great gift for Transformers and Bumblebee fans. Hey, at least it exists, right? :-)

Bumblebee | 2011. 6 | ¥3,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.