Oh Takara, not content with taking over a decade to release a fraction of their character roster at Masterpiece level, but once again they're returning to characters they've already produced and redoing them. In this case, it's Bumblebee, in a more cartoon accurate representation to reinforce the change in aesthetic the line undertook a few years ago. Out with the hybrid of toy and cartoon design, and in with the slavish cartoon-inspired robots in disguise.
Where the third version of Optimus Prime largely succeeded (price notwithstanding), Bumblebee fails at almost every level. Lest we forget, this £85 toy is competing in a crowded third party market where design and material quality have never been higher, so it really needs to be bringing an A game. What we get is more like F. Here's why.
Let's start with the car mode. It's a cute little homage to the toy show's "squashed bug" depiction of the classic VW Beetle, and more so the penny-racer style of the toy (which aped cute versions of vehicles that would activate a motor when you stuck a penny in the rear). It's fine for what it is, if a bit panel-laden. But the first thing you'll notice out of the package is how light this thing is. There's no die-cast and the plastic is incredibly thin. It feels like a cheap pre-made model kit, not the ultimate Masterpiece representation of the character. It's a worry before you've even transformed it.
And that's a nightmare too.
Transforming this thing is awful. There's a moment where you have to rotate the rear wheels inside the chest, but to do it you have to actually bend the brittle, painted translucent plastic to accommodate the move. It's nerve wracking in the worst way because it feels like you're having to force it to bend in ways it isn't built for. The end result sees nothing tabbing into place - not the unsightly car-crash of a backpack, not the backs of the feet, hell, even the flap the head sits on is held in place by friction. Everything feels like an afterthought and the end result is a distinctly mixed bag.
The good: From some angles, it looks like the cartoon character. The faux chest is proportioned to be smaller than it could be if using actual parts of the car, the arms and legs have the right shapes and the yellow is decidedly more accurate than MP21, the first attempt in the line.
The bad - God, where do we begin? Let's start with the basics, like the sculpt. The face is another Takara clunker. It's a real crap-shoot as to whether an official release will have a good sculpt of not. Ironhide, Megatron, Inferno - excellent. Sunstreaker, Hound (from what we've seen) and now Bumblebee all look awful. With the massive hike in price the series has been given of late, this drop in quality for their sculpts is utterly inexcusable. If the face is ugly, it almost doesn't matter about the rest.
However, the second thing to immediately grab your attention is how loose this toy is from the waist down. Mine could barely stand, and shaking the toy from the shoulders was absolutely shocking. Not a ratchet in the entire toy, with friction joints all suffering from zero friction. I had to take the toy apart and lather it in nail polish just to stop it falling over. Once you've done that, you'll see again how shockingly thin and fragile the materials are. It's nothing less than dreadful.
Lets be clear; there's nothing "Masterpeice" about this figure. It's a turgid afterthought which has failed on every level, from inception to design, manufacture to quality control. The best you can say for it is that it looks okay at a distance on a shelf. It fills a gap, and for the money it should be so much more.
This release has now killed any interest I had in Takara's upcoming Hound stone dead. Third party company Fans Toys is releasing far superior pieces in the same size class for £55, and from now on that's where my money is going. I have a Masterpiece Blackarachnia from the Beast Wars series on the way, but it in all likelihood, she'll be the end of my journey with the Japanese toy giant.
This is a really sad toy. I was excited for it, I maintained my interest even after the disappointing early photos, but it's a failure. Don't waste your money on this, resist the carefully angled photos trying to sell it to you, it's a cruel illusion masking ill-intent (nobody could have not realised how bad this was) and is too expensive to simply take a punt on.
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