Transformers Studio Series WWII Bumblebee review

In a flashback scene from The Last Knight, nice wasn't a way to describe Bumblebee. He and Hot Rod took on the Nazis, turned into an altmode that wasn't a yellow car, and used a hammer that would later on combat Prime and his sword. All of this was great to see despite how minimally used it was, but then it was replaced in favor of having Bumblebee somehow show up on Cybertron with these Deviantart-esque Transformers that are not even related to the robots we have seen since 2007. I remember hearing how people saw a version of the movie that feels a bit closer to the continuity but now it's just replaced with the 80s pandering that no one could ever question because "GEEWUN! HIGH RT SCORE! FINALLY A GOOD TF FILM!" is all that gets mentioned. That said, perhaps the first version of WWII Bee will be worth the wait, right?

Here is Bumblebee in his vehicle mode. If you remember the WWII scene, this was not what Bumblebee looked like in the movie. Granted, his vehicle mode was seen in the dark, but instead of turning into a Mercedes Benz made during that time period, he instead turned into a Humber Light Reconnaissance Car. It's apparently based on the concept art before he got the final altmode, but considering how the movie was released two years before this figure, I'd expect more screen-accuracy with this figure. While the car is predominantly green, you do have a few paint apps, though they're not as easy to spot as the gray used for the barrel poking out from the front of what would be a windshield and the roof-mounted multi-barreled cannon. While the altmode's not horrible, it's the incorrect form he has taken in the movie.

Transforming Bumblebee is kind of underwhelming due to how a huge portion of the altmode ends up on his back. The only sign of vehicle parts getting integrated into the robot mode is with the lower legs where they slide into the shins, but even those don't do much service to the rest of the robot mode. The head shifting up is a neat feature, though it's not going to make the toy feel more mind-blowing.

In his robot mode, Bumblebee looks mostly good from the front. I say that because of how the massive backpack somewhat obscures how great and confident the proportions look for the design, but it gets even worse from the sides and the back. The sides just shows how little engineering was put into making the kibble stick out less, and it even hurts the look of the legs since they stick out that badly. The back looks like it's barely transformed even more.

The head sculpt is pretty good (do forgive the image's slight blur), but the eyes do look a bit bigger than they should be. There should be a bit of silver paint around the rings of the eyes to make them look smaller, which is what the previous Bumblebees have done.

The articulation is pretty good though it is unfortunately limited with the backpack. Head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back, in and out, and do detach from the tabs if you move them around too much. The elbows bend, swivel below the bicep, and have the hands hinge inwards due to transformation. The waist can swivel but is badly limited by the backpack unless you move it back slightly, the hips move front and back, in and out, swivel at the thigh and bend at the knee.

His weapons include the multi-barreled pistol and the hammer, which is all gray like in the WWII scene but isn't yellow like how it was when Bumblebee used it against Nemesis Prime. They look pretty decent, though the hammer might have its proportions look a bit weird.

TLK Bee can hold the hammer if he wanted to, though it's not accurate in terms of coloring and possibly size as mentioned previously. A Takara version of Bumblebee did come with the hammer, though Hasbro didn't use it.

The Buzzworthy Bumblebee line gives this figure a re-release in the line. There are no significant differences between this and the regular Studio Series figures beyond the packaging. 

Here he is next to the other Bumblebees made to fit with the Studio Series scale. Obviously stands out from the rest because he's green and has a different design, but it's one of the good things about WWII Bumblebee. Also interesting how he's the same height as MV1 Bee.

Overall, this is a pretty underwhelming figure despite the idea it had going for it. While the unique aspect of the WWII theme is something that I am glad we have, the kibble and the inaccuracies get in the way and kind of make this figure feel more average than what it was going for. I can only recommend this guy if you want to get the WWII duo, though he's not a figure I'd pay full price for.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐