Transformers Studio Series TFOne B-127 review

I'll be honest and say that never has a version of Bumblebee made me wish he would have his voice box removed sooner than Transformers One's B-127. While I love Keagan Michael Key, I never liked how his character is another trope where they try to repeat Benny's mannerisms and lines that DESPERATELY try to be the hottest meme for a few days, from "BADASSATRON" trying to be the next "SPACESHIP" to his comments on his battle mask and knife hands being comparable to the dialogue in Forspoken and Viewfinder and their shitty Joss Whedon writing styles. I know people would say he's comparable to Donkey from Shrek, but he worked since he was written by people who knew how to be comedic rather than corporate millennial writers who probably agree with anything their followers in Tumblr or BluSky would say. You could say Bee is to me what G1 Wheelie was to the horribly aging manbabies of the 80s, but I don't hate him 100% since he has a cool design apart from his Cabbage Patch Kids looking ass face (the helmet is fine, and the box art looks better). With all that said, here is my review on Studio Series B-127, aka Bumblebee. Their names will be interchanged.

Here we have B-127 in his vehicle mode. It's a variation of his altmode shown in the opening of the Bumblebee movie, which was itself inspired by his design in the War for Cybertron games. I was always a fan of this design in those prior TF media entries, and I appreciate seeing it in a smoother aesthetic as a blend between him being a hatchback like in G1 and Animated and a sports car like in the movies and Prime. Apart from how gappy it is around the middle section, at least it is minor and there aren't any obvious robot parts visible (Prime's forearms and Megatron's entire chest). I especially appreciate the pinned wheels, which almost looks like futuristic cymbals in a way. The shade of yellow is more on the golden side, which is somewhat accurate to how he appeared in the movie; that being said, for a smaller Deluxe, I was hoping he would either be painted gold or at least have be painted like the Buzzworthy version of B-127 was.

Bumblebee's weapons can store on the top and sides of the altmode, with the weapons meant to come out of his forearms almost looking as if they were transformed out of his body.

For a vehicle mode size comparison, here he is with Optimus Prime and Megatron. Seeing all three as Deluxes almost reminds me of the 2010s Deluxes for the WFC game, though in a somewhat better scale this time. 

Transformation is mostly similar to what the Prime Changer was like in the mainline. Though not exactly 1:1, but it does work given the character designs. They both end up chunkier than the CG model, though it isn't too bad for the limbs compared to the torso. Though not as bad as the chest on Gamer Edition WFC Bee, the front section could either be smaller or more compact so as not to look like it's mistransformed (even if it isn't). Otherwise, the rest of the figure does a respectable job at looking like the design in the movie.

His head sculpt is a lot more in-line with the usual Generations aesthetics rather than the TFOne-specific facial details you'd expect from something either comparable to the TFP/RID15 faces or Cabbage Patch Kids. And thank God for that since I don't like his face that much out of the cast. I do, however, like that he has a bit of a movie influence to his head. With his allegedly inaccurate Tracker blaster in-hand, Bumblebee's articulation includes ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips, swivels at the biceps, thighs, and waist, and hinges at the elbows, knees, and ankles. Be warned that the hips can bump into the upper body due to the way they're sculpted.

This Bumblebee also comes with his knife hands, which attach to a pair of inaccurate yet still character-specific blasters that replace the hands. I bet he would have said "OH YO WHAT THATS SICK A GOT GUN HANDS THAT I JUST SUMMONED WITH MY KNIFE HANDS AND BATTLE MASK WITH MY FRICKIN MIND" before Orion Pax goes to his volume settings and muted his dialogue. Oh and he has no battle mask, which kind of sucks since I do like the design even if the last time a Deluxe did that was so-so (2018 VW Bumblebee, specifically).

For a size comparison, B-127 of course is shorter than both faction leaders. This makes me wonder how Elita-1 and Sentinel will scale given how Hasbro chose to make the main quartet all Deluxes. Bee is an A-Level figure like his G1 counterpart, meaning that he should be easier for fans to get than other Deluxes for the year. Will that be as problematic as SS86 Bee warming pegs and getting discounted? Who knows, especially with the future that toys will be facing thanks to both Hasbro raising prices to combat tariffs and focusing less on toys because of wannabe gamer Chris Cucks. At least it's better than Devastation Prime.

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