Transformers Studio Series 86 Bumblebee review

Regarding the current trend of CHUG toys for most big-name characters, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee certainly come to mind as characters that will have constant replacements. Ignoring the pre-2019 releases we had, Optimus briefly had the Siege version of himself before the Earthrise version popped up a year later; 4 years later, a Commander Class figure is now about to be released for those who never had a version of the character before. Bumblebee never had a toy in Siege (though I guess the Origin version vaguely counts 2 years later), but he did have a Volkswagen Beetle retool of Earthrise Cliffjumper in the Netflix War for Cybertron Trilogy toyline; now we have the Studio Series 86 version for fans to not only get a version of Bee that is easier to get but also one that may be closer to the cartoon. Let's dive into the review and see if SS86 Bumblebee is worth getting.

Here we have Bumblebee in his vehicle mode, loosely inspired by old G1 media's chibi proportions of a Volkswagen Beetle. While not licensed to look almost like the Volkswagen Beetle we saw from the G1 toy, it's easier to say that the front resembles the vehicle mode decently well, while the roof and back section don't. Those latter details better resemble the Mazda Familia better associated with Bumper, a random Minibot who was a slightly different altmode from Cliffjumper but was yellow like Bumblebee. At least here, we have a bit of a Beetle influence for the front section to help it match the character model, and I'm sure we can get third-party upgrades to turn this into either a full-on Beetle or a Mazda Familia. The sculpted details are on the stylized side this time around, but I do like the slightly gold headlights and the red Autobot insignia on the hood to go with the silver rims.

Overall, the vehicle mode is not as detailed as an actual Beetle, but it looks the part fairly well. That being said, I know Hasbro Pulse talked about the fact that the windows are black because some parts are made on the same sprue as the parts that are actually molded black. While I know this will cause some OCD problems for anyone who prefers the cartoon baby blue windows, the black still looks good given how it a look from the old toy, and yellow and black fit perfectly. Duh. That being said, the molded yellow in-between the windows, and the painted yellow areas on the windshield, do not match the rest of the alt mode that well. At least the wheels are pinned.

There isn't a wheel on the back to complete the look, but there is part to store the gun on the back if you vaguely want him to shoot at anyone on the right side from behind.

For a vehicle mode size comparison, here he is in between the Netflix version and the Buzzworthy Core Class versions we previously had. Surprisingly, he's slightly taller than the Netflix version, even though he is shorter than the other two. I do prefer the shade of yellow associated with this Bumblebee than on the Netflix version, whose honey yellow works much better on Bayverse Bee instead. The resemblance to Bumper's Mazda Familia on the Core Class version is stronger than on the SS86 version, making the most recent toy feel like a happy marriage between both altmode types.

Transformation is thankfully without partsforming for the back section AND does not borrow any parts or engineering from the Netflix version whatsoever. No requirement for waist rotation, the vehicle parts holding the arms hinge downwards rather than upwards for transformation, and the legs transform similarly but not identically to the original Netflix version. The resulting robot mode is fairly close to the classic character model, albeit with proportion deviations like the size of the feet as well as the tires remaining exposed. Regardless, I love how the design turned out for the bot mode, especially given how he doesn't look as wide as the Netflix version. In fact, I'm not super against how the size of the feet look here since they at least remind me of the boot-like feet he had in Transformers Devastation, aka the last good game we got. He could use a spare tire on the back but the rest of the body works well.

His head sculpt looks good, and I like the slightly larger eyes. I do wish his expression was a little happier than it currently is, though. His articulation consists of ball joints at the neck and shoulders, swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs, and universal joints for the hips as well as rockers for the ankles. This grants him some pretty effective posing potential despite the ankle joints being higher up.

Here he is with some other Bumblebees in the past that we got. My Netflix Bee has the Autobot insignia placed on the chest since it never had it originally. I like the new version better given how it captures the character model much better this time around, especially since the Netflix version came off as being a little wider while the Core Class version is amusingly just there. I didn't want to retire the Netflix version right away because of the alt mode being a proper Beetle...

...and that led to the realization I got while bringing out Legacy Buzzworthy Goldbug! While I could use the new SS86 version as regular Bumblebee, the original tooling can instead be reserved for the upgraded design he'd later get near the end of Season 3! It's a good thing I have the back kibble over the head like this since it captures the Throttlebot aesthetics pretty well. I think this is how these two will be depicted on my G1 CHUG display.

And here he is with the other Season 1 Minibots we got so far, minus Windcharger because he never had an updated toy since 2019. He scales pretty well with everyone else, and while he could be seen as comparable to some next to Cliffjumper, I do find the whole single pistol approach of the accessories compared to Cliffjumper's customizable bazooka to not quite justify the price you'd normally pay for this guy. Like fellow A-Level Optimus Prime (from Transformers One), he doesn't really seem that worth the so-called affordability Hasbro boasted about given how lacking he can be in some areas compared to others. He is a good figure, but not $25 good. If he came with a non-poseable minifigure of Spike and a spare wheel to go on the back, I think he'd be a little easier to justify rather than just coming with the generic Autobot gun.

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

Transformers Studio Series TFOne Optimus Prime review

Yet another Geewun Optimus Prime takes up the spotlight for the 40th anniversary of the brand, this time as part of a tie-in to the Transformers One movie...which is a film that I'm not currently excited about. Let me put it this way politely and generously: I'm not only tired of the constant "G1-influenced origins backstory shit that we've seen more often with the Bumblebee movie, the War for Cybertron trilogy, and now this (especially compared to the 2000s and early 2010s), but the character tropes we have of two radically different friends going down a huge path with a female lead and a comic relief ally feel been-there-done-that. And I know my eyes rolled after hearing people dickride this movie with constant praise and calling it the "best TF movie ever", and I thought the hype towards the Bumblebee movie was dumb as hell. With all that said, I do plan to get the Studio Series toys just to complete the line, because it's better to get figures from a movie I'm not currently interested in than a single-release of a figure from a game in development hell. Let's talk about Optimus Prime!

Here we have Optimus Prime in his vehicle mode, which is yet another Cybertronic version of his truck mode we've seen so many times of late. Red in the front, blue on the back, flat nose, headlights on the top, blah blah blah. I will say, in defense of this alt mode, is the fact that it does distinguish itself a lot more than the norm. Examples include the guns in the front rather than having the usual smokestacks on the back of the alt mode, as well as the single-piece windshield (which reminds me of Animated Optimus's Cybertronian form somewhat). It manages to loom more like a Cybertronian truck of sorts compared to the Siege version, but it's not as alien as the WFC game version in all honesty. 

The forearms are painfully exposed from the sides, and nothing is done to make them hidden away (and a simple 5mm post isn't enough to save it). TThe axe can be stored in-between the legs, but it's something I'd expect more than the aforementioned forearms not being stowed away.

The gun can be removed from the front of the vehicle mode's bumper, allowing you to display the truck without them sticking out like the smokestacks do. That being said, they do leave behind an extra pair of holes not unlike the ones above the bumper. Yes, there is a bit of partsforming present here that I didn't expect at all.

Transformation is another slight variation of the G1 Optimus Prime trope. It has bits of Siege with the way the legs transform and the backpack rotating onto the back, a bit of an upper body rotation not unlike Classics, and the arm transformation is mostly newish but nothing that great. I feel like some may find the parts clashing because of the size, or how the cod piece can "tab" downwards or detach because there is no pin. The resulting robot mode is yet another rehash of the G1 silhouette, only this time the silver bits are given a beigish tint, and the forearms are beige instead of silver. Hoo-ray. I will say that there are fans looking at this and saying that the figure looks worse than the mainline version. I don't really see anything that would justify one over the other than the use of a cooler shade of gray instead of beige and the proportions better matching how Optimus would look like as Orion Pax rather than as Optimus Prime (at least pre-Transformation Cog). I think the Threezero and Yolopark figures would demonstrate the look much better, but I feel that the approach here for the Studio Series toy feels more like Hasbro trying to work in a figure that is based on a main character that kids could theoretically afford...even though Deluxes nowadays in the line are the price that a Voyager used to cost so yeah no.

His head sculpt is another stab at the G1-ish design, with the mouthplate and the forehead blah blah blah, I honestly find it looking more AI generated with how it deviates some details and adds a bunch of made-up ones. Hell, the design as a whole feels more like an AI generated Optimus Prime design rather than one built up from the ground. And I'm not saying this as an "AI bad" person, it's just the vibe I get from some robot designs in the movie compared to prior character designs apart from Earthspark feeling more like they were made to be built from scratch. Optimus Prime's articculation consists of ball joints at the neck and hips, rotation at the shoulders moving front and back, the biceps, th wrists, and the thighs, and hinges for the outward shoulder movement, elbows, knees, and ankles. His axe can slide over his hand to complete his battle-ready look as he takes on the Decepticons and the like. It interestingly has a hole on the middle, but it may be for aesthetic purposes since I can't seem to get the smokestacks into the holes without force come breakage.

The smokestacks can be removed from their shoulders and work as miniguns if you really want. The other blasters from truck mode can only be tucked on the back, and they do not stay well in place. These feel the most like an afterthought for this toy.

The Matrix of Leadership is a thing I like about this toy. Of course, it's based on the Geewun look, but it is painted nicely and has a unique method of being held by Prime: its tabs slide into the fingers rather than requiring you to use articulated hands for this feature. The shoulders also feature butterfly joints so you can better post him lighting our darkest hour, a trait similar to both SS86 Hot Rod and Kingdom Rodimus Prime.

As far as reuses are concerned, this Hong Kong-exclusive redeco was only part of an offer where a certain number of Transformers toys purchased would give customers this war-torn Optimus Prime. The black wash and silver paint damage applied to this guy reminds me heavily of the custom Transformers I saw from a YouTuber long ago, and it's only a shame that the one blaster accessory didn't get this treatment because BOY IS IT STICKING OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB!

For a robot mode size comparison, here he is with G1 Optimus Prime, showcasing a fairly small size difference. G1 Prime is more or less a small Voyager when you think about it, making the new Prime's height closer to the size class he is usually associated with. Honestly. TF One may be a movie that'll be seen as just okay as someone like me in a minority of the fandom, but this figure is alright for what it's doing. Not the Cybertronian Prime I'd come up with, but it does the job fine enough. He is one of the two A-Level Deluxes in the line, and another is one I kind of like more but for different reasons. 

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

Transformers Universe Silverbolt review

Next year, we are set to reboot Combiner Wars once more with hopefully better realized (if more expensive) gestalts in the same vein as Legacy Menasor. I remember dreaming of being able to get all of the figures with no issue, yet the way the figures all felt mostly the same or how weak the stability could get speaks for itself. My copies of Silverbolt and Air Raid broke on me, and I hated how weak Menasor as a whole was. Legacy gave us better Stunticons, but I did win an auction for a Universe Silverbolt. Let's see how well he holds up as an Ultra Class from years ago.

Here we have Silverbolt in not a Concorde SST jet liner but instead a stylized XB-70 Bomber. The more modern vehicle fits Silverbolt as much as the original, and it even adds a layer of aggressiveness not normally seen on the acrophobic Aerialbot. This was a trend seen on the Universe 2008 toys compared to Classics and even the earlier Generations run, as retailers were happy with the success of the 2007 movie toyline and wanted more realistic Transformers toys while waiting for the sequel. While Silverbolt maintains a level of realism, such as the more muted color scheme and the addition of markings like BOLT-25 and the military badges, the orange here and there does look out of place when red would make more sense. And yes, he still has a folded up robot underneath with the gun in front. The landing gear works well, and I love how the wheels roll compared to what we get nowadays.

The light and sound gimmicks we have for this toy are access via the button near the thrusters rather than the one near the fuselage (which will be used in robot mode). The green lights work with the machine gun noises (even though they fit better for Powerglide's weapon), the whooshing sound don't have any corresponding lights, and the booster sounds go with the orange lights.

For a jet mode size comparison, here he is next to Legacy United Vector Prime. Silverbolt is an Ultra Class toy, a size class once known for bridging the gap between Voyagers and Leaders. I think the original Vector Prime would be at a scale closer to what Silverbolt currently is.

I came up with a fan mode where Silverbolt can be a poor man's Sky Lynx. It doesn't do much but it is amusing for anyone who messes around with an otherwise basic toy.

Silverbolt's transformation is so simplistic, it rivals Combiner Wars Megatron in some ways. You just fold the fuselage on the back, straighten the limbs, flip.out the hands and feet, and shift the hip assembly up in place. To be fair, I like the transformation sound playing in both ways when you get to that gimmick, but it's still such an uninteresting transformation. The robot mode does look nice, if a bit unfocused with the color scheme. Despite the whole laziness of the transformation, I think this mode holds up better given the heroic proportions and even the striking silhouette with the back kibble adding more flare than SB usually has. It almost looks like he has a rocket strapped on his back, though the wings do make him look a bit Decepticon-like. I love the designs of the shoulders, torso, and the gold paint apps on the legs and elbows. The orange on the biceps and landing gear does clash with the burgundy of said torso, but the middle silver bit with the Autobot insignia looks good. The button on the back helps in accessing the light and sound gimmick like an adapter part would. Pretty genius if you ask me. And much like how I complained about hollow parts without gap covers on modern toys, the hollow legs are bothersome for a toy made in 2008 as well.

His head sculpt looks very good, and I love the recessed mouth region as well as the gold paint on the forehead. His eyes are made of clear blue plastic yet look so lifeless without any proper light-piping, so you can only depend on the lights that are only seen if you shift the hips up or down during transformation. Green LEDs are common in Transformers, so don't expect there to be any blue LEDs despite what many would find logical. Strangely, the eyes can still light up even if the hips are shifted downwards for vehicle mode for the whooshing sounds. Why they do this is beyond me. As for the articulation, the neck, biceps, and thighs rotate on swivels while the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees are on ratchets. He doesn't have the articulation we see today on figures like waist rotation, ankle rockers, and wrist rotation, but it's not too difficult to get him in a pose.

As far as redecoes are concerned, the Takara version was a USA Edition release that did not get put in the Henkei! Henkei! toyline and was instead an import kept in minimally altered Hasbro Universe packaging. The color scheme better matches the Generation 1 cartoon this time around, with brighter red and whites rather than the darker color scheme of the Universe 2008 version.

As for other characters, this is Darkwind, aka Darkwing. No remolding was done to the toy, but the colors do look better than Silverbolt's.

And this is Skyfall. He is based on a G2 Cyberjet yet is recolored from a G1 Aerialbot. If he had orange instead of red, he'd be perfect for Halloween.

Here he is next to Ramjet from the Earthrise line. The height difference is more apparent with the figure being more in line with how much of a midway point Ultras were between Voyagers and Leaders. This height difference, I believe, is more comparable to how Voyagers and Leaders were in Age of Extinction up to most of Studio Series. But that being said, Universe 2008 Silverbolt is a decent toy in today's standards. I'd say he holds up.fome enough, but I'm sure he's the weakest of the three Ultras. If you see him for a cheap price on eBay or a vintage toy shop, get him unless you want to.wait for the 2025 version.

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

Transformers Studio Series Gamer Edition Decepticon Soldier review

Last year, we covered a very shitty Deluxe in the already-mediocre Gamer Edition subline, and his name was Barricade. Being a fan of the High Moon Studios games AND getting a toy of a character we never had in the older Generations waves was exciting, yet the bad cop ended up being a sad flop. The poor kibble management, awkward design choices, flat as-hell feet, and the stupid approach of the weapon storage vs the arm storage were issues I had with a slightly nicer early-wave Warrior Class toy from RID15. So does making a heavy retool meant for a troop builder rather than a main character result in a better toy? Let's find out.

Here we have the Decepticon Soldier in vehicle mode. The design is mostly faithful to the brief moments the altmode was shown in the games, and the sculpted details do a decent enough job to represent the aesthetics of the Transformers in this game. However, while fairly present throughout the toy, the paintwork looks as if it was faintly applied onto the light gray plastic. I appreciate the green and the purple being metallic, but they almost come off as transparent paint apps you'd find that need a second coat or transfer to look consistent and easy to notice. If the gray plastic was darker to somewhat match the gritty detailing of the package art, it'd at least help matters out, especially with the purple being far less noticeable than the green unless you're in a low-light setting. I also have to criticize how incomplete the paint applications feel, notably with the purple detailing representing the Energon flowing through him (a common trait for Transformers in the games). Notice the purple detailing in the middle of the vehicle versus on the arms and you will see what I mean.

The sides of the vehicle mode just come off as looking more like an incomplete prototype, with the dull gray plastic gasping for more paint applications. Even the tires could use some added detailing because you could barely make out the purple trim around the rims. It's so faint you could barely notice they're there! Oh, and his gun can peg on the top.

For a vehicle mode comparison, I do appreciate Hasbro going all the way in retooling the figure to look a lot more distinct from Barricade, though Barry's alt mode looks nicer because of the color scheme not being as faint on him compared to the Decepticon Soldier. Barry's alt mode is the better of the two modes he has, while the Soldier could have been done better.

Transformation is nearly the same as we've seen for Barricade, though with a few differences worth mentioning, such as not being required to rotate the forearms nor having to bring up the front parts of the vehicle mode to the hips, instead leaving them on the sides of the lower legs. The resulting robot mode is significantly different from Barricade as we'll get to, which is another bit of praise I have to add. While the vehicle parts make the character design a lot clunkier than it normally is, the Soldier at least doesn't feel too held back in maintaining a comparable look to the character model compared to Barricade. Granted, he's hollow from the back because of one of the parts from the vehicle mode as well as the inner parts of the legs, but for the most part, there aren't as many aesthetic issues here as with Barry.

The head sculpt is the usual Genericon troop we'd expect from anyone who isn't a named character in Transformers. It's more generic than the Vehicons are in the Prime series, even! The green and orange may have people think this is comparable to Master Chief, but I doubt it. His articulation is the same as Barricade's, with ball joints for the necks, shoulders, wrists, and hips swivels for the biceps and thighs, and hinges for the elbows and knees. The right forearm can be swapped with the gun as always.

The forearm CAN be pegged on the back this time, an issue that I had with most Deluxes where there'd be storage for one accessory but not the other. You can use the slot on the back for either part, which I greatly appreciate. The tabs on the forearms aren't the same dimensions as the ones on the gun, but it's still helpful. And next to Barricade, you can tell just how different both robot modes are despite using the same base mold. Only the hands, waist, hip, and elbow joints, and the back part screwed or bolted onto the chest look the same as each other, only colored differently from each other, as is the case with the guns. Overall, the Decepticon soldier manages to be a better toy than Barricade. Some will say it's because one would expect less from a no-name than a main character, but I prefer how the forearms are designed on the soldier this time, in addition to the front wheels staying near the ankles instead. That being said, the mold is still one of the weakest out of the subline, and the score isn't going to be a drastic bump-up from what Barricade received.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐