TRANSFORMERS: Revisiting The Characters Of Generation 1 - BUMBLEBEE

TRANSFORMERS:  Revisiting the Characters of Generation 1

    "The least likely can be the most dangerous." - Bumblebee, 1984.

AUTOBOT

Name - BUMBLEBEE

Function - Espionage

Series Debut - 1984 / Wave 1

Sub-Group - None (1984), Pretender (1989), Action Master (1990)

BACKGROUND...

    The Autobot - Bumblebee, is one of the original members of Optimus Prime's group that crash-landed on Earth long ago.  When the Autobots awoke to this strange new world, Bumblebee was one of the team entrusted to scout their surroundings and learn about their new location.

    Having a more youthful personality than many Autobots, Bumblebee is easily likeable.  As such, he had no problem striking up friendships with several people on Earth.  Working side by side with the humans was an advantage the evil Decepticons did not share.

    His small size makes it easy for him to sneak up on Decepticons and acquire valuable information.  He is energy efficient, adept at functioning underwater, and has fantastic vision.  Though considered one of the physically weaker Autobots, Bumblebee has more than enough courage to counter that.  He'll volunteer for any mission and fight to overcome any challenge.

    In 1984, when the Transformers were awakened, the Autobot computer - Teletran I, gave Bumblebee the alt-mode of a VW Beetle.  This was a commonly seen vehicle of the time and helped Bumblebee blend in nicely.  Also, many of the Autobot's human allies prefer to ride with him when traveling on missions.

    Bumblebee has been one of Optimus Prime's most valuable troops!  He has gone from serving in the old battles on Cybertron, to navigating the new planet - Earth, to facing down the massive planet-eater -Unicron.  

MY THOUGHTS...

    I typically do not gravitate towards the super popular characters, I don't know why, but I have always liked Bumblebee.  His likable charm in the cartoons and comics must work in the real-world too!  Back in the day, I remember buying this figure at Target with Brawn using my allowance.  In 1984 these mini cars cost $3 a piece.  One mowed lawn could guarantee adding these to your collection easy.  Sad those days are behind us...

    Bumblebee here is represented by the Studio Series 86 Bumblebee.  I really like this figure's robot mode and the head sculpt is right on!  The pistol is cool.  The original figure did not come with one but this looks like something straight out of the G1 cartoon.  The storage for the pistol on the car mode is a nice touch too!

    For the car mode though, unfortunately it is very "box-y" looking, not as smooth and curved as it should be.  I'm not sure why this decision was made to have it look like this.  If you look at the Walmart Retro version that came out, the car mode is much closer to where it should be.  The SS86 figure is a good figure overall though.  

    What do you think of Bumblebee?  Who was your favorite mini car?  

    (Information on the character's lore was taken from the Sunbow Transformers cartoon series, including the Movie and the figure's original Tech-Spec.)

    The pics of Bumblebee in this write-up, were taken by my son - Finn!