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Hand over that sweet axle grease!
Series: Animated (Takara)
Year: 2010
Allegiance: Autobot
Class: Voyager

 

Prelude: Remember when Bumblebee wore that big blue jetpack in Animated and flew through the air? No? Me, neither, but we did get a toy from this nonexistent scene in the form of Jetpack Bumblebee, released only by Takara-Tomy. Also, Jetpack Bumblebee is one of the few Animated figures still missing from my collection, so many thanks to my buddy James for gifting him to me. Now, strap on your rocket boosters, prepare your stingers, and let’s say go!

Robot Mode: We have had several Animated figures that were reissued with additional upgrade pieces, but unlike Wingblade Optimus Prime or Samurai Prowl, the Bumblebee figure in this set here is an entirely new figure, entirely different from Deluxe Bumblebee. This new Bumblebee figure is smaller than the Deluxe, yet larger than the Activator, roughly the size of a present day Deluxe. Like most of the Takara-Tomy Animated figures, he has a very shiny finish on all of his car parts, which… let’s just say I could have done without that. The look is pure Animated Bumblebee, though, and in terms of proportions this guy here might actually be the best version of the character. He is very nicely articulated, including a twisting hip, ankle tilt, and a ball-jointed head.

One thing this Bumblebee is missing is the in-built stingers in his arms, but he can attach the rockets from his jetpack (more on that below) to his arms as weapons. Alternatively he can attach the rockets to his back for his flight mode, like he did in the cartoon. So looking purely at the robot, I like him a lot except that he is a tiny bit too shiny for my taste.

Alternate Mode: Bumblebee unsurprisingly transforms into the same slightly deformed looking compact car he always does, complete with black stripe and police siren on top. The transformation is pretty straight-forward and the resulting car shows no visible robot bits. Again, a very shiny finish, but that’s just standard for the Takara Animated figures. The only real difference to Deluxe Bee’s car mode is that you cannot attach the rocket boosters to the back of the car mode. They can clip into the doors, but due to the non-removable flame effects, they always stand at a slight angle where the flame part collides with the rear rims. Apart from that, though, a very nice little car mode. No complaints.

Jetpack: The main attraction of this set is, of course, the Jetpack that provides the prefix for the name. It’s basically a blue frame with a set of wings and a cockpit with guns attached to the front, which can swing up and forward on two black struts. Bumblebee can wear the Jetpack in both of his modes. In robot mode it attaches to his back and the cockpit part with the gun flips forward over his head, providing him with both armor and a set of guns he can (almost) hold in in his hands. The guns do not detach, by the way. The rocket boosters are on the wings now instead of on his back and you can easily imagine Bee zooming through the sky with this thing.

The jetpack also works in vehicle mode. Bumblebee in car form basically just drives into the frame from the back and the car’s underside attaches to it. Now it looks like a miniature plane with a car inside it, but again: you can easily imagine Bee driving the sky roads in this form. Nicely done. Interesting note: Legacy Animated Bumblebee, who is a good deal smaller than the included Bumblebee figure, can also use this jetpack. It doesn’t solidly attach, naturally, but he fits inside in both robot and car mode. Animated Deluxe Bee however is a tad too big, so he can either stand on top of it in robot mode or balance it on his roof in car mode.

Overall the jetpack is a nice accessory for Bumblebee and can easily be imagined as an enhancement of the rocket boosters he used in the cartoon to fly. Not a must have, but nice.

Remarks: Transformers Animated ended far too soon, which not only means we were deprived of some great stories, but a lot of toys never saw the light of day, either. Thankfully a few of those toys were released by Takara in Japan, including Blackout, Wingblade Optimus Prime, and this little fellow here. Now we never saw Bumblebee wearing anything like this jetpack in the Animated cartoon, but maybe he would have appeared this way in the never-produced season 4, who knows? A Hasbro release was apparently intended for this toy at some point under the name “Hydrodrive Bumblebee”, but it never came to pass.

Now I have a bit of a hard time coming to an objective rating here, because a) I am a huge Animated fan and this is one of the few figures that were still missing from my collection and b) this figure was a gift from my friend James. All of which means that I am very much in love with this figure. But trying to be objective: a good toy with nice play features, but it does lack purpose a bit. Bumblebee never wore a jetpack in the cartoon, nor in any of the comic books. The Bee figure itself is good, probably better than the Deluxe, but not by so much that you desperately need it. So bottom line: a treasure for Animated fans due to being one of the final toys of the line, but probably not really that interesting for anyone not heavily invested in Animated.

Rating: B

 

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