Weekly Action Review: W.A.R. # 42 : Ultimate Bumblebee

Sunday, August 30, 2009

W.A.R. # 42 : Ultimate Bumblebee

I haven't done a review on a Transformer toy for some time. The main reason is I've decided to stop collecting them for now. I MIGHT pick up a leader class every now and then but only if the price is right. Such was a case when I picked this up a couple of months ago. Normal retail price is about AUD 120. I picked it up for AUD 70. This was before the release of the ROTF figures.

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W.A.R. Contents:

Packaging
Detail/Sculpt
Features/Articulation
Pricing

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Packaging

Not your usual leader class Transformer figure. Well, actually they don't state that this is a leader class but it sure is as big as as one. This U.B. is supposed to be more than that too. It's got lots of gimmicks like voice activated actions and an array of soundtrack to rival the Ministry of Sound - well, not really.

On the front of the box it says "The Movie Hero 'Comes to Life' at the Push of a Button". How I wished it was as simple as that. One push of the button and it transforms itself. Now that would be a real gimmick.

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Detail/Sculpt

Even though I've had it for a couple of months I've only transformed him once and have kept him in car mode ever since to save space on my shelves.

The detail in car mode is impressive. Forget the seams that are apparent. I'm talking about it from an overall glance. A lot of effort went into this and I wished just a little bit more was put in. You know how when your figure is in vehicle mode and you can see the interior seats, steering wheel and all the tiny details that makes you go "niceeeee". There was none here.

Still, as I said, it is impressive. This figure was meant to entertain in terms of the fun factor. That's why when you press the Autobot emblem the car starts revving its engine and as you push the car along, the engine sound continues until you abruptly puts it to a halt and braking sounds can be heard accompanied by brake lights. Now, what 30 year old kid wouldn't enjoy that? LoL.

As I transformed U.B. into Robot Mode, it all starts coming back to me as to why I decided to stop collecting Transformer figures. The transformation annoys the hell out of me. Especially this one! Some parts were easy to convert but some I feel are just there to taunt me.

Almost 15mins later...I finally managed to convert U.B. without throwing it against the wall.

Eyes light up when UB is activated

Excellent sculpt in both car and robot mode. They even made an effort to sculpt the hidden panels.

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Features/Articulation

Not a lot of articulation so chances of you posing this guy in your favourite yoga position are out of the question. Plus once you switch him on, the arms will move and do their own poses. The few articulations that it does have is somewhat obstructed by all the other loose parts of the U.B. So basically you have these:

-Hinged elbow(left)
-Swivel & Hinged hand(left)
-Hinged fingers(left)
-Swivel waist(very minimal)
-Swivel hips
-Hinged knees
-Hinged ankles

The right hand is the cannon and fires automatically by pushing a button(I couldn't find the 'missile').

The Features in Robot Mode:
-Eyes will light up.
-He will play portions of three songs. I only know one of them which is Devo's 'Whip It'. These are activated automatically when he responds to the noises in the environment.
-He will also say phrases like;"Megatron will stop at nothing!" "You're my first human friend." "We must protect the Allspark!" "Be Careful, Decepticons could be anywhere!" "Eat Plasma!" "Permission to speak sir" And..."That will teach them to mess with an Autobot!"
-If you hold down the Autobot emblem he will sing portions of the Transformer song. Leave him alone for about 2 mins or more he will say; "Hello?" and "Anyone there?" If there is no respond he will say "This completes our radio broadcast" and powers down to save battery life.

The Features in Car Mode:
-Same as the above plus extras.
-Pressing the Autobot emblem will enable the car horn.
-Pushing the car and stopping it will have sound effects.
-Head & Tail lights are switched on.

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Pricing

I've already mentioned about the price earlier but I'm curious if you can find this in Brunei. If yes, how much are they selling it for? I'd appreciate it if you could drop by the chatbox with the info or leave a comment.

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At the moment this is what U.B. is reduced to, something for my lil' Princess Lobo to play with while watching her cartoons. But whether your a Transformer fan or not, this is a very nice figure to add to your collection. He might not make you a pot of coffee in the morning but he'll sure entertain you for a month or so depending on who you are. Storage issues? He will take up a lot of space but it'll be a space that is well used up.