Man builds life-sized Bumblebee

Friday, June 19th, 2009 2:11PM CDT

Category: Editorials
Posted by: Dead Metal Views: 34,524

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The Daily Stab has an article up which the author claims is old news but still interesting. the article is about a man from California, USA a man who loves Bumblebee so much he decided to build him a life-sized monument based on his G1 cartoon appearance and display it in is front yard!
Click the image to see the original posting containing more images of Bumblebee.

This story is a couple months old but I couldn’t find a whole lot of information about it on the web so I thought I would re-share it with you. A Lemoore man decided he liked the Transformers so much that he built a life size replica of the cartoon version of Bumblebee in his front yard.

“I’ve always been a fan of the Transformers,” Tom Rhoads Rhoads stated to the crew at mim. “And when my son was born I decided to make the statue.”

The statue stands at 18 feet tall and built from a used Volkswagen, yes that’s right a used Volkswagen, in this economy who can afford to chop up a new Camaro and besides some of us liked the cartoon characters better!

The statue took him and a friend a year to build in their spare time:

“Sometimes it seemed as if we would never get through it, all the parts spread out, but then it just came together.”

A crane had to hoist the 1200 lb robot onto its feet after the welding was completed. Its legs are made of steel and angle iron to keep it secure.

If you asked me, he should have killed two birds with one stone (sorry PETA) and made the gun in its hand be Megatron. We all know he was a lame gun in the cartoon version, right?

Stay tuned, as Tom’s next project is the semi truck in the back. I wonder what he has planned for that…..

Stay tuned to seibertron.com for all your Transformers related news!

Credit(s): RY, Daily Stab

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Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939189)
Posted by CrabHeart on June 19th, 2009 @ 2:21pm CDT

WHOA LOOK AT WHAT VEHICLE IS BEHIND HIM!!! OMG THAT WOULD BE SWEET

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939203)
Posted by Ultra Magnus on June 19th, 2009 @ 2:40pm CDT

Cool.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939205)
Posted by Zeds on June 19th, 2009 @ 2:43pm CDT

A thing of beauty. Modern art that can be truly appreciated.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939227)
Posted by blitzgeek312 on June 19th, 2009 @ 3:24pm CDT

Wow nice and symetrical, I love how he used real car parts. :APPLAUSE:

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939241)
Posted by T-Macksimus on June 19th, 2009 @ 3:44pm CDT

With all the VW's for sale in my area I had thought about how cool it would be to do something like this.
Now I know what the finished product would be like. This is pretty cool.
Personally, I would have gone straight for the top and overhauled that Peterbilt in the background but I suppose 'Bee would be a better project for a trial run. This guy and his friend did great for it being a "backyard" kind of project.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939249)
Posted by GadgetMeli9685 on June 19th, 2009 @ 4:01pm CDT

Wow! That's crazy! It's way cool though. Especially since he used a real Beetle. I thought my love for Bumblebee was bad. I wouldn't go THAT far. But he's done all us Bee fans a big favor ^__^ Someday I will go see it ^^

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939252)
Posted by Megatron Wolf on June 19th, 2009 @ 4:11pm CDT

Thats awesome. That is defiantly some great work. See that look would've worked just fine in the movies. And this statue looks a hell of a lot more realer (and plausible) then his movie counterpart.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939283)
Posted by soundwave13c on June 19th, 2009 @ 5:11pm CDT

wow thats really neat :grin:

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939292)
Posted by karellan on June 19th, 2009 @ 5:38pm CDT

I think it looks pretty dorky, actually. Even for Bumblebee. In the cartoon, they took a lot of liberties with the shape of a VW when he transformed into robot mode. The cartoon made his chest and hips look more torso-shaped than car-shaped. The toy avoided the problem because his alt mode wasn't an actual scale VW, it was a cartoonish penny racer version of the car. When his body is actually a VW like this, it looks really awkward, and when you throw in the scrawny arms and legs, he just looks... dorky.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939294)
Posted by Covenant on June 19th, 2009 @ 5:46pm CDT

That's neat that he took the time to make something like that for fun, but sorry I don't care for how it looks at all.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939306)
Posted by Ultra Markus on June 19th, 2009 @ 6:09pm CDT

T-Macksimus wrote:With all the VW's for sale in my area I had thought about how cool it would be to do something like this.
Now I know what the finished product would be like. This is pretty cool.
Personally, I would have gone straight for the top and overhauled that Peterbilt in the background but I suppose 'Bee would be a better project for a trial run. This guy and his friend did great for it being a "backyard" kind of project.

Go for it there can never be to many bumble bees
I believe that is a 1 ton chevy flatbed in the background and not a peterbilt

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939315)
Posted by Sabrblade on June 19th, 2009 @ 6:37pm CDT

Wow that's really cool.

But BB wasn't that big in the G1 cartoon. He's was about the height of the stereotypical "freakishly-tall basketball player" person.

Still, this is very awesome.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939327)
Posted by Solrac333 on June 19th, 2009 @ 7:04pm CDT

Very cool. :APPLAUSE:

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939363)
Posted by Zeds on June 19th, 2009 @ 9:38pm CDT

Hope there is a follow up in a year or two on what he does with the semi in the back of BB.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939473)
Posted by Heckfire on June 20th, 2009 @ 7:37am CDT

"CA Man Builds Life-Size Replica of Bumblebee; G1 Fans Complain It 'Will Ruin the Franchise'"

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939658)
Posted by christo on June 20th, 2009 @ 4:50pm CDT

Sabrblade wrote:Wow that's really cool.

But BB wasn't that big in the G1 cartoon. He's was about the height of the stereotypical "freakishly-tall basketball player" person.

Still, this is very awesome.

no. thats exactly how longg i think he was.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939672)
Posted by T-Macksimus on June 20th, 2009 @ 5:40pm CDT

Ultra Markus wrote:
T-Macksimus wrote:With all the VW's for sale in my area I had thought about how cool it would be to do something like this.
Now I know what the finished product would be like. This is pretty cool.
Personally, I would have gone straight for the top and overhauled that Peterbilt in the background but I suppose 'Bee would be a better project for a trial run. This guy and his friend did great for it being a "backyard" kind of project.

Go for it there can never be to many bumble bees
I believe that is a 1 ton chevy flatbed in the background and not a peterbilt

Did you check out all the pics on the guys site? He had a big rig in the background of one of those pics.

And much as I would love to do so9mething like this myself, I don't have the room. Not to mention, I need to take care of the body work on my own car first.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939754)
Posted by Sabrblade on June 20th, 2009 @ 10:14pm CDT

christo wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Wow that's really cool.

But BB wasn't that big in the G1 cartoon. He's was about the height of the stereotypical "freakishly-tall basketball player" person.

Still, this is very awesome.
no. thats exactly how longg i think he was.

No, he was about a head taller than Sparkplug.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939814)
Posted by highwayman75 on June 21st, 2009 @ 1:09am CDT

This is about a 4 hour drive from where I live. Maybe I'll try to go check it out sometime this summer.

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939860)
Posted by Delta Supreme on June 21st, 2009 @ 4:32am CDT

Dead Metal wrote:If you asked me, he should have killed two birds with one stone (sorry PETA) and made the gun in its hand be Megatron. We all know he was a lame gun in the cartoon version, right?

1. I don't think G1 Meggy would really go for Bumblebee holding him.

Though...

2. If he adds a black metal stock, and paints most of the barrel black (and a day-glo orange barrel tip), he would have a quite passable MP Megatron...

G1 Megs is a standard P-38 pistol, with "rifle extensions" and scope. The front of the gun looks like it has the rifle scope on it already, so all that's left is needing the stock and proper paintjob...

Re: Man builds life-sized Bumblebee (939862)
Posted by Dead Metal on June 21st, 2009 @ 4:40am CDT

Delta Supreme wrote:
Dead Metal wrote:If you asked me, he should have killed two birds with one stone (sorry PETA) and made the gun in its hand be Megatron. We all know he was a lame gun in the cartoon version, right?

1. I don't think G1 Meggy would really go for Bumblebee holding him.

Though...

2. If he adds a black metal stock, and paints most of the barrel black (and a day-glo orange barrel tip), he would have a quite passable MP Megatron...

G1 Megs is a standard P-38 pistol, with "rifle extensions" and scope. The front of the gun looks like it has the rifle scope on it already, so all that's left is needing the stock and proper paintjob...

I don't remember saying that.