Pictorial Review for Transformers Movie Masterpiece MPM-7 Volkswagen Bumblebee #JoinTheBuzz
Monday, October 8th, 2018 5:50AM CDT
Categories: Movie Related News, Toy News, ReviewsPosted by: william-james88 Views: 36,138
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Even though the movie is about 2 months away, The Bumblebee Movie toys are showing up everywhere. Thanks to The Chosen Prime, I've gotten my hands on the Masterpiece entry from this film, MPM-7 (VW) Bumblebee.
He, as is to be expected from the MP line, quite a good looking figure. I'll be honest, due to my experiences with the other MPM figures, my expectations here were not very high. I'm happy to report that this figure has quite easily blown them out of the water. This is a very solid figure, with tight joints, and a tight fitting transformation that holds together well. After the massive disappointment that the Studio Series VW Bee proved to be, the solidness of this guy is a breath of fresh air. I originally planned on doing a few comparison shots between MP and SS figures, but the truth is, I've come to hate the SS figure so much that I didn't want to subject myself to the effort of tying to get car parts to line up, so I just took one picture.
Another thing about this figure, is how you can see the very subtle yet still there design change between the Bee movie, and the previous 5. It stands out a little bit more to me in these group shots of the MPM figures so far.
To me, his design is just cleaner, with less exposed "alien robot" inner mechanical workings. I dunno if I'm putting that into words right, but that is what I'm working on for now.
Anywho, lets talk car mode. This Bee is, of course, his classic VW 'bug". While you young kids could probably care less, us crotchety old folks love this throw back to the '80s. I do feel that the scale is a tad on the large size for a bug, but so be it. It looks good enough that I don't care.
The underside is clean enough, but has several low hanging parts, so clearance is almost non existent. Not an issue for me, but if you like to make your MP cars go vroom vroom on the floor, you'll have some issues.
Bumblebee comes with only three accessories: his gattling gun hand, his sword, and his battle mask.
The face mask switch mechanism is very simple. Just lift up the center of the top of his scalp, pull of the upper part of his head, and replace with the mask. No muss, no fuss.
If you've suffered through one of my reviews before, you'll know that a feature that matters to me is weapon/accessory storage. VW Bee has it, though its not concealed in anyway.
Yeah, it isn't pretty, but at least weapons are harder to lose. Speaking of weapons, lets not forget his nipple missile racks!
Now on to the transformation. I said before that it is quite different than SS, and that is true in this sense as well as overall feel. This Bee does a great job at rotating and moving parts aound to get them to properly compact and fit together in car mode. One thing I really like is how the the shoulders roll down, then swivel to the back so they can line up along the back of his legs.
Yeah, its not a great pic, but I'll be honest with you. Its getting late, I'm a couple beers in, and the Notre Dame game is on. My picture taking skills, such as they are, are rapidly declining. That said, there are a couple of issues I have with this figure in the transformation department. One, is the the front bumper. It isn't secured, and just 'clips' on, which means it pops off extremely easy.
I'm giving serious though to maybe gluing it in place, as it drives me nuts.
The other issue I have are the two side panels that are attached to his arms.
The piece in question is the one directly above my thumb. It may not look like it, but getting it to fit into place is a bitch and a half. It can be done, of course, but takes far more wiggling and finagling than it has any right to.
Over all, I really love this figure. While it doesn't have a ton of die cast, it is there, and give this smaller figure some nice heft. He does a good job of giving Bumblebee that "young bot" feel that this character has traditionally had, and this movie appears to be giving focus to. Again, you can see that clear difference when you stand him next to Camaro Bee.
Another thing that bears mentioning, is the instructions. Over the last several years, it really feels like Hasbro has adopted a "ah, **** it" approach to printing out instructions. By that I mean that they suck, are hard to read (dark print on dark print), leave out steps, and just flat out suck. The set with this bee feel much better. There is actually some color on them, and its easier to make out some of the trickier steps.
So to close it up, if you are a fan of Masterpiece figures, if you like the movie style figures, if you like Bumblebee, go get this figure. I honestly don't think you will be disappointed.
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Posted by Carnivius_Prime on October 8th, 2018 @ 7:02am CDT
I've come to hate the SS figure so much that I didn't want to subject myself to the effort of tying to get car parts to line up,
It's not that hard! The first time I transformed it was difficult but he's been on my desk rather than my shelf since I got him and transformed him back and forth at least ten times and it just gets easier. And only loose parts I have are the door wings (I might have accidentally made the left side one more lose by trying to see if it was removable for more 'screen-accurate' bot mode but decided I far prefer him with the door-wings).
Anyways yeah this MPM is pretty cool even for someone like me who never liked VW Beetles (i found them a creepy car owned by creepy people when I was a kid... particuarly cos of some weird looking dude in a green Beetle who used to park out at the school but never get out and had no kid to drop off) and I like the extra paint details particularly the orange blend (which isn't far off what I did with my 2007 Concept Camaro figure back in 2007 and so I may try to do with my Studio VW figrue, certainly adding more silver and yellow like the MPM has). Nice review and cool pics.
As for the accessories they look kinda silly stuck on the back of the car or robot (I like that they can all fit under the Studio car form nice enough) so if I had this figure I'd probably just put them in the hobby box with all the oompartments that I keep by the shelves that hold all the other loose bits of figures like alternate hands, heads, weapons and such.
Posted by hausjam on October 8th, 2018 @ 12:12pm CDT
But I will say I like Bumblebee better as a Camaro. Mostly because I hate Volkswagen in general, and the Beetle in particular. It's just an automotive design that fails (for me) on almost every level. It looks goofy. The proportions are all off (too tall, too narrow) None of its curves line up. It's aesthetically very displeasing to the eye. Which is understandable, because it was never designed to be pleasing. It was designed to be dirt cheap to build. Why it has become such a celebrated icon will always be a mystery to me. It's like celebrating the Yugo or the Pinto.
Anyway, I was so glad back in 07 that VW wanted nothing to do with Transformers, and even more glad when they made him a Camaro, a car full of American Muscle Car goodness.
With all that out of the way, in my opinion (that I know no one cares about) G1 bumblebee was cute in a very cartoonish way. But that cuteness does not translate well to live action. Don't get me wrong, I am excited for this movie, and everything I have seen of it so far looks awesome. But I still like Bee's look from the 2007 Movie and ROTF much better than his design in this movie. And while MPM7 looks good (in bot mode) and I do plan to get him, MPM3 looks much better.
Posted by hausjam on October 8th, 2018 @ 12:18pm CDT
Posted by ToaLeePrime on October 8th, 2018 @ 5:29pm CDT
I wanna know what dollar store you go to if you consider this line comparable to stuff like "Morphbots" or "Super space robot fighters".hausjam wrote:Also, since you mentioned it in your review; With a couple exceptions, Studio Series toys are horribly designed and built, cheap pieces of dollar store nonsense. At their current price point, I can't believe I wasted money on any of them.
Posted by -Kanrabat- on October 9th, 2018 @ 4:42am CDT
Posted by Counterpunch on October 25th, 2018 @ 10:37am CDT
Like, I see where it's going and it all makes sense. It's one of those where the final step is locking up like 3 or 4 different panels all pulling on one another from different angles.
The figure is great; the alt mode is 95% there. That transformation is flawed.
The only tip I can offer is that there are four different pegs along the body that lock the arm and side panels in (loosely). If you can get those aligned, you'll have a better time.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on December 9th, 2018 @ 8:15pm CST
I'm gonna get the negative right out of the way first: transformation to alt mode is rough and a bit fiddly in the back end. back to robot mode is good, but alt mode is a challenge at times.
Alright, that's all for negatives. The positives shall we?
This figure is fantastic! He is right there with Barricade with how overall good he is, and his robot mode is his shining point. He is so solid! And heavy! all that die cast makes its presence felt. the weapons are really fun, and being an 80's kid Bumblebee, he can pull off some awesome dance moves and some awesome battle moves. Accessories are great, and they feel the best of the MPMs so far.
Overall, highly recommend. now enjoy some pics
now DANCE
Posted by galvatron00 on January 16th, 2019 @ 11:04am CST
Here's my thoughts..
I noticed last week that MPM-7 was going to be available again on Amazon in the next few weeks, but I was curious as to the "used" listings that were on there. Amazon Warehouse deals had all of them, to varying degrees of description of possible issues. I saw two that were $59.99 with "damaged box" and "blemish over 1" on back or bottom of item". $20 off sounded fine, so I figured I'd take a shot on it and if it was that bad I'd return it but at least I'd get a feel for the figure and/or if I'd want to get a "perfect" one.
He arrived yesterday.
Minor crunch on the middle back of the box. Not so bad.
Out of the package, HE'S STILL PLASTIC TAG THINGY HELD IN PLACE?!?! Did they even take him out?! The box was clearly carefully retaped on the one side..I think?!
Did they think the black pinstripe on his hood was a blemish and they returned it?! I could not find anything wrong at all!!
I recently recommended to Cobotron that he shouldn't use instructions on his MP36+, "let the force guide you". Carytheone then said "you do it". So I did! When I watch reviews I skip over the transformation parts as I'm just interested in how it feels and looks in alt and bot modes. It also helps that I'm only typically listening to them as I'm usually at work when I catch up on them, so I hear positives and negatives and such.
This transformation, was AMAZING!! I mean sure, it was like "wait, how does this work?" for some parts but holy cats, I haven't had this much fun figuring out where everything goes in a loooooooooong time. I did this while at work, and I'm guessing if I had uninterrupted time it would be under 20 minutes the first time if I wasn't dazzled by the whole spectacle of it all. I think I had 35-ish minutes of touch time to get it in to alt mode.
In this shot, you'll see my only complaint, the front bumper. I'm gluing it in place. Probably..
But man, did it come together! The last 5 minutes was making sure everything tabbed in to place and it rolled evenly, which I'm proud to say it does just fine!!
Look at that alt mode.
And movie accurate visible head!!
There are SO MANY little areas that guide you on how to transform this figure. Cut-out sections the size for specific parts. Tabs and slots that line up logically. Pins to indicate rotating sections. The clues are everywhere, and I can't wait to do it again.
As a last thing to do, I checked the instructions out this morning. Apparently you are supposed to rotated the head panel backwards so he'd be looking out of the front of the car under the bonnet. Hilarious. I'll take visible head syndrome.
This is my favorite $60 figure. And I'd probably be happy at $80 but I feel like I got this one at a steal considering absolutely nothing is wrong anywhere on the figure. It's ultra clean. Do I wish the paint blended on that lower panel under the rear passenger windows on each side? Sure. Do I wish he had better head articulation and an ab crunch and a little more knee bend? Definitely. Is this my favorite Bumblebee that I own, including the ones I lovingly customized, or even my G2 minicar or G1 Pretender? Yep. That's how good he is.
I CAN'T STOP ZOOMING HIM AROUND MY DESK!!!
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on January 16th, 2019 @ 6:34pm CST
Posted by galvatron00 on January 16th, 2019 @ 6:46pm CST
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on January 16th, 2019 @ 6:47pm CST
itscramtastic wrote:He’s amazing D-Max!! I’m glad I finally got a hold of him!! I’ve also heard good things about MPM Barricade..D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Bee is such a fun mold, I wish more people appreciated how awesome he is
He's great too! I think Barricade is the overall best MPM figure to date
Posted by william-james88 on January 16th, 2019 @ 7:25pm CST
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:itscramtastic wrote:He’s amazing D-Max!! I’m glad I finally got a hold of him!! I’ve also heard good things about MPM Barricade..D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Bee is such a fun mold, I wish more people appreciated how awesome he is
He's great too! I think Barricade is the overall best MPM figure to date
Agreed 100%
Posted by galvatron00 on January 18th, 2019 @ 1:27pm CST
FLIPPIN' MPM-7 HAS TWO KNEE JOINTS?! ONE AT THE KNEE AND THEN ONE IN THE THIGH?! FIGURE OF THE YEAR!!!!!
YEAH!!!!
EDIT: I just went through 7 YouTubers (clicked to their articulation reviews) to see if any of them mentioned it. The last one I got to, Prime vs Prime, does mention it. So it's not new, but it's something I did not know at all!
Posted by Emerje on January 19th, 2019 @ 12:35am CST
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Bee is such a fun mold, I wish more people appreciated how awesome he is
They can appreciate him later AFTER I finally get around to buying one when the price drops further.
Emerje
Posted by Nathaniel Prime on January 19th, 2019 @ 9:35am CST
Posted by galvatron00 on January 19th, 2019 @ 9:58am CST
I really can’t recommend this guy enough. Each time I pick him up I find something new. It was a great experience not using the instructions and just going with the flow. Sure I had to back track a few times and start over in areas but it was worth it!! And yesterday finding that extra hinge for the wheels and the knee joint in the thigh?! Crazy awesome.
Posted by -Kanrabat- on January 19th, 2019 @ 10:16am CST
So I may just as well save money and get the SS version. Because despite the paint and diecast parts, this MP don't bring anything revolutionary or new.
Posted by galvatron00 on January 19th, 2019 @ 10:35am CST
Posted by -Kanrabat- on January 19th, 2019 @ 10:44am CST
itscramtastic wrote:@Kanrabat: I’m telling you, the transformation is amazing and fun. I haven’t had this much fun with a figure in a long time, and he’s set the new bar for me. Things I have that don’t live up to it are leaving my collection, that’s how good it is!!
To be honest, I'd definitely prefer having this over the SS one. Unfortunately TrU is now back to their general assholery toward not bringing any MPs in Quebec for reasons. So I won't pay the price to import this. However, it can be a nice Mandrake tag-along if I order anything. It's ironically cheaper to buy it over there than at TrU with taxes.
Posted by galvatron00 on January 19th, 2019 @ 11:30am CST
I knew if I got the SS I’d be painting it up immediately, with this one I’m thinking about where to splash some gunmetal/silver mix.-Kanrabat- wrote:To be honest, I'd definitely prefer having this over the SS one. Unfortunately TrU is now back to their general assholery toward not bringing any MPs in Quebec for reasons. So I won't pay the price to import this. However, it can be a nice Mandrake tag-along if I order anything. It's ironically cheaper to buy it over there than at TrU with taxes.Scramjet wrote:@Kanrabat: I’m telling you, the transformation is amazing and fun. I haven’t had this much fun with a figure in a long time, and he’s set the new bar for me. Things I have that don’t live up to it are leaving my collection, that’s how good it is!!
ALSO! I picked him up on Amazon as a Warehouse deal for $59.99 USD before tax, so $63 out the door? Totes worth it considering whoever returned it didn’t realize there was nothing wrong with him, so at $60 it’s a definite recommend.
I’m all for saving money, so definitely get where you’re coming from!!
Posted by -Kanrabat- on January 19th, 2019 @ 11:47am CST
itscramtastic wrote:ALSO! I picked him up on Amazon as a Warehouse deal for $59.99 USD before tax, so $63 out the door? Totes worth it considering whoever returned it didn’t realize there was nothing wrong with him, so at $60 it’s a definite recommend.
As a Canadian, that 60$US ammount to over 9000$. Add shipping and sureshot import duties and it get pretty hefty. On the Mandrake side, it's 6k yen plus another 2K yen in shipping so it's not really better. At least I never had to pay any taxes from them and I can add a few things in that 2k yen shipping box. I'm on the fence on that MP Bug Bee. But maybe I'll luck myself on a used one eventually.
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on January 20th, 2019 @ 5:10pm CST
Posted by galvatron00 on March 22nd, 2019 @ 7:56am CDT
Posted by Ironhidensh on March 22nd, 2019 @ 4:57pm CDT
Posted by galvatron00 on March 22nd, 2019 @ 5:55pm CDT
Posted by william-james88 on March 22nd, 2019 @ 9:08pm CDT
Scramjet wrote:He's my new standard Irohidensh!! I shipped off 84 figures to TFL recently that didn't fit that standard for me anymore. None of them were ones you were interested in. Probably..
What's TFL?
Posted by Nathaniel Prime on March 22nd, 2019 @ 9:18pm CDT
william-james88 wrote:Scramjet wrote:He's my new standard Irohidensh!! I shipped off 84 figures to TFL recently that didn't fit that standard for me anymore. None of them were ones you were interested in. Probably..
What's TFL?
Transformerland.com
Posted by galvatron00 on March 23rd, 2019 @ 7:12am CDT
Posted by Nathaniel Prime on March 23rd, 2019 @ 4:31pm CDT
Scramjet wrote:Nathaniel Prime is correct WJ, TransformerLand!! Lots of things went, more than what I had listed on my dad sales thread at one time. A 43 pound box of goodness.
I live 3 hours away from them, cuz they're in Gainesville, FL. I like them, they offer a good service, and they have good prices on good figures most of the time. More than a few figures I find overpriced though, and I am wondering if they buy mint condition figures for good prices
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed dealing with them
Posted by galvatron00 on March 23rd, 2019 @ 6:33pm CDT