Takara-Tomy Transformers Missing Link Bumblebee Action Figure Takara-Tomy, 2025
Day #2,819: February 11, 2025
G1 Universe Bumblebee Now With Added Joints
Transformers Missing Link
Item No.: No. G1877 Manufacturer:Takara-Tomy Includes:Blaster, stickers, card Action Feature:Transforms from robot to VW bug Retail:$39.99 Availability: January 2025 Other: Cliffjumper remold also available
This Bumblebee is another one of those fancy new "the original, with more joints" toys that are all the rage lately. We saw people try to do something similar with Mego-alike figures a few years ago, and Mattel has had pretty great success with it since 2020 for Masters of the Universe Origins. Most lines just go for all-new sculpts that look modern, but those lines that go with 1980s aesthetics but modern articulation are in a nostalgia league of their own. You get the toy that you once got for a few bucks, for roughly ten times the money, but now you can pose it! Is it worth it? It's not not worth it. The last American G1 reissue of Bumblebee was a pricey - but not that bad - $10 Walmart exclusive. This one is $40 for more joints, paint, stickers, and a blaster. And it's pretty good.
Packaged in a tiny box, with a tinier box inside, nestled in a styrofoam insert, Bumblebee comes right out and ready to be posed. (His blaster takes some more extracting.) It feels a lot like the original toy, with a lot of key differences. There are more joints in his legs, there are elbows, the head can swivel now. There are no pre-applied stickers - the chest symbol is painted on, and you can cover it up with foil stickers representing the old toy labels or the weird box art marker.
He's pretty much the same as the toy I got back in 1984, with the enhancements. That means he has metal on his back, rubber on his tires, and a battle mask on his face. Most reissues have a new head with a mouth and face and eyes - this just goes pure old-school. The original arms were jointed only at the shoulders and for transformation, which makes this new one a lot fancier with bending elbows and a hole in the fist to hold an accessory.
I am amazed someone went through the trouble to add in tiny thigh swivels, swivel shoulders, bending elbows, rocker ankles, and a tiny bit of movement for the legs to swing forward at the thigh. It's a real tiny masterpiece, and that's why you're paying so much for it. If you just need a Bumblebee to stand around in your collection, though, it's a lot more complicated than a toy of this size needed to be in order to be fun. But if you're doing fancy photography or dioramas, this is the one to get.
Transformation is simple, like the original toy. Fold in the head, fold down the feet, shove the legs in the body cavity, and cram in the arms. I didn't need instructions.
The car mode is very simple, tiny, and pretty close to the orignal. There's more of a gap in the back where you can see the face a bit more than my old toy, but other than that? It looks just like the original Volkswagen Beetle, down to the lack of painted headlights. You get silver hubcaps, and the rubsign symbol is under the car, rather than on the chest or elsewhere. (Mine is on the chest.) It rolls well, and other than having a place to mount the blaster in vehicle mode I can't imagine what else Takara-Tomy might have done to it.
I feel like if you collect Missing Link and only Missing Link, it may well be the perfect entry point and a line that will never get out of hand at the slow-drip pace of current releases. They're small, they're a tiny bit more expensive than I would prefer, but they're as close as you're probably going to get to something that replicates your false memories of old toys. If I knew these toys were coming, part of me wonders if I would have skipped Classics and their descendants - good toys as they are - because this is probably the itch a lot of 1980s kids wanted scratched. It's by no means better than the cheaper, larger, more articulated Bumblebees have done - but this isn't trying to be new and improved. It's old and improved, and getting a toy that reminds you of your childhood is the kind of thing you'll pay a few extra bucks to get. I'm charmed. I'll probably keep buying these guys, even though I still have my originals.
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