This Is What It's Like When Creatures Collide! Buzzworthy Bumblebee Creatures Collide Review

 Buzzworthy Bumblebee, the toyline where Bumblebee is the star (except when he isn't) released to celebrate the Transformers No. 1 little yellow guy (except when it doesn't). Yes Buzzworthy Bumblebee has given us re-releases of hard to get Bumblebee toys as well as repaints and new toys to represent Bumblebees from the past, along with toy colour and Diaclone repaints of characters that aren't Bumblebee! Today we look at one of the elusive Generations 4 packs that combines toy colour repaint, cancelled toys, repaints and Bumblebee's History, Buzzworthy Bumblebee Creature's collide.

I really love the packaging for this, it combines the yellow framing of the Buzzworthy Bumblebee line with the neon linework of the Legacy toyline. on the front we have a fantastic looking piece depicting our 4 included toys in a duel, Goldbug, Ransack, Skywasp and Beast Wars Scorponok. on the back of the box we have the obligatory products shots of the four toys with the beehive styles framing of the Buzzworthy Bumblebee line. on the side we have artwork of Mirage, Optimus Prime and Arcee, and on the other side artwork of Cyberverse Bumblebee, where I thought we would have a nice piece of Goldbug being the star of the set.

With the packaging out of the way let's look at what we get inside, starting with;

Predicon Scorponok

Like the rest of the toys in this set, Scorponok here is a repaint, specifically of his Kingdom toy release, in toy accurate colours, which makes a nice counter to the animation accurate vintage toy release we got last year.

He's a little on the short side, which I never really associated with Scorponok, maybe because he had quite a large vintage toy. Articulation is everything you'd expect from modern mainline toys and having this in hand, I'm shouldn't have skipped over this in Kingdom.

For the first time though I've encountered a quality control issue with a Hasbro toy! My  Scorponok came without a pair of his Scorpion legs! On top of this I can;t seem to get the chest to close on my copy in robot mode.

Honestly it's quite disappointing because I have found myself enjoying this little guy. Great articulation and such an amazing sculpt, the use of transparent purple plastic with solid black to emulate the original toy goes great with this little figure. The two head sculpts are fantastic and out of the head deals in this set, Scorponok is the easiest to change.

Transformation is a great sequence that, similar to what we have been seeing recently, harkens back to the original transformation sequence of the original 90s toy. Speaking of which, this take on Scorponok is dwarfed by his OG counterpart.

Once in scorpion mode though, this toy looks more the part than the original, which strikes me as an odd choice. With the big push for animation accurate robot modes, just odd that the choice was to make the beast modes realistic, since they weren't in the Beast Wars cartoon, especially Scorponok with his lovable beast mode face in the cartoon.

Overall this is a great toy and has made me want to hunt down a version of Legacy Sandstorm for my collection.

Ransack (and bonus Legacy Kickback!)

The G1 Insecticons have always been some of my favourite characters from the cartoon, I think that's it's because, like me, they consume everything put in from of them. I was incredibly happy when they announced they were getting the Deluxe treatment, so much so that I actually have both versions of this sculpt available at time of writing, and they don't disappoint.

Kickback we all know and love as one of the original three Insecticons from the G1 cartoon with the ability to kick a hole in steel, compared to his two partners he kinda missed out there. Ransack on the other hand, has had less of a role in Transformers media, being more of a background character and not even getting an appearance in the original cartoon, but similar to kickback, Ransack can kick through 30ft of steel, but can also destroy brick walls from the resonance of rubbing his legs together and can shoot 80kV electricity out of his antennae, slightly better deal than Kickback there.

The sculpt looks amazing, the transparent chest plate looks great on both and really helps make the toys stand out. Both toys are incredibly well articulated and fun to pose. They have all the articulation you would expect from a modern mainline figure, only useful articulation they are really missing is wrist rotation, which would have been a nice addition but you can live without.

The head sculpts are very well detailed, and Ransack comes with an additional head which is Kickback's head painted in you accurate colours, but personally I prefer Kickback's original head. Ransack's head sculpt is very unique and looks really great with the slightly visible, big, red bug eyes. Out of the three I think Ransack's is the best looking with the mouth plate instead of a sculpted face, just looks more menacing.

Transformation is very simple but is fun in an old school transformation kind of way. the wings are rotated to point out and down at the front of the robot and the head is turned round to face the back and a panel pops out of the top of the back to cover the face. The hands are then rotated into the for arms to reveal insect like feet, then the upper arm is popped in half and the arms are rotated towards the back of the robot. The toes are folded upwards and on the back of the legs you can pop out little insect like legs and rotate round the feet, then the toy it set on these insect legs along with the insect legs made from the arm and it's done. A really fun, old school feeling transformation that I really like.

Once transformed we have these mechanical locust/criket like alt modes, and I really like them, they look really cool. There isn't any real great articulation in these modes, but it has what you need. The back legs can be moved and rotated along with the back feet rotating, the front legs when using the joint that split the arm can raise or lower the front legs and the wings can be raised and lowered. In order to complete the look of these alt modes you have to add the accessories.

Kickback and Ransack both come with the same accessories just in different colours, a tommy gun styled blaster that is silver with a purple drum and barrel for Kickback and fully black for Ransack, and a pair of energon blades, which are translucent purple for Kickback and painted yellow for Ransack. The blaster can be stored on each on the underside just below the insect head, the Energon blades can be attached to the sides of the wings or pegged together and attached to the thorax to extend it. Personally I prefer clipping them to the wings for Kickback and extending the thorax for Ransack to make him look more cricket like.

Overall this is a great toy and I highly recommend picking one of them up, my only gripe with Ransack is that he is a straight repaint of Kickback, albeit with a new head. The original Ransack toy was it's own unique toy which came with a different styled gun and a shield. The shield can be somewhat achieved with the Energon blades included and the Energon blades can give the insect mode a slightly more unique look, but a bit more retooling or different accessories could have helped this toy stand out more.

Skywasp

Skywasp here is taken from the idea of "What if Waspinator lead his own seekers?" while being inspired by the Botcon Waruder Parasite, which is the name leaks went by for this toy, and the colourful stylings of Skywarp, where he gets his personality and name from, while also being inspired by a cancelled "Horrorcon" Transmetal Waspinator that was intended as part of the Universe 2003 toyline. This is one of the toys I was really looking forward to from this set as Waspinator and Skywarp are two of my favourite characters, and having them combined was like a dream come true, as well as being a Universe 2003 toy, a line I was really in love with as a kid because of the Beast Wars repaints.

Skywasp here is a real nice repaint of War for Cybertron Kingdom Waspinator in Skywarp's colours, as previously mentioned, and it is stunning. The mould really shines through with these colour apps, and the sculpt itself is fantastic. Accessory wise Skywasp comes with the stinger blaster that can be stored in the insect stinger in both robot and beast mode. Similar to Ransack and Scorponok, Skywasp comes with two heads that can be switched out and the both look amazing, based on the two head modes that the original Waspinator toy had.

Skywasp has a great range of articulation and I especially love that, on my copy at least, the wings can be posed and held in place by the friction of the joint to add some dynamism to his poses. The one major gripe I have with the robot mode is the insect legs, the have a habit of getting in the way of some of the posing and also make it a difficult to handle at times. Something I also didn't think of with this toy based on the stock photos, is that he is a good bit smaller than the OG Waspinator toy, not as much as Scorponok but still smaller.

Transformation is a nice smooth process which just like a lot of the Kingdom Beast Wars toys, at least what I have handled, harkens back to the transformation of the original toy. You clip the bug head together and lift it pulling the bot head forward to the tuck underneath clipping the bug head into place with a tab on the body. The arms are then rotated into the torso and tabbed into the body. then in a real nice reference to the original toy, the hips lift up, then rotate, and fold down to clip into the place at the underside of the stinger. the feet are then folded up and the legs are against the underside of the body with the bottom of the legs tabbing into place where the arms are. All that is left is to rotate around the insect legs and it is done.

Once again, keeping in line with other Kingdom releases, they are going for a realistic looking wasp, Which doesn't work because of the size and I don't think wasps come in Purple and black? Being serious I really like this mode and the design is amazing, I just find it funny there is a push or animation accurate robot modes but the alt modes have to be realistic? Articulation in this mode is limited to moving wings and a slight up or down direction movement of the body using the rotating insect legs, and it is great fun to swoop this toy around.

Overall I would have to say that if you haven't picked up one of three versions of this mould, you really should, great fun to pose and play with, easy to transform and move between the alt modes, all round great toy.

Goldbug

Now on to our final toy in the set and the hero of the set, Goldbug. Goldbug of course is the rebuilt version of Bumblebee in the G1 cartoon and Marvel comics, hence the inclusion in this set as the hero. The Goldbug in this set is a repaint of the War of Cybertron Netflix Bumblebee, and I am so glad to finally be able to get this version of Bumblebee in the fully licensed VW Beetle, but we will get to that.

Goldbug is a retool of the Earthrise Cliffjumper mould, which I love, Cliffjumper was a cheap pickup for me in the early days if my return to Transformers and I struggle to put him down, so having another version of the mould is very welcome. Of course, Goldbug has all his unique stylings, the Beetle bumper feet and the more rounded chest to Cliffjumper, along with the fantastic head sculpt, unfortunately Bumper is the only toy on this set that doesn't come with a changeable second head, which is shame, could have had a "Golden Lagoon"-esque Bumblebee.

Accessories with Goldbug are the Glass Gas Blasters Cliffjumper came with that have been repainted for Goldbug, and same as the originals they can combine to for the cannon that Cliffjumper almost took out Megatron with. The second accessory is the car boot shield, or rear end shield as I like to call it, which can be stored on the back of Goldbug to give figure a better rounded look.

Goldbugs Transformation process, is of course, that of Cliffjumpers. Bend the arms towards the back, open up the chest, pop out the car bonnet, bring the shoulds out at the sides and coles the chest back up. Rotate the hips 180 and bring back towards the back f the robot mode. Unclip the back of the feet from the cars wheels, and rotate the feet downwards, flipping the wheels into their arches. bring the shoulders the back of the car clipping them into place and have the hands facing towards the back and fists upwards. bring the feet up to the front of the car and click together, clicking the rest of the panels to the sides of the car. take Goldbugs shield, fold up the handle and place into the hands at the back of the car to complete the car boot, and there you have it, a fully licensed VW Beetle Alt mode.

I love this, I am so happy to finally have a VW Beetle G1 character. I mean it this is amazing to finally have in hand, and all the little details. There are rubber bumpers added to the car, it only as one wing mirror, which is a nice touch, there are even VW branded hubcaps on the wheels. Only thing is the alt mode has no 5mm ports on the exterior, I am assuming due to the license, but it means the alt mode looks a lot cleaner.

The lack of 5mm ports doesn't mean that the accessories can't be used in vehicle mode. The blasters can be tabbed into the underside beneath the doors, the the arm attached to the underside and the blaster ammo clips/supports can clip under the wheels to form the water ski mode that Cliffjumper had in that one episode. If you combine all the parts of the blaster into the cannon, you can take off Goldbugs boot shield and rotate the hands so they are at the top of the car pointing towards the back, then clip the boot shield back into the hands and fold out the 5mm peg on the underside of the shield and tab the cannon on to have this large cannon over the top similar to how Cliffjumpers can just tab into his roof.

Honestly a fantastic toy I finally glad to have.

Overall this is a great set, I don't think I could recommend it at full price though, as it is more expensive than the elusive World's Collide set from 2021 and it had two Voyagers and two Deluxes, and I don't think three extra heads justifies the mark up, but they are amazing toys in this set and if you can even hunt down any of their mould buddies they would be well worth it.

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