Bumblebee is one of my favorite characters in the Transformers Saga and I’m excited about the movie that bears his name.
As I revealed in my How I made a freak manual, the transformers are one of my favorite series since I was little, I woke up early to watch the cartoon and I collected the toys.
Then I’ll reveal the secrets about this charismatic robot:
INTRODUCTION
The Autobot Bumblebee has been winning fans little by little and he has archieved prominence within the Transformer universe.
It was not always like that, since at the beginning it was one more than a collection of robot-toy, but his contact with humans made it possible that he had an emotional development that made him stand out from the rest.
Within the transformers saga there are many versions. Generation 1 (G1) was the first animation serie. There were also Japanese comics and series, then came video games and then movies. Explain all these versions would be work for an encyclopedia, so I will try to summarize the history of this character in 3 of the versions that I consider most important of transformers: Generation 1, Live-Action and Aligned.
GENERACIÓN 1
It all started when in the 80s the Japanese toy brand Takara created robots that became vehicles. The toys were very original and attracted the attention of Hasbro, an American toy brand.
Hasbro popularized the toys G.I.J.O.E thanks to create a good story that took in animated series format to television. This strategy of making a series of animation to create hype and increase sales has since been used with great success. Nowadays most toy lines have their own animation series.
Hasbro acquired the rights to market the Takara’s toys in the United States and following its commercial strategy used several of the robots to create the good that called Autobots and the baddies called Decepticons.
The Autotobos get their name because many of the robots were transformed into land vehicles; hence the Auto …
In the group of Decepticons would go all the rest of robots that were not cars: airplanes, pistols, etc …
As the story developed, the two sides began to mix types of robots without being pigeonholed according to their type of transformation.
The original Bumblebee doll shared a model with CliffJumper, another autobot that only differed in color.
At the beginning of the story of G1 Bumblebee did not have a very prominent role. It was transformed into a small beetle car that had a couple of small horns on its head and had no problem talking.
But as the story progressed he began to be the usual companion of the human protagonist of the series: Spike.
Spike was a young human who was the link between humans and robots, so he had a relevant role in the saga. And thanks to Bumblebee becoming Spike’s regular companion he also started getting minutes in the serie.
Spike and Bumbeblee shared many dialogues that “humanized” the robot and that’s why it began to gain popularity among the audience.
The friendship that was created between Spike and Bumblebee made the little yellow robot become very popular.
Soon Bumblebee and Spike formed a team and staged many successful missions, becoming important characters in the long history of G1.
As a curiosity after a mission in New York City, Bumblebee began wearing a license plate labeled “I ♥ NY” (I love New York). That’s how nice the little guy was.
At the end of the story Bumblebee is promoted by Optimus Prime, acquires a new “improved” form and is renamed GoldBug.
LIVE-ACTION
In the hands of Steven Spielberg the transformers were taken to the big screen in 2007.
Transformers has some G1 bases but has an alternative history.
The most remarkable thing in this version is that Bumblebee no longer transforms into a scarab but into a Chevrolet Camaro and can not talk. In the film it is explained although without much detail that Bumblebee was wounded in a battle damaging his speaking ability. Instead, he uses the radio to play phrases.
In this version Bumblebee also has great prominence because it is the companion of the main human character, although instead of being Spike as in the G1 here is replaced by Sam Witwicky.
In general I think that the adaptation to the cinema of the transformers is very good, but I recognize that there are some things that I like less than others. However one of the things that I liked the most was that the robots could equip themselves with a combat mask that gave them a very warrior aspect.
In Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers 3: The dark side of the moon, Bumblebee and Sam are still companions of adventures. However Sam does not appear in Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, nor in Transformers 5: The Last Knight, although Bumblebee continues to have a remarkable role and becomes the leader of the autobots in the absence of Optimus Prime.
And it is in this 2018 when Bumblebee gets the definitive prominence having his own movies in Spin-Off mode. In this movie they return to rescue aspects of the G1: Bumblebee transforms into a beetle and returns to have some horns but unable to speak. This time it will be Charlie Watson his human companion of adventures.
ALIGNED
This version is a meeting point between the G1 and the Live-Action, mixing ideas from the 2 previous versions.
The story begins with the video game War for Cybertron of 2010. It shows Bumblebee looks very similar to the G1 but cybertronian version more futuristic. During the course of the story it is explained that Bumblebee was caught by the Decepticons, and was tortured to extract information about the Autobots. Bumblebee resisted but due to the damage by the punishment he lost the ability to speak.
In the sequel to the videogame Fall of Cybertron explains why the destruction of Cybertron and the Exodus of the transformers.
The story continues with the animated serie Transformers Prime. A serie made by digital animation that is personally the best of all, both for the animation and the history and the quality of the figures / toys.
In Transformers Prime Bumblebee will be a friend of Rafael, a very intelligent boy who curiously understands what he says with his “buzzing”.
The battle between Bumblebee and Megatron is one of the most memorable scenes in this serie, where Bee also recovers her speaking ability. Really: in my opinion one of the best scenes in the whole transformers saga and that I recommend you watch, although I do not want to make you spoilers so I leave it hidden if you want to watch the serie:
[spoiler=title”watch Transformers Prime scene”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_byKqRzO7FY
[/spoiler]The story continues in Transformers: Robots in Disguise where Bumblebee becomes the leader of the Autobots destined on Earth. It is another animation serie but it think is more childish than Prime. Although there is an attempt to recover the essence of Prime from the second season and we can as Bumblebee acquires leadership skills and earns the respect of his teammates.
In Transformers: RiD Bumblebee begins as a Cybertron police officer … and ends up traveling to Earth after see a vision of Optimus Prime.
BUMBLEBEE TRAITS
Although as you can see the versions of Transformers are very different, we can see that some feed on others and quite respect the traits of Bumblebee. In general the features of Bumblebee are:
- Humanity: Bumblebee is a robot close to humans, with whom he establishes great friendship, appreciation and respect as equals (a feature that is not widely shared by other Transformers, including Autobots)
- Juvenile: Bumblebee’s attitude is very similar to a human adolescent, he is impulsive, curious, teasing and sometimes rebellious.
- Loyal: Bumblebee has always been of the Autobot faction and has never considered abandoning it. He is a faithful follower of Optimus Prime and its principles, and sometimes they show a father-son relationship.
- Agile: Bumblebee is a robot of the explorer type, with small or medium aspect that does not have great armament but that stands out in reflexes and speed.
Well, I hope I have revealed many things about Bumblebee and the world of transformers. If you have any additional curiosity do not hesitate to ask or comment because I will love to answer you.
By the way in this video you will find the costume that I made to my son from Bumblebee. So you can see what Geek we are ?
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