Hunter Bee.

We’ve taken a look at this mold before. I love Hot Shot and have said it’s as though the mold was made for him not Bumblebee.

So why do I suddenly have a copy of this mold as Bumblebee? Well…

1) I got a great deal on Nova Bumblebee. He was RM15 ($4).

2) Nova Bumblebee looked awesome.

Let’s take a look at him!

Vehicle mode

Nova Bumblebee looks like he’s been taking cues from a Mad Max movie on how to upgrade a car. Spikes, spikes and even more spikes make him look threatening. However, the combination of yellow and blue still make him look friendly and cute. The rounded cute proportions of the car mode also help with that.

Nova Bumblebee has a lot going on in car mode. He still rolls with all 4 of his wheels for one thing. But also you can arm him up with his crossbow, 6 missiles and 2 smaller dual cannons.

Transformation

I don’t think I mentioned this in the Hot Shot review but the transformation on this mold is quite interesting. It’s the typical Movie Bumblebee style transformation with a few neat tricks of his own.

His hood transformation and head reveal are especially fun. It’s addicting to do it back and forth.

Robot mode

Nova Bumblebee looks ridiculous in robot mode as well. He’s somehow menacing and cute. Bumblebee’s head is no longer round and cute. It’s spiky and edgy. But it’s also basically an owl head, so it rounds right back to cute.

In robot mode, Nova Bumblebee is also shows of his spikes and blue war paint proudly. He can also be decked out with all of his accessories. You can put the crossbow on one arm and the dual cannons on his other arm or in his hands. He’s definitely ready for battle.

For posability, Nova Bumblebee has a ball-jointed head. His shoulders go in and out as well as rotate. He rotates at the biceps and bends at the elbows. His hips are ball-jointed. His thighs rotate, his knees bends and his feet go up and down. Pretty good articulation for a mainline Deluxe Class.

Gimmicks

First off, there’s the Automorph head reveal that I mentioned was super satisfying.

Second, there’s the plethora of weapons he comes with. Nova Bumblebee comes with 6 missiles, a big crossbow and his two show accurate smaller cannons. The big crossbow can hold two missiles on it’s top and when you load up one missile in the crossbow it unfolds itself automatically. The missile loaded in it can fire pretty hard. The two smaller cannons can be handheld or pegged in the arms. They can also combine.

The extra Beast Hunter weapons are stupid and fun. It’s a nice surprise the show accurate smaller cannons were also included.

Toy or collectible?

Nova Bumblebee is actually a pretty rare variant. While the regular Prime RID Bumblebee and Beast Hunters Bumblebee are still pretty common, Nova Bumblebee barely pops up anymore. When Nova Bumblebee does pop up though, he costs much more than I’d spend on a Deluxe. So he’s a collectible.

That said, I wholeheartedly recommend getting the regular Beast Hunters Bumblebee for older kids. He’s crazy fun.

Closing

Beast Hunters was a trip. All the Autobots were decked out with spikes and oversized weapons even though those upgrades weren’t even in the show.

Usually, you’d steer clear of Bumblebee variants (there are so many). But this guy has been changed up so much, he’s practically a new mold. He’s Super Mode Bumblebee at this point.