Transformers is a franchise that many hate to love and love to hate. But in the last sixteen years, Bumblebee has stolen the spotlight.
I’m one of the largest fans of the franchise there could be. I have a collection of figures sitting in my room, collecting dust, but always on display and ready to be a conversation piece. The franchise is bordering on its 40th anniversary next year, and with every franchise, there’s always a character that seems to steal the show. Transformers is no different, with one character in particular having become the franchise’s star. But should he continue to be?
Sting Like A Bumblebee
Obviously, I’m talking about the little Beetle who could, be everyone’s best friend, Bumblebee. Originally created by Hasbro as The Transformers: Generation One‘s kid appeal character, a friendly bot intended to be the human character, Spike Witwicky’s best friend. The character was always cute and lovable, frequently referred to as the Autobots’ “little brother”.
Bumblebee was one of the earliest fan-favorite characters, based in no part on the wide availability of his toy. One of the smallest figures in the Transformers line, Bumblebee had three other characters he shared the peg with: Cliffjumper, Bumper, and Hubcap. All were designed to resemble either the classic Volkswagen Beetle or the Porsche 924.
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Bumblebee was voiced in the original series by actor Dan Gilvezan, a voice actor who has credits as the voice of Spider-Man in Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O’Hara) in the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Dan’s voice is iconic for the character, so iconic that it took over twenty years for Hasbro to find a new voice for the character in Transformers: Prime.
The Movies
After regaining the rights to the Bumblebee name in the early 2000s, Hasbro and Takara took a look back at the original Generation One series to find original characters to introduce into the live-action film adaptation in 2007. The film brought Bumblebee back to the spotlight following the Beast era with Cheetor in the mid-to-late 90s and the Anime era with Hot Shot in the Unicron Trilogy.
But, fans who grew up with Bumblebee as the adorable little bug would be shocked to find the complete retcon of his character in the live-action films. It’s funny to say that Dan Gilvezan’s iconic voice was so hard to replicate that Paramount and Hasbro agreed to make it so Bumblebee wouldn’t be able to talk normally like the other Transformers, instead speaking through samples of music and radio clips.
The change to his voice wasn’t the only major change to the character. While Bumblebee before would rarely get into a battle and would spend most of his time partying and scouting the Decepticons, the live-action films changed this to make him into essentially a classic action hero, being essentially the core main character of the live action films from 2007 onward.
How has Bumblebee ruined the franchise?
Now, I’ve personally gone on record saying that I am personally opposed to the whole “Geewunner” clan. Geewunner’s are the portion of the Transformers fan community that constantly critique any new Transformers media that isn’t directly influenced by The Transformers: Generation One. They primarily critique everything that’s come out since the beginning of the Beast era, even popularizing the phrase “Trukk not Munky” in reference to the change in Optimus Prime’s alternate mode in Beast Wars.
That said, I have to start agreeing with them in regards to Bumblebee. Since the 2007 film was released, Transformers media has used a similar take on the character. Most modern interpretations of Bumblebee have scaled this back a little bit, but it’s hard to ignore the influence of the films in Bumblebee’s recent appearances.
From Transformers: Fall of Cybertron on, Bumblebee has seen multiple periods where he would lose his voice, take on a more active role in the Autobot team as a more aggressive soldier, as opposed to the classic friend of the human role, and each and every iteration of the character, has seen Bumblebee transform into some variation of a muscle car in a similar fashion to the 2007 Concept Camaro that portrayed him in the original film.
Now, a lot of the fans don’t typically mind this take on the character, especially since some of the stories Hasbro has told with this new version of Bumblebee have actually been pretty great. Case in point, Bumblebee’s character arc as the temporary leader of the Autobots in Transformers: Prime – Predacons Rising.
Yet the push for the character to become the fan-favorite character now has become overwhelming, especially on toy store shelves. Bumblebee has seen a MASSIVE uptick in toys since his re-debut in the Live Action film, having more toys combined than any other character, including Optimus Prime and Megatron. Bumblebee currently has at minimum 27 figures in the Transformers: Studio Series toy line, which is appalling given the other characters who have been completely ignored.
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The character push is so strong that Bumblebee has received his own name-brand sub-toyline in Target stores across the United States, dubbed Transformers: Buzzworthy Bumblebee. Though the toy line is majorly occupied by repaints and rereleases of older Transformers toys instead of primarily Bumblebee, he has shared a lot of the spotlight in the toy line.
What to do about it?
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts came the closest in recent years to splitting Bumblebee away from the fan-favorite role. Mirage, voiced by SNL Alumni Pete Davidson, did a hell of a job in taking the role. Not to mention for half of the movie, Bumblebee took a back seat by taking up space as a lifeless husk after the primary antagonist of the film, Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage), killed him.
Then they brought Bumblebee back with a deus ex machina, leading to him getting one of the most 90s return as he jumped out of a plane during the final battle to the tune of “Mama Said Knock U Out” by LL Cool J. All the while killing one of the most interesting villains in the film in Nightbird.
Hasbro should have stuck to their guns and kept Bumblebee off the plate for the film or given him a new role similarly to how they did it in Generation One when Bumblebee was rebuilt into Goldbug. But, no, the fan-favorite character must live on.
Generally, I don’t have a problem with Bumblebee himself. He’s a really cool Autobot. However, with the character having taken such a massive role in the franchise, one that has continued to influence the character’s portrayals in current media, maybe it is time to give the character a last hoorah and transition away from the black and yellow muscle car and back towards an era of the friendly little brother.
Conclusion
Bumblebee has a long history within the Transformers franchise, one that has influenced many new and old fans. However, with the character’s constant appearances and an insane amount of toys, it’s time for a new character to either step forward or take the spot away.
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