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The Scourge Of Bumblebee


madman1366

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We all know retailers have requested more Bumblebee and Hasbro has been more than happy to comply. However, will Bumblebee be a brand killer?

 

Reason I ask is parents. We know parents, we are parents, we know the thinking and logic. So when their kids see and want the 35th version of Bumblebee that has been made over the years, how many parents do you think are well aware of Bumblebee and sick themselves of buying them. "You have enough Bumblebees already!" I can see parents spouting.

 

It's only been several weeks and I'm already seeing an alarming number of Bumblebee clogging pegs. With 4 in the first assortment and 3 in the second assortment it's not going to be pretty. So you know retail bigwigs will see them too and assume that Transformers just don't sell as well when in reality, it's all the Bumblebees they insist on getting that is causing the log jams.

 

One can argue that all the Bumblebees did slow the ability of the DOTM line to sell out quicker which could have gotten newer waves out quicker.

 

So now if Transformers sales start to see a big fall, will it be people losing interest or because they are sick of everyplace being overflowing with Bumblebee?

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Scourge of Bumblebee???

Is there a black Decepticon Bee repaint out??lol

 

I think you could have a valid point. I doubt a company will see that one character sits on pegs, but see the brand not selling.

 

Should we get ready for TF armageddon? I doubt it.

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I don't think it really slowed down the ability for DOTM stuff to sell out, i mean, store like Walmart or Target probably just held the next wave of figures in the back untill there was room for them.

Either way, it's not just Bummblebee, more then once, my parents use too tell me you hae too many Optimus' or Megatrons, or Starscreams... lol ( I'm only been collecting for 6 years )

One the otherhand, i could see why hasbro realised so many Bumblebee's because everyone know who he was. ( Tf fan or not ) So hasbro assumed that they would need to make more bummblebee for more people, because more people knew Bumblebee more then any other TF ( Opumus and Megatron are obiously a close second. :/ ) I mean, better that then to realise a character that noone has heard about, like the Generations Darkmount figure. ( I still see him around... )

Overall, though it can be annoying, the more Bummblebee stays popular, then more Bumblebee repaits Hasbro will make...

 

 

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Is there a black Decepticon Bee repaint out??lol

 

Yes, but it was still an Autobot.

 

Should we get ready for TF armageddon? I doubt it.

 

Heh TF Armageddon. Old times.

 

While we probably can't get a cop on every corner, we can get a Bumblebee in every household!

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I've been saying it for the last couple of years, the yellow and black attack is stymieing other figures and TF growth in general. I realize BB is a iconic figure in the current TF brands but damn, how many different versions do we really need? For months after each of the films, BB glut from hell! And as for Puma's pix, I've been seeing that exact thing at the three different TRU's that I frequent, one of them has nothing but them.

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BB's a relatively obscure Predacon, dude...

 

bbnorbumblbeesigmovie.png

 

I don't think Bumblebee will kill the franchise because while there's way too many of them, he's not (yet) predominated the line. Action Masters damaged G1 because in 1990 you had about half the entire Transformers line being Action Masters (arguably more considering that Micromasters were sold in sets - so if you counted the number of TF products on pegs and shelves, Action Masters were proportionately greater). There's "only" a couple of Bumblebees per wave -- but there's the problem. Why do we need a Bumblebee in every assortment and wave?!? (o_O)

 

Bumblebee has always been a well loved and popular character. He was the most redone character in G1 and G2, but even then - not including variants - 2011 has pumped out MORE Bumblebees than all of G1 and G2 combined!

G1 & G2 had:

Bumblebee (1984)

Goldbug

Pretender Bumblebee

Action Master Bumblebee

G2 Bumblebee (1993)

Go-Bot Bumblebee (1995)

Total = 6 spread across a period of 11 years

 

2011 gave us:

RtS DLX Bumblebee

RtS Legends Bumblebee

Rally Rumble Bumblebee

DotM DLX Bumblebee

Cyberverse Legion Bumblebee

Gold Cyberverse Legion Bumblebee

HA Bumblebee

Mobile Battle Bunker Bumblebee

Bolt Legion Bumblebee

TRU Legion Bumblebee

TRU Cybertronian Bumblebee (even though the vehicle mode still looks like an Earth car)

Scan Series Bumblebee

Nitro Bumblebee

Activator Bumblebee

Activator Recon Bumblebee

Leader Class Bumblebee

Four pack Legion Bumblebee

"84" DLX Bumblebee

Opaque glyph-covered Bumblebee

Cybertronian Warriors Bumblebee

Legion Stealth Bumblebee

Cyberfire Bumblebee

Streetside Bot Brawl Bumblebee

Ultimate Gift Set Bumblebee

Rage Over Cybertron Bumblebee

Bash Bot Bumblebee

Go-Bots Bumblebee

Robo Fighters Bumblebee

Revving Robots Bumblebee

Autobot Daredevil Squad Bumblebee

Kre-O Bumblebee (large)

Kre-O Bumblebee (small)

Total = 32 (33 if you include TF Prime FE Bumblebee) in ONE year.

 

And aside from all the pegwarming/shelfwarming that these Bumblebees do the more frustrating thing IMO is that they're wasting "assortment space" that could be better filled with say new characters like Deluxe Soundwave, Deluxe Leadfoot, Deluxe Que or Deluxe Mirage! You know, all those characters in the film that Hasbro hasn't released toys for. But no, they'd rather release a "Going to the Shops" Bumblebee that didn't appear in the film and people aren't interested in buying. Let it shelf warm.

 

And the photo in puma's post is pretty much what TRUs here look like -- new characters like Wheeljack and Soundwave are flying off pegs, but Bumblebee just clutters and peg warms. One Bumblebee per series is more than enough. madman1366 said, parents aren't gonna buy their kids multiple Bumblebees because they'll simply say, "You already have Bumblebee." Heck, even most adult collectors look at these toys and think, "Meh, I already have a DotM Bumblebee." -- how many of us have purchased over thirty Bumblebees in the past year?? Who's buying all these Bumblebees??? <looks at peg/shelfwarmers> Oh I see... nobody's buying them. Right.

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I don't want to see the character get shelved due to being burned out. I'd like to see Hasbro convince the retailers to make BB a sought after character again by cutting down the number and allowing the other characters to rise up more. As the pictures pretty much say it all.

 

 

I don't see the character being any less popular, it's parents not wanting to keep buying it when they can hardly tell the difference from one to another. After awhile even the kids stop looking and asking for it and move on.

 

If I was a kid and had 10 relatively new pair of Nike and saw a new style out I had to have my mother would have known I had 10 similar pair already and said hell no. Same effect here. The fandom has gotten into the heads of Hasbro to an extent but can we get into the heads of the retailers who make the demands that Hasbro feels obligated to meet? Who knows. Would be a good question to put to Hasbro along with a discussion like this to point out the hazards of overdoing this one character. Or any other single character in too many costly ways. Variety is the spice of life and I think we can all agree we'd like a lot more of it!

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