Bumblebee (Animated)

The name or term "Bumblebee" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Bumblebee (disambiguation).

Bumblebee is an Autobot from the Transformers Animated continuity family.

Little. Yellow. Different.

Bumblebee is the youngest, yellowest, and most energetic of the Autobots...as usual. A hyperactive wisecracker, Bumblebee is quite convinced he's the fastest—and coolest—thing on four wheels. He has a tendency to bite off more than he can chew, so it's a good thing he pals around with the massive Bulkhead. He does not take well to being called short, and his over-eager ways can get on Ratchet's nerves all too easily. Still, Bumblebee is good people, as evidenced by his fast friendship with Sari Sumdac.

“	I may be small, but I'm scrappy! And I can ride circles around your big, old, rusty chassis!	”
—Bumblebee to Bulkhead, "Total Meltdown"

Arabic dub name: Bumbly (بامبلي Bāmblī)

Arabic commercial name: Bumble Bee (بامبل بي Bāmbil Bī)

Russian name: Бамблби

Fiction

Animated cartoon

Events from IDW Publishing or Fun Publications books are in italics.

Voice actor: Bumper Robinson (English), Daisuke Kishio (Japanese), Santiago Ziesmer (German), Krzysztof Korzeniowski (Polish), Renato Novara (Italian)

There's a green me and a red me!

Early in his career, Bumblebee dreamed of becoming a member of the Elite Guard. He joined the Autobot boot camp, but things didn't exactly go as planned—his drill sergeant was a jerk, most of his classmates bullied him and the only bot willing to befriend him was a complete mudflap. His luck seemed to change, however, when he accidentally overheard someone communicating with a Decepticon. He then saw fellow classmate Wasp walk out, which aroused his suspicions. After taking the advice of Longarm, Bumblebee attempted to weed out the spy, but Sentinel Minor got in the way twice. Needless to say, this resulted in many transform-ups for his squadron. After Wasp and Ironhide tore off his legs and put him in a closet, he was saved by Longarm, who encouraged him not to give up. Later that day, the group was put through their first training exercise—combat in a simulated battlezone. When somebody switched the turret settings to fire actual lasers, it was Bulkhead who saved Bumblebee. However, they accidentally knocked over a building in the process, flattening Sentinel.

When Sentinel was conducting a surprise locker inspection, Sentinel discovered a Decepticon communicator in Wasp's trunk, ousting him as a traitor. Sentinel was prepared to put Bumblebee on an Elite Guard fast track program. Sadly, his new friendship with Bulkhead forced him to throw it all away in order to prevent his new buddy being kicked out, and they both wound up working on space bridges. Autoboot Camp

Wait... who are you?

The two friends were assigned to Optimus Prime's space bridge repair vessel. During one mission, Bumblebee and Bulkhead stumbled across Prowl, a ninja-bot meditating near an isolated space bridge. Due to an energon cube accident on Ratchet's part, Prowl's spaceship was destroyed, and he was forced to join their crew. Endgame, Part I After this, Bumblebee's work continued as usual until the crew discovered the AllSpark itself on another asteroid, which unfortunately attracted the attention of Megatron. Even though he expressed significant fear of the Decepticon leader, Bumblebee still managed to crack wise at his appearance once they were face-to-face. The humor vanished when Megs pulled out his sword. After Megatron was thrown off the ship, Bumblebee entered stasis with the rest of the crew just before the crew's ship crash-landed on Earth.

Fifty years later, Teletran-1 awoke the crew to alert them to the intrusion of a nanite-powered bug-slug. Sending out a probe to find local disguises, the probe scanned Captain Fanzone's car amongst other things. Bumblebee was given the car for his new bodyform. Lucky him.

"Can we keep it?"

Upon noticing "a little creature" struggling with her "owner", 'Bee and Mr. Bulk showed their unfamiliarity with organic life by assuming the owner/pet relationship was reversed. Their speculation was interrupted by the attacks of the giant, nanite-fueled bug monster, and Bumblebee intervened to get Sari out of the way. Later in the battle, Bumblebee was called on to deliver the override command to the beast's nanites, as he was the fastest and most nimble of the crew.

His defeat of the monster seriously impressed Sari, who decided to befriend him. Sari's definition of befriending included cajoling him into sneaking her aboard the Autobots' ship. Of course, Sari wouldn't stay still as Bumblebee asked, compelling him to jettison her into a ventilation shaft. After introducing her to the group, Sari and 'Bee became fast friends. When Starscream attacked Detroit, Bumblebee took a shot intended for Sari, allowing Screamer to capture 'Bee, Isaac Sumdac, Captain Fanzone, and the Mayor. Sari, with Prowl's help, managed to rescue them. Transform and Roll Out!

The Autobots quickly became famous for their heroic deeds in Detroit, much to Bumblebee's delight. Prowl, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic about all the attention, however, and he and Bumblebee quickly had a clash of opinions on the values of peace and quiet versus the values of fun. When the Autobots' factory base was turned against them, however, Bumblebee was forced to listen to Prowl's "stillness and strike" attitude to get past the motion sensors preventing him from shutting the factory down. In the aftermath, he had a newfound respect for Prowl as the two played a relaxed game of Twister™. Home Is Where the Spark Is

At one point, Bumblebee took part in a match against Cyrus "Colossus" Rhodes, hosted by Prometheus Black to show off the effectiveness of biotechnology. Unfortunately, Cyrus hulked up, then proceeded to beat the slag out of Bumblebee. The other Autobots were forced to rescue him, using it as a chance to riff on his small stature. However, only Bumblebee was able to get into Sumdac Tower when Meltdown went to kill Isaac Sumdac. Bumblebee managed to get him to the ground floor, but Meltdown arrived. Bulkhead tried to stop him, but Meltdown threw a glob of acid at Bulkhead, which Bumblebee took instead (basically, 'Bee is a human robot shield). Bulkhead offered his apologies over his comments, saying he was only having a little fun—which sent Bumblebee into declaring his good moves and speed. He's going to be pretty impossible to live with for a while. Total Meltdown

The troubles in Detroit were far from over, as the Autobots soon found themselves facing three rampaging robotic dinosaurs. During the battle, Bumblebee combined his stingers' electrical with Ratchet's magnets to create an electromagnetic pulse that would hopefully shut the prehistoric menaces down. Sari decided to pitch in by boosting Bumblebee's stingers with her AllSpark Key, which proved enough to defeat the "Dinobots"... but also provided them with sparks. Blast from the Past He later bought a neat car horn and tried to chase down a mysterious muscle car with little success. The car turned out to be the bounty hunter Lockdown, who kidnapped Optimus Prime and made short work of Bumblebee as well, threatening to take his stingers. In the end, Lockdown was defeated by Ratchet and Prime was saved. The Thrill of the Hunt

BB got back!

After Bumblebee showed a lack of ability (or inclination) to be subtle on Earth, Prime had Prowl try to teach Bumblebee how to blend in. This ruined some plans with Sari, as she wanted to attach some turbo-boosters to him to make him go even faster. During the exercise, they encountered Nanosec, a crook that had gained Professor Sumdac's new speed suit via unknown patrons. Unable to keep up with Nanosec, Bumblebee was convinced by Sari attach the turbo-boosters against Prime's orders. Unfortunately, he couldn't control them in vehicle mode, allowing Nanosec to escape from the Autobots twice. Worse, he was carrying enough Destronium to destroy all of Detroit. Overhearing Bulkhead and Prowl's comments on his change of appearance, Bumblebee realized that the suit was causing him to age the more he used it, so he purposefully ran him into old age (cold, Bee). With the Destronium about to go critical, Bumblebee, with help from Prowl and Bulkhead, managed to use his turbo-boosters to head into the outer atmosphere and get the Destronium away from the city before detonating. The whole experience seems have given Bumblebee a bit more respect for subtlety. Nanosec

October soon came around, and Sari decided to teach the Autobots about Halloween. Bumblebee dressed up as "Count Dracubot", but his trick-and-treating session went sour when he and Bulkhead were attacked by the spider-bot Blackarachnia and knocked unconscious. They recovered in time to save Sari from falling off a skyscraper, although Bumblebee blew out his tires in the process. Along Came a Spider After participating in Sari's eighth birthday party, Bumblebee decided that he also wanted one of those cool Soundwave toys. He was less enthusiastic after Soundwave took control of all automatons in Detroit and faked Bumblebee's voice in order to confuse the Autobots. Sound and Fury While Soundwave was eventually defeated, the Decepticon attacks were far from over—Blitzwing and Lugnut soon arrived on Earth in their search for Megatron. Bumblebee and the others were knocked unconscious by Lugnut's mighty punch in their first battle, but the odds were in the Autobots' favour when they later fought in the muddy waters of Lake Erie. Bumblebee got to electrocute Blitzwing a bit before both Decepticons were blasted to pieces by Teletran-1's main cannon. Lost and Found

When Sari was later kidnapped by a pterosaur, Bumblebee participated in the police investigation. Survival of the Fittest Bulkhead later got into the fine arts, so Bumblebee helped out by modeling for him until his friend got his body hijacked by the human villain known as the Headmaster. As the other Autobots investigated, Bumblebee kept Bulkhead's head company and helped him create art pieces for his upcoming gallery (all while relentlessly cracking jokes about the situation, naturally). The Headmaster soon threatened to destroy Detroit using Bulkhead's body, so the Autobots approached him by pretending to be rescue vehicles, with Bumblebee being driven by Captain Fanzone. During the battle against the Headmaster, he got to play both bowling and football with Bulkhead's head before it was returned to its body. Headmaster

Some time during that winter, Bumblebee and Sari were playing video games and listening to music while ignoring Prowl's lectures on how spending so much time on "electronic devices" was unnecessary. All three of them were then sent out to investigate a Cybertronic energy signal in the woods; a prospect which filled Bumblebee with dread as nature was just so incredibly boring compared to his TV, games and music back home. He came along on what Sari described as a "camping trip" anyway, although he brought plenty of electronic devices with him. Prowl was not impressed, and even less so when Bumblebee decided to use his holographic projector as a TV screen. The lack of electricity proved to be the least of Bumblebee's problems, however, as the group was attacked by a space barnacle monster shortly after nightfall. After a drawn-out fight with the creature, Bumblebee eventually knocked it off a cliff with his stingers, only to find that Prowl had been infected by the barnacles himself. While Sari had the bright idea of trapping the crazed Prowl in a mine, Bumblebee ended up trapping both of them in it as well, and got himself infected. Ultimately, Sari saved the day by using hot water to remove the barnacles, and in the aftermath Bumblebee voiced his opinion that nature should just be paved over as soon as possible. Nature Calls

"YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEECH!"

When Decepticon activity was detected in high levels, Bulkhead spilled the beans on what he and Prowl had done with the Dinobots, and Optimus Prime pretty much lost it. Ranting that all he had was a group of insubordinate malfunctions, he told Ratchet to take Sari's AllSpark Key from her, saying it wasn't safe in her hands. As she ran off crying, Bumblebee defended her, and Prime pointed out that Bumblebee wasn't a good character witness. Bumblebee mouthed off that their situation meant that Prime wasn't fit to command, and then went looking for Sari. Heading to Sumdac Tower, Bumblebee spotted Starscream, and disobeyed Prime's order to hold off. Heading up the elevator (which could not only fit him, but also carry his weight), Bumblebee charged, firing his stingers at Starscream. All it really did was interrupt his speech, which made Starscream seriously freak out. However, a crane pulled Starscream, who was holding Bumblebee, up to the roof, where the two fought it out...right until Megatron burst through the roof of the tower. Megatron Rising - Part 1

After Megatron's restoration, Starscream absentmindedly beat on Bumblebee for a while, then threw him aside when Megatron called the Decepticons to him. Once he'd been repaired with remaining AllSpark Key energy in Professor Sumdac's lab, Bumblebee called Prime on his previous statements, and Optimus apologized, saying he'd been out of line. When Ratchet brought the Autobots' ship to them, the Autobots and Sumdacs boarded the vessel in an attempt to lead Megatron and the Decepticons off-planet, but were shot down and crashed on Dinobot Island. As the Autobots rallied to defend the AllSpark, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Prowl took on Blitzwing. Ratchet and Bumblebee teamed up again to create an electromagnetic pulse, causing him to crash. After shelling them in tank mode, Blitzwing again took to the air for some strafing runs. Prowl noticed a connection between Blitzwing's alternate modes and personalities, so they had Bumblebee use his greatest strength, his obnoxious personality, to cause Angry Blitzwing to emerge. Taunting the triple changer, Bumblebee got him to transform accidentally into tank mode and crash into the lake. Megatron Rising - Part 2

"Aaron Archer's office. Please hold."

Following the defeat of Megatron and the disappearance of Professor Sumdac, Bumblebee helped Sari run Sumdac Systems until the arrival of the Cybertron Elite Guard. Among their numbers was Sentinel Prime, Bumblebee and Bulkhead's old sergeant from boot camp, but thankfully he didn't seem to remember them. 'Bee and the rest of the crew were subsequently contained within the Elite Guard flagship while the Sentinel and Ultra Magnus went with Optimus Prime to investigate the supposed defeat of Megatron and dispersion of the AllSpark, but soon had to leave to deal with an out-of-control police drone factory. The Elite Guard Shortly afterwards, Bumblebee greeted Sari when she was thrown out of Sumdac Tower by Porter C. Powell and forced to live with the Autobots. He and Bulkhead tried to cheer her up by saying that living together would be like a non-stop party, making her food and teaching her about "stuff and how it works", but were met with limited success. The Return of the Headmaster

Bumblebee and Sari later helped stop a runaway train powered by an AllSpark fragment. When Starscream stopped by again, 'Bee and Ratchet again combined their powers to attack him with an electromagnetic pulse, but the AllSpark-powered Decepticon shrugged it off like it was nothing. Mission Accomplished After noticing truly how bad Ratchet's people skills were, Optimus Prime assigned Bumblebee and Sari to help him improve on them, something neither party was very enthusiastic about. During their training, the three encountered the newly created Transformer Wreck-Gar, who proceeded to throw beef and motorcycles at Bumblebee. The Autobots chased Wreck-Gar across the city to retrieve the experimental nanobots he had in his backpack, but Bumblebee was not present during Ratchet's final confrontation with the confused 'bot. Garbage In, Garbage Out

"If you're Auggie Cahnay, your ass is grass!"

Bumblebee became involved in the illegal street races organised by the criminal Master Disaster. Believing himself to be the fastest things on wheels, Bumblebee was unsurprisingly shocked after getting thrashed in a race by a Mysterious Blue Race Car. Following this, AllSpark traces, and the appearance of Blitzwing at the race track, Bumblebee became determined to get to the bottom of the mystery (although deep down he just wanted another chance to beat the Unknown Racer.) He made a deal with Master Disaster to appear in his races. Enlisting the help of Sari, Bumblebee returned to the track, and, to cut a long story short, ending up being pursued by the maniacal Blitzwing. After nearly being frozen one minute and melted to slag the next, Bumblebee was eventually rescued by the Mysterious Racer driving into Blitzwing. The excitement wasn't over for Bumblebee yet, as when returning to Master Disaster's trailer for answers, he and his pal Bulkhead (who had angrily followed Bumblebee there for defying him) had to face off against Blitzwing (he was desperate for that AllSpark fragment...), and had to be rescued once again... although this time it was Sari using Master Disaster's controlling device. Velocity

Later, he went on a trip to the Five Banners Roller Coaster Kingdom theme park with Sari. Optimus, fool that he is, believed him when he called it "an important fact-finding mission". A Fistful of Energon

If they start to do it, let me see, ok?

On another occasion, Bumblebee was attempting to clear up the streets of Detroit by catching some of their small time criminals. However, in each case, whenever Bumblebee came close to the capture, he froze up completely, and allowed the baddies to escape. It later became apparent that this was due to the AllSpark-infused timepiece belonging to Slo-Mo. After revealing himself and snatching the timepiece, Swindle froze all of the Autobots and looked set for victory. However, after being lifted to Sumdac Tower by Sari and the members of the SUV and repaired, Bumblebee took on Swindle (even managing to floor him at one point with his stingers.) After getting the timepiece back from Swindle, Bumblebee was double-crossed by the SUV, but fortunately for the Autobot, the rest of his pals were back online by now, and managed to get the criminals arrested. SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy

After learning of Wasp's escape, Bumblebee felt a stirring of his old dreams, and dragged Bulkhead off to trace a signal leaked to them, containing a conversation between Megatron and his spy. As they tracked it down, Bumblebee fell into old habits, and started putting Bulkhead down, just like in the old days. It took a nasty fall to remind him that Bulkhead was the best friend he'd ever have, and he didn't need to spend his time chasing big dreams. Together, the two headed home, never realizing they were just outside of the carbon mines where the Decepticons were hiding.

Later, Bumblebee relayed the information they'd gathered to his old friend, Longarm, now Longarm Prime, head of Cybertron Intel. Autoboot Camp

IDK, my BFF Jill?

Due to his inability to stay quiet, Prowl placed a bet on Bumblebee—that he couldn't go 10 cycles without talking. Should he keep to this, a sweet can of axle grease would be his! However, the poor bot just couldn't do it. Prime took 'Bee and Prowl with him to Dinobot Island to investigate Meltdown's prison break, and the plucky yellow bot vowed he would win the axle grease. However, the bet was put on hold after both he and Prowl were off-lined by Blackarachnia's cyber venom. After the day was saved, Prime used the antidote on the bots, and 'Bee pointed out he'd been quiet for ages! Prowl dryly noted it took 'Bee being comatose to achieve this, but the yellow bot didn't care—he just wanted his grease! Black Friday

After insulting Bulkhead's latest painting of Sari, Bumblebee realized that he was wrong and actually apologized for his comments. It didn't go over very well, and that was before Megatron showed up with Professor Sumdac. Though Bumblebee suspected that Sumdac was a willing accomplice, Sari refused to hear it. At that moment, the mysterious blue racer appeared. Thinking he was a Decepticon, Bumblebee rolled after the racer, running him off the road. It was only at this point that the racer revealed that he was Blurr, a member of the Elite Guard sent to keep tabs on Decepticons and Prime's crew. Worse, Bumblebee's actions allowed Bulkhead to be kidnapped by Megatron. Once Optimus Prime was informed that the Decepticons were building a space bridge to attack Cybertron, 'Bee went with the Autobots to rescue Bulkhead and destroy the bridge. During a brief skirmish with Lugnut and Blitzwing, Bumblebee admitted that he'd lost his title as "fastest thing on wheels" to Blurr. Unfortunately, when they confronted Megatron himself, the Constructicons managed to incapacitate the pair...just in time for Starscream and his clones to attack. A Bridge Too Close, Part I

Managing to escape the Decepticons, the Autobots went for the clones, apparently deciding that they were the greater evil. The battle went poorly for them, as Blurr was lost in the space bridge and Bumblebee was cemented to a wall. When Isaac Sumdac decapitated Starscream and took his body with the Headmaster unit, Bumblebee was convinced that he was working for the Decepticons, though Sumdac revealed that it was to destroy Megatron. That didn't work out too well. After Megatron explained his plan to the captive Autobots, the Decepticon Shockwave revealed that he was Longarm Prime and that Bumblebee had sent an innocent Wasp to the stockade. Fortunately, Omega Supreme arrived, reactivated thanks to Sari and Ratchet, and sacrificed himself to save the Autobots and Sumdacs. With the threat passed, Sumdac revealed that he had been forced to help the Decepticons, and Bumblebee's mistrust of the professor presumably faded away—only to return when Sari saw that the skin of her right arm had torn...revealing robotic circuitry underneath! A Bridge Too Close, Part II

Despite the revelation that one of his best friends was a robot, Bumblebee actually remained focused on the larger picture: namely, Shockwave's presence on Cybertron. Optimus reasoned that since Bulkhead was a genius with regards to space bridges (something Bumblebee said he'd never get used to, revealing his high opinion of his other best friend), so the two headed out to the mine. Bumblebee managed to find a recall beacon generator, which was needed to locate the position in space, and the plasmadynamic thruster, which generated the transwarp field. Unfortunately, the thruster activated before Bumblebee could give it to Bulkhead, sending him across the galaxy. After catching another transwarp wave, he was again transported to another part of the galaxy—where he was swallowed by a rock alien.

Fortunately, Bulkhead was able to capture Bumblebee's signal, and reel him in. Sadly, it also brought the alien to Detroit. As the Autobots struggled to figure out how to defeat the monster and save Bumblebee, Sari used the AllSpark Key on herself to upgrade with new weapons and a teenage appearance. Sari quickly trounced the monster, freeing Bumblebee. Unfortunately, Sari didn't remove the Key after the upgrade, causing her to overload and lose control of her abilities. Bumblebee made a mad dash to try to remove the Key, but Sari's defenses systems registered him as a threat, and Sari horrifically watched as she stabbed Bumblebee through the chest and blasted him across the street. Ratchet immediately went to work, saying that he could repair Bumblebee without the Key. However, the damage was severe, and Bumblebee's spark was fading fast. Even when they got the Key, Ratchet was still hard pressed, as the Key had been burned out upgrading Sari. Fortunately, Ratchet managed to stabilize Bumblebee with his magnets, but Ratchet was forced to deactivate Sari with his EMP generator.

Ouch.

After Ratchet made what repairs he could, the Autobots allowed Professor Sumdac some time alone with Sari. Lamenting on how troubled their day had been, Bumblebee tempted fate by asking how much worse it could get. On cue, the plasmadynamic thruster began to power up, but Bulkhead manged to shut it down. Unfortunately, Omega Supreme soon arrived, under the control of Megatron. Bumblebee was given an illegal stinger upgrade to help against Omega Supreme, but it still did little good. Optimus and Prowl managed to sneak inside and remove Megatron's control while Bumblebee and Bulkhead served as bait a distraction. However, Starscream managed to gain control, and soon moved to conquer Cybertron. Bumblebee came up with the idea to throw the plasmadynamic thruster inside Omega to send the three randomly warping across the galaxy, managing to reach the altitude with his turbo boosters (why Optimus let him keep those is unknown). Later, Sari was awakened, and all was well with the Autobots...except for being out of contact with Cybertron, but still, it's the thought that counts. TransWarped

While Bulkhead and Professor Sumdac began constructing a space bridge, Bumblebee and the other Autobots focused on hunting down the remaining Decepticons on Earth. The first one they found was Lugnut, who was defeated and stasis cuffed after a drawn-out battle. Unfortunately, this left the Autobot force trying to pull the massive Decepticon out of the deep crater he had caused during the fight—a daunting task that they spent the rest of the night working on. Before any real progress could be made, Bumblebee and the others were called away to help Bulkhead, who had been dragged into an oil-stealing scheme by the Constructicons. Upon arriving at the Fossil Fuel oil refinery, Bumblebee fought against Scrapper, but was warned to watch his stingers so he wouldn't set fire to a nearby oil spill. Unfortunately, a collision between Scrapper and Mixmaster led to a spark setting fire to it anyway, so the Autobots were forced to transwarp an entire oil tank (with the Constructicons on it) out to Lake Erie, where it exploded. Three's a Crowd

Bumblebee attempts to kitbash himself.

Some time later, Bumblebee's old friend Wasp arrived on Earth, with a few screws loose and a vendetta against the 'bot who put him away. That night, Bumblebee was on monitor duty as the other Autobots were searching for Wasp, but spent his time playing Ninja Gladiator instead (after all, a TV is a monitor too!), which led to Wasp easily getting the drop on him. Bumblebee tried explaining how Longarm had set the whole thing up back in the day, but the deranged Wasp wouldn't listen, instead knocking Bumblebee out and saying it was his turn to lose everything he'd ever had. When Bumblebee woke up, he found himself equipped with Wasp's helmet, paintjob and voice synthesizer and all his friends staring down at him... including Wasp dressed up as himself. Unable to prove his own identity, Bumblebee was forced to escape from his own friends, only to be chased down by Elite Guard members Jetfire and Jetstorm. Luckily for the small 'bot, Jetstorm's wind blasts were too powerful for him, and he was blown away from danger. A desperate Bumblebee tried painting himself yellow with mustard from a hot dog stand, only to be confronted by Bulkhead and Prowl. Thinking of ideas to prove his innocence, Bumblebee reminded Bulkhead of their misadventures in boot camp—misadventures Wasp could never have known about. While his friends were finally convinced, the newly arrived Jetstorm and Jetfire were not, and a fight broke out until Optimus and Sentinel arrived and sorted it out. Returning to the Autobot base, they confronted Wasp, who had unfortunately spent the meantime researching Bumblebee's past and could easily list many of 'Bee's past adventures like he was there in person. With no way to prove who was the real deal, Bulkhead suggested that they simply play Ninja Gladiator for the title of Bumblebee... after all, the real one would never lose at Ninja Gladiator. The plan worked, as Wasp cracked under the pressure before the match could even begin, grabbing Bumblebee and holding him at stinger-point. With the Autobots unable to attack, Wasp cancelled his and Bumblebee's electronic paint jobs and made a getaway, leaving Bumblebee to be pummelled by a confused Bulkhead. Where Is Thy Sting?

Chasing Wasp across Detroit, the Autobots eventually cornered him, and Bumblebee again tried explaining the "funny story" on how Longarm was the true Decepticon spy who caused Wasp's misfortune. However, Wasp didn't see the funny part of it, and Bumblebee nearly got himself blasted in the face for trying. Before the group could capture Wasp, he was suddenly abducted by Swoop, so Optimus Prime and Bumblebee had to follow him to Dinobot Island. Upon arrival, Prime suggested that Bumblebee stopped making excuses like blaming Longarm and tried apologizing to Wasp instead. Making their way into the tunnels of the island, the two soon found Wasp... mutated into a large, monstrous technorganic form by Blackarachnia. Face to face with the monster, Bumblebee followed Prime's advice and apologized for everything he did and didn't do to Wasp. His old nemesis responded that Wasp forgave him... but he was Waspinator now, and Waspinator would never forgive Bumblebee! However, before Waspinator could destroy Bumblebee once and for all, his new body started going out of control, and he went back to Blackarachnia. After being run down by both the spider and the wasp as the latter chased the former, Bumblebee helped carry the damaged Sentinel Prime out of the tunnels. Predacons Rising

Human Bumblebee is stronger than Chip Chase.

Christmas eventually came around, and between shaking his presents and decorating the tree, Bumblebee didn't notice a Sound Wave toy poisoning the Autobots' oilnog. After having a taste, the 'bots all felt strangely tired and decided to take a stasis nap... only to wake up in human bodies. Bumblebee took it with a pinch of humour as he made fun of Bulkhead for being small, before the "Automen" headed out to see if Professor Sumdac could find out what was going on. However, during a brief break for food at Burger Bot, the city came under attack from a large force of Decepticons. The Autobots chose to fight back despite their small fleshy bodies, but Bumblebee grabbing onto Starscream's leg had no real effect on the marauding Decepticon, and the heroes were quickly forced to run. Eventually arriving at Sumdac Tower, Bumblebee was shocked when Cybertron itself appeared in the sky and blasted part of the tower to smithereens, followed by the arrival of Megatron himself. However, by this stage, Optimus Prime and Prowl had figured out that none of this was actually happening—they were trapped in some kind of simulated reality. Realizing that they could break through the illusion with their imagination, the Autobots fought back and defeated the simulated Decepticons, with the tiny human Bumblebee easily punching out Blitzwing before transforming back into a robot. But before the Autobots could figure out how to escape from the virtual reality, they were subdued by a giant Soundwave—the one who had trapped them to begin with in order to brainwash them into becoming his mind slaves. Human Error, Part I

As Soundwave increased his control over the simulation, Bumblebee and the others were transformed back into humans. Deciding that they had to find Soundwave's interface to the world, they grabbed some vehicles matching their alternate modes, leading to Bumblebee pushing a virtual Captain Fanzone out of his own car. The Autobots took to chasing after a black Soundwave van, only to fall into a trap that let Soundwave brainwash them completely. As Sari and her "Substitute Autobots" came to save the day, Soundwave used the Autobots' bodies to fight back, with Bumblebee and Prowl teaming up against Wreck-Gar. However, controlling five people at once proved too much for Soundwave, and as he lost focus, Bumblebee's mindless body found itself bound up in Christmas lights and defeated. Shortly afterward, Bumblebee's mind was returned to normal when Optimus Prime shattered Soundwave's body. Human Error, Part II

When the Autobots discovered Decepticon signals on the moon, Bumblebee found himself an volunteering (read: ordered) to transwarp there and plant a transmitter. However, the transmitter was inadvertedly broken by Shockwave shortly after arrival, so Bumblebee changed his strategy into infiltrating Omega Supreme. Inside, he found Arcee babbling on and on about school. Deeming it impossible to take her back to Earth, 'Bee chose to activate Arcee's transmitter before leaving, using her to spy on the Decepticons. Endgame, Part I When Megatron used the information inside Arcee to attack Detroit with a trio of "Lugnut Supremes", Bumblebee went back to the moon alongside Bulkhead, Ratchet and Sari to attempt a retrieval of Omega Supreme. They quickly located Arcee again, only to be attacked by Shockwave. While Bumblebee's stingers had no effect on his old platoonmate, he was eventually defeated by Bulkhead's brawns. Shockwave transformed back to his Longarm mode in an attempt to trick his "old pals", but failed and was captured. Bumblebee was aboard Omega Supreme when he battled against the oversized Lugnuts-turned-oversized Starscreams, and following their victory, was told that Prowl had died during the battle. When the Autobots returned to Cybertron, he helped carry his friend's coffin. Endgame, Part II

Toy bios

At some point, Bumblebee began taking stealth lessons from Prowl, presenting him with a new battle tactic: sneaking up from behind instead of racing fender-first into danger. To further that end, Bumblebee apparently painted himself as a police patrol car. Patrol Bumblebee

After "getting up close to members of the AUTOBOT Elite Guard", Bumblebee decided more than ever that he wanted to join their ranks. He had Sari borrow some of her dad's auto-painting robots so that he could truly look the part of an Elite Guard team member. He also began doing combat training with Prowl, and may have gotten his energy stingers enhanced. Elite Guard Bumblebee

Presumably Bumblebee's "getting up close to members of the AUTOBOT Elite Guard" refers to the events of the episodes The Elite Guard, The Return of the Headmaster and Mission Accomplished. However, at the time of those episodes, Isaac Sumdac was missing and Sari no longer had access to Sumdac Systems technology, so, uh... just go with it. OR, possibly, by "borrow" they mean "steal the robots out from under Powell's greasy nose"

Titan Magazines

In battle with new villain Quake-Maker, Bumblebee got to not only mock the villain but fight alongside the super-cool new Autobot Afterburn. Burnout

The two later went on a mission to Dinobot Island to stop a Rage virus infection, a mission that had Bumblebee nervous. During the mission, Bumblebee screwed up a landing that Afterburn aced, got thrown into a mud puddle by Swoop, was left with an incredibly dirty finish, and generally looked worse than Afterburn and on four separate occasions got put down by him. This made him sad. Ratchet & Grimlock Are DEAD?

When Swoop was in a huff, it was Bumblebee who convinced him to help them against the Wraith-X by appealing to that greatest of emotions, the ego! He didn't have time to gloat though, as he then found Afterburn reporting back to Megatron, who then stormed the base, Divebomb killed Afterburn, and started a massive battle. Bumblebee was shocked to find Afterburn had only been a sparkless drone infiltrator, but still viewed him as a real Autobot, taking on Megatron himself out of anger for what had happened.

Optimus later consoled Bumblebee that he'd been a hero and that Afterburn hadn't been real anyway. But he'd been real to Bumblebee...Megatron's Revenge

Why said cheese pizza has several toppings on it is a mystery.

But then he got over that and started breaking traffic laws for fun to get pizzas to Sari quickly! This led to Prowl dissing him and claiming Bumblebee wouldn't be so fast if he had to obey some rules, which led to a race between the two at Crazy Coyote Canyon (plus Bulkhead joined in, which gave Bumblebee a good laugh). Autobots doing anything, of course, leads to Decepticon plots, and Bumblebee (who had a Decepticon tracer stuck on his butt) found they'd ambushed Prowl halfway through the race. Locating the tracer, he stuck it on Lugnut's butt and helped Prowl escape to win.

All that excitement had allowed Bulkhead to win the race unopposed though, making him the official fastest thing in Detroit. Bumblebee accepted it amiably enough. The Race

Toys

Animated

Activators

• Bumblebee (Activator, 2008)

File:Activators Bumblebee toy.jpg

He's a Bumblevator—or is it Actibee?

Part of the first wave of Activators, this small version of Bumblebee automatically transforms from vehicle to robot mode via spring-loaded releases when you press his top-mounted police light. Interestingly enough, this toy is probably the closest to "proper" scale in robot mode when compared to the Deluxe Prowl and Ratchet, the Voyager Optimus, and Leader Bulkhead. Like the Deluxe class toy, Bumblebee was intended to be molded with a benign sideways smirk on his face, but at this small of scale the effect does not come off as intended, leaving Bumblebee looking rather more like he's grimacing. Furthermore, his insignia is also grimacing; for some reason this toy was given the movie Autobot "angry eyes" insignia, rather than the standard "neutral expression" insignia found on most other Animated Autobots. Add him to the list of Transformers who just need a hug.

This mold was later retooled to make Cliffjumper.

• More information on Bumblebee at TFU.info

Bumblecade

• Patrol Bumblebee (Activator, 2008)

A police-themed redeco of Activators Bumblebee, instead of his current "undercover" markings, he gets full-on black-and-white deco with "PATROL" lettering across his doors.

He has the normal yellow helmet, however.

• More information on Patrol Bumblebee at TFU.info

• Battlefield Bumblebee (2009?)

A redeco of Activators Bumblebee with silver detailing similar to Classics Bumblebee's white stripes and an oddly large Autobot insignia.

Deluxe

File:Bumblebee anim toy.jpg

Awwww, it's so adorable...

• Bumblebee (Deluxe, 2008)
  • Japanese ID number: TA-02
  • Accessories: Left & right rocket boosters

Bumblebee transforms from a small yellow hatchback with a single red flasher to a scrappy robot with a smirk on his face. He has a fake car roof on his chest (but to be fair, so does his cartoon counterpart.) in robot mode, and the two halves of his stinger weapon, stored in his forearms, can be flipped out and pegged together. In both robot and car mode, his two booster rockets can be attached on his back. Unlike the promotional image, the rockets of the actual toy do not have any red paint.

Due to support struts added inside his forearms to ensure durability, his stingers do not recede all the way back into his arms. The latest releases of the toy fix this problem. There have also been some complaints that the socket in his left arm tends to crack easily, which makes the arm impossible to pose.

Amusingly, flipping his bumper up in his alt-mode works like a tiny trunk.

This mold was also used to make "Elite Guard" Bumblebee and will be used to make Fugitive Waspinator.

• More information on Deluxe Bumblebee at TFU.info

Back from his internship with Donald Trump. Sentinel Prime, YOU'RE FIRED!

• Elite Guard Bumblebee (Deluxe, 2008)
  • Accessories: Left & right rocket boosters

A redeco of Deluxe Bumblebee, this figure represents Bumblebee after getting Sari to help paint him up in Elite Guard deco as part of his anticipated ascension into their ranks. Dare to dream! He retains all the play-gimmicks of the original, though his arms have been slightly retooled to allow the stingers to recede fully. The color scheme of the toy bears a little resemblance to Stealth Bumblebee from the live-action movie franchise.

The Hasbro stock photography and package art for this toy depict "Elite Guard" Bumblebee with his normal yellow helmet. However, the actual toy has a black helmet due to the plastic color layouts.

This toy was repurposed as a Wireless Automated Sales Person.

• More information on Elite Guard Bumblebee at TFU.info

Voyager

Oh slag. Where did my police light go?

• Hydrodrive Bumblebee (Voyager, 2010)

A new sculpted and downscaled figure of Bumblebee in much the same style as Samurai Prowl. He comes with a jet/submarine that can be configured into some sort of battle armour/jet-pack. He can be placed in it in both robot and alt mode. Rather atypically for an Animated Autobot, he appears to come with a pair of guns (in lieu of his usual stingers). These pistols can be hand-held or mounted on his armour.

On the wings he seems to have his turbo boosters except redecoed black and with little parts on the back.

Other

• Bumper Battlers Bumblebee (Bumper Battlers, 2008)

Does this make him Animated Bumper?

Part of the first wave of Bumper Battlers, this very simple version of Bumblebee is meant for the much younger set. About the same size as the Deluxe Bumblebee in car mode, pressing the Autobot faction symbol on his hood activates the toy's sound feature, using a seemingly randomized assortment of sound effects and original voice samples from Bumper Robinson. Pressing the car mode's front bumper in activates the simple spring-loaded one-step transformation to robot mode... "properly" activated by using the toy's pull-back motor gimmick to propel it forward into an obstacle.

• Bumblebee (McDonalds Happy Meal toy, 2008)

File:Bumblebrick.png

Bumblebrick.

A simple version of Bumblebee with a very simple transformation sequence, one of six toys available as part of the McDonald's Transformers Animated promotion (held concurrently with the Littlest Pet Shop promo). You transform him by pulling out the arms from the sides, pulling down the legs and rotating them around and flipping up the head. The arms hold the legs in place, and need to be pulled out before his legs. His vehicle mode is accurate to the show, and his robot mode is reasonably accurate, although rather on the "bulky" side.

• More information on Bumblebee at TFU.info

• Sting Racer Bumblebee (Bumper Battlers, 2008)

This Bumper Battlers Bumblebee has a blue stripe in place of the black one, and blue electrical marks on his sides.

• Stealth Lockdown (Animated 3-pack, 2008)

A Universe Legends-class Bumblebee came packaged with this Target-exclusive clear version of Lockdown, as well as a Legends Optimus Prime. This Bumblebee is almost identical to the individual Universe release, except this version has silver painted windows as well as a silver Autobot faction symbol rather than the Universe release's red.

• Cyber Speed Bumblebee (Power Bots, 2008)

A large, non-transforming figure of Bumblebee in bulky, child-friendly form. He comes with lights and sounds, including a stinger sound on the right arm, which has the stinger deployed, and a "punching" sound and extending fist on the left. He also speaks a slew of phrases, including "Bring it on, Decepticons!" and "Hi, I'm Bumblebee!", again using Bumper Robinson voice clips. He is, of course, utterly adorable.

• Street Patrol Bumblebee (Power Bots, 2009)

Anyone seen my transformation cog?

This Bumblebee has red stripes on his stinger arm and his stripe is dark blue.

• Shockwave VS Bumblebee (multipack, 2009)

File:Shockwavepurplebumblebeetoys.jpg

Hey, they said I was supposed to meet Longarm here. Who are you?

Activators Bumblebee packaged with a purple redeco of Voyager Shockwave in a Target-exclusive multipack.

Transformers (2007 movie line)

• Legacy of Bumblebee (Deluxe class multi-pack, 2008)

A Walmart exclusive three pack, the Legacy of Bumblebee collector's set comes with Classics, Movie Deluxe Class Concept Camaro (Premium Series) and Animated Bumblebee figures. While the movie and Animated Bumblebees are identical to their original, single carded releases, the Classics Bumblebee has been redecoed to more closely resemble his movie and Animated counterparts, changing his white stripes to black, and his grey/silver plastic to yellow, similarly to Henkei! Henkei! Bumble.

Universe (2008)

• Bumblebee (Legends, 2008)

File:Legends bb sized.jpg

Is that size-accurate enough?

A smaller, simplified Legends-scale Bumblebee toy, released under the Universe toyline.

A slightly different version of this toy can also be found as part of the Animated Stealth Lockdown three-pack with Legends Optimus Prime, and as part of a Universe three-pack with Legends Optimus Prime and Legends Prowl.

• More information on Bumblebee at TFU.info

Notes

My real windshield is on my heels!

• Bumblebee's arm-mounted shock stingers are very likely inspired by an early weapon concept from the 2007 movie Bumblebee.

• The character who would become Bumblebee was originally conceived as Hot Shot, but changed to Bumblebee at the insistence of incoming supervising director Matt Youngberg and art director Derrick J. Wyatt. This explains why his character is more like Hot Shot and less like... well, Bumblebee. He also arguably shares personality traits with other, similarly brash "ADHD" characters such as Hot Rod and Cheetor. Cut from the same cloth, at any rate.

• Bumblebee appears to have a fake car roof on his chest in both his toy and on his character model. Not only does Bumblebee transform like his toy in his drawn-out animated transformation sequences, with his legs forming the top of the vehicle and the rest forming the underside, but his "real" windshield is drawn on the back of his legs, just like the toy. Plus the headlights on Bumblebee's feet are upside-down, just like the toy's. However, Bumblebee's vehicle mode stripe doesn't change sides like on the toy. Cheatsy!

• In addition to the above, in "The Thrill of the Hunt," Bumblebee reaches under his fake car roof kibble to get out his air freshener and fuzzy dice. This would mean that he had kept them in his back seat or trunk. Interestingly enough, on the Deluxe toy, you can actually store small items in his chest thanks to his opening 'trunk'.

• He likes to swear a lot. Slag yeah!

Sentinel Prime was so horrified his scream blew out Jazz's audio sensors...and Jazz was in another building at the time.

• He apparently got his name for being a bumbler in Autobot boot camp. Autoboot Camp

• On the Transformers Animated Season One DVD set, the "Season Two Sneak Peek" special feature shows Bumblebee's character model colored in the Elite Guard Bumblebee toy's deco. Bumblebee did not actually use that color scheme in Season 2, so its inclusion in a Season Two gallery is puzzling at best...

• With the airing of the episodes "Human Error" Parts 1 and 2, an interesting and probably unintentional question has been brought up. Bumblebee's human form is obviously much younger than the others, even Prowl and Bulkhead, putting him somewhere around pre-teen to early teen years. Everything else about the humans reflect their bot conterparts spot on, down to a scar on Ratchet's face to represent his broken chevron. So, seeing as human Bee is obviously so young, does that make him a child soldier? Or is he just plain short?

• Bumblebee's original body-type is apparently quite common on Cybertron—he shares it with Cliffjumper, Wasp, Tap-Out, Freeway, Searchlight, Hubcap, Sedan, Carrera, Furao, Bumper and Glyph.

External links

• Bumblebee at TFU.info
• Hasbro.com - How to Draw: Animated Bumblebee