I never saw a Bumblejumper in the wild. But- a friend of mine made regular trips to Japan in the mid 80s to visit family and frequently brought back toys that were the envy of every kid in the neighborhood. One of those was a Blue Optimus Prime that combined with his trailer. Imagine trying to process that at 7 years old knowing nothing about Diaclone. Mind blown.
This is a highly sought after piece by collectors. 2 years ago I was strolling through a local flea market and happened to see a familiar piece of yellow plastic in a hot wheels tray. Packed in with all of the other cars, I picked it up and sure enough it was Bumper. After quietly losing my mind on the inside when the woman said it was only 50 cents, I paid her and walked off, trying to contain my excitement. It sat on my shelf for a few months before I sold it on ebay for $150.00! This is why I love flea markets. You never know what you'll find. Thanks for this great video.
I distinctly remember seeing red Bumblebees and yellow Cliffjumpers on the racks at Child World during the early days of Transformers. Haven't thought about that in 34 years but it all came back when I saw the title of this video!
This is intriguing, because I had a Bumblebee that was red, the art on the package was red, and so forth, and I knew from the start that he looked an awful lot like Cliffjumper (my very first Transformer!), but that it was weird because he wasn't yellow like on the cartoon or in the comics. Hmm...I see from some comments earlier that this might be known as "Cliffbee."
Twin Cloud Car would be #1 and #2 on my "This isn't what I wanted, Mom." list. I received not just one, but two Twin Cloud Cars (does that make it a Quad Cloud Car) and longed for an X-Wing or Tie Fighter.
Or a pharmacy's limited two shelves of toys that usually had some sort of generic water guns, tethered rc cars, generic Barbie knockoffs and some stuffed dolls. sometimes and some places would have a farm playset. Oh. and Duplos. This was obviously way back when my uncle bought cigarettes at pharmacies.
My dad always tells me the story of how the only star wars toys his parents ever got him were Greedo and Snaggletooth and how all his life he was baffled by not only why these characters were made into toys but why these were the ones his parents chose to get him
I watched a few of your other videos but the obscurity of this useless random information is much appreciated by an 80's kid such as myself that I subscribed. Thank you for keeping the weird random little details in our history for geeks like me alive.
sedan actually went on to be used in transformers animated as an obscure background character. the animation model had the body of cybertronian mode bumblebee/cliffjumper, also know as "body type 65356-9292-346" yet he had a completely new head design directly based on that of the original mazda familia robocar.
I had a red 'Bumblebee' my grandma bought me at a dollar store back in the 80's. She bought my brother a tiny 6'(or so) transformable SDF-1 (Robotech) that had tons of little cannons that fit into peg holes, that of course, were lost days later. I always though the factory made a mistake on the red Bumblebee but the Penny slot on the back perplexed me for decades. But now i know. Thanks, Toy Galaxy, for solving that mystery!
My First Transformer was a Bumble Jumper. Called it Cliff Hopper because us kids had no Idea what to call it in Elementary school. Thanks for the history!
I picked up a yellow Bumper at a convention one time. I had never heard of him before and I was very excited to discover a "new to me" old Transformer. Thanks for going over his convoluted origin in this video! I would love to see a video like this about the mix-ups with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. (Most toy historians say their character bios got swapped accidentally for similar reasons to the Bumper mix-up: multiple similar colored Japanese versions).
haha that renegade Fiat is hilarious, and priceless all in one. I had no idea about all of this rebranding, it's fascinating, and finally explains why I had 2 different colored Bumblebees.
I first heard about this off a TV show called "Toy Hunter", the host found one of him in North Carolina, neat show, and cool looking little car. Excellent video as always
I was just a tad too young to experience the whole transformers fad, but got massively into them during the Generation 2 reruns in the early 90s, which is when my brother, who was 11 years older than me, gave me all his old Generation 1 Transformers. A couple months later he picked up a whole bunch of other Transformers from a fleemarket, many still in the original packaging, including Bumblejumper. Didn't know that at the time, though. And didn't find out until about 2003, when I joined the Seibertron forums.
Love your videos. I grew up with Diaclones, still remember that Xmas when everything suddenly turned into Transformers at the toy store. I would love a video focusing on Takara and Diaclone specifically and their story pre-Hasbro.
I never knew of Bumblejumper until the late 90s or early 2000s when I started working flea markets gathering old toys for cheap and reselling them to collectors or comic book places for more cash. Honestly, I really enjoyed the character, because there was infinite possibilities with him. I am glad you have finally done an episode on him, I've been meaning to suggest it, but wasn't sure he was considered enough of an oddity to be eligible. Thanks for giving us a look into what might have been. Oh, and as far as trapped between realities is considered, wouldn't that be a reality in of itself? Bumblejumper or Bumper is not caught between realities. He simply exists in ones that we have not yet discovered or created depending on your paradigm.
I saw a red Bumblebee in a shop in the next town to where I grew up, and, loving to have things that are different, intended to get my parents to take me back a week later when I'd have the money to buy it. Given that my brother already had a Bumblebee, I planned on calling it something like "Hoverfly", and have a completely unique-to-me Transformer. The next week, I went back, there were only yellow ones, and I was really, really pissed off.
I clearly remember seeing both the red and yellow Bumblejumpers in Zayre when I was a kid. We used to think that it was some kind of mistake and was somehow not valid, so we never bought them. This wasn't like a one-time occurrence, either, they were on the shelves for months.
Love the Stranger Things intro. Seriously, you guys have the best production quality. Better than many “corporate company” channels. Keep up the great work.
Finally. My childhood mistery is explained. I had cliffjumper in yellow and for me it was bumblebee; but I was not very happy because it was different from the cartoons
I found one at OTFCC 2004 for $80. The only things wrong were cosmetic. Small scratch on the side and some paint missing from one of the tail lights. 14 years later, still in the same condition.
Wish they'd re-released Bumper as one of those key-chain versions some years back, preferably in blue for a more distinct look. I like the keychain because it emphasizes that this thing is not car-sized but toy-sized.
I had Bumble Jumper as a kid. In fact it was the first Transformer I received as a kid. I remember all the other kids brought their Transformers to school to play with at Recess. When I took my transformer to school none of the kids believed me when I said it was an actual Transformer in an actual Transformers' box. They thought my parents bought a knock-off. I couldn't convince anyone it was really a Transformer. The stupid box art showed a red Cliff Jumper and the toy was a yellow variant.
I remember studying this oddball at Sears back in the day; along with a red bumblebee - my eight year old logic was- “this is messed up, I don’t want it” rather than “this is unique, I should get it” - DOH
Exactly as we all felt back in the age when being like others was often much more important. We had no reason to think 'that's going to be worth like two hundred bucks in 2019'. I still cringe a bit when I think of the mostly-not-valuable Transformers I allowed to leave my possession after age 15 or so (and within like five years of that, the prices on them had begun to rise). I had an original Jazz and I really miss it.
I was the exact demographic for The Transformers in the '80s and grew up with them. It was a strange time, because where the comic and cartoon were fairly consistent, these unexplained oddities would appear, like Bumblejumper, Yellow Cliffjumper, Red Bumblebee, Radio Shack's Laser Man (aka Grey Shockwave, aka Shackwave), and imports that spoke of other mysterious variants from overseas. Our 8 year old brains struggled to make sense of all of it. Who were these little fugures from the Japan market who could ride inside Prime and others? Why didn't TF proper include them? We had very answers without the internet. Those were truly dark, shadowy days.
I never had an odd colored Transformer when I was a kid, bit I distantly remembered seeing a blue Optimus at some kids house my mom visited once. For years I thought it was a dream until I found it really did exist.
I KNEW you were going to mention Estrela... It virtually licensed all the key Hasbro's (and Mattel) best sellers here in Brazil. Guess what: I had a silverpainted version of... Bumble bee. Asked for a bumble bee, didn't tell my mom and stepdad it has to be in yellow... got a silver one.
The first Transformer I owned was the red Bumblebee. Eventually the hinge snapped for his head, but I don't think I ever lost the head (it's currently in a storage unit near my late mother's house, but I wasn't present for the moving to actually look at stuff since I don't live in the area) although I transformed him so much he couldn't stand up anymore without his legs collapsing back in. I remember Tim Gibson shouting at me as he went back into the classroom door down the hall after recess that it was Cliffjumper, even though it has Bumblebee's face, body, and decorations. For some odd reason red Bumblebee and yellow Cliffjumper were more common than the reverse. I remember it took forever to find a red Cliffjumper when I wanted to buy one. I did eventually get one after trying many stores that had only the yellow one. I never had a Bumblejumper, though. They should have released him in blue.
Genuinely surprised you didn't bring up mailaway exclusive Hubcap during this one-- a very slight remold of cliffjumper with a new face and no spoiler on his vehicle mode, cast in a bumblebee-esque yellow plastic. he's already a character who's equal parts bumblebee and cliffjumper while at the same time not being bumblejumper/bumper, and his existence arguably refutes a couple of the possible reasons for Bumper not seeing an official, wholly intentional release.
Hubcap was from two years later, though. He was also incorrectly labeled "Cliffjumper" on the mail-order flier. (And not actually exclusive to the mail offer.) And seven years after that, I think Hasbro was just trolling everyone, because they made G2 Hubcap red.
I’m assuming they had all of the molds and someone at Hasbro used the wrong one in production runs by mistake. Rather than own up, they packaged the robots as Cliffjumper and hoped nobody would notice. Thus, a legend was born! 😁
Not quite the same thing, but I live in the UK and we never got Swoop (as far as I know!) but once I did see a Swoop box on the shelves of a toy shop. I raced over to look at it only to discover it had Snarl or Slag inside. I’ve no idea how that box came to be on the shelves with the wrong Dinobot in it, it’s been a minor mystery I’ve always wondered about. Were Hasbro UK planning to release Swoop and then cancelled it and decided to use the boxes they’d already made, assuming the kids wouldn’t notice?
Could very well have been an error at the factory when it was packaged. Figures on the wrong card or in the wrong boxes happens often, I have a McFarlane Toys 'Movie Maniacs' Jason Voorhees figure that was packaged on a Freedy Krueger blister card. And you're right, Swoop never made it over to the UK. A friend of mine did have Swoop though, his uncle who lived in America was visiting over and he brought him several transformers, one of them being Swoop. He was the only kid in school who actually had all five Dinobots. Typically, there were other kids who claimed to have Swoop, but they never brought him in, always "forgetting" to bring him to school the next day.
Swoop, along with Shockwave, the deluxe Autobots and Deluxe Insecticons did make it to the U.K. but only as grey imports. There were several markets that sold these in Milton Keynes and London.
I do remember seeing a Shockwave in a Tandy store once, but he wasn't purple and the box wasn't Transformers branded. I think he was transparent for some reason, maybe he was supposed to be Shockwave's Ghost. ;)
That would be Radio Shack/Tandy or the Astroman. The company that owned the Shockwave mold has sold it to several companies of which some predated Hasbro, hence why in the U.K. he wasn’t released as the license was already with someone else. The rights are so complex no one knows who actually has the rights to those moulds world wide so reissues aren’t a option
When i was a kid i had a Bumblebee in yellow & red, a CliffJumper in red & yellow AND the BumbleJumper figure (one of the few i didn't open because i kept thinking it was a goof too) & literally everyone who didn't come to my house & see it with their own eyes constantly called me a liar all the way through elementary, middle AND high school. It wasn't until less than a decade ago when the whole internet thing took off enough that wikis & document/sites popped up & they could look it up themselves.
Sir I discovered your Vids and CAN NOT STOP WATCHING lol I'm 53 and had ALL the Mego Planet Of the Apes super heroes Anyway my brother just sent me my old Mattel RODAN figure from the late 70's I had other of the large Shogun Warriors figures including Godzilla and this Rodan I was hoping you could do a segment on this toyline Thank you John
If I were in charge of a Transformers series or movie, I would include both Bumper and Hubcap in cameos (maybe killed off early) as a nod to the fans or an excuse for official toy releases.
"This isn't what I asked for mom." So true, lol. Hopefully that was internal thought though and we accepted the third string character with a smile and now looking back we remember how much we actually loved that imposter and wished we had it today, all scratched and busted up. Phew. I'll be on eBay if anyone needs me.
who was also set up to be a traitor sleeper agent after being captured and his mind mess with by Bombshell. Then Dreamwave shut down and they never finished the arc. Still kinda upsets me because I really wonder how the whole thing woulda played out.
@@kalebj16003 Daaamn. I never heard that. I loosely heard Ultra Magnus's trailer/armor was supposed to be Optimus's. But when he was mortally wounded, Optimus gave it to him. Deception MATRIX was another. Oh Dreamwave,... you really messed up and broke this fanboy's heart 😣
@@Warsie-Fan thing is, I was like 3 when those comics were being made, so I went back several years later to read them and then the series just ended. When I tell you I was mad. Finding out they never finsihed the series was just so maddening. I mean they went bankrupt, so I can't blame them. I just wished IDW hired the writers to continue the arc before they rebooted.
@@kalebj16003 I knew a guy who knew those brothers well. Pat and Roger Lee. Two brothers who drew comics and started Dereamwave. They where from Toronto, Ontario Canada. They where very young and dumb! They both bought very expensive sports cars with the money they made. They did not pay their artists and writers and kept the truth from them when they both knew the company was going under. They are known as the scourge of comics and left a lot of angry people in their wake.
I've had to explain this theory for almost 30 years. I actually had a red Bumblebee. His package name was in fact, "stinger." I never saw the blue version.
I remember having several Bumblebee toys as a kid, because I kept losing them and had to get replacements. I swear that one if them was not a VW beetle (could have been the Mazda, I don't remember) but was on a Bumblebee card. Hubcap, maybe?
I totally was trapped in a pocket dimension. I got the evil version of my friend who was sporting a goatee to help. Came out fine, and lucrative for further stories!
Perhaps Bumper was the actual robot shown in the TV where we see what we thought was bumblebee but bumblebee was in a different location at the time. I say we just use is to explain the animation mistakes in the G1 show.
So those penny racers were available in yellow, red, and blue. It never occurred to Hasbro that they could have simply released this mold in blue since yellow was already used for Bumblebee and red for Cliff Jumper? Weird...
I would love if Bumper was implemented in a show or movie where he is an interdimensional and/or time traveling transformer. Heck, just slap the name and that mythology on a Delorean transformer.
I've had a red Bumblebee for many years and always wondered if it was a rarity or something. From the comments, I'm guessing it was not. I still have it, it's somewhere in my storage unit.
While I never saw a Bumblejumper, My friend and I bought opposite color BubbleBee and Cliffjumpers. My Bumblebee was RED, his Cliffjumper was YELLOW.. we already had the normal versions, but I remember that I unscrewed my regular Cliffjumper (red) and that RED Bumblebee, and I switched the Heads, because I liked Bumblebee's head better. My friend did the same thing but with his regular bumblebee (yellow) and his YELLOW Cliffjumper. When we saw them, there was only one of each, and we thought it was a factory error from Hasbro. I also have a seemingly factory error GI Joe Crimson Guard without the black paint on his mask, it just came red. I wish I hadn't opened it, but as a kid, I wanted him to be the leader of my other Crimson Guards (I wasn't a fan of Tomax and Xamot as leaders of them).
When Hasbro calls a red Bumblebee Bumblebee, everyone thinks Cliffjumper is a red Bumblebee. When Hasbro calls a red Bumblebee Cliffjumper, everyone knows Cliffjumper isn't a red Bumblebee. Weird
@@namelessjedi2242 It is not 'more distinctive' to make another one of the same thing in a different color. That would be a DILUTION of the uniqueness of the characters, and just a cheap, corny tactic that would have made the Go-Bots a lot more memorable by comparison. These toys weren't famous when first rolled off the assembly line and it would be an awful business decision to just make them in various colors when the cartoon and comic show it in yellow, because the character is called 'Bumblebee' and they aren't blue. How is this escaping people so easily? The name is Bumblebee. Yellow and black.
Bumblejumper, aka Bumper does show up from time to time. Only to be have his brain altered by Bombshell or be murdered by Megatron in cold blood(that happened in two continutites) they even almost made a mainline relase of him as a remold of TFP RID Rumble. It never made it past the concept art stage though. He's so close to having a role in something yet so far.
Bumper was my first Transformer, but I didn’t realize it until years after. I thought I just had a yellow Cliffjumper and was surprised to realize Cliff was supposed to have a spoiler which mine lacked. Later on in the G1 days, I painted his face orange to use as Hubcap, since my best friend already had both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. My Bumper lost a wheel and is long since gone. Only in the last few years did I realize what a rare toy my annoyingly yellow “Cliffjumper”/“Hubcap” was.
In the Olden days of the online tf fandom, they did differentiate the red/yellow with Bumblejumper and Cliffbee. The latter fell out of favor in the last decade or so.
There used to be a review fan site that went by Cliffbee dot com, it had A TON of reviews, practically every single Transformer from G1 til maybe DotM, but sadly, it's gone now :(
I had this as a kid. I remember being confused because Bumblebee was a VW Bug. Wish I could find it now. I also remember having other penny racers that didn't transform. Wish I could find those too.
Ah the mythical Bumper...one of those toy mysteries that keeps us guessing... It’s been on my mystery list for a long time, I’m afraid I’ll die without a clear answer, but it’s been fun 😃 Been trap between realities...does it count if it’s my recurring dreams? They even have sequels and plots ✌🏽
Minibot cars was basically the only toys you could afford in your weekly allowance and i ended up with red bumblebee, blue bumblebee, yellow bumblebee, Red cliffjumper, blue cliffjumper, yellow cliffjumper, yellow Bumber and blue Bumper Also windcharger in blue, red and black green brawn and black brawn. I didnt know what was the coloutr they should be until i got access to marvel comics.
also diclone transformers with weird colors ad blue hoist and red tracks but sold in official transformer packaging. I think it is because hasbro and takara had outsourced making to many other companies.
Was “Bumblejumper” really super rare? I remember endless frustration as a child trying to find Bumblebee in the store and only finding red ones or yellow Cliffjumpers. Of course “endless frustration” to a seven year old might have been only two weeks time... I also remember finding bootleg Ravage and Lazerbeak tapes on cards at the drugstore... I wonder who made them, because I’ve never been able to find any info on them online. There was a kid in my 2nd grade class whose Dad went to Japan on business a lot and had a bunch of Diaclone stuff that he his dad had brought back. Seeing those little drivers explained the mystery of all the seats and cockpits that were clearly designed to hold SOMETHING on all the early transformers.
I never saw a Bumblejumper in the wild. But- a friend of mine made regular trips to Japan in the mid 80s to visit family and frequently brought back toys that were the envy of every kid in the neighborhood. One of those was a Blue Optimus Prime that combined with his trailer. Imagine trying to process that at 7 years old knowing nothing about Diaclone. Mind blown.
UncleDeluxe Delta Magnus.
Duuuuude that’s a Diaclone Delta Magnus 😮😮😮
i bought him in the "wild" got him the same day I got my Starscream. It was at my local Coast to Coast hardware store of all places...
That's the one I had
That was the Diaclone Delta Magnus, that eventually became Ultra Magnus, albeit redecoed
This is a highly sought after piece by collectors. 2 years ago I was strolling through a local flea market and happened to see a familiar piece of yellow plastic in a hot wheels tray. Packed in with all of the other cars, I picked it up and sure enough it was Bumper. After quietly losing my mind on the inside when the woman said it was only 50 cents, I paid her and walked off, trying to contain my excitement. It sat on my shelf for a few months before I sold it on ebay for $150.00! This is why I love flea markets. You never know what you'll find. Thanks for this great video.
I distinctly remember seeing red Bumblebees and yellow Cliffjumpers on the racks at Child World during the early days of Transformers. Haven't thought about that in 34 years but it all came back when I saw the title of this video!
I had a red bumblebee. I really wish my mom didn't sell all my toys lol
Still got my Red Bumblebee at my mums house somewhere....
I remember seeing yellow Cliffjumpers because I kept trying to find a Bumbblebee and that was closest I ever found.
I had a yellow Cliffjumper and my brother had a red Bumblebee...
Yeah, those were released to make the toyline seem bigger than it was.
This is intriguing, because I had a Bumblebee that was red, the art on the package was red, and so forth, and I knew from the start that he looked an awful lot like Cliffjumper (my very first Transformer!), but that it was weird because he wasn't yellow like on the cartoon or in the comics. Hmm...I see from some comments earlier that this might be known as "Cliffbee."
Yup. there were many variants of those molds. but only two made it to the screen.
Y'all need to do a top 10 "This isn't what I wanted, Mom." List lol. Bad knock offs, low rung on the ladder characters, and the cobra pogo pod
Aka- The 80s Grocery Store Toy Section Top 10.
I think I liked toys too much to care. I myself bought cheap knockoffs knowingly as a kid. Remco Geckoman? Guess Skeletor got a new henchman today!
Twin Cloud Car would be #1 and #2 on my "This isn't what I wanted, Mom." list. I received not just one, but two Twin Cloud Cars (does that make it a Quad Cloud Car) and longed for an X-Wing or Tie Fighter.
Or a pharmacy's limited two shelves of toys that usually had some sort of generic water guns, tethered rc cars, generic Barbie knockoffs and some stuffed dolls. sometimes and some places would have a farm playset. Oh. and Duplos.
This was obviously way back when my uncle bought cigarettes at pharmacies.
My dad always tells me the story of how the only star wars toys his parents ever got him were Greedo and Snaggletooth and how all his life he was baffled by not only why these characters were made into toys but why these were the ones his parents chose to get him
I watched a few of your other videos but the obscurity of this useless random information is much appreciated by an 80's kid such as myself that I subscribed. Thank you for keeping the weird random little details in our history for geeks like me alive.
The yellow Cliffjumper was my very first Transformer. It was bought at an HEB grocery store in San Antonio, TX.
The exact same one shown on the thumbnail.
sedan actually went on to be used in transformers animated as an obscure background character. the animation model had the body of cybertronian mode bumblebee/cliffjumper, also know as "body type 65356-9292-346" yet he had a completely new head design directly based on that of the original mazda familia robocar.
I had a red 'Bumblebee' my grandma bought me at a dollar store back in the 80's. She bought my brother a tiny 6'(or so) transformable SDF-1 (Robotech) that had tons of little cannons that fit into peg holes, that of course, were lost days later.
I always though the factory made a mistake on the red Bumblebee but the Penny slot on the back perplexed me for decades. But now i know. Thanks, Toy Galaxy, for solving that mystery!
My First Transformer was a Bumble Jumper. Called it Cliff Hopper because us kids had no Idea what to call it in Elementary school.
Thanks for the history!
You're quickly approaching 100k subscribers. Keep up the excellent work, Dan and thanks.
Yay! New Oddities ep! These weird Minibots were always my favorite.
I picked up a yellow Bumper at a convention one time. I had never heard of him before and I was very excited to discover a "new to me" old Transformer. Thanks for going over his convoluted origin in this video!
I would love to see a video like this about the mix-ups with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. (Most toy historians say their character bios got swapped accidentally for similar reasons to the Bumper mix-up: multiple similar colored Japanese versions).
Never get tired of watching these videos.
haha that renegade Fiat is hilarious, and priceless all in one. I had no idea about all of this rebranding, it's fascinating, and finally explains why I had 2 different colored Bumblebees.
I first heard about this off a TV show called "Toy Hunter", the host found one of him in North Carolina, neat show, and cool looking little car.
Excellent video as always
Scientists cured it in the late '90s. There is no reason for anyone to suffer from bumblejumper in this day and age.
I was just a tad too young to experience the whole transformers fad, but got massively into them during the Generation 2 reruns in the early 90s, which is when my brother, who was 11 years older than me, gave me all his old Generation 1 Transformers. A couple months later he picked up a whole bunch of other Transformers from a fleemarket, many still in the original packaging, including Bumblejumper. Didn't know that at the time, though. And didn't find out until about 2003, when I joined the Seibertron forums.
Love your videos. I grew up with Diaclones, still remember that Xmas when everything suddenly turned into Transformers at the toy store. I would love a video focusing on Takara and Diaclone specifically and their story pre-Hasbro.
I never knew of Bumblejumper until the late 90s or early 2000s when I started working flea markets gathering old toys for cheap and reselling them to collectors or comic book places for more cash. Honestly, I really enjoyed the character, because there was infinite possibilities with him. I am glad you have finally done an episode on him, I've been meaning to suggest it, but wasn't sure he was considered enough of an oddity to be eligible. Thanks for giving us a look into what might have been.
Oh, and as far as trapped between realities is considered, wouldn't that be a reality in of itself? Bumblejumper or Bumper is not caught between realities. He simply exists in ones that we have not yet discovered or created depending on your paradigm.
I still have mine from childhood. I had a yellow Bumblebee, yellow Cliffjumper, Bumper and Hubcap. I guess I loved yellow minibots.
Another grand episode. Just when I think I know all there is to know...you guys once again drive the Transformers bus to school, son! Well done.
I had one of those red Bumblebee versions. It totally fell into this isn't the one I wanted category.
I saw a red Bumblebee in a shop in the next town to where I grew up, and, loving to have things that are different, intended to get my parents to take me back a week later when I'd have the money to buy it. Given that my brother already had a Bumblebee, I planned on calling it something like "Hoverfly", and have a completely unique-to-me Transformer.
The next week, I went back, there were only yellow ones, and I was really, really pissed off.
Sedan Larson.
lol
_spits drink all over pc monitor_
I clearly remember seeing both the red and yellow Bumblejumpers in Zayre when I was a kid. We used to think that it was some kind of mistake and was somehow not valid, so we never bought them. This wasn't like a one-time occurrence, either, they were on the shelves for months.
Great review as always 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Very nice piece Ash, i mean Dan! And I see your bearing down on 100,000. Let's make it happen Capn
There was a blue bumblebee released, she was called glyph, and she’s the most underrated character ever
I also had a yellow Cliff Jumper in the 80s, but always saw him as Bumblebee.
Love the Stranger Things intro. Seriously, you guys have the best production quality. Better than many “corporate company” channels. Keep up the great work.
Finally. My childhood mistery is explained. I had cliffjumper in yellow and for me it was bumblebee; but I was not very happy because it was different from the cartoons
I had this toy. It was my first Transformer. The kids at school accused me of having a knock off despite me insisting he was an actual Transformer.
I found one at OTFCC 2004 for $80. The only things wrong were cosmetic. Small scratch on the side and some paint missing from one of the tail lights. 14 years later, still in the same condition.
Hey, I had that white "robocar sedan" when I was a kid!
Wish they'd re-released Bumper as one of those key-chain versions some years back, preferably in blue for a more distinct look. I like the keychain because it emphasizes that this thing is not car-sized but toy-sized.
I had Bumble Jumper as a kid. In fact it was the first Transformer I received as a kid. I remember all the other kids brought their Transformers to school to play with at Recess. When I took my transformer to school none of the kids believed me when I said it was an actual Transformer in an actual Transformers' box. They thought my parents bought a knock-off. I couldn't convince anyone it was really a Transformer. The stupid box art showed a red Cliff Jumper and the toy was a yellow variant.
And then after two years of the tv show, they killed all our toys, but we still love them. We must be an audience that loves being abused.
I remember studying this oddball at Sears back in the day; along with a red bumblebee - my eight year old logic was- “this is messed up, I don’t want it” rather than “this is unique, I should get it” - DOH
Exactly as we all felt back in the age when being like others was often much more important. We had no reason to think 'that's going to be worth like two hundred bucks in 2019'. I still cringe a bit when I think of the mostly-not-valuable Transformers I allowed to leave my possession after age 15 or so (and within like five years of that, the prices on them had begun to rise). I had an original Jazz and I really miss it.
Man! I had one of those as a kid!!! The feels!!! 😍😍😍
How does you channel only have 91k subscribers? You are a God made flesh.
I was the exact demographic for The Transformers in the '80s and grew up with them. It was a strange time, because where the comic and cartoon were fairly consistent, these unexplained oddities would appear, like Bumblejumper, Yellow Cliffjumper, Red Bumblebee, Radio Shack's Laser Man (aka Grey Shockwave, aka Shackwave), and imports that spoke of other mysterious variants from overseas. Our 8 year old brains struggled to make sense of all of it. Who were these little fugures from the Japan market who could ride inside Prime and others? Why didn't TF proper include them? We had very answers without the internet. Those were truly dark, shadowy days.
Love the video guys , keep
It up
I like the old school trance beat playing 50 seconds or so. It actually brought me back to a rave or two but the colors weren't running.
I never had an odd colored Transformer when I was a kid, bit I distantly remembered seeing a blue Optimus at some kids house my mom visited once. For years I thought it was a dream until I found it really did exist.
Love that Wilhelm scream.
I KNEW you were going to mention Estrela... It virtually licensed all the key Hasbro's (and Mattel) best sellers here in Brazil. Guess what: I had a silverpainted version of... Bumble bee. Asked for a bumble bee, didn't tell my mom and stepdad it has to be in yellow... got a silver one.
The first Transformer I owned was the red Bumblebee. Eventually the hinge snapped for his head, but I don't think I ever lost the head (it's currently in a storage unit near my late mother's house, but I wasn't present for the moving to actually look at stuff since I don't live in the area) although I transformed him so much he couldn't stand up anymore without his legs collapsing back in. I remember Tim Gibson shouting at me as he went back into the classroom door down the hall after recess that it was Cliffjumper, even though it has Bumblebee's face, body, and decorations. For some odd reason red Bumblebee and yellow Cliffjumper were more common than the reverse. I remember it took forever to find a red Cliffjumper when I wanted to buy one. I did eventually get one after trying many stores that had only the yellow one. I never had a Bumblejumper, though. They should have released him in blue.
Genuinely surprised you didn't bring up mailaway exclusive Hubcap during this one-- a very slight remold of cliffjumper with a new face and no spoiler on his vehicle mode, cast in a bumblebee-esque yellow plastic. he's already a character who's equal parts bumblebee and cliffjumper while at the same time not being bumblejumper/bumper, and his existence arguably refutes a couple of the possible reasons for Bumper not seeing an official, wholly intentional release.
Hubcap was from two years later, though.
He was also incorrectly labeled "Cliffjumper" on the mail-order flier. (And not actually exclusive to the mail offer.)
And seven years after that, I think Hasbro was just trolling everyone, because they made G2 Hubcap red.
Should start a petition to give Bumper a Masterpiece release.
I’m assuming they had all of the molds and someone at Hasbro used the wrong one in production runs by mistake. Rather than own up, they packaged the robots as Cliffjumper and hoped nobody would notice. Thus, a legend was born! 😁
I remember hearing about BumbleJumper years ago on The Toy Hunter, he had found one in the childhood collecton of some guy from Appalachia.
I had a red Bumblebee. I remember Tim Gibson yelling down the hallway in 3rd grade that it was Cliffjumper.
Not quite the same thing, but I live in the UK and we never got Swoop (as far as I know!) but once I did see a Swoop box on the shelves of a toy shop. I raced over to look at it only to discover it had Snarl or Slag inside. I’ve no idea how that box came to be on the shelves with the wrong Dinobot in it, it’s been a minor mystery I’ve always wondered about. Were Hasbro UK planning to release Swoop and then cancelled it and decided to use the boxes they’d already made, assuming the kids wouldn’t notice?
Could very well have been an error at the factory when it was packaged. Figures on the wrong card or in the wrong boxes happens often, I have a McFarlane Toys 'Movie Maniacs' Jason Voorhees figure that was packaged on a Freedy Krueger blister card.
And you're right, Swoop never made it over to the UK. A friend of mine did have Swoop though, his uncle who lived in America was visiting over and he brought him several transformers, one of them being Swoop. He was the only kid in school who actually had all five Dinobots. Typically, there were other kids who claimed to have Swoop, but they never brought him in, always "forgetting" to bring him to school the next day.
BinaltechGinrai explains why I never could get him .
Swoop, along with Shockwave, the deluxe Autobots and Deluxe Insecticons did make it to the U.K. but only as grey imports.
There were several markets that sold these in Milton Keynes and London.
I do remember seeing a Shockwave in a Tandy store once, but he wasn't purple and the box wasn't Transformers branded. I think he was transparent for some reason, maybe he was supposed to be Shockwave's Ghost. ;)
That would be Radio Shack/Tandy or the Astroman. The company that owned the Shockwave mold has sold it to several companies of which some predated Hasbro, hence why in the U.K. he wasn’t released as the license was already with someone else. The rights are so complex no one knows who actually has the rights to those moulds world wide so reissues aren’t a option
You guys rock thank you
Been collecting for 25 years, never knew about Sedan.
Thanks for the vid sir.👍🏼👍🏼
Bumper might be better suited as a cliff jumper remold with a new head and the white sedan color might help him stand out a little.
When i was a kid i had a Bumblebee in yellow & red, a CliffJumper in red & yellow AND the BumbleJumper figure (one of the few i didn't open because i kept thinking it was a goof too) & literally everyone who didn't come to my house & see it with their own eyes constantly called me a liar all the way through elementary, middle AND high school. It wasn't until less than a decade ago when the whole internet thing took off enough that wikis & document/sites popped up & they could look it up themselves.
Sir I discovered your Vids and CAN NOT STOP WATCHING lol I'm 53 and had ALL the Mego Planet Of the Apes super heroes Anyway my brother just sent me my old Mattel RODAN figure from the late 70's I had other of the large Shogun Warriors figures including Godzilla and this Rodan I was hoping you could do a segment on this toyline Thank you
John
I feel so maaivly effected by this background music.
Bumper wasn't the only one, there was also Hubcap.
Also the Diakron line hit shelves in the US featuring the Red Sunstreaker and Blue Trailbreaker
If I were in charge of a Transformers series or movie, I would include both Bumper and Hubcap in cameos (maybe killed off early) as a nod to the fans or an excuse for official toy releases.
Love the red back lighting
Somehow I missed this vid. Fascinating
"This isn't what I asked for mom." So true, lol. Hopefully that was internal thought though and we accepted the third string character with a smile and now looking back we remember how much we actually loved that imposter and wished we had it today, all scratched and busted up. Phew. I'll be on eBay if anyone needs me.
Not gonna lie here, I laughed out loud at "ever had a case of the bumblejumpers"?
Once. I don't talk to that girl anymore.
I loved how Dreamwave comics explained this character. He was a rookie autobot new to the team.
who was also set up to be a traitor sleeper agent after being captured and his mind mess with by Bombshell. Then Dreamwave shut down and they never finished the arc. Still kinda upsets me because I really wonder how the whole thing woulda played out.
@@kalebj16003 Daaamn. I never heard that. I loosely heard Ultra Magnus's trailer/armor was supposed to be Optimus's. But when he was mortally wounded, Optimus gave it to him. Deception MATRIX was another.
Oh Dreamwave,... you really messed up and broke this fanboy's heart 😣
@@Warsie-Fan thing is, I was like 3 when those comics were being made, so I went back several years later to read them and then the series just ended. When I tell you I was mad. Finding out they never finsihed the series was just so maddening.
I mean they went bankrupt, so I can't blame them. I just wished IDW hired the writers to continue the arc before they rebooted.
@@kalebj16003 I knew a guy who knew those brothers well. Pat and Roger Lee. Two brothers who drew comics and started Dereamwave. They where from Toronto, Ontario Canada. They where very young and dumb! They both bought very expensive sports cars with the money they made. They did not pay their artists and writers and kept the truth from them when they both knew the company was going under. They are known as the scourge of comics and left a lot of angry people in their wake.
I've had to explain this theory for almost 30 years. I actually had a red Bumblebee. His package name was in fact, "stinger." I never saw the blue version.
I remember having several Bumblebee toys as a kid, because I kept losing them and had to get replacements. I swear that one if them was not a VW beetle (could have been the Mazda, I don't remember) but was on a Bumblebee card. Hubcap, maybe?
Yes, the first Bee I saw in 1984 was from a Bee card and it was yellow, but had a Cliffjumper body.
Love your Synth wave music
I totally was trapped in a pocket dimension. I got the evil version of my friend who was sporting a goatee to help. Came out fine, and lucrative for further stories!
This day, I learned something real.
Perhaps Bumper was the actual robot shown in the TV where we see what we thought was bumblebee but bumblebee was in a different location at the time. I say we just use is to explain the animation mistakes in the G1 show.
So those penny racers were available in yellow, red, and blue. It never occurred to Hasbro that they could have simply released this mold in blue since yellow was already used for Bumblebee and red for Cliff Jumper? Weird...
I would love if Bumper was implemented in a show or movie where he is an interdimensional and/or time traveling transformer.
Heck, just slap the name and that mythology on a Delorean transformer.
I've had a red Bumblebee for many years and always wondered if it was a rarity or something. From the comments, I'm guessing it was not. I still have it, it's somewhere in my storage unit.
This mystery ranks up there with the mystery of the yellow lightsaber
My brother actually got Bumper one Christmas and I got the proper Cliffjumper. I wish we still had both of them.
While I never saw a Bumblejumper, My friend and I bought opposite color BubbleBee and Cliffjumpers. My Bumblebee was RED, his Cliffjumper was YELLOW.. we already had the normal versions, but I remember that I unscrewed my regular Cliffjumper (red) and that RED Bumblebee, and I switched the Heads, because I liked Bumblebee's head better. My friend did the same thing but with his regular bumblebee (yellow) and his YELLOW Cliffjumper. When we saw them, there was only one of each, and we thought it was a factory error from Hasbro. I also have a seemingly factory error GI Joe Crimson Guard without the black paint on his mask, it just came red. I wish I hadn't opened it, but as a kid, I wanted him to be the leader of my other Crimson Guards (I wasn't a fan of Tomax and Xamot as leaders of them).
34 years later - I still have my red Bumblebee in my collection. Forgot all about Penny Racers - I loved those things.
My little brother's first Transformer was Bumblebee but he was red...
Had a Bubble Bee when I was a kid. All my friends would tell me it was Cliff Jumper. Even after I pointed out it was a Volkswagon Beetle.
I had a red Bumblebee as well. I should have called him Bumblejumper.
I heard a similar story from someone once, they ended up calling it Hornet.
When Hasbro calls a red Bumblebee Bumblebee, everyone thinks Cliffjumper is a red Bumblebee.
When Hasbro calls a red Bumblebee Cliffjumper, everyone knows Cliffjumper isn't a red Bumblebee.
Weird
Red-bleBee
They should have just released him in blue
Exactly what I was thinking. Would have fit in well and been distinct in that lineup.
Yeah I thought the same thing too.
@@namelessjedi2242 It is not 'more distinctive' to make another one of the same thing in a different color. That would be a DILUTION of the uniqueness of the characters, and just a cheap, corny tactic that would have made the Go-Bots a lot more memorable by comparison. These toys weren't famous when first rolled off the assembly line and it would be an awful business decision to just make them in various colors when the cartoon and comic show it in yellow, because the character is called 'Bumblebee' and they aren't blue. How is this escaping people so easily? The name is Bumblebee. Yellow and black.
Bumbleblue
That white "Sedan" version looked nice. Kinda like a deformed Delorean.
I had one of these, but it was a hand-me-down from a cousin, so I don't have any backstory. It always perplexed me.
Well said I did not know they need to bring him back as canon wow
He's shown up in the IDW comics.
Bumblejumper, aka Bumper does show up from time to time. Only to be have his brain altered by Bombshell or be murdered by Megatron in cold blood(that happened in two continutites) they even almost made a mainline relase of him as a remold of TFP RID Rumble. It never made it past the concept art stage though.
He's so close to having a role in something yet so far.
My first transformer was a red Bumblebee and I could swear I remember him having a penny slot on the back.
When I was a kid I had a yellow Cliffjumper that came on a Bumblebee card. My brother had a red Bumblebee that came on a Cliffjumper card.
Bumper was my first Transformer, but I didn’t realize it until years after. I thought I just had a yellow Cliffjumper and was surprised to realize Cliff was supposed to have a spoiler which mine lacked. Later on in the G1 days, I painted his face orange to use as Hubcap, since my best friend already had both Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. My Bumper lost a wheel and is long since gone. Only in the last few years did I realize what a rare toy my annoyingly yellow “Cliffjumper”/“Hubcap” was.
I have a red bumblebee. I bought it as a child. I grew to dislike it because my classmates teased me about it being the wrong color.
One of my first 2 TFs was a red Bumblebee bought in June 1984 at a Benny’s.
Great channel 😀👍
I wonder if there was a Cliffbee ?
There was a red bumblebee so I suppose he could be Cliffbee
In the Olden days of the online tf fandom, they did differentiate the red/yellow with Bumblejumper and Cliffbee. The latter fell out of favor in the last decade or so.
There used to be a review fan site that went by Cliffbee dot com, it had A TON of reviews, practically every single Transformer from G1 til maybe DotM, but sadly, it's gone now :(
I generally consider Bumblejumper and yellow Cliffjumper separate entities.
@@OptimusPhillip because they are. One is a Porsche and the other is a Mazda.
I had a red Vw/bumblebee as well, I actually thought that's what this video was about at first.
I had a couple of these. I totally forgot about them till now.
I had this as a kid. I remember being confused because Bumblebee was a VW Bug. Wish I could find it now. I also remember having other penny racers that didn't transform. Wish I could find those too.
I had a red Bumblebee in the late 1980's. I did not know the history back then.
I had those transformer, also bumper yellow and white versions, the only transformers I had!
Ah the mythical Bumper...one of those toy mysteries that keeps us guessing...
It’s been on my mystery list for a long time, I’m afraid I’ll die without a clear answer, but it’s been fun 😃
Been trap between realities...does it count if it’s my recurring dreams? They even have sequels and plots ✌🏽
Minibot cars was basically the only toys you could afford in your weekly allowance and i ended up with red bumblebee, blue bumblebee, yellow bumblebee, Red cliffjumper, blue cliffjumper, yellow cliffjumper, yellow Bumber and blue Bumper Also windcharger in blue, red and black green brawn and black brawn. I didnt know what was the coloutr they should be until i got access to marvel comics.
also diclone transformers with weird colors ad blue hoist and red tracks but sold in official transformer packaging. I think it is because hasbro and takara had outsourced making to many other companies.
I had him also,got him at universal studios back in the day
Was “Bumblejumper” really super rare? I remember endless frustration as a child trying to find Bumblebee in the store and only finding red ones or yellow Cliffjumpers. Of course “endless frustration” to a seven year old might have been only two weeks time...
I also remember finding bootleg Ravage and Lazerbeak tapes on cards at the drugstore... I wonder who made them, because I’ve never been able to find any info on them online.
There was a kid in my 2nd grade class whose Dad went to Japan on business a lot and had a bunch of Diaclone stuff that he his dad had brought back. Seeing those little drivers explained the mystery of all the seats and cockpits that were clearly designed to hold SOMETHING on all the early transformers.