Bumblebee (Movie)

Bumblebee (Movie)
Appeared in	Sector Seven Transformers Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Status	Living Deceased (in some continuties)
Gender	Male
Actor	Mark Ryan Tom Anderson David Kledzik Tony Gialluca II Bronco D. Jackson Fred Tatasciore Erik Aadahl Dylan O'Brien

Bumblebee is one of Optimus Prime's most trusted lieutenants. Although he is not the strongest or most powerful of the Autobots, Bumblebee more than makes up for this with a bottomless well of luck, determination and bravery. He would gladly give his life to protect others and stop the Decepticons.

Badly damaged in battle, Bumblebee lost the ability to speak verbally, though he can still communicate over inter-Autobot frequencies (in a fashion that seems somewhat akin to instant messaging, a usable but more distant and less personal means of interaction). He can also communicate with the Autobots' human allies and his friend, Sam Witwicky, by playing audio clips from popular media on his radio.

Fiction

Sector Seven continuty

In 2003, Bumblebee arrived on Mars where he destroyed the Beagle 2 Rover. To control leaks of the footage beamed back to Earth from the Rover, Sector Seven enacts "Hungry Dragon 2", this time choosing the especially visible medium of a live-action feature film and ancillary media.

Events reach a flashpoint on April 23, when Bumblebee touches down on Earth, arriving in response to Howard's signal. Sector Seven (game)

Appearances/Actors

• Sector 7 canon (1 appearances)
  • Sector Seven (First appearance)

Second Life

In the online virtual world simulation/game Second Life, there was a full replica of the Sector Seven base which contained a giant discussion room where Michael Bay held a question board. This room contained a giant frozen Megatron replica and free avatars of both Bumblebee and Barricade. Both freebies were non-transforming. Also, the Bumblebee avatar had his battle mask down and it could not be raised.

Notes

Classic Camaro

• According to an article on Edmunds.com, the film makers wanted Bumblebee's original Earth form to be the 1976 iteration of the Camaro because it was the worst Camaro possible that also had chrome bumpers.
• The same article indicates that the 1976 Camaros used in the film were all purchased via online auction for under $6000 each, one for less than $2000. That one didn't run.
• One of the 1976 Camaros was sold on eBay. The bidding ended on July 18, 2007; the final price was $40,100.01.

Modern Camaro

• The 2008 Concept Camaro used for Bumblebee in the first movie was built by Saleen in 30 days, using a heavily modified 2006 Pontiac GTO body as the basis. The '08 Camaro was not in production at the time that the first film was being made, hence an identical mock-up was needed to fill the role.
• In Transformers, Bumblebee scans a working, driveable new generation Camaro — conveniently with the same paint job as his classic Camaro disguise at that time — that wouldn't be released until some time in the year 2009. However, it is possible that the Camaro in question was being road-tested by GM engineers, like they were doing in the real world.
• Although unexplained in the films, Bumblebee's vehicle mode changes appearance subtly between Transformers and Revenge of the Fallen. This is probably because of product placement: Bumblebee's old alternate mode was an unavailable concept Camaro, while in Revenge he uses what seems to be the new Z/28 Camaro... whose mass production has since been canceled. Oops. However, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that it is the Camaro ZL1 that uses the same design.
• He changes models again between Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon and becomes a production Camaro SS (rather than the previous two movies GTO-Based mock-ups); the movie prop car changes include the addition of a rear spoiler, the black racing stripes now being further apart while at the same time losing the outer pinstripes, the racing stripes now also covering the roof and Autobot badges in the front fenders.

Robot mode and CG model(s)

• The Bumblebee computer-generated model consisted of 7608 individual parts, 1,511,727 polygons, 19,722 rig nodes, and 8094 texture maps. The volume of all the pieces came to 1069.01 cubic feet.
• Bumblebee's character animation is based on the performance of Michael J. Fox in the Back to the Future movies.

• Bumblebee is equipped with a pair of arm-mounted electrical "stingers." While designed, the stingers were ultimately not featured in the movies, though they may have influenced other media.
• Speaking of weapons, for someone whose main job is being subtle, Bumblebee is quite well armed, with a cannon powerful enough to rattle Brawl and a ring-shaped light missile launcher in each shoulder. He is also a capable close-combat fighter, as seen in his fights against Barricade and Rampage.
• Despite this, he has a Fireblast rating of three.
• According to designer Paul Ozzimo on his website, at one point there were plans to make Bumblebee into a Z/28 convertible for Revenge of the Fallen, and the possibility of changing his color to orange or black with yellow was also discussed. While none of these alterations happened, concept art for both appeared on the "25 Years of Transformers" feature on the Revenge DVD... though the black version is only seen from behind.
• Bumblebee stands approximately 16 feet tall, according to the official game strategy guide.
• In 2011, Bumblebee appeared in a Super Bowl XLV-related commercial, parodying car dealers by tossing a squirrel mascot knocking his hood to literally hammer the point of low prices. The TV spot also revealed ILM's modifications to his design for Dark of the Moon, namely more pronounced shoulders and ribs ala his Prime counterpart.
• Despite his Camaro alternate mode used for Dark of the Moon no longer sporting the outer pinstripes bordering his black racing stripes, the CG robot model still has them. Whoops.
• Similarly, in the first movie, after he gains the modern Camaro alt mode, Bumblebee's robot mode still features the scratches and dirt on his paint job of his original 1976 Camaro alt mode.

License plates

Bumblebee sported several different license plates between the movies, the video games and the toys:

• 489 PCE, registered in California, was the 1976 Camaro's license plate in the first movie, which was kept consistent between the car prop and the CG model for the robot mode. The license plate was later auctioned off in 2008.
• 900 STRA, without a state-specific registration, was the new license plate for the Concept Camaro car prop, which was kept for the production models used for both subsequent movies. It was also used when the modern Camaro prop cars from the movies were on display at car shows and other events. Finally achieving consistency between both modes, Bumblebee also sported this plate in robot mode in Dark of the Moon. Furthermore, Hasbro started to use this license plate number with the Leader Class Bumblebee and Deluxe Class Nitro Bumblebee toys from the Dark of the Moon toy line (both sporting sculpted license plate inscriptions in both modes), and the Activision Dark of the Moon video game also uses it for the vehicle mode. The license plate used in Revenge of the Fallen was auctioned off in October 2009.
• 4NZZ454, registered in California, is probably the most well-known license plate number due to being used on the CG model for the robot mode in the 2007 movie and Revenge of the Fallen. This number number was also used for a lot of Hasbro's toys from the first two movies' toy lines (in robot mode and often also in vehicle mode), including the Deluxe Class Classic Camaro.
• 4NZZZ454, with a red line indicative of a California registration, was an erroneous version of the above number with an extra "Z", used on some of Hasbro's toys, namely the Deluxe Class Concept Camaro Bumblebee toy from the first movie's toy line (including several redecos and retools) and Revenge of the Fallen Human Alliance Bumblebee.
• 5LKZ213 can be spotted on some photos of the life-sized robot prop from the Hoover Dam set from the first movie.
• BUMBLBE, registered in California, was used for the life-sized robot prop on various exhibits in 2007.
• FXPERTS (registered in California), a reference to the special effects company that built the life-sized robot prop, was used on various exhibits in 2008.
• KDM 0814, registered in California, was used for the life-sized robot prop on various exhibits from 2009 to at least 2011. A variant of this, "KDM 814" minus the "0", had been previously used as the license plate of The Twins' combined ice cream truck mode in Revenge of the Fallen.
• 5BBM2 (registered in California), mirrored on the other side, is used by Activision for the robot models used in the Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon video games. Due to its mirrored nature, this plate wouldn't actually be legal.

Lack of voice

• For the first movie, Paramount had originally preferred the Transformers not to talk at all throughout the movie, a notion Hasbro heavily contested. Bumblebee still ended up being mute throughout most of the movie, which, according to Orci and Kurtzman, was inspired by Steven Spielberg's E.T. and is supposed to signify that his friendship with Sam transcends words.
• According to the prequel comic by IDW Publishing, Megatron ripped out and crushed Bumblebee's voice capacitor during the battle at Tyger Pax back on Cybertron. Hardtop's toy bio claims the damage came from a shot fired by Hardtop. In the film itself, Ratchet only states to Sam that Bumblebee's "vocal processors were damaged in battle" and he was "still working on them" after firing a single plasma beam at Bumblebee's throat; by the end of all the conflict (the climax of the film proper), Bumblebee has regained his ability to speak. Although it was not confirmed on-screen, screenwriter Roberto Orci did confirm off-screen that Ratchet's (regenerative) beam was indeed the reason.
• Just as well, Roberto Orci also admitted that Bumblebee's brief contact with the AllSpark would be an equally valid (and an even more "in-continuity") explanation.
• When asked, Orci admitted there had been plans to have Bumblebee speak in Revenge of the Fallen; however, ultimately they liked his "musical ability" too much, and Michael Bay wanted to focus more on Skids and Mudflap, since he thought kids would like the two characters.
• When Bumblebee finally did speak, he had a slightly British accent.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Bumblebee (バンブルビー Banburubī)
• Cantonese: Daai Wong Fung (大黃蜂, "Bumblebee")
• Hungarian: Űrdongó ("Space Bumblebee")
• Mandarin: Dà-huáng-fēng (大黃蜂, "Bumblebee")
• Spanish: Abejorro ("Bumblebee")
• Ukrainian: Bdzhilka (Бджілка, "Bee")

External links

• Bumblebee at TFU.info
• Galleries of various different Bumblebee toys from the Movie