| NOTE: This article is about the Live-Action Original Continuity incarnation of Bumblebee, for the other incarnations of the character, go to the disambiguation page. |
| “ | Bumblebee: Permission to speak, sir? Optimus Prime: Permission granted, old friend. Sam: You speak now? Bumblebee: I wish to stay with the boy. Optimus Prime: If that is his choice. Sam: Yes. |
„ |
| ~ Bumblebee's first words in the live-action film series. |
| “ | I am Bumblebee. Your oldest friend. Optimus, I would lay down my life for you. | „ |
| ~ Bumblebee speaking in his voice for the first time after he is given a spare voice box, stirring Optimus's memories and freeing him from Quintessa's control in Transformers: The Last Knight. |
Bumblebee (AKA Bee, ZB-7) is one of the five deuteragonists (alongside Mikaela Banes, Carly Brooks-Spencer Tessa Yeager and Viviane Wembly) of the Transformers live-action film series. He 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 due to his voice box was smashed by Megatron, 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 and later Cade Yeager, by playing audio clips from popular media on his radio.
He was voiced by both Mark Ryan and Erik Aadahl.
Appearance[]
Transformers (2007)[]
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)[]
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)[]
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Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)[]
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Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)[]
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Personality[]
Despite his rather violent and brutal nature on the battlefield, Bumblebee is actually a gentle and sweet Autobot. He appears to hold a lot of attachment towards his human companions as he consider Sam Witwicky as his closest friend and on some level brother, he also protected the Yeager family from the threat of Cemetery Wind, Harold Attinger, James Savoy and Lockdown. Tragically, however, he cannot speak as his voice-box was damaged while travelling from Cybertron to Earth, so he compensates by communicating with the radio, proving that he was accustomed to the Earth customs. After miraculously obtained his voice in fifth movie, he still maintain his loyalty.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Cybertronian Physiology: Like Optimus Bumblebee is a living robot with an Allspark that gives him life. Similar to all Cybertronians Bumblebee is able to change into a car. Bumblebee also holds many weapons in his body which include Plasma Cannons that fire bursts of plasma at opponents, Machine Gun, Shoulder Missile, Multi-missile Launchers, Laser Cannon, Crab Claw, Battle Hammer, Anchor, Mouth Grapple, Toe Gun, a retractable blade and more.
- Superhuman Durability: Bumblebee is impervious to blows and impacts that can slay a Cybertronain or a human as well as surviving falls from heights. The armour in his vehicle form along with car parts arranged to his humanoid appearance keeps him unscathed and grant him extra protection.
- Radio Manipulation: Bumblebee can operate and play various recordings on the radio in form of verbal communication, which is possibly a way for his actual voice to heal.
- Superhuman Strength: Bumblebee has levels of physical strength, able to carry and wield a hammer with little effort, tear a Cybertronian's body parts(as shown when he killed Ravage by shredding his armoured body from the remains while holding his tail and lift a truck,
- Superhuman Agility: Due to his size, Bumblebee can leap and perform gymnastic stunts in battle.
- Superhuman Speed: Bumblebee is a very quick Autobot, as he transformed between two modes in a second, run faster than a moving vehicle and act thoroughly.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: At some point after Age of Extinction, Bumblebee displays the ability to disassemble and reassemble his own body with no physical injuries as well as attracting parts of armour that torn off him. He is able to control his parts remotely, when he tricked TRF into thinking they killed him and later he was able to reattach his door wings when Nemesis Prime ripped them off.
Abilities[]
- Master Combatant: Bumblebee was skilled enough to go toe to toe with Optimus Prime when he was being mind controlled. Even though he was beaten by Optimus and was about to die, he was still a formidable and fierce opponent. He also nearly defeated Lockdown in the fourth film and held the longest against Sentinel Prime in the third film.
- Hammer Mastery: Bumblebee used a hammer to fight against Optimus prime. During the beginning of their fight he was able to throw it underwater.
- Master Marksman: Bumblebee used a mounted blaster to get Optimus away from him so he could regroup.
Equipment[]
Bumblebee has a variety of weapons and gadgets at his disposal. These includes:
- Alternator: The organ of a Cybertron which enables Bumblebee to scan and become any vehicle form he chooses.
- Plasma cannons: A trusted and versatile weapon, Bumblebee is armed with a cannon that has selective fire and can cause armor damage. In Dark of the Moon, his plasma cannons were upgrade which could shoots rapidly towards his opponents.
- Missile cannons: Bumblebee fist used this cannon to injured whilst killed Brawl during battle of mission city. Bumblebee lost to access this weaponry, when his missile cannon were destroyed by Starscream in the second movie.
- War Hammer: Bumblebee was armed with war hammer, when he aid his allies during World War events. He regained his war hammer after reunited with his brother-in-arms, which he used to battle against Nemesis Prime.
- Stealth force mode: Bumblebee can use weapons while in his agile and manoeuvrable vehicle state.
Critical Reception[]
Bumblebee earned highly positive reception and is one of, if not the most popular Autobot in Michael Bay's live-action Transformers film series. However, audiences and critics complained of Bumblebee's limited screen time and at least until Age of Extinction, that he was rarely seen without Sam Witwicky.
Trivia[]
- Bumblebee, along with Optimus, are the only characters to appear in all movies of the Transformers live-action film series so far without being absent.
- He is by far the youngest member of the Autobots.
- Bumblebee is one of the most popular characters in the Transformers franchise, especially thanks to the popularity of the movies pushing him back into the pop culture limelight.
- Bumblebee's roles in the films have been compared to Sakura Kasugano from Street Fighter:
- Both are the most popular characters in their series.
- Both are the youngest character.
- Both served as the main protagonists in their film and comics.
- Both are taught by their leaders and deeply cares for them.
- Both love fighting and peace and willing to protect their friends from danger.
- Both successfully stopped their leaders from being brainwashed by their enemies. For example, Bumblebee stopped Optimus from being controlled by Quintessa in The Last Knight and Sakura stopped Ryu from being controlled by M. Bison in Alpha 3.
- Both are implied to have a love interest: Bumblebee has a love interest with either Arcee or Strongarm, while Sakura has a love interest with Ryu.
- Bumblebee, along with Roadbuster and Bulldog, are the only Autobots that speak with a British accent. All three are voiced by British actors in real life (Bumblebee and Bulldog are voiced by Mark Ryan, while Roadbuster is voiced by Ron Bottitta).
- However in the fifth movie, Bumblebee is voiced by Erik Aadahl, an American sound editor who best known his role for voicing the Godzilla roar back in 2014.
- Bumblebee has the Ninja stars on the Age of Extinction posters along his various toy variants, despite he never actually used them in the actual film.
- Bumblebee's battle-mask's official design in the fifth movie is completely different with his concept art.
- In the movie his battle mask design based on his original trilogy with slightly modified, where as in the concept art his battle mask resembles in the fourth movie only modified in top place.
- Similarly to his Aligned continuity counterpart, Bumblebee regained his actual voice box through miracle reason with different scenario. In the Aligned continuity, Bumblebee regained his voice back after awakened from Megatron's shoots. While in the Bayverse, Bumblebee regained his voice back when used to snap Optimus Prime out from his evil mind control.
- A yellow Volkswagen is seen next to Bumblebee when he's vehicle mode but later hits it with his right door when Bobby Bolivia tried to sell it to Sam.
- Although Bumblebee got his vocals back in the fifth film, in some media he has had his vocals return permanently:
- In the video game adaptation of Revenge of the Fallen, Bumblebee could speaks and this time using his original vocals. This was most likely done by Ratchet following after the battle of Mission City.
- In the arcade video game of Transformers Shadows Rising, which is set after the third movie but alternatively ignores the events of the fourth and fifth movies. Bumblebee could speak with his original vocals. This was done by Ratchet following aftermath final battle of Chicago.
See Also[]
External Links[]
- Bumblebee on the Ultimate Good Wiki
- Bumblebee on the Transformers Movie Wiki
- Bumblebee on the TFwiki.net
- Bumblebee on the Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki
- Bumblebee on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- Bumblebee on the Conflicting Evil Wiki
