Allegiances: Autobot
Set Price: $60 (U.S.)

(NOTE: Because this set is composed of repaints, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the set and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original versions of these molds. For a review on the original version of RID2015 warrior Bumblebee-- go here. For a review of Generations FoC Grimlock-- the mold used as the base for this version of Grimlock-- go here.)
 

Bumblebee

Size: Warrior
Difficulty of Transformation:
Color Scheme: Semi-metallic milky gold, black, bright orange-red, transparent blue, light milky gray, and some silver, and moderately light blue
Individual Rating: 8.4

    Bumblebee isn't much of a redeco-- he's more of a "pretty variant" of the original deco this mold had, and is definitely a distant second in this set compared to the draw of Grimlock... but we'll get to ol' Grimmy in a bit. First off, the main difference between Platinum 'Bee and the mass retail version is that this one has milky, semi-metallic gold plastic (i.e., it has some glitter in it). It looks pretty nice, but not as nice as say, actual gold paint all over the figure would have been. In addition to the otherwise same paint apps and plastic color layout that the original Warrior had, this version has some additional orangish-red paint on the side of his headlights. There's also some silver paint on the hilt of his sword, which is really paint-wise a nice addition and makes it the weapon look a lot more like a "Decepticon Hunter" sword from the show. The middle vent on his head is now silver instead of black, and the tops of his feet are also painted black. That's it, though; otherwise he's the same as the initial version.
    No mold changes have been made to Platinum Edition Bumblebee.
 

Grimlock

Size: Voyager
Difficulty of Transformation: Medium
Color Scheme: Semi-metallic charcoal black, forest green, transparent greenish yellow, and some dull periwinkle, silver, very light gray, light blue, light bluish gray, and orangish "cheesy" yellow
Individual Rating: 8.6

    Even though at first, this "Platinum Edition" version of Grimlock may seem like a brand-new toy, in fact, it's an extensive (VERY extensive) remold of the Fall of Cybertron Grimlock mold. Essentially, the core parts and how the transformation works have been kept the same, but nearly every major piece has received a cosmetic re-do to more fit RID2015 Grimlock. Basically, the parts that are the same here as with the original FoC Grimlock are the weapons; the t-rex arms (which unfortunately makes them inaccurate to RID2015 Grimlock's three-fingered paws); the dino knees and lower feet; the robot feet; the segments that make up the lower portion of the upper robot legs and knee assemblage; the lower dino tail bits; and the connection bits inside the dino hips/robot shoulders. This means that this version has the same amount of articulation as the FoC version, including the same odd restrictions at the dino hips/robot shoulders and the odd empty space underneath the front and middle sections of the dino mode. All of the new pieces are quite accurate to RID2015 Grimlock's show model overall, including a wonderfully-sculpted t-rex head in particular, which can open and close its mouth. The angular Godzilla-like "ridges" are present as well, and are the only difference between the transformation of this toy and FoC Grimlock; for this toy, although the dino head still stuffs into the backpack behind Grimlock's back in robot mode, so does a small part that folds out during transformation to display these extra ridges in dino mode. Those lovely circular details around his shoulders are reproduced well here, though the details on his dino tail suffer from being "forced into" the FoC Grimlock design's transformation and having to double as Grimlock's legs, and aren't as accurate. His headsculpt is spot-on, having your typical Grimlock-esque stylized center headvent and small antennae while having a fairly normal mouth and eyes. His chest details are replicated very faithfully, mold-wise. It is odd that they kept Grimlock's weapons the same, though, as the nature of them make them seem a bit too detailed and out-of-place for RID2015 Grimlock, who I also can't see using a shield in normal combat.
    As for the color scheme layout itself, they got the basics right-- I mean, Grimlock IS mostly green and black, with some yellow highlights. The green in particular is a vibrant, absolutely beautiful shade. However, for the black, in an attempt to make Grimlock more "premium"-looking, they went with a charcoal black plastic with a bit of glitter in it to make it look semi-metallic and like light is shining off of it, but in truth... a more "pure" black would've looked better, more accurate, and contrasted better against the other colors too. The yellow also is more of an orange-yellow, which again is decent, but a more straightforward yellow would've been more accurate and contrasted better. Some additional colors have been added in that have absolutely no basis on the show model, too. For one, there's some silver on the robot feet and the upper sides of his main dino body, which admittedly look nice, but aren't accurate. Same goes for the dull perwinkle plastic used for many of his minor connector pieces in his upper legs, elbows, and shoulder pieces. The color scheme actually does look better more diversified, but it's not accurate to the material, and for a "Platinum Edition" version they at the very least should have made a show-accurate version before they decided to add anything else on a hypothetical themed redeco later or something. That said, the amount of paint apps on this toy is quite impressive, especially all the yellow bits on the robot arms and shoulders, dino tail/robot legs, and especially the dino and robot heads. He's got a bit of light bluish gray paint on his dino mouth and muzzle, which looks very nice against the green and black, and plenty of yellow paint apps along the back of his head and on his jaw, to boot. His eyes are a decent light blue shade in both modes. Although his chest has a long patch of color across the center of it, for some weird reason the colors are reversed on this toy compared the show; he's SUPPOSED to have a black chest with a green stripe across it, but here it's green with a black stripe across it. Again, not sure what's up with these inconsistencies... did Hasbro actually look at the show model when coming up with this guy's deco, or just go off of memory?
 

    If you don't have any "normal" version of Warrior class RID2015 Bumblebee and want a bigger articulated RID2015 Grimlock, this set is basically for you, as it's the only way to really get the latter. That said, $60 is a steep price for just a warrior and a voyager toy, and that's not even factoring in aftermarket prices. Grimlock is one heck of a remold, though some of the oddities from the FoC Grimlock design remain, like a gap in the bottom of the body in t-rex mode and weird shoulder articulation. There's plenty of paint on ol' Grimmy as well, but his color scheme isn't entirely accurate to the show, which kind of misses the whole point of this release in the first place. So overall I'd say this set is recommended, but keep in mind the aforementioned caveats and reservations.

Reviews by Beastbot

(Pics from TFW2005.)

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