Bumblejumper

[Jose]

Today this one arrived to my home in the mail. This is a Brazilian white version (called Sedan in Brazil):

[Time Traveller]

sweet!

[Commander Megatron]

I know its an old post but was browsing and the thought of Motormaster as a Pizza Truck

[Jose]

I know its an old post but was browsing and the thought of Motormaster as a Pizza Truck

It's because Motormaster delivers.

Seriously, it's the only Kenworth Cab Over Aerodyne in black I have. By then I didn't have a Motormaster yet.

[Commander Megatron]

It's because Motormaster delivers.

Verg good Jose, he does indeed. The most feared combiner of all with the most ruthless Gestalt leader. MM is pure evil. I wii do his profile in a few days, its an interesting read.

[Shockwave]

Hmm for some reason am not seeing any of the pics put up,whats wrong?

[Jose]

Hmm for some reason am not seeing any of the pics put up,whats wrong?

Those pictures were uploaded some time ago and they also were at an account which crashed, so they are no longer there to see.

However, I'll take new pictures to upload later - and I also have a new Bumblejumper to show.

[Time Traveller]

to tie this into the gobots conversation, have you seen or got any of the e-hobby recolors of the minicars that were named after their gobot counterparts?

[Jose]

Yes, I have seen them... Unfortunately I don't own them and that pack has become very expensive.

Road Ranger, Bad Boy and Bug Bite were Gobots names (!) I don't know why they decided to pick up the worst of the Gobots. However, I like the recolors in general, it's a policy which Tomy was following earlier with Tomica cars quite well - keep making the old, already fan tested castings, to mantain continuity in aknowledgement of the product while they introduce fresh new stuff. I don't like to see the reissues exact like their vintage counterparts, so a black Huffer, a white Bumblebee, for example, are in my opinion very welcome additions. Even those "old" recolors like Blitzwing and Perceptor are good, as they aren't exactly like their pre TF ancestors - not even the gray Astrotrain (look at the feet).

I took the pictures already and here they are:

The real car: Mazda Familia (323):



(Picture taken from www.einfach-autos.de)

The two Bumblejumpers I have are Brazilian issues. Next year I plan to get a Japanese version.



Bumblejumper was released as regular character in Brazil instead of Huffer, and was called Sedan. The Minicars and Jumpstarters were the only Japanese molds Estrela used to make Transformers (they introduced some of their own) and they were produced between 1984 and 1987. Thus, they had to do something to keep things interesting as they had limited characters compared to the rest of the world. This derived in recolors, and each of the 6 minicars they made (Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Bumblejumper, Brawn, Gears and Windcharger) had four versions in different colors.

The first series were standard Transformers, while the later were called "Optimus vs. Malignus". The Optimus side was composed by the rubber wheel minicars and the bad dudes had plastic wheels. Both sides featured original Estrela faction stickers (I reckon those were only made in 1987, I'll explain this later).



The early Brazilian minicars had microchange stickers (see chest on white Bumblejumper, blue is missing all of them), the later (1987) had the Optimus or Malignus misfits. This means, there were three years of all microchange stickers (at least it's my belief, I'm not positive on how did they divide their production waves) and would be coherent to think there was one color for each year (although packagings - I don't own any, but I have seen them - reveal the availability of the color variants). Going to Bumblejumper, it has been colored in yellow (first), white, blue and green in Brazil. The blue is the most common while I have never found a green one for sale (which is also the latest version, which I saw with the Optimus sticker). The Japanese Bumblejumpers were issued in yellow, red and blue. Yellow is the most common while blue is rare (in my opinion).

So here's the first voice of alert: A Japanese blue Bumblejumper is way, way more uncommon than a Brazilian issue. Albeit both are tough finds, I don't think they would worth the same.

Going back to Sedan - it has its charm too. Brazilian Bumblejumpers took the liberty of assigning a Bumblebee sticker on its head:



The Japanese TF Bumblejumpers I know have a Cliffjumper sticker.

As the blue is missing its stickers, you can also notice the so-called "male head" used for the Brazilian figures:



I have heard the Bumblebee Japanese heads have the pegs on the base, while the Brazilian ones have the pegs on the head itself - thus called "male" -, like this Bumblejumper... I wonder if this applies to the other two related castings (Cliffjumper and Bumblejumper), but I haven't been able to check for myself.

Also, second call of alert - Brazilian minicars have blank tires, not "Dunlop" like the Japanese minis:



The call of alert is because only the white Bumblejumper has its original tires. The other were taken from a cheap pullback car and were placed as replacements and you can see they look very alike - I'd say the same unless you test them in a lab. So don't pay extra for this feature.



In overall this is a very fun casting to hunt. I'd call it more of a hard to find figure if you just want the regular yellow issue. It can be a very tough challenge to find all the variants nevertheless.

[Commander Megatron]

Jose, were do you get all this info from?

[Jose]

To this specific subject, from all these places, mostly:

http://minitropolis.piranho.de/index2.html

http://www.geocities.com/futuristgroup/vdiaclone.html

http://1500bc.com/pretf/

http://www.toyarchive.com/

I did some work on contrasting all sources, though. Also it comes from my own experience as a collector, so the difficulty to find something is often relative to your geographic situation.

[Commander Megatron]

Very interesting Jose, thankyou

[Jose]

You're welcome, Mark.

[Time Traveller]

you said you're going to write a book when?

[Commander Megatron]

A BOOK! I want a signed copy, name your price!

[Jose]

Guys, thanks for the support, but I think I'll need even more experience to be able to write a book as good as I want to be.

There are many duds written for collectible toys - I don't mean this to be.

For the meanwhile, a website can be as useful, and you can edit it whenever you want - or can. No need to fight the editors.

Besides, being the information in a website, it goes for free. I plan to get a Stannard book next year, which is considered the best book for vintage Matchbox cars. However, the author has problems with the editor and there are no longer any more reprints, so a used copy fetches around USD300. It's a pity not anybody can afford that - and others prefer to pay for a mint car instead. However, a good guide is necessary when it comes to the premium items.

And before to think on any further projects... I have to get the degree for once and for all. I'm doing fine in that matter and by dec. 18th I should be free.

[Time Traveller]

which degree would that be?

[Jose]

Architect. It's less than one month left.

[Commander Megatron]

Get your head down finish it design me a new thrown room and then you will be able to afford the book you need. Any idea when you plan to get it started? The book I mean.

[Jose]

I plan to start making notes this summer (January-February), as soon as I finish my project. Meanwhile, it's all pictures and memory - not the best thing though.