The Lost Autobot?

Animus Prime · Post by **Animus Prime** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:59 am

I was exploring http://www.tfu.info when I came across a Generation 1 figure that I had never heard of-- Bumper. See the site here:

http://www.tfu.info/1984/Autobot/Bumper/bumper.htm

As you can tell, Bumper's a minibot who appears to have the form of a 1980s Toyota hatchback, or worse, a Yugo. The site indicates he was mispackaged as both Cliffjumper and Bumblebee and later issued in South America. I don't recall ever seeing such a figure, nor hearing of him in any continuity. He's not listed in Marvel's TF: Universe or Dreamwave's TF: More than Meets the Eye. I don't recall him ever being on the TV show.

Is this figure simply a mistake? Does he really "exist"? Anyone know anything?

Reflector · Post by **Reflector** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:23 am

That's a pretty decent summary of the toy history they have. It's my understanding that when Transformers started in the US, Hasbro bought stock of these figures from Takara but chose not to make a character out of it. Thus, they stuck it in Bumblebee and Cliffjumper packages (I'd imagine for being the right size and perhaps for being popular characters) to get rid of the stock. The name Bumper, or Bumblejumper as some fans prefer, is a combination of the names under which it was sold.

As far as the character goes, he never appeared in TF canon prior to Dreamwave's ongoing G1 comic book. (I thought he was in MTMTE, but I haven't read those in quite a while. I'll take your word for it.) I don't recall that he was actually a very interesting character either...

Er, I'm sure I missed a few details. Some kind pedant will gladly fill in the gaps.

Zisteau · Post by **Zisteau** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:38 am

Some of us think the character of Bumper has quite a bit of potential, thank you very much.

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 8:15 am

It's never been proven that he was actually released on Bumblebee cards. The only MOSC pieces that still exist are on Cliffjumper cards.

http://www.toyarchive.com/Transformers/ ... erMOC.html

There's been lots of debating over "repackaged Microman overstock" vs. "Hasbro originally wanted to release him but then scrapped the idea at the last minute due to him looking too similar to Bumblebee and Cliffjumper" (after all, the Brazilian version, called "Sedan", was a regular release and featured his own artwork).

BTW, his vehicle mode was apparently a Mazda Familia.

As for a DW MTMTE profile, he was planned to get his profile in the never published MTMTE addendum, which would have featured "new" characters such as Sunstorm.

Animus Prime · Post by **Animus Prime** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:43 pm

Why was the Dreamwave MTMTE addendum never published? I just got Vol. 1 of the TPB yesterday from Amazon and enjoyed it very much. Vol. 2 is on the way . . .

Nevermore · Post by **Nevermore** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:51 pm

Originally posted by Animus Prime
Why was the Dreamwave MTMTE addendum never published?

Because Dreamwave went bankorrupto in January?