The figure chosen to debut Core class in the Studio Series line was Bumblebee movie Shockwave - a truly baffling choice - which came out four years after the Bumblebee movie, and two years before the Voyager class toy. In some respects, it was also better articulated than the larger version. Some might say that alone made him worth the price - perhaps even better value-for-money than the Voyager - but his 'vehicle' mode was almost identical in structure to the TransFormers Prime version of Shockwave, which wasn't exactly inspiring. There had been no concept art for Shockwave's vehicle mode, theoretically giving the designers carte blanche to create something unique. The other figure in the first wave was Ravage which, arguably, should have been included with SS #83 Soundwave, so it's no surprise that Hasbro would later decide to create more minions for Soundwave, given they're now mining the archives for concept art.
Rumble is an obvious choice, considering his popularity and the frequency of his appearances in the G1 cartoon, and the fact that both he and Frenzy have come along in almost every recent toyline, including War For Cybertron, Studio Series '86 and Legacy, essentially all being Core class, or the closest equivalent in that line... These have all been rather lacklustre, though, so let's find out if the Core class Studio Series Concept Art Rumble breaks this pattern.
As with Core class Ravage, there's really nothing to write about his so-called 'alternate mode'. It doesn't do anything, nor is it intended to do anything in and of itself, it doesn't look like anything and, at the end of the
day, it's just the robot folded up in a way that lets Studio
Series Soundwave stash Rumble inside his chest cavity... from which he can't even eject
dramatically, because Soundwave wasn't designed that way.
Just like Ravage, he's instantly recognisable... even though, frustratingly, he's been given G1 Frenzy's toy colours. I get that the argument still rages on about whether Rumble or Frenzy is blue, but the fact remains, the G1 cartoon made Rumble purple, so the choice of blue seems to be very specifically referencing the toys... and Rumble's toy was red and black, while Frenzy was blue and cyan.
The other outstanding feature is that Rumble doesn't have hands, or even arms, for that matter... he's been created with his piledrivers active by default. Due to his transformation this means any articulation in his arms is limited to his shoulders - the full 360° rotation, plus hinging up due to transformation. The piledrivers have two hinges, but neither can serve as an 'elbow', as such, due to their orientation and a lack of 'bicep' rotation. The legs aren't much better, frankly, with just the prerequisite 90° forward, backward and out to the sides at the hip, and a ball-jointed knee serving a second function as thigh rotation. The feet tilt up as part of transformation, also enabling a decent crouch, but it's all very minimal and disappointing. What's frustrating is that the waist joint is a pinned hinge, allowing him to tilt his upper body back and forward, where a ball joint could have done that and offered waist rotation.
On the upside, the paint job is maybe a step or two up from merely 'functional', with the tops of his piledrivers getting both gunmetal and cyan paint, and a partial yellow ring opposite the first transformation hinge. The hammers themselves are unpainted aside from a Decepticon insignia stamped on the ends, but they're the wrong way up by default. I ended up knocking out the upper joint's pins and switching the 'arms' around so the Decepticon insignias were the right way up, but this affects transformation. The folded-up arms no longer peg securely into the folded-up legs because the pegs are asymmetrical. It still transforms, and still fits inside Soundwave, but the legs remain a little wobbly, even when connected via his two weapons.
The torso is molded in a nice, glossy blue plastic, and there's a dark gunmetal paint applied around the fronts of the shoulders and in the G1-referencing chest design. Cyan paint is applied to the front of the collar, with a lighter gunmetal just below. There's yellow paint applied to the groin area and the fronts of the feet, tiny red dots on the kneecaps, and short red strips on the upper part of the chest. Gunmetal paint has also been applied on the outsides of the lower leg, on the raised panels in line with the knee, but it's barely different from the colour of the plastic, so it only really shows up when light hits it the right way. Similarly, there's dark gunmetal applied to the waist hinge, even though it's barely visible in robot mode or storage mode.
What really puts the final nail in the coffin for Rumble as a toy is that he can't do anything with his two guns other than store them on his back. No arms means no hands, so he can't wield them in any meaningful way. Even the most recent toys of G1 Rumble/Frenzy - Core class figures from the Studio Series '86 line - were able to have their weapons attached to their forearms arms as well as their backs... and they came with piledrivers as separate accessories. These guns are at their most useful when Rumble is in his 'box' form, since they serve to stabilise and align the legs. There is an undocumented feature of these guns, though: they can be connected together to make a single handgun for a larger figure, thanks to the 5mm grip added to one of them. Normally, I'd be raving about a modular weapon, but this gun just isn't especially impressive. It's certainly too small for Soundwave and, in any case, the 5mm grip is at a weird angle, so the barrels of the gun point slightly upward in a standard 5mm fist.
The head sculpt is surprisingly bland. They've basically based it on the G1 animation more than the toy, so it's essentially a cube, similar to a Titan Master head, only larger. A couple of strips are taken out over the crown, and he has his usual visor, painted red... but the face is basically blank. He's got the barest hint of a nose, but no mouth... Which makes me wonder if the plan is to repaint this not only as Red Frenzy, but as Rewind and Eject to accompany a Studio Series Concept Art Blaster.
I had concerns about Core class being extended into Studio Series and, while Ravage felt like a decent enough figure in his own right, it still felt more like an accessory to Soundwave than a standalone toy. Rumble, meanwhile, does not feel like a good enough figure in his own right. I understand the need for him to be tiny, and I understand the need for him to fit inside Soundwave's chest cavity, but the compromises made to his robot mode and his articulation are insane. If piledrivers are needed, they should be accessories rather than built-in at the expense of arms (Alternators Rumble made the same mistake) but, frankly, piledrivers are not needed. They were one of the many errors in the G1 cartoon, a poorly-conceived attempt to visualise an ability described as "Transmits immense low frequency groundwaves to create powerful earthquakes"... And in the much-lauded 1986 animated movie, they also gave Frenzy piledrivers, when his power is utterly unrelated.
At best, Core class Rumble is equivalent to a Battle Master from War For Cybertron: Siege... and worst, he feels like half of a Micromaster set... Because Siege Rumble at least came with Ratbat, even if neither of them came with weapons or any other accessories. Concept Art Rumble, meanwhile, comes with weapons that he can't really use, and which are also essentially too small to make a worthwhile weapon for any other figure.
All that said, I've nothing against the existence of Core class, even in Studio Series, but I think Hasbro need to provide something more substantial for the price. Toys like this are an absolute waste of money except for the completist, and are among Hasbro's most egregious rip-offs in recent years. Rumble serves no purpose in isolation because he doesn't have a functional alternate mode, and his robot mode isn't even particularly poseable. It feels very poorly thought out, as if Hasbro felt obliged to create more minions for their Bumblebee movie Soundwave, but didn't really spend much time considering how to make them work as individual figures. Even that's probably being overly generous to Hasbro, though. Chances are, it was just another cynical move intended to take advantage of the goodwill and nostalgic feelings of G1-obsessed collectors.
Even for the £9-odd I paid, Rumble feels insubstantial but, much like Ravage, would have been more justifiable as additional content in a 'Leader class' Studio Series Bumblebee movie Soundwave package or, at the very least, in a two-pack with another concept art minion, such as Laserbeak.
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