Cyberbee

The Cyberbee is a piece of Predacon technology from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Hi, Jameel!

A Cyberbee is a small drone which Scorponok can launch from his claw. While generally used for reconnaissance, it can also be used as a weapon.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon

Voice actor: Masashi Endō (Japanese)

"You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers."
"Your proposal is acceptable."

One of Scorponok's Cyberbees attached itself to Optimus Primal and injected some sort of venom in an attempt to weaken him and make him a coward. Instead, out of Scorponok's own incompetence, it turned Optimus into a berserker. He gained control only long enough to get out of the Maximal base, then go Rambo on the Predacons. Megatron offered him a deal: his allegiance in exchange for the antivirus. Optimus refused and proceeded to rip the bee off himself, initiating the detonation sequence, and threw it square on the back of Megatron's neck. Cheetor grabbed the antivirus and injected it into Optimus, reviving him. Scorponok pulled the bee off of Megatron just in time for it to literally blow up in their faces. Gorilla Warfare

A Cyberbee was used to scout out Brigadoon, allowing Scorponok to see what exactly was there. Unfortunately, Tigatron got hold of it and reprogrammed it to send a message to the Maximals. Cheetor automatically shot at the bee when it arrived, but thankfully, he missed. The Trigger, Part 1 Another Cyberbee was successfully used by the Predacons to record the damage that the Maximal base had taken in an electrical storm. It was then scrapped by Cheetor. Possession

War for Cybertron Trilogy marketing material

The Cyberbee was one of Scorponok's weapons and powers. Kingdom webpage

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Toys

Beast Wars

The closest we ever got to a Beast Wars Bumblebee.

• Scorponok (Mega Class, 1996)

• Takara ID number: D-2
• Takara release date: 1997/1998
• Known designers: Takio Ejima (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Available only with Scorponok, the Cyberbee transforms from part of Scorponok's claw to a bee.

In Japan, Scorponok was initially released without notable changes from the Hasbro version. In January of 1998, he and most of the rest of the show-cast toys were redecoed to be more "show-accurate", with wildly varying degrees of success. Scorponok's black plastic was replaced with a charcoal gray, and the connecting red pieces were colored a lighter shade, almost orange. The only thing relating to the Cyberbee that changed was the black plastic to charcoal gray.

Cyberbee was redecoed as Beast Wars Sandstorm's own "cyber-bee," and as Beeline, the bee drone for the BotCon Japan 1998 version of Double Punch.

• More information on the Cyberbee (with Scorponok) at TFU.info

• Hokkyoku no Taiketsu: Whiteclaw VS Scorpos (Vs set, 1996)

• ID number: VS-2

In Japan, Scorponok and the Cyberbee were also available in the "Arctic Showdown" (北極の対決) two-pack with Polar Claw.

Both toys are identical to their individual releases. It is unknown if the set ever came with the redecoed "show-like" version of Scorponok and the Cyberbee.

War for Cybertron: Kingdom

Waah! Please don't eat me!

• Scorponok (Deluxe Class, 2021)

• Hasbro ID number: WFC-K23
• TakaraTomy ID number: KD-17
• TakaraTomy release date: January 29, 2022

Kingdom Scorponok includes a Cyberbee, this time being able to be inserted inside the claw instead of being part of it.

Vintage Beast Wars

• Scorponok (Mega, 2022)

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Beast Wars, the original 1996 Mega Class Scorponok was reissued under the Vintage Beast Wars lineup. This version of the Cyberbee features gray plastic instead of the black from the original.

Buzzworthy Bumblebee

• Creatures Collide (4-pack, 2022)

• Series: Legacy
• Accessories: Cyberbee drone, missile, alternate head
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro)

The Buzzworthy Bumblebee "Creatures Collide" 4-pack toy-based redeco of Scorponok includes a fittingly toy-based redeco of the Cyberbee - which, ironically, also makes it look slightly more cartoon-accurate than its original Kingdom version.




Beast Wars Again



• Gankyō no Taiketsu (Multi-pack, 2023)

• ID number: BWVS-02
• Release date: September 30, 2023
• Known designers: Hisashi Yuki (TakaraTomy), Hidetsugu Yoshioka (packaging artist)

Released as part of the Beast Wars Again line, the "Tough Showdown" (頑強の対決) set contains a redeco of the above Kingdom Cyberbee with more cartoon-accurate gold eyes and an additional paint application to reproduce its yellow abdomen.




Notes

• The Cyberbee is not named on Scorponok's packaging, bio, or instructions, which alternately refer to it as a "robot bee" or "robotic bee" (whereas Hasbro's Pre-Toy Fair 1996 catalog calls it a wasp). The name seems to have originated in the Beast Wars TV show, whose scripts consistently wrote the word without a space. The only other time the name appears to have been written down in the "Beast era" was in the bio for BotCon 1999's Sandstorm, which rendered it with a hyphen as "cyber-bee".
• In the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, the Cyberbee speaks. Being a creation of Scorponok's, it shares his verbal tic: A habit of chanting oraora (オラオラ) over and over.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Cyber Bee (サイバー・ビー Saibā Bī)