Also known in Japan as 'Bumble' and moulded sometimes as a more generic saloon or sports car. Also issued moulded in VW form as white, gold or black.. |
 |
Four million years ago, Optimus Prime led a crew of Autobots including Bumblebee aboard the Ark to clear a path through an asteroid belt for Cybertron to pass through. Once their objective was completed, they were attacked by Decepticons and both their ships crashed in a volcanic mountain on a primitive planet known as Earth. In 1984, the volcano (Mount Saint Hilary) erupted, awakening their ship, which rebuilt them. 
Bumblebee was reconfigured to transform into a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
'The least likely can be the most dangerous.' |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
However, Bumblebee in this guise appeared in the 'Transformers: Timelines' comic book 'Descent Into Evil' (08/2005), drawn by Makoto Ono. |
|
Concept art by Hasbro/Takara© for a proposed 'New Beetle Bumblebee' made during 2005. The design was produced for the 1/24 Transformers Alternators/Binaltech officially licensed real world car model range but permission was not given by Volkswagen AG. 
Tonka© and Bandai© also produced a similar line of transforming figures called 'GoBots' including 'BugBite' above. Also note that the Transformer 'Cliffjumper' figure (originally based on a Porsche 924) was remoulded as a Beetle similar to Bumblebee.
Information courtesy Seibertron.com and TransformersWiki.com
Transformers Hasbro/Takara©