Bumblebee appears in the Transformers Animated series in 2008 as a yellow hot hatch undercover police car (scanned from a vehicle driven by Detroit Police Captain Fanzone). The Autobots drove Into the city, Wheeljack included and reached a deserted church where they discussed a plan. Bumblebee then leaves to go get support from other Autobots, who are helping repair at the rocket base.

Bumblebee is a fictional robot character appearing in the many continuities in the Transformers franchise. Wheeljack generated a powerful force field to shield Sam and other human bystanders as they ran from the battle, and the pair helped hold the line until Optimus Prime arrived with reinforcements. The biography for the Decepticon Hardtop figure states that he and Bumblebee are old rivals, and it was not Megatron who damaged Bumblebee's vocal processor, but a shot from Hardtop's gun. Goldbug avoided having to undergo the Powermaster process to survive like the other Autobots due to his high fuel efficiency.In Revenge of the Fallen, he sports a different set of alloy wheels (in the first two films they are actually hubcaps made from composite to look like a set of wheel-disc brakes [22]) and a custom front bumper. The heroic leader of the Autobots is a supporting character in Bumblebee, but he still gets several important scenes (and is again voiced by Peter Cullen, who has been performing the character from the beginning). In the second crossover, Bumblebee is among the Autobots sent back in time due to an accident with the spacebridge computer Teletran-3. The heroic leader of the Autobots is a supporting character in Bumblebee, but he still gets several important scenes (and is again voiced by Peter Cullen, who has been performing the character from the beginning. Although other playable Transformers in the game have several incarnations featured, no other versions of Bumblebee are playable.

In the film, Bumblebee no longer lives with Sam, and goes on the missions with the Autobots and human allies to find other Decepticons around the world. After leaving him for dead, Charlie uses Sector Seven's high voltage guns to revive him, restoring his memories. They all laid dormant until 1984 when the Ark's computers were shaken alive as the volcano it crashed into erupted. Thousands of years later, Bumblebee awoke to the age of humans from the noise of John Henry's hammering. During the final battle with the Decepticons, Wheeljack was seen attempting to fend off their army, stating that there was too many of them.

Damaged by a pursuing Barricade, he then finds AllSpark-like emissions somewhere in New Mexico—unaware it is a trap set by Sector 7. In time, he worked his way up the ranks of the Autobots and when the The original Bumblebee toy was taken from the Japanese Microchange line, where it was available in yellow, red, and blue versions.

He was also a character that made Knight dig in and insist be included when money for the scene became tight. When Optimus Prime and Megatron vanish in an early spacebridge experiment, causing the Autobots and Decepticons to splinter into smaller factions, Bumblebee remains with the Autobots under Prowl's command. Barricade then shot him again, blasting him to scrap, Wheeljack fell, his head rolling off as he did. In Transformers: The Headmasters, Goldbug and the other Throttlebots were on Cybertron when Vector Sigma began to destabilize as a consequence of Optimus Prime releasing the Matrix's energy to cure the Hate Plague the previous year. Bumblebee later befriends Sparkplug's son, Spike, but on their first adventure together they are both kidnapped by the Decepticons and Bumblebee's memory chip is altered to make him lure the other Autobots into a trap.In this story Professor Sumdac attempted to create a teleportation system to get the Autobots to Cybertron, but an interaction with Sari's key ended up transporting Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Sari to Transtech Cybertron, where they met Flareup and his friends were detained by Shockwave while he was deemed not a threat. Bumblebee was featured in the 1993 Transformers: Generation 2 coloring book Decepticon Madness by Bud Simpson. As Bumblebee, Jazz, Grimlock and the Rescue Patrol prepared to teleport to Earth, the three Decepticons attacked Autobase, sabotaging the trans-time dimensional portal.