Shattered Glass Cyclonus
"Idling in a prison cell is often the most profound way to chase an epiphany, and Cyclonus cornered his during his fourth deca-cycle of incarceration. Without the constant whispering into his audio receptors by the powers that be, the remorseful Decepticon finally found the still calm that allowed him to rise above the ever-present chatter and hear for the first time his true voice. Now, with a determination of his own and the moral consult from his Targetmaster partner Krunix, he seeks to redeem his name amongst the Decepticons, all the while endeavouring to never again lose his voice in the din of deceit and corruption he has re-avowed to fight."
Role: Warrior
Quote: "Never belonging to anything larger than yourself only brings despair"
Strength: 9
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 9
Endurance: 8
Rank: 6
Courage: 8
Fireblast: 9
Skill: 8
Robot Mode
Cyclonus' robot mode is very good, he looks good, is stable, and well articulated.
The arms are able to bend at the elbow and rotate at the shoulder joint, also the lower arms are able to rotate as well, allowing you to aim the gun better. Also, the upper arm can be raised at the side at about a 45 degree angle for some added realism. The right hand is fitted with a plug hole so it can hold a standard sized weapon, and of course his Minicon partner, however his left hand is filled in for some reason.
The legs are able to bend at the knees as well, and the leg can also bend and rotate on a ball bearing at the thigh so he can perform a horizontal split or a star jump if needed. His upper leg is also able to rotate just under the point where the groin is as a 360 degree angle (if you must do it) His feet are also able to be repositioned if needed depending on the surface he's on (ie the feet can be made to dig into the ground if on soil or sand)
Cyclonus' head can rotate 360 degrees (as it's required for his transformation anyway, and is also fitted with a blue light-piping system (as he is a benevolent Decepticon)
His back kibble is attacked to his shoulder thingies, so it won't hinder articulation for the arms (unlike with the Classics Seeker mold)
Cyclonus' colour scheme is clearly meant to denote Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime's G1 colourings, and works very well at that as well. The orange and red main colours compliment each other very well, and the orange wings on his back are a great reference to Hot Rod as well, without having to alter the original toy's mold at all
Alternate Mode
Cyclonus' alternate mode is of a space jet reminiscent of his original G1 design, but obviously in Hot Rod's colours instead of his original colours.
Whilst the wings and other orange highlights are quite sharp against the red main body, they actually work well
The alternate mode has landing wheels on the bottom that can be hidden if you want to pretend that he's flying (or if you actually throw him around to make him fly)
The back of the alternate mode is kind of messy, the robot mode feet aren't hidden that well...actually they aren't hidden at all.
The alternate mode has a decorative cockpit area in the middle, it can't hold any real figures, and is just there for aesthetic reasons
Transformation
The transformation sequence is very simple, and quite swift to do, however you have to follow the sequence very precisely, otherwise you'll miss a stage and his head will be stuck or something.
The hiding of the nose-cone is quite clever however, as it gets fully folded into Cyclonus' chest
The only real awkward part is the lower legs since they have to be folded together, and that requires piloting the inner joints together, although the end result is still very nice
Accessories
Cyclonus comes with probably the best type of accessory, A LITTLE ROBOT!!!! In this case he comes with his Targetmaster partner, Krunix (named for the character created in Marvel UK)
Krunix is able to turn into a small gun that Cyclonus can use to blast away his enemies (in fiction anyway, since he's actually a non-firing gun in the toy form) The gun mode can attach to Cyclonus is one of 3 ways, either as a normal gun in his right hand by sliding the handle into his plug hole, or by sliding into the Targetmaster port on Cyclonus' left arm (just rotate his left hand into it's socket to reveal the port) by sliding the small clip on his back into the small hole. The final way to to slide the handle into the small hole on top of his cockpit
Krunix is coloured to match his larger counterpart (most likely because of molding issues like they did with the Micromaster teams in G1)
In robot mode, Krunix is very articulate for a small figure, his joint on his groin area enables him to enter a foetal position, which also allows his legs to move on the axis as well. His arms can rotate at the shoulder joints, and the arms can also bend at a 90 degree angle forward, but nothing else
Availability
Cyclonus was made available in the first half of 2010 along with Punch/Counterpunch. His character model was first seen in the Botcon comic, Shattered Glass. I picked mine up at Auto Assembly 2010 in a bulk batch along with Punch/Counterpunch. He came to about £40 including P&P
This figure is a straight repaint of the Universe Cyclonus toy, as is Krunix, and with no added features for the actual figure
My Thoughts
Cyclonus is fantastic, his colour scheme is well designed to both look good on this new character, and to evoke a passing resemblance to G1 Hot Rod, which is very fitting, since in the Reunification comic from TFCC he ended up shooting and killing/near killing Megatron (his leader) which is also a trait that has been given to Hot Rod because of an animation error in the G1 Movie where some orange laser fire is shot at Optimus whilst Megatron is killing him, thus making people think that Hot Rod actually shot him as well
The alternate mode is great, though since it's a small jet toy, it doesn't really have any real play value other than holding it in your hand and making "THWOOSH" sounds whilst making it "fly" around the room.
Cyclonus' insignia is very well designed, since it basically matches his body colour as well, making it similar to G1 Optimus Prime's insignia in that respect
Krunix is one of my favourite parts of this figure, since I love Minicons, Micromasters and -Masters as a toy sub-group. He makes a good mini robot figure, and a great gun that can be used in more than one way (as seen in the accessories section)
Overall, I think this figure is great, he works as both a toy and a collectable honestly, with the compatibility between Cyclonus and Krunix he can be hours of fun, or just look pretty on a shelf with your other Shattered Glass figures
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