The Winning Toy
Name: Cyclonus
"Cyclonus is so reckless that even his own Decepticon allies are afraid of him. While performing aerial attacks, he may suddenly fly off to attack a lone Autobot, leaving his companions unprotected. Megatron likes to let him loose because he's so dangerous in battle, but he has trouble stopping him once he gets started. Will Cyclonus ever learn to control his savage recklessness?"
Toyline: Armada
Generation: Unicron Trilogy
Size Class: Deluxe
Faction: Decepticon
Quote: "Out of my way! Attack!"
Strength: 8
Intelligence: 5
Speed: 8
Endurance: 7
Rank: 5
Courage: 8
Fireblast: 7
Skill: 5
Robot Mode
Cyclonus' robot mode is a combination of blues, white, purple and gold-brown. His robot mode is quite basic looking and with somewhat limited articulation, and features a large rotot on his back as well.
Cyclonus' torso is made up of the bulk of his vehicle mode and therefore features his cockpit, and the gimmick of inserting his Mini-Con into his chest to give him a new weapon. His head is connected by a simple pivot joint that works when he flips the head outwards, and allows him to nod his head a bit in this mode. His face is a bright orange with green eyes inside a dark blue helmet. His face features a sculpted nose, eyes, jaw and sneer for a mouth.
Cyclonus' vehicle mode wings are doubled as his shoulders in this mode which lead to hinges on each one that connect to his upper arms, allowing them to bend forwards and back as far as needed. His lower arms are connected by another hinge that forms an elbow which allows him to bend the lower arms inwards about 180 degrees. His hands are sculpted with fingers, but feature no articulation or pegs for additional weapons. His arm cannons are activated by inserting a Mini-Con to launch the missiles.
Cyclonus' upper legs are connected to his groin area by a pivot joint that allows him to bend them as far as needed. (if you remove his tail fin then you can make him bend his legs back as well). His legs feature a knee joint that allows him to bend them back as far as possible. His feet are made from a small protrusion at the front and his vehicle mode non-firing guns as his heels. His legs feature a hidden pair of guns that are revealed by inserting a Mini-Con into either of the Hard-Points on his outer legs.
Cyclonus' rotor balde can be removed and inserted into one of his Hard-Points as another weapon (like Cybertron Evac's). But this mode isn't supported by any fiction I can think of.
Alternate Mode
Cyclonus' vehicle mode is a blue, white and purple Cybertronian helicopter with a gold rotor blade, tail fins and side cannons.
This mode features a pair of blue/silver guns on his undercarriage that cannot really fire, and a pair of missiles under his wings that can be fired by inserting a Mini-Con into the Hard Point on either side.
Cyclonus' cockpit can be opened up and his personal Mini-Con Crumplezone can be inserted to extend his cockpit and give him another weapon. His tail fins can be repositioned as needed for your fictional needs. His wings can also be repositioned slightly as needed.
Cyclonus features a trigger on the tail of his vehicle mode which can be pulled back to make his rotors spin, and the gear gimmick below the cockpit activate, which can make any connected and compatible Mini-Cons (Destruction Team, Adventure Team and any repaints) activate their gimmicks.
A problem with this alternate mode is that you can clearly see his robot parts in this mode, it still looks good, but maybe could have been better somewhat.
Crumplezone
Crumplezone's robot mode is a combination of blues, blacks and whites with a golden brown cannon on his back and some orange detailings on his shoulders and face. His Mini-Con port is located on his chest next to his insignia. His arms are connected at about half-way down his torso and can be moved back and forth as needed. His legs are connected by a hinge that allows it to move forwards and bend at his knees each.
Cyclonus' little buddy is the Mini-Con Crumplezone, he turns into a Cybertronian tank (akin to Cyclonus' Cybertronian helicopter mode) and features a pair of wheels on either tracks allowing him to really roll along a smooth surface. He features a turret on top which can be made to move by moving the rear of it (this can also be activated by pulling on Cyclonus' trigger as well when he is connected to him.
When connected to Cyclonus by the chest/cocpit he looks like a new Cockpit for him and even gives him a gun under the cockpit as well. His arms can be folded backwards as well to make him look more flowing.
Legacy
Cyclonus appeared as a main character in the Armada TV series and Dreamwave comic series, where in both he acted as one of Megatron's main soldiers. In both series he was a bit manic, but was very loyal to Megatron. Interestingly, in the Dreamwave comic he is shown to scan a normal human made helicopter, but ends up taking on a more alien looking alternate mode.
In the Dreamwave series, Cyclonus was used as a test subject for the Destruction Team, which overloaded him and he ended up attacking Thrust under their power (he was later fixed up however). In the cartoon however he survived until the Energon wars, but was eventually converted into Snowcat by Megatron.
This Cyclonus' toy has been repainted a couple of times as Cyclonus as well from different parts in the TV series or with power ups, and was later repainted as a new character Buzzsaw for the Cybertron line. This new character appeared in some prose stories from Fun Publications, and the same character model, including colours appeared in the Cybertron series as a Velocitronian race announcer (being the only aerial robot other than Skyfall to come from that planet). The character model was also used for the fiction only Predacon character Buzzbomb.
The name Cyclonus has been used in a few series, starting with G1 where he was rebuilt from a dead Decepticon by Unicron, as well as being one of the members of the Expansion in the IDW series. An alternate version of Cyclonus appeared in the Transformers Animated series as a member of Team Chaar, and is hinted as being from the future, possibly as an evolved form of one of Starscream's clones himself. A swell as having a Shattered Glass counterpart (see my review for him) and a character of him in the War for Cybertron game from the Aligned continuity.
Crumplezone's name has been reused a couple of times for the Velocitronian character from Cybertron, and the similar looking character from Animated as well, and as one of the lesser known DOTM figures from the Speed Stars lines.
Is he Cool?
This is a hard one...he is cool to an extent. His toy does look good, but not by today's standard of realistic looking alternate modes, however due to him having a Mini-Con with a very specific connection process to him (one of the few figures to have a very unique gimmick for Mini-Cons)
Although, as I said before by today's standard he's not that great as a figure, he has limited articulation, and a very weak alternate mode (as a disguise I mean) compared to today's standards.
As such, it might be only worth getting him as a way to complete your Armada collection or just to get the Mini-Con really, that's the main reason why I bought him this year. Honestly, if you want a helicopter Transformer then you should probably get one of the others like Bulkhead or Evac.
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