Cyclonus ranks a bit oddly to me in terms of character importance. He’s got clout for appearing in the ‘86 movie, but at the same time, a lot of casual G1 fans likely haven’t seen 90 percent of the media he’s in. See, technically, Cyclonus is a member of that brand-new movie crew, a.k.a the one Transformers work, by volume, everyone has probably seen the most. But outside of getting dramatically introduced by Unicron, having a one-person Armada that immediately vanished, and maybe saying one or two lines of dialogue that could also have just been Scourge talking, he was basically a silent attack-dog/personal ship for Galvatron.
When your main role is to shuttle other characters around so they can have their own iconic moments.
It was in the third season of the cartoon where he came into his own (and most people watching the cartoon tap out before they get there). In that show, he was sort of the anti-Starscream, as the new second-in-command that was fanatically, unflinchingly loyal to his maddened leader, Galvatron. He’d also have a lot more to do in the Marvel UK comics, and years later, IDW comics would, as is typical with them, do way more interesting things with his character. Pre-reboot, he was a grim, brooding ancient warrior, who accidentally wound up on the starship Lost Light, and post-reboot, he’s a reclusive war veteran living in the wilderness.
Two-eyed two-horned flying purple people-pleaser.
Either way, he’s perennially popular, and the fact that he’s got one of those weird, kinda unique Floro Dery-designed futurist looks seems to help. Certainly, he’s gotten his share of updated figures over the years, with his last brand-new non-retool G1-style figure being a Universe 2.0 Deluxe all the way back in 2008 (13 years ago! Aaaa!). And that was a pretty good figure, if a bit loose in the joints.
I remember drooling over preview images for this guy. Now THAT makes me feel old.
This new one, though, is designed to be a definitive version, to go along with Kingdom Galvatron and Studio Series 86 Scourge (again, they’re doing that thing where they’ve split these guys up across multiple lines, despite them clearly being intended to go together). This is one I initially wasn’t too interested in, but Transformers Social Media sold me on, so it’ll be interesting to have a look in that context.
Robot Mode
People call Cyclonus big for a Voyager, but that’s a bit overstated. Sure, he’s a bit tall and wide compared to his Siege and Earthrise contemporaries, but he’s roughly the same size as an older Prime Wars Voyager, not that I’m complaining, as on top of his size, they’ve sculpted him with a real presence.
Skywarp is shocked, SHOCKED that he might possibly turn into this guy later (if Bombshell doesn’t).
Showdown of the second-in-commands!
It’s really hard to do the Distracted Boyfriend meme when everyone’s heights are so varied.
They really did Cyclonus’s cartoon design justice here, and he captures that strange, alien, offbeat look that Floro Dery infused into the ‘86 movie characters like him. He almost reminds me of a Masterpiece figure that doesn’t exist, with how much fidelity was put into him, and how clean his mostly-humanoid body is, with only his tiny little shoulder-wings for altmode details.
Y’know, I still like the old one (in his Reveal the Shield repaint form here), but this guy sure does draw more attention to himself.
Speaking of those wings, they come in the package (and in the stock photography) splayed out, but can be folded back, and actually folded in half to decrease their real-estate. There is a bit of kibble here in the form of a couple of panels that hang down behind either arm, but it’s a fair trade-off for the feature. The only other thing that bothers me about the sculpt is that his legs feel a little bit short and stumpy for his proportions.
It’s okay, the old one can be his Armada.
His face, with its big chin and its facial lines, is really nice, and looks more cartoony than I’m used to. I’ll skip ahead and note that the fact that his neck has two entire joints in it really enhances this, since he can look down upon his doomed foes. More importantly, though, they actually included lightpiping in his red eyes, a feature that’s sorely missed on most transformers in 2021.
It’s, like, two layers of retro.
Cyclonus has always been purple, but never the same purple. He’s been, like, every purple possible, and that includes in the same Sunbow cartoon. This time around, this plastic iteration mostly went with a light lavender, and it certainly fits. It’s accented with grey and silver, and this neat darker purple paint that almost looks metallic chrome in person.
Oddly, his forearms are a subtly different shade of purple than the rest of him, but it’s not terribly obvious in this mode. Also, I was immediately drawn to the fact that the weird little reddish gems on his belly are proper translucent orange plastic. The only other bit of coloring weirdness is that, thanks to a joint cut, his thighs switch from silver to grey mid-leg.
Ten points if you can sink a ball into that empty knee of his.
Cyclonus has got some oddly-constructed knee joints, thanks to his transformation. Basically, his joint isn’t where his knee is, it’s behind it, so bending his knee exposes something of an unsightly gap. Still, at least he’s got that joint. In fact, he’s got all the joints. Articulation people, we’re eating well.
It’s a subtle thing, but you’d be surprised how many figures can’t really do this one-leg-forward-one-leg-back pose without cheating a bit.
You’d think, for example, the ankles can’t tilt because of how his feet are shaped, but they do. You’d think the waist is locked in place since it splits for transformation, but it’s not, they just lowered the joint’s location. His wrists swivel, he’s got very mobile shoulders, no expense has been spared.
Height, gothy-ness, articulation, he’s the whole package.
His best joint, like I mentioned above, is his head. He has a totally separate neck piece, with two whole joints (one on either side), so his neck can bend and twist and look up and down way more than most figures.
Cyclonus has got one lone accessory, his cartoony silver-painted gun. He can hold it in his hand, and I appreciate that the back of it is sculpted to sit flush against the specific shape of his forearm. You can also stash it on his back, on a War for Cybertron weapons port.
Speaking of that, he’s got a refreshingly robust amount of these ports, after a lot of Kingdom seemed to be straying away from them.
He’s called Cyclonus for the cyclone of bullets he’s about to rain down.
He’s got two ports per foot, one each on his lower legs, one on each of his shoulders, and one each on the backs of forearms, on top of a pair of blast-effect pegs on his torso.
Of course, a couple well-placed shots can still bring him down.
In other words, despite his single accessory, between the ports, the joints, the lightpiping, and the really clean robot mode, he’s got just enough going on to feel really robust.
Generations Drift’s sword looks a little bit tiny on him, but it still sort of works as a Lost Light homage. Nighstick also works well with him, for that Rebirth homage.
Transformation
This is another thing the Transformers fandom has been going on about. Basically, his robot head and torso becomes his conical jet body with what can best be described as A Hinge Explosion. In other words, the entire thing telescopes out of his torso via a Russian Nesting Doll of hinged openings. It’s pretty wild, even if I have trouble remembering which side of each hinged opening is the part that swings open.
It’s like some sort of modern art sculpture.
The only part of his transformation that doesn’t feel good is his legs, which involve squeezing his thighs down into his shins with a lot of force. I’d rather his legs opened up, Combiner Wars-style, but there doesn’t seem to have been real estate to do that, when his feet get hidden with the same mechanic.
The view from below.
There’s one more unique quality control issue that reared its head on my copy: While fiddling with the rotating assembly his cockpit and arms are on, I heard a snap, and a rattle, and discovered that the flat-headed screw that kept it attached inside his torso had actually broken off. However, this is some real Stan Lee “Broke it? Or made it better?” business, since the assembly stays attached just fine during his transformation due to the tightness of the connection, and is secured with plenty of tabs in both modes, and I can now just pull it off in between to have more room to get at The Hinge Explosion.
Honestly, this just makes things easier.
I’ve unlocked Cyclonus’s Skyscraper Mode.
Jet mode
Cyclonus always had an impressive jet form, a retro-futurist sleek wedge with two forward-facing wings, and this version renders it impressively sleeky, with its long nose, and unbroken curves. Once again, it’s surprisingly clean, and just looks good. It has that certain factor that makes you want to pick it up and swoosh it around.
The same silhouette, but more cohesive.
The one knock against the design that I do have is that the panelling around the cockpit isn’t able to really cleanly close up, seemingly by design. I’ve fiddled with it, I asked Transformers Twitter, it’s just like that. Still, 90 percent cleanliness ain’t bad. Speaking of that, this jet also manages to avoid a ton of unsightly undercarriage. Sure, you can see the legs and torso from the bottom, but they don’t hang down at all. His chest does stick out a tiny bit, but that’s it.
The part of the design I’m most impressed with is his really clean, unbroken block of a back end, especially compared to the old Universe 2.0 version, where it was clearly still just legs. The four sculpted jets on the back, too, look really good, as the back of the jet is often something ignored with this kind of altmode.
An angle that’s usually unsightly (shame about those off-color bits).
For colors, he’s once again almost entirely lavender, with less grey and silver, though it’s still there, and plenty of that nice, darker, kinda-metallic purple for accents. The final flourish is that very nice set of clear red windows for his cockpit. The only thing they could have done better was squeeze a tiny fist-shaking Galvatron into that space.
“I’ll hop in.” “But sir-” *cannon powers up* “I SAID, I’ll hop. In.”
For features, Cyclonus has a full suite of three deployable landing gear wheels, something that’s another rarity on modern Transformers. His silver gun can still mount uptop, and he still has a generous selection of weapon ports for arming him up.
Who needs aerodynamics when you have guns?
These include Seeker-style ports beneath the wings, one each near the back of the jet, and those four sculpted engines in the back, which can hold either weapons, or effect parts for a blasting-off experience.
Maybe you should get your engine checked out, buddy.
Overall
Suddenly, the other heralds feel a bit inadequate.
It feels like someone on the design team was a fan of this character, and decided to go really hard on him, because there’s a shockingly heavy amount of effort invested in trying to make this the Best Cyclonus Possible.
Y’know, I never thought about how Titans Return Galvatron having a spaceship mode made him fit better with his minions until right now.
He’s big, he’s mad poseable, he’s surprisingly clean in both modes, he’s got a transformation that’s wild, yet not too tough, and importantly, has a ton of expression and presence in both modes.
Schrödinger’s Origin.
I’m not really a Cyclonus guy, but I’m surprised by how much I enjoy this one, and I can see what the online hype about him was all about. My only complaint is that now I feel like I need the new Scourge and Galvatron to go with him, since he runs circles around their Titans Return versions.
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