Armada Cyclonus

with Crumplezone

Series: Armada
Allegiance: Decepticon
Categories: Supercon
Year: 2002

Out of My Way! Attack!
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?

Robot Mode: Cyclonus in robot mode suffers a bit from the huge rotor hanging on his back, but apart from that he looks pretty cool. Able to deploy weapons from both his hands and shins (not counting possible powerlinked Minicons) he is loaded for bear. The body design is a bit strange, as you need to tilt the upper body downward a bit in order for Cyclonus to look straight ahead, but it makes him look pretty dynamic and almost in constantm motion. The one real drawback of this mode is the hips, where the helicopter cockpit that forms the chest doesn't really click together with the waist, which makes him unstable there. Apart from that, though, a pretty good robot mode.

Vehicle Mode: Cyclonus is able to transform into a helicopter. Or two helicopters, actually, as his vehicle mode looks very different depending on whether or not you add Crumplezone in cockpit mode. I like the mode much better with Crumplezone, but I guess it is a matter of taste. This mode also has Cyclonus' full weapons barrage deployed. Some stability problems persist here, too, though, as the legs which form the helicopter's undercarriage don't hold together well.

Add-Ons / Partners: Crumplezone is a triple-changing Minicon, able to turn from robot to small tank to add-on cockpit for Cyclonus' helicopter mode. He looks pretty cool in all three modes, especially the cockpit mode where his tank cannon becomes a gun that actually moves back and forth when you rotate Cyclonus' rotor blades.

Cyclonus is also specifially designed to pwerlink with the Destruction Team, who can link up to him in both modes, but especially look good doing so in helicopter mode.

Remarks: Cyclonus doesn't really have anything in common with the G1 character of the same name (nor with G1 Sandstorm, from whom he inherited his Japanese name). A giggling maniac with a lust for destruction, he made for some fun moments in the cartoon series.

The toy is pretty decent, especially in combination with the Destruction Team and Crumplezone. Definitely one of the Armada bad guys you should get for your collection.

Rating: B