Many TF fans wonder if Cyclonus is supposed to be Skywarp or Bombshell. Others debate if the character was supposed to be Skyshell, and others debate if the character was Bombwarp the whole time. Now it's time for me to add to the debate by saying "Oh my God, who the hell cares?" as Peter Griffin of Family Guy fame once said. I mean, Cyclonus is cool, but between his voice inconsistencies, being Galvatron's whipping boy, and then having a design that's cool in the IDW stuff only to become Tailgate's bootlicker was frustrating. Still, whether or not we'll see this guy along with the purple Megatron known as Galvatron is up to debate, but we at least have his toy to review!
Here is Cyclonus in his jet mode. It's the perfect kind of sleek if you ask me, what with the jet mode proportions looking badass and unstoppable. I love the swept-forward wings and tailfins, the cockpit, and just about everything that makes him a cool design in his vehicle mode. The deco is fairly light, but the darker purple and beige-ish silver are used to breat it up. I don't like that the hinges near the cockpit have small gaps as well as being colored differently, and the nosecone looks slightlu pushed back. Beyond that, it's badass.
The gun can be stored on the top as always, and it looks like a good gun.
The undercarriage is quite literally the chest with two shins, but it mostly works. It's better than the awful undercarriage of POTP Starscream. There's also some landing geat on the fuselage and the shins.
Transformation is pretty involved for this guy, and it works well for this guy because he's got things like the legs extending, the hand reveals, the integration of the wings to be within the shoulders, and the fuselage being my favorite part of the transformation as well as the way the back rotates to have the shoulders tab in the right spots. The fuselage opens up and collapses nicely into an inner part of the torso, which is much better done than the rest of the kinds of transformations prior versions of Cyclonus had. As for the robot mode, he looks perfect! He's got all of the details in the right spots, as well as having the right proportions overall. There is nothing missing for this guy in terms of details or accuracy, and while he could use a darker shade of purple because it's too lavender, I appreciate that his proportions feel right. We even have some clear orange plastic for the belly, part of the chest, and the head, much like with the cockpit.
Head sculpt is perfect for the dude, and what makes it work is the inclusion of the light-piping for the eyes. We've gotten light-piped eyes in the WFC line, such as Siege Starscream, Earthrise Soundwave, and now this guy. Why some guys got light-piped eyes and others don't is beyond me. At least the articulation for this guy is consistent with the rest of the line. And he even has his gun! That's pretty sweet.
For reuses, we have the Legacy version, now in darker colors with stickers like the G1 toy as well as a Nightstick Targetmaster. He looks better than the Kingdom version, but his shoulders are stupidly loose out of the box.
For a comparison between Kingdom's Cyclonus and the other ones made, they include the Universe 2008 version and the Combiner Wars figure. The Universe figure may have the more dynamic sculpt with those massive shoulder pads and the thin legs, but the colors were a lot more inconsistent with each other than with Kingdom Cyclonus. The ears, outer parts of the chest, and the biceps and thighs make the toy look like a prototype. Combiner Wars Cyclonus has some nice sculpting and I like his color scheme well (even if it's a little close to Galvatron), but having him be a retool of Silverbolt did mean he carries over the blocky design rather than look good even if he was a retool. So in short, Kingdom Cyclonus wins! He's a solid Voyager, the best version of the character, and while I'm sure I'll put one higher over the other, it's great to see two Voyagers tied in terms of ranking; Much like with the first Siege wave of Voyagers, I think Kingdom's first wave of Voyagers are equally good! And if you want to get his Armada, good luck finding them on store shelves because some don't even have them ready for sale somehow.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment