Just another poor Armada grunt Decepticon, though a member of the main supporting cast in the series proper all the same. While I owned a lot of the Armada toyline as a kid, I never actually had a chance to play around with Cyclonus here. I actually finally added him to my permanent collection with the Super Haul Transformers bin.
This is probably one of the worse entries in the Armada line. Cyclonus doesn’t look particularly bad just standing, but beyond that he can barely move and the sunken head is a massive eyesore.
His range of motion is severely limited, mostly in the hips and legs. Beyond really only being able to stretch his legs out forward, the knees aren’t really meant to be knees. They lock in from his transformation, and while you can unlock them to get some knee bending action in there, the hinge joint is completely loose, resulting in balance issues.
The arms are also on simple hinge joints that allow for simple forwards and backwards movement; the hands are molded with the arms but at least they’re painted instead of being molded all in one color.
Poses like this hurt me inside…but it’s really all Cyclonus can do. He has knee blasters that can pop up and missiles in his forearms, but I can’t actually remember if the latter actually fires or not. I’d like to say it’s Mini-Con activated, but I’m not completely sure.
Cyclonus’ Mini-Con partner Crumplezone isn’t much; basic Mini-Con fare really. It looks somewhat humanoid with clear arms and legs at least, as opposed to some molds that look like some nightmarish amalgamation from a horror film.
Crumplezone transforms into what I assume is supposed to be a mini-tank, but I’m pretty sure my particular figure is actually missing the barrel. It doesn’t actually have much of an impact on the figure itself though; Crumplezone just looks like an awkward block on treads.
Onto Cyclonus’ vehicle mode, that of what I assume to be a military-grade attack helicopter.
All things considered, this isnt’ a bad vehicle form. It actually looks like a pretty presentable helicopter and has some nice panel detail all around.
One of this figure’s key gimmicks is the spinning helicopter blades, which are actually activated by a button on the tail. It’s kind of like a spring gun, where pulling the trigger will make the blades spin for a few cycles. I have to admit that it’s a pretty entertaining feature, even if Cyclonus can’t actually fly.
The cockpit section also swings up to activate another gimmick that I don’t actually remember being seen in-series…
Crumplezone can be attached upside-down to Cyclonus’ chest/helicopter nose to form a more military-esque looking cockpit section. The helicopter certainly looks better in this configuration, but the extra flipped up cockpit that’s now on the top looks a bit conspicuously awkward.
All told, Cyclonus is pretty average Armada fare. It’s too bad that its robot mode is so lacking, but at least the military helicopter vehicle form doesn’t look half bad.