Transformers War For Cybertron Kingdom Cyclonus: Raising the bar even higher.

 While I love Scourge's toy, it's hard to deny that he's not very impressive as an overall Transformer. An imposing robot, a hilariously dumb alt mode, and a very basic transformation. While he did his job, the bar was set pretty low when it came to the new heralds of Unicron... and then Kingdom shows up with Cyclonus. Though he never got his armada, let's see how The Warrior was treated in the War for Cybertron Trilogy. 

Starting in Cyclonus' Jet mode, and right off the bat, there is something that needs to be addressed first. Generation 1 Cyclonus has a very distinct Jet mode, a sleek, futuristic space plane.Maybe it's because I wasn't that interested in my first exposure to the name Cyclonus in Transformers Armada, but I love this jet mode. If done well, it has the potential to be absolutely beautiful, as evident by all the third party versions that have been made. I've seen the design done well, I've seen it done amazingly, I've seen it done badly. Out of all the versions of G1 Cyclonus Hasbro and Takara have done over the years, this is, without a doubt, my favorite version of Cyclonus' Jet mode. This toy pulls off a beautiful jet mode and makes it look effortless, with the only hints of it transforming, the only traces of robot mode kibble being so minute that you effortlessly ignore them. The only minute problem I have with the jet mode is that I wish it borrowed a design cue from its forefather and had some guns on the nosecone to give the jet mode some armament that isn't sticking the robot mode gun on top of the jet, or under a wing. It doesn't look good, but other Transformers toys are guilty of it as well, so I'm not going to hold it against the toy. 

Kingdom Cyclonus shares a trait with a set of toys that I'll be reviewing (hopefully) sometime later this year, the Earthrise Seekers. Both toys have roots in the earliest years of what Transformers fans call the CHUG scale (standing for Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations, the names of the toylines in Hasbro and Takara markets that follow the same scale and design cues). For Earthrise Starscream and all his repaints, it's the Classics toy of 2006. Cyclonus' traces back to his Universe toy from 2008. The modern toys share design tricks with the older toys, mainly in how parts move and what elements of the vehicles become parts of the robot. On Starscream, it feels like a hindrance, as aspects of engineering weren't brought up to date to accommodate modern engineering standards, with the only significant differences being how parts transform. The same could be said for Cyclonus; however, it doesn't feel like a crutch. The engineering is similar (just modernized), but parts of it were redone from the ground up to make something that looks cleaner in both modes. The proportions of the jet and robot look more refined; the articulation is improved in robot mode. There's even potential (with a bit of help from a 3D printer and a later Generations Selects figure) to recreate gimmicks of the Universe toy, thanks to the hands folding away to reveal 5mm ports. To top it all off, Cyclonus makes it seem so effortless. I'll go into this more once I review the Earthrise Seekers, but Cyclonus puts them to shame just by existing. It's what the Earthrise Seekers were trying to do, and not only succeeding at it but going above and beyond to fix the faults of the Universe toy. 

Not where I prefer to put his knees, but at least the lighting looks cool.

Is he flawless? Objectively no, there are some minor issues, especially when in robot mode. The plastic gaps in the wings, the gun, and the back of the thighs look bad, and the jet kibble on the sides of his stomach is distracting. It's also frustrating knowing the knees don't lock into place when in robot mode. But as mentioned before, when looking at the jet, it's hard to care about these issues. What minor faults are here are easily drowned out by the overall execution of the toy. Cyclonus' quality did come at a cost; his wave mate, Optimus Primal, is nowhere near the same quality as Cyclonus. But Primal didn't need to be. The Primal that we got was still almost everything fans of the character wanted in a new Primal toy; it didn't feel like corners were being cut. The results speak for themselves, this is one of the best Voyager toys in the War for Cybertron trilogy, and considering the competition, that's an impressive feat. The bar's been set high for Galvatron, but that review is still pretty far away. Instead of a G.I Joe figure next week, the following review will be a Maximal, Airrazor.