By Loran
The second half of the Battle in Space two-pack is Cyclonus, the reformed Bombshell who became Galvatron’s sickeningly loyal right-hand man. Sometimes he can be big enough for the insane leader to pilot him, others, well, he’ll be only slightly taller than him. When the original version of this figure first came out in the Universe 2008 line, I was ecstatic, and grabbed him as soon as I could. It’s a good thing, too, because he was probably one of the harder figures to find from that wave! So, will this figure be a decent substitute? Let’s take a look…
Cyclonus’s vehicle mode is a Cybertronian… er, Unicronian… sonic… space fighter? I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s really cool. While it’s not as sleek as his G1 counterpart, it allows for a much better transformation, unlike his flat figure of old. Unfortunately, his back end is left with a LOT of empty space because of the transformation, but once he’s in robot mode it all becomes worthwhile. And no, his Targetmaster buddy cannot sit inside his cockpit, but he can be attached to the roof in gun mode!
His transformation is surprisingly complex, doing several things I would not have expected to see on a Deluxe toy, such as the nosecone folding into his back and his legs splitting in two for the vehicle mode. Despite all of the empty space in his vehicle mode, he feels VERY solid. His wings and arms all tab into place and stay there rather well, so a little bit of force is needed to get them out for transformation.
His robot mode is as it should be-tall, mean, and lean-many things the original figure weren’t. He comes in at about a full head taller than the Seeker mold. This look makes all of the vehicle mode compromises completely worth it, because this is about as close as you can get to the animation and comic model. It really, really works. He has some glorious, perfect light-piping on his head, too.
His articulation is smooth, with a nice cut-joint at the thigh to give him some extra leg movement. Unfortunately he lacks an elbow swivel as well, but transformation joint at the shoulder makes it less necessary that on Hot Rod.
However, there is one rather glaring oddity with the design of the figure-his hands. For some reason, Hasbro decided to only give his right hand a peg-hole. I can’t understand why-it hurts a toy’s functionality to only use one hand. Of course, this isn’t quite a problem when we get to…
…Nightstick, Cyclonus’s seldom-seen Targetmaster buddy. The inclusion of Nightstick is a rather odd one, seeing as there were no –masters in the Classics/Universe line or any of the current lines. Also, Nightstick only really appeared in “The Rebirth” and the Headmasters mini-series. I guess they had some extra money in the budget so they opted to give him a little partner.
All that aside, though, Nightstick is a VERY awesome little partner. His transformation is more than just “fold robot over, receive gun” and actually gains a bit of extra poseability as a result, but nothing to write home about. He can plug into these square slots on the reverse side of Cyclonus’s hand. Yep, only the right one. Nope, his lack of a left fisthole still makes no sense.
Since I discussed it with Hot Rod, I should mention them here-the colors and plastic. Thankfully, his plastic is MUCH better than that on Rodimus, however mine had an assembly issue with the right shoulder-the screw was placed in too tight, causing the arm to fall off at the shoulder. Just take a small screwdriver and loosen the screw a bit and it’ll be fine.
His colors are AWESOME. While I like the original toy’s comic-accurate colors more, this one emulates the cartoon’s colors to near perfection. Nightstick is a huge improvement, now actual black and silver like the original toy. It’s apples and oranges which one you prefer, but I have to say, this is MUCH better than the Henkei version was…
I should also talk a bit about the included comic. It’s… interesting? It takes place during the 1986 movie (between Magnus’s death and Hot Rod and Kup’s arrival on Junkion) and basically features a rather out-of-place one-on-one fight between Hot Rod and Cyclonus. It’s nothing special, although it DOES give us a glimpse of the upcoming Warpath figure, and actually features the new Lugnut figure (but hurrr he wasn’t in geewun hurdur)! The art, though… is kind of strange. It has a very Transformers Animated-feel to it, which is fine… on Transformers Animated characters. It just looks odd here. Also, Tracks is never called by the right name-he gets called Warpath and Lugnut. I guess Kup really is losing it. Hot Rod is never referred to by name, probably because he wasn’t Rodimus yet in the actual movie. It’s painfully obvious, but it works.
Overall, the set of two figures id definitely worth it, especially considering how much their originals go for on the aftermarket. Cyclonus alone is enough to recommend the set, and even if you already have Cyclonus, you can use them as Cyclonus and Cyclonus’s Armada! For the price of a Voyager, you get two deluxes, a die-cast Matrix, and a comic book, and to me, that’s a good deal. Drop in and start your own Battle in Space today!
