Toy Review - CYCLONUS (Legacy)

CYCLONVS (w/ Nightstick)
Series - Generations
Sub-line - Legacy
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - Repaints of Kingdom Cyclonus and Siege Blowpipe
Wave - N/A; Generations Selects exclusive
Released here - August 2022 (Amazon)
Approximate Retail Price - $75
Approximate Size - (Robot) 19.5cm - (Jet) length: 23cm, wingspan: 17.5cm
Allegiance - Decepticon
Sub-Group - Targetmaster
Alt-mode - Jet fighter from the the future of 2005
Main Features/Gimmicks - Blast effects posts
Main Colours - Dark purple, dark metallic grey
Main Accessories - Oxidising laser gun, corroding black-beam gun (Nightstick), sticker sheet, blast effects

NOTE: As Legacy Cyclonus is a repaint of Kingdom Cyclonus, and Legacy Nightstick is a repaint of Siege Blowpipe, refer to the respective review threads of the original toys for comments about them. This thread will focus on changes made to these moulds.

https://i.ibb.co/B3h5fkW/TL-cyclonus01.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/QbXXnzS/TL-cyclonus02.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/9tpgSxB/TL-cyclonus03.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/c1PnHqL/TL-cyclonus04.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/GnqzHkq/TL-cyclonus05.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LRKbkhK/TL-cyclonus06.jpg

Thoughts

* A gorgeous deco that is accurate to the G1 toy, which I think looks much nicer than the TFTM & Season 3 coloured Kingdom Cyclonus. Incidentally, the toy colours are also closer to the Season 4 colours. The darker colours also make the bright light-piped red eyes look even better.

* It also includes blue paint ops on the "ears" and sides of the fuselage to imitate the blue-eared variant of 1986 Cyclonus. This is somewhat odd as, AFAIK, the blue-eared variant only ever exists on the 1986 pre Targetmaster toy. To my knowledge, 1987 Targetmaster Cyclonus never had the blue variation. Please correct me if I am wrong. Targetmaster Cyclonus' box art does feature the blue ears though, so I guess this is packaging-art accurate? ;)

* Nightstick is a straight up colour-by-numbers repaint of Blowpipe. As such, he really doesn't look much like Nightstick at all... he just looks like Blowpipe wearing Nightstick's colours (funnily enough). I would have preferred to see Hasbro just reuse the Universe Cyclonus toy's Nightstick mould; it's accurate to the G1 cartoon/comics design; which is admittedly Fracas' model, as both Marvel and Sunbow switched Nightstick and Fracas' designs; which is also what made the mould ideal when it was repainted as Nightstick for United Artfire (as G1 Autobot Nightstick was identical to the G1 Fracas toy). But Gens Selects Artfire's Nightstick was a repaint of Firedrive; who was based on Firebolt (Hot Rod's Nebulan). For some weird reason, HasTak seem determined to only repaint Siege Battlemasters now; even when drawing back on the previous Universe Nightstick mould would've made more sense for both GS Artfire and Cyclonus. And due to the arms and legs being on the same gang-mould, it means that TL Nightstick has grey arms instead of black, which is also less G1-accurate. Thankfully G1, Universe and Legacy Nightstick all have 5mm posts, so at least you can swap out your TL Nightstick for G1 or Univ.

* This toy also comes with a set of stickers to make Cyclonus look more G1-accurate. Unfortunately it's that typical thin flimsy quality of post POTP Hasbro stickers, so they are prone to damage. I tore one of the roof stickers during application, but I've been able to mostly conceal it by pressing it down in position. The more annoying one are the thigh stickers. As with G1 Hot Rod, they end up rubbing against the inside of the lower legs during transformation. The right thigh sticker on mine has already been wrinkled (as you can see). :( I'll probably end up removing both thigh stickers entirely. I have yet to apply a chest logo that goes over the tampograph; as I initially didn't want to conceal the tampograph... but I think that the sticker would stand out more, so I might apply it later. There are two options for the shoulders; one pair resembling the G1 toy's front shoulder stickers, and the other being the back shoulder logos. The G1 toy has different pairs of stickers because the front shoulders are facing down in jet mode. But on the Kingdom Cyclonus mode, the front of the shoulders face upwards in jet mode. Either option doesn't offer perfect toy-accuracy; if you use the black rectangle with coloured squares, then it looks more accurate in robot mode but less so in jet mode; and the reverse happens if you apply the Decepticon logos. I've favoured robot-mode accuracy on my figure, but yeah, the option is there. Or you could put one of each. :)

Overall

A very nice G1-accurate deco. The sub-par quality of the stickers is disappointing, especially with the way that the thigh stickers end up being scratched (it's the reason why I never apply thigh stickers on any of my Hot Rod reissues). I would have preferred Universe Nightstick being redecoed over Blowpipe, but Blowstick is a cromulent enough Targetmaster. Those of you who would prefer a Rebirth CHUG Cyclonus might be better off just not applying the stickers at all; and it's cool that Hasbro's given us that option. The inclusion of a repaint of Kingdom Cyclonus' gun is also a neat bonus. At $75~79, this is a rather expensive Voyager (typical of limited exclusive runs); so this won't be everyone's cup of tea. But Generations Selects is all about producing figures with niche appeal. If you're looking for a more toy-accurate CHUG Cyclonus toy, or even Rebirth cartoon-like Targetmaster Cyclonus toy, then Gens Selects is the toy for you. :)

Noice review! Shame about the stickers; it's something I miss with regular mainline Tf figures these days, especially when paint apps are very bare bones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bemblebuu

Noice review!

Thankgewverymuch. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bemblebuu

Shame about the stickers; it's something I miss with regular mainline Tf figures these days, especially when paint apps are very bare bones.

I don't miss stickers. They're a relic of the past. Give me good paint ops and tampographs any day. In the case of Legacy Cyclonus, I can understand the inclusion of stickers as it's giving collectors the choice to have a more The Rebirth cartoon-like Cyclonus, or stickered-up toy-accurate Cyclonus; as well as the option to make the shoulders more accurate to the G1 robot or jet. So in the case of giving collectors choices, sure, stickers make sense. But it's the underwhelming quality of the stickers that's disappointing. I suspect that it may be due to budget.

P.S.: the arms and neck on my TL Cyclonus were also a bit loose. I've applied some Fix-Loose-Joints Action Figure to tighten them up a bit, but they are still a bit looser than my Kingdom Cyclonus.

P.P.S.: I've now removed the thigh stickers and applied the chest sticker. The chest sticker is exactly the same size as the tampograph, which makes it annoying tricky to align correctly to conceal the tampo. Would've been better to make the sticker slightly larger to allow for a greater margin of error; each time I had to remove and reapply the sticker, it would crinkle. Same thing happened with the little Decepticon logo on the jet mode too. IMO, it would've been better to not tampograph the logo at all and just let the user decide where to put it. On the centre like the cartoon or to the left like the G1 toy.
https://i.ibb.co/2MsTjFg/TL-cyclonus07.jpg

Yeah, stickers fading, peeling and wearing out was always an issue, but it added an extra bit of customisation (especially if they were applied wrong). I just wish modern figures had better/ more paint, but that would cost more, heaven forbid.

I suppose one could replace the arms on the G1 blue eared and waisted first run version with the arms from the G1 TM version for that Generations Selects look?

Has taken me ages to decide which Cyclonus I'd open (or if it'd be both). Chose this one and no regrets. Really nifty design all around, I can see why people were saying this was a favourite toy from Kingdom. Won't be putting the stickers on though.