Do we
really have to do this again?
Okay, fine, here's my 2c.
If we look at the
toy catalog from 1986, we see Scourge and Cyclonus along with Starscream and three Conehead seekers. No Thundercracker or Skywarp. Oh and Insecticons are still present too!
Now as we all know, the movie is really just an excuse to get rid of a bunch of old toys to make room for new ones, so to me it's clear that Skywarp and Thundercracker became Cyclonus and Scourge respectively.
Yes, if we watch the movie it looks clear that Bombshell becomes Cyclonus, but then again the movie also shows two red cassettes along with other animation errors. Plus, the whole second Cyclonus is the reason why we're discussing this, so clearly there's not much credibility as far as the animation is concerned.