Review: Transformers Universe Cyclonus



I'll admit, I was less than pleased with the second and third waves of the new Universe/Classics 2.0 line. I wasn't sure I was going to continue buying these new TFs, especially since the toy 'budget' is slimmer than ever. However, the day after Christmas this year, I found a couple of these guys still hanging on the pegs at my local TRU, so I decided to buy one. This guy truly represents the spirit of the original Classics line, and is a worthy addition to your collection. It brings back all I used to love about modern TFs that the lengthy hiatus and movie toys (can't believe I bought so many of those) ruined for me.

I was hoping for a reissue of Cyclonus from Takara, until they abandoned their Collection for Encore and started all over again. Thankfully, Hasbro and TakaraTomy brought back the Classics line and Cyclonus makes the cut, doing away with my need to buy a vintage Cyclonus. Which is good, because he and Scourge are pretty pricey.

Cyclonus features a fairly intuitive transformation. I took one look at it, and I knew how to transform it. I eventually had to look at the instructions to figure out the fists, but that's OK. The first images of the toy from Hasbro looked awesome. Then early samples of the production piece made their way around the interwebs, and those didn't look so good. I was happy to see that the real deal looked pretty good in person, which is much more than I can say for Ironhide. Plus, Cyclonus comes with a frickin' Targetmaster. Nightstick, if you're wondering. I fully expect Hasbro to offer Rodimus again, this time with a Targetmaster of his own.

There are some
images floating around of the Henkei (Japanese) version of Cyclonus, and it's really purple. I don't feel a particular need to own it, as I think the Hasbro paintjob looks better, but to each his own. If you were to buy both, they're different enough in this reviewer's opinion that they have their own pluses and minuses.

This guy is a nice slice of 1986 vintageness, something sorely lacking in TF fandom. I like the '84-85 characters too, but seeing Targetmasters and Headmasters in this new Universe line would be absurdly awesome. Hasbro is getting into the later years with their GI Joe line, and I couldn't be happier about that, being a kid who didn't really get to play with these great toys until 1986.

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