General Information:
Release Year: May 2003
Retailer: General (Toys R Us, Kay Bee, Wal-Mart etc.)
Price Point: Supercon (Approximately $9.99 depending on retailer)
Transformation Difficulty Level: 3 (Advanced)
Accessories: Crumplezone Mini-Con figure, Missiles x 2

• In Package
• Crumplezone (Original and Powerlinx - Vehicle Modes)
• Crumplezone (Original and Powerlinx - Robot Modes)
• Crumplezone (Vehicle Mode)
• Crumplezone (Robot Mode)
• Original and Powerlinx Cyclonus (Vehicle Modes)
• Vehicle Mode
• Vehicle Mode (Front View)
• Vehicle Mode (Powerlinked)
• Vehicle Mode (Powerlinked, close up)
• Vehicle Mode (Side View)
• Vehicle Mode (Details)
• Original and Powerlinx Cyclonus (Robot Modes)
• Robot Mode
• Robot Mode (Close Up)
• Robot Mode (Powerlinked)

Towards the middle of the Armada line, Hasbro suddenly realized there was a huge demand for Armada toys. While several toys were recolored to match their appearances in the television show, a few were given new decos purely to refresh assortments. One of these toys was Cyclonus, who was given a new deco and released along with other figures like Powerlinx Hot Shot. This review will focus on the changes made to the toy for this release. Please read the original Armada Cyclonus' review for a more detailed review of the toy itself.

Crumplezone's color scheme is put together to match up with Cyclonus'. His main colors are black, brown, green and gray. The central portion is mostly black, with the sides and back painted green. The tread units are cast in gray plastic, and the actual cannon barrel is dark brown. Despite the appearance of green (and a rather bright shade at that), the figure's overall look is still dark. The black and the dark brown are such strong colors that they
almost make you forget about the green (almost).

The only extra color added can be found in the robot mode, where Crumplezone's face is painted silver. Silver on black is a classic color combination and works well. It should also be noted here that the Powerlinx mechanism where Crumplezone connects to the front end of Cyclonus still works fine (on both wave one Cyclonus and Powerlinx Cyclonus), so no mold degradation seems to have occurred.

Vehicle Mode:
If there's something eerily familiar about Cyclonus' color scheme, you're probably a G1 fan. Cyclonus is mostly green, with some gray parts - the same as Generation One Springer, the Autobot triple changer prominantly featured in Transformers: The Movie. The shade is fairly close, but all the parts that are green have a fantastic gray paint wash over them, filling out the details along the main body of the vehicle. The combination of the gray wash and the bright green is perfect as the wash brings out details that would have otherwise been lost
in the brightness of the green.

The wings and rear section are dark gray, with dark brown for the missiles and rear fins. The main rotor blade is also dark brown. The front cockpit section is black with silver windows (mirroring colors on Crumplezone). On the lower portion of the vehicle, the machine guns are molded in black plastic. The Decepticon symbol on the right wing is painted purple.

As a loose homage to Springer, this toy does the job. The two primary colors of gray and green do look good together, and the gray wash pattern on the green is a very welcome sight. It's a rare coloring detail on most Transformers.

Cyclonus' action features still work just fine. The trigger still activates the helicopter blades and you can attach Crumplezone without a hitch. His missile firing gimmicks are intact as well, but since this is the first redeco, it's not too surprising the mold has held up well. For those curious, the rear tail fin section does slide right off.

Robot Mode:
Cyclonus' robot mode shows off more of the colors you'll already find on the vehicle mode, and an additional unexpected one. Here the color distribution is more even since most of the green winds up on his back. His head is black, with (of all colors), bright orange for the face. The eyes are green. The upper arms and upper legs are dark brown, the lower legs are green, with gray, silver and orange detailing on them. In a rather interesting design move, the designers painted a portion of the left arm silver, and only that side, as if to accentuate the asymmetrical arms. Also, the gray wash was used on the inner legs as well as the rest of the lower legs. It's nice to see they did not eliminate that application, even if it is in a spot that is so easily ignored.

The Mini-Con activated leg cannons are still functional on Cyclonus, with no more or less pushing needed to get them to flip out than the original. And chalk me up to not being observant sometimes - I just noticed reviewing this version that the face sculpt is basically a helmet on an organic looking face, down to him having a "microphone" only on one side of the face. Cute.

Powerlinx Cyclonus is by no means a "must have" if you already own the original. Recommended if you are into G1 homages or are a completist. Even those who buy all the "show variants" are safe since this version never appeared in the TV show. But if you do get him, he's still a neat to to have in your collection.