The Energon Pub

Is there any information out there regarding the origins of Cyclonus? IDW states that he was part of the original exploration crew commanded by Nova Prime -- beyond that, the history is silent. For everyone else (Marvel, etc.) Cyclonus was reborn by Unicron along with other notables such as Galvatron and Scourge. In terms of the latter story, do we know what Cyclonus' name and function were prior to the rebirth? We know that Galvatron was Megatron and Scourge was, according to the Transformers Wiki, Thundercracker, but what about Cyclonus?

Side question: Am I the only one that wishes IDW would have retained the original origins of Galvatron and Co.? For some reason having Galvatron and Cyclonus being in existence without the meddling of Unicron seems boring to me...


- Bob

Cyclonus was built from the remains of either Bombshell or Skywarp, with the other becoming his Armada... before disappearing entirely right after his creation (seriously, check the Youtube videos of the movie!). They're created nearly simultaneously, so the lines spoken don't really add up.

The BotCon 2002 comic went with the Bombshell = Cyclonus idea, with Skywarp "restored" in a Vehicon body. Mind you, that is far from a definite answer as Hasbro didn't have a hand in creating the fiction at the time. So nobody really knows the true answer.

I've always thought/conjectured that Thundercracker = Cyclonus, Skywarp = Scourge, and the Incecticons = Sweeps. but that's just me.

My reasoning though is that Thundercracker and Cyclonus always seemed to have similar voices and "somewhat" similar personalitys. Same with Skywarp and Scourge, they always seemed to be the same guy to me. Kinda like their personalitys were 'upgraded' with their chassis'.

Haven't read the comics, Don't know jack about the origins their.

I could be mistaken, but I remember reading somewhere that the 25th anniversary movie comic showed Skywarp turned into Cyclonus, Thundercracker into Scourge, and the various insecticons into the Sweeps & Armada. This makes sense to me, given the fact that Cyclonus is purple, Scourge is blue, and the Sweeps/Armada can clone themselves. As far as I'm aware, though, the Armada has never been implemented in any official TF fiction, whether animated or comic-form. That always sort of bugged me, because Scourge & Cyclonus were created as Galvatron's generals, but only Scourge was given an army. They should both be generals of their own clone armies, much like the species-specific Rulon generals from Dino Riders (Rasp commands his vipers, Hammerhead his sharkmen, Antor his antmen, etc.).

As for the IDW-verse, well, you're on your own for that one. I haven't read past the first few issues of AHM in that continuity, so all I know is his role in the Dead Universe arc. Personally, I don't think Unicron's involvement needs to be a part of his origin in order for it to be interesting. IDW began as essentially Simon Furman being given full reign to create his own vision of the ultimate Transformers universe, so he was free to shift things around and add or subtract elements in the mythology. Cyclonus has been seen twice now in his G1 design as a Decepticon soldier with no ties with Unicron - once in IDW, and once in Animated. Even in Armada, although the name was used to represent a completely different character, that incarnation was still a soldier with no ties to Unicron. So it's not a sudden left-field pitch to have him not be created by Unicron in IDW.

Well, judging by the AHM coda series and the Cyclonus spotlight states that his personality craves order above all else, yet he himself is violate and unpredictable. He believes that by enforcing Nova Prime's expansion plans he will become a more orderly bot.

That to me sounds like he is far more suited for being a warrior than worker or scientist. This could mean that he is bodyguard or some sort of enforcer for Nova Prime/Galvatron given free agent status, much like Ultra Magnus.

Why does everyone wish it to be Skywarp?
Bombshell was in the foreground and began to be changed when the name Cyclonus was said by Unicron, the recent IDW comic also followed this reasoning, little kids (the target audience) would follow this reasoning as bombshell WAS IN THE FOREGROUND and was THE FOCUS POINT of the shot, the only people I have heard stating otherwise are fans who really want it to be skywarp and will argue it regardless.

So with that said apart from fans wishing it to be is there any real produced, licensed, endorsed, published material which contradicts that Bombshell was used to create Cyclonus?

I always thought they weren't upgrades like Megatron but actual new beings with bodies formed from the dead decepticons and infused with life from Unicron. Makes more sense since their personalities are completely different.

Lastly Skywarp could teleport
Cyclonus could not
That is one lame-ass upgrade if you loose your special ability

Bobton03 wrote:Is there any information out there regarding the origins of Cyclonus? IDW states that he was part of the original exploration crew commanded by Nova Prime -- beyond that, the history is silent. For everyone else (Marvel, etc.) Cyclonus was reborn by Unicron along with other notables such as Galvatron and Scourge. In terms of the latter story, do we know what Cyclonus' name and function were prior to the rebirth? We know that Galvatron was Megatron and Scourge was, according to the Transformers Wiki, Thundercracker, but what about Cyclonus?

Side question: Am I the only one that wishes IDW would have retained the original origins of Galvatron and Co.? For some reason having Galvatron and Cyclonus being in existence without the meddling of Unicron seems boring to me...


- Bob

All the evidence points to Bombshell becoming Cyclonus.

Senator Ratbat wrote:I could be mistaken, but I remember reading somewhere that the 25th anniversary movie comic showed Skywarp turned into Cyclonus,

You are mistaken.

As far as I'm aware, though, the Armada has never been implemented in any official TF fiction, whether animated or comic-form.

You are mistaken again.

"Armada" was seen again in the 86 film durring the 2nd attack on Autobot city.

"The Armada" was aslso seen a few times in season 3, "5 faces of Darkness" and 1 other episode I cant remember right now.

I always ignored the Sweeps/Armada concept to be honest.....and had Scourge reformatted from Thundercracker,Cyclonus from Skywarp and the Insecticon parts used to make them both bigger and stronger.

but thats just me!!

JokerFC wrote:I always ignored the Sweeps/Armada concept to be honest.....and had Scourge reformatted from Thundercracker,Cyclonus from Skywarp and the Insecticon parts used to make them both bigger and stronger.

but thats just me!!

That's actually a pretty good theory. The Insecticon's cloning abilities/mechanisms could have been used by scourge and cyclonus create the seemingly random number of sweeps and "armadas". I believe I have a new personal fannon now

* * * * * *

You may be in to something. Though in the 1986 movie, we see Bombshell directly formatted into one of the Cycloni, the Isecticon ability to clone themselves could also help explain the presences of the Sweeps.......plus Scourge's periscope like dohickey on his head bares a passing resemblance to Bombshell's shell launcher located on his head (coincidence?).

Cyclonus, well he reminds me of a principled bad guy (TC was sort of at odds with his beliefs in the "cause" but SW on the other hand was too loyal to a fault to Megatron.....maybe Cyclonus is an amalgamation of both?)

GEEWUN wrote:

JokerFC wrote:I always ignored the Sweeps/Armada concept to be honest.....and had Scourge reformatted from Thundercracker,Cyclonus from Skywarp and the Insecticon parts used to make them both bigger and stronger.

but thats just me!!

That's actually a pretty good theory. The Insecticon's cloning abilities/mechanisms could have been used by scourge and cyclonus create the seemingly random number of sweeps and "armadas". I believe I have a new personal fannon now

* * * * * *

yeah thats my personal theory and fave.it stems from reading the Marvel UK comics (which Ireland also got)as a kid and Cyclonus and Scourge were always depicted as way powerful and much bigger than regular bots and Cons.

At times, form the 1986 Movie(see the coronation scene) and Season 3, (Call of the Primitives) Cyclonus was depicted as bigger than Galvatron.

JokerFC wrote:yeah thats my personal theory and fave.it stems from reading the Marvel UK comics (which Ireland also got)as a kid and Cyclonus and Scourge were always depicted as way powerful and much bigger than regular bots and Cons.

More powerful, yes, but hardly much bigger.

In the UK Marvel run, the story "Target:2006" which ran alongside the movie at the time of release (1986 guys, I was there!) to a) sell it in the UK and b) give Simon Furman a good work-through of the characters to fill in time between Marvel US material coming in, featured a scene where Cyclonus knocked seven bales of energon outta Hound.

In this he claims that "Unicron took what was LIFE SPARK and re-moulded him, re-creating him into... CYCLONUS!"

So it could be argued that there was a fella called Life Spark who got thrown out of Astrotrain and was fortunate enough to be cast under Unicron's Purple Ray... nothing's ever said about who got made into Scourge and this is the only comic reference to who they were originally, at least in the original Marvel canon... Even the US comics adaptation of the Movie from the time gives no visual clue, except that clearly Kickback and a conehead were thrown out of Astrotrain.

A shame really, cos as Hasbro used the Movie to cleanse the old Autobot toy line-up (the "Instruments of Destruction" massacre - this was almost too easy Starscream!), and killed off Starscream as well, they could have clarified that the original Decepticon toys, seekers, Insecticons, etc, were gettin the chop too. So go buy these new sexy toys kids, we promise the new plastic ones won't yellow off when they're 20 years older...

Kurgen156 wrote:A shame really, cos as Hasbro used the Movie to cleanse the old Autobot toy line-up (the "Instruments of Destruction" massacre - this was almost too easy Starscream!), and killed off Starscream as well, they could have clarified that the original Decepticon toys, seekers, Insecticons, etc, were gettin the chop too.

The movie itself was actually quite clear.

Ah, indeed it was mighty Kang!

That movie was quite thorough in sweeping the entire original toy range! Although didn't Bombshell re-appear in the whole "Human Germ!" Daniel exo-suit (puttup!) chase?

Kurgen156 wrote:Ah, indeed it was mighty Kang!

Close, Kor.

That movie was quite thorough in sweeping the entire original toy range! Although didn't Bombshell re-appear in the whole "Human Germ!" Daniel exo-suit (puttup!) chase?

Actually I think that was Sharnell.

But considering that the Inceticons can clone themselfs.....

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

Kurgen156 wrote:Ah, indeed it was mighty Kang!

Close, Kor.
[quote]

Ah, balls!! Course it is... and the other was Koloth? I love DS9, damn that's annoying to get wrong...

Wasn't Life spark an error in Mr.Furman's part?

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

JokerFC wrote:yeah thats my personal theory and fave.it stems from reading the Marvel UK comics (which Ireland also got)as a kid and Cyclonus and Scourge were always depicted as way powerful and much bigger than regular bots and Cons.

More powerful, yes, but hardly much bigger.

they werent bigger than some but in Target 2006 etc the pre movie Autobots seem much smaller compared to them.kinda like they based the artwork on the toy scales

[quote="JokerFC they werent bigger than some but in Target 2006 etc the pre movie Autobots seem much smaller compared to them.kinda like they based the artwork on the toy scales[/quote]

Very true, Hound looks smaller than Cyclonus when he's gettin a bashin, but then Scourge isn't much bigger when being held and hit by other Autobots... scale, always a problem...

Kurgen156 wrote:

sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:

Kurgen156 wrote:Ah, indeed it was mighty Kang!

Close, Kor.

Ah, balls!! Course it is... and the other was Koloth? I love DS9, damn that's annoying to get wrong...

Well both pics I have there are of Kor, one from TOS and the other from DS9.

But yes, the 3rd in the group was Koloth.

To attempt clarification:
In the reformatting scene of the movie, the lighter of the two seekers, who we'll call Thundercracker due to their respective colour schemes in the sequence (When stripped of their colour, one is almost entirely white/gray, while the other retains black in the areas Skywarp has)is transformed into Scourge, with Shrapnel and Kickback in the background becoming the sweeps. It then cuts to the creation of Cyclonus and "his Armada" with Bombshell up front and Skywarp (again, according to colouring) in the back. As it is, only one of the two robots shown in the scene are actually called for in the storyboards for the film, Bombshell.

In IDW's adaptation of the movie, Don Figueroa's art also featured Bombshell becoming Cyclonus, with Skywarp in the back becoming a second one.
As much as I loved Skywarp, and would love to believe he was turned into someone more important than a Cy-Clone-us who appeared and disappeared seemingly at will (retaining the teleporting ability, perhaps?) the movie intended for Bombshell to become Galvatron's right hand robo-dude.

As for the whole Life Spark thing, that was, as mentioned previously, a small cockup by Simon Furman, who misinterpreted something he read about Cyclonus's origin, taking too literally the part where a fallen Decepticon's life spark (as in the essence of his being) was remade into a servant of Unicron, resulting in the fallen Decepticon, Life Spark (a terrible name for a bad guy, if you ask me) becoming Captain Bunny-Ears.

Size comparisons were pretty much off the window in G1 but occassionally as I mentioned Cyclonus was portrayed as bigger than the rest of the 'cons. Besides, it pretty much makes sense for Galvatron to be able to ride him (mass shifting aside.............sort of like Skyfire who could carry an entire squad of Autobots.)

Nice one Samsonator!

I never knew about that Life Spark cock-up, thanks for filling me in there. The whole thing was a bit of missed opportunity to glorify the old characters that got changed into Galvy's Armada, IMHO. Things like, I was but a lowly Insecticon, now I am Cyclonus! Fear my bunny ears!!

Scourge was my favourite though. What a dude, what a goatee, what a cool toy!