Name: Build Cyclone
Series: Car Robots (Robots in Disguise)
Allegiance: Cybertron
Alternate Mode: Crane
CRANE MODE
Height: 7cm Length: 10.5cm Width: 6.5cm
A red crane with big black tyres, graphite hubcaps and some silver on his front bumper and hook. Build Cyclone is a small crane, with a single cabin rather than the dual cabin setup most Transformer cranes seem to be (think Hook). The red plastic is slightly metallic and close inspection will reveal that two different shades have been used - a brick red for moist of the toy and a slightly crimson red for the crane arm and core of the toy (his torso, which is just visible in front of the platform in this mode). The colour scheme here is pretty good, and the two reds are close enough that you don't notice unless you're looking for the difference.
The cabin sits on the right side of the platform, with the crane arm in the middle. The cabin is made of a smoky transparent plastic, with red paint on the cage itself, and has a moulded door on the side. If you have the RiD version, Hightower, the right side will feature a stamped Autobot logo. The crane arm does not extend, although there are moulded extensions near the end. The arm, hook and base of the toy all have detailed sculpt, in fact. There are orange headlights and taillights and there's grip moulding on both the base and platform.
The wheels roll fairly well, and the ridged grip pattern is actually a series of indents rather than actual ridges, so he rolls quite smoothly. The crane arm can lift up and if you raise the platform about half a centimetre, it can rotate. The hook can swing back, but this is linked to the gun mechanism so moving the hook is out. Of course, you can deploy the gun - a long black barrel lifts out from the crane arm, which is quite cool and gives Build Cyclone a nice attack mode that doesn't require any add on pieces. There are black stabilisers which can fold out from within the front bumper - a really nice touch.
I don't have any real complaints here, although some more movement in the hook would have been cool and an extendable crane arm would have been nice. But that's the price you pay for the attack mode. The colours are well done and the detail is impressive.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Remove the platform, extend the rear to form his boots. Flip the silver panels on the sides out to form the robot forearms, lift out the front fenders to form the upper arms. Fold _up_ the feet and flip out the heelspurs. Attach the platform as a backpack and fold out the robot head. Detach the crane arm and convert to cannon mode. Open the cabin and take out his pistol. Give his weapons.
You have to be careful with the legs. It's easier to unfold the hips that to extend the rather tight legs. I don't find this as bad as it is on my Build Typhoon (who shares many design elements with Build Cyclone).
ROBOT MODE
Height: 13cm Width: 8.5cm
Again largely red, with the crimson on his torso and large cannon and brick red elsewhere. The groin, thighs and forearms are silver along with his face, which has a black visor. The face really reminds me of Robocop, incidentally. The front tyres sit on his upper arms, which are big and boxy and his feet are long black affairs. The colour scheme here works well, which is to be expected of red and silver I guess.
Build Cyclone has easily the best weaponry amongst the Build Team. The handgun is cool, and unlike the other weapons in this group, is not all all kibble. The cannon is very long and heavy, but is a far more convincing handheld weapon than Build Typhoon's claw-shield or Build Hurricane's shovel of doom. It's too heavy for my Build Cyclone's elbow to support, but unlike the other members of the team, Build Cyclone's weapons can stay attached to the backpack if you don't feel like using them. You can even attach the crane arm backwards and deploy the cannon overhead. The backpack itself is detachable, but necessary since the head is attached - and the possibility of a missing head is the biggest flaw in the design of this robot mode.
This is a very poseable robot mode. The head turns, the shoulders, elbows and hips are ball joints, the knees, wrists, ankles and heels are hinged. Thanks to the heelspurs and long feet he's able to stand in a _lot_ of poses - even bending over to touch his toes. The shoulders are quite limited, effectively they're swivel joints, but the legs are really poseable, making it really easy to pose Build Cyclone and difficult to actually make him unstable.
The arms are a little longer than they should be, but this fits in with his general bulk. The main (potential) shortcoming is the detachable and potentially losable head. Despite this, Build Cyclone's robot mode is still a good one, with great weaponry, poseability and colours. And he's even got the Robocop thing happening.
VARIATIONS
Released by Hasbro as Hightower as already mentioned. I do not own Hightower, which is why I'm reviewing Build Cyclone. Hightower was later repainted as part of a Wal*Mart exclusive giftset.
OVERALL
A great toy with two detailed modes, Build Cyclone has detail, play value and poseability all wrapped in a good colour scheme. Even if you're not planning to get Build King, I'd recommend this toy to anyone who likes the Car Robots styling. He only really loses points for that losable head - 8.5/10
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