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Description; one of the great transforming vehicles, bar none.

The Cyclone comes with the VR-52 Cyclone bike/armor and rider.  The rider is about 9” tall and wears combat armor similar in appearance to the armor of the Colonial Marine in ‘Aliens’.  The figure has multiple points of articulation and can ride the motorcycle.

The cycle itself looks like pumped-up Kawasaki sports bike.  When it goes into armor mode the wheels fold up and become part of a ‘backpack’ on the rider.  The engine also slides back between the wheels.  The ‘windshield’ of the bike splits in half to become shoulder-pads on the figure.  The underside of the bike turns into a breastplate.  Finally the front wheel-covers become gauntlets while the back wheel-covers become leg armor.

The Cyclone is painted a very drab aqua.  It actually looks good in terms of a flat, military color, but horrible for a transforming robot. 

The figure comes with a kickstand and a massive hand-held beam rifle.  
VR-52 Cyclone (AKA the Scott Bernard Cyclone); Robotech/Mospedea, Gakken
Meat and Potatoes; 5.0
Perks; 5.0
Homer Factor; 5.0
Transforming cars.  Check.  Planes.  Check.  Gun.   Check.  Raccoon.  Check. (Be afraid.  This was courtesy of the 'Transformers - Beast Wars Neo' line in Japan.)  Motorcycle.  Ah, you're probably getting kinda bored, aren't you?  Well, that's natural.  At this point, just about any vehicle on the planet has turned into a transformable, as well as a zoo-full of animals.  And that's not including a bagillion different ways you can merge the sucker. (Thank 'Power Rangers' for that one.)  So what's left?  There isn't a whole lot left to gush about.  Just about every trick has been used, so it's easy to get jaded with the entire idea of transforming ANYTHING.  Don't get me wrong, it's still FUN, but after a while, there are no more surprises.

Well, until ‘Robotech’.  Ages ago, I watched the first episode of 'Robotech - The New Generation'. At the time, this was THE show to watch after school.  The continuing adventures... oh, never mind, you've heard me gush about this stuff like a grandfather before!   And most of the time, the mechs weren't THAT spectacular.  They were all COOL looking but there wasn't anything that left you going ‘DAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!' 

Until the appearance of the Cyclone.  Scott Bernard leaps into the air on his Cyclone motorcycle to take on the evil Invid drone.  Now we all expected this thing to fly around, fire missiles, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Nope... it turned into powered armor!  Waitaminute!  Ok, right NOW Microman pieces do something similar.  However in the late ‘80s it was a major surprise to see a vehicle do something besides turn into a 30’ tall, axe-wielding humanoid. 

Naturally marketing folks in Japan realized they had a biiiiiiiiiiiiig winner, and produced the Cyclone with a 9" figure, fully transformable.  Woohoo!  Right now this is a VERY hot collectable, even more so then the VFA-6H (link) because it hasn't been reproduced beyond a few tiny 'Kurbric' type figures.  Yes, there is a TINY version of the Cyclone, but it just doesn't do justice to this amazing transformation.  Ah... but IF you can get lucky and snag one ($200 mint in the box.  Yeah, pray you get as lucky as I did.  Sigh.) you have in your hands a wonder to behold.

Meat and potatoes are very, very good.  'Well for $200 it should be awesome!'  Well this was originally produced in the '80s, so Marvel Legends level articulation just ain't gonna happen.  However, you DO get solid articulation for a figure from this time.   And the sculpting may be simple, but it is an accurate reproduction of what was on the show.  The armor is meant to look plain.  This is NOT a superhero costume, this is combat armor, pure and simple.  The sculpting on the piece has a lot of panel lines, vents, et al, capturing the 'realistic' look.

Ah, but it's the perks that rule.  Yes, it's a motorcycle, and the figure actually can ride it.
That's the easy part.  The entire piece transforms into a massive piece of body armor!  Through a ton o' contortions the entire bike merges with the figure to form body armor.  AND the only things that detach from the bike are the front and back wheel-covers to form gauntlets and leg armor.  Amazing!  The figure also comes with a giant beam rifle and a kickstand.  Personally if you display this piece in cycle mode you are nuts!  Oh, and this thing STANDS!  Sweet!  

Homer factor?  Need you ask?  It's not just power armor, it's TRANSFORMABLE power armor!  Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Final verdict?  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... actually that really depends on how much money you want to spend.  This piece is pricey even when it's loose, so honestly it's a bit hard to say 'Oh, just buy it!'  Unless Toynami becomes very merciful and re-releases this piece (MASSIVE HINT HERE, along with some pleading.) you’re looking at a minimum of $100, and this is for a less then mint box.  However, if you have some extra cash from a yard sale... maybe you got a little bonus money... or you figure you'll live on pasta for a month, this is a worthwhile piece.