X-Transbots Eligos - Cyclonus

My apologies for this picture set. I simply could not get him transformed correctly into space fighter mode.

My first experience with X-Transbots was with Apollyon. Its tendency to self dismemberment and seemingly difficult transformation made me cautious about their releases, but the look of the figure kept me hooked. Subsequent figures, from Andras through Boost, while looking great in bot mode have transformations that are also not entirely fun. Unfortunately, Eligos is no different.

I really want to use a Cyclonus space fighter in a scene recreation, but it won’t be with this figure. Although I can see where the silhouette of the space fighter would look awesome, I simply could not transform it correctly. I was not inspired to annoy my kids by buzzing them while making swooshing sounds. The canopy opens (I can’t close it) to reveal a cockpit with plenty of line work. The miniature Galvatron fits in it just fine. The three sets of retractable landing gears allow him to roll easily on plastic wheels. Nightstick can port into a slot on the top, but he doesn't look good enough to warrant it.

Transformation is frustrating. The nosecone section gave me a lot of trouble. I couldn't get the underside pieces to clip and stay together. The final stretch is an annoying exercise of collapsing the legs, arms, and back together while lining up every panel. I don’t know if it would come together if I were to use more force, but I don’t want to risk scratching or damaging the figure. He doesn’t seem any worse for wear after going back to robot mode.

It's no surprise that Eligos really nails that G1 Cyclonus look in bot mode. Clean and simple line work lets him fit in easily on a Masterpiece shelf. Fortunately, he doesn't have that pink hue seen in preproduction photos and videos. I think he is mostly colored plastic. I can't pick out any specific paint applications. He has red light-piping that works pretty well. You can swap it out for metallic eyes. His feet are made of Die-cast. His backpack compresses much more than on Andras, but it does get in the way of his waist rotation and a piece of the nosecone sticks down in a rather unfortunate manner.

His head is on a swivel and hinge. There is virtually no upward articulation, but he can look down just fine. His shoulders are on ratcheted swivels and hinges. He can't quite raise his arms sideways to 90 degrees. In doing so, his shoulder joints rise on sliders. You have to manually push those sliders back down if you want to get his arms back to his sides. He swivels at his biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs. His waist swivel is ratcheted, but it is limited by his back kibble. He has those gnarly X-Transbots fingers. All his digits are on balljoints and each has the expected number of knuckles. He has double-jointed elbows that go past 90 degrees. His knees can only get to 90 degrees. I think his knees are meant to be single-jointed because of how his lower legs peg to the joint. Manipulating his knees easily disengages those tabs, turning them into double joints. Both parts of his knee joints are ratcheted. His hips are on ratcheted universals. His feet are on rockers and his toes have two hinges each. His heel spurs are on slider joints. Although his upper body feels really solid, everything from the knees on down feels floppy and loose. His lower legs flap in their ratchets and his feet flap around on their rockers. It kind of affects his stability in posing, but I haven't had him topple over once I've got him settled.

His accessories include a rifle, a pistol, a sword, a target master, a miniature Galvatron, an alternate face plate, a solid eye piece, and a display stand. His rifle and gun have a nice amount of line work and some metallic blue paint applications. His sword has line work and yellow paint applications on the grip and guard. The blade has metallic silver paint. All three weapons fit well in his hands using Masterpiece styled tabs. The alternate face has a more dour expression with a black chin beard. The extra eye piece has metallic red paint and is a replacement for the light-piping eye piece. The display stand is clear plastic.

Nightstick has a reasonably amount of articulation. His head is on a swivel. His elbows are double-jointed. His shoulders, hips, and knees are on ball joints. His feet are on hinges for tilting. Transforming him into a rifle is pretty easy, but the result is not that impressive. He's pretty much the same quality and style as Fracas that came with Andras. I would almost rather they skip the Targetmaster and give us more weapons, face plates, or show related accessories, like how KFC Crash Hog comes with a TV and refrigerator.

The miniature Galvatron figure is unpainted, but he articulates at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. He fits well in the cockpit, but can not stay in it through transformation.

Eligos in robot mode easily looks great as a Masterpiece Cyclonus. Unfortunately, the transformation was not fun, and I could not finish it. Although I can't wait for X-Transbots to release their Galvatron to complete the trio, I'm hopeful that FansToys and DX9 will do Cyclonus with an easier transformation mechanic.

In the pictures, I'm showing him next to Combiner Wars Cyclonus and KFC Tempest, Masterpiece Ultra Magnus, X-Transbots Andras, and DX9 Tyrant.