Dave's Transforming Robot Rant: Cykons

     Prodigy
     Arch
     Quik

     Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/misc/Cykon1

     As a followup to the massively disappointing RoboRodz, Maisto has come
out with a series of 1:18 scale motorcycles that transform into robots.
Availability is rather spotty, at least right now, with the only sightings in
America being at the HEB grocery chain in San Antonio TX (thanks to Doug Dlin
for picking these up for me).

CAPSULES

     Overall: They all share a similar mold plan, simple transformation, and
somewhat kibbly and unstable vehicle mode.  Mildly recommended on average,
but there's some variation.  $4.99 at HEB.

     Prodigy: Kinda garish, and the head of this mold is on the goofy side.
Neutral, but the Res-Q version of the mold looks better and would be mildly
recommended. 
     Arch: Midrank of the three molds.  All three color schemes are decent.
Mildly recommended.
     Quik: Neither chocolate nor strawberry. Probably the best mold, and Quik
has a good color scheme.  Of the three I got, I'd recommend this the most,
but it's still just mildly recommended.


RANTS

     Packaging: These are on blister cards 8" (20cm) wide and 9.75" (25cm)
tall, with a mostly red background that has orange and black circuity
details.  The right edge of the card is pattern cut in a sort of techy look.
No Transformers look-and-feel at all, nooooooo.  In case it's not obvious,
I'm being sarcastic here.
     The inside of the blister has a cardstock oval with the line logo at the
top and a piece of artwork of the robot on the left, with the vehicle mode
of the actual toy mostly on the right side of the blister, with its pistol
separate in the blister (although it does store in vehicle mode).  No
twist-ties or rubber bands, everything is held in by the blister.  The
character name is on a sticker in the lower right.
     On the back is a repeat of the artwork style from the inside left but
always of the character Gas, and either artwork of Gas's vehicle mode or a
photo that's been retouched within an inch of its life.  There's no actual,
clear photos anywhere on the packaging.  A line story blurb is on the upper
right, and all nine characters are shown in robot mode art on the bottom
half.  It's blatantly obvious there's only three molds, they just 'shopped
three images into three color schemes each, didn't even bother
mirror-flipping or anything.
     The trios are: Quikrip/Cyk-One/Quik (so, is the first a copycat of the
third?), Gas/Arch/Maximus, and Grip/Res-Q/Prodigy.  There are no individual
bio notes on the outside of the package.
     Here's the line blurb, which is also translated into French (as is every
other bit of text on the toy):

     The evolution of the machine has reached a new level.  Mankind has
produced what we have all feared...robots that think and feel.  There is only
one hope for us...CYKONS.  These top of the line robots have been built for
extreme battlefield situations, with their help we will battle the machines
that want to keep us as slaves and return to our daily lives.  So do your
part and collect them all and maybe... "you can help save mankind!"

     Okay, clearly this was not originally written in English.  Or translated
by someone with a firm grasp of English, for that matter.  It's not quite
Engrish, but it verges on it sometimes.  Anyway, these seem to be fighting
Skynet or something...all nine characters are heroic, I guess you're supposed
to have them fight your other robot toys.  
     The instructions are grayscale photographic things with only four main
steps in each direction (and a few insets to clarify how limbs are arranged),
but given that these are essentially Cy-Kill with extra shell pieces, that's
enough.  There's no text beyond things like "motorcycle to robot mode!" on
the instructions, so it looks like I'll be coming up with my own techspec
stuff for them.  :)  All the instructions feature Quikrip.
     One packaging issue is that the front tire can stick to the paint of the
aerodynamic cowling and will pull a bit of it away when you free it.

     http://www.dvandom.com/images/cykon1.JPG for a lame photo of the
packaging.  

Common Toy Elements:

     These three molds share a lot in common, so I'll cover those elements
here, then discuss the specific details at the end.  The mold pieces that
differ are the windshield/head, the cowling/wings and the seat section.  

     Vehicle Mode: Your basic "crotch rocket" style of motorcycle with
aerodynamic cowling that merges into the windshield.  The main "breaking the
illusion" aspect comes with the big robot boots flanking the rear wheels.
The robot fists on either side of the front wheel don't help either, mind
you, but aren't as obvious.  In general, it looks like a robot kneeled down
and got a vehicle Pretender Shell, though.
     4.25" (11cm) long, so 1:18 scale makes them 6'5" (about 2 m) long.  For
reference, 1:18 scale makes a 6" tall person 4" tall, so it's close to GIJoe
scale.  There's no handlebars, though, so riding it would be tricky for a Joe
figure.  It'd have to be a ball hip or V-joint hip figure, though, as the
H-hip Joes can't get their legs far enough apart.
     Stability is iffy.  The rear wheel assembly is kinda floppy, relying on
the ball joints of the knees to hold position (the cowling pegs onto the
outsides of the knees, which helps some, but the pegs don't always want to
stay in).  The front is stable, but if you put the fender in a decent
position it tends to ram the wheel up against the cowling if you're not
really careful.
     All three of the ones I have share the same black parts: fists, pistols
and the section of the robot chest where the pistol stores.  All have the
same chromed rims (although I may have simply gotten all silver, and other
chrome colors exist in the other six figures) and black rubberized plastic
tires.  All have windshields made of light smoky clear plastic.  I think the
seat cushions are all black plastic, but the actual chunks are either partly
chromed on two of the molds, or all chromed and then painted black over the
chrome.
     The arms (other than hands), struts for the cowling pieces, main torso
(other than the black front piece) and legs are all the same color plastic,
which I'll call the "robot frame color" in the individual listings.  The
cowling, seat and front end may all be the same color, but aren't always.
All have some sort of printed headlight details, although some have molded
headlights as well.

     Transformation: The aerodynamic shell on the sides folds open to become
wings.  The arms are holding the front wheel, and separate then rotate around
to get the fist holes on top.  Well, fist hole...the front wheel is sort of
permanently attached to the right hand.  The windshield chunk folds down to
make the head, and the rear wheel is between the legs Cy-Kill style (the
boots rotate 180 degrees to put the rear wheel on the outside of the left
leg). 
     Better than the Robo Rodz, but I'm not kidding when I call it Cy-Kill
style.  There's a few more twists and turns, but you do end up with obvious
fists on the forks in front and big feet in back when in vehicle mode.

     Robot Mode: Generally evocative of an insect, with the cowling becoming
wings and the seat turning into a Waspinator-like thorax.  Figure height is
abot 4.5" (11.5cm), and assuming no mass-shifting that lets these stand 6'9"
(2.07m) tall...somewht imposing, but hardly giant.  And since these are
supposed to be near future human tech, mass-shifting is probably out.
     The neck is a ball joint with a hinge on top.  The shoulders, elbows,
hips and knees are all ball joints, with swivels at the wrists and mid-shin
(that are transformation joints, but give useful articulation).  The wings
are on ball joints at the end of short struts on hinges.  All of the joints
are reasonably stiff without being too stiff.  They can stand stably in
fairly dynamic poses.
     Each has a head formed by the windshield chunk, continuing the Robo Rodz
aesthetic, but it looks a little less obvious in this case.  The right hand
permanently holds the front wheel.  All three of mine have black paint on the
toes and on conduit details on the shins.

     Sidearm: They all have the same gun, which folds up on a ball joint for
no readily apparent reason (it stows fine without folding in vehicle mode,
and the instructions don't even show it folding).  It has a peg on one side
for stowing, and a too-narrow handle for plugging into the left hand.  The
hand hole is actually the right size for the stowing peg, and the gun is held
very loosely if you use the intended grip.  Unfortunately, the stowing peg is
on the wrong side to just let you turn the hand sideways and hold the gun by
the stowing peg...at least, you can't do it without having it look
particularly stupid.  You can twist the barrel so at least that looks okay,
but the short stock on it is now sideways.
     The hand grip will fit okay in the chest hole, so you could turn it into
a belly gun by rotating the barrel down.
     Made of black plastic with a red touch of paint at the barrel tip and
silver paint along one side of the core.

     Prodigy: Robot frame color is bright orange, and all the vehicle kibble
pieces are coated in metallic blue paint.  No chrome on the seat section.
The head is wider than most, so it won't rest as flat as on its shoulders.
This makes the overall height a little more than the Quik mold (which is what
I used for measurement references).  Orange "splatter dots" run along the
sides of the cowling and behind the seat.  Printed headlights and turn
signals on the head, for a four-eyed appearance.  There's silver paint on the
pecs and kneecaps.
     The wings on this one look kinda uncategorizable.  ;)

     Arch: Robot frame pieces are silvery gray, the wings and gastank bright
orange plastic, nose part and seat/thorax are black plastic.  There's chrome
exhaust pipes on the seat chunk.  Orange paint on the pecs, plus orange on
his black vehicle bits and black on the orange bits, for a more unified
scheme.  The headlights are printed on in graytones, black and light blue.
He's covered in printed rally stickers: Finish Line, Mike's Machine Shop,
Maisto Racing, his own name, and two different Cykon logos (a block C).
     His wings are sort of robo-bird-like, or like Throwbot wings.

     Quik: Silvery gray robot frame pieces.  The vehicle kibble bits are the
same metallic blue as on Prodigy, plus he has chrome tailpipes like Arch.
Metallic red paint accents on the pecs, kneecaps, bottom edges of his feet,
and stripes on the cowling and head.  His name is printed in black and white
on a metallic red field on the sides of the seat piece, and the Cykon logo is
on both sides of his cowling.
     His wings look kinda kitelike, and he has the smallest head of all three
molds, making him both shorter and better proportioned.

     Overall: All told, it's really just one toy with nine variations on the
theme.  They're cheap enough to grab a few if you like the colors, though,
and you might want to get one of each mold.

     
Fanfic Background: 

     Okay, since they're all the same faction, but share three molds, I'm
going to set up three "classes": Alpha, Beta and Gamma.  The Alpha class are
thinkers, the Beta class are fighters, and the Gamma class are optimized for
speed, with Cyk-One being the fastest of them all.
     Within each class, the Cykons specialize, and each considers the other
two to be his brothers.  The Cykons in other classes are considered cousins.
The Cykons emphasize family ties as one of the things that separates them
from the enemy machines.

Class: Alpha (Thinkers)
             
     CYKON: PRODIGY           
     Function: Tactician
     Motto: "Let me think about that."

     PRODIGY is the deepest thinker of the CYKONS, with both a human-like
intuition and emotional range and the speed of a machine.  While it scares
him to do so, he can switch off his emotions and think like the enemy when
necessary to predict their actions.  His sidearm can emit pulses of
electromagnetic energy that scramble enemy thought processes, or simply blast
them with lightning.

     CYKON: GRIP              
     Function: Containment
     Motto: "You ain't goin' nowhere!"

     Not all machines can be destroyed...after all, some of GRIP's best
friends are machines!  But most non-CYKON self-aware machines are too
dangerous to be let loose, so GRIP devises ways to keep them under lock and
key, either literally or via software limits.  His pistol fires sticky ropes
of quick-hardening chemicals to immobilize his targets, but when he needs to
bust heads his rotary weapon can rip 'em up good.

     CYKON: RES-Q
     Function: Search and Rescue
     Motto: "No one gets left behind."

     The war against the evil machines has a lot of innocent victims, and
RES-Q does his utmost to save as many of these as he can.  With a full
medical database and microtools built into his hands, he's a mobile surgical
station.  RES-Q's gun is a medium-range cutting laser that he mainly uses to
help him get through wreckage to those in need, but it'll slice the enemy up
pretty well in a pinch.


Class: Beta (Fighters)

     CYKON: ARCH
     Function: Demolitions
     Motto: "What goes up, must come down."

     Where RES-Q may look at a building with an eye towards evacuating it,
ARCH sees every structure as something to bring down.  Oh, he knows enough
not to blow up buildings indiscriminately, but he's always thinking of the
most efficient way to destroy any structure in his vicinity.  The main
problem with this is that he starts to see it as a game, trying to use the
least possible charge to do the job, and sometimes he doesn't leave enough
margin for error, resulting in uncollapsed structures.  His pistol fires
limpet mines that can detonate either immediately, on time delay, or on
remote command.

     CYKON: GAS
     Function: Chemical Warfare
     Motto: "Better deactivating through chemistry!"

     You'd think that fighting machines would leave little need for chemical
weapons, but there's a large number of chemicals that interfere with machine
brains while leaving organics relatively unharmed...and GAS knows them all.
He also uses various chemicals to tweak his own fuel mixture, with impressive
if unpredictable results.  His pistol can shoot streams of chemicals or gas
grenades.  

     CYKON: MAXIMUS
     Function: Melee Specialist
     Motto: "Come here so's I c'n rearrange yer components!"

     MAXIMUS owns a gun, but no one is sure what it does because he's never
used it.  He'd rather get right up in your face (or whatever is the closest
approximation for non-humanform machines) and smash away with his arm-mounted
rotary weapon.  Given how good he is at this mode of attack, none of his
brothers and cousins begrudge him his idiosyncratic style, but it can cause
him problems if he can't reach a flying target.


Class: Gamma (Speedsters)

     CYKON: QUIK
     Function: Courier
     Motto: "When it absolutely positively must get there!"

     While not as fast as his brother CYK-ONE, QUIK is faster than just about
anything else on wheels.  He also has excellent short-range sensors, a
constantly updating satellite map of the entire planet, and rock-steady
nerves.  All of these combine to make him the perfect courier for either
technology or information that can't be trusted to hackable networks.  His
sidearm fires simple steeljacketed bullets, because sometimes simple is
best. 

     CYKON: QUIKRIP
     Function: Reconnaisance in force
     Motto: "So, did I fire five times, or six?  Do ya feel...lucky?"

     For the first few months after his "birth", QUIKRIP imitated everything
his brother QUIK did, thus earning him his name as a ripoff of QUIK.
Eventually he came into his own, though, but he kept the name.  QUIKRIP
excels at zipping into a hot zone, gathering information while taking out a
few of the enemy, and then getting out in one piece.  His sidearm fires
powerful plasma bursts, possibly the most potent weapon of all the CYKONS,
but it only gets a half dozen shots before it needs recharging.  QUIKRIP just
makes sure he's not around anymore by the time he fires the fifth shot.

     CYKON: CYK-ONE
     Function: Cykon Leader
     Motto: "Follow me to victory!"

     CYK-ONE leads from the front, in part because no one can keep up with
him anyway.  He lets PRODIGY make the plans, but once out in the field he's
the one to implement things, and all of his brothers and cousins defer to his
instincts.  While he lacks PRODIGY's strategic mind, his almost human hunches
make him an uncanny tactical thinker.  His pistol fires a powerful green
laser beam, nearly as strong as QUIKRIP's weapon, but requiring several
seconds to cycle power between shots.  It's the only way in which he's slow,
and it sometimes frustrates him to the point where he'll charge into melee
rather than wait for his laser to recharge.


     Dave Van Domelen, probably put more work into this than it merited.