Rand Cyclone
Its a tough thing to review a toy that has been reviewed before, never mind THREE TIMES BEFORE. Seriously, everything that needs to be said about this thing has been said. It is very, very cool.
Surprisingly though – this is my first Masterpiece Cyclone. I’ve handled the other ones before and I knew what to expect, but now that I have spent some quality time with it I’ve got a better idea about what its all about.
So rather than this be a comprehensive review like the others, I am just going to go over my general impressions.
The box is the big Masterpiece style box that you either love or hate. One cannot deny the quality, but it takes up so much space!
Rand, on his own, is a fine figure. No flaws, but what is up with the giant screw hole on his neck? The leather-ish material is nice, but wondering about the decision to make the waist armor clip-on. It never seems to look right.
Rand comes with two heads – one helmeted, one not. this is a new sculpt for the US release through Toynami. It looks great, just like the anime. Overall impressed with the figure.
The bike is the same as the others aside from the cannon on the front and stickers. Bike mode is great, but getting Rand to sit on it and pose properly is a pain. Hands don’t quite grab the handlebars right. Still, the combination looks great.
Transformation is like trying to wrestle a drunk octopus. Eventually it all calms down and falls into place but man there are things everywhere. After repeated attempts I can finally do it without the manual but NOT without popping off the leg armor and the white side parts. The exhausts in the wheels continues to be a pain and not come out without using my teeth. If I break something, Toynami, you are getting the bill.
Once those final moves come into play and things begin to line up the genius begins to show. This is an intricately engineered puzzle. Clicking the figure into the armor signifies that you are in the home stretch. I’m still bummed that I have to remove the head to get this to work.
If you do it right, the chest armor will clip into that tab in the crotch and all will be well. But the side leg armors look like they have nowhere to go. They have tabs at the end that are supposed to sit under the figure’s waist armor, and they do go, but they don’t stay when posing.
One last bitch about this mode – My right shoulder armor doesn’t like to stay in place. It always finds its way out its hole.
Contrary to popular belief – it stands! Sure, you have to pose it just right but it can be done.
You need to attach the stickers. The thing looks naked without them, and some of the decor is so pivotal to the design. Those stripes… those numbers… They also help differentiate the character from one another. Be wary of putting decals on the curved surfaces, like the shoulder pads. That doesn’t work out so well.
The stand is nice, albeit a little too big if you want to display it as ride armor. I like that there are compartments for each accessory. Don’t like that I lost the small circular cover for the bike stand.
In all though, as others have said, it is very cool and looks good on the shelf. Unfortunately word is the line won’t be continuing as the tooling costs for the Rook would be too much to justify considering sales. That’s too bad, as I’d much rather have a Rook and Lancer version than Rand.
