Cyclonus' Armada

This article is about the nameless Transformer in Transformers: The Movie. For the franchise Armada, see Armada.

Who cares if the President doesn't exist? He's a great American!

Cyclonus' Armada refers to the group of one (or more) seemingly identical robot created by Unicron at the same time as Cyclonus. The only one seen being created was derived from either Skywarp or Bombshell.

Fiction

Cartoon continuity

Five Cycloni/Cyclonuses/Cyclonae in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5". Appropriate.

Unicron creates Cyclonus' Armada from either Skywarp or Bombshell. The Transformers: The Movie

At least four jets of Cyclonus' design take part in an assault on Cybertron, being seen on two occasions. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5

Note: It is a rare thing, however, to find this scene taken seriously, given just how rife with errors the whole five-parter is, although you might have room to argue that if Bombshell were the Armada (see below for that mess), then he might still be able to clone himself to produce more Armada robots.

Universe: Featuring the Wreckers

Thanks to his time as Cyclonus' lackey, Skywarp is bitter at Cyclonus. Wreckers: Finale Part II

Transformers: The Animated Movie

For a guy who died so quickly, he sure created a lot of problems.

A jet identical to Cyclonus was destroyed by a blast of fire-breath from Grimlock's fire-breath. To the Death-And Beyond!

Note: Although Grimlock did indeed use his fire-breath in this manner in the movie itself, his target was unambiguously Cyclonus himself with Galvatron inside. While Cyclonus survived that encounter with little damage, his lookalike in the comic goes kersplodey with equal unambiguity.

Origins

The Armada is, in general, a monumental headache for a number of reasons. The basic idea was for Cyclonus to have an group of followers identical to him in design, as a natural counterpart to Scourge's Sweeps. This is evidenced by the description for them given in the movie's script:

CYCLONUS is CREATED and then his "armada" of similar, but smaller and similarly colored and clad creatures are formed.

However, while the original comic book adaptation of the movie followed through with this intention (in terms of art, if not dialogue), the actual movie itself did anything but. Only one armada robot is shown to be created onscreen, and promptly vanishes from the film mere seconds later, while the number of Sweeps seems to increase from the mere two who are shown being created to... well, as many as they need.

Consequently, opinions differ on the Armada's actual "existence", with some arguing that since Cyclonus' personal army was dropped in production and removed from the film immediately after being introduced, its inclusion is little more than an error, and should be ignored.

Who is the Armada?

Oy.

The Armada's identity prior to re-creation somewhat fraught, tied up as it is with the question of who Cyclonus is. In the finished film, Bombshell is shown being transformed into (presumably) Cyclonus by Unicron, while Skywarp becomes the solitary Armada robot.

Sticker from the 2007 'Masterpiece' Skywarp

Confusion of the matter aside, the vast preponderance of subsequent sources simply agree with the visuals of the recreation scene as depicted in the movie, showing Cyclonus to be created from Bombshell, meaning that the one-ship Armada—if it exists at all—was made from Skywarp.

External links

• Original script for The Transformers: The Movie
• Galvatron's re-creation scene — on YouTube