Cyclonus's Armada (G1)

This subject of this article goes by multiple names that apply to other articles as well. See Cyclonus (Armada), Cyclonus's Armada (SG).

Cyclonus's Armada is one or more Decepticons from the cartoon portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

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

Cyclonus's Armada is the Decepticon or group thereof that Unicron put under Cyclonus's command. Any details beyond that are a contentious matter; it may be a single Cyclonus-lookalike, a squadron of them, or instead simply Scourge and the Sweeps. It may even be a group including those plus Thundercracker and Skywarp! And don't even get us started on who the Cyclonus-bot(s) might've been created from.

“	And these shall be your minions: Scourge, the tracker, and his huntsmen, the Sweeps... Cyclonus, the warrior, and his armada.	”
—Unicron, The Transformers: The Movie

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

The Armada that belongs to Cyclonus, NOT the Cyclonus that belongs to Armada.

When Megatron agreed to submit himself to Unicron and be re-created as Galvatron, Unicron also turned several fallen Decepticons into new warriors. He announced their names as he did so, first "Scourge the tracker and his huntsmen, the Sweeps" and then "Cyclonus the warrior and his armada". As Cyclonus was created, a duplicate of him could also be seen. But this doppelganger quickly disappeared and was rarely seen again. The Transformers: The Movie

At least four jets of Cyclonus's design were seen on two occasions during an assault on Cybertron. One even sported a unique paint job which, oddly, resembled Dirge's! Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5

It is possible to dismiss all of these duplicate Cyclonuses in the poorly-made "Five Faces of Darkness" as animation errors.

IDW Transformers: The Animated Movie comic

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 Grimlock's fire-breath. To the Death—and Beyond!

Rodimus vs. Cyclonus

Not long after their creation, Cyclonus and Scourge hunted down Hot Rod, Kup, and the Dinobots while they fled from Quintessa to the planet of Junk. The hunters split up, and Cyclonus found the Autobots on his own. Boarding their ship, he fought with Hot Rod, who taunted him. Cyclonus responded bitterly, complaining about how he'd been overlooked and undervalued "all his lives"; he said that even Unicron had failed to deliver on his promise of personal troops. He was jealous of Scourge's Sweeps, and in fact when Scourge caught up with them, the two ended up fighting each other instead of the Autobots. Rodimus vs. Cyclonus

Ask Vector Prime

In an unstable Iocus reality created by the machinations of Sideways and Gong wherein the Unicron War played out with GoBots involved, Slicks was reformatted into the Armada, which was built on Fracture's template instead. Echoes and Fragments

Marvel future timelines

Cyclonus's Armada Shadow Mode.

Several additional ships in the shape of Cyclonus were present above the surface of Unicron shortly after Galvatron's creation. When Galvatron decided that he needed to take care of Starscream before going after the Autobots' Matrix, the ships followed Cyclonus to Cybertron. Judgment Day!

3H comics

Well, that clears that up.

During the Vehicon conquest of Cybertron Cyclonus and Skywarp coexisted, surviving by taking on Aero Drone forms. Departure They joined the Wreckers, though Cyclonus eventually betrayed them because he was secretly on a mission from Cryotek. Disclosure

When the Wreckers caught up with Cyclonus in the bowels of Cybertron, for a moment Skywarp appeared to switch to his side. Cyclonus attributed this to Skywarp having once been his "Armada". Skywarp shot him and told him he had always hated that and hated him, even when Cyclonus had been "a bug". Wreckers: Finale Part II

Origins

My shade of blueish purple may be almost 5% different!

The Armada is, in general, a monumental headache for a number of reasons. The basic idea was for Cyclonus to have a group of followers identical to him in design as a natural counterpart to Scourge's Sweeps. This is evidenced by the movie 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 adaptation of the movie follows through with this, the actual movie itself does anything but. Only one Armada robot is shown to be created and then promptly vanishes from the film mere seconds later, while the number of Sweeps seems to increase from the 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's personal army was dropped in production and removed from the film immediately after being introduced, its inclusion is an error that should be ignored. But then, if the Armada is seen to exist, precisely who was turned into a Cyclonus-bot is the subject of yet another debate. (See "Who is Cyclonus?" for more on that.)

Unicron even made them T-shirts.

Some interpret the "and his armada" line to refer to Scourge and the Sweeps. This is a somewhat awkward reading because they had been created and called out by name already. The Masterpiece Thundercracker and Skywarp toys come packed with a sticker-sheet featuring multiple Decepticon-themed emblems such as "Jetron Airforces", "Kremzeek Attack", and "Skywarp Teleport". One of these says "Armada Decepticon" and shows a Cyclonus-shaped silhouette with several Sweep-shapes behind it; this can be interpreted multiple ways, but it is ultimately just a funny sticker unlikely to have had much thought behind it.

Toys

While there have been no toys of the Armada released, anyone interested in assembling an Armada is not without options! As the Armada are physically identical to Cyclonus, enterprising fans can purchase multiples of any Cyclonus toy of their choosing and make pretend.

Notes

• The capitalization of "Armada" is inconsistent in the fiction. The movie script, treating it as a generic term for a group of soldiers, leaves it uncapitalized. The Wreckers story, treating it as a singular identifier for Skywarp's Unicronian form, capitalizes it. We default to the proper-name form unless the specific fiction dictates otherwise.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Sono muteki kantai (その無敵艦隊, "that invincible armada")