General Cicadacon (BotCon 2016 Exclusive)
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Predacon
Size: Deluxe (comes in a 5-pack with General Ramhorn, General Sea Clamp, Predacon Tarantulas, and Ravage)
Difficulty of Transformation to Robot: Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to Torso: Medium
Color Scheme: Dull gray, moderately pale red, silver, and some black, light milky gray, and light orange
Rating: 7.7

(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Combiner Wars Skydive. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Combiner Wars Skydive here.)

    Like the other "original Tripredacus" members in this set, Cicadacon has colors that (mostly) homage his brief appearance in "The Agenda, Part I" in Beast Wars. He's mostly a pale red plastic with a good amount of dull gray plastic. It's a pretty dull color scheme, and kinda boring, particularly compared to Cicadacon's original color scheme-- that would've looked sooo nice on this toy, I think FunPub really dropped the ball there. That said, Cicadacon has a good amount of silver paint-- it may not add much to the color wheel, but it does make him shinier. His fists, shoulders, sides of his chest, lower legs, intakes, and missiles are all painted silver, so much of his robot mode is quite shiny. I particularly like how his chest is paint-detailed to mimic the "chain" he had around his chest on the show. The wings in vehicle mode also have some nice "insect wing" paint detailing, which looks quite nice and helps Cicadacon stick out among other jets on a shelf-- I mean, a jet also works well as a "pre-Earth" alt mode for a cicada. As far as accent colors, there's a bit of black on the cockpit and the wings, which is nice but doesn't add much to the scheme. He does have orange paint apps on the side of his nosecone to sort of match his cicada eyes' position, as well as orange paint on his robot eyes, which looks okay but I wish was used a little more. He's also got some boring light milky gray plastic, though thankfully it's only used for his double-barreled gun and combiner port pieces, so it's not a big factor. The given headsculpt works AMAZINGLY well for Cicadacon-- he's basically just missing a few minor details in terms of being 100% accurate, there.
    No mold changes have been made to General Cicadacon.
    Out of the boxset, the mold used for Cicadacon definitely fits the character the best, and it's amazing how close Skydive's head is to Cicadacon's. A few other paint apps-- like the "insect wings" detailing and the "chain" on his chest-- are inspired, but giving Cicadacon the show-accurate boring dull red-and-gray color scheme as opposed to a toy-accurate white/purple/green scheme was a major mis-step by FunPub, and makes what could've been an awesome-looking toy into a fairly dull one, even if it's a nice homage in some other respects.



General Cicadacon Bio:
MOTTO: "The knowledge of ages is my sword and shield."
Cicadacon is an enigma to all but the other members of the Tripredacus Council. He has gone by many different names over millions of years, though most of them have been lost to time. Originally one of the earliest Cybertronians to come online he observed with disinterest the generations that followed and stayed largely unseen for millennia.
At the start of the Great War an attack on his city left him seriously damaged and close to death. Switching off his higher emotional functions, he was able to endure the excruciating self-repairs, but the process left him unable to remember much of his previous life, and he was soon swept up into the Decepticon ranks. Following another near-fatal experience during Unicron's attack on Cybertron in the year 2005 his true self was reawakened. While pretending to be a loyal Decepticon to further his long term goals he finds the notion of Autobots and Decepticons vile.
Strength: 4.0
Intelligence: 9.0
Speed: 9.0
Endurance: 3.0
Rank: 10.0
Courage: 6.0
Fireblast: 8.0
Skill: 10.0

Review by Beastbot

Back to BotCon/OTFCC Exclusives Index