Review – Reprolabels’ Cyclonus Sticker Set

The Transformers Universe Cyclonus toy is one that I’ve grown to love over the years and, admittedly, one I’ve managed to grab more than a few variants of. In fact, the mold has appeared three times here at battlegrip.com — Cyclonus review here, Strafe review here, and Shattered Glass Cyclonus review here) — so it’s only fitting that my first look at Reprolabels’ stickers is an upgrade for the basic Transformers Universe Cyclonus*.

Attractive Graphics

Very nice looking, sharp graphics that transform this modern Cyclonus into an even more Generation One-like toy. My favorite element has to be the shoulder graphics that add the colored boxes to the figure, but a close second is the shiny stickers on the shins. But even the chrome stickers for Nightstick are suitably shiny and attractive; I have absolutely no complaints with the look of the stickers and as long as my one complaint doesn’t scare you off I say give some of the company’s stickers a try.

Complaint?

Yes, as good as these stickers look I have one minor complaint: there’s no instruction sheet included with the stickers. You can use the photos on the company site — see the Cyclonus page on their site for the sticker guide — but I think that for the $7 I spent for these stickers they could have included a B&W instruction sheet.

Quality Stickers

But once you get past the lack of an instruction sheet it turns out that these are incredible stickers. The material feels pretty durable and they stick nicely to the plastic. My Cyclonus had been sitting on the shelf for a few months so I had to get the dust off of him, but once he was clean each and every sticker stuck firmly in place and feels like it’s there for life. I’m surprised; the comments online made these sound like good stickers, but they’re higher quality that I was expecting.

Patience Required

Some of the stickers are either small (Nightstick’s Decepticon symbol) or just very tough to align properly (the Decepticon symbols on Cyclonus’ wings). But as long as you take it slow and be prepared to peel the sticker up immediately if misaligned then you shouldn’t have any problems applying these. Some can be slightly frustrating to separate from the sheet, but in the end everything went on fairly well and the stickers really do improve Cyclonus’ look.

Will I Buy More?

Maybe. I also have a sticker sheet for Transformers Generations Wheeljack* so before I buy any more stickers I want to give that sheet a try. But if it goes well then I’ll be looking for stickers for the unofficial Constructicon toys (Structor review here, Heavy Labor review here) because the one thing those toys are lacking are Decepticon symbols and the minor details I expect Reprolabels will provide (they already have a sticker sheet for Exgraver, the Scrapper-like toy I still need to review). Here’s hoping Wheeljack’s stickers work out great!

Closing Thoughts

$7 may seem like a lot to pay for a sheet of stickers, but when you consider that these are fan-produced and at the quality they are it’s actually not a bad deal at all. I suspect it would have taken me two or three hours to create these stickers on my own and my time is definitely worth the $7.

I love that there are so many different sorts of upgrades for Transformers toys. Now if Reprolabels can just bring us a sticker sheet for Transformers Generations Kup* then between the head set I already have (review here, the upcoming weapon upgrade (last mentioned here), and the imaginary sticker set that will be three different upgrades for one toy. And that’s simply remarkable; who would have guessed that we would have so many options for Transformers toys?

Philip Reed needs to finish Exgraver’s photos and get the review online. Then three of the six unofficial Constructicon reviews will be done . . . and he’ll be half-way to not-Devastator.