Cy-Kill

So... Cy-Kill.
Why exactly does the majority of people I see mentioning him have an unhealthy need for him to be a motorcycle?  Notice how Megatron doesn't have to be a hand-held weapon anymore? He's a tank, a car, a dragon, a giant hand, a jet, a chopper, a pile of plastic, a flying tank... I'm trying to figure out how he's avoided being a horse-drawn carriage... But you get my point, if Megatron doesn't have to be a pistol anymore, why should Cy-Kill have to be a motorcycle?

Okay, the whole Cy-Kill being a play on Cycle, I get it, but is it possible to move beyond that? I'd love it if that happened. Would it kill anyone to spell it PsyKill? SyKill? Or heck, even if it remains Cy-Kill I'm willing to accept the fact that if Bumblebee doesn't have to be a VW Bug or an actual bee, then I'd be fine with Cy-Kill upgraded into a vehicle that the engineers can successfully turn into a robot that doesn't look ridiculous.
But I know change stirs some of the most unpleasant things in some people, so for this update, I used Dark Crumplezone to ease the conversion. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this mold, it's great! It's got the perfect three wheeled vehicle alt mode so people can still cling to the 'cycle' aspect of Cy-Kill for just a bit longer, and the beefy body I think suits Cy-Kill perfectly. Even though (as far as I'm concerned) Cy-Kill was more of a schemer, I always thought that he would be absolutely elated to be in a larger, bulkier body to match the power he possessed.

For this, I swapped the head out for Astrotrain and did some tweaking. I do like Astrotrain's general look, but unfortunately the actual toy head is a little too small to look like it belongs on Dark Crumplezone's body. I had to scale it up for this digibash. I also kinf of like a simple recolor of Dark Crumplezone's face if you wanted to go for a Cy-Kill that was a little more savage.

I can't stand seeing Oil Slick repainted into Cy-Kill. I guess if you need him to be a motorcycle it's okay, I just hope above hope that Hasbro never decides to go in that direction. Besides, if anyone from Animated resembled Cy-Kill, it's Lockdown.
In my personal collection, I like using Lockdown as a stand-in for an advanced, updated Cy-Kill until I can get my hands on the movieverse version.
I know, WTF? Right? he's like, a car and stuff and junk!
Hear me out. Take a look at the color scheme that was originally intended for Cy-Kill (the Red, white and blue we got was only used because the recolor didn't reach the animators in time, the same reason Leader-1 is gray and not blue like his recolor), and look at how similar they are. Now look at the face and the distinctive wraparound chin strap.

By tinting the face and head gem, Lockdown becomes a pretty convincing Cy-Kill upgrade right down to the body proportions and color layout. Lockdown does sport a little more black, but I like that. Him being a muscle car that looks like it smashed out of a Mad Max film just makes it that much more of a perfect evolution of Cy-Kill.
Now granted, he is a bit gangly, and I do like the bulkier Dark Crumplezone, but I think Lockdown's appearance still exudes power. He still works great as an upgrade for Cy-Kill and fits right in with the updated Crasher/Fracture, Dart, Spoons and BugBite.

Disagree if you like, but I think it would be fantastic to see a little more thought be given to the leader of the Renegades. Would it really be such a bad thing for Cy-Kill to progress and evolve past the whole motorcycle bit and branch out into more accommodating modes? I certainly don't think so.