Cicadacon

Cicadacon is a Predacon from the Beast Era of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Mr. Never Appear in Fiction in This Body till 2017.

A Predacon Elder, the cruel and clever General Cicadacon is suspected of being very old indeed. His knowledge of Cybertronian history, especially military history and tactics, is encyclopedic, stretching back even to the era before the Great War. Some suspect he may have once had a Decepticon identity, but if this is true, no records of that identity survive. Regardless of the truth of his origin, Cicadacon uses the stories and rumors to engender fear and respect in his followers. Despite his tactical genius, Cicadacon's long-term strategy against the Maximals has become increasingly unpopular with the more impatient Predacon forces.^[1]

He uses chopping rotor blades to spread plague-like destruction and combines with his fellow Tripredacus Council members to form Tripredacus, or with them plus Ravage and Tarantulas to form Predacus.

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Beast Wars cartoon

Haven't I seen you somewhere before?

Voice actor: Scott McNeil (English), Chafūrin (Japanese), Alvaro Tarcicio (Latin-American Spanish)

When the Transwarp wavefront was detected entering Cybertronian space, General Cicadacon identified its energy signature as the same as that of the Darksyde. He sent a signal to a Cybertron satellite, causing it to explode, thus blocking the Maximal sensors from detecting the wavefront. He then instructed agent Ravage that if Megatron was still operating his own agenda to terminate him with extreme prejudice. The Agenda (Part 1)

Dreamwave Generation One continuity

After sending Ravage out on his errand on prehistoric Earth, the Tripredacus Council tasked Magmatron with monitoring all Maximal channels, instructing him to report any communications that might show that the enemy faction had caught on to their secret plans. Shell Game #1

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Cicadacon was one of the first Cybertronians to come online and he observed the following generations with piddling interest. An attack at the start of the Great War left Cicadacon on the brink of death and forced him to switch off his higher emotional functions and undergo exhausting self-repair that left him unable to remember his life beforehand. As a functionally new individual, he joined the Decepticons. An attack from Unicron in 2005 led to his true self being reawakened and, finding the concepts of Autobot and Decepticon reprehensible, set to work on his goals while undercover as a Decepticon. BotCon 2016 General Cicadacon profile card

Cicadacon was of a cooler-temper than his fellow council members, and often found himself dissuading Sea Clamp and Ramhorn from tearing into each other. As the Great War drew to a close, Cicadacon and the other members of the Tripredacus Council busied themselves by experimenting with transwarp energy. They found that, when applied correctly onto Cybertronian anatomy, it could reduce their subjects to a "quantum state," and remake them into a "purer" form. Through this process, they hoped to unite all of Cybertron into a single "race." During one of their experiments, Tarantulas reported to the Council with startling news: both Optimus Prime and Galvatron had perished in combat! Though this noted a turning point in the Decepticons' conflict against the Autobots, the three generals found themselves giving the development little thought. When a member of their army contacted them with plans to attack the demoralized Autobots, Cicadacon, Sea Clamp, and Ramhorn simply ordered him to stand down; they had more important concerns to focus on.

Sending Tarantulas to deal with the upstart (as they correctly guessed he would not follow their orders) the Tripredacus Council readied to unleash a transmatter bomb onto Cybertron to reformat the entire planet all at once. But a ship happened upon the Council's secret base within Unicron's head, and accidentally deflected the bomb with its shield. Their lair discovered and their plan forcefully postponed, the Council headed down to Cybertron, and joined with their agents into the gestalt Predacus, to put an end to the dissension in their ranks.

After slaying Predaking, who had followed the upstart into battle, the Council surrendered to the Autobots on behalf of all Decepticons. Cicadacon was one of the signers of the Pax Cybertronia, and helped form a new faction, the Predacons, in Cybertron's newfound peacetime. Now free of distractions, Cicadacon and his allies could once more focus on uniting all Cybertronians, and began their trans-matter experiments anew. Dawn of the Predacus

The Tripredacus Council ordered Magmatron to assure that no knowledge of the transwarp wavefront reached the Maximals. The Gathering #1 When their agent failed at his task of rounding up the rogue Megatron, the council sent Magmatron to complete the mission. The Gathering #2

Timelines

Ram Horn, alongside Cicadacon and Sea Clamp, was involved in an assassination plot, part of a ploy to take control of the Predacon army, and dispose of its then-current leader, Razorclaw. The plot was thought to have succeeded, but in truth they did not manage to extinguish Razorclaw's spark. Nonetheless, the Predacons' previous leader was forced into hiding, and while the world believed him dead, the Tripredacus Council took control of the Predacons. BotCon 2009 Razorclaw profile card

The Tripredacus Council employed Flamewar to check on Deathsaurus's operation on Ceti Alpha Seven. As Flamewar reported on the apparent success of Deathsaurus's Virulent Clones, Bumblebee hacked in the feed and informed everyone of the impeding failure built into the Clones. To rid themselves of an exposed agent, the Tripredacus Council remotely exploded Flamewar's ship with her in it. Descent into Evil

After a Predacon insurrection led by Flamewar in the guise of Megatron arose in the J'kozian sector, the Tripredacus Council discussed it and decided to leak the insurrection's presence on Nibari to the Maximals so they would take care of the Council's renegade problem. The Razor's Edge

As the crew of the Darksyde fled Cybertron with the Golden Disk, Predacon secret police agent Tarantulas was onboard decoding information from it. While his boss Megatron wasn't watching, Tarantulas contacted General Cicadacon and updated him on the disk's status. Dawn of Future's Past

Wings Universe

Cicadacon was one of four mysterious protoforms found by Sky-Byte in the laboratory of Jhiaxus while trying to save his associate's clones from the Autobots. A Common Foe Cicadacon and his comrades pledged allegiance to the Predacons in suspiciously quick time. Wings Universe Tarantulas profile

Beast Wars: Uprising

On a dystopian postwar Cybertron, the ambitious Cicadacon staged a coup against Preditron, founder of the Tripredacus Alliance, and had him interred within Fortress Maximus. Head Games In his absence, the new Alliance saw fit to "reinterpret" his writings, using his philosophical musings to sow division between Maximals and Predacons. The Predacon Manifesto

When the Maximals and Predacons rose up against the ruling Builders during the Grand Uprising, the Tripredacus Alliance would follow the example of the newly founded Maximal Nation and, from their new command post in Kalis, formed their own breakaway nation in the shape of the Independent Predacus States. Safe Spaces Predacon spies would liberate combiner technology from the Maximal Nation, giving the three the ability to combine into Tripredacus. Derailment

Initially choosing to stay neutral in the war, the Alliance would eventually be approached by Lio Convoy for direct intervention against the Builders. The Tripredacus accepted–but made it a condition that Preditron, who had escaped prison and become a propaganda piece for Lio Convoy's Resistance, would have to be eliminated first. Safe Spaces

Lio Convoy accepted the terms of the deal, but the public assassination attempt was cut short by the advent of the Vehicons: a self-replicating menace that threatened to entirely overrun all non-Builder territory. Lio Convoy attempted to get the Alliance to join forces and make a combined push on Iacon; though Ram Horn was initially skeptical of helping the Resistance after they failed to eliminate Preditron, some reverse psychology saw all three Alliance leaders commit the Legion of the Inferno to the march on Iacon.

The war against the Vehicons quickly took on a new dimension when the Vehicons turned on their creators and sparked the cataclysmic Vehicon Apocalypse, forcing Builders, Maximals, and Predacons alike to regroup towards Nova Cronum in the hopes of destroying the Grand Mal. Despite Ram Horn's protests, Cicadacon saw fit to direct the war effort from a fortified bunker rather than on the front lines–which gave Preditron the opportunity to commandeer the army as he lead by example. Furious at Preditron's gall and Lio Convoy's inability to silence the threat, the three leaders opted to regain the loyalty of their forces by taking matters into their own hands and eliminating the founder of the Predacons once and for all.

As Tripredacus, the Council reached the frontlines and swiftly beat Preditron to death in an utterly one-sided defeat. Preditron would be avenged, however, by his friend Ser-Ket, who used her flame breath to blow the combiner apart, forcing it to separate. Though Sea Clamp was fatally wounded in the resulting explosion, the arrogant Cicadacon remained confident in his assessment that he held all the cards... only to be fatally shot in the back by a furious Ram Horn, who had discovered through Tripredacus's gestalt mind that Cicadacon saw him as a useful idiot. Derailment

2005 IDW continuity

I hope you weren't expecting to see Tripredacus in this continuity.

Cicadacon was one of a number of beast mode Transformers who attacked the Throttlebots while they were marooned on the backwater planet of Regalis V. Believing him to be a Decepticon, Cicadacon was left confused at Goldbug's mention of Megatron, and was summarily blasted in the back by Prowl. The Dead Come Home, Part 1

2021 Beast Wars comic

You would be more useful if you came out more than once every seventeen years.

Cicadacon and the other members of the Tripredacus Council met with the ambitious Predacon Galavar, who explained his plan to steal a golden disk and use its encrypted secrets to conquer Cybertron for the glory of the Predacons. Although Cicadacon ordered him not to go through with this plan, believing it to be far too risky, Galavar revealed that he'd already stolen the disk and fled Cybertron aboard the stolen Maximal warship Darksyde, but not before renaming himself "Megatron" in anticipation of his victory. Cicadacon reminded his compatriots that Galavar's temperament and lack of forethought would be his undoing. Savage Landing Part 1

Games

Transformers: Earth Wars

The Game Full of Death and Suffering...! This character article is a stub and is missing information on their video game appearances. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it. Transformers: Earth Wars

Toys

Beast Wars

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

• Tripredacus (Ultra, 1997)

• Accessories: 2 "chopping rotor blades"/swords
• Known designers: Yuichiro Hira (TakaraTomy), Masakatsu Saito (concept artist)

Sold only in an Ultra-sized 3-Pack with Ram Horn and Sea Clamp, Cicadacon transforms into a green cicada (who'da thought). The toy has twin "chopping rotor blades" that flip out from underneath his larger set of wings. These "chopping rotor blades" can be used as swords in robot mode or become missiles for Tripredacus's weapon. The toy's instructions refer to his rostrum (flip-out beak-like part) as a "nose cannon".

Cicadacon can also form the head and chest of of the trio's combined mode Tripredacus.

This mold was recolored and released in Japan as DJ.

• More information on Cicadacon at TFU.info

Combiner Wars

Got tired of stealing Beast Megatron's face, is trying out Skydive's for a while.

• Dawn of the Predacus (Box set, 2016)

• Accessories: Blaster, gun/fist/foot

"General Cicadacon" is a redeco of Generations Combiner Wars Skydive, who transforms from a fighter jet seemingly based on an F/A-18 Hornet to a robot that updates his original body. He can also become an arm or leg for any Combiner Wars and/or Unite Warriors combiner, or into one of Legends Godbomber's legs, but is mainly grouped with Ravage, Tarantulas, Ramhorn, and Sea Clamp, to form Predacus.

The existing Skydive head had deco applied based on his appearance in the Beast Wars cartoon, with insect-like patterns added to his wings.

This mold was retooled in Unite Warriors Ghost Starscream.

He was sold in the "Dawn of the Predacus" BotCon 2016 boxset with Ravage, Predacon Tarantulas, General Ramhorn, and General Sea Clamp.

• More information on Combiner Wars Cicadacon at TFU.info

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Cicatagon (シカタゴン Shikatagon)
• French: Cigale (Canada, "Cicada")
• Italian: Cicala ("Cicada")
• Spanish: Cicadacón (America)

References