I know there are 12 models, but how many actual breathing copies of all the models are there? There were billions of Colonials before they were all nuked, but it seems the number of Cylons is far, far smaller. It appears that all the eights (with one exception), sixes, and twos (Leoben), and the single remaining three are on a single basestar currently travelling with the Colonial fleet. There are a few other basestars with the ones (Cavil), fours, fives, and a single eight. There’s the 4 of the hidden five that were on Galactica, but AFAIK, there’s only a single copy of each of these. Are these all the humanoid Cylons left in the universe, discounting some big reveal of unknown Cylons in the final episodes? Specifically, are these all the Cylons that existed at the time of the destruction of the Colonies 4 years ago? Has it been indicated anywhere that there’s some Cylon homeworld teeming with millions of Cylons who aren’t cruising the galaxy?
There was mention of a Cylon homeworld but no actual count on how many exist. In season 2 we got to see several dozen skinjobs walking about the downtown area of a city on Cylon-Occupied Caprica, enjoying radiated cups of coffee and such. We also saw the Resurrection Ship from the Pegagus 3-parter. The recon photos taken by the stealth ship showed dozens, if not hundreds, of 6’s awaiting to be booted up.
At this point, there are pretty much however many the writers need for dramatic effect. Did they all leave the cylon homeworld for the invasion, or did many stay back? We don’t know. How widespread was the cylon civil war? Did it destroy the homeworld? We don’t know. Is the basestar with the fleet really the only remaining batch of sixes, eights, and Leobens? Did some survive elsewhere or as prisoners? We don’t know. Did Cavil’s forces suffer huge losses, or did they utterly obliterate the others? We don’t know.
We have a decent guess how many are left, but the writers have left themselves enough fudge room to have as many or as few as dramatic necessity demands for the final chapter.
I don’t know if there’s a “Cylon home world” as such. I doubt the Cylons know of any oxygen-atmosphere worlds we haven’t seen. Remeber that at the end of the first Cylon war there were toasters and perhaps only the very first prototype hybrids. Not needing oxygen, the toaster Cylons doubtless established industrial bases like the Tylium mine we saw in many scattered systems. The skinjob Cylons probably all live on basestars which themselves have semi-biological systems and provide the environment needed.
There was a Cylon homeworld mentioned in the original TV movie, but it was in an entire region of space set aside for them behind a Chrome Curtain. The toasters could have spread to other planets in their region, sure.
If you think about it too much it can get pretty silly. Why have a vulnurable “resurection hub” as a single point of failure for the whole species? How are they “born”? I mean is there like a basic template of memories they give them when they are first created? Do they age or grow old? Obviously we only see them at one age. Why are the females all hot and the males all gross (ok…balding dude, old dude, couple of creepy dudes, hot blond, hot Asian, hot Xena chick…done)? Can they just crank out more new copies whenever they like? “Welcome, new fully grown Cylon!”
But there can’t be one single resurrection hub. In the first couple of seasons we had Cylons chasing the fleet and Cylons on Caprica, which meant that there had to be resurrection facilities available to both groups because they were too far apart to share a resurrection hub. Was Caprica abandoned completely? And if it was, why not just go back there if you want to reclaim your resurrection ability?
But of course, the drama of completely doing away with all resurrection capabilities in one blow with 40 vipers and 40 heavy raiders was too good to pass up.
There were resurrection ships (which a Cylon had to be within range of one or another) and there was the one Resurrection Hub, which I gather just had to exist somewhere in the galaxy for the process to work. IIRC, it changed location constantly as a security measure.