There are many debates in the world of science, both fiction and fact. Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg. Who shot first? Greedo or Han. And did Cosmos fly on the Arc with the other Transformers to Earth? Or did he make the long journey alone? My money is one he travelled alone and took orbit around Earth and calls the Moon his home. Why you ask? It's simple, if Cosmos had the ability to hold an entire troop of Autobots in the same fashion as to the Decepticon’s Astrotrain, why would the Autobots build the Arc in the first place for their search of Energon?
For my latest, out of this world review I present to you Generations Legends Class Autobot Cosmos (I guess we can thank Neil DeGrasse for copyrighting the word Cosmos) This time the creators of this toy wanted to make Cosmos seem less of a lone watcher and the provided him with a little buddy, Payload.
Are you uncertain on what Payload actually is? Is he a Legion Class Shuttle, or a Target Master? I'm here to end that debate, Payload is a Triple Changer Target Master. Payload is a Shuttle, A Robot and a Double Barrelled Blaster all in one tiny package. The shuttle mode resembles the now retired NASA Shuttles, all white, with a black nose, leading edges, thrusters and windows with an Autobot symbol on the wing. Flip those wings up and over, stand on those thrusters and presto you have Payload in robot mode. The black paint continues to the chest, with a red and blue face hiding under the cowl of the nose. Once you flip up the centre yellow piece in the chest, slide the feet up the thighs, you instantly have a blaster that Cosmos can easily hold, or any other figure with a standard 5mm peg hole we have become familiar with.
Speaking of Cosmos, we come to the main show and the reason why you are all here. The figure itself only stands about 4 inches tall, but even in the G1 world where creative licence was taken when it came to character scale, Cosmos was always small. It is that smaller stature that allows him to stand next to Deluxe and Voyager figures and not feel out of place. One thing the designers do very well in the Generations line, is take a classic G1 character and do the figure justice with modern engineering and tooling. A prime example of this is the fact that Cosmos now comes with elbow joints! Consisting of mainly green plastic, there are plenty of paint applications that help bring Cosmos to life. On the shoulders the added yellow paint with an Autobot symbol on the right arm, followed closely by the added details on the chest and abdominal area bring the G1 Cosmos into the 21st century. The head sculpt is spot on, red helmet, blue eyes and a yellow mouth plate, that easily tucks into the chest during transformation.
Taking in a 360 view of this figure, it is hard to believe that he transforms into a flying saucer. The articulation points are not only necessary for transformation, but some of them actually aide in posing the figure and making him look good in the process. If you can look past the gorilla hands, there is plenty of movement in the elbows and shoulders to easily wield Payload in his blaster mode. There is added waist articulation due to transformation followed by hip and knee movements, but due to the large static feet, there is not many stances that you can place Cosmos in without him falling over. One surprising joint is in the head, granted it is not on a ball joint, but he can look left and right easily.
Transforming Cosmos is both fun and painful experience. The first thing you want to do is flip up the thrusters assembly on his back up. Take the feet and on the double jointed knee, fold them up and match them to the rounded thighs. At the abdominal section, twist it 180 degrees and this is where those gorilla arms will get in your way. Using the elbow joint, move the forearm up and behind, till the corresponding peg slots into the space on the back of the shoulder. The upper shoulder is on a socket joint that pivots down allowing the two arm halves to form the back of the saucer. There is a small notch and peg that loosely puts the two halves together but it is not until you pop the rear fin section into place do those pieces actually remain in place. Time for the headaches, take the assembled leg pieces and turn then 45 degrees inward and move the former butt of Cosmos up. Next you need to tuck the thighs into the hollow cavity of the legs and place them into position. The painful parts continue, the panels will fit together snugly, but getting to that final position will cause them to pop out, slip and move in directions that you did not intend but once together, you have a one last and very satisfying thing to do. Take Cosmos's head and with all the frustration that you just felt, bop-it into the main body of the saucer!
By no means is this a UFO, we know who this is and what he is. The classic Cosmos look is still alive, a full green body with yellow pin striping that flow into the rear thrusters. The chest paint details are still visible and of course the red top makes this saucer still look like a door bell. In both robot and vehicle mode there is not much in the way of kibble to give away either mode, but flipping Cosmos over, the slick lines of the saucer are broken up by a gaping hole. This flaw is begging for a third party stand to emulate the saucer flying through space, or even to hold up Cosmos in robot mode so you can actually pose the legs into a dynamic attack pose. Oh and if a third party company is reading this, my idea shall not be copyrighted unless you don't give me a free sample.
Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge.
In short, even with the concrete block feet that limit
poseibility and the gorilla hands, this is the Cosmos figure we have been wanting from Hasbro since the joining of ball joint to toy. You also get the added value for the same price point of a Legends figure, you get Payload as both a companion and weapon. Which reminds me both figures can team up in their vehicle modes. On the front of Cosmos there appears to be two small forward facing turrets (makes sense as they are painted gun metal grey) Those turrets plug into the thrusters on Payload giving you the look of a Space Shuttle towing a UFO, just something for those third party companies to keep in mind when designing the base for Cosmos.
TheRealRonin
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The blaster is a awesome representation of the version given to Swerve in the IDW comic book series. The main body has painted pieces as well as a tampographed "My First Blaster" on the side. Once all pieced together I could not wait to have Swerve hold it and oh no, it fits loose in his hand. On further research I find that Trash-Talk has 4mm hands, while Hasbro has their traditional 5mm. How did I fix that problem? I did what any great handy man would do and reached for a roll of Duct Tape! Cutting a piece of duct tape the same length of the 4mm handle. I started to wrap the handle and sadly I cannot recall how many times around but I was able to make up the 1mm difference.
