Cosmos

As we've bemoaned before, the tail-end of the Universe 2.0 toys left a lot of figures unreleased. Distribution was notoriously awful, and it was the Legends Class figures that were hit hardest. While most of the figures have found their way out one way or another - Warpath, Wheelie... heck, even Beachcomber, who wasn't hard to find in the first place - there remains one who you can only get in his original form: Cosmos. Rocketing around the vast gulfs of outer space might seem like fun, but Cosmos knows the truth: it gets lonely up there. Sure, he understands that every Autobot has a job to do in the battle against the Decepticons, and he accepts his without argument. But he's not always happy about it. Sometimes, to relieve the boredom of a long vigil orbiting the Earth, he'll zip down at night and scare a few humans by hovering over their back yards. He also delights in showing off his maneuverability by zig-zagging through an occasional meteor shower. But mostly he maintains his solitary orbit. At least he's comforted by one thought: he never gets stuck in any traffic jams like his auto-like brethren below. Cosmos was a 1985 introduction, so he actually had a few major cartoon appearances, where he sounded like Spanish Peter Lorre and was the fattest little tub this side of Unicron. The Universe version has obviously been working out, because he's much more buff now: his bulk is carried across the chest, and he has a distinct narrow waist and hips. His arms have no joints below the shoulder, but there's technological sculpting in there, and fully detailed hands. He also has balljointed hips and hinged knees, so there is quite a bit of poseability. One part of the figure is actually fatter on this figure than on the original, and that's his head. It's been bulked up to better match the old comics and cartoon: the toy's head had the proportions of a toilet paper roll, while his media appearances all gave it the shape of an upturned bucket. The sculpt is as detailed now as we all thought it was back then, with distinct eyes and a cute little mouthplate. Cosmos' altmode is a flying saucer. Back in the '80s, he was the lumpy "doorbell" type UFO that was supposedly photographed by George Adamski in the early '50s - that's the stock idea of a spaceship in Japanese culture, so it's no surprise that's what they designed their toy to look like. The new one eschews that, opting instead for a flat disc design with a small red lump on top (a visual throwback to the original) and a yellow tailfin. The ship is 2½" in diameter, and only ⅞" tall at the most. He has no wheels or anything, but a carefully designed flat section on the bottom allows him to rest easily. There are two blue areas on the front, denoting a windshield, and silver markings on the top. I'm personally no fan of those, and think Cosmos would look better without them, but apparently they spell "COSMOS" in some Cybertronian script. If you look at them, you can definitely see the "OS" part repeated twice. Poor little Cosmos just can't catch a break. A figure was designed for the 2006 Classics line, but was nixed because the vehicle mode was too "boring." The design was brought back for the 6" Titanium line, but that line folded before he was tooled and put into production (since, as you know, if Hasbro pays for the tooling, they will find a way to get the toy made). The Universe version's conversion is very similar to those designs, just simplified, but yet again, he might as well have ben cancelled, judging by how many people found him. It's not like you could ever just walk into the Big Three and pick him up - and any toy you only have a hope of getting by paying online scalpers is one that might as well have never been released. I only got him thanks to the generosity of one of our loyal readers (thanks, buddy!), and Hasbro has no immediate plans to reuse the mold for any other characters. Bummer! -- 10/12/10

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