Legacy Cosmos

Series: Legacy Velocitron Speedia 500
Year: 2022
Allegiance: Autobot
Class: Deluxe

Prelude: I recently reviewed Pathfinder, the GoBots UFO robot, and I said a lot of bad things about Cosmos, the Transformers UFO robot, in the process. So in order to be fair (or at least give a reasonable impression of fairness) I shall now review a version of Cosmos, too. The Legacy Velocitron Speedia 500 Collection Cosmos, to be precise. So prepare your probes, for the truth is out there, and let’s say go!

Many thanks to my buddy Reyjin, who loaned me Cosmos for this review.

Robot Mode: Let us start by saying that this is probably the most cartoon-accurate official Cosmos figure we’ve seen so far. Cosmos looks like he just jumped out of the TV screen, looking every bit the 1980s cartoon character. A Deluxe-class figure, Cosmos might be a bit big for a former Mini-Bot, but given that Hasbro has started scaling up pretty much all the old Mini-Bots to Deluxe size in recent years, one cannot fault him for that.

His look is great, including such highlights as sculpted guns on top of his fists, the great head sculpt, and all those details on his torso. Articulation is also very good, as Cosmos can pull off Kung-Fu kicks and running poses without any problems. Like many figures from the 2020s, he has some problems properly matching his yellow tones (the painted yellow on the arms to the yellow plastic on the legs), but unlike other, worse offenders (looking at you, Sunstreaker) one doesn’t really notice it that much. The only thing about Cosmos’ look I can complain about are those extremely hollow forearms of his. I am no advocate of gap fillers, usually, but in this case…

Cosmos comes with two accessories. One is a pretty standard green gun, which is fully okay for him as a weapon. Since he is part of the racing-themed Velocitron subline, though, another accessory was included to try and fit a UFO into that theme. It’s a checkered flag, the kind used on racing circuits to signify the finish of the race. Attaching it to Cosmos’ gun gives him a flag with a handle to, I presume, serve as flag waver on the finishing line of the race. It’s nice, okay, but kind of silly.

Bottom line: a very nice robot mode, superbly depicting the character from the cartoon. No complaints apart from the hollow forearms.

Alternate Mode: True to form Cosmos transforms into a stereotypical UFO space craft. Now the transformation as such is complex without being complicated, but it does contain three steps that, on my mind, threaten the longevity of the figure. Unplugging the plate on the robot’s back, unhooking the robot arms, and moving out the feet forces you to apply a lot of force on relatively small parts (see pictures 10 through 12). The transformation does work, but I fear that transforming him back and forth too often will quickly wear down some of those parts and damage the figure. This could have been solved a lot better, I think.

Once you got the finished UFO, though, you have a vehicle that once again very strongly resembles Cosmos as he appeared in the cartoon. Or a flying trash can, too. In fact, there is a custom out there somewhere, showing Oscar the Grouch emerging from Cosmos’ vehicle mode. Very nice. The UFO looks great, the fist cannons are now serving as thrusters on the back side, while small sculpted guns are on the front. You can attach Cosmos’ gun (with or without flag) to the side for additional armament.

Bottom line: the vehicle mode itself is pretty good, but the transformation sequence really needed some refinement.

Remarks: Cosmos was among the many new Autobots who simply appeared in the second season of the original cartoon as if they’d always been there. In the Marvel Comics he had a far more interesting origin story. He was part of a resistance group on Cybertron, led by Blaster, who ended up on Earth after sabotaging the Decepticons’ initial Space Bridge experiments. In either media he provided some much-needed flying power to the Autobots, but didn’t really take center stage much.

For a brief period back in 2022 Legay Cosmos was probably the most sought-after Transformers figure of the day, seeing as he was part of a store-exclusive line to begin with and was quickly sold out in most places, too.

I’m a bit torn about the final verdict on this figure, to be honest. Both robot and vehicle mode taken by themselves are great and while the hollow forearms are a bit of a nuisance, they wouldn’t stop me from giving this figure an A-rating, I think. The transformation sequence, however, definitely leads to some point loss, especially since I believe it could easily have been refined a bit more to avoid having to use so much force in those three steps I mentioned above. So given that, I have to lower the rating quite a bit. Bottom line: a very nice figure, but I advise putting him in your favorite mode and leaving him like that.

Rating: C+