Review – Transformers Cosmos

Short, kinda tubby, and with an unusual vehicle mode — a UFO isn’t exactly the best “disguise” option out there — Cosmos always looked kinda dumb as a toy . . . but he got enough play in the old Transformers cartoons to make me love him despite how stupid he looks. And, years later, Cosmos no longer looks quite as dumb to me as he once did; but he’s still a squat little guy.

Vehicle Mode

As you can see, Cosmos is a fairly classic bell-shaped UFO. Everything folds up quite nicely, with the only real indication that this is a robot in disguise being the yellow legs that are faintly visible on the front dome of the vehicle mode. The sticker on the front gives the toy quite a bit of detail and, shockingly, the sticker is holding up well after 27 years. It looks like Cosmos could have used another round with cleaning, though, because there’s still quite a bit of dust on my toy. I tried, really, but after so many years I think some of that dust is a permanent addition to the toy.

Robot Mode

And here he is, the squat Transformer that could. If you take a look at Cosmos’ TFWiki entry you can see that even in illustrations he looks a bit short and stubby. It’s just how the character is shaped, and today I better appreciate the fun behind the character design than I did back in the eighties. My favorite features have to be the exhaust as fingers/guns and the way Cosmos’ head extends from the body — and the face design is adorable — but every bit of the design comes together to make the robot mode far more lovable than I ever realized. Playing with this makes me a little anxious to see how iGear’s unofficial Cosmos (last mentioned here) looks next to the original.

Closing Thoughts

While Cosmos would never really be accepted in the Transformers line today — the transformation is too simple and articulation almost non-existent — it’s tough to say something bad about a toy/character that has been around for so very long. It’s not at all perfect and not even one of the better 1985 Autobot minis — Powerglide and Warpath compete for top spot in my mind — but it’s got a lot of style and stands out as a unique design. While so many of those first few years of toys were cars and planes, Cosmos stood out as a completely fictitious UFO that probably should have never even been added to the line. And that makes him more special than if he had been a rocket, space shuttle, or satellite.

Philip Reed hopes that everyone enjoys the look back at an older Transformers toy . . . even one as silly as Cosmos.