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Who the hell is Cosmos?

Cosmos is the diminutive space cadet of the Autobots. Famous for his unusual alt-mode, a UFO, Cosmos is the crash landing prone, loner/ plot device, of Transformers. His manner of speaking is notoriously a bad impression of Peter Lorre. Cosmos specialized in space missions, as he was one of the few Autobots capable of space travel, though he was so small he could only ever carry Bumblebee with him. In a more recent depiction, the Cyberverse version of Cosmos was re-imagined as the female sidekick of the transformer’s equivalent of the crocodile hunter. She was a plucky short tomboy camera girl.

This particular version of the character is a part of the “Velocitron Speedia 500” toyline, which has the theme of a high speed intergalactic race. Cosmos doesn’t really fit in with the other race cars in the line, which is why they made him the checkered flag waver. If you don’t think that is adorable, then you can get out of my face.

Cosmos is cute. He is a chubby little alien lad. He is precious. I love him

Okay, how is the toy?

Cosmos is a fantastic little figure. It is difficult to point out flaws. At first glance he looks like a chunky little brick, but this belies its true nature. Cosmos is absurdly posable. He has joints for days. Waist swivel, ankle tilts, and all the other premium articulation and then some. These things bend to absurd levels, allowing for a number of fun poses.

Cosmos comes with a small generic blaster weapon. It is plain and generic for a reason. If you turn it upside down, you can attach the included flag, and it becomes the flag’s pole. The flag accessory has checkers on one side, and is blank on the other. I would say that this is very lazy painting, but perhaps they wanted it to double as the French fla- I mean surrender flag.

As far as appearances go, this is a very G1 accurate Cosmos, so he is a dumpy chubby little bot. Painfully cute. Cosmos has a history of “can we make it cool?”, which is a way of saying that previous toys try to update his design to look less silly. The Titans Return Cosmos has a sleek angular design, and a much more heroic build. I actually quite like the design, but it definitely doesn’t ooze the same charm as the G1 styled cosmos. The fact that it looks so different could be a blessing in disguise, because it can easily be repurposed into the female cosmos from Cyberverse. The new Cosmos is an upgrade, but definitely not a replacement for the Titans Return figure.

As far as the alt-mode goes, well… it looks like a doorbell. It’s cute but I cant help but feel it is weirdly tall. The ‘cockpit?’ seems out of place, especially when placed next to other cosmos toys. On it’s own, in a vacuum (of space) it looks pretty passable.

The real caveat of this Cosmos is its exclusivity. Good luck actually getting your hands on him. Not only is it a Walmart exclusive, it is purposefully shortpacked. Only one per box was sent to stores. It’s artificial scarcity will make it’s price absurd due to scalpers on the secondary market.

It’s a bitter sweet feeling. As a collector, I like owning something rare, but I can’t say that I like how difficult they make certain figures to acquire. I suppose that is the nature of the beast.