Originally written March 2019.
Cog is easily the most obscure character in Transformers: Siege, so bear with me while I explain who and what he is. Throughout the original Transformers toyline, there were several giant Transformers released that changed into cities or bases that the smaller figures could interact with. In order to give kids the ability to play with the city modes right out of the box, most of these large transformers came with smaller robot companions who could use their base mode’s features, with the original Cog coming with the larger Fortress Maximus.
The original Cog, only available with Fortress Maximus.
Over the last few years, many of these older G1 baseformers have been updated in the Transformers: Generations line as gigantic Titan-sized figures, including Fortress Maximus. However, none of them came with the smaller robot companions anymore, apparently to keep the price down. Most of these little bots never received much or any screentime in comics or cartoons that featured these big bases, so that might have had something to do with it, too.
However, the Transformers: Siege line has, among other things, focused on filling holes in fan’s collections, and so is releasing updates of these smaller robots separately as Deluxes, with Cog being the first one, and the other citybot companions, like Six-Gun and Brunt, coming later. Fans have sarcastically referred to him as “DLC for Fort Max” as a result. I don’t own a Fortress Maximus, but Hasbro and Takara figured out another angle to make this obscure character a must-buy for fans, thanks to the Siege line’s own gimmicks.
Siege is all about weapon upgrades, with most of the figures in the line having mounting points on them for attaching all kinds of guns and missiles, more than each figure comes with, expecting you to want to buy upgrades. But rather than sell them in big accessory packs, they’ve found different ways to turn these accessories into Transformers themselves, which is the other thing they did to Cog, and the other Citybot companions. He’s a Weaponizer, which means he can actually be taken apart and split into weapons for other figures. One way or another, he’s not meant to stand alone as a solo figure, but let’s look at him like he does, before looking at how he works with other figures in the Siege line. Photos in this post are a combination of my own and Venomously Addicted Photography’s, who can be followed on Facebook and Instagram.
Robot Mode
It’s an odd statement to make, but I find Cog sort of generic-looking, but not in a bad way. His design makes me think of a character who appears in crowd shots in a battle scene, or serves as a generic soldier in a video game, but he wears the look well. I’ll say this for him, Cog has some really nice colors. He’s a deep, almost navy blue, accented with shiny silver paint, which looks lovely, since they could have just gone with flat grey. Augmenting that is bits of red and black.
Despite his small size, he’s very bulky, and has a nice-looking, masked helmet for a face. Even more impressively, he manages to not looks like he breaks apart, or is made of guns. He’s kind of hollow from the back, sadly, with his upper shoulders and lower legs having a lot of empty space. Still, he has to do a lot of stuff, and so that mass had to come from somewhere.
Despite breaking into parts, he’s still just as poseable as the rest of the Siege line, with ankle tilts and a waist joint and everything, though he has no wrist swivels, like several of the other Deluxes. The only sign in this mode that he breaks into parts is the fact that his legs pop out just below the hips a bit easily, though they’re in no danger of falling off. They just come off with very little force.
While he may turn into accessories, he’s got a couple of his own, in the form of two handheld guns he can pose with, gunslinger style, though they’re kind of loose in his hands, thanks to the pegs not being sized right. But when he isn’t holding them, he can mount them on ports on the front of his legs, on the inside and outside of his arms, and on his back. I like mounting them on his arms, to go along with his sculpted wrist guns. The other linewide Siege gimmick, the battle damage and grime on every figure, is very minimal on this guy. He has some silver spackling on his lower arms and lower legs, and that’s about it.
Transformation
Like his wavemate, Skytread, you straight-up split him apart at the waist. But that’s not all you split apart. Cog is what’s known to fans as a Partsformer, meaning you don’t so much transform him, as you take him apart and assemble him in a different sequence. Still, it’s not difficult, and everything pegs in securely
Vehicle Mode(s)
This is definitely the figure’s weak point. The original Cog figure actually split into two vehicles, Gasket and Grommet, and while the instructions of this one tell you to attach them into one long vehicle, there’s nothing stopping you from splitting them up, like the original figure. They’re a pair of tiny, legend-sized rolling, rover-ish vehicles, and there’s…not much to them, to be honest. The back vehicle is really obviously a pair of robot legs on treads, with two swiveling guns on top. At least it rolls nicely. The front vehicle, mostly silver, doesn’t look like a robot torso, at least, but it doesn’t look like anything recognizable, either. It’s a big pile of wheels with two large, swiveling guns. It’s sort of like a lunar rover, but barely. Another knock against it: You can see Cog’s robot head looking out of the back.
Officially, you now clip them together into one long vehicle, which manages to make the whole thing look worse, by making it clear we’re looking at a flopped-over robot with guns on him. Also, the clip to attach the two vehicles together barely stays on, and he comes apart if you wiggle him a bit.
Overall, this mode’s definitely an afterthought on the way to the main event: Splitting him up into weapons.
Transformation to Defensive Loadout
Basically, you tear him to pieces, and attach him to another Siege figure. While you’re encouraged to transform and attach his various bits however you want, the instructions suggest two configurations, and depict him as attaching to his fellow Deluxe, Sideswipe, which makes sense, since, as I said back in my Sideswipe review, he felt a little under-equipped.
Defensive Loadout Mode
In this mode, Cog forms a pair of boots, a shoulder-mounted shield, and two large shoulder cannons, with his twin guns clipping onto Sideswipe’s arms.
The overall look if the upgrade is very 90’s comic-bookish, and very video game-y. Sideswipe’s articulation is a bit inhibited, since his guns get in the way, but he looks imposing now, and intimidatingly armed. And it’s hard to criticize what they went with, when you’re actively encouraged to find your own configurations.
Transformation to Offensive Loadout Mode
It’s a good thing this guy’s easy to transform, because his instructions always begin from his fully-assembled robot mode.
Offensive Loadout Mode
Okay, this is kind of ridiculous, but in a fun way. In this form, Cog’s torso folds up into a shield, and his arms and legs become an absurdly large pair of shoulder cannons.
What’s shocking about this mode is how stable it is. Everything stays tightly attached, and Sideswipe doesn’t feel like he’s going to fall over, a testament to Siege’s strong engineering.
Other Fun
As mentioned before, the big idea with Cog is that you can do whatever you want with his weapons, and attach them to other figures in the Siege line, thanks to the whole line having tabs and holes of a compatible scale. With that in mind, here’s a couple other things I came up with, using Voyager Optimus Prime, and Leader Ultra Magnus, both of whom actually match his colors a bit:
Overall
It’s hard to evaluate Cog on his own merits, because the whole point of him is that you’re not getting him on his own. If you want to complete your Fortress Maximus, you’re getting him to go with that figure, and if you’re collecting the Siege line, you want him to augment your other figures. He has a decent-looking robot mode, and a poorly-done vehicle mode, but he makes for a fun upgrade kit for your Siege figures, and is really versatile in that respect. So, if you liked the photos of him upgrading those Siege figures, and want to use him for that, I recommend him. If you want him to stand next to Fortress Maximus, he looks good enough for that, too. He just doesn’t really stand on his own, but that’s alright, because he’s here to upgrade his friends.
(2021 note: I’d eventually handle the other two Siege Weaponizers when they were retooled into Powerdashers, and as standalone figures, I kind of liked the other two better. But as an upgrade kit, I think this one’s the strongest of the three. If you’re collecting War for Cybertron figures, it’s worth getting at least one Weaponizer, and this is still as good of one as any.)
