When the first Siege line came out, I was excited to take a look at stuff like Hound, Sideswipe, Optimus, Megatron, etc; still, there were some figures that I could care less for like the Weaponizers and some of the repaints. Cog was no exception, especially considering how I had no real attachment to the character...or lack thereof. He began life as an accessory for Fortress Maximus, but now that he's gotten a Deluxe figure that serves to work as a normal Transformer, I guess there's some appeal to him. I also got him in a fairly big eBay lot, so why not cover him at this point? Here's my look at Siege Cog.
Here we have Cog in his split vehicle mode. These are referred to as Gasket on the left and Grommit on the right (no, not the dog from the Claymation shorts). I felt the attempt at being faithful towards the way the old toy worked was kind of funny, but it's otherwise funny seeing that said recreation is simply that of what looks like a deranged RC car from Twisted Metal and a tank that looks nondescript...I guess it's nice their colors are different from one another, so neither component looks too similar, and the tank treads are kind of neat, but stuff like the 5mm peg smacked in the middle of them, along with tires on the front, and some ball-shaped hips on the front make it look stupid... Oh and the red cannons on Gasket look kind of phallic with the red.
You can combine them into a single-vehicle mode, but even then, you take two nondescript looking vehicles into a slightly less nondescript vehicle mode. All in all, I'm not too impressed with the vehicle mode.
Cog's a partsformer, so you naturally have to combine his two vehicles together while relocating the arms on different 5mm posts. It's at least neat to have the head not stick out or not require the legs to come off, but at least everything else works smoothly overall. Also combining the torso with the raise is pretty seamless. As for the robot mode, it's fairly beefy in terms of proportions; Cog's got a fairly stocky torso that looks like a Seeker's chest with wheels slapped on. I like the color scheme Cog has, and his legs don't look too bad, though it is bad how the torso is hollow from the back; there's nothing to cover up the void and it's also something the legs could go for, too. The 5mm posts sticking out from the shins and sides of the lower legs is a little insightful, but at least the posts seen on the front and back are hidden decently.
His headsculpt's fairly non-descript. It's just a blue head that sorta kinda looks like Fort Max's but without a crescent or a normal face. All that's prominent is the silver visor in terms of detail. As for the articulation, the head is on a ball joint that feels more like a swivel, shoulders move front and back on 5mm posts while they move in and out on hinges (with the cannons hinging up to make room), and the elbows bend. The waist swivels as it should, while the hips move front and back, in and out, as well as swivel at more 5mm pegs. Knees bend nearly 180 degrees and the ankles pivot real deep.
He comes with two honestly decent guns that'd be pretty sweet if it weren't for the fact that they don't really go on his hands to well. I think it has to do with how hexagonal the posts seem, so they tend to be at weird angles unless you put them as underslung cannons. Also, like Chromia bikini bottom before him, he suffers from another waist-covering part that comes off a little too easily, except it's his butt plate. Why the odd way parts come off, Hasbro?
Here is the only available repaint of this guy so far: Aragon. He comes in a three-pack with a Holo Mirage and a Decepticon version of Impactor that comes with his IDW head. This is one of the three Generations-styled Powerdashers made from the three Siege Weaponizers. Some nice silver paint apps here and there, but it doesn't help by how prototype-like this repaint looks. At least Cog looked nice with his deco, this almost looks like it's not even done with the paint apps. G1 accurate or not, I'd at least expect some paint to go on the chest. Also, that head sculpt looks bad.
And next up, we have Red Cog, who is basically the Security Officer best known for being killed by Scorponok. He was a Target exclusive repaint and came with a lot more accessories for collectors to use with their figures, including an adaptor for Earthrise Arcee to combine with Siege Cog a la in the show, which is hilarious if you ask me.
Here he is next to Sideswipe, who shares the same height that he has. They've got one more thing in common, however...
Being a partformer means Cog's actually a Weaponizer. The lower legs, arms, guns, waist, and chest are able to come apart into different pieces of armor, one of the gimmicks that the Siege line has (which also appears to be used for the WFC line in general).
Here we have Cog combined with Sideswipe. The legs are the platform shoes, the torso becomes the shield, and the waist and arms become shoulder cannons, with three times the power, twice the amount of the weapons. Combine that with the stock weapons Sideswipe comes with and the AOE Crosshairs gun he comes with until a more G1 accurate gun pops up, and you have an armored Sideswipe. I believe this is the default method that is used for the toy. It's kind of neat and compliments the predominantly red Sideswipe with the blue and silver Cog has. I won't cover how Cog looks with every single Transformer, but I feel he looks great with Sideswipe. As for Cog himself, he's got some pretty weak vehicle modes, but his robot mode manages to be okay for what it is, and having Cog combine with other robots as a Weaponizer is a neat gimmick for the line. Still, I wouldn't really recommend getting him at this price unless you really love Cog despite him having no real character. He's one of the more filler offerings of the line, but I know there are some great combinations if you have a few more Cogs involved. Just wait for the toy to be on clearance at your stores.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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