While Power of the Primes appearing at US retail may be on everyone's minds at the moment, the Transformers: The Last Knight toyline has still not been fully released in the US. The main toy missing from the shelves is Deluxe Cogman from the fourth wave, where he is the only new toy. While waiting for this toy to reach retail, here is a pictorial review of him with comparison shots and images of him at different angles.
I will begin this review by saying that this is my favourite deluxe from the entire line. This is not the recency effect because as many will attest, this line has not been amazing, especially not for the deluxe class. It was plagued with repaints and retools, and the fully original molds like Barricade, Berserker, and Steelbane were not home runs by any stretch due to either over simplicity, poor engineering or poor quality control. For some reason it seems Hasbro and Takara poured all they had into Cogman. As we all know by now, he is Titan master compatible and as you will see below, he can fit two Titan Masters in his cockpit.
Regarding the cockpit, it's really cool how they have the steering wheel on the right side, which is film accurate to the car driven by Cogman in London. As for the car mode in general, it is super sleek. I love how everything fits together perfectly. There is also nice silver paint throughout the side connecting between different panels, adding to the cohesiveness of the alt mode. Plus the rims are painted as are the lights in the back (something that was absent from Transformers toys for a while).
What you see sticking from his backside is not a bad case of hemorrhoids but the hilt from his sword. The vehicle mode accommodates the sword by actually having an extra transformation joint on the robot's pelvis, so that the sword can fit there even though there might not be enough room under the car at first glance.
The only slight complaint I could have is that the titan master ports in the cockpit are very loose and will not keep a Titan master attached. But they can still sit there no problem. Also, there is a big gap between the front of the windshield and where the cockpit actually begins. While I will admit I am not an expert on the Aston Martin DB11, it doesn't look right.
The transformation to robot mode is as good as I think we will ever see for a standard Bayverse deluxe. Since none of the car mode is integrated into the robot mode (due to the fact that Cogman DOES NOT TRANSFORM into that car in the film) it's always tricky to hide away the alt mode kibble. The wave 1 Barricade just let is all hang in his back lazily, with no compression of any kind and I was worried when it first seemed like Cogman would follow suit. But no, the back is very tight and compressed as much as it could be. Of course we still see car bits, but it is neat. And unlike Barricade, Cogman's chest cannot have any alt mode kibble so the front of the car turns partly into his shoulders (which have terrific pose-ability as you can see below) while the rest does a 180 degree turn to fold away into his back smoothly under all the clear plastic windows. It was one of those genius moments of engineering like when one transforms PRID Vehicon's legs for the first time or finalizes the chest on Prime FE Cliffjumper.
The legs also offer an evolved form of what Barricade showed us with several layers of folding. This figure definitely has a higher parts count for all that extra engineering. The way the hands flip out of the car doors also answers the prayer of all fans complaining of hollow bits and engineers not adding extra flaps to make better looking arms. The result is the sleekest robot mode of the entire line, which is crazy for a toy that has so much kibble to deal with.
He is quite poseable but while he does have knees they are weirdly designed as if they were only meant to be used for the transformation (which is odd since that joint is not used for the transformation). Its a tight joint that doesn't act like a regular joint would. Although it does reveal more robot mode detail that one only sees when unlocking the knee. Speaking of detail, his chest does open up to see more cogs and gears. This is necessary for transforming him into alt mode.
He comes with Excalibur (talk of an accessory) and wields it pretty well, as you can see below. I feel he makes an even better knight themed Transformer than the actual knight themed Transformer we got in this line, especially his shining armour. Speaking of which, the paint job is fine. Toys can always use more paint but I am not complaining here. The grey/silver plastic used her isn't dull but feels like an actual colour.
Overall, he is the best deluxe of this line, bar none (my runner up was Sqweeks, if anyone was curious). Definitely a worthy pickup for those who like the movie aesthetic and those who enjoy innovative yet streamlined transformations. And of course, for any fan of Titan Masters too. Speaking of which, here he is next to the other tail-ender, Slugslinger, showing the compatibility.