Cog (G1)

The name or term "Cog" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Cog (disambiguation).

This article is about Fortress Maximus's drones. For the homeless Transformer from the IDW comics, see Gasket.

Cog is an Autobot drone from the Generation 1 continuity family.

File:Cog MarvelTFUniverse.jpg

Clockwise from left: Cog, Gasket, and Grommet.
Not pictured: Widget, Doodad, and Thingamajigger.

Cog is the combined robotic form of Fortress Maximus's vehicular drones, Gasket and Grommet. Cog has no independent will of his (its?) own and is completely under Maximus's control. Functioning as both mechanic and warrior, he allows Fortress Maximus to be at other places while in city mode, as well as to interact with more normally-sized beings. (Why Maximus would need this when he already has Cerebros is unclear.)

Fiction

Marvel Generation 1 comics

Dammit, Max, stop doing your ventriloquist act and fight!

Dammit, Max, stop repainting your drones and fight!

Cog was among Fortress Maximus's troops that ambushed Scorponok's prisoner-of-war death march. He stood at Fortress Maximus's side as he held the troops, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, then split into his component vehicles Gasket and Grommet for the attack. Cog returned to robot mode by the time the Decepticons' battle line broke, and he counseled Fortress Maximus to finish off the fleeing Decepticons. Maximus refused, instead calling for a mutual retreat. Both Cog's vehicle modes were seen returning to the Manganese Mountains with the rescued prisoners.

Dammit, Max, stop listening in on your troops complaining about how you won't fight and fight!

Much later, after a disastrous military confrontation with the natives on planet Nebulos, Cog was one of the Autobots that gathered around Kup to talk smack about Fortress Maximus's pacifist-aggressive leadership style. Ring of Hate!

Toys

Generation 1

"Sit on my face and tell me that you love me."

• Fortress Maximus (Headmaster Base, 1987)

Cog was available as part of the Fortress Maximus set. He is formed by combining the two armored cars, Gasket and Grommet; the process involves little more than removing Gasket's arms and re-pegging them on his sides and then pegging the two vehicles together. The top of Gasket's vehicle mode is sculpted to securely fit Spike (pictured) or any other large Headmaster figure.

Cog, Gasket and Grommet were redecoed into Grand Maximus's Cog, Onomisu and Koka. Additionally, these parts were redecoed for campaign and lucky draw prizes to accompany Car Robots Fortress Maximus, whose toy didn't include the Cog parts.

• More information on Cog (with Fortress Maximus) at TFU.info

Encore

• Fortress Maximus (Headmaster Base, 2013)
  • Japanese ID number: #23
  • Accessories: Headmaster unit, Cerebros large Headmaster unit, Gasket, Grommet, Photon Rifle, Dual Laser Cannon, Cerebros's Mini Laser Rifle, Cog's Laser rifle, Radar Scope, Master Sword, Cerebros's sword.

The first re-release of Fortress Maximus in Encore.

Notes

It's the wrong trousers, Gromit! And they've gone wrong!

• Cog's in-story portrayal as an independent entity who conversed with Fortress Maximus is clearly at odds with all of his bios, including the one published in a later issue of the comic. Not only that, but Cog-the-drone didn't even have a reason to exist at this point, since Maximus had not yet been enlarged to "city"-size. Whether this appearance should be considered an art error or an indication of unknown events is up to the reader.
• Cog and his components were variously miscolored in almost every appearance in the Headmasters book. Such art errors were extremely common in the miniseries.
• The one time any of his components was colored right was when Grommet was shown fighting alongside the Decepticons (see right).
• Cog's speaking line makes more sense in the context of the art errors: he's colored like Hardhead, and his advice to Fortress Maximus suits Hardhead's aggressive nature. So the most likely explanation is that he was incorrectly drawn as Cog, and the colorist was actually using the correct color scheme from the scripted character. This is supported by the fact that Fortress Maximus is also colored correctly—but is drawn like Hardhead!

You're not helping, England.

• In the UK printing, someone noticed the errors and decided that the colors and script were wrong, not the line-art. So the dialogue was changed to have Cog addressing Hardhead, not Fortress Maximus. Unfortunately, not only does this negate the possibility that what appears to be Cog is actually Hardhead himself, but it also attributes the followup line ("There's been enough destruction!") to Hardhead, which does not suit his personality at all.

External links

• Cog's (via Fortress Maximus's) Universe profile at NTFA.net