Wow, is it possible for even all four of those cogs to kill a 44 in one turn?

In case this happenes again - you know when the cogs are going to wake up, so throw with her and take out the one (one less to hit you) then pull the lure / toonup stuff again. That should have saved her this time (if she was fully tooned up when they woke up).

My personal opinion is that it's not worth killing off a toon (especially one that clearly doesn't know about invasions) just to wait for one. Especially in the factory where it's so quick to get through. I know mine is a minority opinion but there it is anyway.

I know for a fact that the 4 cogs in the center silo can kill my little 34 uber
Yeah - you could have taken out the one cog and then continued to stall, stall, stall. Doodling takes up the most time, by the way!!
But, it is a tricky situation.

When that kind of stuff happens to me, I stall by calling my doodle on the very last second. Doing that really takes up a lot of time! Occasionally, I will still miss an invasion when that happens. As someone already posted, though, I have already maxed toons the old way without invasions, so I don't depend on them. I'm actually still totally amazed at how many merits we get in the factory now - even without an invasion.

You did the right thing, GuamFam. They jumped on your vator at the last second--it's not their place to call any shots, including the final shot. You joined in the final battle to keep the little toon alive--you could have left them to die in there alone, and you didn't--you did what you could. It wouldn't have crossed my mind to take out one of the cogs--in fact I would have been a little reluctant to do so because the more cogs you have standing in front of you, the longer it takes for the little toon (who doesn't need merits) to kill them.

I see the point about bringing the number of cogs down to a non-lethal number--that wouldn't have dawned on me until now that I've read about it (I guess that's because I don't play ubers). Don't feel bad, GuamFam. You did fine. I also look at it from the point of view of the low laffer--if I jump on a vator with randoms, especially at the last second, I'm going to do this factory/bldg your way--short/long/sound/lure/whatever. And it would be especially rude of me to go in there and tag the final battle when the other three have asked me to wait--even if I didn't understand why they wanted me to wait (I was greatly puzzled by that request the first time I heard it in a factory as a little toon). I understand that the little toon may well be a kid and I don't judge them as being "rude" when they probably just don't understand. You did what you could to keep them alive, while still not allowing one toon to "blow" a factory for three other toons. That was appropriate.

(Yeah, I know, it's not hard to do another factory and the "blow" isn't as bad as it is when someone "blows" a Back 9 for you, but when you're on the zillion merits, and especially if you're not used to doing DA-D offices and Back 9s, the endless factory runs are excruciating!! I remember that well. It wasn't until I got mired in 14,400 jury notices time after time that I decided the factory wasn't half bad by comparison. Now that I'm about to get mired in stock options, I'm afraid I might even prefer the DA-D to endless Back 9s, and I really hate the DA-D!)

I guess I just don't see how a factory is "blown" when you still get the normal number of merits. I also don't see the point in waiting more than a minute or two in a FACTORY where you can make it up in not much longer. I don't see how it's better to let a toon die (whose job IS it to call the shots, anyway, in a random elevator? personally I would go with it whether they wait or don't...and what difference does it make when she jumped on? How do you know she didn't need merits?). But that's just me, and that's why I end up maxing slower. If invasions are so important to me I run with friends. I think more people should try that... If you are running random you have no right to dictate what others do or to expect them to play your way. Just my 2 cents.

Since the run was "hilarious" I guess you don't feel too bad about it.

Oh yes it CERTAINLY is possible for A ROUND to kill a 44. My little 40 uber in training has learned this 3 times. I don't know why, but the cogs target me until I die(unless I'm not Whoopsie Daisy ).