The packaging is the same as the Arctic Hiss we looked at last time. Once again, the packaging looks great, but it’s pretty prone to damage. I’m thinking my Hiss and Stinger may have come out of the same case because the packages are both damaged in almost the same place. The cardboard insert is decked out with a cool animated desert motif to make for a nice diorama. The back panel shows photos of the vehicle and figure detailing the features. The bottom panel has filecards for both the vehicle and the figure.

As with the vintage version, this modern Cobra Stinger is a repaint/remold of the GI JOE Vamp. The most notable difference is the swivel gun has been replaced with a missile rack and there’s added armor plating around the cab. The doors swing up and all three pieces can be removed as they are just clipped onto the rollbars. The hood has been slightly resculpted. It no longer opens and instead of the shovel it now has a clip to hold an assault rifle. At the back of the vehicle, the gas cans on the Vamp have been replaced with a running board with pegs for two figures to ride on the back.

There aren’t really many paint apps to speak of, as everything is molded in black and grey. There’s just a couple of areas on the front painted silver.The Cobra emblems and the spider insignia are pre-applied stickers, but you get a nice sheet of stickers to apply yourself.

The missile rack turns 360 degrees and raises and lowers. The four missiles just peg into the rack. It will hold them in place, but it doesn’t take much to knock them askew or have them fall off altogether. As mentioned last time, the missiles and rack are the same setup that came with the Arctic HISS.

The Stinger Driver is almost a direct repack of the Stinger Driver that was released as part of the Cobra Legions 5-pack way back when. The most notable difference here is his mask is painted red instead of black and he has black webbing sculpted on his helmet. He also has a much bulkier set of webgear, complete with a pistol holster in the back. I found him to be very difficult to get seated in the vehicle unless I removed his webgear, but once I did that he fits in just fine. He comes with a figure stand, a dagger, a pistol and an assault rifle.

It’s always an amazing thing to pick up a toy that you wanted so bad as a kid, but for whatever reason never owned. It’s even better when you get it for such a steal. Granted, this isn’t the vintage one, but I’m content to own the 25th Anni. toys over the vintage stuff any day. In retrospect, I don’t know why I didn’t just fork over the cash for this thing when it first came out, but it worked out in the end. Cobra has had a lot of great vehicles over the years, but this one remains one of my favorites.