Tag Archives: gi joe

Apr 28 2012

GI JOE Rise of Cobra: Steel Crusher APV by Hasbro

Earlier this week on Vintage Vault, we checked out Jackhammer, that black SUV of death from the MASK toy line. At the time, I tossed out a comment about how Hasbro paid homage to it in the Rise of Cobra line with the Steel Crusher. I was all ready to drop in a link when I was horrified and amazed to realize that I hadn’t featured the Steel Crusher here on FigureFan before. So today I’m remedying that oversight. Not only is it a cool, albeit subtle, nod back to the MASK toy, but its also one of the few truly shining moments of what is otherwise the mostly forgetable pile of schlock that made up the Rise of Cobra vehicles.

No package shot, but Steel Crusher comes in a fairly standard box with some angled corners and a little window to show the driver figure that is included. Apart from the weird penchant for green, I had no problem with the Rise of Cobra packaging. It was more functional than attractive, but at least it stored well. The front shows off some artwork of the vehicle in action and the back panel shows an actual photo of the toy.
Let’s get the figure out of the way first: He’s the Nano-Viper. I hated this guy when I first got him and quickly swapped him out with one of my many 25th Anniversary Stinger Drivers. In retrospect, he isn’t a bad figure, but I don’t think he really fits the bill as a vehicle driver. He looks like a cross between an urban combat soldier and a fighter pilot. I guess it makes sense, since the Steel Crusher is basically an urban assault vehicle, but the figure just seems kind of bland and forgettable. It also didn’t help that within just a few moments of playing around with him, his visor shot off his helmet and disappeared into the great beyond. Its probably in my cat’s secret stash by now.  Anyway, he’s grown on me a bit since I first got him, but I still prefer to have a Stinger Driver at the seat of this marvelous vehicle.
The Steel Crusher is based off the vehicle seen during the “Paris Pursuit” sequence of the Rise of Cobra movie. As such, it isn’t exactly your traditional Cobra vehicle, and therein lies the MASK homage. Its a black SUV that converts, similarly to the Jackhammer, into an armored, rolling death machine. But we’ll get to that in a minute. In its covert mode, it is a really great looking toy. The detail in the front grill, bumper and ramming bar is very impressive. Both side doors open up and you can fit figures into the roomy seats. The interior is amazingly detailed, right down to the sculpted stitching in the seats and the shifter on the console. This baby even has real rubber tires! There are a bunch of stickers to apply, most notably the Cobra emblems, which don’t make a lot of sense if you want to use it as a covert vehicle, but I think they go a long way to making it look more like an official Cobra vehicle.
To convert the vehicle for action, you slide the roof piece forward, which causes the missile launcher to pop up out of the back. You can then flip down the armor shield that covers the windshield, and you can flip open the two side-mounted rocket launchers. The end result is pretty similar to the overal concept of VENOM’s Jackhammer. Steel Crusher even has compartments to store the three missiles, similarly to how the Jackhammer houses the attachable machine gun. The vehicle looks really awesome with the armored windshield and the side rockets deployed.
You may not like the Rise of Cobra movie, lord knows I don’t. And you may not really dig the idea of a covert Cobra vehicle. But I’d challenge anyone to deny that this is a really well made, great looking, and ultimately fun toy. The fact that all the Cobra emblems are optional stickers, really give it a lot of possibilities for using it with other 3 3/4″ lines, but I personally think it looks great with the Cobra insignia. I’d go out on a limb here and say this is probably one of my favorite toys released in 2009 and certainly a pleasant surprise from the otherwise forgettable Rise of Cobra toy line. I passed on this thing for a long time, because I thought the $25 price tag was kind of high for a vehicle in this class assortment, but when I finally relented and bought it, I had no regrets about the pricetag. Its just a great all around toy.
Apr 19 2012

GI JOE 25th Anniversary: Vamp with Double Clutch

The Joes don’t get much love around here at FigureFan these days, and I’m going to try to remedy that in the upcoming weeks with some looks back at the 25th Anniversary line of toys. Today we’re going to check out one of my favorite vehicles to be re-tooled and re-issued in the line. When I was a kid, the Vamp was the mainstay of my GI JOE forces. It was a rugged, all pupose little jeep with some good firepower that could get in an out of the action quickly. I loved the Vamp so much, I even traded some figures for one of my friends’ burnt out Vamps just so I could have two to play with. Naturally, when the 25th Anni. line came out, I was happy to replace my long lost Vamps with a minty new one. I was pretty surprised that I hadn’t featured the Vamp here on FigureFan before, although it did have a cameo in a comparison shot when I looked at the Cobra Stinger.

The packaging has its ups and downs. Its kind of a three-quarter box with a huge window, whereas I would have much preferred a straight up box that I could store the vehicle in. On the other hand, its hard to deny that this thing looks inviting on the toy shelf and I’d wager MISB collectors must have been pretty happy. The package showcases the toy and figure perfectly, against an animated action backdrop and the bottom of the box serves as a great base with the GI JOE logo  shelf. Its kind of like buying the toy in its own ready made display case. Alas, the package on mine didn’t survive the opening process and also doesn’t store very well over time.
Let’s start off with Double Clutch. Yes, its obviously another instance of Hasbro losing the copyright to the original name. Calling him Double Clutch was a pretty clever way around that. I always loved the original Clutch figure, just because he reminded me so much of my original 1970s 12-inch GI JOE with beard and all. He’s just a great generic looking all-purpose Joe who is more than happy to drive the other guys into the fray and back out again. The update is a great looking figure. You can even take his vest off and use him as a pretty good “Green Shirt.” The addition of a functional holster and sheath are always a bonus for me.
Despite being a pack-in figure, Double Clutch still comes with a bunch of stuff you would expect to get with a single carded figure. You get a knife and an automatic pistol, which can be stored in the figure’s sheath and holster. He also comes with a removable vest and helmet. And lastly, the figure comes with his own personalized stand, which oddly enough, reads “Clutch.” Seems like somewhere along the way I misplaced Double Clutch’s pistol so I leant him someone’s sub-machine gun.
The Vamp itself should be pretty close to the toy you remember from  your youth, assuming you’re as wretchedly old as I am. The body of the vehicle is basically the same with some little tweaks here and there to help it fit the modern era. The biggest difference is the seating area, which has been completely re-vamped (har har) to fit the larger 25th Anniversary figures and the seats are now painted, albeit a little sloppily. There’s a ton of great detail on the dashboard and the divider between the seats.
The hood is also more detailed than the original and includes a sculpted bedroll and a removable entrenching tool. The front bumper has two spotlights added to it, the front headlights now have clear plastic covers, and the hood opens to reveal the engine inside. The wheels are brand new sculpts, and I don’t recall the original having the little sculpted gas cap on the back of the right side.
The pom pom gun mounted on the back still swivels and raises and lowers. It has two new hoses added to it that come out of the back and connect to the base, which adds some cool detail. The lever with the firing gimmick that was present on the original, has been removed for this version. The back of the Vamp still has the little rack that holds the two removable gas tanks, as well as the tow hook so you can attach the Whirlwind if you happen to have one kicking around. The tail lights, which were just stickers on the original are clear plastic pieces on this update.
While you do get a sheet of stickers with the toy, several of the key stickers come pre-applied to make it look good in the package. Unfortunately, they weren’t applied with a lot of care, so you can see them running lopsided, particularly the “GI Joe” emblem on the driver side and the “United States” sticker on the hood. I’ve opted to leave the rest of the stickers off, but some day I might apply them.
I’m not sure how much I paid for this thing back in 2008, but I know it was under $20, and man was that a great deal. You got a fun, fantastic, and rugged vehicle with some nice, practical play features and a really solid figure too. With the quality of the current Joes on pegs (30th Anniversary, Pursuit of Cobra, and Renegads), I realize that a lot of collectors don’t look back on the 25th Anniversary Collection all that fondly, but I do. This pack is exactly the sort of thing that I miss so much from the world of GI JOE. The Vamp is as close to a perfect toy as you can get.
Sep 5 2011

GI JOE Pursuit of Cobra: Arctic Destro by Hasbro

[Howdy, Figure Fans, I’m tossing in a quickie for today’s update. It’s a departure from what I had planned, but I managed to really mess up my back this weekend and sitting at my computer desk for any length of time is absolute torture. Considering I wrote a fair portion of today’s feature in agony, I may have been a little bit hard on poor Destro here. Nonetheless, I’m hoping it’ll either start mending or I can get my hands on some decent painkillers before I’m back in the saddle tomorrow. -FF]

I’ve featured some of the Pursuit of Cobra vehicles on FigureFan in the past, but no doubt some people are wondering why I haven’t been looking at any of the carded figures. Well, I’ll grant you they look like amazing figures, but as far as I’m concerned the 25th Anni. Collection are the definitive versions of these characters and I decided that I was not going to collect a whole new line of the same guys and gals. I have to draw the line somewhere. Nonetheless, I’ve been meaning to pick up Destro here for a little while, mainly just to put him in my Arctic HISS. So, last week, I was ordering some figures from Amazon and I came in just a couple of bucks under the minimum for free shipping, so I threw Destro on to tilt the scale in my favor. I know, not exactly a ringing endorsement for why I bought him, but let’s check him out anyway…

The gorgeous retro cards for the 25th Anni. line are a hard act to follow, but Pursuit of Cobra has made a valiant effort. The cards are more dark and gritty, but they still look absolutely fantastic and display the figure beautifully. The back panel shows off an amazing photo diorama of the figures and toys in action. There’s also a filecard that you can clip and save, but it lacks the meaty content of the vintage filecards. The filecard also lists a piece of “mission specific equipment” that the figure doesn’t even come with. I usually have no qualms about tearing open my figures, but Destro here actually gave me pause. Hmm… maybe I should start collecting these just to hang them on my wall.
Opening up the bubble you see that the pack includes Destro, a figure stand, a tightly wadded up catalog-slash-poster, and a shitload of accessories. I’m going to break convention and start with the accessories, because there’s a lot of them and I don’t know what half of them really are. You get a pair of what looks like ice climbing spikes; You get a freeze gun with a hose and backpack; A couple of pieces of ice, which I assume are to attach to the figure Destro is shooting with the ice gun; A pair of goggles; An ice drill; Something that looks like a Star Wars Scout Trooper gun; And a standard Cobra figure stand with “Destro” printed on it. I don’t have a lot to say about a lot of this stuff, except the backpack for the ice gun doesn’t peg into his back very well, and I don’t like the way the hose comes out of the top. I don’t usually complain about accessories, but I just feel like Hasbro went for quantity over quality here.
Destro himself is wearing arctic gear with a soft plastic jacket and hood. The body looks nice and the snowy wash looks really good for a figure in this scale and price range. I’m not all that crazy about the head and I can’t really put my finger on what it is that turns me off. The eyes might be too big. It does have a pretty cool snowy finish on the top half as if his mask is freezing over. The goggles fit really well either up on his forehead or down over his eyes. I don’t have a lot else to say about this guy. The realism of the sculpt is very good, but there’s just nothing about him that stands out.
Articulation is what we’ve come to expect from the modern 3 3/4″ Hasbro figures. You get universal movement in the shoulders and hips; A ball jointed neck; Hinges in the elbows and double hinges in the knees; swivel cuts in the wrists; Swivels and hinges in the ankles; and the universal joint in the torso.
I got Destro for my Arctic HISS, and he’ll be fine for that, but I’m actually surprised at how little this figure impresses me. There’s nothing specific that I can really beef about, but he’s just a bland figure with an overkill of underwhelming accessories. I still think he looks incredible on the card and I wouldn’t be opposed to picking up more of these figures to keep carded, but only if I got them on the cheap. I’m sure Destro isn’t the best of this line, but he certainly doesn’t make me want to run out and buy more. Maybe I’ll start jumping back on board with the 30th Anniversary stuff.
Mar 25 2011

GI JOE SpyTroops: Patriot Grizzly Tank by Hasbro

Rounding out this impulsive little GI JOE week, I thought I’d throw in at least one of the Joe’s vehicles. It’s also one that I didn’t have to dig into a tote to get because a) it’s too big for my totes and b) I love it so much that I keep it displayed on a shelf. Yeah, it’s another one of those shining moments of the SpyTroops Dark Ages, the Patriot Grizzly Tank. Considering a tank is such a commonplace military vehicle it always struck me as odd that the Joes didn’t have more of them. Sure, there was the Mauler, but it was a poor substitue for a real tank… something like this one.

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No packaged shot, but like the Ringneck, the Patriot Grizzly came in a big window box minus the window. It’s a terrible design for a toy that actually had bits that could come off of it. I can remember seeing a bunch of these at KB Toys with all sorts of damage, missing bits, or other problems. Oddly enough, despite it’s size, the Grizzly required practically no assembly. As a result, it’s really sturdy hunk of plastic, so you can rough house with it all you want. Even the barrel is removable so if you snap it off, you can just pop it right back on. And did I mention it’s big? Big enough that I couldn’t shoot it in my usual staging area.

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The Patriot Grizzly features a beautifully detailed sculpt, complete with panel lines, vents, equipment, and other compartments. The treads are simulated and molded in plastic, but the tank rolls along on concealed wheels. The vehicle is finished in a desert camo motif and pre-applied stickers include the GI JOE logos on the sides and an array of Cobra emblems to catalog confirmed kills. The tank has a radar dish, a whip antenna, a minigun on the front, and two small swiveling gun emplacments. The machine gun pegs into one of the hatches, or you can remove it if you want to button up. The tank is designed to hold figures in three stations: One in the driving slot, one in the front gunner placement, and one in the machine gun hatch on the top. Of course, the tank is littered with pegs all over, so you can really load this baby up with figures. The only problem is that the pegs designed for the SpyTroops era of figures don’t work with the modern Joes.

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One of the coolest things about the Patriot Grizzly is its electronics. There’s a handle concealed in the back tha folds out like a joystick. Using this control you can rotate the turret left and right, move the tank forward and backwards, and rapid fire the huge stock of missiles that are fed into the main gun from the hatch on the main turret. Just about every movement the tank makes is accompanied by nice sound effects. The engine rumbles, the treads squeal, and the machine gun fires off bursts. It’s lots of fun to take this baby for a spin and it usually sends my cat running for cover.

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The Patriot Grizzly remains one of my favorite Joe vehicles. It has a great sense of realism to its design, it’s sturdy enough to survive storage and rugged play, and the electronic gimmicks actually enhance the toy without crapping all over its design or aesthetics. I still long for the day when Hasbro might build a Joe tank with a removable top so that you can actually have access to the interior, but the until then this one will have a place of honor in my collection.

Mar 24 2011

GI JOE Valor Vs Venom: Cobra Sting Raider by Hasbro

The impromtu GI JOE week rolls onward with another Cobra vehicle from deep within my totes. Will this be a Cobra only week? I don’t know, maybe. Right now I’m just making it up as I go along and going with whatever strikes my fancy. Today we dip beneath the waves to look at the cool little one man Cobra submarine called the Sting Raider. Of course, not to be confused with the more recent Sting Raider, which was a repaint of the vintage Cobra Water Mocassin. [Look back far enough, as I’m sure I featured it here on FigureFan. -FF] Just a heads up, the pack-in figure with this vehicle was the Electric Eel. He sucked and is no longer part of my collection. I have since paired this sub with the very awesome 25th Anniversary Collection Cobra Diver, released in 2008.

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No packaged shot, but suffice it to say this baby was released in 2004 as part of the dubious Valor Vs Venom line. Let’s just get right to the toy. The Sting Raider is a little attack sub that holds one figure under a glass domed cockpit. I love this thing so much because with it’s stingray inspired design it really looks like something that could have shown up in the Sunbow cartoon. Since the Cobra Diver was released, I’ve grown even fonder of this little toy because the color scheme matches the Cobra Diver so well, that it’s like they were made for each other. The Sting Raider is sculpted with lots of detailed panel lines and has Cobra emblems printed right on the wings. Mine have started to scratch off a bit from being bounced around in a tote for four years, but I think it gives it a nice whethered look. There are some pre-applied stickers too, which have held up pretty well.

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For a small toy, this thing is loaded with little gimmicks. It sits on three tiny wheels, so if you aren’t going to float it in a fishtank, it’ll still sit nice and level on the display shelf. [Although, if you have a spare DCUC Flight Stand from Mattel handy, that works well too! -FF] The canopy lifts up to reveal the roomy cockpit. The Diver can actually fit inside with his oxygen pack on and you can dump all the rest of his gear in there too. The steering column is hinged so you can flip it back when he’s inside and clutch the sticks in his hands. The front of the sub has a big red capture claw, which is spring loaded and slams closed at the press of a button. The wings are hinged at the tips and can be pulled out to expose a pair of firing missiles. The engine fans rotate on the back independently of each other for controlling the pitch and yaw of the sub. There’s even a little swiveling aft gun under the tail.

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The Cobra Diver is a great figure, although I think he tends to get overshadowed by the equally awesome (ok, possibly more awesome) Cobra Eel that was released as part of the 25th Anni. Collection in the same year. Yep, remember, this figure came out about four years after the Sting Raider and it’s crappy pack-in figure. Sure, he’s basically just a repaint of Torpedo, but this is one repaint that works really well. The paint apps are nice and clean and he comes with a ton of accessories. You get a removable facemask with a hose that connects to his removable oxygen pack. He has a pistol and a knife that fit in the holster and scabbard, and he gets an assault rifle, although I think Torpedo’s harpoon gun would have been a better fit. He’s also got a pair of pegged flippers for his feet.

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I could spill a lot of electronic ink over whether or not Valor Vs Venom totally sucked or not. I tend to think it gets treated a little more harshly than it deserves, but then I’ve long since purged most of the VvV figures from my collection. Maybe someday I’ll commit myself to better analysis of the line, but for now I’ll just point out that at the very least it spawned an occasionally decent vehicle, as evidenced by this awesome little Sting Raider. I’m guessing I paid around ten bucks for it, which is not bad at all for what you get. I’m sure you can pick it up nowadays for next to nothing, or you could opt for the more recent repaint.

Mar 23 2011

GI JOE SpyTroops: Cobra Ringneck Armored Transport by Hasbro

What the hey. Since we kicked off the week with a couple of GI JOE vehicles, and I promised to go Lego-Free for the rest of the week, let’s just stamp a GI JOE theme on the week and be done with it. I’ve dragged a couple of totes out from the bowels of my closet to see what we can come up with. Today we’re going to look at another of my favorites in the Cobra arsenal: The Ringneck.

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No packaged shot, as I’ve had this thing for quite a while. It was released as part of the SpyTroops line way back in 2003, and it’s one of the shining moments of what was largely kind of a dark time for GI JOE, at least in terms of my interest in the line. If you’re curious, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a shot of the box via the InterWebs, but it’s worth noting that like most vehicles in this series, it was released in what was basically a window box without the window. Yep, it exposed the toy to the elements, which often increased the chances of it getting broken, having kids stick gum to it, or just have the shit beaten out of it right there on the store shelf. I bought mine new and it was full of dust right out of the package. Fun!

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The Ringneck is an armored transport and the main reason I love it is because it looks like something right out of World War II. It doesn’t really look like a Cobra vehicle, because it’s grounded too much in reality and it’s missing some of the Rube Goldbergesque stuff that Cobra engineers seemed to love. Yeah, there are a few odd gimmicks, which I’ll get to in a minute, but overall, it looks more like something you’d get in the Forces of Valor line than GI JOE.

The Ringneck rolls along on six heavy wheels and it features a main cannon attached to a great looking armored dome. The viewing slits and heavy riveting really give it that vintage vibe. There are also two smaller gun emplacements on each side. Pull the lever in the back and you can make the two gun emplacements swivel in unison while sound effects are activated. The main turret rotates and the cannon does fire a missile, but I removed mine a while back because I liked the exposed borehole of the barrel better, and now I can’t find it. As for the sound effects, I can’t remember what they are. The batteries in mine must have died a long while ago and frankly I’m afraid to open the compartment because the batteries in there have probably fused into one piece from corrosion. You can remove the two gun pods and set them up as gun emplacements, which seems like a really lame tacked on gimmick that I try to forget even exists.

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By design, the Ringneck holds four figures, with one riding in the main turret and one in each of the smaller gun emplacements. The fourth, which may be the river has the unlucky job of riding directly under the main cannon, while being the most exposed against enemy fire, and all he gets is this little pea shooter that must be hard to work with while driving. There aren’t any peg holes for other figures, but there’s plenty of room for troops to sit on the back and ride along.

The Ringneck came with a Neo Viper figure, which I’m sure I don’t have any more. At least I’m sure enough that I didn’t want to invest in a fruitless search through half a dozen totes of GI JOE figures. But that’s cool, because as far as I’m concerned, this thing belongs to my Battle Armor Cobra Commander.

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I don’t know that the Ringneck is high on most fans’ lists of favorite Cobra fighting machines, but I really dig it. It’s a pretty simple toy and what gimmicks it does have don’t really wreck it in anyway. It’s also a really solid toy. You could probably roll this thing crashing off your front porch and it would come away more or less unscathed. As I mentioned earlier, SpyTroops wasn’t a stellar time for GI JOE figures in my book, but there were a handful of really good vehicles turned out around this time for both sides.

Mar 22 2011

GI JOE The Pursuit of Cobra: Cobra HISS with Driver by Hasbro

Somewhere on FigureFan, I’m pretty sure I did a commentary on what was shown at Toy Fair last year. I’m also pretty sure I spent some time there pontificating at how much I hated the Pursuit of Cobra HISS toy. The thing that really stuck in my craw about it was how Hasbro incorporated the elevation feature last seen in that terrible HISS TYPE IV design. I eventually warmed up to it a little bit as I saw better pictures, but I was still in no rush to get one. Unlike the Fury from yesterday’s feature, I probably would have never picked up this vehicle if I hadn’t found such a good deal at it at Ross. Let’s see if it managed to win me over.

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Yep, love that Pursuit of Cobra packaging. It’s a simple box with fantastic artwork on the front and a nice picture of the toy on the back, detailing its many features. Unlike the Fury, the box for the HISS is really thick and even bowed out a little on the sides. There’s a window showing off the HISS Driver figure and his filecard is printed on one of the side panels. Open up the box and pull out the tray and you can instantly see that you’re going to have some assembling to do. It’s nothing too complex, but I think it’s pretty cool to be getting vehicles that actually need to be put together again. I was also happy to note that I scored a black one and not the crappy brown colored version that shipped first. There’s also a ton of stickers to apply, but I skipped a number of them, either because they don’t show up well against the dark plastic or they’re in spots that I’d never notice.

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Once I got this baby together I was suitably impressed by its size. Granted, a lot of it is because the chassis rides so high on the suspension, even when it isn’t in the elevated position. Still, it’s fair to say that it dwarfs the original HISS. It’s an extremely formidable looking vehicle, easily capable of greasing its wheels with the guts of GI JOE fools. It still has the iconic triangular treads that every HISS vehicle has had since Cobra rolled the first one off the assembly line way back when, but the rest of it has been completely overhauled. The first of my favorite updates is the discontinued use of the clear cockpit in favor of a completely armored one. It’s essentially what Pursuit of Cobra did for the Tiger Ghost Hawk. It makes more sense and it looks better. Second, gone is the rear gunner position for the poor Cobra who might as well have held up a sign that said, “Look at me, I’m a target!!!” Instead, there’s a drop down hatch under the back for a gunner to sit, fully encased in the HISS’ armored bowels. Oh, did I mention it has real rubber treads? Major points for that.

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The new armaments consist of a double chin gun right under the cockpit, a belt fed machine gun and a shooting missile launcher. The later two can be positioned in any of four hardpoints, with two located on the top and one on each broadside. I’d love to get a second one of these just to load all the weapons on one of them. And then there’s that elevation feature. It’s not nearly as ridiculous as it was in the TYPE IV HISS, but it still seems pretty useless. Unlike the MARK IV, however, you don’t need to elevate it to get into the cockpit, so you can conceivably forget that feature exists at all. I know I will!

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The HISS comes with a Driver figure, which is extremely faithful to the original design and the one seen again in the 25th Anniversary Collection. In fact, the head is practically identical. New touches include a strap on breastplate and backpack. He comes with a revolver and a Cobra standard that can be plugged into one of the holes on the HISS.

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If ever there was a fine example of why it’s bad to prejudge toys based on some quick photos from a convention, the Pursuit of Cobra HISS is definitely it. I hated this thing the first time I saw it. Yeah, when I saw some better photos, it started to grow on me a little, but I still wasn’t excited about adding it to my collection. Now that I actually have one in hand, I’m completely in love with it. The size, the design, the modular weapons, the rubber treads… it all really clicks. It’s one of the coolest Cobra vehicles I’ve seen in a while and easily a worthy successor to the mainstay of the Cobra land fleet. Simply awesome.

Mar 21 2011

GI JOE The Pursuit of Cobra: Cobra Fury with Alley Viper Officer by Hasbro

Holy crap, it’s GI JOE on FigureFan! Seems like it’s been a long time, but between poor distribution in my area and too many other things contending for my money, I haven’t been buying a lot of GI JOE stuff lately. As luck would have it, though, I was out shopping this weekend and decided to duck into Ross when I found both the Cobra Fury and the Cobra HISS sitting on the shelf, all by themselves and just one of each, and there was no way I was going to turn them down. I’ve been looking forward to getting the Fury since I saw the first pictures at Toy Fair last year, and this is actually the first time I’ve seen it at any retail store in my area. Let’s see if it turned out as good as I expected.

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The Pursuit of Cobra packaging is beautiful and it definitely makes me want to buy the toys when I see them. The packages are all themed to some specific mission, and the Cobra Fury is part of the Urban Strike Mission. The front has an exciting piece of artwork showing the vehicle in action and the back shows off a nice photo of the toy itself, while detailing many of its features. There’s a cut-out window on the front of the package to show you the figure you get and his filecard is printed on one of the side panels. The Fury’s box is remarkably thin, and when you pull out the tray inside you can see why. The vehicle comes in several pieces and the chassis is really flat. You also get an instruction sheet, a sticker sheet, and a catalog/poster. Everything is really packed in there like sardines.

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As a vehicle, I have no idea what you’d call this thing, or even if it has anything close to a real world counterpart. In the world of GI JOE, it’s an urban assault vehicle. Obviously, it’s main armament is the huge dual cannon mounted on the top and it also has a number of missile and rocket hardpoints, plus a minigun mounted dead center in the front. There’s room for two drivers in the front cabin and a gunner up top on the turret. It’s pretty well sculpted with a lot of detail and there’s a ton of stickers to apply. I had fun applying a lot of the stickers, but a number of them are pointless since the black lettering doesn’t show up against the dark plastic.

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The Fury’s main gimmick is the elevating turret. It pops up, which allows a secondary cannon to swivel around from the back and face forward. This also reveals a mine dispenser on the back. Give it a pull and it starts dropping land mines. There’s also a flip out weapon on one side and an opening panel on the other that can offer engine access or just be used for storing the extra missiles. I like the Fury’s design and the way it packs a lot of weaponry and gimmicks without getting too outlandish or crazy. I also like the fact that the running boards are equipped with pegs so you can load this thing up with troops.

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Unfortunately, there are some disappointing things on this vehicle as well. The pop up gimmick on the main turret feels really wobbly. When it’s extended it sits at an angle and really doesn’t look convincing at all. It also tends to knock the firing missile launcher off the hardpoint when you extend it. And while the chassis itself is nice and sturdy, the plastic on some of the additonal parts, like the side hatch and the driver seat doors, feels kind of soft and cheap. I don’t think it’s in danger of easy breakage, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see stress marks turning up before long. It sure doesn’t feel like the quality of plastic we were getting on the 25th Anniversary vehicles or even a lot of the Rise of Cobrastuff for that matter.

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The Fury comes with the Alley Viper Officer figure and I’ve got absolutely no complaints about this guy. He looks fantastic and he’s a welcome addition to my collection since the carded PoC Alley Viper has been really tough to find in stores and rather pricey online. He doesn’t come with any guns (ok, I guess that’s one complaint), but he does come with two combat knives, both of which fit into scabbards molded onto the figure. There’s a ton of sculpted detail all over this figure showing off all his pouches and gear. His helmet is removable and has a visor that can be raised and lowered too.

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When they first showed the Pursuit of Cobra vehicles at Toy Fair last year, I really wanted the Fury and I was kind of cool on the HISS. Now that I have this thing in hand, I can’t help but be a little disappointed. It’s still a cool vehicle, but I guess my imagination really ran away from me when I saw the pictures, and in person it just doesn’t live up to the anticipation. I’d still recommend getting it if you find it, especially if you can grab it at Ross for $11.99 like I did. Hell the figure alone is practically worth that. Overall, an ok vehicle, better if you ignore the elevating turret gimmick, but there are just a few little nagging things about it that keep it from ranking up there among the great Cobra attack vehicles.

Jan 26 2011

GI JOE The Rise of Cobra: Sand Serpent with Star-Viper by Hasbro

My last trip to the Ross Toy Graveyard netted me a cool little surprise, and by surprise I mean it was something that I didn’t even know existed: A repaint of the Rise of Cobra Night Raven. The ROC Night Raven was, of course, an homage to the original Real American Hero toy as well as the jet that was seen at the end of that horrible, horrible Rise of Cobra movie. The toy didn’t seem to be very well received by fans, but in fairness, the original Night Raven was a work of art that still inspires awe in me to this day. The new version… eh, not so much. It also didn’t help that at $40 it was way over priced, just like most of the ROC vehicles. What’s weird is that at stores in my area, the ROC Night Raven seemed to show up, go on clearance, show up again, and it was just all over the place.

Anyway, as you can see from the box, this is not the Night Raven, but rather the Sand Serpent. I like the name, although I was rather dubious as to whether slopping a desert camo deco on the toy was going to make it sell any better. So why did I buy it? Well, just look at that price tag. $15? How the hell am I not going to buy it? Getting back to the box, it’s the same basic packaging as the Night Raven and it has a little window to show off the lamely named Star-Viper figure that comes with it. The front shows some artwork of the vehicle in action and the back panel shows off photos of the toy itself. Technically, the package is pretty collector friendly, but the jet comes in two halves and once you lock them together, you’re going to be hard pressed to get it back into the box. It also comes with a bag of missiles, an instruction sheet and a butt load of stickers. What doesn’t it come with? Batteries.


Once I had this thing snapped together and had all the wings in place, it’s easy to see that the design doesn’t really hold a candle to the vintage Night Raven. I was, however, surprised by how decent the camo deco looked. I kind of expected it to be horrible and obnoxious, and while it certainly isn’t as good as the original black, I still found it to be perfectly tolerable. The design of the aircraft is very angular, and a bit bizarre, but it’s definitely a nice sized toy with a number of play features, some good and some bad.

Probably my favorite thing about the toy is the way the cockpit drops down for access. It’s pretty innovative and it makes for a nice break from just popping open the canopy to get the pilot in and out. It works with a lever located behind the canopy that raises and lowers it remotely. The jet also has three sets of rather chunkly landing gear that are essential to allowing the cockpit to drop down. There are also missile clusters located on the wings that hold six missiles each. From here on in, though, the play features get a little dodgy.

There’s a handle that drops down that you can hold to fly the jet around. I like this idea well enough, as it’s similar to the one Kenner used on the old Star Wars Imperial Shuttle. By pulling the trigger on the handle, you fire the missiles that are queued up in each launcher while the lights around the missiles activate with the sounds of weapon fire. To fire the next missile you have to pump the jet like a shotgun. Yeah, it really is as goofy and weird as it sounds, but then again if I was a little kid, I would probably think it was awesome as I pelted my brother with an endless stream of projectiles.

The electronics require three AA batteries and include the aforementinoed lights in the wings and three different sound sequences. Each sequence is activated by either pressing one of the three buttons between the rear dorsal wings or by pulling the trigger on the handle. One clip is garbled pilot communications, another is a series of sensor beeps, and the last is an extended flyby sequence. All of the sound clips are nice and loud.

I don’t have a lot to say about the Star-Viper, apart from his goofy name. He’s an ok pack-in pilot figure, but nothing much beyond that. His helmet is pretty huge and he’s got some really ungainly breathing apparatus.

In the end, I’m pretty surprised at how much I like this toy. Sure the shotgun gimmick is stupid and it probably adversely effected the sculpt and design, but all in all, it’s a nice sized, well constructed, and cool looking jet and the electronics are none too shabby. At $15 the price is definitely right too. I’d still recommend picking up the Night Raven over this one, assuming you could have it for around $20 or less, but you could do a lot worse than grabbing the Sand Serpent here, should you stumble upon it at your local Toy Graveyard.

Dec 26 2010

GI JOE Rise of Cobra: The PITT Mobile Headquarters by Hasbro, Part 2

After all that fuss, it’s finally over. Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I’m looking forward to getting back to business as usual. But first… let’s dive into Part 2 of our look at The PITT Mobile Headquarters.

Converting the PITT from vehicle to HQ is fairly easy. You grab the top handle and lift up, this causes the hinged central tower to stand up and lock into the base, you then slide the roof back until the the roof drops into the top part of the tower and locks. Next up, you fold open the two top hatches, you fold down the back and then you fold out the wings. From here on, it’s all about tweaking it by placing the cardboard decor pieces into their slots, placing the ramp and ladders and then placing the storage containers and ping pong table. [You need about a three foot by two foot area to set this thing up, which is why I’ve got to shoot these pictures without a proper backdrop. -FF] I like the configuration of this thing a lot better than the tacklebox design of the old Mobile Command Center. Now you’re all set to explore the various areas of The PITT HQ. We’re going to start at the top and work our way down. Onward… to the roof!!!!


The roof in HQ mode is pretty much the roof in vehicle mode, only with the extra surface added to each side by the fold out wings. I like how this increases the play area, but the wings aren’t very stable, so any figures you put here are most definitly going to have to be pegged in. You still have your missile launcher and cannon, but all the spotlights are now hanging underneith the side flaps. There’s also an opening roof hatch that lines up with the platform elevator. The only other added play features here are a ramp that folds out of the back and a chute conealed under the handle. You need to deploy your HQ near a table or something at about equal height in order to make use of the bridge. As for the chute, just drop a figure in there and he falls down into the prison, which we’ll see in a minute. The roof is a great place to stage battles or maybe get a JOE vs Cobra soccer match going on, but aside from that there’s not much else going on up here and it ends up looking like the lobby in some kind of GI JOE MMO.


The central pillar holds the platform elevator that can go up or down and also has the chute that leads to the prison. The prison has an escape feature, but not much else to it. And that takes us down to the lower deck. The left wing features the breakaway wall gimmick, which sucks because the panels don’t hold in all that well, which means most of the time the side of The PITT’s vehicle mode looks like it’s all bashed in. I finally got mine to lock in pretty well and I’m never taking them off again. The right wing features slots to stick in the cardboard decor pieces, more on those later, and a fold down area that features some lockers and bunks. Behind the central pillar, there’s another little area that has another bunk.


At the front of the base is the little command cubicle, which features a large computer panel and all of the playset’s electronics. Press the buttons to hear all sorts of sounds and phrases, including alarms, and Joes being paged to various areas. It would have been nice if Hasbro provided a chair here, although there are two chairs off to the side. As a command center, it’s kind of disappointing, The ROCC’s was much better. Here there’s also a large opening storage area with compartments for some of the weapons that came with the set. You can also store some of the cardboard pieces in here when you close it all up.


I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the inclusion of cardboard parts with this set. Sure, it’s hard to deny that spending $100 for a playset made partially of cardboard is disappointing, but none of the cardboard pieces are integral to the playset. In fact, they’re all completely optional bonuses. The ping pong table is my only gripe. It’s not in any of the pictures, because it’s such a piece of garbage, I didn’t even bother keeping it assembled and FigureFeline made off with it as soon as he had the chance. The cargo containers on the other hand are pretty cool. Bottom line, if you don’t like them, just toss them.

In terms of size and play features, I think The PITT is definitely worth a look. It’s amazing how many figures you can get onto this thing. I think the box said there are 84 pegs. The set up I used for these pictures isn’t even close to filling it up. I stopped setting up figures just because my cat was beginning to take an interest and it was only a matter of time before he started stealing them or knocking them all over the damn place. On the downside, there aren’t really a lot of specific areas to stage the figures in. A lot of them are just loitering around on the roof or standing on the walls.

In terms of quality of construction, I think The PITT falls short of its original hundred dollar price point. I paid $40 for it, and I’m not dissatisfied, but then again, I got it for display and not for play. I don’t think this thing would last too long getting beaten up by kids playing with it, which seems to be the biggest complaint about it if you read any of the customer reviews on toy retailer’s websites. I suppose the electronics features could have been better implemented. The AT-AT retailed at around the same price and it included not only lights but features that were spread out all over the toy, whereas The PITT really just has a simple soundbox. I’d say if you can snag it for cheap, it’s worth adding to your collection, just make sure you have somewhere to put it, because I still have no idea where the hell I’m going to keep mine.