Tag Archives: sunbow

Jul 15 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Cobra Troopers by Super7

Super7’s various Ultimates line are becoming a weekly fixture around these parts, and that’s because I collect three of these lines and S7 has been pumping them out pretty hot and heavy. Right now ThunderCats and GI JOE are battling for slots every week so I can get current and get back to Silverhawks. Today I’m headed back into Wave 3 of the GI JOE Ultimates to have a look at the Cobra Troopers. And if you want to get caught up, I’ve already checked out both Scarlett and Storm Shadow from this assortment!

Ah, the good old days, when these figures came with slipcovers! These were phased out in the following wave, and at this point S7 had already changed the snazzy glossy finish on the cardboard to dull matte. The presentation is still nice, with the blue camo, bold red Cobra emblem, dogtag style name plate and the weathering made to look like paint rubbed off of steel. But, these will continue to die a death of a thousand cost cuts until we get just the window box. As we’re about to see, the Cobra Trooper comes with parts to make two variants of the same figure, so naturally I picked up two.

There’s just something about the Sunbow cartoon Cobra Troops that I love so much. These guys were pretty buff and badass looking, even if they were a bunch of clowns who were prone to getting taken out by having their heads knocked together like a couple of coconuts. The uniforms take inspiration from the RAH designs, but they’ve been streamlined for a super clean toony look. The fatigues here are recreated as smooth and without much in the way of tailored detail, although they do each have a pouch on their right legs. The belts include shoulder straps and two more pouches on the hips. The shoulder rigs are executed in the Y-back style. There are black and white hexagonal knee pads, and the boots have some white buckles on the sides. Finally, a bold Cobra emblem is emblazoned on the front of the shirts. Like I said, these guys are clean and simple and perfectly evoke the animated look.

There are two different heads with each figure, and these are varied by fair skin and tan skin, so you can have a little bit of variety in your troops if you decide to army build. Unlike most of S7’s Ultimates, the head swap here is done at the base of the neck so that you get the skin color change all the way down to the uniform collar. The helmet and face mask designs are identical, but there is a little variety in the painted facial features. The lighter skinned trooper has blonde eyebrows, while the tan has black, but neither are showing any hair under the helmets. I really like how they handled this variation and I wouldn’t be opposed to picking up a couple more if they reissued the figure with yet another two head designs.

By now you should all know the deal with the articulation here. It’s serviceable, but some of the joints lack the range in motion that most collectors would have preferred. I will say that the rotating hinges in the elbows feel like they have a tiny bit more range than some other figures in the line, as they can easily do a 90-degree bend. It’s still not ideal, but I’ve learned to accept what we got here and still have fun with it. All of the joints on these guys worked great straight out of the box. You do get several pairs of hands, and each set is duplicated in both the light and tan skin to go with whichever head you choose. The hands include fists, trigger hands, and loose grip hands. I would have liked a pair of relaxed or karate chop hands, but in fairness, they were duplicating each set and that’s a lot of hands! Let’s move on to accessories, and we’ll start with the weapons!

First off, each Trooper comes with a laser pistol and I really dig this design. IT’s boxy in the receiver with a site at the end of the barrels. It looks serviceable and fairly realistic, as opposed to some of the more wackier pistols we’ve seen in this line. The detail is really sharp and I really like the blue-gray finish, which is repeated for all the guns included with these guys.

And here’s my all time favorite of Cobra’s arsenal: The laser submachine gun! These have no stocks and a scope mounted up top. There’s a magazine type attachment in front of the trigger guard, which in this case I assume is a battery pack, since they fired lasers in the cartoon. There’s just enough detail here to look good without compromising the simplicity of the toon aesthetic. These are the guns that I’ll be displaying with these guys all the time.

Finally for the guns, you get a large rifle, and these tend more toward realism than the usual cartoon weapons. These have skeletal stocks, a very detailed receiver, complex scopes, and even carry straps. These designs are based off the weapon included with the original Real American Hero Cobra soldier

And finally, you get the bitchin’ laser whip from the original Mini-Series. These have tube shaped, lightsaber-like hilts with some painted controls and the bright blue whips are cast in a soft rubbery plastic. I’m not sure if the whips are designed to be removed from the hilts or not. I gave it a little tug and it didn’t come out, so I’m not going to risk it.

In addition to all that firepower, you get a couple of pieces of equipment. First up, the Cobra Trooper comes with a walkie-talkie so he can talk to his chums. We have had a few walkies in this line so far, but I think this is a new sculpt. It’s got a circular screen mesh speaker and a frequency display on the top, along with an antenna. There’s a hand designed to hold it, and it can be a bit tricky to get it in there, but once I got it, it worked fine.

And the final accessory is a briefcase bomb! The blue briefcase has four tiny feet to rest on and a gray carry handle. Open it up and it reveals a very toony looking bomb inside with some different colored wires and a digital screen showing the timer.

Oh boy, do I dig these guys! While I loved each and every one of my RAH figures, I can remember wishing my Cobra Troops looked more like the cartoon, although in fairness I only ever had one Cobra and one Cobra Officer. Super7 did a great job nailing the animated look and the weapons and accessories are all great. I’m keeping a close eye on these to go on sale, but I haven’t decided what that magic number is that will make me go crazy and get a bunch more. It would be cool to see these reissued with two more variant heads and maybe an H-back for the shoulder straps. I’d also love to see S7 give us some female Cobra Troopers as well.

Jun 21 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Storm Shadow by Super7

If you know me, you know that I wasn’t a fan of Ninjas taking over my GI JOE. But Ninjas were all the rage in the late 80s and into the 90s, and I was already getting out of GI JOE by the time of the invasion, so it wasn’t that big a deal to me. Of course, for a while Storm Shadow was the only token Ninja and I didn’t mind that. Indeed, I thought he was pretty damn cool in the cartoon and since I always regarded Snake Eyes as a Commando and not a Ninja (FIGHT ME!), Storm Shadow was a unique force to be reckoned with when playing with my figures. So let’s head back into Wave 3 of GI JOE Ultimates and check out Cobra’s specialty assassin!

In the third wave we were still getting the top slipcover as part of the packaging, but the box itself loses that metallic glossy finish from the earlier waves in exchange for a dull matte. The deco is done in a striking blue camo pattern with some weathering effect to simulate paint rubbing off steel and a bold crimson Cobra emblem front and center. The back panel has some shots of Storm Shadow from the cartoon and a little bio blurb. This is still a very nice presentation and it’s collector friendly too! But, the running changes here have convinced me to not keep the boxes for these figures. And my closets rejoiced!

Out of the box, Storm Shadow is a damn fine representation of what we got in the Sunbow cartoon. He’s dressed all in white, including white forearm bindings on his otherwise bare arms. He’s got a super crisp Cobra emblem stamped on the left side of his chest and black waist belt and black shoulder strap with an ornate silver buckle. The only thing about the costume here that I’ll nitpick is I think the tops of the sleeve cutouts should be flared out just a little more to hang over the tops of his shoulders. The shoulder strap secures the panoply of weapon storage on his back. This includes a quiver with three arrows, scabbards for his two swords, and his bow, which is secured around the quiver by the string. It doesn’t look like this gear is designed to come off, and I’m not going to risk trying, but it would have been nice to make it easily removable.

There are two silver shuriken sculpted into his belt and room to insert one of the three loose shuriken that come with the figure. I really love how they did this, as he was usually depicted with the shuriken tucked in there, but being able to have one removable is a nice little touch.

The head sculpt is about as simple as things get, and yet still a great recreation of his animated counterpart. The mask is all but featureless and cast in beautiful, pure white, just like the rest of the outfit. The cut out for the eyes shows some crisp printed facial features.

You also get an alternate head with a scuba mask. This was featured in the episode Excalibur in which Storm Shadow’s Rattler was shot down, forcing him to ditch it in a lake in Great Britain. He ejected underwater only to find the Lady of the Lake at the bottom and the legendary blade, Excalibur. Because that was just the sort of thing that could happen in any given episode of the GI JOE cartoon! Hell, it probably doesn’t even make the Top 20 of the Craziest Shit That Happened in GI JOE list. The head is a pretty cool option with a clear plastic shield over his face and a little breathing cylinder under the chin. Will I ever display the figure with it? Nope!

Articulation in this line has been a sticking point with many collectors, although I usually don’t mind the limitations. I did, however, expect to be really bothered about it with Storm Shadow, and in the end I both was and wasn’t. On the one hand, he’s a Ninja so the lack of superb agility is troublesome. On the other hand, I was pretty happy with some of the poses I was able to get him in. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have liked to see more range of motion in his arms at least, but I was still able to have a lot of fun with him. He comes with a lot of hands, including fists, chopping hands, a left hand for holding the bow and a right hand for knocking the arrow, gesturing hands, a left hand for holding a shuriken, and a pair of accessory gripping hands.

You also get a swap out right forearm, which has his wrappings partially removed to reveal his Arashikage tattoo. It’s a cool bonus, but I never really associated that tatt with his cartoon version. I’m also a little embarrassed to admit that I thought I got cheated out of his right accessory gripping hand, before realizing it was attached to this forearm! D’oh!

As an assassin, it’s only fair that Storm Shadow comes with a lot of weapons to do his job! Many of these are updates to the gear from the original Real American Hero figure, while others are added from the cartoon. Starting small, we already saw the shuriken, and those are followed up by a tanto knife. The shuriken specific left hand works really well to hold them, but if you want him to hold them in his right hand, the arrow knocking hand works well for that too by tucking it between the fingers. The tanto has a black hilt and silver painted blade. It looks great, but there’s nowhere for him to store it on his person when not wielding it.

The bow is cast in black plastic and has an actual string, which is a huge win in my book. I absolutely hate when these action figure bows get useless, chonky plastic “strings.” There are three pale gray arrows, which can all be stored in his quiver, and I was pleased that even with the limited range of motion in those elbows, I was still able to get him to knock the arrow and prepare to fire.

His twin swords match the tanto, with black hilts and silver painted blades. These fit very well in the scabbards on his back and he looks great wielding them!

And you can’t have Storm Shadow without a pair of nun-chucks. These are extremely cool in that they have an actual metal chain connecting them. Some loops on his belt to hold these would have been helpful, but if we’re going by cartoon accuracy, I think these pretty much just appeared out of thin air when he needed them.

Next up, you get a blue sniper rifle. I’m sure this was referenced in the cartoon or comic, but I can’t remember the specific instance. This is the one accessory where his articulation really lets me down, because he can’t really hold it like he’s going to fire it. I can’t say I was planning on displaying him with it anyway. The sculpt is pretty nice, but the bright blue is kind of weird.

And finally, Storm Shadow comes with Excalibur, from the previously mentioned titular episode. It’s a really nice recreation of the sword from the cartoon with a gold and bejeweled hilt and a sort of glowy pale blue blade. In the episode, Storm Shadow found that the sword cut through anything and even made a cool lightsaber sound when he swung it. Destro determined that the sword was invincible and wanted it for himself so badly, that he tried to kill Storm Shadow with a rocket launcher, but sneezed and missed. I’m not lying about any of this… watch the damn episode!

There’s no doubt that Classified Storm Shadow is the better Ninja figure when it comes to crazy poses, and it’s occurred to me that I still have to get around to showcasing that figure here. Maybe when I do, I’ll do a comparison. But, all in all, I was still really pleased with how much fun this guy turned out. His weapons are all well thought out, and he can carry several, albeit not all of them. But it’s the pitch-perfect cartoon aesthetic that really sells this figure to me, and I was happy with how well he could interact with most of his accessories, especially the bow. He’s a great addition to my Sunbow Cobra shelf! One Ninja is fine, but I’m prepared to leave it at that!

Feb 28 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Flint and Lady Jaye by Super7

What’s 2024 all about, folks? Unfinished business! And while I did jump ahead into Wave 3 of Super7’s GI JOE Ultimates with a look at Scarlett, as promised I’m now stepping back to Wave 2. And in the interest of getting caught up, I’m going to make it a double today. So let’s check out the JOE’s other power couple: Flint and Lady Jaye!

Wave 2 kept the same snazzy gloss finish to the box and sleeve as the first wave, but there’s not much new to say here about the packaging. The presentation looks great and the windows do a wonderful job displaying the figures. But we’ve got two figures to check out, so let’s hurry past the packaging and start with Flint!

Of course, these figures are done in the Sunbow cartoon style and I’d say they did a bang up job on Flint’s overall look. He’s got his green fatigues with popped collar, camo pattern on the trousers, high laced boots, sleeves rolled up past his elbows, and his short brown gloves. The Y-back shoulder rig and gun belt both look like they’re pulled right from the animation cells, complete with yellow buckles, as does his shoulder patch. I do not remember him usually being drawn with a holster, but Super7 has been doing some compromises here and there and I’ll admit it’s nice to have a holster for his pistol even if it isn’t exactly screen accurate. The sculpted details like the pockets are pretty soft, but I think that’s in keeping with the cartoon look. And yes, articulation has remained unchanged from the first wave. What’s here is serviceable, but certainly not as fun or dynamic as Hasbro’s Classified series.

You get three heads to choose from: One with the beret sculpted as part of the head, one with a removable beret, and one with a communications headset. But before we get into those, let’s discuss the big thing here. The first wave gave the only unmasked figure, Duke, a painted face, but here we have faces and arms using a bare, flesh-colored plastic. I preferred the painted faces, but I don’t think I mind these as much as a lot of collectors. What I do mind is changing horses in mid stream, and then changing back again. It’s true that there’s less chance for paint issues here, but under certain lights the plastic can look waxy, giving the characters a sweaty look. With that having been said, I really like both the stock head with the permanent beret and the one where it’s removable. The first is a more serious expression, the second offers a bit of a smile, and boy they certainly nailed the look of his cleft chin! And honestly, the removable beret fits the head so well, they could have just sculpted both heads without it and I still would have been happy.

The headset head is problematic, as they went with a super thin piece of plastic for the mouth piece, which was all twisted and practically falling off in the box, so I just yanked it out. Luckily, this is my least favorite of the three, as I just don’t think the expression works. Still, I don’t understand why they were able to give Duke a nice and sturdy mouth piece and make this one so fragile. Either way, this head is going in the accessory bin and will probably never be used again.

Flint comes with a backpack, which is similar to Duke’s in that it is actually worn by the figure using straps and it’s a nod to the vintage Real American Hero figure and not the cartoon. At least I don’t remember Flint ever really wearing his backpack in any of the episodes. This is a really nice sculpt with some black grenades and a canteen, with a few paint hits of silver on the buckle and canteen cap. It looks great on the figure, and despite not being something I associate with the character in the cartoon, I will likely display him with it on. OK, let’s move on to weapons!

Oh yes, I do love me that XMLR-3A laser rifle. It’s based on an accessory included with the RAH Snowjob figure, but it was standard issue to most JOEs in the cartoon. I just always loved this design and I’m always happy to see it included with the Ultimates JOE figures. I should note here that Flint comes with a bunch of hands to help him hold his guns and accessories, as well as a pointy left hand for directing JOEs into action!

And Flint also comes with a combat shotgun similar to the one included with the original figure. This strikes a nice balance between realistic detail and cartoon simplicity. I like the raised texture on the pistol-style grip and that the ejection port is sculpted in. Mine has a bit of a curve to the barrel, which I’ll have to address with some heat. It’s a common problem with Super7’s JOE weapons, but I’ve found that it’s usually an easy fix. Still, not something I’m happy to have to do with a $55 figure.

The final weapon is his pistol, and I don’t remember this design from the cartoon, but it certainly has that Sunbow aesthetic to it. It might be more accurate to say, I don’t remember Flint ever brandishing a silver pistol. Either way, it’s a nice piece and it fits pretty well into the holster. I would, however, recommend a modicum of care when holstering it because the front site on the barrel looks like it could be fragile.

Moving on to his standard equipment, we get a walkie talkie and a set of binoculars. The walkie is fine, the binoculars just look terrible. There’s no difference between the fronts and backs and it honestly took me a moment to figure out what the hell they were supposed to be. They really just look like two Stanley cups bolted together. This accessory is best left in the box.

The classic old school military flashlight is pretty cool. Sure it’s a very cartoony sculpt, but it’s also kind of charming. My father brought one of these military flashlights back after serving in the infantry and my brother and I used to play with it all the time.

And lastly for the equipment, you get a shovel. This one puzzled me for a bit, but then I remembered a scene in one of the cartoon episodes where Lady Jaye was hunting with a metal detector and Flint was digging. It’s a bit of a reach for an accessory, particularly since I can’t even remember the episode or the context of the scene, but for a shovel it’s pretty well done. I dig the silver paint on the business end.

The final accessory is the newspaper from the episode, Worlds Without End, Part 1. This one has a group of JOEs stranded in an alternate reality where Cobra has defeated GI JOE and taken over the world. It’s a very memorable two-parter and I’d rank it pretty high on my list in terms of how well it’s written, so this is a really appreciated accessory. OK, time for a commercial break, while I refresh my coffee…

AND NOW BACK TO GI JOE… and Lady Jaye! Like Flint, Lady Jaye is a really nice representation of her cartoon counterpart. You get the light green low-cut blouse with blue shoulder patch and sleeves rolled up past her elbows, darker green short gloves, dark green trousers, and high brown boots. She has a pair of belts, each with silver painted buckles, a knife sheath suspended vertically on a left shoulder strap, and the canteen on the back of her belt is pegged in and can be removed. The outfit and body sculpt look absolutely fantastic! As for articulation, you get the same stuff as we saw with Flint, with the main difference being Lady Jaye having a ball joint under the chest rather than an ab crunch hinge.

As with Flint, you get three head sculpts, and all three use the same unpainted flesh tone plastic: Two with different expressions and one with a radio headset. The first two heads are different, but it’s really hard to differentiate the expressions they were going for. I think the second is mildly more severe, but they’re still pretty close. I think they’re both decent sculpts, but the paint around her hairline is pretty poor, with some of the sculpted hair edges left unpainted. This is a huge example of why hair should be sculpted separately from the rest of the head and it’s something that Hasbro does regularly with their much cheaper Classified JOEs. Sure, it’s a lot more noticeable when you punch in close with the camera, but still unacceptable with collector grade figures at this price range, when other companies are doing it better for less at mass retail.

The headset portrait features a mouth piece that’s about as frail as the one that came with Flint, and yet this one managed to arrive unscathed and looks fine. All three heads have some crazy hot pink lipstick, which is actually pretty accurate to the cartoon. I’d question how that’s regulation, but half the JOEs fight in sports jerseys and take their pets to work, so I won’t bother.

Whether we’re talking Real American Hero or the Sunbow cartoon, Lady Jaye had some weird weapons. In the cartoon she had a bunch of javelins with a myriad of different tips, sort of like Scarlett’s specialty tip crossbow bolts. Here, she comes with two javelins with permanent tips and one with swappable tips. You also get a quiver of tips that she wears slung over her shoulder and across her back. The quiver has a variety of tips peeking out, but these are not removable.

There’s a selection of nine different tips for the one specific javelin and I’m not even going to attempt to decipher what these are all supposed to do. They have various configurations of points and barbs and all are painted with a snappy silver finish. One is clearly a flaming tip with a translucent red flame effect on the end and there are two grapple or harpoon style tips with some string attached. I’d say this is a pretty solid representation of her trademark weapon in the cartoon.

She also comes with a nod to her vintage figure’s weapon, which was some kind of javelin missile launcher. This is cast in all gray plastic and has a removable projectile for the front. I’m just not sure why it also looks like it has a projectile coming out of the back. Like Flint’s shotgun, it’s not something I ever remember her carrying in the cartoon, but I think it’s cool that Super7 is tossing in some references to the toys as well as the cartoon. Still, I think that Hasbro had a better idea of giving Classified Lady Jaye a weapon that actually fired her javelins.

The last two entries to Lady Jaye’s arsenal are the laser rifle and the knife that can be removed from her sheath. I won’t spend any time on these, as we’ve seen the laser rifle already with Flint, and a few times before that, and while I love that the knife is removable, there just isn’t a lot for me to say about it. I’m just glad she has a rifle for when it’s time to stop clowning around with javelins and get her head in the game.

Surprisingly, Lady Jaye does not come with a walkie talkie like most of the other figures, but she does come with a camera on a shoulder strap. This is another nod to the original RAH figure and I don’t think she was ever shown with a camera in the cartoon. It’s nothing tremendously special, just cast in all black plastic and has a pistol grip. But again, it’s a nice bonus accessory that bridges the gap between cartoon and toyline and I’m happy to have it.

I really love both of these figures, but at the same time I feel as if these are the first additions to the line that aren’t complete homeruns. The decision to go with flesh tone plastic instead of paint isn’t a total deal breaker for me, but it will always make these two stand out as a bit different from the JOEs released before and after. And getting the warped and mangled headset on Flint was a major bummer, but not a big enough issue for me to do an exchange. On the upside, both figures are excellent recreations of their cartoon counterparts and there are some great accessories included with each of these releases. These originally retailed at $55 each, but can be readily found at a bunch of online retailers for half that and I would definitely recommend them at that price. With how many figures in this line are turning up at deep discounts, it’ll be interesting to see if more collectors wait for sales. Then again, I’d wager Super7 will be producing a lot less quantities of future waves, so I’ll likely keep pre-ordering. The next time I check out this line I’ll be jumping back to Wave 3 and taking a look at the Cobra Trooper!

Feb 14 2024

G. I. JOE Ultimates: Scarlett by Super7

It’s taken me a long time to get back to Super7’s Sunbow cartoon-inspired series of GI JOE Ultimates figures. So long, in fact, that a new wave has arrived before I even got to spotlight any of the second wave here. The right thing to do would be to go through all of Wave 2 before tackling the new wave, but man I was just too excited for that. So, I’m jumping ahead to check out Scarlett from Wave 3 and then I will double back and hit some figures from Wave 2, and alternate like that until I’m all caught up. Savvy? Good, then let’s check out Scarlett!

Here she is in the very stylish Super7 Ultimates packaging with some minor changes from the last two waves. The slipcase is now more of a flat, satiny finish as opposed to the glossy premium stock. This change carries over to the box itself, where Scarlett’s dog tag under the window also looks flat and less premium. It’s not a huge departure, but it’s definitely a tiny step down from what we were getting. You do still get some nice printed weathering on the sleeve and some character art on the back panel of the box. I should also note that these are no longer coming in brown cardboard mailers, but rather just plastic wrap. On the plus side, the window shows off the goods as great as ever, and oh boy am I thrilled to see a Sunbow-styled Scarlett in my collection. I remember that as a kid, cartoon Scarlett was the cause of some pretty funny feelings down in my government issued undies and somehow Hasbro’s figure, as cool as it was, never reached those heights for me. So, let’s get her out and see what we’ve got!

Sunbow Scarlett’s outfit came pretty close to the original figure’s design, with a tan one-piece, gloves and high heeled boots along with green sleeves and leggings. The figure sports a fairly minimalist look when it comes to detail, and that’s in keeping with the cartoon style. She has her familiar red recoil pad on her right shoulder, some silver shuriken and edging on her gauntlets, a wide silver belt, and some sculpted pouches on her boots. I would have liked a little more definition in her caboose, but all in all I really like what we got here when it comes to the body and outfit.

You get three different head sculpts, and while there isn’t a huge difference between them, I think the one that came on the figure is the best. She has a pretty determined look with downturned eyebrows and mouth. This is probably the face she pulls when she catches Duke making out with Selina or other random Cobra slavegirls that he rescues. The eyes are printed very nicely, and while her hot pink lipstick doesn’t quite fill out the mouth sculpt, I still think it looks pretty good. The fiery red hair and ponytail are both pitch perfect, But now is about as good a time as any to point out the ugly seam running up the sides of her neck. Yeah, that’s a shame.

The second head is a bit of a smile and some less severe, more rounded eyebrows. This one is OK, but I don’t think it has as much personality as her battle face. The third is pretty close to the first but with the addition of a headset and I do like this one. I’ve heard some people argue that it’s too specific, as the headset is meant to be used while she’s flying a Skystriker, but I think it works for just battlefield communication. Suffice it to say the first head is the one that will be displayed on my figure most of the time and it’s the one I used for the bulk of the pictures in this review.

Unless you’re new to this line, you should know by now what to expect when it comes to articulation. Love it, hate it, or just accept it. But if this is your first rodeo with Ultimates, don’t expect anything as good as the Classified line. Rotating hinges is the name of the game and you get them in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. There’s a swivel in the waist and a ball joint under the chest. The hips and neck are ball jointed, and you get some lateral rockers in the ankles. I don’t mind this articulation so much, but I do wish you got better range in the elbows. Scarlett also comes with three pairs of hands: fists, karate chopping, and gun/accessory holding. Swapping the hands requires a little more force than I would like, but other than that it works just fine.

As for accessories, well it wouldn’t be Scarlett without her trademark crossbow and you get two to choose from, along with an assortment of arrows and a quiver with a shoulder strap. The first crossbow is a short pistol-type and is similar to the one released with the vintage RAH figure. It’s an excellent sculpt and has a deep groove so that you can load it with an arrow using the fletching to anchor it in place. It works pretty well for display on the shelf, but they will fall out if you move it around a lot. Her ammo includes three normal arrows, one bomb arrow, one arrow with a really broad point, and a grapple arrow with a yellow string attached. You can comfortably fit the three regular arrows and the bomb arrow into the quiver all at one time, but the broad tipped arrow is too big and the grapple arrow takes up most of the room. Otherwise the quiver works pretty well, but I might put some blue tack inside to help hold the arrows in place.

The other crossbow is more of a rifle design with a skeletal stock and a scope. This one had some serious warping in the plastic strings, but much to my surprise a little heat straightened them out immediately. I seem to recall Sunbow Scarlett’s crossbow being a bit in between the pistol version and this, but I definitely like this one a lot. It’s not going to be an easy choice as to which one to go with most of the time.

And for when Scarlett needs a little more firepower, she comes with an M16, and I’m not sure why because I don’t remember this being a thing in the cartoon and it definitely wasn’t included with the RAH figure. It is a pretty nice toon-ified version of the iconic infantry weapon, although the barrel is very prone to bending and I had to heat it up as well to get it even close to straight. And yes, it is a little irksome that Hasbro can deliver most of the weapons in their slightly smaller scale Classified line at half the price and have them come out straight most of the time, not to mention also have detachable magazines and occasional blast effect parts. To be honest, I will likely never display Scarlett with this weapon, and I would have much rather just gotten another one of the XMLR-3A Laser Rifles that most of the JOEs used in the cartoon and that came with Snake Eyes, Duke, and Flint.

Scarlett’s final accessory is a walkie-talkie, which seems to be a popular pack-in for most of the Ultimate JOEs. Not that I’m complaining, it’s a good accessory for infantry to have. This one looks pretty cool and retro with it’s boxy design and it’s classic design speaker. The left hand that can cradle her weapons can also hold the walkie pretty well, but the elbows won’t let it get too close to her face.

Scarlett was one of my most hotly anticipated figures in the Ultimates line and she didn’t disappoint. Yes, I had a few nitpicks here and there, but certainly nothing to diminish my happiness with her. She really captures the look and spirit of the cartoon and that’s something I’ve wanted ever since I was a kid. I’m very curious to see how Hasbro’s Scarlett do-over for the Classified line turns out as that one will be a lot closer to this classic look than the figure that shipped way back in that first assortment, which had something of a Fortnite flavor to her. In the meantime, when I next visit with GI JOE Ultimates, I’ll be flipping back to Wave 2, before coming back to this third wave.

May 19 2023

G. I. JOE Ultimates Cobra Commander by Super7

So many figures and so little time! It’s been over a month since I checked out the first of Super7’s GI JOE Ultimates with Snake Eyes, so I’m long overdue to get back to this assortment. It would be nice to get through it all before the next wave ships. And since we did one of the JOEs last time, we’ll give Cobra turn with The Commander himself!

The packaging is similar in design to what we saw last time, but now the camo pattern is in blue instead of green and we get a big red Cobra emblem printed on the front. You still get a lot of distressed markings to make it look like paint worn off of a steel canister, which is pretty cool. Lift off the sleeve and you get a window box showing you the goods inside. Cobra Commander comes with a lot of goodies, some representing deep cuts into the cartoon. But before we get to those…

Here’s The Commander looking like he just stepped off the Sunbow cartoon series, or at least he’s pretty damn close. I love the color they used for his uniform and it looks great combined with the glossy black used for the boots and gauntlets. Some of the early pictures I saw made the uniform look too dark, but it looks spot-on perfect in hand. He’s got a teal colored shirt peeking out from behind his crossed lapels, a black belt under a gray one, some pouches, and a pair of straps on his left thigh, and some faked-out stirrups for his boots. The Cobra emblem on the left side of his chest should have been bigger to be truly accurate, but it still looks pretty good. Sculpted detail on the figure itself is a bit minimal, but that’s in keeping with the animated look. Some folks have nitpicked the accuracy of this figure to death, but I think he looks iconic as hell and I’m very pleased.

There are two heads to choose from, and no, one of them is not a hood. They are both the same combo of silver face plate and helmet, with the big difference being the silver stripe on the top, which is seen in the cartoon. This is also the helmet I’ll be displaying him with all the time and in all of the pictures of this review. Seriously, the other head just feels like a waste of plastic to me. The silver paint for the face plate looks good, and while certainly not offering a mirror polish, it’s plenty shiny!

The articulation holds no surprises. It is what it is for the Ultimates line, which means a lot of rotating hinges in all the right places, but not as much range of motion in some of those as I would have liked. What we get makes for a cleaner look for the figure, but it sure would have been nice to get better than 90-degrees in those elbows and swivels in those thighs. I’m not a huge fan of the use of an ab-crunch instead of a ball joint, as it looks a bit unsightly on a simple animated design like this. It didn’t bother me so much on Snake Eyes, but it was partially obscured by his shoulder straps. As is the case with most Super7 Ultimates figures, Cobra Commander comes with a ton of hands. There are fists, relaxed hands, pointing hands, and a bunch of hands designed to work with the accessories. So let’s check out all those goodies!

First off, you get this softgoods cape and some regal ceremonial trappings. The cape is very nicely tailored and includes wire running through the bottom edge and around the neck and shoulders. The neck wire is the only thing that holds it on the figure, and it does a surprisingly good job at that. The color does look more pink than red to me, which is a little odd. Also, the one I remember him wearing the most had a black outside and a red liner, but he was depicted wearing one like this as well. Either way, it’s pretty cool, and I’ll likely switch off displaying him with and without it.

You get a golden cobra-headed scepter for The Commander to parade around with, as well as a globe with a snake surrounding it. This last piece is from one of the cartoon intros, I believe, and I suppose it’s kind of like Cobra’s version of the globus cruciger that used to be held by Kings or Popes in the old days. It’s very regal and imperial looking, while obviously representing Cobra’s desire to control the world. Sure, the globe is kind of silly, but I just adore all the work that Super7 put into it. The paint and sculpt are both excellent and even the continents on the globe are sculpted rather than just painted on. You get a right hand designed expressly for holding the scepter nice and tight and a left hand with a peg to attach the serpent and globe. Both of these pieces look really good with the cape.

Moving on to guns! Cobra Commander comes with two pistols and a rifle. The rifle is from the second cartoon intro where Cobra Commander is about to use it to take out Lady Jaye. Take out as in Bang Bang, not you wanna catch dinner and a movie. It’s a really cool nod to that sequence and the gun has a great, simple animated look to it.

Next is this simple pistol with a very sci-fi-ish design. Honestly, I’m not a fan of this one at all. The big bubble between the receiver and the barrel is weird and it’s kind of just too out there for me. I’m not sure if this was a design used in the cartoon or not, but I don’t remember it. It’s certainly not as distinctive as the hair-dryer gun that came with the original Real American Hero figure.

The second pistol offering is awesome. The design is more compact and credible and you get a raised Cobra insignia on it as well as a ribbed pistol grip that looks like a snake’s belly. The red paint hits look nice, and I will likely display The Commander wielding this gun most of the time. And that’s all the weapons… now for some assorted gadgets!

These spiffy, high tech binoculars sport a soft rubber neck strap and of course they’re branded with an embossed Cobra logo. I think this works well with the pointy finger hand, like he’s spotted the JOEs with the binoculars and now he’s barking orders at his troops to go get them. I’m sure these were featured in at least one episode of the cartoon, but I couldn’t tell you which one.

And now we start getting into the real deep cuts. The Neutralizer was a Synthoid Control Box, which is hilariously simple for what it does. It just has a single sliding level with an array of color coded settings. Actually, the only thing I remember this device doing was melting them into goo. This is peak Sunbow gizmo design and I love it!

The next device was called Hi-Freq and it comes from the episode Cobra’s Creatures and it allowed Cobra to take control of animals, including some of the JOE team’s pets. This is another wonderful piece of Sunbow tech which included a massive computer with an unintentionally comical keyboard of animal pictures, which was used to set the device to that particular animal. The accessory has some great detail like the tiny painted gauges and the cheesy dog silhouette on the target screen, which was shown when they used it to control Junkyard. So good!

Finally, you get this… detonator device? Yeah, that’s what I’m going with. I don’t remember which episode this is from, but it looks like it’s designed to blow something up. There’s some very nice detail here including some switches and a tiny Cobra emblem on the screen.

I think Super7 did a beautiful job on this figure! He shares all the usual limitations of the Ultimates articulation design, but it’s safe to say that I’ve been looking for a Sunbow accurate Cobra Commander figure like this ever since I was a kid and I’m just chuffed to finally own one. I’m also really pleased with the accessory selection and how many nods are made to specific episodes of the cartoon. No, most of these won’t be used for display that often, but it’s fun to have the options and to own little versions of some of Cobra’s wacky devices. I do wish they had offered a throne for him like they did with Mon-Star in the Silverhawks line, but who knows? Maybe something like that could be coming later on down the road. Will we get a hooded version? I think it’s unlikely. Hasbro still dictates the licensing terms and I don’t think they’re too keen on doing the hood, or allowing anyone else to either. Now a Battle Armor version? That might fall outside the Sunbow based scope of this line’s intentions, but you never know! Next time I visit with this line, we’ll take a look at Duke!