I’ve said throughout my reviews time and time again that I’m really not a fan of G.I. Joe army builders. In my little corner of the universe, Cobra attacks with the legions of troopers while the G.I. Joe team should be a tightly woven, highly trained operations team without the “nameless” and the “faceless”. Nothing bugged me more in the Sunbow cartoons than those generic Green Shirts mixing it up right alongside the regular Joes.
But over the past 12 – 18 months Hasbro keeps on releasing awesome G.I. Joe army builders, forcing me to totally rethink my ideas of the G.I. Joe team. The Steel Brigade and Steel Brigade Delta were the straws that broke the camels back, and now with this figure in the Concept Case it would seem as if I have totally broken my “no troop builder” for the G.I. Joe team vow. The funny thing is, this figure isn’t necessarily stunning or ground breaking, it just speaks to me. It seems like an awesome concept, and suddenly this is something I really want to see first hand and really want to supplement my G.I. Joe team with. I can’t explain it any different than that.
7 – G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra Raven’s Wing
Yeah, it’s the Raven’s Wing. I cannot properly explain or express why I’m drawn to this figure. Don’t get me wrong, it looks very cool, borrowing elements from the very fun Pursuit of Cobra Duke, and also injecting some nice Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead arms which provides a really cool armored suit combination.
The idea of a team of “Stealth Operatives” is pretty neat, with the Raven’s Wing working in complete silence and obscurity, and most importantly I’m loving the ideas of new concepts to bring to the G.I. Joe table. Is this figure as visually stunning as some of the others in the case? No, not necessarily, but I love the concept, love the design, and I think G.I. Joe needs to bring new things to the table every once in a while. Yes, the filecard does give these guys a bit of the “I’m the best there is at what I do” feel, but I still feel like there’s a lot of potential here to work with.
Check out the images below.
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while I’ve loved the joe Army builders of recent this guy is cool enough to be a single character for me a great use of reused parts and it really shows off how badass that POC Duke body is. all in all I’ve to see this guy on selves.
I have no explanation for why I’m drawn to this figure either but I too am hoping it gets made for collectors to own someday… and I think too it would make an awesome new single character.
Since Quick kick is the silent weapons expert on the Joe team I could see him being the Joe in charge of these guys.
It’s basically someone’s attempt at kitbashing a Natick Future Warrior out of Joe parts (note the helmet and gun especially):
http://www.natick.army.mil/about/pao/pubs/warrior/03/julyaug/index.htm
Sadly, the dorktastic PoC Duke torso with its popped collar, in drab khaki, no less, effectively ruins it.
I love the name. I love the look. I love the file card. There really isn’t anything about this figure that I don’t like. For me, the draw to the figure is the imagery the file card creates in my mind: Raven’s Wing. A small covert squad of Joes in menacing black, specializing in sabotage and subterfuge, sliding in under the radar in situations where exposure would be failure. They almost take the role of Snake Eyes while not replacing him. I think this elevates Snake Eyes to a higher status and allows a little less heavier reliance on him alone and his skill set.
It;s the black with tan highlights that do it for me, irresistibly clandestine.
The head is being used for Retaliation Cyber Ninja.
Aint it also the head for the HISS driver?
I love the look, but I think this is where I’m going to draw the line on my army-builder feeling. Too many sub-squads on the Joes and you wind up with them just being Cobra, which ruins the feel of it.
I’ve liked the idea of the Greenshirt (or Joe Trooper, I suppose) -> Steel Brigade -> Codenamed Joe progression, even if it’s unofficial. But when the Joes themselves start having sub-branches, you develop the problem that the Joes themselves are supposed to be the elite squad.
Give him a headsculpt, call him… Drop Zone (?) and I’m 100% in on this figure. But in spite of being a vocal supporter of the prior army builders, I think the ones in the case are taking it a step too far.
I agree with you. Too many subsets of nameless, faceless troops dilutes the idea behind GIJoe. However, I like to think that there are at least some groups that can be reworked into something that works well with the GIJoe concept. I like to think of the Steel Brigade as an off the books type of unit that goes in and does jobs that GIJoe can’t officially do. That’s why they’re nameless and faceless. I could see the Raven’s Wing being a branch off of that. Maybe a Night Force type subset of the Steel Brigade.
Ugh, this is one of those figures that hurt! Hate to see something cool like this get tossed to the wayside; not that it’s impossible to get him later or anything. Hopefully we will!
Of course, the first thing that pops out to me is that he figure is AWESOME. I love the look. I’m surprised to be impressed with his bio, though! I had him pegged as a singular character. Really cool to have a silent, specialized trooper, though! Finally, I have someone to throw with Snake Eyes when he infiltrates a base from the roof and into the vents. Er…well I will if they decide to make ’em!
As with Clutch, the black/tan combo with quasi-futuristic armor plating is not for me.
I think its good that Hasbro is thinking about new ideas (and its clear Halo is a huge influence) but I might be a classic GIJCC type fan at this point.
I’d rather the base figure packed with alternate character heads and Hasbro sell it in the vein of the 2004 Anti-Venom Force. In that set, Duke, Roadblock, Mutt and Barricade had Steel Brigade helmets, but nobody called them “Steel Brigade”. The Raven’s Wing could be a much cooler spec-ops group within the Joe team. And that Night Fox guy could drive them around (he’s the right color).
I see things from both perspectives. I agree that G.I. Joe is a smaller group than Cobra as far as the number of members, without the “nameless” and “faceless”. But I also like the idea of this stealth ops/black ops group to support the regular Joe team. I like the name and think there’s room, to an extent, for a group such as this to carry out missions that will free up the other Joes to do what they need to do. I also like the colors used on the uniform. The thing that confuses me some is that the figure shown is holding a handgun in one hand and some sort of rifle or??? in the other when it says on the filecard that they don’t carry weapons, basically because they’re ninjas. But I already know that if they are released that in my Joeverse they’ll be stocked very well with weapons from Marauders. They may be ninjas but they’ll be carrying as well. I’m also glad to see that filecards will be making a comeback, and they look “old school” and, thanfully, not like those from the ROC/POC era.
I’m a big fan of this figure and would love it come come out somehow. I’m not so sure about the filecard description, but as with any toy we can always make up whatever we want to go with that suits our own purposes – before being able to actually read the filecard, I thought that it was a designation for Steel Brigade pilots and I’d probably still rather go with that. If they had sufficent gear (like the PoC Steel Brigade) so I could mix and match different load-outs, I’d definitely get a couple!
This one was also one of my favorites. I think that it has just enough paint applications to make it look interesting. That straight line of silver across the visor somehow speaks to me. I can see myself buying about 5 of these and I don’t army build. It would be a case where if I had 5, I’d feel like I had the team. I think maybe part of what holds the Joes back from an army builder standpoint is the fact that every good guy gets released as a part of the actual G.I.Joe team. Across the years, the bad guys have had a few smaller teams that were not Cobra. The Joes seem to only have the OG (and maybe Action Force) as an ally. I think it is fine to release a few guys in green that could just be military backing up the actual G.I.Joe team. And with that in mind, why not additional units like Raven’s Wing? They don’t *have* to be a Joe subdivision do they? They look awesome.
You know I love this guy. I’m a fan of all the factions, and I like the idea of a new faction that works with GI Joe but is NOT GI Joe. The Joes ARE the elite, but there would of course be other teams for checks and balances, so to speak. That’s how I use my Steel Brigade. They aren’t “Joes”, though they work closely with the Joes and are privy to a lot of the same gear and Intel. But they’re ground-pounders who would take down a renegade Joe if necessary. I see Raven’s Wing as an extension of this, and definitely find room for them in my Joe mythos.
Now that I have found better pictures. POC beachhead arms, POC Desert Ripcord/skydive legs, POC Duke torso, crimson horseman/cyber viper head, resolute zartan’s sidearm. I can go to work on making my own. Saw the figure in the new concept case from Joe con. Hasbro loves teasing us with those figures. I, for one, am tired of that. Mine won’t have that U.S. print, but I will still like it.