Say what you will about the infamous “new sculpt era” but there really wasn’t much question that the toys developed from 2002 – 2005 were developed with one audience in mind first – the kids. Yes, if Hasbro could do things to appeal to the collector demographic they would, but by and large, the design focus was really on figures and vehicles that would be exciting for a new generation of fans, and for a little while, it seemed to work.
The Cobra Hydra is a clear example of ways Hasbro did this right and ways that they did this wrong, and while I’m pretty honestly surprised to see the Collectors Club venturing into the arena of new sculpt vehicles to satisfy their collector demographic, they are at least doing it in an interesting way.
Back in the day, this vehicle was known as the Sky Sweeper, and as most of us should be able to tell, it’s based vaguely on the F-117 Stealth Fighter. The design of the vehicle is much smaller and a bit blockier than the real world Stealth, with proportions and an overall size that looks woefully out of place. G.I. Joe vehicles have always, from day one, been pretty compact in their size and scale, however, it’s just that in the case of this particular vehicle that size discrepancy is extremely obvious. Hasbro tries to make up for this, however, by adding some neat play features, and unlike many collectors, this is a strategy that I appreciate. While the look and feel of this Cobra Hydra is pretty far from the level of typical 80s greatness that we’re all accustomed to, I can’t help but love the flip out top panels revealing deadly offensive weapons, and the awesome drop-down escape pod/attack jet latched onto the bottom. These are small additions that add at least some play features to this vehicle.
The last time we saw this at retail was in 2009, I believe, and it was also called the Cobra Hydra then, released as part of the Rise of Cobra retail line. It was colored in red and came with a cobbled together Aero-Viper with a healthy infusion of Rise of Cobra aesthetics. This time around, the Hydra is a very nice shade of Cobra blue, a color that I find strangely appealing, to be honest, even if the foundation vehicle itself is from a questionable era in the line’s history. I would have to agree with the majority of my collector friends who say that most of the vehicles in the new sculpt era struggled with their aesthetics, but managed at least to leverage some interesting play features. In the case of the Cobra Hydra, I’m not sure the play features make up for the size and shape of the vehicle…but at least the Aero-Viper has some redeeming qualities.
COBRA AERO-VIPER
Speaking of the Aero-Viper…
One of my favorite Cobra pilot figures (one I liked far more than the Strato-Viper for sure), the pilot of the Cobra Condor was a great figure back in the day, filled with character and intriguing design. Aside from the fact that apparently Cobra mandated that all Aero Vipers wear goatees, the figure had a fantastic design aesthetic, awesome looking helmet, and was just really well put together.
The update in 2009 was… not so much. They smartly eschewed the bandana/half mask, going with a full mask instead (only Cobra Commander knows if they’re all still wearing goatees under there) and gave him a great new helmet, but the majority of the figure was the Rise of Cobra Neo-Viper base, which wasn’t so hot.
This figure uses the same head, torso, and legs, but switches up the arms, which actually makes the most difference, since it was those weird elbow/forearm pads that really drew people to the questionable design of those new age Cobra Troopers. With a knife sheath and more slender, well-articulated arms, this Aero-Viper feels like a considerable improvement, even if there are only a few adjusted pieces.
His color scheme is nice, managing to reflect the vintage look with the distinct green color complimented by the gray, all topped off by the helmet of vibrant gold. The colors are a bit brighter than the vintage version, and a completely different hue from the Rise of Cobra rendition, much more green and less black. It’s a decent figure. The articulation of the Alley-Viper arms is far better than that of the Rise of Cobra Neo-Viper, and the design looks a lot more distinct as well. Even though it’s a small change, the different arms do make for a nice update, even though it’s tough to tell if its an update worthy of the $85 price tag.
Accessories
Aero-Viper comes with a removable gold helmet, removable gray vest, removable knife and a pretty neat heavy pistol (the same one that the G.I. Joe: Retaliation G.I. Joe Trooper came with). A relatively small accessory compliment, but a good one, and I like all the removable aspects that have a place to go on the figure itself when he’s piloting the Cobra Hydra.
This feels like a steep price for a Rise of Cobra era repaint, though the new Aero-Viper arms are certainly a big improvement. I do like the vibrant blue of the new Hydra attack plane, and if this were a retail item, I might love it a lot more than I do. As a convention item it doesn’t feel like it delivers the $85 value (especially with collector opinions towards new sculpt vehicles).
Cobra Hydra w/ Aero-Viper
Vehicle Design
Vehicle Paint Deco
Vehicle Play Features
Figure Character
Figure Sculpt
Figure Articulation
Figure Paint Deco
Figure Accessories
2.9
Summary
Carried over from the new sculpt era, then the Rise of Cobra, this modified F-117 stealth fighter has some fun play value but not a wealth of collector appeal. The G.I. Joe Collectors Club makes up for that somewhat with the update to the Cobra Aero-Viper, but the price tag still feels steep for what you get. A fun vehicle with a great paint scheme, but a bit tough to rationalize at JoeCon prices.
Like every kid of the 80s who loved G.I. Joe, the JUMP jet packs were pretty much a “must have” back in the day. Throughout any particular episode of the animated series, characters were using JUMPs as if they were a normal part of every day life (part of the reason why I scoff a bit at anyone who claims G.I. Joe was more “real world military” than fantasy, even back in the 80s). The design was great, and I had a few of them back then.
In the 25th Anniversary line, Hasbro retrofitted the JUMP jet packs for modern style figures, and we got a few of them released over the years, first with the COBRA Air Troopers, and the scattered throughout some other figures as the line went on. The combination of the jet pack and the hose/cannon combination has always been a lot of fun.
So, from that perspective, it makes sense for the Collectors Club to include some of these JUMPs for a set that utilizes a lot of airborne assault troopers. I think it’s a fine idea. But the whole bundled 6-pack concept seems to be a bit of overkill. Essentially there are two 6-packs, one themed for Sky Patrol, one themed for COBRA, and each 6-Pack was around $55. That definitely feels a bit extreme for what you’re getting, though it is kind of cool having the packs available for the characters in the set.
Curiously, though, half of the Sky Patrol members come with their own jet packs anyway, so I’m not sure why they’d need a second one to go along with it. On the COBRA side, I’m not entirely sure who these jet packs are for, but they do have a cool Crimson Guard type deco that can work for many different air specialists.
Ultimately, the jet packs are neat items, and cool compliments for the Convention figures, but I’m not sure they’re entirely worth the price of admission.
JUMP Jet Packs
Vehicle Design
Paint Deco
Play Features
2.3
Summary
Is it possible to have an item that’s pretty fun and feels like a welcome addition to the convention set, yet because of the way it was offered and the cost associated still feel like it’s not the best choice? I’d say the JUMP jet packs fit that bill. They feel overpriced and unnecessary, though I do enjoy having them. Can they be both at once?
I still remember when the launch of the Skystriker during the 30th Anniversary line was considered a monumental event, something to be celebrated and cheered from the rooftops, and to be fair, it was a pretty damn awesome event. The first new iteration of G.I. Joe’s flagship aircraft was a pretty major thing, and Hasbro knocked it out of the park.
However, it’s been a few years since then…a few years and more than a few more Skystrikers. In fact since its debut in 2011, we have seen this vehicle used as Starscream & Jetfire, used by the Collectors Club as a Night Boomer, and used in the 50th Anniversary as the Wolf Squad Sky Striker and as the Cobra Scythe. So yes, since this vehicle’s debut 5 years ago, this is the 7th iteration of the Sky Striker.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The vehicle is awesome. It continues to be a great update to the classic vehicle, but especially when you’re looking at a price tag north of $150 you can’t help but wonder how much “new” is here, and is it worth the steep price. I know throughout many of these reviews I will reference “cost” and “value” because that’s a tough thing to get away from. I think many will agree that purely from a design and execution standpoint, much of what the Collectors Club does is very good, but at Convention prices (which could be justified due to low production runs) you need to consider such things as what you get for your money.
Just from a design standpoint, the Sky Patrol Skystriker is a heck of a cool vehicle. The metal surface isn’t chrome like the old school Sky Patrol vehicles (a limitation due to environmental hazards according to the G.I. Joe Collectors Club) but the polished shine of the metal paint is pretty impressive and does a great job almost approximating the same silver look.
For whatever reason I find the silver color exceedingly appealing, even though I was never deep into Sky Patrol as a kid (not the vehicles, anyway, I LOVED the figures). It’s polished, shiny surface really draws the attention, and the dark tampos on the plane contrast really nicely, giving you a vehicle that looks sharp, clean, and very nice.
Like the previous versions of this venerable vehicle, the missiles work well, and stay on a bit better than some of those first released versions of this plane. It’s only a single-seater like every other one is (but I’m totally okay with that) and has the same swing-wing functionality. It’s a really nice plane that unfortunately does suffer somewhat from a lack of excitement due to the fact that so many iterations of this vehicle have come and gone in the five years since its initial release.
That being said, for Sky Patrol fans, this is a nice addition to your vintage line up, even if it’s not quite as shiny as its predecessors.
Sky Patrol Skystriker
Vehicle Design
Paint Deco
Play Features
3.7
Summary
Although we’ve gotten plenty of Skystrikers in the past five years, the reflective paint deco on this one does make strides to separate it from the pack. It looks crisp and clean and is a nice addition to your certainly impressive Skystriker armada.
Today I dip my toes into the pool outside of the standard Convention boxed set and cover the attendee exclusive figure-based items! This includes Cloudburst, Skymate, Air Raid, Free Fall, and the Heli-Vipers!
As a guy who really embraces the funky whacked out colors of the 1990’s, the COBRA Heli-Viper is a figure that should be right up my alley, but honestly, it really isn’t. It’s not necessarily the brightness of the colors that gets to me, it’s the placement of the colors and the fact that the purple/red combination is so all encompassing without any decent detail breaks or interesting trim colors.
Believe me, I wish I knew why some figures appealed to me, but others don’t. Why can I wholeheartedly love the crazy yellow and pink Mega-Viper, yet the classic Heli-Viper, for some reason, just doesn’t float my boat?
I don’t have an answer.
One thing I can say, though is that the Collectors Club did a decent job taking the framework of the classic Heli-Viper and bringing it forward into a modern format. It wasn’t anything extraordinarily complicated, after all, Hasbro already did their version of the Night Viper and their version of the Snow Serpent. the Club just had to take those two figures and mesh them together with the right paint scheme. In that way, the figure isn’t especially inventive, but it is well executed. The articulation from the relatively recently released Night Viper works well, and though I’m not a huge fan of the MARS Officer webgear, it’s the same that was used for the Night Viper(s) so it makes sense to use it here, too.
Accessories
Where the Heli-Viper truly excels is with his accessory compliment. Although the webgear is somewhat lackluster, he does come with a cool pistol for the holster, a great machine gun, and the same phenomenal helicopter backpack that Ultimate COBRA Commander did back in the Retaliation line. I love the sheer size and aesthetic of the helicopter (with its removable bombs and everything) and I am ecstatic that the Club included it with this figure. A very cool touch. It even fits!
Heli-Viper has never resonated with me in spite of the fact that I usually embrace loud colors in later generation figures, and the updated version isn’t necessarily my cup of tea either. This three pack is almost saved, however, by some terrific accessories and the mere fact that we’ve now got these guys in a modern format.
Cobra Heli-Viper
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3
Summary
This wasn’t my favorite vintage figure, and as such I’m likely not going to fall in love with the modern update either, but given what they had to work with I think the Club did a good job. They manage to salvage the character nicely with some terrific accessories.
Do we really and truly live in a world where we have a modern update for Skymate? Is that even possible? That crazy dude with the pink knife on his wrist and bright yellow webgear? The dude wearing a baseball hat with a freaking kangaroo on it? That guy?
Yes. That guy.
The vintage version of Skymate was one of my favorite 90s figures in spite of the fact that he liked wearing pink and yellow. I loved that his bow and arrow plugged into his chest, I loved that crazy knife sheath on the back of his wrist, the translucent visor. Everything. He was the 90s personified and a character I really latched onto. I enjoyed the Air Commandos so much in fact, that I worked them into my Kindle Worlds Whisper novella (and did so enthusiastically).
For obvious reasons the updated Skymate can’t quite include all of the nuances of the classic. There really isn’t any tooling that can approximate the knife sheath or chest-mounted compound bow, but the formula they went with for the figure is eminently successful regardless of these facts.
We got a great new head sculpt with Skymate featuring his trademark baseball cap and closely shaven beard along with a nicely different combination of parts including nicely detailed pieces from the Pursuit of COBRA era. Most recognizable are the Recondo arms, which I imagine were chosen to at least somewhat approximate the look of added weaponry on the forearms, even if they don’t exactly resemble the knife from the vintage days.
His colors are well done, a nice balance of green and black underneath the crazy yellow and pink, but the colors are understated enough where an enterprising collector who doesn’t like bright colors could easily swap out web gear and not even worry about the eye-searing yellow. Not much to do about the pink hat, however.
Accessories
Skymate comes with an interesting allotment of accessories including a newly tooled boomerang! That’s a really fun touch, and of course, since he’s Australian and as we all know, everyone in Australia walks around with boomerangs. If they don’t they damn well should. He also comes with a bow and arrow (the same one initially seen with Shadow Tracker I believe) as well as the removable machete and pistol.
Along with all of these, he also comes equipped with his own huge ass glider! It’s funny to sit back and see all of the different new sculpt era components that make up this set, and while these gliders are not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as the jetpacks or wingsuits of some of the other figures, they do fit the Air Commando aesthetic quite nicely. The deco pattern of this glider is matched with Skymate’s vintage version, and it comes equipped with the handlebar and two missiles. Skymate can fit on it really well, and hold the handles firmly, and while this glider isn’t necessarily my favorite vehicle made in the past 10 years…oh crap… maybe closer to 12 years… I can see how the match was made to the Air Commandos here.
Skymate is such a fun character and this is a really fun representation of that character. G.I. Joe is always at its best when it doesn’t take itself too super-seriously, and that’s why I’ve loved sets like this one and the Eco Warriors from a couple years back. They embrace their color brightness and their near-ludicrous sub teams and yet manage to work it into a modernized, slightly more realistic format in a fun and well-executed way.
Skymate
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4
Summary
Another entry from the “Best of the 90s”! While he lacks just a little of the ingrained uniqueness of the vintage Skymate, this updated version packs plenty of fun into a modern format package. Great parts selection, a new head sculpt and some great accessories all come together to provide an exciting update to some old school G.I. Joe greatness.
