Reviews Updated for G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA figures
With thanks to Carlos, two more reviews have been posted on the Rise of COBRA Review Page:
Check them out, and as always, let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
News Recap July 20th – New Rise of COBRA figures revealed
I first caught wind of this thanks to SNAKE EYES from the HissTank forums, though unfortunately wasn’t in a spot that I could do an update until now. Gyre-Viper from the afforementioned HissTank.com has uncovered some images of upcoming figures. Unfortunately (in my book) the figures consist of three repeat characters, and a troop builder that is tough to make out. Arctic Storm Shadow and City Strike Duke are especially underwhelming. The list is as follows:
- Storm Shadow (Arctic Threat) – Looks to be an amalgamation of Storm Shadow and Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes, which is an interesting combination, but it’s not nearly as cool as the individual figures that make it up. Plus the camouflage that is supposed to be an homage to the ’87 version of Stormy looks kinda splotchy and out of place.
- Duke (City Strike) – Pretty much a repaint of Reactive Armor Duke, perhaps with some other legs, but he comes with all rehashed accessories and a somewhat uninspiring paint scheme.
- Ripcord (Jungle Assault) – This figure looks pretty freaking incredible. Love the boonie hat, love the gear, and the paint apps are pretty nice, too. I’d rather get a desert version of Rip over this, but it still looks like an awesome figure from this grainy photo.
- Desert-Viper – Honestly can’t really tell. Lots of shadow, some heavy gear and a scarf. Has potential, but I’m not big on the environmental guys. Time will tell on that one.
If this is a run of single packs, I’m kinda bummed out. It seems things took a bit of a step back, at least with two of these figures. I know, I won’t jump to conclusions, but this selection doesn’t win me over. I know Hasbro traditionally tends to mix in a pretty repaint heavy wave in the later months, so maybe this is it, it was just looking like such drastic improvements between Wave 1 and Wave 3, that this seems to go in the opposite direction.
We’ll see. Images are mirrored below.
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News Recap July 20th – Where the hell was I today?
So as folks probably noticed (at least I hope some folks noticed… :shifty: ) I was noticably absent today during a fairly busy news day. But just because I was absent doesn’t mean I was out of the Joe loop…in fact, I probably had my busiest “G.I. Joe” day in a long time. For folks who don’t know, I live pretty much out in the boondocks. Not much in the way of local stores to speak of. There’s a single Wal-Mart that hasn’t carried G.I. Joe figures since 2003, and pretty much nothing else, so when I had the opportunity today to travel to civilization to attend a training seminar, I said “sure”, especially since it would afford me the opportunity to check out some REAL retail locations and get an idea what’s out there.
First place I actually stopped was a 7-11, where I started the day with a Liquid Artillary Slurpee and a cup of Go Joe Cappuchino. Yes, I am THAT much of a geek. From there I swung by a Toys “R” Us and was thrilled to see that they were in the midst of setting up their G.I. Joe showcase in the front of the store!
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Very bad ass. The cardboard displays are 3D and I just love seeing such a huge presence for the Rise of COBRA. Of course, the store itself didn’t have much…I did take advantage of the 2 for $9.98 sale and grabbed a pair of Neo-Vipers.
I won’t bore you with the details of the entire trip, but I had a chance to get a decent sampling of a few Wal-Marts, Targets, and Toys “R” Us’, and came away feeling like there was a pretty hefty push for The Rise of COBRA. Each of the four Targets I hit had at least two endcaps (one had FOUR) filled with Joe product. I hit three TRU’s, one had the showcase going up, the other two had four feet of devoted space at the front of the store. Wal-Mart was the most disappointing. I stopped by two of those, and only one had any RoC stuff, all the C1W1 assortment.
Anyone who is having trouble finding COBRA Commanders or Reactive Armor Scarletts obviously isn’t shopping in Southern NH, because that assortment was everywhere. I must have seen three dozen COBRA Commanders in my travels (and all of them had holes in the chest, but no hoses included), not to mention at least a dozen Scarletts, and Paris Pursuit figures all over the place (no gray Timbers in sight). In fact, all of the first two waves were in abundance, though alas there were no Wave 3 gems to be found. I came away with a little squad of Neo-Vipers (mostly because I didn’t want to pay full price for them) and that’s about it, but it was great seeing all this stuff on shelf. A country boy from the boonies like me doesn’t see it very often.
New reviews posted in the Rise of COBRA review section!
Look! It’s Paris Pursuit day! Well, two out of three of them, anyway. The Rise of COBRA Review Page now has the two sword brothers posted:
Enjoy!
Mysterious new three-pack image found online
The guys at The Terror Drome have uncovered an image for a mysterious three-pack of The Baroness, Duke, and Neo-Viper. The figures themselves don’t appear to be any different than the single-carded counterparts, and there’s no indication of whether or not they’re exclusive to any specific stores.
Click here to check out the thread, and the image is mirrored below.
Some images of G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA Troop Builders
Some of the harder to find troop builders for the Rise of COBRA so far are the COBRA Eel, the Crimson Neo-Viper, and the Elite-Viper. They are out there, just haven’t really hit saturation yet. But that hasn’t stopped JBL member madmac41 from tracking them down, and he very kindly supplied some images for GeneralsJoes of these tough to find army builders. Check out the various images below!
COBRA Eel
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Pretty cool looking figure from what I can tell, though it’s still tough to make out that mask. I do like the Torpedo body, though it’s getting pretty heavy use these days! The vest looks great, and there are some nice homages mixed in there. Still not sure I’m going to break my back trying to pick this one up.
Crimson Neo-Viper
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Really loving that red. Looks great, especially on the Neo-Viper, which continues to grow on me. A recent post on JoeBattleLines brought up the idea that the head isn’t a skull, it’s a snake. And the armor is patterned after the ribbed underbelly of the reptile, too. A pretty cool concept, and it does make the figure at least a bit more appealing. In this color, though, I gotta say, he looks even more like a COBRA La guy.
Elite-Viper
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Now this figure has it all going on…I think. Kinda tough to make out details, but he’s not using the typical movie trooper body, I like what he’s got a lot more. More standard elbow pads and gear. Some great weapons. I really like this guy.
The COBRA Army builders have been so hit or miss with the Rise of COBRA (and mostly miss). It’s been one of the only downsides of the line to me. The Elite-Viper does look like a step in the right direction, though…