Cobra Heatseeker Missile Launcher w/ Scrap Iron & Neo-Viper

Lord help me with the Rise of Cobra repaints/reissues... initially, I didn't have any major issues with the Neo-Viper figure, and actually really enjoyed the movie authentic look and feel. But somehow over the course of a few months, I've ended up with nearly 12 of them, just by proxy. Yikes.

In fact, I don't hesitate to say that the inclusion of the Neo-Viper almost convinced me NOT to buy the Heatseeker Missile Launcher, especially because Scrap Iron doesn't exactly "wow" me either...but when I finally was able to score the Stinger at BBTS, that kind of pushed me to pick this one up, too, not just for the cool black and red paint scheme, and not just because it can be towed by the cool ass Stinger, but also because the pseudo gray Scrap Iron now fits in pretty damn nicely with the Stinger command crew to boot. It was a no-brainer, even though the Neo-Viper alone subtracts like 30% of the desirability of this set.

I, along with nearly every other Joe fan on the planet, really dig these mini vehicles and mini playsets. Back in the day, being able to scoop one of these in your hand and have an instant battle anywhere in the house was a pretty damn cool feature of the 3 3/4" Joes. Even as a kid, I just couldn't setup my G.I. Joe HQ without scattering about a FLAK, HAL, and MMS at all of the weak spots to ensure no Cobra sneak attacks could cripple the Joe base. Now it's almost blasphemy to see the MMS re-appropriated for the wrong side, but hell, it's not the first time that's happened.

In fact, the direct and obvious throwback to the Sears SMS (and sort of the Canadian Cobra M.S.V. if you want to use the Stinger with it) is a definite draw for this to me, and it merges this set nicely with the old school crowd. To me, though the real goodness was incorporating this set with my newly acquired Stinger, and it serves that purpose exceptionally well.

From a construction and value standpoint, I'm not certain the Heatseeker really gives you the most bang for your buck. While the Outpost Defender gives you a metric ton of gear as well as really awesome Roadblock, and the Cobra Surveillance Port gives you two fairly decent figures as well as a really nice Cobra outpost, this Heatseeker set only really gives you two okay figures, and a somewhat generic missile launching system, neither one of which really knocks my socks off. The missiles on the Heatseeker launch platform have a disturbing tendancy to spontaneously fall off, and besides being dragged around, then set down to launch rockets, what does this set really do? Not a whole heck of a lot.

Scrap Iron

Being rumored for single pack release, Scrap Iron supposedly has some serious upgrades in store, with much better parts that not only were more accurate to his original version, but also provided added mobility and a cooler style. Part of me was hoping this version of the Cobra missile specialist would include those better part choices, but alas, that was not the case. This is the same old familiar Scrap Iron, only in gray instead of blue, and he serves to be fairly unexciting, even though I like using him with my Stinger crew.

Sure, maybe he fits a bit better with the Rise of Cobra aesthetic, but isn't that why he came with the Snake Trax? I dunno, I guess I just don't see the big draw here.

Neo-Viper

The less said about him the better...while initially not a bad figure really, I've grown quite tired of the Neo-Viper over the months during the Rise of Cobra. In fact, seeing recent images of some potential Jurassic Park releases has only cemented further in my mind that the Resolute Cobra Trooper would have been an insanely cool base figure for Cobra armies in the 21st century, but instead we got stuck with the fairly shoddy movie style stuff. Perhaps he suffers a bit too much from the "what we could have had" scenario, but even as a stand alone figure, I'm not quite sure how I amassed quite as many figures as I did, as he doesn't excite me all that much beyond his cool head sculpt.

I know, I know...I have raved about the Neo-Viper in other reviews, but perhaps the same old, same old is just grating on me a bit (especially in light of apparent delays in getting true "new" stuff) and I'm ready to sorta move on and move past.

As a standalone piece, nothing about the Heatseeker sells me. It's somewhat dull in color and feature, the figures aren't all that hot, and there isn't really any one thing that makes it shine. But when you get it as an extension to your existing Cobra army, it actually works a bit better. Use it with a Stinger, use it with a HISS, use it with anything, and it really does "pop" fairly nicely in an old school way. And really, for $15.00, getting two figures and a mini vehicle is a pretty damn good bargain, there just isn't a whole lot here to sell me on this thing. If you absolutely have to have all of these Wal-Mart Battle Stations, then sure, go ahead, but I would definitely pick the Outpost Defender and the Surveillance Port over this one as standalone pieces. The LAW, not so much.

GRADE: