Cobra Trooper - Dollar Store Exclusive

NOTE - I am in the midst of moving, so unfortunately most of my figures are packed away. As a result, comparison shots are not available. YoJoe.com has been kind enough to allow me to mirror some of their images to show some comparisons. Be sure to check out their very nicely revamped action figure archive for full G.I. Joe figure goodness!

I'm feeling a little bit torn about how I should stage these reviews and the mindset I should have when documenting their pluses and minuses. Let's face it, these were conceived of as a budget answer to the G.I. Joe buyers who may not want to drop ten dollars on a mainstream retail release.

So here's where things get sticky... from an articulation and plastic quality standpoint, pretty much everyone of these figures feels superior to the G.I. Joe: Retaliation figures, yet at a lower price point. However, looking at the paint applications, there are some issues, but with the idea that these figures had to be designed to fit into a very specific budget bucket, I'm finding it tough to dock the figures much for that.

At the end of the day, I just need to look at these figures and make a judgement based on how they look and feel, keeping the whole dollar store mentality in the back of my head. And the first figure up is the Cobra Trooper.

The Pursuit of Cobra Cobra Trooper was such an amazing figure to me back when it was released around a year or so ago. Hasbro seemed to be making a conscious decision to take new parts and use them to reinvigorate old concepts, and they took the Trooper and Viper and absolutely ramped those figures up to 11. Both of them were total and complete home runs. They managed to retain the flair of the old school classics, yet the parts were more modern, more bulky, and much higher quality than their 25th Anniversary predecessors. This particular figure took that 30th Anniversary formula and mixed in an awesome Sideshow Collectibles Cobra Sniper paint scheme with the Officer webgear, and the end result is a terrific addition to the Cobra backbone. I love the new Trooper so much, I have a very hard time finding fault with anything here.

The articulation is spectacular, with the multi-joint wrists and the awesome range of motion throughout the entire figure. Paint apps are somewhat sparse, going with mostly black and silver, but for this figure's purpose it works quite well. There is nothing to dislike about this figure in the least.

Of course the figure really only comes with one accessory (beyond his helmet and webgear) and that is the great AK-47. I know it got popular there for a while to cram a figure with as many weapons and as much gear as he can humanly carry, but really, as long as the weapon makes sense, I don't mind the numbers being reduced.

The only slight down side in this particular case is that the figure as an empty holster and knife sheath without the weapons to go in them, but for the budgetary restrictions that came along with these figures, I can't really blame design for that.

And, hey! Look at that! A battle stand. NICE. Granted, it is unmarked, but I'd think many fans would actually like that, since it provides a great template for customizing.

Really elegant in its simplicity, this very straight forward Cobra night ops Trooper (or Sniper, depending on your preference) just makes so much sense and works so well. I am a bit surprised that we didn't get a more standard Cobra Officer, but it looks like a comic deco of that figure may be coming in some sort of refresh wave for these figures down the line.

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