SDCC Exclusive Transformers & G.I. Joe Baroness w/ Ravage

It started pretty innoculously...a Devils Due comic cover for G.I. Joe vs The Transformers exclusive cover for the Transformers Collectors Club. The Baroness out for a stroll, with Ravage held by a chain leash. An interesting novelty, to be sure, but I don't think anyone was quite prepared for the storm that would follow.

Storm is an emebellishment to be sure...but First 4 Figures thought it was an iconic enough image to market as a statue (which was unfortunately canceled before release), and fans throughout the world have represented that same image in customs from every era of G.I. Joe.

Hasbro themselves even got caught up in it, at one time even considering an official G.I. Joe-scale Ravage release to go alongside the evil Cobra villain. Well, here we are, many years removed from the original comic from Devils' Due, and the iconic imagery is still floating in the subconscious, because the design team at Hasbro finally answered fanboy prayers with an official Baroness and Ravage release, this time for San Diego ComicCon.

The Baroness figure itself is mostly the same as ones we've received in the past, at least from the neck down. She uses the same body as the version from the third Cobra Boxed Set in the 25th Anniversary, but a new head was added. This head is gorgeously sculpted with a microphone glued to the side of her face, and very much a J Scott Campbell artistic vibe, with the oval features and the large, round glasses. The hair is swept a bit, but not too much, and the head just looks fantastic.

Unfortunately, it is just a touch on the large side, I think. Not enough to stand out on shelves, but enough to be noticable to the collectors' eye. Early press images also showed the Baroness with a long coat, but the final version does not come that way, instead opting to just feature The Baroness in her tradtional armored uniform. The overall look of the figure is really nice...I think the body parts chosen are the best representation of the Baroness in the past several years, and they've appeared not just in the 25th Anniversary, but also in G.I. Joe: Resolute, and in Convention Sets as well. The figure is pretty slim and small, which can sometimes impact its flexibility, but a really nice looking figure, to be sure.

ACCESSORIES

Of course this is where every collector out there is going ga ga. The Baroness finally comes with a G.I. Joe scaled Ravage, and it's really cool... mostly. The sculpting and detail work are fantastic, looking just like the animated model of the Decepticon panther. But unfortunately there is nearly zero articulation. I think most of us suspected there wouldn't be after initial images showed up, but I know I was grasping to a remote hope that maybe they had worked some movement into the shoulders somehow. No dice.

But Ravage does have a ball joint at the base of his head/neck, which gives Ravage some flexibility at least. He can look side-to-side and up and down, which at least adds some menace to the character, but if they had been able to give him shoulder joints that would have rocked. I shudder to think if they had given him mid-torso and hinged jaws, too... sigh.

Still as a glorified Baroness "accessory" he looks great and stands well, even if his position is static.

Along with Ravage, there is also a pair of weapons that the Baroness comes with, and I suppose you could say Blaster and his tapes are part of her "package" as well (they were bagged with Ravage).

If you sat me down in a chair and injected me with truth serum, I'd tell you we needed a new Baroness figure like we need collective holes in our heads. I'm not a huge fan of The Baroness, to be honest, and she's kind of been force fed to us over the past several years. That being said, this is a good representation of her, and I like the new head sculpt, even if the headset microphone is permanently attached and her head is just a bit on the large size.

Considering this "alternate universe" so to speak, I feel really captivated by what Hasbro has built within a few short years, and already have a little desire and incentive to come up with my own twist on the Transformers and G.I. Joe mythologies. I'm not sure if I have the time or desire to do anything specific with it or not, but if nothing else, these sets have brought up some awesome alternatives. With the right toy counterparts and some Photoshop effects, I think a pretty cool Dio-Story could be told along these lines. Maybe something to think about down the road, but I want to finish my G.I. Joe story first.

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