G.I. Joe: ARAHC - Serpentor

I don’t know whether it’s the fact that I’ve been restricted to buying non-O-ring Joes for the past couple months or what, but Wave 5 has pretty much knocked my socks off. Every figure seems to come packed full of character, sculpting and terrific color schemes, and I really see a lot of these updates kind of overshadowing their original incarnations.

As I’ve been known to do with these new releases, I’m going to start at the bottom and work my way up until I get to my favorite new figure of the bunch.


Why, Hasbro why?!? Why did you do it? Why did you have to make a new Serpentor figure?? And why did he have to be so COOL??? 

Larry Hama wrote the Cobra Emperor off of the G.I. Joe books quite some time ago, but now it seems Hasbro is bringing him back, and they are bringing him back in a BIG way.

They stuck with the relatively standard paint scheme that he originally received in ’86, only they replaced all of the gold with black! If someone had suggested that to me, I wouldn’t have thought it could have possibly worked. Yet, it definitely did! It worked in SPADES. It gives Serpentor a much deeper, darker look, like someone almost resurrected from the grave…hmmm…

The mold is quite simply a classic. Even back in 1986 when I first saw this figure with his air chariot in a Ben Franklin store of all places, I knew he had big things in store for him. For his time in the comic, he was a very cool character and very cool figure, and lived his life right and was taken out in time. I really think, though, if not for his cartoon influence I would have liked him a lot more. While his over the top "This I Command" nonsense made him seem like a crazed dictator, his quiet, charismatic toiling in the comic made him a truly great character, and one who deserves a second chance, only as a Cobra general and perhaps NOT as a Cobra Emperor. As much as I love Serpentor, I also love Cobra Commander, and would really like to see them able to work together to make Cobra a true dominant force.

But I digress…the mold is regal to the utmost…he personifies the Cobra organization and really exemplifies it’s more classic tendencies. You can see the influence of the centuries of royal DNA that flows in Serpentor’s veins, and can almost feel the power resonating from him. This darker shade of color almost makes him more powerful, and more of an intimidating figure.

He is molded with muscle, a wide-body, solid figure who even without the armor would be intimidating enough. Put some snake plating and scale armor on him, and he takes it to the next level…this is not a man to mess with.

I’ve always wanted to explore Serpentor’s physical side as well as his leadership roles, though. You would figure a man made from the strongest men of history’s DNA would exhibit some level of super strength and fighting ability. Especially if you follow the comic history where Serpentor had some of Storm Shadow’s DNA in him as well.

But again, I stray from my point, which is that this figure is an admirable update to the original. They kept all of the terrific, classic points, but made some cool color updates as well, which only add to the character’s wickedness.

Now granted, this new Serpentor did not come with all of the original’s accessories (unfortunately…an updated black Air Chariot would ROCK), but still he comes with ones that count. His silver dagger is just as sweet as it was, and the snake is a neat little touch, although, I’ve NEVER seen a pure yellow Cobra before.

At any rate, this is another great figure based on a terrific character, and makes me sad that Hasbro is supposedly abandoning the repaint line after Wave 1.5…they will be missed.