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Some neat Rise of COBRA Tidbits on DeviantArt

by | Sep 6, 2009 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe: The Movie

So I’ve been poking around DeviantArt a bit, but I’m a bit disappointed to say that it hasn’t been the treasure trove of cool information for The Rise of COBRA that it was for G.I. Joe: Resolute.  Not sure why, but the official behind-the-scenes stuff has been few and far between.  However, I did uncover a couple of neat little things.

Drew Johnson – Rise of COBRA Style Guide Pages

Drew is a comic artist and also apparently did some work for the Rise of COBRA style guide.  Some head turn arounds and basic character art.  He uploaded a few of those images to his DeviantArt page, and I’ve mirrored them below.

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FlintLockPrivateer – Rise of COBRA Costume Design/Sculptor

This one is pretty neat.  Only three images, but it shows some nice behind the scenes sculpting and modeling that’s done for the costume design of The Rise of COBRA.  We get some neat peeks at an early look of COBRA Commander’s “iron lung” (as it’s described) as well as the Reactive Armor.  I like this stuff a lot.

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So, no, definitely not the scores of cool sketches, storyboards, and character art that we got with G.I. Joe: Resolute, but some neat stuff to be seen, still.

COBRA Surveillance Port images online

by | Sep 6, 2009 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: The Movie

Rulz over at HissTank.com is making quite the name for himself with all of his pre-production scores, and he’s come up with another one, this time the COBRA Surveillance Port with MARS Trooper and Tele-Viper.

I’m torn on this a bit…  I’m actually not a huge fan of these mini-playsets, and I’m one of those grumbling guys who is ready to move on from the vintage homage stuff, but the Surveillance Port fits in nicely to the new universe.  I actually like it an awful lot in this blue paint scheme…more than I thought I would.  The figures, though?  Eh, not so much.  I wasn’t a big fan of the MARS Trooper initially, and he’s not doing anything more for me now.  The Tele-Viper is all right, but that black and red paint scheme just doesn’t mesh real well.  I do really like how Hasbro is integrating the vintage stuff with the more modern style, but that Tele-Viper just doesn’t have any real “flow”.  It feels like a vintage head slapped on a new body, and not like a real cohesive new trooper.  There’s some neat gear here (like the COBRA style laptop) and the Surveillance Port itself appeals, just not sure I’m sold on the whole package.

We’ll see.

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Rise of COBRA Wave 4 Pictorial Reviews at Terror Drome

by | Sep 6, 2009 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: The Movie

The Terror Drome continues its impressive streak if pictorial reviews for recently released Rise of COBRA toys with 4 out of the 5 figures from Wave 4!  These are just hitting retail now, only having been spotted in select Toys “R” Us across the country.  Every figure except for the Nano-Viper is featured.

I’ve also hosted a number of the great images below.

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The winner of this wave is far and away, the Night Adder.  Love the tats (COBRA La!  Sweet!), love the use of the Roadblock tooling, and just love the overall attitude.  He could definitely give Croc Master a run for his money.  But I especially love the new characters and new “history” we’re seeing woven into the movie line, too.  It’s like the “glory days” of Spy Troops and Valor Vs. Venom all over again.  I know there aren’t many fans out there who would consider the new sculpt age as the “Glory Days” but for those of us who value story and characters as highly as great toys, those were cool times.  We were seeing NEW G.I. Joe history written on a daily basis, and getting new things to incorporate into our Joe universe, and I feel the same way here.  It doesn’t hurt that the toys are really kick ass as well.

Still not sold on Charbroil.  He actually looks a bit cooler to me without the Blowtorch vest, but overall kind of a “bleh” figure.  Kamakura rocks my world, too.  I actually really like his short stature, too, it accentuates the “apprentice” angle, making him look quite a bit younger than a lot of the other Joes.  Red Fang Ninja is hit or miss.  I like the idea, not crazy about the MARS Trooper base figure for a ninja (especially one that’s supposed to be freelance), but the use of the Resolute Trooper head sculpt and the Comic Pack Storm Shadow webgear is pretty interesting.

All in all, a repaint heavy wave, yet still some nice new elements, just like Wave 5.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m itching for some really new stuff when the Pursuit of COBRA comes, but considering the techniques, I think we’re getting some very neat stuff even with the repaints.

Toys “R” Us COBRA 5-Pack images online

by | Sep 4, 2009 | G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe Toys, G.I. Joe: The Movie

Rulz over on HissTank.com got his hands on the upcoming Toys “R” Us Exclusive COBRA 5-Pack (to go along with his G.I. Joe 5-Pack) and has posted images here, which I’m also mirroring below.

As cool as the G.I. Joe 5-Pack is, I find the COBRA pack pretty underwhelming.  Sure, it’s great for army builders, since there are few changes to any of the troopers within (save for Elite-Viper’s COBRA symbol), but I’m not crazy about those two MARS Trooper/Officer figures, and I certainly don’t need a sixth Neo-Viper necessarily.  I wouldn’t mind another Elite-Viper, and that infiltration Duke is completely bad ass, but I don’t see myself paying $20 just for those two figures.  I’ll probably crawl eBay and see who’s dumping that Duke and keeping the troopers.

Interesting that the Joe set seems full of creative thinking and new characters, while the COBRA set just seems to be rehash central.  But again, for an army builder pack, maybe that’s what folks want in a COBRA set…we’ve already got plenty of Skittle-Vipers as it is.  :shifty:

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