With the sources of vehicles getting lower and lower, one has to wonder just where the Club will continue to get material to generate their exclusives on an annual basis. While I don’t know precisely what tooling is still available, it seems to me that things have got to be running somewhat low, especially from a vintage variety. If that’s the case, I think the Club should consider looking towards some more modern vehicles, and the Mantis is a great subject.
Granted, the Club used the Mantis tooling just a couple years ago for the Sea Adventurer’s vehicle, and I loved it then, too. One of the highlights of the new sculpt era, the Mantis is small, sleek, but very fun, with folding wings, rotating engines, and a cool, unique appearance. Unlike many other of the new sculpt era vehicles, it feels like something that could have existed in the good old days, and has many nuanced characteristics to add to its fun. The contoured canopy is a small touch that adds some coolness.
Utilizing it as an Iron Grenadiers vehicle is actually an unexpected stroke of brilliance. The black, red, and gold suits the vehicle perfectly, and it almost desembles Destro’s Despoiler upon quick glance. I can totally see this thing as either General Mayhem’s personal aircraft or as a squad craft for an Iron Anvil Officer, who might pop the canopy and leap from it. Heck, it’s water based, too, so maybe it even belongs to the Undertow Officer. It’s really versatile and really fun, and as the free attendee vehicle, I think the Club made a remarkably great choice.
Mantis
Vehicle Design
Paint Deco
Play Features
3.2
Summary
Small in stature, with a lot of fun crammed into it, I don’t think anyone was expecting an Iron Grenadier themed Mantis sub to be the free attendee vehicle this year, but here we are. With a great Iron Grenadier deco and awesome red tinted windshield, it’s a very fun vehicle with some good play value. One of the neatest small vehicles of the new sculpt era, it translates to the modern day quite nicely.
I figured it was pretty much a done deal when the silhouette was shown alongside Dial Tone a short while ago, but the GI Joe Collectors Club has now confirmed that we will indeed be getting a Sea Adventurer to finish off the awesome Adventure Team figures, and he will come with a repainted Mantis vehicle from the Valor Vs. Venom and Rise of Cobra toy line.
Unfortunately, Lody from HissTank.com does not mention the initial source of this information, but I assume it’s from the latest Collectors’ Club newsletter, which should be arriving in some folks’ mailboxes currently. Lody mentions the description saying that it will come with an Adventure Team Joe in blue, and a repaint of the Mantis submarine in white.
Toy Nutz, also on HissTank.com has also posted a customized version of the Mantis, with some approximation of what we might expect. Gotta say, I’m not real big on the Mantis, but my twisted sense of completism will force me to pick this thing up. The figure should be cool, and who knows, maybe I’ll warm up to the Mantis in person, but as it stands, not my first choice.
Check out the custom images below. This is not necessarily an indication of what the final product will look like!
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For anyone interested in this item, or interested in more information from the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club, hit up GIJoeClub.com and join up!
With thanks to kennywr22 on HissTank.com, apparently Wal-Mart’s online site now has the following Alpha Class Rise of COBRA vehicles available for order:
While the Snarler Cycle utilizes new tooling, both the Mantis and the Skysweeper use existing molds (though the Skysweeper at least modified the Firebat somewhat), and all figures are repaints of previous releases. Ironically, Rollbar uses the parts from the 25th Anniversary Airborne, yet doesn’t use his name, and the “Air Raid” figure that comes with the Skysweeper uses Airborne’s filecard information (including his file name) but has a different code name. For a quick peek at these vehicles, check out the gallery below, and of course, for all release information, hit up the Rise of COBRA SuperPage.
HissTank has posted some new boxed images of upcoming G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA vehicles. We’ve seen most of this before in pre-production form, but a lot of the figures were swapped around and no one really knew their proper names. Well, now we know. Pictured below is:
Snarler Cycle w/ Beachhead and Rollbar (the urban deco repainted Airborne)
Sky Sweeper w/ Air Raid (dark blue repaint of Resolute Duke w/ Jet Pack)
Mantis Attack Craft w/ Aqua Viper Officer (black and red Lamprey repaint w/ removable helmet)
Also pictured is the four figure Target exclusive “Rescue Mission” set. Check out the original thread here, and the images mirrored below.
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I’ve also added all of the above images to the Rise of COBRA Toy SuperPage in their appropriate places.
