I do know it's going to suck, and I'm not going to go into the many ways they ruined this movie, but one of the things that upset me the most was the redesign of Cobra Commander. The fact that they changed the mask and traditional uniform that he is known for does not sit well with me nor the fandom as a whole. I'll stop there, onto the figure... which for some reason, I really do like. Yeah, I don't get it either.
So the first question that came to my mind when I saw him in package was whether or not his mask was removable. Sadly, no. With some prying it's apparent that you could pull it off and I'm sure there have been a few people that have by now. Though I'm not sure what you'd end up with since there's glue involved and there's no way of being certain of just how much Hasbro sculpted under there. This is much like the Cobra Commander figure that was released in 1991 with a red see through face mask. Many people were just as tempted to un-mask the head snake back then as I'm sure they are now. Sort of along the same lines as the many Serpentor figures that you see missing his helmet, we just HAD to know what he looked like under there. Turns out he's a weird egg/snake head guy that was molded to fit in that helmet that was never meant to be removed.
I'm taking that logic into consideration with this new Cobra Commander figure and choosing to leave his mask alone. For now.
The figure has holes for tubes on his chest and head though a bunch of figures were released sans these tubes and I got one of the tubeless figures. The absence of the tubes doesn't take away from the figure, I'd probably not like them enough to keep them on the figure as they look a bit bulky and would most likely get in the way a lot. Not good for the heavy wear and tear that my toys get during mine and Liz's four hour play period we have every day.
The figure comes with an over sized missile launcher (as do all the Rise of Cobra movie figures to keep the kiddies interested), a removable coat, some sort of injection gun for those pesky lil' nanomites, a communicator, a cobra (for him to command) and the classic Cobra Commander laser gun that debuted with the first release of CC back in 82. There's also a dog tag figure stand with his name on it that is standard now with 3&3/4" figures. This figure is well equipped and can even hold most of his weapons on his person which is a big plus for me. There are holes on both of his legs that can hold either the injection gun or the communicator. I think it's a nice enough throw back to the original figure that was able to carry his laser gun when attached to a hole that was on that figure's back.
So the articulation seems to be improved even over the 25th anniversary figures that were replaced by these new movie figures, and though the designs for the movie figures aren't really my cup o tea, I still appreciate the work put into them. The dress shoes on this figure is probably my favorite part, totally sets the mood for the figure showing that he's willing to get dirty, but he's going to have his best shoes on just so he has another reason to get angry when they get a bit of dirt on them.
Honestly, if you take this Cobra Commander figure as a completely new character, I like it a ton more. I was even able to fix this figure by swapping out the head (which is possible and simple to do thanks to the new ball-joint neck designs of these new figures) with a Cobra Commander figure from the Resolute/25th anniversary line.
So though the movie is inevitably going to be a shell of what the Joe movie should have been, we've been given some really nice figures to keep us broke enough not to buy a ticket.
Find Cobra Commander for sale here and here.
______________________________________________________________
Liz: When I was 16 or 17 Sam re-found all of his GI Joes and pulled all of his dusty vehicles out from the forgotten cupboards of his basement. I remember him taking the GI Joes out of the box one by one and laying them in rows on top of the comforter of his bed.
Immediately the drills began.
He would hold up a figure, "Tunnel Rat, " I would say.
"Good, now this one."
"Pathfinder?"
"Next."
"Um... Flint?"
"WRONG! FALCON!! YOU ALWAYS MIX THOSE TWO UP!!!! THIS LESSON IS OVER!!"
"Can I go play Zelda now?"
"Are you sure you're playing ZELDA and NOT FINAL FANTASY!?!? YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!"
*storms out of room*
I learned exactly 100 GI Joes during my training. My favorite was Techno viper, ONE because he was fuchsia and purple. TWO because it was 1996 and I secretly wanted techno/raver pants, not because I liked techno, but because I thought they would make me look thinner.
Eventually Sam's collection started to grow larger and I couldn't keep up. After that, I only learned the interesting looking/sounding ones which included Snow Job and all of the girl figures. Cover Girl was the prettiest, I decided, (GI Joe nerds are fuming. I should have said Scarlett. I know. Shut up.) and at the time she was also the most expensive figure Sam owned.
Sam has JUST bought Cover Girl for 35 dollars at the South County Antique Mall (note: SCAM). She was in pristine condition, and wouldn't you know Ol' Chuckles couldn't keep his hands off her. Well as you can imagine, not only was it funny to put them in sexy positions, it was even funnier to bang their crotches together and make sexy noises.
And then Cover Girl's pristine crotch fell off.
I've never seen one person so disappointed in another person.
This was the story of the day Sam fell out of love with me.
______________________________________________________________
Plastic/Material – 5/5
Poseability – 5/5
Packaging – 3/5
Design – 4/5
Playability – 4/5
Price (value) – 2/5
Overall – 4/5
