Tagged: Pursuit of Cobra

Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead review

By Loran

Hey look, a Joe I forgot to review!

Beachhead is a character I’ve always had mixed feelings about. I don’t hold him in the contempt I do for Duke, but I always felt that he could never stand up to Stalker as the team’s #1 Ranger. Maybe it’s because of my distaste for the Sunbow cartoon (of which he was rather overused) or my preference for Stalker’s backstory in the comics, but Beachhead just never did it for me. Regardless, I know an important character when I see one, and I always try to keep them active in my collection.

Too bad most of his figures up until now kinda sucked.

Released in the first wave of Pursuit of Cobra figures as a part of the City Strike assortment, Beachhead is one of the few figures that didn’t need any cosmetic changes. While some like Duke got a new head to move away from the movie likeness, others like Ripcord had to be made into entirely new characters. Being an offscreen character that wears a mask, Beachhead ran into no such problems. I’m glad, too, since the one we got with the Snarler Cycle during Rise of Cobra was really lame, and made even lamer when placed against the AMAZING Airborne repaint he came with.

Beachhead’s base figure very much has the “five minutes into the future” aspect that Pursuit of Cobra was going for. He’s actually one of the few vest-wearing figures I’ve seen that looks good without it. With a few more paint applications, he’d be able to stand well enough on his own.

One issue I have with the base figure is this weird… meter thing on his leg. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth. It always pops out and won’t stay at all if you try to bend his knees. Maybe it’s like the bombs the Predators use whenever everything goes wrong, so like if he gets stuck behind Cobra lines he can blow himself up? I dunno. Continue reading →

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Pursuit of Cobra: Cobra Fury Review

By Loran

Like I said in the Alley Viper review, I love urban combat. Gray, white, and black camo; shotguns; close-quarters combat; ducking in and out of alleyways-it all just hits me in the right places. Now, I’m sure a lot of people might find the idea of a tank for urban combat kind of… silly. And it is! A tank is probably the last thing I’d bring to such a small battlefield—it’d just be a big rocket magnet! But this is COBRA we’re talking about, and even when their ideas seem kind of stupid on paper, after trial and error, they make ‘em work. Continue reading →

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Pursuit of Cobra Jungle Viper Review

By Loran

No matter what the environment, Cobra’s got a specialized trooper just for that purpose. Whether it be the city, the desert, the arctic, or the jungle, chances are, the Joes are going to find more than just a bunch of blue-suited Cobra rookies. These are the guys they really need to watch out for.

If I didn’t know any better, at first glance, I would’ve pegged the Jungle Viper for an updated Night Viper figure! This suits me just fine, because I was never able to build up a huge platoon of those guys. It’s good to see Hasbro giving us updates of the lesser-seen troops for the late years of the line; even with a new name, we can all tell what it’s supposed to be.

The Jungle Viper doesn’t need to go over-the-top with his camouflage-just simple green and black. It’s simple and effective. I feel any sort of camouflage color scheme would just clutter the design and distract from the great detail this figure. I would have liked to see more of the smaller details painted, but I can understand why they chose not to do that.

A lot of the green parts are covered with a very subtle black wash. It really makes the parts seem more “three-dimensional”. Hasbro’s been getting very good at this lately. Continue reading →

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Pursuit of Cobra Destro Review

By Loran

Destro has always been one of my favorite characters in G.I. Joe lore. I find the idea of a big, intimidating Scotsman who wears a metal mask selling weapons to both sides just awesome. You can bet I was excited when I found out that he was the primary villain of Rise of Cobra, and even though Chris Ecclestein didn’t don the shiny head til the end of the movie, his performance was awesome enough to carry the character-so much so that I use the unmasked Destro from that movie as my default. I even made my own little group of Iron Grenadiers about 20 strong for him to command.

Much like the amazing new Snake Eyes, I got a glimpse of this guy for the first time at Joecon last year, and of course, I was sold. While that wacky arctic Destro released earlier in the line looked nice, he just didn’t do it for me. I think that opinion seems pretty widespread, since I see that figure pretty much everywhere I go. I’d guess that mostly has to do with how awesome this figure looked in the eyes of the fans! Continue reading →

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Review: Pursuit of Cobra Commander

By Loran

I’m a big G.I. Joe fan. I love the toys, I love the characters, and I love the vehicles. But what I love most of all is COBRA. It always seems that they have the more interesting stories, characters, backgrounds, and well, having armies of silly-looking soldiers and awesome vehicles helps their case quite a bit. Most importantly, though, is their leader-the Cobra Commander himself. Whether it be the washed-up used car salesman in the comics, a crazy snake-person in the cartoon, or an unstable ex-soldier who likes to science in the movies, the character is classic, and while he’s underwent minor revisions to his outfit over the years, he hasn’t seen anything too major.

Until now.

Yes, the movie Cobra Commander outfit (as well as his backstory) was a HUGE departure from the norm. Honestly, I don’t see that as being a bad thing. With the exception of the 1987 Battle Armor and that horrid red mask… thing from 1991, all of his outfits remained largely the same. Naturally, when the movie outfit was revealed, there was a lot of outcry from the fandom, demanding the return of his classic hood or battle helmet. I, however, welcomed the change. I felt it was time for the big boss snake to put on something new, and boy, this sure was it.

As much as I liked the outfit, I had one issue: the facemask. In design I thought it was really cool, but the mostly transparent appearance was kind of offputting to me. I never liked the concept of the Commander (or rather, anybody in G.I. Joe aside from Snake-Eyes) wearing a mask to cover up a deformity, and making it very clear that there was one didn’t sit well with me. Continue reading →

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