GI Joe: Renegades - Duke

Hasbro did a great job bringing Duke from the Renegade series into toy form. The accessories are a bit weak. Four pistols? Really, Hasbro?

The head sculpt is excellent, probably the best Duke head sculpt ever. Personally, I like this new head sculpt on the Resolute body.

So the Duke on the right is my "default" Duke.

Cobra Viper - 30th Anniversary

The year 1986 was a great year to be a G.I. Joe collector. One of the best Cobra troop builder figures arrived on the scene - the Cobra Viper. The new look of the Cobra foot soldier was vastly improved over the plain Cobra trooper from 1982. A new helmet, improved sculpting, simply, effective accessories - you know you needed a bunch of them to fight against G.I. Joe.

With the rebirth of GI Joe in the 25th anniversary line, the viper was reborn as well - much to the scorn and derision of GI Joe fan. Odd sculpting, poorly poseable legs, and those hands - those horrible hideous hands. Was the viper to be lost forever and only remembered as this 25th anniversary nightmare?

There was a new attempt at retooling the viper, but it was not much of an improvement.

Fortunately, Hasbro revisted the Viper for the Pursuit of Cobra line after the Rise of Cobra movie line. The sculpting job was incredible, but still the fan boys were whining. The new version was not close enough to the look of the original viper. Fan boys wanted the red gauntlets. Also, due to poor distribution and running changes, that blue gloved viper was very difficult to find.


Thankfully, Hasbro reissued the Viper as a part of the 30th Anniversary line, now with red arm guards, similar to the 1986 original, and an assortment of weapons. The body made use of exsisting pieces from other Pursuit of Cobra/30th Anniversary figures and the vest of the 25th Viper. Nearly everything worked. Joe fans now had an awesome update to the classic 1986 Viper. The new Viper came with 5 different weapons that could be used to create quite an impressive Viper assault team. Something about the way the arms moved and the size of the traditional Viper rifle made it very difficult for the Viper to hold his new version of his traditional assault rifle. With a quick comparison to the original, it is quite obvious that this new 30th Anniversary figure is a worthy successor to the original 1986 version.

Cast out the sad 25th attempt and embrace the 30th goodness!

A great alternative to the Viper's assault rifle is this one produced by Marauder Gun Runners.
An exceptionally sculpted assault rifle, it works extremely well with the new Viper. Two problems - I don't think Marauder is producing the gun any longer and I only bought two.
Damn...

No worries, Marauder Gun Runners has a huge assortment of weapons that work great with all of your GI Joe figures.

Cobra Iron Grenadier

I'm kinda sorry I got this guy. I wanted the smart gun, from "Aliens" so I got him. I thought it would be cool. I was wrong..this guy sucks. He's bulky. He's Steam Punk, he's a reject from a video game. The smart gun is TOO BIG. It's belt fed...it doesn't have the steadi-cam rig to hold it like in the movie. The helmet is the head. The catchers gear is stupid.. I hate him. The 10yr old says he looks cool. But he's useless. The 47 yr old says blah...just blah...sorry, I just can't do anything with it, and I don't care.

The Corps!

Ok so today I was hungrey for some new toys...
I got a few things from The Corps!. I got a 3 pack of figures that came with a cool hooded figure with some kind of video game looking NVGs, a mild bearded figure, and a bald guy with NVGs pulled up. I looked at the heads and said, they gotta get transplanted...I perfected the carve and drill technique some time ago. Another discovery, there are 2 styles of neck post with these guys. A full on ball and a square based post. Now why is this important? welll, it means the heads will transplant onto PTE figures VERY easy! But that's another post... Any way, these guys are USELESS!! The pack came with an OK but not good dirtbike for background use, a really crappy tracked thing that got tossed. And useless floppy weapons. I got a single fig, a Nick Fury looking head. Same story as the others, useless. And then I opened the STORM STRIKE swing wing fighter. It looks like a cross between a FireBat and the F22 Raptor and a bit of Tomcat. It has lights and sound. Two bombs and two missile-let thingys. It seats one pilot (not included). The plane is ok, the digi-flage is painted on, but there is an odd protective cover over the wings. Now, my 10yr old brain says "COOL!" it is at least as good as the Firebat/Skysweeper. And to me, better. Did I mention the retractable gear? Of course the 47 year ols says this thing is kinda tad pole-y. It's fat at the front and sadly dribbles to scrawny with pityful tail fins. Gotta fix them. It is really gonna be a Cobra bird. I won't get another one, but I do intend to get a few of the FANG looking helos. And the Vamp looking truck looks nice. And to go with my AT yellow Dauphin, I intend to get the lil 1 man lil bird helo, and it's yellow time for it too. Is The Corps! worth getting? Only if you're willing to cut/chop/hack/paint and discard. But it is nice to see stuff cheap enuff to be able to do that with. Wait until I get some pics of my new figs.