Pursuit of Cobra Cobra Trooper

When they original Cobra trooper came out way, way back in 1982, I was okay with the figure. But once the various specialist versions of Cobra soldiers - vipers, eels, snow serpents, Crimson Guard, range vipers, etc - the standard Cobra soldier was sort of left behind. Abandoned because the newer specialists looked much better.

Along comes the 25th Anniversary line with a new version of the stalwart Cobra soldier in 2008. Improved, but still a little off. The figure suffered from many of the flaws from the early 25th line. Wobbly legs, arm articulation a little off. Just didn't really work for me, so I never got into them too much and only bought a few. I wound up trading most of them to Wess.

Here comes 2011 and Hasbro gives us this guy. Damn! A much improved version of the Cobra soldier. Using design elements of the Pursuit of Cobra line, Hasbro has really created an excellent version of this trooper. Almost...

So here is the trooper out of package with all of his gear. An RPG, a sniper rifle, a knife, two silenced pistols, helmet, web gear and a roll of barbed wire. Really? Barbed wire? A dumb accessory when it came with Dusty, just as bad with this guy. Hasbro did a great job with the figure, but the gear should have been kicked up a few notches.

Two silenced pistols! Very cool, but the pistols are so thin that one is too loose in his holster. Be careful with those silencers, kids, you might and probably will lose them!

The figure is another Hasbro "Franken-joe" and that's just fine. It looks like Hasbro used the Shock Trooper arms and torso, Snake Eyes' legs, and a Resoulte Trooper head. The helmet seems new, very similar to the Resolute trooper helmet. The web gear comes from the original 25th soldier. A great combination of parts that just really works well together.

Here's the trooper holding his two weapons that are included. Not bad, but he needs more weapons!
From left to right - the AK-47 from the Jungle BAT, a standard Viper rifle and a Marauder NVR (?).
Trying out a couple different options for goggles on the helmet. Left - Para-Viper goggles, right - Desert Viper goggles. Both seem to work pretty well for the trooper, but the Shock Trooper goggles really work the best. (Pictures later!) The goggles for the Shock Trooper just don't seem to work for that figure, too loose on the helmet.

A quick comparison of the original 25 th version with his upgraded counterpart. No contest.

Another comparison between the original 25th, the POC upgrade and the Resolute trooper. I am definitely planning on troop building the new Cobra trooper. I just don't know the amount that I'll stop at. Of all of the assorted Cobra soldiers, the largest quantities are as follows - 9 Elite Vipers (ROC), 10 Resolute troopers and 20+ BATs. I think I may go up to around 9 or 10 of these guys, I'm at 3 right now. Twenty BATs is a bit out of control. But if sometime in the future, these guys show up at discount retailers, I know I will get out of control and load up. The Cobra soldier finally gets a respectable figure.