Every good guy needs a bad guy to fight. G.I. Joe is no different. Back in the olden days with the twelve inchers...G.I. Joe never really had an enemy to face off against. Sure, when the property evolved into Adventure Team, Super Joe and what not...they got weird enemies...but the 80s 3 3/4 inch era gave us what most fans see as the first real opposing force to the G.I. Joe team. That evil force: COBRA! The Cobra trooper was and still is the backbone of the nameless, faceless legions. These guys are the bottom of the barrel infantry men for the Cobra organization. Simple, yet iconic design. Sure, Cobra eventually got all kindsa fancy specialized troops and all that, but this guy remains the true grunt of the Cobra army. Now, we got a true homage and redo back when the 25th Anniversary guys came out years ago. This Cobra trooper is more or less a more modernized version of said trooper. Still the same basic feel, though!
As far as weaponry goes, these guys get the basic stuff...a rifle, a rocket launcher, a pistol, and a knife. Nothin' too fancy. The knife and pistol have holsters sculpted onto the figure. Not bad.
The only weapon I would consider mildly complicated is the pistol. It has a removeable part. I'm no weapons expert, but it's either a silencer or some kinda barrel extension. The holster has a little loop to hold the loose barrel part...again...pretty nice. The extension holds in fairly snug...but the pistol has a tendency to fall out of the holster...bummer.
The above is a foreign release...I had gotten two from a Canadian dealer. Sometimes action figures have packaging variations for foreign countries...ones that feature text in two or three major languages. Aside from that, this version of the Cobra Trooper came with TWO pistols AND a coil of barbed wire! Ho! Other than that...same figure. I really like the barbed wire. I remember Dusty came with that accessory as well (I think). The filecard is not on the back of that foreign release figure...rather, in the blister bubble are packed three pre-cut file cards in different languages. I no longer care to collect and save the file cards...they tend to build up and take space. Eh, if I ever wanna refer to one...it's internet ahoy for me. I coulda saved 'em for this blog entry, but naw.
I originally was gonna pass on this new Cobra troop figure. I figured that I already had the 25th Anniversary version in multiples, so I didn't need or want this one. I ended up casually reading a review for the Hell of it and decided I then wanted one...well, several...since it was a great, semi-improved and more modern version of the figure. Well, I had seen these guys a lot in stores when I didn't want them...but when I did want 'em...different story! I managed to scrounge up two, before I realized most stores were getting rid of 2011 product. I went to eBay to wrangle at least two more for a total of four...nice troop builder number. There you have it!
My horrible photography skills aside, hopefully you can see the difference in the various versions of the basic Cobra troop. There's the 25th Anniversary version, the Resolute version, and the 30th Anniversary version side by side. The 25th version got reused and redecoed a lot, I know that much...I have several versions. The Resolute one is actually really cool, but I like this new one the best. Captures the old ideal, yet brings it into the modern age ever so nicely!
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