BIG BOA

More G.I. Joe Collector's Club swag! God, I can't believe I just said (typed) "swag"...anyway, here's Big Boa...the Cobra personal trainer. I skipped the second set of loose figures on the site since I didn't care for the Nano-B.A.T. at all and Quarrel had no real interest for me. The big money they were asking for those two was not worth it. The next set up was Big Boa and Topside. Anyhow, this guy is awesome and was gobbled up quick by folks like me who were members of the club yet had missed out on the subscription. Yeah, Big Boa is an iconic classic, even though he's one of the weirdos. He fits into the ranks of other classic Cobra weirdos like Croc Master, Crystal Ball, Raptor and such since he was just kind of a stand-out oddball. He was originally meant to be the arch nemesis of Rocky if he would have been made into a G.I. Joe like Sgt. Slaughter was. However, Rocky Balboa never got made as a G.I. Joe trainer because of licensing and what not, but his enemy was. That's pretty much THAT!

The old Big Boa...the classic came with boxing gloves and a stand-up punching bag. The new one comes with oh so much more! See, all this gear was originally planned to come with a training version of Duke from the movie line, but that figure was cancelled. Luckily, all this cool gear got used after all. Big Boa comes with a...umm...big staff with two thingies on either end. I forget what they are called, but they used to use 'em all the time on American Gladiators. He comes with a sledge hammer and a barbel as well. His head sculpt is all new too and no longer has the removable mouth piece hose the classic did. Not a bad thing...you won't lose it! I believe the studded suspenders are all-new as well.

Like the classic, the new Big Boa has removable boxing gloves...only now instead of rubber gloves that fit OVER his existing hands, you now have to pop off the regular hands at the wrists and replace them with the gloved hands. Not bad, but some are already scared of breaking the wrist pegs. So far, no problem...then again...I don't repeatedly pop 'em on a off. Lastly, you get this nice training headgear for another figure to wear...for, uh, training. Nice.

So basically? Fun figure! Absolutely great feel to this guy. Looks classic, yet the updates are vast improvement. He uses a "bigger" body sculpt that fits what his idea physique should be in most fans' eyes. Too bad such a popular oddball character never made it to mass retail production. Now if we can just get a Raptor and Crystal Ball figures...I'd be in heaven!