2005 Serpentor
The 2000‘s comic packs did a lot more wrong than they did right, but that was not always the case, such as with the #49 set. The reason this set’s so nice, is because you got arguably the best o-ring Firefly, and excellent update to Serpentor, and a hastily degrading Scrap-Iron who’s easy enough to sit aside.
I’m sort of ambivalent to Serpentor as a character. He’s unnecessary as a concept, and as I feel GI Joe relies so heavily on Cobra Commander as a central character in the plot, it’s a bad idea to try and replace him. Regardless, both the cartoon and the comics tried pretty hard to make the character appealing, so I have some interest in him for that. The Arise Serpentor, Arise mini-series was one of the more fun Sunbow storylines, likewise, I associate him a lot with the Cobra Civil War from the comics, which was another highlight. Put another way, the character is corny and irritating, but also a decent plot device you can associate with some of GI Joe’s better stories.
Unlike many of his comic portrayals, this Serpentor comes in bright shades of green and yellow, with yellow paint making up a lot of his details. Like with many comic-pack figures, he features a new head with a scowling face. I dislike how small it is, but it looks alright with his helmet on. The head can be put aside, and it leaves you with a fun, brightly colored repaint. The end result is a figure that retains the overall look of Serpentor while still providing something new and interesting, which is exactly what this figure needed to be.
For me and likely others too, one of the biggest appeals of this figure is that it’s one of the few Serpentor figures that’s decently easy to get and keep in good shape. The original ‘86 Serpentor has the infamous gold-plastic-syndrome plastic, which means the figure is overly fragile and virtually a ticking time-bomb, especially now that most of them are about 35-years old. The only other release of the character before the ME stuff was the ‘02 ARAHC repaint, which is virtually an unreleased figure. And then there’s this one, which was available for years with unsold overstock of these sets, available at or below retail price. Essentially, this one wins by default.
On that note, it’s sort of weird there isn’t more Serpentor toys. Even after the shift to 25th Anniversary style construction, there was two haphazard attempts at the character, before he was to be put away once again. He’s iconic enough that you’d think he’d be around a little more often, but alas, such is not the case. Joe fans rarely even seem to complain about his absence, which mildly gives me the impression there’s still more disdain for this character than there is fondness.
As for his parts, you get about everything you could hope for. Included is his cowl/backpack, a removable helmet, his tiny little knife, and a nice yellow cape. Something extra to make him a bit more interesting would’ve been nice, but I guess you get that in the form of the helmet. He’s really a figure where all of his parts are unique to him and can’t be switched with anything else, lest you worsen the figure’s look. With that in mind, it’s nice he’s one of the few vintage sculpts to retain most of his original parts.
For the longest time, this whole set Serpentor was included in was cheap and common. I got mine sealed, years after the fact from Amazon for something like $10, which was probably stock from when they managed online sales for TRU. Right now, anything can for random and absurd prices, but generally this set’s never been worth more than $30, sealed. With the current state of both Joe prices and inflation, that’s still a pretty good price for what you get.
I still maintain that if this set had been released in Wave 2 of comic packs in 2004, the entire series would have been far more successful. By the time this came out, the line was dead and both retailers and collectors knew it. Upside was that it was clearance fodder for so long, it made sense to build up extras.
The Firefly is, IMO, the best Firefly ever released…surpassing even the 1984. Scrap Iron kind of sucked. And, you’re right about the discoloration. I don’t think a single sample in production colors will exist within a few years. What will all the “serious G.I. Joe collectors!” do then?
It is odd we didn’t get at least an attempt at a Crimson Serpentor. That could have worked out. The 2002 is an amazing repaint. But, at $150+ these days, it proves Serpentor has some rabid fans. This one is nice enough. For the price, it’s the one to get. But, I’ve started to see even this Serpentor get up there a bit due to newbie frenzy.
I think GI JOE relied on Cobra Commander too much and obviously, Snake-Eyes, too. but I at least like CC.
Serpentor is hard character to use, the brittle original. The now overpriced ARAH Collection one. Comic pack one is fun, but still the character’s design is more of a standing around character than action oriented, and the whole point of Serpy’s personality is that he’s more hands on…I guess.
They could have made a cartoon “yellow” Serpentor and red and/or rust colored “error” and commercial animation versions. I don’t see factory customizers ever doing that.
A while back, A-Man described Serpentor as a character who’s more of an “Event” in the G.I. Joe storyline, rather than a recurring long term nemesis. I think that’s a pretty apt description of Serpentor as a character. The G.I. Joe comic was fairly meandering, as there’d be story arcs, but absolutely nothing of consequence would come out of them, for the most part. Serpentor and the Civil War was one of the few that did have consequences.
This figure is pretty great. I think he’s probably in the upper echelon of Comic Pack figures, and even just of the repaint era. The head’s a bit goofy, but the helmet covers up for that, and the sculpting of the helmet was really good.
Great review and photos, as always. But I especially like your perspective on this one.
This figure is probably the weakest of the three ARAH-style Serpentor figures, but it won’t crumble to dust and you won’t need to save up four months of beer money for it. The colors are also objectively very good. The head sculpt is maybe the only weak part, but the cowl does a good job disguising it. The photo with Serpy in this HISS turret proves that it works.
He’s also a good source of donor accessories. When I finally re-acquired a v1 Serpentor, I immediately took the cape and the knife from this version and gave it to him. The yellow cape works very well with the original, imo. And the knife just looks good in black. Still, that’s a figure I’m afraid to move too much since my childhood original shattered back in 2001 or so.