Tag Archives: Cobra Trooper

2016 TBM Cobra Trooper (Tiger Force)

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2016 TBM Cobra Trooper (Tiger Force)

The Black Major got famous for making figures everyone wanted and never got from Hasbro, like environment specific Troopers. Over time though, that got stale, and he eventually branched out into more oddball designs like Techno-Viper colors, Eco-Warriors, CAT and probably the most odd of them all: Tiger Force. Technically, it’s just a Cobra Trooper in Tiger Force-like colors, and I think they were sometimes branded “Bengal Troopers”, but the colors are a closer match to vintage Tiger Force hues than most of the Python Patrol figures he made.

When they came out, these were kind of the duds of the lot, though I remember this entire wave of Troopers sat around for a while. They were not my first picks either, as Cobras in Tiger Force colors were just a little bit of a challenge to accept. Yet, they sat around and were only selling for a few bucks a piece, so eventually I wound up with a full squad of 5 or 6 of them. Those accidental army-builds always wind up having me question my own tastes, as the stuff I’d normally never consider building a squad of often winds up appealing to me once it finally happens (I had a similar experience with the Frag Viper).

It takes time coming around to them, but the truth is I think these have some overlooked appeal. The first part of that appeal is that the colors are striking and look good; the yellow is the perfect orange-tinged tone similar to Tiger Force Frostbite’s. The second, is that they really aren’t Tiger Force, just tiger colored. There’s no subteam or GI Joe markings on them, just a lonely Cobra symbol on the chest like any other trooper. The colors aren’t even that bad of a match for typical Cobra, since the HEAT Viper, Secto Viper and Desert Scorpion are similar tones. So these actually go along fairly well with a selection of figures from roughly ‘89 through ‘90. Or you can repurpose Wreckage as Firefly and use them as a squad of fake Tiger Force infiltrators.

Other than that, it’s the 2016 TBM Trooper mold and it’s more or less the same thing as other variants I’ve reviewed in the past. The toes turn inwards slightly and the head is slightly thinner than a Hasbro figure, but otherwise the quality is good. The joints are tight, it’s compatible with normal backpacks, and the plastic has a nice, semi-gloss sheen to it like a Hasbro figure. Newer “factory customs” have moved to more of a dull finish I don’t like quite as much.

Of the four or so runs of TBM Troopers that have happened now, the 2016 lot was by far my favorite. All of the figures, even something as odd as this one, just seemed to be the perfect compliment to something else in my collection. That’s not to say the others weren’t good, but a lot of the Trooper recolors at this point come off as non sequitur, which doesn’t really suit the character so well. Cobra blue is classic because the original thrived on homogeneity, kinda like Storm Troopers establishing white as the Imperial color in Star Wars.

The Tiger theme was kept for subsequent runs of TBM castings (Snow Serpents, Eels, Night Vipers), and even another run of Cobra Troopers at some point, though a lot of details changed and shifted. Most notably the hue of yellow was different on the later ones compared to this one, which is a shame since the shades of yellow and brown were so perfect on this release. The later Tiger Troops do have more detailed paint masks and more colors on them, and also loose the annoying inward toe, so there’s some give and take.

Pricing old TBM figures is tough, because not so many of these were made, so they will only become more rare overtime. Despite, they aren’t official figures, and the market for them is also similarly small. So, sometimes an old TBM figure will still go in the single digit range, and sometimes they’ll hit upwards of $20 to $50. This figure shouldn’t be worth a lot, but at the moment I have no reference besides some BiNs for around $25. Contemporaries from the same run go cheap at auction though, so it seems fair the say this guy’s value is still around $12.

Tiger Force, Cobra Trooper, TBM 2016, GI Joe, ARAHTiger Force, Cobra Trooper, TBM 2016, GI Joe, ARAH

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper

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2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper

I sometimes have wondered what there is for me to say about the Toys R” Us Cobra Infantry Forces, that hasn’t already been said more cogently by someone with more relation to it as an adult at the time. I was around 10 when this set came out, so perhaps the only thing relatively interesting I could tell you is some oddball kid-gripes that are mostly regurgitated sentiments I’ve shared on other topics regarding 2000‘s Joes. Though I guess other than that, Cobra Troopers are cool as crap aren’t they?

2004 Infantry Forces gi joe

I didn’t buy many GI Joes as a kid. Mainly because I only had enough money to go after one or two toy lines, and for me that was mostly Transformers, Gundam, and ZOIDS (If you remember Zoids, bless your heart.). I didn’t dislike GI Joe either, but it’s lack of contemporary media and questionable retail offerings meant that I never felt compelled to buy new ones when for all intents and purposes, my brother’s tub of figures (along with my small collection of clearance figures) was plenty good enough.

That wasn’t to say I was content with the Joes we had per se, rather, just that the average New Sculpt figure had about as much appeal to me as the worst 90‘s redesign. Swapping Grunt V3 for Grunt V5 is a prospect with little appeal, even then. I knew the GI Joe characters only through Sunbow, which I managed to watch a few times though USA, Toonami and a few old VHS tapes. So the only two things I would want from GI Joe would be the characters I knew, and good looking generics that didn’t need a character, stuff exactly like the TRU 6-packs.

Which is how we get back around to the Cobra Infantry Forces, and why I never bought them as a kid: I never knew about them until they were gone! As egregious as half of them were, these 6-packs were exactly what I wanted from Joe back then. It’s just that I seldom ever went to TRU, so I didn’t even know about these until I saw the stagnant remains of the Green Shirts and Cobra Imperial Procession in late ‘05 or possibly ‘06. I really wanted some generic Cobras and Green Shirts to play with back then, since they were just fun soldier toys and a little more plausible looking than what I had. Instead though, these were made blink-and-miss-it collector items while kids were expected to be more concerned with the likes of Hi-Tech, Coil Crusher and Venomous Maximus.

Anyways, the figures are nice. As far as I’m aware more of the figure is newly tooled than not, as the torso and possibly the legs were new castings based on the original Trooper sculpt. There’s not much of a notable difference besides a bit of bulk on the new one. The arms were swapped for Thunder arms, which was a good choice both for looking the part and also for being some old sculpting from ‘84. Of course, the head is a new sculpt, and in the fashion of the Comic Pack figures, it’s way smaller than the original. It looks weird when you pose them with 80‘s figures, but they’re actually not such a bad match for some of the 90‘s sculpting, which provides a lot of novelty to me still.

The Cobras in the set have some new details, like little patches tampographed on the side of their arms. It looks pretty nice, though I wish they hadn’t done these and the Cobra symbol in such an orange tone. They’re also multi-ethnic, which is pretty cool. At one point I had wanted to collect a lopsided amount of black Troopers, to have as region specific troops in Africa. Never got more than one spare, but maybe one day I’ll go back and do that still. The Officer and Squad Leader from the set have more detail and color variety, though I think the Cobra Troopers may have come out best for taking a simple approach.

Infamously, every figure in the set came equipped with a Rock Viper PSG1 and a SAW Viper backpack. Really, that gun’s not even a bad sculpt, but the excessiveness of giving them to every Cobra Trooper in existence is mildly absurd, I think this is partly what gave the sculpt a bad reputation. It was a lot harder to get decent Joe guns back then, so you can probably thank this 6-pack for Marauder’s Gun Runners even existing today. At least there weren’t any Sound Attack tabs on these.

s-l1600

There’s an alternate set of head sculpts for these that would’ve had removable helmets. Sounds like a cool gimmick, but they looked way worse for it. The first heads were noticeably more pencil-necked than the ones that replaced them, and the helmets looked really wide and lame. Here’s a Forgotten Figures post on some loose samples.

A large appeal of these figures is that they’ve always been Cobras for poor people, essentially. You can get carded sets for around $50, and loose figures (usually sans the PSG1) for $12. Twenty years in and these don’t seem to be spontaneously degrading like a lot of figures from the period, so that’s something you might not have to worry about. They cost a little less than a squad of Troops from The Black Major, and imagine his figures have probably helped keep prices relatively low on these.

heading-in-on-foot_6129369216_owob-pt2-arahc-major-bludd-2000-version-4_6540850833_ogi joe fred Vii vintage figure hasbro

2004 Cobra Infantry Forces Trooper Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

Joe A Day

JoeBattlelines

GeneralsJoes

2016 Cobra Trooper (Techno Viper Colors) (The Black Major)

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2016 Cobra Trooper (Techno Viper colors)

I’m feeling pretty burnt-out on Joe this week, and I think my solution for that going forward is that I’ll just write about one of the many color variations that The Black Major has put out over time. Will it solve my burnout? Probably not, but while I’m in a frump, it gives me a chance just to cover some of these repaints in detail. I can’t make an interesting blog post about the Cobra Trooper or the Night Viper seven or eight times over again, but I think it’s worthwhile to dump some content on these for the sake of posterity.

The 2016 run of TBM Cobra Troopers was really a good lot. His first wave of figures from around ‘09 put a bigger focus on realistic, environmentally themed colors; the 2016 figures instead go for some punchy colors inspired by various facets of the brand. It’s flavored a bit by contemporary trends, but each set of figures did a good job of exploring the various kinds of Cobra Trooper repaints we needed, that Hasbro never gave us. In this figure’s case, his colors are lifted off the ‘87 Techno Viper.

Seeing the original Cobra rendered in the “Cobra Purple” that’s synonymous with the line’s later years seems bizarre yet oddly enjoyable. Mind you, it’s just a tad more pink than the Techno Viper’s purple, but it looks pretty close when they aren’t side by side. You could use him as a Techno Viper in training, or even use him to represent an ordinary trooper from the later years of the organization. Maybe Cobra adopted purple as their color after the end of the Cobra Civil War, to represent a new identity. Or not, my Department of Destruction Cobra Handbook didn’t elaborate on the meaning of purple uniforms.

When this figure came out I thought I’d never get tired of Cobra Trooper repaints. To a mild extent, I have. After this set of Cobras TBM really explored every avenue he could with the sculpt, and while a few useful looking repaints came out later down the line, a lot of the ones he did last year just didn’t resonate with me. They aren’t bad, but at current pricing I’d rather just bolster my existing collection with a few more troops here and there, rather than get another one-off recolor. Of course I get that there’s always demand for more troopers, so I don’t fault the later ones for existing; I just personally got my fill.

Another oddity of the 2016 TBM figures is that most of them include painted weapons. I think this was mostly just because of the mold layouts, but thanks to it you do get some particularly exotic pieces. This figure includes the classic Dargunov and the Officer’s AK-47, as well as a V1 Viper backpack and figure stand all in bright silver, the same tone used for the figure’s face-mask and knee pads. The silver AK is incredibly cool. The details of the sculpt pop with the metallic paint, plus it makes a great compliment for so many other figures. Lampreys, of course Techno Vipers, and Ripper all look pretty natural with it.

You can still get these for somewhere between $20 to $25, which isn’t bad for some obscure bootlegs that are around 7 years old now. Some of the “factory customs” have gotten a little pricey over time, especially when they’re not too weird like this figure. When they were new these repaints sat around for a while at something like $7 a piece, but those days are long gone now, just like the spending power of the dollar.

2005 Cobra Night Watch Trooper

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2005 Cobra Night Watch Trooper

Uncharacteristically for a 2000‘s GI Joe item, the entire Cobra Night Watch set is an example of a good idea with mostly good execution. In a time pretty long before TBM, Hasbro put out a set of Cobra Troopers and Officers in unique colors to represent a niche role. It’s something collectors wanted enough to make the aforementioned bootlegs extremely viable, though for whatever reason, Hasbro really only every touched the idea with this set.

Seventeen years later, I feel these are still holding up very well, even with so many excellent TBM Troopers floating around. That could always change, as the biceps on mine are a slightly different hue from the forearms. At the moment, that doesn’t bother me too much, though I’d absolutely hate for these to suddenly join the ranks of spontaneously discolored 2000‘s figures. Other than that bit of paranoia, they’re still a set of figures with great decos that maintain most of the classic Trooper sculpt, which is enough for me to like ‘em a lot.

In their original six-pack, you got four troopers and two different Squad Leaders, AKA: Cobra Officers. Of the Troopers, most were the same although one switches the normal Caucasian skin-tone for African, just like the other army-builder sets before this. Because I acquired my set piecemeal, I never got the black one since someone routinely bid-sniped me on every single auction I’ve ever tried for. I figured one day my patience would pay off and I’d complete my set, but instead everyone randomly became a toy collector and prices doubled.

Overall, the figures have a nice paint scheme. There’s camo on the pants and helmet, extra color on parts of the webgear, additional Cobra and Night Watch markings on their helmets and biceps. They did a good job of bringing out the little details on the sculpt, and it’s right at the perfect amount of paint before they’d start to look busy. If anything, the markings on the sides of the helmet might have been a bit too much, but it always feels a little unfair to fault a toy for having too much paint.

Like many of the Cobras from their time period, they feature V1 Roadblock’s arms and waist in lieu of the ‘83 Cobra’s. It makes them look a little chunky, but I don’t mind it much. The original lower arms were apparently still floating around, since Hasbro used them for the comic-pack Trooper, though this guy replaced them for Roadblock’s entire arm. Looking back, I sort of find it weird Hasbro switched the arms around for every Cobra Trooper they released back then (the Infantry Forces used Thunder’s arms), you’d think they would have settled on one replacement like they did with all the Viper repaints from back then.

Their accessories aren’t great, but they work. Included is the super generic ‘03 Overkill knife and Sand Viper’s G36 rifle, which was also the gun for nearly every other Joe and Cobra released between ‘03 and ‘05. Thanks to the pliable thumbs, the figures can at least use this gear, but it really does not do them justice. Then again, I suppose I should just give them credit for including guns at all, as Hasbro could’ve tossed in a bunch of ninja weapons like they did with the Shadow Guard.

Night Watch Troopers go between $10 and $20, with the accessories not playing a huge factor in that value. Even if you buy them in lots or the complete set, they tend to always average around $20 each, so when you occasionally get them for less, you’re doing good. These have always been pretty popular, so that’s not really surprising. $20 still feels like a lot for an ‘05 figure to me, but that’s in line with what a bootleg Cobra will cost you, so it makes sense.

gi joe cobra night watch dtc 05 toys "r us set 6-pack gi joe cobra night watch dtc 05 toys "r us set 6-packgi joe cobra night watch dtc 05 toys "r us set 6-pack

2005 Cobra Night Watch Trooper Links:

Forgotten Figures

Joe A Day

Half the Battle

Joe Battlelines

Black Major 2017 Cobra Soldado

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Black Major 2017 Cobra Soldado

There’s going to come a point where my posts about custom Cobra Troopers, Night Vipers and Alley Vipers are going to all sound the same, which is frustrating. However, it’s a risk I’m willing to take to keep putting out posts on the different 3rd party releases, as there’s not a lot of information on these out there. Plus, there’s so many of these repaints I genuinely like, I’m beginning to think I just can’t get tired of the Cobra Trooper mold. Here I’ll be looking at The Black Major’s Cobra Soldado, a reinterpretation of the Brazilian Comandos em Acao figure.

TBM’s Cobra Soldado is made from his second Cobra Trooper mold that he began using around 2014. It’s noticeably different from the 2010 mold, but the only real flaw in my view is that the figure’s stance is somewhat pigeon-toed. Other than that, it’s a really solid mold and there’s a lot of changes I like here. Notably, compatibility with standard vintage backpacks, though I also feel as though these can sit better than the 2010 figures, which had an odd habit of their legs wanting to spread apart.

This figure is of course a remake of the Brazilian Cobra Soldado, as mentioned before. It’s really cool that TBM chose to make this because that’s a very nice figure famous for it’s bright blue color it used instead of the standard Cobra blue. The downside of that figure, (besides being rare) is that it makes use of the ‘82 straight-arm tooling. For me and most collectors, this renders a figure nearly useless, so this Black Major release is the first Cobra Soldado that actually works with the other 90% of a collection.

There’s at least three different takes/variants on this figure, which is surprising. The first release has a black cobra symbol and a black mask, and later figures showed up with chrome masks, Micky-mouse Cobra Commander styled silver-symbols, and finally a red-symbol figure that is a slightly different shade of blue. The last figure is the one that stands out the most as it’s blue color looks closer to the original Cobra Soldado, besides having the appropriately colored symbol. Of them, the red-symbol variation is easily my favorite, though I saw them less often than the first release.

Of course, another cool thing about the second Cobra trooper mold is that you get some extra accessories with it. Besides the classic Dragunov, you get a Cobra Officer’s AK47, and the ‘86 Viper’s backpack. I rarely use the packs, but the AK is nice the have in ample supply, and it really adds value to these for me. Of course, I guess you could complain that the figure doesn’t include Rock&Roll’s M60, like the original Soldado, but personally I really don’t care since machine-gunners are niche and not something you need a lot of.

The 2017 run of Cobra Troopers saturated the market a little more than older TBM Troopers. For a while, you saw these show up in good numbers, and less popular figures could be had pretty cheaply. As one would expect, they’re a little harder to find now, and generally they run around $20 a pop. For me, this is a perfectly reasonable price given the nature of these figures, though I’ll probably not be buying more since I already acquired a nice squad while they were cheap.

hasbro vintage arah comandos em acao tbm customs the black major hasbro vintage arah comandos em acao tbm customs the black major

Black Major 2017 Cobra Soldado Links:

Forgotten Figures

Differences Between TBM Troopers at Attica Gazette

2010 TBM Black Cobra Trooper

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2010 TBM Black Cobra Trooper

It seemed like not so long ago that a bunch of mysterious, bootleg Cobra Troopers popped up on eBay and no one really knew what they were or what they’d be like. While the “factory custom” scene has changed a little in the years since then, it’s interesting to take a look back at some of the very first figures. This black Cobra Trooper was the first one I acquired.

When these figures surfaced, I was dead-broke, so I couldn’t get too much of what was available. Because of that, I singled out figures I thought might be more well suited for use in small numbers apart from bigger squads. Given that this guy is mostly just a single black color, I thought he could make decent for a sniper. I believe I stole the idea of using an all-black Cobra as a sniper from the Sideshow Cobra Sniper that came out a little before that, which struck me as an interesting concept.

At the time, for a bootleg that nobody knew much about, the quality of this release was quite impressive. A series of similar Trooper bootlegs had come out roughly a year prior, which were much flimsier by comparison. Since then, I think the subsequent Black Major releases have made this figure seem less nice. It has a few interesting quirks not seen on later releases, namely the backpack hole. On the original run of TBM Troopers, all of the figures had smaller screw-holes/backpack holes. This was done deliberately to further distinguish these figures from their vintage counterparts, but it also means they can’t use a backpack.

For the most part, the figure is solid black with some light gray painted details and a silver Cobra sigil. It’s a simple look that fulfills it’s role in my collection nicely, and also looks good with basically any other early Cobra. The paint is sharp and clean, although interestingly there’s a good amount of excess paint above the belt on the waist. The later Troopers from TBM don’t have this problem, but on all of the 2010 Troopers, everything above the belt is painted, which is a bit quirky.

For accessories, you get only the classic Dragunov sniper riffle like with the original figure. It’s a faithful recreation and at the time, this part was precious and hard to come by. Of course, it’s the only part you get and later releases improved by including the Officer’s AK-47 and a Viper backpack. Still, at the time just getting the black Dragunov was great, and I certainly enjoy having no shortage of them years later.

Pricing Black Major customs can be difficult, as this figure’s gotten much harder to find, as you might expect. Of course, most of the customs including ones from around the same time tend to cap their value around $20 to $30, so it’s fair to say this guy’s probably in the same ballpark. I think Black Major’s second run of Cobra Troopers was better than the first, but this is still a really a cool figure I’m glad to have in my collection.

TBM the black major custom Cobra Trooper black 2010 gi joe vintage hasbro
TBM the black major custom Cobra Trooper black 2010 gi joe vintage hasbro
TBM the black major custom Cobra Trooper black 2010 gi joe vintage hasbro

2010 TBM Black Cobra Trooper Links:

Collection of all 2010 TBM Cobra Troopers

Pre-Black Major Cobra Trooper customs

Later TBM Cobra Troopers

Black Major Desert Scorpion Trooper

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Black Major Desert Scorpion Trooper

For almost an entire decade now, collectors have been bombarded by an entourage of third-party GI Joe figures, mainly produced by the Black Major. After getting more Cobra Troopers than you can shake a stick at, Night Vipers, Alley Vipers, and an endless amount of other creations, keeping up with all of them is getting hard. A few of the oldest customs go mostly forgotten, which brings me to the Desert Scorpion Trooper from the Black Major.

Essentially, this figure is from his earliest production runs around 2010. It’s made from a different mold than all of the Troopers that came after 2014 or so, and it’s reflected somewhat in the quality of the figure. Don’t get me wrong, the quality’s pretty great, especially for what one would’ve expected back then. Though it’s certainly not as nice as later runs of figures. In general, loose arms tended to be a bit more common with these than the later mold. As well, I found that mine had a slight issue with their hips not wanting to sit straight, a problem the later mold also lacked.

The colors and design, to my knowledge are based on an older bootleg made in small numbers by other individuals. TBM’s figure is a much more saturated tan color, compared to the lighter tan of the older figure. The usage of the Desert Scorpion sigil is similar between the two figures. Personally I think TBM’s version of the design is the better appearance, but it can be argued the old figure was closer in color to Hasbro plastic, so there’s room for debate.

I think when these were new, they were largely overshadowed by the camouflage Troopers that came out at the same time. The added realism of the camouflage, coupled with the amount of detail that it provided on the vintage Cobra Trooper mold made for a figure most collectors couldn’t afford to ignore. This guy on the other hand comes off as more of a standard Trooper with a switched up pallete; yet for me this is one of the figure’s main appeals. While the camouflage figures always looked impressive, they don’t blend in well with most of the vintage ARAH figures. The Scorpion Trooper doesn’t look that out of place comparatively.

Like the V1 Cobra Trooper, this figure only included a Dragunov sniper riffle. Newer Trooper customs have gone to add in a Viper backpack and AK47 from the Cobra Officer, but these were more true to the original. I definitely prefer the AK to the Dragunov, but it’s quite a blessing to be able to hoard up tons of spare AKs and Dragunovs when these were so hard to get with vintage Troopers prior. Even if this figure didn’t have the nice extras, I was plenty happy just getting more Dragunovs.

They show up pretty rarely now, so it’s hard to figure out what the Scorpion Troopers go for on average. Most custom Cobra Troopers don’t go for more than $30, and certain figures will still only run around $15. So although it’s a wide estimate, given their rarity I think it’s fair to say you might see them go for anything in between those two numbers.

TBM customs cobra trooper bootleg the black major factory custom gi joe arah desert scorpion
TBM customs cobra trooper bootleg the black major factory custom gi joe arah desert scorpion

Black Major Desert Scorpion Trooper Links:

Early Factory Custom Desert Trooper at Attica Gazette

Display of Black Major Custom Troopers by 00zxcvb

2012 30th Anniversary Dollar General Cobra Trooper

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2012 30th Anniversary “Basic Assortment” Cobra Trooper

Ah, 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar. The prophecy which foretold the apocalyptic demise of the once unstoppable American icon, GI JOE. Truly a tumultuous year for Hasbro with the titanic failure of their Battleship film, leading to a one-year delay of the second GI Joe film, only about a month before it was set for theaters and after the toys had already been sent to retail. The results of this sealed the fate for the brand for the better part of the 2010‘s, and should the Snake Eyes movie flop, possibly forever.

I’ve rarely spoken of Modern Era sculpts on this blog, despite that I do still collect them and a number of the new figures and characters are quite good. I don’t figure my readers here have much interests in them, and in truth many of them leave me strained for a commentary of substance. The Basic Assortment Cobra Trooper, however, is a fascinating figure in several ways, partly for the nightmarish picture it suggests of Hasbro’s corporate culture.

As the story goes, the GI Joe design team was tasked with making an assortment of cheaper, low-budget GI Joe figures for sale at low-end stores and pharmacies, namely Dollar General. It’s in line with infrequent releases Hasbro had made for those stores to that point, like the Valor vs Venom single-cards and later assortments of o-ring repacks like we saw in 2008. Like those, these were intended to be straight repacks of recent ME sculpts with reduced paint applications and accessories. Only, the memo the designers got was so vague, they assumed they were to create brand-new figures, with only the names of the characters to go off of.

It was one time that a horrible miscommunication gave the collecting community something to really go nuts over, and the figures were a hit at retail. But what it really shows me is just how terrible the communications are at Hasbro, and I’m left wondering how many of their dumbfounding mistakes through the 2000’s may have been a result of such incidents. Around this time, I remember reading on Glassdoor.com a bunch of bad reviews of the company, namely centering around similar stories of supervisors and bosses with a seemingly deep lack of communications skills…

With that said, the figure is really interesting too, beyond his backstory. Knowing the Hasbro designers were left to their own devices to create a figure that was a “Cobra Trooper”, I’ve often wondered what the inspiration behind this black-clad Cobra might have been. As he was released in 2012, I’d find it greatly amusing if the figure was based on the then recent Black Major Cobra Troopers. Although, given the web-gear, officer insignia and AK-47, it’s somewhat more likely that the figure may have been based off of the Sideshow Collectible’s Cobra Sniper who looks somewhat more similar.

The Pursuit of Cobra Cobra Trooper sculpt was a pretty good modernization of the classic Cobra Soldier design. There’s some issues one might associate with any modern-style GI Joe figures, but overall the quality of the sculpt and articulation sufficed for my needs. But with that out of the way, one discrepancy between ARAH and Modern that’s left me somewhat jaded is the presence of interesting repaints. With the classic construction, there’s a lot of oddball stuff to go and check out or find interesting, new uses for. However, with modern figures, Hasbro’s focus was far more on lazy, half-assed “updates”, leaving little room for repaints like this Trooper, who graces my collection as something fun and new.

For accessories, you got a helmet, AK-47, web-gear, knee-pads and a stand. For a figure that came at half the price of a retail figure at the same time, it was a good amount of parts and even left me wondering why the main retail line couldn’t be more like this. If cutting away the glut of reused weapons, and trimming down the paint applications meant selling GI Joes for far fairer prices in the ever worsening economy of the early 10‘s, why didn’t they do this across the board?

This Cobra Trooper is mildly easy to come by and generally goes between $15 – $18 bucks. Can’t say a modern figure with almost no paint or parts feels worth that compared to what vintage figures you could get for that much, but if ARAH isn’t your thing, maybe so. Unlike the inferior blue repaint of this release that replaced this one in later assortments, this figure was very popular upon release and was usually the first to go when collectors began ravaging dollar stores for these figures in 2012. As a recolor of the ubiquitously loved Cobra Trooper and being based on a decent mold, I’d expect this figure’s value to mostly stay where it is.

Gi joe cobra Trooper pursuit of cobra dollar general exclusive
Gi joe cobra Trooper pursuit of cobra dollar general exclusive

2012 30th Anniversary “Basic Assortment” Cobra Trooper Links:

Yo Joe

Hiss Tank

JoeADay

Black Major Custom Python Troopers

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Black Major Custom Python Troopers

The world of custom/bootleg GI Joes has been pretty amazing in the past couple of years. The Black Major, in particular, produced some amazing work and even brought back the classic Cobra Trooper mold for a few new designs. I was really impressed by all of the new Black Major Cobra Troopers, but as Python Patrol is my favorite Cobra sub-team, I chose these to look at first.

I’m a huge Python Patrol fan. Sure, a few of the vintage figures were a little on the strange side (The Python Guard), but making a new sub-team out of all of the classic Cobra army builders and giving them jungle themed colors was one of Hasbro’s better repaint ideas for the time. On their own, a few of them can be a tad gaudy, but they function well when teamed with each other. Cobras from different eras could sometimes look a little awkward together, but the uniform colors of these help them avoid that.

In terms of quality, these are probably some of the best and most solid feeling Black Major figures to date. The plastic feels really close to the vintage plastic, and the joints on all of mine are very solid too. Generally I’m not too picky when it comes to the quality on custom figures, but these are extremely well made feeling.

The color pattern used on these Black Major custom Python Troopers is familiar and unique all at the same time. Overall, they’re most similar to Python Copperhead, but they have a lot less black on them. There’s quite a focus here on the green shades of the figure, and it finds a nice blend between somewhat realistic jungle colors and the Python Patrol’s neon tones. I do notice the yellow seems a little dull on these, and while I’m not sure as to if that was or wasn’t intentional, it goes along well with giving them that vintage charm, minus a bit of the neon.

Another thing I like a lot about the most recent TBM Troopers is the accessories. While anyone who’s collected a few of these should have plenty of dragunovs by now, at some point he started including AK47‘s and Viper backpacks too, giving the trooper a more well rounded selection of accessories. I’m hugely appreciative to have a pile of the Cobra Officer’s AK47 lying around, as it’s a fantastic looking accessory that’s unfortunately hard to find.

The after market prices on these were somewhat interesting to see, now that the supply of them has mostly dried up. From what I can tell, they go for around $12 to $15 at the moment, like most other recent custom Cobras. The thing is, they don’t really show up for sale all that often, since these aren’t produced in great numbers as you might expect. I think the saturation of figures is keeping the prices lower for now, as there’s so much to chose from I think certain figures just get missed.

Gi Joe action figures Cobra vintage V1 Python PatrolGi Joe action figures Cobra vintage V1 Python Patrol Bootleg Custom

2005 Cobra Trooper

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GI Joe Direct to Consumer Cobra Soldier action figure new sculpt VvV Hasbro vintageNew Sculpt era figures aren’t held very dear in the Joe community, especially nowadays. I’m a bit of a fan of the era, as some of the figures are truly excellent, especially the one’s from the Direct to Consumer Line. The Cobra Trooper from that line is one in particular I’m fond of, despite how it does display a few problems figures of the era were prone to.

With GI Joe collecting, it’s easy to grow tired of the endless barrage of Dukes, Snake Eyes’s, Fireflys, Cobra Commanders and the constant stream of better versions of those characters. When you look back through the many different versions of a single character, I’m always drawn to versions that bring something different to the table, with unique sculpts and character designs. In the case of the DTC Cobra Trooper, you pretty much have just that. A figure that may not be as good and modern as say the newer POC/30th Cobra Trooper, but offers an alternative design instead that gives the figure more merit. Put simply, I like this figure because it looks different.

The Cobra Trooper is made mostly of reused tooling, sharing parts with Ghost Bear from Valor vs Venom. His head was shared with the DTC Range Viper who came out about the same time, and his helmet and bazooka are both new. This provides a rather unique look for a Cobra Trooper, with a more tight fitting outfit, unique looking gloves and boots, and other little details. It’s nice how he wears a bandolier instead of the same web-gear, the helmet deviates nicely from the classic bucket as well. I think the only downside is that the figure looks a bit scrawny, but compared to other figures from the time the proportions aren’t too bad.

I find this design really striking. If I had a “Joe-verse”, I’d see Cobra as an organization that has lingered for a long time causing problems of different severity, and I think overtime they’d change their gear and equipment quite a bit. As such, this is the 2000‘s Trooper, and the guy I imagine all of the 2000‘s Joes fought on a regular basis. It’s a niche idea, but it shows how the figure is at least interesting enough to represent something.