Toy Review: Rise of Cobra Rescue Mission Boxset

Rescue Mission Boxset

There are two kinds of exclusives in my book. There’s the aggravating kind; original molds with small production numbers distributed in a limited number of places. I fucking hate these. They’re often of characters that many collector’s might want. Take the recent WalMart exclusive Nemesis and Ares waves of Marvel Legends and the Target exclusive Red Hulk. Figures in the Nemesis wave, which made it here in limited numbers but was hard to come by in the States, are fetching 7 or 8 times their value on eBay. If you weren’t lucky enough to have the cash for an entire Ares set, you can pretty much kiss Kang or Crossbones goodbye. The Red Hulk wave wasn’t even released in the Philippines. I had to get mine from a specialty store at twice suggested retail price. Coming up, we’ve got the new DC Universe Classics wave 10, with Batman and the Joker and Manbat, which you can be damn sure are going to be in demand. And what do you know? It’s a WalMart exclusive.

Damn. It.

Then there’s the special repaint/re-tool which is nice to have, but not really necessary. These are normally just exisiting toys with another color scheme or a different head or an extra accessory, which I’m actually okay with. I mean, if you don’t get a Treadbolt (a blue repaint of Transformers Classics Skyfire), it’s not going to hurt as much as if you say never got the chance to add a Classics Thundercracker, Thrust, or Dirge. Treadbolt isn’t really a character that has much of a following, while the other three (show exlusives) are.

Happily, Playkit has been pretty good about getting it’s hands on some choice exclusives for the new G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra lines. One of the lastest was the “Rescue Mission” boxset that came out about a month back. I’ve been eyeing this Target Exclusive since I first saw it on shelf, since the packaging is pure eye candy for a collector.

Unlike some of the previous 25th anniversary 5-packs and the new GI Joe vs Cobra 4-packs that just hit the shelf which are little better than the cards, the Rescue Mission set comes in a very attractive self-contained cardboard diorama and the figures are posed as if facing off against each other, Duke and Snake Eyes against 2 Navy Neo-Vipers. According the the text on the back, the scene is supposed to be set in Cobra’s underwater headquarters right after the Joe team has freed Duke from captivity. I figure that’s why Duke seems to be in his skivvies, while everyone else seems to be ready to party.

The choice of figures alone is bound to keep collectors happy. Snake and Duke are pretty popular if I’m reading the shelves right. Both the Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes and the Reactive Armor Dukes dissapeared from stores when the movie hit, so giving us another chance is nice. Plus, you get TWO Vipers to fill your ranks. While I prefer the red Royal Guard variant, these blue and gray ones are pretty nifty.

The figures are held in position by a mix of heat molded plastic inserts and those clear rubber band things. Prepare your scissors and nail clippers to get through all of these; it’s far, far easier than trying to peel everything off since there is a ton of tape on this baby.

If you’re careful and just cut through the tape, you can pretty much remove the plastic inserts and bands and keep the little printed diorama intact. It’s no architectural scale model, but for kids and geeks with little artistic talent (or a severe case of couch-potatoitis), it’s a nice little thing to add to your display.

The biggest reason I was hesitant to get this set was the appareent lack of accessories. When you look into the box, there’s only a gun for each of the figures, Snake Eye’s sword, and those ridiculous missle launchers. That’s not much at all, especially considering the 2000.00 Php price tag (a normal ROC figure is only 450.00 Php).

I was pleasantly surprise when I opened it up. Underneath the cardboard bottom is a plastic bag with 4 stands for the figures AND a plethora of sweet sweet weapons. All told, there are about 26 accessories included, plus the cardboard M.A.R.S. weapons case and stands. Since you can technically remove the Neo-Vipers’ armor, you’ve got 2 more. Here’s a run down:

• 3 SMGs/CQB rifles
• 2 pistols
• 1 sword
• 1 sheath
• 1 pocket knife
• 1 combat knife
• 1 pair of ice cleats
• 1 missle launcher with missle, zipline and handle
• 2 MARS rifles type A
• 2 MARS rifles type B
• 2 MARS pistols
• 2 MARS backpacks
• 2 missle launchers with 2 missles

That’s alot of gear. Some of it doesn’t quite fit the figures; the gray MARS guns are a bitch to stuff into the Neo-Viper gloves since they’ve got much thicker fingers than the two Joes. I’ve also got a problem with the sheath that came with it. It looked heat warped when I brought it out, to the point when i spent a good three minutes trying to figure out what it was for. Took a little effort, but I squeezed it back into shape with a little work, though.

The first one out of the package was Duke. As I said, he looks like he’s wearing somekind of sports wear or something, and looks awfully out of place. He’s probably my least favorite thing about the set. I’m really not impressed with his color scheme or his big head. The head looks decent (though it looks a bit like Zoolander’s Blue Steel look) and reminds me of the actor (who’s name has skipped my mind), but his body just looks really small from what I remember of the film.

I do like his hands and articulation however, since he can hold the pistols in a decent approxiamtion of the Weaver stance. I’m thinking of giving him the web gear from one of my Joe Troopers from the Firefly boxset (another exclusive from Toys R’ Us… argh!) and give him some girth.

Next out of the box was the two Neo-Vipers. Their sculpt is identical to the Red Neo-Viper “Royal Guard” figure (which is still in my review backlog). They don’t have that nice vac-metal sheen, but they do have a nice gloss to them. The gray guns are obviously theirs, but one set won’t fit in their hands since the grips are too big. I really like the fact that you can remove their chest plates.

If you’re an old fan, I suppose you might not like the new Viper look, but I really do. It’s great that they gave them a scarier look than a plain chrome faceplate. Seeing a platoon of these scary bastards coming at you is more likely to make you piss your shorts than seeing the old red and blue guys charging.

And then we come to the real reason to buy this set, Snake Eyes.

A lot has been said about this being the best Snake Eyes we’ve seen in the Rise of Cobra line, but really we’ve only seen 3 in the Philippines. There’s the normal one which is now warming shelves, the Paris Pursuit version and this one. The other one I know of is that one that came with Arashikage Cycle, and that’s just a kitbash with the old 25th Anniversary figures.

So is it true? Is it the the best?

Yes. yes, it is.

For one, it doesn’t have the silly lips that they sculpted into the first wave’s figure. I can’t say enough about how much those things creep me out. It’s like nipples on the Batsuit. Second, it’s go all this fantastic gear strapped on. The web gear isn’t removable, but it looks great. There’s even a small backpack sculpted on his back that looks a lot better than the one that comes with the regular release. He’s also got a nice pair of pants. He’s not wearing tights, and they don’t look like pajamas like they do on the Paris Pursuit version. All put together, he looks like he’s ready to play, with boots, knee pads, shoulder armor and pockets. All that detail really sold me on this figure.

And don’t forget the fact that his sword hangs from his belt rather than his back. There is no end to the awesome with this figure.

The only gripe I’ve got is that his right hand tends to fall off, but it’s easily fixed.

This set really is worth the purchase. More than any other set I’ve come across, this one stands out. Not only are you getting an amazing snake eyes figure, you’re getting 2 more vipers to add to your collection, and a ton of kit to add to your armory.

Plus Duke.