Random stuff - part whatever

A few weeks ago, I managed to get a few minutes to take some various pictures of some various figures in my weird collections. I just thought that I would post a few and just share some random comments.

This is such a damn cool update of Bossk. Hasbro really scored big with him. The only issue would be the wish for better hip articulation, but he's really just fine the way he is. Maybe some wrist artic might have helped a little? The overall sculpting is just really well done.

Look at that face! Such a charming gentleman as he rips out your throat!

Storm Shadow from one of the Retaliation 3 packs. At this point, I was so tired of the multiple versions of Stormy. Plus this costume is just weird. But this is really a damn fine figure. Awesome articulation: wrists, double knee joints, pivot feet, all the bells and whistles for a modern Joe figure. But does he have to be Storm Shadow? The Renegades version has become my default version, so this guy is going to be... someone else. Don't know yet, just too cool of a figure to keep stored away.

This is probably the best figure that Playmates produced in the entire run of their various Star Trek lines from the 1990's. Sure, they did some decent aliens, but Species 8472 was probably the best sculpted figure from the line. The attention to detail is incredible. Okay, not much articulation, but it's pretty damn cool.

One of the recent Hulk figures from the Marvel Universe series. A non Avengers movie Hulk that looks a whole lot better than the movie version of the Hulk.

The Hulk from the "Planet Hulk" story line from Marvel. Apparently, the good guys were tired of Hulk's shit and sent him out into space. He landed on some primeval planet and he kicked copious amounts of ass. I guess. He looks pretty damn cool, that's all I care about.

Tartarus from the Halo series. I don't know which Halo game he is from, all I know is that he's a damn cool figure. I think he's a little large when compared to Joe figures, but who cares, he works well enough. I picked him up at Ross a few years ago, maybe for $4.99 or $5.99? Didn't matter, decent price, bought him anyway.

These two guys - viper what-evers from the Rise of Cobra series. There is some potential here because the helmets are just so oddly cool. Weird organic-ish armor. There's some custom potential here maybe? We'll see.

Speaking of custom potential, I salvaged a Neo-Viper's head from the Rise of Cobra line. While there were some significant figures from this line, the Neo-Viper was sort of odd. The vest was bulky and the hands were just odd in their construction. But that helmet - so damn cool.

The helmet works pretty well on money-bags Destro's torso. Maybe an armored HEAT or SAW viper? Sure, why not?

This is supposed to be Zartan from the Retaliation line. He looks more like Zartan from Renegades. Hasbro dropped the ball on Zartan from Retaliation. Well, what were they supposed to do? make a figure of Jonathan Pryce? Sure, why not?

Even with the limited articulation of this figure, he's still pretty cool in a creepy sort of way. With all the shady, sketchy characters that Cobra attracts, I'm sure that this guy can be somebody else besides Zartan. He looks like an assassin so... I don't know, I'll have to think on it for a while.

Okay, here's a weirdo for you. Years and years ago, Hasbro had a Star Wars club exclusive cantina band member. He came with a bunch of assorted instruments so if you bought a bunch, you could make the whole band. And sure, they were going to be valuable one day, right? Yeah, whatever. I dug out one and decided to chop him up. I drilled out the neck and trimmed the wrists so everything would work with this Storm Shadow body from Rise of Cobra. So who is he... or what is he? Inter-dimensional traveler or stranded alien stuck on Earth working for Cobra. Sure, why not?

Drednoks - over-rated and I'm tired of them. I really dig the straight up conflict between GI Joe and Cobra and just got tired of the Drednoks. For the longest time, I only had the original three in their modern forms. Monkeywrench was a late add-on through a Walmart exclusive set back in the RoC days and I never was really interested enough in the 'Noks for the BBTS set.

I was messing around one day and randomly tried Buzzer's head on an extra Doctor Rex body. I've used a bunch of them as Cobra's demented research staff. The head sculpt actually looks pretty good on the body. So my back story is that Buzzer survived Cobra's Drednok purge and was eventually recruited into Dr. Mindbender's team of scientists. Hell, he's got a college degree, doesn't he? After a couple spins in the brainwave modification unit, Buzzer's violent tendencies were suppressed and his creepy brilliance in behavioral sciences was allowed to flourish.

Serpentor - sigh... What a weird character. But you've got to take the weird shit with the military stuff. The sci-fi element has always been a cool part of the GI Joe/Cobra conflict. But I like the concept of Serpentor, so how can I spin him? I like the idea of Serpentor being a figurehead of Cobra, sort of the public face of Cobra. He's the primary spokesman in his loud, outlandish costume. He harangues the audience of the United Nations worse than any other dictatorial whack-job. But he can not rebel against Cobra Commander. After that first "incident," Cobra Commander had Mindbender recreate Serpentor to be genetically unable to rebel against CC. He is helpless before Cobra Commander and, ultimately, supremely loyal to him. 

Gizmo from Gremlins such because he's cool.