Pursuit of Cobra Quick Kick

The "Pursuit of Cobra" line from Hasbro was generally a huge success. Hasbro ramped up the sculpting and articulation of these new figures and, for the most part, Hasbro created some incredible action figures.

Toys R Us picked up a couple exclusives while the brand seemed to flounder a bit at retail. Sales always seemed strong, but the GI Joe brand had been damaged by too much "Rise of Cobra" merchandise. Toys R Us had two figures as exclusives - Spirit and Quick Kick. When I saw pictures of both figures online, I knew that I really only wanted Spirit. I wasn't very interested in Quick Kick, he was okay, just not near as cool as Spirit appeared to be. Spirit was an incredible figure and illustrated Hasbro's ability to re-use pieces with minimal new tooling and create a brand new character.

While Quick Kick is a decent enough figure, I didn't have the burning desire to make sure that I got him. Plus TRU was never really nearby in my usual travels during the week. It had been recently reported that Ross had been picking up some of these TRU figures. I checked a few times with no luck.

Well, Twitter to the rescue! Recently, Jonabot80 offered up a couple prizes if someone could answer a couple questions that he would post on Twitter. I half-heartedly tried to answer the first question with no success. The second question would be for a POC Quick Kick figure and would involve identifying a file card. Count me in!

He posted an image of the file card and a quick read through and I knew who it was - Tripwire. I think I ID'd the card in just a few seconds. And I won!

Jonabot80 sent the figure to me a couple days later and not too long after that, Quick Kick was added to my collection!

Quick Kick comes with a decent set of gear. Most importantly, he comes with two important items that he had needed in the past - a shirt and shoes!

There is definitely a Bruce Lee inspiration for Quick Kick, all the way back to his original figure and continuing to this version. The shirt/vest is okay, I think it's a reuse from a Stormshadow figure, but it works well enough.

Two nice bits that come with him are the sparring gloves. It's not a perfect fit, but it works. I can imagine the little noises that Bruce Lee would make when sparring or fighting an opponent.

Quick Kick also comes with a sword and it does work a little better as being attached to his shirt, rather than in a back pack attached to his sash from the original version.

He also comes with a nicely painted set of nunchuks that has been molded in a soft enough plastic to allow for some decent flexibility.

He also comes with a Mac-10. A nice enough weapon and it works well with Quick Kick. Except that there is a bit of a problem, Quick Kick's hands are molded downward, so he really can't hold the weapon that well. I guess he could hold it a little higher with a gangsta kind of grip?

And the shoes! Check out QK's tennis shoes! Nicely sculpted with a little splash of paint. Great job, Hasbro!
While I wouldn't say that this is an exceptional version of Quick Kick, Hasbro did a decent enough job. I think that if he had been released as a general retail figure, he may have been a bit of a peg warmer. Maybe not. There's really not much else you can do with updating Quick Kick and remain somewhat true to the idea of his original version.

Hey, at least the guy has shoes now!

Thanks again to Jonabot80 for his Twitter contest!