Reasonably Intelligent Rambling: GI Joe Collectors Club: Pythona

Every year during the GI Joe Collector's Club existence, they've produced a "free" incentive figure for those who sign up for membership. The membership dues/fee gets you the Club newsletter and an exclusive figure, either 12" or 3 3/4" size. I have been a member of the Club for about five years and had been a member previously before a hiatus for a few years.

This is the final year of the Club's run with the GI Joe license. Hasbro has not renewed their agreement with the crew at the Club and Hasbro will begin their own "Club" maybe later this year or next year. There's a huge cross-line marketing plan that Hasbro is getting ready to release called Revolution. There's supposed to be a combined universe including GI Joe, MASK, the Visionaries, ROM, and the Micronauts. I think there may be another line, but that's all that comes to mind right now.

The Club has done some fine work over the years. I've never been one to go to one of their conventions, but I've supported the Club where I could. I've been a part of the FSS for three years, signing up for 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0. I did actually go to the convention in Atlanta back in 2007, but that was just for a day.

I've always been of the mindset that the Club pretty much has to work with what Hasbro has available to them. I've preached plenty of times about my feelings regarding the Club. Sure, I've been critical of some of their designs, but never vehemently angry at the choices that have been made in the design and construction of their various figures. Bitch, bitch, bitch... that seems to be some "collectors" lot in life.

Anyway, enough of all that crap. Let's move on to this year's, the ultimate, incentive figure - Pythona! Another fan favorite that has been requested over and over again like Billy, the Club listened and made it happen.

For those less enlightened on just who Pythona is, she is one of the central villains from the GI Joe animated movie from 1987.

The intro sequence just kicks butt! Anyway, Pythona is an emissary from Cobra-La and gets CoCo and his crew involved in the whole world domination scheme of Golobulus. The movie is on Goggle in parts, if you haven't seen it. #shameful Check it out!

Cobra-La (great concept, stupid name) is an ancient civilization that functions through the use of organic technology. Have I written about Cobra-La before? Maybe I have and maybe I will again sometime soon.

So how did the Club do to bring this weird woman into her plastic form?

The Club did a damn fine job of translating the figure into plastic. Yeah, sure there are issues, but again, the Club is working with what they can use from HAsbro and get tooled up at their own expense.

The biggest "issue" that I have with Pythona is the sculpting of the body. Based on the animated look, her outfit/skin should be more textured and have an organic armor look to it. Again, the Club is working with what they can use, so that's not a huge issue.

Holy crap, look at that head sculpt! My understanding is that Boss Fight Studios did the work. If so, they kicked some serious ass! The paint apps are stellar as well.

Her ponytail/top knot or whatever is also removable so that her hood can get pulled up for some sneaking around.

The hands are newly sculpted as well. Excellent work. They capture essential parts of Pythona's character. Supposedly, her upper torso is newly sculpted as well. Yeah... I don't quite remember Pythona being quite so... gifted.

The paint apps on the body are well done; very crisp and clean. I think those are Jinx lower legs. They work well enough.

Quite a while back, I created a "sort of" Pythona. I used an Aurra Sing head on the Resolute Baroness body. Interesting, but not even close. Maybe this poor creature can be another Mindbender construct using Cobra-La genetic material.