Cobra Air Viper w/ C.L.A.W.

QUICK INFO:
Name: Cobra Air Viper w/ C.L.A.W.
Line: G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra
Year: July 2009
Price: $9.99
Info: Target exclusive


Today will take a look at one of the many repainted toys in Hasbro's new G.I. Joe line, the Rise of Cobra (ROC). This is one of the many Target store exclusive deluxe action figures. For essentially 10 bucks you get an action figure, a mini-vehicle and a lot of accessories...not a bad deal in my book.

Let us first start off taking a look at the Cobra Air Viper. This toy is essentially a repainted AVAC pilot (packaged with the Firebat) from the 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe line. First thing you should notice is the odd color pallet Hasbro decided to use. The helmet along with the chest, shoulder and leg armor is almost an olive color. I've also seen it referred to as pewter, but it has too much of a green tint to me. The rest of the uniform is a purple-ish gray. The colors are odd, but somehow mesh together and give a good while muted overall look. He comes w/ one rifle, a removeable knife for the sheath on his leg and action figure stand. The rifle has a rather large molded strap which keeps the gun hanging over a shoulder quite well. Figure has your standard articulation we've come to expect.

Next we have the Cobra C.L.A.W. vehicle. Old school fans may remember this as the white rocket powered backpack jet from the original A Real American Hero line in the 80's. This is the same toy that we last say in multiple iterations in the 25th Anniversary line as well. Now sporting a sleek black deco, it looks so much better. There isn't much to the toy itself as it's rather small, light weight and simple. I should also mention that the handle bar piece just snaps on. So if you're like me and don't care for the look w/ the handle bars sticking down you can simply remove them. From wing tip to wing tip it only measures 5 1/2 inches long. On the underside of the wings are 4 pegs that allow you to attach a number of different included missiles.

You get a total of 12 missiles. The largest missiles (upper left corner) feature the same color as the Air Viper's armor. The tips feature a dayglow neon green. The 4 green missiles and 2 large bombs are the same weapons that were originally included w/ the Cobra F.A.N.G. helicopter. Both the bombs and 4 smaller missiles are the same purple-ish gray color.

In my own opinion I think some of the larger missiles and the bombs are a little overkill on such a small aircraft. My favorite combination is 2 of the green missiles on each tip and 2 small missiles on the inside. Whatever you tastes are in terms of the combination of weaponry it's nice to have several options unlike the previous releases of the C.L.A.W. that only came w/ two single small missiles.

Overall this is a decent figure. You get a lot for your money which is always a plus. This isn't my favorite figure by far and judging from how many I've spotted @ Target stores in my area alone I'm guessing he's not wildly popular with other fans either. I'm not an army builder collector, but I can see how people may want to pick up a few of these if for no other reason to have multiples of the C.L.A.W. vehicle.