G.I. Joe Classified Series Special Missions Cobra Island: Cobra Trooper review

Every villain army needs grunts. They’re the backbone disposable fodder to wear down the heroes by their sheer overwhelming numbers. Think Stormtroopers, the Snake Men or Cylons. One of my favorite grunts are the Cobra Troopers. Some of it because of their bold blue color scheme and the other is their absolutely pathetic aim second only to Vader’s army. One of the weirder things with the first wave of the G.I. Joe Classified Series was there weren’t any Cobra army builders to pit against the Joes. Hasbro fixes that with the Target exclusive Attack on Cobra Island wave. So far finding them hasn’t been too tricky, but building an army capable of taking out the Joes might be a problem. Let’s see how this Trooper stacks up before I go too wild on army building…

Package: Staying consistent with the cartoon series, Cobra figures have a red color scheme with a red tint to the sides and top. The insert of Cobra Island features the Terror Drome (HasLab anyone?)  is also red instead of blue like the Joes.

The Cobra Troopers aren’t great at anything ranking a 1 at Foot Soldier, Light Weapons, Hand-to-Hand Combat and Sabotage. Here’s the bio from the G.I. Joe website:

Cobra Troopers form the core of the Cobra foreces. Their ranks are made up of criminals from around the world who have been drawn to their sinister hiss and dark message that is the Cobra call. Typically wearing masks to hide their identity, they carry out chaos-causing missions handed down from Cobra Commander, who they faithfully serve without question.  

Likeness: The old Cobra Troopers were plain — clearly Cobra Commander didn’t feel like they needed anything other than a blue jumpsuit, a mask and a helmet.

The Classified Series Troopers are far more geared up and decked out like a tactical SWAT team. They actually look intimidating and not chump cannon fodder. It starts with that fierce head sculpt. He looks intense and the sculpted elements on the mask bring out a great amount of detail.

His Cobra insignia is embossed atop a ridged shirt. I’m pretty sure he’s got new arms although he’s got Duke’s legs with new boots. I don’t mind the reuse in this line as it’s smart and not compromising any of the aesthetics of the character to cheap out on anything. The flak vest adds an extra element of protection to show the Joes they’re not going to have an easy fight this round.

Paint: Cobra Trooper’s paint job is solid. The black breaks up the all blue look and makes him look edgier without abandoning the classic color scheme.

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Scale: The Cobra Troopers don’t need to be giants, just run of the mill average heights goons. They come in just a little shorter than Duke without the helmet, which is perfect. 

Articulation: For a grunt, the Cobra Trooper has a great range of movement. You still will probably want them to be able to get tossed around by Roadblock and sliced up by Snake Eyes.

Some of the joints are a little stiff and will move smoother with some working around. That’s better than them being too loose to start of course. And the flak vest does restrict some of the back and forth movement in the mid-section.

Cobra Trooper has:

• head
• neck
• shoulders (butterfly)
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• mid-torso
• torso
• waist
• hips (ball-jointed)
• drop down hips
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles

Accessories: The Cobra Trooper is loaded with gear, which makes sense as it allows for some variety in your army. Pretty sneaky Hasbro. This is gonna take awhile.

He’s got what I think is an approximation of a Dragnov sniper rifle. Hasbro gave that to the Cobra Trooper in the 25th anniversary line, and that seems like the slightly futuristic version for the line.

There’s also a red armband for what I assume is for an officer. That it’s removable is also very helpful. He also comes with a smaller machine gun and two smaller pistols along with a knife. The knife fits in the sheath on the front of his vest.

His vest also has two slots on the front and side for the small pistols. I’m a fan of how Hasbro is making a concentrated effort to have a place on the figure for all of the accessories. Either of the rifles can plug into the holes in his pack.

Hasbro’s sculptors have done some excellent work in subtly emphasizing the snake aspects of Cobra. The trooper’s goggles are painted to resemble snake eyes. I also love that the helmet is removable to make for more fun action scenes when Joes are knocking their heads together.

Worth It? I’d love for Hasbro to put a streamlined version on Hasbro Pulse cause I’m gonna need a ton of these guys. I definitely think at $20 these are a great value and price. there’s not a better value at this price point. I haven’t felt cheated with any figure yet. 

Rating: 10 out of 10

I really like everything Hasbro packed into this army builder. Assuming we get some variations on this Cobra Trooper, Hasbro won’t need to make many changes to keep this one in heavy rotation for collectors.

Where to Get It? All of the Cobra Island figures are Target exclusives. I imagine we’ll see some more variants of the Cobra Troopers down the road for folks who aren’t able to find them. Hasbro is shipping them in their own separate cases so there’s six Cobra Troopers, Beach Head and Roadblock hitting stores. The figures are out in some stores, but for others you’ll have to wait until Aug. 1.