Zombie Initiative Lab-Rats

by KansasBrawler

Part of what I find myself enjoying about the GIJCC’s con sets is that they are able to include great concepts into sets that might not necessarily be successful at retail by virtue of orienting their product towards older collectors like me. A prime example of this is the Cobra Lab-Rat from the 2014 Zombie Initiative set. Cobra’s had a lot of lab-adjacent specialties like the Techno-Viper or the Medi-Viper or the Hazard-Viper, but they’ve never really had a figure of a terroristic lab guy. Of course, the reason for that is that such a concept is not necessarily the most exciting action figure. While at his core, the Cobra Lab-Rat is just a bad guy in a white lab coat, the GIJCC did a great job with this figure. I like having him on display and he’s a great diostory scene-filler. It’s a well-executed figure and while I don’t remember a Cobra lab technician showing up in the cartoons like the GIJCC purports as the inspiration for this figure, it’s still a great addition to the ranks of basic Cobras.

I kind of see the Lab-Rat as the lab version of the basic Cobra blueshirt and that’s partly due to the design of the figure. Much like the paramilitary side of the Cobra operation, you’re not going to hand out the fancy gear to every disaffected youth that joins up with Cobra. Similarly, you’re not going to turn every disaffected scientist into a Hazard-Viper. The Lab-Rats are where the science-oriented Cobra recruits go so their aptitudes can be determined. They’re kind of like really evil interns. The parts choice for the Lab-Rat is excellent and it really sells the fact that they work in a lab setting while still being part of an evil terrorist organization. The Lab-Rat’s body is made from a pairing of two figures that work very well together. The upper body is all Retaliation Ultimate Cobra Commander while his legs come from Rise of Cobra Storm Shadow. The legs look like normal pants with a pair of basic shoes. Honestly, the bagginess reminds me a little bit of scrubs, which just sells the lab thing a little more. While my friend that worked in a bio lab didn’t have to wear scrubs at work, she did say that the most important part of her work attire was a good, sensible pair of shoes. With all the walking and standing at various lab stations, your feet would start hurting if you weren’t wearing good shoes. I like that the Lab-Rats are decked out in sensible shoes rather than combat boots. I may be in the minority here, but I also really like the use of the Ultimate Cobra Commander torso for the Lab- Rats. The few reviews I read before buying the set really didn’t like this choice because it looked too much like Cobra Commander. However, the Rise of Cobra Rex Lewis coat really covers up the majority of the torso and I can see the Lab-Rats wearing a little fancier version of the basic blueshirt gear and while yes, the torso does remind me of Cobra Commander, it also seems like a slightly more professional version of the basic Cobra uniform. It’s an elegant solution in my opinion. It reminds me of the basic Cobra Troopers while making it clear they’re not combat troops. I also really think the Cobra Commander arms work well here. The very tall black gloves worn up over the lab coat just scream dangerous lab work to me. I think back to all the movies with mad scientists in them and they all seem to do that. I’m not sure if super long gloves are a lab protocol somewhere in the real world, but it definitely is in the movies. I think the best choice the GIJCC made for the Lab-Rat was the use of the alternate head that Pursuit of Cobra Dusty came with. The mold really lends itself for lab work. He’s wearing a hat, goggles and a rebreather, with a hood over the whole look. While I’m not sure why one would need to wear both a hat and a hood in a lab setting, the look reminds me a lot of the lighter protective equipment you see drug manufacturers in films wearing. Yes, it’s not going to be enough to protect them from really dangerous chemical and biological weapons, but it’s enough to make the Lab-Rats think they’re okay even if they’re not. Once again, I see it as one of those ties back to the Cobra Troopers. The Cobra Troopers don’t get the really great equipment right away. Neither do the Lab-Rats. Once they prove themselves to be proficient in the lab, they get promoted to the ranks that actually get good equipment.

The paint work on the Lab-Rats really helps sell these guys as Cobra scientists. The color choices are simple, but they’re extremely effective. The base color for the figure is a nice blue. It’s definitely a couple of shades darker than the blue used for Ultimate Cobra Commander, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s quite as dark as the blue used for the Cobra Troopers. That’s fine by me, though. The darker blue helps break the ties from the mold’s original use. The white on the lab coat (and arms) is good but at the same time, it seems just a little too heavily applied. The details on the lab coat seem somewhat muted. I’m familiar with the Rex Lewis lab coat and I thought the pocket details were a lot crisper in its original use. I’m not sure what color they molded the lab coat in, but whatever color it turned out to be, it should have been white. I think overpainting is the only reason I can come up with for why the details aren’t quite as crisp as they were originally. Conversely, the white arms look fine, so I think they were actually molded that color and the gloves were painted black. I realize white is a hard color to work with, but that’s why I don’t quite understand why it appears to me that the lab coat was painted white rather than just molded in white plastic. That said, though, I really do love the lab coat. It looks great in white and the “ARBCO” tampo on the spot for his name plate is a great nod to the brand’s history. Yes, it’s a ridiculously lazy anagram for Cobra and I’m surprised it took the Joes as long as it did to figure out that “ARBCO Industries” was just a front for Cobra, but at the same time, ARBCO sounds like the name of a large, multinational conglomerate. The paint work on his head is quite crisp. Considering how many different colors are crammed into such a small area, there were a lot of opportunities for paint slop and there really isn’t any. The black detailing on the rebreather is spot on and I have to applaud their paint team for doing such a good job on such small details. That said, though, I am glad there were two Lab-Rats in the Zombie Invasion set since you’ll notice on the shot of the pair of Lab-Rats that one of them picked up a stray black mark on the front of the lab coat somewhere in the factory. Since there are two of them, I’m okay with there being a paint flaw on one, but I still think that quality control probably should have kept a close eye out for that. A black mark on a white coat really does stick out. When I eventually put the multiples of the Zombie Initiative figures back in the box, the marred up Lab-Rat will definitely be the one that goes into storage.

The Lab-Rat’s accessories are the one area that makes it clear why this is a concept Hasbro has never done in the main line. His gear is all good, but I think the lack of an actual weapon does hurt him a little bit. Yes, I realize that a Lab-Rat wouldn’t be seeing a lot of combat, but you can’t tell me that guys that work in a lab tied to a terrorist organization wouldn’t have some sort of firearm with them at all times. Again, I think back to movies with drug labs where when the police raid the lab in the climax of the film, a massive gun battle breaks out because the scummy drug workers put down their drug-making equipment and pick up guns to drive the cops out. While I would like a gun of some sort since even the Hazard-Viper had a pair of pistols, the gear they gave him really does work well for his lab work specialty. Since he’s part of the Cobra Science Division, he’s got the requisite injector tool we’ve seen with every Cobra that had a science background since Rise of Cobra. While I’m a little tired of seeing it, it’s still a good piece and it makes sense for the Lab-Rat to be carrying it. The reservoir chamber is painted light blue, meaning it’s filled with Compound Z. The Lab-Rat also had the briefcase with canisters that came with Rex Lewis. I like this piece and it makes sense to see it again with the Lab-Rat. Again, the canisters are painted blue and have the Cobra biohazard symbol on them. The Lab-Rat is clearly experimenting with some new formula for Compound Z. His final accessory is something I really like—a computer pad. The GIJCC repurposed the bomb that Cobra Commander came with in the last DVD Battle Pack but it’s a really great stand in for a small portable computing device. While the display screen is almost non-existent, I can still see it being a useful tool for the Lab-Rats to use to transmit data about their various experiments into the Cobra central mainframe. Everything about the Lab-Rat’s gear works for his lab specialty. I have to applaud the choices the GIJCC made here. I still would have liked at least a pistol for the Lab-Rats to defend themselves with (either from a Joe raid or a Compound Z experiment gone horribly wrong), but thanks to some of the Retaliation figures that came with footlockers filled with gear, if I ever want to arm the Lab-Rats, I have options. Until I got the Lab-Rat in my hands, I never realized just how much of a hole in the Cobra ranks the lack of a generic scientist figure was. The design is great and the look is really versatile. I can see the Lab-Rats working in a lot of different capacities in the Cobra organization. Yes, they’re tied to the Compound Z/chemical weapons experiments, but the look also works well for assisting Dr. Mindbender in his cybernetic experiments or even working alongside the Headhunters in a drug lab. The Lab-Rat is a great figure with a lot of different uses and while I can see why Hasbro proper never decided to make a generic Cobra lab technician because it’s not that exciting of a figure, he’s a great addition to the Zombie Initiative con set and has a lot of different roles it can fill in the Cobra organization.