13 Days of Halloween: Rex “The Doctor” Lewis

What would an excursion in the horror angles of the GI Joe brand be without checking out a mad scientist/doctor? The 1980s had its share in the form of Drs. Venom and Mindbender. Both were iconic, each for his own different reasons. The Rise of Cobra film gave us its take on the evil genius bit with the blah-tastic “Doctor.” And from the get-go, you totally don’t think for a minute that he’s going to turn out to become Cobra Commander. Really, the whole angle with this character seemed uninteresting to me. Then again, maybe that was Hasbro/Paramount’s intention, as the whole of the movie was an exercise in stiltification and blandosity (my words). But I didn’t come here to run down the movie, I came to talk about one of its all-black/really dark grey action figures. Oh joy.

I almost didn’t pick up most of the Rise of Cobra line, particularly figures like this one. I wasn’t enamored of the character in the movie, and the toy seemed rather bland looking. On a positive note, the toy is nicely detailed–at least in its sculpting, and the removable elements on the head are interesting. You can remove his hair, and breathing mask a la Darth Vader and reveal the squinchy-faced (my words) visage of Rex Lewis. This is supposed to be a likeness of actor Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, but his face more resembles Mandy Patinkin if his head were made of chewed bubble gum. The body type is more slight than other figures, which is unfortunately hidden under the stiff lab coat. Just take it off, the figure is cooler without it. Be warned though, there is a definite Gimp vibe going on here, what with the straps and all.

Accessories were appropriate, with nanomite capsules, a case to transport them and removable claws–wait, were those in the movie? I don’t remember, but I can’t imagine they were, because they’re not colored black and/or grey and look like an interesting character element.