Cobra Air Cavalry (Red Lasers Army)
The Cobra Air Cav Trooper was part of the Red Lasers Army set first released at this year’s JoeCon. Cobra troops are nothing new within custom o-ring offerings. All the various factions of Cobra (and new variants) are out there if you look around. It’s actually pretty staggering to see the variety of just Black Major’s figures based on Cobra troopers and CGs.
As a former customizer, I’m glad to have a custom figure that can be posed without scuffing the paint off. Say what you will about how repros affect the value of originals, I’m happy to have the opportunity to add new o-ring figures to my collection. Now if only someone could hook up Chad and Matt with the factory folks. I’ve always liked their custom recipes.
That’s not to say the Air Cavalry trooper is uninspired. I’m digging the variation of Joe and Cobra parts, particularly the Flash forearms. They work well as a kind of heavy duty gauntlet/pilot glove. With an economy of 1983 parts, and a simple color scheme variation, we get a nice pilot figure that can man an early Cobra air vehicle like the FANG and fit in well.
I love the old trooper and officers molds as much as anyone, but too many different versions (even this one that has enough changes to make it stand out a little bit more) and they all start blurring together to me.
The use of Joe parts on this figure is kinda subtle, so it comes off like a typical Trooper. But the Airborne legs give him a different vibe to me. While Cobra has needed some dedicated pilots other than Wild Weasel, etc., these guys seem better suited for action outside a vehicle. I’m thinking airborne assault, like Blueshirt Rangers. Really tempted to paint that mask black, though; his head is like a sea of gray.
Well, this isn’t an actual repro of any specific figure that Hasbro made.
I like the efforts, but I don’t have any recent “factory custom” stuff, the hard plastic hands keep me away. That’s not something I’m nostalgic about.
I’ve tried to Google it… but could though please explain to this noob what these Black Majors and Red Lasers arw doing? Where do they get access to these parts/molds? Do they have some agreement with Hasbro?
In the old days, we called these bootlegs. Now, the preferred term is “factory custom”.
They recast parts from old molds and recolor/recombine them in very interesting ways that extract large sums of money from those of us who still collect vintage style Joes.
I like this guy! He stands out, but he also fits in.
One custom I’d like to see: Crimson Guard Scoop.