Bit of a Review: G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra Dusty and Recondo!

Full disclosure: I'm not a full-time G.I. Joe collector; more of an opportunist. If I found them on-sale or marked down, I'd be more than happy to pick them up, but these two I got brand-new: Rise of Cobra Dusty and Recondo.

Now, again, maybe an actual card-carrying Joe fan could back me up on this, but I would guess while the movie figures were at least fairly successful, there were also a helluva lot of them on the pegs. Most of you could probably still find them in some stores in your neighborhood with a minimum of searching, right? And sometimes, even if they sold through once, if a store's stuck with a pile of unsold figures, they don't order the new ones, even if those would sell quickly. So, it feels like in answer to a question no one but me may be asking, Hasbro brought some A-game to this wave.


These two, like most of the Pursuit of Cobra figures so far, are just sick with accessories. (Check out the Jungle Viper over at OAFE.net or Chase Variant's coverage of Spirit and Duke!) Comparing these to other 3 3/4" figures, like Marvel Universe or DC Infinite Heroes, is just unfair: usually, at best those other figures come with one accessory, perhaps a base or a card. They may as well be empty blister packs. (The only recent figures, off the top of my head, that had anywhere near comparable amounts of accessories, were Playmates Star Trek figures, with their bridge pieces, phasers, and belts. Nevermind the whole lot never came out to complete the bridge, and that the figures themselves were kind of terrible...)

Dusty comes with a removable helmet with separate goggles, two guns, a roll of barbed wire, a base, and an alternate head. And a removable scarf-thing, with a cloth cape. That opens up a lot of display options, even if the alternate head to me looks like Dusty's going out paintballing this weekend, but you could easily pick up a couple and deck them out differently to fill out your Joes' ranks.

And is it me, or does Dusty look like Robert Patrick?

But Dusty's virtually short-changed on the accessory front compared to jungle survival expert Recondo, who comes with more gear than he can carry. Removable hat, two rifles, two axes, two bear-trap things, a backpack with solar panels (to power the radio? Seems heavier and more cumbersome than batteries, but whatever) and a retractable line, the weird tribal mask he's wearing in the picture above, a removable vest, and a base.

And yet, that's still not Recondo's main selling point: he bears a striking resemblance to former governor Jesse Ventura circa his role as Blain Cooper in Predator. Hardcore Joe and Predator fans could doubtless help you find an in-scale M134 minigun for him, and I'm keeping a beady eye open for a loose Kenner Predator figure from the 90's, since that would maybe be about in scale to fight some Joes. One small downside to Recondo, though: his head doesn't quite have a full range of motion, and he doesn't seem to be able to look up very well.



Great figures, out now, and Recondo appears to be moving quickly...based on what little observation I've done. Get some now!