GIJoe Classified Series Gung Ho and Cobra Commander

 

You two play nice okay. No fighting now. 

Cobra Commander looks good. I quite like the uniform he's wearing. I feel it's a little overdone though. I think if they did without the silver lines on his bracers he would look better. You know, to tone things down a bit. They are quite distracting. There's great detail on his uniform. I love the black textured, scaly design on his shoulders and at the sides. The same scaly design can be found on the red streaks running down the sides of his pants. Very nice! The Cobra logos on his chest and bracers were sculpted. As were the buttons. I like that they were painted. The lower portion of his uniform with the flaps and coat tail is actually an overlay piece they inserted at the ab area. They did a good job with it as it's pretty seamless with the upper torso. The shoulder pad, half cape and sword sheath are all attached to the strap he wears over his uniform. It is one separate piece. It is removable but it's quite troublesome to do so. The strap is textured. I love the gold Cobra clasps on the front. The half cape drapes nicely from the shoulder pad. It is black on the outside and red on the inside. The helmet looks good. The silver for the face plate has a metallic shine to it. It's okay but I feel it should be shinier.             

Accessories. He comes with a right pointing hand, a wide open left hand, a silver pistol and a sword. 

I love the amount of detail on his weapons. Both the sword and pistol have a cobra designed grip with a lot of nice scaly detail. The pistol also has a cobra running down the length of the barrel. Great stuff! Click on images to enlarge. He's only got one gripping hand so he cannot use both weapons at the same time. That's quite disappointing. The sword may be stored in the sheath hanging from the waist strap. I pushed it down too far in some of the pics so do take note of that.        

I was hoping he could store his pistol on his back like on the 3.75" figure. Though there's hole on his back there's no peg on his pistol. What we can do is to place the pistol in the strap at his back and voila. The strap is just tight enough so it will not fall off. Just don't shake the commander around too much.

The wide open left hand is clearly meant to hold something. We don't get the object with this release but we will with the upcoming convention exclusive figure.

I'm sure Hasbro will release more versions of Cobra Commander. In the mean time I'm thinking of using the Marvel Legends Star Lord's body for his classic RAH look. I think it'll work. But first I'll have to find an extra body.

Next up Gung Ho.

Gung Ho reuses the Roadblock body. It suits him. He is a big and strong guy after all. There is a noticeable difference, and that is instead of a metal knee pad he now has an ordinary black one now. I would have preferred if they just painted it his pants colour so that it would not seem out of place. If it were a separate piece, fine. But as part of the body it just looks off. Thankfully he's wearing some strapped grenades on his thigh which help make it less obvious. Those strapped grenades is a separate piece. As are the metal plate and elbow pad on his right and left arm respectively. His attire is greenish grey in colour. Of the characters released so far his colours deviate the most from his RAH appearance. I like this but part of me also want him in his aqua colours. He's wearing a vest. It has great detail on it. There are various padded sections, straps and pouches and it is textured. It has a communicator on it, and also several grenades. What I like best is that it has some painted detail and lining which help bring out the detail. Gung Ho has a rugged and seasoned appearance. There's quite a bit of facial lines on his face. He looks fierce. The moustache and mohawk contribute to that. Just looking at his eyes you know he's serious. He has that sort of glare.   

His vest, the metal plate and elbow pad are removable. The thigh strap too. I forgot to take that off. And now we have a bare chested tough guy. He has quite a bit of muscle. He'll be doubling up as a henchmen or a background character.  

Actually two characters come to mind for this look. One is Major Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist. The other is the German mechanic from Raiders of the Lost Ark. If he goes on sale I might pick up more to custom.

The body can also be used for more of Marvel's Reavers members. 

Here's a close-up of his tattoo. They did not give him his original tattoo. What we got is somewhat similar. There's a bird and a globe but no anchor. 

Accessories. He comes with an Army cap, a backpack, a grenade launcher, a blaster rifle and a shotgun type blaster. The weapons have some nice sculpted detail on them. There's great detail on the backpack. It's textured and has several straps and compartments on it. There are holders on its sides and bottom. The holders on the left are slightly bigger than the right. Each is meant for a different weapon.

Close-ups of his face. The cap stays on well and does not drop off easily.  

Now for another round of how to store the weapons. The shotgun blaster goes on his left and the blaster rifle goes on his right side of the backpack. That's straightforward enough.

That leaves the grenade launcher. You can't fit it properly in any of the holders. You can hang it like in the following pic but that's not practical.    

The best way I can think of is to hang it on the blaster rifle. Everything is quite secure and it looks neat. But again it's not practical so I guess he just has to carry it in his hands.  

Articulation

Gung Ho has a ball hinge upper neck, ball joint lower neck, ball hinge shoulders, butterfly joints, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, swivel hinge wrists, ab crunch, ball joint waist, ball hips on drop down hinge, thigh swivel, double jointed knees, boot swivel and ankle hinge and pivot. He can look up and down well. The neck hinge on my figure keeps wanting to spring back to neutral which is annoying. The shoulder pad is flexible enough and so he can still raise his right arm straight up.  

Cobra Commander has a ball hinge upper neck, ball joint lower neck, ball hinge shoulders, butterfly joints, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, swivel and up and down hinge right wrist, swivel hinge left wrist, ab crunch, ball joint waist, ball hips on drop down hinge, thigh swivel, double jointed knees, boot swivel and ankle hinge and pivot. He can look up and down well. The ab crunch is very tight and only allows one click forward and one click back. An awkward bump at the abs will show when he bends back. He still can bend decently when used together with the waist joint. 

Comparison shots.

Both are nice figures. Gung Ho is a useful figure to get for his customising potential or if you need some thugs. Thanks for viewing!