{"id":1419,"date":"2009-09-03T07:30:43","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2010-07-13T11:41:39","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T16:41:39","slug":"itsalltruereview-g-i-joe-rise-of-cobra-crimson-hydra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=1419","title":{"rendered":"ItsAllTrueReview: G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra Crimson Hydra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buying Joes isn’t just about picking up a lot of individual figures, it’s about vehicles and playsets too. While some of my fondest memories of playing with Joes are vehicle-based, I’d been avoiding buying any ROC vehicles. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, my adult sensibilities kick in and remind me that space is at a commodity. And two, almost all of my Joe purchases are guided by a bit of nostalgia. One or the other of those has kept me from making vehicle purchases so far. The ROC Night Raven, though awesome, has nowhere to go right now. The Ice Dagger, though awesome, is no Snow Cat. Finally, though, one of the vehicles was able to convince me to overlook space and nostalgia concerns: the Crimson Hydra. <\/P>
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I know I was just talking about nostalgia and any well-versed Joe collector can tell you there is no plane similar to the Crimson Hydra in the classic toy line. Well, I wasn’t into only Joes as a kid. I loved planes too. I still do. The Crimson Hydra is essentially a “toyified” version of the F-117A Nighthawk. When I was a kid, there was a lot of speculation about the “secret” F-19 fighter jet. Though the military either never really had one or has successfully covered up having one, a couple designs were made up by model kit companies and a star was born. Even Hasbro got in on the action with the Phantom X-19 Stealth Fighter. A few years later, the secret military F-19 turned out to really be the F-117A, the jet the Crimson Hydra is based on. In my addled mind, all of that blended together and I found myself short $25 and plus one crimson stealth fighter pretty quickly.<\/P>
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The first thing you notice about the Hydra when you get it out of the box, is its size. The plane is about 12.5″ long, 11″ wide, and 4.5″ tall. It’s not in any real scale to the figures of course, it’d have to be about twice as tall and four times as long I’d guess, but it’s still a nice-sized Joe vehicle for $25. The plane features an opening canopy, two retractable wings, the top of the plane opens to reveal some inner workings and two firing missiles, a snap-on missile, and retractable landing gear with free rolling wheels. The plane also features a detachable spy plane that holds another figure in addition to the included Aero-Viper.<\/P>
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The Aero-Viper is an okay figure. He features standard articulation and is painted well, but one thing about him bothers me. He’s built around the same base body as the other ROC vipers, but features a different head, helmet, and webgear. I think the metallic gold is a nice touch as it really bring outs the boots, pads, and helmet. My only complaint about the figure is that I would’ve liked to see the armor be more in line with the other vipers. I love the Crimson Neo-Viper. When I look at the Aero-Viper I want to see him done similarly. I’m happy with the choice of helmet, but I’d quickly trade out the webgear for some gold Neo-Viper armor . As it is now, the Aero-Viper has become the pilot of the smaller spy plane and a Crimson Neo-Viper handles the bigger aircraft for that very reason.<\/P>
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One of the main features is the opening canopy doors that reveal the insides of the plane. In theory, these can open in mid-flight and allow the plane to shoot the two included missiles, but I’m going to pretend their hatches to let people work on the plane or to make sure the poor spy plane pilot is still breathing. The opening doors and firing missiles may be a nice touch for kid’s play value, but it exposes a lot of unpainted areas and really takes away from the overall piece (more on that later). Finally, the landing gear is tight, almost too tight, and stays in place firmly in both up and down positions.<\/P>
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The best part of this $25 vehicle is its second vehicle! The smaller spy-pod is about 5.5″ long and snugly fits one figure. It features an opening canopy and two retractable wings. It pops in and out of the larger vehicle easily and stays in place when not in use. There’s not too much to say about it, but it’s fun to have and increases the value of the set. Continue to Page 2…<\/A>.<\/p>\n

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My main issue with the Hydra is the different plastics the moving parts of the plane are molded in. The softer plastic for the retractable wing tips and tail is noticeably darker than the rest of the plane. The cockpit cover is molded clear and painted to match. From some angles it can almost fool you, but it’s generally always lighter than the rest of the plane. The plane looks more uniform in person, the camera is always better than the naked eye at discerning the different materials after all, but it’s still not close enough that you don’t wish Hasbro got a little closer to matching the colors.<\/P>
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Putting aside the different colors of plastic, the plane is left to its paint apps and stickers to finish off the look. First, I should say that I didn’t apply all the stickers. There were four “M.A.R.S. Industries” stickers that I skipped to keep it a Cobra plane. The best stickers were the ones that created displays in both cockpits and the silver Cobra logos that mixed well with the crimson plane. I was happy to see the “No Step” stickers because I’m strange like that (I was very happy watching and spotting the stickers on the Joe logo as the credits rolled on the movie. The rest of the gang will tell you, I shouted out “No Step” in the theatre when I finally saw my favorite sticker). I was a little put off by the strange font used for the text-based stickers. You can make out what they all are, but some of the letters wouldn’t be clear by themselves.<\/p>\n

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I wish there’d been more paint. At first glance, you can quickly see the four gun turrets that should be painted. For the most part, the solid red mold does its job though and the plane looks sharp despite the few spots that could have used some more color. But it all falls apart when you open the top of the plane. There is a ton of molded detail in there: hoses, panels, cables, wires, and hydraulics. All left unpainted. When I have some time, I’m going to have to take some silver and black paint in there finish up where Hasbro left off. Sadly, if the plane didn’t strangely open, it wouldn’t be an issue.<\/p>\n

Overall, I know I made the right decision picking up this particular vehicle. I like the F-117 design being used as the base. I might take some paint to it to get up it to par, but for a repaint from the SpyTroops era, it’s not bad at all. I’ve got a Tiger Rat that’s suspended from the ceiling over my Joes and that’s the future for the Crimson Hydra too.
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Buying Joes isn’t just about picking up a lot of individual figures, it’s about vehicles and playsets too. While some of my fondest memories of playing with Joes are vehicle-based, I’d been avoiding buying any ROC vehicles. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, my adult sensibilities kick in and remind me that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[34,10],"tags":[249,248,2568,2569,80,2560],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-mT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":158,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=158","url_meta":{"origin":1419,"position":0},"title":"Review: G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra Shipwreck and Sgt. 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I had to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18716,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=18716","url_meta":{"origin":1419,"position":4},"title":"G.I. Joe “Basic Line” Wave One Review (12 Pics!)","date":"May 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While the onslaught of G.I. Joe Retaliation figures will soon be upon us, there are still some cool non-movie figures to be found \u2013 provided you have a good \u2018dollar store\u2019 nearby. This so-called \u201cBasic Line\u201d isn\u2019t a dollar line, but I think you\u2019ll agree they\u2019re worth the price of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "G.I. Joe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11798,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11798","url_meta":{"origin":1419,"position":5},"title":"G.I. Joe Review: Pursuit of Cobra Wave 4 Low-Light","date":"February 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I got really into 25th Joes a few years ago. The figures weren't always perfect, but with a healthy dollop of nostalgia, they got the job done. When the movie figures eclipsed the anniversary, I bought some. The verdict? Better figures, but not better designs. This weekend, I bought a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "G.I. Joe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1419"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7590,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1419\/revisions\/7590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}