Action Figure #814: G. I. Joe Classified Series Cobra-La Royal Guard

 World's most expensive army builder.

 About time I added a new JOE into my collection! Believe it or not, G. I. Joe eventually got super weird, adding the Cobra-La faction to take over the Cobras... but only in the original show, as it seems most sequels ignore them. Here we have the Cobra-La Royal Guard upon which I knew I had to add to my collection the moment I saw him. Now, if Serpentor could get a re-release...

 This guys is the most expensive Army Builder. He is 42 bucks, but comes with a ton of different pieces so that you can make different configurations of the guy. To note, he comes with four alternate heads. A scarred, serious bald head, a psychotic smile head and... sadly, two helmets that aren't hollow, so have to remove one of the heads in order to use either, which, if you ask me, kinda sucks. Making them hollow would've added so much more playability to the guy! He also comes with two sets of pauldrons, one is bigger and looks much more badass, and I kinda wanted to have one of each, but the bigger one restricts the shoulder too much, so I settled for the smaller shoulder pads. He comes with two sets of arm-guards too, some are mere arm guards and the others have a bone blade protruding from it's end. He has a removable soft-goods cape, a gun, two removable insect wings, a bone saw and a bone-staff-lance that I sadly lost when I moved the figure from my mother's to my house. Bummer! As you can see, he can be configured in a large number of different ways, but, sadly, he is too expensive for a figure to build an army with!

 The sculpt itself is very nice, I love the muted greys and reds he was sculpted in. He has a nice, creamy looking bone highlights. For some reason, the bone parts in the helmets have a black wash... but no other bone accent on him does, not even his weapon, so it looks kinda out of place. Aside from that, he is a great looking figure. I love all the rough feeling texture he has all throughout his armor, honestly, the unmasked heads give him mini-boss aura which I adored.

 Articulation hits all the usual Classified trappings. Double jointed elbows and knees, drop-down hips, swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots... albeit due to the armor on the thighs and boots, you can't really turn them 360 degrees. He has butterfly joints, but the added range is minimal, and the ball jointed ab-crunch AND waist barely have any forward or backward tilt. Overall, while not the most impressive, it's good enough for the type of character that he is. He is a bit taller than Bucky Cap.

 I really liked this guy. I love the good degree of customization he affords, although some parts, like the helmets being heads, or the big pauldrons limiting arm movement, could've been thought out better. That said, he is a badass looking villain, so I'm happy he is in my shelf now.

8.0