Review by Chris Chung & Fred Meyer
Pics by Fred Meyer
Cobra-La Emissary– Code name: Pythona
2016 G.I. Joe Collector’s Club renewal figure
1987 could have been known as the “summer of the Hasbro films”. Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie made the transition from small screen to theatrical release in animated form. Sadly, the box office receipts weren’t there to justify the expense and so Hasbro scrapped plans for a similar release of both G.I. Joe: The Movie and a Jem animated film. I’m sure animated Jem would have been better than the live-action monstrosity that was “Jem” in name only… Fortunately for Joe fans, the Joe movie saw a direct-to-video release—otherwise its most controversial contribution to the fandom might have been lost. The ancient civilization of Cobra-La did see figure representation in a single three pack consisting of Golobulus, Nemesis Enforcer, and the Royal Guard. However, one other important character from this bizarre concept was missing and would remain so for nearly 30 years until the G.I. Joe Collector’s Club chose her to be the membership renewal incentive figure in what would prove to be their final year. That’s right folks—I’m talking about Pythona, the enigmatic emissary of that lost Himalayan kingdom.
Heavily inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s short story At the Mountains of Madness, the G.I. Joe movie introduces us to Cobra-La: the retconned origin of Cobra Commander and Cobra Command. Cobra-La is an ancient civilization tens of thousands of years old, whose denizens (who are equally that old) are the last remnants of a cryptid subspecies of humanity who evolved through bio-organic manipulation rather than mechanical or technological means. Imbued with special power and being about as alien as you could be without actually being extraterrestrial, Cobra-La was a weird and jarring direction to take the franchise. I had always loved Pythona’s aesthetics, but outside of her, I wasn’t fond of Cobra-La. It wasn’t until I was much older when I really started to appreciate the concept. (Hmm... Cobra-La... Shangri-La...Coincidence? I think not!)
Was she worth the wait? Read on and find out the opinions of two long-time Joe fans!
Pythona. Seriously… even as I stare at the figure sitting on my desk it’s hard to believe that she’s actually here. As was the case with Dr. Venom, Kwinn, and Billy, Pythona was a figure that I never thought I’d see made—much less made in the current generation 3 form of construction.
Fred, you don’t know how thankful I am to finally get her! Sure, there were always rumors, but I was very skeptical she’d ever happen. I did have hope a few years ago when it was hinted that a Cobra-La set might pop up as an SDCC exclusive, but that never happened so I chalked her up as unlikely at best.
The recipe for Pythona would appear to be as follows:
As a mixed-source build goes, it’s actually pretty solid! In the animation, Pythona’s costume design was essentially a smooth form-fitting unitard. To replicate that 100% accurately would have required the use of what is essentially a female superhero body—something that doesn’t exist in the G.I. Joe tooling library. As such, the Club had to choose very carefully from the parts that were available and, for the most part, they succeeded better than I could have imagined. (I had nightmares of Pythona suddenly wearing a purple RoC Baroness or Helix outfit and the Club saying it was “good enough.” Thankfully I was wrong.) The body design gives Pythona the articulation she needs with a minimum of sculpted detail—which is what the animation model requires. There is an odd anatomical disparity found in the length of her upper and lower legs but it is far from a deal breaker. What do you think of this body design, Chris?
Freddie, when she was announced but no pics were shown, I too had thought a path of least resistance would be taken. A few years ago we were told if she was ever made, the Club wasn’t going to use a Marvel female figure for the base body, so I was expecting at worst a Helix body that wasn’t formfitting, or at best a Baroness one that was. I was a little more unsure about head, because there has been some overlap with Hasbro and LucasFilm in sharing toy parts in the past, so a Aurra Sing head wasn’t out of the realm of impossibility---but I had always hoped hers would be unique. And thankfully it was.
As for her overall build, it’s very well done. I don’t recognize the upper half of the torso, lower legs, or feet. (And the feet aren’t from the Zombie-Viper.) Maybe these are also newly tooled parts, maybe they are from a new ‘Joe figure we haven’t see yet and the Club piggybacked the parts, or maybe they are taken from a different line? I dunno. My token gripe are the upper legs. They are from Renegades Scarlett, and the uppers are way too long compared to the lowers; both on Scarlett and on Pythona. Yeah, I get why they used it---it was smooth and tight looking, so it would work as sleek bodysuit legs, but the proportion is off and the knees are much too low. That, and there’s a lot of open space at the T-bar where the legs connect to the groin. However in this case it’s not a huge deal because three things help alleviate the problem: 1.) The deco does a good job of distracting the eye. 2.) It could be argued since she’s been genetically engineered, her body isn’t like a normal person’s. And 3.), the cape pretty much hides everything anyway.
Oh, and let’s not forget the newly sculpted CLAWED hands! How freakin’ cools is that extra touch?! A newly tooled head would have been the cake, but this is the extra thick frosting that goes on top of it. Yummy!
And you’re supposed to be the parts guru of the two of us. To paraphrase just about everyone on Arrow: “You have failed this review!”
If the design of Pythona’s body is simple, her color scheme is the opposite. In the animation, Pythona’s bodysuit is covered in a series of dark purple and open black circles. It’s a deco unlike anything else found in the G.I. Joe line. Thankfully, the Club designers stepped up to the plate once again as this figure looks PERFECT to my aging eyes. The paint deco is clean and, even more importantly, covers her entire body, save for the hands and head. From the soles of her feel to the cuffs and collar of her body suit the design is omnipresent! Nicely done, GIJCC!!!
To be fair, it’s not perfect. Her cartoon suit had lot more detail on her legs than what the actual figure has, and even the photoshopped proto shows a lot more detail and some extra colors that weren’t used on the final figure---primarily the dark purple accent lines. And if you wanted to get really picky, the actual figure doesn’t have the V-shaped sleeve cuff that goes to the top of her hand. But you know what? (And call me a Club Apologist on this one if you must.) Even if it’s not completely accurate, this is one case where “it’s good enough” works because she has far more detailing than I ever thought the Club would do in the first place, and it still easily captures the likeness of her. No one will mistake this for anyone else. The bottom line, is: she had to have the spotted suit to look correct, and the Club delivered on that.
For years, fans have had to resort to cannibalizing Star Wars Aurra Sing figures to recreate this mysterious Herald of Golobulus. (The resemblance is truly uncanny!) Totally. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if it was revealed she was inspired by Pythona. Again, when the figure was first announced at Joe Con 2015 in Springfield, IL. I wondered if Hasbro would permit the GIJCC to utilize Star Wars tooling for the project. Thankfully, fans are treated to not only a new set of hands but a brand new head sculpt! Not only that, but it’s a pretty solid recreation of her animated countenance! The sharp cheekbones, the arched eyebrows—they’re all present! Even the facial markings around the eyes are a pretty solid recreation of the character’s animated appearance. She’s even got the odd dagger-like earrings that I’m sure serve a more sinister purpose than anyone would expect. I did notice that the Club gave her decided white sclera and round irises in her eyes. Maybe it’s just me but in the animation the sclera was blue and her eyes were decidedly more serpentine in appearance. It’s not enough to put me off the figure at all but it humanizes her a bit more than I would have thought. What do you think of this head sculpt Dr. Chung?
I noticed the eyes as well. Technically her skin is also supposed to be a very faint tallow-green instead of a powdered-white, but the changes are subtle enough not to be disruptive. What do I think about her head? Why, I love it! With many of the female head being slightly too large (Bombstrike, Resolute Scarlett & Baroness, SDCC ‘Joe/TF Baroness) I was worried about this being oversized---but it was unfounded. The scale is just fine. The sculpting is also top notch. The thing I was most thrilled about (but not a thrill that went up my leg), was her makeup/markings/ tattoos or whatever it’s supposed to be. I never thought in a million years we’d have something this accurate and intricate. Sure, I was thinking the odds would be good for something on her face---maybe some red eye shadow or something genetic, but I wasn’t expecting this amount of detail. It simply blows my mind, and it also makes me jealous how well you did your own Pythona makeup today.
Hey, I try! I mean… uh… wait just a minute!!!
In terms of accessories, Pythona’s travelling light—just as she did in the movie. She comes equipped with just the following few items:
Honestly, there’s nothing more that needs to be included with a figure of a herald/assassin who appeared to rely more on her own biologically enhanced form than anything else. The tentacled creature is a throwback to the bizarre hybrid electric eel that was used to neutralize the Terror Drome’s secure fence in G.I. Joe: The Movie. The cloak is pretty decent although it might be a touch long but I’m glad the club opted for cloth rather than something sculpted. Her hair braid is removable to allow Pythona to wear her hood up which is a nice bit of engineering, although the fit of the peg is a bit loose. If you’re not planning on using the hood you might want to drop a bit of glue into the socket to prevent it from getting lost. That aside, I have ZERO complaints with her kit at all.
I agree. Pythona is deadly enough as is, so she needs NO weapons or gear. I would have been fine with just the hair, cape, and stand, and nothing else. But the tentacles are a cool touch, so why not get a second run of tooling from the molds?
If I have to list a token gripe here, it would be the hair. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that it’s removable so her head can work hooded or not, but the hair doesn’t stay connected to the head very well, so it tends to fall off. I was also disappointed they changed her hair color from black to brown. I even mentioned this to the Club, and they replied saying they made the change to brown so it would better contrast against her black cape. I can understand that logic from a meta toy perspective, but I disagree with that in practice because it was a conscious decision made by one or two people to alter the established, canonical look of a highly sought after character who is so highly sought after because of her exotic look. Granted it’s an easy fix with some black paint---and hopefully someone will cast the hair in all black for sale, but still, it wasn’t a change that was needed. What’s your take Frater Meyers?
To prepare for this review I ended up watching G.I. Joe: The Movie again. When I first saw the figure I didn’t really notice the hair color difference but after watching the film I can’t un-see it now. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means and I can certainly understand the logic behind the color shift. Still, once someone like Broken Arrow Toys casts this in the proper color I’ll be making the switch.
My only other concern is the cloak. It’s excellent in aesthetics and it’s cut very well to fit with the figure, but a couple short cuts were taken with manufacturing of it: some of the seams are stitched, but some aren’t. The most obvious is the unstitched hem line is the bottom of the cloak, and on my figure it’s already starting to fray right out of the package:
(Of course, keen-eyed fan could argue that her cloak’s hem does become distressed when it is cut by the giant blades as she bursts into Serpentor’s throne room, thus it is technically correct to become frayed.)
Some may also cite the inner lining of the cape should be a different color to match the cartoon, and while true, here I feel it wasn’t necessary, so I don’t mind that isn’t 100% accurate.
At the end of the day, is Pythona worth adding to an ARAH-inspired G.I. Joe Collection? I’ll drop all pretense of objectivity and just utter a resounding “YES!” She’s an excellent recreation of a classic character that nearly went three decades without ever receiving a figure. This isn’t a throw-away background character—this is an individual who is the sole focus of the film narrative’s opening sequence: the spectacular assault on the Cobra Terror Drome! With a new head sculpt and hands, a killer paint deco, and a solid parts build she’s all-but-perfect in my eyes! My only regret is that she’s a membership incentive figure instead of a mass-market release simply because I would love for as many Joe fans as possible to have the opportunity to acquire this figure without paying the prices that I know she’s going to command on the secondary market. (Dial-tone anyone?) While the Club is known to the more passionate online fandom, many casual Joe fans seemed to be unaware of its existence and it’s those individuals that won’t have easy access to a Pythona figure now that she’s shipped. Hopefully the Club anticipated the demand and produced a surplus because this a figure that everyone should have the opportunity to own. Of course, that’s just this Joe… uh… Cobra-La fan’s opinion. Cobra-lalalalala!!!!!
I completely agree. My inner nerd is fully powered up, and next to the incentive Cross-Country they did a few years ago (which was also close to perfection), I personally feel this is the single most beautiful G.I. Joe figure I have ever seen. No joke. Everything I could possibly want with this figure has come true, and it almost feels like the Club hacked my email wish-list to Santa. This figure is a wonderful tribute to the cartoon, and this is exactly the figure I have been wanting and waiting for since 1987. There was obvious care, and love, and time taken with the figure, and there was a clearly an overwhelming desire by the Club to make it the best they could do so it wouldn’t disappoint the community. Well, the hard work paid off. I also collect Masterpiece Transformers, and as far as I’m concerned, Pythona is the equivalent of a Masterpiece G.I. Joe. As disappointed as I often am with FSS figures not being made to their full potential, Pythona alone almost makes up for all of that. She is absolutely brilliant, and she also sets a new bar.
The Bottom Line: Pythona just might be THE best ARAH-inspired membership figure the Club has ever produced. She’s a perfect addition to any G.I. Joe collection!
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