PoC Review – Cobra Deviant
If you read my review of the Steel Marauder, you know a little bit about the history of mechs in GI Joe and the new Pursuit of Cobra line. Well, if GI Joe’s going to have a mech, it only figures that Cobra would get a counterpart. Cobra counters the Steel Marauder with a mech called the Deviant. The Deviant’s design doesn’t deviate <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/roadpig_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="" /><!-- s:lol: --> too much from the Steel Marauder…in fact, they share the same legs and cockpit. However, the changes that are made to differentiate the Deviant from the Steel Marauder are numerous, and I think they work pretty well.
The Deviant is colored primarily in blood red, with light and dark gray accents. It uses the same legs, waist, and cockpit body as the Steel Marauder with just a few changes. The only real change to the basic body is that on the Deviant, the legs are flipped around. The feet still face the same way, but the joints on the legs are reversed so they look like the legs on a Star Wars AT-ST “Chicken Walker.” It gives the Deviant a totally different look, and it’s amazing how something so simple can completely change a vehicle’s appearance. The cockpit and interior are the same, except for the expected color changes. Fortunately, the Deviant also gets all the articulation the Steel Marauder had, too.
There are three major parts changes to the Deviant. The first is the canopy. While the canopy still follows the same basic shape as the Steel Marauder’s (and is tinted red) there are a few notable additions. The first are three pods on the canopy’s front, one on the very bottom left and two more about halfway up on the right side. I make these out to be sensor pods. Also, the back left side of the canopy has a small box with three protrusions that can be turned up and down. I would assume this is a small weapons pod. Also, the canopy slopes downward sharply at the back.
The other changes to the Deviant are the two arms. These arms are flush up against the body of the mech, not extended farther out to the sides like the Steel Marauder’s. It makes the mech look more compact, but I’m not really sure I like it. The left arm has a large, spiny ball on its front. Pushing a red button on the underside of the arm snaps the ball forward on a post, acting as a battering ram. The ball’s pretty big and nasty looking, but I don’t think it extends forward quite far enough. The Deviant’s pretty much got to be right up against what it’s trying to batter for the ram to be effective. For that matter, I wish the battering ram fired completely out of the arm, like a missile. The right arm has a gun barrel-like protrusion on the front that looks like a small cannon. At the back of the arm, pointing up at about a 45-degree angle, is another barrel…but this one contains a large, black grappling hook. The grappling hook has a string tied to it, up front near one of the prongs. The string runs to a reel on the outer side of the arm. Pressing a button on top of the angled barrel fires the grappling hook, which unreels the string from the line.
The Deviant contains a new type of Viper, Cyber-Viper. Cyber-Viper’s figure uses a combination of parts sourced from 25th Zartan and Resolute Comic Pack Destro, among others. I really like the head on this figure…his helmet looks like a cross between Wild Weasel’s and a Stratoviper’s. CV has a red, black, and silver color scheme that both looks very nice, coordinates well with his vehicle, and looks very Cobra. The only comment I’ll make here is that Cobra must be starting to run low on Viper types.
I like the Deviant and Cyber-Viper, but as always I have a few complaints. The changes made between the Deviant and the Steel Marauder are enough to differentiate the two mechs, but I still feel slightly cheated that they share so many of the same parts. I’m not sure I like the compactness of the arms. The battering ram isn’t that useful, and the grappling hook doesn’t fly very far if the string is wound up. Really, I just wish the Deviant had more traditional weaponry. Hasbro should have given it either the grappler or the battering ram for one arm and some other kind of traditional weapons on the other. Give it some missiles and some cannons or something…the Steel Marauder has the perfect combo with a claw on one arm and a Gatling-style missile launcher on the other.
So there you have it, a review on the OTHER Pursuit of Cobra mech. I like these mechs, and I hope to see more with new and different designs…but I hope the mechs remain kind of unique, and that we don’t get deluged with them. I also hope we keep getting good driver figures, like Kickstart and Cyber-Viper. I think the initial mech experiment in Pursuit of Cobra has been pretty successful, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
