Stormy night

Another one painted last week is a well known ninja who, until reading the recent comics, I'd assumed was always a bad guy. The toys were always Cobra affiliated, as were his cartoon and film equivalents... so it came as a bit of a surprise to find that in about 70% of the comics he is an ally of the Joes; the rest of the time he is midwiped.

I've painted him up without any Cobra symbols so he can be used as either affiliation.

Vipers

So I finished some infantry for the Joe project last week, but never got around to posting them up.

The Vipers always looked a lot better as villainous infantry than the original Cobra Troopers and slowly became the staple grunt as the comics went on.

Jinx

This week's Zombtober entry is a little late as I got sidetracked with house bits and Blade Runner 2049 yesterday. It also isn't the figure I was intending to post as I was also working on some Plague Zombies from the latest 40k starter set... hopefully they can become this week's entries instead. For now we'll have to have another "could-be-a-survivor".

Jinx is another one of the excellent sculpts from the GI Joe commission. In the Marvel comics continuity she is Storm Shadow's cousin and part of the Arashikage clan; training wth the Blind Master and teaching Billy (Cobra Commander's son). Later she became part of Ninja Force with Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and a number of other Joe ninjas.

This isn't a figure I had when I was a kid; I guess because she was never in any of the comics I owned at the time, so she wasn't of much interest.

Major Bludd

In the continuation of the newly formed Joetober... today we have Major Bludd, a notorious mercenary wanted for crimes against humanity and poetry...

"When you're feeling low and woozy / Slap a fresh clip in your uzi / Assume the proper firing stance / And make those suckers jump and dance."  - Major Bludd

I don't really remember Bludd from when I was a kid, but he seems like a typical villainous type and will be equally good as a Star or Co-Star in 7TV2. He will be a good foe for Action Force, or Destro's forces as neither really like him.

He was part of the original Battle Action Force stories in the UK and seems to be one of the few characters that survived the transition over to the main Hama continuity without any issues

Laird Destro

I havn't yet painted a zombie for Zombtober... maybe I should rename it to Joetober?

Following on from the Baroness, I had to do Laird Destro at the same time. They are an iconic pairing of villains who seem to have consciences; Destro more than the Baroness. As an international arms dealer, war in any form suits him; with Cobra or against... whichever has a higher profit margin.

The character Destro did also exist in the Battle Action Force comics for a while before they transitioned into the Action Force series, but the character was very different. Rather than a Scottish weapons dealer, he was a Latvian who defected from the Russian army to Action Force and then over to the Red Shadows. Once with the Red Shadows, he took the name Red Jackal.

I'm not sure why the toy specifically listed him with a Cobra affiliation, given his mercenary tendencies. MARS would have been a better affiliation for him. Speaking of which, I need to sort out some figures for his Iron Guard at some point.

Baroness DeCobray

Next in the Action Force painting queue is Baroness DeCobray, or  Anna von Stromberg if you followed the Battle Action Force origins (which doesn't tie into Hama's GI Joe continuity at all).

This is a really characterful figure that almost painted itself. While painting the Baroness I learned a quick, effective way to quickly paint black cloth that actually looks nice in person and seems to work in photos as well. Black undercoat with a Medium grey drybrush and a light grey highlight brush. Then, rather than black washes that I've tried before, which just make the dry brushing look worse, some glazes of thinned black paint over the top, with neat black being added back in for the deep shadows. I was tempted to try a blue glaze over the top to give it that blue highlight that the comics have, but decided not to in the end.

Flashbacks

Painting some 28mm Action Force/GI Joe figures recently has sparked a train of nostalgia, which has ended up in reading the old comics in the proper order and, today, watching the animated movie from many many years ago. The difference between the British and American themes is... interesting. I remember the British/Action Force theme tune being quite catchy. Sorry all you Americans, but your intro to the movie is cringe worthy... Let me rephrase that. In comparison to the one I grew up with, the US theme is really jarring and doesn't feel right at all. I can't tell if the British one is just better, or if it is nostalgia that is driving me towards the Action Force intro music instead. You decide

GI Joe - The movie

Vs Action Force, The Movie

Having checked youTube, I can safely say that the TV series intro, even though it shares most of the same lyrics, also seems miles better. The other question that comes up, and was valid back in the day too, who thought Starscream's voice was a good choice for Cobra commander? The guy was an ex-salesman/car dealer and was supposed to be charismatic enough to have formed a mahooosive underground army, just not all that good at military tactics and a bit stroppy... not a whiny idiot. Also... why does Destro, the white guy in a mask, sound like he should be Shaft?!

Aaaaanyhoo.

The comics, however, are actually very good, though some of the stories are different to those that I remember reading when I was a kid. In a cleanup over the weekend I found some of the old issues and discovered why things didn't quite match up. It seems that the UK comics had a slight restructure of the plotlines, with some extra sections added in to allow much quicker turnaround on some of the plots. Well worth the read so far. There are 155 issues of the original series by Larry Hama. So far I'm up to about issue 55 and I think I've just about reached where I originally read up to, so everything from here on is new to me until we reach the new Hama comics. Still no Red Shadows or Baron Ironblood though... pffff. Not proper ;)

Cobra Commander

One of my favourite toy series when I was younger was Action Force. I know technically it switched to GI Joe eventually, but it will always be Action Force to me... which is probably why, to me, Cobra Commander will always be Baron Ironblood. For the American readers you may have missed out on that incarnation. He went from weirdo with a bucket on his head, to a weirdo with a bag or fishbowl on his head...

At some point I want to add a Baron Ironblood, but for now we'll start with a Cobra Commander as I'm slowly working my way through the original Marvel comics and the proper continuity. there are some surprisingly good stories in there. Having found that image of Cobra Commander above, I wish I'd put a snake staff in his hand. Maybe I'll come back and update that in the future...