Lately when a wave of figures trickles out to stores one at a time, it seems like I find or am shipped the figure I want least first and the one I want most last. This latest Target wave has blown that up because I got my most wanted guys first and my least wanted figure from the wave, the Python Patrol officer, last. Let’s take a look!
The box is boxy with re-colored Cobra Officer artwork that kind of makes me wish this guy came with a pointing hand for ordering troops about.
The Python Patrol Officer comes with the same plethora of accessories we saw with the recent Cobra Officer including two rifles, a pistol, two magazines, a scope, a knife, a rifle carrier, and a helmet. The weapons are cast in all black plastic and the knife gets a little bit of shiny silver paint for a taste of realism.
The guns have fairly sharp details and are cast in a solid plastic. The two removeable magazines can swap between rifles and can be stored in a pouch on the back of the belt. There is a tiny little scope piece that can attach to front of the longer rifle and that scope also fits in a belt pouch.
The longer rifle fits in the carrier if the scope is taken off, but the smaller one kind of sticks on the weapon site, so he’s got to carry that one. The carrier is cast in a pretty soft gray plastic that plugs into the hole in the figure’s back and has some nice leather texture and an embossed Cobra symbol. Everything but the smaller rifle can be stored on the figure.
The guns can also all use the blast effects from the Viper packs.
Sculpting is interesting because I thought this guy was a straight repaint of the officer, but it turns out he uses the torso, neck, and forearms from the Infantry. It gives him a little variety and makes me want to combine the blue officer and infantry figures in a similar fashion since my one complaint about the infantry was that the torso articulation is limited.
The articulation is typical of the line except he does have an odd issue with the hips. As far as I can tell, all the pieces are the same as the officer and Infantry figures we’ve got before, but for some reason this one has a wider stance unless you drop down the hips. His legs don’t want to hinge together as much as the other figures that use this body. I may have to take one apart to figure out what is causing the issue because visually they look the same.
Paint is solid with a lot of the figure cast in the appropriate plastic color and the python diamonds are cleanly applied. He does seem like a bit of an anomaly with the other Python guys because he’s the only one with the pea green color, but I think that it will feel more cohesive if they release Copperhead and the regular trooper who also have that green. I also like that they did change up the skin color slightly here as well.
Overall this is a solid figure, but not flashy. I have two, but I’m thinking about returning one as I don’t feel the need for multiple officers in Python Patrol since my Python squad isn’t all that big.
