Rex “The Doctor” Lewis

Ever since Episode One of Star Wars came out, I’ve made an effort to avoid as many spoilers for a film as I can without going out of my way. I really wanted to like “GI Joe: Rise of Cobra” before I saw it. But I had my doubts. As such, I really didn’t get a sense of who “The Doctor” was until after I saw the film.

I really thought he was some type of updated Dr. Mindbender, who I actually knew was a character in the film. I had no interest in a Mindbender figure, so I passed Rex Lewis over a  few times. Then I saw the DVD for the film. By the time I realized he was Cobra Commander, I couldn’t find him anywhere. I did eventually did find one at an out of the way Wal-Mart.

Appearance:

With all that being said, Rex “The Doctor” Lewis is a fairly plain figure. A long haired guy in a trench coat. I bet you can go to your local mall and see an angst riddled teen that looks just like this figure.

One thing that this figure has that his movie counterpart doesn’t is the silver Cobra logo on his jacket. It really surprised me that for a movie called “The Rise of Cobra”, there was no Cobra. Yeah, all the elements were there, but I guess it really didn’t become the Cobra organization until the very end of the film. Film accurate or not, it surely helps identify the good guys from the bad guys.

Speaking of his trench coat, one of the cooler aspect of this figure is that he looks decent with or without. Because of the all black design of the character, the arms don’t look out of place either way.

The arms and legs are covered with straps and buckles. A little silver paint accents the buckles. In general, the straps look pretty good.

Underneath the coat, the strap theme continues. The overall design of this character is a cross between Darth Vader and Pinhead from Hellraiser. And that’s who this figure really reminds me of without the coat, Pinhead. Add some sort of skirt or kilt and he be the perfect place to start a Cenobite custom at this scale.

If you didn’t pick up on it, his hair is removable, as is the breath mask. Obviously, he’s not nearly as battered as Anakin was at the end of Episode 3, but he’s obviously been disfigured. The head sculpt is good, considering we only really glimpse for him like this for a brief second.

The hair does have one slight issue. It’s not tight. It tends to wobble around a lot on his head. It’s almost a guarantee that if this figure falls over on a shelf, his hair is going to go flying. It also tends to move around a lot on his head. I’d considered adding a little piece of poster tack underneath the toupee, but I’m afraid of pulling the paint off the top of his head.

Fun:

I really didn’t think this figure was going to have much fun factor before I took it out of the package. But wow, there was more in the package than I thought.

One of the coolest things Mr. Lewis is accessorized with is a briefcase with three removable nanomite canisters. Each of these is in that neon green color with a sculpted handle. There’s  little recesses for each of the canisters in the closable case. These could serve a variety of purposes, I imagine they could be the McGuffin in a number of display scenarios. I really think you could use them next your Delorean, as well.

In order to handle the toxic canisters, Rex comes with some claw gloves. Instead of being alternate hands, there are silver molded over hands. The picture at the top of the page shows they can hold the canister. They seem more likely to be used for that use than as some sort of weapon.

Speaking of weapons, the Doctor comes with one and a half. One of those modern assault weapons, and his nanomite injector. Both are light on detail, but molded in black. The trade off is acceptable to me at this scale.

Lastly, Rex has his toupee and breath mask. Similar to the lower half of a Darth Vader helmet the mask covers up his face to over his nose. Because of the sculpt of the mask and hair, the articulation is non-existent in the masked figure.

I normally gloss over the gadget accessory that has come with all of the GI Joe movie figures, but this one might just be my favorite. I thought it was some sort of set piece, but it’s actually a working claw. Depress the green button the back and it opens, and is spring loaded shut. The arms ratchet so it can be setup on feet like in the top picture.  The bottom picture shows it closed up.

Overall:

This is a figure that I had some doubts about. But, like most of the other GI Joe figures I’ve picked up it surprised me. He’s a pretty good representation of the film character who comes with some nifty gadgets.

The only slight improvements I would make are the monocle shown on the card art and stay-put hair. I know the Cobra logo isn’t screen accurate, but just like Baroness, I think prefer him with it rather than with out it.

Engineernerd Score: 96/100

Tags: Action Figure, Cobra, Cobra Commander, GI Joe, Hasbro, Review, Rise of Cobra, The Doctor

Category: GI Joe, Toy Reviews