Shipwreck GI Joe Rise of Cobra

January 26, 2010 | By More



shipwreck_front1Shipwreck is one of the characters I was really surprised didn’t make the cut for GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. His snarky attitude made him a fan favorite in the animated and comic book versions of Joe. (Flash was the other one I was expecting to see in action in the film.)

While the vintage version of Shipwreck was a typical sailor with a little white hat, this version looks more to be a Navy Seal or combat diver.

Appearance:

Since he didn’t appear in the film, it’d be hard to mess this one up. He’s kind of a combination of different looks we see in the film. His torso appears to be reactive impact armor, while below the waist he is wearing the urban camo BDU pants seen on a wide variety of the figures.

The armor has a bit of a wash over it, which adds just enough variation to keep it interesting. The Joe logo is present, as well. Much like the Cobra logo, I think this one is here to make the toy version a little more recognizable for which side he’s on.

One area where I’m disappointed in the paint is his wrists. There’s an obvious sculpted cuff line, but he flesh color on his hands goes up over it. The cuffs do seem a little low on his hands, but the paint just makes them look worse.

Even though he wasn’t in the film, Hasbro did a nice job of sculpting a head that looked real. He’s got Shipwreck’s trademark beard, which is painted crisply. He’s traded in the white swabbie hat for a black knit watch cap. I actually like this look, and makes a bit more sense for a covert operator.

To be honest, the head of this figure reminds me of Sean Connery in “The Rock”. The whole figure does in a way. Maybe I’m just seeing things. (Let me know your thoughts by making a comment below.)

One of the last pieces of his outfit is a loose belt around his waist. This belt has a sculpted non-removable pistol. The belt on my figure doesn’t want to stay closed, either. Getting the pictures with the belt required a lot of fiddling around which I eventually gave up on and took it off completely.

shipwreck_feature

Fun:

Shipwreck, like most of the Rise of Cobra Joes, comes with a fair number of accessories. The most significant pieces are his diving gear.

The mask is done in a clear rubbery plastic. The frame and airlines are painted black. The mask can be a little difficult to get on and off. If you want the on the top of the head look, it’s not too bad to do. However to get it on his face, I thought it was easier to pop his head off and put it on from the bottom up.

The lines on the mask plug into two holes on his backpack. The pack appears to be a combination of a combat pack and air tanks. The piece is hollow and  made from a flexible material that makes it a little less nice than some of the other GI Joe packs. The paint on the tanks looks to be second rate, as well. It’s blotchy and seems just slapped on. To be honest, I prefer the the pack that came with Torpedo.

The top of the pack has a bar sculpted on it. This bar gives you a perch of Polly, Shipwreck’s wise cracking parrot. Polly is molded in green plastic with a bit of color on the wings and head. The paint isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. The feet are sculpted to hold the bar and theres not a whole lot else you can do with them. Sadly, without the backpack, Polly is pretty much an ex-parrot.  It would have been nice to have had a groove or something to attach him to Shippy’s bare shoulder.

A set of flippers complete his diving ensemble. They are sculpted top and bottom and are pretty nice for their size. There’s straps on the back, as well as foot peg holes in them. The foot peg holes match small pegs that on the pack to let them be carried when he’s on land.

The remainder of this gear is weapons, and I have to say I’m a bit disappointed in them. They are all molded in a cheap looking silvery grey. The pistol and rifle are okay, but the knife is two big to be taken seriously. All of them are soft on detail and definitely not the best work we’ve seen on this line.  The worse part is there’s nowhere on the figure to put any of the items when not in use.

The last thing in this package is the much maligned missile firing gadget. In this case, I could actually see a use for it. To me it appears like something that might be used to fire a yellow rescue float to a man overboard. As far as these things go, this one isn’t bad.

Overall:

There’s kind of a mixed bag with Shipwreck of good and bad things. The overall appearance isn’t bad. However, some of the accessories are less than stellar. Maybe since I got the Pit Commando first, I was expecting better things.

If you consider this is movie figure of a character that wasn’t in the film, they did a nice job. If you want a definitive Shipwreck, keep looking.

Engineernerd Score: 88/100

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Category: GI Joe, Toy Reviews

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Comments (4)

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  1. Errex says:

    I find it odd that most of us get really annoyed when a figure doesn’t have holsters to carry their weapons. I remember a time when all it took to make me happy with a figure was that it came with more than one gun.

    That said, yes, I also don’t like the material on Shipwreck’s weapons. Black plastic would have been so much better. Still, the figure looks great.

    Mine doesn’t have the belt issues you mention, but then again, I hadn’t realized the belt could be removed. Maybe it is meant to be glued shut?

  2. Engineernerd says:

    Maybe mine didn’t get glued. I’ll have to take a closer look at it.

  3. DamonJW says:

    Great review. It turned out that I liked this figure more than I thought I would. Totally agree with you on the weapons; they look really silly in gray.

  4. Krisse says:

    Cobra commander and Duke are two of my favorite GI Joe characters. the movie is great and i am waiting for a sequel of gi joe perhaps maybe next year or so.