Canceled Rise of Cobra 2-Packs
Canceled Rise of Cobra 2-packs:
-Zap vs Nano-B.A.T.
-Budo vs Dr. Mindbender
According to Justin at Generalsjoes.com, these were also going to be Wal-Mart 2-packs for Pursuit of Cobra at some point. However, it is unclear if the Wal-Mart aspect would have been for their initial Rise of Cobra incarnations as well, which of course predates POC. Obviously they would have been 2-packs in Rise of Cobra, but just not sure about the Wal-Mart specifics. Artist Mike Thompson had posted images of his packaging art for these 2-packs, which can be seen here:
http://generalsjoes.com/2012/04/14/mike-thompson-breaks-his-g-i-joe-silence-with-some-more-roc-art/
But as you can see, Mr. Thompson’s images are adorned with Pursuit of Cobra logos and not Rise of Cobra logos like the Zap has. Also it should be noted (although not pictured) that all of these figures came with blank Rise of Cobra stands. Not to mention Zap is in the ROC armor.
Until now… the Budo, Mindbender, and Zap have never been seen in figure form. These are the first images to surface of these figures.
Nano-B.A.T.’s existence was of course made public at JoeCon 2010 in Rhode Island at the Joe Declassified Booth. Discovered by Pat “notpicard” Stewart and then released into the forum-wild by Gyre-Viper just after that convention, and then further down the line announced as part of the GJCC Figure Subscription Service… Nano-B.A.T. has quickly gone from canceled (and often controversial) legend to an (again) eventual reality. You can hear more about Nano-B.A.T.’s origins and the theories surrounding him, on the NANO-B.A.T. VS IRON KLAW episode of the Joe Declassified Spec-OPS podcast here: http://jdso.podbean.com/2012/03/15/ep4nano-bat-vs-iron-klaw/
A special thanks to Pat “notpicard” Stewart for his insight and direction and to ChicagoScott for lending his production figures for comparison pics.
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[...] Earlier this year, thanks to artist Mike Thompson, we got a look at what could have been for the Rise of Cobra/Pursuit of Cobra line of figures. And what we saw was Budo, Dr. Mindbender, Nano-B.A.T. and Zap artwork that was for figures that never saw the light of day. Cancelled by Hasbro before fans even knew about them. Well now, thanks to JoeDeclassified, we get a look at those figures with some pre-production samples that were obtained. And it seems that the figures were destined for possible Walmart 2-Packs, but now only the Nano-B.A.T. will see a release at this point with the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club Figure Subscription Service. Regardless of how they would have been released, at least fans get a look at these now cancelled figures. (Source: JoeDeclassified) [...]