6 INCH: GI JOE CLASSIFIED : RAPTOR

I speak often about figures and characters that I never went near as a kid. Too hokey, too ugly, too dumb, or as us kids love to say, "They suck!" I could give a long list of figures I didn't like and didn't care for. Some names I could throw down here, people would think I'm crazy or I'm just plain stupid. It's all subjective and I have my likes and dislikes.

In the comic, when Raptor was introduced, Cobra Commander (in the armored suit) went off on Raptor saying something along the lines of being tired of crazy dressed mooks being allowed into Cobra. By the time Raptor was released, I was feeling the same. That was because I felt GI Joe was losing its way. This is the comic. In comic terms, I didn't quite make it to or through the DiC era but what I saw was just too lame and weird. Oh my, how things have changed over the decades!

Maybe it was the promo photos of Raptor that made him look not only cool, but legit. The fact he trains hawks (which apparently got changed to birds of prey so not just 1 type of bird) for whatever reason, it's not the worst or dumbest skill. Back in the day, did people not train messenger pigeons? Do humans not train dogs to sniff out explosives, drugs, and in some cases, attack the bad guys? When it comes to Raptor, does his outfit utterly suck?

Yes and no. Hasbro gave him mechanical wings which are pretty frakkin cool. It's a nice modernization to him. He comes with claws he holds are kinda neat. His overall visual design is pretty good. I don't mind he doesn't have a shirt. The head mold stands out to me because it's well done. As I've joked to many people, he looks like the Hurricane from the WWE (could've been WWF during his time. "Stand back, there's a Hurricane coming!"). I did some photography with him but nothing hard. I haven't tested it but with how these toys work, I'm pretty sure his winged jetpack will be too heavy for him to stand on his own. Therefore, for me to show him doing his thing, it'll take heavy photo editing.

At the moment, he's a Cobra operative. Perhaps an exotic one at that. Would I reclassify him as a Dreadnok? Probably not. He doesn't seem like the type. In the big picture, he just exists. Raptor doesn't even have a VS story. I might have to revisit that project and give him some love.