JoeDeclassified.com

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 ... e-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, not the green as depicted in Mr. Thompson's art.

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 (that's me) 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/ep4n ... 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.


DR. MINDBENDER

Thanks for posting. Think we'll see Budo or Mindbender in FSS2?

Dunno. The FSS so far has been pretty unpredictable character-wise. I mean I never thought I'd see Nano-B.A.T. and Big Boa in the same line-up.
So anything's possible.

I know no one else will say it, the pictures are really well done. They aren't straight up review style pictures. You were able to put each character in his element. I just think that was a nice touch and something I appreciate.

Heh. Well someone has to play with the canceled toys. Otherwise they get sad and lonely and eventually revolt.