:The Card-Art Conformity Project:
By: Net-Viper X
Over the years many figures had missing paint applications or use of incorrect colors that caused them to differ from the art on the packaging. I believe the reason for this is that most times the artwork for the figure is finished well before the figure itself, and so any last minute changes or cost cutting measures don't make it onto the card art. This project is an attempt to modify the existing figures to match their card art as closely as possible within the limitations of the figures sculpted detail. This project covers single figures and vehicle drivers alike, and any figure repainted for the project will also have his backpack and equipment painted to match the art where necessary. Unlike the "Figure Re-color Project", the Card-Art Conformity project will not only cover Cobra Figures, but also members of the G.I.Joe team as well as Destro's Forces. Cobra figures however seem to have missing paint apps far more frequently than the Joes so they are more prominent in this project.
Reference for this project comes from both single figure cards and from vehicle box cover art, to get as many views of the figure details as possible. If sufficient artwork isn't available for reference, such as for a vehicle driver that is barely visible within the cockpit, the pre-production prototype will be used for reference if possible. The remainder will be done using best judgment. All the figures used for this project are broken or badly worn figures that have been repaired and restored prior to painting.
This project is a work in progress, as new figures are completed they will be added to the list as click-able links. For now any figures not yet complete will have a description listed under their names of the intended changes to the figure.
Other
Projects:
1982
Cobra Commander (Battle Mask)
For such a high profile character, the Commander had a number of missing or incorrect paint applications. Missing apps include the silver helmet stripe, collar tabs and shoulder boards, gold tunic buttons, and red diamond on the left bicep. Incorrect pain apps are the black gloves that should be bare flesh, and the red belt buckle that should be gold.
Cobra Officer
The Officer isn't missing nearly as many paint apps as the Commander, but still has several. First and most obvious is the black chevron on the helmet. Other missing apps include the black wrist bands and the black and gray collar tabs.
Stalker
Among the 82 series of Joes, Stalker is the only one with obvious paint differences. The most obvious is the lack of a camouflage beret cap, but their are two other missing apps. The first are the bicep pouches and shoulder boards that should be dark green. The other is the grenade and knife on his web gear that should be black.
1983
ACE
Ace is the only 83 figure that has a missing paint app, and that is on his helmet rather than the figure itself. The box art shows him wearing a clear glass bubble, but the helmet he comes with has a clearly defined top panel on it that isn't glass, but is left unpainted. A bit of white fixes this, unfortunately this addition does not help the figure look any less ridiculous.
1984
Cobra Commander (Hooded)
Hooded Commander has a number of differences, just like the battle mask version, with missing apps, and apps in the wrong color. Missing apps are the gold tunic buttons and shoulder boards, and the missing Cobra logo on his forehead. The belt and control cable are black on the file card, rather than gold, and the straps on the thigh are also black. The belt buckle is gold on the file card and so remains unchanged on the figure.
H,I.S.S. Driver
This figure is barely visible on the card art, showing only his head and shoulders. The file card however shows a different picture of him and clearly shows his chest area as black rather than dark blue.
Scrap-Iron
This one isn't actually missing any paint apps, instead its mainly an example of the wrong colors being used. Crazy as it seems, but according to the card art, Scrap-Iron is actually supposed to be blue and purple, not blue and red. This is most noticeable when comparing the red Cobra logo on his sleeve with his vest. The Cobra logo appears to be the only red paint app on him, and the end result looks very similar to Tele-Viper. The pouch on his chest and knee pads are also purple on the art and should not have a black paint application.
Stinger Driver
The missing details on this figure are similar to those on the Cobra Officer. The most obvious is the missing black on his helmet chevron and wrist bands. The collar tabs were also missing the paint applications.
Storm Shadow
Storm Shadow is one of those rare figures that isn't missing a paint application, but rather has a paint app he shouldn't. The leather cross strap should be the only black part on him, Storm Shadows belt is supposed to be white like the other cloth parts of his uniform.
1985
Crimson Guard
Crimson Guard had a quite a few differences from card to figure, most obviously the reversed colors on the mask that's silver on the card, but black on the figure. He was also missing the gold paint app for his ropes, and the red, blue and purple details on his award bar. Other issues are some missing silver detail on the shoulder boards, and failure to correctly paint the wrist bands. Instead of painting the two silver rings on each wrist, the area between the two rings was painted, resulting in a single ring on each sleeve of the figure.
Eels
The Eels has a number of color reversals from card art to figure, his arms should be gray with black shoulder pads, wrist bands and gloves. The gray and black parts on the chest should also be reversed, with the armor on the shoulders and the waistband black, and the shirt in gray. The feet from the seam below the ankle should be black, and the lamp lens on the forehead should be red.
Tele-Viper
The art shows
this character to have a gray helmet, with only the forehead and presumably the
rear of the helmet in blue. The gray helmet is also shown on the Flight Pod box
art. The actual figure had no gray paint applications.
1986
B.A.T.
This figures card art went by a very simple and effective formula for its colors that appear to have been somewhat overlooked when the figure was painted. The formula was; All leather parts are Yellow, all cloth parts are black, all metal parts are silver. This means his helmet should be silver, and the leather "boot" over his elbow joints should be yellow. Both of these differences are very visible on the card art but lost on the figure. A simple enough fix.
Strato-Viper
One small paint application is missing from this figure, but its a rather noticeable one. The Strato-Viper is supposed to have exposed flesh on his neck as shown on the box art and a variety of other depictions.
1987
Big Boa
The Cobra trainer only had one tiny and barely noticeable missing paint app, the two grooves on the top of his helmet should be the same orange as his visor. Aside from this the figure was spot on to his card art.
Cobra Commander (Battle Armor)
1988
Storm Shadow
A bit of cost cutting appears to have had its way with Storm Shadow, but I guess that serves him right for betraying Cobra. His paint app isn't missing, but rather than add another color to his paint palette, they just made his chest rope the same gray as his other details. The proper color for these robes is yellow as shown on the card art.
Voltar
Voltar, goodness what happened to him? How could someone possibly go so far as to misinterpret red for some awful shade of violet purple? Especially when the color scheme of the army he belongs too is red, black and gold. The fix for this figure is both simple and dramatically effective, just paint all the violet parts to red and problem solved.
1989
Aero-Viper
For a vehicle driver, this figure is highly visible on the box art and made spotting his missing paint apps quite easy. He only has two, the missing black visor on his helmet, and the missing gold hoses near his knees. The black helmet visor actually has a pretty big impact to his overall appearance.
Hot Seat
Oh where to begin, this guy has got to be missing more paint apps then any other figure in the entire Joe line and they are all centered on one body part. This guy is missing three separate colors on his torso, and missing them in a big way. You cant really go by the torso details on his box art for reference either since he is depicted with the wrong torso, and his vest bares no resemblance to the figure, therefore it necessary to apply best judgment in replacing the missing apps. First off, his shirt is visible at the collar and around his abdomen, yet it isn't painted tan in either spot as it should be according to his sleeves. He also has two suspenders made of the same webbing as his belt that are visible on his abdomen and should be black. Another glaring omission is that he has the same padding on his thighs as on his shoulder, so the shoulder pads needed to be red to match the thighs. I also painted the clasp on his body armor in black. The other difference shown on the box art is the tan helmet, but the helmet shown on the box art is of the same style as Scoops helmet, and not the one included with the figure. I decided to leave the figures helmet black for the time being since its the only one I have. The final result for this one is a massive change and a huge improvement over the bland unpainted torso of the original.
Wild Boar
Destro's only soldier this year to suffer from the cost cutters knife was Wild Boar, though not terribly. The pouches and straps on his legs should be black, and the straps for his gold wrist plate should be black also. The only other change required is a repaint for his helmet, which should be red rather than black.
1990
Metal-Head
Metal-Head combines missing paint apps with misplaced paint apps on a figure who's design is slightly different than he appears on the card art. The red around the neck area extends out onto the shoulders on the figure, and it shouldn't. The red padding on the boots extends up onto his legs, but is missing its red paint app on the figure. The lower waist belt on the figure does not exist on the card art, but its made from the same style padding as that on the boots and legs, so it should be red with only the buckle remaining gray. The thigh mounts for his rocket launchers appear to be black on the card but its hard to tell, however it would stand to reason that these would be the same color as the launcher attached to it, like the chest gear, so I went ahead and painted those parts gray. The knife was changed to a dark gray since its much darker on the card art than his rocket harness, though not quite as dark as the black bodysuit.
Range-Viper
The Range-Viper appears to have orange on the card art in place of the yellow paint applications on the figure.
Saw-Viper
The arms and legs of this figure are far different from the card art, along with a few other small details. The biggest difference is the card art has black gauntlets and leggings, and purple sleeves, while the figure uses brown with black sleeves. The art also has a brown undershirt rather than black, and a gold belt buckle. In the process of repainting the arms a missing paint app for the sleeve just below the elbow joint was added. The missing black paint app for the arrow on his helmet was also added, and the backpack was repainted black.
Vapor
Vapor almost escaped this project if not for one little missing detail. When examining the figure you can see that part of the pants leg extends up onto the waist piece on either side below the hip, but they didn't bother to paint it gray and left the entire waist red.
1991
Cesspool
This figure is missing gold paint apps on both of his lower leg braces and on his left wrist band. Details on his wrist bands and the readout on his leg keypad should be orange.
Night Vulture
The only paint error on this figure is his head, and the colors are the exact opposite of what they should be. The mask should be purple, and the goggles black. He's spot on other than the helmet, horrid as his colors are.
Toxo-Viper
Toxo-Viper is only missing a few small red paint applications on the front of his boots and chest plate, and his wrist bands should be green with red details.
Sludge-Viper
Sludge-Viper is missing several colors of paint apps all over his body. Missing purple apps are on the straps of his leg and wrist electronics, and the shoulder pads are missing the yellow paint. Red details on his belt, as well as red details on the electronic modules of his wrists, thighs, and chest are also missing.
1992
Firefly v.2
Firefly has a little hat-like piece of headgear worn over his hood that should be green like his uniform, this being the figures only missing paint application.
Toxo-Zombie
This figure has all the same problems as his predecessor and then some. Aside from missing all the little red details on his boots and chest plate, his gloves aren't red as they should be. This is compounded by the fact that his primary colors are day-glow neon versions of the original, while the card art shows the colors being darker and nearly identical to the Toxo-Viper. I can understand the toxic chemicals fading the color a bit, but making it neon is a bit much, so I toned it down to the shades of the card art. Now a person can actually look at him without sunglasses and not go blind.
1993
1994
Viper v.2
Version 1 of the Viper was an almost flawless copy of the card art, the version 2 however, has a number of differences. The leggings on the card are the same color as the body, with only the boots and a few leg details in gray. There is a missing orange paint app on the upper portion of his left legging, and the entire purple portion of the uniform seems to be much more of a blue tint that the actual figures deep purple.