REVIEW: GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra - Baroness (Attack on the GI Joe Pit)

Attack on the GI Joe Pit Baroness | Produced by Hasbro | Released July 2009

As dangerous as she is beautiful, BARONESS is a master spy for COBRA and a powerful, high-ranking figure at MARS Industries. She carries out her plans with icy efficiency, but her cold, cruel personality hides a painful secret from her past.

Packaging Shots

Attack on the GI Joe Pit Baroness

From the GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie's first Wave comes this figure of the Joes' arch-nemesis, Baroness.

Let's start with the worst part of the sculpt: the face.  In an effort to make her a sexy bad-girl they've given her high cheekbones and a ''feminine'' mouth. Or that's what they were attempting to do. In reality she her face looks like a wax mask. That's melted. Seriously, she looks like somebody in fat make-up or a man in drag.

From some angles (such as almost directly above or when hard-light is directed upon it to remove any shadows) it's almost passable but compare her to Pilot Scarlett (the only other female Joe I currently own) and you'll see the latter is a much nicer sculpt. If I were Sienna Miller - the actor this figure is supposedly modeled on - I'd be quite hurt to see this. Last time I saw her, she didn't have a chin you could cut cloth with and saggy grandma jowls. I just don't get it, because the Rise of Cobra Storm Shadow isn't a bad likeness of Byung-hun Lee.

It's a shame the face is so weak, because the rest of the sculpt is very nicely done. Although she's clad in a simplistic catsuit, there are a few details that really help make it stand out. For starters, she's sculpted with high heels. I don't own any other females from the Rise of Cobra tie-in figures, but I'm assuming Hasbro are following Takara's Microrule on heels (only bad girls wear them.) 

The heels look good and - when she's posed - lend a very feminine air to her. The body sculpt is well-proportioned, much better than, say, some of the Marvel Universe females, who at times look like skinny men with stuck-on boobs. 

Initially I was worried the figure might be fragile, joint-wise, but all is good. She can be posed very well and even her long hair doesn't get in the way too much. Her hands are good at holding her numerous accessories on the whole (see below) and the foot-ports fit perfectly onto the stand.

Paint is cleanly applied across the figure, with what appears to be silver rhinestones(!) on her pistol harness and a very neatly-done belt-buckle being the real stand-outs. The face paint is fine, although given what they're working with there's not much they could really do to improve her looks. Her eyebrows do look a little Mr Spock though. Best keep the glasses on.

Extras
Baroness comes with a number of weapons and accessories.

Weapon-wise she's equipped with two pistols, both of which fit well into her hands and include pegs that fit into the ports on her legs. The two pistols have their own designs, so they're not a matching pair.

Like many Rise of Cobra figures, she also includes an oversized weapon, in this case a Nanomite launcher. Although the missile looks cool (the Nanomite cannister is cast from clear green plastic) I found it impossible to pose Baroness with this weapon and couldn't get it to stay in her hands.

There's also a grappling-hook and platform, presumably to allow Baroness to rapidly enter/exit from above. Whilst this is a nice accessory in theory, it simply doesn't work with the figure: the feet ports are too small (you can't even get close to making her stay on it) and the central column is too short to hold when she's standing upon it.

The only way I could get her to stay on the platform was to sit her upon it, which then looked like some kind of lap-dancing/trapeze artist performance. But hey, isn't Baroness supposed to be sexy AND dangerous?

The figure also comes with her own stand (and she fits this perfectly, even with her heels), a MARS Industries briefcase (which doesn't open - UPDATE see below), removable sunglasses (although I'd leave them on - the more of that face we can cover the better) and a Nanomite grenade/bomb.

Just don't even go there.

UPDATE: Since writing this Review I've been contacted by one of our readers, who pointed-out that the case does indeed open. Revisiting the figure with this knowledge I was able to open the case (I previously didn't attempt to force it for fear of breaking the accessory.) The case contains storage slots for the Nanomite grenades and clasps shut quite nicely. It's a very cool accessory!

Final Thoughts

Baroness is almost superb. But Hasbro's designers really, really messed-up when they sculpted that head. I don't know what it is, but the Rise of Cobra figures have some horrible faces. Duke's head was too skinny and now Baroness' face is too fat. I really wish Hasbro had done a better job with this, as the rest of the figure is really very good.

The sculpt is nicely feminine without appearing cartoonish, with sensible proportions and a good costume design. The heels are really effective and the figure really stands-out against the others in the line. Even the accessories - at least, the ones you'll display her with - are nicely done and she really had the makings of an excellent figure.

After much deliberation I've decided I'm going to not let the face overrule the good and I'm awarding a Score that reflects the great body sculpt over the poor head design. 

Scores

Sculpt	B
Paint	B+
Articulation	B+
Production Quality	A-
Final Score	B+

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