Structure: foam board
Rocks: pink insulation foam, sculpted and painted
Rocket: Playmobil 6195
Everything else: bits of fodder, accessories from parts bins and lots accumulated over several years.
"The ultimate COBRA fortress lies deep within a mountain! COBRA MOUNTAIN is a huge base for planning attacks against Joe!
- Six levels of play!
- Repair and fuel your COBRA vehicles in the Motorpool!
- Launch the rocket with lights and sounds against Joe targets from the Command and Control Deck!!
- Build and repair COBRA BATS with realistic equipment in the lab!
- Launch FANGS, CLAWS and Heli-Vipers from the Aerodrome!
- Stockpile weapons ad supplies in the armory!
- Capture GI JOE prisoners in the brig!
- Command COBRA's legions from throne room!
- Defend from JOE attacks with the defense turrets and the Anti-Aircraft missile launcher!
- Post sentries on the rocky ramparts!
- Includes 5 figures: COBRA COMMANDER, DR MINDBENDER, STAR VIPER COMMANDER and 2 TECHNO-VIPERS."
- Playset is over 4 and 1/2 feet tall!
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This project has been on my drawing board for years. As a kid, I used to love little green army men. I must have had over 100 as well as a bunch tanks, artillery, planes and other assorted vehicles. However, the centerpiece of all my battles was a huge cardboard mountain fortress. On the inside, the base had several levels, a central elevator and openings and balconies to the outside. I remember positioning canons and troops all over the place. That "mountain" was used in so many battles.
The last few years, I have been thinking of ways of recreating this mountain for Joes. I could not figure out how to build it. I knew what I wanted it to look like. I needed to figure out how to make it sturdy, yet relatively light. I also did not want to spend a small fortune on materials. I looked into several building techniques and materials. I settled on the simplest that I could find - foam board for the structure and pink insulating foam for the rock.
My goal was not to make the most real-life diorama possible, but to approach it as an actual playset that could be found in a Sears Christmas catalog in the '80s. This "doll house" approach explains why there are not a bunch of elevators and technical areas. I focused on areas that would be fun to play in or display figures (or in my case, be useful as future photo backgrounds). All in all, it did not turn out exactly as I imagined (creative projects seldom do), but I'm very happy with it and it is a project that I will continue to tweak and add on to as I need to for future use. Thanks to DanOfTheDead for the photoshop beauty shot picture.
