Cobra Grenadier
Shock Trooper

A few years ago I bought a lot of unpainted Black Major Cobra troopers. I used the opportunity to create a variety of Cobra troopers. Blue uniforms (the originals) are infantry, light grey uniforms are transportation (based on the Stinger Driver), and red are armor (based on the HISS Driver). White uniforms are aviation, green uniforms are rangers, brown uniforms are combat engineers and purple uniforms are marines. Finally, black uniforms, as seen here, are shock troopers. In naming these troopers, I imagine that Cobra Commander has a Napoleonic view of himself and so uses many terms from the Grande Armée. So the Grenadiers are the most aggressive and fanatical of the Cobra infantry, and lead Cobra's ground attack.

All parts – Cobra Soldier (custom-cast)

Backpack – Viper (reproduction)
Rifle – Cobra Officer (reproduction)

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Cobra Chasseur
Light Infantry Trooper

The Chasseurs are highly-mobile infantry units who engage in reconnaissance and skirmish tactics.

All parts – Cobra Soldier (custom-cast)

Backpack – Viper (reproduction)
Rifle – Cobra Officer (reproduction)

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Cobra Fourrier
Vehicle Driver

The Fourriers are the drivers. This is just a paint upgrade of a Black Major custom Cobra soldier figure. I painted the eyes, mask, kneepads, and right pocket, plus a few other little details, and just generally upgrading the painted details, which are a bit iffy on this kind of figure.

All parts – Cobra Soldier (Black Major reproduction)

Rifle – Cobra Officer (reproduction)

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Cobra Pioneer
Combat Engineer

The Pioneers are combat engineers. Unlike the other troopers, the Pioneer has a camouflage pattern on the uniform. I could say it was some kind of artistic choice, but here's the truth. I spray-painted the base colour on all these figures when I first got them, and only recently got around to finishing them. When I pulled out the brown parts, I found the spray paint was kind of splotchy in parts. Which means I could either repaint them, or do a camo pattern to cover the splotchy bits. So the Pioneers wear camo.

All parts – Cobra Soldier (custom-cast)

Backpack – Footloose
Carbine – Marauder Inc.

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Cobra Fusilier
Infantry Trooper

The Fusiliers are the standard infantry troopers.

All parts – Cobra Soldier (Black Major reproduction)

Backpack – Viper (reproduction)
Parachute pack – Snow Serpent
Carbine – Marauder Inc.

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Cobra Voltigeur
Airborne Infantry Trooper

There are two variants of the original blue trooper, of course, with the silver logo version being released with the Viper glider. So I use that type as airborne infantry. So the Voltigeurs are the airborne troopers. There was no such thing as airborne in Napoleon's day, but the name is too perfect not to use for this purpose.

All parts – Cobra Soldier (Black Major reproduction)

Backpack – Viper (reproduction)
Parachute pack – Snow Serpent
Carbine – Marauder Inc.

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Here are three Cobra troopers I had previously posted this year or last: the Marine, the Tanker and the Dragoon.

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Cobra Altern
Infantry Officer

I've been doing a ton of Cobra Soldier customs recently, and figured the officers needed to be done as well. Now, there's not every much to do with the Cobra Officer, just a few details painted including the eyes. So this is really just a minor paint update. I don't find names like “Cobra Officer” or “Stinger Driver” to be very evocative, so I wanted to give each type of faceless Cobra from the early years of the line unique names, much like the -Vipers of later years. In naming these officers, I didn't want to just use regular military ranks. There's an archaic military rank called Subaltern, which used to be used for junior commissioned officers. Since Cobra Officers are grade O-4 according to their file cards, they're not junior officers, so Subaltern becomes Altern, which is a back-formation and sounds cool enough for me.

All parts – Cobra Officer (chest is reproduction)

Rifle – Cobra Officer (reproduction)

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Cobra Lancer
Transportation Officer

The Lancers are infantry officers.

All parts – Stinger Driver

Rifle – Cobra Officer (reproduction)

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wow! that's a bunch of variants !

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The Shock Troopers would have been perfect during the Early Marvel run. All of these are top notch, but the ST are my favorite.