I have to share the credit for the redesign of Raptor with Steve Kurth, artist on G.I.Joe vol 2 and Micronauts. We were talking about character designs at Wizard World Chicago in 2002 and Raptor came up in the conversation. Steve said, "You know, they went to all of that trouble to make Raptor look like he could fly, why didn't they just go ahead and give him a jetpack?" Ever since that conversation, I've had the idea of redesigning Raptor with a slim, hightech-looking jetpack. Steve, thanks for the idea, and thanks for the incredible job you did (and continue to do) in comics.

The head began as Darklon. A Dremel, set of microfiles, and some fine sandpaper removed the lower part of the facemask and created the jawline. Supersculpy was used to sculpt a gasmask, as well as to make the streamlined helmet.

I can never leave well enough along with arms, it's an obsession of mine I suppose. I added a pocket on the left arm out of Supersculpy.

The back of the spurs on the boots were removed. The molded pistol and holster on the right thigh were removed and Supersculpy was used to fashion a hightech holster, much like the one on the original Cobra Commander's back.

The pistol came from an accessory pack. To better fit it on the leg, I trimmed the little "knob" on the left side of the gun, so that the side was relatively flat. I also removed the trigger, so it would be easier for the figure to hold.

The jetpack design came about in an interesting way. I had originally started building a jetpack from Rock n' Roll v2's backpack, the backpack of an AstroViper, controller from a LaserViper backpack, and some sort of retractable wings. Even in the initial phase, I could already tell that the pack was going to be too large and bulky. One night while watching Lizzie McGuire (no laughing, it's a good show), I saw a commercial for a cartoon called Kim Possible. In it, there was a 2 second clip of her with this really slimlined jetpack, with the two little thin wings near the top of the pack. I knew I had to make something similar. The base is the excellent jetpack that came with General Hawk. I removed the wings and drilled two holes near the top of the pack. The wings come from a PowerMaster Optimus Prime from the Heroes of Cybertron Line. They already have pegs, so the wings can retract and extend.

Some primer, some acrylic, some dullcoat, and there you have it.