It’s the time again. Coil Con is this Saturday in Indy (click here for more info)   As we look forward to a good time hanging out together, checking the new exclusives in person (including the obscure Weaponsmith from G.I.Joe European Missions!) I thought I would share the pics of my set from last year in a sort of review/ more of a spotlight.

This artwork is spectacular.  The white lower box seems to be meant to have this pasted or adhered on to them, but I left these free for fear of ruining them in some way.

I love the distinct use of the Coil colors matching the 0-ring collecter’s club set from years ago. Naja Bhoot (or Serpent Ghost) rocks the standard green and gold and the red highlights pop out well.

Street Hawk is another obscure character,here clad in black and pursing Naja Bhoot on cycles.

Here we see the guys who made this happen. I really have to say Andrew Hall did an amazing job with that.  everything looks great, but that art is so solid it feels like it belongs on an official product, and far trumps the art and layout we got in the Retaliation movie line.

man I’m slow! I have been meaning to take these shots for over a year!

You can see the foam inserts here. I know not everyone got them but Jon Cremeans  was kind enough to give them to me and show me where they went, mainly because I was tagged along with Tom “The Assassin.”

The figures are displayed neatly  on top with their cycles beneath. They each come in containers than can be opened and resealed and hung on the wall. This means you can display it anyway you want it, loose, in the box, or hanging on the wall and change it up later if you so desire.

We will check out Street Hawk first, saving what I feel is the best for last.

As you can see the number carries over from the outside as well.

(all those sponsors are cool in my book btw)

the cards do a nice job of setting up a story in a way that few cards past the Rah days have (notable exceptions are the Stall siblings and the compound Z related file cards)

The art continues to hold accurately capturing the bike in this motion blur shot.

Street Hawk comes with an alternate head which represents his helmet.  He features renegades Ripcord and poc (v3) Duke parts and a casted head.

this were hand painted so they very some set to set.  There detail in the hair is great, but admittedly my Street Hawk’s left eye is a little blurry looking.

There is just the smallest amount of paint rub in his right elbow. No more than I would expect from anything I painted myself.

I don’t plan on playing with these. To me they are a collector’s item, one tied to nostalgia of the event and the friendships made at Coil Con, so it doesn’t have to be play ready.

I started with what I felt was the least of the set, but he has some pros,  I prefer the alternate head myself But I like the painted detail in the primary head. I have not been brave enough to pop the head of and switch them though, if I were planing to display it open, I would risk it.

The Bike looks great.   I prefer the the way the silver pops out to the POC retail release (the armor cycle, and no I haven’t taken these apart nor do I plan to)

Let’s move on to my favorite character of the set, Naja Bhoot!

He and his cycle match  well, even with the different shades of green used. The overall color scheme is clearly COIL

He too comes in his own small plastic case It can be noted the insert are square the cases are rounded and they do bend a bit at the tip.

Here he is pictured without the Renegades flirefly Jacket and with his alternate helmeted head on. Love the look so much I have parts set aside to remake one for display outside of the box.  You can see here this card faded a bit, not sure why, and Naja Bhoot himself did stick to the card just a bit. (UPDATE: that isn’t a fade, that’s INDIA!)

The filecard really shines here.  He slightly touches on more real world terrorism, but is still clearly a fantasy character. His is excellent as is, or it’s English translation.  He also provides some needed diversity to the Joe villain line up, even if he is unofficial and a fan created character, he is one I can see many adopting.

As far as I am aware  all Naja Bhoots need some eye touch ups.This is not the end of the world as easy to do (although i have not done it yet, I recommend the end of a tooth pick dipped very lightly in paint) The all white eyes actually do work with the concept of being a “ghost” so it might be fine to leave it that way.  The headsculpt itself is very detailed and the red semi transparent turban is attached.

You can see his base was Retaliation wave 1 Stormshadow, so he comes with excellent articulation (but I am not brave enough to test it too much)

Both the  fold of his Turban and the presence of the sword and beard suggest Naja Bhoot was once a Sikh , a religion that mandates carrying a sword (kirpan) and having a beard (Kesha) among other things. It is very different from Islam although they are often confused with members of that religion.

The mention of religious extremism suggests ties to an extremist form of Islam, a more literalistic approach, perhaps like Whabahism of Osama Bin Laden himself.  Either way to be serving the COIL he has likely had the training but broken from the belief system.  This stuff interesting me at least, for others it might just be neat to see some more diverse ties to the real world.

The Turban I have is cracked, I’m not aware if that is common.

From this angle he gives me a legend of Zelda’s Link vibe, anyone else see it?

Lastly this green and gold COIL beauty.

I love the scheme and the future looking tech fits in well with my concept of the COIL.

Even though it’s the same mold the two cycles look very different from one another. I also really appreciate the color on the COIL side, this takes work to do in mass.

They have a few qualities, but they have excellent art, design, and tell a snippet of a story in a nostalgic style that should get the imagination going.  I can’t score them like some sort of normal review.

It was great to be able to support the con by buying a set. Sidewinder is still the best They have made in my mind, but Naja bhoot is a close  a second, with a some paint touch ups, he might even tie with him as my favorite COIL member.

I can really see a pocket universe, I’ve always liked the idea of the COIL launching out of Cobra, I even love their Hydra like Color scheme and the freedom to create new and different characters.

Here’s looking forward to the next COIL CON, in just a few days!