The Little Differences: Rip Cord and Grand Slam G.I. JOE Custom Kitbashes

It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same $#!t over there that we got here, but it's just – it's just there it's a little different.

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This week's little differences features a more involved bash and a very simple bash. I hope you dig them.

We finally got a 25th Anniversary style Rip Cord G.I. JOE action figure in the guise of Spc. Altitude in the Assault on Cobra Island internet exclusive figure set. But he was a bit of a let down in a lot of ways. 1) He had the ugly Red Star head. 2) He didn't have an oxygen tank. 3) He had no altimeter.

The first thing I did was fix that head so I changed it to the Ace head from the Toys R Us Exclusive Air Command 3 pack. The Ace head more closely resembles his face from the Marvel comics and the hair color is almost perfect so no painting needed. However, the Ace head is also a little smaller than the Red Star head, so you'll need to add a tiny dab of hot glue to the back of the helmet so it fits snugly.

Next I popped his left hand and added the wrist communicator from Tomax to give him an altimeter.

Then, (and now this is the part I warned you about in last week's post) I took the air tank from a ROC Cobra Eel, trimmed the hose off up to the valve, drilled a small hole with the dremmel in the front parachute, put a tiny dab of glue in the hole, and inserted the peg of the air tank. I was planning to connect the hose from his mask to the valve on the air tank but for the sake of pose-ability of the head, I did not.

And for the icing on this cake, I created and added a tiny waterslide decal of the patch that was pictured on his original 1984 card art. (You too can add this patch to your Rip Cord as it is available for a limited time at my Etsy shop.)

This week's second figure is something many have done but I added one thing that puts him over the top. Grand Slam came with the Target Exclusive Night Specter and was almost perfect in my opinion except for one glaring omission, his jet pack. To get a jet pack that most closely resembled the original green, I used the one from the Target Exclusive Ultimate Battle Pack Stalker.



I also had an extra "jet flames" from a Star Wars Boba Fett figure from a few years ago and it fits perfectly into the exhaust holes of the jet pack.

But the bit that really puts this one over the top is the waterslide decal I designed and added to the jet pack. On the original JUMP Jet Pack there was a sticker on the back of the pack and for some reason Hasbro hasn't included it with any of it's releases.

If you would like to add the decal to your jet pack, it is available for a limited time in my Etsy shop. Get it before it disappears.

Are you daring enough to go above and beyond a normal "Little Differences" to make these two? I think they're worth it. Until next time...