Card Art Alterations by Hasbro

[Eric Leavitt]

I noticed these changes in artwork while examining the 25th Anniversary edition of Stormshadow and I noticed the bow was wrong.

Why is Hasbro making subtle changes to the filecard are but not going all the way?

Cobra Officer – the 25th version’s art now has more detailed webbing, and knee pads. The coloring on the Cobra sigil is red now. There are other subtle changes in coloring or detailing to suggest this is a new piece of art, or an elaborate redo with Photoshop. Yet, Hasbro did not change the rifle.

Flint – they changed the shotgun to resemble the toy version, and removed one of the pockets on the pants. Yet, they kept the gloves in the picture.

Snake-Eyes – They removed the backpack and changed the sword. They changed the belt, added the boots, changed the straps on his both legs and removed the dart launcher from his right arm. Also, the finger on his left hand is now pointed more upward.

Stormshadow – They replaced the compound with one matching the toy. They changed the sleeve on his right arm. Hasbro also changed his tunic and sash to more closely resemble the toy, but they left his shin armor the same in the picture.

Cobra Commander – It looks like his pants have been altered from the knee down and the hood is all new. Also his left hand has been lower, his gloves changed and the Cobra sigil on his hood improved. In fact the hood is all new. The gun arm looks all new as well. But I am basing this off his filecard picture and speculation while examining the artwork for the 1983 Battle Helmet Cobra Commander.

I didn’t see a thread and I thought I would put stuff out and I was wondering what the community thought.

[jabba the drunk]

Pretty astute observations, Eric! It's actually 100% all brand-new artwork...but based on the original art.

Only the original artwork for some of the characters appears on the box sets (Off hand I'm thinking of Destro, non-hooded Cobra Commander, and Stormshadow v1.)

-Peter