Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972
The king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) of Southeast Asia is actually not a ‘true’ cobra in the genus Naja, but it most definitely lives up to the first part of its name. It’s one of the more deadly venomous snakes, fully capable of killing animals up to the size of Asian elephants with a single bite. Its diet consists primarily of other snakes, including members of its own species. And finally, it’s by far the longest of all venomous snakes, with an average length of 3.18 to 4 metres and a maximum known length of 5.85 metres.
CollectA released their king cobra back in 2008 and it is a surprisingly large toy that measures 16 cm long and 5 cm tall. It is sculpted in a slithering pose with its head raised off the ground, its hood spread, and its mouth wide open to reveal the deadly fangs and forked tongue. The tip of the tail is turned sharply to the right, which helps ensure that the toy remains standing on both smooth and uneven surfaces.
The main colour on this king is a dark olive green with black wash to bring out the scales. The underbelly is dull orange and black, the eyes are dark brown, the inside of the mouth is pink, the fangs are white, and the tongue is dark purple. Unfortunately, the paints have been applied very sloppily indeed, particularly on the underbelly.
The king’s body is completely covered in scales, as you’d properly expect. The largest ones are to be found on the head. The hood is dotted with round scales, spread widely apart, the body has the smallest scales, and the underbelly has large overlapping scales. Unfortunately, while it would be unfair to say that the sculpting on all these scales is bad, it’s also far from impressive.
Similarly, this king doesn’t rate all that highly in the accuracy category. True, its size, coloration, and overall appearance make it pretty recognizable, but the head looks distinctly off, especially with the chunky fangs placed right at the very front of the mouth. Makes it look more like a monster snake than a living one. A real king cobra’s fangs are only about 10 mm long and curved backwards. Nevertheless, they enable their owner to kill true cobras, rat snakes, pit vipers, kraits, and pythons among other snakes. The king also occasionally consumes monitor lizards.
The CollectA king cobra certainly doesn’t meet the company’s current level of excellence, but its size and scary appearance should still please younger animal enthusiasts. My own two sons were positively delighted to find it among their Easter presents and have been enjoying it ever since.
With the CollectA green anaconda:
Great review! I like everything about the figure except the paint application on the underside of the hood. I agree that’s pretty sloppy. Guess this figure must be hand-painted. When I was a boy I went through a cobra phase after seeing the cartoon movie Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. I would have loved this…it is still a whole lot more accurate than the snake toys that were available when I was a boy.
Thanks!