 This week for Cobra Convergence 5, I am reviewing the 1990 Cobra Rage. It's a popular 90s vehicle and I've been waiting a long time to review it. Oh, who is it now? You're reviewing the Cobra Rage? Finally! You've been teasing for years. That is true, McDowen. And hello, McDowen. I did tease this thing years ago and I still haven't reviewed it yet. Well, this review almost didn't happen. Because the Cobra Rage comes with four little mines and I lost them. You lost the mines? This infuriates me. This disangers me. Help me, dude! Hey, calm down, big guy. Relax. Somebody loaned me the mines so I can do the review. That's right. Just relax, big fella. The sun's getting below. We're still doing the rage review. Whoa. Sorry about that. I got a little overheated. When I thought you weren't going to do the rage review... The rage review is happening and I must point out you're a year late with your rage monster. We're not doing the Avengers parody storyline this year. We're not? Why didn't anyone tell me? Everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. Welcome to Cobra Convergence 5. The fifth year of G.I. Joe fans celebrating G.I. Joe's enemy, Cobra. This review almost didn't happen. You see, this vehicle came with four little grey mines and I had them. I showed them to you and yet I can't find them. Somehow they got separated from the vehicle. I would never do that. That's not something I normally do. And yet they're gone. I've turned this house upside down looking for them. And yet they vanished. They've evaporated. And I can't review the toy without the mines. And that's when my hero stepped in. Special thanks to Muzz Compton for sending these mines to me. Otherwise, this wouldn't be possible. To show my appreciation, I'm going to give him an honorary codename. Your codename is Muzz the Mine Mailer. You are the wind beneath my wings. I'm so happy to review the Cobra Rage. It's a popular 90s vehicle. And on this channel, 2020 is the year of the 90s. I've been saving this for something special. And it doesn't get any more special than Cobra Convergence in the year of the 90s. We'll hear a few words from your other Cobra Convergence 5 presenters as HCC 788 presents the Cobra Rage. This is the 1990 Cobra Rage, the urban assault vehicle with devastating land mine dispenser. This vehicle was released in 1990 and was available in 1990 only. It was discontinued for 1991. It did not come with an action figure. This is the only release of the Rage in the vintage line. It received a post-vintage release in 1997 with the color changed to blue. The Rage is colored like a desert vehicle, but the packaging built it as an urban assault vehicle. No doubt you could use it for urban assault too, but I think it is well suited for desert missions. GI Joe's closest equivalent to the Rage in 1990 would be the Hammer, a vehicle based on the real world Humvee. The Hammer also had sort of desert colors, but the Hammer's color scheme was much more subdued. I've already reviewed this toy, I think it's great. If you count this as a desert vehicle, this is Cobra's first desert vehicle. GI Joe had several before 1990. Some were designated as desert vehicles and others had desert colors, so they were desert vehicles by default. These included the 1984 Vamp Mark II, the 1985 Mahler MBT, the 1986 Tomahawk, the 1987 Mobile Command Center, the 1988 Desert Fox and the 1989 Raider. There were others if you want to count the RVP and the GI Joe ATV, which I usually don't. In 1994 Cobra got a specifically dedicated and properly colored desert vehicle, the Scorpion. Congratulations to Cobra for figuring out by 1994 that they may need to fight in the desert. If you count it as an urban assault vehicle, as the box says, the lineage is unclear since many GI Joe and Cobra vehicles could be used for urban assault. I have the instruction sheet and the blueprints for the rage. I will be referring to it as I talk about some of the features. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the Cobra rage and first I want to point out how flat and low to the ground this vehicle is. The wheels are tapered. This to me suggests it displaces the weight of the vehicle widely so it can get over sand dunes. But the wheels don't have any tread, so that's a problem with that theory. It could be an urban vehicle, as the box says, on pavement the lack of tread on the tires would be less important. But the very wide base would be a problem. It's wider than an average vehicle. It's wider than a normal traffic lane on a city street. So getting around crowded streets or through narrow alleyways would be difficult or impossible for the rage. In the front we have what the blueprints call a positional ramming speed battering ram defense shield. It is in grey plastic. It's very wide and flat when it's flipped back. But it can be flipped up to become a battering ram. It has a couple openings for headlights and an opening for the gun behind it. The driver and passenger are pretty well protected behind these armored hatches. But this battering ram defense shield adds an extra layer of protection. Something Cobra Troopers rarely enjoyed. With the battering ram flipped down we can see there are headlights embellished with some stickers. And there's a grey gun here in the center. The blueprints call this a full rotating front muzzle cannon. It's a big gately gun and it has a thumb wheel here which you can turn. That spins the gun so you can simulate firing. There's a cutaway on the battering ram for that gun so it can be fired even with the ram flipped up. Moving a bit farther back we have the armored hatches covering the cockpit. They are in dark red. The hatch on the port side is slatted. The hatch on the starboard side has one thin viewing port and a number nine sticker. This is a lot more driver protection than we got on most Cobra vehicles. Each of these hatches has a tab at the front and they are hinged on the outside back corners so each one flips up to reveal a two seat cockpit. The cockpit has two reclined tan seats. They're the same color as the body of the vehicle. There's not much in the way of instruments. There is a console between the seats but it's not clear which one is supposed to be the driver and which one is a passenger or gunner. These seats are molded into the bottom piece of the vehicle so just where using a different color for that piece would have helped a lot. It would have given us a different color on the interior and a bit of a contrast between the cockpit and the exterior of the vehicle. To put a figure in the cockpit, you don't have to bend his legs very much. Those seats are pretty well reclined but you can fit two figures in the cockpit and the canopies will close with no problem. The Rage has four wheels, two on each side. They roll independently. They are black, they are wide, and they are tapered. This would distribute the weight of the vehicle across a wide surface. It fit were sunk into a surface like sand. This is an innovative way to gain traction in a desert environment but some treads on those wheels would be vital. Unfortunately, the wheels also have exposed mushroom clips. That's a pet peeve of mine. It's not bad on every vehicle, especially vehicles where the clips are close to the same color as the wheels. But on the Rage, it is very obvious and kind of ugly. The body of the vehicle is in a tan color, a very light tan color with dark red, grey, and black accents. With some stickers that have white and yellow for some additional color. It looks really good. The body is minimally detailed but there's enough detail. It gets the job done. The underside of the vehicle is plain. The blue carrying platforms with two foot pegs between the wheels on each side. This would allow you to carry up to four more action figures on each side of the vehicle. There's another weapon on the port side that can be deployed but when in use it covers up the platform on that side so you have to remove any figures you have there. You can deploy it by swinging it out. The blueprints call this Remote Swing Down Burst Activated Projectile Launcher. It looks like a rocket pod. It has a cone at the front and it just looks really cool. Looks pretty wicked and adds to the firepower of this vehicle. With that rocket pod deployed, behind it there is some engine detail. It's pretty deep in there. It may be hard to see. On the other side there is an engine panel in dark red with a white cobra emblem that looks really good. This can be removed by pulling out on the top tab that reveals more engine detail and there's a lot of space in there you could use that for storage. Let's look at this top turret. It is in dark red. It has a double barrel cannon in grey plastic. The blueprints call this Long Range Dual Barreled Concussion Cannon. The turret will turn 360 degrees and there's good elevation on those cannons. Not quite 90 degrees but maybe 80 degrees. On that turret, the seat is molded in. There are a couple control sticks and there's a control panel sticker. Looks like a radar screen. You can fit a figure in that seat. He has to go in straight legged but those control sticks are small enough that you can fit the action figure's hands on them without risk of breaking the thumbs. And this is how all of those control sticks should be on all vehicles. That's how I like it. On the turret there are two missiles. One side mounted just behind the gunner. They peg on using standard dumbbell shaped pegs. They are the same color dark red as the turret. The blueprints call these laser computer guided air to air full blast missiles. Air to air doesn't make any sense since this is a ground vehicle. More like ground to air but to me they look more like ground to ground anti-tank missiles. This turret has an elevating feature. It's hinged on these grey arms and by swinging them up and locking them into place you have the turret in an elevated position. Attached to this outside grey arm holding up the turret there are two additional missiles. These are the same as the missiles attached to the turret. There are a total of four of these missiles. It has another pair of multi-barrel machine guns under the turret. It will pivot it will not swing all the way around because it runs into the arms that hold up the turret. The blueprints call these full rotating multi-shot high intensity machine cannons which is ironic because they can't fully rotate. The elevating arms get in the way. What that means is this gun is useless against any targets attacking from the port side. To lower the turret you just push it back down to snap it into place however this gun if it's faced forward will not let the turret go down all the way. However if you turn the gun around all the way to the back the gun will fit in this slot above the mine dispenser and the turret will flatten all the way down. So that really lowers the profile of the vehicle and that is really excellent. It's very compact in this form. On the back there's another troop carrying platform. This one with a grey handrail. Too thick to put the action figures hands on but still has a nice touch. This means you can hold an additional two action figures on the back platform so you can carry a total of six on the troop carrying platforms that surround this vehicle. The final feature we will look at is the mine dispenser and thank you again to Muzz the Mine Maler for making this part of the review possible. At the back of the vehicle there is this dark red tray. It has a handle and four slots. In each of those slots there is a grey mine. Let's see if we can get this to work. The way it's supposed to work is as the vehicle rolls forward you pull out this tray one notch and a mine will drop. So let's see if it works. Let's roll forward and pull the tray out and boom! Well that actually worked pretty well. Let's see if it will work again. We'll just move forward and pull that tray out another notch and boom! Mine drops! That feature works pretty well. So as the rage is rolling forward it can leave a trail of mines behind to blow up any enemy vehicles pursuing it. These mines are in grey plastic. There are four of them in total. They are simple flat grey discs with minimal detail but they are by far the most easily lost parts of this vehicle. To reload the mines just push that tray back in all the way and then just drop them in the slots and they will be ready to launch again against any new enemy doing vehicles. Regardless where it operates it is a formidable machine. It brings a lot of fire power to the table. The Cobra Rage did not include an action figure driver so who should drive it? If it's a desert vehicle it could be driven by the 1991 Desert Scorpion but I really don't like those colors together. If it's an urban vehicle it could be driven by version 1 or version 2 of the Alley Viper but I really don't like those colors together. Honestly it doesn't really matter who drives it because the driver is behind a canopy. For visibility what really matters is who is in the gun turret. From a purely aesthetic standpoint what figures go best with the Cobra Rage? Well the box art gives us some ideas. It includes the range viper but I don't really like this color combination and the range viper's colors are far too dark for such a light colored vehicle. The box art also includes the saw viper and the saw viper also has some dark colors but the purple and the plum color on the saw viper go a bit better with the colors on the vehicle. The box art also includes the night creeper and the night creeper has a red color that is almost the same as the dark red on the vehicle. He also has a grayish tan color on his trousers. This looks pretty good. This is getting much better. In the turret the most prominent place on the vehicle the box art has the rock viper and I think this is an excellent choice. It's not that the colors on the rock viper match the color on the vehicle it's more like the rock viper's colors are subtle variations on the Rage's colors. It doesn't make a lot of sense to have a mountain specialist in a desert or urban vehicle but he looks really good up there. Looking at how the Rage was used in G.I. Joe Media it appeared in two TV commercials each saying the same thing. It's a vehicle that's six guns strong. One commercial also advertised Overlord and the Dictator. The Rage made a few appearances in the geek era of the animated series. It first appeared very briefly in the episode United We Stand. It was used in multiple environments including the desert the jungle and even urban areas. In the G.I. Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics the Rage was used in the fictional desert of Trucial Abysmia. It was most definitely a desert vehicle in those issues. It can be clearly seen in issue number 108. Now I turn this video over to your Cobra Convergence 5 presenters to say what they think about the Rage. Well Rage was just a great character. He was an Avenger for a while and he even threw a cupcake in the face of Dr. Doom. And he looks pretty damn awesome. He's big but he's a lovable guy and I have to say. Excuse me. What are you doing? I'm talking about Rage. That's what you want. That's right. I meant the Cobra Rage you know the vehicle. Well how is I supposed to know that? Oh I don't know maybe because it's Cobra Convergence and it's Cobra Month all month on my channel. Well that's only obvious in hindsight. So could you please give your opinion on this now? Oh I don't have that vehicle. Looks kind of ugly though. I do have the 1997 version and I think it looks much better in these colors. And as for the vehicle itself well I think it looks pretty damn awesome. It's very low to the ground and pretty damn big. Of course the only problem with that is it can be a pain in the ass to actually have in a collection because it takes up so much space. And even back as a kid I never had a Rage but I'm guessing that it would take up a lot of play space. And it really does look like an urban vehicle doesn't it. That's why I'm glad that the 1997 version came with an Aliviper. Overall it's weird but it's pretty damn awesome. The Cobra Rage this urban vehicle has a really funky design. It definitely has a 90's feel to it with these steam roller wheels and the moving turret because everything has to disassemble and combine into something new or have a moving piece. The low profile this vehicle definitely gives me the feeling that it could flip other vehicles kind of like the wedge design of the robots on battlebots but the fact that it's an urban assault vehicle with such low ground clearance makes me it's going to get caught on every curb or median it's ever got to cross so the Rage has really got to stay in its lane. The Cobra Rage great vehicle I really like it's little profile wide wheelbase main cannon up at the top crew capacity is okay it lays land mines come on what could you ask for anything better. The only real problem I have is it looks like a tank but it has four wheels on it but other than that I think it's a good vehicle I personally would not mind driving one if they were real. So there you have it guys my opinion on the Rage definitely a winner. This is my thoughts of the Cobra Rage Honestly I thought the tank was oversized wrong colored you know my impression of it wasn't too enthused with the Cobra Wolf I never had it as a vehicle when I was growing up because I was never interested in it I particularly didn't like the vehicle but I know that there was a do so more power to it but I'm one of those ones that didn't like it I would rank it as a bottom tier vehicle you know wasn't too impressed where it really wasn't worth having in my opinion but those who do like it go for it and by the way all hair Cobra and thank you for Cobra Convergence Looking at the Cobra Rage overall it's a quirky asymmetrical vehicle with a lot of firepower and a ton of features it's easy to see why this is popular it has a lot of moving parts it has plenty of missiles and guns it has a reasonable color scheme depending on who you ask the head is not really desert camouflage but Cobra has always had a hard time with camouflage so the fact that the main body is tan counts as desert camouflage for Cobra this vehicle is packed with play value there's so much you can do you can spin the gatling gun or flip down the battering ram you can elevate the main gun you can drop the mines you can open the engine cover and do repairs a lot of effort went into this vehicle the Rage even places the driver behind an armored hatch for Cobra and often even for G.I. Joe that was rare the vehicle body sits low to the ground making for a small target profile this is so fundamental yet overlooked by many G.I. Joe and Cobra vehicles that's not to say it's perfect the asymmetrical design makes it look off balanced the wheels are cool there's no action in sand without treads and those exposed mushroom clips on the wheels look kind of ugly a vehicle this size really should have come with an action figure driver even so it's hard for me to harshly criticize a toy that has so much going for it that was my review of the Cobra Rage finally thank you to Muzz the mind mailer for saving this review thank you to the Cobra Convergence 5 presenters for providing their opinion on this vehicle thank you to MacDowan for calming your rage thank you Timmer for whatever it is you do by the way if you'd like to get a half the battle t-shirt from Timmer's show just go to hcc7a8.com and click on shop you will find it there here's what we have this coming week for Cobra Convergence 5 you will get a new entry today August 9th from Scorched Earth on August 10th it's Talking Joe a G.I. Joe podcast on August 11th it's Mary Mercenary Cosplay on August 12th it's the Order of Battle podcast on August 13th it's Cobra Island on YouTube on August 14th it's SEO Toy Review on YouTube and on August 15th it's MacDowan on YouTube and don't forget you can join too there are instructions on how you can submit your own Cobra Convergence 5 and there's a full calendar of the event at the website hcc7a8.com as for me I'm hooded Cobra Commander 788 and I'll be coming at you all month with Cobra toy reviews you can find an archive of my reviews on my website hcc7a8.com you can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a Patreon if you'd like to support the channel in that way special thanks to the names you see scrolling right now these guys support the channel on Patreon and I absolutely could not do it without their help thank you guys and don't forget to check out my Patreon for some special perks and to help keep this channel going thanks for watching don't forget to check out Cobra Convergence all month I'll see you next week with another Cobra Review and until then remember only Cobra is Cobra!