 It's time. Cobra Convergence 3 has reached its end. It was a wild event this year, it was bigger than ever. To complete the Convergence, I wanted to review something big. To do it justice, I invited our Cobra Convergence contributors to help out. This is the biggest collaboration I've ever done in a single video, and I am proud to bring it to you. When I date here, it's time for the final Cobra Convergence 3 video. I do a lot of collaboration with other creators on this channel, it's one of my favorite things to do. I love working with other creators, and I love seeing the talent we have in this fan community. I also like to show you other people you may enjoy watching. As you may know, this channel reviews vintage GI Joe toys. There's a finite number of vintage items to review, so there will come a time when I don't have anything left to review. I will be riding off into the sunset. If I leave you with nothing else, I hope I have introduced you to members of your community that are creating great things. This video is an opportunity to do that kind of introduction. I've never done a collaboration on this level. I've never dreamed of a collaboration on this level. This is Cobra Convergence condensed into one video. Your CC3 contributors will drop in to help with the review. It is my privilege to present the final video of Cobra Convergence 3. Our review of the Cobra Mamba. This is the 1987 Cobra Mamba. This vehicle and figure set were first available in 1987 and were also available in 1988 and were discontinued for 1989. The Mamba included a pilot, the Gyro Viper, which was exclusively available with this vehicle. Depending on how you measure these things, this is only Cobra's second helicopter in the real American hero toy line. Their first was the Fang helicopter from 1983. That vehicle was small. It held one figure in the cockpit and a couple more could ride along on the skids. The Fang was dwarfed by G.I. Joe's helicopter from that same year, the Dragonfly. If the Fang was too small and poorly armed to take on G.I. Joe in the air, the Mamba makes up for it. In 1986, the Dreadnocks got the Swampfire, which was a boat that converted into a helicopter. It had Cobra emblems on it, but it's really a Dreadnock vehicle, so you may not consider it part of the Cobra arsenal. I don't. By 1987, G.I. Joe didn't have a lot of helicopters, but the ones they had were more substantial than the Fang. In 1983, they had the Dragonfly with Pilot Wild Bill. In 1986, they had the Tomahawk with Pilot Lift Ticket. Though the Tomahawk is a double rotor helicopter like the Mamba, I think the Dragonfly is the Mamba's counterpart on the G.I. Joe team. The Mamba is closer to the size of the Dragonfly, and both the Mamba and the Dragonfly have a blade spinning mechanism. The Fang didn't have a designated pilot, but the Mamba did, the Gyro Viper. We'll take a closer look at the figure later, but I'm going to send him aside so we can look at the Mamba. The Cobra Mamba is a special vehicle to Timmer from the YouTube show, Half the Battle, so he's going to share his thoughts about it. The Mamba? Well, it's an awesome vehicle. I really, really love this thing, and I do have a special history with it. You see, this one is the one from my childhood, even though the Mamba was never officially released in Belgium. Yet somehow, and this is a mystery that's going to be lost to the ages, this thing was in my local toy shop here when I was a kid. Yeah, it was in an American box and everything. No idea how it made the track across the pond, but there it was. So after begging my parents a little bit, they got it for me, and it was one of my favorite GI Jo, well, Cobra toys growing up. I'm really happy that it was stuff like this that accidentally slipped through and not say Cobra La. So yeah, bottom line, awesome, awesome helicopter, and one that I was very fond of as a kid. The first thing you notice about the Mamba is the color. It's purple. Cobra had a lot of figures that were mostly purple, but it was less common on vehicles. This is the first Cobra vehicle in purple. Another Cobra vehicle with the same color scheme was the Fang 2 from 1989. Rather than being an update of the old Fang helicopter, it looks more like a mini Mamba. It has exactly the same color scheme. The Mamba was designed by David Kunitz. The earliest concept art had the Mamba in blue. It had the same double rotor design, but it was more angular. It looks similar to the Switchblade vehicle from the Mask toy line. Obviously, the final product doesn't look anything like the Switchblade, so it evolved quite a bit before it was released. The Mamba is a synchrocopter, meaning it has two intermeshing rotors that are set at slight angles to each other and are synchronized so they spin without hitting each other. This is a real-world thing. There are real helicopters with this rotor configuration. The synchrocopter can operate without a tail rotor, which you notice is absent on the Mamba. Let's take a look at the parts and the features on the Cobra Mamba, starting with the pilot's pod. There is a big yellow Cobra emblem on a central purple pod. There is a red translucent canopy and there's a heads-up display sticker on that canopy. The red canopy is hinged on the port side. It opens by swinging up to the side. It has a small cockpit. There's barely enough room for the pilot. To place the pilot in the cockpit, you have to bend his knees as much as they will go. There's not a lot of room in there. You have to get him in there deep enough so his head will not hit the canopy when it closes. It's also very narrow, so that doesn't give you a lot of room for his arms. But you can get him down there far enough so the canopy will close. Notice there is a raised section on the center of the canopy to accommodate the pilot's head. Inside the cockpit, there is enough detail without being exceptional. It has some instruments and texture in there. Next we have what the blueprints call Detachable MULT, M-O-L-T, or Mamba Offense Light Tactical Attack Pods. They are black. There are two of them. There's one on each side. They are both the same, so they are interchangeable. The black works well with the purple. They also have red canopies, which match the color of the canopy on the pilot's pod. They also have yellow Cobra emblems on the front. There's no mechanism for detaching the pods. You simply pull down until they release. And yes, it is kind of scary. It does feel like you're going to break the vehicle. With the pod detached, we can take a closer look at it. It is rocket powered. It has a great big rocket engine in the back. It has some detail on the top and the bottom. And on the underside, it has this red gun, which the blueprints call Serpentor 9mm RRF, or Rapid Rate of Fire Machine Guns. They named these guns after Serpentor. The pods have long and very narrow wings. There's no way it gets a lot of lift out of those. Attached to one side, it has two red missiles that attach into slots using long fins. The back fins have forward-facing prongs, which is a theme on all of the Mamba's missiles. All of these Nemesis anti-tank mini missiles. The blueprints show the missiles mounted on the top of the wing. And for that reason, you can only put two missiles on each pod. The reason for that is if you put missiles on the top of the inside wing, it will interfere when you place the pod back on the helicopter. However, these missiles will also fit on the underside of the wing. And then when you attach it to the helicopter, they don't get in the way. So if you can get your hands on a couple extra missiles, you can give the pod a full complement of four. We have a translucent red canopy with a heads-up display sticker. It's hinged at the back, so you open it by pulling up at the front and swinging it open toward the back. That reveals a cockpit with some detail in there. A couple instrument panel stickers on the sides. It has a back peg. I'm not sure the back peg was absolutely necessary. With the pilot's cockpit, the pod cockpit is a little narrow, so it doesn't have quite as much room for the arms as I would like. But it does have more leg room. You don't have to bend the figure's leg to fit him in. You can get the figure in there and kind of line him up with that back peg, which actually has him sitting kind of low in that cockpit. You can get him in and close the canopy without any problem. But the figure in the pod is entirely reclined. That kind of makes sense. You're supposed to lie down in a coffin. These attack pods are suicide machines. They are human guided missiles. They have no landing gear. They barely have any control surfaces. The massive rocket engine provides the only propulsion. And it is very large for a vehicle this small, so this thing is going to move fast. There's no practical way to re-dock with the Mamba in flight. So whoever launches in this pod ain't coming back. You could view them as escape pods. Maybe they deploy parachutes after they launch. But why do the gunners get an escape pod but not the pilot? In an emergency, everyone gets out but the pilot. With the pods removed, the Mamba no longer balances. It tips backwards and rests on its tail. Replacing the pod on the Mamba is not easy. First, you have to pretty much remove the bomb. It gets in the way. And then on the underside, there is a tab shaped like a cone. And that lines up with the rocket engine. Then there is a clip on the underside. And that lines up with a bar on the top of the pod. So you have to line those up and push up until it snaps in. There is a high probability that missiles and bombs will fall off as you attempt this maneuver. Next we have what the blueprints call Diablo, supersonic air to air missiles. There are four, two on each side. These missiles are red. They have forward facing prongs on the front and back fins. These missiles are named after the devil. No wonder they are forked. These missiles peg on using standard dumbbell shaped pegs. There are tabs on the side and on the top. They are clustered really closely together. So removing one missile makes it very easy to knock off the other one. To see the next piece, we have to flip over to the underside. The blueprints do not identify, but they are bombs. They peg in again with standard dumbbell shaped pegs. They are red and they have a back fin with forward facing prongs, just like the missiles. Right behind the bomb there is a red lever that serves as a release mechanism for the bomb. I can't usually get it to work though. The bomb just pegs on there too solidly. I find to get the lever to work and release the bomb, you kind of have to just put the bomb on there very lightly. Just remove it and then the lever will release it. On the underside in the center there is a very large bomb and it has a release mechanism that works a lot better. There is a lever behind it and by pushing it to the side it will open these claws and release the bomb. This bomb is red like the others but much larger. It has wide fins front and back and the forward fins have long forward facing prongs. It has a dumbbell shaped slot even though it doesn't peg onto the mamba. It hooks onto those claws for the release mechanism. That slot will fit on the pegs on the mamba if for some reason you wanted to peg it on. To place the bomb on the underside of the mamba just slide the lever to the side to open those claws and place it on with the slot side up. The armaments on the mamba make it a versatile aircraft. It can take out both air and ground targets. It can fire guided missiles and drop bombs on GI Joe tanks. Cobra doesn't have many helicopters so the mamba has to fit every conceivable role. It has exceptional technical detail all along the fuselage on both sides and in the center it has a removable engine cover. It is black. Removing that reveals some additional engine detail. Now we get to the helicopter part of the helicopter. It has two very long sets of rotor blades. They are mounted on the top side by side at slight angles that's important. They are long, they are black, they run almost the entire length of the helicopter and extend beyond the front end of the helicopter by about three inches. These blades have a spinning mechanism. To spin the blades turn the knob on the underside of the helicopter. Works best for me to turn it clockwise. The blades should interweave and spin without hitting each other. It works most of the time but sometimes they still catch. Oh hey can I borrow that for a second? Uh hey. It's kind of hypnotic isn't it? Thank you FormBX257 for that demonstration. Now I'll need that mamba back. The clips where the rotors attach are a weak point. They can wear down and so when you turn the knob the clips will spin but they won't spin the blades and that will throw off your synchronization and they won't work. You also have to hold the mamba carefully while you spin the blades otherwise your arm will get in the way. Those twin rotors as cool as they were didn't always work very well. As Kevin from SEO Toy Reviews will demonstrate and he's going to share his thoughts and memories about the mamba. Ah the Cobra Mamba. One of the hardest GIO toys to play with. As a little kid you're trying to spin this knob and hold the helicopter far enough away from you that you're not hitting yourself in the face with the rotor blades and every time it wobbles the blades get stuck on each other. It's a crazy design but my goodness was it a clumsy toy. Then you'd knock the bombs off by accident. The escape pods would fall off. It was always a mess. This is my childhood Cobra Mamba. I got this for Christmas and was so excited when I unwrapped it and I knew I was getting it. We were at Ames which is a department store and I was walking around the toy aisle and my mom was trying to get away from me to go Christmas shopping basically and she had pre-ordered it or reserved it or put it on lay-away or something like that and there was this window near the toy department like a counter and there was a mamba sitting there and I walked by and was like I wonder if I'm getting that for Christmas and then I walked around a little bit longer and then later on I could see just the edges of the box. My mom had covered the box in her shopping cart with her coat but I could see just a little tiny bit of it and I was like oh yeah somebody's getting the mamba for Christmas and it's not my sister. Ever since I saw the scene where Python is trying to sneak into the Technodrome in G.I. Joe the movie and the stunts are operated by all stun drivers I've always wanted to have complete vehicle driver crews of the vehicle drivers so I'm very happy to have three gyro wipers in my mamba. Looking at some additional detail we have gray engine blocks where the rotor posts attach, we have black exhaust pipes in the back, we have two long boom tails that run parallel they stretch really far back from the main body of the helicopter. The sticker on one of the tail booms which reads 225V was added by the designer Dave Kunitz to represent the date he met his wife February 25th. For our British friends it may look like the 22nd of May. Repping up our look at the back section of the mamba, those tail booms are connected in the center with this purple piece and we have a couple black fins each one has a yellow cobra symbol. The overall look of the mamba reminds me of a dragonfly, not the G.I. Joe dragonfly but a real dragonfly with kind of fat body up front and a long tail and a pair of rotor blades that would kind of look like dragonfly wings buzzing as the mamba flies through the air. Now Steven from G.I. Joeberg is going to share some thoughts about the cobra mamba. It's a subject he knows pretty well because it was G.I. Joeberg's first ever video review. Greetings members of Cobra Command, this is Steve from G.I. Joeberg and we're talking about the mamba. Because I think HCC's review is probably pretty comprehensive at this point, there's nothing I'm going to add on that front, maybe I'm just going to share a little anecdote about the mamba. You see the mamba is a vehicle that I first encountered in the Marvel comics and I immediately thought this can't be a real thing because the artist's impressions of how the blades meshed were like, it's just confusing to my eye. Flash forward to 2007, I do the research and find it on eBay, it is a real thing. I was first put on to it at least at that stage because it featured quite prominently in a G.I. Joe text-based RPG that Rob and I were both playing on Yahoo groups, that is a bygone era. Anyway, there was a guy who kept using it and used its full capabilities like the multi-pods deploying and basically giving itself its own wingman, so we were like we have to have one of these helicopters. In fact we don't have to have just one, we each have to have our own one. Flash forward to about 2011, Paul gets his own boxed variation from a convention in the States and we each have a mamba which makes it the only vehicle, in fact the only G.I. Joe toy that we each have our own copy of. So it was the natural selection to be G.I. Joe Berg's first video review when we started branching out into the YouTubes. And I think that's all I have to say about the mamba, I mean it is just too cool. The purple, the armament, I mean it is every bit a match to the venerable G.I. Joe helicopters of the era. It could take on your dragonfly, it could take on your tomahawk, it could even take on the sky storm because I'm a fan. And the canton rotating meshing rotor blades was just such a novel feature. I mean it works perfectly on Paul's, it works perfectly on Rob's, it works less than perfectly on mine but you know, what can you do, two out of three right? Anyway, Cobra! Now let's take a look at the pilot that came with the mamba, the gyro viper. Gyro viper was Cobra's first dedicated helicopter pilot but he wasn't their first pilot. In 1983, the Cobra Viper glider ruled the skies. It was piloted by the Viper pilot. Cobra's air force in 1983 was extremely weak. As mentioned before, Cobra had the Fang helicopter but it didn't come with a pilot. In 1984, Cobra got the Rattler, not a helicopter, it was a jet but it had a pilot, Wild Weasel. Wild Weasel was not a trooper though, he was an individual named character. In 1986, Cobra had two jet pilots, the Avac, pilot of the Firebat, and Stratoviper, pilot of the Night Raven. Although Cobra was known for strange costumes, their pilots were often quite reasonable. Even realistic looking, except for the Avac, that one's kind of odd. The flight suits are colorful but that's fine. They all mostly look pretty good, there's not too much strange stuff here. Let's take a look at Gyro Viper's accessory, he came with only one. He came with a helmet, it's a tight fit, not easy to get on or off. It is hard plastic, not soft plastic as you might expect for this type of helmet. It is red with a silver face shield, this is supposed to be a mirror advisor. It is exceptional to get paint on accessories so that's not bad. This helmet looks a lot like the helmet Luke wore in the training scene in Star Wars. Hang on, I'm just curious about something. Let's just see if it, see if it, now it won't fit. Hey, here's a weird coincidence, Gyro Viper and Bespin Luke have very similar colors. The artwork shows the visor with a cutout for the nose but that detail didn't make it to the accessory. If it had, paint wear on the nose wouldn't be a problem. Silver paint always tends to wear away pretty easily so paint wear will be a problem on this helmet. Let's take a look at the articulation, on the Gyro Viper he had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1987 so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt, design and color of Gyro Viper starting with his head. On his head he has a purple mask that covers his head and mouth and leaves his eyes and nose exposed. Because the nose is exposed, paint wear is a problem. The mask is reasonably well detailed. He has purple pads on his shoulders that wrap around the back of his neck. This is probably an inflatable ring. He has a tan flight suit. He has silver straps and it looks like he has a silver tab that he could probably pull to inflate that ring. The silver straps and a silver belt that goes around his midsection continue to the back. We also have some red tubing that comes from the inside of the flight suit and run down to the bottom half of the figure. There is exceptional sculpting work in the folds of the cloth all over this figure. This is made to look like a loose fitting flight suit. The arms have long tan sleeves and brown gloves. Then on the back of the arms we have more of that red tubing. It starts at the upper arm and because of the articulation it stops at the swivel. Then it picks up again at the lower arm and runs down to the glove. The waist piece is tan. He doesn't have a belt on the waist piece but this is supposed to be a jumpsuit. It has some detailing here in the front that I think is just supposed to be stitching. Then on the back of the waist piece that red tubing runs from the back piece all the way down the sides of the waist piece. The legs have a lot to look at. They do continue that tan jumpsuit and that red tubing runs all the way down the outside of the legs on both sides all the way down to the boots. On his left thigh he has four thin brown straps that go all the way around his thigh. Then he has a brown pistol and a brown holster on his left thigh. Of course I have to mention Gyro Viper is an army builder and it would be very unusual for every member of a unit to be left handed. On the right front thigh there is a tampo of a map. The shape on the map is the state of Indiana. David Kunitz the designer of the Mamba was a graduate of Purdue and wanted Indiana University to be the target on the map. On the right lower leg around the shin we have two brown straps that go all the way around and on the inside right lower leg we have a brown knife and we wrap it up with a pair of brown boots. This figure was designed by Mark Pennington with instructions to keep it realistic. I think he did a good job. Everything about this uniform is well done. The details are taken from real flight suits so I can't complain about that. The tubing suggests it's a pressure suit but this is a helicopter pilot. He probably doesn't need a pressure suit. The colors compliment the Mamba well. The figure has a touch of purple. The tan is a good contrast against the purple helicopter. The silver highlights make it feel like a special figure. Let's take a look at Gyro Viper's file card. His file card has his faction as Cobra. Has a portrait of Gyro Viper here. His codename is Gyro Viper. He is the Mamba driver. This top paragraph says the coordination necessary to pilot a helicopter is akin to operating a yo-yo with your left hand while spinning a pie plate on the tip of your right index finger while you're balancing full glasses of water on the top of your feet. Piloting an attack helicopter in combat is like doing all of that while riding a 12-point buck through the woods in the middle of hunting season. No! Mamba pilots have to be pretty nervy just to get through the training program. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, attack helicopters come in two varieties, bigger, heavily armored, slower ones, and smaller, faster ones with no armor at all. Mambas fall into the latter category. Gyro Viper's tend to be fast, decisive thinkers with a self-assured confidence in their flying skills, and they don't look back. The Mamba doesn't have a rear view mirror, so they can't look back. Looking at how the Mamba and the Gyro Viper were used in GI Joe Media, neither the Mamba nor the Gyro Viper were featured in the animated series, so no animated episodes to show you. One good thing about these toys that were released in 1987 and 1988 is they didn't have many animated appearances, which makes the media section of the review super easy, and that's great for me. I'm going to go take a nap. Looking at how the Mamba was used in the comic book... Hold it right there, hoody cocoa. As the subject matter expert on comic books, I'll take it from here. Oh, I guess Chris from Comic Tropes is going to tell us about the Mamba in the comic book series. That's right, it's me, Chris from Comic Tropes, and the Cobra Mamba played an important role in the GI Joe comics. It first appeared in issue number 64 as one of Cobra's new helicopters and was immediately seen as an impressive, powerful vehicle. In that issue, an imposter Cobra Commander was sneaking aboard Cobra Island on a boat and the Mambas blew the boat up, but Cobra Commander escaped on his Pogo and took out a Mamba. But the real story behind it began in issue number four of GI Joe yearbook. In that issue, both the GI Joe team and their Russian counterparts, the October Guard, were sent on missions to Cobra Island to abduct Cobra Commander. The October Guard thought that they were successful, but had been duped by getting a Cobra Battle Android trooper in Cobra Commander's battle armor. Ultimately, the October Guard escaped in a Cobra Mamba. Herb Trimpe didn't quite get the vehicle on model, but it still looks cool, so we'll forgive him. The Cobra Mamba was damaged and the October Guard couldn't take it back with them on their submarine, so ultimately the GI Joe force was able to salvage it. The GI Joe team later put it to use in issue number 73, where it appears on the cover. The storyline going on at the time was the Cobra Civil War, a battle between Serpentor and those loyal to him and seemingly Cobra Commander. In actuality, it was a Crimson Guardsman, Fred VII, who was posing as Cobra Commander at the time. A small recon force was led by Lieutenant Falcon and slipped aboard Cobra Island in the Cobra Mamba. The Cobra Mamba was a vehicle that I actually owned and I loved it, one of my all time personal favorite vehicles. The Gyro Viper was fine, but the vehicle itself was awesome. It was sleek and thin, it felt like it had a low stealth profile. The intersecting helicopter blades were just so unique, I could just sometimes spin the knob and be entertained watching those blades spin. I loved that thing. I used it in all sorts of play scenarios, and it remains one of my all time personal favorite GI Joe vehicles. That hoodie Coco thing is going to stick. Looking at the Cobra Mamba overall, this is an excellent vehicle. It may be overlooked by fans of the early years of GI Joe. It's big and purple, it's kind of weird, it may be hard to wrap your head around, but pick one up, play around with it, look at all the features. Do the blade spinny thing. It stands out as a really fun toy. It's not perfect. The detachable attack pods don't make a lot of sense, but they're okay as a bonus feature. Plus, suicide rockets on a Cobra vehicle may actually fit in your play scenario. Cobra doesn't take the safety of its personnel into consideration, so it's conceivable they could have designed a vehicle with rocket powered coffins. Without the pods, the helicopter is unbalanced. The pilot's cockpit is way too small. The missiles are clustered too close together, so it's easy to knock them off. As I was shooting this review, anything that could have fallen off the helicopter did fall off of it. It was actually one of the longer and more difficult shoots I've done in quite some time. That must have interfered with play. None of those problems outweigh the positives. The Cobra Mamba is a substantial helicopter. Cobra's first helicopter of substance. It is loaded with play features. The interweaving blades are just fun. The gyro viper is an excellent figure. The colors are good. The details are good. The worst part of it is the helmet. It's a tight fit to get on. If you gave the Mamba a pass because it's just too weird and too purple, give it a chance. You might find it's a little underrated. That was my review of the 1987 Cobra Mamba and the Gyro Viper. And that concludes Cobra Convergence for 2018. I'll be taking next week off. I need a little rest after the extra work of the event. I'll be back the following week with the next review. I extend my thanks to everyone who participated. All of our contributors gave us extra effort. I hope all of them join us again next year. And I hope the event next year is even bigger and brings you more creators. I also want to thank you. Thank you for joining us for Cobra Convergence. Thank you for following all the creators. Thank you for making your own Cobra creations. I ask you to send me your own Cobra contributions so I could put them in a montage at the end of my videos. I have the final montage coming up in a few moments. Before we get to the montage though, I invited our featured contributors to give us a few final words on the event. To wrap up Cobra Convergence 3, I present to you your Cobra creators. Thanks for watching and let's do it again next year. Well, that's the end of another July. I won't miss the humidity, but I will miss Cobra Convergence. It was awesome working with a lot of familiar faces and great to see new reviewers coming on board. Can't wait for next year. Hoodie Coco, thank you so much for letting me be part of Cobra Convergence 3. It was a privilege. It was a blast. And I am very impressed with all the content that all these creators have put together. Let's hear it for Cobra Convergence 3 and I can't wait for Cobra Convergence 4. Well, I guess this is just about wraps up Cobra Convergence. I had a blast making my video for this year. I enjoyed everybody else's contributions to the program. Special thanks to Hoodie Cobra Commander for all your hard work putting it together. Remember, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe and Cobra! What's up, YouTube? This is Red Kaisenko, part of Cobra Convergence 3, doing a small cameo on H.E.C.'s YouTube channel. And this is a small part of my collection and hope to see you soon on Cobra Convergence 4. Cobra Convergence 3 times is a charm so Cobra strikes back with advantages but Joe's got to help with it myself next year.