 This is Snake Eyes, G.I. Joe's Commando from 1982. As you can see, we have two action figures here, so we will be looking at the 1983 release as well. Version 1 was released in 1982 as part of the first wave of G.I. Joe action figures when the line was relaunched that year. It was only available in 1982. In 1983, it was replaced with version 1.5. All the 1982 version 1 figures were reissued in 1983 with updated articulation. The version 1.5 figure was also available in 1984 and was discontinued for 1985. At some point, Snake Eyes was available through Hasbro Direct. This figure was designed by Ron Rudatt for Hasbro. The all black color was a cost-cutting choice. There are zero paint applications on this figure. The money saved on paint sprays could be applied to other figures such as 1982's stalker with his camouflage. The characterization of Snake Eyes was done by Larry Hama, the writer of the Marvel comic book. There were six versions of Snake Eyes in the vintage era and dozens of post-vintage versions in every scale. Snake Eyes is the most popular G.I. Joe character. Version 2 was released in 1985. This is the most recognized and replicated design. This version has the visor, a sword, and the wolf companion timber. No later vintage versions of Snake Eyes included the wolf. Version 3 was released in 1989. This is lesser known, but still a classic with the black and silver. A very good-looking figure. Version 4 was issued in 1991. This is a departure from the classic black, adding blue and gray. Version 5 was released in 1993 as part of the Ninja Force subset. It was still mostly black with blue highlights. It also had an action feature which limited the articulation. Version 6 was issued in 1994, which was the final year of the vintage G.I. Joe toy line before it was canceled. It was part of the Shadow Ninja's subset. It was a reissue of Version 5 with a color change gimmick. 1982 Snake Eyes is listed as a Commando. Actually, the first four versions are all listed as Commando. In the G.I. Joe comic book series, it is revealed that Snake Eyes is a ninja. Commando is a person or unit that specializes in raids in enemy territory. Originally, Commando was used to denote a specialized unit, not individuals in that unit. The usage of the word in military parlance originated with the Boer Mounted Infantry in the First and Second Boer Wars. A ninja would bring a lot of relevant skills to the role of Commando. Snake Eyes is the strong silent type. In fact, he doesn't speak. An injury on an early G.I. Joe mission disfigured his face and destroyed his vocal cords, so he is unable to speak. He only spoke one word in the comic book. We will get to that later. Snake Eyes is closely associated with the Cobra Ninja Storm Shadow. These action figures are obviously intended to be enemies with the black versus white, but their connection was deeper than that. They are members of the same ninja clan, the Arashakage. I'll cover that in depth when we talk about Snake Eyes' media appearances. The comic book also portrayed Scarlet as a love interest for Snake Eyes. The origin of Snake Eyes starts before the creation of G.I. Joe. Larry Hama was developing a special forces unit for Marvel Comics called Fury Force. It was supposed to be led by Nick Fury's son. The comic book was never produced, but some of the ideas were implemented in G.I. Joe. The character Spook evolved into Snake Eyes. Snake Eyes wears a mask, but that wasn't always so. Larry has said he based the look of young Snake Eyes on Bob Light, someone he knew in Vietnam. The name Snake Eyes refers to a pair of dice both landing on one. It is the lowest possible role and is considered bad luck. Snake Eyes has lived up to his name. There were many many post-vintage versions of Snake Eyes released and I have one modern era version of the figure here. This is version 28 from 2007. It was in the G.I. Joe battle pack with Duke, Scarlet, Roadblock, and Gung Ho. The first thing I notice about this figure is it is gray, not black, but the design is clearly meant to evoke that version one commando look. For accessories he includes an Uzi, which is appropriate for Snake Eyes and a callback to the version one accessory. Not a bad Uzi too. It looks okay. A little bit modified, just changed a little bit. There's no rear sight and there's also this folding stock on it, but still looks pretty good. He also includes an explosives pack with a strap that goes around the figure and this is another callback to the version one accessory. It's well sculpted with texture and buckles. It even says explosives on it and there's some paint application. That's nice. We rarely got paint on vintage accessories. These modern era figures were able to have more working sheaths for knives and holsters for pistols. This one has a removable knife on the right leg and a removable pistol on the left side of the belt. The final accessory that's intended to be removed is this figure stand. These modern era figures had figure stands with the name printed on them. These modern era figures are slightly taller than vintage figures averaging closer to four inches rather than three and three-quarter inches. He also has updated articulations. So a ball jointed head. The arms have comparable articulation to the vintage figure, but added wrist articulation. So you have a wrist swivel. You have the chest cut, so there's articulation at the torso and on the legs you have double jointed knees and you also have ankle articulation. The vintage figures did not have that. The sculpting is also updated and some ways it's more detailed and some ways it's less detailed. The top half of the figure depends on this strap and belt piece for most of the details. That is removable. You can remove it. It is on the figure in the package, so you're not really intended to remove it and if you do remove it, you will lose most of the detail on the top half of the figure. Standing it next to the vintage figure, the vintage figure is simpler but more elegant. Snake Eyes jumps into the six-inch scale. There have been many Snake Eyes figures in the six-inch GI Joe classified series. This one is most inspired by the version one figure. It also includes the wolf timber and the head of a second wolf that he has murdered. This is actually an alternate head for timber, so you can pop on his mean face. I've already done a full review on this figure so I won't go too much into it. The accessories are pretty good. He has an Uzi or a submachine gun that's like an Uzi, close enough. He also has a removable pistol and a holster on the right side and a suppressor that will fit either on the pistol or on the Uzi. He has a removable knife on the left side. He does not have the explosives pack, but he has a couple other submachine guns. He has this one that has a removable magazine. It looks a little bit like an MP5, then he has this one looking kind of like a Nerf gun. It also has a removable magazine and that's nice. No removable magazine on the Uzi, but the only way they could have done that is to make the grip thicker and that would not fit in his hand. This figure has classified series articulation, which is generally pretty good, somewhat limited at the torso because of this vest and belt piece, but like the 2007 figure it needs this extra piece for most of the detail on the top half of the figure. The head articulation also seems kind of weird. I mean he can look around and he can look up pretty well, but this is as far as he can look down. It just seems like it's obstructed a little bit and it seems like he should be able to look down more than that, but that's as far as it goes. The rest of the articulation is mostly similar to the 2007 figure, but we have a couple extra points. We have double jointed elbows. We have swivels at the wrists and hinges at the wrist. On the legs we additionally have a swivel at the thigh cut. We have the double jointed knees. We have a swivel at the boot cut and we still have the ankle articulation. The design of this figure is obviously inspired by that version one figure. On his head he has what almost looks like a hockey mask with goggles. There's a lot of detail added here and that is necessary for the scale. This scale must have additional detail and articulation, which it does. There are also a few reused parts from other action figures and that is also reminiscent of the version one figure. Let's get back to the vintage figure and look at Snake Eyes' accessories. He didn't come with many, in fact he only had two, but let's start with the most important one that is the Uzi. It is in dark gray plastic. It is based on the real Israeli submachine gun. There's a variation on this accessory. Some of them have thin sights at the front and the back and others have thick sights at the front and the back. It's a very small difference and you may not even notice. This same accessory came with 1982 and 1983 Steeler, the driver of the MOBAT tank. There is another variation of this accessory in a lighter gray that came in a battle gear accessory pack in 1983, along with a lot of reissues of other 1982 accessories. You can see it right there and compared with the one that came with the figure, it is in a lighter gray. Version 2 of Snake Eyes from 1985 also included an Uzi accessory that is very similar to the one from the 1982 and 1983 figure. One way to tell the difference is the 1985 accessory has a thicker barrel. The only other accessory is the explosives pack. It's a very simple accessory. It's a pack. It looks like it has three segments and blasting caps and a strap to go over the figure's shoulder or around his body. As with the Uzi, there is a variation on this explosive pack that came with the battle gear accessories pack and it is also in a lighter gray. That's it for accessories on version 1 and 1.5 Snake Eyes. He has no backpack. Snake Eyes travels light. He only has what he needs to infiltrate enemy territory and do his job. He doesn't need anything else weighing him down. Let's take a look at the articulation on version 1 and 1.5 Snake Eyes and the articulation is the main point of difference between these two figures. Version 1 had the articulation that was standard for a G.I. Joe figure in 1982, so he had a swivel head. He could turn his head from left to right. He could lift his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow, so he could bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. No other articulation points at the arm. This is where version 1.5 was different in the articulation department. 1983 figures had what they called swivel arm battle grip. In addition to the 90 degree bend at the elbow, he also had a swivel at the biceps, so he could swivel his arm all the way around. Articulation for both figures otherwise was the same. They were O-ring figures, meaning they were held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed them 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 look at the sculpt design and color of Snake Eyes. Like most other 1982 figures, Snake Eyes shared parts from other figures. He had more unique parts than most of his 1982 counterparts. Let's start with his head. He has an all-black mask that covers his entire head. He has black goggles that cover his eyes and vent holes over his mouth. He has a headband on the back. This is a unique head. Some 1982 figures did not even have unique heads. The chest is all black. There is no paint. There is an elastic collar. Straps on the front and the back. Pouches on the top part of the front straps. A grenade on the right strap and a knife on the left. This chest is shared by 1982 grunt, breaker, stalker, and hawk. And their 1983 re-releases. The arms are all black. They feature long sleeves, square pockets on the outside, upper arms, elastic band cuffs, and black gloves. This is all unpainted. These arms are shared by grunt, by short fuse, by hawk, by stalker, and by zap. Here's another difference between the 1982 and 1983 figures. In addition to swivel arm battle grips, the 1983 figure has the pockets moved from the side of the arm to the front of the arm and it has added detail. These updated arms are shared by versions 1.5 of grunt, short fuse, stalker, zap, and hawk. The waist piece is entirely black. It has a single pocket on the back. It has a wide unpainted belt with an H shaped belt buckle. The belt buckle is probably a Hasbro brand stamp. The 1983 figure has an updated waist piece. It is slimmer with a more detailed belt and the belt buckle now looks like the old Hasbro logo. The 1983 figure still has the single pocket in the back. The version 1 date stamp says copyright 1982. On version 1.5 it says copyright 82-83. The waist piece was used on all the 1982 male Joe figures. It was standard. The legs on version 1 and 1.5 are the same so we'll just take a look at one of them. They are of course all black and unpainted. On the right upper leg there are two pockets. On the left upper leg there is what appears to be a dynamite bomb with a timer. The legs have stirrup boot covers with straps around the calf and of course he has black boots. The upper legs are unique. The lower legs are reused from flash and grand slam. This figure has a lot of reused parts and a lot of unpainted details but this is the rare instance when it is an asset rather than a problem. Making this figure all black is inspired. It is monochrome but it still looks right. The black plays into his specialty and makes him mysterious. It's the perfect blank canvas to create a great character. Let's take a look at Snake Eyes' file card. The file card has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Snake Eyes. Excellent artwork that really brings the character to life. His specialty is Commando. His codename is Snake Eyes. Hasbro can't seem to decide if Snake Eyes should be hyphenated or not. There's no hyphen in this name but on the version 2 file card there is. Then the hyphen disappears again on the version 3 and version 4 file card and then on version 5 and on version 6 the hyphen is back. His filename is classified. His primary military specialty is infantry. His secondary military specialty is hand-to-hand combat instructor. His birthplace is classified and his grade is E5. So his filename and birthplace are classified. All the information about him before he joined the army is a mystery. This paragraph says Snake Eyes is proficient in 12 different unarmed fighting systems in parentheses karate kung fu jiu jitsu and is highly skilled in the use of edged weapons. Has received extensive training in mountaineering underwater demolitions, jungle desert and arctic survival and some form of holistic medicine. Qualified expert all NATO and Warsaw packed small arms. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says that the man is a total mystery but he's real good at his job. Heck he's the best. There's no mention here of his inability to speak. Nothing about this says he's a ninja but it hints at it. The ninja backstory is filled in later, mostly in the comic book. The file card was written by Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series. His 1985 version 2 file card had his Vietnam and ninja backstory fleshed out and it closely follows the comic book continuity. Looking at how Snake Eyes was used in GI Joe media, he was used a lot less frequently in the animated series than in the comic book probably because he is silent. He had more appearances than you probably remember but he was less frequently the focus of the episodes. He first appeared in the first mini series in 1983 in the first episode. In that series he sacrificed himself to save his teammates on a mission to retrieve radioactive crystals. He was able to escape the crystal mine but the radiation was sure to kill him. He was cured by a blind woodsman. That's also where he picked up his wolf Timber. In the follow up series Revenge of Cobra, Snake Eyes and Duke get captured. That gave Snake Eyes a little more screen time. His role in the next mini series Pyramid of Darkness was even bigger. He was paired with Shipwreck probably because they both had animal companions. They infiltrated a cobra base. Escaping was more of a challenge. Snake Eyes had to break dance and dress in drag. In the animated series there is no connection between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. Instead Storm Shadow's rival was Spirit. This was again because Spirit is a character that could speak and exchange dialogue with Storm Shadow. His most screen time was in the episode The Invaders. A battle between GI Joe, Cobra and the October Guard is interrupted by flying saucers. A purple alien takes Tomax and Zemot for examination. The Joes fire themselves out of cannons to get an October Guard headquarters. Snake Eyes and Wong from the October Guard get captured and the Dreadlocks tell them the entire evil plan. Snake Eyes takes over one flying saucer and shoots down the other. Snake Eyes figured out the plot because the alien had a carton of milk next to him. Snake Eyes was briefly in the 1987 movie. He was captured by Cobra Law, escaped, and was captured again. He didn't do much. He continued into the deep era of the series. He was featured in the episode The Sword, which also included Storm Shadow in his Ninja Force year. Snake Eyes was wearing his version 4 uniform. In the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Snake Eyes was much more prominent. He was one of the main characters in the series. At one point in the 90s he got top billing on the cover. To say he was a popular character is an understatement. He appeared in the first issue in 1982. He wasn't the most prominent character in that story. He was paired with Scarlett on a mission to rescue Dr. Burkhardt. He was in most issues after that. The Cult of Snake Eyes didn't start right away. He became a fan favorite character, so more stories were written for him. He was in a story arc with Quinn and Dr. Venom, which ended with the death of both of those side characters. Issue number 21 is famous because it includes no dialogue. Silent Interlude has Scarlett captured by Cobra, and Snake Eyes infiltrates a Cobra castle to rescue her. She is resourceful and manages to escape, and fly away with Snake Eyes on a Cobra Claw. That issue also introduced the Cobra Ninja Storm Shadow. On the final page it is revealed that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have the same hexagram tattoo on their right forearms. A two-part origin of Snake Eyes was published in Issues number 26 and 27. It revealed his history in Vietnam on a long-range recon patrol team with future GI Joe teammate Stalker and future enemy Storm Shadow. He lost his family in a tragic auto accident. After the war, he joined Storm Shadow's ninja clan, the Arashakage, only to see the leader of the clan, the Hardmaster, assassinated. The assassin had ties to Cobra. After that, he retreated to the mountains and befriended a wolf. When the GI Joe team was formed, Stalker recruited his old war buddy Snake Eyes. On one of GI Joe's first missions, a helicopter crash burned Snake Eyes' face and made him unable to speak. After that, he always wore a mask. Storm Shadow joined Cobra to find out who killed the Hardmaster and get his revenge. When he learned that Zartan was the man he was looking for, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes infiltrated Cobra Island on a mission to kill him. That mission failed, and it left Storm Shadow apparently dead. He was still alive, but that's a story for another time. Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Stalker and Scarlet formed a tight circle of friends. When Stalker, Quick Kick, and Snowjob were imprisoned in the fictional country of Borovia, Snake Eyes and Scarlet went on a secret mission to rescue them. There was no way Snake Eyes and Scarlet would leave their friend Stalker in that prison. In issue number 93, Snake Eyes' face is revealed for the first time. He wants to get surgery to restore his face. The Baroness mistakenly believes Snake Eyes is responsible for killing her brother, so she leads an assault on the hospital where Snake Eyes is under the knife. She takes Snake Eyes captive and shoots Scarlet in the head. Snake Eyes is brought back to the Cobra Consulate building in New York to be tortured. He escapes with some help from his buddies Stalker and Storm Shadow, but his face is burned again. Destro informs the Baroness that Snake Eyes did not kill her brother. Scarlet is in a coma. While Scarlet was in her coma, Snake Eyes spoke his only word, Scarlet. There are many other stories focused on Snake Eyes, far too many to list in one video. In the continuation of the Marvel continuity, written by Larry Hama for IDW, Snake Eyes was killed off and replaced by a new character, Throwdown. Snake Eyes is a tragic figure, but he is also honorable and loyal. That is the key to his character. He's someone we want to root for, and we feel his pain when something bad happens to him. Snake Eyes has been portrayed in three live-action movies. The first was G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra in 2009. He was played by Ray Park, the same actor that played Darth Maul. As you would expect, Snake Eyes didn't speak and wore a mask. Even so, Ray Park was able to imbue him with some personality. The second movie was G.I. Joe Retaliation in 2013. Snake Eyes had an even more significant role, and Ray Park did a good job of letting us feel his emotions without seeing his face. The most recent had Snake Eyes as the star. Snake Eyes G.I. Joe Origins had Henry Golding playing the title role. This movie focused on the time before Snake Eyes was silent and masked, so he spends quite a lot of time unmasked and speaking.