 This week continues our theme month for May 2018, which covers Slaughter's Marauders and Python Patrol in honor of this year's GI Joe Convention. We will be looking at mostly vehicles this month. We only have one figure review scheduled, and that is this week's review. Last week we reviewed Slaughter's Marauders for the first time on this channel. This will be our second Python Patrol review. The first Python Patrol review was dedicated to Jeff Adams and his friend Foley. I'd like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to them again. Thanks guys. One more important thing before we get started. Long time friend of the channel Byron Kellogg has been experiencing some health issues lately. Byron, I hope you get well soon. Last time we looked at the Python Patrol figure, it was not great, but not bad. Let's see what we have in store this time. May 8th here. It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review, and this week we are Python Patrol. The theme for this year's Jocan is Slaughter's Marauders versus Python Patrol. So hopefully these reviews will get you in the mood. We are looking at the second version of Copperhead. I kind of liked the first version of Copperhead from 1984. I have some fond childhood memories of that figure. I was out of GI Joe by 1989, so I did not have the second version of Copperhead. So I'm interested in seeing how it measures up against the first. When we talk about Python Patrol, it is enmeshed with some peculiarities of the GI Joe toy line at the time. We're talking about sub teams. We're talking about reissued toys with different colors, sometimes outlandish colors. To fully understand it, you have to put yourself back in 1989 and look at what was going on with GI Joe at the time. So let's do it. HCC 788 presents Copperhead version 2 from Python Patrol. This is Python Copperhead from 1989. The Python Patrol swamp fighter from the Python Patrol sub team within Cobra. This figure was first available in 1989 and was also available in 1990 and was discontinued for 1991. This figure is usually referred to as Python Patrol Copperhead, even though his file card just says Python Copperhead. This is the second version of Copperhead. The first version was from 1984 and was the driver of the water moccasin, the swamp boat that was released that year. The water moccasin was Cobra's first watercraft, the first one that could really float, that is. It was one of two swamp themed vehicles in 1984. The other one was the chameleon swamp skier piloted by Zartan. Zartan was the leader of the rogue motorcycle gang, the Dreadnox. The Dreadnox were known to hide out in the swamps. Based on his personality and background, I'm surprised Copperhead didn't join the Dreadnox. He didn't match the look of the Dreadnox, but his personality would have fit in. The colors on the first version of Copperhead were made to complement the greenish color of the water moccasin. The Python Patrol version reused the mold from Version 1, but used the Python Patrol color scheme. The colors are drastically different. There is a color variant for Version 1, known as the Dark Green Gloves Copperhead. Python Patrol was a sub-team within Cobra that had the gimmick of using special suits that made them invisible to electronic detection. They consisted entirely of reissued toys. Nothing was original. They were supposed to be radar and heat concealed. This was represented on the figures by just keeping them in their original uniforms, but painting them in different colors and putting this crisscross lattice pattern on them. There were three Python Patrol vehicles, the ASP, the Conquest and the Stun. They were all reissued older vehicles with the Python Patrol lattice pattern on them. Surprisingly, they didn't reissue the water moccasin as a Python Patrol vehicle. That leaves Copperhead without his main mode of transportation. The year before, in 1988, the water moccasin was reissued as a Tiger Force vehicle. In the animated series, Python Patrol was the rival to GI Joe's sub-team Slaughter's Marauders. Slaughter's Marauders figures were reissues like Python Patrol. As we saw last week, Slaughter's Marauders vehicles weren't straight reissues. They were upgrades. As a swamp fighter, Copperhead's obvious rival on the GI Joe team would be the 1988 swamp fighter Musgrat. GI Joe didn't focus as much on the swamps as Cobra and the Dreadnoughts did. In 1988, GI Joe finally got a swamp vehicle, the Swamp Masher. Let's look at the accessories for Python Patrol Copperhead. The first version of Copperhead did not have accessories. The second version does. Don't get your hopes up for new and original accessories, though. These accessories are all just reissues of older ones. His weapon is an M16 rifle with an M206 grenade launcher attached to it. It is in black plastic and it looks really good in black. You will no doubt recognize this as the rifle that came with 1986 Leatherneck. That rifle being in gray. The rifle looks excellent in black. I don't think Python Patrol Copperhead deserves it, but it does look good. There's no doubt about that. His other accessory is his backpack. The carb contents call it a swamp pack. It is in black plastic. It has a bed roll and a canteen. It's pretty small and kind of minimalist and you will no doubt recognize this as a reissue of Leatherneck's backpack just in black plastic. So Python Patrol Copperhead just has Leatherneck's accessories but in black plastic. I like Leatherneck's accessories in the original color but the black reissue rifle and backpack look really good. If you wanted to do a custom night force Leatherneck, you could use these accessories. Standing alone, both of these accessories are good. I approve. But why does Copperhead have them? The first version didn't have accessories and I guess Hasbro thought they needed to add value to the figure. So it seems like they just grabbed whatever was on the shelf. There's no reason these specific accessories should go with this figure. Let's look at the articulation on Python Patrol Copperhead. He had the articulation that was standard for 1984 G.I. Joe action figures even though this figure was released in 1989 because they entirely reused the mold of a 1984 figure. His head could turn left and right. He could move 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. 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 of it. He moved 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 Python Patrol Copperhead. Since this figure reuses the same mold as the 1984 Copperhead, a look at the figure will necessarily be redundant. Some comment must be made about the colors though. All Python Patrol figures were recolored. In some instances it wasn't a bad change. The Python Patrol Viper was pretty good. In most cases though the change was awful. The Python Patrol Crimson Guard is an incredibly ugly figure. Copperhead was one of the bad ones. It did have some good points though and I'll try to point those out. Python Patrol figures got their accessories in black and I do like that. That's one of the best things about him. Looking at his head he has a yellow helmet non-removable. He has a black ridged strip down the center. He has black vents on the side. He has a black mask that covers his nose and mouth and he has a black neck. What they've done is swapped the dark green on the old head for yellow, the light green for black and they colored the neck black instead of leaving it flesh tone. I think the yellow helmet makes him look like a lemon. On his chest he has a green undershirt with a yellow lattice pattern. On top of that he has a black tank top and on top of that he has a red pistol and holster. The holster is on the left side of the chest positioned for a right-handed draw. He has a red strap that goes directly over the left shoulder. He has another red strap that goes from the pistol holster diagonally over the right shoulder. He has another red strap that goes under the left arm and those details meet in the back. The black shirt isn't bad. Black can add depth to a figure and it does here. It's the other colors that are distracting. We lost some things from version one. Version one has the silver cobra symbol on his chest that's missing on version two. That's been replaced with the yellow pattern. Also the bare skin has been all painted over in green. As noted on the review for the version one figure copperheads chest is wider than average but it's not muscular. Copperhead looks a little chunky. His arms are green from top to bottom. We have more of that yellow lattice pattern and he has black gloves. On version one those arms were bare and he had painted bands around the biceps. On version two those bands are not picked out with paint. They're just green and painted over with that yellow lattice pattern. So it's kind of hard to see that detail. The waist piece is entirely yellow. There is a sculpted in belt and harness but with no paint applications it's hard to see any detail. The bright yellow washes it out. This is probably the worst part of the figure. It doesn't match the color of the legs so it looks like he's wearing his underwear on the outside. In my review of copperhead version one I said it looks like he's wearing black panties and everyone's like ha ha ha very funny. Well here he is wearing bright yellow panties. Who's laughing now? When I look at this figure I picture an image of a dog pulling on copperhead's yellow drawers and instead of copperhead he's called copper tone. I made this picture. I'm not even sorry. Whatcha gonna do about it? On his legs he has green trousers with that yellow lattice pattern again. On his right thigh he has a black pistol holster and a black strap that goes around the thigh. On his left leg he has this black ridged detail that doesn't seem to do anything. He has ridged padding on the inside of his legs that go all the way down the leg even to his lower leg. They're the same color as the rest of the legs so those details could easily be missed. He has tall black boots with buckles that are cut at a wicked angle at the top. I like these boots on version one of copperhead and I still do. The pistol holster and the boots are the same as the original, still painted black and that's good. On version one the thighs used a different color plastic and that brought out those ridge details much more. On version two those ridge details are covered up and painted over. They might as well not even be there. Let's take a look at his file card. The file card was in this yellowy orange color as all python patrol file cards were. That was a change from the peach color of version one. It has his faction as cobra. It has a portrait of copperhead here that does not reuse the artwork from the version one file card that is new artwork. His code name is python copperhead. He's the python patrol swamp fighter. There is no biographical information here. It just jumps right into his background. The version one file card did have a section up here for his file name and birthplace but it didn't really have any information. This top paragraph says it's presumed that python copperhead is native to or otherwise intimately familiar with the rainforest of the amazon basin. Intelligence sources venture a guess that he raced speedboats in high stakes races in monaco and japan. His major weakness is gambling and is in debt to cobra for large sums of money. Without enough money to cover what he owes he joined python patrol as a faster means of paying off his debt. The first two sentences are almost exactly the same as the version one file card. They just changed his name to python copperhead. On this file card though he owes money directly to cobra. There's no mention that he was previously a member of cobra nor any reference to the water moccasin. This bottom section has a quote. It says you know the type the python copperhead can drive a swamp buggy like the devil himself. Rebuild a v8 with a coat hanger and a toothpick and start a ruckus that will last until daybreak. Live hard and fast is his motto and he stands by it 100%. This python is all taken no give. Do I know the type? Do I know the type? I in fact do not know the type. I don't know anybody like that at all. On the version one file card gung ho is credited with this quote. Why is that credit removed for the version two card? Well there was no gung ho figure for sale in 1989 so there's no reason to advertise gung ho. The quote is almost the same as the version one card but instead of rebuilding a v8 with a coat hanger and spit he rebuilds it with a coat hanger and a toothpick. Instead of fighting all night and raising cane until the cock crows he starts a ruckus that will last until daybreak. The version one file card was written by larry hama the writer of the gi jo comic book series. There's no way larry hama made these changes. Someone at hasbro just marked over the old file card with a red pen and called it a day. The changes make the text less interesting less pithy and less colorful. Looking at how copperhead was used in gi jo media he never had much to do in the gi jo animated series produced by sunbow. He first appeared in the episode jungle trap and he had the most exposure in that episode. His later appearances in the sunbow series were barely more than cameos. After the sunbow series was cancelled deek took over production. In the deek animated series copperhead only had a few appearances. He was only in the opening miniseries operation dragon fire. He did appear in his python patrol uniform though. In the animated series python patrol was an extension of the dragon fire weapon which was a mystical energy source that cobra used to imbue vehicles and uniforms with animal properties. Copperhead gives cobra commander his version 3 uniform. At one point he's even put in charge of python patrol. Copperhead made no appearances in the comic book series published by marvel comics. The water moccasin did in issue number 25 but it was piloted by a cobra trooper. There was a character called copperhead in issue number 7 but it was just a generic cobra trooper. That was long before the figure was released and that cobra trooper was killed so he's not related to the copperhead figure. Python patrol did appear in issue number 88. It was very different from the animated series. The pythonizing process was invented by Dr. Meinbender. It's apparently a liquid spray of some kind that makes vehicles and uniforms invisible to radar, infrared and heat detection. That wasn't the only appearance of python patrol. It pops up again in issue number 100. Other than that it doesn't really go anywhere. Looking at python patrol copperhead overall, what can I do? It's an ugly figure and it seems intentionally ugly. The colors are gaudy and I hope you like that painted mesh pattern on the figure because that's about all it has going for it. The colors on version 1 of copperhead were a little strange admittedly but the colors on that figure complemented the colors on the vehicle he came with. This figure doesn't come with a vehicle. There are python patrol vehicles that you could put this figure in but his colors don't go with any of those. Some paint applications were sacrificed so we could get that lattice pattern but the problem with the missing paint applications is some of the details are lost because they are essentially painted over with that lattice pattern and since there are no paint applications on the waste piece it looks terribly out of place. It is possible for reissued figures to be as good or even better than the original but not this one. The accessories are the best part of this figure. All black looks great. Just give them to Leatherneck. They're his anyway. The python patrol gimmick with these new colors supposedly making them undetectable seems to me like a post hoc rationalization for the color change. Arguably Tiger Force has an even weaker reason to have their new uniforms but for Tiger Force it's kind of a team solidarity thing. They're all on the same sub team so they all wear the tiger stripes. For python patrol the change is supposed to be functional and I just don't think they're worth the function. I know there are a lot of python patrol fans out there. I'm sorry I'm not one of them. There were better python patrol figures issued and worse this is not the worst one but it's pretty far from the best. That was my review of python patrol copperhead. I hope you enjoyed it. We'll be getting back to Slaughter's marauders next week and that'll be fun. Thank you for sticking with me and thank you for watching these videos even when I give a negative review to your favorite toy and let's face it all of these toys are probably some kids favorite toy. I don't get any joy out of criticizing someone's favorite toy but as a reviewer I feel it's my job to give a frank and honest assessment of the toy I see before me. That is what you will always get here good bad or otherwise and if this is acceptable to you I hope you will consider giving this video a thumbs up and subscribing to the channel. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and you can support the channel on Patreon and I have a website hcc788.com. I'll see you next week for a Slaughter's Marauders G.I. Joe toy review and until then remember even if it's python patrol only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe. What you gonna do about it?