 You're enjoying the toys. Yeah. What do you like about them? You can do so much with them you can customize them you can Set battles you can set up play sets. You can collect them. Yeah You can send them into a service to have them graded and sealed in protective cases What you can store them for 30 years and then resell them for 10 times what you paid for them That doesn't sound very fun at all. You can have heated petty online flame wars with adults who think their opinions are fact Do you want to play with me? Yeah, that sounds like more fun What did Cobra Commander 788 here? This is the channel where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994 I have a couple special announcements. This is the sixth year anniversary of this YouTube channel Thanks, everyone for six great years. I never thought I would be spending the six-year anniversary Hiding from a deadly virus, but here we are also this channel now has 11,000 subscribers Thanks to everyone who has joined us on this GI Joe collecting journey Thanks to everyone who is new here and everyone who has been around for six years I need to give a codename to a new patron James Frayne has added his support on patreon So he gets a codename James Frayne your codename is Frames Jane for this review I wanted to go back to the channel's roots, but also keep with the theme of this year, which is the 1990s We are going to look at hooded Cobra commander CC went through several different styles in the 1980s, but in the 1990s they brought him back to his classic hooded look Sort of this figure is also a talking battle commander, which means it has a sound making gimmick and those are always fun HCC presents HCC This is the 1992 talking battle commanders Cobra commander This figure was released in 1992 and was available in 1992 only it was discontinued for 1993 this was the fifth of seven versions of Cobra commander in the vintage line Cobra commander is one of the most important characters in GI Joe aside from maybe snake eyes It's hard to think of any character that had a greater impact on the GI Joe mythos than Cobra commander Version one of Cobra commander was released in 1982 It was a mail away offer and it was included with the 1982 Sears exclusive Cobra missile command headquarters There was a variation of that 1982 figure with an alternate logo on his chest That's referred to as the Mickey Mouse Cobra commander version 1.5 was released in 1983 It was a carded figure and it was very similar to version 1 But it had updated articulation at the arms in 1984 version 2 of Cobra commander was released as a mail away offer only This was the first hooded Cobra commander. You can see he no longer is wearing his silver face mask He is wearing a blue hood over his head The rest of the body is the same as version 1.5, but the colors are different This figure was available by mail from 1984 all the way to 1990 and was later packaged as a mystery figure In the 1993 collector's kit this figure and the 1992 figure were very nearly available at the same time Version 3 was released in 1987. This was the battle armor Cobra commander This one went in a totally different direction No silver face mask no hood. Instead. He had super armor like ironman version 4 was released in 1991 And this went back to the face mask look But instead of a silver face mask He had a red translucent plastic face mask and you could see his face through it in 1992 We got the talking battle commanders Cobra commander and in 1993 We got a black version of that figure in battle core It used the same mold as version 5 Except for a color change and it no longer had the flat back and the screw holes for the backpack in 1994 We got the final version of Cobra commander in the vintage line version 7 Which was in the star brigade subset This one was totally different from all the other versions I'm not going to go into too much detail about this figure I will save that for his eventual review in 1992 There was a 12 inch hall of fame Cobra commander figure with the same basic uniform as this three and three quarter inch figure It had different accessories that hall of fame figure had a removable hood which revealed Cobra commander's face Covered with another mask that head sculpt was replicated at the 118th scale on the 1994 figure This figure is from the talking battle commanders subset There were three other figures in that set general hawk overkill and stalker version 3 They all had bolted on backpacks that played talking and battle sounds The talking battle commanders was the third and final set of the 1990s gi jo figures with electronic battle sounds in 1990 The sonic fighters were released they reused earlier figure molds and had big electronic backpacks that made a few sound effects In 1991 the supersonic fighters were released. They were very similar to the sonic fighters They had removable sound making backpacks some previous figure molds were used But they had some new designs in 1992 the talking battle commanders were released Their backpacks had some spoken lines as well as sound effects Unlike the other sets the talking battle commanders backpacks were not intended to be removable There is a way to remove them. I will show you later for me The most significant thing about this figure is it's a return to Cobra commander's hooded form Although the first hooded figure was released in 1984 He appeared in cartoons and comic books wearing the hood before then let's take a look at Cobra commander's accessories Starting with his missile launcher the final card calls this a long-range missile launcher It is in black plastic It has a grip and a three tooth clip that goes around his forearm It has a blast shield and it has two Removable missiles those missiles are removable. They are not spring loaded. They do not really fire They are very small though and they have very small slots That fit on to the pegs on that missile launcher Both the missiles and the missile launcher are made of kind of a soft flexible plastic And that is helpful given all the pressure you have to put on it to get those missiles on But it's not a bad accessory It's kind of cool But does Cobra commander really need this the next accessory is his laser pistol This is a bit more of a traditional accessory for Cobra commander the first version came with a laser pistol This is much more substantial much larger. It is in black plastic. It has a scope and it has Well, it's not a magazine. It actually looks like a foregrip This laser pistol has a similar design to the laser pistol that came with sci-fi version two In fact at first I thought it might be the same weapon But it is different his final accessory is his figure stand. He came with his own black figure stand Like a lot of 90s figures. This was a good innovation of the 1990s 80s figures did not include figure stands Let's get to the accessory that's not really an accessory because it's supposed to be part of the figure This is the whole gimmick this huge chunk of plastic that is bolted onto the back of the figure allows him to play Four different sounds by pushing these four gray buttons He has three commands and one sound effect the backpack itself has some decent detail some technical detail there Some pouches with some buckles and straps A knife that's on one of those pouches It doesn't look bad, but it is very large And of course, there's no easy way to take it off the figure if you don't want to use it Let's play those electronic sounds and see if they are worth it. The first button says Cobra Cobra the next button says Viper's attack The next button says I'll get you And the final button Is some kind of gun sound effect Oh Is this worth the inconvenience of having this giant backpack Bolted to the figure Not to me it isn't I'll show you how to take this backpack off They do intend for you to open it up because you will have to change the batteries In fact, there are instructions for that on the card You will need a small screwdriver for that and there are four Screws to remove on the front side of the backpack kind of have to move the arms out of way There are two screws on the top and two screws on the bottom. It's an easy enough matter to take those screws out Just back them out until they come out. There we go The bottom screws are a little harder to reach, but you can get to them and back those out I guess you don't have to back them all the way out just enough that the Back of the backpack will come off just Unscrew those lefty loosey. Okay, and you know you've backed them out far enough when the back of the backpack comes off And then you can see the electronic components There are the batteries if you ever want to replace them, but we still have this other piece still screwed onto the figure But after taking it apart we see three additional screws I think you can probably predict what happens next Just take those three screws out and that will enable you to take the entire thing off and finally the last screw Which should free us of this heavy burden And there you go. Now the figure is free of the backpack now that we have the backpack off I am going to leave it off for the duration of this review Let's take a look at the articulation for cobra commander He had the articulation that was standard for gi jo figures well before 1992 He had a ball jointed next so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down pretty tight on that one 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 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 This was an o-ring figure. So there was a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside That allowed him to move at the torso of it. 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 cobra commander starting with the head and on his head He is wearing a blue hood or cowl With holes for the eyes large eye holes You can see a caucasian skin tone with black eyes and eyebrows His hood stops at his chin. So you can see his blue neck under the hood This is a bit different from the version two head first The version two had had smaller eye holes in the mask and the version two head is molded in a softer plastic That allowed this hood to go over the neck. They did not do that on version five That's a hard plastic head. So they had to end the hood at the chin level His chest features a blue uniform jacket with yellow fringe yellow buttons yellow epaulets a yellow collar and a yellow braided cord that goes around his right arm The file card calls this a yellow battle dress cord for extreme ruthlessness in action He gave himself that award There's a black strap that goes across the chest and it partially covers his red cobra emblem on his chest This is all reminiscent of that version two figure, but with a different color blue, of course And the version two figure had gold highlights instead of yellow I definitely prefer the gold, but I guess the yellow is acceptable Unfortunately because of the bolted on backpack the back is a little ugly It does suffer because of that that has a flat plate here where the backpack screws on And it has the extra three screw holes his arms feature long blue sleeves and yellow cuffs and black gloves No significant details on the arms on his waist He has a black belt with a red buckle And he has a black strap on the left side that goes down to his left leg on his legs He has blue uniform trousers with red stripes down the outside of the thighs On the left thigh. He has a black pistol in a black holster This may imply that cobra commander is left-handed. We finish up with some tall black jack boots And a black knife on the right boot these like details are evocative of the version one figure Which had a red stripe down the right leg and it had a black knife on the left leg This feels like an update of version two it carries over some of the details from version two But as is normal for the 1990s it uses the basic design of version two But takes it to the extreme let's take a look at cobra commander's file card This file card is printed with a yellow background, which is not the worst at least it's not hot pink It has a single flag point for this figure We've got a portrait of cobra commander here with a description of some of his features His codename is cobra commander. He is the cobra leader. This paragraph says Supreme commander of the cobra legions contraband arms merchant international terrorist and real estate swindler Cobra commander is the ultimate foe of gi joe Although no cobra vipers or even his most trusted officers have ever seen the face of cobra commander They are all too familiar with the nasty sound of his voice screeching the cobra battle cry while extorting the viper legions to attack or shout dire threats Implicit in every word he utters the ruthless leaders principal desire is to totally crush the gi joe team Cobra commander can operate any cobra vehicle in the organization's arsenal He especially enjoys operating the cobra rat and the parasite which he named himself The cobra rat and the parasite were both released in 1992 So at least they were still on the shelves when this figure was advertising them on the file card But I don't think this can be true. Nobody enjoys operating the cobra rat There's also a bit of a departure from what we saw in the cartoon and the comic book because in both of those series There were several people who saw cobra commander's face Let's look at how cobra commander was used in gi joe media He was part of the gi joe story from the very beginning He appeared in the first animated gi joe mini series He appeared in nearly every episode of the ongoing series in the 1987 animated movie He was revealed to be a non-human citizen of cobra law and he was transformed into a snake He appeared in the deak era of the animated series and he was returned to a semi-human form He appeared many times in the deak series including in his blue hooded uniform He appeared in the first issue of the comic book series published by marvel comics in both his hood and his battle mask In issue number 61. He was shot and presumed dead A crimson guardsman named fred seven took his place and impersonated cobra commander for a while When the real cobra commander returned fred seven was among several of cobra commander's enemies who met their demise When cobra commander returned in issue number 98. He wore something like his version five uniform It is darkly colored though the way comics are colored It's hard to tell if it's intended to be blue or black I think it's supposed to be the version six black uniform looking at talking battle commander's cobra commander overall It's a good figure with a crappy gimmick. I prefer the 1984 hooded cobra commander figure for several reasons The gold on the 84 figure looks better than the yellow on the 92 figure Also, the hood on the 84 figure extends below the chin The hood on the 92 figure seems too short. The accessories are all right, but nothing spectacular They're not as iconic as the original venom laser pistol These accessories could belong to anyone. There's nothing that ties them to cobra commander The talking backpack gimmick is a big problem. The figure is badly unbalanced when it's on It is not worth the size and inconvenience Yes, you can take it off But it still leaves the figure with the flat back and extra screw holes If you take the backpack off the figure is much more enjoyable You can play with it without the incumbrance of the oversized backpack You have a 90s version of a classic character It may be a bit more extreme than the 80s version But it still has a lot of nods to the original I recommend this figure so long as you have a screwdriver to remove the backpack Thank you for watching this video. Please subscribe hit the bell for notifications And, um, like this video Um, and remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe And I have a website HCC 788.com If you want to know if I've already reviewed a vintage G.I. Joe item That's a good place to check special. Thanks to all my supporters on patreon including the names you see on the screen now Support on patreon helps keep this show going So if you like the show and you'd like to support this show in that way Please consider checking out patreon You can get some special rewards including early access to reviews And you can find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos Thank you for joining me on this adventure of collecting vintage G.I. Joe toys I'll see you next time and until then remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe You can store them for 30 years and then I screwed up Okay, let's start over. Sorry I just remember your life. I know I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it