 Cobra Commander 788 here and it's time for another vintage GI Joe Toy Review and this week I wanted to change things up a little bit I thought it was time to look at an enemy of GI Joe so this week We're gonna look at Cobra's master of mind control Dr. Mindbender. Dr. Mindbender is a very strange looking action figure So we've got a lot to cover here. So HTC 788 presents Dr. Q-Ball Dr. Mindbender This is Cobra's master of mind control Dr. Mindbender from 1986 He was first released that year and he was available in 1987. He was discontinued for the year 1988 And he did not have a replacement that year There was no new version of Dr. Mindbender and there was no new character that year that took his role Dr. Mindbender is a pretty strange name. We don't know if that's his real name or a code name or what But he was known by some other names. In the GI Joe comic book issue number 44 He is referred to as Dr. Brainwave, which is probably a prototype name But that name is too close to Dr. Venom's brainwave scanner which had appeared in the GI Joe comic book So it's a good thing they changed the name. He's also referred to in the file card for Serpentor But he's not mentioned by name He's referred to as the interrogator and we will talk more about that later in this video Dr. Mindbender is a doctor but based on his background. He is not a medical doctor and he's not a PhD He is most likely a doctor of dental surgery Which in no way qualifies him to mess with your brain Let's take a look at Dr. Mindbender's accessories starting with his pistol, which the card contents call a 45 caliber pistol this pistol is okay, but I don't really think he needs it I don't really see him as a combat troop for Cobra So I don't really think he needs a weapon like this, but it's all right some decent sculpting It doesn't look like any 45 caliber pistol that I'm aware of it would have to shoot rectangular bullets His next accessory is the electric prod which the designer of this character Ron Rudette said was supposed to be like a Cattle prod this has a long black hose attached. I'm gonna pump that out and look at that later This is a pretty simple accessory. There's not a whole lot to it There is a handle down here, but I have a hard time getting the figure to hold on to it by the handle So I usually have the figure holding on to it down here somewhere Whether you call this an electric prod or a cattle prod. This is a torture device It is intended to shock Dr. Mindbender's victims who are probably tied up in some dungeon somewhere Then there is this long black tube like wire, which is pretty standard It came with a lot of other GI Joe action figures to connect their accessories This one is really long maybe a little bit too long and it connects to this generator on this peg This generator is fairly well detailed. It is hollow on the underside, but it has no back peg It has no handle. It has no way for him to carry it at all So it just sort of dangles on the wire and I don't really like that now We have his final accessory and definitely his most interesting accessory his cape with the large silver Cobra symbol on the back the cape fits on the figure with two arm holes And I find the best way to take the cape off is to move the arms back like this and then just slide it around The shoulders just slide the cape down the arms careful not to tear those arm holes This cape is a black velvety material It's rougher on the inside and this cape is basically the same design as the capes that came with Star Wars action figures It has a very nice very impressive really beautiful looking silver Cobra symbol on the back And I really like that a lot. There's a variant with this cape Some Dr. Mindbenders came with the cape that had the Cobra symbol as a patch This one has the Cobra symbol just kind of printed on the fabric This one has it as a patch that is glued onto the fabric And of course you can see that it can come up at the edges like that I don't know why they would change it aesthetically. It doesn't make much difference It looks mostly the same But I have noticed that the fabric of the cape on the one that comes with the patch symbol is a little bit Different it feels a little bit softer and maybe a little bit thinner I don't know if one of these is harder to find than the other, but I didn't really have any trouble finding either of them But if you do get the one with the patch you do have to worry about the patch peeling off Dr. Mindbenders cape gives him a similarity to his greatest creation Serpentor Cobra's emperor who also came with a cape. Serpentor's cape is very thin and it tears very easily Dr. Mindbenders cape is thicker and tougher and it can tear but it's less likely to Let's take a look at Dr. Mindbenders articulation. He had the standard articulation for 1986 Meaning he could turn his head from left to right. He could also look up and down. His neck was on a ball joint He could move his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel at the shoulder all the way around He had a hinge at the elbow allowing him to bend at the elbow at 90 degrees He had a swivel at the bicep allowing him to swivel at the bicep 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 move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and it could bend at the knee about 90 degrees Let's take a look at the sculpt to design and color of Dr. Mindbender and wow this guy is weird You are all weirdos On his head he has no hair He is totally bald you can decide if that's a good look for him or not on his right eye He has a silver monocle and as usual that silver paint tends to wear off very easily and then he has a really killer Mustache forget the 80s. This is like a 70s mustache. A monocle is pretty unusual They can be worn comfortably and securely with proper adjustment and they're used to correct a vision problem in only one eye Now they became popular in the late 18th century, but with modern corrective lenses and contacts Why would you wear one on his chest? He has no shirt He is bare-chested and he has these silver chain straps that go over his shoulders and on his back He has these straps and he has this really nicely sculpted Cobra symbol on this back plate here That looks really good and it usually it is obstructed by the cape So you don't even get to see it that often unless you take the cape off It is a strange choice to have him bare-chested and he has a very muscular physique there The designer Ron Rudat said he went with this bare-chested look to make him look tougher Why does Cobra's master of mind control need to look tougher and these chain straps look like SNM gear? Get down there and lick my boot slave. His arms are also bare But at the wrist he has these purple cuffs and black gloves and the cuffs have these nice Silver adornments on them. These don't really serve any purpose other than to provide a nice color balance with the rest of the figure But they are nicely detailed and they have a nice paint application on them at his waist He has a black belt with some pouches that goes all the way around with this lower strap here that has some studs sculpted on it He has a silver belt buckle and a silver codpiece now. Why does he have a codpiece? I don't know he's wearing purple trousers and on his right leg He has a black pistol holster and a gray pistol This is a second pistol and I don't really think he needed the first pistol If he's gonna have a pistol at all just sculpting one on the figure would have been fine with me I don't think he needed the pistol accessory Dr. Mindbender's upper legs are reused from another action figure g.i.jo's dog handler from 1984 Mutt and that is a strange place to find parts for dr. Mindbender lift leg is pretty plain moving down to his boots He has some crazy tall boots with knee pads and normally I'm a big fan of knee pads But these are something else I think he and Zarena must shop at the same boot store These are very tall black boots with silver straps up here at the shins and Silver chains and perhaps spurs down here at the heel. Let's take a look at dr. Mindbender's file card This file card, of course, was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure is packaged You can see some artwork from the front of the card there Now this card unfortunately has some markings on it So it's not in perfect condition, but if you know my policy about file cards This doesn't really bother me as long as it's readable It has his faction as Cobra and it has a portrait of Dr. Mindbender here looking appropriately evil It has his codename as Dr. Mindbender and we don't know what his real name is or maybe that is his real name But that's a pretty strange name and it has his specialty as master of mind control Usually this top section of text would have some vital information like his real name and his place of birth But instead this top section here has essentially the first chapter of his biography It says Dr. Mindbender was at one time an excellent orthodontist and a very kind and honest man Tinkering with electric brainwave stimulation as a means of relieving dental pain The good doctor made the tragic mistake of experimenting on himself He underwent a complete personality change and became hateful deceitful and vain Chapter two says Dr. Mindbender abandoned his practice and devoted all his time to perfecting his digital brain scrambling into a hand portable weapon system Capable of reducing the most strong willed individual into a cowering wimp in this bottom section We have a quote that says Dr. Mindbender doesn't think he's deluded he feels he used to be now that he's seen the light or the dark if you Will he feels it is his personal mission to bring the miracle of thought control to each and every one of you The first section of the file card sets Dr. Mindbender up to be a Jekyll and Hyde type character referring of course to the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde A novella by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1986 like Dr. Mindbender that story revolves around a fundamentally good man who experiments on himself and creates a darker alternative personality The file card also tries to recast the electric cattle prod as a hand portable digital brain scrambling weapon Which is a nice try, but it's still a torture device. Oddly the file card for Dr. Mindbender does not mention the most important thing about him That is mentioned on the file card for sub pentor where the very first sentence says A secret cabal of cobra scientists under the direction of the interrogator and destro combed the tombs sarcophagi and relics of the great despots of history to find cells with DNA traces The interrogator is referring to Dr. Mindbender because that's what he was originally supposed to be an interrogator and this master of mind control business Is just a euphemism for interrogation Serpentor's file card explains that Dr. Mindbender with the help of destro cobra's weapon supplier Created a composite clone using the DNA of the greatest military geniuses in history And that composite clone became Serpentor cobra's emperor eventually serpentor would depose cobra commander as The leader of cobra this origin story of serpentor as a creation of dr Mindbender appears in both the gi joe animated series and in the comic book But they tell the story in different ways dr Mindbender was very important in gi joe media in the cartoon series his introduction coincided with serpentor He was introduced in arise serpentor arise part one where he had a psychedelic dream that prompted him to create Serpentor cobra's emperor in the cartoon series. He had a funny accent It was sort of an unidentifiable european accent in the gi joe comic book Dr. Mindbender was introduced in issue number 44 Which was kind of a standalone story and not a part of the ongoing storyline at the time not my favorite issue And they referred to him as dr brainwave. They hadn't quite got his name right However, that issue did inform us that dr. Mindbender invented the battle android troopers also known as bats which became cobra's robotic foot soldiers Also, the comic book series indicates that dr. Mindbender invented the cobra hydro sled It's an issue number 49 that dr. Mindbender and destor began the process of creating serpentor dr Venom had created the brainwave scanner as an interrogation device and dr Mindbender modified the brainwave scanner and used it as an interrogation device But he also used it in the creation of serpentor in the comic book The role of the mad scientist is very important in the gi joe universe Where you want to introduce science fiction elements into the universe that is otherwise kind of realistic So whenever you introduce some weird new science fiction thing You could just say it was invented by dr. Mindbender the mad genius as a kid reading the comic book I was always curious about something in issue number 39 There's a character that I thought looked very similar to dr. Mindbender there was a bald headed interrogator in seara gordo in that issue And I always wondered if that was dr. Mindbender before he joined cobra probably not but as a kid I just always wondered looking at dr Mindbender overall this is a really weird figure and I'm not sure exactly what to say about it I don't know how to explain some of the weirdness on this figure I mean I have notes and yet somehow the notes don't seem adequate. Why does he have a cape? Why is he not wearing a shirt? Why does he have a monocle? I don't know. I don't have any answers. I'm sorry. I didn't I need a minute. I gotta think about this some more. I'll be right back Why does he have a codpiece? What's with the purple pants? Why? Why? Okay, I've thought about this a little more and the way this makes the most sense to me is Dr. Mindbender is an interrogator. He is a torturer for cobra the cape and the monocle are things that you don't typically see in everyday life So if you're a captive of cobra and this guy comes into the room You immediately think the guy who's going to interrogate me is a little bit deranged I should probably worry about this Even the shirtless muscular physique shows dr Mindbender's victims that he can apply great physical force to them and the whole look is intended to be Psychologically unsettling to his interrogation subjects at some point someone at hasbro got wise and figured Maybe we shouldn't sell a torturer as a children's toy Probably a smart move So the character of dr Mindbender was changed instead of being an interrogator He became more of a mad scientist and this master of mind control became a euphemism For his original role as an interrogator and a torturer when serpentor's file card was written They probably hadn't made that change yet or someone forgot to edit it and they still referred to him as the interrogator Even though the character of dr. Mindbender changed the figure remained the same in this appearance that would have worked as an interrogator And the accessories that still had the electric prod and generator which was a torture device Rating this figure is kind of difficult. I'm going to call this a middle tier figure Not that there's anything wrong with the figure itself But it's hard for me to call it a top tier figure when it is just so strange There's just so much of this figure that is unexplained I mean you show this figure to a non-jiya joe fan without any kind of context And that person's going to have a hard time figuring out what the hell is up with this guy I have a hard time figuring out what the hell is up with this guy Dr. Mindbender was also used to move the toy line more in a science fiction direction Which is not the direction I wanted it to go So dr. Mindbender for me fits in the middle of the pack not the worst and not the strangest by any means But also not the best that was my review of dr. Mindbender I hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure you leave it a thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe That's what keeps this channel going and don't forget to like me on facebook and follow me on twitter You get a lot of updates there. You don't get anywhere else Thanks for watching and i'll see you next week with another vintage gi joe toy review. See you then