 I have taken a week off, I feel refreshed, and this week's review was chosen by my patrons on Patreon. They got to vote to decide what we would see this week. And what figure did they choose to see this week? They chose Crystal Ball. G.I. Joe's answer to Doctor Strange. He is strange. I don't think he's a doctor, though. I'm not upset that they chose Crystal Ball. I've been looking forward to doing this review. I'm happy this is the one that was selected. Before we get started, I want to thank Chris Pierce. Chris did the thumbnail image for this video. Chris has his own YouTube channel. He does the show Comic Tropes. And if you like comics, you'll probably like that show, so check it out. Crystal Ball has been called the most hated G.I. Joe figure of all time. But there's a lot of lore surrounding Crystal Ball. It's rumored that his file card was written by Stephen King. The look of Crystal Ball was inspired by Vincent Price. And I'm a big Vincent Price fan. He was one of the great horror actors of his generation. And he was more versatile than you might think. He appeared in many non-horror roles. Do not underestimate the power of Vincent Price. Oh my God, he's here. That's right. Doctor Phibes will not be ignored. Yes, I know. Vincent Price didn't only do horror movies. He also had a brief campy phase in which he played characters like Doctor Goldfoot and Doctor Phibes. They were his greatest roles. It's an era most of us have forgotten or are trying to forget. I have come to warn you, reviewer. Your doom is at hand. My doom? Not likely. I made a deal with the devil in case you haven't heard. And by the way, how do you talk without moving your mouth? It didn't make sense in the movie, and it still doesn't make sense. Your doom, reviewer. None may cross paths with Doctor Phibes and live. I have constructed a secret weapon by combining two of Doctor Goldfoot's most famous devices, the Bikini Machine and the Girl Bomb. It is the Bikini Bomb. The Bikini Bomb? Yes, the explosion from the bomb will alter the molecular structure of your clothing, reforming it into a woman's bikini. This will cause you to die of embarrassment. That is the stupidest plan I've ever heard. That is a Cobra Commander level stupid plan. First, I don't think I would die of embarrassment. You know I edit these videos, right? I could just cut that part out. Second, your bikini bomb sounds less lethal than your ordinary garden variety bomb. And third, why a bikini? Why not go full nude bomb like Get Smart? This is a family show. A family show. Get out of here, Doctor Phibes. You don't belong here. I'm here to review Crystal Ball. I refuse to let this show go campy. Get out! You've been warned! HCC788 presents Crystal Ball. This is Crystal Ball, the Cobra hypnotist from 1987. This figure was first available in 1987 and was also on the pegs in 1988. It was discontinued for the year 1989. Crystal Ball had no replacement in 1989. His file card alludes to Crystal Ball's skills at interrogation. That was the original job of the 1986 Doctor Mindbender before they changed the character to a mad scientist and a master of mind control. The name Crystal Ball comes from the traditional fortune-telling object, also known as an orbuculum. It was deemed heretical by the medieval Christian church, so fortune-telling with a Crystal Ball, also known as scrying, has the mystique of the taboo around it. There is a rumor that Crystal Ball was created by horror writer Stephen King for his son Owen. Owen was a G.I. Joe fan and the character Sneak Peek was named after him. Crystal Ball was mentioned in Stephen King's book, The Tommy Knockers. That book was published in November of 1987. Late in the same year, the Crystal Ball figure was released. I don't know exactly when the figure was released, so I don't know which came first, the book or the figure. There have never been any other versions of Crystal Ball released. Let's look at Crystal Ball's accessory. He came with what the card contents call a Reflected Light Pulse Modulator or Hypno Shield. That's really what it's called. I did not make that up. The Hypno Shield has a clip and that clip will fit on the action figure's wrist, like so. The shield has a lenticular sticker that creates a kaleidoscope effect when the shield is turned. It's supposed to have a hypnotic effect. That sticker can come off. You find a lot of hypno shields without the sticker. That's it for accessories, so let's take a look at Crystal Ball's articulation. He had the articulation that was standard for G.I. Joe figures from 1987. That means 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, allowing him to move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep, allowing him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. And here is a special channel announcement that will be totally missed by everyone who skips this part of the review. Next week's review will be Python Patrol Viper. He could swing his legs apart about so far. He could swing his leg up at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpted design and color of Crystal Ball. But before we get started, I want to point out a flaw in my figure. It looks like this figure has some significant discoloration, especially between the flesh tones on the face and the chest. In fact, the back of the figure looks much closer to the original color. So it looks to me like this figure at some point spent a lot of time face up in the sun. The overall look of Crystal Ball is probably intended to evoke a stereotypical Romani mystic. Such characters have been fodder in literature for generations. In books and movies, such characters are often women. Looking at Crystal Ball's head, there is a strong resemblance to Vincent Price. Although with this hairstyle, it looks more like Vincent Price's character in Scooby-Doo, Vincent Van Ghoul. The sculpting is excellent. The shocks of white hair are a nice touch. Whatever you may think of Crystal Ball, this is some of the best sculpting of the era. Check out his eyes. He has red eyes. That is wild. But red eyes can be useful. Give me a cake of beer. On his chest, he has a fur lined collar and that goes all the way around the back. The shirt is brown, possibly leather. It's open here in the front, showing his bare chest. On mine, his skin is bright pink, probably due to discoloration. The shirt laces up here in the front with some black laces. He has some small shoulder pads there. Then he has this really ornate gold piping. This chest features some excellent sculpting and paintwork. Lots of paint application, lots of fine sculpting in that gold piping. I may not agree with the artistic decisions on this figure, but they spared no effort or expense. The arms feature brown and black sleeves, and the brown is a bit washed out on the front of my figure. You can see closer to the true color on the back. Those sleeves are short and he has braces on each hand and those braces have more of that ornate piping like on his chest. His waist features a belt and on the belt is a really interesting belt buckle that is gold, or I guess it could be bronze. It is a triangle and it looks like it might have an eye sculpted in it, but the detail is just too small for me to see clearly. His legs feature gray trousers, and on mine it looks a bit brown, but that's due to discoloration. If you flip it around to the backside you can see that is all gray. The front looks a bit brown due to yellowing. The right leg is plain and on the left leg we have a holster with a gold pistol. Excellent detail both on the holster and the pistol. We see many pistols on GI Joe figures, but this is one time when it seems out of place. It seems too modern for such an anachronistic design. The pistol is on the left leg. Sometimes this has no significance, but in Crystal Ball's case I do think it is intended to show he is left-handed. Left-handedness has unfairly been the source of stigma for centuries. Black magic is even sometimes called the left-handed path. Being left-handed adds to the sinister aura around crystal ball. With apologies to all left-hand dominant people, such stereotypes are unfair and untrue. And finally he has some black boots with some buckles, and these look like riding boots with the tops folded down. Let's take a look at Crystal Ball's file card. It has his faction as Cobra. It has a portrait of Crystal Ball here, and it is as wild and funky as the figure itself. You can clearly see his red eyes there, and he looks like he's up to no good. His codename is Crystal Ball, and he is the Cobra hypnotist. There is no file name on here or anything like that. It just jumps right into his story. This top paragraph says, Born of a Romanian father who supposedly had second sight, and an American mother from Bangor, Maine, Crystal Ball actually was the seventh son of a seventh son, and such men the Gypsies of old believed were possessed of supernatural powers. Okay, a couple things here. I could not find a reference to Romanian as a nationality. It could mean Romanian, or a person from the country of Romania, or it's a reference to the Romani people, which are sometimes called Gypsies. I assume the latter. This seventh son of a seventh son is a real superstition. It has some variations around the world. In parts of Europe, a person with this lineage has special powers. In parts of Latin America, the seventh son of a seventh son was believed to become a werewolf. Reading on it says, that may or may not be true, but Crystal Ball can sometimes read minds, making him a unique addition to the Cobra forces, especially as an interrogator of captured Joes. Cobra doesn't use torture to interrogate their prisoners. When Crystal Ball is having one of his good days, they simply don't need to. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, when Crystal, not Crystal Ball, it says when Crystal is around, you don't have to just watch what you're saying, you have to watch what you're thinking. This file card badly overuses the underline for emphasis. So, Crystal Ball can read minds. Really. What says the congregation? Oh, shit! Right. Wait a minute. I'm the second son of a second son. Maybe I would have a little bit of the power. This is a comic book shop. The comic book was invented in 1976 by a stand-up comic named Edward Book. You can purchase them at your local comic book shop where they are sorted by size and flavor. I'll take these GI Joe comics, please. That'll be $12. Look into my eyes. Look into my eyes. Don't look around the eyes. Don't look around the eyes. Look into my eyes. Three, two, one, you're under. Now, you don't want to charge me $12 for these GI Joe comic books. There's a sale today. All GI Joe comic books are free. Oh, and your boss called. He said I can have anything in the store because I'm his favorite customer. And three, two, one, you're back in the room. Still be $12. Still not working. Looking at how Crystal Ball was used in GI Joe media, he showed up too late to appear in the GI Joe animated series. He did appear in TV commercials. Oddly, he was in the commercial for the Cobra Buzz boar. In the GI Joe comic book, he appeared in only one issue. In the second series, GI Joe's Special Missions, issue number 24. Notably, that issue was not written by Larry Hama. It was written by Herb Trimpe, the artist who drew most of the Special Missions comics. That was a bizarre issue. It starts with GI Joe's female agents dressed as dancing girls and high kicking at a baseball game. Crystal Ball hypnotizes Hawk and Falcon as part of a Cobra plot to kidnap the president. It is bad. It has fireflies throwing exploding hot dogs. Lady J kills one of Raptor's birds by forcing it into a propeller. The Joe's prevail by playing baseball with a smoke grenade. It's one of the worst GI Joe comics I've ever read. Looking at Crystal Ball overall, there was a lot of extra effort put into this figure. The sculpting is top notch, top to bottom. The Vincent Price likeness is excellent and the costume is well designed. The hypno shield is wacky. It reminds me of the Marvel Secret Wars figures. This may be the one figure I can't rate. There's a lot to like about it. Its biggest problem is it doesn't fit in GI Joe. He's similar to Raptor in that sense. I don't know why they thought GI Joe needed this guy, but he is less ridiculous than Raptor. Raptor was in a bird suit. Crystal Ball's weird, but he's not that weird. I could imagine a context in which Crystal Ball could be a cool character. He has an air of mysticism about him. Like Doctor Strange, he would fit in any of Vincent Price's horror movies. My first instinct is to put Crystal Ball in the bottom tier because of its strangeness and the poor fit within the GI Joe universe. But I can't. I'm gonna say he's middle tier. There's something about the figure that draws me in. I can't stop staring at it. I just realized the word I'm looking for is hypnotic. The Crystal Ball figure is hypnotic.