 Hello everybody, Hooded Cobra Commander 780 is here and this is an unboxing and assembly video for this. This is the 2017 San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Cobra Missile Command Headquarters. This is a modern re-release of the classic 1982 Sears Exclusive Cobra Missile Command Headquarters, one of the rarest of all the GI Joe play sets in the vintage line. This was released officially by Hasbro and it was exclusive to the San Diego Comic Con. This is just a really interesting piece to me. The 1982 play set was one of my grail pieces that I was able to get last year. I've been looking for it for a long time, I was finally able to get it. This is supposed to be basically just a modern version of it, so I'm very interested in seeing how they interpreted that classic cardboard play set in modern form. The classic set, the 1982 set, came with the only three Cobra action figures that were available at the time. It had Cobra Commander and the Cobra Officer and the Cobra Trooper. The earliest releases of that set had the Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander, one of the rarer variants of the original straight arm Cobra Commander. This one has the modern versions of those classic figures. We will have three figures in here, a modern Cobra Commander, Cobra Officer and Cobra Trooper. The set is still cardboard like the old one, but I'm expecting the construction will be a little different than the classic one. Of course, we have modern figures instead of vintage figures. I did already open this because I needed to peek inside to make sure everything was there. The reason I did that is because there's an awful lot of box here for not very much stuff inside it. In fact, it seemed so empty that I wanted to make sure there was nothing, missing nothing that had been taken out of it. Everything was there and so this is brand new. We will be assembling this for the first time. All of the contents are still sealed in the factory sealed bag, so instead of talking about it all day, let's get a little bit of a close up and then open this up and put it together. Let's take a look at the box first and I will drop in some still photos of the box so you can get a detailed look at it. The box is made to look old. It's printed, the entire box is printed in full color, but it's actually printed in such a way that it looks like it has some wear on it. It looks like the white parts of the box has faded and turned slightly yellow. So it's actually made to look old, kind of pre-distressed. If you look at the front of the box, there's even like little nicks in the cardboard, printed on there, not real nicks in the cardboard, but it's made to look like it's basically an old 1982 box. Really interesting approach. I'm not so sure about it. I have seen more than one vintage collector fooled into thinking that this was the classic 1982 release. I'm not going to name any names, but I'm just saying a couple people who are somewhat experienced collectors, at least at first glance, thought that this was something that it was not. So that's a little bit of a problem with this, but if you look closely at it, you should be able to tell pretty quickly this is not the 1982 release. For one thing, the photo on the front clearly shows the modern figures, not the vintage figures. So that's one giveaway. And if you're not certain, based on the front of the box, the back of the box does say Copyright 2016 Hasrow. So you should be able to spot this as a modern re-release and not the classic one. So let's open this thing up. I've got this end open. I'm just going to slide everything out because like I said, there's a lot of box and not much stuff in it. So let's just pull it all out. And that should be everything, yes. Set the box aside. And here's what we've got. We have a Cobra Commander figure. I will zoom in here for a second. We've got the Cobra Trooper and we've got the Cobra Officer. These are all bagged. Let's get in a little bit closer there. And that Cobra Commander figure, there we go, that Cobra Commander figure does have the Mickey Mouse logo, Mickey Mouse Cobra symbol on his chest. Like that old classic one did, but of course it is a modern figure. They're bagged with red back file cards, very much like the original. And let's zoom back out a little bit and look at what else we have. We have pieces. We have cardboard pieces. We have some plastic pieces. These are the fasteners, the plastic fasteners that will hold the thing together. And the rest is cardboard. And these pieces, those are the seats. And there's the missile and part of the platform. And this is a little different from the classic one. The old 1982 play set did not have the pieces cut out. They came basically with big printed sheets with the cardboard pieces printed on them and they were perforated. You have to kind of punch them out yourself. But these are die cut, so these are already cut out for you. And the cardboard, I don't have them out of the package yet, but the cardboard feels pretty sturdy. But it's not thick. It's not thicker than the classic one, but it feels a little more sturdy. So let's open this thing up and find the directions. There's the direction. Sheet and put it together. These bags are taped, so I don't have to cut anything. So let's just pull this out. Hold on. There we go. Let's pull this out. Let me get the instruction sheet. And this includes the file card holder. The file card holder is very similar to the one that came with the 82 version that came with this thing. We'll look at that later. But first we've got to look at the instructions and see what to do. So let's find step one. Okay, it looks like it wants us to get the work platform that's in this bag here. That will go into piece B. This is piece G, the work platform that will go into piece B, which is where is piece B that is not in there. It's right in here, so we've got to open this one. All right, now if this were the vintage toy box, of course I would never open that. But this I got at an excellent price. I think some of the prices that you are seeing on eBay for these are a little inflated. And I've noticed them, you know, the asking price for these has been high, but they don't seem to be selling at that high price. So I was just patient and waited until I got one. That was the price I wanted to pay, about half of what I had seen them going for. So that I thought was appropriate. So I got one that was inexpensive enough that I felt comfortable opening it. Okay, so we need to, we're going to be folding a lot of cardboard here folks. So this is the work platform and we need to fold. Fold these pieces and in case you don't know the classic 1982 play set was a cardboard play set and that is one of the reasons it is so rare. In addition to the fact that it was an exclusive to Sears, so they just didn't produce as many of them. There we go. A lot of them just did not survive play time. They were not very sturdy, which is why I felt very lucky to get one. That was in nice shape. Okay, so this, let's see, alright, this will go, let's see, that goes here, no, not there. Of course it goes in the place that is exactly shaped like it, so let's get that in there. That's a tight fit on those tabs in those slots, which in one way is good. They won't come out easily, but it also does put a good strain on the cardboard. Like the classic one, this one is not very sturdy. So there's that, and then this piece is going to go on here. So let's see how that works. Looks like it goes, looks like it goes like that. Okay, I think I see, okay. Now this thing just came out of the box and you saw that I took it out of the factory plastic bags, but the back section, basically the backboard to it, it's slightly curved. So I'm not sure about that, and I hope that doesn't cause us too many problems putting it together. That goes in there, yeah, really tight fit on those slots, and these appear to be, ah, I see. Yeah, okay, so those, yeah, there we go. It does all fit, but you have to work with it a little bit. All right, there we go. So here's what we have assembled so far. It does kind of have a 3D effect to it. It does have like multiple layers, and those do make platforms that the figures can stand on. All right, next thing that wants us to put together the control panel that is in this bag here, fairly good size control panel, and this has, looks like a somewhat complex way of folding it, I don't want to make sure I do it right. It's like origami, I see. So that goes like that, and then it bends again, it looks like, yeah, there we go. They did crease the plastic, or I'm sorry, they did crease the cardboard, making it a little bit easier to bend, and to show you exactly where you should bend it, but there it goes, yeah, more bending, okay, looks like that, oh, I see, I think I see, but don't exactly make it easy for you, and yeah, wow, that really got to work with those tabs to get them in without really damaging the cardboard. I feel like they tried to maybe do a little more with this than the original release did, but they're still working with a not very sturdy material, so yeah, they did not make it easy, all right, and there's a tab that needs to go in, all right, that was complicated, and I just can't wait to see how much of a pain it is to fold and assemble this side of it. This is a little bit of a struggle to get this assembled the way they want you to assemble it without tearing the cardboard, oh wow, okay, all right, got that, and now I just need to get that piece in and this thing is ready, get it in without tearing it, for some pieces I'm pulling it through from the backside in hopes of giving it in without tearing a hole through the slot, I mean it's not that, it's not too complicated, I mean it's a little bit, yeah, making this shape out of a flat piece, but it's made a little more difficult with the fact that the slots are a bit narrow for the tabs, so there you go, there is the control panel, looks okay, and the control panel will go on here, let me see, is that the next step, well yes it is, and there should be matching slots, yeah, there are matching slots in this piece for the tabs on the back of the control panel, and once again, they did not make this easy, there we go, I have to proceed with some caution because I just, I got these other pieces on, I don't want to tear them while trying to get this piece on, all right, Bob got it, Bob got it, Bob got it, okay got it on, that was I feel harder than it should have been, so there we go, so now we have the control panel connected to this support piece here, and then this platform in front, but I have noticed that because this back piece is curved backward, it wants everything to, wants to make everything fall backwards, so that is a little bit of a problem, oops, and I just noticed I didn't get one tab in here at the side, maybe that'll give a little bit more support, pop that in, there we go, all right, so yeah that didn't make a lot of difference, but here's what your missile command headquarters should look like at this point in the assembly, okay it looks like the next step is to assemble the elevator, yeah that is still leaning back, that's not super cool, and I don't want to bend that forward too much to straighten it because I don't want to crease the cardboard, so this looks like the elevator, there's the elevator, there we go, and somehow we're going to make a 3D shape out of it, so let's see, should be just a matter of bending at decreases, but some of the creased sections are very narrow, which doesn't make it easy to bend, so that's supposed to go like that, when I do the review of the 1982 missile command headquarters, I will do a side by side comparison between that one and this one, that is not for this video, this is just to assemble the 2017 release, so this looks like, let's see, this looks like that goes in, all right, I think I figured it out, the illustration isn't as helpful as I would like it to be, but I believe these tabs on the side go in the outside of the assembly and then through the side slots, not that that's easy to do with the way they've cut these slots and the tabs, so let's get this in, okay yeah that looks like that's how it goes, so that tab goes there and this one looks like it goes underneath and tabs and through the bottom, which again is a tight fit to get in, didn't think it'd be this much of a struggle, but I guess I should have expected it with the cardboard, now when I got my 1982 set it was unassembled and I did assemble it, I put it together myself and it didn't seem this difficult, okay with some struggle, I think we've about got it, one more tab on this side of the elevator and we should have a completed elevator car, oh I think we got it, okay, so that appears to be a completed elevator car, so let's see what the next step is, okay so the next step is to use our plastic fasteners here, let's pop that open, should have a plastic screw and washer, so let's see what we got, let's see I guess this is the washer it looks like and that is the screw I think, looks like we've got two of them, so that's the right number anyway, so this goes in, let's see, fit screw and holes of elevator, insert it through one of the elevator slots, okay besides washer into screw, fit screw through one of the holes in the elevator, there is, where was it, I saw it, there it is, oh it's got to be punched, let's punch that through, there's a bit there but it's not punched out and that hole again is really small, all right I zoomed in a little bit more to try to help you see what I'm doing, I don't know if that will help very much because I've got to assemble it facing me because I need to see it, so all right so first screw is going through this hole in the back of the elevator, should go all the way through, there we go and the washer is inside, we got these clear plastic washers and there are these tiny white plastic screws which almost dropped that one way to go, okay and that one goes through there, not easy to reach and line up but there we go, actually that was easier than I thought, we are supposed to put this on the elevator in these little slots here, these rails that it runs along and here I actually can show it to you from the front because I need to see it from the back, looks like these pieces go on the back ends, make sure that's correct, line up the screws from the inside and I'm supposed to hold on to the head of the screw while pushing the fastener in from the back, oh wow that's not easy, there we go, okay so now the elevator is on and I've got these fasteners screwed in somewhat firmly so it shouldn't slide, actually that's too firm, it should not slide too loosely, yep still too firm, let's loosen it up, I do want it to slide but I just don't want it to slide too loosely, okay there we go so that should, there we go slide around and then down, okay there we go and there and it goes down and then it can go back up and over and the elevator on my vintage piece works better than this, it's yeah it just works a lot more smoothly so anyway I'll just leave that there, elevator is on, what is the next step, the next step appears to be the seats for the control panel, I'll just leave that there, zoom around a little bit and then let's put these together, I am missing one of these seats on my vintage piece, they're all the same so I'm not too concerned about it but I don't know if the seats on the San Diego exclusive would fit on the vintage command center, I actually don't know, maybe that's something that I will try but of course the, there we go, the reissue is no substitute for the original so ever since these have come out and some other modern reissues of some vintage classics people have had all kinds of theories about them, one theory that people have which I don't believe is quite accurate is that, is that these reissues of the modern of the vintage pieces will somehow bring down the price of the vintage like so why buy the vintage if you have a modern equivalent, there we go, that looks more or less the same and is cheaper and to that I say that doesn't make any sense at all, if you're a vintage collector then these modern reproductions are not a substitute for the vintage because no matter how much they may look like the vintage and no matter how much they may substitute for the vintage they are not vintage and for a vintage collector the whole idea is to get the pieces that actually existed at the time to find these survivors to hold in your hand the actual for real piece of history to have something that is authentic and having something that just kind of sort of looks like it it just ain't the same thing in regards to pieces like this bringing down the price of the actual vintage pieces I've seen no evident evidence that that's happening either in vintage GI Joe or in vintage Star Wars where similar things have been done by Hasbro I just the economics that people are using to argue that these will bring down prices on vintage toys I don't think the logic quite works out on that and I certainly don't think that these that there is evidence to support that to support that that's actually happened so whether you like these things or not whether you think they should be produced or not or whatever you think they do to the market what certainly is not doing to the market is bringing down the price of the vintage toys I mean go find a 1982 missile command headquarters look at the prices of them see if you think those have come down I would have to say they have not they seem to be as high as they ever were and going up if you were inclined to buy one of these and have one of these in your collection and forego the vintage equivalent most likely you weren't in the market for the vintage one anyway so this isn't going to this gives you something to buy right but it doesn't actually if it doesn't actually take you out of the vintage market if you weren't in the market for the vintage one in the first place so now we are going to assemble the the cruise missile all kinds of theories that people come up with to explain market forces on collectibles and most of them are most of them don't really wash most of them don't really make a whole lot of sense if you think about them so this goes in here I believe I'm doing yeah I'm doing it right press the fastener into the screw twist and adjust so yeah on this one the fastener looks like it goes on the outside that's an interesting choice but let's do it the way they tell us to do it and yes indeed it looks like they want you to have the fastener on the outside so let's do that possibly so that it will be a little easier to adjust so I believe this goes in like so yes and let's put the fastener on and put some tension on that so it will hold the missile in an upright position that wasn't so hard was it there we go okay yeah all right there is the missile command center headquarters basically assembled and yeah we've got the missile which you can position we've got the elevator which you can slide around we've got platforms for the figures we've got seats at the control panel for the figures and there so we're not quite done it doesn't appear to be in the instruction sheet but we still need to assemble the file card holder and of course take the figures out of the bags and put them with the set so the file card holder was a peculiarity of the 82 headquarters it's just basically a box with a flap on the back that holds the file cards for the figures that came with it some collectors consider the play set to be complete without this I do have the file card holder for the 82 headquarters I would not consider the play set to be complete without this so I do have it but but I can kind of see why some collectors might just skip it this is not part of the base it is just an extra extra box so now that we've done that let's go ahead and open these figures let's look at the modern figures all right why don't we start why don't we start with cobra commander let's start at the top with cobra's leader old copo here and we have some accessories including a figure stand in a bag um and we have the figure itself a modern construction and yeah um there are some folks that collect modern figures and I am not really one of them although do have a fair sampling of modern figures oh look at that his foot came off okay so all right quality control issue let me see if I can snap that back on there we go it does snap back on um but man the joints are quite stiff quite stiff um but uh yeah so um if you like modern figures and you want to collect modern figures then you should um and I encourage people to um find a hobby they enjoy and go for it so if that is what you like then absolutely do um but um but I collecting modern figures to me is just not the same as collecting vintage it's a different type of collecting entirely so well not entirely but it's a different type of collecting um and so just pick what you like or do both if you feel like it there's the red back file card it appears to be uh in many ways the same as the vintage file card and I'll just go ahead and put this in our file card holder and let's um pop these accessories open and uh completely assemble our cover commander here I've got a figure stand I've got a helmet so there he doesn't quite look right without his helmet so there you go helmet and he's got a pistol and the pistol can either fit in his hand uh or it has like the vintage figure uh the hole in the back where his venom laser pistol can connect to his back to like a charging station here let's let's do it right now but it does not go on very very easily oh oh but we got it though we got it we got it so Cobra Commander can hold his laser pistol on his back or in his hand he comes with a tiny knife on his that goes into a sheath on his left leg like so now this has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure it has the Mickey Mouse symbol on his chest that is a simplified Cobra emblem referred to as Mickey Mouse because the eyes at the top are kind of separated and look a little bit like Mickey Mouse ears it also has a red stripe on the right leg but not on the left leg again kind of reflective of the vintage figure so yeah lots of callbacks to 1982 hooded Cobra Commander I'm sorry I'm hooded Cobra Commander this is the face plated Cobra Commander so lots of callbacks to that and we're going to try to put him on this stand but the holes in the feet oh man do not fit well and I'm afraid I'm going to pop the foot off again ah there we go sort of so there's Cobra Commander on his stand and let's move on to the next one since we started with Coco I guess if we're working our way down from the top the next would be the Cobra Officer let's pop him out of this bag these bags are taped and I guess if you wanted to reseal everything just toss everything back in the original packaging you could and I guess that's good but there is the Cobra Officer the silver Cobra emblem on his chest sometimes it's modern articulation and it's got a lot more articulation points than the vintage figures but sometimes it can be a little awkward but oh man those those are some stiff joints so I guess that is also good okay and there is his redback file card uh similar to the vintage file card let's just pop that one in there into our file card holder there we go and he has a bag of accessories as well so let's pull that out and get him put together there we go the tape is in the way there we go all right and he has a helmet like so there we go got his helmet on and he has an AK-47 just like the the vintage figure although this is updated and modernized it's not a rerelease of the vintage AK and a figure stand with Cobra Officer printed on it so let's try to get him on this figure stand see if it's any easier than with Coco there's one foot and there's two feet okay actually that was a lot better than on the Cobra Commander figure so there you go there's Cobra Officer and that leaves us with one more our Cobra Trooper I do appreciate all the callbacks to the vintage set and the vintage figures I do I have to appreciate that because I appreciate history I appreciate their attention to history and although it's kind of cool to have this set and put it together you know as a vintage collector of course that this does not fill the hole that the vintage set does so there we go all my file cards and my file card holder pop out the accessories ah that tape it's very sticky there we go get the figure out and there is the the Cobra Trooper very much like the Cobra Officer with some different web gear and a red Cobra emblem on his chest as with all the modern figures they kind of have sort of a giraffe neck and they kind of slump you know the neck is jutting kind of forward a bit all right there's his helmet get that all the way on there we go and his weapon the Draganov sniper rifle let me get his arm joint turned the right way whoo yeah again quite tight joints on there there we go get them in a semi-human looking pose all right so there's his Draganov sniper rifle like the vintage and there's his figure stand and let's try to get him on all right that's about it I think we're about done here all right there you have it the three included figures with the San Diego Comic Con exclusive Cobra Missile Command headquarters and that's the whole thing I hope you enjoyed this unboxing and assembly of the modern Cobra Missile Command headquarters it was more challenging than I expected it to be those cardboard pieces didn't fit in there as easily as I thought they would but we got it all done and it's all together kind of a neat looking set I'm glad to have it but if everything goes as planned you should see this video a few days after you see the review of the 1982 version of this toy the original so that should be my first contribution to Cobra Convergence 4 I hope that is going well I'm recording this before Cobra Convergence starts because I actually needed to assemble this before I could do my review of the 82 set so so I hope that's going well this will be going up after Joe Fest so I hope Joe Fest went well so thanks for watching you should get another Cobra related review from me on Sunday and more great Cobra Convergence stuff so thanks for watching and I'll see you all next time