 Today, we're going to look at a figure from the 1990s. The 90s was a great the 90s. Which figure are we going to look at? Dr. Mayenbender from 1993. Often, G.I. Joe drew inspiration from the real world, especially real military equipment and uniforms. Who wants that? I want toys that look like candy. The first version of Dr. Mayenbender was good. The second version of Dr. Mayenbender will be even better because he's more yellow. Thank you to Chris Pierce from Comic Tropes for the title card art for this episode. Make sure you check out his show on YouTube. Thank you to Max Rebo's Ghost Music and Lawson Allen for donating figures that were used for this review. Now let's check out all the fantasticalness the 1990s has to offer. HCC 788 presents Dr. Mayenbender. This is version 2 of Dr. Mayenbender, Cobra's Master of Mind Control from 1993. This figure was only available in 1993, it was discontinued for 1994. In the 80s, figures were usually available for two years. Toward the end of the line, figures were only on the pegs for one year. 1994 was the final year of the vintage G.I. Joe line. Version 1 of Dr. Mayenbender was released in 1986 and discontinued for 1988. He became Cobra's mad scientist, but that's not how he started out. He was originally intended to be an interrogator, basically a Cobra torturer. Dr. Mayenbender is referenced on the file card for Serpentor, his creation, but he isn't referred to as Dr. Mayenbender, he's called the interrogator. At some point in the production process, his role was changed to more of a scientist, specializing in mind control. Dr. Mayenbender served an important role within Cobra, producing all manner of weird technology. In the comic book narrative, Dr. Mayenbender replaced Cobra's first mad scientist, Dr. Venom, who died in issue number 19. Dr. Venom invented the brain wave scanner, a device for extracting memories from brains. Dr. Mayenbender later put the brain wave scanner to his own use. Dr. Mayenbender's work for Cobra complemented Destro, Cobra's weapons supplier. The weapons Destro supplied were often futuristic. Destro is an industrialist, Dr. Mayenbender is more of an eccentric inventor. Dr. Mayenbender created the battle android troopers, Cobra's robot soldiers from 1986. Inventing robot soldiers is Mayenbender's style. Destro designs tanks and planes and helicopters. Dr. Mayenbender would create weird robot men from the future. Dr. Mayenbender is also responsible for the cybernetic implants on the 1988 Star Viper, the pilot of the Cobra Stellar Stiletto. Within Cobra, Dr. Mayenbender would probably get support from Techno Vipers, Cobra's technicians from 1987. The Techno Vipers even matched the purple and silver color scheme of version 1 of Dr. Mayenbender. As a scientist and inventor, Dr. Mayenbender didn't really have a replacement when the figure was discontinued. As an interrogator, he did have a replacement in 1991. The character was called the interrogator. Though he was a pilot of the Battlecopter, he was also a torturer, as Dr. Mayenbender was originally envisioned. Dr. Mayenbender doesn't have a counterpart on the GI Joe team exactly. GI Joe has plenty of members with technological specialties like mainframe, sci-fi, and dial tone. They don't invent the equipment though. GI Joe's equipment is supplied by government contractors. There's one really special thing to know about Dr. Mayenbender, at least as he was portrayed in the comic book. He died. That's right, the character was killed off. But turns out they still needed him, so he was brought back to life. That is a thing that happened. So version 2 of Dr. Mayenbender is a zombie. Zombies in GI Joe? Of course. I like zombies. I like GI Joe. I want everything I like to be in GI Joe. It doesn't have to make sense. Just put every single thing I like in GI Joe. I like chocolate. Let's take a look at Dr. Mayenbender version 2's accessories. He came with a lot of them. The accessories were issued on a plastic tree. You would have to cut the accessories off of the frame yourself rather than have that done at the factory. This was a common practice in the 90s. It means that the accessories, with the exception of the spring-loaded missile launcher, are all the same color. And fortunately, that color is yellow. All of these accessories are also reissued from other figures. There's nothing original here. Let's start by looking at the accessory that I have in his hand. I'll just call this laser rifle number one because he also has another one. This was originally issued with DJ in 1988. It has a very stylish design and lots of futuristic technical details. Probably a pretty good rifle for DJ, but again, this is not original. This is just a reissued accessory. Now let's look at laser rifle number two. This accessory was originally issued in 1991 with sci-fi version two. Of course, that one was silver and this one is in that very bright yellow. One difference between the original and the reissue, they removed the peg on the back. On the original laser rifle, it had a peg that would connect to a black hose that would run to the backpack. Any correction on that, that laser rifle I showed you just has the peg broken off. I have another one and it does still have that peg. Next we have submachine gun number one. At least that's what Yojo.com calls it. This accessory was originally issued with Voltar from 1988. Of course, Voltar's gun being in gold. Next we have submachine gun number two. And this looks kind of like a stylized Uzi with a suppressor. The reason it looks like that is because this was originally Snake Eyes' gun. This is Snake Eyes version three from 1989. Then we have the knife. This knife with kind of a lightning bolt shaped blade. This was originally issued with Hydro Viper in 1988. Let's not forget the figure stand. Figures in the 90s did come with figure stands and that probably is the best innovation of the 90s. Finally we get to the purple spring loaded missile launcher with one yellow missile. The file card calls this a mind scrambling driller gun. How is it mind scrambling? I suppose if it blows you up that would scramble your mind. Ali Viper version two was issued with a yellow version of this missile launcher and a black missile. They came out the same year. This missile launcher appears to have a gatling gun slung underneath. It has a yellow trigger in the back. It has a pistol grip which will fit in the figure's hand. It also has a clip on one side. And I thought this clip might be to clip the gun onto the arm of the action figure. But that does not work with Dr. Meinbender. His wrists are too thick. I also thought it might be to clip the missile on for storage when you're not using it. But the missile doesn't fit very well there either. To operate the spring loaded missile launcher just push the missile into the barrel with the notch side down. Push it back until it clicks and you're ready to fire. We've been testing these spring loaded missile launchers by firing at Dr. Meinbender. Finally he gets to be the star of the show. So let's just take aim and fire. So let's aim and fire. Fire. Fire. So let's test this out by taking aim and taking a shot at Dr. Meinbender. Looks like we managed to take him out but that's okay he's used to being dead. I don't see Dr. Meinbender as a combat troop though I'm sure he would fight if he needed to. His first version had a pistol and an electric prod. He wasn't loaded up with submachine guns and a rocket launcher. This figure has a lot more accessories than he can carry or use at one time. Of course you could give the extra accessories to other figures but then you'll weigh down those other figures with bright yellow accessories and who wants to do that? I am of the opinion that figures don't need more accessories than they can use. More does not mean better. Instead of piling on generic accessories I prefer to get a few accessories that are better quality. That's not to say a figure can't come with a lot of accessories but those accessories should make sense for the specialty and can be carried. With that business out of the way let's take a look at the articulation for Dr. Meinbender version 2. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1993 so 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 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. The figure was held together with the rubber O-ring that allowed him to move at the torso a bit. 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. Now let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Dr. Meinbender version 2 starting with his head. His head is bald. He has a black device that wraps all the way around the back of his head and covers his ears. It also covers his right eye. There's a black molded on microphone that goes from that black device on his right side down the right side of his jaw to his chin. I am happy that microphone is sculpted on and not removable. The file card calls this black wraparound device a brain integrated computer. It looks a lot like Lobot from Star Wars. He also has a black mustache. It wouldn't be Dr. Meinbender without the mustache. There are some differences between the version 1 and version 2 heads other than Meinbender's new tech. The version 1 head had a monocle over the right eye. The version 2 has that black, cybernetic thing. The mustache on version 1 is bigger and thicker and the version 1 head is wider. Despite these differences, I do think the version 2 head looks like Dr. Meinbender. It carries over the important elements to recognize him. On his chest he has a yellow collar that goes all the way around. He has a purple shirt that fastens down the right side. And on that purple shirt he has just a ton of technological devices, wires and hoses that spiderweb all over his chest and back. All of these details of course are in bright yellow. On his right shoulder he has what looks like a shoulder pad with a lot of technical detail. He has another technological device, a rectangle shape on the left side of his chest. And over his left shoulder he has some wires and hoses and that also goes under his right arm and those details continue around to the back. On his back there's a yellow rectangle right around the screw hole. It almost looks like a backpack should go there but he does not come with a backpack. There are a lot of minute details on this chest, I will give it that. And because it is yellow paint on purple plastic, those details really stand out. On his arms he has short purple sleeves, looks like his sleeves are rolled up so you can see his forearms. On his right forearm he has some kind of device with some technical detail that covers his forearm and has a couple straps that go around. He has another device on his left wrist that just goes around his wrist and it has a lot of technical detail on it. On the waist piece he has a black belt with a cobra emblem right on the belt buckle. He has pouches on each hip and he also has a strip of purple ridge padding on each side that run down to a similar detail on the legs. He also has that ridge pattern on the inside of his legs but they are unpainted. He has tall black boots, fairly plain boots and he does have knee pads attached to them. If the lower half of this figure looks familiar it's because it's from the 1986 Cobra Viper. The waist piece and the legs are reused. Only half of this Dr. Meinbender figure is new. To be fair, version one of Dr. Meinbender reused the upper legs of Mutt from 1984. With the color change you'd hardly notice. I have the full card back for this figure, that's not something I always have so let's take a look at it. The card art isn't terrible, the pose is kind of funny, it looks like he taught you looking at his bum. Were you looking at my bum? Bum-looker. Except he's really mad about it. Were you looking at my bum? Bum-looker! His butt is even censored by this little blurb that says, Driller gun shoots. I know they're wanting to call that spring-loaded missile launcher the Driller gun but it kind of looks like they've labeled his butt the Driller gun and announced that it shoots. That's more than I ever really wanted to know about Dr. Meinbender. We have the Battlecore logo that just means he was not on one of the many sub-teams. We have some instructions on how to use the figure stand and the missile launcher. Flipping the card around we have the cross-sell with some other figures that were available at the time. That's pretty traditional on G.I. Joe card backs. We have the flag point looking much different from our flag points in the 80s. Then of course we have the file card here which we will look at now. These 90s file cards were rectangular with rounded edges instead of the file folder shape of 80s file cards. They also had a list of features on the figure. I'm gonna skip that. We have that card art repeated here and a close-up portrait of Dr. Meinbender. It says his codename is Dr. Meinbender and he's the master of mind control. That's the same as his version 1 card. It has a quote that says, I get a real charge out of shocking G.I. Joe. That quote would make sense if this figure came with the cattle prod from version 1. This paragraph says, Dr. Meinbender was at one time an excellent orthodontist and a very kind and honest man. His personality was drastically altered when he experimented on himself with electronic brainwave stimulation. He changed into an egotistical madman filled with hatred and deceit. This is almost identical to the first paragraph of his version 1 file card. Continuing it says, even Cobra Commander disliked him and buried him in a tanker deep beneath a volcano on Cobra Island. After bionically enhancing his badly damaged body with various machine parts, he barely escaped with his life. He eventually proved himself worthy of Cobra Commander. I think this means worthy to Cobra Commander and re-enlisted as a member of Cobra. This file card basically just repeats the version 1 file card and then recounts the comic book continuity. With a couple differences. In the file card, he doesn't die, he uses bionics to save his life. That's not how it went down in the comic book. He was in fact dead, dead, dead. Looking at how Dr. Meinbender was portrayed in G.I. Joe Media, he first appeared in the animated series in Arise, Serpentor, Arise, Part 1. In that miniseries, Dr. Meinbender has a dream that leads him to create Serpentor, the new Cobra Emperor. Serpentor was constructed from the DNA of long-dead military leaders. He had a lot of appearances in the Sunbow animated series and he was in the 1987 G.I. Joe animated movie. In that movie, it was revealed that Galobulus implanted the idea to create Serpentor in Dr. Meinbender's brain. Dr. Meinbender was robbed of credit for his biggest contribution to the G.I. Joe universe. After the Sunbow animated series was cancelled following the 1987 movie, Dr. Meinbender made no appearances in the Deke animated series. In the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, he first appeared in issue number 44. In that issue, he is mistakenly referred to as Dr. Brainwave. That may have been a prototype name for Dr. Meinbender. It's a callback to the Brainwave scanner, an invention of Cobra's first mad scientist, Dr. Venom. Dr. Meinbender introduced important elements to the comic book series, including the battle android troopers, Serpentor, the Star Viper, the Hydro Sled... Okay, the Hydro Sled wasn't all that important. In the comic book, Dr. Meinbender created Serpentor just as he did in the animated series. During the Cobra Civil War, Dr. Meinbender was responsible for ringing G.I. Joe into the war on Serpentor's side. Unfortunately for Meinbender, Serpentor died in the Civil War. There was no one to protect him when the real Cobra Commander returned. In issue number 98, Cobra Commander trapped Dr. Meinbender and a few of his other enemies in a landlocked freighter and buried it under a mountain. A handful of people managed to escape, but Dr. Meinbender didn't. He died. That's right, not just mostly dead, he entirely 100% died. But he died in a comic book, so death isn't necessarily a permanent condition. Dr. Meinbender was resurrected in issue number 140, in the middle of a story arc that included a crossover with Transformers. Transformers? In G.I. Joe? Of course! Just cram everything I like into G.I. Joe! It doesn't have to make sense! Just put everything I like in G.I. Joe! Buy peanut butter! Wait a minute... I believe Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book, may have killed Dr. Meinbender because the action figure had been discontinued and brought him back when the decision was made to issue a new version. Despite his return, Dr. Meinbender still wore his original uniform for several issues. He appeared in a form of his version 2 uniform in issue number 151. It isn't exactly the same though. Looking at Dr. Meinbender's version 2 overall, this figure is... great! I like yellow. Who wants original accessories when you can have a pile of generic accessories all in the same color? That's why the 90s is the best era for G.I. Joe. I can't do it anymore. I tried. I tried. I can't pretend anymore. If you liked G.I. Joe in the 90s, I'm happy you did. If you still like these figures, the last thing I would want to do is change your mind. There's not enough joy and happiness in the world, so if colorful 90s figures make you happy, you should hold on to that. I know everyone likes to have their opinion affirmed, and I wish I could do that, but I have to make my own judgments based on my own criteria. I can't pretend that generic accessories are better than original ones. I can't pretend that low effort is better than more effort. I can't pretend that half an original figure is better than a whole original figure. I can't pretend that obnoxious colors are better than subtle ones. Look, this figure isn't all bad. The sculpting on the top half of the figure is pretty good. The sculpting on the bottom half of the figure is pretty good too, but it belongs to a different figure. As crazy as this outfit is, I can't believe Dr. Meinbender would wear this, because he's nuts. If you came into G.I. Joe in the 90s and these crazy colored figures are all you knew, then you missed out on something. And I don't just mean you missed out on the 80s toys. You can always look those up on yojo.com, you can buy them on eBay. Now, what I mean is you missed out on the experience of G.I. Joe in the 80s. You missed out on when G.I. Joe was on top. G.I. Joe was everywhere, and it was cool. It didn't play second fiddle to Ninja Turtles or anyone else, and the toy line itself was nothing less than opulent. The quality of the toys was unparalleled, and it had the pop culture presence to back it up. G.I. Joe was there for us every day, every week, every month, year after year. That's not to say Hasbro didn't cut corners in the 80s. Of course they did. They couldn't help themselves. Corner cutting is in Hasbro's DNA. They still do it. But in the 80s, Hasbro could afford to produce toys the likes of which had never been seen before and have not been seen since. In the 90s, G.I. Joe was following, not leading. They did produce some good toys in the 90s. I've shown you a few of them, but I wish I could take you back in time so you could experience what it was like to be a fan of G.I. Joe at the height of its popularity. And by the 90s, that had already passed. That was my review of the second version of Dr. Mindbender. I hope you enjoyed it. This is what it was like for me. We've spent a couple weeks in the 90s. Can we please get back to the 80s? Let me look at the schedule and see what's coming up for next week. Yes! Next week begins a special theme month for May. And we're going to look at something new. We're going to crack into a part of G.I. Joe that we haven't reviewed yet. In the meantime, don't forget to find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon, and check out my website, HCC788.com. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next week with another vintage G.I. Joe toy review. And until then, remember, no matter how purple and yellow it is, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.