 Hoodie Coco presents Hooded Cobra Commander Adventures! In this exciting, awesome, and 100% true story, HCC788 saves the world from the forces of fascism. You will thrill to the unparalleled heroics of our heroic hero as he selflessly risks his own life to preserve democracy and freedom. This spying, tingling episode is written by, directed by, and all roles played by HCC788. I have to admit, I've been a little under the weather for the last few days. I haven't been feeling very well. So if my voice sounds a little funny in this video, that's why. But not even a life-threatening illness could keep me from presenting this review. I'm very excited about this one. I've been looking forward to doing this review since I first started the channel. Not because it's one of my favorite figures, it's not, but because it's tied to a very specific and vivid childhood memory for me. This is the first G.I. Joe action figure I remember choosing not to get. Because I didn't want it. It's the first G.I. Joe action figure I didn't want. We're talking of course about listen and fun tripwire. A figure that makes you go, huh. Oh, but I don't want to give the impression that I'm not happy to do this review. I'm thrilled to do this review because this figure came with an audio cassette. And that audio cassette had two audio stories on it. And those stories are some of the most deliciously bad things I've ever heard. You have to hear this, and you will. I recently acquired this ugly ass figure and the audio cassette, and I chose not to share that on Facebook or Twitter because I wanted this to be a surprise. So happy Halloween. HCC788 presents listen and fun tripwire. This is the listen and fun tripwire, the second version of tripwire from 1985. This figure was only available in 1985 as far as I can tell. Yojo.com says at some point it was released as a bagged figure and has a photo of a sealed bagged listen and fun tripwire. I'm not clear about when and how this figure was released as a bagged figure. I'd like some independent corroboration of this release. I've done a lot of searching and I have never seen a bagged listen and fun tripwire. So if you have information about that release, please come forward. In 1985, this figure was released as a carded figure and packaged with an audio cassette which you see here. We'll be talking quite a bit about that later in this video. Version 1 of tripwire was released in 1983, and as you can see, the colors are drastically different. Version 2 uses exactly the same mold as version 1, but they changed the colors considerably. In fact, all of the releases of tripwire in the vintage era were just reissues of the first version in different colors. He even had the same accessories for each version. Version 3 of tripwire was released in 1988 and again reused that mold from version 1 and version 2. This version of tripwire was in the Tiger Force subset, so he has some funky tiger stripes. I usually cover only vintage toys in these reviews, but if we can step outside the vintage era just for a moment, there was another O-ring version of tripwire released in 2001. Version 4 of tripwire again uses that same mold from the earlier versions, but with them updated colors, and these colors look nice. They may even be better than the original. If we can step even farther out of the vintage era for a moment, there was a modern tripwire figure released in 2008. Version 5 of tripwire is an all-modern figure with updated sculpting and articulation, but it is made in the style of version 1. There were two ways to get this figure. You could get it as a single-carded figure or in a comic book two-pack with a modern version of the hooded Cobra Commander. While we're looking at different versions of tripwire, let's take a look at how he was used outside of the United States. In the UK, the figure was called Blades. He was totally recolored, and instead of being a minesweeper, he was a helicopter pilot. He was the pilot of the Action Force SAS Hawk helicopter. According to the file card for version 1 of tripwire, his primary military specialty is Explosive Ordinance Disposal, or EOD. In 1987, GI Joe got another EOD expert, Tunnel Rat. Even though these guys have basically the same job, these figures and the characters could not be more different. Tripwire is a minesweeper. Why did GI Joe have a minesweeper in 1983? It's not the most exciting combat specialty. He didn't come with any guns to shoot anyone. My theory is, tripwire was inspired by this guy. Some of the early GI Joe action figures mirrored these little green army men. These have been around for decades, and the sets always included at least one minesweeper. The minesweeper had to be the least popular guy. And when you were dividing up your forces to play army with your friend, the minesweeper had to be the one you hoped you wouldn't get. Tripwire wasn't only a minesweeper, he was also an explosives and demolitions expert. In fact, I don't know if he was really used as a minesweeper very often. So you could justify his presence on the team as the team's explosives expert. The only problem with this theory is GI Joe already had an explosives expert with Zap from 1982. Zap was GI Joe's first explosives expert, and he had a primary combat role as a bazooka soldier. And Zap was still available when Tripwire was introduced. And to side note, those packages of little green army men also always included a bazooka soldier. Listen and Fun Tripwire came with an audio cassette. This is the first time an audio tape was released with an action figure in the vintage era. It was done again in 1986 for the Special Mission Brazil set. That set included some reissued and recolored figures. Later in 1990, the figure Rapid Fire came with a VHS tape. This is a Listen and Fun tape. This is an official Hasbro release. Yes, Hasbro really did this. Listen and Fun provided a story tape to go along with Hasbro released toys. There was a Transformers Listen and Fun set that came with Cliffjumper. Others in Hasbro's Listen series came with books instead of toys. There was a Listen and Play GI Joe, a Listen and Look My Little Pony, and a Listen and Learn Mr. Potato Head. I'll be playing an excerpt from this tape later in this video. Why was Tripwire chosen for the Listen and Fun set? I think for the same reason Lifeline was chosen to be a male-away figure for Rice Krispy's cereal. Tripwire isn't necessarily a combat troupe. He can be used to defuse bombs and go on rescue missions, which implies less violence than some other GI Joe figures. Hasbro probably thought parents would approve this for younger children. Let's take a look at the accessories for Listen and Fun Tripwire. As with the figures, the accessories are the same as Version 1, but just in different colors. Let's start with Tripwire's Minesweeper. The Minesweeper is in a very light gray, almost white, but not quite. It has some detail on it. It's difficult to have a lot of detail on such a simple accessory. This light color is in contrast to the dark gray color of the original. It has a grip at the top. The figure is supposed to grip the Minesweeper under his arm, and it has a brace for his forearm. It has a wire, a long, thin wire that is a little bit delicate. You might want to be careful with that. The wire plugs into a hole on the figure's backpack. Even though they couldn't put a lot of detail on this accessory, I do like the sculpted-on wire that spirals down the pole from the grip down to the base. The next accessory is the backpack. The backpack is also in that light gray color. The original accessory was green. This backpack serves as a carrying case for three removable mines. The three mines fit snugly in the backpack. You can take all three of them out. They're pretty small, so they can be easy to lose. These are the same color as the backpack. Indeed, all of Listen and Fun Tripwire's accessories are all the same color. There's not as much color variety as there was on the Version 1 figure. With those mines dispersed out in the field, Tripwire can do his job and detect and diffuse those mines. That certainly is a way you can play with these, although they are very tiny, and I'm sure a lot of these got lost back in 1985 just because they are so small and easy to lose. And the original Tripwire had mines that were in green, the same color as your backyard, so I can just imagine that thousands of these just ended up getting lost immediately. Let's take a look at the articulation for Listen and Fun Tripwire. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures in 1983, so he could turn his head from left to right. 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. That point of articulation, called Swivel Arm Battle Grip, was first introduced in 1983, the same year Tripwire Version 1 was released. This is an O-ring figure, so the figure is held together with a rubber O-ring that loops around the inside. That allows him to move at the torso a bit. He can 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 for Listen and Fun Tripwire, and let's look at it one more time next to Version 1. The colors are drastically different. I can understand why they changed the colors. Version 1 of Tripwire can be considered a somewhat bland figure, and they probably wanted colors that would appeal more to younger kids. But is this really what younger kids wanted? Let's look at Tripwire's head. On his head he has a non-removable molded on helmet, and there's some dispute about the color of this helmet. I see this color as hot pink, but I've shown this figure to some other people, and they think it's red. So you can tell me in the comments below if you see this color as hot pink or red. Okay, I have to settle this, because this has become a contentious issue around this house. When I look at the figure, I see the color as a hot pink, but certain other people see it as red. However, after looking at the figure under the lights and on the camera, I can still see something there other than red. It still looks like a very hot pink. It's red! It's pink! Looks like his helmet has some ear protection. You would need that for dealing with explosives. He has a chin strap. He has silver goggles, and the flesh color of his face is painted on. So that does mean you will have to watch out for paint wear on his face. Moving down to Tripwire's chest, he has a very bright orange uniform, and over that he has padding in that hot pink color. I'm still calling it hot pink. He has another color. He has brown straps, which go around his sides and around his lower back, and around the back of his neck and over his shoulders. Those straps do have a bit of detail, and they're actually not too bad. This is a fairly plain figure, so any bit of detail helps. On his arms he has that same bright orange color, and on his right upper arm he has a silver tampo. It looks a little bit like rank and signia, but not quite. His upper left arm is plain, and he has that hot pink color on his forearms all the way around and on the back of his hands, and then he has orange gloves. This is somewhat interesting because they changed the paint mask for version 2. Version 1 has the entire glove all in the same color. On his waist piece tripwire has a brown belt with minimal detail, then he has some hot pink padding, looks like continued from his chest, down over his crotch, and then he has more of that bright orange color. His legs are that same bright orange color. Then on his right thigh he has a pistol holster, a hot pink pistol holster, with a gold pistol in it. And that's the only spot of gold on this figure. I'm surprised they went with that color. We wrap up our look at the legs by looking at his tall brown boots, pretty plain brown boots. Besides just the color, this is not a realistic EOD bomb suit, which tripwire would use for his job. But the real bomb suit does have some padding in the front similar to tripwire's uniform, so it's not completely unrealistic. You might have noticed that I don't have a file card for listen and fun tripwire. That's because this figure didn't come with a real file card. It had sort of a mini file card printed on the front of the packaging, but that was only a short excerpt from the version 1 file card. Not a real file card in my opinion. It said, mind detector, codename tripwire. Tripwire is proficient with all NATO and Warsaw packed explosives, detonators, and blasting machines. And that's it. Instead of a file card, the real thing to talk about is this tape. This audio cassette is titled, The Cobra's Revenge. Not to be confused with Revenge of Cobra. The tape has two stories, one on each side. It's not clear which of the stories is titled The Cobra's Revenge, but it fits better with the story on side too. The stories on this tape are written by Meryl Farnsworth, and they are presented like old-fashioned radio plays. They feature some very bad acting. Cobra Commander sounds like a bad Peter Lorre impression, and there's a Ronald Reagan impression that devolves into sounding a little more like George W. Bush. The Cobra Commander instructed one of his soldiers to ask the computer for an updated map. I can't believe it! You have tampered with the computer and programmed in a fake map! Oh, what a cheap trick! Well, as you know, we are faced with a grave threat from our enemy, Cobra, which has threatened to destroy ten national capitals if their demand for ten billion dollars to build their galaxy command station is not delivered to them in gold by noon tomorrow. The story on side one has Cobra aiming missiles at national capitals, and G.I. Joe re-aims those missiles at Cobra bases somehow. Also, Tripwire seems to be missing from this story. Tripwire is in the story on side two. Cobra has planted landmines on the White House lawn. Tripwire has to clear them, but he has a sprained ankle because he slipped in the shower. Oh, yeah, Tripwire is clumsy, don't you know? You know he's smooth in this glass when he gets around explosives. He's the best we've got. But he only has one good leg. I'd rather have Tripwire with one good leg than two men with four good legs. Alright then, what about four men with six good legs? I made a digital recording of this tape, and I will be publishing it on my YouTube channel on October 31st, so if you want to hear both stories, I hope you'll check that out. Happy Halloween! Looking at how Tripwire was used in G.I. Joe Media other than the audio tape, he first appeared in the cartoon series in the first mini series, A Real American Hero, and had the most screen time in part two, where he was in a battle in a crystal mine with scarlet, snake eyes, snow job, and flash. In the regular series, Tripwire had the most exposure in the episode, Cobra Claws Are Coming to Town. That's a Christmas episode. In that episode, Cobra miniaturized themselves to hide inside toys so they could infiltrate G.I. Joe headquarters. Also in that episode, Tripwire spends most of his time with his helmet off, something you cannot do with the toy. In the G.I. Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Tripwire's first appearance was in issue number 16. In that issue, they make it clear that Tripwire is clumsy. Ha ha. He's also in issue number 19, where he plants mines under ambulances and makes excuses for violating the Geneva Conventions. Tripwire, you are not the good guy. In issue number 25, he goes on a swamp mission investigating Zartan's Cabin. And once again, Tripwire is clumsy, hilarious. His final appearance in the Marvel series was in issue number 131. In that issue, Cobra attacks G.I. Joe headquarters again, and Tripwire helps defend it. Looking at and listening to Listen and Fun Tripwire overall, this figure is absurd and kitschy in the most delightful ways. I can't stand to look at the thing, yet the fact that it exists gives me the giggles. I remember very clearly seeing this figure on the pegs as a kid and thinking to myself, what have they done to Tripwire? Okay, it comes with a tape, sure, fine, whatever. But why change the color of the figure? And if you're going to change the color, why those colors? I have to assume they change the colors to appeal to younger kids. The audio tape definitely would not appeal to older kids. And even my age at the time, I was too old to appreciate this. So the target demographic had to be younger kids. So I guess younger kids like orange and pink? It's red. It's pink! All right, we're going to settle this democratically. I don't want this to be another white dress, blue dress thing. I'm going to put up a poll on this video and you can vote on whether the color is red or pink. And regardless, who wins, the correct answer is pink. I thought the figure was ugly then and I still think it's ugly now. As a collector, I'm happy to have it. It's a somewhat rare piece, but that doesn't mean it's good. By any objective standard, it's probably a bottom tier figure, but I'm still happy to have it in my collection. And the tape. Now that I've had a chance to listen to the tape, oh my goodness, I kind of love it. The tape is delightfully bad in every possible way. The writing is bad, the acting is bad, the sound effects are bad, the music is bad. Where did they come up with these voices? These characters already had voices because they were in the cartoon series. They didn't even attempt to make the voices sound similar to what we were already familiar with. The quality is stunningly bad on every level and it's hilarious, I can't stop listening to it and I can't downgrade something that gives me so much enjoyment. If you want to hear the entire contents of this tape, I made a digital recording from my cassette and it will be uploaded to my channel this Wednesday afternoon, so watch and listen for that. See if you can get through the whole thing without laughing, I'll bet you can't. That was my long awaited review of Listen and Fun Tripwire, I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed making it, even though I wasn't feeling my best through most of the production. It was still a delight. That's the end of ugly ass figures months. Next week we are doing something different. We're doing something good. I think you're gonna like it. It's my pleasure to bring you GI Joe nostalgia every week and I have to thank my patrons who helped me do it. If you like the content on this channel and you'd like to support the channel in that way, please check out my Patreon. I also have a Ko-fi account. If you like the videos and if you feel like it, you can leave me a one time tip and of course I always ask you to like the videos, subscribe on YouTube and share the videos with your friends. You can find me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter. I post there fairly frequently and I have a website, hcc788.com. You can find all my reviews there and you can pick up some cool swag like a Cobra Convergence 3 t-shirt. That's all for now. Thank you for making this theme month a lot of fun. I enjoyed the interactions with everyone. I'll see you again next week and until then remember, whether it's red or pink, only GI Joe is GI Joe. It's pink. It's pink. It's red. It's pink. It's red. It's pink. It's red. It's pink.