 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and I'm back with another vintage GI Joe toy review and this one is special. This one is really exciting, I've been working on this for a while, I just wanted to make sure that I had all the pieces. We are going to look at Cobra Commander and not just one version of Cobra Commander, we're going to look at the 1982, 1983 and the 1984 versions of Cobra Commander. The ojo.com GI Joe toy database refers to the 1982 version of Cobra Commander as version 1, the 1983 version as version 1.5 and the 1984 version as version 2. Now we did get a version 3 Cobra Commander in the vintage line in 1987, but he looked very different. He had this kind of Iron Man armor, but this is the classic look that we are used to. I'm really excited to look at the action figure that gives this channel its name, so let's take a look at Cobra Commander and give him a very good thorough review. Cobra Commander was released in 1982 as a mail away, he was not available in the stores. In 1983 he was released as a carded figure for sale in the stores and then in 1984 he was released as the hooded Cobra Commander as another mail away. The hooded Cobra Commander was not sold in the stores. The hooded Cobra Commander was sold through mail away offers like this one, there's one right there and you could collect your flag points. It says only two flag points and $1.75. In 1982 if you mailed away to get your own Cobra Commander this is what you would get. There was something a little bit odd about this first issue of Cobra Commander. His Cobra symbol was actually highly simplified. This one is actually a better view of this symbol. As you look at it, it has kind of detached eyes at the top that kind of make the symbol look like it's wearing a Mickey Mouse hat, so this variation of Cobra Commander is referred to as the Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander. This is somewhat rare and desirable to collectors. Later in 1982 if you mailed away for Cobra Commander you would get one with the regular Cobra symbol, the one that we're all used to. Let's take a look at the accessory and he came with only one. The Venom Laser Pistol which was a very dark, almost black, gray plastic. And this one I think it looks a little bit lighter than it actually is under the camera, but it's actually quite dark, not quite black but very close to black. Actually I have two of them, I have one on the back of this Cobra Commander, but this one, the grip is slightly broken so I'm just going to leave that plugged into the back and we'll just take a look at this one. Now as a weapon I guess this is okay, this is fine as far as laser guns go. I really don't care for lasers in G.I. Joe, I didn't care for the science fiction weapons but I mean this is alright, it actually looks a little bit more like a hair dryer than a gun. But it did have a nice feature in that it did plug into the back. The back of the action figure had some sculpted on detail here. It was a recharging pack for the laser. So it had this hole in the top corner that corresponded with this notch on the gun and you just push that in there and it actually held pretty well. I do like it when the sculpting on the action figure matches the accessories. Let's look at the articulation of Cobra Commander and there was a difference between 1982 and 1983. When you first mailed away for Cobra Commander in 1982 you got what they referred to as the straight arm articulation. He could turn his head from side to side like that. He could lift his arm all the way up and he could turn it all the way around. And he had a hinge at the elbow and he could move his elbow at about 90 degrees. All of the action figures in the vintage line were held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the center so they could move at the waist a little bit. He could move their legs apart about so far. He could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Starting in 1983 they introduced a new point of articulation at the bicep. They had this swivel here that they referred to as swivel arm battle grip and not only could you move the arm at the elbow at 90 degrees you could also swivel it all the way around. This allowed the action figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip. Let's look at the sculpt of these three Cobra Commander action figures. The 1982 Cobra Commander was actually completely unique. He shared no parts with any other action figures. However, when he was re-released in 1983 with the swivel arms he actually shared arms with the 1983 Cobra officer. You can see that their arms match, they're just a different color. The 1984 Hooded Cobra Commander had exactly the same body as the 1983 Cobra Commander but with a different head. The head on this 1984 Hooded Cobra Commander was a slightly rubbery material so you kind of actually got the effect of the hood on his head. It kind of actually did billow over his uniform slightly. But as you can see it is a much darker color than the 1982 or 1983 version. We already looked at the charging pack on the back and that's some nice detail and all of them featured that. He has a very military looking uniform. He has a dagger on his left leg and on his right leg he has this very formal looking red stripe down his pants. And his trouser leg actually comes all the way down to cover part of his boot. Let's look at the colors of Cobra Commander and the color is the most obvious difference between 1983 and 1984. 1982 and 1983 Cobra Commanders had this reflective silver mask and this silver paint in fact any of the shiny metallic paint on these action figures rubbed off very easily. So you're really lucky to get one that doesn't have any of the paint scratched off. There's been some criticism of the color of Cobra Commander. He came in this very light blue color when he was first released in 1982 and 1983 and I think that was to provide him some contrast with the two other Cobra action figures that were released at the time. The Cobra Officer and the Cobra Soldier which of course were very dark blue. And so Cobra Commander in order to stand out was a much lighter blue. He looked unique, he looked like he was set apart from the others and so you can kind of tell which one was in charge. Then in 1984 when the hooded Cobra Commander was released he was dark blue, kind of like the other two. But he does have a very regal look to him. This is his ceremonial uniform. The hood is meant to be a ceremonial hood, a cowl. And the helmet and the mask that's supposed to be his battle helmet. So when he goes into battle he dons his helmet and then when he's rallying the troops or doing some kind of a ceremonial thing that he wears the hood. In the comic book Cobra Commander was depicted as preparing for battle by taking off his hood and putting on his battle helmet. But of course you couldn't really do that with the toy because they were totally different colors. These were obviously meant to be totally different uniforms. Despite the fact that you could not reenact the comic book exactly, I really don't mind this color scheme. If you think about it, if the hooded Cobra Commander had been done in the lighter blue plastic he would not have had this very regal effect. He just wouldn't have looked the same. And if the regular Cobra Commander had been released with the darker blue he would not have stood out well enough amongst his troops. So I really do think that this was the right way to go. It also meant that when you mailed away for the hooded Cobra Commander you were not getting just the regular Cobra Commander with another head. You were getting an entirely new action figure. Taking a closer look at the 1984 hooded Cobra Commander I think this is a really good looking action figure. He's got the gold paint on him with a gold stripe on his leg in place of the red stripe from the original and it does look like a good ceremonial uniform. He looks like he should be in charge of something. One criticism I have of the hooded Cobra Commander is that his eyes do not look very evil. You can see Cobra Commander's eyes there and they look kind of droopy. Frankly, Cobra Commander looks a little bit sleepy. If you were to take the head off the body he would look a little bit like a Pac-Man ghost. Cobra Commander does tend to be more expensive than most GI Joe action figures if you buy one on eBay but I don't think that's because he's necessarily so rare. The 1982 and 1983 versions of the Cobra Commander action figure were actually available in a lot of different ways. By mail order, in the stores, also with the 1982 Cobra missile commander head quarters and then the hooded Cobra Commander was actually available in mail away for a really long time. So there should be a lot of these floating around out there but they still tend to run a bit more expensive I think because the demand is so much higher. You really, if you're a GI Joe collector, you've got to have Cobra Commander. He's one of the iconic characters and you just don't want to have him missing from your collection. So everybody wants a Cobra Commander. Let's take a look at Cobra Commander's file cards and we have several file cards to look at. When you first mailed away for a Cobra Commander in 1982 you would have got a file card that was playing on the back like this. Later versions had a red back. I don't have the red back version but this is a file card from the mail away Cobra Commander. In 1983 when Cobra Commander was released on a card in the stores his file card was printed on the back of the packaging so you were encouraged to cut that out and keep it. And then when you mailed away for the hooded Cobra Commander in 1984 you got a card that also had a plain back. It also had this white border with a flag point up here which unfortunately was cut out on this one. One minor difference between the card art and the actual action figure is that the portrait of Cobra Commander on this file card has a Cobra symbol on his cowl which was not on the action figure itself. The text of these file cards are almost identical so I'm just going to read one of them here. This says Cobra Commander codename Enemy Leader and of course Enemy Leader is more his role not his codename. The title Cobra Commander was always treated kind of as his name they just called him Cobra Commander. His file name is classified his primary military specialty is intelligence his secondary military specialty is ordnance and in parentheses experimental weaponry. His birthplace is classified and his grade is commander in chief so he is like the president of Cobra. This section here says absolute power total control of the world it's people wealth and resources that's the objective of Cobra Commander this fanatical leader rules with an iron fist he demands total loyalty and allegiance his main battle plan comma for world control comma there's an extra comment here I think that's a typo in fact on the hooded Cobra Commander card that is actually fixed they took out the extra commas there his main battle plan for world control relies on revolution and chaos he personally led uprisings in the Middle East Southeast Asia and other trouble spots responsible for kidnapping scientists businessmen and military leaders then forcing them to reveal their top level secrets it's funny that it mentions the Middle East Southeast Asia because in the 1970s and early 80s those are the places where the United States had the most difficulty in its foreign policy it's kind of hinted that Cobra Commander is responsible for all the problems that the United States has had in those regions of the world this bottom section says Cobra Commander is hatred and evil personified corrupt a man without scruples probably the most dangerous man alive the personality that's depicted on the file card is pretty simple he's evil he's just plain evil but I think that raises a more interesting question which is how does a person become so evil? what motivates him? why is he the way he is? in the comic book Cobra Commander's ideology is a little bit muddled but it seems to mostly draw from the extreme right wing not only does the file card make him out to be kind of like the new Hitler but in the comic book especially in the earlier issues Cobra used a lot of Nazi imagery I really like Cobra Commander as the leader of the enemy of GI Joe and I like him not just because he's so evil but because he's so smart as he was depicted in the first issue of the GI Joe comic book he was a step ahead of the Joe team pretty much at every point he's highly intelligent and charismatic a person of lesser intelligence simply could not accomplish what he has accomplished which is build an international network to take over the world his goals may be evil but he is a man possessed of uncommon intelligence ambition and ability but of course that's why he must be stopped because if he succeeds that will mean the end of freedom and the domination of worldwide fascism that's my review of the 1982, 1983 and 1984 Cobra Commander I hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you didn't go ahead and give it a thumbs down that's what it's there for but don't forget to subscribe because I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them I'll catch you later