 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and I'm back with another Vintage G.I. Cho toy review and this time we are doing another fan favorite. This is none other than Firefly. Firefly was introduced in 1984, he was also sold in 1985, he was discontinued in 1986 and there was not a second version of Firefly until 1992, which is really strange for such a popular character. Let's take a look at Firefly's accessories starting with his backpack and his backpack is really awesome. This may be my favorite backpack of all time. The backpack came in two parts, it had this cover, this toolbox cover and I'm going to take a look at that as well. As you can see this backpack has a ton of sculpted detail, it has some pouches, it has some dynamite sticks, looks like a blasting cap, maybe a smoke grenade. Inside we've got some pliers, a screwdriver, some other tools, a little mini hammer. That is a lot of minute detail in this backpack, some great sculpted detail and I think that looks really cool. Of course Firefly is a saboteur so these are the tools of his trade. These are the tools he would use to demolish or incapacitate enemy equipment. And on the inside of the cover of the toolbox there's some more detail, looks like there's a socket wrench in there. There's more tools that he would use to destroy GI Joe equipment. On the backside of the backpack there are these recessed kind of criss cross marks and those match the straps on his back. This is a pretty awesome backpack and usually you can find this backpack with Firefly. It's not that rare, it doesn't seem to get lost that often. Even though you might expect for this toolbox cover to be lost frequently, usually I can find the backpack with the cover. But Firefly does have some frequently lost accessories. One, his submachine gun. This is a green submachine gun. There have been other versions of this weapon released in accessory packs in different colors, for instance this white version. But the original for Firefly is this kind of olive drab green. As for a real world weapon this looks like a beefed up version of the Smith and Wesson M76 submachine gun. It kind of looks like it, it has the air holes in the barrel like this, but the M76 has kind of a longer and thinner body and a different kind of folding stock. But I do think that's the closest you can get to this toy machine gun. The Smith and Wesson M76 was produced in this green color, so that again suggests that this is a toy version of that weapon. This is a light weapon which is perfect for a saboteur because he will be infiltrating enemy bases and he wants to travel light, and if he does any shooting it'll probably be close quarters, so he'll want a small caliber light submachine gun. The green submachine gun is a little bit difficult to find, but the really rare accessory is the walkie talkie. Firefly came with this green walkie talkie, it looks like a standard walkie talkie, it's got a very thin antenna on it, and this is almost always lost. This can run you a pretty penny if you're trying to replace it, and yeah, this can be somewhat rare. If you are looking for a firefly and you want a complete firefly, he needs the green walkie talkie. I've seen a lot of pictures on yojo.com and 3djoes.com where the walkie talkie is in firefly's hand, but I cannot fit this walkie talkie in my firefly's hand. It is pretty thick, and I'm concerned that if I keep trying to force it, I'll either break the very expensive rare accessory, or I'll break the action figure's thumb, and I don't want to do either, so I don't put it in his hand, I just kind of put it away somewhere safe where it won't get lost. In case you're wondering, the walkie talkie does not fit in the toolbox for storage, which is unfortunate. That would be great if it could, but you can't store it there. Let's look at the articulation of firefly. He had the typical articulation of 1984 GI Joe action figures, which means he could turn his head left to right, no ball joint, just a swivel at the neck. He could lift his arm up about so far. He could swivel it all the way around at the shoulder. He had a hinge at the elbow, so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees, and he had a swivel at the bicep, so he could swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring in the middle, so he could move at the torso a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees, and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpt color and design of firefly, and right off the bat, you notice he has this really amazing gray camouflage. He has a combination of light and dark gray camouflage, and that looks really awesome. It's also perfect for his job as a saboteur. He's going to need to be camouflaged in urban areas or on military bases. He's going to have to blend in with equipment that's made of metal or installations made of concrete, so a gray camouflage scheme is perfect. On his head, he has this balaclava-style mask, and this mask is sometimes associated with ninjas. Originally, firefly was not a ninja, but in later comic book stories, they did turn firefly into a ninja, and I'm totally opposed to that. Firefly does not need to be a ninja, and there just don't need to be any extra ninjas in G.I. Joe. You don't need to retcon these other characters that are awesome in their own right into being ninjas. Ninjas in G.I. Joe are fine. You just got to be careful not to overdo it. And turning firefly into a ninja, I think, is an example of ninja creep. There is a color variation in the eyes. Some fireflies were made with brown eyes, and others were made with black eyes. This appears to be the black eye version, and my other firefly, it looks like it might be the brown eye version, but the brown is dark enough that you can hardly tell a difference between the black and the brown. Really I do sometimes like to get variations, but a variation in the eye color like that is not a significant enough change that I would go out and seek it. On his chest you can see he has kind of a double shirt. He has an undershirt on there with what looks like a turtleneck, and he has an overshirt, and he has these crisscross straps that connect to his backpack in the back, and on the front he has some grenades, and I think that's fine. I do think they overdid grenades on the action figures, but it makes sense that he would have this many grenades because his job is to blow things up. He's got some pouches, what looks like sticks of dynamite there. One thing that is a little bit weird is that the camouflage pattern continues over the grenades and pouches, almost as if he painted the grenades and pouches to match the camouflage of his shirt, which isn't really very realistic, it probably would have been nice if they had masked that, or given these a different color, maybe the dark gray color for all of it, but that's okay. I love the camouflage pattern enough that I will overlook that, it's still pretty awesome. On his right arm he has a small cobra sigil, which is a little bit unusual since the file card makes it clear that Firefly is a mercenary, he's not a member of Cobra, he's not a direct Cobra agent, he's just somebody hired by Cobra to do certain jobs, but he does have a Cobra symbol on his shirt. Now I'm wondering if this is maybe some kind of requirement for Cobra, for their non-agents to have the Cobra symbol, for instance Scrapiron, also released in 1984, also has this Cobra symbol on his right arm, and he's not directly a Cobra agent, he works for Destro, but a more likely explanation is the Hasbro designers wanted to designate these guys as bad guys, so they just put Cobra symbols on them. On his right wrist he has a knife, that's pretty cool, he has dark gray gloved hands, on his left wrist he has these kind of boxes, either some kind of electronics, or maybe pouches, little mini pouches, not really sure. His waist piece is fairly plain, he has a belt with some more pouches, pretty plain on the back, he has a back pocket, even Firefly needs some place to keep his wallet. On his right leg he has a very nicely sculpted pistol with a holster, and on his left leg he has what look like timers for bombs, and finally he has some really wicked looking boots with some extra straps on them, those are pretty awesome looking boots. Let's take a look at Firefly's file card, and these file cards were printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged. On the other side there's normally, you know, part of the front of the card, but it's completely ripped away on this one. This is a really poor example of a file card, since it has the printing ripped away on the opposite side, it's very thin, it's also got some kind of a stain on it, it's clipped off in parts. Not a great version of the file card, but even though I like to have file cards, once I have a readable version of a file card, I don't usually go out of my way to find a pristine version, so this is probably the version of Firefly's file card that I'll stick with for a while. By the way, it is very hard to say Firefly's file card, say that five times fast. It says here he is the Obra Saboteur, that should say Cobra Saboteur, unfortunately we've got a corner clipped out here. His codename is Firefly, it has a nice portrait of him from the card art. His faction is Cobra, even though he is a mercenary, he does have the Cobra symbol and he works for Cobra. His file name is classified, his primary military specialty is Sabotage, Demolitions, and Terror, and his birthplace is classified. Sabotage is the disruption of enemy operations through covert means, so essentially Firefly sneaks in and he blows things up. This section says, no one knows what Firefly's real name is or what he looks like, he is known by his work, expert in all NATO and Warsaw Pact explosives and detonators, always places his charges in the one place that affords maximum damage, there's no question about his infiltration skills as no one has ever reported seeing him enter or leave a target area. In my imagination, since nobody knows what Firefly looks like, once he places his charges he could shed his uniform and his mask and walk out in civilian clothes and no one would be the wiser because nobody knows what he looks like. This bottom section says, even Cobra commander doesn't know much about Firefly, his fees are paid into a numbered Swiss account and are always payable in advance, he makes no guarantees and gives no refund. So this definitely designates him as a mercenary, when it talks about numbered Swiss bank account, that's referring to the numbered account that certain countries including Switzerland have, that keep the owner of the account's identity a secret. These accounts are often used for money laundering and illegal activities although there are international laws applied to these accounts in more recent years so they're not quite as secretive as they used to be. So what do I think of Firefly overall? First of all, the action figure looks awesome, I mean just look at him, how amazing is this guy, he's got the grey camouflage, he's got the green gun and walkie talkie, he has possibly my favorite backpack of the entire vintage line, just amazing, just really well designed, a great character, a great action figure, I love him. The comic book portrayal, at least in the early comic books, didn't really live up to the awesomeness of the action figure, essentially Firefly ended up getting captured a lot, which doesn't make him all that good of a ninja. As for later portrayals of Firefly where he's a ninja, I can live without that. As far as his portrayal in the animated series, I can't really comment on that because I was never a big fan of the animated series. My favorite portrayal of Firefly was from the G.I. Joe Retaliation movie where I think he was treated very well and you've got to admit when you first saw that guy walk in with that grey camouflage and mask and you realized who it was, you probably had some kind of involuntary bodily reaction, it was just that awesome. The portrayal of Firefly in Retaliation was a departure from the file card since he did take his mask off quite frequently, but you know what, I'll take that because he did fulfill his role as a saboteur and an explosives expert and the important thing is he was not a ninja. That was my review of the 1984 Cobra Saboteur Firefly, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, make sure you give it a thumbs up on YouTube and make sure you subscribe. I've got a lot of great new G.I. Joe action figure and vehicle reviews coming up, you do not want to miss them. Also make sure you like the Facebook page, you get some updates there that you don't get anywhere else. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. Let's take a look at Firefly's file card. Firefly's file card.