 Hello everybody, HoodedCobraCommander788 here, and jingle my bells! It's time for the annual Reviewing of the Snake Eyes, which seems to have become a tradition on this channel. I have attempted to review Snake Eyes twice on this channel, and both times it has not turned out well. The first attempt was one of the first videos I ever uploaded to this channel. I hadn't quite worked out my style and technique yet. The second attempt, the camera was all wonky, the aspect ratio was off, my editing software wasn't working right for me, and it looks terrible, don't go watch it. This time I'm going to do it right, I feel good about it, and I'm going to look at the second version of Snake Eyes from 1985, probably the best known version of Snake Eyes. I'm not even going to hide the fact that I love this toy, this is a great toy, so let's go ahead and look at it. This is the second version of Snake Eyes, GI Joe's Commando. This version of Snake Eyes was first available in 1985, and was also sold in 1986. It was discontinued for the year 1987, and he did not have a direct replacement in 1987. But you might consider Jinx to be his replacement, she was a new GI Joe Ninja. The next version of Snake Eyes did not come out until 1989, so for a couple years there was no Snake Eyes on the shelves. The first version of Snake Eyes came out in 1982 as part of the first wave of GI Joe action figures when the line was relaunched that year. Now this 1982 version of Snake Eyes was updated in 1983 to add a new point of articulation on the arms and to give him a new waist piece. One of Snake Eyes's defining characteristics is that he does not speak. According to the GI Joe comic book, he cannot speak due to some tragic events. The character of Snake Eyes was very popular right from the beginning in 1982, and by 1985 he was an integral part of the GI Joe mythos. And his background was tied in with the 1984 Cobra Ninja Storm Shadow. Let's take a look at Snake Eyes' accessories. He comes, of course, with an Uzi submachine gun, and an Uzi is an Israeli submachine gun that has been around for a long time, at least since the 1950s. And this is a pretty accurate sculpt of that real-world weapon. The 1982 Snake Eyes also came with an Uzi, and this is Snake Eyes' signature weapon. The sculpt on that original Uzi is very similar to the one that came with the 1985 Snake Eyes. Most notably, the barrel on the 1985 Uzi is thicker than the barrel that came with the 1982 and 1983 Snake Eyes, but it would be very easy to get these mixed up. Here are the two Uzis together for comparison. The 1985 Uzi is a darker black color than the original, but other than that they are very similar. They are so similar that they could have just given Snake Eyes the same old Uzi. They are essentially the same toy. Snake Eyes' next accessory is his sword, and this is a very cool sword. It holsters in the backpack like that, and that's a very cool feature. I would have been happy to see that feature more often. Even though Snake Eyes is a ninja and a master with Japanese sword, this does not look like a Japanese sword. I think this looks more like a scimitar with this curved blade that's thicker here toward the end with this sort of ornate guard. I don't know why Snake Eyes would be carrying around a scimitar, but I think it's a good choice. It's a very cool looking sword. Snake Eyes can grip his sword in his hand so he can have battles with his sometimes nemesis storm shadow. Snake Eyes' next accessory is his backpack. The original version of Snake Eyes did not come with a backpack. Instead, he came with this explosive pack which he could sling over his shoulder. The backpack pegs into his back like any other G.I. Joe backpack, and it has a minimal detail. It has some texture up here at the top. It looks like it has a buckle, a couple of pouches, and then of course it has these teeth here, and that is where you can store the sword. The next accessory I'm not even sure qualifies as an accessory. Snake Eyes came with a wolf that the file card says is named Timber. In both the G.I. Joe cartoon and comic book, Snake Eyes is associated with a wolf. So the wolf has become part of the Snake Eyes legend. This wolf figure Timber is not articulated. It is a solid piece of plastic, and it's done in a light gray with just the little bit of a white paint wash on the belly, which is just slightly lighter than the color of the plastic. But this is a very nice sculpt, lots of detail in the fur and the face of the wolf just looks fierce. I don't think Timber should be called a pet. I don't think any wolf is really a pet, but he is an animal companion. Snake Eyes is not the first G.I. Joe figure to come with a dog. The first was Mud, who came with Junkyard. Now Junkyard is also not a pet, and not really an animal companion. He is a trained working dog. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Snake Eyes, and the first thing to note is he is black. This figure is made up of entirely black plastic with a little bit of paint for accent. Now the first version of Snake Eyes was also made of entirely black plastic, and he didn't even have any paint. So the theme of Snake Eyes is he's black. One reason the original Snake Eyes was so popular is because he was a figure dressed all in black, wearing a black mask, and with a mysterious background. So of course you're going to make the next version of Snake Eyes dressed all in black as well. I mean it wouldn't be Snake Eyes if he wasn't wearing black. Nobody would be silly enough to issue a Snake Eyes in some crazy other colors, right? I mean that would be just unheard of. On his head, Snake Eyes is wearing a mask that entirely obscures his head, and over his eyes and his nose he's wearing this dark gray visor. The original version of Snake Eyes were goggles, but I think most people now are more familiar with Snake Eyes with this visor. This head sculpt features sculpted lips on the mask, and that really does not look right. That is not featured on the file card, and I think these sculpted lips led to some unfortunate design choices on the Snake Eyes costume for the movie Rise of Cobra. The comic book Snake Eyes wore his mask because his face was hideously disfigured, but when he was not in battle sometimes he would wear a rubber realistic face mask so he would look normal. Based on that we know that Snake Eyes is Caucasian and he had blonde hair, but anytime someone would see his face without the mask they would freak out in terror. It was just so hideous and horrifying. On his chest Snake Eyes is wearing a black shirt, of course, and he has this dark gray bandolier that goes over one shoulder, and on that he has three sculpted grenades. Now I do think grenades were an overused detail on these G.I. Joe action figures, but in this case it looks pretty good. That strap continues around to the back and is a bit plain on the back, but that's okay. You don't want to overdo it on detail. You want to have a nice clean, elegant design on your action figure. On his arms he has long black sleeves and black gloves and he has pouches strapped to his upper arms and on his left wrist he has a watch and on his right wrist he has a silver, looks like a dart shooter. This wrist-mounted dart gun I think is a nice detail. It looks really cool and this little spot of silver is the only part of the action figure that is not black or dark gray, but I think that's alright. This little spot of silver on the action figure just enhances the design a little bit, makes the figure seem a little bit more important. Now if they had overdone it with a lot of silver, I think that would have detracted from the overall design of the figure. On his waist piece Snake Eyes is wearing two dark gray belts with pouches and of course those belts go all the way around to the back and this outer belt is slung kind of low and that goes to the pistol holster on his right leg. On his legs he does have that dark gray holster and pistol on his right leg both painted the same color and on his left leg he has a strap and a dagger so he's pretty well armed. On his lower legs he has more pouches strapped to his ankles and he has pretty basic black boots. Let's take a look at Snake Eyes' file card and this file card is much updated from his 1982 file card but it has some similarities. It has his faction as G.I. Joe and it has a portrait of Snake Eyes here and this is a really nice portrait. This is some great card art. In fact this may be some of my favorite card art in all of G.I. Joe. It says he is the commando and his codename is Snake Eyes. The commando is referring to Elite Light Infantry or Special Forces so if you're a commando then you're some kind of badass. Note the hyphenated codename Snake Eyes. His original file card did not have a hyphen and I think the accepted codename is without the hyphen so I don't know how that hyphen snuck in there. His file name is classified and his primary MOS is Infantry and I think this is interesting. MOS stands for Military Occupational Specialty but most G.I. Joe file cards did not use that abbreviation that just referred to primary and secondary military specialty. Secondary military specialty is Hand to Hand Combat Instructor, Birth's Place is also classified and his grade is E5. With all this information classified we have a very mysterious character in Snake Eyes. We really don't know very much about who he is. This section says subjects served in long range recon patrols in Southeast Asia left the service to study mystic martial arts with the same ninja family that produced Storm Shadow. Snake Eyes was living an ascetic existence alone in the high sierras with a pet wolf named Timber when he was recruited for the G.I. Joe team. This section essentially follows the storyline of the G.I. Joe comic book and I'm really glad that it does. The stories of Snake Eyes' background in the comic book is some of the best written stories in all of G.I. Joe media. The card talks about Snake Eyes serving in a long range recon patrol in Southeast Asia and this is referring to Snake Eyes' service in Vietnam where he was in a long range recon patrol with Stalker who later became a member of the G.I. Joe team and his then friend Storm Shadow. Another member of that same long range recon patrol later became a Cobra Crimson Guardsman. Snake Eyes was recruited for the G.I. Joe team by his old war buddy Stalker and I see these guys as lifelong friends. I think these guys are inseparable. They've seen a lot of history together. The card does refer to a pet wolf named Timber and again, I really don't think a wolf is a pet. Let's give the animal some credit. This is a wild animal. We're not talking about a domesticated dog. This section says qualified expert, all NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms, black belt in 12 different fighting systems and highly skilled in the use of edged weapons. This section partially repeats some information from the original file card where it says he's a qualified expert in all NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms and it says Snake Eyes is proficient in 12 different unarmed fighting systems and it lists three of them Karate, Kung Fu and Jiu Jitsu and it says he's highly skilled in the use of edged weapons. This bottom section has a quote. It says, Snake Eyes was tempered on the anvil of life until he was as dangerous as a razor edged sword flailing in the dark. The G.I. Joe team sheaves that sword and harnessed its deadly energy but even they are want to forget that even within the safety of its scabbard, the blade retains its cutting edge. This quote is very well written and almost poetic and I think it makes a good point. Snake Eyes is a very dangerous individual. He's a dangerous person fighting on the side of truth, justice and the American way but if he ever decided to go rogue, he could do a lot of killing and there's not much you could do to stop him. Snake Eyes has appeared all over the place in G.I. Joe media. He's essentially appeared in all forms of G.I. Joe media since he was introduced in 1982. He's a very popular character. In the G.I. Joe cartoon, Snake Eyes has a very good start in the first miniseries, a real American hero in 1983. In the G.I. Joe cartoon, Snake Eyes had a very good start in the first miniseries, a real American hero in 1983. In that miniseries, he met the wolf Timber after he had been exposed to radioactive crystals on a mission. Snake Eyes rescued Timber from a bear trap and after that the wolf was loyal to him. Later episodes got a little bit doofy when they had Snake Eyes break dancing and cross dressing. It was in the G.I. Joe comic book where Snake Eyes' story was really told. He had a two issue origin story in which we learned that his family was killed in a tragic car accident. We also learned about Snake Eyes' service in Vietnam with Stalker and Storm Shadow. After that he trained as a ninja with Storm Shadow's family. Zartan, the master of disguise, assassinated the hard master, Storm Shadow's uncle, and the leader of that ninja clan. We learned later that Zartan was really aiming to kill Snake Eyes and killed the hard master by mistake. Before joining the G.I. Joe team, Snake Eyes lived in a cabin in the High Sierras and he had a wolf companion. According to the G.I. Joe comic book, Snake Eyes lost his voice and had his face hideously mangled in a helicopter accident while saving his G.I. Joe teammate, Scarlet. For a kid's comic book in the 1980s, that was a very shocking and tragic scene. That helicopter crash was a reference to Operation Eagle Claw which was a mission by Delta Force in 1980 to free U.S. Embassy hostages in Tehran. That mission failed and it ended in a fiery helicopter crash just like in the comic book. In the comic book, at least in the early issues, G.I. Joe is analogous to Delta Force. In fact, in G.I. Joe issue number one, the team is referred to as Special Counterterrorist Group Delta, codenamed G.I. Joe. The comic book version of Snake Eyes' story had so much more depth than anything we got in the animated series and it was heartbreaking. Snake Eyes was portrayed kind of as a tragic figure. Disaster and misfortune seemed to follow him everywhere he went. Snake Eyes is probably the best developed character in all of G.I. Joe. So many pages of the comic book are dedicated to telling his story. Now later on, Snake Eyes did get overused. He suffered from overexposure. But in 1985, he was still fresh and G.I. Joe had not gone ninja crazy, which it would later. In the comic book, Snake Eyes was romantically involved with Scarlett, who was the only woman member of the team at the time. But in the animated series, Scarlett was romantically linked with Duke, who was the team leader at the time. If Scarlett has to be romantically hooked up with someone, I much prefer the pairing of Scarlett with Snake Eyes by like 1,000%. I think Scarlett would be more interested in the mystery man than the macho man. Looking at Snake Eyes overall, what a great figure. He's all black and black is beautiful. He looks like he means all business. And these additional details are a big improvement over the first version. The first version of Snake Eyes had very few unique parts, like a lot of other 1982 figures. He shared parts with a lot of other figures. But not this version of Snake Eyes. He had all unique parts with some excellent sculpting. The figure is detailed, but he's not overly detailed, and that is perfect. The designer understood that if you're gonna do an all black figure like this, you gotta keep them relatively simple. If you do too much detail, a lot of that detail is going to be lost. It's not gonna stand out. But this very subtle dark gray paint, just in spots here and there, brings out those details perfectly. It's a very nice subtle contrast against the black. Let's talk about accessories. These are fantastic accessories. He has a wicked looking sword. He has his signature weapon, which is exactly as it should be. He has an adequate backpack, which is made even better by the fact that you can store the sword on it. And the inclusion of Timber allows you to recreate some of those great scenes from the cartoon and the comic books. Snake Eyes is thought of as a tragic figure, heroic, sympathetic, noble, but he's chosen a life of violence. He could have left that life behind, but he followed his friend to become a ninja, and later he followed his old buddy stalker to G.I. Joe. He is capable of killing without hesitation or mercy. He may be noble, but he is also dangerous. In recent G.I. Joe comic books, not the old Marvel run, but comic books that are currently being sold, Larry Hama has written The Death of Snake Eyes. I haven't read The Death of Snake Eyes. I eventually will. I don't really follow the modern comic books, but I'll eventually pick it up. But based on what I've read about it, I think it was an appropriate decision. It was time. Snake Eyes has had a great run, but it was about time to let him go. How would I rate this figure? The top tier, of course. Are you kidding me? This is an iconic figure and it deserves to be. This is skillful use of minimal color. This figure knows exactly what it is. It does one thing and it does it well. No goofy color schemes or spring loaded weapons. This is just pure fuel for a kid's imagination. That was my review of the 1985 version two of Snake Eyes. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you're thinking of getting one of these figures, I hope you found it informative. If you liked it, don't forget to leave it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe. I've got a lot of great new G.I. Joe toy reviews coming up. You don't want to miss them. And don't forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. You get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week with another vintage G.I. Joe toy review. Snake Eyes.