 Hello, and welcome to Cobra Convergence 3. I'm coming to you from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I'm here for Jo-Con. That's Chattanooga right outside this window. I know you can only see a tree, but it's a tree in Chattanooga. This is the third year of Cobra Convergence, and it's the biggest one yet. We have more creators to bring you Cobra videos in July. It's my privilege to kick it off. Before we get started, I want to thank John Carling for the title card art. He sent me this t-shirt with his art on it. He has a wicked, cool art style. And hey, he has his own website at johncarling.com. Thank you, John, and everyone, you've got to check this artist out. Right now I'm coming to you from my hotel room in Chattanooga. I will be going to Jo-Con later, and I'm taking Cobra Convergence with me. Now, Cobra Convergence will be a little different this year. Hey, Steve! I'm ready for whatever you want to throw at me. Let's do this! I'm loaded for bear! Uh...what? I've got guns, I've got grenades, I even got a freaking magic wand! Let's do this! Rectum Simpra! Timmer! I even got a matching bulletproof underwear! Uh, Timmer! I feel like I can take on the whole empire myself! Woo! Let's do this! Wakanda Forever! Leroy! Timmer! Jenkins! What? I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we're not doing a storyline this year. W-we're not? Okay. I'll remember this, Steve. My name's not Steve. Forget it. Let's just go to Jo-Con and get Cobra Convergence 2018 started. F***ing review, and the kickoff of Cobra Convergence 3. I just got back to my hotel from the last Jo-Con. It has been an emotional day, I can tell you. The theme for Cobra Convergence this year is underrated villains. I have to say a special thanks to everyone who's participating this year. You guys are going to be blown away by all the cool stuff we have coming up this month. We're starting out by looking at Cobra Commander, version 3, from 1987. Cobra Commander is a character that's pretty important to me. It's the name of this channel. This figure was a drastic departure from the traditional look of Cobra Commander. You might not expect me to think this is an underrated villain. You might not expect me to like this figure at all. But to me, this isn't Cobra Commander. This figure represents someone else, an imposter. The story behind the battle armor Cobra Commander is the story of a brazen con. It caused major turmoil in the ranks of Cobra. Ultimately, it led to the demise of the imposter and the return of the real Cobra Commander. The story is far more interesting to me than the figure itself. Let's start Cobra Convergence 3 by looking at that top man himself. HCC788 presents Cobra Commander. This is the 1987 Cobra Commander, version 3, with battle armor. This figure was first introduced in 1987 and was also available in 1988 and was discontinued for the year 1989. This is the third version of Cobra Commander and it was a radical departure from the first two versions. The first version of Cobra Commander was released as a mail away offer in 1982. You couldn't pick it up at retail, you had to send away for it. Like all 1982 figures, it was a straight arm figure, meaning it had articulation at the elbows but no swivel at the bicep. Unlike most other 1982 figures, Cobra Commander had all unique parts. In 1983, Cobra Commander was released again as a carded figure that you could buy at retail. The articulation was updated to add the arm swivel which all 1983 figures had. This is referred to as version 1.5. Unlike the earliest releases, version 1.5 did not have all unique parts. It shared arms with the Cobra officer. In 1984, another mail away Cobra Commander was released, the hooded Cobra Commander. Version 2 of Cobra Commander copied the body of version 1.5 but changed the color to a darker blue and added some gold highlights. The head was updated to give him the cowl that he often wore in the cartoon and comic books. Version 2 of Cobra Commander was never released at retail, it was only available through the mail. These two versions of Cobra Commander influenced almost every later version of the character except for version 3. Version 3 shared no elements with its predecessors. In 1987, they gave him electronic battle armor and turned him into Iron Man. There were a couple other versions of Cobra Commander in the vintage era that departed pretty radically from the first two versions but that's not a subject for this video. Cobra Commander of course was the supreme leader of Cobra, the ruthless terrorist organization that menaced GI Joe. That is, until he wasn't. In 1986, a new element was introduced, Serpentor, the Cobra Emperor. For a while, they shared power but eventually Serpentor won out. His reign was short-lived though, you can't keep the one and true commander down. The transition from Cobra Commander to Serpentor and back requires some explanation but I'll save that for the media section later in this video. How did fans react to such a radical change to an important character? Well, if you follow the GI Joe comic book, you may not even consider version 3 to be Cobra Commander. That requires some explanation too. We'll get to it but let's finish looking at the figure first. The first Cobra Commander figure was designed by Ron Rudat as most early GI Joe figures were. The file card was written by Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series. It was in the comic series that the character was fleshed out. Larry Hama has said he based Cobra Commander on William F. Buckley, a famous political pundit. The idea that Cobra Commander, a boisterous demagogue in love with the sound of his own voice, was based on William F. Buckley is hilarious. Why is he called Cobra Commander? Surely that's his title, not his name. It betrays a lack of creativity in the early bad guys. His first file card just has his codename as Enemy Leader. In my mind, the name Cobra Commander tells you everything you need to know about him. His real name is irrelevant. Through the comic books, we know a lot about Cobra Commander's backstory. But what does it matter if his name is Bill or Bob or Sam? His personal identity has been suppressed and Cobra Commander is the only part of him that matters. On this show, we normally look at vintage GI Joe figures, meaning figures that were released from 1982 to 1994. Since this is a special occasion, I'll be looking at a couple later versions of this figure. I have version 22 from 2005, which came with a comic book 3-pack including Zartan and Zirana. It had the same body as version 3, but a different head. I also have version 28, the 25th anniversary figure from 2008. This is a modern figure. It copies the look of version 3, but with an entirely new body and updated articulation. Thanks to Larry Loera for donating both of these figures to the channel. Let's take a look at Cobra Commander's accessories starting with his weapon. He came with what the card contents call an auto assault pistol. It is black. It looks like a machine pistol. It has a magazine and a short barrel. It also has a scope. It looks like something out of Star Wars. That happened a lot with Cobra accessories. They tended to be more futuristic and sci-fi than GI Joe team accessories. The pistol is fine, but rather forgettable. Earlier versions of Cobra Commander had the Venom laser pistol. It was simpler and kind of goofy, but it had style. It's an accessory that makes anyone look good. The next accessory is what the card contents call a life support backpack. This backpack is in silver plastic. It has a bunch of points and spikes on it and no other real detail. This backpack is supposed to have the electronics for the battle armor. The card art seems to indicate this backpack should go on with the two points facing up. However, I have seen reference photos with the backpack the other way around. And if you follow the contour on the back side of the backpack, it does more closely match the figure upside down. The last accessory isn't listed on the card and was attached to the figure in the bubble, but it is removable and I think it should count as an accessory. It's a black connector hose that runs from the front of the helmet at the mouth around to the right side. It is not glued in or permanently affixed in any way. You can just pop it out of the side and then pull it out of the mouth part of the helmet. And it's totally removed now. It's easily the most frequently missing part and can be frustrating to collect. It isn't the rarest GI Joe accessory by a long shot, but you will see dozens and dozens of Cobra Commanders without the hose before you find one that has it. This is the kind of thing I encourage collectors to skip unless you're a completist and require every figure to be complete with original accessories. In this case with the hose missing, the open hole at the mouth makes Cobra Commander look slackjawed. I would prefer an attachment like this to not be removable. I think I know why they went with a separate piece. The head is molded front to back. You can even see the seam. If they had made it a molded on detail and painted it black, it would have lost some of the ridge detail on the side of the head. Personally though, I want hoses and microphones to be molded in rather than removable. I'll accept the loss of detail. Let's take a look at the articulation on Cobra Commander version 3. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1987. 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. This is an O-ring figure, meaning 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 could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpted design and color of Cobra Commander starting with his head and his head looks like a bucket. He has a silver helmet. He has an open port for the eyes. He has a hole at the mouth and a knob on the right side of the helmet for the hose connector. The helmet is elongated in the back like a bicycle helmet. Why does it look like this? Is it inspired by Darth Vader? Were they trying to replicate the look of Cobra Commander's hood? Whatever the reason, it makes the figure's profile look bizarre. It's unbalanced and distracting. There's a sculpted-on red Cobra emblem on the forehead of the helmet that's actually sculpted on, not just painted, so that's a nice bit of extra effort. It's a slightly simplified Cobra emblem and that harkens back to the simplified Cobra emblem on the Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander. This may be the closest link to the original figure. Next we have the chest and the chest is also pretty strange. We have a base blue color and that is pretty Cobra Commander-like. This blue cloth, the file card says, is bulletproof polymer fabric. On top of that, we have some silver armor details. This T-shaped silver piece is too narrow to be a proper chest plate. We have some silver buttons on the left side. According to the comic book, these buttons are used to input a security code that allows the helmet to be removed. He has silver spikes on his shoulders. He has a spot of black just under his neck. He has another black hose on the left side of his body. This one is molded in and painted. His back is mostly blue, but we have a silver plate where the backpack would be. Next we have the arms and the arms are a bit clunky, both in the sculpting and the color. They are mostly silver and we have a lot of just jagged shapes all the way down the arms. We have some spots of black on the upper arms. Then we have the swivels, which are black, but the lower arms are silver. That makes the joint very obvious. Normally this would be a problem for me, but I guess I can forgive it with this figure because this armor is supposed to be kind of robot-like. On his waist piece he has a silver cobra belt buckle. Very nice. He also has a silver cod piece. A lot of cobra figures had cod pieces like this. They're really trying to bring cod pieces back in fashion. He has a belt with a pouch on the right side, a couple straps on the left side that go down to his leg. I've been thinking about what to call the color of this belt because that's the kind of thing I spend time contemplating. I'm going to call this color burgundy. That may not be exactly right, but it's pretty close. On his upper legs he has more of that blue cloth. Most of his legs are covered with silver armor. He has an empty burgundy colored pistol holster on the left side. If you consider this to be an imposter cobra commander, that could explain the dominant hand change. Maybe the imposter is left-handed. He has black ridged details around the knees. This is supposed to be flexible material around the knee joint. When you bend the knee, the hinge is silver. This would normally be a problem for me like the elbows. It makes the joint look rather obvious and kind of ugly. I would expect this hinge to be painted black, but again this is supposed to be robot-like armor, so I guess I can give it a pass on this figure. He has tabs at the knee and the lower thigh that come together when the figure is standing. I wouldn't exactly call these knee pads. The lower legs are segmented and the bottom half of the lower legs are smaller and have vertical ridge details. He also has black boots that are partially covered by silver armor. After looking at the figure from top to bottom, I have to ask, why is this cobra commander? If this figure wasn't called cobra commander on the packaging, you wouldn't suspect that's who it's supposed to be. Was it originally intended to be a different character? Others have speculated that maybe this figure was planned to be somebody else, and I have to share in that speculation. This just doesn't seem like cobra commander. Let's take a look at cobra commander's file card, which was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure is packaged. We have his faction as cobra, obviously. We have a portrait of cobra commander here. His codename is cobra commander with battle armor. His filename is classified, always. This top paragraph says, cobra commander likes to be upfront in the thick of the action when his vipers, eels, and cgs confront the GI Joe team. The card references vipers, eels, and cgs, meaning crimson guard. Some GI Joe fans may believe this character ought properly be wearing this uniform. To protect their leader in the heat of battle, the best technical minds of Destro's armament factory created a special suit of body armor that combines flexible bulletproof polymer fabrics with beryllium steel plate components. Here it references Destro, Cobra's weapons manufacturer, introduced in 1983. The entire suit is air conditioned, solvent resistant, and ray shielded. Ray shielded so you have to use proton torpedoes. The helmet is fitted with an integral commo system, internal readouts for environmental quality, and a miniaturized computer display. This bottom section has a quote. It says, at least we don't have to worry about cobra outfitting whole units with these suits. Each one costs about as much as a jet fighter. The plate parts can withstand a direct hit from a heavy machine gun, and the flexible parts will stop anything up to a .357 magnum. We suspect that the helmet has an anti-temper device with a direct hookup to half a pound of plastic explosives. This file card is mostly about the battle armor. Only a little part of the first paragraph says anything about Cobra Commander. His first file card made sure to point out how super duper evil he is. There have been literally dozens of Cobra Commander figures released after the vintage run. Most are based on the first two versions, but there have been a few attempts to recreate the battle armor Cobra Commander. One such attempt was in 2005. Cobra Commander version 22 came packaged with Zartan and Zirana, and a reprint of issue number 74 of the comic book. That's a good issue because it comes from the epic Cobra Civil War story arc. That's still one of my favorite comic book stories. The reprint is on thicker, glossier paper, and it includes the map of Cobra Island in the back. It's not a bad way to read that comic. The 2005 figure entirely reuses the body of the 1987 figure but with a different head. The colors are more muted and pastel. Instead of one pistol, he now has two guns, but still no working holster, and now he has no backpack. Most importantly, the helmet is now removable. Take it off to reveal the face of Cobra Commander. Actually, this is the face of Fred Seven, the imposter Cobra Commander. He was the person wearing the uniform in the comic book packed with the figure. Notice that the hose is now molded onto the helmet and not removable. The shape of the helmet is now different, which is good in one way. It doesn't have the protrusion at the back, or at least it's much less pronounced. In another way, it isn't so good. The helmet is longer, probably to make sure it entirely covers the figure's face, but it gives the helmet a droopy look. The plastic on this figure is not up to the quality of the vintage figure. It feels cheaper. The joints are either too loose or gummy. This is an attempt to copy the look of the old figure, but not the playability. For this reason, I think this figure was marketed more toward adult collectors rather than kids. The comic book, while a good story, would have been read out of context by any kid picking up the three-pack. That brings us to version 28 from 2008. This was part of the 25th anniversary line and was a single-carded figure. The 25th anniversary figures didn't copy the old vintage toy molds. They replicated the style and the look of the vintage figures, but with updated articulation and sculpting. They were also slightly taller, averaging four inches instead of three and three-quarter inches. The details of the 1987 figure are faithfully translated to modern form. They added almost nothing. The helmet is removable, which is cool. This time, we have a head covered with a black balaclava. You could pretend this is either the real Cobra Commander or the imposter. The hose is once again a removable accessory. The new hose does not fit on the vintage figure, so if you're thinking of swapping them out, that won't work. He has his backpack again, much larger this time, and with some additional details. He has a new gun. He also has a figure stand, which is typical with modern figures. The weirdest thing on this figure is the empty pistol holster. He has a holster on the left side, just like the vintage figure. There's nothing in it, no pistol, and it doesn't fit the gun accessory that comes with them. I know they were trying to update and modernize the vintage figures, but this was an opportunity to fix some of the oddities on the vintage figure. Instead, they just wrote copied the same weird details. I consider that to be a missed opportunity. Looking at how Cobra Commander was used in G.I. Joe Media, he was in the story since the very beginning, but that story takes a bizarre turn before the introduction of the battle armor version. In the second season of the animated series, Cobra got a new leader, Serpentor. Series writer Buzz Dixon has said this was a Hasbro decision, not a decision of the animation team. The decision required the animation team to scrap some ideas they had for the series. Cobra Commander would be pushed aside in favor of the new guy. The conflict between Cobra Commander and Serpentor reached a climax in the 1987 animated movie. In that movie, it was revealed that Cobra had its origin in Cobra Law, an ancient society of mutants that had been hidden away under an ice dome in the Himalayas. Golobulus, the leader of Cobra Law, punished Cobra Commander by transforming him into a snake. I'm not joking, that really happened. As he slowly mutated into a snake, Cobra Commander declared, I was a man. I was once a man. Which technically he wasn't. He was a mutant creature from Cobra Law. It seemed that Cobra Commander was out of the picture permanently, that may have been Hasbro's intention. Except, in 1987, the very same year the movie was released, they gave us a new version of Cobra Commander. Why? Was this figure intended to be released the year before? It doesn't fit very well in the 1986 lineup, since the figure doesn't look anything like the previous versions of Cobra Commander, they could have called this figure anything. They could have made him a vehicle driver and called him helmet viper or something. Were they telegraphing their intention to bring him back? Whatever the plan was, it was derailed by the fact that the Sunbow animated series was cancelled after that 1987 movie. Most 1987 and 1988 figures didn't get animated appearances for that reason. But Battle Armor Cobra Commander did. In 1989, G.I. Joe got a new TV mini-series, Operation Dragonfire. This time it was animated by Deke Entertainment, with a little less effort than we were used to from Sunbow. That series picked up where the movie left off, with Serpentor leading Cobra. In the intervening years, plans apparently changed and it was decided that Cobra's future lied with Cobra Commander, not Serpentor. Cobra Commander returned as a snake man and was given his Battle Armor uniform at that point. Copperhead found the Battle Armor in his hovercraft, and Cobra Commander says it's one of his uniforms. He implies it's an old uniform, but it's not one we had seen him wear before. It's worth noting that this episode aired in 1989 and included 1989 characters and vehicles. But the Battle Armor Cobra Commander was not on the pegs that year. It had been discontinued. They were advertising a toy that kids couldn't go out and buy. With their roles reversed, Serpentor was deposed and turned into an iguana. I'm not joking, that really happened. As in the animated series, Cobra Commander was in the comic book from the very beginning. The origin of the Battle Armor is much more interesting in the comic book. It's a long story, so I'll try to condense it as much as possible. Following Cobra's invasion of G.I. Joe's secret underground base, The Pit, Cobra Commander and Destro got trapped in the collapsed base. That made Serpentor the sole leader of Cobra. C.C. and Destro managed to escape and put on funny disguises, but they didn't immediately return to Cobra Island. Cobra Commander went to Denver, Colorado. He met up with a Crimson Guardsman from the Fred series. Crimson Guardsmen were elite Cobra troopers that also served as a fifth column. Some of them received plastic sugary to make them look alike. Plastic sugary? That doesn't make sense. Oh, typo. They received plastic surgery to make them look alike. Those Crimson Guardsmen were all called Fred. The Crimson Guardsmen in Denver was Fred 7. Fred 7 contributed a few important elements to the comic book story. He invented the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball. The less said about that, the better. Most importantly, he invented Cobra Commander's Battle Armor. The battle armor is straight out of Iron Man. It's a strength-enhancing armor that protects the wearer from attack. It doesn't have all the gadgets of Iron Man armor, but the influence is clear. The real Cobra Commander did wear this armor for a short time. After a confrontation with his son, Billy, Cobra Commander decided to go straight and give up being a world conqueror. That angered Fred 7, who shot him in the back. Cobra Commander was presumed dead, and Fred 7 decided to impersonate Cobra Commander and take over his role as leader of Cobra. That was a ballsy move. They should have sculpted extra room in the crotch of this figure for this guy's big brass balls. Nobody had seen Cobra Commander in the battle armor, so there was no reason for anyone to believe it was really him. The Baroness decided to aid in the deception and use the knowledge of the imposter to her advantage. Fred 7 was a weak leader, though. When civil war broke out between Serpentor and Cobra Commander, Serpentor likely would have prevailed and removed the rival to his power. Zartan intervened and killed Serpentor with an arrow. That allowed the imposter to continue the deception. Eventually it was revealed that the real Cobra Commander was not dead. He returned, looking very much like himself, not wearing battle armor. He also took revenge on all his enemies by sealing them in a landlocked freighter on Cobra Island, then burying that freighter under a dormant volcano. Fred 7 died there. The real Cobra Commander was once again the undisputed leader of the organization he founded. The battle armor is more associated with the imposter than Cobra Commander. The card may say Cobra Commander, but to me, this will always be Fred 7, the imposter. Looking at Cobra Commander Version 3 overall, this is not a top tier figure. This is a middle tier figure for me. As far as Cobra Commander figures go, it's not the worst, but it's far from the best. A proper Cobra Commander should be wearing a hood or a mirrored faceplate. The figure has some decent sculpting and the colors are fine. It could be a deluxe vehicle driver if it weren't Cobra Commander. It kind of reminds me of a blue version of the AVAC Firebat Pilot. The accessories are a bit lacking. I've never been fond of the pistol. The backpack is more of an extension of the battle armor and that hose is infuriatingly easy to lose. Separating the figure from the character though, it makes me think of a compelling storyline in the comic books. By looking at this figure as Fred 7, rather than Cobra Commander, it brings a new element to the table. It brings subterfuge, deception, and conflict. Fred 7 was not remotely qualified to be Cobra Commander, but he approached the situation with the attitude of a con artist. A few people played along because it was in their interests for others to believe he was Cobra Commander. He fought a war against Serpentor and won. This guy ought to be the patron saint of imposters, frauds, and fakes. But I think that brings something intriguing to the story and that's why I think this figure is underrated. That was my review of Cobra Commander Version 3. I hope you enjoyed it. This week we have Cobra Convergence videos coming from FormBX257 and Half the Battle. Make sure you check out their channels so you can see their videos when they go up. There will be more Cobra Convergence videos every week this month. I'll keep you posted. I want to expect each week and I'll be back next Sunday with another Cobra Review. It's Cobra Month all month on this channel. I'm doing something special this year. If you want to contribute to Cobra Convergence, you can. Just send me your contribution and I will put it in a montage at the end of each of my videos this month. I made an instruction video so watch that to find out how to contribute. Thanks again John Carling for the title card artwork this week and thanks for the t-shirt. I love it. Make sure you check out his website for more of his art. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon and my website, hcc788.com. I'll be back next week for another vintage Cobra Review and until then remember only Cobra is Cobra. Wasn't supposed to make that noise. It's funny, after six years the battery still works on this toy.