 Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to get through this thing called Cobra Convergence. Sadly, one of our founding members, FormBX257, is no longer with us. In his honor, because he will always be immortal in our hearts, I present the FormBX257 Memorial Crimson Guard Immortal Review. What's that? Whoa, whoa, I'm still alive, I'm still alive! Oh, it seems Kevin is still alive! Hey, that's great! So instead, I present the FormBX257 Reunion Crimson Guard Immortal Review. You think Kevin is really immortal? Commander788 here, welcome to Cobra Convergence 5! This is my official contribution to the convergence, but on my channel, it's Cobra Convergence all month long. This video is a tribute to one of our first Convergence, FormBX257. I'm going to be reviewing the figure he reviewed for the very first Cobra Convergence. Crimson Guard Immortal, I'll have guest convergence to give their assessment of this figure. Yes, FormBX257 will be back. I'll be frank, both FormBX257 and Timmer have already reviewed this figure. It will be difficult for me to cover it any better than they did. In fact, it's impossible, so Timmer has agreed to allow me to use part of his review in this one. It's a star-studded cast as HCC788 presents the Crimson Guard Immortal. This is the Crimson Guard Immortal, Cobra's elite trooper from 1991. This figure was introduced in 1991 and was available for 1991 only. It was discontinued for 1992. This is the only version of the Crimson Guard Immortal in the vintage era. There were a couple post-vintage versions released. The Crimson Guard Immortal is made up of new parts. Nothing is reused from earlier figures, at least in North America. There was a European release that used a repainted head from the 1990 Rock Viper. The head of the Crimson Guard Immortal was reused on the 1993 male-away personalized figure that was called either Nama Cobra or Crieta Cobra. Crimson Guard Immortal traces his lineage to the original Crimson Guard from 1985. What exactly is a Crimson Guard? It's a special kind of Cobra trooper. They were elite. They were the best of the best. In fact, they were so good they couldn't be used on the battlefield. They mostly served as Cobra Commander's personal guard, undercover agents, and a fifth column. A fifth column is a group within a country that favors that country's enemy and tries to undermine the country from within. A fifth column can be dangerous to a free society in a couple ways. They can have a direct negative impact if they attack the country's interests from within. The country's response to a fifth column can weaken civil liberties as it's easy to view any opinion that differs from the majority as supporting the country's enemies and those who hold those opinions may be attacked. The name Crimson Guard is often shortened to CG or phoneticized to CG's. A few CG's receive plastic surgery so they all look alike. In the comic book, this is referred to as the Fred series. The Fred CG's were numbered. Fred I, Fred II, Fred III, and so on. One of the Fred's, Fred VII, impersonated Cobra Commander for a while. In 1985, in addition to getting the Crimson Guard, we got Tomax and Zemot, the Crimson Guard commanders, also known as the Crimson Twins. Despite having command of the Crimson Guard, their uniforms were mostly blue, not red. In addition to commanding the Crimson Guard, the twins were also financiers for Cobra. In 1989, a new version of the Crimson Guard was released in the Python Patrol subseries in Python Patrol colors, which, as you can see, includes very little Crimson. Where the Crimson Guard immortal fits in the Crimson Guard lineage is unclear. After 1989, the hierarchy of the Crimson Guard gets very fuzzy. The immortal is distinguished from the regular Crimson Guard and is considered a new type of trooper. We'll talk about it more when we look at the file card, but it's unclear what difference there is between these guys and the regular Crimson Guard. To complicate things even further, in 1993, the Crimson Guard commander was released, even though they already had commanders Tomax and Zemot. They're called immortal, but they're not literally immortal. They're immortal in the sense that their courage will live forever in the annals of Cobra history. Timur has an excellent explanation for the immortal moniker. This is a clip from his review. Firstly, there's obviously the name. It was clearly inspired by the Persian Immortals. These were elite troops that both served on the battlefield and as an imperial guard for the Persian Emperor. So, like with the Crimson Guard and the Praetorians, Hasbro took their cue from ancient history once again. I may have been a bit hasty when I said the look was inspired by the Samurai. It may be based on what Hasbro thought Persian armor looks like. You know what's funny? According to Wikipedia, immortals is actually a mistranslation. The Persians never called them that. Going by the original Persian name, they were called companions, though even that seems like a literal interpretation. And I assume the original meaning was just guards, as in imperial guards. Still, imperial companions sounds less like an elite fighting force and more like an escort service. So, I wonder if the Persians heard about the mistranslation and just went with it, agreeing it sounded way cooler. Thanks for helping out Timmer. Don't forget to check out Timmer's channel and subscribe. He's trying to reach 2,020 subscribers in 2020. Let's look at the card back for Crimson Guard Immortal. This one has the UPC cut out for some reason, but we can still see most of the card. It looks like this was $3.99 at KB Toys. It has the GI Joe logo and Cobra the enemy. It has a red background indicating an enemy character, but it also has the digital explosion background behind the card art. So, this is a halfway between an 80s style card and a 90s style card. The card really wants us to know weapon really shoots. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement. We'll talk about that later. The card art is pretty good, but there are some peculiarities. For instance, this missile seems to be shooting out of the machine gun, and there's another missile attached to the other barrel. That is not how the toy works. In the section behind where the figure would have been sealed, we have a diagram and instructions on how to put the accessories together and how to launch the missiles. Flipping the card around, we can see the cross cell. These are other figures that were available at the time. It looks like a previous owner used a highlighter to mark over the ones that he had. This figure was worth one flag point and it had a file card. This is a file folder shaped card, which was typical in the 1980s. 1991 was two years into the 90s, but they still had 80s style file cards. That's good. Let's take a look at the Crimson Guard Immortals accessories, and there's a lot here. In 1991, figures started to include tons of accessories and sometimes elaborate weapon systems. Spring-loaded missile launchers were introduced, but they weren't yet standard in the line. Crimson Guard Immortals was a figure without a spring-loaded missile launcher, but with an elaborate weapon system. The Crimson Guard Immortals included a two-barrel missile launcher. It is in black plastic. It has a grip between the two barrels, and it has a brace. It is rather short on detail, but it did have two black removable missiles. These missiles are identical and he has some extra missiles so you can pop some new missiles in once you fire these off. The card says weapons really shoot. Well, let's talk about that. First, these missiles fit in the launcher barrels firmly enough that they won't fall out. That's excellent. That's better than some missile launchers from the late 80s and early 90s. These missiles fire using finger flick technology. Part of the missile sticks out of the back of the tube, and to use finger flick technology, you just flick your finger. Finger flick technology isn't the most sophisticated way to fire a missile, and I think it has no chance of knocking down Dr. Meinbender. Let's give it a shot anyway. No, just bounces right off of him. Crimson Guard Immortal has another weapon that is similar to the first one. It is also in black plastic. The tube includes another finger flick missile, and the bottom part has a two-barrel machine gun. And that machine gun even has an ammunition belt that runs from the machine gun down to the figure's leg. I'll take this ammunition belt off for now so I can take a look at it. One end of the belt slots onto a peg on the underside of this weapon, and the other end slots onto a peg on the figure's right leg. That's why this weapon needs to be in his right hand, not his left. That ammunition belt is black. It's made of soft, flexible plastic. It has some detail on one side, but the other side has less detail. Looks like that's supposed to be bullets. Minimal detail, but it serves a function. The weapon with the machine gun fits in his right hand. It is black like the other one, and it's very similar. It has the same missile launcher barrel on the top, and like the other one, it's lacking in detail. It has this double-barrel machine gun on the bottom with the peg that connects the ammunition belt, and it has the grip in between, and it has a brace in the back. We've already looked at a lot of accessories, but there are more. He includes a backpack. The backpack is in black plastic. The backpack has minimal detail. It's basically just a rack for three additional finger flick missiles for a total of six. The missiles fit in three holes on the backpack, and if the missiles are placed face down, they fit snugly and they will not fall out. It's all so much. It's a massive pile of accessories for a single figure. Adding more accessories doesn't make the accessories better. In this case, though, the numerous accessories, it's not much of a problem. Crimson Guard immortal can hold all of his accessories at the same time. They're all black, so no crazy, loud colors. The biggest problem is, for all of these accessories, I would prefer a simple assault rifle. Let's take a look at the articulation on Crimson Guard immortal. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1991. He could bend his leg at the knee about 90 degrees, and he could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees. He could move his legs apart about so far. This was an O-ring figure, meaning he was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside so he could move at the torso a bit. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around, and he could lift his arm at the shoulder. He had a ball jointed neck so he could look up and down and turn his head from left to right. Let's take a look at the sculpted design and color of Crimson Guard immortal, and I can already say it's a massive improvement on the Python Patrol Crimson Guard from 1989 in that he has a lot more red and a lot less yellow. On his head he has a red, non-removable helmet. It has ridges on the top of the helmet in some nice detail. He has a silver Cobra emblem on his forehead. He has silver goggles and a black mask. The helmet and the mask are fine, but the goggles I think are too big. A narrower eye slit, like on the original Crimson Guard, I think would have worked better. On his chest he has a red shirt with a raised collar. He has silver segmented armor that covers his entire chest. He has black buckles on that armor, at least I interpret those as buckles. He has black straps that connect to the armor and run over his shoulders, and on the back you can see where those straps connect. On his arms he has long red sleeves and silver armor on his shoulders. There's a black detail on his right upper arm that may be some kind of ammunition. He has silver armor on his forearms, and he has black gloves. On the left upper arm there is a silver tampo that is a unit insignia, and that is the same symbol as the one on the original 1985 Crimson Guard. It's altered slightly, but that is the same Crimson Guard unit patch. On his waist he has a belt with minimal detail. There are straps that run from the back of the belt down to his legs. The belt buckle is silver and there's a red cobra emblem at the center, and below the belt there is more silver armor. On his legs he has red trousers and a lot of additional detail. On his right leg he has a black box on the outside leg with straps that run to his belt front and back. That is apparently ammunition for his machine gun. Right below it there's the peg for the ammunition belt. In the middle of his right thigh he has a tiny black dagger. On the left leg he has more black straps, and on the outside leg he has what looks like grenades for a grenade launcher. So maybe that's an additional function of his weapon system. And then on both legs just above the knee he has black ridged straps that run all the way around. He has black boots. There's some nice lace detail on those boots. Then he has these black extensions that run up to his knees. Those are not knee pads, but there's some kind of extension on the front of the boot. Even though this is a departure from the first CG, I can imagine this as a Crimson Guard. All the original colors are there, red, black, and silver. They didn't attempt to muddle the elegant and coherent color scheme with neon yellow. I'm looking at you Crimson Guard Commander. Let's take a look at Crimson Guard Immortal's file card. It has his faction as Cobra, a portrait of Crimson Guard Immortal here. It says his codename is Crimson Guard Immortal. He is the Cobra Elite Trooper. Incidentally, that's also what the original Crimson Guard file card said, Cobra Elite Trooper. So there's no distinction here between the immortal and the original. In this top section it says vehicle proficiency Cobra grade 8. I have no idea what that means. Is this guy intended to be a vehicle driver? Like a general vehicle driver? Is that the distinction between this guy and the original Crimson Guard? I don't know. But he is licensed to operate all Cobra land and air vehicles, including Hammerhead and Hurricane. Hammerhead is a sea vehicle, so that's hilarious. This paragraph says Crimson Guard Immortals are fanatical super soldiers who swear a fearsome oath of absolute obedience to Cobra Commander. Advanced weapons systems marksmen and martial arts experts, they are the most formidable fighters of the Cobra Legion. A CG, in parenthesis CG, when not serving as a personal bodyguard to the head snake, is involved in covert operations around the country under deep cover, assuming an apparently normal occupation and frequently running for public office. This bottom paragraph says the immortals are lawyers or accountants who pump iron, wear body armor and carry big guns. What they can't get by stomping and shooting, they'll get by suing and auditing. This file card is fine, but what they're describing is a regular Crimson Guard. Other than the vehicle driving bit, there's nothing different for the immortal. They don't seem to be a special branch or even more elite than the elite troopers. They're just CG's. It does clarify one thing, the Crimson Guard are absolutely loyal to Cobra Commander. This is how I imagine them. They don't need Tomax and Zamot as middlemen. The CG's or CGI's would be Cobra Commander's most trusted agents and his personal guard. Let's see what some other Cobra Convergence presenters think about the Crimson Guard immortal. The 1985 version of the Crimson Guard is one of my top 10 favorite G.I. Joe figures of all time. So you might think that I wouldn't like this 90s version considering it's supposed to be an upgrade or a replacement. But I really do like this figure. It has a lot going for it. And in fact, I easily put this thing right beside my 1980s versions as a variation. As a matter of fact, the immortal tag underneath there really helps with that. Crimson Guard immortal. Formidable scarps, great figure, but does remind me of a line from Die Hard. 9 million terrorists in the world and I have to kill one with feet smaller than my sister. The Crimson Guard immortal is a really cool figure. I love that he's in the same color uniform as the original figure. He's got a lot of the same design elements. He works great as a squad leader, a sergeant, or as a heavy weapons guy for a unit of Crimson Guards. But those finger file rocket tubes are really bizarre. Looking at the Crimson Guard immortal overall, it's an excellent figure. It's not quite as good as the 85 Crimson Guard. I prefer the predominant red. The silver takes over a bit too much on the immortal. The helmet also isn't as cool as the original Crimson Guard. The accessories definitely could have used more detail. Other than those minor complaints though, it's fantastic. The colors are great. I could go for less silver, but the color choices are perfect. They kept the Crimson Guard tradition of red, black, and silver. And that shoulder patch that matches the original, that's beautiful. The accessories are a bit cumbersome and lacking in detail. I would have been happy with an assault rifle. I do appreciate that they kept all of the accessories black. The finger flick technology is not the most sophisticated way to fire a missile. But they were trying to give the toy more play value. They could have saved some of the trouble and given him a weapon reminiscent of the old CG rifle. For a 90s figure, it is head and shoulders above most figures of that era. No crazy colors, no oversized spring-loaded missile launcher. It feels like an 80s figure. My biggest problem with the Crimson Guard Immortal is, what is he? Is he a regular Crimson Guardsman? Has the entire Crimson Guard Corps been converted to Crimson Guard Immortal? Is this just an updated uniform for the Crimson Guard? Is it an extra elite unit within the elite Crimson Guard? Are they Crimson Guard officers? Based on the file card, they have exactly the same undercover mission as the regular CG's. I imagine the Crimson Guard as Cobra Commander's most loyal troops, serving as a personal guard and enforcers. They are the most fanatically devoted to Cobra ideology. They are what every Cobra trooper aspires to be. To the posterity of Cobra loyalists, they would be legends, immortal in the historical sense. That was my review of the Crimson Guard Immortal. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who helped out. Welcome back, FormBX257. Don't forget to check out these other Cobra Convergence contributors this week. You saw GI Joberg on August 1st. You're seeing me on August 2nd. The Full Force podcast has August 3rd. Half the battle has August 4th. Special Mission Force has August 5th. Comic Tropes has August 6th. Toy Palloy has August 7th. Plastic Battles has August 8th. Make sure you check them all out and subscribe to them so you don't miss their presentation for Cobra Convergence 5. And do you want to participate in Cobra Convergence? There are instructions on my website, hcc788.com, on how you can get involved. In addition to my website, hcc788.com, I'm also on social media, on Facebook and Twitter. I also have a Patreon, which helps me keep this channel going. Thanks to all of the names you see on your screen right now, I could not do it without them. Cobra Convergence 5 marches on. I'll see you next time. And until then, always remember, only Cobra is Cobra.