 Hey everybody, it's HCC788. You may remember a few weeks ago I told you about E. Thomas Joseph's book Winter Eternal. It's a book I enjoyed very much And I encouraged you to check it out too. Thanks to everyone who did. Now you may be thinking this is 2018 Can't I get someone to read the book to me? And the answer is yes It is available as an audiobook. Winter Eternal is a fiction story set in the American Revolution It's exciting. It's filled with historical references. It's very smartly written and it's a good read and now It's available as an audiobook. The book does have mature language and themes So it is for adults, but I think it would appeal to viewers of this show There will be a link in the description of this video where you can get the audiobook Thank you E. Thomas Joseph for supporting this show and thank you for checking out his work Hey Joe fans I allowed my supporters on patreon to decide what would be reviewed this week and for the fourth time I offered the 1988 swamp masher as an option to vote for and for the fourth time It was defeated instead the patrons wanted to see a new review of the Cobra fang Helicopter now I've reviewed the fang before but that was a long time ago that video is not very good You should not go back and watch it and you know, I think they're right that review needed to be redone So we're gonna do that this week whenever I review a helicopter. I like to give it a test flight You know, see how it handles. I see nothing that could go wrong their vintage GI Joe toy review and this is a remake of an old review that I did years ago and Yeah, it's time to redo this one before we do that. I have to give another code name to a patron Yep, we're doing that every week until I get every single one of them done and the next patron I need to give a code name to is Todd Humphrey Todd Todd Todd makes me think of Todd McFarlane Todd McFarlane is connected to GI Joe. He drew one issue of the comic book See Todd McFarlane did Spider-Man and spawn and he was from Canada and I like alliteration. So Todd your code name is the snow spawn spider serpent Thank you for your support. Oh, yeah, I also have one special channel announcement coming at the end of the video So please stay for that this week. We are going to look at a cobra vehicle that I have a lot of fond memories of I remember enjoying this toy when playing with it as a child as an adult I think it still looks really good, but I also notice a lot of flaws flaws that I perhaps Overlooked when playing with it as a kid. We're going to take a close and very honest look at an iconic vehicle HCC 788 presents the Cobra Fang This is the 1983 Cobra fang with fang being an acronym for a fully armed negator gyrocopter I have my doubts about whether this is a gyrocopter, but we will discuss that later This vehicle was first available in 1983 and was also available in 1984 and 1985 it was available for an extra year most GI Joe vehicles were available at retail for two years a Few very few were available for longer than that after the fang was discontinued at retail It was available as a mail away offer from 1986 to 1991 this vehicle was available one way or another for most of the vintage line It did not come with an action figure the fang was part of the first wave of Cobra vehicles starting in 1983 which also included the his tank the snake armor and the viper glider and that's it Cobra had no vehicles in 1982. They only had a Sears exclusive play set the Cobra missile command center It was made of cardboard in the meantime GI Joe had a lot of vehicles Cobra lagged behind The reason for this was Hasbro's concern that kids would not want to spend money on bad guys I think they were wrong and later some pretty spectacular Cobra vehicles were released the fangs GI Joe rival in the air at The time was the 1983 dragonfly helicopter GI Joe also had the sky striker But Cobra didn't have any jets at the time to go up against it and even though these were the closest rivals in 1983 I mean just look at them There is a massive difference in both size and firepower in 1986 GI Joe got a replacement for the dragonfly the Tomahawk Helicopter which was even bigger in the meantime Cobra still had no update for the fang The battle in the air was getting pretty unfair even though Cobra didn't have an update in the air in 1986 the dreadlocks had two helicopters They had the swamp fire which was a boat that converted to a helicopter even though it had Cobra symbols on it It wasn't technically a Cobra vehicle. It was a dreadnought vehicle They also had the air assault set which included a recolored fang That's a very rare and expensive piece and I don't have it to show you finally in 1987 Cobra got the Mamba and it was a proper helicopter Much larger than the fang loaded with missiles and guns lots of firepower It was a double rotor design. It had intricate play features It was a huge step up in 1989 Cobra got an update to the fang called the fang too It was a little bigger than the original fang and better armed I mentioned in the review of the Mamba that because of the colors and the style I think the fang too is more an update of the Mamba than the original fang. I love the black It's my favorite color for a Cobra vehicle and in those early years. We got several black Cobra vehicles Including in 1983 the his tank along with the fang and in 1984 we got the stinger and they look beautiful I love to display them all together. What was the gi Joe equivalent to the fang in 1984 gi Joe got the Skyhawk and it was fairly close in size, but the skyhawk was not a helicopter I'm not sure that's a perfect matchup But at the time was probably about as close as you could get the fang is allegedly a gyrocopter Which is sometimes called an auto gyro a gyrocopter has a top Unpowered rotor that provides a lift while forward motion is provided by an engine powered propeller This design allows a gyrocopter to fly in a similar way to a helicopter But it does not require a tail rotor as you will notice the fang has a tail rotor Which would not be needed for a gyrocopter and if it is a gyrocopter what exactly provides the forward thrust? Maybe this engine exhaust that is a possibility In fact the box art seems to show that engine exhaust almost being like a jet engine I don't think so despite what it's called based on this design I think the fang is a helicopter not a gyrocopter and that's what I call it The fang was designed by Ron Rudat Ron Rudat was a character designer for Hasbro and he designed almost all of the early gi Joe action figures He did a few vehicles though and the fang was his first Ron says he was inspired by the James Bond movie You only live twice which included an aerial battle in which James Bond flew a Gyrocopter the fang doesn't look anything like the gyrocopter in that movie But given the size and the mounted missiles I can see that inspiration. I have something a little special with the fang I have the box that it came in it's in pretty bad shape But we can still use it to see how the fang was marketed at the time Starting right here in the front with a big gi Joe logo and of course Cobra the enemy right there and The name of the vehicle the Cobra fang with his acronym and the box art, which is great Usually was in the 80s the box art shows the fang piloted by a Cobra soldier Even though the vehicle did not come with any action figure the top and the bottom and the sides are pretty beat up So let's just flip it around to the back where we can see it was worth two Flag points, which you could redeem for mail away offers Then we have a photograph of the toy here, and this is almost certainly a prototype There are some differences between this photograph and the production toy some differences between this photograph and the production vehicle The gray appears to be darker although you can't be sure about that That kind of depends on the lighting when this photograph was taken if the lighting wasn't very good that gray color Just may appear darker the joystick seems a bit thicker than the production vehicle the backpack is different and The post where the rotors are attached Did not have the housing that the production vehicle had before we look at the details of the fang I have something special to show you this is the action force SAS Hawk helicopter. This is from 1984 in the United Kingdom's action force line And as you can see it's almost a straight reissue of the Cobra fang with some important differences Some differences I noticed between the Cobra fang and the action force SAS Hawk helicopter The gray appears to be a little bit darker All of the red pieces have been changed to yellow and the stickers are different other than that It appears to be exactly the same as the Cobra fang another major difference This vehicle did come with an action figure seen here codename blades It was a recolored version of the US figure tripwire Repurposed as a helicopter pilot so instead of being a bad guys helicopter This was a good guys helicopter with just some minor color changes Thank you to Paul Keneer for sending this vehicle to me. I am so thrilled to have it now Let's look at the parts and the features of the fang helicopter starting right here in front With this really cool red cannon on a ball turret The blueprints call this a 30 millimeter rapid fire cannon on a remote mounted bubble turret This ball turret gives easy motion in all directions As a kid this was easily my favorite feature on this vehicle That gray ball connects to the black body of the vehicle And here in front on the top there is a red cobra emblem That looks great black red and gray. It's hard to beat that Next we have the cockpit which consists of a gray seat with ridges and a back peg A thin gray joystick some leg room and an instrument panel sticker The detail in this cockpit is admittedly minimal It doesn't have any instruments sculpted on the seat which I think it should have Placing a figure in the fang is easy. I will use a cobra trooper since that's what's on the box art You just bend the figure's legs and sit him in the seat Line his back hole up with the back peg and press him in to secure him in The joystick is thin enough that you should be able to fit the action figure's hand on it Without any threat of breaking the thumb or the joystick He fits in there pretty securely with the back peg Since the fang does have a back peg it would not be compatible with modern figures The fangs black red and gray look pretty good to me And putting the blue figure in it adds even more color while still keeping it somewhat subdued However, there is an alternative pilot for it This is the cobra hiss driver It was the driver of the hiss tank it came with that vehicle in 1983 According to the hiss drivers file card he is a qualified expert with the fang copter So he absolutely could be a pilot for this I think the hiss driver in the fang cockpit looks great That red matches the red on the helicopter You still have the blue for an extra flash of color And you have silver on top of it This looks excellent to me One more alternative pilot for the fang wild weasel The pilot of the 1984 cobra rattler He was a jet pilot but still looks pretty good in the cockpit of the fang But I think the hiss driver looks a little better The hiss drivers red more closely matches the red on the fang I also like that blue chest plate on the hiss driver And wild weasel is a slightly bulkier figure Not quite as good a fit with the fang Now we get to the most problematic feature on this vehicle The missiles it came with four long thin red missiles That mounted to the vertical posts for the landing skids These missiles are awful I hate them I only mounted them on the helicopter for this review And as soon as this review is over they are going back into storage They have several problems including the stickers A flat sticker on a round surface is not going to stick very well And of the four missiles I only have one that still has the sticker To show you the other problems I have to remove the missiles And once they are removed I am not putting them back on Okay let's take one off here If I can get it off there we go Removed one missile and you can see how the missiles are mounted On the posts for the landing skids There are very thin very small pegs or tabs really And those fit into very thin slots on the missiles Those are extremely difficult to line up And if you do manage to line up the missiles and get one of them on The two missiles on one side are very close together So when you're trying to mount the second missile You are very likely to knock the first one off It doesn't really matter if you mount the top one or the bottom one first I've tried it both ways and it's almost impossible either way Another problem with the missiles can be seen on this one So I'm going to carefully take it off This red plastic seems to be somewhat fragile and it can split I don't know if you can see the cracks very well But at both of the slots where it mounts The plastic is split and it will just straight break off right there These are not very well made They're hard to mount and fragile at that The sad thing about these missiles is the red does add color to the fang And without them you lose some color interest But to me they are not worth it and I usually leave them off The blueprints call these heat seeking air to air missiles And the engineering on these is woefully inadequate Later vehicles had better missile mounting than this I think this was just an early experiment It was an early vehicle and I think maybe Hasbro hadn't quite figured out The best way to mount missiles I know some other 1983 vehicles had missile mounts With the traditional dumbbell shaped peg and slot Really the fang should have had something like that These tabs and the slots on the missiles are way too thin And to me they're almost impossible to use Now let's look at those landing skids that the missiles were attached to The skids are also somewhat fragile so have care with those Each skid has a foot peg So you can mount an extra figure on each side Those foot pegs are a little bit thick So I would not use them on any figure that is known to have fragile plastic For fear of breaking off the heels But for most figures it should work fine And it does change the fang from a one person vehicle to a three person vehicle On the underside of the fang we have a bomb It is gray It pegs on with this kind of unusual shaped peg and slot here But this peg and slot work perfectly It pegs on solidly with no problem at all That bomb as I said is gray And on each side it has a red cobra emblem This bomb is pretty big and substantial And I like it a lot The blueprints do not have a name for this bomb But the back of the box does It says it's one removable negator bomb What is a negator bomb? I have no idea Working our way back we have the black body of the fang Which I think looks great I love the black It's my favorite color for a cobra vehicle Then we have the engine area With another red plastic piece This is the engine perimeter frame slash roll bar And full disclosure this one is broken as most of them are It is very rare to find this piece unbroken This red plastic as mentioned before is somewhat fragile And this is another piece that wasn't engineered very well If you mount it correctly It's supposed to have tabs that connect here on this tab here And then also down here at the bottom And connecting it as it's designed puts pressure on those tabs And most of them are broken It's hard to find one that isn't This is a piece that you usually find missing on the fang In fact this is most likely going to be the piece that is missing If you have an incomplete fang And like the missiles it's okay without it But you also lose some of the color Looking at that engine you have some excellent detail on both sides And you have this huge engine exhaust Which as kids of course we used as a jet engine And attached to that gray engine block We have the post that connects to the rotor blades And on that post we have two rotor blades Which extend beyond the body of the helicopter By about an inch both in the front and the back So they're pretty long There's a fair amount of detail on those rotor blades Both on the top and on the bottom One of mine is a bit chewed up But it still works just fine That's good enough for me There is no mechanism for spinning these blades Like on the Dragonfly helicopter You just have to spin them manually But one thing I do like about them is They spin really well And will keep spinning for a long time Still going Still going That's all on one spin It's still going It's still going But it's slowing down And it's about to Stop The post that connects the rotor blades And goes inside this housing connected to the engine block Is a frequently broken part And that particular brake is very difficult to fix Continuing our move toward the back We have the tail Which is part of that black body And looks really good We have some rivets really all over the body That I think is supposed to indicate armor We have a couple small horizontal stabilizer fins On each side of the tail Then we have the tail fin With a red Cobra emblem that looks really good And attached to the tail fin We have the rear rotor blade Which is red plastic And it's housed inside this kind of three prong cage It has a knob on each side So you can manually spin it And that is essentially it For a small vehicle It has a fair number of features And I really think aesthetically It's very nice Especially with those colors A lot of Cobra vehicles weren't very safe Cobra didn't seem to care very much About the safety of their personnel But the Fang is alright It's just a helicopter It's kind of small But I don't really see any safety issues here Taking a look at how the Fang was used in Gijo media It got a lot of use As would be expected For a long time it was Cobra's only helicopter In the Gijo cartoon series It was in the opening of the first TV miniseries Titled a real American hero And it was in the first episode The Fang got frequent use in the cartoon series Even after it was no longer on retail shelves Because Cobra didn't have another helicopter The Fang saw use right up into the 1987 animated movie But no appearances after that Cobra had other vehicles to promote In the Gijo comic book series It first appeared in issue number 17 It showed up just in time to get blown up That was the fate of many Cobra vehicles In the comic book series The Fang was a mainstay of the comic for years In issue number 19 During the Cobra attack on the Gijo base Major Blood used a Fang to escape with the Baroness In issue number 27 A mysterious character Which we later learned to be Zartan Used the Fang to flee after killing the Hardmaster In issue number 44 The Baroness, Destro and Dr. Meinbender used it to escape It was often used to escape Maybe it should be considered an escape helicopter Instead of an attack helicopter In fact, I'm going to put a poll on YouTube You should see it in the top right hand corner of your screen Vote to tell me if you think the Fang is better As an escape helicopter or an attack helicopter Looking at the Fang overall It's an iconic but flawed vehicle Obviously I think it looks great The black is perfect And it's well balanced by the gray and the red When you can keep the red pieces on Unfortunately that red plastic is a bit fragile And some design flaws made it even worse If you leave off the red missiles and the roll cage The middle part of the vehicle seems a bit monochromatic It really needs the red And unfortunately it's usually missing the red The red missiles for me are a total loss They're pretty much non-usable I hate to put them on And if I get them on I don't want to touch them I'd rather just leave them off I feel like this is a flaw that should have been noticed Before the vehicle went into production Those tabs for the missiles are too small The slots are too small And this should have been noticed The roll cage that goes around the engine Also made of that red plastic Is too tight so the tabs break Not good I also can't ignore the fact that the Fang is far too small And far too underpowered To go up against anything G.I. Joe had in the air at the time A single Fang versus a single Dragonfly With Wild Bill as the pilot The Dragonfly wins 100% of the time Now we've got the flaws out of the way What's good about the Fang? Well first of all it may not work very well As an attack helicopter But it works great as an escape helicopter And I think it looks great The black is beautiful And it goes perfectly with other Cobra vehicles of the era Now that we've got those flaws out of the way What's good about the Fang? Well it may not work very well as an attack helicopter But it works great as an escape helicopter And I think it looks fantastic That black is beautiful And it goes perfectly with other Cobra vehicles of the era Taking into account its flaws and its virtues The best I can do for the Fang is put it in the middle tier Which is lower than I would normally put such an iconic vehicle But it does have its flaws And the flaws kind of get in the way On a personal subjective level I love the Fang It was one of my favorites as a kid I've got a lot of use out of it And I think it looks great as a display piece And I really enjoy having it in my collection That was my updated review of the Cobra Fang helicopter I hope you enjoyed it I did say I have a special announcement I will get to that in just a minute Before we get to that I want to thank my supporters on Patreon They chose this review And we will be doing more votes To decide what will be reviewed on this channel Periodically throughout the year If you'd like to vote in those polls Make sure you support the channel on Patreon Support at any level gets you the right to vote I also now have a coffee account So if you like this video You can leave me a one time tip You can find me on social media On Facebook and Twitter And I have a website HCC788.com I humbly ask you to give this video a thumbs up On YouTube and subscribe to the YouTube channel Hit the notification button and share this video And apparently a lot of you have done just that Which is why I have to make an announcement This channel has surpassed 6,000 subscribers Holy guacamole We started the year with fewer than 4,000 This year we have hit 4,000 We have hit 5,000 And now we have hit 6,000 And it's only September You guys are great This is all due to you Whoa, whoa, sorry Got a pilot, the helicopter here This is all due to you You guys are fantastic You make this channel work You support the channel You share the videos You enjoy GI Joe And you enjoy the nostalgia of looking at these toys again And you make this a project worth it You do And so thank you Thank you very much You guys make me want to stand up and cheer Crap, crap, crap Stay on