 Hello everybody hooded co- This is Cobra commander. This channel has been taken over by Cobra I have decreed that there shall be no other videos for the rest of the month Except Cobra videos. Let this be a warning to you today. We take over this petty Insignificant YouTube channel soon. We take over the world Cobra Should I tell him? Nah commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994 We are still in Cobra Convergence 6 and it is my turn to present a Cobra video This time we're looking at a figure that is rather important to this channel It is a hooded Cobra commander, but it's a figure that's perhaps lesser known to fans of 1980s GI Joe Of course most of us associate Cobra with blue, but a black and silver Cobra commander It looks just as great as it sounds. Let's look at one of the better versions of Cobra commander from the 1990s HCC 788 presents Cobra commander This is Cobra commander the Cobra supreme leader from 1993 this figure was available in 1993 only It was discontinued for 1994 This is the sixth version of Cobra commander the original release of Cobra commander was designed by Ron Rudat for Hasbro This figure is based on one of those earlier designs This figure is from the battle core set, which was the main collection of figures for GI Joe in 1993 this figure is mostly a reissue of Cobra commander version 5 from 1992 but in different colors and Well, one other major difference as you might notice the first version of Cobra commander was released in 1982 as a male away Exclusive figure the earliest issues of that male away Cobra commander had a simplified Cobra emblem on the chest The eyes of the snake in the Cobra emblem were separated and looked a little like Mickey Mouse ears This is referred to as the Mickey Mouse Cobra commander later releases of that male away Cobra commander had the standard Cobra emblem on the chest Both the Mickey Mouse and the standard Cobra commander figures had the straight arm articulation as with all other 1982 figures in 1983 Cobra commander version 1.5 was released not as a male away figure But as a carded figure at retail it also had updated swivel arm articulation, which was standard for figures in 1983 in 1984 version 2 of Cobra commander was released as a male away Exclusive figure just like version 1 it had the same body as version 1 but in different colors and it had a new head This is the hooded Cobra commander in 1987. We got Cobra commander version 3 This is the battle armor Cobra commander. It was a significant departure from earlier designs This uniform was later worn by an imposter the Crimson guardsmen Fred 7 version 4 of Cobra commander was released in 1991 we are sort of back to the helmet and faceplate look but with a gold helmet and a Translucent red faceplate also suddenly. He's very muscular He doesn't have time to take over the world now He's spending all his time in the gym version 5 of Cobra commander was released in 1992 as part of the talking battle commander set He had a blue uniform and a large sound effects backpack bolted onto the figure I've already reviewed this version so I won't go too much into it in that video I showed you how to remove the backpack from the figure this figure design is based very loosely on the 1984 version 2 Cobra commander that of course brings us to version 6 from 1993 which we are looking at today It is based on the 1992 version 5 But in black and silver instead of blue and yellow it is not a straight reissue of the 1992 mold though We will cover that later version 7 from 1994 was the final version of Cobra commander released in the vintage era and the greatest Departure from the earlier versions It is a space figure and it has a removable helmet that would show Cobra commander's face But he's wearing a mask under the helmet There are two main looks for Cobra commander that have been repeated over many generations of figures with the face mask And with the hood the battle armor version has also Occasionally been revisited the face mask and helmet is usually thought of as the battle uniform The hood is more for ceremonial purposes Cobra commander probably wouldn't want to wear the helmet and mask around the base the cloth cowl is probably more comfortable Although that distinction makes sense the last two hooded Cobra commanders in the vintage line were definitely intended to be in battle They were loaded with accessories and weapons Cobra commander is of course the founder and supreme leader of GI Joe's enemy Cobra through the years. He has had some challengers Destro the weapons supplier introduced in 1983 has asserted his authority over Cobra on multiple occasions Serpentor the composite clone became the Cobra emperor in 1986 and temporarily displaced Cobra commander in 1987 a crimson guardsman from the Fred series Fred seven impersonated Cobra commander and took over Cobra for a while in 1990 Overlord Existed and is never spoken of again. No one can replace the original though He is called Cobra commander for a reason He is known to despise and even murder those who challenge him. We have a variant to look at it's not a figure variant It's a packaging variant some of these version six Cobra commanders were available at showbiz pizza and Chuck E cheese Restaurants they came bagged like this. It was just a figure with no accessories I have the full card back so we can see how Cobra commander was marketed back in 1993 It was on a battle core card So it has the battle core logo right under the GI Joe logo It has the red laser stripes in the background indicating This is a bad guy character. It has some card art of Cobra commander in the extreme 90s style Showing Cobra commander swinging on a rope Batman style while firing his missile launcher the artwork is not exactly accurate It does not have that big centered Cobra emblem on the uniform and as the hooded Cobra commander is often depicted He has a Cobra emblem on the hood Usually the figures do not have that this has some instructions in this space behind where the figure would have been showing How to use the battle stand and the missile launcher and the previous owner has helpfully noted that it comes with two Silver missiles looking at the back of the card. We have the cross cell showing the other battle core figures that were available at the time We also have some of these sub teams advertised here We have the mega marines the armor tech figures which were part of star brigade and DEF the drug elimination force Which actually was not available in 1993 we have one flag point in the 90s style And we also have a 90s style file card, which we will read later This file card has some descriptions of some of the features and accessories for this figure And I will refer to this when describing some of those features and accessories Let's look at Cobra commander's accessories He came with a lot of them the figure was packaged with an accessories tree The purchaser would have to cut the accessories off of the plastic frame and since most of the accessories were on that Tree they are mostly the same color. The only exception is the missile launcher This is some lazy 90s accessories. Absolutely nothing here is new Everything here was reissued from other figures. Some were reissued several times. Let's start with this rifle It is huge. It is oversized. It is silver and it is a reissue of the rifle that originally came with 1990 rock viper. There is a slight molding difference The 1990 rock viper rifle had a peg so it could peg onto the backpack Cobra commander's rifle does not have that peg. Next we have this flamethrower It is not as big as the rifle, but it's still sizable It is in silver plastic and it is a reissue of the flamethrower that originally came with 1991 incinerator. It's almost the same color silver Incinerators flamethrower connected to the backpack with this black plastic hose Cobra commander's flamethrower doesn't connect to anything, but it still has the peg. Next we have this I guess you could call it a rifle. It looks more like a ray gun This is a reissue of the so-called pistol from 1988 Toxoviper originally issued in black plastic as with incinerator Toxoviper's accessory has a peg for connecting a black hose to connect it to the backpack Cobra commander's accessory connects to nothing, but it still has the peg. Next we have this Whatever it is. I really don't know what kind of weapon this is. It has a magazine and a fin in the back It's very strange looking and this is a reissue of the accessory that originally came with 1988 Voltar Somehow I have lost my Voltar accessory. I have no idea where it went Just imagine this in gold plastic. None of these accessories are similar to his Venom laser pistol His iconic accessory from 1982. It's unfortunate They never revisited and updated this laser pistol later in the vintage line. Next we have the missile launcher It is in red plastic with a black trigger and it includes two silver missiles This is a spring firing missile launcher, which was common for giajo figures from about 1991 on So it will really fire these missiles. This missile launcher was reissued several times with a few other figures Including 1993 crimson guard commander in yellow plastic with a black trigger and with black missiles This missile launcher can fit in Cobra commander's hand You have to put his arm through this loop and angle the hand to place it on the grip That works a little better than some of the other missile launchers I've reviewed on this show To use the missile launcher You just place the missile into the barrel with the notch side down press it all the way back until it clicks It has to go pretty far back and then you use this trigger on the back to fire Let's test this missile launcher by taking aim at our favorite target doctor mindbender In the comic book cobra commander did kill doctor mindbender. Don't worry. He did recover But i'm sure cobra commander would have liked to have fired a missile at him So let's do that right now. Just take aim and press the trigger in the back to fire I missed that one, but we have one more shot Let's put the second missile in there and take aim at doctor m and fire Saved by the back wall again with the accessories out of the way Let's take a look at the articulation for cobra commander He had the articulation that was standard for a gi joe figure well before 1993 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 was an o-ring figure meaning the figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside That allowed him to move at the torso a bit He could move his legs apart about so far He could bend his legs at the him about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of battlecore cobra commander And I will say right off the bat with the black hood. He looks a bit like a medieval executioner This figure uses almost an identical mold to the 1992 version 5 cobra commander But the back piece is different. It no longer needs to accommodate the backpack So you can see the version 5 has a flat back to accommodate that giant backpack that's bolted on It almost looks like they've puttied over that flat back for the 1993 figure I assume they created the 1992 mold first and then updated it for 1993 But that is a difference. It's not just a color difference. Looking at the head He has a black hood with big eye holes and Caucasian flesh tone This is a straight copy of the 1992 head but in black plastic The file card says this is a synthetic non-flemable hood that disguises identity This look originated with 1984 cobra commander version 2 the so-called hooded cobra commander A major difference. The head of version 2 was made of a softer plastic This allowed the head sculpt to have an undercut. The plastic could be removed from the mold without breaking it The cowl on version 2 could then overhang the neck a little bit It was a little more realistic looking. The version 5 and 6 heads were made of hard plastic like the rest of the figure There could be no undercuts in the head sculpt because the piece would break when removed from the molds That means the hood has to stop at chin level It still looks all right, but not quite as good as version 2 moving on to the chest The chest is the same as version 5 but in black plastic and as mentioned before the back has been modified The chest is black. It has silver trim It has silver braids around the right arm and a silver strap across the chest and silver buttons on the uniform And silver epaulettes. It has a red cobra emblem on the top left side of the chest On version 5 that cobra emblem was centered on the chest But it was partially obscured by that strap the final card calls this a cobra command rank insignia But is it really it's just the cobra emblem which is worn by all ranks Cobra insignia has always been kind of vague and undefined the final card calls this a field commander's battle dress jacket These colors look great together. It's hard to go wrong with a base black figure and the silver really stands out This looks like a ceremonial dress uniform the arms feature long black sleeves and silver rings around the sleeve cuffs and black gloves They have minimal detail and that's the same as on version 5 But on version 5 it had wider rings around the cuffs and painted gloves So that's a little bit of a modification for version 6 The waist piece is in black plastic with a silver belt and a red belt buckle and small pouches And silver stripes down the sides the belt buckle is masked a little differently than version 5 So that's a very slight difference. The legs are black They have silver stripes down the outside leg and there is an unpainted black pistol and holster on the left leg There is a silver knife on the right boot and a silver strap around the right boot And he has tall black unpainted boots The file card calls this a cobra all-purpose cutter knife with leg sheath cobra commander version 3 from 1987 Also had a holster on the left side So maybe cobra commander is left-handed version 6 has less color variety than version 5 and version 5 Harkens back to version 2 which was one of my favorite versions of cobra commander Nonetheless, I think version 6 looks better than version 5 The black works great for cobra commander and the silver really pops. It's very sharp Let's take a look at cobra commander's version 6 battle core file card It has a close-up portrait of cobra commander here. It has the card art It has a list of the features that I've used throughout this video. His codename is cobra commander He's the cobra supreme leader. It has a quote here presumably from cobra commander himself. It says Hey, there's a castle by the same name Why don't those joes get out of my way and let me rule the world like a tyrant should Rule the world like a tyrant Are we the baddies this paragraph says supreme commander of the cobra legions contraband arms merchant That's really destros job international terrorist and real estate swindler and used car salesman Cobra commander is the ultimate enemy of gi joe and ralph nadir Although no cobra vipers or even his trusted crimson guard commanders have ever seen his face They know the man behind the mask is the most diabolical villain imaginable This ruthless leader's principal desires to totally crush the gi joe team and take over the world while he's at it His numerous attempts to accomplish this distorted dream of world dominance have so far been foiled by the joes But they are always on alert because cobra commander keeps coming back stronger and stronger with increasingly destructive weapons and vehicles Available at your local toy retailer. This file card is a little over the top But it's okay for a cobra commander file card. It gets the point across cobra commander is evil and bad and not good Looking at how cobra commander was used in gi joe media Well, he was used a lot as you can imagine He was one of the most important characters in the animated series and appeared in nearly every episode He was in over 100 episodes between the sunbow and the deke series He first appeared in the very first episode of the miniseries in 1983 He was voiced by the late chris lotta throughout the series cobra commander was known for his crazy plots to take over the world Some of his plans were outlandish and not very likely to succeed He had to fail on a weekly basis to keep the series going in the 1987 animated movie It was revealed that cobra commander was an evil mutant from the secret civilization cobra law By the end of the movie he is transformed into a snake when deke took over the gi joe animated series with operation dragon fire Cobra commander was restored to a semi human state But still had reptilian features. He wore his battle armor for those episodes He later wore a uniform very similar to version five But i don't see any appearances of him in his version six black uniform The cobra commander from the marvel comic book series was a bit more diabolical than the character in the animated series In an interview with toy fair magazine Larry hama has said he based cobra commander on william f buckley cobra commander appeared in the first issue of the comic book series back in 1982 his first appearance was wearing the cowl not the battle helmet He put the helmet and mask on later in that issue as with the animated series in the comic book He appeared in nearly every issue. There were some gaps in his appearances at one point He was thought to be dead. He was shot in the back by a crimson guardsman fred seven in issue number 61 For a time he was replaced by fred wearing cobra commander's battle armor The real cobra commander was not dead. He was rescued from a shallow grave and secretly treated for his wound When he returned in issue number 98. He was wearing a uniform very much like his version six figure That uniform couldn't have been inspired by the figure though Because it was released three years before the figure was on the pegs He immediately went to work disposing of his internal enemies within cobra He had his enemies sealed in a landlocked freighter and buried them under a volcano A few of them eventually escaped but most perished cobra commander appeared many times after his return to the comic book series Often wearing his blue hooded uniform Comic book coloring often uses blue as a substitute for black So some of those appearances may be with a black uniform in issue number 150 cobra commander's mask and uniform catch fire and burn away Revealing his armor underneath funny the file card specifically says the mask is fireproof fans of the comic book series Remember cobra commander very differently than fans of the animated series Our cobra commander had his share of outlandish plans, but he was ruthless and cold-blooded He was a murderer. He had a few schemes that could have worked He was a terrifying enemy for gi joe looking at battle core cobra commander overall I really like it. It takes a mold from 1992 that was almost good Except for the accommodation for the backpack and makes it better the black and silver What can I say? It looks great. I will always associate cobra with blue These colors actually look more like destro, but it still just looks awesome It looks like a deluxe figure with all the silver and the black makes the silver stand out It's not quite as good as the first hooded cobra commander from 1984 The head has a different shape that doesn't work as well in my opinion For a 90s figure. It's not bad the accessories. Do we have to talk about the accessories? Yes, we do the accessories are lazy and unnecessary This looks like a uniform he would wear to rally the troops not plunge into battle At least the colors are right silver and red. They go with the figure They just didn't bother to do anything new despite the accessories This is in my opinion the best cobra commander from the 1990s That was my review of battle core cobra commander. I hope you enjoyed it And I hope you're enjoying cobra convergence 6 we have more cobra convergence presenters this week Check out hdc788.com for a calendar of presenters coming up this week We have j barthlet mate mylar the artist shark action robot punch anything joes They gone a toy kind of mood codename new 2 vero 2 gi joe berg and star joes This is your rightful ruler cobra commander again This reviewer's decision to do a cobra video has saved his life Now I order everyone on that list to do their own cobra content. I will be watching Cobra He really doesn't know what cobra convergence is about if you like this video Please give it a thumbs up on youtube subscribe to the youtube channel and share this video with your friends You can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and I have a website hdc788.com If you like the channel and you'd like to support the channel patreon is a great way to do it You can get some early access and you can get your name in videos like the names you see scrolling on the screen right now Thank you for watching. I'll be back soon with another cobra video and until then remember only cobra is cobra Are we the baddies?