 This is the 1987 Cobra Trainer Big Boa. This figure was first introduced in 1987 and was also available in 1988 and was discontinued for the year 1989. There were no other versions of Big Boa in the vintage era. Big Boa most likely gets his name from the Boa Constrictor Snake, a type of large snake that crushes its prey to death before eating it whole. Big Boa was Cobra's first trainer. His counterpart on G.I. Joe would be Sergeant Slaughter. Sergeant Slaughter was G.I. Joe's drill instructor, introduced as a mail away offer in 1986 and available as a vehicle driver later that same year. He was still available in 1987 so he could have gone head-to-head against Big Boa. An alternative nemesis to Big Boa would be the Fridge from 1987. Another mail away figure, this one based on a football player, that served as a G.I. Joe trainer. Even though Big Boa would most logically fight Sergeant Slaughter, he's more associated with someone else, a Joe that never really existed. In 1987 something unexpected and confusing happened. In the G.I. Joe mini series Order of Battle, there was a profile for a Joe that we had never seen before. In issue 2, page 10, there was an entry for Rocky Balboa, the famous fictional boxer played by Sylvester Stallone. Even more surprising in issues number 3 and 4 of Order of Battle, a retraction was printed on the last page. It says, Rocky is not and has never been a member of G.I. Joe. Years later it came out that there was a planned Rocky figure. The figure had even been fully sculpted before it was canceled. The sculpting was done by Bill Merkline, one of the best and most prolific Hasbro sculptors at the time. Ironically, the Rocky G.I. Joe figure was killed by Rambo. Stallone licensed his likeness to Coleco for the Rambo toy line, so the Rocky figure was scrapped. There are rumors surrounding that Rocky figure. One rumor is that it was reworked to become Big Boa. That's what Mr. Merkline believes happened. Images of that sculpt were published in the magazine Action Figure Collector. That magazine is not in business anymore. Based on those images, I don't think any part of Rocky was used in Big Boa. Let's take a look at Big Boa's accessories and let's start with his punching bag. This punching bag is two pieces. It's a base in black plastic. It also has a brown punching bag on a black pole. The pole connects to the base just by pegging it into the hole and it has this brown punching bag. It is painted on black plastic, brown paint, and then we have the word Joe in black letters. It has a couple black stitch marks. He has two boxing gloves, a left and a right. They are red. They have white cobra emblems on them. This one's a little worn. They're made of a soft rubbery plastic and they can be removed. You can pull them off of his hands. They have a slit on the inside wrist to make that a little bit easier but they can still be a pretty tight fit. These boxing gloves have just enough detail. The white cobra emblems do help. Without them, they might be a little too plain. These gloves mean Big Boa is specifically a boxer. He's a trainer but his accessories make it clear he focuses on hand to hand combat. His final accessory is the one that makes the least sense. He has a hose that connects to his non-removable helmet. This hose can be taken off. It is silver and it's made of a soft plastic that is flexible. The hose connects to the front of the helmet on the left side of the face mask and then it wraps around and connects to a hole on the back of his head. This is easily the most frequently lost piece as these removable hoses usually are. The hose has a straight tip on one end and a shorter curved tip on the other end. It looks like the straight tip goes in the front but you could put it the other way around. It will fit. Let's take a look at the articulation on Big Boa. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1987 meaning 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. The articulation on the shoulder somewhat hindered by the extra muscle sculpting on the arm. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed his arm to bend at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. 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 leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Big Boa starting with his head and on his head he has a helmet in a light tan color. It covers his entire head. He has a red eye slit and another couple red lines on the top of the helmet. He has a row of silver spikes that go right down the middle all the way down to the back. He has a silver circular detail on the right side of his helmet. It kind of looks like a dial. And in the front he has a silver mouthpiece that connects to his hose accessory. He has a bare chest that is muscular with crossed red straps over the chest and back and silver spikes that run along those straps. Those spikes are pointed. They're not rounded off as you would expect for a toy. They are sharp. They leave impressions on your fingers. His arms are totally bare without the gloves. They are very muscular. A lot like Sergeant Slaughter. But these arms do not copy Sergeant Slaughter. They are unique. On his waistpiece he has a red belt and a silver belt buckle. He has red padding in front. This looks a little like the protective padding boxers wear. On his legs he's wearing blue tights. He has muscular thighs. Lots of muscle detail sculpted onto this figure. He's wearing boots with black trim and shin guards and he has a red ridge detail that run around the sides and back. The black shoe may be a separate piece. I don't know if these are boots or they're shin guards with shoes. The intent of the sculptor is not very clear. Let's take a look at Big Boa's file card. On his file card it has his faction as Cobra, a portrait of Big Boa. It says his code name is Big Boa. He's the Cobra trainer, filename unknown. This top paragraph says Cobra troopers can be an unruly bunch at times. They aren't motivated by patriotism, unit loyalty, honor or a sense of duty. It takes a brutal, unfeeling taskmaster to whip them into fighting trim and Big Boa fits that bill to a tee. He has a voice like a bullhorn, fists the size of frozen turkeys and the disposition of a rabid grizzly bear. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, Big Boa ticks open the Cobra barracks door at 0500 and makes everyone do the low crawl up the mountain while pushing a bowling ball with their noses. Then it's a 20 mile run through the bramble thickets, more pushups than you want to know about and a two mile swim upstream with flak jacket and helmet. After breakfast he starts on the hard stuff. This file card reads a lot like Sergeant Slaughter's file card. Big Boa is a big strong guy who is brutal to his trainees. He is Cobra's Sergeant Slaughter. Looking at how Big Boa was used in GI Joe Media, he was only animated for commercials, so no cartoon episode appearances to show you. He also had no appearances in the comic book during the vintage era. I know he got some use after the vintage era, but that is outside the scope of this review.