 I'm so happy to finally have you in my collection, Bomb Disposal Unit, oh but I can't review you right now because you're from G.I. Joe, and this is Cobra Month. You wait right there while I go look at something from Cobra. Welcome to Cobra Convergence 4. It ain't here, and it is my privilege to bring you the fourth year of Cobra Convergence, and we are going to be looking at a very special G.I. Joe toy. The 1982 Sears Exclusive Cobra Missile Command Headquarters is a testament to Ron Rudett. If you don't know who Ron is, he is the person most responsible for the look of G.I. Joe in the 1980s. He designed all the early figures. He designed some of the vehicles. He created the iconic Cobra emblem. Ron's fingerprints are all over this play set. He designed all three figures that came with it. He designed the set itself. He even did the artwork on it. This is Ron Rudett's baby. I was honored to meet Ron Rudett at Joe Con a few years ago. I was able to thank him in person for all the work he did on G.I. Joe. Now, for Cobra Convergence, it's my privilege to review the first play set in the G.I. Joe A Real American Hero toy line. HCC788 presents the Sears Exclusive Cobra Missile Command Headquarters. This is the 1982 Sears Exclusive Cobra Missile Command Headquarters. It was sold only at Sears in 1982 and 1983. It was discontinued for 1984. This is the first play set of any kind in the G.I. Joe A Real American Hero toy line. It is made entirely of cardboard with the exception of some plastic fasteners. This play set was exclusive to Sears because it was exclusive to only one retailer and because it was made of cardboard, this is a very rare set. Fewer were produced and many of them did not survive playtime. The set came with three figures. All three Cobra figures that were available at the time. Cobra Commander, the Cobra Officer, and the Cobra Trooper. This set was the only way to get Cobra Commander at retail in 1982. The figure was otherwise only available through mail order. According to former Hasbro employee Kirk Bozigian, who was in charge of Boy's Toys at the time the G.I. Joe toy line was launched in 1982, Sears wanted an exclusive G.I. Joe toy. The presentation for the toy was made in August and needed to be ready by Christmas the same year. A plastic toy would take at least a year to produce. The only solution? Use cardboard instead of plastic. Ron Rudat, the Hasbro designer who created all of the early G.I. Joe action figures did all the illustration on this set. In earlier eras of mass produced toys, cardboard play sets were more common. Thankfully plastic play sets were exceptional. Toy companies used a variety of materials to keep costs down. Some play sets were nothing more than vinyl cases that opened up for play. Some larger sets were made of tin. Occasionally the play set would just be a sheet of printed plastic that pieces were placed on. The petroleum crisis in the late 70s increased the price of plastic, which perpetuated the use of cardboard in play sets. Both the Kenner Star Wars Death Star play set and the Millennium Falcon had cardboard walls. After this, future G.I. Joe play sets would be made of plastic. They would also get bigger. In 1983 there was the G.I. Joe headquarters command center. In 1985 there was the transportable tactical battle platform. Also in 1985 there was the USS flag. In 1986 there was the Cobra Terror Drone. For Cobra this was a big upgrade from the cardboard set. In 1987 there was the defiant shuttle complex. Also in 1987 there was the mobile command center. In 1990 there was the general. In 1992 there was a new G.I. Joe headquarters play set. And also in 1992 there was the Toxolab. You may have noticed some pieces left out. Some vehicles were so large they seemed like play sets. And some play sets had wheels so they moved around like vehicles. However you classify them G.I. Joe had a wealth of large toys to play with. Sears advertised the set in their 1982 wishbook for $11.99. That's roughly the equivalent of the price of the three figures plus a couple extra dollars. Today they are worth at least twice that. Sears was a big supporter of the G.I. Joe toy line and had several exclusive sets. In 1984 they had the vamp and howl two pack. In 1985 they had the cat and the SMS. In 1986 they had the dreadnought aerosolte and the dreadnought ground assault. These sets tend to be rare. Any toy that was produced exclusively for one retailer would not be produced in the same numbers as a general retail release. They were also mostly reissues of earlier toys sometimes with different colors. There was a modern version of this toy released in 2007. It was an exclusive to San Diego Comic Con. I will show you a side by side comparison between the vintage and modern later in this video. I have the instruction sheet for the missile command headquarters and this is a little different from our usual vehicle blueprints in that it has the instructions on how to put the thing together but it does not have an illustration of the toy on a grid background with a numbered list of the features. It does have illustrations of the various parts that go to it and it has this blurb here with a little bit of text that kind of tries to talk up the set. This missile command station is a detailed copy of Cobra command's super secret headquarters. And it's thick steel walls is the world's most sophisticated state of the art missile system engineered to operate under the most extreme conditions. It's made of cardboard folks, although it is cool to have the instruction sheet and it's certainly handy when you're putting the set together, a lot of collectors will consider the set to be complete without it. Let's look at the parts and the features of the Cobra missile command headquarters and it's worth pointing out that everything is on one side of this play set. The back side of it is just plain white cardboard. For starters you have this large background piece which the instruction sheet calls the fully detailed Cobra missile base. It appears to be a domed base with a tunnel that lines up with the elevator rail and a couple guards in the tunnel. On the wall behind the missile is a big Cobra emblem, Cobra has its branding on everything. Then there's this little orange cart drawn on the floor. There is exceptional technical detail on that background piece, all of it drawn by Ron Rudat. This is a two dimensional piece on which all of the three dimensional pieces are attached. Next we have the elevator and the elevator is functional. It will slide along two sideways L shaped slots. You can place an action figure in the elevator and the elevator will slide over and down and then of course back up and back over. It may take a little bit of work but mine actually slides pretty easily. This is a pretty creative way of making a 3D moving part out of two dimensional cardboard. There is some technical detail on that control panel, some switches and buttons and control panels and monitors and a little pac-man there and it looks like there is an illustration of the missile. So this is nice, I do like the elevator. The next layer out from the backboard is what the instruction sheet calls the missile support systems. It's mainly a bunch of technical detail with a couple platforms that connect to the backboard and then of course the additional pieces connect to that piece adding another dimension to the play set. If you move the elevator out of the way you can stand action figures on those platforms. So they did try to give you ways to have the figures interact with the play set other than just standing in front of it. And here is more of that amazing technical detail illustrated by Ron Rudat on that support system piece. As you can see it's just a long piece that connects to that backboard in a couple spots and then other pieces are connected to that. But really exceptional detail on that and that gives us another layer to look at. The next piece is the cruise missile. It is a flat piece, it is two dimensional, it's just illustrated on a piece of cardboard. It is connected to the missile support system piece at one point and it will pivot, it will go all the way vertical and it will go horizontal. Since this set were brand new the missile should hold in any position but this is cardboard it does tend to wear so my missile will not stay up and at this age don't we all have that problem. In order to help keep it up I usually use a piece of mounting putty and that will keep it up at a nice angle. Unfortunately the missile will not launch, it will only pivot up and down and this is the center piece of the play set. This is a missile command headquarters that cannot launch its missile. It's a little disappointing that the focus of the set is flat and doesn't really do much. A cruise missile is a guided missile that takes out ground targets. There are cruise missile designs that look similar to this one. Cruise missiles have been around for a long time and would have been pretty well known to the public at the time this set was released. There is a big red Cobra emblem on the tail of the missile and Cobra made sure to register their trademark. Directly in front of the missile is the work platform and as with all the other pieces there is exceptional technical detail all over it. There's a ramp on one side but the primary function is as a platform so you can stand a figure on it and this guy can repair the missile or something. At the other end of the play set is the control panel. It is a U-shaped computer control console with tons of buttons and gauges and monitors all over it. It has three seats that attach to it. Unfortunately I only have two seats. The third seat would go right here but the seats are all identical so you can see what the seats look like. I really like this computer center. The missile may be the show piece of the play set but this is the heart. The figures can use the seats at the control panel by straddling the seat and there are little holes in the cardboard for the figure's feet. It works more or less. It's not perfect but they had to make attached seats out of cardboard pieces somehow and this is what they came up with. That's all the features on the play set but we have one more piece to look at. The file card holder. This file card holder isn't technically part of the play set but it did come with the play set. Some collectors will consider the set to be complete without it. This file card holder is nothing more than a box with a flap on the back. It has a GI Joe logo in front, a Cobra the enemy on each side. It is blank on the bottom. It is blank on the back and on the front of that flap it has the GI Joe figures that were available at the time. At least most of them. Surprisingly it seems to be missing Cobra Commander. He is not on there. At the top of the box says GI Joe combat command file. It has a slot in it and that is for holding the three included file cards. We will be taking a closer look at these file cards a little later in this video. Here is one more look at all the amazing technical detail illustrated by Ron Ruddat on this play set. They did a good job of making a play environment out of cardboard. Some collectors may think this thing is cheesy but I think it's impressive considering the short amount of time they had to make it. There was however an alternative construction they could have gone with. Some other cardboard play sets took a different approach and we will look at one of them later. Let's look at the figures that came with this play set. These figures were packaged in two different ways. In the earliest releases of this play set they were sealed in a plastic bubble on the back of the file card. Later probably in 1983 they came sealed in a plastic bag with the file card. All of these figures like the play set were designed by Ron Ruddat. GI Joe did not have an enemy when they were first presented to Marvel Comics for creative input. Marvel suggested an enemy similar to Marvel's Hydra. The late Marvel editor Archie Goodwin came up with the name Cobra. An anecdote about Archie Goodwin, he was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1937 but he spent his teen years in my hometown Tulsa. He attended Will Rogers High School, the same high school as my parents. He graduated in 1955 and he has been inducted into the Will Rogers High School Hall of Fame. Finally he passed away in 1998. One of my great regrets is that I will never be able to meet him. Depending on when you bought the Missile Command headquarters you could get one of three Cobra Commanders. The earliest releases of the play set in 1982 would have come with the straight arm Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander. So called because of the simplified Cobra emblem on his chest with detached eyes on the top that look a little bit like Mickey Mouse ears. Because Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander figures are somewhat rare, the earliest male away figures also had this Mickey Mouse symbol. We don't know exactly why this odd chest symbol was used on the early figures. My guess is the factory mistakenly used a mock-up instead of the final design. Later in 1982 you would have got a straight arm Cobra Commander figure with the Cobra symbol that we are more familiar with. The later male away figures also corrected the Cobra symbol on the chest. Other than the corrected chest symbol this figure is exactly like the other one. These are not as rare as the Mickey Mouse figures but they are still sought after and can be expensive. And if you picked up the play set in 1983 you would have gotten a swivel arm Cobra Commander figure with the updated articulation on the arms and the regular Cobra chest symbol. This is exactly the same as the 1983 regular retail release. Before 1983 Cobra Commander was primarily available through a mail order offer. This play set was the only way you could buy the figure in a store. In 1983 the figure was broadly available at retail. The retail 1983 version is the most common version but that figure is still in high demand among collectors. Another version of Cobra Commander you got, he came with one accessory, the Venom Laser Pistol. It's in dark gray, it's kind of a clunky thing, looks a bit like a hairdryer. It does have a unique feature though, it will plug into the back. It has a peg, there's a hole in the back of the figure, he has a recharging pack molded on and the laser pistol will peg on there for recharging. And that's not too bad. I kind of like that feature. Thanks to a viewer, Kurt Kessler, I have a full-size Venom Laser Pistol. I haven't tested it to see if it works yet but you guys better watch out. Let's look at the sculpt design and color of Cobra Commander. He's wearing a light blue uniform. He has a light blue helmet with a silver mask. He's wearing a black shirt under a blue uniform jacket with a red Cobra emblem on the front. He has that recharging port on his back for his Venom Laser Pistol. He's got a hole in the port that plugs in the pistol. He's got a couple straps sculpted onto his back and another strap or perhaps some wiring that goes around his midsection. His arms have long light blue sleeves and black gloves. His waist piece has a black belt with a couple pouches. He has a red belt buckle. On his legs he has that light blue color with a red stripe that runs all the way down his right side. On his left side he does not have the red stripe but he has a black dagger on his left thigh. His uniform covers most of his boots but we do see he has black boots. In addition to Cobra Commander, depending on when you got the play set, you would get one of two Cobra officers. If you got the set in 1982, you would have gotten the straight arm Cobra officer. So called because on the lower arms he only had one point of articulation, a hinge at the elbow. In 1983 you would have gotten the swivel arm Cobra officer. So called because he had a new point of articulation, a swivel just above the elbow. From the first time I saw this figure I thought he looked special. He has a silver Cobra emblem on his chest and I assumed that was tied to his rank. He is an officer. Beware that silver paint flakes off very easily. This one has a very nice clear silver Cobra emblem but as you can see, the silver paint on this one has partially worn away. Ron Rudat has said he designed these early Cobra figures to be a faceless enemy. He did not want them to represent any particular country or ethnic group. So they all wear these blue uniforms and helmets with black masks that can seal the face. The Cobra officer came with one accessory, an AK-47 assault rifle and this is a pretty good likeness of that real world weapon. Some fans feel the Cobra trooper should have come with the AK and the Cobra officer should have had the sniper rifle. However, in concept art by Ron Rudat, the Cobra officer is clearly shown with the AK-47 and the Cobra trooper clearly has the dragon of sniper rifle. I've even seen some fans say the details of the Cobra trooper are more fitting of the officer and the officer looks more like a trooper. To add to the confusion, both the officer and trooper were reissued in 1989 as part of Python Patrol, but their roles were reversed. The officer mold became the Python trooper and the trooper mold became the Python officer. If you are of the opinion that the trooper looks like an officer and the officer looks like a trooper, the Python Patrol versions could be validation of that opinion. Let's look at the sculpt design and color of the Cobra officer. The Cobra officer has a dark blue helmet with a chevron molded on. He has a black mask that covers his nose and mouth and the lower half of his face. He has a dark blue uniform that same dark blue color with a silver Cobra emblem on his chest. He has black web gear front and back and he has gray on his shoulders and then a gray explosive device on the left side of his chest. He has long dark blue sleeves with black gloves. On his waist piece he has a black belt with a couple small pouches. He has dark blue legs. On his left leg there is a black dagger and then he has tall black boots. And finally we get to the Cobra trooper. Depending on when you bought the play set, you would get one of two Cobra troopers. In 1982 you would get the straight arm Cobra trooper, again with the single hinge at the elbow. In 1983 you would get the swivel arm Cobra trooper with the swivel above the elbow. This is the backbone of the Cobra Legion, the famous blue shirts. They do the bulk of the frontline fighting. In 1986 they were replaced by the Viper, which filled the same role. The Viper's are the blue shirts, just with updated uniforms. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, even refers to the blue shirts as Viper's. On the file card they are just called Cobra, but the box for the missile command headquarters calls them troopers. Even though the Cobra officer and the trooper look very similar, they share only one part between them, the waist piece. All the other parts are unique. The Cobra trooper came with one accessory, the Draganov SVD sniper rifle in dark gray. This is another pretty good representation of a real world weapon, those slightly modified. It's no surprise these guys came with Russian weapons. The Soviet Union was the biggest threat to the United States at the time. Looking at the sculpted design and color of the Cobra trooper, he has a dark blue helmet, the same color blue as the Cobra officer. In fact this figure is the same color as the Cobra officer, but he does not have the chevron on the helmet. He does have that same black mask. He has a dark blue uniform shirt with a red Cobra emblem. He has a couple black straps. They continue to the back. He has a molded on grenade launcher on one strap. He has long blue sleeves and blue gloves, unpainted gloves. On his upper right arm, he has a silver wire. On his upper left arm, he has a couple grenades for his grenade launcher. His waist piece is exactly the same as the Cobra officer. He's got that same black belt. His legs are that same dark blue uniform color. He has a pocket on the right leg. He has a black dagger on the left leg. It's a little different from the Cobra officer dagger. He has black knee pads and he has black boots. The mold for the swivel arm Cobra trooper was used twice in 1983. First of course for the Cobra trooper, then for the 1983 Viper pilot, which came with the Viper glider. The difference was the Viper pilot had the silver Cobra chest emblem instead of red. Other than that, these figures are identical. This caused some confusion for me because I thought the silver emblem meant he was an officer, but the Viper pilot was not an officer. Let's take a look at the file cards that came with these three figures. At first glance, they look exactly like the retail file cards, but there are a couple important things to look for. These cards were not printed on the backs of retail card backs. They were just rectangular cards with a black border and a flag point in the corner. The black borders on my cards have been cut out. Without the black borders, the best way to distinguish these cards from regular retail is to look at the back. In the earliest releases of this play set, the figures were sealed on the back of the file cards in a plastic bubble. So on the back of the card you will have a red back, usually with a tear where the figure was taken off. Later releases of the play set had the figures in a plastic bag with the file card, so those file cards would just have a plain red back and they would not be torn off like this. That's not such a problem with Cobra Commander, but that could cause confusion on the other two file cards. The earliest male away Cobra Commander file cards had exactly the same text as the Sears Exclusive file card, but it was not red on the back, it just had a plain cardboard backing. When the swivel arm figure was finally released at retail in 1983, it had a file card with exactly the same text as the other two, but the back of the file card has some of the front card art on there, so it's obvious that this card was cut out of the back of the retail card. The Cobra Officer file card has the same red backing with the tear where the bubble was removed, and it has exactly the same text as the retail file card, but the retail card has the artwork on the other side, so that's easy to distinguish. One problem with the Cobra Officer and the Cobra Troopers red back file cards is, with the later Sears Exclusive sets, they did not have the tear on the back, they were bagged file cards, and both of these guys got later male away releases that also had red back file cards. The male away file cards had a white border instead of a black border, but when the borders are cut out, it could be very difficult to distinguish the Sears Exclusive file cards from the male away file cards. Let's round out our look at file cards by looking at the Cobra Trooper file card. Again, it just says Cobra, not Cobra Trooper, codenamed the enemy. In fact, the officer also says codenamed the enemy, and the Cobra Commander file card says codenamed enemy leader, but this is the Cobra Trooper. The text is the same as the retail file card, and again, we have the red back with the tear where the bubble was removed. So this would have come from a 1982 Sears Missile Command Headquarters play set. And once again, on the retail card on the other side, we have that artwork so easy to distinguish the retail from the Sears Exclusive. But like the Cobra officer, there was a later male away Cobra Trooper with a red back file card and a white border. So with the white border cut out, it could be difficult to distinguish the male away file card from the Sears file card. In 2017, Hasbro issued a remake of this play set, and it was an exclusive to San Diego Comic Con. Like the original, it was made of cardboard, and it came with three action figures, the modern equivalent of Cobra Commander, the Cobra Officer, and the Cobra Trooper. Looking at these two side by side, obviously they have very similar construction, and they share a lot of the same details, so it could be very easy to mix them up. Upon closer inspection, though, there are significant differences between these two. In fact, none of the parts are identical. So if you know what to look for, you should always be able to tell the modern from the vintage. Hasbro didn't help matters by making the box very similar to the 1982 box, including some distressing, some wear and tear, some yellowing of the white areas. This is made to look like an old box, even though it's brand new. However, on the 2017 box, the photograph includes modern action figures. So that's, of course, a major difference from the 1982 box. In fact, the 1982 box had photographs of prototype figures, rather than the regular retail production figures. But if you see modern action figures on the front of the box, that's a pretty good way to know that you have the modern box, not the vintage. The back of the box is also very similar to the 1982 box, with the two-color printing on a white background. But if you look at it, there are brown spots all over it as if it's aged cardboard. But this is a brand new box. They just intentionally made it look old. Flipping the play sets around to the back, you can see the similar construction and material. I'd say the cardboard used in the modern release is thinner than the original, but perhaps a bit sturdier. One difference in the construction between modern and vintage is the vintage parts were printed on larger sheets of cardboard that were perforated, so you would have to punch the parts out. So you'll see little nibs of cardboard along the edges where the pieces were connected to the larger sheets of cardboard. On the modern release, all the parts were die cut, so you didn't have to punch them out. They came bagged exactly as you see them. The biggest difference and the easiest difference to spot between the modern and the vintage is the artwork. The artwork on the modern release is entirely done with computer. It doesn't look like any of it is hand drawn. There are some additional details like the additional detail on the floor, the background, and the guards in the tunnel are actually photographs of modern action figures rather than hand drawn. And mostly the details are the same, except they are clearly done on computer rather than hand drawn as the original was. To compare that with the original and all of it is hand drawn and inked and painted and really shows the hand of the artist. The details are a little bit different. There's less detail on that floor and the background, but otherwise a lot of the details are essentially the same as the modern version, but you can see that this was drawn by somebody. This was not done on computer and that's very evident when you have them side by side. They both came with the file card holder. The modern one here is in much better shape because it's brand new, but the construction is pretty much the same and the artwork on them is almost identical. The artwork on the back flap is almost identical to the vintage. The printing is maybe a shade darker, but it does look like they've used the vintage artwork on the modern. Some differences to look for on the vintage file card holder. There is a number here in the bottom corner that is not present on the modern release. Also on the vintage, it has Hasbro's copyright information here on the top and this number 6200 next to the Hasbro logo. On the modern release, it does not have the copyright information on there and it has a different number next to the Hasbro logo. You can see though how it would be easy to mix these two up. You have the Cobra enemy on the sides and a blank back and bottom, exactly as the vintage file card holder. The file cards are also very similar, so it's important to not mix these up. The file cards have the black border but no flag point in the corner and they have the red backing. One thing I noticed on this modern Cobra Commander file card is they fixed an error that was on the original. The original file card had a typo. There was an extra comma in this sentence, his main battle plan for world control and they actually fixed that and removed the errant comma on the modern one. The text is otherwise quite similar. The artwork obviously is pretty much the same. On the modern card, they did add a disclaimer and fine print down at the bottom that does not appear on the original. The file cards with this set use the classic file card shape that we're used to from the 80s. Modern file cards are mostly shaped like this with this longer section up here on top. So they are really trying to make these look like vintage file cards. Let's compare the figures these two sets came with. We've already looked at the vintage figures that came with the 1982 release. The 2017 release came with modern figures with modern articulation and sculpting, but it came with the same three characters, Cobra Commander, the Cobra Officer, and the Cobra Trooper. The modern version paid homage to the vintage, particularly with the Cobra Commander figure. The scale of the modern figures is slightly different from the vintage. They are a little taller. They also came with figure stands that had the name of the character printed on them. This Cobra Commander figure, instead of having the regular Cobra emblem, has the Mickey Mouse Cobra emblem on his chest. So that is a direct homage to the earliest Cobra Commander figures. This modern figure, like the vintage, has the red stripe down the right leg and no stripe on the left leg. That's a direct copy of the vintage. And like the vintage, the modern figure has a recharging pack molded onto the back, on which you can connect his Venom laser pistol. This figure does have all modern articulation. It also has a removable helmet and on his left leg, he has a removable knife. The Cobra Officer figure has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure. He has that same dark blue uniform. He has an AK-47 rifle, similar to the original, but it's updated. It's not exactly the same. He has that silver Cobra chest emblem. His web gear is removable. It's not just sculpted on. And he has a removable helmet. And finally, the Cobra Trooper with the figure stand that just says Cobra has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure. On the modern figure, we actually lose some of the silver details that were on the vintage figure. But he still has that dark blue uniform with the red Cobra emblem on the chest. He still has the knee pads, and that's an important detail. He has the Draganov sniper rifle, and that is similar to the vintage, but not exactly the same. It is updated. Like the Cobra Officer, he has removable web gear and a removable helmet. To give you a more thorough look at the San Diego Comic-Con Missile Command headquarters, I recorded an unboxing and assembly video, which you should see on my YouTube channel later this week. I said earlier there was an alternative construction they could have used for this cardboard playset, and I was going to show it to you. For that, we have to go outside of the United States to the British version of G.I. Joe Action Force, produced by the UK company Palatoy. They made cardboard play sets that were dramatically different from this one. Palatoy was the licensee for Star Wars in the UK, and they made a cardboard playset for the Death Star that we did not get in the US. They made a similar cardboard playset for Action Force, and it's my privilege to show that to you now. This is the Action Force headquarters playset by Palatoy. It is made primarily of cardboard with a few minor plastic pieces. This one is missing some of the plastic pieces, but is made of a thicker cardboard than the Missile Command headquarters, so it is sturdier. But as you can see, this is a true 3D playset. Instead of starting with a background and building forward, they started with the ground and built up. It has multiple levels. It has a helipad. It has a wall that unfolds into a runway. It is spectacular. It has so much more play value than the American playset. I have to thank Michael in the UK for sending this to me. So yes, if you're going to do a cardboard playset, this is the way to do it. But in fairness to Hasbro and Ron Rudat, they were on a time crunch and they probably did not have time to construct something like this. But I can still daydream about getting this kind of playset for G.I. Joe. Looking at how this playset and these characters were used in G.I. Joe media, Cobra had many secret bases, but not exactly like this, so I think it's fair to say this playset was not used in G.I. Joe media. Cobra Commander, the Cobra officer, and the Cobra Trooper, however, were used extensively. In the G.I. Joe animated series, Cobra Commander had his origins in Cobra Law, the secretive race of mutants hiding in the Himalayas. Cobra Commander was a Cobra Law scientist whose face was disfigured in an experiment. For some reason, he was chosen to lead Cobra in an attempt to conquer the human world. He was of course totally inept at that task. The animated version of Cobra Commander tended to be more buffoonish. He concocted wild, implausible plans to take over the world and those plans invariably failed. Even so, he was one of the most important characters in the series. At one point, they tried to get rid of him and replace him with Serpentor, but he came back. In the 1987 animated movie, they transformed him into a snake. It looked like that was the end of Cobra Commander, but they brought him back in the Deke animated series. He was a snake man, and he wore his battle armor to cover his nakedness. There were countless officers and troopers in the animated series. They were most famous for having stormtrooper aim. They would fire their lasers all day and never hit anything. Of course, this was an animated series for TV, so the violence had to be toned down. In the G.I. Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Cobra Commander was again one of the most important characters in the series, but he was very different from his animated appearance. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, in a Toy Fair magazine interview said he loved writing Cobra Commander. He modeled Cobra Commander after conservative political personality William F. Buckley. We know a lot about Cobra Commander in the comic book series, more than most Cobra characters. We know his past occupation. We know something about his family. We have met his wife and son. Cobra Commander began his journey to evil after the death of his brother, Dan, in a car accident. That same incident caused the death of Snake Eyes's family. Cobra Commander blamed Snake Eyes for his brother's death. At some point in his past, Cobra Commander was a used car salesman. He became a corrupt businessman, amassing wealth through unscrupulous means, and eventually forming the underground organization Cobra. Cobra completely took over the small American town of Springfield. Cobra Commander contracted the assassination of Snake Eyes when he was still in training with the Arashikage Ninja Clan. The assassin, Zartan, accidentally killed the hard master instead. That incident set in motion a long chain of revenge, deception, and hatred. His son, Billy, became a resistance fighter in Springfield. He was recruited by the Baroness and Major Blood to kill Cobra Commander, but Destro prevented him from doing it. He was taken under Storm Shadow's wing and given Ninja training. In a missile attack by Scrap Iron, he lost an eye and a leg. His leg was replaced with a mechanical one. Cobra Commander's ex-wife reappeared in issue number 83. She reunited with Billy. At one point, Cobra Commander was thought dead. He was replaced by a Crimson Guardsman called Fred Seven, who started a civil war with Serpentor. The imposter Cobra Commander prevailed. The real Cobra Commander was not dead, though. He returned to retake command of Cobra. He trapped all his internal enemies in a landlocked freighter and buried it under a volcano. That's his style. Cobra Commander could have been a stand-in for any foreign enemy of the U.S., but in the comic book, that's not what he was. He represented the enemy within. He represented the allure of fascism and power over all else. Cobra was a domestic terrorist group. There were plenty of Cobra officers in the comic book series. Often the officers and troopers were used almost interchangeably. Their uniforms were almost identical. There was one Cobra officer that got special attention, Scarface. He was identifiable by the V-shaped scar that ran across his eyes. He operated as a courier for Cobra during Dr. Venom's plot to develop a lethal plague toxin. Scarface died in issue number 19. Among my friends, Scarface created a rumor of a rare variant of the Cobra officer figure. We thought some Cobra officers would have the scars sculpted onto the face. We looked closely at every Cobra officer figure we could find, but we never saw the scars. Of course, the scarred Cobra officer figure did not exist at the time. There is now a modern scarred Cobra officer figure, though. There were countless Cobra troopers in the comic book series. Even though they were replaced with the upgraded Vipers, they still appeared in the comic book long after the figures were discontinued. Larry Hama refers to these blue shirts as Vipers, even though they weren't called Vipers until they were upgraded in 1986. Looking at the missile command headquarters overall, the figures that came with it are great. They're still among my favorite Cobra figures in the entire line. They were groundbreaking, they were iconic, they are top tier. The playset itself has some rather obvious problems. The cardboard construction is very fragile. The rarity of the set makes it very expensive. The play value is limited. The cruise missile, the centerpiece of the playset, does not launch. You can elevate it to launch position, but GI Joe had better stop it there because it doesn't go anywhere. The elevator does move, but that's not enough to elevate it to a top tier playset. This playset is highly desired by collectors primarily because it is rare. It is one of the most difficult playsets to complete. The 1987 defiant shuttle complex may be more difficult to complete than this one, but that is because of the sheer number of parts. The missile command headquarters has fewer parts, but those parts are very hard to find. I'd say this is more of a diorama than a playset. For that purpose, it works fine. It may not have much play value, but the background and the platforms look nice on display. The best thing about this set is the story behind it. It was the first attempt at a playset in the line. It was an exclusive to Sears, which created challenges to producing it on time. It was conceived and executed by the architect of GI Joe, Ron Rudat. It has a place in the history and legend of GI Joe. Its legend was so great they tried to recapture it in 2017. Were they successful, you'll have to judge. I wouldn't fault any collector for passing on this set. You'll spend a lot of money for a few pieces of cardboard. Even if you have the money to spend, you may not see the value in spending it on this. And I understand that. I am happy to have it because of its history and because I can share it with you. That was my review of the Cobra Missile Command Headquarters. I hope you enjoyed it. We have more Cobra Convergence coming this week. On Monday, July 8th, we have SEO Toy Review on YouTube. On Tuesday, July 9th, we have the Forgotten Figures blog. On Wednesday, July 10th, we have Retro Blasting on YouTube. On Thursday, July 11th, we have McDowen on YouTube. On Friday, July 12th, we have Special Mission Force on Instagram. And on Saturday, July 13th, we have My Side of the Laundry Room on YouTube. There is a full schedule of the event on hcc788.com. Don't forget we have Cobra Convergence content for you every day this month. If you like what we're doing here, please consider giving this video a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribing to the YouTube channel, hitting the notification bell so you don't miss any videos and sharing this video with your friends. I am on social media on Facebook and Twitter and my website hcc788.com. Thank you to my patrons. I can't thank you guys enough. If you like these videos and you'd like to support the channel in that way, please consider checking out my Patreon for some special perks and you can find out how to decode these mysterious messages. I'll be back next week with another Cobra Convergence review. It's Cobra Convergence all month on my channel. I'll see you then and until then, always remember only Cobra is Cobra. I thought I left something there. They're gone. Oh my, oh, oh, oh, oh, thank god. These guys are still there. Susan! Susan! Susan! Half of my collection? Destroy? Monster, do you think? You want me to answer that? I didn't destroy anything. And believe me, Steve, you won't be my only target. I need help here. Form BX257. Form BX257. Kevin! Kevin! Oh, hey buddy. I had a feeling you'd be calling. Timmer has gone mad. He has an Infinity Gauntlet. Oh, I guess that explains why half my collection is missing. Ah, yours too? This is bigger than just the two of us. It's time for a convergence. Right. Hello? Sorry, wrong number. Yeah, maybe not include him in this. Right, sorry, force of habit. It's time for the Convergence Initiative.