 Hooded Cobra Commander 788 YouTube channel. We're going to be doing vintage Cobra toy reviews for the entire month of July 2015. I've got a great lineup of toys to review this month, I'm very excited about it, and we're starting out by looking at the Baroness. I've been wanting to review the Baroness for a long time, but I've held off because the Baroness is such an important character, I thought she deserved a special spotlight. So she's going to kick off our Cobra theme month, so let's take a look at the toy. This is the Baroness, Cobra's Intelligence Officer. The figure was first introduced in 1984, she was also sold in 1985, she was discontinued in 1986, and in 1986 we did not get a replacement Cobra Intelligence Officer, but we did get a new female villain character, Zarena, Zartan's sister. The Baroness is a rare character that did not debut as an action figure first. She first appeared in the G.I. Joe comic book in the very first issue in 1982, she later appeared in the G.I. Joe animated miniseries in 1983, and it wasn't until 1984 that we finally got a Baroness action figure. We didn't get a lot of women G.I. Joe action figures, which I guess is expected for a boy's toy line, but we did get a few, and the few that we got were excellent. We usually got one woman action figure per year, starting in 1982, the very first wave of 80s G.I. Joe action figures with Scarlett. The next year, in 1983, they followed up with Covergirl. Then in 1984 we got the Baroness, in 1985 we got Lady J, and then in 1986 we got Zarena. Depending on how you look at it, the Baroness is second in command of the entire Cobra organization right behind Cobra Commander. The enemy weapon supplier Destro also had some command responsibilities, but he was portrayed more as an independent operator, so his position in the Cobra command structure is less clear. The Baroness also has a special relationship with Destro, which seems to predate either of their involvement with Cobra. Let's take a look at the Baroness's accessories. She came with two, starting with this weapon, which the contents of the packaging call a High Density Laser Rifle. What exactly does it mean by High Density, does that mean it's heavy? This rifle is molded out of straight black plastic like most of the action figure, and it doesn't really even have a lot of detail on it. It has this magazine here, so even though it's supposed to be a laser rifle, it looks kind of like a traditional firearm that would shoot bullets. With the scope here on top it could pass as a sniper rifle, or just a regular assault rifle. It doesn't seem to have any real world analog, this is just a made up weapon. It does however seem a little oversized for the figure it comes with. Her other accessory is a backpack, which pegs into her back like any other GI Joe backpack. This backpack has a very impressively sculpted Cobra head on it, and that's pretty cool. It looks great, but it doesn't seem to be very functional as a backpack. Even though this backpack looks really good, I don't think this is really a very necessary accessory for the Baroness. Hasbro did try to give every figure multiple accessories, sometimes when they were really unnecessary and superfluous. Let's look at the articulation of the Baroness. She had the typical articulation of 1984 GI Joe action figures. That means she could turn her head from left to right like that. Her head movement is somewhat hindered by the sculpt of her hair. She could move her arm up at the shoulder about so far, and she could swivel it all the way around. She had a hinge at the elbow, she could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. She had a swivel at the bicep, she could swivel her arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside so she could move at the torso a little bit. She could move her legs apart about so far. She could move her leg at the hip about 90 degrees, and she could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt, design, and color of the Baroness, and as you can see, the figure is made up almost entirely of black plastic, much like the old 1982 and 1983 Snake Eyes. In fact, sometimes I see some parts swapped out between them, particularly the arms. Taking a look at the figure's head, we've got some things going on here. First of all, she has a reasonably attractive feminine face. She's got some glasses, and she's wearing lipstick. Unfortunately, the paint application of the lipstick on my figure is not too good. We've got some splotchiness here. And she has a separate hair piece. This piece is a separate molded piece made out of a slightly softer plastic, and that's glued onto her hair. This was somewhat new. On the old GI Joe figures that were supposed to have long hair, they didn't really do a very good job of portraying that in the action figures. But on the Baroness here, we have a separate head piece, so she actually does have long hair that comes down over her back. On her chest, she's wearing what appears to be a leather bodice, and this may be armored. It's got some ridges here. It's got some buckles with some straps that continue around to the back. That's very impressive detail. She's wearing it over a black shirt that has some buttons here, and it goes up to her neck. Some very impressive detail on the chest. And then of course she has this red Cobra sigil, which gives us a nice spot of color, and it's a great contrast to the dark background. One anecdote relayed by GI Joe character designer Ron Rudat was that the Baroness originally was going to have larger boobs. But I guess somebody at Hasrow thought that might be indecent for a boy's toy, so they shaved down the breasts to the size we see on this action figure. And as they did that, Russ Meyer shed a little tear. We have some fairly plain upper arms, and we have some black gloves with Cobra heads sculpted on the wrists. And I think that is a really awesome detail. I love these gloves. We even have some straps and buckles sculpted on the inside of the wrists. That is such an impressive attention to detail. On her waist piece, she has a sculpted Cobra belt buckle, and that's again a great attention to detail. She has a belt there, and this waist piece is smaller than the typical waist piece that was on the male action figures. Just comparing it to Destros, you can see it's quite a bit smaller. This was Hasrow's attempt to give the women action figures a somewhat more feminine shape, and it's arguable whether or not they were successful at that. On her thighs, she has these armor or leather ridges here that are probably extensions of her boots. On her right leg, she has a sculpted-on pistol holster, nothing on her left leg, and she has black boots, and on the back of the boots are more of these leather-looking ridges. There's something peculiar about the arms of the Baroness. Yojo.com says this figure was made of entirely unique parts, which is mostly true. However, the arms on here, the folds of the cloth, have a particular pattern to them. In 1982, we got this straight arm version of Scarlett. She did not have articulation at the bicep. She didn't have the swivel arm, but in 1983, Scarlett was re-released with the swivel arm, so she did have that extra articulation here at the bicep. She could swivel her arms. The upper arms on Scarlett, the cloth ridge pattern here seems to be identical to what is on the Baroness. Looking at both arms, the upper arms appear to be the same. The cover girl in 1983, they also seem to have used the same upper arms. That fold pattern is easier to see on the right arm. That is definitely the same arm just molded in a different color plastic. But wait, it gets weirder, because the his tank driver seems to be also using the same upper arms. The right arm has that cloth fold pattern, and the left arm. Let's take a look at the Baroness' file card, and this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure is packaged. You can see some of the artwork on the front of the card there. It has her faction as Cobra, and it has a nice portrait of the Baroness here. This would have been from the artwork on the front of the card. It says she is the Cobra Intelligence Officer, which essentially means that she's their chief spy. Her codename is Baroness. Her primary military specialty is Intelligence, as expected. Her secondary military specialty is Fixed Wing Pilot, which means she can fly an airplane. Her birthplace is classified. There's no filename listed here. In the various G.I. Joe media over the years, the Baroness has had several filenames such as Anastasia de Cobre, but I'm not sure that any of them should be considered canon. This top section says, the spoiled offspring of wealthy European aristocrats, the Baroness graduated from student radicalism, into international terrorism, and finally into the ranks of Cobra. So essentially, she started out as a spoiled brat, and she just got worse. She was severely burned during a Cobra night attack operation, and has had extensive plastic surgery. This refers to an incident in the G.I. Joe comic book in which the his tank she was driving blew up, and she had extensive reconstructive surgery after she was rescued by major blood. Rumor has it that she is the only one who knows Destro's secret identity, again alluding to her special relationship with Destro. Qualified expert M16, AK-47, RPG-7, Uzi, and his tank operator. Oddly, it doesn't mention that she's a qualified expert in the weapon she actually comes with. This bottom section has a quote. It says, her principal weakness is in the division of her loyalty between Cobra commander and Destro. Her chief strength would seem to lie in her ability to play them against each other. This also alludes to the comic book. When Destro was first introduced, it's very clear that he and the Baroness had romantic feelings for each other, but the Baroness also makes it very clear that she would not betray Cobra commander. The file card says the Baroness is a his tank operator, and this is the his tank. Of course, the his tank came with a driver action figure, this guy, but in the G.I. Geo comic book, the Baroness was portrayed as driving this tank. I do not display the Baroness driving the his tank for a couple reasons. First as you can see, the black clad action figure kind of gets lost in the background of the black tank, and this figure is much too impressive to hide away inside a tank like this. Second, she doesn't really fit very well in the tank with her accessories on. I will display the Baroness gunning the his tank, which is still not ideal. She is still kind of hidden back there, but she's more visible than she would be in the driver's seat, and she can hold on to her accessories. The file card says she's a fixed wing pilot, which means she could fly the Cobra rattler attack jet, and there is mention in the comic book of her having a personal rattler. The rattler did come with a pilot action figure, wild weasel, and I do not display the Baroness in the rattler for the same reason I don't have her driving the his tank. The figure just isn't visible enough inside the aircraft. Looking at the Baroness overall, it's hard to say anything bad about this figure. This is an iconic character, and an iconic portrayal of that character. She looks great in black, and although some additional color detail could have been added, any additional color may have detracted from the elegant simplicity of this design. The Baroness is a very strong character in all G.I. Joe media, including the rise of Cobra movie, but in that movie her origin was significantly changed. She is Cobra's intelligence officer, and the word intelligence can be taken a couple different ways. Obviously, it's meant to refer to spying, but it also describes the Baroness as an intellectual. This little uniform makes the Baroness look like a dominatrix, but she's portrayed more as a femme fatale. A femme fatale is a literary character type that is used to illustrate the dangers of female sexuality. But the Baroness is no pin-up girl. She would not be posing in a bikini for the amusement of men. Her sexuality is more of a weapon than a source of amusement. Having an action figure wearing dominatrix gear was pretty racy for a toy line in the 1980s, and even today people think her tight leather costume is pretty sexy. But is it? This leather doesn't breathe, I'm sweating like a pig. Lakes of sweat are pooling in my boot. When I take off these clothes, I'm going to smell like a dead monkey. Must kill moose and squirrel. My only real knock on this figure is the accessories. I don't think she needs the backpack at all, and I would much have preferred she come with like a real sniper rifle rather than this laser rifle. But at least the accessories are black to match the outfit, so they do have that going for them. The Baroness is a pivotal character in the G.I. Joe comic book, and she is connected to a lot of other characters in that series. At one point in the comic book, she shot and killed Storm Shadow, who, along with Snake Eyes, had infiltrated Cobra Island on a mission to kill Zartan. After Cobra Commander had been deposed by his rival, Serpentor, the Baroness supported the return of Cobra Commander in his version 3 battle armor. But this was not really Cobra Commander, it was actually a Crimson Guardsman disguised as Cobra Commander. And let's not forget her romantic involvement with Destro. You following all this kids? In the G.I. Joe animated series, the Baroness was voiced by Morgan Lofting, who gave her a vaguely Eastern European accent, the origin of which you couldn't really identify. To Americans, all those European accents all sound alike. 1984 was a fantastic year for Cobra. In addition to the Baroness, we got a lot of other iconic Cobra characters. We got Storm Shadow, Firefly, Zartan, Scrap Iron, and in addition to those guys, we got some excellent vehicle drivers, like Wild Weasel, Copperhead. We got the male away hooded Cobra Commander. Admittedly, the Stinger driver that came out that year was not very impressive, but overall a great year for Cobra action figures. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and call it, 1984 was the best year for Cobra. It's not that they didn't have other great figures come out in other years, but 1984 was the best year. That was my review of the Baroness, I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you enjoyed the kickoff to Cobra Month 2015. If you liked it, make sure you give it a thumbs up on YouTube, and don't forget to subscribe. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up, and I've got a lot of great Cobra toy reviews coming up this month. Don't forget to like the Facebook page, you get a lot of updates there, you don't get anywhere else. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next week with another vintage Cobra toy review.