 Hello friends! I am happy to announce Timmer on his YouTube show, Half the Battle, has begun his Christmas Charity Drive, which I am supporting. And there are prizes to be won. The way it works is, donate to a charity that benefits children in the month of November, and send proof of that donation to the email address, JoeChristmasCharity at gmail.com. You will be entered in a drawing to win a prize. That drawing will be conducted if the charity drive reaches at least $600, which I believe it can. This is a great opportunity to do something that benefits underprivileged children, and it's one of the best things the GI Joe fan community does all year. Timmer has a video out that explains the entire process. I will link to that video in the description of this video. Please watch that and share it, and donate if you can. Even though I am not eligible to win the prize, I will still be participating and donating, and I hope you will too. Snake Eyes here, and I am doing the introduction to the review of my own figure. Just kidding! It's Hooded Cobra Commander 788! This is the show where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. Snake Eyes is probably the most popular GI Joe character ever. So popular, at one point, he had top billing in the comic book over GI Joe. So popular, he has his own movie coming out next year. And why shouldn't he be popular? He's like the Johnny Cash of GI Joe. He wears all black, he's a badass, he has an angelic singing voice. Okay, Nick's that last part. Actually, Nick's the first part too. The whole point of this review is, there was a Snake Eyes figure from the vintage era that really didn't wear that much black. Snake Eyes version 4 is a lesser known version of Snake Eyes, although he has a fan following, especially among fans of 90s GI Joe. This was a Snake Eyes that had some black in his uniform, but really wasn't feeling the black uniform all that much and decided he needed some blue and some light gray. And for some reason, he spray painted all his weapons neon orange, as if to say welcome to the 90s. Let's take a look at a version of Snake Eyes that definitely has its fans, but is a significant departure from the Snake Eyes we know. HCC 788 presents version 4 of Snake Eyes. Believe it or not, this is Snake Eyes, GI Joe's commando from 1991. This figure was introduced in 1991 and was available in that year only. It was discontinued for 1992. This is the fourth version of Snake Eyes in the vintage line. There were six vintage versions of Snake Eyes in total. Version 1 of Snake Eyes was introduced in 1982 with the first wave of new GI Joe figures when the line was relaunched that year. The figure was made entirely of black plastic with no paint applications. The money saved on paint was used to add extra details to other figures, like Stalker's camouflage pattern. In 1983, version 1 was replaced with version 1.5. It had a slight update to the articulation and the waist piece, otherwise it was the same as version 1. In 1985, we got version 2. This was the first major update of the character. It added the iconic visor and included his wolf companion Timber. By this time, his ninja backstory was integrated into the character. In 1989, they gave us version 3. It was a subtle update. Snake Eyes still had his black uniform, but with more silver highlights. He no longer included the wolf, but he had a ton of accessories. He went back to wearing goggles instead of his visor. That brings us to 1991 and version 4, the subject of this review. This was the most dramatic change to the look. Instead of black being the dominant color, more of the figure is covered with blue. It also adds light gray and red, along with some bright orange accessories. We will look at all of that. G.I. Joe wasn't done with Snake Eyes in 1991. No, sir. In 1993, we got version 5, the Ninja Force version. He's back to mostly black, which is good, although some of the blue from version 4 is carried over. The Ninja Force characters had action features. In the case of Snake Eyes, his action feature limited his articulation. There was one more version of Snake Eyes in the vintage era. In 1994, they gave us version 6, the Shadow Ninja's version. This used the same mold as the Ninja Force figure, but added a color change gimmick. That's why this figure looks so weird. It is, in my opinion, the worst vintage version of Snake Eyes. That's all the vintage releases of Snake Eyes. There were many post-vintage versions of the character. In all, Yojo.com lists 68 versions of Snake Eyes in the 118th scale. That doesn't count Snake Eyes figures in other scales. We will look at a couple non-vintage representations of the version 4 Snake Eyes later in this video. Is Snake Eyes a commando or a ninja? A commando is a specialized troop trained for raids and other such assault missions. I don't see a reason to distinguish between Snake Eyes the Ninja and Snake Eyes the commando. He is a ninja who works as a commando for G.I. Joe. In the G.I. Joe.com comic book, Snake Eyes was linked to the Cobra Ninja Storm Shadow. In issue number 21, it was revealed that they have the same tattoo on their right arm. That tattoo was the symbol of the Ninja Clan, of which they are both members. That symbol was added to the Storm Shadow figure version 2 from 1988. You can see the tattoo detail on his right forearm with that symbol from his Ninja Clan. None of the Snake Eyes figures from the vintage era in this scale had that symbol. But the Hall of Fame 12-inch figure did, and we will take a look at that later. Let's take a look at Snake Eyes' accessories. He has the most obnoxious orange color on these accessories. Yojo.com calls this color red, but this is not red. It's a very bright orange. What's with these Ninja figures not knowing what red looks like? The 1990s has become synonymous with bright colors. It wasn't as big a problem in 1990 and 1991. The use of bright colors on this figure seems like a deliberate refutation of Snake Eyes' classic night mission look. Let's take a look at his submachine gun. This submachine gun is in bright orange plastic. It's a generic gun design. It doesn't look like it's based on any real-world weapon. It has what is either a magazine or a foregrip on it. It has a really long suppressor and I guess a tiny little scope on it. This is the first Snake Eyes figure that did not come with a variation on his classic Uzi, and I'm not loving this replacement. Next, let's look at his swords. He has two orange swords. They are in that same very bright orange plastic. They are identical. This sword is kind of a generic design. It's a straight sword. This was reissued in 1993 for the Night Creeper Leader figure. There is no sheath for these swords, which is unfortunate. Earlier versions of Snake Eyes included ways to store his sword on his backpack. Next is his backpack, and the backpack is the most substantial accessory. It includes a spring-fired grapple hook. The backpack itself, which includes the spring firing mechanism and trigger, is blue, which gives a little break from the bright orange color on the accessories. But the grapple hook itself is that bright orange color. The grapple hook is connected to the backpack with this black string. One end of the string is tied just under one of the prongs on the grapple. And the other end is tied to a loop on the blue backpack. I've tried to verify if this is the original string that came with this backpack, and all of my sources have not helped me very much in confirming that. But I believe this is the original string for the Snake Eyes version 4 backpack. I have the string wound around this thin midsection of the backpack, and that's a good place to wind it up so it stays out of the way when you're not using it. And I'll demonstrate how this grapple hook works. Now, of course, you're supposed to hook it on something and Snake Eyes will climb up the line. This isn't exactly a spring-loaded missile launcher, but we're going to demonstrate it in that way anyway. On this show, we like to demonstrate spring-fired missile launchers by shooting at Dr. Meinbender. I'm going to pop this grapple hook out just for a moment so I can show you how to place it in the launcher and then fire it. This grapple hook has a long post and a notch on one side of that post. That notch goes on the same side of the launcher as the trigger, so you just slide that post into the launcher barrel, press back until it clicks into place, and then you're ready to fire. This isn't exactly a missile, but Snake Eyes has spotted Dr. Meinbender and he wants to take out the evil doctor by firing a grapple hook to his face. So he just pressed back on the trigger and fire. It has pretty good power, but I missed, so I'm going to try again. I'm going to click that back into place. Dr. Meinbender, you're going down. Let's aim and fire. There we go. The final accessory is the black figure stand. It's a common figure stand. There's nothing special about the stand itself, but 80s G.I. Joe figures did not include stands and 90s figures did, so that is one plus in the 90s column. It's a pet peeve of mine when a figure has more accessories than he can carry. More accessories does not mean better accessories. Earlier Snake Eyes figures had slots in their backpacks so they could store their swords. With the oversized grapple launcher backpack, something could have been added so he could store his two swords. Then he could carry all of his accessories at the same time. Let's take a look at the articulation on Snake Eyes. He had standard articulation for a G.I. Joe figure, 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. He had a hinge at the elbow, so he could bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep so he could 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 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 Snake Eyes, and this is a big departure from version 1. Intervening versions stuck with the basic black, but added subtle highlights or silver accents. Keeping the basic black made each of those figures recognizable as Snake Eyes. If you didn't know this was Snake Eyes, it could easily be mistaken for a cobra figure. Looking at Snake Eyes' head, he is wearing a black hood, which you can see from the back. From the front, he has all different colors. He's wearing blue-framed goggles with a blue strap that goes around the back of his head. Red lenses on those goggles, and those goggles are large. They cover his entire forehead. I think these goggles are oversized for this head. The lower half of his face is covered with a silver hockey-style mask with some ventilation holes, and he has a blue collar around his neck. On his chest, he has a blue undershirt, which you can see around his arms and at the center of his chest. And the way it's sculpted, it looks like he has cleavage. Over that blue shirt, he has a black mesh vest. You can see that in the front of the back. And then over the black vest, he has a light gray tactical vest with lots of pockets and straps that go over his shoulders and around his back. The sculpting on the torso is pretty good, other than the cleavage. And I like the black vest, but the gray parts are very light gray. Much lighter gray than Snake Eyes would want to wear on a mission. His arms have long blue sleeves, the same color as that blue shirt. And he has a muscular build. He's bulked up quite a bit since 1989. He has black forearm guards with some what appears to be Asian-inspired sculpting on them. He has two black straps around each forearm for those forearm guards. And he has black gloves. The Asian-looking sculpting on those forearm guards is the only hint that this character may be a ninja. The waist piece is very plain. There's no sculpted belt on it. Only ridged blue stripes down each side that lead to the legs. The upper legs are black with those ridged blue stripes down each outside leg. No other pockets or weapons on the legs, which is a bit surprising for Snake Eyes. From the knees to the ankles, he has blue boot covers over black boots. This blue serves to break up the black on the legs, which I don't want to be broken up. This figure could benefit from more black. The black on the legs and the chest are trying to remind us that this is supposed to be Snake Eyes. But the light blue and light gray are too distracting. Why should this be Snake Eyes? This could be anybody. This could be Shockwave, who is a masked G.I. Joe team member known for wearing blue. This doesn't look like Snake Eyes to me. Let's take a look at the file card. The file card has Snake Eyes' faction as G.I. Joe, of course. It has a portrait of Snake Eyes here. And in that portrait, the weapon does look more red, but that does not translate to the toy. On the toy, those accessories are definitely orange. His codename is Snake Eyes. He is a commando and a ninja. File name is classified primary military specialty as infantry. Secondary military specialty is hand-to-hand combat instructor. Birthplace is classified and his grade is E7. This paragraph says Snake Eyes honed his combat skills as a long-range recon patrol trooper in Southeast Asia and perfected his mystical martial arts techniques with the same ninja clan that produced Storm Shadow. Although he is as equally adept with submachine guns as he is with swords, Snake Eyes is most dangerous and unpredictable when he's armed and cornered. When Hawk went to Snake Eyes' cabin to recruit him for duty with G.I. Joe, the silent ninja was out hunting rabbits bare-handed. They were vicious killer rabbits too. It does say he's the silent ninja, which is a subtle hint that he does not speak, but it doesn't say that explicitly. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, he's generally regarded as the primo-baddest dude of all the G.I. Joe's. When we need somebody to sneak up on a class A major bad guy and pop a can of butt-kick on him, Snake Eyes is the man for the job. The bad guy could be in a fortress on top of a sheer cliff, but that wouldn't bother old Snake Eyes, none. He'd just whip out his handy grapple hook missile and use it to shimmy his way up the cliff face until he cornered the culprit, threw him down and took his name. This file card is done in the 80s style. It seems like it was written by Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book. Not all file cards were written by Hama. This one has Hama's style and his use of imagery. It also mostly tracks the evolution of Snake Eyes in the comic book. I don't know why these file cards omit the fact that Snake Eyes does not speak. There's a hint about it, calling him the silent ninja, but it doesn't specifically say that Snake Eyes cannot speak. And that's a character trait that was carried over into the animated series and the comic book, so it's kind of important. But if a kid did not have those for reference, they wouldn't know that Snake Eyes cannot speak. This look for Snake Eyes was not the most popular, but it was represented a couple other times. We're going to look at some other representations of this look for Snake Eyes, including a 12 inch figure and a modern figure. This is the 12 inch Snake Eyes for the Hall of Fame series, and it's obviously copying that version for style. It's got the hockey mask, it's got the gray vest, it's got the light blue. It is different. It doesn't copy every single detail. This figure was released in 1992, the year after the version for figure. These 12 inch figures were designed to take advantage of the nostalgia for 12 inch GI Joe figures from the 1960s and 70s. I don't know how popular they were. I have the impression they were not very popular. They do want you to know this is Snake Eyes because it says Snake Eyes right on his uniform. That hockey mask is removable, revealing a black balaclava mask underneath, and that looks more Snake Eyes like. He has a scar on his face, and that's also appropriate. Snake Eyes has a mangled face, that's why he wears the mask. Unlike the Snake Eyes figures at a smaller scale, this larger figure does have the tattoo that is the symbol of the Arashikage Ninja Clan. But it has it in the wrong place. It is on the inside of the forearm, whereas this tattoo is traditionally on the outside of the forearm. The other non-vintage representation of this look for Snake Eyes that I wanted to show you is this, which I still have on the card. I'm not going to take it off of the card right now. This is a modern figure, and Yojo.com lists it as version 59 of Snake Eyes. It was released in 2012 as a Dollar General discount store exclusive. It's in a 4-inch scale, and it has modern sculpting and articulation. It doesn't exactly copy all of the features from that version 4 figure into a modern figure, but it's awfully close, and a lot of those features are copied over. This is probably the best modern representation of this version 4 uniform. And like the vintage figure, that Arashikage symbol doesn't appear on the figure itself, but it is all over the packaging. Although there have been many versions of Snake Eyes, the version 4 uniform wasn't a popular one. It was rarely updated for the post-vintage era. Looking at how Snake Eyes was used in G.I. Joe Media, in the cartoon, he appeared in the first episode of the first miniseries in 1983. His role in that miniseries was memorable for his self-sacrifice to save his friends and complete the mission. He had significant appearances in the third miniseries in 1985, Pyramid of Darkness. He and Duke were captured by Cobra and forced to fight each other. After that, he had a few appearances in the series. Most of his appearances were minimal or just in the background. For such a popular character, he didn't make many animated appearances in the vintage era. The fact that he is a non-speaking character probably contributed to that. He had a handful of appearances in the Deke era of the animated series, in which he wore his version 4 uniform. Snake Eyes was underutilized in animation. If he was underutilized in animation, he may have been overutilized in the comic book series. It was in the comic book where Snake Eyes' character was truly developed. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, really ran with the character and made something special. Snake Eyes appeared in the first issue of the comic book in 1982. He was silent. He didn't speak. He was a highly skilled fighter. He always wore a mask. These character traits weren't explained until much later. In a two-part origin of Snake Eyes arc, it was revealed that Snake Eyes was a wounded Vietnam veteran who became a ninja. He joined the ninja family of his friend, Tommy Arashakage, also known as Storm Shadow. Tragedy followed Snake Eyes. His family died in a car wreck. His face was mangled in a helicopter accident on one of his first missions with G.I. Joe. That's why he always wears a mask. The same accident damaged his vocal cords, so he is unable to speak. Snake Eyes was a compelling character, but he was overexposed in the comic book series. At one point, he took top billing over G.I. Joe on the cover. There were some comic book appearances with his version 4 uniform. Looking at Snake Eyes overall, separating the figure from the character, the figure is not too bad. Snake Eyes has some decent sculpting, but this just does not look like Snake Eyes to me. If this wasn't called Snake Eyes, I would assume this was somebody else. Of course, Snake Eyes doesn't necessarily have to wear all black. I can imagine a Snake Eyes with different gear for a different type of mission, but I still have a hard time imagining Snake Eyes going into battle looking like this. I could see this figure as maybe Shockwave, a SWAT trooper. Now, this would not be a great version of Shockwave either, but if you were to tell me this is Shockwave and not Snake Eyes, I could believe it. Let's accept for the moment that this is Snake Eyes, and Snake Eyes for some reason thought he needed to wear a silver hockey mask into battle. Let's just accept that for a moment and set that aside. The accessories are hideous. The swords would look pretty cool in a different color, but they're not a different color. They are bright orange. I don't think I would like that submachine gun in any color. Look, if you're going to make this Snake Eyes, give him some variation on his classic Uzi. And the fact that it's the most obnoxious color possible really doesn't help. The spring-loaded grapple hook launcher, I'm not a fan of those spring-loaded gimmicks, so even if it were really cool, it wouldn't get a lot of points from me. And it's in some pretty obnoxious colors. Given the size of the launcher, it really should have had some slots to hold the swords. That way Snake Eyes could carry all of his gear. Snake Eyes isn't my number one favorite G.I. Joe character, but he's in the top five. He's a pretty important character. I know a lot of people love this figure and for some fans, especially fans of G.I. Joe in the 90s, this is their number one Snake Eyes. And I can understand that, especially given when this figure was released. And I'm no Snake Eyes snob, right? I can imagine Snake Eyes wearing some other uniform other than the all-black. Just not this one. That was my review of Snake Eyes version four. I hope you enjoyed it. Please don't forget the Christmas charity that is going on right now. There is a link to Timmer's video in the description of this video. Please check that out, share that video, and donate if you can. You can find me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter, and I have a website, hcc788.com. I also have a Patreon. My patrons help keep this show going. So special thanks to all the people whose names you see on the screen right now. I could not do this show without them. I will be taking Next Week off. No new review next week. I recently started a new job and it's been a little bit more difficult for me to get these videos out. But I'm still working on them. That is the end of Ninja Month. I'll see everyone in a couple weeks. And until then, remember, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.