 Hey everybody, I always enjoyed looking at Cobra Commander. This channel gets its name from Cobra Commander. We always talk about how evil and ruthless he is, but in 1991 we got a Cobra Commander that proves he has a fun side. He likes to get down, he likes to boogie, and he likes to protect his registered trademarks. In 1991, Cobra Commander was solid gold. Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review. I have to thank Brandon Knight, a supporter of the channel, who sends me two of the figures that will be seen in this review. Thank you Brandon. Cobra Commander is one of the most important characters in all of GI Joe. He may even be more important than Snake Eyes. Rivals have tried to overthrow him, Hasbro tried to kill him off, but he always comes back. He has unparalleled charisma. He was able to start an underground organization, build an army, and spread his influence across the globe, and he did it all for his own gain. But let's not forget, the Cobra Commander also loves 70's boogie. Hooded Cobra Commander presents Disco Cobra Commander. This is the 1991 Cobra Commander, the Cobra Leader version 4. This figure was only available in 1991. It was discontinued for 1992. In the 90s, product was turned over faster than in the 80s. In the 80s, figures and vehicles were typically available for two years. As you can see, we have two figures here. That means we will be looking at a variant. As I said, this is the fourth version of Cobra Commander. The first version of Cobra Commander was issued in 1982, the so called straight arm version. That version of the figure was available as a mail away offer, and with the Sears Exclusive Cobra Missile Command Center playset. There were two variations of that Cobra Commander. The Mickey Mouse version, which had a simplified Cobra emblem on his chest, and the regular version that had the more familiar Cobra symbol on his chest. In 1983, we got version 1.5. It was the same as version 1, but with swivel arm battle grip, a new point of articulation on the arms. It was available as a carded figure at retail, but it was only with the regular Cobra emblem. It did not have the Mickey Mouse version. In 1984, we got version 2 of Cobra Commander, the hooded Cobra Commander. It was another mail in offer. It had the same body as version 1.5, but with a new head and new colors. In 1987, we got version 3, the battle armor Cobra Commander. This was a departure from the first two versions and a totally different look. This version is associated with an imposter at Crimson Guardsmen who impersonated Cobra Commander and wore this battle armor. In 1991, of course, we got version 4. This was the return of the true Cobra Commander. It was the first Cobra Commander figure released after the imposter was deposed. It borrows some elements from earlier versions, but takes a totally different approach. Later, Cobra Commander went back to his hooded look, and there are a couple figures for that, and I think both of them look pretty good. There's a later battle armor figure with a giant dome helmet. He never went back to his original mirrored face plate look, there are seven vintage versions of Cobra Commander in all. Cobra Commander was the founder of Cobra, the ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. His authority has been challenged a few times. Destro was always a potential rival to his power. Serpentor took over command for a time, but he was killed in the Cobra Civil War. A Crimson Guardsman, Fred Seven, impersonated Cobra Commander for a while. When the true Cobra Commander returned, he eliminated all his internal enemies and became the unquestioned ruler of Cobra. Let's take a look at Cobra Commander's accessories. He didn't have a lot, but the ones he had are interesting. Let's start by looking at his weapon, this submachine gun. It is gold. It looks like a variation of the old M3 submachine gun. This gold keeps with the theme of the figure, he has quite a bit of gold on him as well. So the color definitely fits with the figure. With this gold plastic, you may have to worry about gold plastic syndrome. So it may become brittle over time. Fortunately, the grip on this weapon is small enough that it fits easily in the action figure's hand. You do not have to strain the plastic to have the figure hold his weapon. Then we have the so-called Buzz Bomb, which is a glider with a spring-loaded launcher. This glider, or so-called Buzz Bomb, is made up of three pieces. We have two sheets of clear plastic die cut. There's a piece for the wings and a piece for the body. And those are printed with an image to make it look like a drone. And then we have an orange tip at the nose. I don't have a problem with the printed artwork on the plastic. It actually looks pretty good. I don't really even necessarily have a problem with the bright orange tip. The whole accessory though is just a little cheesy. I know they constructed it this way with this material because they wanted it to really fly when it comes off of this launcher. But it does kind of look like Cobra Commander is throwing toy airplanes at the enemy. The main body of the launcher is blue. It has orange handles and an orange bipod. According to the instructions, you're supposed to pull back on these handles all the way back until they click, and that pushes out the trigger. Then you just place the Buzz Bomb in the launcher with this hook resting on the forward catch. Once it is in the slot, it is ready to launch. Just press down on the trigger to launch. That spring has quite a lot of power and you might get more distance out of it because this is kind of like a glider. There's some question about what this really is. It's called a Buzz Bomb on the file card. A Buzz Bomb was a slang term applied to the German V1 unmanned flying bomb from World War Two. But it is also described as more of a surveillance drone. So I guess it's whatever you want it to be. And the final accessory was a figure stand, a standard black figure stand. And of course, it's always nice to get figure stands with the figures. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation on Cobra Commander. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1991. 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 move 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 it 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. Now let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Cobra Commander. And we have a lot to talk about. Let's start with his head on his head. He has a gold non removable helmet. It has sculpted into it the texture pattern of a snake skin. It looks like he has a Cobra draped over the top of his helmet and the Cobra head hangs just right at his forehead. This is a very unusual look for him. And because it has that Cobra sculpted onto the top of the helmet, it kind of makes him look like he has a pointy head. This is a departure from earlier versions of Cobra Commander. He often wore helmets but he preferred Cobra emblems rather than more literal snake imagery. Is he trying to look more like Serpentor? That helmet as strange as it looks is not the strangest thing on this head by a long shot. Over his face he has a red translucent mask. And there's a raised section of that mask that has a downward point in the front. It almost looks like a heart shape. Since that mask is translucent, you can see a face through the mask. It's not very clear but you can see it. Here's where I need to point out a variation on this figure. Some of these Cobra Commander figures have the eyebrows painted in. They're very dark so you can see them through the translucent mask. Other figures do not have the eyebrows painted in. We're never supposed to see the face of Cobra Commander. That is rule number one of Cobra Commander. His face is supposed to be shrouded in mystery. But this translucent mask comes awfully close to revealing his face. The mask is glued onto the head. It's not supposed to be removable. But if a kid had a chance to see the face of Cobra Commander by removing that mask, do you think a kid would do that? Of course he would. Behold the face of Cobra Commander. So is this really why Cobra Commander is supposed to look like? I don't think so. His features seem exaggerated. His eyes are big. His eyebrows are thick. The lines on his face are deep. I don't think this was sculpted with the intention of being the true face of Cobra Commander. I think it was sculpted with exaggerated features to make it more visible through the translucent mask. I don't think the designers intended this face to be seen without the mask. It was designed for how it would look behind the red plastic. Even so, they gave kids a Cobra Commander figure with a mask they could tear off. So they should have accounted for that. Case in point, in 1992 they came out with this Hall of Fame 12 inch Cobra Commander. It was a hooded version and the hood was removable. That's right. You could remove the hood and behold the face of Cobra. Oh, he's got another mask under it. Yes, it's kind of ridiculous for him to have another mask under a mask. But if you're going to do a Cobra Commander with a removable hood or a faceplate that can be taken off, this is what you have to do. His face needs to be concealed in some way. Version 7 of Cobra Commander, the last version in the vintage line, did something similar to this. You could remove his helmet but he had a mask like this under it. Even though this mask does partially conceal his face, I still think it reveals too much. So what does Cobra Commander really look like? I have a theory about that and I will talk about it later. Moving on to his chest, he has an extra bulky chest. It looks like he's sculpted to be very muscular. In fact, because of the wide sculpt on the chest, his arms actually won't go all the way down and rest at his side. Looks like he has a blue vest with gold rings around the arm. The vest is over what looks like a black shirt or suit of some kind. There is black around the midsection and lower back and that has a ridge pattern on it. And right smack in the middle of that chest is a large gold circle with a red Cobra emblem on it and the Cobra emblem has a trademark indicia. That TM for trademark next to the Cobra emblem pushes the Cobra emblem slightly to the side so it is off center and my OCD friends will have a big problem with that. Trademark indicia is something we would expect to see on packaging but not on the figure itself. It is not something we saw on earlier versions of Cobra Commander or later versions of Cobra Commander. It just looks out of place. Yes, I do think this giant gold circle in the middle of his chest looks like an oversized disco medallion. It is also reminiscent of Interrogator also from 1991 who had a silver circle in the center of his chest with a red Cobra emblem but Interrogator's Cobra emblem is small and understated compared to Cobra Commanders. Moving on to the arms we have blue sleeves or these maybe sleeve coverings because we can see some black on the upper arms. He has gold bands around his wrists and he has black gloves. These arms are also sculpted to look extra muscular so I guess Cobra Commander has been working out. The waist piece has a gold belt buckle right in the center. It has that black ridge pattern on the hips. It is otherwise blue. His legs are blue and again they are sculpted to be extra muscular. He has a black pistol holster on each thigh and a ridge pattern that runs from each holster up to the waist piece and we wrap it up with some tall gold lined black boots. Of all the vintage versions of Cobra Commander version four is the boldest and most colorful. The hooded version nearly matches the colors of version four with the blue and the red and the gold but version two would be considered tasteful compared to version four. Version four is like version two but with the volume turned up to disco. Let's take a look at Cobra Commander's file card. His file card has his faction as Cobra TM. It's got a portrait of Cobra Commander here and you can see his face slightly through that red faceplate. His codename is Cobra Commander and he is the Cobra leader. There is no rank or birthplace or specialty on this file card. It just jumps right into the description. The top paragraph says totally ruthless and utterly devoid of conscience. Cobra Commander wants nothing less than to completely dominate the world through terrorism, social tyranny and economic slavery. He is basically an ingenious hustler and junk bond salesman with visions of grandeur backed by legions of Cobra Vipers, a small air force and Navy. A stickler for detail Cobra Commander keeps track of his most remote vipers with his radio controlled buzz bomb flying surveillance weapon equipped with wide scan view monitor and thermal image enhancements. This is why his accessory is so confusing. It specifically calls it a buzz bomb and a flying surveillance weapon. I guess it could be both. Junk Bond Salesman is probably a reference to the savings and loan crisis of the late 80s and early 90s. At that time a combination of deregulation and fraud led to the collapse of the savings and loan industry. One of the strategies used by failing SNLs was to purchase high yield bonds also called junk bonds. The practice led to prison terms for some junk bond dealers. The term junk bond would have been fresh in the minds of Americans in the early 90s. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says most dictators and would be Napoleon types are hampered by the need to pretend that they are pursuing a noble and just cause. Cobra Commander doesn't have that problem. This guy's in it for the money and the power. And if anyone else is interested in those things he can pick up an assault rifle and get in line behind him. I like this description of Cobra Commander. At some point Cobra Commander may have believed he was championing a noble cause. But at this point in his career he is fully aware of how evil his plans are. He is a classic dictator, uninterested in anyone's freedom except his own. He's able to attract sycophants who hope to gain power and wealth by association with a powerful person. Unfortunately the world has no shortage of such people. Taking a look at how Cobra Commander was used in G.I. Joe media. Well he was used a lot. Cobra Commander first appeared in the very first G.I. Joe TV miniseries in 1983 and has been prominent in all phases of the cartoon. He was in nearly every episode of the Sunbow series. In the 1987 animated movie he was transformed into a snake. But he returned to human form in the Deke series. Well semi-human form anyway. After that he was in nearly every episode of the Deke series. I'm not able to find any animated appearances in the version for uniform. I searched through the episodes of the Deke series and I didn't see any appearances of him looking like this. Even though the series was on the air when this figure was released. If there are any appearances in the version for uniform I can't find them. There was a live action appearance of Cobra Commander in this uniform. He was in the live action TV commercials in 1991. Looking at the comic book series published by Marvel Comics he first appeared in issue number one and he was in nearly every issue of the comic book. Not every issue but almost every issue. That's understandable since he was G.I. Joe's main antagonist. There are only a handful of issues that don't feature him. There was a gap when he was presumed dead and Fred Seven took his place. When Cobra Commander returned he was wearing his hooded uniform and that's my favorite look for him. There was a brief period in the comic book series when he had his version for uniform and it did not look good. The problem may not have been the uniform itself. The artwork at the time really didn't help. Thankfully he quickly moved beyond that. In both the cartoon and comic book series Cobra Commander's face has been a tantalizing mystery and both of them sort of revealed his face to us but they did it in very different ways. In the cartoon we see him unmasked quite a bit. In the movie he is shown to be a Cobra Law mutant that was disfigured by an experiment. After being exposed to Cobra Law's mutant spores Cobra Commander was transformed into a snake-like creature and then completely devolved into a snake. In the Deke series he was returned to humanoid form but retained reptilian features. The animated version of his face is contradicted by the toys. On version 4 even with the mask on we can see he has a Caucasian skin tone and doesn't look anything like his animated appearance either before or after his mutation. The helmet on version 7 of the action figure is removable though his face is partially masked under the helmet he clearly has a human head. For any other merit they may have the animated series seems to have taken some liberties with Cobra Commander's face. In the comic book he is undeniably human. I want to share my theory about what Cobra Commander looks like. My pet theory is that Cobra Commander's face was used as the model for the Fred series Crimson Guard. The Fred series Crimson Guardsmen all get plastic surgery so they all look alike. I think Fred's features aren't random they are modeled after an individual, their leader. The Crimson Guard are so fanatically devoted to their commander they alter their faces to look like him. I like this theory because it says something about the fanaticism of the Crimson Guard and the arrogance of Cobra Commander. There is some evidence to support this theory but other evidence contradicts it. In issue 98 of the comic book Cobra Commander explains how he returned from the dead. After he was shot and buried by Fred's seven his loyal Crimson Guard dug him up and got him medical attention. In the flashback we can see his hair and face. His face is partially obscured in one panel but on another panel we can see him clearly. He has the face of Fred. However this is just a flashback. The images are being described in a narrative so they may not be literal. There's also a lot of evidence that contradicts it. The earliest hints at Cobra Commander's face are in issue number 38. Cobra Commander's son, Billy, is hooked up to the brain wave scanner. We see images directly from Billy's memories. He would know what his dad looks like. Though Cobra Commander's face is obscured and the images are not in true color, Cobra Commander looks to have dark hair, not the lighter hair color of Fred. Both the Hall of Fame 12 inch figure and the version 7 figure have black hair, not the blonde hair of Fred. In issue number 55, after Destro and Cobra Commander escaped the ruins of the collapsed pit they put on disguises. Destro indicates this is the first time he has seen Cobra Commander unmasked. Cobra Commander's face is pretty well obscured by the disguise. He has brown hair, a ponytail, sideburns, and a mustache. I don't think any of that is real. I doubt Cobra Commander has a long ponytail tucked under his hood. I'm not sure the hair color is even real. The only thing we can be certain about is he is Caucasian. In issue number 64, Fred VII returns to Cobra Island wearing Cobra Commander's battle armor. He must prove his identity to the Baroness, who knows what Cobra Commander looks like. She immediately knows Fred is an imposter. If Fred looked like Cobra Commander, she wouldn't have known the difference. And that puts the final nail in my pet theory. Looking at Cobra Commander version 4 overall, this is just so weird. We are used to seeing Cobra Commander in faux military uniforms. He tries to project authority by donning the symbols that command respect. Alternatively, we have seen him in battle armor. This version isn't either of those things. It's totally different. He has a faceplate again, but not the faceplate we're used to. He has a helmet, but not a military style helmet. It's ornate and gaudy. It harkens back more to Serpentor than Cobra Commander. The uniform overall isn't too bad. It's primarily blue and black, which is good for Cobra Commander. The gold trim somewhat matches his hooded uniform. But where it calls back to more familiar elements, it turns the dial up a few notches. He doesn't just have gold trim and accessories. He has a giant gold disco medallion on his chest. This figure also seems a little too muscled for Cobra Commander. He's so bulky he can't even rest his arms at his side. In his media appearances, Cobra Commander is shown to have an average build. He does not need to be hench. And the face. That face. They gave us a face for our faceless enemy. But I don't think they intended for that to be his face. I don't think that face was ever meant to be seen without the mask. Even so, Hasbro should have known kids would take that mask off, even if it meant breaking the mask or the figure. I mean if you were a kid and you had a chance to see the true face of Cobra Commander, what would you do? The accessories are fine. The gold submachine gun fits with the color scheme on the figure. The spring launched glider is actually pretty cool. The way it's constructed is a little cheesy, but the concept is not bad. They just need to decide what it is. Is it a bomb or is it a surveillance drone? Pick one. For a 90s figure, it's pretty average. But it looks out of place standing next to other Cobra Commander figures. I just can't imagine this as Cobra Commander. That was my review of Cobra Commander version 4. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again to Brandon for your help. I always feel better after getting one of these 90s reviews done and out of the way. If you liked this video, please consider giving it a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribing to the YouTube channel, hitting the notification bell, and sharing with your friends. I'm on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and I have a website, hcc788.com. Special thanks as always to all my patrons for making these videos possible. If you like the channel and you'd like to support the channel in that way, please check out my Patreon. You can learn how to decode these secret messages. Next week, we're gonna stay in the 90s and we're gonna crack open a new subteam. I'll see you all again next week, and until then, remember the music is always hot, and only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.