Cobra Bunker (1985)
The battlefield accessory concept was another brilliant piece of marketing for the Real American Hero line. For a small price point you could provide your troops with an added element of play. While the cannon, machine gun and missile unit sets were cool additions to my arsenal, I particularly enjoyed the small base type emplacements.
The Cobra bunker is somewhat reminiscent of the World War II pillbox style bunkers, albeit with a fantastical twist. There’s no mistaking which force occupies this fortification, with its blue paint job, large sigil sculpted into the front wall, and “Cobra” proudly emblazoned at the top. Cobra Commander is a master marketer, and he knows that branding is vitally important to the success of a business, especially those that are Determined to Rule the World.
Regardless of the melodrama involved in its design, the bunker looks to be well fortified. Well, from a fantasy standpoint, at least. The modular construction, meant to replicate damage in battle, has always been a problem to keep together. Maybe it’s just me, and I’ve always had bad examples, but it doesn’t stand up well to even regular use. Still, it looks wonderful, with detailed sculpted terrain base. The inside walls aren’t as detailed as the front; two stickers representing video screens being the lone detail. The inside floor is rather spartan, as is to be expected.
The bunker is well armed, with two heavy machine guns protruding from the wall. Outside the unit, an impressively large tripod mounted surface to air rocket can be deployed to knock out Joe aircraft.
Sure, the bunker is no Missile Command HQ or Terrordrome, but with a little imagination it makes for a nice outpost from which Cobra can launch operations.
Nice playset, how’s this fit with 25th anniversary or current figures?
Poorly. I really love this Bunker, and it makes a great background addition to a diorama. But even for ARAH figures, it’s about 75% too small. They certainly can’t stand up inside it, and the gun slits are a little too tall for kneeling. I wouldn’t be surprised if the modeller was told “yeah, we’ll do it, but make it smaller so we can sell it for less than $5.”
I agree. It always was too small, maybe they should’ve ditched the base and used that plastic to make the bunker larger.
According to its instructions, it was designed to be blown up by the GI JOE Missile Defence. Not a good idea to comprise the bunker aspect with that feature.
You know, if you had a Terrordrome stationed in the heart of a tropical island, these would be good beachside defense posts.
Always loved the battle stations and accessory sets. It’s a shame that these were discontinued after 1987 in favor of the loonier concept vehicles as the line veered further away from its militaristic roots.
The Cobra Bunker was particularly welcome since a similar one played a major role in the first Joe comic story arc I got to read. (Issues #12-19 and 22, check ’em out.)
Cool set!
My kids would love to blow this up with a well placed shot from one of those many ROC missle launcher guns I have.
I agree with the comments about being too small, but as you have stated, the Commander was a marketing genius…..could this bunker have been meant for the secondary market, like Trucial Abysma or Sierra Gordo?
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LOVED this when I was a kid, yes it’s small but then again you really cannot see inside it, so it was easy to just say two troops were maning the guns even if they weren’t. I liked the break apart feature too. Mine held together well enough and rarely fell apart if I didn’t want it to.