Cobra Commander (1994)
I’ve said this before: I’m a big fan of the 1994 assortments of GI Joe. To me, there’s a little something to appeal to different tastes within its offerings. If you enjoyed the vibrant color schemes, action-featured accessories and sci-fi leanings, there’s plenty to be excited about. If you were more interested in the series’ early 80s origins of near-future military, there were elements of the past sneaking back in.
The second assortment of Star Brigade figures are much cooler than the first, mostly due to the use of new molds. Cobra Commander was the beneficiary of such. His scale-like armored space suit is appropriate for the leader of an evil space force. The suction cup harness however is another story. It’s a neat idea, and works as advertised, but leaves the Commander in an awkward looking position. I can’t imagine a man like him being willing to jump into this thing and fight.
It would take the last year of the Real American Hero series to finally see a small-scale unmasked Cobra Commander. The Hall of Fame series presented one in 1992. The two figures share a similar look for the un-hooded Commander: slicked back hair and a bandana mask covering his lower face. The features of two are even similar, down to the Spock-esque arched right eyebrow.
I always wanted to pick up another copy of this figure to swap the head with either the battle armor or Battle Corps version of the Commander. Speaking of which, I’m surprised that the modern era series never attempted to homage the unmasked version of old bumper face.
This is a great figure. Not easy to find anymore, though.
ooo- I like the look of this one! Thankx for uploading & sharing!
I had always put the harness around the other way, with black sculpted part facing forward. Either way still is pretty awkward.
CC is such a disgrace he could only show his face in outer space!
This wave never seemed that common at retail back in the day from what I remember.
I always forget they made a Star Brigade Cobra Commander.
Nice figure. Needed more paint apps. What does the suction cup thing do exactly?
To me this figure looks like a Crimson Guard (probably Fred) trying to pass for Cobra Commander. They didn’t even tried to paint his skin in a more snake like yellowish color, like the one from Operation Dragonfire. Also, the design of that head reminds me of Overlord’s head. I would have preferred if the Hasbro folks had used that head to create another character, instead of Cobra Commander. It just doesn’t feel like Cobra Commander to me.
That suction cup apparatus is perhaps the strangest accessory in GI Joe. The 1994 Star Brigade had some exotic but eyecatching accessories. To answer a statement, the 1994 Star Brigade figures were better than the 1993 ones because most of them were original figures. The 1993 ones were all repaints and some rebrands (Barbecue becomes Payload, Hawk becomes Roadblock with a head swap).
The scale-pattern spacesuit was a nice detail. From a distance, it looks like a padded/insulated spacesuit, but upon closer inspection, it adds a Cobra touch to it (we never saw the Seamster/tress Vipers who made all the uniforms for Cobra). The two shades of blue were a nice inclusion given Cobra Commander’s previous colors, even though both shades are off from v1 & v2 Cobra Commander. Cobra Commander has a Spock eyebrow raise going on there.
I noticed the similarity to Overlord too. Wasn’t some of the backstory somewhere that Overlord was a Cobra Commander clone?
Also note we did see Cobra Commander’s face prior to the HOF figure. The 1991 Cobra Commander, at least when it’s painted, when the translucent red mask was removed, we could see his ugly mug. It looked based on Jack Elam (beardless, like he was in the ’50s) of all people. Let me find the old image I made of it… Found it:
http://i.imgur.com/nHWyU3x.png
Little Boa, that pic is funny….saw a film with Jack Elam in it from 1952 the other day….he got more weird looking as he aged…anyhow, no, Overlord was a totally separate Character to Cobra Commander. The figure and vehicle were originally slated to BE the Cobra Commander and his Dictator but Hasbro changed its name at the final stages. He was also supposed to be the new big bad villain of the 1990s but it never went that way…
Interesting. It was the proper decision because the gold/red color didn’t fit with Cobra Commander’s color scheme.
Found this guy when my usual seller returned to the flea market I frequented in college. Basically I’m looking for all his gear.
The suction cup thing is supposed to stick to a surface(presumably a ceiling or underneath something so the harness and figure are hanging down), and then it would roll like a wheel with the next suction cup sticking to the surface as the previous one disconnects.
I maybe got a cup to stick for a bit, but either the connect/disconnect never fully worked for me, of the cups just weren’t strong enough to full support the weight of the harness and a figure. But maybe other people got their’s to work better?
The head might make for a nice looking helmetless Officer/Trooper.
Just dawned on me, his headsculpt matches his HOF 12″ version but with a black mask not red…
It’s a scaled down version of the HOF head. I’ve seen a pic of Hasbro schematic art from 1993 saying “use existing head from HOF” or words to that effect.