Desert Scorpion Guard (Black Major)
Black Major has long cornered the market for Cobra trooper variants. From basic infantry to the elite troops, his customs run the gamut from environmental specialists to Cobra sub-teams, and has even branched into 1984 Storm Shadow and Night Vipers. All look pretty cool in a rainbow of unique colors that Hasbro never made.
Crimson Guards in a desert theater don’t make a whole lot of operational sense, but dang do they look spiffy in this color scheme. If you took away the scorpion logo, you might want to call these guys the Dockers CGs. They’re the more business casual of the Cobra elite forces. Kidding aside, I like the look, and I’m not against Cobra outfitting all of its troop types for whatever environment they find themselves in. As a kid watching the Sunbow cartoon, I wondered why we didn’t see desert troops since Cobra often had its HQ in the sands. Now I have the option to throw some CGs into the squads along with Desert Scorpions.
I wish the CG’s had seen greater production numbers. Some of the options were really nice. I still regret not getting the black version with a Soviet symbol on him.
The Black Major customs really brought the CGs into the light for me. I’ve always liked the figure’s design, but the bright red, if elite, isn’t very covert. Environmentally themed versions allow them to carry Cobra’s orders to the battlefield without being sniper fodder. I’ve found the desert, arctic, and urban camo versions to be the most useful.
Hasbro made Cobra’s blue so no one would mistake them for any real world nation, so they say. Hence why few vintage Cobras had realistic colors.
I actually have this one. I don’t care for the scorpion logo, too asymmetrical. But it’s otherwise a decent figure, except for the very loose joints. So, it’s really not the best quality…nor were the other CG’s by him, and honestly turned my interest away from “factory customs” for years.