Cobra Commander (2004 Comic Pack)
The early issues of the Marvel GI Joe comic in particular presented the characters with varying differences among their uniforms. Herb Trimpe, Mike Vosburg and others had an artistic license that isn’t seen much in the current era of highly focused marketing. That’s a shame, as I find the resulting anachronisms interesting. There’s not much heart to the modern adherence to style guides across products.
Cobra Commander wore a more ceremonial garb in early issues than his action figure, replete with gold braiding and high boots. It more closely resembled the Battle Commanders version than the well-known early 80s battle helmet ensemble. The bulkier 90s build doesn’t mesh too well with the earlier style of troopers included in the comic pack. It’s a shame that Hasbro didn’t use the Battle Corps figure’s improved back torso piece. The Commander is stuck with a weird, protruding plateau on his back.
It’s not all bad though, as the new head sculpt is unique and has more naturalistic draping effect than the Battle Corps figure. He’s even decorated with a Cobra sigil on his forehead, a nice comic detail.
While not a bad figure, I just never got into this version. The flat back killed him for me just like it killed the ’92 and ’00 figures. The head looks good, but never seemed to fit well with this body.
Looking back at all the unnecessary figures Hasbro remolded for the comic packs and TRU sets, it’s an embarrassing oversight to have never redone the V1 CC body with either head.
At a glance, this is a pretty accurate figure to the comic, but he could use some different boots and long-gloved forearms. Plus that awful back (what happened to the ’00 improved back?). With just a little more effort, it could’ve been a great figure.
He’s barrel chested, flat back or not. It’s not just because he was a Talking Battle Commander. Overkill and Stalker had smaller torsos. I guess they felt the need to pump up CC in the early 1990’s.
There’s two variations of this release, one has both pant stripes painted the yellow, the other only has one side.
Had the comic packs continued, we might have gotten this figure in darker blue/black for like issue 100+. Or one with Roadblock V1 arms…ugh!
The biggest detriment to the Talking Battle Commanders was that the backpacks weren’t removable (at least they weren’t supposed to be) and the flat backs. I’m glad they didn’t do that for the regular and Super Sonic Fighters.