The Power of Packaging: Cobra Commander with Battle Armor
As the 1987 figures were showing up, I was on the cusp of losing interest in toys. However, one figure in particular seized my attention. A new, battle-ready Cobra Commander was just too cool to pass up. Here was the Commander as super villain. Being a comic book fan, I loved it. As such, he also survived my GI Joe toy purge in my teens, along with 1985 Snake Eyes. Those two were just too treasured to part with, and they remain the only original figures I still have from childhood. Looking at this card art, I think you can see a lot of what drove me to grab it off the pegs.
What I love about these posts is that I’m constantly reminded I’m not the only one who loves these figures. The Battle Armor Commander was always one of my favorites.
I love this figure. I only now collect the modern sculpt stuff and am glad I have both the 25th versions of this outfit…especially the Fred VII version…
I would’ve loved to have had this figure as a kid, but I never saw a Cobra Commander figure in person until I found the blue talking battle commanders version at a local discount store. That become my first Cobra Commander. Maybe a year or so after that, I picked up the black battle corps version and that particular figure is one of my all-time favorites.
I found this guy and Falcon in late ’86 at my local Toys R Us. I was ecstatic to find a new Cobra Commander since my original had long been broken. This brought Cobra Commander back into my collection as the armor allowed me to use him in battle. Sadly, the fact that it was an imposter in the comic kind of ruined this figure for me and he’s fallen from prominence. But, he’s still pretty solid.
This was the third figure I received as a kid, and the first on team cobra. I have real good memories of playing with this version of Cobra Commander. Cool gun too
”Cobra Commander always seems to bring out the crazies in any collector, regardless of what he looks like. After the Series 1 action figures(1982), up to Series 5 (1986), I started to slowly lose interest in the action figures, and went after the vehicles, especially The 1986 Cobra Night Raven S3P Black Jet Spy Plane.”
He’s commanding me to buy it! This was such a new look for Cobra Commander that it was interesting. The write-up helped sell it, too! A bulletproof suit that cost as much as a jet? From that point on, the Commander was in the thick of battle.
I love the blue version from ’98
This was and still is one of my favorite figures! I remember how much I loved it in the comics and how well he went with the Pogo!
I found the loose 1987 figure in a little toy shop back on 31 december 2001 with my ex girlfriend in Paris. Beautiful, sweet memories!
When I saw this figure in (what I think is February) 1987, I quickly snatched it off the shelves, deeming it a MUST-BUY after having never seen a 1985 Snake Eyes in the wild, or Storm Shadow or Firefly in 85 or 86. Just the identity of the figure sold it for me but the cardback art is excellent. Those eyes… so menacing, and the accusatory finger pointing too. I can’t recall how common/rare he was after that since I got him so early and stopped paying attention to him on the shelves (same story with 1988 Storm Shadow).
One has to wonder if the armor might’ve been an attempt to counter some of the advantages Serpentor had by Cobra Commander himself getting himself this specialized battle suit so he might seem more courageous to his troops… or perhaps to protect himself from potential assassination by Serpentor loyalists.
I just realized he bears some design elements from AVAC by looking at the art.
“…[T]he helmet has an anti-tamper device with a direct hook-up to a half-pound of plastic explosive [SIC]!”
I never paid much (read: any) attention to the figures’ information cards when I was a kid. After reading the above, I now realize it was probably for the best. Should CC be that easy to kill? Just have Spirit send Freedom on a suicide run in the middle of a battle. “Just fly up behind him, sink your talons into his breathing apparatus, and yank upwards. BOOM! Your last heroic act will end this war.”