1991 Interrogator
For what he is, Interrogator is a pretty recognizable and popular Cobra. He’s also a pretty unimportant character, packaged with an obnoxious vehicle, so the interest in him despite that speaks pretty well to his quality. I feel sometimes like you have to invent a reason to really need him, but that too, is only because this figure is so massively cool looking that there’s a compulsion to do so.
Interrogator has a fantastic sculpt, and the colors go a long way to highlight his quality. Right away, the coolest part of the figure is probably his head, which is very reminiscent of V1 Cobra Commander. Always felt the softness of CC’s blue helmet weakened an otherwise cool design, though Interrogator executes a similar idea in a superior fashion. His chest straps are also very distinct looking with that nifty Cobra symbol displayed on his chest, and a few other nice details like a pair knuckle dusters; those seem pretty telling of his interrogation methods.
It has to be said too, that his colors are absolutely perfect. It’s strange, because the blue and black are much more of a throwback to the Cobra colors we saw in the early eighties. The silver trim on the front pad of his outfit looks a little strange to me, but the bright color contrasts really nicely with the rest of what he has going on. The red visor ties him to several other figures from around that time, such as the Battle Corps Viper, Eco-Warriors Toxo Viper, Sonic Fighters Viper, and few others. Despite that this makes them pair decently, I tend to prefer how he looks with ’86 Vipers best, which incidentally, I have no photos of.
Sadly, the downside to the Interrogator, is that he doesn’t really bring much new to the table. A problem I often run into with this guy, is that I can’t think of a specific need for him. It doesn’t help that there’s somewhat of an overlap between his role and Dr. Mindbender’s (as well as Crystal Ball). Visually, he’s cooler than either of those characters, but it does make me wish the comics or something could have done a little more with him, just to expand his role a bit more.
In my head, I like to imagine he’s an OG Cobra from the 70‘s, and had the qualifications of a Crimson Guard prior to their formation. May possibly be ex-KGB or CIA (or both), and was a Cobra Commander loyalist that helped smooth over the Fred-VII coup. For me, the original Cobra Commander stayed dead, and was replaced by a series of actors, which at one point included Interrogator. Playing the role of a ruthless yet charismatic leader isn’t well suited to him though, so eventually he switches out with another Cobra elite, resuming his former role.
He only comes with a single gun, which makes sense, as he’s a technically a pilot. I don’t have it, since I used to think the claw at the end of it looks lame. I still sort of think that, but in recent years I’ve become more interested in showing all of my figures with their appropriate parts. Though, the odd gun really isn’t the strongest part of this figure, and for the time being, I’m perfectly fine just giving him a spare Chuckles pistol or some such.
Amazingly, a serviceable Interrogator isn’t really expensive, running around $20 for one with his gun. I believe he used to go cheaper, like everything else, but for a relatively popular Cobra, that doesn’t seem like much to me. I see this guy as being a must-have from the 90‘s, as I really can’t think of too many collections where he wouldn’t look at home.
People focus on the interrogation thing and gloss over that he’s a qualified helicopter pilot. But his battle copter sucks and it’s hard to take photos of copters in flight without photoshopping.
First time I saw him on the box art he reminded me of a BAT V1.
Interrogator’s a strong figure. The detail on his sculpt and the overall design are excellent. But, he is somewhat redundant.
I’m surprised he’s relatively cheap. Back in “everything made in the ’90’s sucks!” days, Interrogator was one figure who broke through and everyone seemed to agree he was worth owning. He was $20+ back then.
AMan’s point about him being a helicopter pilot is interesting. Cobra doesn’t have many named pilots. And, thinking of Interrogator as a foil to Wild Bill is a different take on the character.
You bring up some valid points about the redundancy of the Interrogator, while also being a much better designed figure than ones like Mindbender or Crystal Ball. I’ve always viewed him as somewhat of a guy who wound up rising into the COBRA hierarchy, simply because there wasn’t really much left at that point. I kind of see COBRA as something that was built up, and as the early COBRAs die off, they’re replaced with goofier and goofier charlatans, who squandered the organization. By the end of it’s days, it’s guys like Overlord and Interrogator in charge simply by default.