Monthly Archives: April 2021

TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco

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TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco

The Black Major’s run of Cobra De Aco figures are probably among some of his least popular releases, next to the Night Stalkers he made. In the case of Cobra De Aco, many of the colors he chose, along with the quality of the release was fantastic, but the figure was made from straight-arm tooling, hence the limited interest from the collecting community.

I have mixed opinions on the choice personally. On the one hand, I think it’s very nice to own a reproduction of the authentic Cobra De Aco in colors and tooling that’s as close to the genuine article as possible. I’ve gotta admit though, the figure’s usefulness is a lot more limited because of the straight-arm tooling, and the choice certainly dashed collector interest.

There’s two white-colored Cobra De Aco’s that were made: One that’s a stark white and matches TBM’s arctic Cobras, and this one that’s more of an off-white color. The off-white plastic strikes me as being a tad more interesting, and I even think it looks like something Hasbro would use (it’s very similar to the tone of the ’89 Track Viper).

Another feature of these Cobra De Aco figures I really appreciated was the alternate heads they included. There’s a gasmask head from the comic-pack Cobra Officer, a Chrome Snake Eyes head, and the third option, Flash’s head with a brown, South-American skin tone. It’s a neat inclusion that seems like it could have a lot of life away from this figure, though I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone make good use of it.

The quality of this release was almost impeccable. The joints, paint, and construction is all a step above the typical fare of a “factory custom”. I think I didn’t get a single figure with issues from the entire run, and I ended up with a pretty big collection of these since they were so cheap and plentiful for the longest time.

The Cobra De Aco’s include Flash’s original gun and backpack, though sadly it also presents the only real quality issue with the figure. Almost all of TBM’s Cobra De Aco’s came with guns that weren’t really flexible enough to be used without the cord breaking. Some of mine also seem to suffer from flaking paint, which is a little weird. It’s a small thing to look over, though it does mean that most of the De Aco’s lack decent weapons.

gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra

These Cobra De Aco’s are old and tracking down a specific color scheme can be tricky. Collector interest hasn’t picked up that much for them though, and after enough hunting you can get about any version you want for around $20. That’s a lot more than I paid for most of my De Aco’s, and I’m not sure I’d pay that much for them now, but it’s not too much if you only want a few.

gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra gi joe cobra de aco custom bootleg steel cobra

TBM 2012 Arctic Cobra De Aco Links

Reproduction Cobra De Aco at Forgotten Figures

Photo by Cyko_9

Photo by 00zxcvb

1987 Cobra Commander (Battle Armor)

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1987 Cobra Commander

In some ways, Cobra Commander is the main character of GI Joe, as a story line. The GI Joe team, which consists of a revolving cast of individuals, was created to counter Cobra, and capture Cobra Commander. Thus, without Cobra Commander, GI Joe has no plot. Of course, this is a somewhat limiting view on the brand, but little to say it underscores the importance of the character.

Of course, that’s also probably why attempts to replace Cobra Commander are so often poorly received. In short order, you had Serpentor and Golobulus who both effectively replaced the character. Then, in 1987, you had this new Cobra Commander, who was actually Fred VII in the comics, or in other words, another replacement for Cobra Commander. How many leaders did Cobra need? If nothing else, it was a little too much, too fast.

This figure looks really good, and I think that’s partly because the sci-fi themes of the armor fit with Cobra Commander’s megalomaniac character. The armor looks elite, while at the same time showing a more combat oriented look. The angry expression sculpted onto his eyes is also a really nice touch on the sculpt, it makes him look far more hostile than the soft eyes on the ‘84 figure.

The colors are really nice on this figure, and I really like that they kept all of V1 Cobra Commander’s colors. The excessive amount of silver really makes the figure look more regal and sci-fi at the same time. The only downside is that he’s sort of fragile, given that most of the figure is made from notoriously delicate silver paint, while the rest is still made of sky-blue plastic, that’s very prone to discoloration.

Included for accessories are his backpack, pistol and unique hose for his helmet. The backpack and gun are pretty neat, though nothing particularly special. His backpack is really only useful to this one figure and doesn’t have much life outside of that, but the scoped pistol looks pretty good with a wider variety of figures. The hose, however, is something that really draws some ire out of me. What purpose does it serve to make this a separate piece? It’s one of those pieces that’s like it’s only there to get lost, and he looks wrong without it.

There were some okay repaints of this figure. After the first release, it went to Brazil and then India, where the figure was released in colors similar to Hasbro’s. In ‘97 we got a blue and gold repaint of the mold, which was interesting, at the very least. The mold came back in similar colors to it’s first usage, but far more drab in ‘02. Then it was used for the Imperial Guard from the Imperial Procession set in ‘05. Lastly, it showed up again in ‘05 as a part of a comic-pack, retooled with a new Fred head and removable helmet. My dream repaint of this figure would be one in green armor as Serpentor, or some bodyguards for him, but that’s just my taste.

Mint, complete ‘87 Cobra Commanders are not hard to get, and if you look around, you can easily acquire one for $12 to $15. Every now and then, you’ll see eBay idiots push the price up towards $30, but the figure is still easy enough to acquire for half of that. Keep an eye out on his gun when looking for one though, as a lot of listings swap the original gun for the silver Accessory Pack version, and the 2002 Snow Serpent’s gun as well (which is a perfect match for the plastic used on the backpack).

gi joe fred Vii vintage figure hasbro gi joe fred Vii vintage figure hasbro

1987 Cobra Commander Links:

Forgotten Figures

Half the Battle

3D Joes

 

1993 Dinohunters Dinosaur

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1993 Dino-Hunters Tyrannosaurus Rex

I’ve wanted to do a joke for April Fools for several years now, but I’m not really keen on derailing my blog with irrelevant content from figure profiles. The best way I’ve concluded to do a joke without derailing the blog, is to profile something fairly absurd that fits with the theme here, and I don’t know of anything more comical and off-color than this plastic dinosaur. This tyrannosaurus is an odd piece, in that it feels like an accessory, but to whom? It barely counts as a figure on it’s own, but you can’t say it really belongs to anything besides the set collectively.

gi joe 1993 dino hunters dinosaur

The 1993 Dino-Hunters set was a curious item. In the late years of ARAH, Hasbro began experimenting with packaging a multitude of older sculpts and vehicles into themed sets as store-exclusives. Only this one saw release, but a second set was planned for ‘95, which would have featured the Mudbuster and Locust with an arctic theme. This was a pretty good format, as it afforded some fun and curious repaints of toys that had been off store shelves for several years.

The truth about this piece, is that it’s a fairly terrible toy. I get that this was supposed to be a budget friendly gift set, but this is probably one of the lamest toy dinosaurs I’ve ever handled. The sculpt is weak and wimpy looking, while the paint applications also look rather lousy. It’s posed in this really silly way that makes it look like it’s having a heart-attack. It feels similar to the simple sculpts you’d see on the small animals like Timber or Max, but upscaled a ton. To someone unfamiliar, you’d never guess such a shabby dinosaur was a GI Joe toy.

What’s a Dino-Hunters tyrannosaurus worth? I hate to say it, but I have almost no clue. It seems like almost everything from the set trends towards $100+, and given that you almost never see a loose set or dinosaur for sale, I’d figure well more than $100, at the very least. Boxed Dino-Hunter sets pop up more often and sell for at least more than $600. Given that, if you’re in the market for one of these and feel compelled to own the complete set, it’s probably cheaper to pay $600 to $700 on a sealed set than buy anything here, especially the dinosaur individually. As for me? I can only photograph one of these because it’s from my brother’s childhood collection. If not for that, I wouldn’t pay those kinds of prices for what anything in this set provides, let alone this goofy tyrannosaurus.