2021 TBM Blue WORMS (Cobra Commander)

You’d think with the endless amount of Cobra Commander figures Hasbro made over the years, the last thing I (or really, anyone) would be in great need of is more Cobra Commanders. However, the circumstances and novelty appeal of Black Major’s Cobra Commanders really hit me just right, so I went out of my way to acquire a couple of these.

This figure was mainly billed as custom WORMs, but those didn’t really work for me, for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I like Hasbro’s WORMs so much, I use them in their normal colors regardless of the environment, so environment specific repaints don’t do much for me. Besides this, you could only get the WORMs in a big set at first, with one of each color. This also didn’t appeal to me very much, as I’d rather have several of my favorite army-builders, as opposed to one of each.

TBM did sell some figure individually, however, he only sold ones with Cobra Commander parts. This suited me fine, as again, I’m really fine with the Hasbro WORMs I already have. As a Cobra Commander figure, he picks up a few unique benefits, such as the fact that I’m fine with only having one, or that he doesn’t invalidate opportunities to use my normal WORMs that I like so much. I also think that these Cobra Commanders are very well done, which is all the justification I need to own some in various colors.

Today’s profile is of the blue coloration, which among the many variations of this figure, is my favorite. On a basic level, it doesn’t look too much different from a typical Cobra Commander figure, but the appeal is in the details. Far and away the most eye-catching detail is the Cobra-sigil painted over his hood. That in particular kind of makes me think of this figure as an ARAH rendition of JvC Cobra Commander.

The colors and paint are nice here. The details on the WORMs sculpt come across well, and the choice of using red contrasts nicely against the bright blue the figure uses. There’s some silver details, including some on his knees, which I think look weird. It’s especially irritating when the figure’s posed with his knees bent, as it highlights the joint there. Other than that, there’s enough painted details in different colors that the figure pops.

He includes some very odd choices for accessories. You get the Iron Grenadier’s Uzi, a generic ROC pistol, a 25th Snake Eyes knife, and a modified sculpt that I believe originates from a Grunt M16. Overall, I dislike them, as these sculpts are either bad or don’t work well with this figure. I do like the modified M16 though, as while it looks a little strange, it’s also something new and unique to this figure.

Currently, these figures are circulating around and are fairly available around $24. TBM himself sold through his stock of several colors in less than a day (hours?), which surprised me, although it will be interesting to see how much demand holds out for these figures. Ultimately, $24 is a lot for a figure, and probably too much even for this one, as nice as it is. Likewise, this isn’t really a figure you need huge squads of, even if you prefer the sculpt as the WORMs, so I expect the prices on these could stagnate at a certain point.

gi joe custom black major bootleg worms cobra commander

2017 RLA Odin

In the late 2010‘s, we really had it good with factory customs (AKA: bootlegs), so much so that the endless repaints of similar sculpts began to be something collectors took for granted, at least a little bit. In hindsight, it would seem things are winding down, at least for the moment, as RLA no longer operates, Letal Customs ended after a single run, and now even the Black Major is transitioning his business to other avenues.

I really respected RLA’s efforts to make figures that were more akin to a continued GI Joe line, as to an endless barrage of army-builders. Odin’s a great example of that, where he’s a unique character that gives me something new to invent a story around. Of course, I don’t think it sold all that well, which probably has to do with the fact that people weren’t buying them by the dozens.

So far, my character for this guy is essentially Col. Courage redux, and I also use him as a bit of an expy for Hawk, since I prefer the ‘86 figure to represent him. So he’s taken on the role of a field commander for some early Joes. I could probably do something more interesting with him, like have him be the leader of a prototype GI Joe team or something like that, but my GI Joe-verse is usually in a state of flux, so the idea can change based on my needs.

Obsidian is a nice looking figure. For the most part, it’s a repaint of ‘82 Hawk, but with the legs from ‘83 Airborne. This is a decent little parts mix that helps break up the monotonous look of the early Joes. Plus, rendering the sculpt in all gray colors with an African-American skin tone, goes further to make him not look like Hawk.

The quality was okay on these. On my figure, the joints aren’t particularly tight, but they’re also not loose either, kinda like the condition you’ll usually find a decent vintage figure in. The paint applications are somewhat janky, as there’s a lot of brown overspray on one of his forearms. Comparing him to my V1 Short-Fuze, I’m also tempted to say his head isn’t a perfect copy of the sculpt , either. Overall, it feels like a reasonably decent toy in hand, but there’s examples of where the quality could be better.

The parts are pretty lackluster. As I recall you get a generic knife and pistol similar to many of the ones included with the Steel Brigades of the same era. I say “as I recall” since I squirreled away my parts somewhere in a bag with a bunch of other bootleg guns. Worse yet, finding online documentation on these is actually pretty hard to do, so that was a pretty clumsy mistake on my part. Back to the point, he certainly didn’t come with any nice ‘82 guns he can hold, or a helmet, which was a bummer. This guy looks okay without one, and a lot of the old Accessory Pack helmets work nicely for him too, so there’s that.

Years later, Odins are hard to find, and a little hard to price. One sold a while back for $40, which actually seems fair given the difficulty in locating one. Other RLA customs don’t sell for so much though, and many of the contemporaries of this figure barely fetch $20. Truthfully, I don’t think Odins are worth much more than that, but at this point, you might be hunting for a while before you can find one at a fair price.

The Viper Pit

Monthly Archives: July 2021

2021 TBM Blue WORMS (Cobra Commander)

2021 TBM Blue WORMS (Cobra Commander)

2017 RLA Odin

2017 RLA Odin