Hasbro G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Cobra Commander (Metal Helmet)

 

Cobra Commander
Code Name: Enemy Leader

File Name: (CLASSIFIED)
Primary Military Specialty: Intelligence
Secondary Military Specialty: Ordinance (Experimental Weaponry)
Birthplace: Classified     Grade: Commander-In-Chief

Absolute power! Total control of the world...its people, wealth, and resources -- that's the objective of COBRA Commander. This fanatical leader rules with an iron fist. He demands total loyalty and allegiance. His main battle plan, for world control, relies on revolution and chaos. He personally led uprisings in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and other trouble spots. Responsible for kidnapping scientists, businessmen, and military leaders, then forcing them to reveal their top level secrets.

"COBRA Commander is hatred and evil personified. Corrupt. A man without scruples. Probably the most dangerous man alive!"

*Above text from the original 1982 / 1983 file card.

When I picked up my first ten G.I. Joe figures as an adult collector on July 1st, 2017, I didn't fully grasp the Pandora's box I had just opened. This was probably because up until July of the following year, my figure buying for the series was sparse, picking them up a few at a time as I visited each consecutive Dave Hart Show. Even then, the roughly thirty figures I had obtained up until that point remained in their bags in a box, with me pretty indecisive of what I actually wanted to do with them. Did I want to collect Joe's? Or was I just fleshing out my buying experience with a couple iconic figures here and there? At first I thought it was the latter.

By December of 2018, I discovered that I was only missing a handful of figures to complete the entire Cobra Team spanning 1982 - 1987. By this point, I had accepted the fact that this was indeed the plan I was aiming for. However, in doing so, I told myself, "Self, there are a lot of figures in this line. Please only limit yourself to the Cobra team." Sure, I had purchased three Joe team figures up until this point, but I had decided I wasn't going to buy any others.

Then I ran out of figures to buy. With a job well done, I set up all my figures in year order, and never bought another one.

Yeah, right...

By March of 2019, I was headlong into all things G.I. Joe figures. With how seemingly easy it was to complete my original goal in two short years, I now set my sites on Joe team figures. At this point, I was also branching into 1988 and beyond for Cobra ones too. All things would come to a close in June of 2019, as in record time I completed an entire set of the Joe team from 1982 - 1987. With this job well done, I set up all my figures in year order, and never bought another one...

Uh-uh...

With no figures to buy, I went back to focusing on 1988 and beyond. I completed a set of the Cobra figures from 1988 through 1990, and even branched out into 1991 and beyond, picking a select few. Being less focused on the Joe side of things, while I did grab several from 1988 and beyond, I never completed any specific year in its entirety, nor do I intend to. As the pandemic took its toll in 2020, prices on Joe figures started rising to astronomical prices, and I finally decided enough was enough, and tapped out. My days of spending $100+ on a single vintage figure are behind me.

However, this grand journey goes all the way back to that Summer of 2017, when I took my first steps into Timonium, Maryland, attending my first Dave Hart Show. It was here that I picked up my very first G.I. Joe figure as an adult (and nine others). In my hands, I held a helmeted Cobra Commander figure that I found at a dealer's table who I would subsequently work with to build up the majority of my collection. With a fifty dollar price tag, I found myself at a crossroads. Do I do it? Or do I leave it here?

Initially, I walked away, deciding it just wasn't the right time. Then I stumbled upon another table of G.I. Joe figures. At this point, the lure was too much. Seeing all the classic characters I never had as a kid, but wanted oh so bad even back in the 80's, I finally couldn't say no any longer. I went back to that original table and picked up that helmeted Cobra Commander, and then grabbed several more. Believe it or not, prices weren't bad for these things in 2017. I don't think I paid more than fifteen to twenty dollars for any of the other figures. Mind you, they were all 100% complete.

I'd never had a helmeted Cobra Commander as a kid. In fact, I had never owned any of the figures I got that day. However, there was something that just felt right about starting my collection off with the main villain of the series. It was just the natural order of things.

Cobra Commander is an iconic character, a must have figure if you're collecting G.I. Joe figures, and just a lot of fun to hold your hands or look at. If you'll excuse me from this post, I'm actually going to go stand in front of my shelves and just take them all in visually.

Regrettably, I've found that these posts are rather time consuming, so I'm not too sure that this particular format is going to work for me. I'm also in the process of moving, which means I'm boxing everything up anyway.

Fortunately, I have several posts from last year that had to get shuffled into 2022 to make space for my end of year series based on 80's cartoons. So for the next several weeks, The Toy Box is shifting back to the original format for Monday posts. Hope to see you there as we look at a great nostalgic series.

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Hasbro G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Breaker

 

Communications Officer
Code Name: Breaker

File Name: Kibbey, Alvin R.     SN:RA757793518
Primary Military Specialty: Infantry
Birthplace: Gatlinburg, Tennessee     Grade: E-4

Breaker is familiar with all NATO and Warsaw Pact communication gear as well as most world export devices. Specialized Education: Signal School; Cover Electronics; Project Gamma. Qualified Expert: M-16; M-1911A; MAC-10 (Ingram). (CLASSIFIED: Speaks Seven Languages).

"He's efficient and self-assured and has an uncanny ability to turn adverse situations to his favor."

 *Above text from the original 1982 / 1983 file card.

He's Breaker. Communications Officer of G.I. Joe. A straight arm figure released in 1982 as one of the original ten carded figures, and again in 1983 as wave 1.5, featuring the all new swivel action arms. He's a character often featured in the original series of cartoons, throughout the Marvel comic book series, and a figure I didn't have as a kid.

I've said this time and time again here at The Toy Box, and I'm sure I'll say it numerous more times moving forward, but I didn't start getting G.I. Joe toys until around 1987. At that point, it was too late to get a lot of the figures that made up the original 1982 through 1986 waves, unless they by chance were warming pegs at a random store - Which they weren't.

Breaker was also one of the many figures who didn't see any form of re-release beyond 1983. With exception of the straight arm and swivel arm variants, he was never a character added to any of the numerous sub-series, such as Tiger Force or Night Force. So basically, if you didn't get this one in 1983, chances are high you didn't own him as a kid.

I didn't get my hands on Breaker until March 2, 2019, and looking back on that purchase, it was a rather difficult one to come by. I always knew I wasn't going to grab any of the straight arm figures, because I didn't see the point of buying both the 1982 and 1983 versions. However, even then, I continued to put off the "green uniform" classic figures of '83 for the flashier colored wave two and beyond.

While this didn't stop me from periodically looking into the figure, I remember always walking away saying, "If I have to spend $60.00 on a figure, I'd rather by (insert figure name)." As my collecting days dwindled to a close, and my collection of 1983 - 1987 was wrapping up, time eventually came around to getting the wave 1.5 figures I had passed on so many times before. This, however, proved difficult. Suddenly, the figures I was focusing on were unavailable. I checked on ebay day after day, inputting the multiple search parameter combinations to locate one; "Breaker 1983 Complete Figure," "Breaker Swivel Arm Complete," Etc.

Even when finally finding one, I had to go a roundabout way of putting mine together for completeness. I grabbed the figure, and then had to buy the accessories separately. I of course only did this because I was able to find everything in separate listings before clicking the various, "Buy It Now" buttons.

Overall, I was able to put together a nice looking "set" for my collection of Joes, and I was totally thrilled to finally have one in my collection. The days leading up to finally getting one was killing my OCD. The thought that I had to have one was in my head, and it was driving me mad not being able to scratch that itch.

One of the issues I was having in finding this, well, beyond not being able to find the swivel arm version, was that when I did stumble across one, the paint was all kinds of torn up on the silver pouches, brown beard and hair or black vest straps. The one I ended up with isn't in as nice a condition as I would have ultimately wanted, but I had to get this figure off my want list. The search was killing me.

Breaker isn't my favorite G.I. Joe figure, but that doesn't make having it any less important to me. He's a crucial character not only to the series, but to the 1982 / 1983 line-up. Falling in that sweet spot of 1983 to 1987 made owning this one integral to the overall "completion" of my collection.

These days, my G.I. Joe collecting is pretty much done. I didn't collect everything from the 1982 to 1994 vintage series, nor did I intend on doing so. Though with that said, I did end up buying more than I initially intended to, expanding well beyond 1987.

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G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero File Cards - 1994 (Hasbro)

 

Well my friends, we wrap up another year of toy posts here at The Toy Box It's hard to believe that in January I'll be starting my thirteenth year here at this site. What fun it's been so far.

Speaking of wrapping things up, today is the final day of G.I. Joe file cards. We've reached the end of the vintage line with 1994.

Since at this point in G.I. Joe I was long gone from the collecting scene as a kid, I really don't have much to say about the figures themselves. Much like my comment for 1993, I really don't know much about them, nor do I see myself putting much effort into getting many of them as an adult. Though there are a few I like, for the most part, I have no connection with them. However, with that said, I get that a lot of kids born in the 80's do. The 90's Joe's were their Joe's.

If I were to point out something particular that I liked from this wave, it would be the homage to the original twelve inch line. Hasbo made some pretty cool figures based on these, and you'll see those as the first handful of cards below. So without further ado, let's look at the last batch of file cards from the original vintage 3 3/4 series.

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G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero File Cards - 1993 (Hasbro)

 

The end of the Joe file cards is on the horizon as we take a look at 1992.

What makes this year of particular interest to me is the crossover between one of Hasbro's other lines, Cops 'N Crooks. Characters such as Bullet-Proof, Mace, Longarm and Mirage, just to name a few, make appearances in the 1992 roster of Joe code names. Coincidence? Not a chance.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Checkpoint, one of the officers from the Cops series, makes reference to his father, who just so happens to be Wayne "Beach Head" Sneeden. While the "real" names of the Joe team characters don't match with those of the ones from Cops, there's no mistaking that the code names are a massive nod to the line. Can you point them all out?

Hasbro also returned to the original "L" shaped cards for their mail away figures. For these, they not only released individual figures, but also "team" sets. The team ones are particularly unique because they don't include a blurb on the individual character, but rather the whole set. In some cases, these included both Joe and Cobra members. Additionally, they released a Create A Cobra figure, which utilized the same style of folded paper file card, as first introduced with 1987's Steel Brigade figure.

With all that said, have a look for yourself.

For you eagle eye Joe fans, you may have noticed an omission in the file cards. Those would be the ones related to the Street Fighter II characters. I may do a post on these particular ones in the future. However, for now, they are considered to be neither affiliated with the toy line, nor official cannon to G.I. Joe in general.

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