Thank you very much for doing that review. The Cobra mamba alluded me back in the 90s when I was collecting GI Joe toys. You know back in the day before eBay. When you had to pound the pavement and hunt for what you wanted to collect, in person. Going to stores. Talking to businesses both in person and on the phone.
Got this one back in the day for x-mas; it was my very first big vehicle, not only from Cobra, but for the entire GI Joe toyline as well. It was one of my favorite toys growing up despite how annoying the missiles easily falling off could be and the at-times cumbersome rotating mechanism for the blades, it still was pretty cool and fun to play with. The Gyro-Viper figure in mine came with the O-ring rubber band torn and that was such a bummer, but my Mom managed put the figure back together and replaced the torn O-ring with an average office style rubber band; the figure was always wobbly and difficult to stand on its own but at least was good enough to play with.
4:18 We got occasional imported US G.I. Joe toys in our toy shops in the UK as well. I had a number of US only vehicles in the collection I used to have, such as the Raider.
I got this when I was a kid. I liked it enough and it had got quite a bit of use. I sometimes considered the pods as suicide pods and other times it could power down to just be gliding for the main helicopter to redock... This was the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation you know. I utilized all the bombs and missiles to their full effect. But only for the Tomahawk, the Mamba was a real threat to every vehicle air, land or sea.
@hcc788 I know people sometimes give you crap for your figure articulation sections being repetitive, but I like it because it allows a first time viewer to your channel to see a true full review.
I seem to recall that Mars had a hard time cracking the dual rotor design for the attack helicopter. Destro actually executed the lead designer after his first failed four attempts. Luckily the new designer, Lou, figured it out on his first attempt, technically making this vehicle MAMBA #5 which reminds us of the dangers of a little bit of Destro in the sun, a little bit of cobra commander all night long, a little bit of ...
I never had it as a kid. When I finally got one, it was mostly complete. It was completed later. I thought "Finally, Cobra has a battle copter worthy of its unique designs". Great review. Thanks.
I had the honor of giving this video its 100th like. Thank you for your dedication to this hobby, Commander. Like you, Rock and Roll v2 was the last toy I purchased in the line, and I consider it to be a symbol of the end of my childhood. It will be a sad day indeed, when I see your review of him, but I hope you continue on in some way. Your videos are charming, informative and imbued with just a hint of sadness, which many other reviewers fail to convey in their quest to capitalize on nostalgia. Again, thank you.
Thank you HoodieCoCo for all the Creators and Content that was brought to us this year. Has been fun watching it all this month. Gonna miss it, but looking forward to #CC4 next year.
This is one of my favorite Cobra vehicles. I never had it complete. It's on recently that I obtained a second pod. I treated the 1 pod I had as a rocket ship. I forgot about the blade mechanism underneath it.of course, I only have 1 rotor and this allowed it to work perfectly. The gyro viper is a good figure that I recently bought a duplicate for the Mamba. I'm hoping to someday have 3 gyro vipers for it. I like the fact that the other commentators are able to work together to make Cobra Covergence possible. It's an ingenious idea to broaden the audience.
Always amazing reviews and thanks for this big opportunity to part of cobra convergence III till the fourth one... Love seeing this channel and remembering old Gi joe toys... hmmm Timmer with infinity Gauntlet have you turn evil
I watch these videos and while they bring me great satisfaction, different retrospectives that I hadn't thought of before it reminds me of one sad thought. That one sad melody you mentioned HCC788 from year to year that eventually you'll be done with these reviews and ride off into the sunset as you stated.
They could've had a couple B.A.T.S . operate the pods and even use them as a kamikaze type attack as a last resort. I thought the Mamba was just a little to complicated for my liking and play value. It looked cool , but hard to play with when all the bombs are falling off and the pods too. More often than not the rotors did not function as planned. But it makes sense as far as a Cobra vehicle, which tended to be unique and outlandish. Thanks Hoody Co Co!
I never had a Mamba as a kid, but somewhere later on (probably from a garage sale) the main body of one turned up around here...and I thought the Gyro-Viper looked familiar til I realized I had him ( or at least pieces) of him too
Great review HCC! Extremely enjoyable brother! Loved the cameos! The mamba seems to have a valued effect on people. I for one had one as a child and loved it. It was the uniqueness and build that had me hooked. It’s a vehicle that gives off imagination and give the owner a imagination. I’m happy to have a mamba today! Thanks for a great cobra convergence yet again!
I didn't really care about doing anything with those pods but keeping them on or maybe using it as a sort of escape pod when getting shot down. Stuff like that with operators lying down confused me but I could overlook them. The synchronized rotors worked well, except when trying to move it around a lot. The Fang II was nice.
Thanks again for inviting me to be a part of a great event for a great community! It was dope checking out all the content!! Cant wait until the next The 4th installment!! Great work HCC!
I loved the Momba as a kid but never had one. I picked one up for my kids to play with. I never cared for the Gyro Viper so we have Strato Vipers piloting all of our Cobra aircraft.
Never released in the UK at all sadly. That Belgian guy, essentially he got a grey market import, his local toy shop must have imported the Mamba as it wasn't; released in the EU either...I had one in my original collection by way of a trade. Sold it years ago. Recently bought another complete and it arrived just today from the USA. Very pleased. My only gripe is that the Cobra emblems should have the wings that the Rattler and FANG II have to mesh into the Cobra Air Force insignia. The FANG II is most certainly inspired by the MAMBA - especially in terms of colour scheme. I was going to have my Gyro Viper pilot my FANG II until I bought my MAMBA. One final thing, the pilots helmet always leads to paint rub on the figures nose, so I won't be putting it back on the figure having repainted his worn nose tip, however, the first appearance of the MAMBA in the old Marvel Comic featured one of the pilots without his helmet on and they do look just as good without it on. Anyone else notice the box art and prototype image of Gyro Viper? The helmet visor is shaped differently.
IMO, I always pretended that the pods where rocket powered boats. Makes more sense because they sure didn't look like they could fly in the sky realistically. They would dock easier in the water, maybe lol. On top of all this, these vehicles overall seem more suited for the defense of Cobra island.
in case anyone who ever owned a mamba wondered why the mambas rotors can only move at a somewhat slow pace, and if you try to go faster they skip on top of the hub is... for safety reasons, they made the hubs like a "clutch", so that at high speed and too much force, the rotors purposely skipped off of them. It doesnt matter if the toy is brand new or 30 years old, they were specifically made so that they could never achieve a crazy fast rotational speed as that would make them a danger and more likely to take a kids eye out. I even tried using glue to secure them to the hubs, it doesnt matter... they break free after a few seconds.
Wanted this bad for Christmas at 7 and Santa brought it😁 looking in storage the only thing I have found so far are the two detachable jets, after I'm sure I don't have anything else ill hit ebay and start restoring one of the coolest toys I had, Airwolf was on and I was nuts about helos.
I remember the Mamba in stores as a kid. It looked impressive, but never owned it. I think the detachable pods are nice, but it really should've had a blade on the tail and a blade in front. The double blades are too awkward in my opinion. The color scheme is nice though. It's not perfect, but a nice Cobra vehicle though.
On the belly of the suicide pods, there are six down facing chutes. I used to just imagine them being like thrusters or retro rockets for landing or controlled crash landing. My lower back hurts at the idea of what landing like that would feel like at any given speed for a rocket pod.
I always liked the Mamba, but never quite enough to buy one, I always though the Pods were kinda silly, and that it was over missile'd. I've noticed that most of the "support/secondary" Vipers have a purple colour scheme(Tele, Techno, Gyro, Hydro, Toxo, Heat, Rock(ish), Saw, and more). Similarly, many of the Cobra pilot have a red/black/gray/silver colour scheme. I wonder if this was actually laid out in a character bible. Something to explore perhaps.
I had that. In fact I remember I locked myself out of the house. Went back door. Opened it up but the chain was still on. So I got a string, tied it to the rotar from the helicopter and boom. I got in. I was proud of myself. Yo Joe
It wasn't my favorite COBRA item for sure, but your review definitely has improved my opinion. I never bought this one... just chose to skip which was rare because I was SERIOUS about G.I. JOE and tried to get everything each year. I didn't collect MOTU or Transformers. But as with several items in the middle to late years- color- what's with all the purple??? Now if the pilot had been PRINCE that would have been fantastic...
Always thought this was one of the Cobra air vehicles (along with the Fang II) that looked like the Heli-Viper was a more suitable pilot than the included one.
Am I the only one who noticed the pilot's helmet is *THE EXACT SAME DESIGN* as Luke's blast helmet that he used when training onboard the Falcon in A New Hope?
You know the more I look at this toy, the more I think with some retooling, Hasbro could have produced their own version of the Action Force Triad Fighter.
I wish that I could have changed the pilots profile saying that you used to be heard for for lamb a farmer of sorts getting the lamb ready for slaughter and then shipping the product to Olga's kitchen and that's why Cobra Commander gave him his name gyro viper what the side of cucumber sauce
I want thank you and let you now next year my brother will be joining as his G.I joe alter ego for G.I joe month next year keep eyes and ears open next year . American samurai signing off.
To really summarize this... it is not in the top 20 gi joe vehicles of all time. While it is a "finished vehicle" as in, it was complete and it was worked on, it was a clumsy, hard to handle aircraft with a silly design, and overall preposterous features.
Restoring my Cobra mamba while Rewatching this, it's awesome! Can't wait for Cobra convergence 8! Coooobraaaaa!!!!
Thank you very much for doing that review. The Cobra mamba alluded me back in the 90s when I was collecting GI Joe toys. You know back in the day before eBay. When you had to pound the pavement and hunt for what you wanted to collect, in person. Going to stores. Talking to businesses both in person and on the phone.
See, this is why I love Cobra so damn much! Not only brand recognition, but goodness, their vehicles and ships are so much cooler than the Joes!
Got this one back in the day for x-mas; it was my very first big vehicle, not only from Cobra, but for the entire GI Joe toyline as well. It was one of my favorite toys growing up despite how annoying the missiles easily falling off could be and the at-times cumbersome rotating mechanism for the blades, it still was pretty cool and fun to play with. The Gyro-Viper figure in mine came with the O-ring rubber band torn and that was such a bummer, but my Mom managed put the figure back together and replaced the torn O-ring with an average office style rubber band; the figure was always wobbly and difficult to stand on its own but at least was good enough to play with.
4:18 We got occasional imported US G.I. Joe toys in our toy shops in the UK as well. I had a number of US only vehicles in the collection I used to have, such as the Raider.
I got this when I was a kid. I liked it enough and it had got quite a bit of use. I sometimes considered the pods as suicide pods and other times it could power down to just be gliding for the main helicopter to redock... This was the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation you know. I utilized all the bombs and missiles to their full effect. But only for the Tomahawk, the Mamba was a real threat to every vehicle air, land or sea.
@hcc788 I know people sometimes give you crap for your figure articulation sections being repetitive, but I like it because it allows a first time viewer to your channel to see a true full review.
I seem to recall that Mars had a hard time cracking the dual rotor design for the attack helicopter. Destro actually executed the lead designer after his first failed four attempts. Luckily the new designer, Lou, figured it out on his first attempt, technically making this vehicle MAMBA #5 which reminds us of the dangers of a little bit of Destro in the sun, a little bit of cobra commander all night long, a little bit of ...
Excellent lyrical spoof of Lou Bega's Mambo #5.
I never had it as a kid. When I finally got one, it was mostly complete. It was completed later. I thought "Finally, Cobra has a battle copter worthy of its unique designs". Great review. Thanks.
I had the honor of giving this video its 100th like. Thank you for your dedication to this hobby, Commander. Like you, Rock and Roll v2 was the last toy I purchased in the line, and I consider it to be a symbol of the end of my childhood. It will be a sad day indeed, when I see your review of him, but I hope you continue on in some way. Your videos are charming, informative and imbued with just a hint of sadness, which many other reviewers fail to convey in their quest to capitalize on nostalgia. Again, thank you.
Thanks for getting me in there!! Honored to be a part of it this year. :)
I had the Mamba. Though purple is my favorite colour; I thought the Mamba was a bit too weird. Though Gyro-Viper was a cool figure. I loved aviators.
Great review love the Mamba and the Gyrovipers...the "rocket powered coffins" bit made me laugh 🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁🚁
Thank you HoodieCoCo for all the Creators and Content that was brought to us this year. Has been fun watching it all this month. Gonna miss it, but looking forward to #CC4 next year.
This is one of my favorite Cobra vehicles.
I never had it complete. It's on recently that I obtained a second pod. I treated the 1 pod I had as a rocket ship.
I forgot about the blade mechanism underneath it.of course, I only have 1 rotor and this allowed it to work perfectly.
The gyro viper is a good figure that I recently bought a duplicate for the Mamba. I'm hoping to someday have 3 gyro vipers for it.
I like the fact that the other commentators are able to work together to make Cobra Covergence possible. It's an ingenious idea to broaden the audience.
Some one really liked those old German Meteors I guess Cobra has a few of those disposable rocket crafts
I really love the cartoony item card designs thats used as a thumbnail. It makes you want to click the video
One of my favorite vehicles. I have 3.
Always amazing reviews and thanks for this big opportunity to part of cobra convergence III till the fourth one... Love seeing this channel and remembering old Gi joe toys... hmmm Timmer with infinity Gauntlet have you turn evil
I watch these videos and while they bring me great satisfaction, different retrospectives that I hadn't thought of before it reminds me of one sad thought. That one sad melody you mentioned HCC788 from year to year that eventually you'll be done with these reviews and ride off into the sunset as you stated.
Another awesome review! This year was an amazing cobra convergence. Appreciate all of the hard work by every contributor!
They could've had a couple B.A.T.S . operate the pods and even use them as a kamikaze type attack as a last resort. I thought the Mamba was just a little to complicated for my liking and play value. It looked cool , but hard to play with when all the bombs are falling off and the pods too. More often than not the rotors did not function as planned. But it makes sense as far as a Cobra vehicle, which tended to be unique and outlandish. Thanks Hoody Co Co!
InstaBlaster.
I love the Mamba.
I never had a Mamba as a kid, but somewhere later on (probably from a garage sale) the main body of one turned up around here...and I thought the Gyro-Viper looked familiar til I realized I had him ( or at least pieces) of him too
Whoah, Dusty Crosley's stuff is cool.
Had two Mambas back when they came out, plus two Cobra Fang IIs.
Next year I want in ....i enjoyed every minute of this year's cobra convergence nice work my friend
Great job I really in joy all of your videos please keep up the great work
Great vehicle to wrap up CC3! I can hardly wait for next years Convergence. Awesome job everyone!
Fantastic Review ! I always liked that helicopter.
Great review HCC! Extremely enjoyable brother! Loved the cameos! The mamba seems to have a valued effect on people. I for one had one as a child and loved it. It was the uniqueness and build that had me hooked. It’s a vehicle that gives off imagination and give the owner a imagination. I’m happy to have a mamba today! Thanks for a great cobra convergence yet again!
I didn't really care about doing anything with those pods but keeping them on or maybe using it as a sort of escape pod when getting shot down. Stuff like that with operators lying down confused me but I could overlook them. The synchronized rotors worked well, except when trying to move it around a lot.
The Fang II was nice.
Fang II was one of the coolest designs of the whole line.
I had one and the blades worked fine. I love the design!
I had this beauty. Many a times it went up against my two Dragonflies.
Thanks again for inviting me to be a part of a great event for a great community! It was dope checking out all the content!! Cant wait until the next The 4th installment!! Great work HCC!
I had a mamba and loved it. Yes it was clumsy, but you got three toys for the price of one. I always used the pods as attack subs.
I loved the Momba as a kid but never had one. I picked one up for my kids to play with. I never cared for the Gyro Viper so we have Strato Vipers piloting all of our Cobra aircraft.
Never released in the UK at all sadly. That Belgian guy, essentially he got a grey market import, his local toy shop must have imported the Mamba as it wasn't; released in the EU either...I had one in my original collection by way of a trade. Sold it years ago. Recently bought another complete and it arrived just today from the USA. Very pleased. My only gripe is that the Cobra emblems should have the wings that the Rattler and FANG II have to mesh into the Cobra Air Force insignia. The FANG II is most certainly inspired by the MAMBA - especially in terms of colour scheme. I was going to have my Gyro Viper pilot my FANG II until I bought my MAMBA. One final thing, the pilots helmet always leads to paint rub on the figures nose, so I won't be putting it back on the figure having repainted his worn nose tip, however, the first appearance of the MAMBA in the old Marvel Comic featured one of the pilots without his helmet on and they do look just as good without it on. Anyone else notice the box art and prototype image of Gyro Viper? The helmet visor is shaped differently.
IMO, I always pretended that the pods where rocket powered boats. Makes more sense because they sure didn't look like they could fly in the sky realistically. They would dock easier in the water, maybe lol. On top of all this, these vehicles overall seem more suited for the defense of Cobra island.
in case anyone who ever owned a mamba wondered why the mambas rotors can only move at a somewhat slow pace, and if you try to go faster they skip on top of the hub is... for safety reasons, they made the hubs like a "clutch", so that at high speed and too much force, the rotors purposely skipped off of them. It doesnt matter if the toy is brand new or 30 years old, they were specifically made so that they could never achieve a crazy fast rotational speed as that would make them a danger and more likely to take a kids eye out. I even tried using glue to secure them to the hubs, it doesnt matter... they break free after a few seconds.
Wanted this bad for Christmas at 7 and Santa brought it😁 looking in storage the only thing I have found so far are the two detachable jets, after I'm sure I don't have anything else ill hit ebay and start restoring one of the coolest toys I had, Airwolf was on and I was nuts about helos.
Wow... DeviantArt is really awesome
16:29 the little known GI Joe/TMNT crossover movie. XD
I remember the Mamba in stores as a kid. It looked impressive, but never owned it. I think the detachable pods are nice, but it really should've had a blade on the tail and a blade in front. The double blades are too awkward in my opinion. The color scheme is nice though. It's not perfect, but a nice Cobra vehicle though.
On the belly of the suicide pods, there are six down facing chutes. I used to just imagine them being like thrusters or retro rockets for landing or controlled crash landing. My lower back hurts at the idea of what landing like that would feel like at any given speed for a rocket pod.
Thanks all great review
Rocket Powered Coffins... Lol 😂😂😂
lol you gotta wonder who won the argument "No Your riding in the pod!" LOL
FYI, I find gluing the rotors on with white/school glue bypasses the pseudo-spin problem!
Add to the fact that intermeshed rotor 'synchrocopters' like the Mamba are more KAMAN than you realize! *rimshot*
I don't know how you're going to top this next year!
NICE. THANKS. DESTRO DIE-HARDS HERE! from FaceBook. THIS IS GREAT WORK...
Did road pig ever get a nother Figure in the vintage Line ?
Who was road pigs main enemy on G.I joe ?
Bucky749 sonic fighters road pig.
Bucky749 yeah, he got a v2, a repaint with a horrid color scheme, and as the commenter above me mentioned, the Sonic Fighters gimmick
I always liked the Mamba, but never quite enough to buy one, I always though the Pods were kinda silly, and that it was over missile'd.
I've noticed that most of the "support/secondary" Vipers have a purple colour scheme(Tele, Techno, Gyro, Hydro, Toxo, Heat, Rock(ish), Saw, and more). Similarly, many of the Cobra pilot have a red/black/gray/silver colour scheme. I wonder if this was actually laid out in a character bible. Something to explore perhaps.
I had that. In fact I remember I locked myself out of the house. Went back door. Opened it up but the chain was still on. So I got a string, tied it to the rotar from the helicopter and boom. I got in. I was proud of myself. Yo Joe
Final getting my Mamba going!
It wasn't my favorite COBRA item for sure, but your review definitely has improved my opinion. I never bought this one... just chose to skip which was rare because I was SERIOUS about G.I. JOE and tried to get everything each year. I didn't collect MOTU or Transformers. But as with several items in the middle to late years- color- what's with all the purple??? Now if the pilot had been PRINCE that would have been fantastic...
rattler blue would have been a so much better color!
good show!!!
I believe the pods were used to do insertions of covert troops.
I always thought that the pods were mini subs?
27:39 Barely an inconvenience?
Misships happen all the time in delivery. Cool thing the store owners just threw it on the shelves instead of sending it back.
Hi, you most watch the last video of Madhunter Chanel because he is hunting something from a gi joes colector :D
The masked guy showing the mamba reminds me of Ian, Pat the NES punks friend .
Is that Timmer with the Infinity Gauntlet?
I’m going to have to stop you right there. What do you mean ride off into the sunset? Nothing doing Commander! Nothing doing! 😋
I agree! you're WAAAY too cool-ass to be giving up! Only GI JOE is GI JOE!
Can someone explain what Cobra Convergence is? I've seen it mentioned in about a dozen videos but no one has said what it is in any of those videos.
The blades on a counter rotational copter like this are supposed to be 90 degrees to one another
Always thought this was one of the Cobra air vehicles (along with the Fang II) that looked like the Heli-Viper was a more suitable pilot than the included one.
I remember Ames. Before it was Ames in my town it was a Zayre
Am I the only one who noticed the pilot's helmet is *THE EXACT SAME DESIGN* as Luke's blast helmet that he used when training onboard the Falcon in A New Hope?
excelente;
👍😎
You know the more I look at this toy, the more I think with some retooling, Hasbro could have produced their own version of the Action Force Triad Fighter.
There's 6 thrusters under each pod for it to redock with the mamba there not suicide pods
I wish that I could have changed the pilots profile saying that you used to be heard for for lamb a farmer of sorts getting the lamb ready for slaughter and then shipping the product to Olga's kitchen and that's why Cobra Commander gave him his name gyro viper what the side of cucumber sauce
Who drove the swamp fire ??
It didn't come with a pilot so Zartan, Zaranna, Zandar, or one of the dreadnoks.
REST IN PEACE - JAVIER GONZALEZ - #CC3
I want thank you and let you now next year my brother will be joining as his G.I joe alter ego for G.I joe month next year keep eyes and ears open next year .
American samurai signing off.
Now I know my mamba is missing it’s engine cover 😫😡
of course major blood wears a gangsta grill
I prefer the Italian variant; you know, the Mamba Italiano.
Too bad Hasbro didn't make the ASPID transport helicopter as a foil to the Tomahawk transport helicopter.
14:21
What you came for
So if they get hit...the pilots screwed
Need aero-bats to suicide pilot the pods
Guy who designed those missiles must have had a thing for Shredder.
Why not just call the paint wear on his nose a mole/beauty mark! :-P
Too much fantasy land for me
I like the earlier a littlebit more realistic jets, helicopters and tanks.
Hahaha..... a coffin
To really summarize this... it is not in the top 20 gi joe vehicles of all time. While it is a "finished vehicle" as in, it was complete and it was worked on, it was a clumsy, hard to handle aircraft with a silly design, and overall preposterous features.
This looks too much like a M.A.S.K. vehicle.
You're probably thinking of Switchblade, bud. (I had one of those)
That's the one. I had it, too, but mine was missing some pieces...all my M.A.S.K. toys were second-hand.
Too many extra commentators in this otherwise great video.
You will really not like this channel. You should probably move on and watch something else.
Maybe I will, I stated that the video was great and I've followed you from the beginning but if the extra commentators mean that much then so be it.
K bye.
Done!