1982 "Mickey Mouse" Cobra and Cobra Officers?!

Something heretofore unseen by the vast majority of G.I.JOE collectors popped up on eBay recently. Let's get to the bottom of this new development!

[@BrianWingard]

I was excited to see these. In all of my years of collecting I have never heard of such a thing other than the painted chips figures that you see in the sears catalog with the longer stretched looking mickey mouse logos. I never see ones like this and it totally blew my mind and everyone elses. Such a cool find!

[@3djoes]

Yep! I think those Chips logos were hand painted.

[@mihalyszenasi1983]

Fantastic find and thanks for sharing the informations about them! Happy holidays, hugs, from Hungary! 🐍🤗

[@Vincent-396]

Merry Christmas. Thanks for all you do throughout the year for the Joe community, and for producing all these books and posters.

[@3djoes]

Thank you for enjoying the content!

[@Waters20]

I never knew the Mickey symbol was on the infantry soldier, too. I thought it was only on the commander. That's crazy. 😀

[@nicolekoch1332]

Fascinating to still see new discoveries from the original vintage G.I.JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO figures after all of these decades. Thank you for you vigilance, attention to details, and dedication to the preservation of all of this art and history.🇺🇸👍👍

[@torpedo8384]

and now we know! Sorry couldn’t resist!

[@fluidmanbrazil]

Amazing that we’re actually able to see a genuine new piece of Joe history by late 2023… (well… Cobra history, really 😂, but that’s OK) Thanks for sharing and for all the people involved in the research ! Yo Joe and Merry Xmas ! 🙏🏻🎄🇧🇷

[@3djoes]

Right?! Keeps the hobby fun.

[@fluidmanbrazil]

@@3djoes yessir ! 😎✌🏻🇧🇷

[@TheChadTI]

Sent away for him (Cobra Commander) as a kid, got the straight arm. Collected in real time as they came out. Same for MOTU.

[@foxglove9]

Never realized they colored those arm rivets on the early figures. Very cool to see those early drawings and rare figures. Received the Megatron/Baroness o-ring set for Christmas. So cool to get original Joes again, and she was one of my favorites.

[@3djoes]

I’m loving the G.I.JOExTransformers sets! They make the kid in me very happy.

[@Roadpigjohn]

Very interesting variation man ...😀✌️💡🎄🎉 Merry Christmas 🎁⛄

[@radicalretro2067]

Awesome!

[@funken079]

Very cool to see these , I always wondered if any other Cobra figures ended up with the logo.

[@jdoran]

Merry Christmas! It's exciting to keep learning something new about G.I. Joe every day!

[@G7M9W]

What an amazing find!

[@timvanboening9432]

Wow. Just wow!

[@whozyourdaddy]

It's crazy how these have surfaced after all these years. Do we know anything about the seller or how or where they might have gotten them? It's an insane find.

[@3djoes]

Not much really, the seller is a realtor’a friend that helps clear out estates.

[@gijoeactionfigures7211]

Delta 17 figures are in they are super awesome

[@jonasbrothersrockist]

I can see Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as cobra members.

[@GeneralSantucci1st]

Man I wish I had the money to bid on that listing

[@SummerlinRealtor]

Very cool info! When are the books shipping out? 😮

[@3djoes]

This week!

[@SummerlinRealtor]

@@3djoes I can’t wait!!! YO Joe!!

[@bt76]

😮 dooooope

[@pablogonzalezl.5988]

¡Feliz Navidad!

[@FreedomCompatriots]

Very interesting. What is the explanation for the "Mickey Mouse" logo? Was it some kind of a factory screw-up? The original logo art on Rudat's wall seems quite clear so interpretation shouldn't have happened to begin with. Why didn't quality control fix this beforehand? Just curious! Thanks!

[@3djoes]

That’s exactly it. Cobra, Cobra Officer, and Cobra Commander were moving into production at the factory (after the initial 9 Joes). Cobra Commander had to go out first, as the first Flag Points mail-order promotion. There were many “Mickey Mouse” Cobra Commanders shipped this way. Hasbro immediately told the factory to fix the tampo, that it wasn’t a good enough recreation of the complex logo Ron had created, and the factory changed over to the new tampo asap… this would be called a running change. Prior thinking was CC was the only one produced with this MM tampo. Now we know at least a few MM logo Cobra and Cobra Officers are out there, which means there could be dozens more FEPs to be unearthed. The hunt continues! Pure speculation here, but if we see more turn up, I’d expect them to be part of the 1982 Missile Command Headquarters set which was rolled out winter of 1982.

[@3djoes]

There’s lots of examples of factories producing something substandard, and instead of throwing it in the trash, they’d change it ASAP and this would create a variant. Zarana for example only received 50,000 units of the original head sculpt with earrings before they were able to sculpt and replace her head. This was when figures were made at ~1,000,000 pieces.

[@FreedomCompatriots]

@@3djoes Very interesting! I guess I feel lucky then because I have one of those rarer Zarana's. It always puzzled me why the heads look so different. I thought Hasbro ordered the tooling based on their sculpts so I was surprised it was so divergent from the more prolific model. Truth be known, the original head looks more 'Asian' with pronounced cheek bones and whatnot whereas the later version is more Caucasian.

[@KahlessTheUnforgettable]

Hey guys, I just received my book today and it is beautiful. Here’s the problem: I selected the option to have both the book and dvd shipped via media mail. I got the book, no DVD. I have no other social media that I use and it’s been extremely difficult to find a way to contact you guys. Help please?

[@3djoes]

DVDs ship this spring separately. Enjoy the book!

[@KahlessTheUnforgettable]

@@3djoesI assumed so, but thanks for the clarification. God bless guys and happy New year!

[@KevinMayle1974]

Awesome!