Icebreaker's HQ: 12.14

The Cobra Mamba very recently arrived into my tiny collection. I originally had a Mamba that my "best bud" from back in the day had gained through a traded with another kid he knew. It had some play wear already, was missing some rockets, the bomb dropping levers, bent pod gun barrels, and the horizontal stabilizer was cracked near one of the rudders. You can see THAT Mamba in the older picture of my big vehicles, I do believe I traded it in to a local store (around 1999). I can't remember if the broken stabilizer was bugging me, or if it was the shelf space, or just what, but I sent it on its way at that time.
But, I like helicopters, and the inter-meshing rotor design is rather unique. I also wanted to give the Interrogator his own ride. So, today the HQ welcomes back the Mamba!


Cobra Mamba


Cobra Mamba


Cobra Mamba

I think the GIJoburg review does a fantastic and fun review of the Mamba, have you seen it? Check it out, most fun, and informative!

Like Battleforce 2000 vehicles, some spots on the Mamba feel a little unfinished to me, as if there may have been something more planned, but omitted in the final toy. Like the "flat area" just forward of the tails blended wing, or the diamond plate detail area just forward of the motor.

Or even this very flat area on the tail between the exhaust and raised feature just forward of the rudders.

When I look at the flat spot on the top of the twin tails, and the slope of the blended wing leading up to that vertical flat spot, it almost feels like something should sit on top of it? Not unlike the Night Raven with the piggy back drone. But then, when the inter-meshing rotor travel area is factored in, something like this would very likely not work.

There is still a lot of detail, even on the bottom side of the rear stabilizers. One side of one of these was clean snapped off on of the booms on my first Mamba. Look at that upward indentation in the center, think there might have been a little bomb to drop here, sort of like the water moccasin has the little torpedo? Or did designers back in 1987 just go above and beyond to make things look interesting and cool?

I have to wonder if my first Mamba made me unhappy with the fit of the figures? For Gyro Viper to fit the best, well, here he has assumed the position:


Gyro Viper

Being a three seater overall, maybe the Mamba was bugging me like the STUN, in that I wanted THREE Motor Vipers for my STUN, and I kind of wanted THREE Gyro Vipers for my old Mamba. Not sure, and at that time, finding two more Gyro Vipers for that old Mamba was a needle in a hay stack search at garage sales.

But today, I will be placing my Gyro Vipers directly into my Fang II helicopters. I think they look good in their contained and comfortable flight suits and helmets for open cockpit flying.

This Mamba is here for the Interrogator. And the cockpit is snug, and it works just as well as any as it is pretty much a lay down seat, not too far off from the angle of the flat flanking pods. The real problem is nowhere for the arms to go.

Just a couple of indentations on either side of the pilot would make this a better situation, and even if the forearms were left facing straight up, that would actually fit well with the HUD display and controls. (?)

Otherwise, except for the awkward arm placement, above you can see Gyro Viper is comfortably snug.   Surprisingly, though, the arms not fitting is what led to me losing some love for my Dragonfly.

The pods are pure lay back and fly, though.   It's a rocket-powered coffin, not as needle-nosed as a 1987 Stiletto, either.

I think back in the day with my old Mamba, I might have wanted more figure interactivity from the craft, specifically, like a co-pilot spot, especially since the Mamba is rather sizeable (contrast with the Tomahawk carrying 5 troops and two in the front).   However, laying down just seemed awkward for either pod to have a figure fill this role.

One imaginative use that I almost cemented in my imagination was the use of B.A.T.s in the pods. They would pretty much ride inactive, and the pods would really only be fired as a last resort or as an added measure in an offensive. In the "offensive" role, the pods would be fired after the Mamba fires all its rockets at a target, and then it launches the pods, which use their small size and speed to fire the remaining rockets closer to the targets. After the pods have depleted their nose gun ammo, the pods would literally nose into the ground, and the B.A.T.s would crash out of the pods and continue the fight on the ground.

I am worried about breaking the canopy hinges on this Mamba. It's been awhile since I opened up a hinge like this, and I really had to think about my old 1987 Sea Ray. The fun just went away after that hinge piece snapped, and when the lower joining tab snapped, disabling the connection ability, all love for that vehicle was gone. This was back around 1988 or 1989, though.

Sure did some vehicle separation things in 1987, didn't they? Sea Ray, Mamba, Maggot...., Wolf, if you count the skiis....

Here the Commander poses with the Interrogator and his new craft.

Cobra Mamba

Flash or no flash, which do you like more?


Cobra Mamba

The Interrogator has been floating around in my imagination for awhile, seems like many other fans, as well. Here in my "joeverse," Cobra Commander rid himself of all the traitorous characters from back in the day. Aside from Big Boa, the Interrogator is sort of almost a second in command in fitting in here. Interrogator gets the Mamba, as a one-off, last of its kind aircraft in my imaginative world. It will serve as speedy, and stealthy transport for the Commander, but mostly, the Interrogator owns this. If the Interrogator were Han Solo, this Mamba is the Falcon.

Here is that diamond plate detail that I mentioned earlier, with the flat edge, do you think something else was originally planned here?

It makes a somewhat intuitive "step" location for the pilot...

Here's another detail that makes me wonder if there was going to be a another removable compartment cover? I can totally see another red piece like the gun on those edges, plus, do you think a landing gear was considered?
The six little sort of tubes were the "soft landing" and VTOL-like method the pods could use to land and get airborne and rejoin the Mamba, back in the day with imagination.

This flat edge needs a classic Rattler ('84) style cannon here, don't you think? After the rockets and the pods are gone, a pair of those cannon would really make the Mamba more deadly.

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Bonus Mamba images:

From the commercial:

From the comics:

A nice image in the review of the Mamba at GeneralsJoes.com

The Cobra helicopter gets a lot of attention, it's very cool, and maybe something just about everyone would agree with on seeing produced in toy form. But then there is this helicopter of topic here that appeared in the Marvel GIJoe comic, too. And I speculate that it is Zartan's own helicopter, but I have no way to prove it, I suppose. Other than that Zartan seems to be near where this helicopter appears. Coincidence? Take a look, investigate, and see what you think. Nothing below is in any particular order, but consider that there is only one of this design helicopter ever seen at one time. Perhaps everyone knows this already, too, and I'm just figuring it out?

The ZTN-456.
This is the helicopter that was disguised as a city bus as Zartan comes along to scoop up his Dreadnoks, who in this particular issue destroyed Zartans' bike, the ZTN-123.

It is visually similar to the CH-37 US Army helicopter as I see it. It's a rather unique form, I'm searching but cannot find many other front loading cargo 'copters like this. Yet. From the site link just above, "...The H-37's innovative engine arrangement gave the craft an unobstructed cargo bay of nearly 1500 cubic feet, large enough to carry three Jeeps, twenty-four stretchers, or up to twenty-six fully-equipped troops...."

WOW!