Action Figure Overview: G.I. Joe - Eels Cobra Frogman (Hasbro, 1985)

G.I. Joe's enemy: Cobra Frogman "Eels" (Hasbro, 1985)

1985 was an awesome year for GI Joe!  Hasbro gave us some of the best bad guys of the entire Real American Hero run with The Crimson Guard, Snow Serpents, and the first three Dreadnoks!  Even with all of those awesome new characters from Hasbro, the Cobra Eel was definitely one of the figures that caught my eye right from the first time I saw the new figures pictured on the back of my Footloose card!  Just from that tiny picture, I knew I wanted to add this guy to my Cobra team.

Cobra Eel: Ready for Action!

At that point, we didn't have many underwater figures.  Torpedo was a great figure from wave 2, but my Deep Six figure who came out in wave 3 spent most of his time living in a shoe box and rarely saw any action at all.  Torpedo needed someone to fight against and the Cobra Eels fit that role perfectly!

GI Joe: Cobra Eels file card

According to their file cards, the Eels are Cobra's demolition experts.  They are also trained in underwater fighting, marine structural engineering, and marine geology.  The figures wore a gray and black suit with a red chest decorated with a silver Cobra logo.  There was a dive knife molded onto the figure's left leg.  They came with a 2-part backpack which serves as both an air-tank and a jet pack.  There's an air hose that attaches from the figure's mouth to the backpack and I suspect this piece is often lost.  They also come with a pair of black flippers and a dangerous looking harpoon gun.

Cobra Eel with all of his gear

The design of the Eels was awesome.  When it came to underwater adventures, it was great that Cobra had a go-to team for any diving missions.  The Eels appeared in 13 episodes of the Sunbow cartoon, but most of them were brief appearances with no dialog.  Their biggest appearance wasn't even in an underwater episode.  In the episode "The Germ," two Cobra Eels fought against Airtight inside of a giant Germ.  They also appeared in the episode "Memories of Mara" where a team of Eels were sent to capture an escaped Cobra test subject who had been altered so that she could breath under water.  Even though they weren't used a lot in the cartoon series, I appreciated the fact that Cobra had such a cool team when they were needed!

Cobra Eels in the Sunbow GI Joe cartoon

I don't remember a lot of underwater adventures in the comic book, but the Eels did appear in a few issues and always looked good when they showed up.  Unfortunately, I didn't have many of my own water based adventures that used my Eel all that much.  Realistically, even when I was using the various GI Joe watercraft, I was usually concentrating on adventures above the waterline, so as cool as he was, my Eel action figure didn't see as much action as it deserved.  The good news about that is my figure still has all of his accessories and the paint has almost no wear.  He looks like he just came out of the package!

Underwater demolition mission with Cobra Eel

I'm curious to hear your opinion of the Cobra Eels?  Did you have this figure when you were a kid?  Do you have one now?  Do you see the Cobra Eels as good troop builders or is one Eel enough?  Tell me in the comments below!  

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