The Forgotten Defenders: A Look Back at the 1988 Cobra Battle Barge”

Story by Mitchell Smith

Welcome to the Outpost. Rub a dub dub three men in a tub all adrift a sea a Techno a Toxo a Hydro Viper what a sight to see. 1988 cranked out some very cool and interesting G.I. Joe vehicles. I was fortunate enough to have a Warthog, a phantom X-19, and a couple Mean Dogs. I really enjoyed the Tiger Force and had the Tiger Fly and The Night Force, and Iron Grenadier lines were really cool. We had huge vehicles like the Rolling Thunder and small vehicles like the GI Joe ATV. one vehicle I never had was a vehicle that is probably the most overlooked from this year.

The Cobra Battle Barge is a unique design holding three figures. Each has a gun and in the middle is a radar dish. This is used for the first line of defense to pick up and shoot down and Joes trying to sneak onto Cobra Island. I always thought this was a bit goofy, like these guys are basically sitting ducks out there, but in hand this is actually a pretty cool vehicle. It has pretty nice detail all around and does make sense to some degree. Maybe the Vipers were protected by an energy shield of some sorts.

Overall this is a solid vehicle in my opinion and I’m happy I picked one up to check out first hand. I found a pic of a box marked down at Service Merchandise for $1.90, those were the days. Who had a Battle Barge as a Kid? Make sure to check back for our next discussion.