Cobra Claws Are Coming to Town

It's Christmas Eve and most of the Joes have gone home for the holidays. After using special growth/shrinking ray and special toys slipped into the donated toys for charity, Cobra ends up successfully infiltrating the G.I. Joe Headquarters, captures the Joes present, and rewires the Joes equipment. They plan on attacking Keystone City on Christmas to have residents believe the Joes have turned treacherous against them.

"Now you know. And knowing is half the battle." The Sunbow run closed every episode with a public-service spot delivered by a Joe character, addressing kids on a real-world hazard or virtue. The cartoon's deeper ethic, threaded into the writing across the run, was that Cobra's worldview was based on fear and the Joes' was based on responsibility.

Chris Latta as Cobra Commander

Michael Bell as Duke, Lifeline, Xamot, Blowtorch

Arthur Burghardt as Destro

Morgan Lofting as Baroness

Mary McDonald-Lewis as Lady Jaye, Cover Girl

Bill Ratner as Flint

B.J. Ward as Scarlett

Neil Ross as Shipwreck, Doc, Tomax

Frank Welker as Torch, Wild Weasel, Junkyard, Zandar

Zack Hoffman as Zartan

Charlie Adler as Low-Light

Dick Gautier as Serpentor

1. Sunbow Season 1 daily run (1985). 55 episodes aired Monday through Friday in afternoon syndication, September to December 1985.
2. Production code: 600-33
3. Studio: Marvel Productions / Sunbow Productions / Toei Doga
4. Originally aired: November 7, 1985 in afternoon syndication.