Head: 87 Crystal Ball
Torso: 92 Headman
Arms: 92 Headman
Crotch: 92 Headman
Legs: 94 Action Marine










CRYSTAL BALL
Cobra Ambassador

Let me start of by saying that there in my opinion, there aren't too many bad ideas in the entire GI Joe line. Mind you, I said 'not too many', we won't even get into the whole Manimals fiasco. Strangeley enough, I don't think the idea behind Crystal Ball is a bad idea. I feel the same way about Raptor, Big Boa and Croc Master as well. As long as you handle an idea in the proper way, you can make almost anything work I believe. Such is the case with Crystal Ball. I got my first Crystal Ball figure at a Sears store in 1987, and while he wasn't very exciting, I bought him because he was the last figure I needed from that years offerings. I had passed on him repeatedly, because the lenticular shield, red eyes, and puffy boa just didn't do much for me, and I didn't really see what role, if any, I would ever have for him. Well, it took some time, but I finally came up with something, and I was able to salvage the CHARACTER of Crystal Ball, but not his outfit. Read on....



BACKSTORY:
Crystal Ball was born in Las Vegas, Nevada to a poor woman from Bangor, Maine and an immigrant from Romania, Crystal Ball is the seventh son of a seveneth son, and such men it is believed, are possessive of supernatural abilities. However, this is not the case with Crystal Ball. Growing up poorly in a city surrounded by glitz and glamour took it's toll on young Crystal Balls psyche and by his teenage years he was already trying his hand at street magic, trying to make a few extra bucks by taking advantage of wealthy tourists. Over the years, Crystal Ball became extremely talented at 'magic' and sleight of hand tricks and soon found that using these talents to steal watches and wallets while charming his audience was extremely easy and very profitable. At the age of 21, Crystal Ball was finally able to give the casinos a try, and quickly began using his street magic and quick hands to cheat at table games and rank up 1000s of dollars in winnings.

Eventuallyl, his luck gave out, and he was arrested and sent to prison for 10 years. Surrounded by violent criminals and not an extremely physical person to begin with, Crystal Ball was forced to charm and persuade others to protect him, just for daily survival. Using his time behind bars, Crystal Ball continued working on his sleight of hand tricks, began working on his physical fitness for the first time, and continued to further develop his skills of manipulation and deceit to get others to do his bidding. He also studied law while in prison, and eventually became a lawyer, though not practicing. Upon his release from prison, Crystal Ball was now completely fluent in American law, manipulation, sleight of hand and extremely charismatic...and totally broke.



Crystal Ball returned to Las Vegas to put his next plan into action...aquiring wealth. His quick wit and charming personality was his tool to befriend and woo wealthy, single women and quickly wed them on the Las Vegas strip, leaving no time for prenutial agreements. Then, using his knowledge of marital law and his immense powers of deceit, manipulation and persuasion, divorce the women and leave them virtually homeless and penniless. Crystal Ball zoomed through an astounding six marriages in six years. By the age of 50, he was a multi-millionaire, and now a master of finding and exploiting emotional weaknesses.

Quickly becoming bored with life, and always looking for the next challenge, Crystal Ball had a chance encounter with a man named James (McCullen Destro travelling incognito) on a 12 hour flight to Asia. While James easily saw through Crystal Ball's deceptions and lies, he was entrigued by the opportunities presented. Crystal Ball was offered a position within the Cobra ranks as a interrogation officer. His first assignments were at the side of the Cobra Interrogator, and the two quickly fell into the role of good cop/bad cop when questioning prisoners. Successful interrogations became the norm, and Crystal Ball grew in respect and recognition among the Cobra ranks. After the creation of Cobra Island as a nation, Crystal Ball was appointed Official Cobra Ambassador to the world. He quickly began a world wide effort to negotiate trades and military treaties. Once again, his charasmatic charm and personality as well as his tools of deception were called upon, combined with his talent of finding and exploiting emotional weaknesses, Crystal Ball made many contacts for Cobra through out the world, and officially earned the code name Crystal Ball, due to his knack for predicting every bit of his future accomplishments, due to his own clever planning. Recently challenged by Destro, Crystal Ball was able to convince an ambassador he was to visit to allow him to wear a side arm during thier meeting. Crystal Ball won the challenge.



Had Crystal Ball remained within the US system, he easily could have made millions legally. He is despised by the GI Joe team for his brilliant mind, and his use of US law loopholes he uses as a sheild. In fact, during his only visit with American officials as Cobra Ambassador, he actually carried a reflective shield into the room with him to signify he ability to defend himself against the US laws by manipulating and abusing them, and turning them back against you. Crystal Balls rank within the Cobra organization is secure, and he is an invaluable asset and their most powerful weapon in the political sense, and still enjoys ripping off the random casino during internatinal visits as well as entertaining the troops (while building morale) with his David Blaine-style street magic.




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