 This is version 2 of Steel Brigade, commonly known as the Goldhead Steel Brigade, GI Joe's personalized action figure from 1992. This figure was first available as a mail away exclusive in 1992 and was also available in 1993. Yojo.com says it probably stopped shipping in 1993. You could receive this figure through the mail by taking advantage of offers in catalogs like this one, terrifying lasers of destruction. These catalogs were inserted with boxed vehicles. And if we turn the page to this one, we can see there is Goldhead Steel Brigade. That's the offer and the form for customizing the file card. This offer was said to be good through September 30th, 1994, or while supplies last. So I guess it's possible they ran out of figures by 1993, but it's also possible version 2 of Steel Brigade was shipped as late as 1994. This figure is commonly known as the Goldhead Steel Brigade. Although the coloring is entirely different from the first version, the Goldhead is the most noticeable change. This is the second version of Steel Brigade in the vintage era. Version 1 was issued as a mail away offer in 1987. There are numerous variants of version 1. Steel Brigade was a fan insert figure. It was advertised as a way for kids to join the GI Joe team. For instance, on this mail away coupon, it says in big bold letters, now you can be the next GI Joe. The figure itself was not customized, but the file card was. The file card would be updated based on information provided by the buyer. Order form for Steel Brigade included a space for the buyer to fill in a code name and a menu of options that would be used to personalize the file card. This is what the version 1 Steel Brigade file card looked like. It wasn't really a file card at all. It was a sheet of paper printed by a dot matrix printer. It was pretty sophisticated for the time. No two of these file cards would be exactly the same. Each one had the code name selected by the buyer, and these cut and paste paragraphs were updated based on the menu selections on the order form. Comparing the version 2 questionnaire to the earliest version 1 questionnaires, they are mostly the same just with some minor wording variations. For instance, on this selection where it says your logical mind loves a challenge, over here on version 2, that same question says you love a challenge. Just very minor changes like that, but mostly identical. If you look at a mail away catalog from around 1991 or 1992, you have these order forms for version 1 of Steel Brigade, and this would have been the very last time Steel Brigade was offered in its version 1 form before they switched over to version 2. And these questionnaires are the same as the version 2 questionnaires. They just copied and pasted the same questionnaire over to the version 2 offer. Steel Brigade version 1 had at least four figure variations. They are designated from earliest to latest as version 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D. There are also accessories variations. The rifles were swapped around between them, and there's a slight variation on the patch. There was a version 1E, but that variant has recently been delisted from some collector's guides. It's now believed that it was a kit bash by collectors after the fact, and not a real factory issued variant. Goldhead is a recolored Steel Brigade version 1D. It has the same parts and accessories as that final, real, confirmed variation of version 1. With one caveat, the latest releases of version 1D included the same rifle that version 2 came with. Earlier releases of version 1D had a reissue of Airborne's rifle. The second edition of the Ultimate Guide to GI Joe by Mark Belomo lists the Goldhead Steel Brigade as version F, meaning it's a variation of version 1. In the recently released third edition of the Ultimate Guide to GI Joe, the Goldhead figure is no longer listed as version F, indicating it is a separate version. Note also that version 1E is no longer listed. Yojo.com also lists the Goldhead figure as a separate version, not a variation of version 1, and I agree with this. The color change is significant enough to call it a separate version. The file card imagery and the accessory colors are also updated, not just the figure. The Goldhead Steel Brigade is one of the rarest figures in the vintage GI Joe line, if not the rarest. Some collectors believe version 1A is even rarer than version 2. I disagree with that. Version 1A is certainly a rare figure, but in my experience it was easier and cheaper to find a complete version 1A than a version 2. So what exactly would Goldhead Steel Brigade's role be on the GI Joe team? I've always thought of Steel Brigade as support troops for the GI Joe team, not full team members yet, but probationary members or maybe new recruits. You could think of Goldhead Steel Brigade as a Steel Brigade squad leader, though with those colors that uniform seems more like a punishment than a promotion. Let's look at the accessories for Goldhead. As mentioned a moment ago, he had the same accessories as version 1D, at least one variation of version 1D, but some of those accessories were recolored. It's worth noting that all of these accessories were reissued from earlier action figures. That's the same as with version 1 of Steel Brigade, but version 1 of Steel Brigade at least had one unique accessory, the patch. Let's start by looking at the rifle, and I don't have this rifle in the figure's hand because it's just too tight a fit in the hand, and I don't want to run the risk of breaking the rare action figure, so I just don't force it in his hand. This rifle is an M16 with a grenade launcher and a bayonet and a scope. That's a really well made and well detailed accessory. As mentioned, this is not a unique accessory. This weapon was originally issued with 1989 recoil, but it was recolored, and the recoloring is quite dramatic. Recoil's rifle is in a light blue, and it looks much better in this dark gray. His next accessory is his backpack, and this backpack is in a vibrant green color. It should exactly match the green color on the action figure. The backpack itself has a bed roll and an entrenching tool. It's a reasonably well detailed backpack. This backpack was originally issued with 1983 airborne, and with the 1983 mail away duke, and the later 1984 retail duke action figure. This backpack was actually reissued many times. Besides being released in 1983 with airborne and mail away duke, and then in 1984 with retail duke, there was a brown version of this backpack in the 1984 battle gear accessory pack number two. And in 1987, of course, steel brigade version one had this backpack. In 1988, version two of duke, the tiger force duke also came with this backpack. And then of course we have the 1992 gold head steel brigade release of the backpack. The final accessory is the most exciting one. Gold head steel brigade included a patch. This was not an accessory for the figure. This was an extra bonus for kids. All vintage releases of steel brigade had a patch. This patch is recolored from the one that came with version one. Looks like somebody just took Photoshop to it. Oddly, the gold head steel brigade patch has an illustration of the head of a steel brigade, but it is not gold, it's in green. I really love these patches. They are so cool. And this is why it took quite a while for me to find the gold head steel brigade that I wanted to acquire for my collection. I really needed one with the patch. A lot of collectors will consider the figure to be complete without the patch, but I really needed it. Let's take a look at the articulation for gold head steel brigade. He had the articulation that was standard for G.I. Joe action figures in 1984, not 1992. Remember, this uses all reused parts, and it uses a chest from a 1983 figure. Well, up through 1984, all of the heads on G.I. Joe figures were swivel heads. They did not have the ball joint. So, since they were using a chest that went with a swivel head, they had to have a swivel head on the figure. So, he can turn his head from left to right, and that's the limit of his motion on that head. He can swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure, meaning the figure was held together with the rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee carefully about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpt design and color of Goldhead Steel Brigade. And this, once again, is a version 1D figure that is just in different colors, has exactly the same parts. Now, version 1 of Steel Brigade at least had one unique part, the head. But since this version 2 figure entirely copies this version 1 figure, it has no unique parts. Very little effort went into this figure. It looks like someone photoshopped a version 1 figure with different colors. Let's take a look at that head. That head is what everyone talks about. The head has three different colors on it, so it does not lack paint applications. It has that dominant gold color. That shiny metallic paint tended to wear off very easily, so you will often find Goldhead figures that have some of that gold paint worn away. His helmet covers all of his face. You cannot see any of his face. He has that gold up on the top and on the front, and has blue around the side and the back, and he has some black goggles. Because it has no face showing, that's how it can be a personalized figure without changing the figure to look like the purchaser. You just have to imagine that it's your face behind that helmet. Looking at the chest, the chest and the back piece are the same as Duke. That's the same front and back. But of course, the coloring is radically different. This Duke torso must have been readily available to Hasbro in the late 80s and early 90s because they went with the same torso for some variations of the male away starduster figure. On that chest, we have a green vest. I would call this a Kelly green. The version 1 figure also had a green vest, but it was more of an olive green. That vest has a couple pockets and unpainted jump wings. There is a black bandolier that runs from the left shoulder down under the right arm. That bandolier has some pouches and a gold buckle and a gold grenade. Unfortunately, as with Duke, that strap does not continue to the back. There's also a black undershirt that you can see above the green collar. Basically, this has the same paint masks as the version 1 figure, but instead of using silver paint, they used gold paint. Steel Brigade's arms are reused from the 1983 swivel arm Grand Slam and swivel arm Flash, the version 1.5 of each of those figures. Those arms feature dark blue sleeves and long black gloves that cover the entire forearm and some nice detail on those gloves. On the left arm, there is a white tampo patch, a steel brigade unit patch, which does not match the patch that came with the figure. I think that's too bad. It would have been nice to have a patch on the figure that matched the ones that a kid could put on his own shirt. This waist piece was reused from a 1982 Cobra soldier and the 1982 Cobra officer. They had the same waist piece. This was a fairly popular waist piece also used for the 1988 Tiger Force Duke. That waist piece has a gold belt. The belt has four black pouches, small pouches. Then of course we have his dark blue trousers. These legs were originally used on 1983 Airborne, both the upper and lower legs. On version 1 of Steel Brigade, those legs almost matched the colors on the original legs, but of course on version 2, the colors are dramatically different. These legs are blue. On the left leg, there is an unpainted pocket on the left thigh. On the right leg, there is an unpainted pistol holster and an unpainted strap that goes around the right thigh. And then in the pistol holster, there is a gold handled pistol. On his knees, he has knee pads. These knee pads actually extend a bit over the knee and I like that. I always thought that was a cool feature on the earlier G.I. Joe action figures. These knee pads however are unpainted. On the version 1 figure, those knee pads were painted. So we lose a paint application here, meaning the version 2 figure was cheaper to produce than version 1. Then we finish up with a pair of black boots. I thought these boots were well sculpted on Airborne and I still think so here. These colors, these colors just don't make a lot of sense. G.I. Joe often had colors that would not have made sense for a soldier to wear into combat. But on the version 1 figure, if you kind of overlook the light blue, he had overall some fairly subdued military colors. All that goes out the window with version 2. Ignoring the fact that these are not military colors, those colors on version 2, I'm not sure even go together. I don't think you would see that green and that blue together very often. It's almost like they chose the colors at random. Like I said before, it almost looks like they put version 1 of Steel Brigade in some kind of Photoshop filter and then just made another figure out of it. Let's take a look at the file card for Goldhead Steel Brigade. And in this case, I am using a scan of the file card from 3djoes.com. Carson, who runs 3djoes.com, gave me specific permission to use this. So thank you very much, 3djoes.com. If you have not checked out that website, it is a great resource for collectors and fans. The file card features an illustration of Steel Brigade. It is almost the same artwork as on the version 1 file card. But the colors are updated and I've noticed some of the details are updated as well. It looks like they tried to make that chest look like the Duke chest, but of course the strap is going the wrong way. On the version 1 artwork, you can see the straps on the chest are in the configuration of the airborne chest. This file card is unique. No two file cards would be exactly the same. The file cards would be updated with the user's code name and specialty, but I'll just quickly go through this so you can get an idea of what you would get on the file card based on how you filled out the form. This kid chose the code name Whiplash. That's not a bad code name. And he's in the army. Primary military specialty is special forces. Secondary military specialty is counter espionage. One of his weapons specialties is the XMLR3A laser rifle. That's the laser rifle that came with 1983 snow job. Martial arts expert Taekwondo, Kung Fu and karate. School training special forces school. That makes sense since his primary military specialty is special forces. Flight warren officers, so I guess he's a helicopter pilot and military intelligence school. Under that section we have a signature line and this is where the kid could sign his own name. Now this one has a blank signature line and my version 1 file card also has a blank signature line. I think most collectors prefer to find these file cards without a signature on them, but for a personalized figure I wouldn't mind having that connection to the original owner. We have three sections here, traits, abilities and personality. Under traits it says command comes naturally to Whiplash. His self assurance as well as his ability to lead men in difficult situations is evident as he guides his fellow officers in dangerous combat. Under abilities it says Whiplash has an extraordinarily bright mind, not that he would brag. His skillful calculations and strategic planning by the book enable his team to always be one step ahead of the Cobra forces. Under personality it says Whiplash's intelligence and efficiency earn him the respect he deserves. His fellow officers look to him for advice and would follow his orders into the thick of battle. In the corner there is the steel brigade emblem which matches the patch. It says GI Joe Steel Brigade team and there is a serial number. The layout is slightly different from the version 1 card but it is substantially the same and I think this is the coolest thing about both versions of the figure. This was a way for the kids to join the GI Joe team. You're supposed to feel like you are joining the team. You get your own figure and your own personalized file card. Each Steel Brigade represents a GI Joe fan and the file card even says there is a Steel Brigade team. There is a team of GI Joe fans. We are Steel Brigade. Looking at how Steel Brigade was used in GI Joe media that won't take long. In the Vintage Era he made no appearances in the animated series and no appearances in the comic book series.