 Oh, hi. You caught me decorating my tree. Speaking of decorating trees, let's have a review of a G.I. Joe toy that was voted on by patrons. Christmas! Christmas is in the air! Christmas is about my favorite holiday, know what I mean? And for this review on Patreon, we held the most epic poll of the entire year. More options than any other poll in 2018, and the patrons got to choose what we would see this week, and in keeping with the Christmas spirit, they chose Airtite. They didn't even go for the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball, which kind of looks like a Christmas ornament. No, they wanted Airtite and Airtite they are going to get. And for this special video, we have the Airtite fan club with us today. Let's hear some noise from the Airtite fan club. In fact, Airtite does have a fan. I would like to dedicate this review to Phil. Phil works for a judge in a courtroom where I used to have cases, and Airtite was his favorite figure. And bless me if I can think of anyone else for whom Airtite is their favorite figure. So Phil, this one's for you. I can think of absolutely nothing else to say to introduce this review. So, HCC 788 presents the review chosen by patrons from 1985, Airtite. This is Airtite, GI Joe's hostile environment trooper from 1985. This figure was first available in 1985 and was also available in 1986 and was discontinued for the year 1987. This is the only version of Airtite in the vintage era, which is a little surprising. There were opportunities to bring Airtite back, but none of those opportunities were taken. Airtite was released in 1985 and 1985 is considered the golden age of 1980s GI Joe. A lot of collectors consider 1985 to be the best year of the vintage era. A lot of popular figures were released that year, a lot of great vehicles. It's hard to beat 1985 for influential characters. Airtite is one of the most forgotten figures of 1985. Amid all that greatness, Airtite often gets overlooked. 1985 has an all-star lineup, but do you count Airtite as a star? One reason Airtite may be forgotten, though it's not necessarily the only reason, is his specialty kind of leaves him as the odd man out. It's not necessarily a combat role. Some fans may have had a hard time figuring out what to do with Airtite. In fact, I know some fans who liked Airtite, but they found different roles for him. Airtite didn't even have a specific Cobra threat to counter. He didn't get a real Cobra opponent until the Toxoviper in 1988 and by that time the Airtite figure was no longer on the pegs. Given that Airtite may not go on a lot of missions, I know a lot of collectors use him in a support role, driving support vehicles. I think he looks great with the refueling trailer on the 1985 USS Flag Aircraft Carrier playset. The colors match almost perfectly. It's like he was made for it. You could also use him as a pilot, and I believe that's the way Phil, the person to whom this video is dedicated, used his Airtite figure. Even though Airtite had a hard time finding his place in 1980s G.I. Joe, in the 1990s G.I. Joe took a turn in Airtite's direction. It could have led to a revival of Airtite, but it didn't. In 1991 G.I. Joe got a new sub-faction, the Eco Warriors. They fought against ecological threats such as toxic pollutants, and they were decked out in hazmat suits. It was essentially a whole team of Airtites, but it did not include Airtite. This despite the fact that Eco Warriors did include one of Airtite's 1985 teammates, Flint, who had no prior experience with this specialty. In 1992, Eco Warriors got a second wave, which included updated versions of Barbecue and Deep Six. Barbecue was another one of Airtite's 1985 teammates. Eco Warriors went to the 1985 well twice, but bypassed Airtite. I think that is a tragic missed opportunity. I believe 1991 Eco Warriors clean sweep could easily have been made into Airtite version 2. You wouldn't even have to change the figure, just say Airtite grew a mustache. Done. Here, Airtite would finally have had some worthy opponents with cesspool and his minions, but of course Airtite was long gone by then. If you were lucky enough to have an Airtite figure when the Eco Warriors came out, I'd say it would have been a good idea to just make him an Eco Warrior. He looks pretty good next to those Eco Warriors color schemes. In fact, he looks better than a lot of them. Let's take a look at Airtite's accessories by starting with this thing that he is holding that looks like a weapon but probably isn't. The contents of the card on which Airtite was packaged call this a sniffer. That's right, a sniffer. It has a downturn nozzle in the front that looks like a vacuum cleaner. It has a knob in the back for the black hose that connects it to the backpack. It has a grip and it has a foregrip. The grip fits in the figure's hand fine, but the foregrip is a little thick and I would not try to force that into the figure's hand. You would risk breaking the thumb. So as a sniffer, what exactly does this do? I think it is used in concert with the backpack to detect toxins in the air. The card art for Airtite shows this weapon with a buttstock and a strap. It really looks more like a weapon. So maybe this accessory started out as a weapon but they altered it. The packaging is very nonspecific about what this is supposed to do. If you had Airtite as a kid, what did you imagine this thing did? This knob in the back connects to a length of standard black GI Joe hose. That runs to the backpack. It's easy to pop it out of the sniffer. Then it connects to the backpack on this knob here on the bottom. It's a short length of black flexible GI Joe hose. This came with a lot of figures. Nothing really specific to Airtite here. Airtite has another hose. It connects to the back of his helmet in two places and it runs to the backpack and this I think is really cool and unique. This looks like two hoses but it's really just one. You can remove it from the helmet by just pulling it out of the holes in the back of the helmet and then it is wedged into this notch in the backpack so you can pull it out and you can actually see what the hose looks like. This is a molded hose with ridges and I think this is really cool. It's made out of black flexible plastic. Now this is an accessory that a lot of collectors might just skip. It's like a lot of other hoses and microphones on other figures. It can tend to go missing fairly easily but this is not an accessory that I would skip on Airtite because I think he looks just too cool with it on. Finally we get to Airtite's backpack. The card contents call it a compressor backpack. It is olive green. It has a knob here on the bottom for the hose that connects to the sniffer. It has a notch here on the top for the hose that connects to the helmet. It has some molded on technical detail. It has a couple fans on it. I'm not sure what it means by compressor backpack. Does it blow compressed air out of the gun? Based on the way the backpack interacts with the figure, I'd say it has two functions. Since it connects to the helmet, I think it provides clean air to the helmet. And since it connects to the sniffer, I'd say it works with the sniffer to detect toxic gases. Let's take a look at Airtite's articulation. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures starting in 1985. He had the new ball-jointed head so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could move 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. The figure was held together with a 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 about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Airtite starting with his head and on his head he has a green and black non-removable helmet. It's got some black stripes that run straight down the front to the back. It has a black face mask and it's open at the eyes. We can see his eyes but I think it's implied he's wearing goggles. He's completely protected from a toxic environment so he would want to protect his eyes as well. This helmet looks pretty good. I can't deny that. I do prefer removable helmets but I do understand why some helmets were made non-removable. For one thing, when you have a non-removable helmet the figure is less versatile. He is locked into a roll where he would wear a helmet. But when you have a non-removable helmet you get to do things like connect it to the backpack. It is a trade-off but I do still prefer removable helmets for Joes. I like to see their faces. The creators of both the GI Jo animated series and the comic books series realized the problem and they showed Airtite without his helmet. This does humanize the character a bit. It allows us to relate to the character a bit more but it also shows scenarios that cannot be replicated with the toy. Moving on to his chest, Airtite is wearing a yellow jumpsuit and this is a very bright color for a soldier to be wearing. It's not quite the bright neon yellow of Clean Sweep's hazmat suit. It's a deeper, richer yellow. Over that he is wearing an olive green vest. We can see that in front and back and he has a black device on his chest that has a hose that runs down under his right arm and it looks like that's supposed to connect to the backpack as well. So whatever this device on the chest is it's another piece of electronic equipment that is connected to his backpack. From the sniffer to the helmet to the device on the figure's chest that backpack is doing triple duty. The arms are yellow. It's the long sleeves from the yellow jumpsuit. They're kind of tied and bunched up at the upper arms. Then he has long green gloves that have kind of ridged details on them. On his waist piece he has an olive green belt that is quite plain. No pouches, no other paint colors on it. On his legs he has a continuation of that yellow jumpsuit. He has a pocket on each thigh and he has olive green boots. All right, let's address the elephant in the room. Airtite is yellow. Based on his specialty this is probably supposed to be a hazmat suit. The same as with clean sweep and hazmat suits are often issued in bright colors. As we will see when we look at Airtite's file card his MOS is CBR or chemical biological and radiological. More commonly known as CBRN and CBRN troops did sometimes wear hazmat suits in yellow. So I can't say this is unrealistic. What is unrealistic is sending Airtite into a combat environment wearing yellow. When the bullets start flying he is a big fat target. That brings us right back to the trouble of finding a role for Airtite. He is not equipped to go with your other Joes on their combat missions. And if you were anything like me as a kid most of your playtime was taken up with combat missions. So what are you supposed to do with them? Let's take a look at Airtite's file card. His file card has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Airtite here and I think that is really good. The artwork in 1985 even for mediocre characters was excellent. His specialty is hostile environment. It doesn't say hostile environment trooper or hostile environment soldier just hostile environment. Codename Airtite. His filename is Kurt Schnurr and I thought this name was peculiar. I figured there had to be some reason behind it. I looked it up and the family name Schnurr has the meaning of jester or prankster and that fits Airtite's personality. Primary military specialty is CBR or chemical biological and radiological warfare. This would more properly be CBRN or chemical biological radiological and nuclear. CBRN was a cold war term that was replaced after the cold war by NBC or nuclear biological chemical. CBRN in its term replaced the term ABC or atomic biological chemical. The term used back in the 1950s. Secondary military specialty ordinance place of birth New Haven Connecticut grade is E4. This top paragraph says Kurt was the kid who could hold his breath the longest. He was also the kid who had the largest collection of plastic dinosaurs on the block. He was a weird kid who grew up to be an even stranger adult. It takes a mighty weird person to walk into a cloud of toxic gas strong enough to fell a mutant weight lifter cockroach wearing a protective suit built under contract for the government by the lowest bidder. So wait is the mutant weight lifter cockroach wearing the protective suit? This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says Airtite is an unreformed practical joker. Sneezing powder, plastic barf, whoopee cushion the whole bit. No prank is too low for him. You'd think the other joes would hate his guts, but they don't. When the bad guys escalate the firefight and start playing dirty, it's old Airtite who suits up and wades into the thick of it. The first paragraph depicts Airtite as being a geek, and he was a geek before being a geek was cool. The second paragraph depicts him as being a prankster, which is the source of the name Schnur. For these reviews, I like to Google the character name just to see if there's any reference for the character out there somewhere that I don't know about. So pardon me if I do a quick Google on Airtite. Oh, and it looks like Airtite is slang for something. It's slang for whoa. Do not Google Airtite. Do not Google Airtite. Looking at how Airtite was used in G.I. Joe Media, he first appeared in the animated series in Pyramid of Darkness Part 2, but he got a little more screen time in Part 3. He got the most exposure in the episode titled The Germ. It was kind of a weird sci-fi story, but it showed some intrigue and conflict within Cobra, which is good. There was some good characterization for Airtite, and he appeared with no helmet for most of the episode. In the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, he first appeared in issue number 44, along with some other 1985 Joes. He had his helmet off most of the time, and he had a similar look to how he appeared in the animated series, but his hair was messier. In that issue, he is pivotal in defeating Dr. Mindbender's plan. He appears again in issue number 54, doing clerk duties when the G.I. Joe team was operating out of a temporary headquarters. He suggests a secret mission to Hawk, and Hawk runs with the idea. Airtite is not seen again in the main G.I. Joe series until issue number 130. In that issue, Cobra invades yet another G.I. Joe secret base. He's shown working with Ecowarrior's barbecue. Even the comic book series thought Airtite should be with Ecowarrior's. Airtite was a background character for the most part. His opportunities to shine did not come from the main G.I. Joe series, but from the special missions series. In special missions number two, he goes on a mission to neutralize poison gas in a World War II German bomber that's frozen in a glacier. I think this is his best moment. He's really well used in that issue. Oddly though, his hair is miscolored blonde, and all of his other appearances he has brown hair. In special missions number 21, he actually makes the cover. He's with a team of Joes investigating poison gas in a New York sewer. Looking at Airtite overall, for me, this is a middle tier figure. There's nothing especially wrong with the figure, but there's nothing especially spectacular about it either. And considering the fact that it's from 1985, the Golden Age, a middle tier figure is a bit lackluster. Considering the class that he is in, more is expected. You might expect me to not like the yellow uniform. And you would be right. Back in 1985, I didn't like the yellow uniform. And in 2018, I don't like the yellow uniform. But it could be worse. It's still better than Clean Sweep. In fact, if you set this figure next to Clean Sweep, looks pretty good in comparison. He has a non-removable helmet, and I understand why they did it. I understand the trade-offs. But my preference is still for removable helmets on Jo figures. I understand the yellow uniform is a hazmat suit, so it's supposed to be yellow. So it is realistic in that sense. But if you see Airtite's uniform as a hazmat suit, it limits his role and restricts what he can do on the team. Because I'm not going to send banana pants on a jungle mission. If Cobra uses poison gas in the jungle, the Joes are just SOL because they didn't have a hazard environment trooper that was properly camouflaged. On the other hand, if you don't view Airtite's uniform as a hazmat suit, he could do other things. And that's my understanding of how Phil used his figure. If you got this figure and it didn't have any of the accessories, it didn't have the file card, you had no idea about the character's background or his specialty. What does this figure look like? Kind of looks like a pilot. You could put Airtite in a jet, in a helicopter. He would look just fine. You can also have Airtite driving support vehicles. His color scheme actually works very well for that. I know some collectors use the figure that way. I do appreciate that in G.I. Joe, not every character was a frontline combat troop. Some characters fulfilled support roles and that's good. That gives the line some depth. However, if those support roles did not factor into your playtime very much, you might have had a hard time figuring out what to do with Airtite. Airtite is not my favorite figure by a long stretch. I think some of the figure is a bit plain. It has some drawbacks, but it has enough going for it that I feel comfortable putting it in the middle tier. That was my review of Airtite. I hope you enjoyed it. Phil, I hope you liked the review. Airtite Fan Club, what did you think? Those wild and crazy guys. Hey, Airtite Fan Club? New band name. Just a quick update on my schedule for December. Next week we will have another review and it will be a special review and it will be the last review of the year. I will be taking Sunday, December 23rd off for the Christmas holiday. After that, we will be doing our annual question and answer video. So the last video of the year will be the answers video for the Q&A. Watch for the Q&A announcement video. It will be coming soon. I want to thank everyone who is watching this video and wish all of you a happy holidays. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me on this channel for all of these years. We've had a few Christmases together and it's my privilege to share the season with you and share some GI Joe nostalgia. Thank you to my patrons who make this channel possible. You guys, you guys chose Airtite. You guys, I love you. As always, I ask you to like this video, subscribe to the YouTube channel and share this video. That's what helps this channel grow. You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and you can support the channel on Patreon and coffee. If you support the channel on Patreon, you will get to vote in these polls to choose some of the reviews that we do. With support at some levels, you even get a secret code book so you can read the message you're seeing on the screen right now. I hope your family has a wonderful holiday season and keep in mind that not everyone has a family to celebrate the holiday with. So, if your family has a wonderful holiday and has more than enough, maybe consider sharing some of it with somebody who doesn't. And if you're one of the folks for whom the holidays is not a joyous happy time, well, I'll be thinking of you and you'll always have a home here. Thanks everyone for watching. I'll see you next week with a vintage GI Joe toy review. And until then, remember, only GI Joe is GI Joe.