 I have big news. The biggest news. This channel now has 4 million subscribers. I don't know how this happened. I don't even remember getting 1 million subscribers. Then I log on and YouTube says I have 4 million. Well, I guess I need to welcome 4 million of you to the show. I hope we have a good action figure to review this week. Let's see who we have wind up. That'll do. Hello everybody, HoodieCobraCommander788 here. It's time for another vintage GI Joe Toy Review. And this week we are doing our first Patrons Choice Review of the Year. Supporters on Patreon voted to decide what would be reviewed this week. It was a close vote between Deep Six and Voltar. But Voltar won. Speaking of Patreon, we have a new patron to welcome to the club, Mike Murdoch. At his support level, Mike gets a codename. I don't think Mike is a viper. Mike Murdoch sounds a lot like Matt Murdoch. I have detailed reports from my network of spies about Mike's personal life. Turns out he's quite the nerd. I've got it. Mike, your codename shall be the Square Devil. Agent Square Devil, welcome to the ranks. Voltar comes from Destro's Iron Grenadiers. As you may know, I'm a fan of the Iron Grenadiers. I thought they made a good adversary for GI Joe and Cobra. Not everything in Iron Grenadiers was great, though. Was Voltar one of the good ones or one of the bad ones? Let's find out. HCC788 presents to four million of you, Voltar. The K means million, right? This is Voltar, Destro's General from 1988. This figure was first available in 1988 and was also available in 1989. It was discontinued for the year 1990. In 1988, he was also released in a two-pack with muskrat, which was sold exclusively at Target. The two-pack was billed as the ultimate enemies. I don't know why Voltar and muskrat would be ultimate enemies. They seemed to have no relation to each other at all. Voltar was in the Iron Grenadiers sub-team. The Iron Grenadiers were led by Destro, at that time wearing his Version 2 uniform with the gold helmet. Destro was a formidable opponent of GI Joe. Destro started out as the weapons supplier to Cobra. Back then, he wore a silver helmet. In 1988, Destro formed his own faction, the Iron Grenadiers. They used Destro's futuristic weapons and vehicles. In general, the Iron Grenadiers were awesome. The basic Iron Grenadiers soldier had a black uniform with gold and red accents. Most of the vehicles back then also used that color palette. Later Iron Grenadier figures strayed from the black-red-gold colors. Most infamous is Anaya later from 1989. Orange and purple is pretty far from the classy black uniforms from 1988. Voltar, however, proves that Iron Grenadiers had crazy colors even in the beginning. Voltar may take his name from Voltaire, the French Enlightenment philosopher. I was always fond of Voltaire's writing. Some of his ideas were incorporated into American theories of government. Other than the name, I don't see much similarity between Voltar and Voltaire. He may also take his name from the comic book titled Voltar. It was a Filipino comic book from the 60s that was published in the United States by Marvel in the 70s. It was a tone-in-the-barbarian-like story. There isn't much similarity between G.I. Joe's Voltar and the comic book Voltar either, but Larry Hama, the writer of G.I. Joe's comic book, worked at Marvel and may have come across the name that way. His name may be modified from Vulture. He comes with this big black bird, but that is not a vulture. It's a condor. A few of his prototype names include Grafkondor, Lordkondor, Madagascar, and Field Marshal Null. Graf is a German title of nobility, like a count. Grafkondor is basically the same as Countkondor. All of those names are bonkers. Madagascar, Field Marshal Null? That sounds like something out of a Flash Gordon serial. There were no other versions of Voltar made during the vintage era. Iron Grenadiers kind of petered out after a couple of years. There was a modern version of Voltar released in 2012 as a Jo-Con exclusive. Let's take a look at Voltar's accessories, starting with his weapon. He comes with what the card contents call a modified Uzi submachine gun. And I call that a bunch of crap. This looks nothing like an Uzi, modified or not. It is made of gold plastic and it has this fin on the back. It has wrapping or cloth around the foregrip and it has a ventilated suppressor. This is a science fiction looking weapon. It doesn't look like a laser since it has a traditional magazine. But the fin makes it look like science fiction from before the 1950s. Maybe there is a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers influence. There was a modified Uzi submachine gun in the Iron Grenadiers. The basic Iron Grenadiers soldier had one. It was a pretty wicked looking weapon. Maybe they originally intended Voltar to come with that weapon, but decided he needed a fin gun instead. He comes with what the card contents identify as a condor. It is a bird in black plastic with a red head and neck. Why would Voltar come with a condor? Who knows. It is in this black plastic with a painted red head. The California condor has a mostly bald head, which is probably what they were trying to replicate with this red paint application. It is not a very attractive bird. The plumage around the condor's collar is sculpted but not painted. Could this be a trained condor? I have no idea if you can train condors. The feet of the bird form a C-clip and you can use that to clip him on the bar on Voltar's backpack. He just clips on like that. In addition to clipping the condor to the bar on Voltar's backpack, you can clip it to his wrist as well. And I prefer this. It fits better and it doesn't wobble around as much. The feet on the condor are often broken off. If you're looking for a complete Voltar, make sure you get a condor with the feet still attached. There were other bird companions in G.I. Joe. The first was Spirit in 1984 with his eagle Freedom. Then there was Shipwreck in 1985 with his parrot Polly. Then there was Raptor in 1987 with his falcon. Usually the birds were sculpted with their wings open, so you could pretend they were flying. The exception was Shipwreck's parrot. Voltar's final accessory is what the card contents call a high-frequency communications pack. It is in gold plastic. It has that bar, which could be an antenna. It sticks out to the side. It even has a sculpted microphone with a cord. I do like that. It has this open space here, this rectangle, and it kind of seems like a lenticular sticker could have gone there. This backpack is fine, well-detailed, I guess. Voltar, I assume, would use this to communicate with his troops. One inconsistency between Voltar and the other Iron Grenadiers is both Destro, version 2, and the basic Iron Grenadiers trooper came with ceremonial swords. But Voltar, the general, did not. I think they should have given him one. That would have kept him more within the Iron Grenadiers theme. Let's take a look at the articulation for Voltar. He had the standard articulation for GI Joe figures from 1988, 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 that allowed him to bend at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep, so he could 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 swing 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 Voltar starting with his head. And on his head, he has a non-removable helmet. It is gold. I am okay with this. I have less of a problem with the bad guys having non-removable helmets. He has a red eyepiece over his right eye, and the helmet has a fin on top. We can see most of Voltar's face, and he has a black beard. The fin on the helmet somewhat mirrors the fin on the helmet of the basic iron grenadier soldier. Gold is a standard iron grenadier color, so that makes sense. His head with the helmet looks sinister and futuristic. On his chest, he has a fuchsia shirt. This has been described as purple, but to my eye, it looks fuchsia. He has gold highlights. He's got a gold collar that is raised in the back. He has gold bands over his shoulder. He has a gold-handled pistol in an unpainted holster, and he has gold checker patterns behind the holster. He has a black band that goes across his lower back. On his arms, he has long sleeves in that fuchsia color, and he has sculpting on the upper arms. It's kind of hard to make out what that's supposed to be. But based on the artwork, it looks like this is supposed to be padding, and he has spikes sticking out of his upper arms. On his waist, he has black crisscross belts with a gold circle belt buckle right there in the center, and gold clips on the belts. Those black belts cross in the front and the back. Here in the front, he has some black padding that covers his crotch, and there's a ridge pattern on that. On his legs, we have more of that fuchsia uniform color. He has black pistols in black holsters, one on each thigh. Then he has black bands that go around the thighs. He has black padding with a ridge pattern on the outside of his legs at the knees. He's wearing black boots with gold bands around the top, and down pointed tips on those gold bands. For all the detail on the figure, there isn't much detail on the boots. The entire figure does remind me of something out of an old 1930s science fiction serial. The helmet evokes the pseudo-futuristic faux-Roman helmets worn by the henchmen of Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon. That's what they may have been trying to do with this figure. Maybe this is an homage to that era of science fiction. I'm not against the idea, but they could have done it in a way that fit better with G.I. Joe and the Iron Grenadiers. I understand they wanted to make Destro's general distinctive from the troops, but that fuchsia is hard to look at. Let's take a look at Voltar's file card. There is a variant of this file card. The Voltar that was released with Musgrat in the two-pack had a yellow-orange file card with the same text. I would have tried to track one down to show you, but honestly, I forgot it existed. Shame on me. If you happen to have a Voltar file card that isn't a yellow color instead of this gray, it doesn't mean you have a fake or there's anything wrong with it. It just means you have a rare variant. His faction is the enemy, not Cobra. There's a portrait of Voltar here. His codename is Voltar, and he is Destro's general. There is no autobiographical information. This first paragraph says, Voltar was an extremely successful mercenary commander. In fact, he was too successful for his continued presence to be tolerated by the provisional government's revolutionary councils and military dictatorships that employed him. He could pluck victory from seemingly eminent defeat in complete defiance of the odds. Always one step ahead of disaster, never looking back. Winners never look back. This first paragraph speaks to his martial skills as well as his ruthlessness. He was so good, the factions that hired him couldn't trust him. As soon as they secured victory, they wanted him out of the picture in case he switched sides. This bottom paragraph has a quote from Destro. He says, He has that quality I admire most in a general. You know that Napoleonic anecdote? The Field Marshals of France were extolling the tactical prowess of a certain young commander. The little corporal cut them off tersely. All very well and good, but tell me one thing. Is he lucky? This Napoleon quote is paraphrased in a few different ways and may or may not have been spoken by Napoleon. There's a lawyer I know who likes to say I'd rather be lucky than good. I was able to find this Napoleon quote. All great events hang by a hair. I believe in luck. And the wise man neglects nothing that contributes to his destiny. Taking a look at how Voltar was used in G.I. Joe Media, Voltar was never animated. He made no appearances in any cartoon series. He made a few appearances in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in issue number 87 where he helped defend Castle Destro from an attack by Cobra. He reappears in special missions number 26, but by that time, Destro and Cobra were working together again. Voltar even has a Cobra undershirt. He commands Cobra vipers against an attack by the October Guard in the fictional South American country of Sierra Gordo. In that issue, the October Guard are on a mission to rescue L.J.F.A., a political prisoner being held by Cobra. In that issue, most of the October Guard is killed and a squad of Chos is captured. It's a pretty heavy issue. Voltar doesn't have a lot to do in the comics, but his early appearances are not bad. He seems like a serious-minded soldier and a good leader. Perhaps more could have been done with the character, but readers may have been tired of looking at that fuchsia uniform. Looking at Voltar overall, of course I don't like the color. You know me. You know a fuchsia uniform is not going to work for me. I have seen purple work on some action figures. I'm not totally against the color range, but on this figure it's hard to excuse. Yes, I understand they were trying to make him distinctive from the troops he commands, but they could have done it with a different color. What other color could they have used? Well, the basic Iron Grenadiers colors are black, gold, and red. Voltar already has a lot of gold. He has black, so his base color could have been red? Am I just nuts for thinking this is obvious? A red figure would have stood out among the throng of black Iron Grenadiers figures. He would have looked like a leader. Red still isn't suited for combat, but Cobra and Destro didn't often use traditional military colors. Red would not have been as ugly. It would have fit with the Iron Grenadiers theme. Just make him red. The accessories are strange. They look like something out of a different toy line. Why would he carry a condor around? Is it a trained condor? Does it scratch out the eyes of his enemies? Can I get this figure into the middle tier? I guess so, but only by a hair. The sculpting is mostly very good. The arms aren't great, but the rest of the figure is good. His Flash Gordon helmet is amazing. I do have an affinity for those old science fiction serials like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Commando Cody. Anything that evokes that aesthetic does appeal to me. It doesn't appeal to me enough to put the figure in the top tier, but it's alright. That was my review of Voltar. I hope you enjoyed it. Patreon has been a big help to this channel. Thanks to Patreon support, I have been able to buy new studio equipment, new lighting, new microphone, new camera, new tripod. In other words, all the things I need to keep this show going. The whole idea behind Patreon is to support in an amount that is small enough that you don't even notice, but those small amounts add up for creators. You never have to pay anything for this show. It is always free. But if you like a few extras and if you'd like to help me continue improving the show, please consider Patreon. One thing you can get is a secret code book that will allow you to read this secret code. Thanks for watching. Thanks to everyone who voted. Thanks to Square Viper. I'll see you next week for another vintage GI Joe toy review. We have a doozy for next week. I hope to see you then. Until then, remember only GI Joe is GI Joe.