 Hello everybody, HoodedCoverCommander78 here and I'm back with another vintage GI Joe toy review and this review is not going to be ranty like last week's review. This time I'm looking at a GI Joe toy that I'm very happy to review. This is a toy that I've already looked at in a quick shot and in these quick shots I always promise a full review and I had somebody ask, when are you going to get to the full review? Well, we're getting to one this week. We're going to look at the 1984 VAMP Mark II and the driver, the second version of Clutch. This is the 1984 GI Joe attack vehicle, the VAMP Mark II. With its driver, the second version of Clutch. The VAMP Mark II was first introduced in 1984. It was also available in 1985. It was discontinued for the year 1986 and there was not an equivalent vehicle introduced in 1986 to replace it. However, in 1985 there was a new vehicle, the awestriker, GI Joe's new general purpose vehicle and probably the closest thing to replace the VAMP Mark II and the original VAMP. The VAMP Mark II is a reuse of the body of the original VAMP from 1982. You can see that the colors different and they've added some details and we will fully compare the VAMP Mark II to the original. The driver, Clutch version 2 is also a reuse of the 1983 swivel arm Clutch version 1.5 and we will compare these two figures as well. We will take a closer look at the driver later in this video so we're going to set him aside for now. In 1984 this VAMP body was reused for another vehicle, the 1984 Cobra Stinger. Of course the Cobra Stinger was in black, VAMP Mark II is in this brown color and that original VAMP is in that classic green. This original VAMP body was very versatile and was reused for a lot of vehicles in the vintage GI Joe era. Of course in 1984 it was reused for the VAMP Mark II and for the Cobra Stinger. Also in 1984 it was reused for the VAMP and HAL 2-Pack but it had some of the sculpting details and additions that were in the VAMP Mark II but it was in that classic green color. The VAMP HAL 2-Pack would have come with the heavy artillery laser first introduced in 1982 but it did not come with action figures. It was also used in the 1986 Dreadnought Ground Assault, the 1988 VAMP Mark II Malaway, which although it was called the VAMP Mark II it had some color differences and some detail differences from this retail VAMP. It was also used for the 1989 Tiger Sting for the Tiger Force Subline. The Malaway version of the VAMP Mark II should be considered a variant of the VAMP Mark II. I normally like to show you these variants in these review videos but the Malaway VAMP Mark II is very rare, it can be very expensive. I haven't acquired one yet, I will eventually and when I do I will do a separate review for that vehicle. This VAMP design was based on the Lamborghini Chita from the 1970s. It was intended to be like the next generation of Jeep which it never really became and the Lamborghini Chita was itself based on the FMC XR311 and you can definitely see the influence of those real world vehicles on the design of the VAMP. Both Clutch and the VAMP Mark II have a color scheme that would fit a desert mission and that's a nice way to update these toys. Yes you are reusing old toys to make something new but they've been repurposed, they are now outfitted for a desert environment. Let's look at the parts and the features of the VAMP Mark II starting here in the front. In the front we have these stickers for headlights, these are supposed to be halogen headlamps with electric defrosters. It has this bar in the front that has a couple of lights on it and that's a difference from the original VAMP which just had the bar. It did not have the extra details there. It has a winch here, this is supposed to be a winch down in the front but that's a non-working winch and I still think it would have been really cool if they had made that a working winch. There's this folded pack on the hood of the vehicle which I always interpreted as a sleeping bag but maybe it's like a tarp so they can cover the vehicle with it. Now that detail was also not seen on the original VAMP. The original VAMP had this sort of machine gun thing which the VAMP Mark II does not have. The VAMP Mark II also had this sculpted shovel detail on it which did not show up on the original VAMP but it did show up on the 1984 Cobra Stinger. The VAMP Mark II has four wheels, plastic wheels not rubber and they are connected with these metal dowels in the front and the back and that makes this thing very sturdy. You don't really have to worry about breaking an axle. Next we get to a major difference between the VAMP Mark II and the original VAMP and that is this canopy and the doors. The original VAMP just didn't have those. This canopy and the doors have this sort of canvas texture pattern on them and the canvas over the driver's side is pulled back so there's an opening there. The doors are hinged on these vertical bars and they swing open like this. These clamps that connect the door to the frame of the VAMP can be very fragile and for some reason the clamp that connects the passenger side door to this bar tends to break more often than the driver's side. I have no idea why that is but it did take me quite a long time to find a replacement for my broken passenger side door. The Cobra Stinger also had this roof and it had doors and they swung open these Gullwing style doors and they connected on this horizontal bar rather than on the vertical bar like the VAMP so they are different. These doors and the canopy are removable and it kind of helps to remove them because it can be very awkward to try to get the driver in and out through the driver's side door. It's much easier to get them in after taking the canopy off. To remove the doors you just pull at them like that and pop them off of the bar being careful to put as little pressure on that C clip as possible. The canopy has a clip that connects it to this horizontal bar here and it has sort of a lip that goes under the back of the cab there. So to get that off you're going to pull up where it's clipped on gently and then just pull it out. With the canopy and the doors removed it's much easier to place the driver and the passenger in the VAMP Mark II from the top. Here's what the canopy looks like and you can see there's an outline right here where it looks like this panel is closed but it looks like the canvas is pulled back over the driver. That canvas pattern is also on the inside and there you can see the clips where it connects to the bar. On the interior we see some detailed seats, a control panel on the center console, we've got a gear shifter, we've got the dashboard there with some detail on it, we have this sort of monitor here which is perhaps to control the missile system and then of course we have that steering wheel. The interior of the dashboard is much more detailed than the original VAMP. You can see the original VAMP, it just lacks a lot of that detail and it doesn't have that monitor thing in the middle. The interior for the Cobra Stinger looks very similar to the VAMP Mark II, it has a lot of the same details and it even looks like it has the same steering wheel but the steering wheels are different. These VAMP steering wheels are somewhat infamous, they can pop out and they tend to get lost and they can be very hard to replace. The steering wheel does not turn, it can just pop out like that and it is keyed so it only goes in one way. Although the Stinger steering wheel looks the same from the outside, it has a completely different type of connection to the vehicle. The Stinger has this peg where the steering wheel goes and that is not present on the VAMP Mark II. Here are all the steering wheels I have for comparison, the original VAMP, the VAMP Mark II and the Stinger. Obviously there's a big difference between the original VAMP steering wheel and the other two. Now the VAMP Mark II and the Stinger steering wheels look similar but they are not the same. Here's what they look from the backside and now you may be able to squeeze a VAMP Mark II steering wheel on a Stinger and vice versa but it's obvious that these are not meant to fit the same vehicle. Behind the cab we have some additional detail and that looks nice. Here on the side it has this really fierce logo with a scorpion that has a dagger through it. That's pretty vicious looking, I think this would make a pretty cool tattoo. Now this logo was actually designed by Ron Rudat who was one of the designers of a lot of the early GI Joe action figures. Now we see another major difference between the VAMP Mark II and the original VAMP. We have this missile box with four missiles. The original VAMP in its place had this machine gun turret. This missile system turret can rotate all the way around 360 degrees and it can elevate about so far. There is some nice detailing on the missile box itself and it holds four identical missiles which the blueprints call Stinger XK II missiles. I've not been able to identify a real-world missile that this would be based on. It's definitely not based on a real Stinger missile. A Stinger missile is a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile and it doesn't really look like this. There's some more detail in the back here, these vent things and these are identical to the original VAMP. In the back we have taillights and we have two water cans and they do have stickers can number one and can number two and they both just sort of peg in like that and when you remove them you just have a couple of holes here in the back. The water cans are hollow in the back and they have long pegs to connect to the vehicle. This is a slight change from the original VAMP which had a rack in the back and two removable gas cans. Unlike the VAMP or the VAMP Mark II the Cobra Stinger had this personnel platform with a grab bar with foot pegs so you could fit an additional two figures on the back of the Stinger and I think that's a lot better. I think that's more useful than either water cans or gas cans. Finally in the back we have a universal tow hook and this tow hook could be used to tow certain wheeled weapons. Like the 1983 GI Joe whirlwind twin gatling gun you just hook it on there like that and the VAMP Mark II can tow it around. Now let's take a look at clutch version two also known as tan clutch and tan clutch is a complete reuse of the entire mold of clutch version 1.5 from 1983 the so-called swivel arm version of clutch. Of course originally he was in green and now he has this tan uniform like the VAMP Mark II more outfitted for a desert mission. This is not the first time this kind of recoloring was done. In 1983 we got version two of grunt also known as tan grunt as the Falcon glider pilot. Grunt version two was also recolored from green to tan and his tan color is identical or nearly identical to tan clutch. Clutch's tan color scheme is much more appropriate for the vehicle he drives than grunt's tan color scheme. However, you could put these guys together in the VAMP Mark II as driver and missile operator and they would work perfectly well together. They would make a good team. Let's take a look at clutch's accessory. He came with only one his helmet and this helmet is tan like his uniform and this is a standard helmet from 1982 and it is essentially just a recolored version of his original green helmet. This helmet does appear to be identical to tan grunt's helmet but it is slightly different from the 1988 Tiger Force Dukes helmet which is a very slightly darker color tan. Here are all the helmets lined up next to each other. This is clutch's original green helmet. This is tan grunt's helmet. This is tan clutch's helmet and this is Tiger Force Dukes helmet. This style of helmet did come in other colors including a darker green, a lighter green and brown so you will have to make sure that the helmet you have matches up with the figure. Let's take a look at clutch's articulation. He did have the standard articulation for 1983 and 1984 GI Joe action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right like that. He could also lift his arm up at the shoulder about so far. He could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could move 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 little bit. You could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt to design and color of clutch. And as I said, the sculpting is identical to the earlier version of clutch. His head features black hair and a black beard. This same head sculpt was also used for breaker with brown hair and beard and rock and roll with blonde hair and beard. Now these figures were first introduced in 1982 and the first series of GI Joe action figures when the line was reintroduced that year. And those 1982 figures were notorious about reusing parts including head sculpt. His chest features what looks like a tactical vest with brown lining, a black on the shoulders, a black pistol holster and strap that continues around to the back. His arms are pretty plain. They feature rolled up sleeves and these arms were also reused on other action figures. His waist piece is the standard waist piece on a lot of these 1983 version 1.5 figures. And again, it is very similar to the one on Tan Grunt. He has standard legs that again were often reused for other action figures. He has brown pouches and standard black boots. Let's take a look at Clutch's file card. And this file card is almost an exact copy of Clutch version 1's file card. Even the portrait is very similar. Other than the portrait, the only other real difference between these cards is the old card says vamp driver and the new card says vamp mark two driver. His code name is Clutch. His file name is Lance J. Steinberg. His primary military specialty is transportation. His secondary military specialty is infantry. His birthplace is Asbury Park, New Jersey. And his grade is E4. This section says Clutch was a mechanic at Manny's Mean Machines and was heavily involved in racing street machines prior to enlistment. Graduated advanced infantry training, covert ops school, executive body yard school, ranger school, qualified expert, M14, M16, M1911A1, M3A1, M79 and M60. In the early G.I. Joe comic book, Clutch was one of the best developed characters and his character was portrayed as somewhat pigish, especially around G.I. Joe's first woman member, Scarlet. I guess you would call Clutch the lovable scoundrel, but nowadays with his borishness, he might not be considered so lovable. Both the VAMP Mark II and Tan Clutch appeared in G.I. Joe media. They both appeared in the cartoon in the miniseries, Revenge of Cobra. In the G.I. Joe comic book, the character of Clutch first appeared in the very first issue in G.I. Joe number one in 1982, wearing his classic green uniform. In the G.I. Joe comic book, Clutch is depicted as not having a full beard, but as having stubble, like he hasn't shaved for a few days. The VAMP Mark II did appear in the G.I. Joe comic book, but it's hard to say exactly when it first appeared. It is seen in issue number 42, but without the missile turret. It may have first appeared in issue number 38, as we do see a VAMP that has a canopy and doors, but it still featured the classic VAMP's machine gun. It did fully appear in issue number 49, with the canopy doors and the VAMP Mark II's missile system. I don't know if Tan Clutch ever appeared in the G.I. Joe comic book. He did appear many times in his green uniform, and even as late as 1986, in G.I. Joe special missions number two, he was still wearing his green uniform. If you are aware of a comic book appearance of Clutch in his tan uniform, please let me know. I have flipped through a lot of comic books and I have not found it. Taking a look at the VAMP Mark II and Clutch overall, this is a great reuse of an old toy to make something new. The desert brown looks fantastic. The doors and the canopy make it look more substantial, and the added details just make it look like something new when it really isn't something new. It's mostly reused from something old. By 1984, the G.I. Joe line was pretty popular and they were coming out with a lot of new, unique, and really big vehicles, like the hovercraft, the killer whale, and Cobra's attack jet, the rattler. Hasbro may have used all of its resources to develop those new big vehicles, but they may have still needed a few more items for the 1984 series. So in 1984, the VAMP gets reused twice, and normally that would be a big no-no. In fact, that could even signal the decline of the line, but not in this case. They added enough new details and new features that the Stinger and the VAMP Mark II did not feel like straight reissues of the VAMP. They still felt new. This desert version of the VAMP came out in 1984, which predates G.I. Joe's first desert specialist, Dusty. So maybe Tan Clutch should really be considered G.I. Joe's first desert specialist. Like the snow vehicles, G.I. Joe accumulated more desert-specialized vehicles over the years of starting in 1984 with this VAMP Mark II. In 1985, we got the Mauler tank. In 1986, the Tomahawk helicopter kind of had that color scheme. 1987, there was the Mobile Command Center, and in 1988, there was the Desert Fox. Given the choice between the original VAMP and the VAMP Mark II, I still slightly prefer the original VAMP, and that's because of the machine gun. Now, this missile system for the VAMP Mark II is fine, but it has four missiles, so it just has four shots. But with this machine gun, I could pretend to fire it until I'm tired of making machine gun noises. I do prefer the color of the VAMP Mark II, though. It just seems to look more realistic to me. I do like the additional details and the enclosed cab. So a combination of these two vehicles with this classic weapon, I think would be about perfect. Version two of clutch, however, is very ho-hum. He's not very special. He really is just a reuse of that classic green clutch. And unlike the VAMP Mark II, which he drives, maybe this is not the best reuse of an older toy. I do appreciate that the lighter tan color provides some contrast with the vehicle that he drives, but the figure itself is pretty plain. It doesn't have a lot going on here. However, I do like him paired with the 1983 tan grunt. As sort of a desert squad. And putting these guys together on the same vehicle, that I like a lot. I have a lot of sentimental attachment to the VAMP Mark II. I have a lot more memories of the VAMP Mark II than the original VAMP. My memories of the original VAMP are a little fuzzy. I don't know exactly what happened to it, maybe lost, maybe broken, but I do know that it was not in my arsenal in 1984. So I was thrilled to get a new VAMP and a new clutch. I would have preferred the old machine gun to the missiles, but I was still very happy to get the VAMP Mark II. How would I rate the VAMP Mark II and clutch? I'm gonna put them in the lower level of the top tier. Now these guys are reuses of older toys. And because of that, normally the best that I would put them would be in the middle tier, but they look so good. And I think this is such a skillful reuse of an older toy that I wanna fit them in the top tier somewhere. But they're not gonna be at the very top for a couple of reasons. Tan clutch here really is a very plain figure. Maybe if they had given them an additional accessory, changed his helmet maybe, or just changed some of the sculpting on the figure, that would have made a difference. And on the VAMP Mark II, maybe if they had given it a working winch and maybe an engine cover, that would have shot it right up to the top of the top tier. But on a personal subjective level, I really like these. I've got a lot of sentimental attachment to them. I think they look great and I'm very happy to have them in my collection. That was my review of the 1984 VAMP Mark II with its driver clutch. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you're thinking of getting one of these toys, I hope you found it informative. If you liked it, don't forget to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up. You don't wanna miss them. And make sure you like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. You get a lot of updates there. You don't get anywhere else. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review. Yes, look out!