 Hello everybody, HoodedCoverCommander788 here and it's G.I. Joe time again. So this time we're going to look at the G.I. Joe firefighter from 1985, Barbecue. And I have to send a special shout out and thank you to Mr. Eric Brink for making this review possible. Thank you very much, sir. This figure is a bit of a departure for us. This week we looked at the guy with the biggest gun and this week we look at a guy with no guns at all. This guy is a firefighter, not so much a soldier, not a special operations troop. This guy puts out fires. It is a pretty cool figure though, so let's go ahead and take a look at Barbecue. This is Barbecue, G.I. Joe's firefighter. He was first introduced in 1985. He was also sold in 1986. He was discontinued in 1987 and in 1987 he did not have a replacement. G.I. Joe did not have another firefighter that came out that year. However, in 1989 we did get version two of Barbecue who was part of the Slaughter's Marauder's subteam, which was led by none other than Sergeant Slaughter. I'm not sure having Barbecue as a Slaughter's Marauder's makes a lot of sense, but we'll just roll with it. Barbecue is a non-combat troop and he had more of a support role within the G.I. Joe team. In 1985 was a year that we got a lot of specialization for both G.I. Joe and Cobra. We got a lot of highly specialized characters that year. Let's take a look at Barbecue's accessories and Barbecue did come with a lot of accessories but he did not come with any weapons unless you consider his axe to be a weapon. So let's go ahead and take a look at the axe first. The contents of the card on which the figure was packaged call this a fire axe and that is what this is. This is the type of axe generally that is used by firefighters. This is also called a pick head axe for the pointed end here on the head. The firefighters axe is generally used to break down doors and windows so they can rescue people in a fire. Even though this is a fairly simple accessory, it does have some detail on it. It looks like a couple rivets here. It has this handguard which would not be on a real fireman's axe. I'm not really sure what that's there for. It does kind of look cool though. And then of course we have a paint application on the blade of the axe. We have a silver paint application and that is something that's very rare. We very rarely got paint applications on the accessories of G.I. Joe action figures. Then we have this nozzle gun here and even though this is a gun, it's not a weapon. This is a nozzle for Barbecue's fire retardant foam in his backpack so this thing shoots foam to put out fires. Even though this is not really a gun, I'm sure kids played with it as a gun. I mean it's easy enough to imagine it as a gun. It looks a little bit like a Star Trek phaser. This length of hose that ran from Barbecue's backpack would plug into the nozzle gun in the back here on this little knob in the back. Just slide it on like that. And then I'm just going to take this off to demonstrate. On this side there's a little notch there and that is to allow the nozzle to holster on Barbecue's leg on this tab here on his left leg. And that's supposed to slide in there. Unfortunately on mine it does not work well. It just will not fit no matter what I do with or without the hose on. I have seen other Barbecue action figures where this does work well. So this is probably just my copy. It's not working well for me. So if you get a Barbecue action figure, yours will probably holster on there just fine but mine does not quite work. Barbecue does come with a length of hose that connects the nozzle to his backpack on this little knob on his backpack there. It's a pretty simple basic black hose. This came with a lot of other G.I. Joe action figures from the era that attach some of their accessories to their backpacks. Then of course Barbecue has his backpack and his backpack is two parts. It has this orange part which contains the firefighting foam. These are foam tanks. They look like air tanks but they're not supposed to be there. Foam tanks for his gun nozzle. And of course then it has the tank rack and that just sort of clips right on in there. These look kind of like air tanks and they could double for air tanks. If you wanted to attach these to a figure and pretend they were scuba tanks that would work pretty well. Firefighting foam is used to cool a fire and to coat the fuel and it's pretty effective. It can be more effective than water in some firefighting situations such as oil fires. I'm not sure of the utility of having this backpack come apart into two parts. The tank piece doesn't really work too well as a standalone piece. Other than just to have it as two separate colored plastics which does make it look very nice. Let's look at the articulation on Barbecue. He had the typical articulation of 1985 G.I. Joe action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right. He could also look up and down. His head was on a ball joint that was introduced in 1985. His arm he could swing up about so far and he could swivel it 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. He could swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. It allowed the figure to move at the torso a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpted design and color of Barbecue starting with his head. His head has this non-removable helmet and mask. As you may know, these non-removable helmets and masks have been a problem for me on other action figures. I really do feel like these helmets and masks should be removable. Barbecue has a protective face mask and eye covering and that is silver paint on that face mask. That silver paint does have a tendency to wear off very easily. I'm very fortunate to have a Barbecue action figure that has very little wear on that silver paint. You will often find Barbecue figures with that silver paint worn off quite a bit. So that is something to watch for if you're looking to get a Barbecue action figure. Since he is a firefighter, we'd have to assume that this face mask is some kind of oxygen mask. But there are no obvious hoses running to the face mask. We'd have to assume that any air hoses would be internal. Barbecue's helmet is very plain and it is not the traditional firefighter's helmet. The helmet most of us associate with firefighters with the longer rear brim and the shorter front brim is called the Modern Structural Helmet and it's used really for fighting structural fires. Now that may not be Barbecue's specialty. He may not deal with as many structural fires with the GI Joe team. So that's probably why he doesn't have that particular style of helmet. However, that helmet shape would have better designated him as a firefighter. On his chest piece he has these dark gray shoulder guards or these may even be part of the helmet. It's really hard to say. He's wearing a reddish orange jumpsuit and that's pretty appropriate for a firefighter. On his back he has this gray that comes down over his back. Looks like padding there. Also he has this very interesting stitching work here on his back. Not really sure the purpose of that but it does look really cool and it's a nice detail. Back around the front he has what I have to assume is his air tank. Now this would be an SCBA or self-contained breathing apparatus. Not a SCUBA which is a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Firefighters usually wear a single tank on their back with a full face mask to keep out the smoke. On his right arm Barbecue has this patch, this silver patch and this does not look like any US Army firefighting unit patch that I've been able to find. It does look a little bit like the US Army 41st Infantry patch but I don't think that's what that is. This does look like it's supposed to be flames I think and not a sunburst. So this is some kind of firefighter unit patch but I can't identify a real world equivalent. And this is that same silver paint they use on the face mask and so you'll often find these silver patches worn away. He has a dark grey pouch on his left arm and he has reddish orange gloves to match his jumpsuit and his fire resistant suit is cinched together at the wrists with a couple dark grey buckles. The waist piece is pretty simple. He has that same reddish orange jumpsuit. He has a zipper that continues from the chest piece. He has a dark grey belt with not a lot of detail, no pockets, very simple waist piece. On his right leg he has a sculpted stripe that goes all the way down his leg and then he has this unidentified device thingy which I guess could be a radio maybe. He has this other strap on his left leg and of course he has that tab that his nozzle gun is supposed to holster on, the one that does not work very well for me. Now this could break off pretty easily. That's very thin plastic and it sticks out pretty far so do be careful about that. You may get a BBQ action figure and if you don't know that's supposed to be there, if that's chipped off you may not even realize you have a broken figure. And we finish up with some very plain dark grey boots. Let's take a look at BBQ's file card. This file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged. You can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there. It has this factionist GIcho and it has a portrait of BBQ. His specialty is firefighter and his codename is BBQ. Without the spelling it is not BBQ, he is not a rack of ribs. His file name is Gabriel A. Kelly and this last name of Kelly I think comes from the term Kelly days. Kelly days are special scheduled days off for firefighters. According to legend these Kelly days were named after Chicago Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly who created a time off plan for firefighters in 1936. His primary military specialty is fireman, not firewoman they checked. Secondary military specialty infantry, place of birth Boston, Massachusetts. Now the headquarters for Hasbro is in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. So they kind of like having Joe's from New England. His grade is E4. This section says if Kelly hadn't joined the GIcho team he would have been the seventh Kelly in his direct line in the Boston fire department. His love for the job is not based on family loyalty or even a more general sense of duty. He simply likes riding on the back of the truck with the wind in his face, the sirens wailing, lights flashing and the bells clanging. Being allowed to knock down doors and smash windows with his axe is just frosting on the cake. So BBQ has a long family history of firefighting but really he seems kind of like a big kid. He just loves the excitement of the job. This bottom section has a quote, it says, BBQ is what you call your basic party animal. He can open bottles with his teeth, pick up quarters with his ears and wrap his lips completely around the bottom of a quart coke bottle. You may well ask how this affects his function as a GIcho firefighter. It doesn't. It simply makes him a more interesting fellow to have around. Really? I've been to a lot of parties and I gotta say these are some pretty weird party tricks. Maybe after a lot of beer, the guy wrapping his lips around a coke bottle would actually be amusing. Note, the Coke product placement. In the GIcho comic book, BBQ was introduced in issue number 40 along with Shipwreck. And when Shipwreck meets BBQ, he asks the inevitable question, fireman, this is a combat unit. We don't need a fireman. And you can almost imagine Larry Hammer saying the same thing in the meeting with Hasbro when the 1985 lineup was introduced. He was still given an important role to play in those comic book issues right after he was introduced. He showed up just in time to fight a major fire on the tactical battle platform and he even fought on Cobra Island. Sadly, BBQ has to do all the months in the annual GIcho firefighter calendar. In the GIcho animated series, BBQ was the focus of an episode titled The Viper Is Coming. That episode had a twist ending and I'm not going to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it. That episode is kind of quirky and fans tend to either love it or hate it. But I kind of like it, I don't hate that episode. It was goofy and implausible, but it was kind of fun. Taking a look at BBQ overall, he is not a purely military figure, he's a firefighter and in that sense he kind of reminds me of the 1970s adventure team when the old 12 inch GIcho toys took on a less military theme. If you pair BBQ with Lifeline from 1986, they're kind of like Transformers rescue bots in that they are not combatants, they have life saving jobs. You could potentially market these guys toward younger kids, not so much as soldiers but as rescuers. The coloring on BBQ is appropriate for his specialty. It's a very basic color scheme, nothing really fancy going on here. This is really how you work in some brighter colors in a military toy line, not by making the soldiers wear bright orange but by adding these non-combat characters where these colors are appropriate. He does have that non-removable helmet though and that is a problem for me and it keeps this figure despite otherwise being a nice figure from being a top tier figure. I already talked about this with Torpedo, another figure that I liked a lot but I thought his mask ought to be removable. Another figure that came out also in 1985, the same year as BBQ, Airtite had the same problem and really a helmet that large and a mask that large that could have been made removable and I really think it should have been. I can tolerate non-removable helmets and face masks on Cobra characters but I really think the Joes ought to be able to take off these helmets. You might wonder how kids in the 80s would play with a firefighter action figure in a military toy line. I mean wouldn't kids prefer characters that had lots of guns and would go out on combat missions and fight Cobra? Well I'd have to say BBQ would fit very well on the USS Flag aircraft carrier play set where he could put out the fires from plane crashes that would inevitably happen on the deck of that ship. A lot of you watching this video probably had BBQ as a kid so leave me a comment and let me know how you played with this figure. That was my review of the 1985 G.I. Joe firefighter BBQ, I hope you enjoyed it. If you liked it make sure you give it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe. I've got a lot of great new G.I. Joe toy reviews coming up. If you don't want to miss them and don't forget to like the Facebook page 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 G.I. Joe toy review. Hey, watch this. That kind of fun can cost a life. BBQ! False alarms are no joke. They keep firefighters away from the real action and in this business a few seconds can mean the difference between life and death. A firefighter's job is to fight fires. Not answer false alarms. Now I know. And no one is half the battle. G.I. Joe!