 Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week we're going to look at a sub-team that we haven't talked about for a long time, Tiger Force. Tiger Force is controversial in a number of ways. The toys series reissued older toys in new colors, essentially inviting kids to buy toys they already had. It's also controversial because it shares the name with a real military unit that was responsible for war crimes in Vietnam. I don't think Hasbro intentionally meant to reference that very dark period in American history. In fact, I believe Tiger Force draws its inspiration from a different, much less controversial source. I always wondered why Tiger Force was barely used in the GI Joe comic book. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, may not have wanted to evoke that real world reference. Let's talk about the transformation of a classic GI Joe snow vehicle into a Tiger Force vehicle. HCC 788 presents the Tiger Cat and Frostbite. This is the 1988 GI Joe Tiger Force Tiger Cat. It was released in 1988 and was also available in 1989 and was discontinued for 1990. It included one action figure, Frostbite version 2. The Tiger Cat is a reuse of the 1985 Snow Cat, but in different colors. The Snow Cat was a snow vehicle. Here it is recast as a jungle or desert vehicle, but it still retains some of its snow vehicle features. One of those snow features is a driver called Frostbite. The code name fits perfectly well with a snow theme, but it doesn't fit with a jungle or desert theme. Tiger Force was a sub-team within GI Joe. It featured reused vehicles and figures in different colors. They all had Tiger stripes. It takes its name and inspiration from the NATO Tiger Association, which I'll talk more about later. Tiger Force has another much darker association. In Vietnam, Tiger Force was the name given to a long-range reconnaissance patrol unit within the 101st Airborne. It became notorious for numerous war crimes. I don't think Hasbro intended to evoke that Tiger Force in a children's toy. At least I hope not. The color schemes and deco suggest other origins. We will have plenty to say about Frostbite, but we will set them aside for now so we can take a closer look at the Tiger Cat. Let's take a look at the parts and features of the Tiger Cat. The first thing you notice is the Tiger Stripe deco and the color fade from white to brown to yellow. Of course, the vicious tiger teeth and eyes. This deco is standard for Tiger Force vehicles. It's inspired by the NATO Tiger Association, which is an informal organization designed to promote solidarity among NATO's air forces. The organization holds Tiger Meats, for which some aircraft are painted with Tiger Stripes that look a lot like this. The Tiger Cat of course is not an aircraft, but it borrows the Tiger Stripes from the Tiger Meat planes. Because it is a copy of the Snow Cat, it includes all the features of the Snow Cat. Up in front we have some scary looking teeth and some plastic headlights. We have a clear plastic canopy and on that canopy we have a windshield wiper that does work. That piece does come off very easily and that's a frequently missing part. That canopy has clear frosted plastic on all of the area outside of where the windshield wiper works. That canopy does open from the front. You pull up at the front, it is hinged at the back. It opens up to reveal a cockpit with two seats. The cockpit features two black seats and there are some instruments on the center console. There's also a steering wheel, the steering wheel that will tilt up and down, but it is also removable so that's another frequently missing part. You can place frostbite in the driver's seat behind the steering wheel and he fits perfectly well in there. The other seat I often use for his weapon, it needs a little extra space, it's quite large and it just hangs out with him inside the cockpit. The body of the Tigercat is exceptionally well detailed, tons of technical detail all over it on virtually every part. It has a step on each side with a foot peg, it has some plastic pieces to represent lights, it has vents, it's exceptionally detailed. It has two front wheels, those are black plastic wheels with yellow hubcaps. No exposed clips here, that's great. At the back it has treads, so this is a half track vehicle. It has two fake treads, one on each side, they are in black plastic, but they don't really work instead the vehicle rolls on a couple wheels underneath. The Tigercat has a removable engine cover, if you pull on this tab you can pull off the engine cover and there is some engine detail in there. It is rather deep so it's difficult to see some of that detail. It has running boards above the treads, one on each side and each of those running boards has two foot pegs, but you can't use those foot pegs because these ski torpedoes are in the way. These ski torpedoes or ski missiles peg on with a dumbbell shaped slot on a peg on that running board and these are three pieces, two pieces assemble the missile and then a third piece is the ski that attaches to it. The blueprints call these retrofit skim high speed terrain reading missiles. There are two of them, one on each side. Without the missiles in the way you have these running boards with two foot pegs on each side which accommodate four additional figures that can ride along. At the back we have a missile turret, it can rotate 360 degrees and it has good elevation on it, but you have to be careful. The clips that hold the missile box onto the turret are weak and they are often broken. That missile box holds four red missiles. The fins of those missiles slot into these slots on the missile box. These red missiles are the main armament for the Tiger Cat and they are just red versions of the yellow missiles that came with the snow cat. In the back there is a platform with two additional foot pegs that can accommodate two additional action figures riding along and there is a universal tow hitch. This is Frostbite version 2. This version of Frostbite was only available with the Tiger Cat. We have a variant figure to look at later. Thank you to my friend Byron for supplying me with the variant figure. There were three versions of Frostbite in the vintage era. Version 1 was from 1985, version 2 was from 1988 and version 3 was from 1993. The first two versions were vehicle drivers and the final version was a carded figure. He was originally an arctic trooper equipped for the snow. He also had a different hair color, black. With version 2 his hair is red. This isn't the only time Tiger Force changed a character's hair color. They changed Duke's hair color from blonde to brown. He is still wearing winter gear. He's wearing a coat and a furry hat. He is not equipped for the jungle heat or the desert as suggested by the file card. Let's take a look at his accessory. He came with one weapon, an M16 rifle with a starlight scope. It's a really good looking accessory and a good representation of that real world weapon. However, this could be given to another figure. Frostbite will spend most of his time in the cockpit of the Tiger Cat. Let's take a look at Frostbite's articulation. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1985. So he could turn his head from left to right and he could 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 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 legs at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Take a look at the sculpt design and color of Frostbite version 2 and this is a reuse of the mold for version 1. So other than the colors it is the same figure. On his head he has a tan furry hat. He has gold goggles with a band around his hat. The paint on those goggles tends to wear off very easily so do be cautious about that. He has a red beard and an expressive face he is smiling. On version 1 the teeth are painted in white. On version 2 they are not. There's a variation on this head. As you can see this one has red eyebrows and red eyes. Other releases of this figure have black eyebrows and black eyes. On his chest he has a yellow undershirt. He's wearing a brown coat with tan fur on the top half. He has a black pistol holster on his left side with a black strap that goes over his right shoulder and those details do continue to the back. On his arms he has long brown sleeves with pockets on the forearms and he is wearing black gloves. His waist piece features a black belt with the hem of that brown coat and yellow trousers. His legs are yellow with black tiger stripes, not a lot of extra detail on those legs and he's wearing black boots. These legs were recolored and reused on another figure, the Rice Krispies Maloway version of Lifeline. The figure is not bad, other than the yellow the colors are pretty good. It just doesn't make a lot of sense for him to be wearing cold weather gear when he no longer works in that environment. Let's take a look at Frostbite version 2's file card and his file card copies some of the text from version 1, but they had to change it obviously because he no longer drives a snow vehicle. His factionist GI Joe, there's a portrait of Frostbite here. His codename is Frostbite and he is the Tiger Cat Driver. His file name is Farley S. Seward. This file name is a play on the word Seward's Folly. The purchase of Alaska signed by US Secretary of State William H. Seward was once ridiculed as Seward's Folly. The Frostbite's birthplace is Alaska. Primary military specialty Tiger Cat Driver, secondary military specialty artillery, birthplace Galen Alaska, and his grade is E4. This paragraph says, Frostbite was born in a place where summer is a myth and a crowd consisted of two people standing on the same acre. He worked briefly as a lineman on the pipeline, but found the job unchallenging despite the 40 degrees below zero temperature and hazardous conditions. The army promised to give him a challenge whenever he wanted one. Whenever he took his oath to Uncle Sam, he went to transportation school where he learned how to drive every known vehicle used by the United States armed forces. Frostbite thought he had it made being stationed in Greenland, but then he was tapped for duty on Tiger Force and that all changed. Now he's barreling over sand dunes in the Sahara Desert rather than smashing through snow banks in the Arctic Circle. So this casts the Tiger Cat as a desert vehicle. This paragraph says, battling cobra toxo vipers in temperatures over 113 degrees is like fighting them in a furnace, but somehow that frost jockey from the north keeps his cool. I saw him pulverize a full scale attack by a battalion of enemy troops just by firing his Tiger Cat's main gun batteries at the center of their ranks. With guys like him over there, we have nothing to worry about. That does not make any sense because the Tiger Cat does not have a main gun battery. It only has missiles. Looking at the Tiger Cat and Frostbite overall, I like the idea of using the Snow Cat as a desert or jungle vehicle. It's very versatile and can be used in many different environments. The color scheme is rather loud, but with Tiger Force that comes with the territory. It's the standard Tiger Force color scheme. If you like it, you'll probably like this vehicle. If you don't like it, this vehicle probably is not for you. If the Tiger Cat is going to be a jungle or desert vehicle, the ski missiles could be done away with. That leaves more room for figures to ride along. You could almost use the Tiger Cat as a personnel carrier, with tons of figures riding along the sides and back. Frostbite is alright, but not exceptional. His original white uniform was perfect for a snowy environment. His new uniform has him wearing winter gear in the desert or jungle heat, and that doesn't make sense. Let's not forget about the hair color change. Changing a character's hair color is kind of weird, and it happened fairly often. I love Frostbite's accessory. I just don't see him using it very often. I would always have him behind the wheel of the Tiger Cat. I like the Tiger Cat and Frostbite version 2, but I prefer the originals. They were perfectly suited for their tasks. That was my review of the Tiger Cat and Frostbite version 2. I hope you enjoyed it. I am doing my best to keep putting out content. As you can see, I've made some tweaks to the format, and I've made some other adjustments so that I can try to keep putting out videos, which is what I love to do, but life continues to interfere and makes it a challenge to get these videos out every week. For those who are accustomed to more regular content, I apologize. I am doing the best I can. The ideal situation is if I could do this full time. If you want to support the channel, there are several things you can do. You can give this video a thumbs up on YouTube. 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