 Welcome back to the third week of our Slaughter's Marauders slash Python Patrol Month. This is the theme of the GI Joe convention this year, so we're getting everyone warmed up by looking at the vintage toys. We're back to Slaughter's Marauders this time with a review of Slaughterize Marauderize It! Oh, Sergeant Slaughter. I thought you'd show up. I have a surprise for you. Oh, what's that? Susan was walking around the supermarket and found this. And Saddam Hussein is awesome. Go Iraq! Ah, that must bring back memories. What do you think, Sarge? Sarge? Where'd you go? I guess the Sarge won't be joining us this time. Good. Let's get on with it. Time for another vintage GI Joe Toy review. Tanks! You're welcome. Tanks first saw use in World War I as a way to break up the stalemate of trench warfare. The idea was simple. Put soldiers behind mobile armor so they could roll over the no man's land blanketed by machine guns. They were tracked vehicles so they could get traction over the wastelands devastated by artillery bombardment. By World War II, the design of tanks was updated to something we would recognize today. They had a large central turret with a single cannon. They became an essential piece of equipment for any army. Armor became heavier. Weapons became more powerful. Technology allowed for coordination of armored divisions. Over time, some tanks became more specialized, carrying missile systems rather than a big gun. You couldn't have a modern army without tanks. So did GI Joe, the fully posable modern army figure, have tanks? You bet! Over time, GI Joe got more specialized vehicles. Hovercraft, bridge layers, artillery. But the tank is essential. The tank is the backbone of the armored assault. In 1983, we got the Wolverine. It was a tank and it was fine. I liked it then and I like it now. But its armament was a missile system and I always wanted it to be more of a traditional tank. In 1989, they went and did it. They reused the body of the Wolverine in the Slaughter's Marauder set, but they upgraded it. They found a way to make an already awesome vehicle even more awesome. Let's look at the reincarnation of the Wolverine. HCC 788 presents the Slaughter's Marauder's Links. This is the 1989 GI Joe Slaughter's Marauder's Links. It was first available in 1989 and was also available in 1990 and was discontinued for the year 1991. It was part of the Slaughter's Marauder sub-team within GI Joe, which was led by Sergeant Slaughter. Sergeant Slaughter was a real person, sort of. He was a professional wrestler named Robert Remus who used the name Sergeant Slaughter as his wrestling name. He was a real Sergeant in the Marine Corps. He was given a GI Joe action figure in 1986. There were three later versions of Sergeant Slaughter in the Vintage Era. Again in 1986, released with the Triple T tank, 1988 with the Warthog, and 1989, the Slaughter's Marauder's version. Of these Sergeant Slaughter figures, only the 1989 Slaughter's Marauder's version was released as a single-carded figure at retail. The other figures were vehicle drivers or available only through a mail-away offer. Slaughter's Marauder's was a team made up of reissued figures with new paint jobs. There was nothing new in that subset, at least as far as the figures were concerned. They all included the same light blue color. Thankfully, they didn't put the light blue on the vehicles. The Links takes its name from a type of wild cat. The Links genus includes the Bobcat, a species we talked about during the review of Spearhead and Max. Like all Slaughter's Marauder's vehicles, the Links is based on an older vehicle, the 1983 Wolverine. Not that Wolverine. It's not a straight reissue, though. The Links has some new parts and a new paint job. We will look at the differences in this video. The 1983 Wolverine was a multiple-launch rocket system with six gray missiles in two boxes on a turret. It's a great vehicle, though it's a bit stylized. It had a real military look to it. It was green. It had nice details. I wasn't a fan of the missiles. It only has 12 shots, which limits its usefulness in long battles. When I got this as a kid, my first thought was how to reload the missiles. I would have preferred if the Wolverine had some way to store extra missiles. The Wolverine had a driver, Covergirl. I like this figure, too. Covergirl was the new female character for 1983. The figure itself might have been a bit plain, but I like the utilitarian style of the uniform. There were no other versions of Covergirl in the vintage era, which I think is a shame. It's a figure that could have benefited from an update. I wish they had just made her part of Slaughter's Marauders so she could be reunited with her old vehicle. Slaughter's Marauders were all reissued figures anyway, so just give her a blue jacket or something. Or, never mind, skip the blue. It's ugly. The most frequently missing part of the Wolverine is the rescue cable. It's a long piece of light gray plastic. It fits loosely on the vehicle so it's prone to falling off. It's very thin so it's prone to breaking. The Lynx also has the rescue cable and the problems that go with it. I have to say thanks to Byron Kellogg, a longtime friend of the channel, for donating this cable to me. The Wolverine doubled the number of tanks for GI Joe. Before the Wolverine, GI Joe only had the MOBAT tank from 1982. Tanks were always important to me. A tank is a traditional military vehicle. You can't have an army without tanks. GI Joe had plenty of cool vehicles, but I never felt they had enough tanks. I like to send my tanks into battle as a team. Looking at the Lynx next to the Wolverine, you can quickly see the differences. The Lynx has the base of the Wolverine, but it's replaced the missile boxes with a more traditional tank cannon. This is more like what I wanted from the Wolverine. It also has a camouflage paint job. It's the same three-tone camouflage we saw on the Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo. Paint on vehicles is exceptional. The camouflage makes it hard for me to not love Slaughter's Marauder's vehicles. Is it possible for a Slaughter's Marauder's vehicle to not be in the top tier? Spoiler, probably not. I'll be honest, they're all great. Comparing the size of the Lynx with GI Joe's main battle tanks, the MOBAT and the Mahler, it's smaller than both of them. The big cannon gives the Lynx the illusion of greater size. Slaughter's Marauder's did have a main battle tank based on the chassis of the Mahler. I don't have that one yet, but I will eventually acquire one and show it to you. It is amazing. I have the box for the Lynx. That's a rare treat, so let's take a look at it. The box art, surprisingly, is not a copy of the Wolverine box art. That's usually how they did these reissued vehicles. They would paint the new one over the old one. The Lynx is illustrated at a totally different angle than the Wolverine. Slaughter's Marauder's low light is shown driving and firing his sniper rifle at the same time. How is he also firing the cannon? Does he operate it with his feet? It was sold at a store called Caldor. I don't know what that is. It was marked down from $9.99 to what looks like $4.99. So somebody got this for five bucks. We have the traditional GI Joe logo here and then the Slaughter's Marauder's logo. That looks alright. We have the name of the vehicle, the Lynx, and it politely reminds us that weapons do not shoot. One thing that I just noticed that's different from older GI Joe vehicle box art is we actually have a background here. We have some mountains and some trees. It's not exactly Bob Ross level artwork, but it's not bad. The top is pretty plain just a repeat of the logo and the name of the vehicle. We've got the box art repeated on the sides and the bottom. This side unfortunately is damaged. It's got a pretty big hole ripped in it here and it was like that when I got it. The photo on the back looks pretty close to the production vehicle. The camouflage pattern is slightly different, but not so much that you'd notice. The back of the box is actually kind of sparse. We have three flag points. Let's look at the parts and the features for the Lynx. Up here in the front we have two cleats and these are for use with the rescue cable. The commercial for the Wolverine demonstrated how this is supposed to work. It was apparently supposed to be a major selling point. These are thin and could easily be broken off. On each side we have flat platforms with a texture pattern. These would be ideal for troop transport, but there are no foot pegs. This is a trade-off. Foot pegs would have made the platforms more functional, but without them the vehicle looks more realistic. We have an engine cover here and on top of it we have bundled sleeping bags. At least that's what the Wolverine blueprints call them. There are two even though it's a one-person vehicle. I imagine these as camouflage tarps for concealment from air attack. Remove the engine cover by pulling up the tab at the back and that reveals engine detail. This is all the same as the Wolverine, but the Wolverine had some excellent detail and it carries over here. In front of the driver's cockpit we have the Slaughter's Marauder's logo. I do like this. It's just a spot of color on an otherwise perfectly camouflaged vehicle. That brings us to the driver's seat. It's a one-seat cockpit with no other detail. It's just a hole cut in the body with a seat inside. This is probably the least realistic part of the vehicle. There's no way for the driver to retreat behind the armor. To place the figure in the vehicle you just put them in. That's all there is to it. There's no backpack or seat belt to worry about. And there's plenty of room and no real danger of the figure falling out. Let's talk about the rescue cable. We need to spend some time on this because it's important. The rescue cable hooks on oval-shaped cleats on the front and the back of the starboard side of the vehicle. There are a couple clips that help hold the cable in. One problem though, it's too short. The loops don't reach both ends. I believe this is due to shrinkage of the plastic over time. This happens to cables on the Wolverine too. I suspect a lot of cables end up broken because they were stored on the vehicle. They fit fine when they were attached. But shrinkage over time with both ends attached to these tabs would cause them to snap. The cable on my length is not broken because it was not stored on the vehicle for all those years. Yet it has shrunk down to the point where it will not connect at both ends. I can say with confidence that these rescue cables are in this condition even if they're still sealed in the box. I know this because I actually opened this vehicle and assembled it myself. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, stop that, stop that! Everybody just back off. I did not open a vintage sealed box. It was already open when I got it. See? See? Already open. So everybody just calm down. I just opened the factory sealed bags in the box. Comparing the Lynx cable with the cable that came with the Wolverine, the Wolverine cable was in light gray. The Lynx cable is in a slightly darker gray. The same cable came with the 1985 Mahler in dark gray. And as you can see, the cable from my Mahler is broken. That's a very common problem. I don't want to move on without pointing out some of the exceptional detail that was carried over from the Wolverine. On the starboard side, we have some molded-in tools, a sledgehammer and a shovel. We have some fuel caps and a vent. On the port side, we have just a ton of technical detail and we got more vents. On the sides, we have black treads. They are fake treads and they are solid black rather than a dark gray from the Wolverine. Instead of working treads, the vehicle rolls on wheels. Four wheels, they all roll pretty well. They're all green, the same color as the main body of the vehicle. There is some additional detail on the underside, but there's also the cavity for the driver's seat. The copyright stamp says Copyright 1988 Hasbro Pawtucket, Rhode Island, made in Brazil. Just for comparison's sake, on the Wolverine, the stamp just says Copyright 1983 Hasbro Industries Incorporated, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Lynx rolls pretty well on those wheels, at least on a flat surface. Rough terrain may be a bit more difficult. At last we get to the turret. This is new. The original turret with the missile boxes was totally scrapped and we have a new part here designed to hold the main cannon. The turret can rotate 360 degrees and the cannon can elevate pretty much straight up. Great range of motion on this. The blueprints call this cannon a 203mm high velocity laser guided cannon. You may recognize this cannon. It's the same cannon from the 1985 Mahler. This is a clever reuse of parts. It enhances the tank without the expense of molding a new part. This cannon was designed for a much larger vehicle, so putting it on the Lynx really enhances the size. The cannon has some excellent technical detail on the top. It has vent holes on the side. It's segmented. The barrel sticks out of this shroud. It has a molded-on cloth covering over part of it. The barrel itself is solid. It's not hollowed out, so that does kind of break the illusion a little bit. In the back we have two more cleats. They work exactly the same as the ones on the front. Even though the commercial shows this cable hooked on these cleats to rescue the Wolverine, I think it's more likely the tank would rescue other vehicles. The tank is a tracked vehicle, so it's going to have better traction than a wheeled vehicle. You can hook the rescue cable on the tow hook on the vamp, and then the tank can rescue the vamp. And in the very back, in addition to some other technical detail, we have a universal tow hitch. Unfortunately, in 1989, there weren't many options for trailers. The only one released that year was the Python Patrol ass, but it wouldn't make any sense for the Lynx to haul that. If we can go a bit retro for a moment, I think it looks pretty good hauling the 1983 whirlwind. Like all other Slaughter's Marauder's vehicles, the Lynx only appeared in the animated miniseries Operation Dragonfire. It's too bad Slaughter's Marauder's vehicles didn't carry forward to later episodes, but there were other toys to sell, I guess. They were animated for a commercial, though, an awesome commercial that featured the real Sgt. Slaughter. I don't know of any appearances in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics. That's surprising, since the comic book always tried to have a more realistic tone. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic, was forced to fit in weirder vehicles and weirder characters, yet there were some beautiful military looking vehicles that didn't make the cut. That's a missed opportunity, I think. Looking at the Lynx overall, of course this is a top tier vehicle. This is right in my wheelhouse. As a kid, I couldn't get enough tanks. I wanted a new tank every year. The other vehicles were fine. The Killer Whale is still my favorite. But tanks were the backbone of my armored assaults. I had to make do with some tank-like vehicles like the Havoc. The Armadillo was small, but of course it was included. The Wolverine could join, but it lacked the big gun. The Lynx is the tank I always wanted, but never got. It was released after I had already abandoned GI Joe and Toys in general. Why couldn't it have been released two or three years earlier? The reuse of parts is creative. We have the base of an old vehicle, a new turret, and a cannon from a different old vehicle. The result is something that doesn't feel like a rehash of something old. It's new, and the camouflage paint job further refreshes it. I only have a few minor complaints about the Lynx, and they're mostly carried over from the Wolverine. No hatch for the driver, the rescue cable is still a pain. Placing the Lynx side-by-side with the Wolverine, I don't feel like they're the same vehicle. I want both the Wolverine and the Lynx on my team. They fill separate roles. Who should drive it? None of the Slaughter's marauders, guys. Now, I'm giving this vehicle to CoverGirl. I am making CoverGirl an honorary member of Slaughter's Marauders. Any objections, Sarge? Hearing no objection, the motion is carried. That was my review of the Slaughter's Marauders Lynx. I hope you enjoyed it. We're back to Python Patrol next week, and we're looking at a vehicle this time. If you have any familiarity with my collection, you probably know which vehicle it is. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube, and make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter. Funding for this channel comes through Patreon, so please check out my Patreon page if you'd like to support it that way. I also have a website, HCC788.com. Just a reminder, Jo-Con is coming up in June in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I will be there, and I hope to see a lot of you there, too. I will be bringing a stack of secret code books. If you see me at the convention, come up and say hi. I will give you a secret code book so you can decode secret messages in the videos, like the one you're seeing on your screen now. I'll keep giving them out until I run out of them. On top of that, I'm going to do a few index card sketches. Anyone who comes up to me at Jo-Con and is wearing an HCC788 t-shirt will get a sketch card in addition to the code book. Again, I'll be doing it until I run out. This is the last Jo-Con, folks. There is a fan-driven convention that may become the replacement for Jo-Con, but for now, this is our last opportunity to come together for an official GI Jo convention. Please come out if you can. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next week for a Python Patrol review, and until then, remember, only a rock sympathizer sergeant slaughter is a rock sympathizer sergeant slaughter.