 Hello, and welcome to our first GI Joe toy review of 2019. I always start each year by reviewing a big vehicle or play set. Last year I bought an incomplete 1987 Defiant Space Shuttle, one of the biggest GI Joe toys ever. I wanted to have it ready to review this year, but it was not to be. The Defiant wasn't the only big combination vehicle play set released that year. We're going to start 2019 by looking at the OTHER oversized GI Joe toy from 1987. Everybody hooded C788 here, it's time for our first review of the year, and as always we are starting big, and it doesn't get much bigger than the Mobile Command Center. It may not have the prestige or lavish features of the Defiant Shuttle complex, but the MCC was big enough to inspire awe, and it was no slouch in the features department. Is the MCC a vehicle or a play set? It may be easily classified as a vehicle, it has wheels, it moves, it's a vehicle, right? But that's not how my friends and I used it. Let's take a look at this enormous play set that may also be a vehicle. HCC presents the MCC. This is the 1987 GI Joe Mobile Command Center with driver steamroller. This vehicle slash play set and figure were first available in 1987, they were also available in 1988, they were discontinued for 1989. The MCC is one of the largest play sets in the vintage GI Joe line, but by no means the largest, just looking at the three and three-quarter inch figure standing next to it gives you an idea of the massive scale of the MCC. The Mobile Command Center was re-released in 2003 with slightly different colors. If you'd like to see a review of the 2003 re-release of the MCC, check out the excellent video review by GI Joe Berg. The MCC operates as a mobile headquarters, GI Joe had a number of headquarters play sets before 1987, starting with the 1982 Cobra Missile Command headquarters. That was a cardboard play set exclusively available at Sears in the first series of vintage GI Joe when the line was re-launched in 1982. In 1983, GI Joe had the headquarters command center, a large plastic play set and the best GI Joe play set for a couple years. In 1984, there wasn't a new headquarters play set. You had the Bivouac, which you could potentially use as a field mission headquarters, but that was just a small play set and not really a headquarters. In 1985, they released the Transportable Tactical Battle Platform, a sea base. That year they also had the USS Flag, an aircraft carrier, which was a large and impressive play set, but not really a headquarters per se. In 1986, Cobra got the Terror Drome, a headquarters that rivaled GI Joe's headquarters command center. The MCC was designed by Hasbro toy designer Guy Cassidy, who was also responsible for a number of other memorable GI Joe toys, including the Rolling Thunder, the Conquest X-30 and the Persuader. He was also used as the model for the head sculpt for the cross country action figure in 1986. The MCC's mobile mode appears to be inspired by the Star Wars Jawa Sandcrawler. If you're a Star Wars collector and you want a sandcrawler that is big enough to carry a lot of droids and jawas, this would be a good substitute. The customization possibilities are great. I have something special for this video. I have the box for the mobile command center. I don't usually get boxes, but sometimes I will pick them up, and it's nice to see how the toys were marketed on retail shelves. This is the front of the box, and we have the painted artwork that we were accustomed to in 1980s GI Joe. It is a large box for a large vehicle. It has a full color label on the front and the bottom of the box only. The rest of the box, the top, the sides and the back are all two color printing directly on the white cardboard. Getting a close up of that front label, we can see some details. First we have a price sticker. It looks like it was $44.94 at Service Merchandise. Looking at the artwork, which is under that big beautiful GI Joe label, we have sneak peek firing what appears to be roadblocks machine gun. Jinx is up there defending that one corner of the top section with her staff. We have two mobile command centers on the box art. I don't think it's implying that GI Joe has more than one of these. They just wanted to show it in both the mobile and the base mode. Looks like we have Hawk in the elevator. It looks like they've captured Cobra Commander, or at least his imposter. I see Gung Ho has decided to wear his dress uniform. The driver of the MCC, Steamroller, is not in the driver's seat. He's over here holding a clipboard for some reason. We have Sergeant Slaughter in the vehicle bay. We will check to make sure his triple T tank actually fits in there. Then we have a photograph of Steamroller over here. That of course covers part of the artwork. We can actually see the driver's cab of this vehicle. Then we have a photograph of the toy itself. Right here all opened up to show the features. Looking at the back of the box we have a diagram in black and red with the MCC opened up to show all the features. We have some of those features labeled. For smaller vehicles we would get a photograph of the toy on the back of the box rather than just a technical drawing. The MCC was worth 10 flag points. One unfortunate thing about the box is the MCC will not fit back in the box when fully assembled. The treads, the supports on the sides, and the elevator make it just a little too wide. You can force it, but you'll likely damage the box if you do so. You can remove the treads and the elevator and the supports, but each time you remove a part you do risk breaking it. We will be taking a look at the action figure, Steamroller, and his file card later in this video after we take a thorough look at the MCC. For the Mobile Command Center I have Paperwork, the original assembly instructions for the playset. That includes instruction sheet A, which has some of the macro assembly such as the three sections and the hinges. I have instruction sheet B, which has the rest of the assembly instructions, especially the small pieces. Inside of instruction sheet B we have the blueprints with a lot of the features listed. Surprisingly these blueprints only include the mobile mode, so it doesn't list any of the features on the interior of the playset. There was one more instruction sheet, the label placement sheet, which shows where the stickers go on the exterior and on the interior. Let's take a look at the exterior of the MCC. First thing to note is it has a desert color scheme. It also has a number six on the side. Does this mean G.I. Joe has at least five other MCCs? It has multiple levels, with levels two and three having number stickers on them. It also has open doors on the sides, and that's a glaring problem to have giant gaps in your armor. Focusing on the cab it has a large spacious drivers section with lots of clear plastic. The drivers section is the least armored section of the vehicle. On top of the cab we have a missile launcher with a radar dish on top of it. The missile launcher has four orange missiles. The launcher can elevate and depress, and it can pivot, but it can't go all the way around because the missiles run into the main body. The radar dish can also flip around. These missiles are all identical. They attach to the launcher by slotting a fin into one of four slots. They don't slot in very securely. These orange missiles are reuse of the missiles from the 1985 Snowcat. The Snowcat missiles of course were yellow. On the MCC they were recolored orange, but they are the same. And the Snowcat missiles slot into the launcher the same way as the MCC missiles do, so they are interchangeable. But they also have the problem of not fitting in very securely. The blueprints call these shockwave electronic HE-27 250 pound missiles. On each side of the cab it has a cannon. The blueprints call these reflex coaxial firing computer operated 50 caliber cannons. But the back of the box refers to them as lasers, so I guess they can be whatever you want them to be. They do turn slightly, they do not elevate, and there is one on each side. At the very front on the bottom it has a bumper, a gray bumper connected to the main body with four black connectors. It is very low to the ground, and this low clearance limits the MCC's function as a vehicle. So no rough terrain for the MCC, only paved roads or flat desert. The fact that they made it so difficult to use the MCC as a vehicle makes me wonder if the vehicle mode was something of an afterthought in the design process and the main focus was on the base mode. Now let's take a look at the cockpit. It is surrounded by clear plastic on all sides. We've got clear plastic panels on each side and on the front. And this front panel has a sticker on it for a heads-up display. You open this front panel by pulling it down for access to the driver's seat. There is plenty of space in there. There are seats for three action figures. I've placed steamroller in the middle seat. They do have to sit in a semi-reclined position though, and I don't understand that. Why not just give them proper seats? Getting a close look at the cockpit, we can see it is very spacious, but it is also very minimalist. It has three seats and four joysticks, but no real instrument panels and no stickers inside the cockpit for some additional detail. They really skimped on the driver's section, which again gives me the impression that this cab wasn't all that important to the designers. I'm going to walk around the cab for a second just so you can see it better from all sides. This cab does have some features. I'm not saying it's short on features, but there are some corners cut, such as reused missiles and a minimalist cockpit and a bumper that is really too low. So on a vehicle this size, I'm sure it was very expensive to produce, and I'm sure they had to cut a few things for cost, and it looks to me like this cab may have been a victim of some of those cost-cutting measures. I have to make a comment on these red, white, and blue stripe stickers on the side. There seems to be some disagreement on where these stickers should be placed. According to the label placement sheet, it looks like they should be placed exactly where they are on this example, on this panel of the clear plastic. On here you can clearly see it's not on this panel down here that has the heavy sticker. That's kind of funny. It's not on this thin section of the clear plastic, this narrow section. It's not there. And it's certainly not on this upper section, which would cover the screw holes. It looks like this is where it's supposed to be. But despite this, I have seen these stickers placed in many different ways. And even on the box art, it appears to be different. Even the box art for the MCC disagrees. It shows those stickers placed up here, but I believe they belong right there, and that's where I'm going to leave them. The MCC has four gray treads, two on each side. And each of those gray treads rolls on a single wheel. They are very low to the ground. There's not much clearance, like with the front bumper. So if you're playing with the MCC outside, you're more likely to be dragging it than rolling it. At the very rear of the exterior, we have another missile launcher. It is gray with four orange missiles. It can rotate, and depending on the angle of the missiles, it can rotate all the way around. The missile launcher can also elevate. These orange missiles are identical to the missiles in the front of the MCC. They slot in exactly the same way, and they also have the same problem of not staying in very well. Also in the back, no tow hitch. What's up with that? If it can't tow my 1982 MMS, what good is it? There are some additional details on the exterior of the MCC, but their function is mostly for the base mode. We have these two cylinders on one side of the MCC that serve as support legs for the base. We also have these hinges on the back and the front. And those all are for the base mode. They don't really do much in mobile mode, except for sort of just hold the thing together. Most of the action on the Mobile Command Center is on the starboard side. When it opens up into base mode, this will be the facing side. And although this side has the most on it, it also has the most problems, the most important of which are these gaping doors on levels two and three. Those absolutely did need closing doors. On the starboard side is this elevator, and we will take a look at the elevator later, but in mobile mode, it doesn't really serve any function. It doesn't go anywhere. It really only serves to hold the MCC closed in mobile mode. It will not open up with the elevator attached. So when we convert it to base mode, step one will be to remove this elevator. Let's go ahead and pop that elevator off. The bottom of the elevator has a wedge that fits in a slot on the bottom of the closed ramp. The only way to unlock the base mode is to slide the entire cab section down and forward. And it should be pretty easy. It should kind of lock into place right about there. A word of warning though, this cab section is connected to the main body with a pair of very thin tabs that run along a central slot. And those tabs can come out very easily. And if that happens, the entire front section will come off. So watch out for that. We're going to open up the MCC into base mode. Before we do, I did want to point out my example does have some damage here on the side. It kind of looks like it was leaning against a hot grate at some point. It has some melted plastic. I'm not sure exactly how that happened. I really don't mind. It doesn't affect the function of the toy. It's just aesthetic and I actually think it looks kind of cool. So I'm fine with that, but admittedly it's not a mint example of the toy. The MCC opens like a tackle box. Opening the MCC is a bit fiddly, so you do have to work with it a bit. You have to pull the legs out of the bottom of each section in order to open it up. And you can only see that from the backside and I will show you the backside of it so you can see how that works. But it does sort of lock into place. So you open each section and now you have the basic base mode. I turned the MCC around so you can see how this works. These support legs have a lip that goes under the bottom of the vehicle. So to open it up you need to kind of pull that out and then open it up and that leg now becomes the support leg for that section. Same thing with the middle section. We can do it carefully. There we go. We did it but it does take a little bit of work and it's not easy. Even opening it this much you can see a lot of the interior features, but we're not quite done converting it to base mode. We can open this ramp to the service bay. This top section opens further and the roof folds to become a missile launcher. You do have to attach the missiles to the launcher. I have found that it doesn't fold up very well with the missiles on but you can assemble that pretty easily. We'll take a closer look at that later. The back panel of the top section is now the home to the elevator that we removed from the side of the MCC. It goes right there. We're almost done. We have a bunch of machine guns and search lights that can be placed on the edge of each level pretty much wherever we want them. Once those are placed then we are done converting the MCC to base mode and we can start looking at all the amazing features inside. Starting at level one we have the repair bay which has a ramp which can be opened and closed and it has some traction so vehicles can drive in and be repaired. The box art for the mobile command center has Sergeant Slaughter's triple T tank in the repair bay. You can put it in there but it's actually slightly too wide. This side rests on the stairs so it's not the perfect vehicle to use in the repair bay. The 1985 awl striker is a better fit. It's narrow enough that it doesn't brush against the sides. It's also short enough that it fits completely in the repair bay and the ramp can close. However you cannot leave the awl striker in the MCC when it is in mobile mode without partially disassembling the awl striker because it is too tall. You can back the classic 1982 vamp into the MCC. It will fit in there but it's just a bit too long to fit all the way in and you cannot close the ramp. For the best fit you need something small like the 1985 Armadillo mini tank. It's small enough that there's plenty of room on all sides. It fits all the way in and you can close the ramp and it's short enough that you can close the MCC up into its mobile mode and leave the tank inside. In fact with the MCC in mobile mode the Armadillo could be deployed as a scout vehicle. The TV commercial shows the persuader in the repair bay and that's not a good fit at all. The persuader is much too long. On the forward wall of level 1 we have this weapons rack which when in base mode can of course be used to store weapons. However when the MCC is in mobile mode those racks are used to store these machine guns and search lights. There are 6 black clip on machine guns and 4 black clip on search lights. They are all retooled parts of earlier released play sets. The machine gun is a reissue of the machine gun from the 1984 machine gun defense unit with some differences. Obviously this one is black instead of gray and instead of having a tripod it has a clip. There are some other molding differences. The slot where the ammunition belt was inserted into the 1984 gun is filled in on this one which is unfortunate it means the ammunition belt from the 1984 set will not work with the MCC machine gun. The search light is an evolution of the search light that initially came with the 1983 headquarters command center. Obviously the color is different, the post is different and the MCC search light has these semi circular mouse ear looking protrusions on the top. Those came from when the search light was retooled for the 1985 transportable tactical battle platform. This search light was reused on a number of play sets. You can see some cost cutting measures with the reuse of parts. These machine guns and search lights clip onto the walls of each level. Oddly the search light is slotted so it only points to the side. There are a couple places where they won't fit but you can put them mostly wherever you want. This is reminiscent of the clip on machine guns and search lights on the 1983 headquarters command center but the clips on these are a bit different. On the back wall of level 1 there is a gray panel with a lot of mechanical detail on it. It looks great. Attached to that gray panel there are two fuel hoses with gray fuel nozzles attached to them. They can be stored on that panel by wedging them in these notches here so you can store them out of the way. These fuel pumps are similar to fuel pumps that were included on other GI Joe play sets such as the USS Flag and the Cobra Terror Drone. They fit in fuel ports on some GI Joe vehicles such as the 1985 Awe Striker. It just fits in there pretty well so you can pretend to fuel up your vehicle. In addition to the two fuel hoses on the back panel there is a third fuel hose coiled on a spindle and you can turn this knob and let it out. It should extend far enough to refuel vehicles outside of the MCC but mine doesn't always work very well. It's not a bad feature, a nice way to store one of the fuel hoses but having three fuel hoses on this one play set may be overdoing it a little. Next we have one of the coolest features on the MCC, the crane which folds up nice and compactly for mobile mode but can be extended for a pretty long reach. You can even reach things outside the base. The crane can reach very far out. It can also rotate. Most importantly the crane can reach over here to this engine block. This light gray engine block has a loop on it that loop fits the gray hook on the crane. The crane can reach out, hook on to the block and lift it up and swing it into place to repair an engine on a GI Joe vehicle. This engine block is another reuse of parts. It is the same engine block from the 1985 Ausstriker. Of course the Ausstriker's engine block was in a dark gray. This is light gray and they've added this loop that was not on the original that's for the crane. In case you're wondering, you can use the engine block from the MCC on the Ausstriker. It does fit in that space, however because of the loop, you cannot put the engine cover back on. That's all for features on level 1 but a final tour of that level reveals a lot of detail. Multiple levels with stairs, you have foot pegs. This is the only level of the MCC that has foot pegs surprisingly. There's a lot going on on level 1 and really this level of the playset has the most going for it. Let's move on to level 2 which though it's not as spectacular as level 1 still has its share of features. There is an open door between the two levels. If this had maybe a sliding door here then we wouldn't have the gaping holes in the side of the vehicle when it is in mobile mode. On the second level as with level 1 we can see stairs and multiple levels but no foot pegs this time. Next to the staircase is the jail cell and the jail cell is just a box. Just a box with some vent holes and a seat there. It's really meant for only one prisoner with the one seat in it. You could maybe fit two in there at most. That means if you capture more than two you're just going to have to shoot them. The TV commercial for the MCC shows Galobulus in the jail cell but will Galobulus even fit in here? Well sort of yeah barely he will barely fit in there so there you go. Galobulus is captured. Level 2 has what the instruction sheet calls bunk beds even though they don't look like bunk beds there's one on each outside wall. You can fold them up when you're not using them or fold them down to use. They look more like medical diagnostic beds to me they even have some electronic stickers on them and the shape of the bed doesn't look very comfortable for sleeping at all. There's another borrowed detail on these beds. On the underside there is a detail taken from the engine cover on the 1984 Cobra water moccasin. Moving forward on level 2 we have a clear planning map that slots into this slot right here. It is clear plastic and it has a sticker on it a bit reminiscent of Star Wars but I really like this detail it really makes the MCC feel like a true command center. Moving forward from the planning map we have the command chair that a command chair can swivel all the way around. It can also slide. Mine doesn't work too well but it can slide almost the full width of the level. That command chair is light gray with a backpack. That chair is modified from the chair that originally came with the 1985 USS flag. On the forward wall of level 2 there is a gray panel with a huge reel to reel computer which I think is hilarious. I think this may have been outdated even in 1987. There are additional computer terminals there and there and this sliding chair allows one person to operate each of those computers from the same chair. Before we climb these stairs to level 3 let's take one more tour of level 2 looking at all its features. We have a jail cell. We have a pair of bunk or medical beds. We have a really cool planning map and a swivel chair and some computer terminals. We are now on the third level and I decided the only way to shoot this level was to completely turn the MCC around so the camera is on the other side. I apologize if this is jarring but not only is the third level elevated well above the first level it's also quite a ways back and it was a bit out of the reach of my camera. Atop the third level we have a gray missile launcher that can rotate all the way around. The missile racks can also elevate independently. They are not linked. It has six orange missiles but these are not the same missiles we've seen before. These orange missiles are a reuse of the missiles that originally came with the 1983 dragonfly helicopter but they are modified. They have this rib that runs the length of the missile for additional stability. Unlike the smaller orange missiles these long missiles peg on with a normal dumbbell shaped peg that are pretty standard for GI Joe missiles and they fit on there much more securely. This is a manned missile launcher. If you open it up it has a command seat that will fit one action figure. Not very well though. There's not a lot of room in there. You do kind of have to wedge him in but you can close the missile launcher and it will still rotate. The missile launcher platform is connected to these detailed gray side panels on a slide so it can slide along those panels. It doesn't always work very well on mine but you can position the missile launcher that way. One thing I think is great about this level is it has extra missiles and a way to store them. It has six extra long orange missiles. Three on this lower platform. Three on this upper platform and the floor has dumbbell shaped pegs to fit the missiles. I think this is fantastic and I wish more GI Joe play sets had something like this. Another unique feature on this level this gray panel is an escape slide. If you go to the other end of the level you have this slide release, this tab and with some effort if you can undo it it will release the escape slide. This escape slide is a great feature for emergency situations or for fun. Just drop a Joe from the top and he can make a quick escape. On the front wall of the third level there is this fold out panel that is supposed to be a helipad but this does not work very well as a helipad. It's way too small. It will never fit the dragonfly helicopter on it. You can land the skyhawk on it if you land it cross ways but that's not very secure. I'm at a loss for just what GI Joe helicopters you could use for this. On the back wall of the third level attached to another fold out panel we have what is probably my least favorite feature on the MCC, the elevator. Mine just does not work very well. Maybe if you have one it will work better but this thing is just the bane of my existence. The elevator hooks onto this panel but not very securely. Mine has fallen off at least a dozen times while I've been shooting this review. The elevator has a gray car with some nice molded detail on it. When it's at the bottom it will swing open though mine tends to just come off. The operation of the elevator is quite simple. It fits one action figure and you just manually slide it up to the top. Once at the top he is facing the outside of the base. If he wants to get in the base he's going to have to crawl out of the elevator. This wrap up was one final tour of the third level. It is kind of plain but it does have some nice detail. I like the stairs and the multiple levels. I'm really happy with the missile storage and the escape slide is kind of cool. But it definitely has the fewest features of the three levels on this base. We did it. We looked at all the features of the MCC. Now it's time to look at the action figure but before we do that let's fold up the MCC back into its mobile mode. Obviously the MCC is very large. When folded up it is long and tall. It requires a very tall shelf for display. At least it's narrow. The real storage and display problems arise when it's opened up. The defiant shuttle complex is approximately 23 inches wide. The MCC when it's fully opened up is approximately 29 inches wide. It has a wider footprint than the defiant. It's very difficult to display. Most of its features are hidden when it's closed but opening it up triples its width. At least all the major features face one side so the other side could face against a wall. If you can find a display space big enough to hold it. So is the MCC a vehicle or a play set? Obviously most people will say it's a vehicle. It has wheels. It moves. It's a vehicle, right? But that's not how we used it as kids. I didn't own the MCC but I had a close friend who did and we would play with it frequently and we would almost never use it as a vehicle. As a vehicle it is unwieldy and cumbersome. Even as a kid I wondered how this thing got to the battlefield. It's too big to fit on a transport plane. I imagined it being fitted with a flotation ring and being towed behind the USS flag. But even at that you'd still have to get it from GI Joe headquarters to the ocean. Instead of using it as a mobile command center we used it almost exclusively as a stationary play set. More specifically the MCC was our stand in for the pit. In the comic book series GI Joe had a secret underground base called the pit. It had multiple underground levels each with a different purpose. The MCC was like a miniature pit. We pretended the levels were underground. So the MCC pretty much always remained open and in base mode. For us it was a play set. The vehicle features were rarely if ever used. Now let's look at Steamroller the mobile command center operator. This figure was only available with the MCC. It was made up of all original parts and there were no later versions of Steamroller. Let's take a look at Steamroller's accessory. He came with only one. He came with a knife in light gray plastic. This knife was later reissued with Interrogator version 2 in 1993. It's a fine knife. I don't really have a problem with it. I just don't see why Steamroller needs it. It doesn't seem like it would be very useful for a vehicle driver. Is this guy getting in knife fights when they stop for gas? Let's take a look at the articulation on Steamroller. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures at the time. 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 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. This was an O-ring figure meaning he 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 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 Steamroller starting with his head. His head has reddish brown hair. He has a square jaw and big ears. He's wearing a black trucker cap with a yellow patch on the front that says dog. His face is asymmetrical. His jaw sticks out on the left side a little bit. Does he have chewing tobacco in there? Moving on to his chest, he has a bare chest with sculpted muscles. He's wearing a black vest with a texture front and back. He has six green grenades, three on each side of the vest. And he has silver painted dog tags. The arms are bare with some extra sculpted muscles. He is wearing brown gloves. And on his left bicep, he has a tattoo, a red heart with a dagger through it. That's a bit of an old cliche, but that probably says something about Steamroller. This figure is impressive. It has two tampos, one on the arm and one on the hat. His waist piece is impressive too. He has a brown belt. He has a brown holster directly over his belt buckle. And in the holster, he has a silver revolver. In his left back pocket, it looks like he has a brown wallet with a silver painted chain that goes to his belt. That is an impressive amount of detail on this waist piece. On his legs, he has tan trousers with a pocket on each thigh. Not a lot of detail, but it's enough. And he has brown boots. The hat, the vest, the tattoo, the revolver in his lap. This guy is an 80's truck driver. I am disappointed that he did not come with a chimpanzee companion. This figure has a surprising amount of detail and paint applications. Extra effort and expense went into this figure. Despite the extra effort, it is an easily forgotten figure. Even though my friends and I played with the Mobile Command Center, I have no memory of Steamroller. We probably just left him in the driver's seat and never did anything with him. Let's take a look at Steamroller's file card. His file card was an insert inside the box. It was not printed on the box as most vehicle driver file cards were. This one has not been cut out of the black border. It has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Steamroller taken from the artwork on the front of the box. It is not the best likeness of the figure. It has his codename as Steamroller and he is the Mobile Command Center Operator. It doesn't call him a driver, it calls him an operator. His filename is Avril B. Whitcombe. His primary military specialty is heavy equipment operator. Secondary military specialty is armorer. His birthplace is Duluth, Minnesota and his grade is E5. This top paragraph says, Steamroller worked heavy cranes on the Great Lakes docks, earth movers in the strip mines of Appalachia, and graders on the four-lane black tops of a half-dozen states. He was driving an M15A2 50-ton transporter when he was picked up for the Joe team. An M15A2 is referring to a trailer that is used to haul tanks. He may only be an E5, but no matter who's ranked above him on his Mobile Command Center, Steamroller's gut instincts are the ones in charge. And this is missing some punctuation. There is no period at the end of that sentence. Qualified expert, all NATO's small arms and explosives. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, he's a moose. He considers a Peterbilt 10-wheel tractor a personal vehicle and a .44 Magnum a pocket pistol. He gets barred from bowling alleys for damaging the pins. How does he damage the pins? Never mind. He's stubborn, ornery, mean-tempered, bad-humored and uncouth. Has he got any good points? Well, he's on our side. He doesn't sound like the most pleasant individual and just look at him. You know this guy doesn't shower very often. Looking at how the Mobile Command Center and Steamroller were used in G.I. Joe Media, the Mobile Command Center did not make any appearances in either the Sunbow or the Deke animated series, but it did later appear in the Valor vs. Venom animated movie. Steamroller, to my knowledge, made no animated appearances at all. In the comic book series, published by Marvel Comics, the Mobile Command Center and Steamroller appeared in issue number 99 and 100. In issue 99, the MCC is shown opened up in its Command Center mode, so the Open Up feature exists in-universe. It's not just a toy feature. In issue number 100, the MCC ambushes the Python Patrol conquest by emerging from the sand in which it had been buried. The whole thing was buried in the sand. It must have taken days to bury it. Why would you want to do that, just on the chance that an enemy jet may fly directly over that spot? It gets hit by a crashing jet, but survives. It's a tough vehicle. In the comic book, Steamroller's cap says Mac instead of Dog. This would refer to the brand of truck, the Mac truck. Maybe the plan was to have his hat say Mac, but they changed it to avoid trademark infringement. Looking at Steamroller overall, I would rank it as a middle-tier figure. The extra effort is impressive. It has no unpainted details. But despite the extra effort, the figure is a little weird looking. The character had little impact on the comic book series and no impact on the animated series. My friends and I forgot about the figure, since we never needed a driver for the MCC. Looking at the MCC overall, I would rate it as a middle-tier vehicle, but a top-tier As a kid, I loved this thing as a substitute for the pit. With the MCC opened up, we took full advantage of its interior features. When paired with the 1983 headquarters command center, it completed our GI Joe base. It was a great playset for kids, but it does pose a challenge for collectors. When in mobile mode, the MCC is long and tall. It requires a lot of shelf space. Mobile mode also conceals most of the features. In base mode, it's not only long and tall, it's also extremely wide. With the ramp down, it is wider than the defiant. This thing needs more than a shelf, it needs a whole table. It's a great piece to obtain, but it's almost impossible to show it to anyone. Even though I think of the MCC as an excellent playset, its command center mode is both its best asset and its biggest problem. That was our first review of the year, I hope you enjoyed it. We've got a lot of great stuff coming up this year. I have decided that 2019 will be the year of the rarity. A lot of rare GI Joe toys will be reviewed this year. I will also be attending Joe Fest in Augusta, Georgia in June. I hope to see a lot of you there. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribe, hit the notification bell, and share this video with your friends. Thanks as always to my patrons, their support makes this show possible. I'll see you next week for another vintage GI Joe toy review, and until then, remember... Only GI Joe is GI Joe. What's going on here? The plane goes by. And now is when the dog wants in. Now that I'm ready to shoot.