 Hello, GI Joe fans. It's nearly Christmas time, and you know what that means? Commies. Yes, Christmas is that time of year when we mix communism and capitalism. It's when we rush out to the stores to buy things we don't need, then we give from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. It's when we decorate everything in red, the color of the reds, and green, the color of money. Join me as I look back at December 26, 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, the Cold War ended, and Hasbro was a little confused about what to do with a Soviet action figure they had on the market at the time. It's here. It's time for a Holly Jolly GI Joe toy review. I hope you're enjoying the holiday season this year, and if you're not, maybe we can lift your spirits a little. The ultimate guide to GI Joe by Mark Belomo has been a Bible for GI Joe collectors since 2005. The first edition has been out of print for years. GI Joe fans carried their dog-eared copies to conventions and toy shows, searching for items to add to their collections. The second edition was published in 2009 with updated photos and information. This is the earliest edition that I own. This book collects photographs and information on every domestic vintage GI Joe action figure, vehicle, and play set. Coincidentally, that's also the scope of the reviews on this channel. The second edition is also out of print, and prices for old copies had gone through the roof. A third edition was released in November of 2018. Unlike the others, this one is a hardback. It contains mostly the same photos and information from the second edition with a few updates. I can't express how valuable this book is. It contains some information that is not readily available on the internet. This book is the reason this review is coming out a year later than I intended. I plan to review Red Star last December, a follow-up to the previous Christmas review of the October guard figure Big Bear. But when I read the Red Star entry in the Belomo guide, I discovered there were some file card variations that I didn't have. Not minor variations, really interesting variations. I couldn't do the review until I tracked them down. I believe these variations were caused by the fall of the Soviet Union, which was happening at the time this figure was on the market. Up to that point, Russian characters, or Soviet characters, were treated as rivals to GI Joe. After the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russia wasn't the big bad enemy anymore, so Hasbro scrambled to change their branding, and that created some really fascinating variations. Let's see how a change in global politics impacted one American toy. HCC788 presents Red Star. This is Red Star, the October guard officer from 1991. This figure was available in 1991 only. It was discontinued for 1992. This is the only version of Red Star in the vintage era. A modern version was released in 2008. The entire figure was reissued with different colors in 1998 and renamed Colonel Brekov. Red Star likely takes his name from the unofficial flag of the Red Army, which featured a Red Star with a yellow outline on a red field. Red Star was the first October guard figure to be released in the GI Joe line. GI Joe started adding an international element in 1991, which also included the British SAS fighter Big Ben. Red Star wasn't the last October guard figure. In 1992, Big Bear was released. There were two versions of Big Bear. October guard could have been a sub team, but they didn't issue enough October guard figures in the vintage era to make a team out of them. October guard was an element from the comic book series. They were an elite military unit, the Soviet equivalent of GI Joe. They first appeared in issue number six, but they had origins well before then. Writer Tom DeFalco and artist Herb Trempie created a team of elite Russian soldiers called Pravda Patrol, which appeared in Bizarre Adventures number 31. They had planned to feature the same characters in the GI Joe series, but Hasbro objected. They didn't want the comic to feature characters owned by anyone other than Hasbro. This is Bizarre Adventures number 31. Bizarre Adventures was a magazine published by Marvel Comics. It was intended for mature readers. It has a collection of several different stories inside. And the interior artwork is all in black and white. This particular issue is from April of 1982. And so it was just a few months after the first publication of GI Joe by Marvel Comics. There are a couple stories in here by Larry Hama, but the story that we're looking at in this issue is not by Larry Hama. It does have a familiar name attached to it. The story that's important to us is written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Herb Trempie, the artist on GI Joe number one. The title is Let There Be Life, and it's about this elite team of Russian soldiers with the code name Pravda Patrol. The characters are totally different. They do not closely mirror the October guard characters. There may be some superficial similarities, but they are different. When you start researching the history of different elements of GI Joe, you never know where it's going to lead you. And sometimes it can lead you on some bizarre adventures. The artwork for issue number six, featuring an appearance by Pravda Patrol, was mostly completed, but the artwork was quickly changed before the issue was printed, and Pravda Patrol became the October guard. For more information on the origins of the October guard, check out the video Comic Tropes contributed to Cobra Convergence this year. When the October guard first appeared, the team included Colonel Brekov, Horror Show, Stormovik, Dinah, and Shrage. Red Star was not on the team at the time. The lineup changed a few times over the years. The October guard served two purposes. One, it gave GI Joe a Cold War opponent. The Soviet Union was the adversary of the United States and NATO allies during the period after World War II up to 1991. And two, to humanize an enemy. This is important for any work that wants to avoid propaganda tropes. When an enemy is dehumanized, all manner of atrocities can be falsely justified. 1991 is considered the end of the Cold War. Between 1989 and 1991, the Berlin Wall fell, and democratic elections had defeated some old communist governments in Europe. The Soviet Union was dissolved in December 1991. And we never had any trouble with the Russians ever again. This puts Red Star in an awkward position. The figure would have been planned in 1990, when the Soviet Union still existed. The figure was on the pegs in 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing. So by the end of 1991, would the October guard have been an enemy or an ally of GI Joe? The change in world politics led to some confusion on Red Star's file card. Let's look at the card back for Red Star. And as you can see, I have three different card backs, so we have some variations to look at. And one of my card backs still has Red Star sealed on the card. So let's take a look at how Red Star was marketed back in 1991. This card that still has Red Star sealed on it is the earliest version of the card. As you can see, the figure is in front of a blue background. He's got his accessories beside him and also up here above him. There is a list of accessories on the card. There we go. And I will be referring to this when I talk about the accessories for this figure. One thing you will notice is the front of the card has this red background. In 1991, this red background was used to designate enemy characters. In early 1991, that would have made perfect sense. The Soviet Union was still around and it was still the enemy of the United States. So we have a Soviet character with a red background. What doesn't make quite as much sense is on the file card, it has his faction as Cobra. Now Red Star was probably an enemy of G.I. Joe, but he was never part of Cobra. History was moving pretty fast in 1991 and that led to an update on Red Star's card. But the card wasn't completely updated. It still had the red background indicating an enemy character. But the relationship between the Soviet Union and Russia and the United States was less certain. So the faction was changed, but it was changed in a rather slapdash way. They just placed a sticker, a blue sticker that says G.I. Joe, directly over the space that used to have the Cobra emblem. So they just put a sticker over it. This still isn't really accurate. Red Star was a member of the October Guard, not G.I. Joe. But this did indicate that he was more an ally of G.I. Joe rather than an enemy. At last, we get the final update of the card and the background is now blue, indicating a hero character, not an enemy. And on the file card, no longer do we have a sticker that says G.I. Joe. They have changed to a printed G.I. Joe faction. I will take a look at the text of the file card later in this video. In the space on the card behind where the figure was packaged, it has instructions on how to use the missile launcher and how to attach all of the other accessories to the backpack. Let's take a look at the accessories for Red Star. And I'm going to start with this twin Gatling gun because it does not fit in his hand well. It keeps falling out. So I want to get this thing out of the way. We have a twin Gatling gun that is pretty small, much smaller than the Gatling guns that came with Rock and Roll version two. In black plastic, the twin Gatling guns are attached to a base. The base has a handle in the front and in the back. It has a clip here that attaches an ammunition belt that also runs to the backpack. That ammunition belt can be removed. In fact, it's hard to keep it on, so it's easier to remove it. The ammunition belt has some detail. It's not bad. It is made out of flexible plastic, so it will bend without breaking. The figure is meant to grip that Gatling gun by this handle in the front, but it doesn't fit very well on my figure. It doesn't fit well at all. Keeps falling out. That's why I have it in this position. So it doesn't fall out of his hand. So I'll just take that out of his hand here and take a look at this. This is actually a three-piece assembly. These Gatling gun barrels are removable. They clip onto that base. It's a pretty simple setup, but it's got multiple pieces, which means that some of these pieces could go missing. It could be easy to lose. Before we move on to his other weapon, I want to look at one of my favorite accessories, his hat. He has a removable hat. It is in soft, flexible blue plastic, but it has a painted black brim. This could be a representation of several kinds of Soviet uniform hats. It kind of looks like the hat from the uniform of the NKVD, the equivalent of the Interior Ministry for the Soviet Union. That may not be it, though. The toy lacks detail that would help match it to a real-world uniform. The hat does fit pretty well on the head and looks pretty good on the head. This is a great accessory. I like it a lot. His next accessory is what the card calls an AK-47 machine gun. That's close enough. This is a representation of the real-world Soviet assault rifle, the AK-47. It's in black plastic. It has a scope. And it's not a bad representation of that real-world weapon. And it makes sense that Red Star would have it. Although this isn't a bad representation of the AK-47, there was a better AK-47 in the GI Joe line, the one that came with the Cobra officer. Next we have what the card contents call the spring-loaded missile launcher and missile. There is a black missile launcher, a red missile, and since this is spring-loaded, it will really fire. This is probably intended to be an RPG-7, the famous Soviet rocket-propelled grenade launcher seen in many Cold War era movies. Of course, it is oversized because it has the spring-loaded firing feature. On my Red Star figure, I can place the grip of the missile launcher in the figure's hand and rest it on his shoulder. And that works just fine. But if the fit is too tight on your figure, do be cautious about forcing that grip into the figure's hand, you could break the thumb. This missile has a couple of rails along the side. To place it in the launcher, just match those up with the slots and the barrel. Press it all the way in until it clicks and holds into place. With the missile in the launcher, it does kind of look like a beefed up version of the RPG. The trigger is in the back, it's this button here. So to launch it, you just press that button. Let's test it by taking aim at our favorite target, Dr. Meinbender. I only have one shot here, one missile. So let's see if we can take Dr. Meinbender out with one shot. That was a great shot. This particular example has a really powerful spring. I don't normally like these spring-loaded missile launchers. This one does appeal to me a bit more because it sort of has a historical reference. I guess my problem with it isn't so much the launcher itself. It's the fact that between the missile launcher and the assault rifle and the twin gatling guns, Red Star cannot carry all of his accessories at once. Even though we've already looked at a lot of accessories, we're not even close to being done. Red Star has a pretty amazing backpack and attached to that backpack, he has a knife. It is a small knife in black plastic. It's really nicely done, very well sculpted and it will fit in these teeth on the backpack. Now the instructions on the card, as you can see, show that we are supposed to put the knife in with the handle side up. I have found that that does not work very well on my figure, it just fits better with the handle side down and I think that looks okay. You can also place the knife in the figure's hand. On my figure, it fits better in his left hand. G.I. Joe issued several small knives like this, such as with Falcon and Shockwave, but this one is unique. It is not a copy of those other knives. Also attached to the backpack is a black antenna. So this antenna makes this a communications backpack. This antenna is quite small. It could be very easily lost or broken, so do be careful with it. It pegs into this hole in the top of the backpack and once pegged in, it is pretty secure. And finally, let's talk about that backpack because this thing is awesome. It is in brown, it has a couple sculpted on stars. I don't think he's a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and I think these are Soviet stars. It's got the teeth on one side for the knife. It's got a small tab for connecting the ammunition belt. Of course, it's got that antenna. It's got pouches, it's got belts. This is so well sculpted. This would be a great backpack from any era. Most of these accessories are great. I don't usually care for spring-loaded missile launchers, but in this case, it's trying to mimic a real weapon. My biggest problem is he can't carry all of his accessories at one time. Something has to be left behind and the accessory I would leave behind would be the twin gatling gun. It's a nice idea and the ammunition belt is pretty cool, but I find it just too cumbersome and the other accessories are just better. Let's take a look at the articulation on Red Star. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1991, 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 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 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 Red Star starting with his head and his head has brown hair, really nice head sculpt, nice detail. He has brown eyes and there may be a color variation but I'm not sure. On my carded Red Star figure, it looks like the whites of his eyes are painted in but on my loose figure, it looks like they are not or the white paint is very faded. On his chest, he has a tan camouflage shirt with blue epaulets and green straps. He has a green pistol on the left side that should really be the other way around so he could draw it with his right hand, a green grenade on the right side. Those straps do continue to the back, that's a very nice detail. Just above his collar, we see a blue and white undershirt. This is a Telnyaska, an undershirt worn by the Russian Navy, the Russian Airborne and the Russian Marines. This is appropriate for Red Star given his background. On his arms, he has tan sleeves with more of that camouflage pattern. He has pockets on his upper arms. His sleeves are rolled up over his forearms. On his right arm, he has a blue patch. It's very small, it has some detail, but it's hard to make out exactly what it is. There are several Soviet unit patches that look very similar, so it's probably one of those, but I can't quite make out the details enough to identify it. On his torso and attached to those green straps, he has a green belt that goes all the way around. The belt is sculpted on the torso and not on the waist. He has a sculpted star on the belt buckle. On the waist piece, we have the tail of his shirt and we have more of that camouflage pattern. Looks really good. We have a strap that goes from the belt down to the pistol holster on his leg. That's a little sloppy. It doesn't quite continue all the way in the back and the paint on the front is a little messy, but we get the idea and it's still an okay detail. On his legs, he has tan trousers. He has red stripes down each leg. On his right leg, he has a green pistol holster with a green pistol and he has those straps that go up to his belt. Really nice detail. We finish up with some tall gray boots. They are not extremely detailed, but they are well done and appropriate for his uniform. The sculpting on this figure is beautiful. The colors are great too. The desert camouflage makes sense. Red Star is a veteran of the Afghanistan campaign, which would have included fighting in desert and mountain environments. The blue and red provide little spots of color to add some drama, but the uniform has a realistic feel to it. It's well done. Let's take a look at Red Star's file card and we've already talked about the change in his faction. There is one textual change that I've noticed on the earliest file cards on this footnote. Spetsnaz is misspell. They miss the P in that word and that same misspelling is on the intermediate card, but on the last version of the card, they corrected that spelling. His updated faction is GI Joe. Again, not entirely accurate, but more accurate than Cobra. We've got a portrait of Red Star here. His codename is Red Star. He is the October guard officer. His file name is Anatoli Fyodorovich Krimov. His primary military specialty is commando operations in parentheses, Naval infantry. His birth place is Odessa, Ukraine, USSR. His grade is captain. His place of birth is probably what first prompted Hasbro to rethink Red Star's status as an enemy. Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in August of 1991. Within a few months of this figure hitting the pegs, Odessa, Ukraine, USSR was no longer accurate. This top paragraph says detached from the crack Black Sea regiment of the Soviet Naval infantry in parentheses equivalent of our Marine Corps, Red Star now commands the Russian version of the GI Joe team known as the October guard. This is correct. The Naval infantry was an amphibious force in the Soviet Navy. Their function was similar to the Marines. The Black Sea division was one of the first two divisions formed between 1916 and 1917. In 1991, they would have been stationed at Sevastopol. He was the youngest chess master in Odessa at the age of 11 and is a published Pushkin scholar. His monograph on Boris Gdanov being considered the definitive work. There's a small spelling error. Gdanov should be G-O-D-U-N-O-V. He was a Russian Tsar in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In his spare time, he coaches the pistol team at the Dynamo Sports Club in Moscow. The Dynamo Sports Club is a real organization. It's based in Moscow and has branches mostly in former Soviet countries. This bottom paragraph says Red Star came home from that mess in Afghanistan with a bad attitude and a funny look in his eye. But when they needed an experienced field commander to lead the October guard, he leapt at the chance. That mess in Afghanistan refers to the Soviet-Afghan War from 1979 to 1989. The failure of the Red Army in Afghanistan weakened the Soviet Union and was one of the factors that led to its dissolution a couple years later. He wasn't about to let the top volunteers from all the best units be led by some party toad with relatives in high command and a yen to become a hero of the Soviet Union. Asterisk here by October guard and this footnote says this elite formation includes volunteers from the Spetsnaz commandos, the airborne brigades and the KGB border guards. Spetsnaz refers to Russian special forces. Looking at how the October guard and Red Star were used in GI Joe media, although the October guard originated in the comic book series, the team appeared in the cartoon series too. They first appeared in the episode, The Invaders. The roster was changed a bit though from the lineup in the comic book. Red Star appeared a few times in the Deke series. He worked alongside the GI Joe team. He had significant screen time in a couple episodes. He was called Captain Krimov. I don't think they ever called him Red Star. Maybe because the Red Star was a symbol of communism which the show writers maybe didn't think was appropriate at the time. In the Red Star episodes, I can only recall the October guard being mentioned once in the episode, That's Entertainment. Red Star acted as a full member of GI Joe. What are you soldiers watching? It's just a movie I brought from October guard video collection. In the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, the October guard debuted in issues six and seven and they had numerous appearances after that, both in the regular Marvel series and in the special missions series. They were in a memorable story in yearbook number two. In special missions number 26, most of the October guard's original roster was killed off. Red Star appeared in issues number 146 through 148 but he looked very different from his action figure. In those issues, GI Joe and the October guard teamed up to fight a threat from space. He spent most of his time in a space suit. I guess that's a parallel to his first appearance in the animated series where he was also in space. Looking at Red Star overall, this is a top tier figure. It has some flaws, particularly in the accessories but the realistic feel of the figure makes up for it. I suspect the character is based loosely on Colonel Breikov in the comic book series but by 1991, Colonel Breikov was deceased so we got a new character instead. The sculpting on the figure is really well done. Figure sculpting in the 1990s actually took a step up. Details were crisp. There was a lot of character in the face sculpts. Unfortunately, a lot of the color choices on 90s figures made that great sculpting hard to see. Not the case with Red Star. He has mostly subdued military colors and he has a uniform that is appropriate for his background. He comes with too many accessories. I would ditch the twin gatling gun. The missile launcher is all right. The other accessories, the AK-47, the backpack with the antenna, the knife, even the hat, those are all great. Red Star also represents an element from the comic book series that finally made it into plastic form. This had happened before with the Baroness in 1984. Comic book fans had been reading about the October guard for years. It would have been nice to get October guard figures in the 80s. When we finally got an October guard figure, the timing was a little awkward. The world was changing. The relationship between the United States and Russia was changing. Here we had a character that was coded as an enemy but suddenly became a friend. The historical context in which this figure was produced makes me love it even more. And it reminds me of how fast the world can change. That was my review of Red Star. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be taking next week off. It is the holiday season and I usually take a week off here and there in December. The final review of the year will go up on December 22nd and we will get the annual Q&A answers video on December 29th. So watch for the Q&A announcement video so you can participate. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel, hit the notification bell and share this video with your friends. You can find me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website, hcc788.com. Thank you to all my patrons. The final review of the year will be dedicated to them. I really could not do these videos without their help. If you like G.I. Joe and you'd like to help me make more videos about G.I. Joe, make sure you check out my Patreon. You can get some special perks there and even find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos. That's all for this time. I'll see you in a couple of weeks with another vintage G.I. Joe toy review. And until then, remember, whatever holiday you celebrate, I hope it's a happy one and only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.