 Hello, everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, and I'm back with another Vintage GI Joe toy review. This time we will be looking at the 1983 Gung Ho. Before we get started, I want to remind everybody to go ahead and smash that subscribe button. And if you liked this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up. If you hate this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs down, I'm okay either way. If you're watching this video from any website other than YouTube, I would greatly appreciate it if you take a little trip over to the hooded Cobra Commander 788 YouTube channel and hit that subscribe button because I've got a lot more great GI Joe vintage toy reviews and comic book reviews coming up and you don't want to miss it, so please subscribe. This action figure is the GI Joe Marine Gung Ho, who was released in 1983. And this was one of my favorite GI Joe action figures. I know I say that almost every week, it seems like every GI Joe action figure was my favorite GI Joe action figure, but in this case I really mean it. I really had a fascination with Gung Ho, and I still really enjoy the action figure today. As I said, Gung Ho was released in 1983. He was also sold in 1984 and 1985. He was discontinued in 1986 when he was replaced by the new GI Joe Marine Leatherneck. Now the words Gung Ho are an anglicized Chinese expression gong hei, which means work together. The American usage though has the meaning of either being enthusiastic or overzealous. The phrase Gung Ho, however, is associated with the United States Marine Corps and Gung Ho's codename probably came from the 1943 movie entitled Gung Ho, starring Randolph Scott, and that movie featured a unit of the United States Marine Corps. I actually had a copy of the movie Gung Ho on VHS Cassette when I was a youngster, and that movie started a long fascination with the United States Marine Corps in general, and Gung Ho in particular. It's worth adding that since this figure came out in 1983, he predated the Gung Ho movie with Michael Keaton that came out in 1986, so the Michael Keaton movie doesn't have anything to do with this at all. Let's start as we usually do by looking at Gung Ho's accessories. Gung Ho came with what the card described as an XM-76 grenade launcher, and this appears to be roughly based on the M79 40mm grenade launcher, which was a real-world weapon used by the US military for a long time, including the early 80s when Gung Ho would have come out. The main differences between the M79 and this XM-76 is that the M79 did not have this handle, it was held more like a shotgun, and it didn't have this kind of ridged portion right here, but other than that it's not a bad representation of the real-world weapon. Now when a lot of kids got the accessory, they thought it was a shotgun, and I guess it kind of looks like a shotgun, but really they're not too far off, because the M79 was capable of firing a lot of different types of rounds, including buckshot and flochette. Gung Ho's other accessory is his very large backpack, which is in the same color as the rest of his uniform, and it really is much larger than other G.I. Joe backpacks that came out with the figures at the time. One problem that I have with this backpack is that there are no straps or web gear on the action figure that would hold this backpack up. Now maybe the backpack is supposed to clip onto the vest itself, the sculpting on the vest certainly does not indicate that, but even if it did, Gung Ho was wearing an open vest and this obviously heavy backpack would just pull the vest right off of his shoulders. For that reason, I don't really care that much for this accessory, I don't think it's very necessary, of course you need it in order to have a complete Gung Ho, but it's really not my favorite and I don't consider the backpack essential to the character of Gung Ho. Let's look at the details of the figure itself, and the first thing that you notice is the light blue, almost aqua blue color, which seems like an odd color scheme for an infantry trooper. I think that Hasbro when they designed this action figure had in mind the traditional role of the Marine Corps, which was to be infantry troopers on naval vessels. So they gave him kind of a color scheme that would be more of a camouflage at sea. Despite this attempt to portray Gung Ho as kind of fulfilling the traditional role of the Marine Corps, a lot of collectors just don't like this light blue color scheme and I can understand why, it just seems rather odd. Of course in the comic book, this light blue color was just recolored green anyway, and Gung Ho, like a lot of other action figures that came with blue plastic, is subject to yellowing. And as the blue plastic yellows, it has a tendency to turn a light green. And you know what? That actually doesn't look too bad on this action figure, it's one of those rare cases when the action figure being in less than perfect condition actually improves the look of it. But I'm happy to say that this one is still a bright blue. Now you can't really tell, I don't think that it's coming out too well on my camera because my camera seems to make things look more yellow than they actually are, but I can tell you that looking at it here in person under the bright lights, it is still a vibrant light blue. As you can see, Gung Ho is wearing a vest with no straps or anything like that, it's an open vest. He's got some grenades, some green grenades. He's got some muscles sculpted onto his chest and abdomen. Also on Gung Ho's chest is the feature that got me interested in this action figure when I was a kid and that is his huge tattoo. He has the Marine Corps emblem tattooed on his chest, also known as the bird, ball, and chain. And I think this is kind of courageous on Hasbro's part to release action figures with tattoos. This is the first one that they released that had a tattoo. I don't know if most parents would want their kids toys, encouraging them to get tattoos, but nonetheless Hasbro went ahead and released this really interesting and unique looking action figure. Now when Gung Ho appeared on the GI Joe Action Stars cereal box, they actually covered up this tattoo with a t-shirt that had the Marine Corps emblem on it. Also later versions of Gung Ho have played a little bit with the tattoo. There's a version of him out that has a much smaller tattoo that's higher up, but quite frankly I think the whole idea of tattoos is that they stay where they are. And so I know that you want to change his wardrobe around a little bit, but you can't just move the tattoo around, it just doesn't make sense. On his legs, Gung Ho has a very nicely sculpted pistol and a holster. On this side, he has on his boot a knife and grenade rounds for his grenade launcher. And that's really cool. I really like it when the sculpt of the action figure coordinates with the accessories. On his wrist, he has a green watch with some decent detail. That's kind of rare, not a lot of action figures got watches, so that's nice. That's another nice detail. Gung Ho's boots were actually reused for Duke. Just recolored, but there's the same knife, the same boots. Gung Ho's pants were camouflaged, and that's another thing that I really like about this action figure. Back in 1982 and 1983 we had precious little camouflage on these G.I. Joe action figures, so this was like a bonus. Let's take a look at the articulation for Gung Ho. He had the typical 1983 G.I. Joe action figure articulation, which meant that he could turn his head side to side. Later G.I. Joe action figures, starting in 1985, had a ball joint at the neck, so they could also look up and down, but back in 1983 they could just do that. The action figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that's looped through the center of the action figure, which allowed him to move at the torso a little bit. His arm at the shoulder, he could swing up like that, and he could swivel all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow, so he could move his elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep, which allowed his arm to swing around all the way around. This was referred to as swivel arm battle grip, which was introduced in 1983. The 1982 G.I. Joe figures did not have that swivel, they only had the hinge at the elbow. His legs could move apart about that far, and he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees, and he could bend his knee about 90 degrees. On his head, Gung Ho has a Marine Corps utility cover, also known as a utility cap, that is olive drab, and sculpted on there looks like an anchor, even though for the Marine Corps it would be the same Marine Corps emblem. So fascinated was I with Gung Ho as a kid that I actually went to an Army surplus store and got a hat exactly like his, and I would wear that around the neighborhood. Yeah, I was a little bit of a dork. Let's take a look at the file card. The file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged. This is the front side, you can see a little bit of the card art, and on the back it had this little biography, and you were encouraged to cut that out and keep it. It says he's a Marine, and a Marine is not a specialty, it's actually a branch of service, but I don't mind the Marine designation on here. Not every designation on the file card is the specialty of the character, for instance Stalker is a Ranger, which again is not a specialty. The Marine designation I think is to tell us what is distinct about Gung Ho among the G.I. Joe team. At this time he was the only Marine on the G.I. Joe team. Says his code name is Gung Ho, his file name is Etienne R. Lafitte, I hope I pronounced that correctly. His primary military specialty is Rekondo, and Rekondo is actually a combination of two words, reconnaissance commando, and the purpose of a Rekondo is to do reconnaissance missions deep into enemy territory. Secondary military specialty is Jungle Warfare, and training instructor. His birthplace is Ferre de Lance, Louisiana, which I believe is a fictional town, I don't think that really exists. Ferre de Lance is French for Iron of the Lance, and my best guess as to where this came from was maybe a 1974 movie by that name. The movie, I haven't seen it, but the synopsis doesn't make it sound very good. The best I could describe it is Snakes on a Submarine. His grade is E7, Sergeant. And this biography here says that he was born into a large backswamp Cajun clan. Gung Ho moved to New Orleans and won a reputation as a bare-knuckle brawler and a knife fighter to be reckoned with. Joined the Marines at 18 and graduated top of class from boot camp at Paris Island. Paris Island refers to Paris Island, South Carolina, which is the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, a training center for the Marines since 1915. Here it says he attended Airborne School, Rekondo School, and Marine Ordnance School. That expert all NATO infantry, small arms, and most Warsaw-packed infantry weapons, XM-76 grenade launcher, which of course is what he came with. This quote here from Zap, his teammate, says, All Marines are crazy, but Gung Ho is the hairiest, scariest, craziest jarhead that ever scratched, kicked, and bit his way out of that hole in the swamp they call Paris Island. So the file card really depicts Gung Ho as a real badass. Now he joined the Marines at 18, but by that time he had already won a reputation as a bare-knuckle brawler and a knife fighter before he turned 18. So at 17 he was knocking around New Orleans and knocking some heads. Honestly, if he hadn't joined the Marines and ended up in the GI Joe team, he'd probably be in prison. I think maybe that's what drew me to Gung Ho. I mean, he's a good guy, he's fighting for the right side, but he's also really tough, he loves to fight, and he can be brutal when necessary. And I think that is an interesting mix. That is my review of the 1983 Gung Ho, I hope you liked it, and if you're thinking of picking up a Gung Ho action figure, I hope you found this review informative. If you liked this video, go ahead and give it a thumbs up, as I said, and if you don't like this video, give it the thumbs down, I'm happy either way. Once again, go ahead and hit that subscribe button because there's even more great stuff coming up. Thanks for watching.