 This June, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the final International GI Joe Convention, Jocon, will be held. When the lights go out on the final day, the 25-year run of official GI Joe conventions will end forever. I will be there. I hope to see some of you there too. The theme of the convention Exclusive Toys will be Slaughter's Marauders vs. Python Patrol. In honor of the convention in the month of May, I will review Slaughter's Marauders and Python Patrol toys. More than that, we will mostly be looking at vehicles. I only have one figure review lined up for the month. Unfortunately, I won't be reviewing any vintage Slaughter's Marauders figures, because I don't have any of them complete and ready to review yet. We will be looking at a couple of vehicles, though, and the vehicles are pretty amazing. We've looked at Python Patrol once before. This will be the first full review of a Slaughter's Marauders toy. I need to thank some people. First, thanks Jaren Torwald, who first sent me the vehicle that will be reviewed in this video. Sadly, it was chewed to pieces by a large dog. I replaced the vehicle and I want to dedicate this review to Jaren. Also, thank you to Arthur and Lawson Allen for donating some figures that will be seen in this review. Marauderize it! Oh no, here we go. That's right. I'm back, baby. Ha ha ha! Buddy Hooded, Cpl. 788 here. It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review and the kickoff to our Slaughter's Marauders slash Python Patrol month. You're going to review the Sarge! I can't review the Sarge. I've already reviewed the first three versions. There's only one more vintage Sarge and Slaughter left, the last version, and I don't have it complete and ready to review yet. Give me a break. You can't review anything better than Sarge and Slaughter. This review needs to be Slaughterized. I will review the last Sarge and Slaughter figure in the future, but there's one thing you may not have thought about. What's that? Once I review the final Sarge and Slaughter figure, there won't be any more Sarge and Slaughter on this channel. Ever. Ever? That's right. Sarge and Slaughter will be done. Nothing left in the vintage era to review. You could review a modern figure. You know that's not what I do. Well, that's fine with me. It means I wouldn't have to see your sorry, warm, riddled face again. If that's how you feel, I could complete the figure and review it next week. No. What's that? Don't review the figure. Why not? You're not getting rid of me that easily. I'm gonna be showing up, interrupting your reviews and kicking your butt for a long time. Oh, so now you don't want to leave? Don't think for a second I like you. I only want to keep tormenting you as long as possible. So I order you not to review that figure for a long, long time. Alright, I guess I can't disobey orders. I'll review the Armadillo instead. And don't forget to slaughterize it. I wouldn't have it any other way. HCC 788 presents the Slaughter's Marauders Armadillo. This is the 1989 GI Joe Slaughter's Marauders Armadillo. This vehicle was first available in 1989 and was also available in 1990 and was discontinued for 1991. This vehicle was in the Slaughter's Marauders subset and of course in GI Joe, when we say slaughter, we're referring to Sergeant Slaughter. It is a reissue of the 1985 Armadillo. It reuses the base of the original vehicle with a few significant differences. The original Armadillo was released in 1985, a year many collectors consider the pinnacle of GI Joe's golden age. It's a lot of people's favorite year. 1985 saw the release of some of GI Joe's most popular figures and vehicles. Bazooka, Crimson Guard, Eels, Flint, Lady J, Shipwreck, the second version of Snake Eyes, Snow's Serpents, Crimson Twins. It would be hard to find a year that debuted more prominent characters. What about vehicles? In 1985 we got the Mauler, the More, the Bridge Layer, the Tactical Battle Platform, and the USS Flag. On the other side of the spectrum from those large and spectacular vehicles was the Armadillo. It was small. It sold at a lower price point. It was a tank that any kid could afford. It was a nice little vehicle and I liked it. Some great vehicles were released after 1985, but some of the small vehicles were hit and miss. In 1988 we got the RPV, the Cobra Battle Barge and the Cobra Adder. GI Joe was also drifting away from its military roots. In 1987 we got the Futuristic and Flawed Battle Force 2000. 1988 recaptured a little bit of the military feel with the Mean Dog and the Desert Fox. Also in 1988 we got more reissued vehicles with Tiger Force. Hasbro was augmenting the lineup by stamping out old toys in different colors. With that trend leading up to 1989 there were more great 80s vehicles that were ripe for a refresh. One of the best military vehicles of 1988 was the Warthog AIFV, a rare late 80s toy that was based on a real-world vehicle. The driver of that vehicle was none other than Sergeant Slaughter. Another trend of the late 80s is the proliferation of subteams within GI Joe. In 1987 we got the aforementioned Battle Force 2000. In 1988 we got Tiger Force. Cobra got into the game in 1989 with Python Patrol. GI Joe and Cobra were carved up into segments and in 1989 Sergeant Slaughter got his own team. That was actually the second time he was given his own team. Sergeant Slaughter was a professional wrestler with a Marine Corps drill instructor character. His real name was Robert Remus and he was a Marine in real life. In 1986 a Sergeant Slaughter action figure was available as a mail-away offer. Later that same year a second version of Sergeant Slaughter was released with a vehicle, the Triple T Tank. Sergeant Slaughter was a popular character in 1986 and featured prominently in the opening miniseries of the cartoon that year, Arise Serpentor Arise. He had a few appearances in the Sunbow animated series but not very many. He returned to the 1987 GI Joe animated movie and he had an important role. It was at that time he was given his first sub team Sergeant Slaughter's Renegades. The Renegades were released as action figures and were sold in a three-pack that included Mercer, the former Cobra Viper that defected to the Joe's, Red Dog, the former football player and stuntman and Taurus, the circus acrobat. The Renegades was a cool idea. They were all new figures, no reissues here. They were Ruffians who did dirty jobs that the GI Joe team didn't want to do. They were GI Joe's version of the Dreadnoughts. Oddly, the look of the figures was the opposite of their Ruff Personas. They were bright and colorful and almost cheerful looking. The Renegades didn't really go anywhere. Only Mercer got a second version in the vintage era. In 1988 keeping with the trend of making Sergeant Slaughter a vehicle driver, a third version of Sergeant Slaughter was released with the Warthog. It was an excellent vehicle and I gave it a favorable review. What's special about the third version of Sergeant Slaughter? It's the only version where you can remove his hat. Sergeant Slaughter was more involved with GI Joe after the 1987 movie. He appeared in the Deke animated series frequently and he was in commercials for the toys. In 1989 we got the fourth and final version of Sergeant Slaughter. It reused the mold for version one. This is also when Sergeant Slaughter got his second team, Slaughter's Marauders. Like Tiger Force it would consist of reissued older figures with different colors. The figures were tied together by a common color, light blue. Even though the figures had pretty good color schemes, they also had a strip of light blue that clashed with the other colors. Why light blue? It seems like a color chosen at random. Also like Tiger Force, Slaughter's Marauders would get vehicles. Unlike Tiger Force, Slaughter's Marauders vehicles would all get upgrades. There were three Slaughter's Marauders vehicles released. The Equalizer, the Lynx and the Armadillo. They all used the shell of older vehicles but they also had new parts. Of the three only the Armadillo kept the name of the original vehicle. I don't have the Equalizer yet. It's the largest of the three and it is special. I look forward to getting it someday and showing it to you. That brings us to the Slaughter's Marauders Armadillo, the smallest of the three. Look at the Marauders Armadillo next to the original. I like the original. It's green, good color. It's a nice mini tank. The Marauders version isn't just a straight re-release. It's a significant upgrade. For one thing it's painted. It has a camouflage pattern on it. That was a rare thing on GI Joe vehicles. There were only a handful of vehicles that got that treatment. This is part of why Slaughter's Marauders vehicles were special. They all got this painted camouflage. Not only is it camouflage, it's three-tone camouflage. On top of the base plastic color, it has two additional colors. The camouflage colors match the color scheme on Slaughter's Marauders figures but without the blue. Thank heaven they resisted the temptation to add blue. The Armadillo is an example of a multi-launch rocket system or MLRS. One example of a real world MLRS is the US Army M270. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of Slaughter's Marauders Armadillo starting here in the front. In the front we have a molded-in winch. We also have a Canadian flag. This is the Canadian release of the toy just like the one Jaren sent me. The Canadian vehicles were the same as the American versions except for having Canadian flags and labels. On the top of the body we have this fuel port. This was a feature that appeared on some 1985 vehicles. They could be used with fuel nozzles that came with a couple play sets. It was a nice feature that didn't really catch on. Later vehicles didn't have them. I'm glad to see it carried over to this 1989 vehicle. On both sides we have the Slaughter's Marauders logo. Looks kind of like a sheriff's badge. The Armadillo has fake treads like the original. These in black. I will show you the underside of the vehicle in a minute because I want to point something out. I want to show you the rest of the vehicle first. The features we've looked at so far are just carried over from the original Armadillo but it's at this point we start to see some major changes. The turret is entirely new. It does not reuse the turret from the 1985 tank. The turret can rotate all the way around. It is not obstructed by a back rail. It does not carry that back rail over from the 1985 Armadillo. The spaces where the rail connected to the body are filled in but it does still have the center hole on the back platform but it no longer has anything that attaches to it. I noticed the reuse of a sticker here. This M12A1 first appeared on the 1984 slugger. The slugger incidentally being another camouflaged GI Joe vehicle. Inside the turret we have the cockpit. There are no molded-in instrument panels in there. It's pretty plain. There's room for one figure. Let's use Slaughter's Marauder's MUT. There is no seat so you just kind of drop the figure down in there. Now once the figure is in there the turret will still turn but you kind of turn the turret around the figure. The figure itself does not turn. Even though the figure is kind of exposed in this position that's pretty much the same as the original Armadillo. That's about the best you're going to do with a vehicle this size. Plus for display purposes I don't mind this so much. We do get to see the figure in the vehicle. Instead of the quad guns on the original Armadillo we have six huge tube launched missiles. The tubes elevate about 90 degrees. There's a tab on the bar that connects them that prevents them from moving any farther. The tubes and the turret are in dark green and do not have the camouflage paint application but since that dark green base plastic color is part of the camouflage it still fits pretty well. There are six missiles all identical and all in this off-white color. The blueprints call them High Impact XXX 010 surface to surface slash surface to air missiles. If I'm not mistaken these missiles were also used for the Slaughter's Marauder's Equalizer. They have one long fin that serves as a tab for pulling the missiles out of the Equalizer's longer tubes. The off-white color provides some contrast against the dark greens and browns of the vehicle and I don't mind that. We've made our way to the back of the vehicle and here we have the platform with two foot pegs for additional figures. This is the same as the first version but here's where I have to point out another upgrade from the 1985 Armadillo. Remember when I reviewed the Armadillo and pointed out that placing figures on the back platform made the vehicle back heavy causing it to tip backwards. The vehicle rolled on wheels and those wheels were too far forward to support the weight in the back. The Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo has huge missile launchers but even with the missile launchers and a full complement of figures it does not tip backwards. Why not? Well look underneath. They added a third set of wheels in the back. These extra wheels in the back add the support the vehicle needs and it may seem like a small thing but to me this is a significant functional upgrade. Go ahead and put figures on the Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo. It will not tip backwards. I have to give credit to Hasbro here. They noticed a flaw in the original design and they fixed it. Looking at how the Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo was used in GI Joe Media it appeared in the Deke animated series in Operation Dragonfire. It appeared in all of the episodes of that mini series but had the most exposure in day five. In that series Sergeant Slaughter led his Marauders against Cobra's Python Patrol. Unfortunately it made no other appearances after that. The Deke animated series continued into the 90s and the Slaughter's Marauder's vehicles were just maybe not 90s enough. To my knowledge neither the Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo nor the Marauder's themselves were featured in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Sergeant Slaughter wasn't favored in the comic books. After a couple issues following his introduction he disappeared never to be seen again. Even when his vehicle the Warthog was introduced it did not include the Sarge. Larry Hama must not have liked the character. Looking at the Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo overall it is top tier. Top, top, top. It's not easy for a reissued toy to make it to the top tier. Usually reissuing toys is a lazy way to push out new product. A reissued toy would really have to bring something new to the table and that's exactly what the Slaughter's Marauder's Armadillo does. First the camouflage. Paint applications for vehicles were expensive. We rarely got them. Most GI Joe vehicles added color interest by using different color plastic. The rare paint applications we got were usually in the form of camouflage like on the 1984 Slugger and the 1986 Tomahawk and Tiger Force vehicles did have painted tiger stripes. All Slaughter's Marauder's vehicles got painted camouflage. This is special. This is an extra expense taken to refresh the old toy. If that's all they did it would be great but that's not all they did. They changed the top half of the vehicle. They added a new turret and missile tubes. In general I prefer guns over missiles but I have to applaud the extra effort here. To top it off they fixed a problem on the old Armadillo. They added the third set of wheels in the back which helps balance the vehicle. This is the pattern for how to reissue a vehicle in a way that makes it feel new. I often criticize Hasbro for cutting corners and being cheap but I have to give them credit when they earn it. With this vehicle they made the effort and spent the money to give us a quality vehicle with real improvements over the original. Well done guys. The fact that this vehicle came out in 1989 is remarkable. In a time when GI Joe was moving away from its military roots, Hasbro gave us some of the most military vehicles in the entire line. These vehicles would match up well with the best vehicles of any era. I admire what they've done here. I'm impressed. I was out of GI Joe by the time these vehicles were released but if I had seen them they might have kept me in longer. So how was that Sarge? Weeeek! You did the whole review without doing push-ups. You have rubber bands for arms. You make me sick. I'm glad you liked it. That was my review of the Slaughter's Marauders Armadillo. I hope you enjoyed it. Next week we'll be looking at a Python patrol figure. It's the only figure of you scheduled for this month and it is a doozy. Wow! Please join me each week as we countdown to the final Joe Con and then if you have the means and the opportunity I hope you will join me there. The convention will be June 21st through the 24th, Chattanooga, Tennessee. In the meantime find me on Facebook, Twitter and support the channel on Patreon. You can also visit my website HCC788.com. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next week for a Python patrol toy review and until then remember only Sergeant Slaughter is Sergeant Slaughter. Equalizer. Armadillo and links. Figure sold separately. Nobody beats G.I. Joe! Joe Joe!