 This is the Ghost Striker X-16 high-tech image targeting combat jet and the pilot, Ace. This set was introduced in 1993 and was available in 1993 only. It was discontinued for 1994. The vehicle and figure were only sold together. They were part of the battle course set which was the general line of GI Joe toys in 1993 and 1994. This is the only version of the Ghost Striker. The mold was never reused. This is not the only use of the mold for Ace, though. We will talk about the other vintage versions of Ace later. 1993 was a year in which GI Joe leaned heavily into science fiction and fantasy. Despite that, the Ghost Striker and Ace are surprisingly realistic. They even look a little out of place next to other 1993 vehicles. For the Ghost Striker, I have to admire the effort and attention to detail. In an era when GI Joe was drifting into insanity and many toys were garish, cheap, and disappointing. Ace, on the other hand, reuses a previous figure's mold with different colors. Despite that, the figure has some merit. I will have a lot to say about Ace. The Ghost Striker has electronic lights and sounds. The electronic features on this example are not functional, but I have another incomplete Ghost Striker and the electronics are working on this one. I will use this example to demonstrate those features later in this video. The name Ghost Striker is probably meant to evoke the original GI Joe jet, the Sky Striker. Adding Ghost to the name suggests it is stealthy, but stealth is not emphasized in the marketing. The blueprints tout the Ghost Striker's exceptional speed. I'm going to give Ace a thorough review later in this video, but I'm going to set him aside for now, so we can take a closer look at the Ghost Striker. The Ghost Striker was modeled after the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. The F-16 entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1978, and was well known at the time the Ghost Striker was produced. The F-16 was officially named the Fighting Falcon, but pilots nicknamed it the Viper. The Ghost Striker isn't an exact copy of the F-16. The proportions are a bit different. It has a few extra bits and bobs that aren't on the real jet, but the inspiration is obvious. The fact that the Ghost Striker is modeled after a real jet is an extra bonus in my book. The Ghost Striker has the designation X-16, which suggests it's an experimental jet. GI Joe did this with a lot of their aircraft, like the Sky Striker XP-14F and the Conquest X-30 and the Phantom X-19. The implication is these are experimental upgrades of the original aircraft that have been pressed into service for GI Joe. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the Ghost Striker, starting in the front with the nose cone. The nose cone is molded in gray plastic. The blueprints call it an internal radar processing nose cone. It's a bit fatter than the nose cone on a real F-16. That's because the proportions of the Ghost Striker are just a bit chunkier. Behind the nose cone we have the canopy. The canopy is dark tinted clear plastic. It looks really good. This example is missing a sticker. The sticker is on my other example. It's this Killmark sticker with four red cobra emblems. The canopy latches in the front and is hinged in the back. To open it up, just pull up at the front. It swings up and reveals a two-seat cockpit. The two-seat cockpit is highly detailed. The details are exceptional. Because it's molded into the body, the cockpit is the same color as the body. Having a darker color plastic would help differentiate it from the exterior. The F-16 was mostly produced as a single-seat fighter, but there are two-seat variants, so this is still accurate to the real jet. There is a really cool light-up feature in the cockpit, which I will show when I fire up the electronics. To place a figure in the cockpit, just put the figure in the seated position with knees slightly bent and slide him into the pilot seat. Just put him in there as far as he will go. There is enough room for a co-pilot in the back seat. Slide him in there. Make sure he goes in as deeply as he will go. The canopy will close and there is plenty of room for two action figures in the cockpit. The fuselage is molded in a light gray plastic. Not quite white. It is light gray. It has some exceptional details. Some great technical details. Some panel lines. It even has molded in GI Joe logos. That's really cool. On the top of the wings we have light bulbs. There's a green one on one wing and a red one on the other wing. There are more nice panel details. This example is missing a GI Joe logo sticker on one wing. That sticker is present on my other example. There are some no step stickers. And there is a white stripe that runs the length of both wings and across the fuselage. And I like this. It almost works like a paint application. It's just there to give the jet a bit more depth. On the starboard wing we have this ghost strikers insignia fighter first wing. It also appears on both sides of the tail. This ghost strikers badge may be inspired by the real world US Air Force weapons school insignia. It kind of looks like a unit insignia. I would love to have a whole GI Joe air wing called the ghost strikers. That would be awesome. Behind the nose cone and under the cockpit there is the single front jet intake. This mimics the look of the F16. On this toy this is a light source for the projector. There is a light bulb in there. Let's flip the ghost striker over to see what's on the underside. Looks like it has little thingy here so I guess this one is a boy. On the underside we have landing gear. There's the front landing gear with two dark gray wheels on a bright orange strut. And then two rear landing gears each with one gray wheel on bright orange struts. The landing gear is retractable but it's manually operated. There is no mechanism to automatically raise and lower the landing gear. You just have to push them back and up to raise the landing gear. And then when you want to land you just pull them back down to lower them. I have to point out the landing gear is way too short. With the gear extended this back fin touches the ground. That's going to make it hard to take off and land. That back fin is going to scrape the tarmac. This lower fin is not present on the F16 and I think it's on this toy because the ghost striker is back heavy. It tends to tilt backward. So to keep the toy from going nose up this back fin sort of acts like a kickstand. In the well for the front landing gear there is a thumb wheel for the projector. Behind that there's a reset button for the projector. Behind that there is the pop out control grip. The rear landing gear are on these pods on the underside of the wings and each of those has a red tinted light. We will cover all of these when I talk about the electronic features. The ghost striker has six missiles. They are all in neon orange. Two of the missiles are what the blueprints call anti-aircraft x16 sidewinder missiles. They attach to the wingtips with these dumbbell shaped slots that fit on pegs. Those pegs are short so those missiles on the wingtips tend to fall off very easily. Four of the missiles are what the blueprints call high tech rapid fire phoenix missiles. They also attach to the wings in much the same way. They have the slot and they fit on pegs. The pegs on the underside of the wings are much longer and those missiles fit on much more securely. Each wing has a neon green spring loaded missile launcher. Both missile launchers are the same. They have a trigger in the back and both missile launchers will work with both the sidewinder and phoenix missiles. To load the missile launcher just press any of the six missiles into the missile launcher barrel. Press back until it clicks to fire. Just press down on the trigger in the back. Just aim and press down on the trigger to fire. On the bottom in the back just behind the control grip compartment we have this fin and I mentioned before I think this fin is only there to keep the toy from tipping backward because it is back heavy. Looking at the plane right side up we have the rear stabilizer fins with some no step stickers. Then we have the tail fin which is in dark gray. It's a darker gray than the nose cone. It's not quite black. It is a dark gray. It has some stickers for realism and it has that ghost strikers insignia that we saw on the wing. This back fin pops off very easily. Maybe too easily. It's popped off several times as I've been recording this review. I think this is a feature to keep it from breaking. It's better that it pops off than break off. I do see a lot of ghost strikers missing the fin but I don't see very many broken fins so that's good and it's easy enough to just slide back on. We finish our look at the exterior body of the ghost striker by looking at this single jet engine in the back. Inside it has some support ribs for structure. It has a nicely molded engine nozzle but that engine nozzle is molded into the body of the airplane. So as with the cockpit this would have benefited from being a separate piece in a darker color that really would have enhanced the look of this engine. The blueprints call this a high-tech Mach 10 propulsion turbo thruster. Oh no it isn't. This jet does not go Mach 10. No jet goes Mach 10. The fastest recorded speed by a crewed powered aircraft was set by the North American X-15 at Mach 6.7. The record was set in 1967 and has never been broken. Now it's time to fire up the electronic features and for that I need my extra incomplete ghost striker. She may not look like much but she has it where it counts. It's my belief that the electronic features on the ghost striker were inspired by the 1959 ideal fighter jet. Flight leader to ideal fighter jet clear for takeoff. Flight leader to ideal fighter jet turn indicator on. Red warning light will tell you when you're off course. You're flying by radar. Holder steady. Enemy plane coming in at two o'clock. Enemy out of machine gun range. Set your rangefinder. Get set to use rockets. In ideals electronic fighter jet is like flying a real jet fighter. You want the throttle indicators radar scope and warning light. You control six moving targets via four rocket guns. Like the ghost striker the ideal fighter jet projected targets on the wall for the jet to shoot at. The ideal toy was a fighter jet control panel not a handheld toy plane. The ideal fighter jet was an amazingly cool toy for its time. It had a lot more features than the ghost striker. It was a sophisticated electronic and mechanical flight simulation toy with no use of computers. We tend to think of the 1980s as the best era for toys but don't underestimate the toys of your parents generation. They had some amazing toys some of which were better than what we got in the 80s. To activate the electronic features flip the grip handle down. The electronic sounds and lights will automatically start. It makes that electronic engine sound and that can get pretty annoying after a while. Let's take this to a darker room so you can see the light up features. When you pull the grip down the lights on the wings light up and the interior light lights up too. There's a light inside the cockpit. Sorry about the noise I hope you can hear me. I really like the cockpit light. You can pretend like it's the light of the radar screen. That's a very cool feature. The trigger on the pistol grip will activate machine gun and missile sounds. Unfortunately it's very tough to push on my example. I really have to press down hard to get the sounds to activate. Activating the electronic features also turns on the light in the projector and that will project images through this lens. Just aim it at a wall and you will see projected targets. You can change the target by turning this thumb wheel that's just behind the front landing gear. It has generic crosshairs. It has the cobra liquidator. That is just a generic cobra fighter jet. That is an air commandos glider. That is the cobra liquidator and finally it has a pair of cobra rattlers. You can squeeze the trigger to fire at these and supposedly if you squeeze the trigger eight times it will make a noise indicating that the target is destroyed. It's really hard to pull this trigger. It's very, it's not very sensitive. I have to really press it down hard. There she goes. There are light bulbs in these pods on the wings with a red tint in front of them and they should project a red light on the wall. But I've only been able to get them to activate once and I have no idea exactly what the pattern is for those. I'm trying to show them to you but they're just not activating for me this time. The projector light is set to switch off after four minutes at least according to the instructions. There is a reset button on the bottom to turn it back on. There is also a slide on the side and you can move that back and forth to help focus the projector. It's really unfortunate that the engine sound is constant. It's really loud too. So while the projector and light up features are nice unfortunately that engine noise is just too annoying to me. Here's something to consider. The electronic features are fun for a while but they get annoying pretty quickly. However, that grip on the bottom makes it easier to maneuver the plane around. So you may consider just leaving the batteries out and pulling that grip down and it makes it a little easier to play with the plane. Here's the matchup everyone wants to see. The classic 1983 GI Joe Sky Striker versus the Ghost Striker. The Sky Striker does not have any electronic features. It doesn't light up, it doesn't make sounds but you may or may not consider that to be an asset for the Ghost Striker. All of the Sky Striker's features are functional without batteries. The Ghost Striker has spring loaded missile launchers which is great if you're a fan of 90s GI Joe but I am at best indifferent to the missile launchers so that's not a plus in my book. The Ghost Striker has more missiles than the Sky Striker but they're bright orange which spoils an otherwise really good color scheme. The Sky Striker has functional landing gear, a sweep wing mechanism, removable engine panels, a cockpit with two removable seats and parachutes. The Ghost Striker has none of those things. What the Ghost Striker has that is undeniably better than the Sky Striker is a highly detailed cockpit. The seats and the instrument panels are very well done and I appreciate the effort. Now we turn to the pilot of the Ghost Striker. This is Ace. This version of Ace was only available with the Ghost Striker. It is the third version of Ace in the vintage era. The first version of Ace was introduced in 1983 and was included with the Sky Striker. That version was wearing a pressure suit. A pressure suit is worn by pilots flying at very high altitude. It's not the type of flight suit typically worn by fighter pilots. Version two of Ace was introduced in 1992 and was included with the battlecopter. That version was wearing a G suit which is often worn by fighter pilots. The G suit is designed to prevent blackout caused by high G forces. He had a more realistic helmet too. Unfortunately the colors were a bit off and he came with a tiny little helicopter not a jet. Version three from 1993 included with the Ghost Striker finally looks like a proper fighter pilot and he comes with a proper fighter jet. It reuses the same mold as version two, but with a much more realistic color scheme. Let's take a look at Ace's accessories. Ace came with an Uzi submachine gun in black plastic. It is reasonably detailed, but not exactly like the real world weapon. This is a reissue of the Uzi that was first included with 1986 low light and it was used with a lot of other figures. This accessory was reused a lot. This has never been my favorite accessory and I hate that it's been reused so often. There are better Uzi's in the GI Joe line, but this is the one that kept being reused. And I don't really need it for this Ace figure. I know sometimes pilots have to punch out over enemy territory and they'll need a weapon, but as a practical matter this submachine gun is likely to fall down into the cockpit of the Ghost Striker and rattle around in there forever. It wouldn't help him anyway since the Ghost Striker doesn't have an ejector seat and Ace doesn't have a parachute. Even though version two and version three use the same mold and have almost exactly the same accessories, they do not include the same submachine gun. Version two had a black version of the submachine gun that originally came with 1988 shockwave. According to the file card, Ace is supposed to have a 9mm Beretta pistol. It's even in the picture, but that's not what this is. Ace had a helmet and air mask assembly. I'm going to take them off together. The hose on the air mask fits in a hole on the figure's chest. You have to pop that out. The helmet fits on quite firmly and is not easy to get off, but with some work it can be removed. This is the same helmet and air mask that was included with version two, but in different colors and in my opinion, better colors. The air mask is in a black soft flexible plastic. It has an air hose and a peg that connects to a hole on the action figure's chest. The air mask covers the nose and mouth and it has straps that connect to the sides of the helmet. By pulling the straps off of the pegs on the sides of the helmet, the air mask can be removed. The helmet is also made of a black flexible plastic and it's a good theme because otherwise it could be quite difficult to get on and off the figure's head. It still fits on quite snugly. It has gold painted goggles that go over the figure's eyes and long pegs on the sides for the air mask. The helmet definitely looks like it's missing something without the air mask. Those pegs on the side stick out quite far because both the helmet and the air mask are made of soft flexible plastic. You do have to press pretty well to get that air mask on the pegs. There is a major downside to this helmet. It tends to scrape the paint off of the figure's head. I see a lot of version three ACE figures with paint scraped off the head. Let's take a look at the articulation on ACE. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1992. 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 the 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 look at the sculpt design and color of ACE starting with his head. He has a good head sculpt. He has red hair. It's a dark red closer to Auburn. This is a change from both of the previous versions. Version one of ACE had brown hair without the slightest hint of red in it. Version two had bright red hair. This is the same head sculpt as version three, but that hair is very bright red. It seems like with the final version they split the difference between the first two and gave him brownish red. On his neck he has a red color that apparently is for an undershirt under his flight suit. On his chest he has an olive green flight suit. There are some unpainted details on the back and the front. There are a few painted details though. There are some black pouches. There is a gold painted flashlight and this gold detail here right below where the air hose connects that I guess is supposed to connect to his oxygen system. The file card calls these black pouches emergency signal flare compartments. There are a lot of unpainted details on the chest and the back like the unpainted straps, the unpainted zipper, the unpainted flotation ring around his neck. They started with a good base color so they can get away with a few unpainted details. This is a different paint mask than what they used on version two. On the version two figure they have the straps and the pouches and the straps on the back painted like a harness and that's good, but they lose the painted details on the pouches and the flashlight. His arms feature long olive green sleeves, minimal detail on those sleeves and black gloves. His waist piece is green. He has an unpainted belt and straps on that waist piece and this is another lost paint application from version two. Those details are painted in on version two. The legs are olive green matching the flight suit color. The legs feature unpainted leg coverings with zippered pockets on the outside legs, unpainted zipper details on the upper legs. He has tall black boots. There are straps that go around the back of the boots. The boots look really good. On the right boot there is a pouch and on the left boot there is a black pistol holster. I think some of the details on the file card are a little mixed up. It says this is a leg mounted pistol holster slash ammunition and this is map storage and knife pouch, but this is clearly a pistol holster. You could store a knife and a map in this pocket, but I think it might be referring to this pouch on the other boot as map storage and knife pouch. The paint applications on the version two legs are totally different from version three. The leg coverings are painted in and the boots don't go up all the way to the top of the pouch and the pistol holster. The paint applications are better on version two, but I prefer the colors of version three. It would be easy to knock this figure for unpainted details and it could definitely use more, but I give it some leeway because it's such a good looking fighter pilot flight suit. This is how I want to see ace, not as an astronaut, not in aqua blue. The final version of ace was a real fighter pilot and I'll take that despite the lack of paint. Let's take a look at ace's file card. I will have plenty to say about this file card. This file card was inserted in the box with the figure. It was not printed on the back of the box. It has a red backing. There's a portrait of ace and then a full body illustration with a numbered list of the features I have referred to that list a few times before. His codename is ace. He is the fighter pilot. His filename is Brad J. Armbruster. His primary military specialty is fixed wing pilot. Secondary military specialty is intelligence operations. Birthplace is Providence, Rhode Island, and his grade is O3. Captain USAF. Here's where I have to point out some weirdness with this file card. Not so much this file card as the version two file card. The information in this top section is the same as on the 1983 file card. Except for the serial number, they often changed the serial number. Filename Brad J. Armbruster, Birthplace, Providence, Rhode Island, grade O3, Captain USAF. All of that changed on the version two file card. Now he is Wendell L. Armbruster, Birthplace, Seattle, Washington, and grade O4 USAF major. Maybe you think this is a different guy, maybe ace's brother, using the same codename, but the text of this card refers to him as the original fighter jock jet driver of the GI Joe team. This is supposed to be the same guy as version one. As it turns out, Wendell L. Armbruster was a prototype name for ace, but it was changed to Brad J. Armbruster before it was released. Apparently when they reissued the character in 1992, whoever was in charge of file cards at Hasbro grabbed a copy of the prototype file card and copied that rather than the released version. They caught the mistake in 1993 and they changed it back. He is now Brad J. Armbruster again, he's born in Providence, Rhode Island, and his grade has changed back to O3. To add more confusion to ace's real name controversy, on the sky striker it says he is Captain J. Brad Armbruster. So J is either his first initial or his middle initial, depending on whether you believe the file card or the sticker sheet for the sky striker. Not that it necessarily resolves anything, but the comic book GI Joe Order of Battle issue number one on the first page has Ace's file name as Brad J. Armbruster. Back to the 93 card, we have a quote here, presumably from Ace himself. It says, once an enemy is in my sights, I blast him from the sky and turn and burn back home. The main text of the file card says, Ace would rather fly than do anything else. During high school, he worked after school and weekends to pay for flying lessons. He spent one year flying pipelines in Alaska and two years stunt flying for movies before enlisting in the US Air Force at 22. He joined the GI Joe team after serving in pilot combat training school as a senior instructor to the USAF's fighter weapons squadron in parentheses known to most aviators as the aggressors. The aggressors is a real training squadron that is tasked to act as the enemy in US military war games. He's an expert pilot qualified to fly an F-5E, F-16, XP-14F, and the Ghost Striker X-16 jet. He has one major character flaw, cutthroat poker, but in Armbruster's case, you can hardly call it a flaw because he never loses. That's why he's called Ace. If this sounds better than most 90s file cards you've read, and it makes you think of how 80s file cards were written, that's because this is taken almost word for word from the version 1 file card. They added a few things and changed the phrasing around, but this is mostly a copy of 1983.