 GI Joe in 1982 was not very good. I loved it. It was better than the competition, especially in the articulation department. It was successful, otherwise we wouldn't still be talking about it. But cost cutting gave us some figures that were carbon copies of each other, with some parts shuffled around and some minor color swaps. Some were even very fragile and broke very easily, like the figure we're gonna talk about this week, Zap. Some of those 1982 figures were revisited later in the vintage line, and given the kind of sculpting and construction and accessories that we couldn't get in 1982. Were the updates of those original Joes better? That's what we're gonna find out. Hello GI Joe fans, HCC788 here. This is probably the last review of 2023. The end of the year is fast approaching, and this is my opportunity to thank you. Others on Patreon voted for this review. They chose it, and this is my way of thanking them for their support. Everyone who supports the channel on Patreon, thank you so much. You keep this channel going. I really couldn't do it without you. You mean a lot to me, and I think the final review of the year is the perfect time to say thanks. Not everyone can support the channel on Patreon, but allow me to say thank you anyway. You are supporting the channel just by being here, just by watching the videos. You're showing your love for GI Joe, and if you love GI Joe enough to be here and watch these videos, then I am happy to have you around, and I would like you to stay around because we've got some great things coming up. Before those great things, let's look at a gimmick figure. This is a figure that comes with a giant backpack. Why is the backpack giant? It has to be to fit the electronics in it. Why does it have electronics in it? Well, because it has to make battle sounds. Why does it have to make battle sounds? Because I guess some kids couldn't just go, but the giant backpack is not the important thing about Super Sonic Fighter's zap. The important thing is it's zap. He was one of our original 13 Joe's back in 1982, but the 1982 figure left something to be desired. Also, there was a mystery about the 1982 figure. On the package art, he had a mustache. The figure did not. Well, this one corrects that oversight. Hey, me here cutting in. Thank you to John Earl for doing the thumbnail for this video. And he did it at the last minute with very little notice. He really helped out. Thank you, John. Link for John is in the description. Talking about those original 1982 Joe's is like visiting an old friend. Well, let's see if the old friend can be new again. HCC 788 presents Super Sonic Fighter's zap. This is zap version to GI Joe's ground artillery soldier from the Super Sonic Fighters subset. The Super Sonic Fighters included large backpacks with electronics that would make battle sounds. There's a small controversy about when this figure was released. According to yojo.com, it was released in 1991, but it's on the 1992 page. According to 3djoes.com, it was released in 1992. According to Hasbro's collector's book, it was released in 1992. Tomar's price guide has it in series 10, which would be 1991. The James Desimone guide has it in 1991. The 1991 catalog includes the Sonic Fighters, but says the Super Sonic Fighters are coming soon. The Belomo guide has it in 1991. The 1992 catalog includes the Super Sonic Fighters. And that's probably why the Super Sonic Fighters are usually included in the 1992 set. Based on all this information and my best guess, I think this figure was released in late 1991, after the 1991 catalog was printed, but before the 1992 series. The Super Sonic Fighters had a vehicle in 1992 for America, but the Sonic Fighters also had a vehicle in 1992, the Desert Apache. ZapVersion 1 was in the first wave of new GI Joes when the line was relaunched in 1982. He was the Bazooka soldier. Version 1 of Zap was designed by Ron Ruddad for Hasbro. I don't know who designed version 2. Zap was GI Joes' first anti-armor specialist. The 1982 figure is notoriously fragile. Most examples are broken. I feel fortunate to have one that has both thumbs intact. It's a simple design, as were most 1982 figures. This version 1 Zap has no original parts. All of the parts are shared with other figures, including the head, which was shared with grunt and grand slam. Version 1.5 was released in 1983. All of the 1982 figures were re-released in 1983 with updated articulation on the arms and some updated parts. This 1.5 version still has no original parts. It still shares all of its parts with other figures. Version 1 may be more remembered than version 2 because it was part of that foundational first wave of GI Joes in 1982. But version 2 is both more detailed and more robust. ZapVersion 2 is called the Ground Artillery Soldier. He has a rocket launcher and a grenade launcher. And he was the Bazooka soldier, the original anti-armor trooper. So why is he called Artillery? According to Britannica, Artillery is. In military science, crews served big guns, howitzers or mortars, having a caliber greater than that of small arms or infantry weapons. Rocket launchers are commonly categorized as artillery since rockets perform much the same function as artillery projectiles. But the term artillery is more properly limited to large gun type weapons using an exploding propellant charge to shoot a projectile along an unpowered trajectory. As such, Ground Artillery Soldier could be a misnomer for Zap, but he does have a grenade launcher which could fit that description. ZapVersion 1 did have a secondary military specialty of artillery, but it is absent on the version 2 file card. Other Joes with Zap's specialty included Bazooka in 1985. Also in 1985, Footloose included an anti-tank rocket launcher. In 1990, Salvo filled that role. After that, a lot of Joes included spring-loaded missile launchers, so they all sort of had Zap's specialty. Enemy counterparts for Zap included 1984 Scrap Iron, who worked for Destro, but also worked for Cobra. In 1989, there was the Heat Viper. And in 1990, there was Metalhead, who worked for Destro. Of all these anti-armor missile specialists, Zap was the original. There was a mystery on the 1982 card art. Zap had a mustache, and he was shown that way in media, but the figure did not have a mustache. According to Dan Cleansmith's book, early design sketches by Ron Ruddad included a mustache for Zap. But the 1982 line reused a lot of parts, including heads. So Zap used the same head as other figures with no mustache. There was to be a running change in 1983 that would give several of the 1982 figures new heads including Zap. The new head would have had a mustache. The running change was canceled and never released. The version two figure has the thin black mustache that the version one figure always should have had. If you're wondering what makes Zap a supersonic fighter, it's this big chunk of technology here, which believe it or not, is a backpack. There were other sound gimmick figures. The Sonic Fighters were released in 1991. They used recolored figures and had giant backpacks with speakers and electronics. They had buttons that activated action sounds. The supersonic fighters were released in 1991-ish. They had a mix of new and old figures. Zap was a new one. They had more giant backpacks with sound making electronics. Finally, there were the talking battle commanders from 1992. They had a similar electronic gimmick, but they included sampled voice clips. Also, the backpacks were screwed to the backs. They were not easily removed. There could have been more sound gimmick figures. Battle scan was planned for 1993, but the sound making gimmick was canceled and the figures were rolled into battle core. Some of these G.I. Joe's subgroups were united by a similar uniform like Tiger Force or a mission type like Night Force or a skill like Ninja Force. These supersonic fighters were just united by a gimmick, but I still appreciate it because the figures are still pretty good and you don't have to put the giant backpack on the figure. You can use it as a piece of battlefield equipment like Zap's backpack can just be a battlefield robot with a little gun on top. Let's take a look at the card back so we can see how this figure was marketed in 1991 or so. It has a background that looks a different color depending on the lighting. In this lighting, it looks kind of pink, but in other lighting, it looks kind of orange. I don't know how it's coming out on camera, but it's kind of a pinkish orange, almost a salmon color, but more orange. It has the G.I. Joe logo and it says electronic supersonic fighters. It has some artwork of Zap, which is largely obscured by this promotional sticker. This tear across the artwork is unfortunately placed because it obscures something that I want to point out later. There are instructions for replacing the batteries in the backpack and there are instructions for assembling the accessories. There's a list of accessories here. We'll get to that later, but let's look at the back of the card. This partition on the cross cell says Sonic Fighters and it groups the Sonic Fighters and the supersonic fighters together. So what's the difference? Well, one has the word super and the other doesn't. Otherwise, they are the same. This figure is worth one flag point and there is the file card. This is an 80s style file card. By 1992, some figures had the rectangular file cards. This one does not. Also later file cards had a list of the features and accessories. This one doesn't, but it does have a partial list of the names of some of the accessories. We will take a more detailed look at that file card later. Let's take a look at Zap's accessories starting with the regular accessories. There is a variation. Some figures came with silver accessories and others with gray. These are in silver plastic. Let's start by looking at the helmet. The helmet is in silver plastic. It is a hard plastic. It's not flexible, but it has some nice detail. It has a visor that goes over the figure's eyes. It has a band across the top. It goes over the figure's ears. This is a much better helmet than the version one helmet. I mean, look at these side-by-side. There's no comparison. The next accessory is the grenade launcher. This one is in silver plastic. The file card calls this an XM179 lightweight grenade launcher. There's a grip at the back that I can only get to fit in my figure's left hand. There's another grip at the top. So I guess he's supposed to hold this left-handed and that is how it is shown on the card art. The grenade launcher is in two parts. It has a muzzle that can be removed with the muzzle on. It has a point sticking out the center, which I guess is a grenade in the launcher. I don't know. This is a very well-sculpted accessory with lots of small details. And I think the silver works very well with the silver on the figure, though the gray would work well too. The card art shows a bipod attached to this accessory. It did not come with a bipod, but it still has this tab on the bottom with indents where you would attach a bipod. The next accessory is the rocket launcher. The card calls it a double-barreled rocket launcher, and that's exactly what it is. The file card calls it an XM20 surface-to-surface double-barreled rocket launcher, though barreled is misspelled. As with the grenade launcher, it has a lot of intricate detail. It has two tubes. It has a grip on one side, and it's a very thin grip, so it actually fits in the figure's hand without too much trouble. That's very nice. Behind the grip, it has what looks like a shoulder brace, and on the other side, it has a sight. If that's correct, then he should hold the rocket launcher this way, but that seems rather awkward to me, so I turn it around and I have him holding it in the other direction, because then it can kind of rest on his shoulder. I just think that looks better. By 1992, a lot of figures included spring-loaded missile launchers. It's surprising weapons of this size didn't really fire missiles, but that would have been a double gimmick, and for now, let's just stick to one gimmick per figure. The next accessory is the figure stand. It is a standard figure stand in black. 90s figures included figure stands, and 80s figures did not, so that is always a plus for the 90s. Finally, we get to the backpack, and yes, this is a backpack. It has a peg for the back of the figure, so the figure, I think it's supposed to go this way. The figure can wear this as a backpack, but as you can see, it is ridiculously oversized, and even with the figure stand, it's gonna be hard for this figure to stand up with this thing on his back. So, though you can use it as a backpack, don't use it as a backpack. On top of the backpack, there is a silver accessory that can be removed, and the instructions on the card simply call this a gun. It is not a pistol. It does not fit in the figure's hand. It has a vintage shroud over the barrel. It has a hose connector here in the back. It has a top loading magazine, and it has some kind of sight or camera on it. The backpack itself is a gray rectangle with a disc on the top. It does have some technical detail on one side. The other side has the backpack and the speaker. It also has molded on treads and bogies as if this is some kind of a field robot, and I would much rather use it for that rather than put it on the figure. Those are fake treads though. There are no wheels, so you just have to pretend that it rolls along. There are two lights on one side and four light gray buttons, and each of those buttons makes a different sound. The card lists those sounds as double barrel rocket launcher, grenade launcher, machine gun, and pistol, even though the figure does not include a pistol. Pressing the button will make the sound and will make the lights come on. This is the top button. Maybe that's the rocket launcher, I'm not sure. This is the second button. Is that the grenade launcher, maybe? This is the third button. That's gotta be the machine gun, right? By process of elimination, the bottom button should be the pistol. I guess that could be a laser pistol or something. Your mileage may vary on whether the sound gimmick is worth this huge chunk of plastic, but at least it's not bolted to the back of the figure like the talking battle commanders. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation on Zap. Zap 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 so he could 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, but allowed him to move at the torso of it. 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 to design and color of Zap starting with his head. He is Caucasian. He has black hair and a black eyebrows and eyes and a black mustache. This is a reasonable update from version one. You could imagine this is the same guy just older, but to me, this looks like Clark Gable. The likeness is too close for it to be a coincidence. On his chest, he has a dark green uniform with a raised collar in the back. Could this be a hood? He has brown straps in the back and around the front, on which there are these silver shells or rockets, maybe rockets for his rocket launcher. He has a detailed belt around the torso. His arms feature long, dark green sleeves. There are canisters on his upper right arm, probably grenades. He has forearm guards on the outside of his forearms that are silver. He has unpainted straps around the forearms and he has silver gloves. The waist piece is plain dark green. There's no belt on the waist piece since the belt is around the torso. There is a small zipper detail in the front. The legs have dark green on the upper legs and there is silver leg armor all the way down from the thighs down. It looks like based on the card art that these straps around the back of the thighs and the back of the lower legs should have been painted but the rest should have been the green uniform color but the silver is quite striking. There's armor plate on the front of the thighs and on the shins and these braces on the outside of the lower legs. Then there are silver boot covers over the tops of the boots and black boots. The base uniform is just dark green with brown straps. Then he has all this silver on top of it. It's not that dissimilar to the version one uniform which was light green with brown straps. If you put all this silver stuff on the version one uniform it would look basically the same. With the rockets on the chest it looks like Zap is wearing his ammunition pack the wrong way around. It's a front pack. Why would he wear it this way? He's got to have room on the back for the big honkin' backpack. Let's take a look at the file card. This file card has a lot more information and text than the version one file card from 1982. It is also in that pinkish orangey color with very small print. It's hard to read and I hate it. It has his factionist G.I. Joe. It has a portrait of Zap. His codename is Zap. He is the ground artillery soldier. His filename is Rafael J. Melendez. His primary military specialty is combat engineer. His secondary military specialty is infantry. His birthplace is New York City, New York and his grade is E-6 Staff Sergeant. Some updates from the version one file card. It does not have artillery as a secondary military specialty and it says primary military specialty engineer. Here it says combat engineer and he got a promotion. He was in E-4, now he's in E-6. Larry Hama, the writer of the G.I. Joe comic book also wrote these early file cards. Zap has a Hispanic name and that is Larry Hama just injecting some diversity into that first wave of G.I. Joe even though the figure is very Caucasian. In media, he does look a bit more like the ethnicity he's supposed to represent. Also, the serial number has changed but there's an asterisk. It says Zap's security number has been specially modified to prevent breaches in G.I. Joe security. This paragraph says one of the original G.I. Joe team members from the very inception, Zap has a reputation for coolness under fire and a totally professional attitude. He is the team specialist in infantry portable armor defeating high explosive projectile delivery systems which is to say that if it's a weapon that a grunt can carry and it can knock out a tank, Zap has probably got one. When he heard the sonic fighters were looking for someone with the battle savvy to man some of the most powerful ground artillery ever made, Zap said me first. This paragraph has a quote. It says Zap is a square in the best old fashioned sense of the word. He can look you straight in the eye and not flinch because he's got nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. Does this make him a better soldier? Not technically, but it certainly makes him a person you'd want to soldier with. Here it says assigned armaments, 40 millimeter XM179 lightweight grenade launcher and 3.5 inch XM20 surface to surface double barrelled, spelled incorrectly, rocket launcher, weapons qualification experts. This second paragraph paraphrases something Larry Hama wrote for the original Zap file card that got cut out in the final version. The full paragraph says he's square. I mean that in the old fashioned sense like he can look you in the eye and not flinch because he's not pulling any fast ones on you. Larry Hama wrote all of the early file cards but he didn't write all of the later ones. The first paragraph seems like a bit of marketing fluff so I kind of doubt that Larry wrote that one but he wrote the first draft of the second paragraph. So even if the rest of the file card was written by somebody else, Larry at least had the first draft of that. Looking at how Zap was used in GI Joe media there was a TV commercial for the supersonic fighters that included Zap but he was barely in it. The focus was on the other characters. In the GI Joe animated series his first appearance was in the A Real American Hero mini series AKA The Mass Device, part one. This was 1983 so the focus was on the 1983 characters. 1982 Joe characters didn't get as much screen time except for Scarlett and Snake Eyes. His most significant appearance was in Cobra's candidate. He was on screen for about a minute and a half and he had a few lines. He was in the later TV series produced by Deke but he had no lines. He was in his version two uniform but he didn't do much. His most significant appearance was in Long Live Rock and Roll part one, mostly in the background. In the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics his first appearance was an issue number one, the very first issue. He wasn't in the series very much. He had a few appearances but not much more than the animated series. He was an issue number 49 when the entire team was assembled to attack the Cobra controlled town of Springfield. It's not clear which person is him. He must be one of the soldiers with his back to the reader. In issue number 50 there's a character that calls himself Zap but that's a mistake. It's Flash not Zap. His final appearance was an issue number 82. He was involved in training new Joe recruits. Looking at Zap overall the head looks like Clark Gable but it would have been more appropriate if it looked like Ramon Navarro. Version two is better than version one almost by default. Version one is made entirely of reused parts including the head and it was ridiculously fragile. Version two is all original, sturdy and has all the detail that version one was lacking. The details are good too. With the leg armor and the rockets on the chest even without the accessories he looks beefed up. The use of silver is both a blessing and a curse. It looks like a deluxe figure. Zap finally gets the chance to shine literally but it's also a relic of the 90s. Trading, realism and camouflage for Flash. Not that Flash. Most of the accessories are excellent. The helmet is really good. Both the grenade launcher and the rocket launcher are large and highly detailed. They don't really shoot missiles which is a plus for me. One downside is it's hard for him to hold both and there's no way to store one while he uses the other. The big problem or asset is the backpack. That is the selling point of this figure. You will either love the gimmick or hate the absurdity. I don't love the gimmick. It's way too big to be a backpack. I could buy it as some kind of ground artillery support. It has the molded on treads so it could be a battlefield robot. Placing on the figure is comical. He's top heavy. It would break his spine. The best thing is you don't need it. This is a fine figure without it and he has other good accessories. If you really need the battlefield sounds you can just leave the backpack in the background and push the buttons. Zap has enough going on for him without the gimmick. Even though he gets the least attention I think Zap is my favorite supersonic fighter. That was my review of supersonic fighters Zap. I don't have any jokes. I don't have any gags. I just wanna say thank you. And thanks again John Earl for the thumbnail art for this video. This channel will be entering its 10th year in 2024 and the fact that you are here and watching this I don't care how you got here. That is special to me. 10 years of talking about GI Joe and sharing the passion and the love for this toy line that we grew up with and we still feel so strongly about. Thank you for being here and I hope you will stick around because 2024 is going to be a special year. If you like this video of course do all the things they usually say to do on YouTube like give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. If you'd like to support the channel Patreon is a great way to do it. You can get to vote on videos like this. You can get your name in videos like the names you see scrolling on the screen right now but if you can't do that you can still support the channel by just watching the videos and going forward to us we finish out the first decade of this channel. Thank you for making 2023 my favorite year so far. I can't wait to see what next year brings but until then remember only GI Joe is GI Joe. Supporters on Patreon chose this review. They voted for it and now they're gonna get it.