 church of the Judas priests. Do you know where you will go when you die? Are you threatening me? No. I just wanted to share the watchtower. Maybe here and this week we are going to look at a small play set. It's been a while since we've looked at something small. We like to look at big things. We like to look at rare things. But these small play sets are important. We can't neglect them. This review was chosen by patrons. We will be doing more patrons choice polls this year. So check out Patreon to find out how to vote. The watchtower was part of something new that began in 1984. It was a small, inexpensive play set. It wasn't a weapon system. It wasn't a vehicle. It was a piece of equipment that was meant to occupy space in your GI Joe world and interact with your figures. Before 1984, GI Joe had the big, imposing, feature rich headquarters command center. Hasbro did something smart. They went after every kid, not just the rich kids. They gave every kid an opportunity to build their imaginary worlds. If you could afford an action figure, the watchtower was nearly the same price. As much as I love the big vehicles and play sets, I can't ignore the small sets. They're just as important. They were the toys that every kid could have. Battle stations. HCC788 presents the watchtower. This is the 1984 GI Joe Watchtower. The watchtower was first available in 1984 and was also on the shelves in 1985 and was discontinued in 1986. For GI Joe's purposes, watchtower is printed as two words on the packaging, even though the usual English spelling combines them into one word. As you can see, the watchtower is very tall with its flagpole, which makes it difficult for me to fit it all on your screen. So for most of this review, I will move the camera closer and focus on the main body of the watchtower, which will cut off part of the flagpole. But we will take a close look at the flagpole in this review, so you won't be missing anything. Watchtowers are often used to guard military bases and prison. It gives a guard a vantage point to see activity on a wider area of the base and the surrounding area. The watchtower was part of the battle stations series in 1984, which included the Bivouac and the Mountain Howitzer. These were small play sets that could be used for world building. They were helpful since there were no new large play sets introduced in 1984, though you could still get the headquarters command center from 1983. These battle stations were not to be confused with the battle accessories, a selection of even smaller play sets from 1984. The battle accessories included the machine gun defense unit, the missile defense unit, and the mortar defense unit. They should also not be confused with battle gear accessory packs, which were recolored reissues of the accessories that came with figures. The accessory packs began in 1983 and new packs were released each year up to 1988. Both the battle stations and the battle accessories were popular enough that new ones were released in 1985, and a third series of battle stations was released in 1986. In 1985, there was a new battle station that would replace the watchtower, the checkpoint, also known as checkpoint alpha. The checkpoint was like the watchtower, but with more features. It had a tower, and it also had a control booth, a gate, and a speed bump. The watchtower and the checkpoint would work really well together, even though they have different colors and different styles. Both can guard the GI Joe base. The checkpoint would be at the entrance to the base perimeter. Watchtowers could be posted at each corner of the fence. The GI Joe headquarters command center would be well guarded, especially with mud and junkyard and law and order walking the perimeter, sniffing out cobra infiltrators. I'm happy to have the watchtower since I had it as a kid, but I was surprised at how difficult it was to find an intact and complete example. Some pieces can be a bit fragile. We'll talk about that. Let's look at the parts and the features of the watchtower, and let's start at the top with that flagpole and flag. The flagpole is gray in color. It is long, and it has a plastic flag on it with stickers on each side. It has a small ball at the top, and it has a knob at the bottom that connects to the watchtower on this hole in the sandbags that run around the top of the tower. That flagpole is quite long and thus easily breakable. The knob that connects the flagpole to the watchtower is also very thin and easy to break, so be cautious about that. The flag itself, at least on the US release, has an American flag sticker on one side, and the G.I. Joe flag on the other side. The G.I. Joe flag has the G.I. Joe coat of arms, and the G.I. Joe motto, which is honor, duty, courage. I can think of no better motto for G.I. Joe. This G.I. Joe flag was first seen on the 1983 Headquarters Command Center. Of course, it was resized. The flag for the Headquarters Command Center was much larger, and like the flag for the watchtower, the Headquarters Command Center flag had the American flag on the other side. This entire flagpole and the stickers for it were reused for the 1985 USS Flag aircraft carrier. It's the same flagpole, the same stickers on both sides. If there's any difference at all, the flagpole for the USS Flag aircraft carrier is maybe a slightly darker gray than the one for the watchtower. The sprue marks are even in the same place, and the stickers, while basically the same, are a bit darker on the flag for the USS Flag aircraft carrier. Let's move on to the top edge of the tower itself. We have a couple accessories attached to it. Let's start with this machine gun, which the blueprints call a 7.62 millimeter general purpose mini machine gun. It clips on to the top edge of the side wall, but it doesn't stay very well, so I usually use mounting putty to keep it on. Because this is just a clip-on accessory, it does not rotate or elevate. It is really just stationary. That is, if you can get it to stay on. This machine gun appears to be an exact reuse of the machine gun that came with the 1983 Headquarters Command Center right down to the color. It even clips on in the same way. If there is any difference between these two machine guns, I have not been able to spot it. The grip on these machine guns can fit in some figure's hands, but be very cautious. Those are thick, and you should be wary of breaking the figure's thumbs. This machine gun was retooled and reworked and used again on the 1985 checkpoint. It was made shorter, and it is in a gray color instead of a dark green. And instead of being a clip-on, it attaches with a peg, which allows this gun to rotate. On the other side of the watch tower, we have the spotlight. The spotlight clips on in exactly the same way as the machine gun, and it has the same problem as the machine gun with not staying on very well. It's also in the same dark green color as the clip-on machine gun. Again, since it's a clip-on, it does not rotate. That is a major downside to these clip-on accessories. This spotlight, like the machine gun, appears to be a straight reuse of a part from the 1983 headquarters command center. The clips are the same, and it appears to be exactly the same part, even in the same color. This spotlight was retooled and used again for the 1985 transportable tactical battle platform. The spotlight for the battle platform was on a peg instead of a clip, so it would rotate. That was a major improvement. They also added some additional detail to it. The spotlight from the 1985 transportable tactical battle platform was reworked and reused again on the 1987 mobile command center. It was again a clip-on spotlight, but with a different kind of clip and a shorter post. I have one personal story I can tell about these spotlights. As a kid, I had both the watch tower and the 1983 headquarters command center. My mom had the idea of painting the inside of these spotlights with glow in the dark paint. It looked kind of cool with the lights out, but they didn't really work as spotlights. Along the top of the watch tower, we have light green sandbags, these two plastic pieces that cover all four corners of the top of the walls and two sides, leaving only gaps for the two clip-on accessories. They are nearly identical, but one of the sandbag attachments has a hole in one corner for the flagpole accessory. The light green does help a bit. It gives a little splash of color to break up all the dark green on the watch tower. Looking at the interior of the watch tower, it's pretty deep down in there, so not super easy to see, but it has a texture pattern floor and it has a couple molded in details on the floor. It has a molded in, not removable, ammunition box, and it has molded in wire cutters on the floor. Looks like somebody was lazy and did not put away the wire cutters. Did they just left them on the floor for someone to trip on? The box art for the watch tower suggests it could hold two people. It shows roadblock in the tower and gung-ho climbing up the ladder. Two figures would be a tight fit though. There's really only room in the top of the tower for one. The floor of the watch tower has no foot pegs, but I don't think you really need them. The space again is very small, just really enough room for one figure and it's a tight enough fit that your figure's probably not going to fall over very much in the top of the tower. Looking at the exterior walls, three of them are basically the same. They are dark green and they have rivets implying they are made of metal. They each have a viewing slot so the occupant of the tower can duck down for cover and view through the slots. Then one wall has a trapezoidal door. The side with the door also has the ladder. We will look at that momentarily. The door has rivets implying it is made of metal. It is not a perfect rectangle. It's more of a trapezoid. It is hinged on one side and it has a tab on the other side so it can be pulled open. The door has detail on the outside and the inside and you can fit an action figure up through that door into the watch tower. But just barely and if you put a figure in the watch tower this way you run the risk of knocking off the machine gun or the spotlight. They don't like to stay on anyway. So I find it's easier to just place a figure in the watch tower through the top just like that. So the door looks good and it's a nice feature but it doesn't have a lot of practical use. Next we get to the ladder. It attaches to the door side of the watch tower. It has five steps. It's a basic ladder. It is in a slightly lighter color of green than the main body of the watch tower. But darker than the sandbags on top so it does add a bit of color interest. The problem with this ladder is the same as with a lot of the watch tower. It does not stay on well. It pegs in with these very small pegs to very small slots on the side of the wall. You can press it in and it will hold but it doesn't go in very deeply so it can fall out pretty easily. And if you press it too hard you risk breaking those tabs. And finally we get to the legs which hold the whole tower up. We have four legs, one on each corner and on two sides it has cross beams for extra support. The legs and the entire tower taper inward toward the top so the legs have a wider footprint than the top of the tower so it does stand pretty sturdily. It's not going to fall over very easily. But these legs are a little bit fragile. They're not super strong so you do have to be careful about breaking them. Now is a good time to talk about how this tower is constructed and the problems with it. Two sides of the tower connect to the legs. Those leg pieces are actually a part of those two wall pieces and it has smaller wall pieces on the other two sides that connect to them and they connect with these little hooks that go through these slots and those are very thin and could break very easily and it kind of adds to the overall fragility of this set. While the watch tower is not exactly based on a real world design there's nothing unrealistic about it. The overall design and color could exist in the real world. It's easy to imagine G.I. Joe using this. Who should occupy the watch tower? It would be tempting to use law or mutt but they both have dogs which would not fit in the watch tower. I would rather have them in the checkpoint or patrolling the perimeter with their dogs that would be a better use for them. The box art features roadblock and gung-ho and either of them would be fine. I would expect G.I. Joe to assign a rotation of different troops for guard duty but you might prefer to have these guys in the action rather than guarding the base. There may be some other figures that do not fit in the action so well and may be better used just sticking in the watch tower. I would suggest using your brightly colored Joes. These guys who in a combat situation would be bullet magnets and would endanger everyone around them. Even though the watch tower is a nice subdued color it's still an elevated position in an open area. It would be visible from a distance so your brightly colored Joes would be fine there. They wouldn't really be a problem and if anything happens they can just duck behind the walls. There is one other use for the watch tower. There's a lot of unused space under it and that space is large enough to fit the 1982 Ram motorcycle. So rather than wasted space you can park a small vehicle there. Looking at how the watch tower was used in G.I. Joe media it didn't make any media appearances exactly. There were watch towers in G.I. Joe but not exactly like this. There were occasions in both the animated series and the comic book when this specific watch tower could have been used but it wasn't. In 1980s entertainment watch towers were terrible places to be. In the 80s U.S. cinema gave us a lot of movies that allowed Americans to fantasize about refighting the Vietnam War. It often involved Americans either alone or as a team going back to finish the job. They typically had a scene of the heroes either attacking or escaping from a Vietnamese base. Always there was a watch tower and always the soldiers in the watch tower were doomed. Watchtowers didn't fair any better in G.I. Joe media. Watchtowers featured prominently in the comic book issue number 39. G.I. Joe was on a mission to rescue Dr. Burkhart from a bunker in the fictional country of Sierra Gordo. Surrounding that bunker watchtowers. Of course the Joes brought down one of the towers in a most dramatic fashion. There can be only one conclusion. The 80s hated watchtowers. Looking at the watch tower overall I love it. I have fond memories of it and I have to put it in the middle tier. It has a lot going for it. It's a small realistic play set. It gave G.I. Joe fans an opportunity to have a play set that their figures could interact with at a low price point. It's not a headquarters. It's not an aircraft carrier. But it served a purpose. These small world building sets should not be overlooked. For kids that couldn't afford the big expensive toys these small sets made up their imaginary world. It has some serious drawbacks though. The tower can really only comfortably accommodate one figure. You could squeeze another figure in there but it would be awkward. There are several points on the tower that are fragile. All of the tabs that hold it together can break very easily. The ladder can break. The legs can break. The tabs on the machine gun and the spotlight can break. Speaking of the spotlight and the machine gun they're just reissued parts from earlier play sets. So that somewhat cheapens the watch tower. Neither of them will pivot so they can't be aimed. And the way the sandbags are designed you can only have the machine gun and the spotlight on opposite sides of the tower. So you can spot the enemy with the spotlight but the machine gun's on the other side so you can't do anything about it. I would have been very happy to see the watch tower used in G.I. Joe Media. It could have easily been slipped in the background of the animated series or the comic book. There were occasions when a watch tower would have fit within the story. Of course in the comic book there was a watch tower. It was an enemy watch tower and that didn't turn out so well for them. The 80s hated watch towers but I like this watch tower. And that was my review of the 1984 G.I. Joe watch tower. I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. It was kind of a short and easy review for me this week which is fine because it was my birthday weekend. So for my birthday weekend I didn't have a ton of video work to do. I was able to kind of relax a bit. Now I know this week's review was something small maybe a little obscure but next week's review is something very popular. It's not rare. It's not obscure. It's definitely a fan favorite so you don't want to miss that. And we're going to have a guest. As always I have to thank my patrons for making these videos possible. Thank you guys. If you like the channel and you'd like to support the channel in that way please check out Patreon. You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website hcc788.com. We have some big events coming up in the near future and you do not want to miss those so if you haven't subscribed and hit the notification bell now would be a good time to do that. Thank you all for watching. I'll be back next week again looking at a fan favorite I hope to see you then and until then always remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe. He'll fight for freedom wherever there's trouble. Are those the new Joe's, Disco? Yes, Commander. Who's on the Watchtower? That's the Jungle Trooper. Code name, McCando. And Manning the Howitzer? That's the Flamethrower. Code name, Blue Porch. And the Halo Jumper. Code name, Ripcord. Who's by the Bivouac? That's the Dog Handler. Code name, Muck. And his dog, Jumper. Ain't not seen the last of Cobra. Watchtower, Howitzer, Bivouac, and G.I. Joe figures each sold separately from Handroll.