 Hello everybody, Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, and it's time for another vintage G.I. Joe toy review, and this time we are going a little farther down the line than we usually do. We're going to look at a figure from 1989. I originally got the 1989 recoil action figure in order to do my review of Steel Brigade. If you haven't seen my review of Steel Brigade, check it out. Since I had the figure complete, I thought why not go ahead and do a review on recoil. That's when I discovered that he had file card variants, he had an accessory variant, and I didn't have any of those, so I wasn't anywhere near ready to do a full review. But I figured, what the hell, this guy looks pretty cool and I'd like to review him, so I went ahead and tracked down the variants so that he would be ready for this review. So let's check him out. This is recoil, G.I. Joe's long range recon patrol specialist. We're going to talk quite a bit about what long range recon patrol means later in this video, so I won't go into it now. Recoil was first available in 1989. He was also sold in 1990. He was discontinued in 1991, and he did not have a direct replacement in 1991. There was not another recon patrol specialist released that year. As a fan of G.I. Joe, I was essentially out of G.I. Joe by 1989, except for one figure that I did get from that year, the second version of Rock and Roll. So I never had a recoil action figure as a kid. I've only become acquainted with the figure as an adult collector. Looking back in 1989, there were some really good figures released that year, but the line was irretrievably on the path to weirdness, and it only seemed to get weirder as the years went on. But if I had gotten a recoil figure back in 1989, I think I would have liked him. As you can see, I have multiple file cards here, so we have file card variants to look at, we have an accessory variant to look at, so there's quite a bit to cover in this video. Take a look at Recall's accessory starting with his weapon, and this weapon appears to be an M16 with an M203 grenade launcher attached to it. It has a bayonet and what looks to be a red dot side attached to it, and this is a very nicely detailed accessory, really well detailed, and it looks great, but unfortunately it is made in this very light blue color. That is really too bad. This is a very unfortunate color choice for what is otherwise an excellent accessory. The same rifle is recolored dark gray and given to later releases of steel brigade, and this looks great, it looks great in that color, and this is how recoil's rifle should have looked. Here's how recoil would have looked if he had been given a properly colored rifle. Recoil's rifle is an updated and more detailed version of the rifle that came with the 1986 Leatherneck, and I really like Leatherneck's rifle, so I really like recoil's rifle except for that color. Recoil's second accessory is what the card contents call a pistol. What the hell is this thing? This is no kind of pistol I've ever seen, it sure has plenty of detail on there, I guess it looks kind of cool, but it's totally unnecessary, I have no idea why this extension here is on there, and it looks like it's got like two pistols attached, like one on the top, one on the bottom, just very cumbersome and very strange looking. You can put the pistol in recoil's hand, but he comes with another accessory that's carried in his hand, so he can carry both of these accessories and his rifle at the same time. So I usually hook this thing around the antenna on his backpack. There was a trend later in the GI Joe line of giving the figures more accessories than they could carry, and I am not a fan of that trend. I think this accessory is totally unnecessary. These accessories are excessive reads. Recoil's next accessory is his mine case, and this mine case is an amazingly realistic accessory. The mine case contains what appear to be M18 claymore mines, which are directional mines. The mines are blank on the back side, but on this side they say front. On actual claymore mines they would say front toward enemy. This accessory is just so impressively detailed. It has some coils here for line, and it has this detail up here which looks like an M57 firing device. Some research went into creating this accessory, and it is just so impressive. As a variation of this accessory, some of them had a thin handle like this, and others had a thick handle like that. I don't know if either of these is more common than the other, I really didn't have any trouble finding both of them. I don't know for a fact, but I suspect that the thin handle version is the earlier version, and they changed to the thick handle version so the figure could grip it better. Recoil has a lot of very impressive accessories, but we're not done. He still has one more, his backpack, and his backpack also is very nicely done. This backpack is a communications backpack similar to the US Army's ANPRC-77 Portable Transceiver with a Gooseneck antenna. The details on this backpack are nothing short of amazing. It has a couple of what look like maybe smoke grenades here, a highly detailed pouch with a US stamped on it. It has a canteen here, a couple of extra magazines for his rifle over here, and this wonderfully sculpted coiled cord that goes to a handset for his communications pack. I don't think this antenna is intended to be removable. I do have another one with the antenna missing, but I think it's broken off. I don't think it's just removed. And frankly, I'm too scared to try to remove the thing. And since this is a very thin piece of plastic, you will have to worry about breakage. Recoil joins a proud tradition of radio operators within GIO, starting at the very beginning of the line with 1982's Breaker. Now the earlier GIO communications officers tended to be communications specialists like Breaker and Dialtone. Later in the line, they tended to give radio packs to other characters who would carry them in conjunction to some other primary specialty. Note, the radio pack on 1987's Lieutenant Falcon has a Gooseneck antenna similar to Recoil's. Now that we've gone through all of his accessories, let's take a look at the articulation on Recoil. Recoil had the articulation that was standard by 1989. That means he could turn his head from left to right, but he could also look up and down. His neck was on a ball joint. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder. He could also swivel it at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. And he could swivel at the bicep all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees. And he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design in color of Recoil starting with his head. And on his head he has this green non-removable helmet. And it looks more like a construction worker's hard hat than a military style helmet. As usual I would prefer that helmet to be removable. But with this design where it sits kind of high on his head like that, it may not have been practical to make that a removable accessory. He has green sunglasses and blonde hair. And overall this is a really good head sculpt. With the sunglasses and the blonde hair, he looks a lot like the comic book depiction of Snake Eyes when he's not wearing his mask. And Snake Eyes was in a long range recon patrol in Vietnam. So I wonder if that connection was intentional. Has anyone ever seen Snake Eyes and Recoil in the same room together? Just saying. On his chest he has an open collar with his shirt or jumpsuit unzipped. Kind of a high collar that goes all the way around. He has some impressively detailed green straps here. And these segments appear to be extra magazines for his rifle. He has some grenades and this other device in the center here that appears to have a ring on it so it may be some other kind of grenade. The straps continue around to the back where he has this extra detail on his lower back. It looks like he has some kind of line or cord there and two canteens. And with the canteen that he has on his backpack he's carrying three canteens around. He only needs two canteens for water. The third one is for his bourbon. Priorities. On his uniform he has these dark green kind of block patterns and this looks like an attempt to do digital camouflage. Recoil isn't the only figure to try this digital camouflage. This pattern was also attempted on repeater, the second version of storm shadow and shockwave. But of those figures I think Recoil had the best execution. This digital camouflage was a departure from the more traditional camouflage that we usually got with GI Joe figures, which usually had more organic shape patterns or tiger stripe camouflage. On his arms he has long sleeves, more of that camouflage pattern and brown gloves. On his waist he has a fairly detailed green web belt, some straps that go down to his holster and some pockets in the back. On his legs we see more of that camouflage pattern and a green pistol holster. His boots are a little bit unusual, instead of wearing modern army combat boots he is wearing brown Wellington boots. Wellington boots get their name because they were designed at the request of the Duke of Wellington. Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington was the British general who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and he's a personal hero of mine so I'm happy to have any excuse to talk about him. Let's take a look at Recoil's file card and as you can see I have three file cards here. These are variant file cards and these file cards have textual differences. For some reason somebody at Hasbro felt the need to change the text on these file cards. All of these cards were printed on the back of the card on which Recoil was packaged. You can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there. Let's talk about the file card variations before we get deep into the main text of the file card. This file card has Recoil's serial number as 0078866DD66. It also has his grade of E5 over here under his birthplace. This file card has a different serial number. It has a serial number as 007340277 and it also has his grade of E5 over here under his birthplace. This third file card has yet a third serial number. The serial number on this one is 00734610077 and it has his grade of E5 over here out to the side next to his birthplace. Also unlike the other cards it has this registered trademark symbol above the GI Joe logo. The Com lists a fourth variant of the file card that omits the grade all together. But I've not been able to find that version of this file card so I cannot confirm that it exists. I believe this version of Recoil's file card to be the latest version because it uses the updated GI Joe logo that started appearing on 1990 card backs. It has this factionist GI Joe here and it has this portrait of Recoil and I have to say the artwork on this card isn't quite up to the quality that we used to get with older GI Joe file cards. His code name is Recoil and his specialty is LRRP in parentheses long range recon patrol and in another parentheses it says it's pronounced LERP. His file name is Joseph Felton, no middle initial, primary military specialty is infantry, secondary military specialty RTO radio telephone operator and that coordinates with his communications backpack accessory. His birthplace is fashion island Washington and his grade is E5. This top section says Recoil was a marathon runner and professional bodybuilder before he joined GI Joe. His excellent physical shape put him in good stead to be a LRRP. A LRRP sneaks into the bush carrying 100 pounds of gear including rations, radio, weapons, ammo and climbing rope. He is expected to penetrate deep within enemy territory, gather intelligence and extricate himself without being detected. A LRRP who has to use weapons is not a true LRRP. This bottom section has a quote, it says Recoil would be a lot more popular if he wasn't practicing all the time. Oh he puts in regular time at the survival ranges but that's not what I mean. He practices sneaking up on people. You think you're all alone, lost in your thoughts then all of a sudden he's standing right next to you. When people ask him what his job in the army is, he tells them being quiet. That is pretty creepy behavior, I can see why he's not a popular guy around headquarters. Recoil's file card embodies what I used to love about earlier GI Joe's. It's like a little mini research report and it provides a lot of information that a little kid wouldn't necessarily know about a real military unit and specialty so it wasn't just entertaining it was also educational. It also reinforced the idea that GI Joe existed in a universe that was very similar to our own and a lot of the same rules apply. Unfortunately later in the line those rules went out the window because we had to get more figures that looked like power rangers. These patrols have a long tradition within military history and in Vietnam in 1966 General Westmoreland authorized the formation of long-range recon patrol units within each infantry brigade. Lurps also have a tradition in the GI Joe comic book series with some major characters all serving on the same Lurp team in Vietnam. Stalker, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes all served as Lurps in Vietnam along with another character named Wade who later became a bad guy, a Crimson Guardsman. Recoil made very few appearances in GI Joe media. He did appear in three issues of the comic book issues number 111 through 113. I have never read those issues I did not get those issues as a kid and though I am trying to reassemble the comic book collection as an adult collector I haven't quite gotten to those numbers yet. Recoil did not appear in any GI Joe animated series. Looking at Recoil overall this is an excellent action figure especially considering the era in which he came out. Let's face it things were getting pretty weird by 1989. It's nice to know they could still give us some reasonably military accurate figures that late in the line. In fact I think he is nicely paired with the 1990 concealment specialist Ambush. These guys could definitely go on a patrol together. But then there are those damn blue accessories I mean this is an excellent rifle why does it have to be powder blue? And then there's this so called pistol which I dislike a lot I think this thing is useless. Those unfortunate accessory choices are offset by the really amazing mine case and this really impressive backpack. This feels like a top tier figure so yeah I'm going to go ahead and call this a top tier figure but the sad thing is it's so close to being a perfect action figure. I mean these unfortunate accessory choices really drag it down and keep it from being perfect. If you remove this goofy thing give him a gray rifle and a removable helmet and this will be a top tier figure in anyone's book. That was my review of the 1989 recoil I hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and if you're thinking of getting one of these action figures I hope you found it informative. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up you don't want to miss them and don't forget to find me on Facebook and Twitter you got a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review.