 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and it's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review and this week I decided to review an action figure instead of a vehicle, but I wasn't really sure which one I wanted to do So I floated the idea out there on my Facebook page and whose name came up Xandar Xandar so obviously you guys enjoy seeing my pain in these videos my suffering is Amusing to you somehow so maybe in my next video. I should jab myself in the eye. Would that be funny? Would you enjoy that? Okay, you want Xandar here's Xandar This is Xandar Zartan's brother and by Zartan of course I'm referring to the master of disguise Zartan who was released in 1984 and was an enemy of GI Joe and worked with Cobra Xandar was first released in 1986 and in that same year. They also released Xerana Zartan's sister Xandar was also available in 1987 and was discontinued in 1988 there was not a specific replacement for Xandar in 1988 But Xandar was a part of the motorcycle gang the dread knocks and there was another dreadlock released that year Road pig, but I would not consider road pig to be a replacement for Xandar There were no other versions of Xandar released in the vintage GI Joe line and really why would there be? This is a figure that just does not need another version Xandar like his more popular brother and sister has a gimmick All of their skin is made with a color changing plastic that changes color in sunlight And later on in this video. I will demonstrate that color changing gimmick as Zartan's brother He is by extension a member of the motorcycle gang the dread knocks led by Zartan The dread knocks are designed to look weird and they don't get any weirder than Xandar Let's take a look at Xandar's accessories starting with this gun and this gun the contents of the cart on which he was packaged called This a barbed projectile gun with scope. This is essentially a bolt firing Rifle this is another one of those goofy dreadlock weapons This is supposed to look like Mad Max style improvised weapons kind of MacGyver together from some kind of post-apocalyptic Future instead of carrying traditional firearms dread knocks tended to have like projectile or blade weapons like this And maybe that would be perfectly appropriate in the post-apocalyptic future But Xandar's enemies will carry real guns, so he might want to consider doing the same I'm no scope expert, but it looks to me like this scope is attached Backwards I thought with most scopes you were supposed to look through the skinny end. I'll get you GI Joe Oh, if only you weren't so far away Xandar's other accessory is his backpack, which the card contents call a grenade adorned quiver It is blue. These are the bolts for his bolt gun. They are blue even though his gun is black I have to assume these on the sides are the grenades and it has a pouch here and that's about it It's pretty simple. Let's look at the sculpt design and color of Xandar starting with his head And this is where the weirdness begins. He has this very bright orange hair. This is not a natural hair color He's done this to himself for some reason now. I have no problem with people who dye their hair bright orange That's not the issue, but Xandar really is not pulling it off He has a blue headband that is uneven for some reason. It's tied off in the back there He has an earring on each ear and that those earrings are painted with kind of a copper color or bronze color as shiny paint And unfortunately that shiny paint does have a tendency to wear off very easily So the paint on those earrings is usually the first to go He has a raised eyebrow kind of like Spock, so his face is permanently stuck in this what the hell is going on kind of expression I can do Xandar's expression He has this red face paint these markings on his face, which I always interpreted as Face tattoos, but I kind of hope it is face paint because if these are face tattoos They're not very cool face tattoos around his neck He's wearing this pink scarf and again if he wants to wear a pink scarf He can wear a pink scarf, but it just doesn't go with anything else It's the only spot of pink on this entire action figure, so it looks really out of place So again Xandar really is not pulling this look off He has a blue strap and a blue pistol holster and a black pistol and I do like this They could have gone the easy route and painted that pistol blue the same color as the strap But they didn't they did another paint app and painted that pistol black So this could have been an unpainted detail, but it isn't so I have to commend them for that The blue strap also continues around to the back And I guess this blue strap is also supposed to serve as the strap for his backpack Xandar has a bare chest He has a six-pack, but no nipples for some reason and he has these lightning bolts Chest tattoos that are the same color as his face paint and again. He's not very good at Designing tattoos. These are not very cool tattoos. This is a cool chest tattoo A peculiar thing about the chest pieces for these three figures Most 80s GI Joe action figures had screws in the back You could unscrew that and pull the figure apart that allowed you to do maintenance like replace The o-rings when they went bad, but with these three action figures for some reason the chest and back pieces are glued together So if you take the back screw out, you cannot take the figure apart The reason for this is still a mystery to me whenever the question is asked the canned answer is always Well, they are made out of the color changing plastic, but that's not really an answer What about the color changing plastic required them to glue these figures together? I have not seen an adequate answer to that question on my Xandar figure There's a small separation at this shoulder and it looks to me like a previous owner had tried to pride this figure apart I think unsuccessfully the upper arms for Xandar's arena and Zartan are all the same They all have this shoulder armor in different color plastic Zartan's arena and Xandar are showing a lot of skin and that is because of that color changing gimmick Since their skin would change color in sunlight They wanted to show as much skin as decency would allow. He's wearing very plain gray trousers with a lace-up fly He's really got to think ahead when he needs to go peak because it's gonna take him five minutes to unlace that thing His legs feature those plain gray trousers on his right leg He has blue straps and he has a bronze dagger then on his left leg and really nothing over there then he has Knee pads and I do like knee pads. That's a bonus the knee pads are painted with that bronze Metallic paint and then he has these brown boots Xandar's legs were reused for the mail-in exclusive Super Trooper. Let's take a look at Xandar's file card and this is another figure for which I have the full card back And that's a nice bonus. You can see all of the artwork on the front of the card here It does have a little note about the color changing gimmick up here It says changes color in parentheses sunlight changes skin colors. That's funny I didn't even know sunlight had skin. He was sold at Target for two dollars and ninety-nine cents This is the back of the card and you can see it has images from the other Carded GI Joe action figures that were available at the time And this figure was worth one flag point as all carded GI Joe action figures were and down here is the file card You were encouraged to clip these out along the dotted line and keep them It had a short biography of the character. It has Xandar's faction down here as the enemy and that is correct It doesn't say Cobra down here Xandar as a member of the Dreadnoughts was an enemy of GI Joe and the Dreadnoughts did Sometimes work with Cobra, but Xandar is not a Cobra agent In fact Cobra is not mentioned anywhere on this file card There's a portrait of Xandar here taken from the artwork on the front of the card There is a variant in which this artwork is changed. I guess to tone it down a little bit It has his code name as Xandar and as far as we know this may not be a code name That may be his real name instead of a specialty down here. It just says he is Zartan's brother He really doesn't have anything going for him except being related to Zartan This top section says Xandar is a master of camouflage and covert movement In other words, he is good at hiding and sneaking up on people Needless to say he doesn't sneak up on people to do them any good He sneaks up on people to give them wedgies and to put kick me signs on their backs What a jerk Xandar is an expert in silent weapons and is capable of remaining motionless for long periods of time Really? Well, let's test that out Xandar. How long can you remain motionless staring contest go That's amazing this guy is like a statue this bottom section has a quote it says Xandar was the kid who never got noticed teachers forgot he was there and never called on him Nobody that has ever met him can remember what his voice sounds like his anonymity was no accident He worked all through his formative years and after he grew up. He got even better at it So this is a character that is easily forgotten. Is that really a strong selling point for an action figure? It does work though because I put Xandar on the back of the shelf behind my thunder machine And I do forget that he's back there looking at the thunder machine overall I still think this is the best dreadnought vehicle that they made it really does look like an Improvised vehicle with huge guns on it. It really fits the dreadnought aesthetic What we're looking at Xandar. Do I really have to finish looking at Xandar? I'd much rather look at the Thunder Machine. I Do Okay, all right. Let's look at Xandar. Okay, so what do we think of Xandar? Nothing works on this action figure the colors clash nothing goes together There's no unified color scheme, so it almost seems like colors are thrown on this action figure at random He looks like what would come out if a unicorn ate a box of crayons bad horsey And the top half of the figure is all colorful and weird and the bottom half of the figure He's wearing these plain gray trousers kind of like he was dressed business casual But just took his shirt off and put some face paint on let's face it The only reason the Xandar action figure exists is so has broken produce a third action figure with that color change gimmick After all that's what the kids are interested in. They don't want really cool well-designed action figures with well-developed Characters they just want that color change plastic. I am in my backyard to demonstrate the color changing plastic on Xandar I have Xandar under his full-back file card right here In a second, I'm going to pull the file card away Expose him to direct sunlight, and we will see what happens. So here we go He's starting to change. I can notice a difference already He's been exposed to direct sunlight for About a minute now The plastic on his skin is taking on a bluish tint It looks like that's about as much as he's gonna change He has taken on more of a bluish tint to him flipping around to the back. You can see the difference Xandar still is able to change color in sunlight Xandar did make some appearances in GI Joe media He appeared in the GI Joe animated series in arise or penta arise part one And I'm sure he made some other appearances in the cartoon But I doubt that anybody cares in the GI Joe comic book He first appeared in issue number 51 and he was introduced when buzzer sat on him. Yeah weird Believe it or not, there was a live-action portrayal of Xandar in the movie GI Joe retaliation But he looked absolutely nothing like this action figure. So how do I rate Xandar? Bottom tier in fact dig a hole under the bottom tier and stick Xandar in that hole Cover up the hole and forget about it. I hope I'm not offending anyone with this review I mean Xandar is not likely to be anyone's favorite action figure, right? I mean Xandar even the file card says he's forgettable despite the color change gimmick This is a very lackluster figure and is very forgettable just like the file card says for the next review I'm gonna look at something that I actually like that was my review of Zartan's brother Xandar I hope you enjoyed it. If you did don't forget to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up. You don't want to miss them. It does get better I swear and don't forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. You get 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 Here's the cobra swamp fire aboard it. Our Zartan sisters, Irana and their brothers Xandar Machine The adventure of GI Joe