 Hey everybody, welcome to week two of ugly ass figures month. Throughout the entire month of October 2018 I will be looking at the ugliest GI Joe figures I can find and I know last week I said I wasn't going to cosplay all of them, but sometimes it's just too easy. Yes, this week we are looking at windmill and I know I look exactly like windmill in this costume But I'm not going to wear this for the entire video because I can see myself in that little screen And this just looks a little too silly and I'd hate for this show to get silly We have a special guest in this video Fun school Ronnie is going to return and he's gonna show us the fun school version of Windmill that was released in India And I know some of you have seen that figure if you've seen it then You know why we had to include it in this video. It is special. They took Windmill's codename very literally So please join us after the theme song and in the meantime, I'm going to take this silly thing off And I did here it's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review And I'd like to thank Chris Pierce from the YouTube show comic tropes for doing the title card art for this video Thank you very much Chris. I thought it turned out great and Chris drew this image live on his comic tropes YouTube channel So make sure you check that out and I get to welcome back fun school Ronnie And you know what that means it means we're gonna look at a GI Joe figure from India. Thanks for having me HCC Hey GI Joe fans. I will review the Indian fun school release of Windmill Thank you very much for being here Ronnie He will return later in this video to show us the fun school windmill figure Yes, this week we are looking at the Skystorm X wing chopper Which has nothing to do with Star Wars and the pilot windmill which has nothing to do with windmills At least in the US have you seen the fun school version of windmill if you have seen it You know why I had to have fun school Ronnie in this video If you haven't seen it, then stick around you'll see it HCC 788 and fun school Ronnie proudly present our ugly-ass figure for this week windmill and his vehicle the Skystorm This is the Skystorm GI Joe's X wing chopper with pilot windmill from 1988 this vehicle and figure set were first available in 1988 and also available in 1989. They were discontinued for 1990 the windmill action figure was only available with the Skystorm and there were no later versions Despite being called an X wing chopper the Skystorm has no relation to the Star Wars X wing fighter In fact, it's surprising they called it that since the name is awfully close to that Star Wars vehicle But the name X wing chopper does not have its origins in Star Wars It comes from something else entirely X wing comes from concept art by Attila Asia a Hungarian born artist who painted scenes from the US space program the image that inspired the Skystorm was published in the December 1987 issue of popular mechanics the X wing is a stop rotor rotary wing aircraft Which is an experimental aircraft that can convert from a helicopter to a fixed wing airplane in flight The rotors actually become wings It's capable of vertical takeoff and landing and hovering like a helicopter and Supersonic flight like a jet it's designed to take on both jet fighters and helicopters and attack targets on the ground The X wing had an innovative method for changing from a helicopter to a fixed wing aircraft in flight Using something called the canada effect. Did it really work? According to the report in popular mechanics It did as weird as this toy is it is based on something in the real world and the toy designers got it Right when you look at other GI Joe air vehicles that were on toy shelves at the time The Skystorm had to compete against the much larger Phantom X-19 stealth fighter But the Skystorm was a lower price point So it was a less expensive alternative to that very large jet when you look at what Cobra had in the air in 1988 they had the stellar stiletto Which was a bit smaller than the skystorm and it had a completely different function The stellar stiletto was a space rocket plane the skystorm actually has a similar flight profile to the 1988 iron grenadiers AGP though not similar in design the AGP is capable of vertical takeoff and landing Hovering and powered forward flight GI Joe had a history of drawing inspiration from futuristic Experimental aircraft found in magazines like popular mechanics some examples include the Conquest X-30 from 1986 and the aforementioned of Phantom X-19 my preference is for realism in GI Joe But despite these futuristic designs, they do have a real-world Inspiration another popular toy that converted from a helicopter to an airplane was the switchblade from the mask toy line That transformation was a bit more literal than the one on the skystorm. We will take a closer look at windmill later Oh, yes, we will after all this is the reason I'm doing this review But I'm gonna set this figure aside for now so we can take a closer look at the skystorm Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the skystorm starting right here in front We have two guns one on each side of the nose the blueprints call these Imposer nine millimeter pivoting auto load twin cannons I kind of doubt that they're nine millimeter, but they do pivot each one will move up and down They pivot on this mushroom clip here. It's kind of unfortunate that that shows through the cannons That really should be covered up that looks a little bit ugly then we have the clear canopy It's a very long thin canopy It's hinged at the back and clips at the front and it has a couple handy tabs here So you can pop it open and get access to the cockpit the cockpit is okay as far as detail goes We've certainly seen worse cockpits. There's actually a couple joysticks on the sides so there is something that the Pilot can use to control the vehicle those look fairly thick though And I would not put the action figures hands on those probably too thick for the figure to hold It would be nice if we got some kind of instrument panel sticker In fact, there is no instrument panel dashboard up here in the front at all Let's demonstrate how to put the figure in the vehicle using windmill, of course Just bend his legs a bit. You don't have to bend them all the way But he just sits right down there in the pilot seat It's a little bit narrow So you do have to angle his arms a bit to get them all the way down in there But he should go in there deep enough to close the canopy There's nothing that holds the figure in there's no seat belt. There's no back peg But he doesn't really need it He sits pretty deeply in there and there's not much danger of him falling out on the fuselage Just under the canopy on both sides We have some stickers for the good old us of a then we have the gi Joe logo And if we move a little further back, we have these very short wings This would give the skystorm a little bit of lift and some control surfaces when in jet mode Let's go ahead and look at these helicopter blades This is the main gimmick on this vehicle these very thin light gray blades protrude out of a dark gray Housing then on top we have a round disc plunger and that operates the switch from Helicopter to jet the skystorm is in helicopter mode when these thin blades are extended and you can spin them like Helicopter blades to convert the skystorm from helicopter to jet You're supposed to press down on this plunger which the instruction sheet actually calls a radome Which is kind of cool to convert from helicopter to jet you just press down and that retracts the thin gray Helicopter blades to convert it back to helicopter mode You just pull up on that plunger until those blades come all the way back out However, those blades do not retract all the way they still stick out quite a bit And so they are prone to getting bent right there It's hard to keep these straight. They're also a softer plastic So they do tend to flex a little bit And I did notice that they still spin like helicopter blades even when in jet mode So that's a little bit hokey whether or not you like the skystorm Probably depends greatly on what you think about this gimmick if you like this gimmick Then you probably like the skystorm if not then the skystorm probably isn't for you I think it's okay, but it's not really spectacular Let's flip the skystorm over and take a look at the underside and the underside is kind of plain There are no landing gear so the skystorm cannot land as a jet. It doesn't have wheels It has a single landing skid here in the back this dark blue skid here And a couple raised tabs here in the front and that's all it has for landing gear We have some missiles which is nice. We have four of these smaller missiles. They are all dark blue. They're all identical They all peg in with this dumbbell shaped peg and slot The blueprints call these aim 27 trimmed sparrow air-to-air missiles These are obviously named after the aim 7 sparrow But they don't really look like that real world weapon these smaller missiles peg onto the underside of those short wings We saw earlier from the top side and I think that's a good placement. They look pretty good there moving farther back We have two larger missiles connected directly to the fuselage really much farther back than I would expect But they do peg on pretty well and the blueprints call these winged x cross section air-to-ground Anti-tank missiles. These are not based on any real world weapon that I'm aware of. It is an interesting design though They're the same color of dark blue as the smaller missiles But they have these ridges. I don't know if this is what it means by cross section But it almost seems like the missile is sort of hollowed out While these air-to-air missiles would give the skystorm the ability to take out fighter jets in airplane mode These air-to-ground missiles would give the skystorm the ability to take out ground targets in helicopter mode So they did think about the skystorm's ability to fight in both phases of flight Also here on the underside we have what I believe is supposed to be a jet intake There are also slotted intakes on the top side. The jet exhaust is in the very back We have more to look at on the top side. We have a removable engine cover It's in a light bluish gray the same color of gray as those helicopter blades and these back fins You can just pop that off to reveal some engine detail and this is excellent This tells me that this is still an 80s vehicle. We got less of this in the 90s Unfortunately, we have another slot event just behind the engine cavity Then here in the very back we have these very interesting angled rear stabilizer rudders These are probably for some additional lift and control in jet mode But that angle does look very interesting and I do kind of like it They are in that light kind of bluish gray color the same color as the engine cover And that's it for the skystorm. That's really it. It is a medium-sized aircraft. It's not a skystriker It's not a phantom x19. You don't expect it to live up to those standards But even for a medium-sized aircraft. I feel like it's kind of lacking in features It does have the pop-out helicopter blades and that gives it a something a little special But I feel like it needs more maybe some retractable landing gear Maybe an extra seat in the cockpit just something now Let's take a look at windmill the ugly figure. That's the reason this set is in this theme month And well just look at it. This is the only version of windmill in the vintage line There were no later versions released and I think we know why the color scheme on windmill is similar to one of his 1988 team mates skidmark And I do not think skidmark is a very good figure There are some nicely sculpted details on the skidmark figure, but the colors drag it down But skidmark is still a bit better than windmill Skidmark has more painted details and has more color variety than windmill Let's take a look at windmill's accessory. Yes, he came with one. He had this black revolver And this is a nice revolver. This accessory actually looks really good Um, I don't know if it's based on any real world weapon. It's kind of a generic design But still really nice. I just don't know why windmill has it You might say he could use this for self defense if he bails out over enemy territory But look what he's wearing. He doesn't stand a chance with or without the revolver Since windmill is a pilot and he doesn't have any way to holster this weapon This is an accessory that's likely to just fall out of his hand and rattle around inside the cockpit That's it for accessories. So let's take a look at the articulation on windmill He had the articulation that was standard on gi joe figures well before 1988 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 so he could 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 So 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 take a look at the sculpt design and color on windmill. This is what everyone's been waiting for Let's start with his head on his head. He has a non-removable black helmet with an orange stripe over the top And his helmet has these protrusions on the sides and they're probably antennae or electronic devices or something like that But I think they look like mickey mouse ears in the gi joe toy line We got some pilots with removable helmets. We got other pilots with non-removable helmets that were pretty cool Unfortunately windmill is neither moving on to windmill's chest. We have some of the major problems with this figure He's wearing a jacket a pretty well sculpted jacket. I don't have any complaints about the sculpt But it is in a bright neon green and it is covering a bright neon orange shirt under it That is possibly the most obnoxious color combination while I cannot fault the sculpt We have some rather important unpainted details here We have what looks like an id tag on the right side that's unpainted We have a silver painted pilot's wings on the left side and that's not too bad at all We have that horrible orange shirt under it. Then we have on the chest what looks like a sculpted on Oxygen mask or I don't know. Maybe this is an artificial heart valve or something. I don't know the point is It's unpainted and it's in that same neon green color that particular detail needed to be painted It does stand out a bit against the orange shirt behind it But I mean the point is it's neon green the same color as his jacket At the very least they should have done it maybe black the same color as his helmet But to me that's just a really egregious unpainted detail on his arms He has bright green sleeves continuing that green jacket. He has bare hands And this jacket honestly extremely well sculpted I think it's actually nicely done and it would have looked better in almost any color The problem with these very bright colors is not the brightness per se But because it is so bright some of these sculpted details can get kind of washed out and lost Especially if you're not picking out those details with paint as bad as that jacket is the bottom half of the figure is worse His waist piece is entirely orange. It has some pockets on the hips And some straps and whatnot But absolutely no paint on it at all. These are all unpainted details And by looking at them they really needed to be painted in Um that with that bright orange color The details really get lost on his legs. He has even more interesting details He has some straps sculpted around his upper thighs that are unpainted He has some unpainted pockets on his upper legs one on each leg Then he has a detail around his knees Looks like it might be knee pads, but again unpainted He has some zippers and pockets on his lower legs above his boots Again unpainted and then we have the only paint on the legs these black boots. This is very unfortunate They went through the trouble of sculpting some excellent detail on this figure But they didn't paint any of them. So they're all lost to the very unfortunate color choices That is an ugly ass figure for some added fun We will have fun school ronnie show us the fun school version of windmill from india This is the fun school windmill if you could overcome the initial shock of The color used by fun school for windmill you would notice that The fun school guys has taken his name literally for his asri backpack, which is Yes Mobile windmill is also confirmed by The card content I wonder what they would have done if skidmark was released in india comes with his revolver his Backpack, which is a windmill And A yellow stand Here is windmill's moc The card art is unique and funny as is With most other indian exclusive card arts the contents of the file card is exactly same as that of us has been released There are two known variants of his asri In one the base of the windmill is purple Whilst the fan blades are in yellow And in another variant the base is reversed that is yellow whilst the fan blades are in purple The windmill got released in the penultimate wave of fun school shows It was a standalone retail figure as the x-wing chopper never got released in india In some collecting circle they considered the colors as an improvement over the hasbro colors And unsurprisingly in 2017 the ji jo collector club's exclusive figure of windmill came in fun school colors That's my review of the fun school windmill. It's back to you hcc Yo jo let's move on and look at windmill's file card His file card has his faction as gi jo He has a portrait of windmill here This would have been from the artwork on the front of the box for the sky storm It has his codename as windmill He is the sky storm x-wing chopper pilot His file name is edward j roth and this name edward roth is the name of a hasbro marketing research employee So that's a little inside joke for hasbro right there interestingly though This disclaimer here on the bottom that says the name edward j roth does not identify any known living person Is kind of a lie because that is a real person His primary military specialty is stopped rotor aircraft operator Which is the type of aircraft the sky storm is secondary military specialty is attack helicopter pilot Birthplace is allentown pennsylvania and his grade is o3 He's a captain this top paragraph says windmill was a flight instructor at the army flight warrant officer's school at fort rucker And later flew experimental helicopter prototypes at the same facility for the army aviation department test activity This file card gets something right There is a u.s. Army warrant officer candidate school in fort rucker, alabama You might think that test piloting helicopters is easier or even safer than testing jet fighters I never thought that consider this Helicopters don't have ejection seats if you make a mistake you ride down with it Thank you. I will consider that and now I will never get in the helicopter This bottom paragraph says when the gi joes are sitting on a hot lz waiting for an extraction chopper They want fast air support with maximum fire suppression the x-wing chopper clocks in at 450 miles per hour in its stopped rotor mode And can carry a bigger payload than a dragonfly this of course is a reference to the dragonfly helicopter from 1983 Windmill can get there faster with more thrust and once he's there He can make every piece of ordinance count taking a look at the skystorm and windmill's gi joe media appearances They made no animated series appearances But they were animated for commercials in the gi joe comic book series published by marvel comics Windmill made a grand total of two appearances and the skystorm made one windmill's first appearance was an issue Number 72 and he was not with the skystorm He was with some other new joes as they were first reporting to base And he was present when the star viper infiltrated the secret gi joe headquarters Not only that windmill has totally different colors in the comic book and wow Better colors windmill's final appearance was an issue 119 and he did fly the skystorm in that issue That is the only appearance of the skystorm to my knowledge Notably that issue was not written by larry hamma. The story and art were by the late herb trippy Looking at the skystorm and windmill overall This is one ugly ass figure And it didn't have to be the sculpting on the figure is mostly pretty good Except for that helmet He looks like mickey mouse to me and i don't care what anybody else says about it Setting aside the mickey mouse head the rest of the figure is very well sculpted with some excellent details This would actually be a pretty decent pilot action figure with the jacket And the nice sculpted details on the legs everything's actually pretty well done But the colors just ruin it the colors wash out a lot of those details It desperately needed some more paint applications to pick out some of those details or some more subtle colors That wouldn't just blast your retinas out so you couldn't see any of those great details This is a problem with the bright neon colors besides the fact that they're just unrealistic military colors Those bright colors can wash out the fine details in the sculpting. So yeah, silly looking helmet Garish colors sorely lacking in paint applications. There's practically no paint at all on the lower half of the figure except for the boots It's bottomed here Sorry windmill fans that fun school version of windmill though that ronnie showed us It's hard not to love that figure. I mean it is nuts. It's absolutely crazy It doesn't fit in my interpretation of gi joe at all but that figure does kind of embrace the absurdity and It's hard to hate that. What about the sky storm though the sky storm is actually not a bad vehicle It's actually a better vehicle than I expected it to be and the fact that it was inspired by a real experimental aircraft Does raise its stock, but it's not perfect The sky storm's main gimmick is the helicopter blade extending feature and for me that gimmick is just so so It does have some things going for it. It has the things we usually got on 1980s gi joe vehicles It had some missiles. It had a removable engine cover and those things are all good It still seems like it's missing something though. It seems like it needs something a little extra It's kind of lacking in detail. The body is kind of plain. So maybe some additional detail Maybe an extra seat in the cockpit. Maybe some working landing gear Something like that would have helped the sky storm a lot But hey, the sky storm is far better than the cobra rat that we looked at a couple weeks ago Far far better far far better far far far far better I think the sky storm is comfortably a middle tier vehicle. It's really not bad at all Could be a little bit better and that was my review of the sky storm and windmill I hope you enjoyed it and thank you to fun school ronnie for joining us I know you guys would enjoy seeing the indian version of windmill Thank you again chris peers from comic tropes for the title card art That's greatly appreciated and thank you to all my patrons who helped make these videos possible If you like the videos and you'd like to support the channel in that way Please check out my patreon account and I have a ko-fi account if you'd like to leave me a tip You can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and I have a website hcc788.com Next week we are rolling on with ugly-ass figures month and the figure to be reviewed next week It's not pretty. Thank you for watching and remember no matter how ugly it is only gi joe is gi joe Body beats gi joe a real american hero X-wing comes with pilot mean dog with driver