 The 1990s made great leaps forward in digital sound technology. In 1992, GI Joe's talking battle commanders had sound players that were shrunk down to fit in a backpack that was only as large as the figure. And it could play four whole sound clips. I guess that means my backpack is running out of things to say, so we better play the theme song. Looko here, it's the final review before Joe Fest! I hope you will be joining me in Augusta, Georgia next weekend! Before we get started today, I have a new patron and I need to give him a codename. His name is Andrew Creech and my network of spies inform me that he is a master of ceremonies and a nightclub DJ. And even though his initials are AC, he can be adapted to direct current. So Andrew, your codename is... MCDJACDC Thank you so much for your support. MCDJACDC For the last review before the break, I wanted to look at something from the 90s, but also something that's important to me. Stalker is my favorite character. I have the most sentimental attachment to the 1983 Stalker figure. This portrayal in the comic book captivated me as a young reader and it still does now. Obviously the name Stalker sounds ridiculous to modern audiences. It's not a name a character would be given if he were released today. It would be easy to start this video with a bunch of Stalker jokes, but that would be a bit obvious and the character Stalker deserves better than that. The figure we're looking at today is not the Stalker of my youth. See, that sounds bad. This is a Stalker of the 90s when Hasbro had the boldness to produce figures with non-removable backpacks that were so large the figures couldn't fit in any vehicles. Hasbro was really thinking outside of the box. The figure is literally bolted to the outside of a box. I love Stalker, but will the 1992 figure meet the standard of the first? HCC 78 presents Talking Battle Commander's Stalker. This is the 1992 Talking Battle Commander's Stalker, version 3 of Stalker, the Ranger from that series. This figure was introduced in 1992 and it was available in 1992 only. It was discontinued for 1993. This figure was part of the Talking Battle Commander's set, which included four figures, Cobra Commander version 5, General Hawk version 2, which was really the fourth version of Hawk, Overkill, the Cobra Bat leader, and Stalker. Excluding the 12 inch Talking GI Joe figures from the 1960s and 70s, the first electronic sound making GI Joe figures in the real American hero line, the 1990 Sonic Fighters, a series of figures with oversized removable backpacks that made sound effects. That series was followed up in 1991 with the Super Sonic Fighters. Despite the name change, the Super Sonic Fighters had basically the same gimmick as the Sonic Fighters. Then came the 1992 Talking Battle Commanders. They had two major differences from the Sonic Fighters and Super Sonic Fighters. Number one, they played a few spoken phrases as well as sound effects. And number two, their electronic backpacks were bolted to their bodies. They were not intended to be removed. There is a way to remove the backpack though, I will show you later. This talking mechanism reminds me of the old 12 inch Talking GI Joe's. A talking mechanism was added to the figures in 1967. If you pulled a dog tag, the figure would speak. I think they were trying to recapture that magic with talking three and three quarter inch Joe's. But the technology was too big to fit in the figure, thus the giant backpacks. In 1993, Hasbro was planning to release another set of talking Joe's with new technology called battle scan. The figures were going to come with battle scan tapes. That plan was changed. The talking mechanism was scrapped and the battle scan figures were rolled into the battle core series. This is the third version of Stalker. The first version was introduced in 1982 with the first series of GI Joe action figures when the line was relaunched that year. That was version one. In 1983, Stalker was reissued with new articulation. That release is referred to as version 1.5. 5 versions of Stalker released in the vintage line. If you followed my channel for any length of time, you probably know Stalker is my favorite Joe. And version 1.5 is my favorite Stalker figure. There wasn't a new version of Stalker until 1989. Version 2 was an Arctic themed figure. Version 3 was from 1992. That's the figure we're looking at in this review. Version 4 was from the 1993 male away Arctic Commando set. And it was a recolored re-release of version 2. The final version was from 1994. The final year of the vintage GI Joe toy line. Obviously, the name Stalker has not aged well. In 1982, it didn't have the same connotation it does today. Now the word is used almost exclusively to mean a person who harasses someone with unwanted attention. Stalking is even a crime in many places. It's not the image you want to evoke with your toy army guy. Since Stalker is my favorite character, I'd love to see a live action version of him. But I know they would never call him Stalker in a movie. I would propose they simply call him Ranger. Stalker was designated a Ranger in 1982. That means he is a graduate of the US Army's Ranger School. Ranger School is a grueling combat leadership course that focuses on small unit tactics. It is the perfect training for a GI Joe. At the time Stalker would have entered training, the Vietnam era, the course was 59 days with classes training for 20 hours a day. The Ranger motto, Rangers lead the way, embodies Stalker's personality. Other Joes who completed Ranger School include Beachhead, Repeater, Scarlet, Flint and others. For an elite unit like GI Joe, Ranger training would be a big asset. I have the full card back for Talking Battle Commander's Stalker, which I don't usually have, so let's look at it. We have the GI Joe logo up here and a yellow background over blue. Not a big fan of those colors. We've got the Talking Battle Commander's logo and we have a price sticker. Looks like this thing was $7.99. That's pricey. That's like twice as much as a regular GI Joe figure. We're going to pay that much for a single figure that Talking gimmick had better be great. We've got some artwork of Stalker here and I think it's okay, but it's hard to tell because it's partially obscured by this block here where the figure and the accessories were glued onto the card and this sticker for a free Hall of Fame collector card. Everything is just kind of in the way. This is a very busy card front. We've got three of the phrases that the figure says with the electronic backpack. Let's party, attack and blitz them. Down here it says three battle commands and electronic combat sounds. Push buttons on back. They have a hole in the card, so you could push the buttons and test the Talking feature. Then we have this gray area. This is where the figure and accessories actually were packed on. We have some instructions for changing the battery on the backpack. As it happens, the backpack on my figure still works, so I won't be changing the batteries out, but I will show you how to open up this backpack. Flipping the card around to the back we have the cross-sell and here are the other Talking battle commanders. There's Hawk and Cobra Commander and Overkill. Then we have some of the other figures that were available that year. Here it says it really pushes my buttons and that is correct. Here it says watch the new TV adventures of G.I. Joe. Check local times and listings. This is referring to the Deke animated series and you will see this stalker in that series, but not very much. We have the file card and of course it is a 90s style file card, so it is a rectangle with rounded corners and a very unfortunate yellow background. And we round out our look at the card back with our single flag point. We will look at the file card later in this video. Let's take a look at Stalker's accessories starting with this really big machine gun. This very long thing, it's in black plastic, it's got a grip on it and it's got just lots of detail. And it's very long. It even has a little tab here on the bottom that looks like it should fit a tripod, but no tripod comes with it. The file card calls this a 30 caliber M19 combat rifle. A M19 is a real designation for some military equipment, but that includes mines, mortars, grenade launchers and other such things, but not machine guns. With the curved stock it looks similar to the MG series of German machine guns, but it's not exactly a copy of any of those. The machine gun is so long, if the figure is a bit top heavy for you and you have a hard time getting him to stand, you can use the machine gun for extra support. His next accessory is this smaller weapon, this black, what looks to me like a submachine gun or a submachine pistol. It's got a magazine, it's much shorter than the machine gun. It's got a little scope on it and a grip. It does not look to me like it is based on any real world weapon. His last accessory is the figure stand. It is a black figure stand. I'm really glad a lot of 90s figures came with figure stands. And good luck getting this figure to stand without it. But that is in fact his final accessory. And you may be saying, what about the giant backpack? Well, the giant backpack is not an accessory. Alright, let's talk about that backpack. This backpack is not an accessory. It is part of the figure. It is screwed on and semi-permanent. It is possible to remove, but it is not easy and it takes several steps. It is a bright yellow sort of marigold color. It has some technical detail molded onto it. Looks like it has a normal sized backpack sculpted onto the back. And it has four gray buttons. Each of those plays a different sound. Given the size and inconvenience of this backpack, I'm expecting the sounds these buttons play to be crystal clear. Let's play them one at a time. This one says... That staticky nonsense you just heard was the word attack. This one says... Blitzem. This is probably referring to the football term, not the Blitzkrieg. This one over here says... Let's party. I can't imagine Stalker saying that in battle. He's not a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. And finally this button over here makes a sound... A machine gun sound. For less than one second. Is it worth it? Is it worth having a giant backpack like this bolted to the figure? The backpack is very large for the limited range of sounds. I didn't have this figure as a child, but I was never fond of noise making gimmicks. I could give this figure a voice and make him say anything I wanted. I could make more sound effects with my face than this thing can with its four buttons. The backpack makes the figure top heavy and he wants to fall backward. You need to lean the figure forward to make him stand, even with a figure stand because if he stands upright he will fall over. Let's take a look at the articulation on Talking Battle Commander Stalker. He sort of had standard articulation, but it was somewhat hindered. He could turn his head from left to right and look up and down, not that it's easy to do with the backpack in the way. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and he would be able to swing his arm all the way around, but the backpack is in the way. He had a hinge on 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 still an O-ring figure, so he had that O-ring 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 Talking Battle Commander Stalker starting with his head. And on his head he has a black beret with a yellow band and beret flash. At the time this figure was released, the black beret was worn by Rangers. They didn't have the yellow band though. The first version of Stalker had a green beret, which is usually associated with special forces. I do like the black beret. I think it's appropriate for Stalker. He is African American with a mustache and he's sculpted with an expressive face with the teeth painted in. And that is a nice touch. That's a good extra paint application. There were some figures that had the teeth exposed, but the teeth weren't painted in and that always looks weird. But the expression on his face is either a smile or a snarl. I think it's more of a snarl, but there is a bit of a Lando vibe to him. On his chest, and we can only look at his chest right now because his back is covered up. He's wearing a black shirt and on that shirt he has crossed yellow bandoliers. And on the bandolier that goes over his left shoulder there is a knife with a gold handle. And on the right side of his chest he has a gold pistol and a yellow holster positioned for a left-handed draw. There have never been any indications that Stalker is left-handed. The file card calls this an FOA1 pistol. And I can't find a reference to a real FOA1 pistol. But the pistol itself is undersized compared to the grip. Is this a starter pistol? On his arms he has long black sleeves and yellow gloves. And the gloves have some additional detail sculpted on them. The sculpting is pretty good. I can't complain about the sculpting at all. On his right forearm he has a couple yellow bands that go around his arm. And on the inside of his forearm he has a small Derringer pistol. Again, this is positioned for a left-handed draw. This is the second indication on this figure that Stalker is left-handed. On his waist he has a couple black belts. We can't see them very well in the back. But they are overlapping and he has an X-shaped belt buckle. So he may be in the X-men. And he has a gold grenade. On his legs he has cream-colored trousers and a black blotchy camouflage pattern. I guess this would be good camouflage in a bowl of cookie crisp cereal. On the right thigh he has a black magazine sculpted over an unpainted pocket. And it looks like that's supposed to be the magazine for the submachine gun. That's a nice detail. I do like that. On his left thigh he has a black band that goes around the thigh and he has a black machete sculpted onto the side of his leg. He has black combat boots and those are sculpted really well. I like them a lot. And then on his left shin he has multiple magazines strapped to his leg. Again, it looks like the magazine for the submachine gun. So he's got a lot of extra ammunition and this is another detail I like a lot. The color scheme obviously is confusing. Stalker is not combat ready. He's a professional soldier and he would never wear this into battle. Yet I have to admit the colors go well together. They don't clash. They provide a sharp contrast and they are aesthetically pleasing. I just don't think Stalker would be caught dead in this. The sculpting is mostly really good. I am desperate to see this figure in more realistic military colors. Despite the bolted on backpack this is still an O-ring figure. And as you may know all O-rings will eventually dry out and get loose and break. So O-rings have to periodically be replaced. That's a problem on this figure because the screw in the back that you would normally take out to replace the O-ring is covered up by the semi-permanent backpack. But never fear, Joe fans. I will show you how to take this thing off. You will need a small Phillips head screwdriver. I use this old one from Land Tech Incorporated a voice and data products distributor. I wonder if they're still in business. There are four screws to remove. One on each corner of the front of the backpack. If you need to change the batteries these are the screws to take out. So let's go ahead and unscrew those so we can open up the backpack and get to the inside of it. Those screws can be a bit tight but once you have them all out this one is just being a little bit difficult. There it goes. Once you have them all out you can open the backpack just split it right in half and the talking mechanism comes with it. There's the little speaker. And there are the batteries. Three batteries. They're pretty standard watch batteries. You can replace those if you need to. But as you noticed we unscrewed those screws but the half of the backpack is still on the figure. We still have to go through one more step to get that thing off. There are three more screws here that you have to take out in order to remove this half of the backpack from the figure. Those screws are smaller than the other four. So make sure you keep track of those. They would be easy to lose. So just take these guys out and once you have them out you can actually take the backpack off. And there it goes. Okay, so now this thing comes off and it does have a peg on it that goes into the screw hole and that is the normal screw hole that we're used to seeing on GIJO figures. You can go in there and take that screw out open up the figure and replace the O-ring. So that's what the back of the figure looks like without the backpack. It has the screw holes and the straps don't go all the way and it's kind of just flat there where the backpack was attached but even so it looks a lot better without that giant yellow box on it. The figure without the backpack is such an improvement. I'm going to leave the backpack off. I am not going to put it back on. So for the rest of this video I'll just use a spare stalker. Let's take a look at stalker's file card. His file card is very yellow. We have a portrait of stalker here and we can see a little bit more of the artwork. It's not obscured here and it looks pretty good though there are some differences from the figure. There are descriptions of some of the features listed down here and in fact I've already referenced a couple of them but I won't read through all of those. His codename is stalker. He is the ranger. He is Vincent. His primary military specialty is infantry. Secondary military specialty is medics slash interpreter. First place is Detroit, Michigan and his grade is E7. This is mostly the same as the version 1 file card though on the version 1 file card he was an E5. On the version 2 file card in 1989 he was an E7. So he got a promotion and I think that's good. Generals may win campaigns but it's the sergeants who win the battles mostly by yelling and kicking butt. Stalker served in the LRRP's asterisk long range recon patrol with snake eyes and storm shadow so he's no stranger to kicking butt and any GI Joe who has heard him call out let's party in the thick of a firefight knows he can yell. Loudly. Also sometimes known to say party on dudes and cowabunga. Stalker has clearance to operate the GI Joe patriot and brawler battle vehicles during top secret covert actions. The patriot was a 1992 vehicle so that would have been available at the same time as this figure but the brawler was a 1991 vehicle and was discontinued by 1992. This file card does recount some of the comic book continuity where Stalker served in Vietnam with snake eyes and storm shadow but otherwise this is very sparse. Looking at how Stalker was used in GI Joe media he appeared in the very first episode of the very first cartoon miniseries in 1983. He wasn't the most prominent character he took part in the infiltration of General Flag's base to test its defenses. Although he had numerous appearances in the Sunbow series he didn't do very much. As a 1982 character he had to make way for a lot of characters action figures for sale. He returned in the Deke series for their first miniseries Operation Dragonfire. He was in his version 2 uniform. He did appear in his version 3 uniform later in the Deke series but he only had a few seconds of screen time and no lines. Stalker was much more important in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics. He was in the very first issue of the series. After that he was in more issues than nearly any other character. He was part of the core cast of the series. He continued to appear in the comic book even when he didn't have any action figures to sell. Larry Hama the writer of the series apparently liked the character. In the interview with Larry Hama in Toy Fair magazine May 1998 Stalker was number 3 on his list of favorite Joe's. Larry based the character on someone he knew in real life. A real LRRP veteran was part of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's backstory. He served with both of them in Vietnam. He brought Snake Eyes into G.I. Joe. Stalker was a team leader on numerous missions. He appeared in his version 3 uniform late in the series. By that time the quality of the series had declined. The art was not up to the standard of earlier eras. To me he embodies what it means to be a professional soldier. Based on how he was written in the comic book I've always admired him. In combat he would always be the calm one. He would always know what to do. Everyone could rely on him. Looking at Stalker overall I love Stalker. At a very young age Stalker made an impression on me that has never left. Growing up in a neighborhood that was not very diverse Stalker was an African-American character that I looked up to. I would not be exaggerating to say reading the adventures of Stalker in the G.I. Joe comic book influenced my view of the world. That being said, this figure is weird. There are some great things about it. The sculpting is pretty good, the details are sharp and some of the colors are excellent. The yellow is of course much too bright. Stalker would never wear this into combat. Maybe he wears this around the base but not into battle. And the lower half of the figure is camouflaged for your cereal bowl. This figure in military colors would be superb. It would easily be a top tier figure. This mold was later released in 2003 but it was in a Tiger Force set. We never got this figure in Stalker's camouflage. And that's a shame. Other than that I guess this figure is okay. Oh that's right! He has a giant box bolted to his back. This of course is a huge problem. It severely interferes with the normal play of the figure. It's difficult to even stand the figure up in a natural pose even with the included figure stand. Earlier sound making figures had removable backpacks or accessories with the sound making electronics. You could use it or not. It was up to the kid playing with it to decide what to do. In 1992 the intro said to hell with that we demand that you use our 4 1 second sound clips and good luck taking that thing off. With it the figure can't fit in any vehicles. He can't fit through doors. The inconvenience of the backpack is not worth the few crappy sounds it plays. The best thing about it is you can with some effort take it off. There are still 3 vintage versions of Stalker that we haven't looked at yet. Maybe they'll be better. That was my review of Talking Battle Commander Stalker. I hope you enjoyed it. This is a reminder I will not have a new review next week or the following week. Next week I will be in Augusta, Georgia for Joe Fest. Please join me there on the 21st and 22nd. I will have a table there. I hope you will come and see me. I will have some things at my table including code books and some drawings if you'd like to buy some. After Joe Fest I will also not have a new review because I will be preparing for the biggest event of the year, Cobra Convergence. This is our fourth year and it is bigger than ever. We will have new Cobra Convergence content for every day in July. If you like G.I. Joe and you like this video please consider giving it a thumbs up on YouTube subscribing to the YouTube channel hitting the notification bell and sharing this video with your friends. You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website HCC788.com You can get Cobra Convergence for updates there. Thank you to my new patron MCDJACDC for your support and thank you to all my patrons. I could not do these videos without your support. If you like my videos and you like to support the channel in that way please check out my Patreon. You can get some special perks and find out how to decode these secret messages. Thanks everyone for watching even though I don't have a full review next week I'll be sending plenty of content your way. I'll see you soon and always remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe.