 Commander 78 here and this is a quick video to compare a vintage GI Joe action figure with the modern equivalent it's been a while since we've done this and it's usually pretty fun so let's take a look at the vintage laser rifle trooper flash and the modern 25th anniversary flash action figure this flash action figure is the swivel arm version from 1983 flash was introduced in 1982 the straight arm action figure in 1983 they added swivel arm battle grip which added a swivel at the bicep I thought it would be better to compare this with the modern version of flash because the articulation is a bit more similar this flash action figure had a visor a clear visor that clipped on to his helmet he had a laser rifle with a long plastic cord wire that came and connected to his backpack removing flash his helmet we can see the very plain head sculpt and a flash of course has these red pads these protective pads for his laser rifle with the quilted pattern on them that's really what flash was known for although there was another action figure that had similar pads grand slam but flash was really known for those red pads with his laser rifle this modern version of flash from 2008 you can see is in a different scale he's taller he came with an action figure that says codename sergeant flash like the vintage one he has a clear visor and that visor can be raised and lowered and the helmet can be removed and that head sculpt I really think just doesn't really add much to the vintage I don't know if they were trying to capture the generic and plain nature of the vintage head sculpt but they really just didn't improve on modern flash has a laser rifle in silver plastic with that long plastic wire just like the original but it's a little bit thicker and there are some other details on the modern laser rifle that were not on the vintage and he has a backpack like the vintage figure but this one has a bit more detail and it has two holes that you could connect the wire to now this wire is a bit thicker and I have a very hard time getting the wire to connect and stay connected to either of those holes in the backpack unlike on the vintage figure the belt is removable which is okay I guess is that really important the modern flash has those red pads and that checker pattern that quilted pattern is much smaller the lines are much closer together and here it feels less like detail and more like texture we can look at the file cards now and I have the full card back for the modern 25th anniversary flash and this artwork here is similar to the artwork on the original card but it's just not quite as good it looks kind of airbrushed and blobby the text on the file cards though are very similar just a little bit of change of wording here where it says sergeant flash and just a couple other things other than that they really didn't rewrite the file card as to whether I prefer the vintage figure of the modern this one's pretty easy I prefer the vintage figure by a pretty wide stretch the modern figure is fine it has modern articulation and that's all well and good but they really had an opportunity to improve on the vintage to maybe fix some of the problems like with this long plastic wire they didn't fix it in fact they made some of the problems worse and so really the modern version of flash just seems to me like an uninspired figure and so I do prefer the vintage that was my quick comparison of the vintage gi jo laser rifle trooper codename flash with the 25th anniversary modern equivalent I hope you enjoyed it I've got a lot of vintage gi jo toy reviews coming up on this channel you don't want to miss them so make sure you subscribe and keep checking back for more vintage gi jo toy reviews