 everybody who did Cobra Commander 788 here and this is another compare and contrast between a vintage GI Joe action figure and its modern equivalent. This time we are looking at spirit. This vintage spirit action figure was released in 1984. This modern version was released in 2008 and it's called spirit iron knife. Iron knife was spirits real name according to his file card. So the name change makes sense. This modern figure keeps a lot of the design elements from the vintage figure. They are clearly trying to translate this vintage figure into modern form. Let's just do a quick overview of the vintage spirit action figure. He has black hair with braids. He has a red bandana and he has a blue shirt with some details on it. He has a red loincloth attached to his belt. He's got buckskin trousers and brown boots. He's got a knife here on his left leg and those trouser legs seem to have some fringe on him. Sculpted on. Pretty nice details there. For his accessories in addition to the belt he has his green arrow gun. He has his backpack with more ammunition for his arrow gun. Then of course he comes with an eagle. His eagle named freedom. Spirit is pretty famous for this eagle accessory. It clips on to his wrist. It doesn't always stay on well so I've used a bit of mounting putty just to make sure it stays on. Now let's do a quick overview of the modern figure. He still has his black hair and braids and red bandana. He still has his blue shirt but the details that are sculpted on to the chest of the vintage figure. That's a separate piece on the modern figure and it's attached to his belt with the red loincloth. He has his tan trousers with that fringe. On his left leg instead of having a sculpted on knife he has a knife that is removable. He has his tall boots but instead of being dark brown they are a lighter tan brown. Slightly darker than his trousers. For his accessories he still has his arrow gun but it's a different design. And instead of being green it is tan. And the magazine for the arrow gun is removable. On his backpack it looks like he has a silver frame. He has a tan backpack this time. Then he has additional magazines for his arrow gun and those magazines are also removable. So after he uses all the ammunition and his arrow gun he can always pop off one of these other magazines and replace it. He still has his eagle and it still clips on to his arm. This eagle is much larger than the original and it appears to be black instead of brown. Finally he has his figure stand that says spirit iron knife. The early vintage figures did not come with figure stand so it's nice that the modern figures do. Alright let's look at the differences between these two figures and I think the translation from the vintage to the modern wasn't entirely done very well. I think they actually lost a few elements. First of all you would expect it to be nice to have these chest details as a separate piece. But I think it's just a bit too clunky. This knife is huge and the handle sticks up above his chin. And that is not removable. That is just sculpted and painted on. So it's really just decorative. Now these details are all just a little too high. They just kind of crowd his head. The vintage figure certainly had its problems like the unpainted grenades of the same color as his shirt. But at least there's plenty of room for all the details. I also think it was a mistake making the rifle tan instead of green. It's the same tan color as the lower half of the figure. You have a color for the accessory that blends into the figure and so you lose a color interest that you get by making the rifle a different color. The accessories, these green accessories, add additional color interest to the figure without using up a paint application. So that looks better and it's economical. The backpack on the modern figure is a different tan color but it's still tan and I just think that's a mistake. Also with the boots you go from a dark brown color on the vintage figure to a tan color on the modern figure. It's a different tan color than his trousers but not that much different. Now you have painted in the fur lining on the boots. That was not painted on the vintage figure and so that's an improvement. But again by using a lighter color for those boots you lose some depth in the color palette and I think that's a mistake. Now let's talk about freedom, the eagle. On the modern freedom you do have two separate feet rather than one combined foot on the vintage and the talons and the beak are painted in on the modern one and so that should be an improvement. Also this modern bird is made of a softer plastic than the vintage so it's less likely to break and it does tend to grip on the figure better than the vintage eagle did. It's also considerably larger than the vintage eagle but I do not like this base plastic color on the modern eagle. It's too dark, it just doesn't work for me at all. This may be a nitpick but I do not like the asymmetry in the modern eagle's wings. I should point out one other improvement on the modern figure. The vintage spirit action figure despite him being Native American had Caucasian skin tone. The modern figure does try to give him more Native American features and skin tones so that's good. Despite a few improvements on the modern figure I much prefer the vintage spirit action figure. I even think the modern figure took a few steps back in some respects. That was just a quick compare and contrast between the vintage 1984 spirit action figure and its 2008 equivalent. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll be back with more vintage GI Joe toy reviews in the near future. I hope to see you then.