 It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review and on this channel for the entire month of April 2016 We are looking at ticker farce now There were some of you guys out there that wanted me to look at Tiger Force roadblock this week and there were other guys out There that didn't want me to look at Tiger Force roadblock But if you've been paying attention to the patterns on this channel, you would have noticed that I always tried to review One vehicle per month. I've already reviewed one vehicle this month And I tried to review the first version of an action figure before I review any Subsequent versions of that figure now based on those self-imposed rules There's only one figure in the Tiger Force lineup that I could review this week and it's Tiger Force roadblock I don't mind looking at roadblock this week roadblock is one of my favorite characters In fact, he may be right behind stalker, which is my favorite character in GI Joe And one of the great things about Tiger Force month is it gives me a chance to look at these favorite characters again And I need to give a special thanks to Blake Cabrera for hooking me up with this figure. Thank you very much This one's for you. So with pleasure HCC 788 presents Tiger Force roadblock This is Tiger Force roadblock Tiger Force's heavy machine gunner first introduced in 1988 and also available in 1989 who has discontinued in the year 1990 and there was no new roadblock figure in 1990 And there was no new heavy machine gunner in 1990 So it did not have a replacement action figure that year Tiger Force roadblock is the third version of roadblock But he is a reissue of version one of roadblock from 1984 using exactly the same mold But in different colors there was a second version of roadblock introduced between these two guys in 1986 version two of roadblock was completely different entirely different parts and different accessories I think it's curious that when they decided to do a Tiger Force roadblock They went with a reissue of version one rather than the more recent version two Let's take a look at Tiger Force roadblocks accessories starting with this helmet and oh my god It is very yellow with black stripes The design of this helmet is a standard helmet and the standard helmet was available with a lot of GI Joe Action figures, especially from 1982 now this does not have the holes in the side Like most standard helmets like grunts helmet here has holes in the sides This one does not that is a throwback to version one of roadblock early releases of version one Also did not have holes in the side of the helmet the main issue with this helmet is it's bright yellow with black stripes Now we did not often get painted accessories and usually if you have paint on an accessory That's kind of a bonus but the choice to go with this color this bright yellow and the black stripes on it That's I think a very poor choice It's reminiscent of the Cincinnati Bengals football helmet and not in a good way, but honestly I never thought roadblock needed a helmet I think he looks better without a helmet so we can just lose this thing his next accessory is his m2x machine gun and this is a Modified m2 browning 50 caliber machine gun it is not an exact replica of that real-world weapon But it is pretty close the m2 browning began service in 1933. It is a very large very powerful weapon It's often mounted on vehicles and it's sometimes used to shoot down aircraft It's not intended to be a personal weapon carried by an individual and fired from the hip as Roadblock is often portrayed as doing the bullet this thing fires the 50 caliber BMG round is very large It's five point four five inches long including the cartridge and the bullet is over half an inch wide Roadblock is often portrayed as carrying his heavy machine gun and firing it like an assault rifle And he's supposed to be really big and muscular and strong and apparently strong enough to be able to do that But the thing is even if you could do that, why would you want to do that? You're not gonna be as accurate as you would if you just set the thing on the tripod that it's made for to see what I mean Take a look at this video of an m2 browning being fired That machine gun is on the tripod the tripod is sandbag and it still has a kick So roadblock as strong as he is if he's gonna fire it from the hip that things gonna spray all around the machine gun Can rotate on the tripod and the tripod is removable It has a carrying handle right here and the carrying handle does fit in the figure's hand So you can have him carrying the machine gun at his side The version one machine gun is in light green and the Tiger Force version is in a very dark gray This tripod is similar to the real-world tripod for the m2 browning the tripod was called the m3 And this can attach to roadblocks backpack the backpack has a peg and that will fit in the hole on the Bipod and you have to put that in very carefully because that peg is very thin and can crack off very easily And it's best to put the bipod on with the two longer legs facing up That brings us to the backpack and the backpack looks rather plain It doesn't have a lot of detail it has a carrying handle here It has a peg there other than that is pretty plain, but it does have another feature It has a removable Ammunition box and that just pegs in another peg there that's very small and can crack off very easily So that's just something you need to be aware of if you're looking to purchase a Tiger Force roadblock or a version 1 roadblock Check out that backpack and make sure both of those pegs are there. Let's look at the articulation on Tiger Force roadblock He had the standard articulation for 1984 GI Joe action figures the year version 1 of roadblock was released That means he could turn his head from left to right He could also swing his arm up at the shoulder and he could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around He had a hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees and he had a swivel at the bicep He could swivel his arm all the way around 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 move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees Let's look at the sculpt design and color of Tiger Force roadblock starting with his head and this head Unfortunately has the same shape as version 1's head, which I think always thought was kind of a weird shape It's kind of elongated here in the back Looks kind of like an alien head to me and I guess that fits the helmet better But I just think it looks very strange. I really much prefer the head of version 2 I just think that's a much more human shaped skull The head on Tiger Force roadblock is very similar to the head on version 1 It has the same mustache and little soul patch there It's almost identical. In fact, you could almost swap these heads out and nobody would notice the difference But the skin color is very slightly different I think it's slightly lighter on the Tiger Force version than the original version But other than that these heads are almost identical on his chest He has light green straps over a dark green plain tank top and that continues around to the back Now this chest is kind of wide and I believe that is intended to give him a bulkier and more muscular look His arms are plain average sized bare arms with gray gloves and on his left wrist a light green watch When it came to making figures look big and muscular, this is about the best they could do in 1984 However a couple years later they came out with the male away sergeant slaughter and this figure is huge It's massive. It has a ton of muscles sculpted on here And I really would have liked to see roadblock with this kind of Sculpe and this kind of body because this is how roadblock was portrayed in GI Joe media Version 2 of roadblock did succeed in making his arms look a bit bulkier But I think roadblock should be more sergeant slaughter size That's the roadblock that we knew from the comic book and cartoon on his waist He has a light green belt and some pouches that goes all the way around then he has brown pants with yellow stripes yikes Then he has a light green knife on his right leg and on his left leg He has a light green pistol now. Why is the pistol on his left leg? Is he left-handed? I don't think so then he has some gray boots I previously said there were two Tiger Force color schemes But really when I look at the line more closely there were three color schemes color scheme one had Still pretty good military colors with your greens and browns and blacks and those figures included Tiger Force Duke and Flint Then color scheme two featured this really bright orange with black tiger stripes figures with that color scheme Included sky striker and torpedo and lifeline and then there was a third color scheme Which still had pretty good military colors, but for some reason incorporated yellow stripes Figures with that color scheme included roadblock as well as dusty the yellow stripes are very unfortunate. They stand out They don't work for camouflage. They mar a figure that would otherwise look very impressive I mean the color scheme on roadblock if you ignore the helmet is not bad But you have those bright yellow stripes Let's take a look at Tiger Force roadblocks file card and we will compare this file card with the version 1 file card And why not compare it also with version 2 file card the file card for version 2 of roadblock changed the portrait from the version 1 File card and obviously the background color, but the text remained the same They didn't change any of the text Tiger Force roadblocks file card does have new text So let's get to that first of all we have his faction as GI Joe We have a portrait of roadblock here. That is very similar to the portrait in the version 1 file card But with his Tiger Force colors It has his codename as roadblock. He is the Tiger Force heavy machine gunner They're in small print his file name is Marvin F. Hinton His primary military specialty is heavy machine gunner His secondary military specialty is cook and that is explained below and his birthplace is Biloxi, Mississippi Version 3 of the file card changed his serial number and I don't know why they do that That's a pet peeve of mine. His grade is E5 and that is an update from version 1 and version 2 Which had his grade as E4 so roadblock got promoted and that's something that I like I wish this had happened more often Most GI Joe's had the same rank essentially through the their whole run in the line But really I think most of them probably would have been promoted here and there They actually did that for roadblock. This section says roadblock stream was to be a gourmet chef He was working as a bouncer to earn money to attend the Escofier school in France when a recruiter Convinced him that the army could train him just as well Escofier school refers to Auguste Escofier a French chef and Culinary writer in France's preeminent chef in the early 20th century at boot camp roadblock found army Menus and preparation techniques to appalling. He remained steadfast in his goal to be a chef But at the same time developed a new skill being a heavy machine gunner This is similar to the version 1 file card But version 1 file card just says that roadblock joined but found army menus and preparation techniques to appalling Transferred to the infantry. Let's talk about roadblocks career paths First of all if an army recruiter can convince him that they can train him to be a gourmet chef He is really gullible and when he found out the truth and that it was just too appalling in the army His transfer to the infantry is another very strange career choice the Tiger Force file card goes on It says he was selected by Tiger Force because of his ability to operate a heavy machine gun in addition He could transform simple K rations into gourmet delicacies. No, he can't let's talk about K rations A K ration included at three boxed meals and it was intended to be the daily food allotment for a single soldier For a single day K rations were used in World War two and they were criticized for having insufficient Chloric and vitamin content and they were obsolete by 1948 so if it's 1988 and you find that K ration still around Don't eat it. You know what kind of food was in a K ration a K ration menu included But was not limited to canned chopped ham and eggs Biscuits dextrose or malted milk tablets water purification tablets canned processed American cheese Servalette sausage beef or pork loaf chocolate bar chewing gum packet of toilet paper tissues and a four pack of cigarettes You're not gonna make any gourmet delicacies out of that stuff But it would make a really good episode of chopped welcome back to the K ration challenge Roadblock what have you prepared for our judges with these K ration ingredients? I made a boiled lobster. Hmm. Very impressive Bazooka, what have you made for us? Buggies This bottom section has a quote and it has some pretty good reasonably accurate Information about the 50 caliber browning it says a 50 caliber browning weighs 84 pounds add 50 pounds for the ammo That's about a hundred and thirty four pounds of steel generating 2,930 feet per second in muzzle velocity at a cyclical rate of 550 rpm and you have one awesome Underline machine gun exclamation point anybody who can handle that doesn't need a machine gun to keep me away Taking a look at Tiger Force Roadblock and GI Joe media There were no cartoon appearances of roadblock in his Tiger Force uniform However, there were many appearances of roadblock in his other uniforms in the cartoon series Roadblock first appeared in Revenge of Cobra part one and was very prominent in many episodes of the cartoon He even had some good moments in the GI Joe animated movie in 1987 where he had some scenes where he carried a Mutating Cobra commander to escape from Cobra law those were very creepy scenes But at least they made you feel something which most of the movie did not and you do want a movie To make you feel something even if what it makes you feel is creeped out in the GI Joe comic book again There are no appearances of roadblock in his Tiger Force uniform as far as I can tell I do not own every issue of the comic book But I have not been able to find any references to a Tiger Force Roadblock Tiger Force did appear in the GI Joe Comic book including the special mission series But not Tiger Force Roadblock as far as I can tell in issue number 93 of the regular series we do see Tiger Force vehicles and Roadblock is in a Tiger Force vehicle But he's still not wearing his Tiger Force uniform He's wearing his version 2 uniform Roadblock first appeared in the GI Joe comic books in issue number 22 along with Duke And after that he was a fixture. He had many great appearances and great moments He fought storm shadow the ninja and he won and time and again. He showed good character and courage He is one of my favorite characters in GI Joe. He's very down to earth He physically towered over his teammates, but he didn't need to make others feel small It's hard to pick a favorite Roadblock moment But one great moment came in issue number 39 a roadblock and gung-ho are building a rope Ridge and talking about the Boy Scouts and Roadblock admits that he was a Boy Scout and a choir boy Now gung-ho says back in the bayou. They thought those things were sissy Now Roadblock is obviously no sissy, but he's very secure in his own personality This scene in issue number 39 is important. It's not plot, but these scenes are vital This isn't just banter. It's character building It shows a contrast between how roadblock and gung-ho see the world and it adds another dimension to roadblocks character This really is solid writing You may have enjoyed reading GI Joe comic books for the action scenes But it's character building scenes like this that made the GI Joe comic books stand head and shoulders above other action Comics, what do I think of the character of roadblock overall? I think he's cool My daughter just really wanted me to use this in a video there. I used it You happy? What do I think of the tiger force roadblock action figure overall? It's another middle of the road figure like tiger force flint It just doesn't add anything to the original which is vital if you're going to reissue an old toy Just with different colors that yellow tiger stripe helmet looks terrible It's an eyesore. My memories of tiger force from when I was a kid are a little bit fuzzy I know I didn't have all of the tiger force action figures or really even very many of them I am pretty sure that I got tiger force roadblock though Because like with tiger force duke, I was trying to replace my original roadblock Which had been lost or broken before then but I do not remember that yellow helmet I must have lost that thing right away and maybe intentionally I think the yellow stripes on the trousers were a mistake Those stripes could have been black and I think that would have looked pretty good Tiger force roadblock again has that unfortunate alien head shape from version one roadblock And I really don't like that. I really preferred the head of version two roadblock And maybe it would have been better to make the tiger force roadblock a remake of version two of roadblock Instead of version one after all, I didn't really care for the colors on version two So an update of the colors on that action figure I might have really liked I think the basic idea of tiger force is not bad I mean you're taking captured enemy vehicles Repainting them and then using them against the enemy. That's a pretty clever idea And it's a clever way of reissuing old toys But I think it would have been better if tiger force had some specific mission or some specific enemy to fight Tiger force versus python patrol would have been the obvious choice But python patrol didn't come out until the year after tiger force was introduced So when python patrol was coming in tiger force was kind of on its way out If tiger force and python patrol had been released at the same time We would have had some great head-to-head matchups between characters and vehicles As it was tiger force didn't seem to have any real purpose other than for hasbro to cheaply reissue old toys And that just ain't good enough tiger force month has admittedly been an exercise in mediocrity But it has given us a chance to take a longer view of this sub team And I think that's kind of important because as gijo moved forward into the 1990s It had a lot more sub teams maybe too many to the point that maybe the main line lost its focus And maybe that started with tiger force. We've looked at the real world inspiration for tiger force with the nato tiger association We've looked for some overarching themes and threads We've looked at the color schemes and the artistic choices And we've taken a second look at some favorite characters, but I must bring tiger force month to a close I hope you enjoyed this surprise theme month. I enjoyed it, but next week we're going to look at something completely different Thanks for watching. I hope you stick around. We've got a lot of cool stuff coming up It's going to be a fun ride and until next time remember only gijo is gijo