 For this review of Rampart, I broke out my Rampart cosplay. Huh? Huh? The subject of this week's review is a video game whiz. Estimating Rampart's age based on when the figure was released, his first video game console would not have been your Xbox 5 or your PS 360. No, his first console likely had stylish faux wood grain. Back in the early 80s, we didn't need ergonomic controllers with lots of buttons and triggers. We just needed one joystick and one button. Our games didn't need good graphics, or interesting characters, or realistic environments, or sound effects. Those games weren't very good. Hello everybody hooded co-recomander788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. I'd like to thank a couple new patrons. Thank you Dustin T. Kordish and Rebel Dad 13. It's thanks to the support of people like them that I can continue doing these videos. Thank you very much. Imagine a cold, windy gray day. You're in a stone bunker looking out on a beach. There's a light rain making everything damp and gloomy. Just beyond the horizon is the enemy. They're coming by sea and by air. They want to get by you, and they'll happily destroy you on the way. You are ready. You will give them all the fight they can take. Any ground they gain will come at a cost they are not willing to pay. If you can imagine that scene, then you understand Rampart. G.I. Joe went through a lot of changes in the 1990s, but the 90s weren't all bad. In fact, there were a few toys that embodied the spirit of G.I. Joe, and that's what we're going to look at this time. HCC 788 presents Rampart. This is Rampart, G.I. Joe's shoreline defender from 1990. This figure was available in 1990 only. It was discontinued for 1991. There were no other versions of Rampart in the vintage era. There was one modern version of Rampart in 2018 as part of the G.I. Joe Collectors Club Figure Subscription Service. As a shoreline defender, his role involves fending off attacks by sea. He should not be confused with the small G.I. Joe vehicle, the Coastal Defender, though it would make sense to have a shoreline defender on a Coastal Defender. A Rampart is defined as a barrier or embankment used as a fortification. The name Rampart is probably a reference to a line in the Star Spangled Banner. Prototype names for Rampart included Counterfire, Groundfire, Airburst, Checkmate, and Deadline. Honestly, all of those prototype names are good. They all would have fit well with the character. You may notice this figure is both a 1990s G.I. Joe and a realistic looking figure. There are no neon colors on this guy. No spring-loaded missile launchers. Not a spot of orange. For G.I. Joe, the 90s didn't really start with 1990. The tropes we most associate with the 90s didn't really take hold until later. The spring-loaded missile launchers were introduced in 1991. The garish colors of eco-warriors also hit in 1991. Proliferation of absurdly specific sub-teams started in 1992. Mega Marines mutants were added in 1993. Space aliens were introduced in 1994. Rampart wasn't a space trooper or a ninja or an eco-warrior. He fulfilled a role that made sense for a military team. When Cobra Morays and Hydro Sleds and Sea Rays attack, they need Rampart to fight back. Although Rampart is clearly a land-based fighter, he is in the U.S. Navy that puts him in G.I. Joe's limited Navy lineup with torpedo, deep six, shipwreck, wetsuit, topside, and tracker. That does not include Cutter. Cutter was in the Coast Guard. Rampart has something in common with the 1990 G.I. Joe vehicle, the Hammer. He also has finger flick technology. That was discussed thoroughly in my review of the Hammer, and we will talk about it again with Rampart. Let's take a look at Rampart's accessories. Starting with his main weapon. The card contents call this a cannon. It looks more like a machine gun. It is in black plastic. It is three pieces. The main body of the weapon is one piece, and then it has a mount, and that mount is two pieces. First pieces slide together, and then peg into the bottom of the machine gun. There is a hook on the back end of the machine gun, and that connects to a peg on the side of the figure. The machine gun has a grip on the side, and another grip on the top. It could be a grip or it could be a magazine, I'm not sure, but I think it works better as a grip. The mount suggests the machine gun can be placed on the ground and fired in that position, but this thing on the top gets in the way of the sights, so it would be difficult to aim that way. It kind of looks like it's designed to be shot from the hip. His next accessory is the missile launcher. This missile launcher is in light gray plastic. It has a strap. That strap is a separate piece, and it has a barrel that will fit a black missile that comes with the figure. In fact, he has two of these missiles. The other one can be mounted on his leg. This is where the revolutionary finger flick technology comes into play. These missiles can be placed in the barrel of the launcher, and when they go all the way to the back, this peg sticks out the back and the missile can be launched. As with the finger flick technology on the hammer, you just flick the back of the launcher to fire the missile. This is not a spring-loaded missile launcher, so I'm pretty sure it cannot knock down Dr. Maynbender, but let's try it anyway. Just take aim and flick. I missed, but I have two shots, so let's try again. Let's take aim at Dr. Maynbender and flick. I hit him that time, but it just bounced off. You can get some good distance with these finger flick missiles, but they just don't have a lot of power. On the front of the launcher, there is a grip, but it's a bit too thick to fit in my action figure's hand. He can hold onto the strap and fire the launcher from his shoulder. In 1991, the year after this figure was released, G.I. Joe would introduce spring-loaded missile launchers. That gimmick would take over the line for the remainder of its run. Finger flick technology was an attempt to add a new dimension to G.I. Joe. No longer would kids just imagine the weapons shooting. Some of them could really shoot. These accessories are flawed. The machine gun and the missile launcher are a bit cumbersome, but there's still a lot to like about them. Despite having a lot of accessories, Rampart can hold all of them. The strap on the missile launcher allows it to be slung on Rampart's back. The peg on the leg allows the extra missile to be stored. That's all great. Let's take a look at the articulation for Rampart. He had the articulation that was standard for big years well before 1990. He could turn his head left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel his arm up the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure, meaning he 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 Let's take a look at the sculpted design and color of Rampart starting with his head. On his head, he has a tan cap with a green panel on the front just above the bill. He has a cloth over the top of the cap and stuffed down the back of his shirt. There is a texture pattern on that. That looks really good. Excellent details. He has goggles with dark gray frames and blue lenses. He has a dark gray microphone on the right side of his face that is sculpted on and painted with a separate piece which I prefer. Those tiny little microphones that are separate pieces always get lost. This head has a remarkable number of colors on it. It has the Caucasian flesh tone, tan, green, dark gray, and blue. On his chest, he has a dark gray jacket with some pockets and buckles. There is a tan belt that is sculpted on the bottom of the torso. It is not on the waist piece. Minimal details on here, appropriate. His arms feature long dark gray jacket sleeves. The same dark gray as on the chest. He has tan cuffs and black gloves. On his waist, he has the tail of that dark gray jacket. The belt is on the torso. It's not on the waist piece. That's a little different from most GI Joe figures. He has a couple pockets and he has the peg on the right side for attaching the machine gun. His legs feature tan trousers. There are pockets on the front of the right leg. On the left leg, there is a peg for one of the black missiles. He has camouflage boot covers and under them, black boots. It is astonishing how much effort went into this figure. It has texture, camouflage, extra connections for the accessories, and a lot of paint applications. It would have been tempting to eliminate any of these elements, but this figure has all of them. This is what the 90s could have been with effort and attention to detail. Yes, it is a bit gimmicky for the accessories, but the gimmicks were a lot more subtle than the ones we would get later in the decade. Let's take a look at Rampart's file card. His file card has his factionist GI Joe. There is a portrait of Rampart. His codename is Rampart and he is the shoreline defender. His file name is Dwayne A. Felix. His primary military specialty is shoreline defender. His secondary military specialty is ADA missile specialist and ADA has an asterisk. It stands for air defense artillery. On his prototype file card, Rampart's secondary military specialty was going to be tuba player. Never had one lesson. This paragraph says Rampart spent most of his teenage years in video arcades or glued to his own video game monitor. Being gifted with abnormally rapid reflexes and extraordinary hand-eye coordination, he quickly mastered every known video game in existence. By the time he graduated college, Rampart realized there was only one line of work best suited to challenge his abilities, the military. He enlisted in the Navy specializing in air defense artillery and in no time attained the highest combat success ratio in the 7th fleet for splashing enemy aircraft. Rampart is a college graduate. He would have entered the Navy at an older age than some of the other Joes and he would have been older still by the time he made it to the GI Joe team. So that suggests to me that a lot of his video game playing would have happened in the early 80s. This paragraph has a quote. It says, Rampart gets his jolly seeing a Cobra heat seeker explode just before it hits the target. It beats the heck out of logging initials into a video game's top 10 listing. Both of these paragraphs say basically the same thing. Rampart is very good at video games and applies his skill to shooting down enemy aircraft and missiles. War is a video game, kids. Brings a lot of fun. Rampart gets his jolly seeing a Cobra heat seeker explode before it hits the target. War is a video game, kids. Bring your quarters. There was a GI Joe video game released for the Atari 2600. GI Joe Cobra Strike was released in 1983. The gameplay was very simple. A giant Cobra shoots rectangular pellets at some soldiers running between two buildings. You control a shield that can block the attacks. Sometimes the Cobras will shoot lasers. You fire missiles at the snakes and blow them up until too many of your guys. How did the Cobras get so big? Why don't the Army guys just stay in the buildings instead of running outside to get shot? What does any of this have to do with GI Joe? Hey, it was 1983. It was enough that you could make things move on your TV screen. What do you want? Looking at how Rampart was used in GI Joe media, he first appeared in animated form in the episode United We Stand in the Deke era of the animated series. He had the most screen time in the episode Cold Shoulder. In that episode, Rampart pilots a space shuttle. What? I would say this episode is weird, but I already said it's a Deke episode, so that would be redundant. In the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, he had only one appearance that I'm aware of. He was in issue number 115. He and Backblast supported a mission for the Phantom X-19. Rampart wasn't even the main support person. He was the backup. Looking at Rampart overall, it's a really good figure. It's not perfect, but still really good especially for the 1990s. Rampart has a lot of paint applications. There are no unpainted details, even though there aren't a lot of details on the torso. The details that need paint have paint. The designers threw the kitchen sink at this guy. He has realistic colors, texture, camouflage, numerous accessories, attachments for those accessories. He even has FFT. He's finger-flicking good. If there's any problem with this figure, it's the machine gun. It doesn't attach very securely to the peg on the figure, so it can be a little unwieldy. It doesn't have a normal grip so it's designed to be fired from the hip, even though it has a mount. It still looks good. It's not a weird color or anything. GI Joe got pretty weird in the 1990s, but it wasn't all weird. Rampart proves that. My biggest problem with the figure is not with the figure itself. I don't like how the file card equates combat with video games. In video games, you can restart. You can get extra lives. You can't do that in real life. Rampart is not British, but I imagine him as a World War II British soldier standing on a shoreline looking out across the channel ready to repel invaders. That was my review of Rampart. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to the YouTube channel. I have a huge back catalog of vintage GI Joe toy reviews. Make sure you check those out. You can find me on media, on Facebook and Twitter, and I have a website, hcc788.com. Hey, I have a new t-shirt for 2022. You can get one on the website, hcc788.com. Just click the shop link. The 2022 is made up of past logos. It's meant to symbolize all we've been through and my God, somehow we're still here. This shirt will only be available in 2022. If you get one, take a picture of yourself and send it to me. I'll put it in a video. Thanks to my patrons for making these videos possible. If you'd like to support the channel, that's a great way to do it. 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