 Oh, hello there. You caught me working out at the gym. Coincidentally, the G.I. Joe figure we're going to review this week looks like we caught him at the gym. This is a guy who thought it would be a good idea to wear brightly colored workout clothes into combat. Yes, it was the 90s. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. And this is the first video review I've done for quite some time. There are a lot of things going on in my personal life, including a new job, that have taken my time and energy away from doing my regular video work. I've been trying to get to this video for several weeks. This week we're going to look at an oddity from the 1990s. It's an often forgotten character. It's a G.I. Joe wearing sweatpants and sneakers. Let's round out this horrible year of the 90s by looking at 1991's Tracker. This is Tracker, G.I. Joe's Navy Seal from 1991. This figure was introduced in 1991 and was available in 1991 only. It was discontinued for 1992. This is the only version of Tracker in the vintage era or any era. There were no modern versions of Tracker. He is a forgotten character. The mold for this figure was used in 2004 to create Action Man in the Valor vs. Venom line. The colors were radically changed. Believe it or not, this guy is supposed to be a Navy Seal. The Navy Seals are special forces troops trained to fight in all environments. The Seal is an acronym for sea, air and land. Does this guy look like a Navy Seal? Yes, yes he does. He looks like a Navy Seal on his way to the gym. There were several Navy Seals in G.I. Joe. The first was 1983 Torpedo. Although Seals are trained to fight in all environments, Torpedo was outfitted as a frogman. The second was 1986 Wet Suit. Like Torpedo, Wet Suit was equipped with a diving suit and underwater gear. In the last year of the line, 1994, Shipwreck Version 2 was released. That version of the character was built as a Navy Seal, though the first version of Shipwreck was not. In my opinion, being a Navy Seal is a major accomplishment and should not be taken lightly. If Tracker is a Seal, he isn't combat ready. He looks like a Seal on vacation. His codename is Tracker and his file card suggests his job is to track the enemy. In that regard, he would be a replacement for the Tracker from 1984, Spirit. Would Tracker be good at that job? Just look at him. He's wearing sweats and sneakers. He's not even ready to work at Walmart. In his defense, Spirit was wearing blue, not a subdued color for combat. Spirit's uniform, at least, was iconic and memorable. Tracker is very casual. He looks like he belongs on a sofa, not in the field. Let's take a look at Tracker's accessories and let's start with his submachine gun. This submachine gun is in orange plastic. It looks like a Heckler and Koch MP5K with a suppressor. This is a really nice looking submachine gun, except for the fact that it's orange. Why does it have to be orange? This accessory was reissued many times, including for 1994 Stalker Version 5, looking much better in black. Next, let's look at his visor. The visor fits over his head and over his eyes. It is removable. It's made of a black, soft, flexible plastic. It is, in my opinion, unnecessary. I think the figure looks better without it. With it on, it looks like he's trying to be Cyclops from the X-Men. It's also reminiscent of Snake Eyes Version 2. And this guy should not be mentioned in the same breath as Snake Eyes. Next, let's look at these ores. These ores are in orange plastic. There are two of them. They are for use with the rubber raft that comes with the figure, which you can no doubt see in the background. It's orange, so it's hard to miss. The handles on these ores are very thin, and I worry about breaking them if I press them in the figure's hand, so I just don't have the figure holding the ores. There are two ores, so in theory you could have two figures paddling the raft. Next, we get to the big one, this inflatable raft. The raft is an orange ring with a black interior and a black bottom. It is inflatable. You inflate it by blowing in this nozzle. This is large enough to accommodate two action figures, and it is a unique accessory in G.I. Joe. Most of the time when G.I. Joe got rafts, they were hard plastic. For instance, the 1985 Cobra Night Landing. That was a hard plastic raft. In 1994, the Manta had an inflatable raft with plastic attachments. There was one other carted figure that came with a water vehicle. In 1989, Stalker version 3 included a kayak. Can it float? Oh, you betcha. Floats like a dream. The last accessory is the black figure stand. This was a great innovation of the 1990s. 1980s G.I. Joe figures did not include figure stands, but 90s figures did. Let's take a look at the articulation on tracker. He had the articulation that was standard for G.I. Joe figures well before 1991, so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at 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. 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 bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpt design and color on tracker starting with the head. The head sculpt is pretty good. He has brown hair, brown eyebrows, and eyes. He looks like just an average guy, but that's okay. The sculpting itself is pretty well done. I can't complain about the head. On his chest he has a dark red shirt with what looks like it's supposed to be Joe and the number 34 in yellow letters printed on the front. That's partially covered up by the black pistol and holster on a strap that goes over his left shoulder. There's also a strap that goes around his midsection. There are three small grenades on that strap. The strap detail continues around to the back. On the back there is more printing. There's that number 34 in yellow and then there is a name, Grun, and that is actually the name of the character. That is trackers real name. Unfortunately the printing is cut off. I think it's supposed to be obscured by this strap, but the printing does not go all the way to the strap. His arms are bare with an average build and he has black gloves. These arms are so average. I thought they may be reused from another figure, but I haven't found an exact match for these. So these may be unique arms, but they look like arms from an 80s figure. The waist piece is a pale yellow and no belt. Very little detail, but you don't normally wear belts with sweatpants. You can see the drawstrings in front. His legs are mostly that same yellow color. The upper legs are mostly yellow. On the right thigh there is a black survival knife with a couple of black straps to go around the thigh. No weapons on the left side, but there is a sculpted seam that runs down the outside leg. On the lower legs he has what look to me to be tall white socks. I'm not sure how else to interpret these. It's got a texture pattern on the lower legs and they're white. They look like tall socks to me. And on his feet he's wearing what I'm interpreting as purple and yellow high top sneakers. These look like basketball shoes. Sweatpants, sneakers. This is GI Joe at the gym. Not a combat ready soldier. Since he comes with a raft, it looks like we caught a Navy SEAL on a camping trip. Let's take a look at Tracker's file card. The file card has his faction as GI Joe. There's a portrait of Tracker here. In that artwork it looks like that visor is supposed to have red lenses, but then there's a black strip that goes directly across his eyes. How is he supposed to see? Also it looks like his hair is more blonde than brown in the artwork. His codename is Tracker. He is a Navy SEAL. His file name is Christopher R. Grown. Primary military specialty is Navy SEAL. Secondary military specialty is Underwater Arms Developer. Primary birthplace Helena Arkansas. Grade is E7. This paragraph says, Tracker was one of the few GI Joe trainees to totally elude the instructors during the escape and evasion phase of the indoctrination course. This prompted the cadre to run the exercise a second time to see how Tracker performed. This time the commander employed spirit and snake eyes as the query. Tracker ran them into the ground in less than 12 hours, which is pretty remarkable feat considering that no one had ever been able to pick up their trail before. He ran some pretty major company with spirit and snake eyes and it's more impressive since he tracked them down while wearing sweatpants and basketball shoes. This quote says, Sometimes the bad guys get smart and think they can throw us off the scent by cutting across a swamp or going up a stream. Whenever the trail seems to stop at a body of water, we just call Tracker to take it from that point. He just pumps up his covert insertion raft and a covert insertion and it's bright orange and paddles away until the track shows up on dry land again. It's almost as if he can see footprints on the surface of the water. Looking at how Tracker was used in G.I. Joe Media, he had very few appearances in the Dieck era of the animated series. There were two episodes in which he had significant screen time, long live rock and roll part one and shadow of a doubt. In most of his appearances, he had no lines. He was not a significant character in animation. To my knowledge, he had no appearances in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Looking at Tracker overall, of course I think this figure is ridiculous. He looks like a slacker. He looks like he couldn't be bothered to get dressed for duty. His colors are totally inappropriate for his job. There's nothing about this figure that suggests he's a navy seal. The accessories are a mixed bag. I really like the submachine gun except for the color. Why does it have to be orange? Why couldn't it be black? I'm really glad it was reissued later in black. It looks much better. I like the idea of the raft and the oars, but the coloring make it look more like a rescue raft. This is not something a navy seal would use for covert infiltration. The thing is bright orange. In fact, I would take it away from Tracker and use it as a rescue raft on naval or air vehicles. I prefer the raft to other 90s gimmicks like spring-loaded missile launchers. At least the raft is functional and it's cool to get a mini vehicle with a carted figure. The visor is odd and it gets in the way. And the way it's designed, he wouldn't be able to see through it. This is how I see Tracker when he's wearing the visor. You could look at this figure as the equivalent of 1970s adventure team or Big Jim. If that's what he is, that's fine. GI Joe has had a place for that since the 1970s. But if that's the case, don't bother calling him a navy seal. Just create a sub team. Call it Vacation Brigade and give everyone orange rafts and fishing gear. I want GI Joe to give me a navy seal in land combat gear. This is not it. That was my review of Tracker. I hope you enjoyed it. This video I had to make with less time than I usually take to make videos. I hope it's acceptable. I did the best I could with the time that I had. And that may just be how it is for the foreseeable future. I'm doing my best to get to videos when I can, but life is such that it's just not easy. Given the slower rate I'm getting to videos, I don't know if I will have another video before the end of the year and I wanted to make sure to wrap up the year of the 90s with one more 90s GI Joe toy review. I had a special video planned for the Christmas weekend, but it looks like I'm not going to get to that. So I'm going to push that video to the first video of next year. It is a special video. I will be working hard on that to make sure it gets out on time. So I hope you enjoy it as the first video of 2021. And yes, we are breaking away from the 90s. Special thanks to all my patrons, all the names you see scrolling on the screen right now. I do have a Patreon if you want to check it out. My patrons have been so patient with my slower production output and I really appreciate it. Thank you for your support for this channel for such a long time. It means so much to me. Please give this video a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel, hit the notification bell and check out my website, hcc788.com. Thank you for watching. I'll see you as soon as I can. And until then, remember only GI Joe is GI Joe.