 Hey buddy hoodedCoverCommander788 here, it's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review and in my last video review I said this time I'm going to look at something I really like and that's exactly what we're going to do. I stopped collecting GI Joe toys as a child sometime in 1988 but there were some figures from that era that were just too beautiful to pass up and this is one of them. So let's take a look at the 1988 GI Joe Light Infantryman Hit and Run. This is Hit and Run, GI Joe's Light Infantryman from 1988. He was first available in 1988, he was also available in 1989, he was discontinued for the year 1990 and he did not have a specific replacement that year. His role was somewhat taken by Ambush from 1990 but not exactly. There was sort of another version of Hit and Run available in 1988. There was a target exclusive Hit and Run with parachute pack in which he came with this parachute pack that was previously a mail away exclusive from 1985. This was a real working parachute too which is pretty cool and my understanding is it was identical to the 1985 parachute pack minus the helmet and the air mask but the file card was different too. Instead of having a gray back file card like this, it had a file card that had kind of a yellow background. I struggled with whether or not to do this review at all, not having the target exclusive file card. I normally like to show you these things rather than just tell you about them. However, since the figure had different accessories and a different file card in the target exclusive, in my mind that makes it more of a subversion of Hit and Run and therefore possibly eligible for its own separate video review which I may do in the future. But this time we are going to look at the most common version of Hit and Run and his accessories. Whether you call Hit and Run a light infantryman or just an infantryman, he is part of a proud line of infantrymen in G.I. Joe starting in 1982 with Grunt and in 1985 with Footloose. One version of Hit and Run did come with a parachute pack. He also shares duties with the 1984 Ripcord. Let's take a look at his accessories. He came with this weapon which the contents of the card on which he was packaged call a Colt 9mm submachine gun and that is exactly what this is. This is a very close approximation of the Colt 9mm submachine gun. It is a shorter stubbier smaller caliber version of the M16. It looks like the smaller size and caliber would be good for close quarters fighting. With his shortened version of the M16, Hit and Run also continues the tradition of G.I. Joe infantrymen who also carried M16 rifles. Hit and Run does not have a backpack. In lieu of a backpack he comes with this huge duffel bag with a strap that can be slung across his body and over his shoulder and this duffel bag has a mechanism with a grapple hook and line. This grapple hook has a long string that can be played out just by pulling on it. As you can see it's pretty long still going quite a bit of string on there. You can wind it back up by turning this handle here on the top of the duffel bag. Just keep turning until the line is all real back in pulling the duffel bag apart. You can see how the mechanism works inside. You will sometimes see these duffel bags missing the grapple hook line and winch. There's some detail on the duffel bag itself. This looks like climbing equipment to me and a pocket. I think this is an unusual choice for an accessory for a light infantryman that gave him a very big, very bulky, very heavy accessory. Flipping the duffel bag around to the other side we can see the final accessory which is this knife and this green knife is really cool. It can slide into the duffel bag just like that. You can pull it out and what a great accessory this is. Not only is this knife cool but the fact you can put it on the duffel bag is really cool too. By 1988 we still didn't have very many figures that had accessories that you could holster like that. So that was still kind of unusual even that late in the vintage line. Taking a look at the knife itself we can see some detail on it, not a lot but it's a pretty impressive detail at the time. This may be intended to represent a K-bar knife but it is not an exact replica of that real world weapon. That's still really cool nonetheless. If I didn't already love this figure this accessory would have sold me. I really like this knife. And just for giggles here's what Hidden Run looks like with the parachute pack that would have come with the target exclusive. It's a pretty bulky pack and it's a really tight fit with those straps. It's really kind of hard to get it on and you can fit the other accessories on him but not easily. But if you try hard enough it is possible to put all of it together. Let's take a look at the articulation on Hidden Run. He had the typical articulation of 1988 GI Joe action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right. He could also look up and down. His neck was on a ball joint. He could lift his arm up at the shoulder about so far. 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. 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. So he could move at the torso a little 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 take a look at the sculpt design and color of Hidden Run starting with his head. And the first thing you notice about his head is that his face is green. He is not ill nor is he an alien. This is supposed to represent green face paint with black stripes on it. It looks very cool. There have been other GI Joe figures to have camouflage painted faces like Dusty. But Hidden Run is the first one to have this camouflage paint all over his face and hands. So that gives him a very unique look. Also on his head is this non-removable helmet. And yes I would prefer that helmet to be removable. It's a camouflage helmet and it does look pretty good. He has these red goggles and these red goggles are red adaptation goggles. These are worn to preserve a person's natural night vision. And another figure with these red goggles is Lowlight. I do like these red goggles. This little splash of red gives a nice point of interest among all the green and black. He has white painted on his eyes and that's very unusual. Most of the time on GI Joe figures for the eyes we would just get a painted dot. So we didn't get these white painted eyeballs. This may be the first figure to do that. On his chest we have black straps where it looks like a harness. He has a couple grenades, a camouflage pattern, a black on green camouflage pattern. The straps continue around to the back. On his arms he has long sleeves that come down to this sort of ridged cuff here with that camouflage pattern. And you can see that his hands are also painted with that green and black striped camouflage paint. His lower arms and hands were reused on the 1988 Tiger Force Duke. The Tiger Force Duke reused almost all of the same parts from the original Duke action figure except for the arms and the waist piece. And you can see those lower arms are shared by Hidden Run. On his waist piece he has this black belt that looks like it's part of the same harness system. And there's this loop here on the belt and the art on the card on which Hidden Run was packaged shows the line from his duffel bag attaching to that loop. But I have not found an easy way to do that with the action figure itself. Around to the back he has a couple of very large pouches and this is partially why it's difficult to get that parachute pack on. These pouches here create quite a bit of bulk on the back of his belt. Let's take a look at the file card. The file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged. You can see some of the artwork from the front of the card here. And as you can see it also has instructions for how to assemble the duffel bag so that's very helpful. It has this faction as G.I. Joe down here. It has a very nice portrait of Hidden Run. It does say his codename is Hidden Run and Hidden Run is usually referring to an automobile accident in which a car hits another car or a pedestrian and then leaves the scene of an accident and that is illegal so don't do it. It says he is a light infantryman and light infantry also known as skirmishers traditionally had the role of harassing and delaying the enemy ahead of the main infantry assault. His file name is Brent Scott. His primary military specialty is infantry. Secondary military specialty is mountaineering so his duffel bag with grapple hook is appropriate. His birthplace is Sioux City, Iowa and his grade is E4. As a mountaineering specialist, he would have taken over the role of the 1985 mountain trooper Alpine. This section says orphaned at the age of three by a drunk driver. Stop. They gave him a codename based on how his parents died? Is that something he would want to be constantly reminded of? That's terrible. Who would do such a thing? And it's just there on the file card like it's no big deal. What if other GI Joe characters had codenames based on how their parents died? Hey hidden run, what's up man? Hey there diabetes, what's happening? Orphaned at the age of three by a drunk driver, hidden run grew up in a county institution from which he escaped with alarming regularity, climbing down shear walls and running for miles across the plains in the middle of the night. When asked what he was running away from, he replied, I'm not running away from anything, I'm practicing. He went from the custody of the county directly into the army. So this is another character whose skills were attained during childhood and this is also reflected on the file cards for cross country and ambush. This seems to have been a trend in some of these file cards where the skills that they use as a GI Joe member were reflected in their behavior as children. I don't know what the purpose of this is. Maybe the thought was this would appeal to the kids who are reading it, like kids would think, wow, maybe I would have some of these skills that these GI Joe characters have. It's almost as though these guys had no other option but to end up exactly where they are. I mean sorry hidden run, you can't be a doctor or a lawyer. You have to sneak around at night because that's what you did as a kid. It also implies that these skills are innate and can't be acquired through training and hard work and I disagree with that. This bottom section has a quote. It says, infantrymen don't march. They run. They run to get to the battle. They run during the battle and they run to get away from the battle. The army doesn't call it running. They call the first one advancing, the second maneuvering and the last disengaging. Hidden Run calls it all running and he's real good at it. Hidden Run does not have many media appearances. He first appeared in the GI Joe comic book in issue number 80 but he had no cartoon series appearances. He had a few comic book appearances but I would say this character was underutilized and that's surprising considering the comic book went for a more authentic military feel. Hidden Run should have fit right in but he never became one of the core characters. Taking a look at Hidden Run overall, what a great action figure. This was probably the most realistic looking action figure of 1988 and this is the kind of action figure that kept me collecting GI Joe figures through 1988 when a lot of the lines started to get really weird and science fictiony. The fact that they would give me something like Hidden Run really kept me buying GI Joe action figures. There is some room for improvement on this action figure. I would like that helmet to be removable and the camouflage pattern is not the best. It's a bit splotchy. We have had better camouflage patterns than this but overall still a great figure. I love the green face paint with the stripes. I love the accessories. This is definitely a top tier figure. I really appreciate that Hidden Run maintained the traditional military look of GI Joe action figures. It's from a time when GI Joe figures did not have to look like Power Rangers. He looks like he is combat ready. He looks like you could just drop him out of a C-130 into the action. He is ready to go. That was my review of the 1988 GI Joe Light Infantryman Hidden Run. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, don't forget to like and subscribe. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe Toyer reviews coming up. You don't want to miss them. And don't forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. You get a lot of updates there. You don't get anywhere else. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week with another vintage GI Joe Toy review.