 Hello everybody, Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, it's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review, and we've had some fun reviewing figures and small vehicles, but I'm ready to review something big, not that big, but still big. Let's look at the 1985 Transportable Tactical Battle Platform, and that is a mouthful. I screwed that up many times making this video. This thing is big, it's going to take a while to get through, so let's not sit around chatting, let's go straight into looking at the toy. This is the GI Joe Transportable Tactical Battle Platform, it was first introduced in 1985, it was also sold in 1986, it was discontinued in 1987, and in 1987 GI Joe did have a couple very large play sets, but nothing quite comparable to the Tactical Battle Platform, unless you count the Battle Force 2000 Future Fortress. I usually shorten the name to Tactical Battle Platform, it's just a little bit easier to say. It was advertised as a sea base, but there's no reason this couldn't be used on land as well. It was worth four flag points and it did not come with an action figure. There is a lot to cover on this base, so let's just pick a corner and go. Starting with this corner right here, we have a missile rack, which could elevate a little bit. You can also rotate all the way around. It had four missiles, and these missiles, the blueprints called the Chaparral MIM-72 A Surface to Air Missiles. These missiles are based on a real world missile. There is a real Chaparral MIM-72 missile that does look very similar to this, although the spelling of Chaparral is different, I'm not sure the reason for the difference in the spelling. Comparing these missiles to the Sparrow missiles from the 1983 Sky Striker, you can see there is a lot of similarities, but it is not the same mold. It is slightly different. The platform for the missile rack has an engine cover, which has some impressive engine detail. Moving along, we have this hydraulic platform, which has two positions, the closed position, and then the open position. It has these legs that swing out, and now you have an open platform with a lot more space. It really increases the footprint of this play set. Both the ramp and the platform have this nice corrugated pattern. It's made to look like metal, and that's a very nice detailed texture pattern. It looks really good. You could use this ramp to on-load and off-load vehicles, and the box for the platform uses the Armadillo mini tank. That's about the only vehicle that's going to fit on here, other than a motorcycle or something like that. It's really just too small for a full-size vehicle, so you're going to have to use a small vehicle like this. Creative use for this ramp would be a personnel on-loading and off-loading ramp, and it works very well with the 1984 Killer Whales ramp for its troop carrying compartments. The underside of this ramp also has this corrugated pattern, and the legs for the ramp close up flush to it like that. I think they were trying to give this a natural look even when it was in the closed position, but it doesn't really work because it has these very deep wells here, and that does look like the underside of this thing. It doesn't look like this is the side that's supposed to be exposed. Moving around to this corner, we have this gun platform here, and this has the 75-millimeter dual defender cannons, these big Gatling gun-looking cannons. They look like anti-aircraft guns, and they would be very effective for that purpose. It has this radar dish here on the back, and that's frequently missing. Also, there's a piece on the back of the cannon where the radar dish attaches, and that frequently breaks off. It's my radar dish is just kind of fastened to my cannon here, since that piece is broken on mine. The cannons will rotate all the way around, and they do elevate, pretty good elevation on those. It also has these additional little nozzle-looking things that look like they should be additional guns, but I'm not sure exactly what those are supposed to be. Much like the missile platform, the gun platform has a removable engine cover. In case you're wondering, these engine covers are different sizes, so they are not interchangeable. Next, let's move on to the munitions room, which has a red ladder that goes down into it, and it's nice and deep down in there to provide some good cover for your figures if they're under attack. Taking a closer look down in there, we have some nice detail. We have some explosive devices, and we've got some more over there. We have a texture pattern on the floor that's very nice, and over here we have a trench that runs from the munitions room to the control center. I'll show you that here in a minute, but the most important thing about this munitions room is the rifle rack. Swinging it around to look at it from the other side, you can see the rifle rack, and each of these rifles is a remold of a weapon that came with an action figure. Some of them are recolored, but others are very close to the original, and can be kind of hard to tell apart. One way you can match these rifles to the tactical battle platform and not the original figures is that these rifles will exactly match the color of the rifle rack. Also, these rifles are made out of a slightly different plastic than the originals. They're slightly more solid and maybe more brittle than the originals. However, it's hard to tell that unless you have one in hand so you can feel the plastic. These rifles tumble and fall out of the rifle rack very easily. They do not stay in well. I'm going to take a closer look at each of these rifles in a minute, but first I'm going to take them out so we can take a closer look at the rifle rack. This rifle rack is just a strip of plastic with some hooks on it, and it just slides out very easily. It does not stay in there very well. So this often goes missing as do the rifles. This is probably my least favorite part of this playset. This rifle and rack system could have been thought out better. This could stay in a little bit better. The rifles could attach on a little bit better, and because it is the way that it is, you're going to have a hard time tracking down the rifles and the rack if they are missing. Here are the rifles all laid out, and as I said, these weapons originally came with action figures, so let's look at the figures they originally came with. This one came with the 1982 Stalker. This one came with the 1983 Snowjob. This one came with the 1983 Airborne. This one came with the 1984 Ripcord, and as you can see, this one has the greatest difference. Ripcord's rifle was originally green. And finally, this M16 came with the 1982 Grunt. To make matters even more complicated, starting in 1983, GI Joe had accessory packs, and the accessory packs were reissues of older weapons that came with the action figures. Now sometimes the accessory pack versions had very different colors, but sometimes the accessory pack version coloring was only subtly different from the original. For instance, this is the original Stalker's submachine gun that came with the 1982 figure. This is the accessory pack version, which is just a lighter gray. And this is the version that came with the tactical battle platform. You can see that if you didn't have all of these to compare, it would be very easy to mix these up. The rifle from the tactical battle platform did help us out a little bit in that the mold is slightly different. This rear sight on Stalker's submachine gun is missing on the accessory pack version. So that's a quick way to notice the difference. That's the only one of the rifles that appears to have a different mold from the original. On the rest, the mold is pretty much identical to the original. In this corner, we have a working crane. It could spin all the way around. It isn't even obstructed by the helipad. And it has this knob here on the side that you can use to control the winch. You can let the line out and then you can reel it back in and pull something up on the hook. This hook is almost the same as the one that came with the 1983 dragonfly helicopter. But as you can see, it is slightly different. Getting back to the platform, we have this helipad that has a ladder. It's also anchored with a couple of red support beams. We have some detail down here, just some odds and ends. Looks like a vent over here. Could you land the 1983 dragonfly helicopter on this helipad? Yes you could. As you can see, it does fit on there, but this helicopter is a bit big. It's landing pads a little too small for it. It really works better with smaller aircraft like the 1984 Skyhawk. You can see that fits much better. Finally, we reach the last corner of the platform. This is the control center. This is the nerve center of the battle platform. The trench that runs from the munitions room runs under the helipad and directly into this control center. The control center has a search light, which can turn all the way around. This search light is a remold of the one that came with the 1983 GI Joe headquarters command center. As you can see, they added a few details in 1985 and they put it on this post so it could peg in and spin around, which the one on the headquarters command center could not do. But other than that, it is the same mold. We also have this captain's chair, which can spin around. A figure can sit in there and control all the computers. This chair is another reuse of a part from the 1983 headquarters command center. As you can see, the chairs are nearly identical. They're not interchangeable though because the 83 chair has a different post from the 1985 chair. That doesn't fit in there very well. Also there's more of a texture pattern on the back of the 1983 chair than on the 1985 one. So that's one way you can tell them apart. Other than that, these are using the same mold. The command center has this clear plastic shield that goes all the way around it and that's really cool, very nice touch. But that does have a tendency to break or warp very easily, so do watch out for that. And finally, the inside of the control center and it has loads of great stickers and buttons and switches. This is fantastic, a kid's imagination could really run wild with that. And finally, between the command center and the missile platform, we have a ladder. This is the long red ladder that can go down to the surface of the water or the ground if you're using this on land. That's pretty cool. And finally, we have this antenna and this antenna does stick in there pretty well. This antenna is yet another reuse of a part from the 1983 GI Joe headquarters command center and these antennae I think are only different in color. Other than the color, these appear to be identical. The antenna from the 1983 headquarters is sort of a greenish gray, whereas the one from the tactical battle platform is sort of a darker, more true gray. That's it for the surface of the platform, but we're not done yet. We have plenty of features to look at. The platform was held up with four legs, three tall ones like this and one short one. And these legs are adjustable. You could probably adjust these legs while they're still on the platform, but they do come out fairly easily and I find it easier to just take the legs off, adjust them and then put them back on. The adjustment on these legs could be a bit easier. It has this tab that runs along notches on the inside of the housing for the adjustment heights and you pretty much have to just squeeze this red housing and pull the inner part out to the desired height. This is the leg at its fullest extension. And here is the tactical battle platform at its maximum height adjustment. These legs add an extra two inches to the height of the play set. A couple things to note, this ladder no longer reaches down to the surface. Also, this ramp does not work nearly as well. The legs for the ramp do not adjust to any different height as the legs for the platform does. So when you extend it, it kind of has more of an angle and the legs for the ramp want to sort of collapse under it and so this doesn't work nearly as well. We have one more feature to look at. This is called the transportable tactical battle platform and the reason it's called transportable is because it has hooks on it that you're supposed to be able to connect to helicopters to lift this thing and transport it. The hooks are here next to the missile rack over here next to the gun platform down inside the munitions room and then another one inside the control center. You were intended to use the 1983 dragonfly helicopter which had a winch and a hook on the underneath side of it and it would take four dragonfly helicopters to lift this thing. It has four hooks on it. Now that is pretty crazy. When I was a kid, I didn't have four dragonfly helicopters. All of my friends put together didn't have four dragonfly helicopters. Starting in 1986, you could throw in the Tomahawk helicopter which also had a winch on the bottom but even now I still don't have four helicopters with winches to lift this thing up so I'm just going to demonstrate using the dragonfly's hook on one of these just so you can show how it attaches. First of course, you'll have to play out the line on the winch by spinning this wheel on the bottom of the helicopter. Give yourself plenty of line. As you can see, the hook from the helicopter does not fit the hook on the platform. What you have to do is just wrap the line around it and then put the hook on the line and it'll secure well enough I guess to lift this thing up and that's what you would need to do on all four of those hooks. Looking at the transportable tactical battle platform overall, it looks like an offshore oil drilling rig and that's exactly what it's designed to look like. It's very utilitarian and it is short on style. I will give you that. But what it lacks in style, it more than makes up for in-play features. I mean, they basically just gave you a flat platform and then piled things on top of it. You've got a ton of guns and missiles and things that move around. You've got a crane. You've got guns, a helipad. Just a ton of things just piled onto this really basic, simple, flat platform. I think that's why I like it. It's very much function over form. It's got a much more practical design than a lot of the more flashy and stylized play sets that we got later with GI Joe. Although this is not a copy of a real world military installation, you can definitely see some real world military applications for this thing as a defensive stronghold or as a command center for an expeditionary force. The tactical battle platform got its chance to shine in the GI Joe comic book issue number 40, where it was in a pitched battle with Cobra Moray hydrofoils. And despite the size difference with all the armaments on the Cobra Moray, these things are about evenly matched. It also showed up in the GI Joe animated series by Sunbow, particularly in an episode titled Computer Complications. There are some downsides to this play set though. One downside is there are no foot pegs anywhere on this play set. Foot pegs would have been useful on these platforms in the munitions room. And over here in the command center, where you have only one seat and no other way really to comfortably put other figures. Another downside is it has a lot of weak points where parts can either break or get lost. This clear plastic shield around here can warp or break very easily. The ladders can break easily. The missile rack that can break easily. The radar dish on the gun can go missing. And the piece where it connects to the gun that can break very easily. The connectors on the ramp can break. The rifles in the munitions room, those can get lost very easily. So you can have a ton of problems on this. And since it does have a lot of parts, if you don't get a complete one and you're looking for parts to, you know, kind of complete it up, some of these can be kind of hard to come by. I'd say the good outweighs the bad though. If you can get this thing complete, it is very impressive for both size and features. Although the tactical battle platform does not come with a figure, if it did come with a figure, that figure would have to be Shipwreck, G.I. Joe's fighting sailor. And in the G.I. Joe comic book, Shipwreck was portrayed as being in command of this platform. Let's take a look at the tactical battle platform when it is loaded with figures and vehicles. And here's what it looks like fully loaded with figures and vehicles. This playset is great for getting your naval figures involved, like Shipwreck and Admiral Keele Hall, Wetsuit, Torpedo. And why not get your marines involved too, like Gung-ho and Leatherneck. And you can fit some many vehicles on here, some of the small vehicles, like the Armadillo and the Skyhawk. But with this thing loaded up, it's really impressive and it looks great as a display. It's surprising to me that Hasbro released the tactical battle platform, a fairly large playset in 1985, the same year they released the mega huge playset, the USS flag. But I would suspect that sales for the battle platform benefited from the USS flag, because not everybody could afford or have the room for that really large playset. So the tactical battle platform was sort of like a consolation prize. So you didn't get the USS flag, but you came home with the battle platform, which was not as big, but in its own right was still a pretty cool playset. Let's compare the 1985 tactical battle platform to GI Joe's first large playset, the 1983 headquarters command center. And despite the fact that the headquarters command center is larger than the battle platform, the 1985 platform still does kind of match up fairly well with the 83 headquarters. The tactical battle platform has some features that the headquarters does not have. It has a missile rack, it has a working crane. It has what I think is a better gun. It works better than the one on the headquarters. So it does have some nice additional features. Also the battle platform has a really nice control area with some computers. As does the headquarters command center. The battle platform has a helipad as the command center did. So in a lot of ways they are comparable. But the headquarters command center just goes a bit bigger than the platform. Not only is there a size difference, but there's also a style difference. The headquarters command center looks like an armored base. It really does have some style to it, whereas the tactical battle platform really doesn't. Also the headquarters command center has a stockade. It can fit just as many figures in here as you can fit on the battle platform. But even better, the headquarters command center is big enough for full size vehicles, not just the small vehicles that will fit on the tactical battle platform. For that reason, I still think the 1983 headquarters edges out the 1985 battle platform. I think this is the better play set. And that's no knock on the 1985 battle platform. All on its own. This is a nice play set. And if you get it, you'll probably be pretty happy with it. That was my review of the 1985 transportable tactical battle platform. Pretty cool, huh? I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, don't forget to leave it a thumbs up on YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe. I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up. You don't want to miss any of 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. See you then.