 Hello, Joe fans. I'm underwater again. I've done a lot of GI Joe videos lately. I mean, of course, I've done GI Joe videos It's a GI Joe channel. What I mean is I've looked at a lot of GI Joe team members and vehicles It's been a while since we've looked at Cobra. So let's not do that now. There was another terrifying foe of GI Joe Destro was his name. Destro was his name Cobra wasn't the only enemy of GI Joe and it's been even longer since we've looked at Destro's iron grenadiers Anybody smell something? Hello, everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994 I'd like to start by thanking a patron. Thank you to Adam Beryl for your support. This is my primary source of income I could not continue doing these videos without the support of my friends on Patreon. If you'd like to support the channel That's a great way to do it. A few weeks ago I looked at a GI Joe underwater guy. The seas are a vital strategic territory Great battles have been fought at sea. Every major player on the world stage must have a navy. When Cobra began its quest for World domination it took a couple years before they added water vehicles and underwater specialists Cobra's weapons and equipment were supplied by the international arms dealer Destro Eventually Destro decided he wanted to get into the world domination game himself and formed the iron grenadiers Destro needed a naval force and the backbone of that force is the subject of this week's review Apparently Destro also recruited fish. These guys came with fish HCC 788 presents undertow This is undertow Destro's frogmen from 1990 This figure was first introduced in 1990 and was available only in 1990. It was discontinued for 1991 this was the only version of undertow in the vintage era There were a few post vintage versions, but I don't have them undertow is an enemy of GI Joe But he is not with Cobra He is Destro's frogmen. That means he is a member of the iron grenadiers Destro was first introduced in 1983 as Cobra's weapons supplier He was also a de facto second in command of Cobra forces and an uneasy ally of Cobra commander He attempted to usurp the commander on more than one occasion in 1988 the second version of Destro was released and he was given his own faction the iron grenadiers The second version of Destro was packaged with a small vehicle the despoiler the basic iron grenadiers trooper was also released that year Destro version 2 and the iron grenadiers trooper set the basic color scheme for iron grenadiers of black red and gold It was one of the coolest army builders in the entire line. It's a great figure There was also a support team for the iron grenadiers back in 1988. There was Destro's general Voltar he included a condor for some reason. There were also a couple vehicle drivers There was the ferret the driver of the demon tank and the nullifier the pilot of the AGP The packaging for iron grenadiers tried to set them up as enemies for GI Joe's battle force 2000 battle force 2000 was a sub team within GI Joe with futuristic Experimental vehicles that rivalry never really happened though battle force 2000 slowly faded out after 1988 in 1989 there was a carted figure DJ and one small vehicle the pulverizer that was the end of battle force 2000 Dodger and DJ both got second versions later in the line But they were no longer in battle force 2000 in fact most of the team was killed off in the comic book series The iron grenadiers carried on a bit longer in 1989. There was the annihilator and target for carted figures There was also two vehicle drivers dark lawn the driver of the evader and wild boar the driver of the Razorback In 1990 there was Destro's anti tank specialist metalhead. There was undertow Of course, there was also a vehicle without a driver Destro's Dominator that was pretty much the end of the iron grenadiers Destro's forces were folded into Cobra in 1992 There was a third version of Destro that did not have the iron grenadiers branding in 1993 There was a second version of Targat and in 1994 there was a second version of metalhead But they were no longer in the iron grenadiers undertow adds a much needed under water elements to the iron grenadiers Destro's squad had the land air and even space covered But they were short on C fighters the name undertow seems to imply this is an individual named Character the name doesn't sound right as a plural. This is an army builder though They are Destro's frog men the file card also makes it clear This is a team not an individual an undertow is an ocean current that flows in the opposite direction from the surface waves Moving toward a shore so the surface waves move toward the shore and the undertow moves away from the shore Prototype names included Sub marauders and river rats. I'm not sure undertow is better than those Let's look at the accessories for undertow this guy had numerous accessories and they are mostly appropriate for his specialty But he cannot hold all of them at the same time Which means something is going to be loose on a shelf Let's start by looking at his trident the card contents call it a trident and that is indeed what it is It has three barbed prongs. It is in black plastic. It has a shaft It's very thin that trident will fit in the figure's hand very easily It will not stress the figures thumb because that shaft is very thin, but it is so thin It will also easily fall out it has been stated elsewhere There is sort of storage for this trident it can fit in the deep groove on the back of the figure and Wedge into the back of his belt, but that does not work well for me And I'm pretty sure that was not intentional. This is an odd choice of weapon unless he is Poseidon He doesn't hold it very well He can't shoot it at the enemy and it would be cumbersome to swim with the next accessory the card contents call a Writing skiff and this one is impressive. It is in gray plastic It has molded detail on the top and the bottom It has a couple little water jets on the back to propel him through the water It has two grips one on each side those grips will fit in the figures hands, but it's a little bit of a stretch So be cautious with that There is a peg on the top of the skiff and that is for the black hose that connects to under toes mask You can unplug the hose from the chest and then plug that end and to the peg on the skiff And now the figure is attached to the skiff while he is writing it There is a weapon on the skiff a red torpedo on the bottom that torpedo is removable There is a slot on the torpedo that fits on a peg on the bottom of the skiff There isn't much detail on that torpedo But it's remarkable to even get a removable torpedo on this accessory This skiff will allow undertow to move through the water faster than any human could swim and the torpedo would allow him to Take on GI Joe boats. This isn't so much an accessory as it is a small vehicle The next accessory is this silver soft plastic fish this Barracuda Yes, this does look like a real Barracuda and it is flexible It can kind of move like a fish. Why does undertow have it? Is it a trained fish? Does it have a freaking laser beam attached to its head? This was not unique among underwater figures 1988 hydroviper included a devil ray 1992 eels version 2 included a robot shark also in 1992 deep 6 version 3 Included a dolphin. We are not even close to being done looking at accessories Next let's look at the hose. That's what the card contents call it This black soft plastic hose that connects to the action figure on a peg on the chest that can be Removed the other end fits on a peg on the mouthpiece of the scuba mask that can also be removed This is a standard black hose that came with numerous other GI Joe action figures and functioned in about the same way This one is very short. Here's something you can do with that trident You can plug the end of it into that black hose and now he has a flail weapon now Let's get to that scuba mask the scuba mask has straps over the top in the center and around the back to attach to the Figure's head it can be removed have care when removing it to not break it the mask is in gray plastic It has a ridge pattern on the straps It is in a soft flexible plastic But not quite as soft as I would like so it is still possible to break this Especially at the mouthpiece where the hose attaches the mask has some peculiar details It has one red eye on the right side the left eye is covered I don't know why you would want to do this even if this is some kind of targeting or infrared system I would think you would still want to see out of both eyes There are crosshair details etched into the mask and that detail is reflected on the card art You can see it there and I don't understand this Why would you put the crosshairs on the outside of the mask? You can't see them from the inside Finally we get to the flippers the flippers are in gray plastic. They are both the same They have a ridge pattern on the top and nothing on the bottom. They attach to the feet They can be removed. They have a well to fit the foot and a foot peg to attach to the foot These flippers are not in soft plastic. They are in hard plastic They are the same gray color as the gray on the action figure These have been reissued a couple other times These flippers were issued in silver plastic in 1992 for eels version 2 And in yellow plastic in 1993 for eels version 3 They were also issued in black plastic in 1994 for shipwreck version 2 At long last we are done looking at accessories so let's look at undertow's articulation He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1990 So he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down His arms don't seem to go all the way down by his side especially the left arm So that's a little odd But he can lift his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around He had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees He had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around This was an o-ring figure meaning 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 take a look at the sculpt design and color of undertow's Starting with his head and on his head he is wearing a green balaclava mask This automatically makes him a ninja There is an opening on the mask so you can't see his eyes There's very little detail on this mask in fact basically no detail on the mask But that's okay because this will mostly be covered with the scuba mask There is significant detail on the chest He is wearing a red scuba suit top with green patches on the shoulder And a gray chest piece that goes around the back of his neck On that ring around the neck there are some black details It almost looks like a shark bite On that gray chest piece there are black tanks with a peg for attaching the hose accessory There is a green ridged panel under the tanks And that detail does kind of continue to the sides of the chest This must be a rebreather Undertow doesn't have a scuba tank A rebreather is smaller than a traditional air tank But this is small even for that smaller underwater breathing option His arms have the long red sleeves of that scuba suit With green bands on the outside upper arms And plain green gloves These arms are not very well detailed The waist piece is in gray plastic It has an unpainted gray belt It has a ridged green panel in the front That matches up with the green section on the torso There is an unpainted gray device on the right side of the belt There are these molded in rectangular details under the belt That match up to similar details on the torso This makes me wonder if the lower half of this figure was at one time Supposed to be red like the upper half On the legs he has a gray scuba suit On the left upper thigh he has a black band It doesn't seem to attach to anything He has gray panels on the upper and lower legs about the knees Those are not traditional knee pads though On the outside left lower leg he has a black knife And black bands that go around the left lower leg Then he has gray feet Those feet have no delineation of boots or anything like that It's just a continuation of that gray scuba suit Red and green is not usually a good combination Unless it's on a Christmas tree The gray really helps this figure It provides a middle ground between the clashing red and green Taken all together I think the figure looks pretty good Let's take a look at Undertow's file card This file card has his faction as the enemy And this was typical of Iron Grenadier file cards He was not a Cobra agent and he certainly wasn't a member of GI Joe There is a portrait of Undertow And the scuba mask has a different shape than the toy And no central strap This was perhaps an early design This top paragraph says Any frogman can operate efficiently and clean water under optimum conditions But the Undertow are especially trained to function and fight in the murky Polluted waters that clog busy industrial and military waterfronts His wetsuit is made of a non-toxic, anti-corrosive material His face mask is coated with silicone to repel oil slicks And is organically conditioned against hostile biological agents and infections This guy should be going up against the eco-warriors This bottom paragraph has a quote presumably from someone in GI Joe It says Undertow will swim through anything This guy makes leeches look friendly It's almost impossible to defeat him in his own environment If we take him on in his own backyard We first have to get tetanus booster shots before we move out for action The best defense against this slime swimmer Is to keep a safe distance and throw grenades from behind a well fortified enclosure He swims in shit In this case, why don't we just cede that territory to the enemy No, no, let's not fight back You guys can have the shit water You win, you win Which one of these guys is really the stinky diver? Looking at how Undertow were used in GI Joe Media They had sporadic appearances in the deak era of the animated series They were never very prominent They first appeared in the episode Revenge of the Pharaohs They attacked a dam piloting the Cobra Piranha Destro appeared in that issue and he was working for Cobra So it's unclear if the Undertow are agents of Cobra Or just taking orders from Destro They had the most screen time in the episode An officer and a viperman They participated in the training of new Cobra recruits They seemed to be working with Cobra here This was when some GI Joe guys infiltrated Cobra as new recruits They sometimes appeared in episodes with Destro But they also seemed to be Cobra agents not specifically iron grenadiers To my knowledge, Undertow did not appear in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics I couldn't find a reference to an appearance in the various sources on the subject I went through all the issues from the year 1990 and 1991 And I did not see him there It's possible I missed it Because those issues included a lot of new characters And hundreds of vipers He could have been in the background somewhere and I missed it Looking at Undertow overall I like this figure It's far from perfect But it's a mostly well appointed frogman for Destro's navy He comes with numerous accessories And they are mostly appropriate for his specialty I don't know what he comes with a fish A harpoon gun would have been a better weapon than the trident Even if the trident can be stored on the figure's back I still don't like it He has a good offensive weapon in the skiff and the torpedo With the torpedo he could take out gijo watercraft The mask is great, pretty much It reminds me of the mask that came with shipwreck version 2 We didn't get removable scuba masks on gijo frogman very often The figure itself is good It looks exactly like a frogman I don't normally like red and green together But the gray helps mitigate that color clash Undertow does one fundamental thing I want from figures He looks like he fits his specialty The problem is he doesn't look like an iron grenadier Early iron grenadiers figures had a color scheme of black, red, and gold Some figures departed from those colors But the figures that stuck with those colors looked better The colors worked well together And made the iron grenadiers distinctive and easy to identify Imagine Undertow in those colors It would have looked great I don't love the name Undertow It sounds like an individual, not an army builder In fact, I tend to refer to the figure in the singular Even though I know there would be a legion of them Balancing the flaws and the good points makes this a middle of the road figure But I like it a bit more than it probably deserves based on its own merits My favorite cobra army builder is the cobra eels And this kind of reminds me of that I would like to see cobra eels and undertow fighting side by side against gijo The biggest disappointment is there were no other iron grenadier water fighters Undertow could pilot cobra watercraft But they had none of their own We just flushed out a new review of undertow I hope you enjoyed it Thank you again to Adam Verwell for your support If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube And subscribe to the YouTube for more GI Joe Toy Reviews I have a huge back catalog of vintage GI Joe Toy Reviews Please check those out You can find me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter And I have a website, HCC788.com I can only continue doing these videos with the support of my friends on Patreon If you'd like to support the channel, that's a great way to do it You can even get your name in videos Is he all the name scrolling on the screen right now? Your name could be there Next week we've got something big Something kind of weird But something surprisingly important to the history of GI Joe I'll see you then And until then remember Only GI Joe is GI Joe Oh, that's been swimming in raw sewage I love it