 Hey, hey everybody, it's me, Mr. Fish and Ray, and this week we are going to review a figure that wears a mask. I say we're going to review a figure that wears a mask. I don't know how Timmer does it, Commander 788 here, and I'm impersonating one of your other favorite G.I. Joe toy reviewers on YouTube, Timmer, from Half the Battle. Though I can't seem to get the mask to work right. Just like the figure we're going to review today. Before we get into that, I need to give another codename to a patron. This time it goes to David Teherina. So let me think here. David. Dave. David Letterman. No, Dave Osborn. Super Dave Osborn. Anybody remember that guy? Ah, he was funny. Wait, I didn't mean go. Your codename is Super Trooper Dave. Super Duper. This week we will be reviewing another figure from 1993, which means we will again be looking at the problems that figures from 1993 have. Why do I keep torturing myself like this? Well, there's just so many figures to review from 1993, so the more we do now, the less we have to do later. It's the toy reviewing equivalent of eating your broccoli. Of course, nobody likes broccoli, but you still have to eat your broccoli if you want to grow up big and strong. But I tried to pick a figure that I thought wouldn't be so bad. In fact, looking at it, I thought, alright, we may have a decent action figure on our hands here. And then I looked closer. This is a fan favorite character too. This is the second version of Beachhead. My review of the first version of Beachhead is one of my most popular videos. Lots of people like Beachhead. Great figure, great character. So let's see what 1993 did to him. HCC788 presents version 2 of Beachhead. This is Beachhead version 2, G.I. Joe's Ranger from 1993. This figure was only available in 1993. It was discontinued for 1994. It was part of the Battlecore set. That is to say it was part of the main G.I. Joe action figure line and not part of a sub team. The Battlecore figures that year were numbered sequentially and Beachhead was number 4. This is the second version of Beachhead. Version 1 of Beachhead was released in 1986. It was a popular figure and a popular character. It was also somewhat unusual in that his face is covered with a mask. That was common for Cobra action figures, but it was less common for G.I. Joe characters. Some other G.I. Joe characters that were masks, Snake Eyes, really all versions of Snake Eyes, from 1986, Shockwave from 1988, and also from 1988 version 2 of Storm Shadow, who started out as a Cobra character and became a Joe. There were others of course, and often you would have G.I. Joe characters that would have non-removable helmets and goggles and things like that, but it's less common to have them concealed behind a mask. Usually the bad guys tried to conceal their identities. There was a third version of Beachhead released in 1994. It entirely reused the mold from version 2, but just changed the colors a little bit. I don't have that version to show you. Version 3 is so close to version 2, I almost thought I should review it as just a variant of version 2. But it is different enough, it really is a separate version, so it deserves to have its own review. Wait, no no no. After I recorded that, I changed my mind. I'm not going to do a separate review for version 3. The figure is too similar to version 2. It doesn't warrant its own video. Instead, I'm going to review version 3 right now. Version 3 of Beachhead was only available in 1994. It was number 6 in the battle course set. It had the exact same mold and accessories as version 2. Version 3 had a yellow vest. It had the same card art as version 2. It had the same file card text as version 2. There was a file card variant. Some file cards were a smaller baseball card size. And there you have it. Version 3 of Beachhead reviewed. There's no way I'm doing a separate video for that. As a Ranger, Beachhead joins other prominent Rangers on the GI Joe team. The first one being Stalker, a character that was introduced in 1982, the first year of 1980's GI Joe. Another one was Repeater from 1988. As Rangers, they would be graduates of the U.S. Army Ranger School, a grueling combat training program. A Ranger would be in a good position to join the elite GI Joe team. According to the GI Joe animated series, Beachhead was pretty high up in the GI Joe command hierarchy. The GI Joe command structure didn't seem to have very much to do with the rank insignia on the soldier's uniform. According to the cartoon, it went like this. General Hawk was at the top, followed by Duke. Behind Duke was Flint, and behind Flint was Beachhead. I think they did this because Beachhead was given a gruff and confrontational personality, so he might provide a little dramatic tension and conflict for the team. For his part, Beachhead resented his position and wanted more discipline on the team. In fact, later he was put in charge of training new recruits. Beachhead is defined as a temporary defended position on a beach that has been taken by landing forces, from which an inland attack can be launched. For this figure, I have the full card back, which is nice. I don't usually get the full card back for figures, but this gives us an opportunity to see how this figure was marketed. We have the GI Joe logo up here on the top and then the battle core logo here underneath it. Not that battle core necessarily means anything. According to the back, it just says new GI Joe and Cobra recruits joined the battle core team. Battle core is just the main GI Joe line and not one of the sub teams. We've got the card art here and it has this sort of blue laser background, which is much less dramatic and effective than the old explosion backgrounds. Then we have the artwork itself and the execution on it is okay. Though there are some design curiosities, but they mainly come straight from the figure. Like the fact that he's wearing a mask and you can see his lips through the mask. He's carrying his big missile launcher and this weird double gun that we'll talk about later. His codename is Beachhead and like I said, he's number four in the series. Not that these numbers matter at all. You don't have to buy them in any particular order. You've got instructions here for the figure stand and the missile launcher. On the flip side, you have the cross sell with some other battle core figures that were available. Looks like this kid was checking them off as he got them. Then we've got an advertisement for some of the sub teams. You've got your one flag point. We actually have an advertisement for some of the vehicles that were available that year. Then we have the file card and thankfully this is a nice gray back file card. Much easier to read than those neon colors that we got on some of the sub teams. We will look at that file card later, but let's look at the figure and the accessories first. Let's take a look at Beachhead's accessories and he came with a lot of accessories. More accessories than he can carry and you may know that this is a pet peeve of mine. I'd rather they give us fewer good accessories than pile on a bunch of mediocre accessories. You will also notice that all of the accessories except for the black missile launcher are yellow. That's because they were packaged on a plastic tree and you'd have to clip off the accessories yourself. And that plastic tree was yellow. It's an unfortunate color choice and a common color choice for 90s GI Joe figures. And I gotta be honest guys, this is one of the reasons why people have such a problem with 90s figures. Not only are they a bright obnoxious color, not only are they the same color, they are also almost all reissued accessories. There's almost nothing original here. Let's start with the weapon that I have in his hand. This huge yellow rifle with the big bayonet, the two magazines, very strange looking. But of course this comes from somewhere else. It's not original. This rifle originally came with spearhead from 1988. Spearhead's rifle being in a light gray and spearhead's rifle had a strap and Beachhead's copy does not. Let's take a look at this pistol. This pistol which looks pretty nice despite the fact that it is yellow. But of course this pistol comes from something else. It was originally issued with shockwave from 1988 with shockwave's pistol being in dark blue and of course this one is in yellow. Next we have this weird double gun and as redonkulous as the accessory is, it's also a reissue and it came from the 80s. This accessory originally came with recoil from 1989 and recoil's accessory was in a powder blue color and honestly it's also a pretty awful color. The yellow doesn't make it any worse. Next we have this knife which would be a pretty good looking knife if it weren't yellow. This knife was issued with several different figures in several different colors in 1993 but not before that. So this is sort of a new accessory but it was not unique to Beachhead. Next we have the figure stand also in yellow and this was a nice innovation in the 90s. 80s figures did not come with figure stands so it was nice to get these in the 90s. Of course it's yellow. A different color would have been better. A different color on all of these accessories would have been better. Finally that brings us to the black missile launcher. This spring loaded missile launcher. This is another innovation of the 90s and by all accounts kids in the 90s did like these. I don't really care for them. They seem a bit gimmicky to me but that's a matter of preference. It came with two yellow missiles and this is a new accessory though this accessory was issued later for the third version of Beachhead from 1994. There is a fair amount of detail on this missile launcher. It's got a yellow trigger in the back. It's got a grip here for the action figure but I cannot get this into my figure's hand. It's just too big or the hand is too small and that does not work for me. I actually really like the ventilation slots on the side. That's not too bad. To operate this missile launcher you load one of the yellow missiles into the barrel with the notch side up and press back until it clicks. We will test it by firing it at our favorite target Dr. Meinbender from 1993. Another figure that came with loads of yellow reissued accessories. Just aim and press down on the yellow trigger to fire. That was a pretty good hit but I didn't knock him down. I set him up too close to my back wall there so he's just kind of leaning. I'm going to see if I can knock him down with this second missile and fire. Now it just glanced off so Dr. Meinbender lives another day. Let's take a look at the articulation on Beachhead. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1993. Unfortunately there were no innovations in articulation in the vintage line after 1985. 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 it 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 so he could swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure so 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 sculpted design and color of Beachhead version 2. At first glance this figure doesn't look too bad. You're probably thinking, hey, this isn't bad for a 90s figure. The colors are pretty good. The sculpting is pretty good. We may have a pretty good action figure right here. And that's true, but this figure doesn't necessarily get full credit for it. I will explain. Let's start by looking at Beachhead's head. And his head has a black non-removable helmet that is fairly plain. It's got a little bit of detailing on there. Looks like it's got some dense sculpted in. That's not bad. It gives it a little character, but it is non-removable. He has goggles over his eyes that are also black. Then he has a green mask that covers the rest of his face. And that mask has kind of a crisscross pattern over it. And through the mask, you can see his lips. This is a problem for me, but it's not a problem unique to this figure. In fact, the first version of Beachhead, a figure that I liked very much, also kind of had the lips sculpted into the mask. And I think this is a poor artistic choice. For one thing, masks don't really work that way. And it kind of negates the cool effect of the mask. If you want to see how to make a mask look cool, look at Shockwave from 1988. I mean, you don't see his nose very prominently. You definitely don't see his lips sculpted in. The mask makes him look mysterious. That's a proper looking mask. And next to it, this Beachhead just looks really strange. On the card art, which shows Beachhead with his mouth open, you can see his mouth. In fact, you can see into his mouth. You can see his teeth. You can see his tongue. It's almost like this mask is supposed to be transparent. Like, is this a fishnet mask? Hey, check out my Beachhead cosplay. Man, this really makes me feel like an airborne ranger. And it also makes me feel kind of sexy. Moving on, Beachhead's chest isn't too bad. He has a blue collar that goes around his neck. That's for his blue undershirt. And over that, he has a green vest. And over the green vest, he has a black vest, which I guess is supposed to be a tactical vest, I suppose. But the way it's sculpted in, it looks more like a bustier or a corset. It's got some buckles that go down the front, it's got a couple sculpted grenades on it and some pockets and some detailing in the back. But it's pretty strange looking. I guess it's not too bad because it does add some black to the figure. It's not an outrageous color or some weird detail. It just looks a little bit odd in the execution. Then we have some fairly plain blue arms. This is a blue undershirt he's wearing under that green vest. There is a detail here on the left arm, but it's hard to make out exactly what it's supposed to be, maybe a pocket or something. But the sculpting is a little soft, so it's really hard to tell. Then he has some black gloves and that's pretty much it for the arms. Moving on down to the waist piece, he has a black belt with some pouches on the left side and that's about it. Then on his legs, he has green trousers and I gotta say, I think this color is pretty good. He has black pistols in black holsters on each thigh. So he's got two pistol holsters. Then he has straps that go around the thighs for those holsters. On his lower legs, he has a black knife on his right ankle and he has an unpainted pocket on the inside of his left leg. Then he has some pretty standard but pretty good looking black combat boots. Does the bottom half of this figure look familiar to you? Well it should because you saw it earlier in this video. The entire bottom half of this figure comes from Shockwave from 1988. So only half of this beach head figure is original, the rest is just a copy. But they did change one thing. They swapped around the lower legs. So Shockwave's right boot is now Beachhead's left boot and vice versa. That means the knife that was on Shockwave's inside ankle is now on Beachhead's outside ankle. And the pocket that was on Shockwave's outside leg is now on Beachhead's inside leg. I guess this switch is okay. And that unpainted knife on Shockwave is now painted on Beachhead. So that's a bit of an improvement. We've seen this with other 90s figures, especially for figures from 1993. In 1993, Hasbro, I think, artificially augmented the GI Joe roster by creating a lot of half figures. Instead of going through the expense of creating whole new figures, they would create half a figure and then just reuse parts for the other half. Now we saw this in the 80s too with the reuse of parts and accessories, but it was rampant in the 90s, especially 1993. I'm sorry fans of 1990s GI Joe, but this is one reason why I keep harping on the 90s. It's not just the crazy neon colors. It's the overall lack of effort. One thing I can't complain about on this figure is the color. The colors are not bad at all. This green color looks pretty good. In fact, it's almost identical to the green color on Muskrat from 1988. And that was a figure that I liked. Standing 1993 Beachhead up against the original Beachhead though, and there's no comparison. That original 1986 Beachhead figure was all original, excellent sculpting from top to bottom. You have a camouflage pattern. You have nice subdued military colors. You have realistic accessories that all fit him very well. And honestly, it's no contest. All right, let's keep moving and look at the file card. This file card has a portrait of Beachhead here. That's from the card art on the front of the card. It's got a copy of that card art here. And it's got some labels for some of the features. I'm not going to go through those. That's not something I normally look at on these 90s cards. I'm more interested in the character in the background. His codename is Beachhead. He's a ranger. His final name is Wayne R. Sneedon. His primary military specialty is small arms armorer. His secondary military specialty is Patriot driver. And the Patriot was a vehicle that was released that basically this is an advertisement for a vehicle. That's something these 90s file cards did. They tried to advertise the vehicles too, even though the figure didn't come with that vehicle. His birthplace is Auburn, Alabama. His grade is E6. Notice on the version one file card, Beachhead's name is not hyphenated. It is two separate words. Most of this information is just copied from the original 1986 file card. In fact, a lot of the text is taken almost word for word from the 86 file card with a few differences. Here's an interesting factoid. His filename Wayne R. Sneedon was used again in a different Hasbro toy line. In the toy line cops, a character called Checkpoint, has a filename of Wayne Sneedon the third. It's implied that that character is Beachhead's son. It has a quote here, presumably from Beachhead himself. It says, if those snakes had any backbone, I'd be the one to break it. Well, in fact, snakes do have backbones. Thank you, science. This paragraph, once again, is almost entirely lifted from the first paragraph on the 86 file card. It says, Beachhead was a lane instructor at the Ranger School in Fort Benning and an observer slash advisor at the Covert Op School in Central America. At Ranger School, Ranger instructors, also known as lane graders, are tasked with creating the training environment that simulates the physical and psychological stresses of combat. He is highly disciplined and actually likes getting up at 0500 hours for a 10 mile run and PT in parentheses physical training session before breakfast. Being a naturalist, he chooses not to use deodorant much to the dismay of his team members who prefer not to stand too close to him in the early morning chow line. This bit here about Beachhead not using deodorant comes from the G.I. Joe animated series. In one of the episodes, there's kind of an offhanded joke about Beachhead not wearing deodorant, and apparently it was so funny it made it to the file card. Beachhead, I want to talk to you about your deodorant. What do you mean? I don't use deodorant. That's what I want to talk to you about. Naturalist has several definitions, none of which have anything to do with not wearing deodorant. The only thing he hates besides Cobra are people who aren't interested in doing their best. Taking a look at how Beachhead was used in G.I. Joe media, in the animated series he first appeared in Arise Serpentor Arise Part 1. According to Buzz Dixon, the character of Beachhead was based on Jack Webb's character in the movie The D.I. in 1957. I am not your mother. I will not wake you up like your mother does. Do you hear me? Yes, sir! Beachhead was a strict disciplinarian. He was put in charge of training new Joe's called The Rawhides in the 1987 movie. His gruff personality was appealing in the sometimes silly cartoon series. The character did not carry over into the geek animated series so no appearances of Beachhead in that era and no animated appearances of Beachhead in his version 2 uniform. There were a few post-Vintage appearances of Beachhead in Spy Troops and Valor vs. Venom, but that's outside the scope of my reviews. Looking at how Beachhead was used in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, he first appeared in issue number 47 and in fact he was right on the cover. And that's a great cover too, one of my favorites. Beachhead also appeared in a preview story for the Special Missions series that was in the back half of issue number 50 so it's nice to see Beachhead used to introduce that series. There were not many appearances of Beachhead in the comic book series. He was much more prominent in the animated series. Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book, didn't seem to find Beachhead's wavelengths. There were no appearances of Beachhead in his version 2 uniform in the comic book. Looking at version 2 of Beachhead overall, it's a middle-tier figure. It's not the worst from the 90s. It's not the worst from 1993. The colors on the figure are decent. The sculpting is decent. They tried to translate some elements from version 1 like the mask, like the black vest, but it has that 90s laziness, that lack of effort that will keep it far away from the top tier. They actually restrained themselves on the colors. No neon colors on the figure. The colors are actually pretty good but they just couldn't stop themselves from making the accessories yellow. The sculpting on the figure is not too bad but I don't feel like I can give the figure full credit for it because only the top half of the figure is new. The bottom half of the figure was reused from Shockwave. So as with other 1993 figures that we've seen, they really only gave us half of a new figure. And the half of the figure that they gave us that was new, that was a new sculpt, has some peculiarities to it. Yes, I'm talking about the lips. Why did they do this? This isn't the only figure they did this to. They had other figures where they had a guy wearing a mask and you could see the lips through the mask. It looks wrong every time. The only way you would see somebody's lips through a mask is if he's biting the inside of the mask. And that... I'm pretty ridiculous. I watch a lot of reviews and I read a lot of articles and comments and I'm often told that we need to praise the 90s for the excellent sculpting work on GI Joe figures. And to some degree, that's correct. A lot of the sculpting on 90s GI Joe figures is excellent. It's very sharp, very crisp, lots of great detail. But I have a hard time praising the 90s for that when often only half of the figure is that new sculpt. The rest of the sculpt looks great because they took it from a great 80s figure. Now, of course, there was a lot of reuse of parts in the 80s. That happened plenty in the 80s. But that was a problem in the 80s and when I see that on an 80s figure, I point it out. It is possible to reuse parts in a good way. Sometimes you can even improve on the original. But anytime I see it, I point out that it's Hasbro being cheap. And in the 90s, they did it a lot. And I have a hard time appreciating 90s figures because I see a lot of them as Hasbro giving us half of a new product but selling it as a whole new product. So yeah, it's not really an ugly figure, but the best I can do for it is middle tier. And can we please review something not from 1993 next week? That was my review of version 2 of Beachhead and my impersonation of one of my favorite YouTubers, Timur. Of course, Timur hasn't seen this yet, but it's okay. I'm sure he won't mind. DOOMED! WHAT THE HELL? Oh, uh... I hope that doesn't come back to bite me someday. Thank you everyone for watching. I'm so grateful for everyone who joins me every week to talk about G.I. Joe. Thank you to everyone who supports the channel on Patreon. I now also have a coffee account, so if you like the videos, you can leave me a one-time tip. Don't forget to subscribe and like this video and share it. I also am on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and I have a website, hcc788.com. Thank you to Timur from Half the Battle. Please check out his channel. It's great. I love it. I'm a big fan. Thank you for all the warm and kind comments and messages I received during a recent, pretty rough time. But I think we're past that now. I think we're in pretty good shape and we're on the right track. But thank you to everyone who helped me get through that. I have no idea what I'm going to review next week, but I'll think of something and I'll see you then. And remember, until then, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe. Pairing fishnet stockings on my head. This is what I do for you folks. This is what I do. I kind of like the red lace. It's a nice touch, isn't it?