 What's that? It's the Dreadlocks and the Thunder Machine? I've gotta warn the Joes! It's the G.I. Joe Checkpoint Alpha! With Snake-Eyes and Alpine! Snake-Eyes! Call General Hawk on the telephone and tell him the Dreadlocks are coming! Why aren't you calling? I can see my house from up here! Quick! Close the gate! Everyone knows Dreadlocks will be all close to traffic signs! We stopped him! Yo Joe! It's the G.I. Joe Checkpoint! With Snake-Eyes and Alpine! Place and Invictus sold separately! G.I. Joe! Hey there! It's time for another Vintage G.I. Joe Toy Review! And finally I can review the 1985 G.I. Joe Checkpoint! And this is another one for which I must thank Arthur! Arthur sent me a box full of G.I. Joe toys! I did an unboxing video, it was awesome! This toy was in the box and finally I'm able to review it so thank you Arthur! Someone has been requesting this review ever since I took this toy out of that box and believe me I wanted to review this toy right away too but the scheduling on these reviews can be a little bit tricky. For instance, that same box gave me the idea to do Tiger Force Month and that took up a whole month and after that I needed to review another vehicle and I wanted to get back to Cobra and so after that I wanted to do a little bit more of Cobra but then it wasn't the right time to do another vehicle or play set I usually do those at the top of the month so I needed to do a couple more figures so I did grunt, I did low light and finally now at the beginning of June I am ready to do this review! HCC788 presents the 1985 G.I. Joe Checkpoint! This is G.I. Joe's Checkpoint from 1985 it was available in retail stores in 1985 and 1986 it was discontinued for the year 1987 it was available for mailway from 1988 to 1991 the checkpoint was one of the battle station play sets which were small play sets but larger than the battlefield accessories like the machine gun defense unit here as you can see the machine gun defense unit is smaller and not an integrated play set the checkpoint pairs well with another battle station the 1984 watch tower I don't have the watch tower yet but when I get one and I review it I will compare it with the checkpoint I think they do match up well although the box for the checkpoint only calls it a checkpoint it's often referred to as checkpoint alpha because that's what it says on the toy checkpoint alpha is probably a reference to the famous checkpoint Charlie also known as checkpoint C it was a well-known crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War in 1961 to prevent mass emigration from the eastern Soviet controlled Germany a wire fence was erected along the border between East and West Berlin later a wall was constructed there were a few passages through the wall with checkpoint C being the only one designated for use by Allied forces there was a real checkpoint alpha and a checkpoint bravo checkpoint alpha was the Helmstedt-Marenborn border crossing checkpoint Charlie was better known but checkpoint alpha was the busiest crossing point let's look at the parts and the features of the checkpoint I have it in what I would consider to be the correct orientation it has the checkpoint alpha sticker in front the door for the guard post on the side with the red gate behind it on the top we have the observation deck and it has three foot pegs and a metal texture pattern on the floor it has four accessories one for each corner and they are interchangeable so you can put them in any configuration you want here we have what the blueprints call a long body high rate I-15 submachine gun this is really too large to be a submachine gun and this is a remold of the machine gun that came with the 1983 GI Joe headquarters command center the headquarters gun was just called a 20mm machine gun the checkpoint reuses that mold for the HQ machine gun with a shorter barrel now the 1983 machine gun was a clip on but the checkpoint machine gun is on a peg so it can swivel and that's better next we have what the blueprints call the VCHR8 auto scan infrared camera this is another reuse from the 1983 headquarters command center reuses that same infrared camera but again a peg instead of a clip on next we have what the blueprints call a tungsten spanned beam search light blueprints it looks like this is a smaller version of the search light that came with the 1983 headquarters command center but it isn't it is entirely different and finally we have the antenna there's not much to say about it it's an antenna the observation deck is held up by four beams that attach to the base and around the back we have a ladder that goes up to this opening in the back so that Joe's can climb up there and man the observation deck I'm going to remove the observation deck and the beams and the ladder so we can get a better look at the guard post the guard post has this little opening for personnel to get inside and we have some fair detail we have what looks like a radar screen even though this play set does not have a radar dish we have a couple odd control panels and then we have the clipboard this clipboard is tiny and frequently lost it can peg in it has a peg and it fits on that hole there and it has a sticker that says spot check oh look I found a spot the clipboard can fit in the figure's hand and for some figures it won't fall out it's kind of thin and some figures can't hold it very well we have a gate appropriately red it has a stop sign a couple reflectors and over here we have a handle for swinging the gate open and closed the gate pegs into this post right here and it does swing quite freely finally we have the speed bump and I have to say I really like this it's very clever to include this this is a nice detail that might easily have been left out but it really completes the set the speed bump is not attached to anything it's just a separate piece of plastic with a sticker on it so you can place it anywhere you want I think it should go right about there who should man checkpoint alpha the box art for the play set shows mutt and his dog junkyard and I think that's good mutt really works well as a guard also features alpine alpine is not a guard he's a mountain trooper but I think he looks pretty good up there there is one more figure that I think goes very well with checkpoint alpha although the figure was not available when this toy was released in 1987 g.i.jo got its military policeman law with his dog order law just seems to belong with this play set a military policeman manning the checkpoint that's just perfect as far as I can tell checkpoint alpha did not make any appearances in g.i.jo media not in the cartoon, not in the comic books and that's really too bad because it easily could have been worked into both the cartoon and the comic book for instance in the g.i.jo comic book g.i.jo had a secret base the pit and at first it was on an army base so the checkpoint could have been featured on that army base later it was moved out to the desert they could have featured the checkpoint out there in the cartoon series g.i.jo had a very large very not secret base and the checkpoint could have been featured at the gate for their giant base these small play sets did not get a lot of love in g.i.jo media and I'm not sure why the purpose of these play sets was to build the g.i.jo play world for kids and that was also the purpose of the cartoon series and the comic book so why could these not have worked together you could have included something like the checkpoint without changing the story in the cartoon or the comic book at all just have it there looking at the checkpoint overall the checkpoint is not a top tier play set but that's not really fair because among play sets you're looking at the 1983 headquarters command center the 1985 USS flag the 1986 terror drone and those were huge play sets and the checkpoint doesn't really stack up against those but if you compare it with other play sets of its class it does stack up very nicely has plenty of play features it has the swinging gate it has the multiple accessories on the observation deck it has plenty going on for it reviewing these small play sets is always tricky because they don't give you a lot to talk about because they're small but this play set gave me the opportunity to talk about the Cold War and that's been a recurring theme in these videos GI Joe was firmly planted in the Cold War growing up as an American kid at the end of the Cold War was a unique experience it was different from the experience of adults who lived at that time and it was very different from the next generation who didn't experience the Cold War at all reviewing GI Joe toys has allowed me to explore those experiences and memories and put them in perspective so reviewing GI Joe toys has benefited me personally in ways that I never expected it would when I started that was my review of the 1985 GI Joe checkpoint I hope you enjoyed it and a quick announcement JoeCon, the International GI Joe Convention is coming up this month and I will be there the weekend of JoeCon I will not have a new review video up I did the same thing last year during the time I would be recording the video I won't be home but I will be at JoeCon and if you can make it to Loveland, Colorado you should be there too and if you do go to JoeCon and you see me make sure you say hi we have one more review video to do before JoeCon so check back next week I'll see you then thanks for watching and remember only GI Joe is GI Joe what's that? it's the Drex Dox and the Thunder Machine I've got to warn the Joes it's the GI Joe checkpoint alpha with SnakeEyes and Alpine SnakeEyes, call General Hawk on the telephone and tell him the Dreadnocks are coming why aren't you calling? I can see my house from up here quick, close the gate everyone knows Dreadnocks obey all close to traffic signs we stopped them Joe it's the GI Joe checkpoint with SnakeEyes and Alpine placed in a figure sold separately boxed in, I've got to everybody's got to die everybody's got to go back and get a shitload of dimes