 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and I'm back with another vintage GI Joe toy review and this one is in honor of my viewers in the northeastern United States who are already getting a ton of snow so I'm going to pile a little bit right on top of it because this time we are looking at the 1985 GI Joe snow cap. I have to give a special thanks to one of my viewers Keith Burdow for helping me complete this to get it ready for review so thank you very much sir and unlike most of my reviews I have the box that the snow cat came in I don't normally like to get these retail boxes because I don't like to pay extra for cardboard but I got a really good deal on this one so in this review we're gonna look at the original box that the snow cat came in when it was on retail shelves in 1985 just a side note in the city where I live yesterday it was 70 degrees and sunny this is the GI Joe snow cat it was first introduced in 1985 it was also sold in 1986 it was discontinued in 1987 and we didn't really get another GI Joe Arctic vehicle in 1987 but we did get a Cobra Arctic vehicle the Cobra Wolf the snow cat was worth three flag points and the flag points were printed on the back of the box and you could redeem the flag points for special offers there to the flag points right there the snow cat came with an action figure frostbite and I'm gonna take a closer look at frostbite in a little bit so I'm gonna set him aside for now there were some other versions of the snow cat such as the Tiger Force Tiger cat in 1988 but there were also some versions of this vehicle that came out after the vintage line in 2014 the GI Joe Collectors Club essentially released the same vehicle but in green instead of white and it was rechristened the Havoc Mark 2 there isn't a precise real-world vehicle that the snow cat was based on however the US Army did use half-track vehicles like this and probably the closest real-world vehicle was the M3 half-track that was in use for a really long time but the snow cat is quite a bit different from that classic half-track army vehicle let's look at the parts and the features of the snow cat starting at the front and we have this snow plow front apron and I guess this is supposed to push snow out of the way I think this would make a lot more sense if it were angled so that it would push the snow outside of the wheels but it's just flat there and I think the result will be it would just push a wall of snow in front of it I'm not sure that really helps you very well as far as a snow plow it has some headlights that's clear plastic and here on the canopy it has this movable windshield wiper and this is a frequently missing part it does not peg in there permanently it can pop out and so you see a lot of these snow cats missing the windshield wiper the canopy itself is frosted but it has this clear area where the windshield wiper goes so I mean it does look like the windshield wiper is cleaning off the ice from the windshield and the canopy of course that lifts up to reveal the cockpit and some nice cockpit deep detail inside the cockpit we have the steering wheel and steering wheel is on a hinge that tilts and that facilitates getting the action figure in and out of the vehicle it also comes out very easily so this is another frequently missing part there is some very impressive detail on the inside in the seats in the center console there's a gear shifter looks like there's a lot of buttons and switches nice detail even a texture pattern on the floorboard there's not a lot detail on the front dash but there is this sticker right here that says thermal gloves I don't know if you can see that but there's like a glove compartment right in there that with the sticker on it I just thought that was kind of a nice touch behind the cab we have these floodlights and that's another clear plastic piece and I originally thought these were like emergency lights kind of like on a police car but these are supposed to be floodlights on both sides of the vehicle we have these small steps and they have foot pegs and those foot pegs can be used to have another action figure right along the side of the vehicle this is a half-track vehicle so in the front we have wheels and these wheels are not connected with any kind of metal dowel or anything like that like the vamp so they both move independently and they're really good looking wheels but they are plastic they are not rubber to me they kind of look like they ought to be rubber wheels they just sort of have that look and that vibe to them but they are hard plastic above the step we have the GI Joe logo and a snow cat insignia and this is pretty vicious looking it's a white cat with a tongue sticking out and blood dripping off of it got red eyes that's pretty terrifying looking in the back we have these treads and these are fake treads they are not real they don't really move they're just solid pieces of plastic mobility in the back end is facilitated by these wheels the vehicle actually rolls on the wheels in the bed of the snow cat under the missile box we have an engine cover and it has a tab that makes it easier to pull it out because it is kind of sitting down there pretty far so some nice excellent detail on the engine cover and some not too bad detail on the engine down in there the engine detail is hard to see because it is really deep in there it's way down there in the bottom on either side we have these avalanche ski missiles and they fit on this universal dumbbell peg here like most GI Joe missiles do and this is a really unusual weapon it's a missile and it's on a ski the ski missile is two parts and it does come apart pretty easily I guess the ski missile is supposed to skim along the snow on the ski propelled by the missiles rocket engine and it is very creative very unique weapon but honestly I'm not sure why you would really want this thing no matter how much I think about it I can't see any reason why this ski missile would be in any way superior to a regular missile essentially anything this ski missile could do a regular missile could do better I suppose one possible advantage is by skimming along the surface it could go beneath any countermeasures but it would also be vulnerable to any obstacles between the snow cat and its targets so I don't think that's necessarily an advantage so you know nice idea but really if for practical reasons a regular missile would do just as well as this thing when the ski missile is removed from the side of the snow cat it reveals two more foot pegs on either side so that's three figures you can carry on the side of this vehicle that brings us to the main weapon on the snow cat this missile box which carries four missiles and it does turn all the way around and it elevates and one thing that you really have to be cautious about is this clip that holds it the missile box onto the turret it's all the whole thing is held together with these clips and these clips are extremely weak they break very frequently so be extremely cautious with that this really is I think a design flaw it seems like they were trying to make this thing using the least amount of plastic possible I mean the missile box itself it doesn't have like a bottom to it it's like half a box and the missiles just kind of slot in there but this these clips really are very weak so be very careful with that the yellow missiles hold into the missile box through these slots here the fins of the missiles just kind of slide in there and that's how they stay in there are four of these missiles they are identical and the blueprints call them shockwave electronic HE 27 250 pound missiles finally we get to the back end and in the back end we have more foot pegs on these troop carrying platforms unfortunately one of them is broken off on mine but there should be two foot pegs like this one here on the back and a rail for the troops to hold on to as they're being transported by the snow cat in the back we have a universal tow hook so you can tow something like the 1984 GI Joe whirlwind if you're so inclined now let's look at the box and this is kind of special I don't normally get boxes so it's very rare that we have a chance to look at the box that the toy originally came in we get to see the artwork on the front of the box here and this is really nice it makes looks very exciting for a kid makes you want to buy it it shows some of the other GI Joe carrier characters riding along and of course that shows you how this vehicle can interact with other figures in your GI Joe collection the action figure frostbite would have been showing through this clear pane here there's just styrofoam inside there right now just to help the box keep its shape we have just a plain picture of the snow cat toy on the bottom and just the GI Joe logo and snow cat on the top plain black background same image of the snow cat on the side we have a price sticker here from toys are us this was originally $9.97 on the back of the box is where all the action is we get to see the actual toy actual size shown and the action figure and this action figure looks to be a hand painted prototype it is in many ways different from the from the frostbite that we got the paint job is different the head is definitely different just some minor differences but it gives us an idea at least of what frostbite supposed to look like here we've got a picture of the snow cat loaded up with action figures it says carries up to 10 GI Joe figures on all those foot pegs and of course to on the inside of the snow cat we've got our flag points and here we have the file card for frostbite and when I look at frostbite's file card I will be looking at the one that's still on the box this is a good time to look at frostbite and frostbite added to GI Joe's roster of Arctic troopers which of course began with snow job in 1983 there was another Arctic trooper iceberg but I don't have that action figure to show you let's take a look at frostbite's accessory he came with only one his m16 with a scope a really big scope this is where I have to give a shout out to Keith Burdow for sending me this accessory thank you very much Keith this is the last part that I needed to complete the snow cat and frostbite and since I had a completed item I went ahead and moved it to the top of the list of toys to be reviewed so thanks again Keith and that's just so awesome of you to send this to me the accessory itself is an excellent likeness of an m16 rifle and this very large scope it has up here is probably a starlight scope a starlight scope is an image intensifying scope it does not use infrared light or anything like that it essentially enhances the ambient light it's an early design for a night vision scope and as you can see it's very large the grip on this gun is a little bit thick and it stretches frostbite's hand when I put it in his hand and I do worry a little bit about breaking the thumb although it that doesn't seem to have been a danger at this point but I just like to be cautious I don't think frostbite necessarily needs this weapon since he's a vehicle driver some of the vehicle drivers for GI Joe came with some of the best weapons but I really think they should have just left them as vehicle drivers and given these really awesome weapons to some other figures who might have needed it for example this weapon is very nicely paired with stalker in the GI Joe comic books in stalker was a Vietnam veteran and when he was in Vietnam he used a gun very much like this an m16 with the starlight scope that his had a suppressor on it but it was essentially the same weapon and it would go perfectly with stalker in 2006 Hasbro came out with a comic 3 pack that had a Vietnam version of stalker but he did not come with this accessory I think that's a missed opportunity it would have been perfect to pair stalker with this gun look at that does that not look impressive let's look at the articulation on frostbite and he had the typical articulation for 1985 GI Joe action figures that means he could turn his head from left to right but it could also look up and down his neck was on a ball joint his arm could swing up at the shoulder about so far it could swivel all the way around he had a hinge at the elbow he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees and he had a swivel at the bicep he could swivel his arm all the way around figure was held together with a rubber o-ring so he could move at the torso a little bit he could move his legs apart about so far he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees let's look at the sculpt design and color of frostbite starting with his head in his head as you can see he has sculpted on an expression he's smiling and as I mentioned in previous videos I don't normally go in for these expressive faces on the action figures I tended to like a nice neutral expression and as a kid I would just pretend that the figure was expressing any emotion that I wanted him to but here he is frozen in this smile so even if he's being shot at by Cobra or he's captured and being tortured he's smiling all the time I mentioned a problem with these expressive faces with Duke as you can see Duke is smiling as well but I don't have quite as much of a problem with it with frostbite his smile just seems very warm and friendly he just seems like such a nice guy and you know you look at his smile there and you just say hello there frostbite nice to see you today he has a black beard black goggles and an off-white fur lined cap on his chest he has a black a turtleneck undershirt and a fur lined jacket with a black pistol holster that continues around to the back and he's got some pouches some pockets there on his right arm he has this unit patch which looks like a blue polar bear and there are some us army units that use a polar bear for their unit patch but I haven't been able to find one that precisely matches this one he has some pouches on his sleeves some nicely detailed sleeves there's some nice sculpted detail on his glove as you can see he's wearing mittens but his trigger finger is separate so he can still squeeze the trigger on his m16 his waist piece is fairly plain with a black belt that has a black pouch on one side carries along to the back his legs are also very plain he doesn't have any sculpted on weapons or anything like that and he has some pretty plain white boots let's take a look the file card for frostbite and the file card was printed on the back of the box for the snowcat you can see it's still attached here and we're just gonna look at the file card still attached to the box it has a portrait of frostbite here this is from the artwork on the front of the box it has this factionist gi joe says he's the snowcat driver codename frostbite file name Seward Farley S of primary military specialty motor vehicle driver secondary military specialty armor his birthplace is Galena Alaska and his grade is e4 this top section says frostbite was born in a place where summer is a myth and the crowd consists of two people standing on the same acre he worked briefly as a lineman on a pipeline but found the job unchallenging despite the 40 degree below zero temperatures and hazardous conditions the army promised him a challenge whenever he wanted one frostbite graduated from transportation school for it Eustace and armor school for it Knox qualified expert m16 m19 11 a1 autopistol m2 50 caliber mg and m60 7.62 millimeter mg this bottom section is a quote it says frostbite has to be cool the environment he works in is too unforgiving if it's no cat throws a piston he's got to get out into weather that'll freeze a hex wrench to bear skin in five seconds and carry through a repair job that would be taxing under ideal conditions he can't afford to panic not if he wants to stay alive there's not really much to say about this file card except it depicts frostbite as being ideal as an arctic trooper looking at frostbite overall he is a nice update to the previous gi jo arctic trooper snow job some nice use of color and of course snow job and frostbite would work together so we know we are building on the squad of gi jo arctic troopers so now we've got several troopers that can go into cold environments and fight cobra the use of color is very interesting the black definitely breaks up the white so we don't have just a plain white action figure we've got a little splash of blue here and I think the off-white color on the fur jacket and hat give it a nice subtle contrast however the bottom half is actually quite plain there is no paint up on the legs even on the boots there's no sculpted weapon or anything like that and so the bottom half of this figure tends to look quite plain frostbite does have a smile on his face and that does make him seem rather happy about everything and as I said before I don't normally go in for this but his his smile is just so warm and friendly it's hard for me to hate it I do think that duke's smile seems to be a bit more smirky and a bit more devious but frostbite's smile is just very warm and friendly hey here comes duke I wonder what he's so happy about good morning maggots I just pissed in your coffee and not one of you is man enough to do a goddamn thing about it have a nice day maggots looking at the snow cat overall I really only have three knocks against it first of all it is very angular it has no smooth lines or curves on it at all it's just like all corners here that's got a lot of sharp corners on it and I suppose it might have seemed a little bit better if maybe we had had a little bit more of a streamlined design also it doesn't have any anti-personnel weapon there's no machine gun on this you've got missiles which could be used as maybe an anti tank missile or an anti aircraft missile but not the kind of thing that you're going to shoot at an individual soldier with so I think it could have used a machine gun on this somewhere and finally these ski missiles don't make a lot of sense to me and when they're on the snow cat they get in the way of the foot pegs so the snow cat is more functional without the ski missiles those are all very minor criticisms because this really is a very impressive vehicle I mean look at all of the detail on this it's just amazing it's got mega detail and almost every square inch of this thing it even has detail in places that you wouldn't expect I mean you pop open the canopy here and you have this like grill work and and these ridges here details on the inside it's just like so much detail I am amazed with this thing another great thing about the snow cat is that even though it is an Arctic vehicle it doesn't have skis on the front like the polar battle bear did so there's nothing about this vehicle that necessarily has to be an Arctic vehicle so like when the GI Joe Collectors Club made it green and made it like a jungle vehicle it made perfect sense it still functions perfectly well outside of an Arctic environment with all the foot pegs it carries a ton of action figures but do be careful of the frequently lost and broken parts especially the clip here on the missile box that will break on you very easily but as long as you're careful about that you've got a really nice vehicle here with the snow cat that was my review of the 1985 snow cat and the driver frostbite and the box that it came in I hope you enjoyed it and if you're thinking of getting a snow cat and a frostbite I hope you found this video informative if you liked it make sure you give it a thumbs up on youtube and make sure you subscribe I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming your way you don't want to miss them and don't forget to like the facebook page you get a lot of updates there that you don't get anywhere else thanks for watching and i'll see you with the next GI Joe toy review