 This channel supports The Finest, a G.I. Joe costume club in their charity campaign supporting K-9s for Warriors. It's a worthy cause. I encourage you to contribute if you can. You can get some perks like a calendar, a t-shirt, a coin, or a patch. There's a link to the campaign in the description of this video. Let's help them meet their goal. Hello, sirs. I'm Hoodie. A mad scientist trapped me on this spaceship, the SS Lou Reed. He's using me for scientific experiments by showing me silly action figures. Hmm. Fortunately, I have my robot friends, Bob Sprocket and James T. Croke. Together, we can survive even the worst action figures. Right, Croke? I want to decide who lives and who dies. Hoodie Coco here. I sent the robots to their rooms. They've been misbehaving lately and they need to think about what they've done. It's time for another vintage G.I. Joe toy review. I'm in space, so I can review G.I. Joe's space warriors Star Brigade. It's not unusual for G.I. Joe to go to space. They have a long history of space toys. I've made no secret of the fact that I'm not a fan of the sci-fi stuff. Many G.I. Joe fans love it, but I'm not one of them. Since 1964, articulation and posibility have been hallmarks of G.I. Joe. G.I. Joe stood above the competition by producing toys that gave kids the widest range of play possibilities for the price. Every figure would fit in every vehicle. That was important because it allows the child to decide how the toys will interact. When a toy company makes figures that don't fit in vehicles from the same toy line, the toy company, not the child, is deciding how that child will play with those toys. With Armour Tet figures, Hasbro took all of those standards and jettisoned them out the airlock. Today we're looking at Rock and Roll. Version 2 of Rock and Roll from 1989 was the last figure I bought as a child. I was nostalgic for the character I enjoyed back in 1982. The 89 figure was very different, but it had elements that harkened back to the 82 original. After that, I had no awareness of later versions of Rock and Roll. I didn't know about Star Brigade until I was an adult collector. Does the Star Brigade version of Rock and Roll live up to the standards of the original? Let's find out. HCC 788 presents Star Brigade Rock and Roll. We have review sign! This is Star Brigade Rock and Roll. Version 4 of Rock and Roll. G.I. Joe's Robo Gunner from 1993. This figure was released in 1993 and it was available only in 1993. It was discontinued for 1994. It was in the Star Brigade sub-series of G.I. Joe. It was an Armour Tech figure, which was a special division of Star Brigade with this style of construction and articulation. There is an accessories variation on this figure. Some Star Brigade Rock and Roll figures came with yellow accessories, as you see here. Others included purple accessories. They are otherwise exactly the same. This is the fourth version of Rock and Roll in the vintage era. There were technically five figures released. Version 1 from 1982 was from the first wave of G.I. Joe action figures when the line was relaunched that year. In 1983, that figure got an articulation upgrade that is referred to as Version 1.5. Version 2 was from 1989 and that was an entirely new figure. Coincidentally, that was also the last G.I. Joe action figure I bought as a kid. Version 3 from 1991 was in the Super Sonic Fighters subset. It used the same mold as Version 2, but with some updated colors and accessories. And finally, Version 4 from 1993, the Star Brigade version and the subject of this video. Starting in 1993, G.I. Joe got its own space division. Both G.I. Joe and Cobra figures and vehicles were outfitted for battle in space. Many of the Star Brigade figures released in 1993 were repaints of older figures. But there were some new ones. The Armored Tech figures all had armored spacesuits. They were beefier than standard figures with reduced articulation. Most Armored Tech figures were new versions of old characters like Rock and Roll. But there was a new character, Robo Joe. I already did a review on that figure and it killed me. Star Brigade had three vehicles in 1993. Only one was original, the Armor Bot. The other two, the Invader and the Starfighter, were reissues of earlier vehicles. They weren't straight reissues. They were reworked slightly to add spring firing missile launchers. In 1994, Star Brigade had a pair of Power Fighters mech suits. Rock and Roll will not fit in the Starfighter or the Invader because of his size and articulation. They were made to fit standard G.I. Joe action figures. Rock and Roll will fit in the Armor Bot because it was packaged with another Armored Tech figure. It was made to accommodate figures of this size. A former Hasbro executive has stated that the introduction of Star Brigade was an attempt to compete with an upcoming Star Wars toy line. By 1993, Hasbro had already acquired Canner, so they had the license for Star Wars. But there was still a lot of internal competition between the two divisions. My preference for military G.I. Joe figures and vehicles is on record and I have not changed my mind. But G.I. Joe has been in space for a very long time. In 1987, G.I. Joe got the Defiant, a new massive space shuttle complex, including Crawler, Launch Bay, Booster and Shuttle. The Shuttle segment was reissued in 1989 as the Crusader. There were also a lot of astronaut figures released over several years. In 1988, Cobra had the Stellar Stiletto, which was later reissued as the Star Brigade Starfighter. In 1988, Cobra got the Astro Viper, the Cobra Knot, a dedicated Cobra space trooper with a laser backpack. In the UK, their version of G.I. Joe, Action Force, had a division dedicated to fighting in space, Space Force. In 1966, G.I. Joe released a Space Capsule, and in 1967, they released a separate, carted astronaut spacesuit. G.I. Joe has been in space since 1966. That set wasn't really science fiction, though. At the time of its release, the space race was in full swing. The set tried to mimic the real spacecraft of the time, with a few toy features thrown in. Even though space is a staple of G.I. Joe, why would they want to send Rock n' Roll, their machine gunner, into space? It's not the first time Rock n' Roll has been to space. I have the full card back for Star Brigade Rock n' Roll, and I have a carted example. So let's take a look at how this figure was marketed back in 1993. This is an ArmourTech figure, and the Star Brigade logo is larger than the G.I. Joe logo, and this really rubs me the wrong way. Don't downplay G.I. Joe. Star Brigade is a subset of G.I. Joe, not the other way around. My carded example has a couple price stickers. It looks like it was originally 15 bucks. That's expensive. Marked down to 10, that's still a lot to pay for this thing. The artwork is fine for what it is. It's better than some 90s card art. It looks like a combination G.I. Joe Transformer. Robo Armored Warrior. Robotizer Tannen Shoots. I refuse to call it that. What is happening to the Earth in the background? Looks like we're having a nuclear apocalypse. In the section here behind where the figure was packaged, there are some instructions on how to use the figure stand, how to use the missile launcher, and how to put the helmet on the head. It is Rock n' Roll. He is the Robo Gunner, and he is number three in the Star Brigade series. Flipping the card around to the back, we have a lot of hot pink. This is the unfortunate color they chose to designate Star Brigade figures. It is garish and obnoxious, and I hate it. We have the other 1993 Star Brigade figure lineup in numerical order. We also have the Star Brigade vehicles. I wonder what the mystery figure is that will be packaged with the armor bot? It's Hawk. We have the cross sell for a couple battle core vehicles. Then we have the flag points. Two flag points. Most single-carded figures were just one flag point, but I will not be bribed to like this figure. Then we have the file card, which we will look at in detail later. Let's look at Rock n' Roll's accessories. Most of the accessories came on a plastic tree. You can see the accessories tree on my carded example here. The buyer would have to cut the accessories off of the tree. The accessories from the tree are all the same color. All the accessories on the tree are reissued from earlier figures. There is a variation. As you can see, some Rock n' Roll figures came with purple accessories, and others had yellow. They are otherwise the same. They just pumped a different color plastic into the same mold. There were two accessories that were not attached to the tree, the helmet, and the missile launcher. Rock n' Roll's accessories tree is the same one that came with Robojo just in a different color. Robojo's accessories were gold, and unfortunately that gold plastic has a tendency to become very brittle over time. There were other figures that came with basically the same accessories on plastic trees, but for some reason their configuration on the trees was different. Let's look at the generic accessories first and get them out of the way. Starting with this machine gun. It is a made up thing. It's not based on any real world design. It is big and chunky, and it is a reissue of the machine gun that came with 1991 grunt. Grunt's machine gun had holes bored into one side, so it could peg into his missile launcher. But the Rock n' Roll re-release of that machine gun does not have those holes. Next we have the submachine gun. This submachine gun was issued a lot of times. It originally came with 1991 tracker. It was also included with the 1993 mail away rapid deployment force. Next we have the shotgun. Because a shotgun in space makes total sense, this is a reissue of the shotgun that originally came with 1988 muskrat, though some of the details have been lost in translation. Next we have the machete. That's right, it's a machete. This is also a reissue of one of muskrat's accessories. Muskrat came with the same machete in a different color. Now why would you need a machete in space, perhaps to cut the enemy's airline? I will give the figure credit for one thing. All of the accessories do fit in the hand very well, and I can't say that of all GI Joe figures, so bonus points for that. Next we have the figure stand. These came standard with most 90s figures, and I will never complain about these. We did not get enough figure stands in the 1980s. But as you can see, Rock n' Roll stands very well without the help of a figure stand, so you can just use this maybe on a different figure. Two missiles also came on the plastic tree, but we'll take a closer look at those when we demonstrate the missile launcher. But first let's check out this helmet. This helmet with a purple translucent bubble attached to light gray plastic. For a space helmet, this really doesn't look too bad. You can place the helmet on the figure's head. It is a tight fit. This is hard plastic, it's not very flexible, so you have to press it on with some force. This purple translucent bubble does come off. I'm not sure if it's supposed to come off or if mine is just broken, but this one comes off. It takes some effort to get the helmet off as well, and so I don't really like putting the helmet on the figure because I'm afraid I'm going to scratch the paint off. Now let's look at the missile launcher. It is in silver plastic with a yellow trigger in the back. It has a knob on the bottom for attaching to the figure's shoulder, and it has a grip on the side for placing in the figure's hand. The missile launcher fits in the figure's hand reasonably well. It doesn't fall out too easily. And my favorite feature is you can place it on this hole on the figure's shoulder. This knob fits in there pretty well, and so now he has a shoulder fired missile launcher. To use the missile launcher just take one of the missiles and place it in the launcher with the notch side up, or I should say with the notch side on the same side as the trigger because if the launcher is in the figure's hand it will be turned to the side. Just keep pushing back until it clicks. To fire the missile just press down on the trigger in the back. Let's test it using our favorite target, Dr. Mindbender. Just aim and press the trigger to fire. That's an amazingly powerful missile. It even took down the card. He does not include the weapon pictured on the file card. Let's take a look at the articulation on Star Brigade Rock and Roll, and his articulation was anything but standard. This is an armor tech figure, and because of its construction it is much less articulated than a standard GI Joe action figure. He could swivel his head left and right, no ball jointed neck. He could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around, and he could bend his arm at the elbow on a hinge less than 90 degrees. He did have articulation at the wrist so he could swivel his hand at the wrist. There is no articulation on the torso or the waist, but at the hip he could move his leg forward and back a bit, and he had bent his leg at the knee about 90 degrees. We've got to talk about this articulation. GI Joe set a high standard for articulation compared with other toys. The 1964 action soldier was a pioneer in articulation. It was more than just a boy's Barbie. Barbie was a mannequin compared with posable GI Joe. His tagline was America's movable fighting man. When the real American hero line was released, Kenner's Star Wars action figures were popular. They had five points of articulation, except for a few that were less articulated. GI Joe once again blew away the competition in the articulation department. GI Joe wasn't the first to use O-ring construction, but GI Joe added more articulation to the standard O-ring figure in later years. Armor tech figures are a big step backward. Not only is the articulation cut back, but the size makes armor tech figures incompatible with most Star Brigade vehicles. It's still not as bad as Deep Six. Let's take a look at the sculpt, designing color of Star Brigade rock and roll starting with his head. And on his head, he has blonde hair and a blonde beard represented by yellow paint, of course. This mirrors the look he's had since the beginning with that canary yellow hair and beard. The second version of rock and roll is a bit closer to this Star Brigade version, but the features are updated a bit. This is a unique head sculpt, but it is still recognizable as rock and roll. Looking at rock and rolls torso, which is this whole section, including his chest, waist and crotch, the front and back piece are either glued or sonic welded together. There is a hole that looks like it's a screw hole that a backpack might fit, but it doesn't appear to have a screw in there. So I don't believe you can unscrew it and take this figure apart. There, rock and roll can wear a backpack. This is all supposed to be a huge armor suit. He has metallic blue with light gray panels on the front and the back. And there is some technical detail on them. He has that light gray on the shoulders and on the elbows and on the hands. And on the upper arm and the forearm, he has blue, a darker shade of blue than on the torso. And that provides a nice subtle contrast between the blues. The hands are gloved. They are light gray and they are shaped into closed fists. They have oval shaped holes in them for holding the accessories, which they do pretty well. He has a tee crotch. This is not an O-ring action figure. It's all in that metallic blue color and that's a nice color. I will give it that. His legs are attached to the tee crotch on swivels so his legs can move. The legs are mostly in that same light gray color. There is some of that darker blue, some details on the thighs. The proportions are a bit odd. The thighs are really short. Then we have these armor boots. That's part of the armored space suit. We have some details in that metallic blue color. They are mostly in the light gray. The feet are in that metallic blue color and they do have holes for foot pegs. I can't knock the sculpting on this figure. All the technical detail is really well done and the colors are nice. The colors on this figure would annoy me if it were a ground troop. I love the dark green of the first figure. For a space figure though, these colors are fine. Let's take a look at Rock n' Roll's file card, which means we will have to read through this hot pink mess. We have a portrait of Rock n' Roll here. His codename is Rock n' Roll. He's the Robo Gunner. His file name is Craig S. McConnell. His primary military specialty is cybernetic heavy weapons specialist. In zero gravity, no weapons are heavy. Secondary military specialty, PT instructor in parentheses physical training. This is the same as his first file card. His birthplace is Malibu, California, and his grade is E6. And this means he got a promotion. Back in 1982, his grade was E5. We have a quote presumably from Rock n' Roll himself. It says, toasting marshmallows or roasting cobra bats. It's tough to decide which is more fun. Well, as long as he's having fun, that's the important thing. This paragraph says, Rock n' Roll has served with the GI Joe team since its inception and has been constantly updating his equipment and skills. When he heard Duke was recruiting members for the Star Brigade Force, Rock n' Roll jumped at the chance to fight in space and be outfitted with the latest battle armor technology. No other Star Brigade member uses his bio-integrated robotic battle armor quite like Rock n' Roll. He uses it as a stereo. He braves laser fire, jumps on live grenades. Grenades in space? How does that work? And even chases cobra bats right into the sun to capture them? I wonder if there's beer on the sun. And toasts an occasional marshmallow on the end of his laser rifle. This figure does not come with a laser rifle. You could pretend this weapon is a laser gun. It's the most science fiction looking weapon he comes with. But when this weapon came with 1991 grunt, it was specifically called a machine gun. He chases cobra bats. These guys, the battle armored android trooper, right into the sun? That's insane. Rock n' Roll was one of the most colorful characters of the original 1982 series. According to his file card, he was a surfer, a waitlifter, and a Rock n' Roll musician. Of all the 1982 carded figures, he brought the most raw firepower. The 1993 card doesn't think any of that is important. Instead, we need to know he roasts marshmallows in the sun with his non-existent laser rifle. Looking at how Rock n' Roll was used in G.I. Joe Media, he made plenty of appearances in the animated series. He was in the first miniseries in 1983, mostly as a background character. In the Sunbow series, he had the most exposure in the episode Jungle Trap. He was in the Deke series, appearing in the opening miniseries Operation Dragonfire. He had a larger role in the two-parter Long Live Rock n' Roll, Parts 1 and 2. His final appearance was a very brief cameo in the episode A is for Android. He's in his Super Sonic Fighters uniform in that episode. He did not, to my knowledge, appear in his Star Brigade armor. Looking at the G.I. Joe comic book published by Marvel Comics, Rock n' Roll was in the comic book from the very beginning, appearing in issue number one. He rode the Ram motorcycle, even though he did not come with that vehicle. He got to spotlight on a few occasions. In issue number 35, he tried to take a vacation with his buddies Clutch and Breaker, and he had an encounter with the Dreadnocks. In issue number 89, he again tried to take a vacation with Clutch, which brought them to the secret Cobra-controlled town of Broca Beach. They were captured by another Dreadnock, Road Pig. I'm not sure if Clutch is bad luck, or if Rock n' Roll is. Breaker wasn't on that trip, so he's clear. Rock n' Roll and Clutch were brainwashed by Cobra, and then sent back to the G.I. Joe base. The brainwashing didn't work, though. Rock n' Roll and Clutch resisted the programming. Star Brigade appeared in issues number 145 through 148. The team was introduced in issue number 145, but Rock n' Roll was not included. To my knowledge, Rock n' Roll never appeared in his armor tech form. In the comic storyline, the Defiant was integrated into Star Brigade, even though the toy had been discontinued long before Star Brigade came on the scene. The Defiant would have been a very useful vehicle for Star Brigade. They can't all fit in the Starfighter. That story arc was a bizarre one. It had G.I. Joe teaming up with the October Guard to fight robots on an asteroid. Looking at Star Brigade, Rock n' Roll overall, this is where I have to remind all that I do not expect you to agree with me. I know for a fact that a lot of Joe fans like the armor tech figures, and this figure in particular. You can't be wrong about your personal preference. For me, this is a bottom-tier figure. It is a repudiation of everything that made G.I. Joe stand above the competition in the 80s, and the 70s, and the 60s. Does this G.I. Joe figure set a high standard for quality, not when they're stamping out generic accessories, rather than giving the figure accessories appropriate to his role? Often, critics will use the word quality as a euphemism for their personal preference. If they don't like something, then it is low quality. I think that's a misuse of the word. In this case, I am specifically talking about the manufacturing of the accessories. They were made cheaply, with little thought and little effort, and no attempt to make the accessories appropriate to the figure. Regardless of how I feel about it, that is not a high standard of quality. Is this G.I. Joe America's movable fighting man? Is this G.I. Joe the fully poseable modern army figure? Not when you're cutting articulation points. Not when you're making a figure less poseable than a standard figure. Not when your Star Brigade figure can fit in most Star Brigade vehicles. Really, this rock and roll figure doesn't have that many fewer articulation points than a standard figure. But the way they chose to articulate it, using swivels instead of universal joints, using a T-croche instead of an O-ring and J-hook, severely limits its mobility. Is there anything positive I can say about this figure? Yes. The head sculpt is really good. I like it. If this toy were in a different toy line, maybe one with more vehicles designed for this type of body, it could work. If you want chunky, substantial figures, you may like this one. One of the knocks against G.I. Joe in the 90s is that other toy lines went for a larger scale, which made G.I. Joe look puny in comparison. This figure could fight Kenner's Batman. As a G.I. Joe figure though, it doesn't tick the right boxes for me. That was my review of Star Brigade Rock and Roll. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to check the link in the description of this video and help out the finest in their charity campaign benefiting canines for warriors. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel, hit the notification bell, and share this video with your friends. You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and I have a website HCC788.com. Thanks as always to my patrons without their support. These videos would not be possible. If you like these videos and you like G.I. Joe, and you'd like to help me make more videos like this, please consider checking out my Patreon. You can get some special perks like a secret TOG book, so you can decode the secret messages you see in these videos. We need to review a lot more G.I. Joe toys from the 90s, so next week we are staying in the 90s, and we are staying in Earth's atmosphere. Remember, no matter how far in outer space it goes, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe. How was that, sirs? Push the button, Frank. It stinks.