 Hello everybody, Hooda Cobra Commander 788 here. It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review and this one is special. We're doing another old school review with the old format, just me and the camera talking about the toys. This is also special because it is a surprise Patron's Choice review. I had something else planned for this week but looking at my schedule I wasn't quite ready to do it. I needed a different idea and I needed a short notice so I thought why not put it up on Patreon and let the Patrons decide and they chose the 1986 Roadblock version 2. I thought an old school format would be appropriate for this review because right now my schedule is a little bit squeezed. There will not be a new review next week because that is the week I will be at Joe Con in Orlando, Florida. I may try to shoot some video during that trip and post them in that Gap week but they won't be review videos, they will be other types of videos. If you are in the Florida area I strongly suggest you attend Joe Con especially on Saturday June 17th. I will be there and if everything goes as planned I'll have the whole family with me. So if you see me there please say hi and you'll have a chance to say hello to Mrs. Hooda Cobra Commander 788 as well. Now let's look at the toy. HTC 788 presents the 1986 Roadblock Version 2. This is the 1986 Roadblock Version 2 GI Joe's Heavy Machine Gunner. This figure was first available in 1986 and was also available in 1987 and was discontinued for the year 1988. The first version of Roadblock was introduced in 1984 and quickly became a fan favorite character. Version 2 of Roadblock was replaced on the shelves in 1988 by Version 3 of Roadblock, Tiger Force Roadblock. As you can see Tiger Force Roadblock is the same as Version 1 but in different colors. The next version of Roadblock Version 4 was released in 1992 but unfortunately it was recalled because of a hazardous accessory. It's kind of hard to come by now. In 1993 Version 5 of Roadblock was released and it used the same mold as the recalled Version 4 but with a different color scheme and of course different accessories. The colors on Version 5 aren't quite as good as Version 4 but the sculpting is excellent. There were a couple other versions of Roadblock in the vintage line but unfortunately for those last two versions they sent Roadblock into outer space. GI Joe's first machine gunner was Rock and Roll who was introduced at the very beginning of the real American hero line in 1982. As you can imagine a machine gunner is an important specialist on a team like GI Joe. Throughout the vintage line GI Joe had plenty of machine gunner figures but most of them were later versions of Rock and Roll and Roadblock but we did occasionally get a new machine gunner character such as the 1988 steady cam machine gunner repeater. Let's take a look at Roadblock Version 2's accessories. They came with what the card contents call an L7A21 GPMG heavy machine gun. It is in silver plastic. It has a tripod that is removable. This machine gun accessory is big and bulky and looks really powerful. However the initials GPMG stands for general purpose machine gun meaning it is not a heavy machine gun. The origin of this accessory starts with the FN MAG a Belgian machine gun. There is a British version of that weapon called the L7A2 which is probably where this accessory got its name. What they've done is oversized an L7A2 so it looks like a heavy machine gun. Next we have that tripod and this tripod itself is pretty special. It is much larger than the tripod that came with Version 1's machine gun. Much taller which allows Roadblock to fire his weapon from a kneeling position. I think Roadblock Version 2 looks pretty good posing with his machine gun in this position. In fact this is usually how I display him with the tripod attached to the machine gun he doesn't even need a figure stand. Because the tripod for Version 1 of Roadblock was so small he really needed to fire his heavy machine gun while lying flat on the ground. And that's not a criticism of the Version 1 accessory I'm glad that we have both of these options. Let me show you a little fix it job I did on this tripod. This tripod is actually broken on this crossbar. So what I did was I glued a metal strip to the backside of it and it has held up very well. Let's look at the articulation on Version 2 of Roadblock. He had the articulation that was standard by 1986 meaning 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 at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep allowing him to swivel his arm all the way around. 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 legs at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Roadblock starting with his head. The head for Version 2 is similar to the head for Version 1 but I prefer the Version 2 head. I just think it's done better. He has a bald head of course and he has an expressive face which is not my preference but I don't mind it too much. It's kind of a smile but I think I would have preferred a neutral expression. I think that's one of the reasons why I'm drawn to Version 5 of Roadblock. It does have a neutral expression and the sculpting is excellent. This looks like Roadblock to me. On his chest he has a light green shirt that I think is a little too light green. He has a white undershirt. He has a tan strap over his right shoulder and it's got what I guess are pockets or pouches on it but the details are very soft. It almost looks kind of gummy. He has a black knife on that tan strap and he has this kind of zigzag pattern where his vest fastens down the middle and it has this kind of red striping mixed in between. He has a pocket on his left side and a white name patch and then he has this red pad on his left shoulder and this strikes me as kind of odd because I usually think of these pads on the figures as something that the butt of a rifle would rest against but I don't think he would use that for his machine gun and it would be on the wrong side anyway. Clipping him around to the back we see he has some straps that are unpainted and this is a big knock against it for me. You can get away with some unpainted details but these really look like they should have been painted in. This vest is very similar to the vest on Cross Country, a figure that was also released in 1986. I think they are too similar for figures that were released the same year and I have the same problems with both of them. Looking at Roadblock version 2 side by side with Cross Country, the color scheme is very similar. It looks like they draw from basically the same color palette and that kind of bothers me. These two figures that are unrelated and released in the same year are kind of like carbon copies. One of these guys, preferably Roadblock, should have had his own color scheme. This is where my personal preference has to diverge from an objective analysis of the colors. There's nothing wrong with these colors together, they go well enough together, it's not like we have contrasting colors or anything like that. I just don't personally like these colors for Roadblock. We've lost the jungle camouflage and to me this uniform doesn't seem to have a military feel to it at all and I want Roadblock to be a hardcore army guy. The colors on version 1 of Roadblock may not have been perfect but it's this version 1 color scheme that I always think of when I think of Roadblock. The sculpting on version 2 is fine but I really think if it had been given a color scheme closer to version 1 it really would have enhanced it. Let's take a look at Roadblock version 2's file card and this is going to be a little different from what we usually do because the text for the version 2 file card is the same as the text for the version 1 file card. I am going to read the file card for version 2 but I'm not going to go into all the technical details, you can refer to my review of version 1 for that but I do want to read it because I've got a couple problems with it and I want to point them out. We have his faction as G.I. Joe, we have a portrait of Roadblock here, his codename is Roadblock, he's the heavy machine gunner, final name is Marvin F. Hinton, primary military specialty is infantry heavy weapons, secondary military specialty is cook, birth place is Biloxi, Mississippi and his grade is E4, this is all the same as version 1. This top paragraph says, Roadblock's dream was to be a gourmet chef, he was working as a bouncer to earn money to attend the Escofier school in France, when an army recruiter convinced him that the army could train him, Roadblock joined but found army menus and preparation techniques too appalling, transferred to the infantry, qualified expert M2 Browning 50 caliber heavy machine gun, all Warsaw-packed heavy machine guns, M16, M1911A1 auto pistol. Version 1 of Roadblock came with a modified M2 Browning 50 caliber heavy machine gun and they were thoughtful enough to list Roadblock as a qualified expert with that weapon but on the new file card there's no mention of the new machine gun that he comes with. This bottom paragraph says a 50 caliber Browning weighs 84 pounds, add 50 pounds for the ammo, that's about 134 pounds of steel, generating 2,930 feet per second in muzzle velocity at a cyclical rate of 550 RPM, anyone who can handle that doesn't need a machine gun to keep me away. That bottom paragraph is a perfect description of the machine gun that came with version 1 of Roadblock but again, this action figure does not come with that machine gun, it's describing an accessory that this figure does not have. I think it was a mistake to copy the text from the version 1 file card, version 2 of Roadblock deserved his own file card. The Tiger Force Roadblock file card may not have been great but at least it provided some updates rather than simply copying and pasting from the original. Looking at Roadblock's appearances in G.I. Joe Media, he was first introduced in the cartoon series in Revenge of Cobra Part 1, he appeared in dozens of episodes in his version 1 uniform. His version 2 uniform was introduced in Arise Serpentor Arise Part 1, he appeared in many episodes in his version 2 uniform, Roadblock was an extremely popular character in the animated series, few characters had as many appearances as he did. In the cartoon, he would often speak in rhyme and I know a lot of fans liked that little idiosyncrasy, I never liked it, I always thought it was too cartoony, which I guess is to be expected from a cartoon. In the G.I. Joe comic book series, he first appeared in issue number 22 and he was a heavily used character. The characterization for Roadblock in the comic book was less gimmicky than it was in the cartoon. He was a great team player, he was supportive of his teammates, but he was able to step forward and deliver the muscle when needed. I also want to note that in the comic book series, Roadblock single handedly defeated Storm Shadow, the cobra ninja, I never get tired of pointing that out, these ninja characters were often portrayed as invincible fighters, but Roadblock is not intimidated by them. He first appeared in his version 2 uniform in issue number 61, although he was really just in the background, that issue focused more on other characters. In later issues, he was sometimes wearing his version 1 uniform again, he was wearing his version 1 uniform during the Cobra Civil War story arc, although he was miscolored. Looking at Roadblock version 2 overall, this is a tough figure to rate. There are some points about it that I like better than version 1, I like the head sculpt a lot better than version 1, and I like the bulky arms. But there are some problems with it, I dislike the chest, all of it. The sculpting is weak in places, the design elements feel random. You have the red shoulder pad, the tan straps, the zigzag front, they don't fit together. The sculpting on the legs is well done, there are no molded in weapons, but that's okay. The lines and creases on the pockets and the trouser legs are sharp. It's the color I don't like, that light gray is weak. In exactly what environment is he supposed to operate? He's not camouflaged for the jungle anymore, I guess he could fight in an urban environment, but that's not the role I envision for Roadblock. The machine gun with the big tripod is nice, but I have the same problem with the color. The silver goes pleasantly with the other colors on the action figure, but why silver? Maybe it's intended to have an unfinished metallic look, but to me it looks like something from Battleforce 2000. That's too bad because this gun is even more badass than the original machine gun. It looks fierce, but the two versions of the old M2X were colored olive drab green and dark gray. They look like they're ready for business. My first instinct was to put this figure in the top tier. I mean this is Roadblock, a beloved character and this is a well remembered version of Roadblock, but I just can't. The tier system is something I came up with because I wanted to give a final judgment. It would feel like a cop out to critique these figures, but not reach some kind of conclusion. It's not an exact science, but I do have a thought process. It is partly objective, looking at how well the figure is made, the design choices, the paint applications, and whether corners were cut to reduce cost. These are things that can be observed without interjecting personal preference. An unpainted detail is an unpainted detail. You can see it and make note of it regardless of how you feel about the figure. The other part is subjective. How do I feel about the figure and the character it represents? Is it a figure that I liked or disliked as a kid? How do I feel about the figure now as an adult collector? Are there artistic choices that I agree or disagree with? In my view, do unpainted details hurt the overall appearance of the figure? It is possible for a high score in one area to outweigh low scores in other areas. For instance, Pathfinder scored higher on the objective side, with all the effort put into the accessories and the detail on the figure, so he went into the top tier. On the other hand, Roadblock v1 was a top tier figure despite having several flaws, because it scored very high in the subjective category. For v2 of Roadblock, for reasons both objective and subjective, it lands in the middle tier. There are some things that I like about it, but the colors and the weak sculpting in areas drag it down. For all the flaws on v1 of Roadblock, I still think of v1 when I think of Roadblock. Even though there are some improvements on v2, this version does not supersede it. That was my review of v2 of Roadblock. I have just downgraded a popular figure and character just before Jocon. I'm sure that will make me really popular. Do not throw rotten fruit and vegetables at me. Thank you to my supporters on Patreon for helping me out this week. I did not know what to do. You decided what to do. You are awesome. I'm working on a special video for when I come back from Jocon, so keep an eye out for that. And until then, remember, only GI Joe is GI Joe.