 Hello everybody hooded corporate commander 788 here. It's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review But this is not just any GI Joe toy review. This one is special. That's right Just like each one of you this one is special We are going to look at version one of steel brigade But version one of steel brigade has a whole bunch of different variants So we're not gonna just look at one action figure We're gonna look at five if you've been following me on Facebook Then you know I have been working on this project for months Many months of intensive searching just to get every variation of version one of steel brigade And I finally did it there is so much to cover in this review So let's jump right in and learn everything we can about steel brigade This is steel brigade GI Joe's personalized action figure It was advertised as a way for kids to create their own GI Joe figure So this was an opportunity for kids to become a GI Joe a steel brigade action figure could be acquired by filling out an Order form that could be found in insert and print ads for instance in this issue of the GI Joe comic book number 72 On the inside cover right there is a steel brigade ad it advertises now You can be the next GI Joe just fill out the order form and send in $7.50 plus 150 shipping and handling and for 1987 and 1988. That's kind of steep These were not cheap action figures when you ordered a steel brigade figure and the box arrived at your house You would find inside the box the figure and his accessories sealed in a plastic bag like this with the Country of origin stamped on the outside of it steel brigade was available from 1987 all the way to the end of the vintage line in 1994 and this is version one of steel brigade There are five sub versions of version one because through that run of version one Some parts and accessories were changed out these sub versions of version one are identified with letters This is version one a this is version one B. This is version one C This is version one D and this is version one e the exact dates for which each sub version of steel brigade became available Is uncertain, but we're pretty sure they came out in this order at some point in 1992 A second version of steel brigade was offered the so-called gold head steel brigade And it was essentially the same action figure as one of these version one steel brigades But it was dramatically recolored with a gold painted head Different colored body in a different colored backpack a very distinctive second version this review only covers version one of steel brigade Version two of steel brigade will have to wait for its own separate review. Why are there so many variations of steel brigade? All of these figures are considered to be version one of steel brigade So depending on when you would send in your order form to order a steel brigade action figure You might get a different variation of this version one So why did they change the parts and the accessories around so much one gets the impression that at some level at Hasbro They didn't care too much about the details of this action figure After all they were trying to market what they were advertising as a deluxe action figure a male away Exclusive personalized action figure, but they were trying to do it as cheaply as possible Reusing as many parts as possible and so if you lose the tooling for one part or one accessory Just pull another one off the shelf and put that in and the kids won't know the difference Let's take a look at the accessories and the accessories did a change a bit through the run of version one And there was some overlap on the accessories between the different subversions So let's start actually by looking at the backpack the backpack did remain the same through all of the subversions of Version one this backpack is all of green it has what looks like a rolled up bed roll here some pouches and an entrenching tool This backpack is a recolored version of the backpack that came with the 1983 airborne with airborne's backpack just being more of a khaki color this backpack was reused a lot It was also used on the 1983 and 1984 Duke and it was very similar to airborne's there But you can see it's just a recolored version of this same backpack and then in 1988 when the Tiger Force version of Duke was issued He came with another version of this same backpack another recolored version And as you can see this Tiger Force Duke version of the backpack has a very similar coloration to the steel brigade version It would be very easy to get these backpacks mixed up if you did not have a correct steel brigade backpack to compare them to But you can know that you have a correct steel brigade backpack if the color Exactly matches the color on steel brigade's chest. This is probably the most overused backpack in gi Joe There's even a brown accessory pack version of this backpack So as a collector you have to be very careful to get the right backpack for the figure you're trying to complete Now let's look at steel brigade's weapon each subversion of steel brigade came with one rifle But they didn't all come with the same rifle the earliest version of steel brigade came with this rifle Which was essentially a reissue of the one that came with the 1983 airborne the color difference on these rifles is very Subtle with airborne's rifle being closer to black and the steel brigade rifle being a very slightly lighter shade of gray The color difference is so subtle that I often have a hard time telling them apart It can be very difficult to tell if you have an authentic steel brigade rifle unless you get one sealed in the original bag I can tell the difference in person, but I'm not sure it's coming across on the camera very well This top one right here is the 1983 airborne rifle this is the rifle that came with steel brigade and this rifle came with the 1985 transportable tactical battle platform this one did not come with a figure at all it came with a Playset, and you can see it's just another half shade lighter color of gray if you had these rifles just jumbled together in the bottom of a box It would be very difficult to tell which one is which the packaging for the airborne action figure calls this rifle an XM16 attack Rifle which would make it a very early version of the M16 assault rifle This version is a variant that has a collapsible stock and it has a bayonet attached at some point after version 1 a Steel brigade was given a different rifle. No longer was it airborne's XM16 Instead he was given the AK 48 that came with the 1985 Crimson Guard a bad guy's weapon It's much easier to distinguish the steel brigade version of the AK 48 from the crimson guard version The crimson guard version is more of a true black and the steel brigade version is a lighter shade of gray Here's a comparison of the rifles with the top one being the crimson guard rifle and the bottom one being the steel brigade rifle Now the AK 48 as far as I can tell is a prototype updated version of the popular Russian rifle the AK 47 this one with a straight magazine instead of the more familiar curved magazine and of course a bayonet Attached version 1d again came with this airborne rifle. However at some point was version 1d They changed the rifle some version 1d's and version 1e came with this much larger M16 with a grenade launcher and bayonet this last rifle that steel brigade came with is a Recolored and reissued version of the rifle that came with the 1989 recoil and as you can see there's a quite a color difference there It's easy to tell these apart because recoil's original rifle is this powder blue Whereas the steel brigades is a very dark gray this weapon appears to be an m16 rifle with an m203 a2 Grenade launcher attached to it with the scope and of course a bayonet The only thing these accessories have in common is the bayonet other than that they are very different I suspect the reason they all have a bayonet is because The advertising for steel brigade and the picture on the file card that came with steel brigade Showed him holding a weapon that had a bayonet So I think Hasbro assumed that as long as they gave the kids a rifle with the bayonet The kids wouldn't know the difference so other than the bayonet any accessory would do the final steel brigade accessory Was not an accessory for the action figure. It was an accessory for you It came with this patch that you were intended to sew on your clothing It was a very thin fabric patch with the steel brigade logo printed on one side Now the version the patch that came with version 1a had a white Backing on the back like this the patch that came with all other version ones had this black backing like that But other than that they were the same of course version 2 of steel brigade also had a patch But it had different colors. I think this is a pretty cool accessory It's got a really nice steel brigade logo design. I like that a lot now there were other times when Gijo packaged Accessories that were meant to be used by the kids not purely a figure accessories at one point I think they packaged some figures with face paint for the kids to use And some figures came with like battle citation ribbons and things like that So this is not totally unique within the vintage gi Joe line, but it is definitely a typical and I think it's really cool Let's look at the articulation on steel brigade. They all had the same articulation So I'll just look at version 1a version 1a had a swivel head so he could swivel his head from left to right like that By 1987 that was a bit of a throwback. That was a pre 1985 articulation all the figures before 1985 had a swivel head like that But after 1985 they started introducing figures with a ball jointed neck So they could also look up and down like that of course since they chose to use airborne chests They had to have a swivel head because it was incompatible with all figures after 1985 He could swing his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around He had a hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees He had a swivel at the bicep so we could swivel his arm all the way around The figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside so he could move at the torso a little bit He could move his legs apart about so far. He could move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees He could bend at the knee about 90 degrees Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of steel brigade And we'll start with the earliest steel brigade version 1a and we'll start with his head and his head Was his only unique part all of the other parts of this action figure are reused from other action figures Steel brigade is wearing a helmet mask and goggles that completely covers his head and face You can see no distinguishing features with steel brigade No hair color no eye color no skin color and that kind of makes sense based on what they were trying to do This is a personalized action figure and they could not make unique head sculpts for every kid that's sent away for a steel brigade So they made this generic head and each kid would have to just pretend that it was his face behind the mask on his chest You can see steel brigade is wearing an olive green vest over a blue undershirt He has a silver knife silver grenade and black straps that continue around to the back This chest is where we start to see some differences among the different sub versions of steel brigade This chest is a reuse of the chest from the 1983 Airborne figure just recolored and that includes the back piece version 1a is the only steel brigade that used that Airborne chest piece all other sub versions of steel brigade Reused the 1983 and 84 Duke chest piece the steel brigade version of that Duke chest piece is olive green with a black strap and a silver Grenade the jump wings are unpainted. They are gold on the Duke action figure He also uses Duke's back piece now. That's a back piece that has been used numerous times It was used on the 1983 dock action figure as well I don't like this one quite as much because the strap does not continue around to the back It has a strap on the front not on the back And so that was a problem I had with the Duke action figure I kind of had that problem with the steel brigade action figure as well These blue arms with the black gloves were consistent through all sub versions of steel brigade They did not change the arms around these arms were reused from the 1983 swivel arm version of flash These arms were also used on both swivel arm versions of Grand Slam The left arm of the action figure has a steel brigade patch and it does not match the patch that came with the action figure Which I think is unfortunate. They could have made it the same patch It looks like it has some kind of a star symbol on it and something else which I can't quite identify The waist piece is also where we see some differences among our steel brigade This waist piece that came with version 1a was a reuse of the waist piece from the 1983 gung-ho The belt is silver with some black pouches on the sides He has a couple of pockets in the back starting with version 1d though. They changed the waist piece They were no longer using the gung-ho waist piece. They started using the waist piece that was from the 1982 and 1983 cobra soldier and cobra officer the 1988 tiger force duke also used this same waist piece even though they were using different parts they tried to keep the coloring consistent with the silver belt and black pouches But it is quite a bit different You can distinguish it from these four black pouches right here on the front rather than the two black pouches on the side of The original belt there's a variation with steel brigade's legs version 1a reused the legs from the 1984 scrap iron action figure now the lower legs of scrap iron were themselves the reuse of the lower legs of 1983 airborne so version 1a is completely Reusing all of scrap iron's legs starting with version 1c. However, they were no longer using scrap irons upper legs They started using airborne upper legs. So starting with version 1c These were complete reuses of airborne's entire legs on version 1e though The last issue of version 1 of steel brigade they went back to using scrap irons upper legs This is the only time when they changed the parts to move back to a part They had used before on the scrap iron version of steel brigade's legs We have a black holster with a strap that goes all the way around the right leg We have a silver pistol on the left leg on the left thigh We have these four spikes on the scrap iron action figure I assumed these spikes had something to do with his missile launcher accessory But steel brigade came with no such accessory So I don't know what these spikes would be in relation to steel brigade the airborne version of steel brigade's legs are a Bit more plain. We have an unpainted holster on the right leg and a black pistol on the left leg We have this pouch and that's about it all versions of steel brigade have these boots and knee pads And I do like knee pads. I'm a big fan of knee pads. So I do like that feature very much Let's take a look at steel brigade's file card and this file card is not really a card This is printed on paper and it was not on the back of the packaging like most gi Joe file cards were This was printed on paper and it was personalized based on the information that the purchaser put on the order form I have mine stored in a plastic sleeve, but I'm taking it out so we can take a better look at it This file card is printed with dot matrix printing kind of an old style of computer printing And it was printed using a track feed paper And it still has the tracks from the track feed paper attached to kind of fold it around to the back here I don't know if anybody remembers how these old style computer printers worked But the paper was fed along these tracks into the printer and the pages were all attached together With perforation on the edges so you could tear each individual page apart You can still see some of the perforation edge here on this file card The order form for steel brigade has some information to fill out You're supposed to fill in a code name of your own choosing up here up to 20 characters Down here You're supposed to make a few selections to describe the character that you want your steel brigade to be You're supposed to select his branch of service choose his primary military specialty and his secondary specialty You can choose a couple of weapons that he's an expert with And his martial art expertise and of course his additional schooling and training and you do all that and you send that away And they personalize the file card based on that information that you choose up here It says GI Joe combat command file card and here it has an illustration of steel brigade right here Not the typical high quality painted portraits that we got for most GI Joe file cards But this did give you a good idea of what your steel brigade figure was supposed to look like here It has vital statistics and this information would have been based on what the original owner of this file card Filled out on his order form. So let's see what the original owner chose for his steel brigade It says his code name is quick shot and he's a marine his primary military specialty is special forces Secondary military specialty is combat engineer His weapons specialty is m11 submachine gun and expert all NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms His martial arts expertise is taekwondo then sword throwing stars and his school training is military intelligence school Special forces school and jungle warfare here We have a signature line and the kids were intended to sign their name here You find a lot of these steel brigade file cards with names signed on the signature line because that's what you were intended to do It's a little bit harder to find unsigned cards like this one this section which is labeled traits says Command comes naturally to quick shot his self assurance as well as his ability to lead men in difficult situations is Evident as he guides his fellow officers into dangerous combat this section which is labeled abilities says Quick shots instinct for survival as well as his strength and determination make him one of the most valuable men on the team He has the will to sustain even the most treacherous conditions plus a working knowledge of guerrilla and jungle tactics this section down here Which is labeled personality? Says quick shots honesty and loyalty are just two of the qualities that make him MVP in any platoon He is not only there to share in the triumphs But to help his fellow comrades through intense combat situations and then here in the corner We have the steel brigade logo that matches the patch that came with the figure and down here It says gi Joe steel brigade team I think this kind of indicates that steel brigade is seen as a sub team within gi Joe I really like this file card. I think the original owner did a good job of filling it out Even though it doesn't look like a traditional gi Joe file card I think I would have been very happy with this if I got it as a kid the file card that came with version 1a of steel brigade Was slightly different from this different font things just looked a little bit different So if you run across a steel brigade file card that looks different from this It might be the one that came with version 1a I Know these guys can be difficult to tell apart So this will be a good time to do a parts guide so you can tell at a glance which subversion of steel brigade You have this is version 1a. He has Airborne's chest piece Gung hoes waist piece and scrap irons legs Version 1a is the only one to have this airborne chest piece So if you have an airborne chest piece on a steel brigade, you know that is version 1a This is version 1b version 1b is the first version to use the duke chest piece He has the gung ho Waste piece and the scrap iron legs You can quickly tell this is a version 1b because it will be the same in all respects as version 1a Except for that chest piece He has the duke chest piece version 1b looks almost identical to version 1e Except note the different waste pieces if you see this first version of steel brigade's waste piece without these black Pockets here in the front You know, you've got a version 1b and not a version 1e. This is version 1c It is almost the same as version 1b except now we are using the airborne legs Instead of the scrap iron legs to quickly know if you have a version 1c Look for that silver belt without the black pockets in front And you will not see this black holster that goes across his leg That's a quick way to know this is a version 1c This is version 1d and this is the first version where they changed this waste piece So you will look for the black pouches on that silver belt That's a quick way to know that you've got a version 1d and we've got the airborne legs We're still using the airborne legs. So you will not see the black strap on the holster from the scrap iron legs That's a quick way to know you've got a version 1d and finally version 1e has that waste piece from version 1d You'll see those black pouches on the belt But we've gone back to using the scrap iron legs So now you will see the black holster and strap going across his leg That's a quick way to know you've got a version 1e All steel brigade action figures should be considered rare figures None of them are as common as your typical gijo action figure However, the least rare version is version 1d You do see quite a few version 1d steel brigades floating around out there So if you only want one steel brigade for your collection, you might look for a version 1d You should be able to find one at a relatively low cost Taking a look at steel brigade overall, it's not a perfect action figure This light blue is not exactly a color you'd want to wear into battle And it's mostly a frankenstein action figure. It has very few unique parts It's mostly cobbled together from parts from earlier action figures But despite that, of course, I really like this figure Of course, I would rate steel brigade as a top tier figure And I'm not just saying that because of how much time I put into collecting all of these guys When you look at it, it looks like a top tier figure When you hold it and play with it, it feels like a top tier figure And I just think the idea of the personalized action figure is a really cool idea So if you think about it, every single steel brigade figure that you get At some point, a kid sent away for that thing And when he got it, that was that person, that kid In plastic form, so every single one of them has a personal connection with its original owner My favorite steel brigade action figure would have to be version 1a Because of that airborne chest, that airborne chest just has a bit more detail to it And I like that very much, so that one's my favorite But the rest of these are not bad at all Steel brigade did not have any media appearances in the vintage era that I'm aware of I don't think he appeared in the comic book or the cartoon However, in the cartoon, they sometimes had green shirts or these Undifferentiated soldiers wearing green I kind of see steel brigade as filling the role of those green shirts They are not full members of the GI Joe team that don't have their individual uniforms But when the GI Joe team needs additional non-specialized troops or support troops, they can call on steel brigade That being the case, steel brigade may be the first official army builder action figure for the GI Joe team And I can really appreciate steel brigade on that level Cobra had their army with soldiers and officers But GI Joe was more a team of specialists than an army For some missions, though, you just need numbers It can't all be done by specialists You need the army, and that's what steel brigade provides I could also see steel brigade as a recruiting pool for the GI Joe team Steel brigade members who distinguish themselves in battle could eventually become full GI Joe team members That was my review of all of the variations of the 1987 GI Joe personalized action figure steel brigade I hope you enjoyed it If you did make sure you give it a thumbs up on youtube And if you're thinking of getting a steel brigade action figure, I hope you found this video informative Don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming up You don't want to miss them and don't forget to like my facebook page and follow me on twitter You get a lot of updates there. You don't get anywhere else Thank you for watching. I'll see you next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review