 Hello everybody, HoodedCooperCommander788 here and it's time for another GI Joe vehicle unboxing and assembly and this time We are doing the GI Joe retro all striker and driver crankcase. This is not the vintage all striker This is the Walmart retro version. This vehicle was sent to me by Jeff Ball. He left a note Thank you to Jeff without your help. This would not be possible and I found my tool box So I will be able to assemble this vehicle with the tools that I usually use for this purpose Let's open this guy up and get started. Let's take a look at the box It has the artwork that is very similar to the vintage 1985 box art We've got a window pane here so you can see the crankcase action figure I did damage the box a little bit on this side taking Jeff's notes off. Sorry about that But we've got basically the same thing on this side and we've got a photo of the vehicle on the back And we have a file card, but with the text in lots of different languages. This doesn't have much text really at all It's just broken up into Several sections with a bunch of different languages I'm sure this is done so they don't have to issue different boxes with different languages for different countries and regions But it doesn't mean this file card is not very fun to collect and read. I'm cutting the tape on the damaged side So let's open it from that end and usually these are in some kind of a tray Cardboard tray and yes, that's correct So this pulled this tray out and everything should come with it pretty tightly packed in there. Hang on I don't want to damage anything There we go. Okay, we have the figure on this card and it It's taped on it may also be glued on but it looks like you can take the figure out of the plastic And without damaging the plastic which means you can put it back in if you want to put the Vehicle and the figure back in the box. So that's nice. We have in poly bags The main body of the vehicle. It looks like it's mostly already assembled I think the vintage toy would have been less assembled than this That'll make it easy. That'll make it very easy for us to put together. We have the smaller bits the cannon the antenna The figure stand for the figure in this bag We have four wheels and that is all that's in that bag and here We have the paperwork the instructions should be in here first things first We've got to open this and get the instructions out before we can start putting it together. It does have some instructions and blueprints like the Original that's just some legal disclaimers There is the sticker sheet nice and here are the instructions and I believe it has Blueprints, but they're really small very small printing there And there are the instructions only five steps that should be really easy These poly bags are taped closed. They're not actually sealed and that's nice So I guess we could put these items back in the bags if we wanted to I have no idea if you can Unassemble this thing after it's been assembled But if it's possible then you could put the whole thing back the way you found it and store this thing in its original box wheels out All right, let's just lay these out so we know what we're working with here That goes with the figure we've got a connector hose slash wire here This is similar to the vintage All-striker, but yeah, this is much more assembled than the vintage one would have been Some of these parts. I'm quite sure we're not Assembled out of the box when you first got the all-striker in 1985 But that is fine. Okay, there's the the roll cage set that there And here's the main chassis and body And there's a piece of cardboard here Holding the The spring suspension in place will take that out So yeah, it does have the same Suspension that the original did that that is nice It seems to have all of the same features as the vintage But I do notice like the gray on the axles and the other accessories the steering wheel and such That is in a lighter shade of gray than the original a lot of my vintage GI Joe toys are still boxed up and I'm not 100% sure where the vintage all-striker is Maybe I can find it and show a side-by-side comparison once this is assembled step one is easy You just pop the wheels on and there are mushroom clips Which means the mushroom clips will show on the wheels. There are no hub caps to cover those That is a little bit of a pet peeve of mine, but That might still be all right. We do have steering on the front wheels It does steer very nice. It is not linked to the Steering wheel though that would have been a cool addition if they had managed that but that was not a feature on The vintage all-striker so it's no surprise. They didn't add it for this And there we go One next step two is this roll cage and This just snaps in in these holes And yeah, these clips here clip on there and this roll cage is flexible enough that it really should not be any problem to Get this on it should not be forced at least I don't think Of course make a liar out of me make me force this thing on. Oh, there we go. There we go All right. No, it's fine. It's fine. Not a big deal not a big deal So there are six points three on each side where this connects It did take a little bit of force to get it started, but once it was started it went in quite smoothly These front connections are clips Rather than pegs and they seem to be taking a little bit more effort. Yes. This makes me nervous. I don't want to break the thing There we go. There we go There's one Let's get the other one in and it kind of it kind of does have to be coaxed in there Come on There we go. Okay Roll cage is on Looking pretty good next step the antenna to In a lighter gray plastic than the vintage so you're not gonna get these mixed up with the vintage antenna Also on my vintage awl striker It seems to be missing the antenna. I don't know what happened to them but I do remember when I was packing it away that the antenna and the two antennae were gone and I'm sure I took them off for some reason But Apparently I didn't put them on or put them in a good spot. Now the vintage awl striker had a removable engine cover Oh, and this one does as well. The engine cover comes off. Is the engine removable? It is So these features are also the same as the vintage awl striker Engine is a separate piece and can be removed and the engine cover can be removed as well there we go, so There's that step four is to place this this cannon and This peg here or this hole this peg and this hole on The top of the roll cage and since that roll cage is a bit thin I'm gonna give it a little extra support with my hand under it and That that yeah, that's all the way in So we've got rotation Like with the vintage awl striker. It doesn't quite go 360 it runs into these antenna But it does elevate that's got good elevation Now the last piece is this little tiny black connector wire or hose whatever you want to call it This could be a challenge because that is really thin and it needs to fit on this peg and And And this peg here there's a peg here and a peg here, so it needs to run From one side to the other so let's see how easy it is to get this on it is a tight fit Oh, it's a really tight fit. It's working though. It's working. All right, so It's on this little device here on the dashboard passenger side And then it's supposed to run This let me see if I can do it on this side so you can actually see me assemble it that would be cool, huh? I would be really devastated if I broke that peg off. Man, that is a tight fit though That's a tighter fit than the other peg. I think this peg is thicker. Okay, but we've we've all got it Okay, it took some doing But there is the wire That's a similar to to the vintage awl striker, but the wire was a bit different But it's same idea same idea works the same though Okay, so that's it for the assembly now. We need to put the stickers on here is the sticker sheet And I have my tweezers which I prefer to use to put the stickers on and the a lot of the The text is white on a white background So it's gonna be a little tricky to see this to pick out the correct sticker to put on Let's start with This side and I'm sorry I'll have to do this on the side that is not facing you so that I can put this on correctly But I'll turn it around so you can see let's start with that one because it looks like it will be a difficult one to put on And it is really small text in white and wow I'm gonna have to find it. I think it's that one This unlike on the vintage gi Joe sticker sheets These are not numbered if they were numbered, of course, I would just look for the correct number and And put that on But instead it has it just has a picture or a diagram of the sticker Which would be fine. That would be fine If the white text on white background We're a little easier to read once I pull it off. I can actually look at it More easily and make sure I've got the right one And that is not the right one we're not where does this one go this has some text that says spot check and Where is that? Oh, that is confusing. Oh, I don't like this Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to set the sticker aside until I figure out where it goes We're not off to a great start here I'm having some trouble with the stickers on these retro collection vehicles We have a sticker here that Does not appear to be on the diagram at least if it is I'm not finding it anywhere All right, let's move on. Let's move on. Let's find I can I found that one There's a black background white text sticker that says gas Petrol for those of you outside of the United States We call it gas short for gasoline Lovely, okay. Hey, we got one sticker done. We got one sticker done. That's That's that's a star these stickers are die-cut But like with the his tank They could be cut a little better because I'm I'm struggling to Get this off and I don't want to I Don't want to damage it. I just want a little corner Want to get under a little corner of it got it and it is more or less undamaged This goes in this section right here. Let's get that even oh Yeah Perfect Okay, well hey look we have two stickers applied. Oh, I see it's a wraparound, okay Because it wraps. Okay. There are two of them and they're supposed to wrap around this Round post for the antenna Okay no problem The sticker sheet does not show it in that shape But that's definitely the one and yeah, I didn't pull the sticker off very well Let me straighten this out with this shape. It should wrap nicely around That base. Okay, so now I've got Three stickers. Let's keep going. This is what you all tune in for right. This is riveting stuff I want a GI Joe logo. Yeah, that's what I want. I want that right now. I want the GI Joe logo I have assembled a few vintage GI Joe vehicles Including 80s vehicles right out of the box putting the stickers on was my favorite part of it It was like this Zen experience, but not so with the retro line Not so requires a bit more concentration Okay, GI Joe logo goes here. That looks nice. I like that I like the GI Joe logo that actually looks good oddly It doesn't show the American flag being put on the side on this side It shows it on the other side, but at least we know where it's supposed to go. It's an American flag that is red white and clear So instead of white stripes, we have green stripes because there's a it's on a green vehicle Still looks okay better than not having it. There are three sizes of stars There is let me let me figure this out because If I put a star in the wrong space, then it's really gonna mess up the whole thing The larger star will not fit there So that has to be the medium-sized star that fits on the back and then two smaller stars fit on the sides here and Here according to box art and my recollection of the vintage Vehicle the large star should go dead center on the the front hood there a sticker that says watch and a sticker That says head this side. It's a single sticker on This side it's two separate stickers because the post Where you plug in the wire is in the way, so they had to split it in two and I found them I found them. This is a wide sticker That is supposed to fit on a narrow little bar I guess that works. That's weird though So that that's these two stickers on the roll cage there. This goes. Oh, I gotta get a different angle got it okay Coming along this one goes here, but then this spot check one. We still haven't found we'll figure that out later Okay, this side is done This side is done. This is another wide sticker So it will have to wrap around like the other two. I'm happy to have new gi Joe stuff on the shelves I'm happy to have, you know new stuff on the market for old and new collectors you know new stuff and you know things that are You know re-releases of the old stuff. That's nice. That's nice. Not a bad thing I truly do not understand some of the choices just on the on the small things like like how they die cut The sticker sheet. I don't get it. I hope you guys are enjoying the new slate of videos now that I have more time I can produce more and I'm also trying to Take my time and improve the quality. That is something that That I do need to get better on especially like some of the audio quality is really bothering me on some of the videos And I'm actively working to improve that so If that is something that you've noticed don't worry. I've noticed too and I'm working on it Okay, well that's kind of work that worked better than I thought So there's there's that this at least hasn't had a sticker that egregiously, you know Refuses to fit in the space Like on the his tank. We haven't run into that yet I do like how the stickers add just to these little touches of extra detail and color That was always the best thing about vengeance vehicles is you know these stickers add something You know that they couldn't do paint applications on the vehicles at least they didn't do paint applications on most of them so to add these Tiny little details that made them feel more real They did it with these vinyl stickers and for the most part it worked pretty well one one went really easily get the stars and stripes Even though there are no stars They're only red stripes, you know close enough though the GI Joe logo. I think this is my favorite I like putting the GI Joe logos on the best. It is shameless branding, right? like an elite Super-secret counter-terrorist group like GI Joe would not really emblazoned their Name on every piece of equipment. They have so it's not exactly realistic, but it looks cool so progress Next now. I do like the look of the white text on The green vehicle. I'm not complaining about that at all. I think it looks great The problem is white text on the white background on the sticker sheet and they are not numbered So that makes it somewhat difficult to find the sticker you're looking for the assembly of this thing was very easy it's the documentation of the stickers that is Taking much longer this warning sticker Goes it can't go there. It wants me to put this sticker Right here, but there's there's a grill there. There's a vent there And I can't put a sticker there It doesn't show that on the sticker sheet on the diagram It's not present, but on the actual molding of the toy it is So it cannot go there. It cannot go there. Where else can it go? I think this is like the his tank This is our one sticker that absolutely does not work as it's described in the instructions That's just the best we can do. We absolutely cannot do it the way it's shown on here. Oh, yeah, the base sticker that goes on the Posts for the antenna the wraparound sticker and it will be done with this side I may cut out some of the just sitting around and trying to peel these things off because that's not very Interesting, but I will leave some of it in because you know, I want you to get the experience of what this is like In case you're considering getting one of these things and assembling it I want you to have a preview of what to expect and part of what to expect is a Lot of hunting for the correct sticker and trying to find Where exactly it goes we have a star to put on done. Okay now this side is done Let's do the back and we will finish up with the front the medium-sized star goes there Let's do that right now Okay one star sticker on Lots of lots of stickers here the tail lights It's pretty important that these are cut to the right size. Otherwise, there will be overhang. That's not too bad It's really close though. That's really close to Red brake lights done What next latch two stickers that say latch with Downward pointing arrows by the time you see this it should be getting pretty close to Christmas so I hope everybody is having a lovely holiday season My holiday is okay Certainly better than I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting much to be honest But there have been some bright spots and I'm very happy about that Okay, one more this Danger sticker goes right there. Where's the danger sticker? There it is. Okay, that's how we're doing for now Yeah, we've got one more sticker One more danger sticker. This piece does not go on the engine cover Most of these stickers are going on the engine cover, but not this one not this guy. Oh, no, we missed one tool kit There's a sticker on here somewhere that says tool kit a lot of stickers on this thing Did the vintage one have this many stickers? I don't remember I've reviewed it, but I don't have it sitting directly in front of me So my memory is such that since it isn't sitting directly in front of me It's hard for me to remember. Got it. All right, we are done We are done with the back beautiful. We need to do the top and the front and we've got some arrow stickers that say oil and those go There okay, and they have to go at an angle. I'm gonna try to get these right But it's gonna be hard to get them at The correct angle for both of them. Let's try to get these at Close to the same angle and position on opposite sides That is as close as we're gonna get okay Probably can't see that it's black on top of green. See this is another one There's a United States sticker that goes straight across there It is pictured on the diagram, but it doesn't actually show the placement of it so what we know where it is and Let's put it on grease 84 type G. There are two stickers and they go directly in front of the dashboard on Both sides I am thrilled to be back making GI Joe videos I'm really happy to be back and I was concerned that Frankly people wouldn't remember me or care, but honestly most folks are still around and still Watching and showing up for the live streams a couple people. I have noticed have not Come back around, but hopefully they will they may not realize that I'm back yet and I miss people that's ultimately The the best reason to come back is to reconnect with people So that's been very Rewarding for me and I've been thrilled to be able to reconnect with People that I know and people that I care about friends that I've had for years Front is coming along What's next which way does it go? It goes this way? No problem. All right. There's this diamond shaped sticker I am glad there are some vintage mint in box Vehicles and action figures, you know mint on card still around. I think that helps preserve their history I'm glad that There are grading services and that some of those figures and vehicles are graded That also helps preserve them and I think that's very important for my purposes. I Just could not collect mint in box and mint on card toys It's there's nothing wrong with collecting that way Certainly it's more expensive It's it costs quite a lot more to purchase a toy a vintage toy that is still sealed in the box There are much fewer of them around and fewer still that are in excellent condition But for me the it's not about the expense And in fact not that long ago. I certainly could have Spent the money on Sealed items I could afford it So that's not it's not a matter of the expense of collecting that way What's missing is the tactile experience of of Collecting vintage toys actually handling the toy touching the plastic, you know feeling it let you know moving it around You know seeing how the whole things works and I Would miss that If I were to collect toys that were still sealed in the box And that's also why I I don't think I'll ever get anything graded Because again, it's sealed and again, I'm glad that that there are sealed examples We need sealed examples. We need sealed examples to pervert preserve the history of These classic toys the people who collect that way Are providing a valuable service to the community and preserving its history, and I'm really glad That they do where the heck does that go? That's hard to interpret Let me see if the the box provides any Yeah, it does so the box wants this sticker there and that sticker there I don't think that looks good, but you know what? I'm just I'm gonna do it like I said these Vinyl stickers are forgiving. I absolutely can peel this up and reposition it Which will free a spot for this other sticker That is asymmetrical, but okay. I am no slave to symmetry. It's fine real life is often Asymmetrical we've got to put the big star right there Again, it's uh It's like Unlike the united states sticker the star is not on the diagram at all But we know where it goes so let's do it this could go higher But I like it more in the center there. I just I like it better that way There we go. I was gonna say there's a sticker here, and I don't know where it goes, but I do know where it goes It goes right there. It's just At first glance it looks different From the diagram, but it's the same it's fine. Here's our progress We have an empty sticker sheet but we have one unclaimed sticker this spot check sticker and I have gone through every single one of these and I don't see it. So let's consult the The photo on the box and see if we can Locate it whoever put the stickers on the prototype um Was more sloppy than me and I'm kind of sloppy, but like Uh that that the watch head sticker right there very uneven another difference is the American flag sticker on the box has the white stripes. No, I don't see it. I swear. I don't want to leave it unused So we should put it somewhere But where I would uh, I would like a representative hasbro to call me or send me an email I just just tell me where this thing goes. Tell me Tell me where this sticker goes. It is a white text sticker that says spot check and it it doesn't go you know whatever I'm going to put it I'm going to put it on the underside. How about that there? Sticker on the underside and we're done. We have a complete Assembled awestriker that took long enough. I pulled crankcase out of the packaging. It's a pretty good looking figure I believe this is a a new crankcase figure not based on a previous figure and He does have one accessory his helmet. It is removable. It has brown straps. That's nice It looks good. His hair is a bit on the orange side We still found a way to include orange on a gi joe action figure, didn't we? Uh, but looks looks better Better with the helmet. It's got his figure stand which says crankcase on it So if you want to display the figure next to the vehicle standing next to his vehicle You can put him on the figure stand, but I of course would like to include the figure in the vehicle 25th anniversary style figures are taller than vintage figures So does he fit? Actually, he does he fits pretty good. Now we have crankcase in the awestriker One hand on the wheel other hand on the the gear shifter almost on the gear shifter. There we go And uh, now we have this Uh, which I guess we can just put in the passenger seat because we don't want to lose it But there we go. We have an assembled awestriker. I was able to dig out my vintage awestriker It's a little dusty But you can see the color on the vintage awestriker is different from the retro awestriker The retro vehicle is a brighter green And the vintage vehicle is a duller green The grays are also in a slightly different color the connection between the Device here in front and the gun is thicker. It's also a little Softer I was able to find one antenna. I have no idea what happened to the other one That was my unboxing and assembly of the gi joe retro awestriker with driver crankcase I hope you enjoyed it. It was a bigger challenge than I was expecting But I still had a lot of fun I hope you did too. Please subscribe to this channel for vintage gi joe toy reviews I have a huge back catalog of reviews So you want to check out all those and support the channel on patreon if you want to help me continue doing these videos You can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and I have a website hcc788.com Thanks for watching. I'll see you soon with a vintage gi joe toy review and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe