 Oh no, I'm reviewing Sergeant Slaughter again. That means you will invade my video and yell at me. Sarge? Where are you? Are you gonna cut in and berate me? At ease, my friend. I was just having a cup of tea. Won't you join me? A cup of tea? Are you trying to give me a false sense of security? You're not fooling me. Every time I review a Sergeant Slaughter toy, you throw insults at me. Oh, you don't really take that seriously, do you? I'm just playing a character. In reality, I'm a big softy. But you're a G.I. Joe drill instructor. How can you whip the soldiers into shape without shouting and being mean? That's only during business hours. When I'm off duty, I like to unwind with classical music in a good book. I find out it's Huxley's fiction to be quite prescient, don't you? Don't you want me to slaughterize it? If you want to slaughterize it, that's your choice. I'm a vegetarian. Would you care for a tofu sausage? Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. Sergeant Slaughter was first known as a professional wrestler, but I was introduced to him as G.I. Joe's drill instructor. It's fair to say I am a fan of Sergeant Slaughter's G.I. Joe persona, but I'm not his biggest fan. That honor goes to Sergeant Slaughter's Slaughter House. Zazel is joining this review to talk about the history of his hero, Sergeant Slaughter. Both of us have a special event coming up. Both meet Sergeant Slaughter this year at JoeFest. JoeFest is an unofficial G.I. Joe event held in Augusta, Georgia every year. It isn't exclusively a G.I. Joe convention. It has a lot of non-Joe stuff like wrestling and comic books and science fiction. Even so, it is where a lot of G.I. Joe fans congregate every year. For 25 years, the official G.I. Joe convention was an annual family reunion for G.I. Joe fans. The final JoeCon was in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2018. The theme for that convention was Slaughter's Marauders. After the end of the official JoeCon, fans gravitated toward regional shows. I've been to several of them and I love them. I would go to all of them if I could. One convention, the unofficial JoeFest, became an annual rallying point for Joe fans. It's where we still have our family reunions. This video is not an official endorsement of JoeFest. I'm just talking about my personal experiences with the event. I first met Sergeant Slaughter at JoeFest in 2019 and it was a highlight. I'm looking forward to seeing him again this year. Ahead of meeting the real Sergeant Slaughter, let's take a look at the last vintage Sergeant Slaughter G.I. Joe action figure. HCC 788 and Sergeant Slaughter Slaughter House present, Sergeant Slaughter. This is Sergeant Slaughter, the Sergeant Slaughter's Marauders commander from 1989. Sergeant Slaughter was released in 1989. It was also available in 1990. It was discontinued for 1991. This is the fourth version of Sergeant Slaughter and the final version of Sergeant Slaughter in the vintage G.I. Joe toy line. Sergeant Slaughter was the first G.I. Joe action figure to be based on a real person, but he wasn't the last. William the refrigerator parry became the G.I. Joe action figure The Fridge in 1987. If you're from outside North America, you may know this character by a different name. In Europe, he was called Sergeant Slammer. I guess the name Sergeant Slaughter was considered just too violent for a children's toy. The first version of Sergeant Slaughter was released in 1986 and was billed as G.I. Joe's drill instructor. The figure was designed by Ron Rudat for Hasbro. The uniform was based on his wrestling costume. There is some confusion about when this figure was released. Some sources say 1985. Others say 1986. Based on what I could discover, I believe the figure was first shipped in early 1986. So that should be considered its release date. This 1986 version one figure was only available through a mail away offer. It was not released at retail. Version two of Sergeant Slaughter was also released in 1986 and this one was available at retail as a vehicle driver. It was included with the triple T. This figure is very similar to version one, but with different colors and some updated parts. This is the version of the figure that most people probably remember because it was the most widely available. And this is how the character looked in the animated series. Version three of Sergeant Slaughter was released in 1988. It was also available at retail and it was also a vehicle driver. It was included with the warthog. This is the most radically different of the vintage Sergeant Slaughter's. It has all new parts and a removable hat. Unlike version two, which was included with a small vehicle, version three came with a really large vehicle. Finally, we get to version four. The subject of this review released in 1989. We are back to the version one mold with different colors. Now he is the leader of Slaughter's Marauders, a sub team within GI Joe. All Marauders had a common color scheme, blue, light green, dark green, brown and black. This figure sticks to those colors. That's all you get. Also, this is the first Sergeant Slaughter to be released at retail on a card. Marauders consisted entirely of reissued action figures in different colors and a few vehicles. The set included Sergeant Slaughter version four, barbecue version two, footloose version two, low light version two, mutt version two and spirit version two. The vehicles were also partially reused from older vehicles but updated in important ways. The base of the vehicles were reused but with new weapon systems and new camouflage paint. The vehicles included the armadillo, the equalizer and the links. The Marauders were the second team led by Sergeant Slaughter. The first was the renegades from 1987. The renegades included Mercer, Red Dog and Taurus. They were prominently featured in the 1987 animated movie. Sergeant Slaughter is based on a real person, a professional wrestler named Robert Remus who uses the Sergeant Slaughter stage name. For the background of Sergeant Slaughter the wrestler, I turned to someone with much more knowledge on the subject, Sergeant Slaughter's Slaughter House. Sergeant Slaughter was my childhood hero. So I am absolutely honored to be able to chat about my favorite GI Joe on my favorite GI Joe channel. Sergeant Slaughter is the best ambassador for GI Joe. He always has time for his fans and always speaks fondly of his involvement with Hasbro. But he wasn't always the real American hero we know and love. This is beautiful Bobby and this is the super destroyer Mark II. There were a few missteps before Robert Remus stumbled upon the movie called The DI. From there the Sarge was born. Robert Remus went to a military surplus store and picked out what would become his most famous signature look, Sergeant Slaughter. But he was still yet to become the hero to a generation because Sergeant Slaughter hit the squared circle as a heel, a villain, the big bad drill instructor. It wasn't until he went up against the iron chic and led the crowd into the pledge of allegiance that truly set him into superstardom and hero status. Soon kids and adults alike were ready to sign up to the Cobra Corps. That's right, our soon to be Joe drill instructor was wearing Cobra on his wrestling attire. But I dare say his signature moved the Cobra clutch. It's a fitting maneuver against the enemy organization. Hans Brown must have been paying attention though because he was soon snapped up and offered up as the first living GI Joe. In fact he would wrestle in the same outfit as his male away action figure. Nobody beats GI Joe and nobody does a better job at representing the real American hero like Sergeant Slaughter. Yo Joe! Although the Sergeant Slaughter character was a Marine and a drill instructor, the real person playing Sergeant Slaughter was not. Some sources still say he served in the Marine Corps before his wrestling career, but that is incorrect. When we talk about the background of GI Joe's Sergeant Slaughter, you will see that it is different from the wrestling character. So GI Joe's Sergeant Slaughter is a character based on a character played by a real person. Ron Rudat, the designer of the first figure, recites a story about Sergeant Slaughter coming to Hasbro headquarters in his camouflage Cadillac. I'm disappointed that we never got a camouflage Cadillac vehicle for Sergeant Slaughter's action figure. I have the full card back for this figure. It's in bad shape, but let's look at it anyway to see how this figure was marketed back in 1989. We have the GI Joe logo at the top and next to that the Slaughter's Marauders logo here covered up by some old price stickers. His codename is Sergeant Slaughter. He's the Slaughter's Marauders commander and we have some new card art. Previous versions were not released at retail on a card, so there wasn't full card art to just update for this Slaughter's Marauders version. So we get new card art. It isn't very good, but it's new. The card art is also inaccurate. It has the Marine Corps emblem on the campaign hat. The figure does not. The figure has the Marine Corps emblem on the belt buckle, not shown on the card art. Only one thing besides the figure was included, the baton. We will look at that later. On the back we have the cross cell with some other figures that were available at the time and this partition for Slaughter's Marauders. This blurb about Slaughter's Marauders says, Slaughter's Marauders lead GI Joe's latest land offensive against Cobra, shielded by their camouflage and armed with the heaviest artillery. The Marauders are prepared to defeat Cobra anywhere in the world. There is a modern Sergeant Slaughter action figure, very modern. It's part of the GI Joe classified series of 6 inch action figures. I will have a full review of this classified Sergeant Slaughter figure on my channel very soon, but I wanted to take a brief look at it here. Classified Sergeant Slaughter came in this box with Adam Rich's artwork. It looks really good. GI Joe fans will be familiar with Adam Rich's artwork and this looks excellent. This classified Sergeant Slaughter is based on Sergeant Slaughter version 2 from 1986, although obviously the scale is much larger. This figure comes with some interesting accessories. Some of the features that were just sculpted on the vintage figure are now removable. So he has a removable hat and removable sunglasses. Without the hat and the glasses we can see the head and the face sculpt and it's a pretty good likeness of the real Sergeant Slaughter. The whistle is not just sculpted on. It is removable and I do like this. These little minute details have an added dimension since they are removable and not just sculpted on. He has a baton reminiscent of the vintage figure accessory, but with some additional detail and additional colors. So even this very simple accessory is updated. He includes this assault rifle. It is pretty generic, pretty basic. Also, it's a reissue of a weapon that came with another action figure. This feels like something that was just kind of thrown in. He also includes extra hands in these different poses. There are four different poses with a left and a right hand for each pose. So eight total hands, two on the figure and six separate. I can show you how this works. If I want to change out this right hand, I can just pop that off and then I can pop on an alternate hand. So that gives me new options for poses for Sergeant Slaughter. So now he can say GI Joe wants you. The most unique accessory is this micro figure. It's much smaller than any micro figure we've seen so far. It's on a GI Joe card, but you can remove it from the card. You can take it out. Here is that Sergeant Slaughter micro figure. I have him standing on a spot of mounting putty because his feet are so tiny. I can't otherwise get him to stand up. I have a coin for scale. You can see he's much smaller than a nickel. Here is the Sergeant Slaughter micro figure that came packaged with carded figures in 1988. And it is a giant compared to this one. Here also is a Duke micro figure that came out recently. And we thought these were pretty small, but it's twice the height of this Sergeant Slaughter. Don't sneeze near this thing. You will never see it again. Overall, I do like this classified Sergeant Slaughter figure. Other than the hat, the glasses, the whistle, and the baton, I can live without the other accessories. It is in the colors of the most recognizable version of Sergeant Slaughter, but to make it into a Marauder's Sergeant Slaughter, all it would take is a new coat of paint. I will have a full review of this figure coming up on my channel soon, so watch for that. Let's look at Sergeant Slaughter's accessory. He came with only one. This swagger stick, also called a baton, it is very simple. It is in brown plastic with a spot of gold paint at the cap. This is basically the same accessory that was included with the first two versions of Sergeant Slaughter. The difference between this and the earlier version is very minor. This is the Slaughter's Marauder's Baton, and this is the baton that was included with versions one and two. It's the same accessory, but the Slaughter's Marauder's Baton is in a very slightly lighter shade of brown plastic. It would be very easy to mix these up. That's why I'm keeping these separate while I'm shooting this review, so I don't mix them up. Let's look at the articulation. On Sergeant Slaughter, he had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1989, and in fact the same articulation as version one. So 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 his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had to swivel at the biceps so he could swivel his arm all the way around. This was an O-ring figure, meaning 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 leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpt design and color of Sergeant Slaughter. This is the same as version one, except for the colors. The version one figure is generally better with more paint applications and more color variety. Not many fans will call version four their favorite figure. The Dave Stamp even still says copyright 1986 has, bro, so absolutely nothing was updated on this mold. It is exactly the same as version one. Sergeant Slaughter is taller than the average GI Joe action figure, which makes sense because the real Sergeant Slaughter is a big guy and the character is supposed to be large and imposing, and the action figure reflects that. Looking at his head, he is wearing a dark green campaign hat with a spot of brown paint on the crown that brown paint just seems kind of random. He is wearing blue sunglasses. He has a prominent chin and a brown mustache and brown hair and a brown band across the back of his head. This is a pretty good likeness for the real Sergeant Slaughter. This campaign hat, sometimes called a campaign cover, is worn by Marine Corps drill instructors. A real USMC cover would have the eagle globe and anchor instead of the rank insignia at the front. Even though this is basically the same as version one, version one is still better. The silver sunglasses look better and they stand out more. The hat is a more realistic color and it has a spot of gold paint on the rank insignia. The chest is fairly simple. He has a blue tank top with a black whistle on a black cord around his neck. The muscles are very well-defined. This is the same chest as version one, but I have a problem with the version four figure. On that tank top there is a seam that goes around the collar and around the arms and on the version one figure that is inside the paint mask so it is painted the same color as the shirt. On the version four figure that is outside of the paint mask so that seam is the same color as his skin and that does not look right at all and that's not the only part of this figure that has that problem. Moving on to the arms, he has bare arms with big bulging muscles, well sculpted. He has unpainted wristbands around the wrist so they are the same color as the arms. There are no paint applications on the arms at all. Unpainted details on flesh colored plastic looks pretty gross and it's hard to overlook. The version one figure had red wristbands and the hands were painted black like gloves and that just looks so much better. His waist piece is in dark green plastic, no pocket detail or anything like that. He has a black belt and on the belt buckle there is sculpted, a marine core emblem. The version one waist piece was black with a white belt and a gold belt buckle. His legs are dark green, no pocket detail or sculpted seams on the legs or anything like that. Just big muscly legs. He has light green bands around the thighs that's supposed to be a camouflage pattern. He has brown below the knees even going right across the lip of his boots and then he has tall black boots. There is no contest between the legs of version one and version four. Version one has black legs with GI Joe logos on the outside thighs and tall jungle boots with green canvas sides and rank insignia stamped on the inside and the outside of the boots. That's exceptional and version four has nothing close to that. What we have here is basically the version one figure in the Slaughter's Marauder's colors. The Marauder's camouflage is not bad, it's almost good. Without the blue, the Marauder's colors would almost be realistic. Let's take a look at the file card. The file card is in a light green color. That's the same as the other Slaughter's Marauder's file cards. It has his faction as GI Joe. There's a portrait of Sergeant Slaughter. His code name is Sergeant Slaughter and he's the Slaughter's Marauder's commander. Some of this biographical information is the same as earlier file cards but some of the information has been updated. His file name is still classified top secret. His primary military specialty is commanders, Slaughter's Marauders. Obviously that wasn't on earlier versions. His secondary military specialty is infantry drill instructor. His birthplace is Parris Island, South Carolina and his grade is E7 Sergeant. This birthplace of Parris Island, South Carolina refers to the Marine Corps recruit depot at Parris Island. It's not the birthplace of Robert Remus. He was born in Detroit and grew up in Minneapolis. You could say this is the birthplace of Sergeant Slaughter as a Marine. On the version 1 file card the primary military specialty is infantry slash drill instructor. And that's the same on the version 2 card and the version 3 card. On the version 4 card they got rid of the slash and moved that to his secondary military specialty. On the version 1 and version 2 card his secondary military specialty is survival trainer. On the version 3 card that was changed to Warthog AIFV driver. So that's a reference to his vehicle. These earlier file cards share a lot of text elements but were updated with new details and references to vehicles. This version 4 card is the most changed in fact entirely rewritten. Not borrowing any text from the previous cards. This paragraph says Sergeant Slaughter is G.I. Joe's premier drill instructor and special forces leader who has proved that no obstacle is too difficult to overcome. His gung-ho style and aggressive attitude have helped gain him the respect as G.I. Joe's toughest D.I. As commander of Slaughter's Marauders G.I. Joe's newest task force, the Sarge has full authority to deploy the most powerful artillery to get the job done. When the Sarge is on the move, Cobra's on the run. Hey, that rhymes! Was this written by Major Blood? This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, when Sarge and Slaughter yells jump, the men say how high. That's such a cliche. He commands the toughest most disciplined outfit in G.I. Joe. The men is a master of getting the troops to do what needs to be done. You can see it in his success ratio. He has never lost a confrontation. That means something, especially when he's constantly slugging it out with the most diabolical combat machine in the world, Cobra. This card is okay. It doesn't have some of the mythical text of earlier cards, and it doesn't have as many real-world references as earlier cards, but it's fine, it gets the job done. Looking at how Sarge and Slaughter was used in G.I. Joe Media, in the animated series he first appeared in Arise Serpentor Arise Part 1. He was voiced by the real Sarge and Slaughter. He showed up when G.I. Joe headquarters was under attack by Cobra and their new battle android troopers. Only the Sarge was strong enough to take on the robot army. After that he whipped the Joes into shape with a new training program. His DNA was almost used in the concoction that made the Cobra Emperor Serpentor. Sarge and Slaughter appeared several times in the Sunbow era of the animated series. He was also an important part of the 1987 G.I. Joe animated movie. In that movie he was the commander of the Slaughter house and the renegades. Falcon was sent there for training and discipline after his carelessness allowed Cobra to infiltrate G.I. Joe headquarters. After the 1987 movie the G.I. Joe animated series produced by Sunbow was cancelled. There was a gap with no TV series. Slaughter's Marauders came along just in time to be in the new cartoon produced by Dieck. The Dieck series is generally considered to be of lower quality than the Sunbow series but it had its good points. One of the good points was getting Sarge and Slaughter back into G.I. Joe. The real Sarge and Slaughter again provided the voice. It started with a five part mini series called Operation Dragonfire. Even though the Marauders were an important part of that mini series and even though the other Marauders appeared in their Marauders colors Sarge and Slaughter did not appear in his version 4 uniform. He was in his version 2 uniform. That may have been because the version 2 uniform was the most recognizable. His most prominent appearance was not in Operation Dragonfire. It was in the episode Pig Skin Commandos. That episode starts with Sarge and Slaughter being captured by Cobra and includes a football game played with tanks. He was animated outside of the series. Slaughter's Marauders were animated for a TV commercial and Sarge and Slaughter appeared in his version 4 uniform. In the comic book series published by Marvel Comics he had minimal appearances. He first appeared in issue number 48. He arrived at G.I. Joe's secret headquarters, the pit but the Joe's in the motor pool didn't believe his orders were real. He convinced them by beating them up. He finished that issue by knocking out Zartan disguised as Gung Ho before Zartan could escape the pit. In issue number 51 he jumped on the Havoc and pursued the dread knocks escaping on the Thunder Machine. He appeared briefly in issues number 52 and 53. At no point was he shown training G.I. Joe members. There was an issue of the comic book focused on G.I. Joe training and qualification of new members. Issue number 82, Weeding Out, was the perfect opportunity to reintroduce Sarge and Slaughter to the series but he wasn't in that one. Duke filled that role. I was wondering if this issue was released after Sarge and Slaughter's contract with Hasbro had expired but no, that issue was from 1989 the same year he appeared in the Deke series. The writer of the series Larry Hama didn't like the idea of including Sarge and Slaughter in the comic books but he appeared as little as possible. Larry said later he met Sarge and Slaughter and found out he's a really nice guy not at all like his character in the ring. Sarge and Slaughter's importance to G.I. Joe extends beyond the action figures and cartoon and comic book he was an ambassador for G.I. Joe through the late 80s and early 90s he appeared in numerous TV commercials he was G.I. Joe's biggest cheerleader even now he wears the G.I. Joe logo on his uniform with pride at public appearances. Sarge and Slaughter loved his inclusion in G.I. Joe really cared about G.I. Joe and did everything he could to promote it for that all G.I. Joe fans owe our appreciation. Thank you Sarge and Slaughter for everything you have done for G.I. Joe in all of those years. You are most welcome old chap. Looking at Sarge and Slaughter overall this is probably the least favorite vintage Sarge and Slaughter figure. The first figure had his wrestling uniform the second figure was his most iconic look and came with the vehicle the third version was entirely new with a removable hat this version is blue other than the updated colors it adds nothing new worse than that it lost some paint applications the unpainted wristbands make his arms look deformed unpainted details on flesh colored plastic will always be a problem despite this it is still Sarge and Slaughter for kids who missed out on the earlier figures this was a way to get the hero of the animated series this action figure is the final representation of Sarge and Slaughter in vintage G.I. Joe he got ascend off by getting his own team and vehicles even though this may not be my favorite figure I can respect that let's see what Sarge and Slaughter's biggest fan has to say about this figure Sarge and Slaughter's Slaughter house what are your thoughts? Slaughter's Marauder's Sarge it's a tough one for me the plastic quality is extremely poor and out of all the Slaughter's I have acquired he's the one most likely to have a thumb missing the blue mixed with the green and brown is just a weird choice and the unpainted wristbands are distracting and you can't just swap the arms for another version because Marauder's Sarge has a skin tone that can only be described as supermarket mannequin but he has grown on me his flaws have become charms he has character and sometimes he has thumbs that was my review of Sarge and Slaughter version 4 thank you to Sarge and Slaughter's Slaughter house for helping out with this review there will be a link to his channel in the description of this video please check it out he does some really cool stuff I will be in Augusta, Georgia for Joe Fest, June 9th through the 11th, 2023 I know a lot of you have already said you're gonna be there if you can make it please come out and see me I'd love to say hello to everyone and don't forget Cobra Convergence 7 is right around the corner that's when Cobra takes over everything for the entire month of July please give this video a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel you can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website if you like the channel or you'd like to support the channel Patreon is a great way to do it you can get some special perks and even get your name in videos like the names you see scrolling on the screen right now so Sarge, did I slaughterize it? I can't say I wasn't really watching I find such theatrical displays of racism to be rather juvenile I probably did slaughterize it though, right? if it makes you feel better then sure, you slaughterized it thank you it's an honor to be called a maggot and a disease by Sarge and Slaughter I'm glad my pathetic excuse for a review was slaughterized Brian, have you considered therapy our most welcome old chap I love that so much