 The Hooded Copper Commander 788 here, so great cop here, love GI Joe! Butarizing! Sorry, sorry, sorry! Ready, ready? Ready, silence killed. The Hooded Copper Commander 788 here, it's time for another vintage GI Joe Toyer review and Battle Force 2000 Month pushes forward. We've already looked at a lot of Battle Force 2000, but this one is special because this weekend marks the third anniversary of the Hooded Copper Commander 788 Channel and I want to thank all of you for three great years. I've gotten to know some of you so well. I've gained some valuable friendships in the last three years. You all mean more to me than I can adequately express. For this special occasion, I wanted to introduce you to some special people. You've already met some members of my family. You've met Mrs. HCC and the HCC kids, but you haven't met two people who mean the world to me. So please welcome HCC mom and dad. Hi, I'm dad. Hi, I'm mom. Mom and dad, welcome to the show. Please say a few words to the nice people. Get a job! He has a job. He's an attorney. That's not a real job. Real man offering dangerous power tools. How many figures do you have? Thanks mom and dad. Your unwavering support warms my heart. Let's get on with the review. This week we are looking at the Marauder and the Driver Dodger and in this video, as with all the other Battleforce 2000 reviews, Joefan82 is going to give us a preview of the upcoming JoeCon Exclusive Modern Battleforce 2000 figure. Hey guys, after HCC reviews the vintage Dodger, I'll be looking at the 2017 version we'll be seeing at JoeCon this year. Stay tuned. Thanks again Joefan, make sure you check out his YouTube channel for modern GI Joe Toy reviews. Also in this video, we will be adding another part to the future Fortress, so we will look at the Marauder's contribution to that Battleforce 2000 gimmick. Enough talking, let's look at the toy. HCC788 presents the Marauder and Dodger. This is the 1987 GI Joe Battleforce 2000 Marauder motorcycle tank and the driver sold separately, Dodger. The figure and the vehicle were available in 1987 and 1988 and were discontinued for the year 1989. Unlike most of his Battleforce 2000 teammates, there was a second version of Dodger, the 1990 Sonic Fighters version. That version has no mention of Battleforce 2000 on the file card. Version 2 of Dodger reused the mold for version 1, but with different colors. Dodger was never packaged with the Marauder. He was sold as a single-carded figure in 1987 and he was sold in a two-pack in 1988 with his Battleforce 2000 teammate knocked down. Battleforce 2000 was set up to be an enemy of Destro's Iron Grenadiers. That is not a bad idea. Having one sub-faction fight an opposing sub-faction gives both a reason to exist, but it didn't work for Battleforce 2000. They never had that role in GI Joe media. Also, Iron Grenadiers didn't come out until 1988, the year after Battleforce 2000 was introduced. They had already established Battleforce 2000 with a different purpose, field testing experimental equipment. I'm going to set Dodger aside for now so we can look at the Marauder. The Marauder is described on the box as a motorcycle tank, which is really funny to me. It's an incongruous combination of vehicle types, like a helicopter bicycle. The overall color scheme for the Marauder is the same as most Battleforce 2000 vehicles, metallic gray, dark blue, and olive green. I have to point out that this example is naked. It is missing the stickers. Let's look at the parts and the features of the Marauder, starting in the front, and in the front we have what the blueprints call Bushmaster Autoload 25mm Coaxial Cannons. Bushmaster is the name of a real firearms manufacturer. These guns are green and they pivot up and down, although the downward pivot doesn't seem to be very useful unless you're shooting at ants. We have a single front wheel, a plastic wheel, and over that we have what the blueprints call Blastproof Ballistics Armor. We have a long fork here that runs through the handlebars. Then here on top we have a gun. The blueprints call this the Big Boar fully integrated 25mm anti-armor cannon. It is green and it can pivot left and right. It doesn't turn all the way around, but it has some range of motion there. This entire front fork pivots just in front of the driver's seat. This presents a problem. To show you what I mean, let's put the driver in the driver's seat. There are stirrups for his feet and there are handlebars and the figure's hands can actually fit on those handlebars. They are small enough that you can put them in the figure's hand without breaking the hands, which is nice. There's the figure in the vehicle. Now watch what happens if you turn the front fork. Dodger is now just swinging wildly in his seat. He's just gripping on to the front end. You can take the figure's hands off the handlebars and that does help a little bit, but his feet still go in these stirrups that are connected to the front fork. So moving that around can still move the figure around quite a bit. The Marauder has two seats, a front seat and a back seat and the back seat may be a gunner's position. There's a little joystick right there in the center and so your figure in the back seat can hold on to that joystick. It's just the right size to fit in the figure's hands without stressing the thumb, so that's nice. But both of these seats have the same problem. They are open and they leave the operators totally exposed and unprotected. According to the blueprints, the Marauder is an armored vehicle. Well, the vehicle is armored. We wouldn't want the delicate instruments inside the vehicle to be damaged, but the human beings who ride it into battle are totally open to enemy fire, so they must be expendable. This back section of the vehicle, the tank part of the motorcycle tank, is removable. There is a C-clip on the back section that slides onto a post on the motorcycle portion that can be removed, but it's difficult to remove and to get back on. It causes stress on the plastic and I'm always worried about breaking either the clip or the post. Both are kind of thin. In fact, you can see plastic stress marks on the C-clip already. With the back section removed, we can take a closer look at the rear end of the motorcycle portion, and we have here that same lock-unlock detail that we have seen on all other Battle Force 2000 vehicles. Then we have two back wheels here. They do roll pretty well. These are unique wheels. However, they are designed with the same style as the wheels on the Dominator snow tank. As a standalone motorcycle, it is not terrible. The colors match up with the 1985 Silver Mirage, and with the extended fork and the low-seated driver, it looks kind of like a chopper. I could see this being customized as a dreadnock motorcycle. Just put Zirana in the back seat and drive to Sturgis. Now let's look at the tank portion of the motorcycle tank. It is navy blue in color with black and green accessories. It has two large missiles that slot onto dumbbell-shaped pegs, and the blueprints call these Pink Smasher OG-17 optical-aimed infrared homing missiles. These missiles are exceptionally large. They are green, and they can be oriented either forward-facing or rear-facing. There are foot pegs on the running boards, and these foot pegs are peculiar. First of all, the foot pegs that flank the missile peg cannot be used with the missile slotted onto the peg. They're totally covered up and totally useless. But you can still have a figure riding along even with the missiles attached because here they have two foot pegs really close together side by side, and these inward foot pegs, the ones on the inside, can be used with the missiles attached. So let's demonstrate that. Let's put the missile on, and Dodger can peg into that one, and there he can ride along kind of straddling the missile. The Marauder has a radar dish. It is black, and it can flip to face either front or back. We have a gun turret, and the blueprints call this a direct-fire kinetic energy gun platform. I don't know what that means, but I think it shoots potatoes. The gun is green, and it can elevate a little bit. Not a great range of motion on that. And the turret can pivot, but my example is really tight and really doesn't like to do it. But you can pivot that thing not quite all the way around because it is obstructed by the radar dish post. The tank portion of the Marauder has fake treads. They are black. They are non-functional. The tank actually rolls around on these wheels on the underside, and it does roll fairly well, but it does have another problem. The wheels are set toward the back of the tank because this part is where the motorcycle section connects. So you can't have wheels there. That means the tank section will tend to tip this way. There's something special on the Marauder. We have a fuel port. This is a standard fuel port that was on other GI Joe vehicles. We have seen these on other Battle Force 2000 vehicles, but they have been filled in and non-functional. But this one is not filled in and it works. Let's demonstrate how this works using the refueling tank from the USS Flag aircraft carrier. It had this fuel pump and you could put this in the fuel port and pretend to refuel the vehicle. Now I know this is a small thing, but this little thing makes the Marauder a little more GI Joe-like. Finally, in the back we have a universal GI Joe hitch, which could be used to tow certain GI Joe towed weapons. I want you to notice something about this tank portion of our motorcycle tank. The tank has no seat. Once it is detached from the motorcycle, who drives it? The design leaves no space for an operator. You can have figures riding along, but there's nobody driving. Let's see how the Marauder contributes to the future fortress. We have already assembled the pieces from the Dominator snow tank, the vector jet, and the sky sweeper. It's the tank portion of the Marauder that fits with the future fortress. It works a little better if you flip the missiles around so they're facing toward the rear. You get a little more clearance that way. And to put it with the future fortress, you just drive it up and park it right there. There is no actual connection to the future fortress. It just parks there. It doesn't sound good, but the missiles are useless because they are aimed at the inside of the wall. This really illustrates a major flaw with the whole concept of the future fortress. The Marauder's piece doesn't connect to anything. It just parks behind the wall. But believe it or not, other parts of the fortress that we haven't seen yet are worse. Now let's take a look at Dodger. Where did Dodger get his name? Perhaps from the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team? Maybe. Let's look at Dodger's accessory with his weapon. The card contents call this an ultrasonic photon rifle. And yes, photons are indeed ultrasonic. Based on the description, this is a flashlight. This weapon is molded in silver plastic and there is a variant. There are thin and thick handled versions. I'm pretty sure this is the thin handled version. It looks like an assault rifle with a rocket propelled grenade attached. It has a foregrip and a knuckle buster handguard that looks really cool. It does have a problem though. The attached grenade partially covers the barrel. So if the rifle fires, it's going to hit its own grenade unless it really is a flashlight in which case that's no problem. I like the weapon. It looks pretty fierce even if it is impractical. Dodger's other accessory is his helmet microphone. It is also in silver plastic. It is small. It is removable and easily lost. You can take it off the helmet. It just pegs in with a couple pegs on the side of the helmet similar to avalanches. These microphones are tiny. They're often lost like a lot of GI Joe microphones. I really wish these had been glued in at the factory. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation on Dodger. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1987 meaning he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder 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 he could 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 move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpted design in color of Dodger and I'd say the overall look of the figure reminds me of the colonial Marines from the movie Aliens. In fact, I would say there is a lot of Aliens inspiration in Battle Force 2000. Aliens was released in 1986 about the time Hasbro would have been planning the 1987 GI Joe lineup. For Dodger in particular it looks like someone at Hasbro went to the movie Aliens and saw the colonial Marines and said let's make one of those. Looking at Dodger's head he has a non-removable helmet which was all too common for Battle Force 2000 figures but it is a nicely designed helmet and it looks good. He has a blocky camouflage pattern in gray. He has a little red dot right there and it's a pretty good looking face sculpt probably better than the other Battle Force 2000 figures we've looked at so far. On his chest he has a green vest and the vest has tons of excellent details lots of pouches here in the front he has gray straps with a lot of detail on the straps as well even a red paint application right there on the shoulder the straps continue around to the back and really just looks very good. Under the vest he has an orange shirt and that shirt has a texture pattern and that is something that a lot of these Battle Force 2000 figures had is extra texture and I think that is a good feature. His arms are bare that's a sleeveless shirt a muscular build. On his right wrist he has three bands it looks like he's wearing three watches he has green fingerless gloves and on the back of his right hand there is a detail there and based on the artwork on the car that looks like that's a compass on his waist he has a continuation of that orange shirt and normally I would want him to have a utility belt or something like that but this is not bad it does provide a nice continuity between the top and the bottom half of the figure. On his legs we see his trousers are green and he has more of that gray blocky camouflage pattern and he has boots on the outside of his thighs. His boots are very interesting they are mainly green but they have these gray braces on them and he has some gray knee pads. Let's take a look at Dodger's file card and his file card had his faction both as Battle Force 2000 and GI Joe we have a portrait of Dodger here and it says his code name is Dodger he is the Marauder driver his file name is Richard Renwick his primary military specialty is armored vehicle maintenance his specialty is electronic maintenance appropriate specialties for a Battle Force 2000 team member this top section says the modern armored vehicle operator has access to a varied array of high tech driving aids and Dodger is well versed in the use of all of them including holographic night vision goggles and parentheses holographic lens system combined with phosphorus image intensifying tube thermal imaging range finders non-coherent pulse Doppler radars and computer driven multi-mold situational displays that just rolls off the tongue this bottom paragraph has a quote it says this guy was driving tracked vehicles before they had any of these fancy new gadgets if he has to he unbutton the hatch sticks his face in the wind and sears by instinct and guts sure he's an expert with all the new hardware but who knows if it's all going to work when the chips are down Dodger isn't dependent on them and that makes him somebody you can depend on this car describes an armored fighting vehicle and sticking his head out of a hatch but he drives them a water look at it there is no hatch the driver isn't behind any armor it's too bad he didn't drive the kind of vehicle that's described on the file card now let's turn to Joe fan 82 to see what we can expect from the upcoming Joe con exclusive modern Dodger figure thanks HCC here is the new modern Dodger in all his glory he's got a very bright green uniform with a digital white camo pattern he's got a green helmet which is not removable he also comes with a vest gauntlet tactical shotgun and the original sonic photon rifle he also appears to have a small microphone molded into the helmet so I'll be honest I'm not a fan of this mock up it's raised a bit too far from the original design and the green is too bright I'd be ok with it for a completely new figure but this is supposed to represent a modern update of the original figure and I feel like this just comes up short as with all the figures though we won't know how they really stand up until we see physical representations that's it for this preview of the 2017 version of Dodger back to you HCC thanks again Joe fan 82 you have really helped me out with those preview sections I can't thank you enough taking a look at how the marauder and Dodger were used in GI Joe media as we have stated in other reviews battle force 2000 did not appear in the cartoon series they were only animated for commercials they did appear in the GI Joe comic book series though Dodger first appeared in issue number 68 with the rest of battle force 2000 he has his helmet off in that issue and he is shown to have blonde hair Dodger appears on the cover of issue battle force 2000 fights the dread knocks it is a weird juxtaposition to have the high tech battle force 2000 go up against the dread knocks improvised mad max vehicles but it does kind of make sense for Dodger's motorcycle tank to go up against a motorcycle game unlike the rest of his battle force 2000 teammates Dodger did not die in issue number 113 the rest of the team was wiped out in an artillery bombardment only Dodger survived this is ironic since the Marauder is the least armored of all the battle force 2000 vehicles why did Dodger survive Hasbro gave Larry Hama the writer of the comic book permission to kill off characters that no longer had toys on the shelves battle force 2000 was thus slated for execution looking at the Marauder and Dodger overall there is a mismatch between the figure and the vehicle the vehicle has some serious problems the whole concept of a motorcycle tank is one that may be impossible to implement it just doesn't make sense the motorcycle part isn't the worst but it still suffers from some poor design and engineering choices the steering causes the driver to shift in the seat and both the driver and the passenger are totally unprotected you have an armored motorcycle to protect the motorcycle not the people riding on it the connection between the motorcycle and the tank part is a weak point that post and the C clip that connects to it are both begging to be broken the tank half of the vehicle has no driver it has a nice gun turret and some big missiles but that's about all it has going for it there is no clear way to operate it apart from the main vehicle the interaction with the future fortress is just sad it isn't well thought out at all whoever designed this must have known that kids would be disappointed this is the first battle force 2000 vehicle I'm putting in the bottom tier this thing really bugs me Dodger though is not bad I can tolerate the orange shirt the green and the gray are nicely subdued and the details look like they came straight out of the movie aliens I like the rifle accessory it doesn't make any sense but it looks cool my biggest knock on the figure is the non-removable helmet if that helmet had been removable the microphone probably would have been a molded in part of the helmet so there would be no tiny removable microphone to lose I'm gonna do something I wasn't sure I would do with any battle force 2000 despite the non-removable helmet despite the orange shirt I'm gonna put Dodger in the top tier we've complained a lot about battle force 2000 not fitting well within the GI Joe universe what could have been done to make it work better my suggestion would be first get rid of the future fortress gimmick it doesn't work well it requires removable pieces on the vehicles and that presents some design challenges so it doesn't work just get rid of it second I would have battle force 2000 serve exactly the purpose it's supposed to serve they are field testing experimental vehicles for the main GI Joe team so any of these vehicles that passed the test should become GI Joe vehicles and get a cool GI Joe paint job maybe some green some camouflage and rerelease for the main GI Joe line Hasbro loved to rerelease vehicles because it was cheap and you could pick the top one or two most popular battle force 2000 vehicles to transition to the main GI Joe fleet then after that happens battle force 2000 would get another set of vehicles to test out for GI Joe so battle force 2000 would always be refreshed if you did that and you didn't worry about the vehicles fitting together for the future fortress you could have gotten some things that you didn't get with this iteration of battle force 2000 things like boats desert vehicles helicopters maybe some experimental vehicles that were released in the main GI Joe line like the phantom stealth fighter would have first been released under the battle force 2000 banner that was my review of the marauder and dodger we still have a couple battle force 2000 reviews to go now I need to let you know what's going to be happening in the next few weeks it's important for the last week of battle force 2000 month we will have two reviews we'll have one in the middle of the week and one on the weekend and they are both full reviews after that I will be taking the next week off believe me after looking at this much battle force 2000 I'm gonna need a break then after that the next review will be another patrons choice and this time we will be doing a figure and the options will be some figures that have been often requested so we will see what the patrons choose if you would like a vote on that just check me out on patreon this has been an endurance challenge but it has been more rewarding than I expected you guys know that I love you right and that's not an exaggeration I love producing these videos and I love seeing your comments and I love hearing from you and you guys keep me motivated to do more so mom dad what did you think of the video it's a doll he spent half the day talking about a doll at least he gave his grandchildren guys please you're gonna make me cry thank you all for being here there is a website HCC788.com where you can see this review and all my other GI Joe toy reviews thank you for watching and I'll see you next time for more battle force 2000 yeah this is how I do things this is it and this is why it takes forever it's the TV biz yeah this is just how they do it in the biz okay this is good this is gonna be it I feel good about this one alright ready now count down about 3 seconds hit it the same way you've been doing it cause it's great ready and action