 I am back from Joe Conn. Even though I am recording this before I go to Joe Conn. When I go to Joe Conn, I'm really hoping to meet a lot of you out there. So if you're watching this video after Joe Conn, even though I haven't met you yet, it was really nice to have met you when I meet you. This week we are getting back into the 90s and we are cracking open a new G.I. Joe subteam, The Eco Warriors, and we have a special guest, Chris Pierce from the YouTube video series Comic Tropes. Thanks, HCC. I'm Chris, the host of Comic Tropes, a weekly show where I look at sometimes good and oftentimes bizarre comic books. We like to take a look at the hallmarks, the cliches that various characters or creators would use in their works. And we like to use that just sort of as an entry point into analyzing and breaking down some pretty strange comic books. But you know what? Enough about me. Like you. I want to see the review. Back to you, HCC. We are going to look at one of the craziest figures from Eco Warriors, CleanSweep. And this is going to be kind of an unusual video. Normally I talk about a character's appearances in the old Marvel comic book series. This time, Chris is going to do an entire Comic Tropes video about a comic book featuring CleanSweep. After this video, go to Chris's channel to get a more thorough in-depth analysis of the comic. Chris will also help with this review, too. Excuse me, fellas. Just play him through. Excuse me? We're trying to do a video here. Wait a minute. Are you CleanSweep, the actual subject of this very review? That's my name. Don't wear it out. What? How are you here? I've had fictional characters show up in videos before, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm just doing my job. Same job I've had for nine on 26 years. Same job I had back in the glory days of the Eco Warriors. I'm cleaning up messes. Back in the glory days of the Eco Warriors, you were cleaning up toxic waste. Now it looks like you're pushing a broom. What gives? Oh, I admit the job ain't glamorous, but Cleanin's my name and Cleanin's my game. I'm battling a couple villains known as Filth and Grun, and when I find them, oh boy, let me tell you, they'd met their match. You're a janitor. Now, I don't want to claim any lofty titles like that. I just do my job and let history decide if I'm a hero. Janitors are unsung heroes. It's an important and often thankless job. But why are you here? I was walking by, tended to my sweeping, but I noticed it ain't too tidy around here. Think I'll stick around just to make sure we don't get a case of the messes. Anyway, HCC788 and Comic Troops present Clean Sweep. This is the 1991 GI Joe Eco Warriors Anti-Tox Trooper Clean Sweep. This figure was available in 1991 only. It was discontinued for the year 1992. Clean Sweep was a member of the Eco Warriors, and the Eco Warriors require some explanation. Despite how it looks, this is not a Monsters Inc. action figure. This did come from GI Joe. The Eco Warriors was a new GI Joe sub-team introduced in 1991. According to the marketing for Eco Warriors, Cobra was attempting to pollute the planet in a bid to bring civilization to its knees. The Cobra Anti-Environmental Faction was led by Cesspool. GI Joe organized the Eco Warriors to combat Cobra's toxic plans. The GI Joe Faction was led by Flint, looking very different in his Eco Warrior version than he did in his original figure. There was one vehicle released in the Eco Warriors line in 1991, the Septic Tank. I have special plans for this vehicle, so I'm not going to look at it too closely right now. You're just going to have to wait for that. There were more Eco Warriors figures and vehicles released in 1992, but that was the last year for this sub-team. In general, I like sub-teams. For instance, I would count the Dreadnocks as a sub-team, and I thought that they were pretty awesome all around. I thought that most of the Ninjas were pretty cool. I liked even stuff like Tiger Force and Python Patrol for the most part when it came out. Looking back now, maybe the color schemes aren't always my favorite, but at the time, I still kind of liked it. Eco Warriors was a time when things started to get a little too specific with sub-teams for me. I didn't necessarily have an easy story that I could envision where GI Joe needed to be getting involved in cleaning up toxic waste. For me, it was more about creating stories of military excursions or building weird dioramas against huge building blocks around the forest. I didn't have any great stories to tell about cleaning up waste. There were earlier environment-focused figures in GI Joe, such as the 1988 Toxoviper. This is the only version of Clean Sweep from the vintage line. There was a modern version released as a Joe Con exclusive in 2014 in Dallas, Texas. Coincidentally, that was my first Joe Con. Clean Sweep's predecessor in GI Joe was the 1985 Airtite. Airtite was kind of like an eco warrior before there were eco warriors. I always had a hard time finding a role for Airtite in 1985, but he would have fit with eco warriors perfectly. Oddly, there was not a new version of Airtite for eco warriors, and I think that was a missed opportunity there. Let's take a look at Clean Sweep's accessories, starting with his Hazmat Protective Hood. It has a blue paint advisor, green outlines and green wires, and it's kind of nice to get paint on the accessories. This Hazmat hood is made of a soft flexible plastic, and this cut-out section here actually fits around the electronics on the front of the figure, and that's a nice coordination between accessories and figure. Now let's look at his pistol, and the card contents don't say what this pistol is supposed to be. At this point, Hasbro wasn't listing the accessories on the cards like they did in the 80s. The card contents just say contents, figure, and accessories. That's not very helpful. It is bright neon green, and it looks kind of sci-fi. Next we have the backpack, and the backpack is a two-piece accessory. It has the backpack, and then it has this control arm that connects to the backpack, and the control arm positions in the front of the action figure. This two-piece accessory is really nicely done. It's the color that is very, very unfortunate. Considering the stamped-out accessories trees that we got later in the 90s, it's nice to see a unique, highly detailed accessory like this. But it's the color that's very, very unfortunate. The green color does match the green on the figure, but it is so bright that it will burn out your retinas. The final accessory, if you can call it that, is the robotic sludge-sucker-slash-neuralizer-gel dispenser. Even though the card contents don't name this accessory, it is named on the file card. It is big and blocky, and even though there is some nice detailing on some of the accessory, there are other parts where it's not very well detailed at all. It has fake treads, but no wheels to roll on, so even though this is supposed to be a mobile accessory, it is in fact static. This accessory has a gimmick. It is a water pistol. The nozzle up here in front has some articulation, and at the back it has a plunger, which you can pull out. To fill the tank with water, just put the nozzle in a bowl of water and then pull back on the plunger, and then when the tank is full, then you can push forward on the plunger to shoot out the water. Clean Sweep's accessories make sense for the figure, but they're a little too gimmicky for me. I didn't need color change features or water squirting action. I didn't need rocket firing springs. I liked just simple things that made sense to make the character feel more believable. Give me a good backpack. Give me a realistic rifle. Something like that I was into. The gimmicky stuff, not so much. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation for Clean Sweep. The articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1991, meaning he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Hold the phone. What's that right over there? Over where? Just off camera. Screen left. Oh, that's just stuff from earlier videos that I haven't had a chance to put away yet. Oh, my stars and garters. Never have I seen such a dirty, sloppy workstation. A cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind. You'll clean that up right now, mister. This isn't really a good time. I'm in the middle of the review and that stuff wasn't even on camera until you pointed it out. When I'm continuing with your little home movie, until that mess is cleaned up. Fine. May proceed. Let's take a look at the sculpted design and color of Clean Sweep starting with his head and his head is sculpted to look like a bit of a point dexter. I'm not sure if his hairline is receding or if he just has a really bad haircut and he does not wear that mustache well. And his head has kind of a weird shape too. It's very spherical, kind of like a light bulb. His chest is very yellow, very bright yellow. He has some neon green electronics and hoses on the front and back. And those are well sculpted. He is wearing a hazmat suit, which is designed to seal him off from hazardous material in the environment. Hazmat suits do exist in the real world and sometimes they are yellow. His arms are also yellow. He has brown gloves and he has a patch on his left shoulder. It looks like a world globe with some writing around it. I can't quite make out what that is. Looking closer at the lettering around that globe, it looks like it says Enviro Force. Maybe that was a prototype name for eco warriors, but they didn't change it on the action figure, which they really should have. His waist piece has a neon green utility belt with some pouches and it has a grenade. They just can't help themselves from adding grenades. His legs are also yellow, but this is part of his hazmat suit. On his left leg he has some green electronics and wiring and a couple brown straps. And the brown does add some color interest, but maybe not enough. Then he has some tall brown boots. Like other eco warriors figures, this figure had a color change gimmick. The plastic would change colors upon contact with water. And to demonstrate that, I will dunk this figure in a bowl of water. Let's dunk him in the water and see how he changes. Okay, let's take the figure out to look at the changes. And it looks like part of his yellow uniform has turned to brown. And I have to be honest, it looks like he is covered in s**t. His brown boots look like they are covered in s**t. And now his yellow hazmat suit looks like it is covered in s**t. You kiss your mother with that mouth? You again? Let's clean up that potty language. I expect that out of shipwreck, but we won't have that kind of sailor talk around here. Potty language? It's f**king bleeped out. You are cruising for a bruising, young-ish man. Cruising for a bruising? Who the f**k do you think you f**king are? This is my f**king show, this is a crock of f**king s**t. Why don't you shut the f**king s**t in it right up your f**king yellow s**t? Come on, f**king s**t, plastic suit wearing, f**king mother f**king s**t. Alright, that worked. That's better. Let's keep it G-rated from now on. Now let's take a look at Clean Sweep's file card. And his file card has his factionist GI Joe. It doesn't have any sub-team logos on it. We have a portrait of Clean Sweep, and of course we have his codename as Clean Sweep. There's a hyphen. The GI Joe anti-tox trooper. His file name is Daniel W. Price. His primary military specialty is chemical operations specialist. His secondary military specialty is combat engineer. As a combat engineer, he shares a specialty with a 1985 bridge-layer driver, Tollbooth. These figures have no other similarities, though they could not be more different. His birthplace is Elizabeth, New Jersey, and his grade is E-4. This top paragraph says, once the insidious Cobra polluters have spewed their toxic sludge into a previously pristine environment, there is nothing left to do but call in Clean Sweep. Arriving on the scene with his combination robotic sludge sucker slash neutralizer gel dispenser, Clean Sweep sets his sludge detector slash analyzer computer on autopilot, maintains perimeter security with his laser pistol, and proceeds to clean up Cobra's act. This bottom paragraph has a quote. It says, you might think it's a cushy job, sitting back in a climate-controlled solvent-resistant suit while operating a remote-controlled sludge-sucking robot. But if that robot's tracks get stuck or the sludge pump backs up, Clean Sweep is the one who has to slog out into the toxic waste pool and duck Cobra laser blasts while he's trying to get it going again. Based on his file card, Clean Sweep is the cleanup man. That's all he does. He's not really a combatant. They try to talk him up by making his job sound dangerous and exciting, but they're not fooling me. A lot of his job is automated. The robot does most of the work. If the equipment breaks down, that makes his job harder, but that does not mean his job is interesting or exciting. It just means that if something goes wrong, he has to do more work. But you could say that about anyone's job. Looking at Clean Sweep's appearances in GI Joe Media, he appeared in the DEEK animated series a few times along with other members of the Eco Warriors. There was a two-part story dedicated to the Eco Warriors called the Sludge Factor. Clean Sweep was introduced in Part 1 and was one of the first Eco Warriors to be introduced. In that story, the Eco Warriors are investigating the Super Grove Fertilizer Factory, which is dedicated to turning waste into fertilizer to end world hunger. And that's a noble pursuit if I've ever heard one. The factory is attacked by Cobra, and the CEO falls into his toxic formula and is transformed into the villain Cesspool. He blames GI Joe for this, so he joins Cobra. Cesspool, the leader of Cobra's environmental terrorists, uses toxic sludge to pollute the environment. He also uses his sludge to mutate bugs into monsters and mutate people into bugs. There is a kernel of a good story here, but these are DEEK cartoon episodes. That means they are dragged down by a lot of DEEK cheese. Clean Sweep appeared in only three issues of the Marvel comic, issues number 123 through 125, and I have to be honest, those issues are not good. I do recognize some attempt to innovate. Larry Hama was being asked to integrate weirder and weirder things into the comic book continuity, and that is probably more than any weirder could do. Looking at Clean Sweep overall, if you hate bright colors on GI Joe figures, you will hate this figure. I don't hate this figure as much as I thought I would. Now hear me out, that doesn't mean I like the figure. Bright colors can work well on GI Joe figures. Sometimes bright colors make sense, like with barbecue and airtight, and sometimes they don't, like with ice cream soldier. For Clean Sweep, the bright yellow actually makes sense. He's wearing a hazmat suit, and hazmat suits are often in bright colors, like white or yellow. Clean Sweep's suit is more or less realistic, and it is appropriate for his job. He's not a frontline combat troop. His job is to clean up pollution after the battle. His gun is really only for self defense. As I burning as this color scheme is, it sort of makes sense. Other eco-warriors with combat roles have fewer excuses for their colors. Further, environmental terrorism is a real phenomenon. It would make sense for GI Joe to have a sub-faction to combat it. The timing of eco-warriors was prescient. They came out in 1991. That same year during the Gulf War, the Iraqi army set fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they were retreating. Those fires burned for months before they were all extinguished. That's exactly the sort of thing that a real eco-warriors team would be called in to fix. The sculpting on the uniform is well done. The accessories are mostly pretty good. The backpack and the extension are unique and well detailed. The worst accessory is the robotic water gun. That thing needed wheels. And even if it had wheels, it's still blocky and not very aesthetically pleasing. There are some objective reasons to like the figure, but subjectively, it combines a lot of elements that I don't like. Yes, the yellow makes sense, but it is a bright neon yellow. The brightness is overwhelming. Yes, Airtight also had a yellow hazmat suit, but his wasn't quite as bright. And it was offset by some army green and black. Clean Sweep suit is lined with neon green. It's one eye-burning neon color on top of another. Some color interest could have been added through the accessories, but they just used the same yellow and neon green. There are multiple gimmicks. There's the color change feature and the water squirting accessory, and I can do without both of those. The head sculpt is not great. He looks ridiculous. He does not look like a member of an elite Special Forces unit. Personally, I never had this action figure. I got into G.I. Joe in 1986, though, and I was a big fan. I came to it through the comic books. I discovered the comic book in 1986, and I fell in love with Larry Hama's writing. I thought he created some indelible characters, some really exciting plot lines, and it was really just a month or two after I started reading the comic books that I quickly started buying the action figures. So I was getting the 1986 waves, and I would visit flea markets and antique stores to fill in some of the ones from before. I was still getting action figures in 1991, but I was starting to get out of it, and the more neon an action figure was, the less interested I personally was in it. So Clean Sweep was one I just avoided. My biggest problem with Clean Sweep is a problem with the concept of the eco-warriors. They could have been an interesting new angle in the fight against Cobra. I don't have a problem with G.I. Joe having a social conscience. The problem is it is not sincere, and the insincerity comes through. The executives who approved this idea wanted to compete against Captain Planet. They cared about market share, and Captain Planet for all its flaws at least seemed sincere in its goal to educate kids about the environment and ecology, but eco-warriors is cynical. It exists to leech money away from a competitor that happened to be popular at the time. If there was a popular cartoon called Captain Feed the Homeless, then G.I. Joe would have had Feed the Homeless Warriors. Also, eco-warriors distances itself from its own reason for existing by fighting against made up comic book-y toxic sludge rather than real pollution. Even the CEO of Evil Corp Toxic Waste Factory would not feel threatened by eco-warriors' environmentalist message. No. These eco-warriors are not fighting against our pollution. This is acceptable. For these reasons, I put Clean Sweep in the bottom tier, and it will be difficult for any eco-warrior to escape the same fate. Clean Sweep. There's one thing I don't understand. Why are you still in your eco-warriors' uniform, and why are you still eco-warrioring 26 years after your figure was released? I don't know what you mean. Why wouldn't I still be eco-warrioring? You do know that the eco-warriors were disbanded after the 1992 series, right? What? The eco-warriors disbanded, and nobody told me? Didn't you think it was odd that there are no other eco-warriors around, and you're the only one still doing that job? Flint, Ozone, Deep Six? They haven't appeared as eco-warriors for more than 20 years. I thought...I thought those guys were all just really late for work. They're not 25 years late for work, Clean Sweep. They all got different jobs. All this time, I've been working for a team that doesn't exist. I've wasted more than two decades of my life. You haven't wasted your life. You've been trying to clean up the world's messes, and that is a noble pursuit. But you probably should move on and get a new job. You are right. Right as rain. But what job should I get? Got any suggestions? What kind of job do you have? Me? I'm a lawyer. What? I had no idea I was talking to such a dangerous person. What are you talking about? How is hooded Cobra Commander dangerous? The lawyer was the most feared weapon in the eco-warrior's arsenal. That's how we ultimately defeated cesspool. Please, Mr. Lawyer, spare my life. I'm not that kind of lawyer. Honest to gosh, you can clutter up your table and use all the gutta talk you want. Just don't unleash your power on me. What do you think I shoot laser beams out of my nostrils or something? Are you out of your mind? You know why I gotta be moving along? I just found out I've been unemployed for the last 25 years, so I better start a job hunt right away. Goodbye. Anyway, go over to the Comic Tropes YouTube channel and check out Chris's review of GI Joe issue number 125. And thank you, Chris, for helping out with this review. Thank you, everyone, for watching this video. I do have a website, hcc788.com. You can order a t-shirt and check out all my GI Joe toy reviews. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon. Next week I've got something special lined up. It is July, and that means Cobra Month. I want to see all of you there. Until then, remember, only GI Joe is GI Joe. What do you mean, why wouldn't I still be eco-warrior-re-year-old? I can give it.