 This episode of HCC 788 brought to you in part by the Dicast Enterprise. Join us each week as we discuss the sexual proclivities of Commander William T. Riker. The bravado comedy of Lieutenant War. And the adorable monkey shines if one Wesley the sweater crusher. Or maybe we'll just talk about the golden girls. Or hairstyles. Or cartoons. That's equally likely. We also like G.I. Joe. There, we tied that in nicely. Well done everyone on that. By all our play sets and toys. Look, I gave myself a Marine Corps tattoo just like Gun Ho. You did what? I gave myself a tattoo. It's perfect. A real tattoo? Yes. It hurt like hell, but it's totally worth it. You did this yourself? Yes. Did you do this in front of a mirror? Yes. Commander 788, here's G.I. Joe. Swatter rising! Sorry, sorry! Ready in a minute. Ready! Ready! Ready! Silence still. Hello everybody, HudaCobraCommander788 here. It's time for another Vintage G.I. Joe Toyer review. And this one is special. This is the first review on this channel that was chosen by patrons. All supporters on Patreon were able to vote to decide what review we would see this week. And they chose a fresh review of Gun Ho. This is something new and exciting I'm doing on this channel. I've never done this before. I'm kind of turning the reins over to viewers to decide what will be reviewed. And if you want in on this action, just hit me up on Patreon support at any level gets you a vote. And I'm gonna do several more of these throughout the year. I have reviewed Gun Ho before, but like the Dragonfly review, it was one of the first videos that I uploaded on this channel. And it's pretty rough, so it deserves a second try. So I'm happy the patrons chose Gun Ho. I hope you like it too. For this review, I have a special guest who insists on being here, whether I think it's a good idea or not. So please welcome Sargent. Really mean. Thank you, Commander. Ladies, Sargent, really mean. Please forgive me if I do not li-isms. I, at the experience, some of you out there got to choose this review. You say Sargent really mean what you precious snowflakes want. You are mistaken. If every single one of you doesn't shape up right now, you will have 47 years old. I am thrice divorced. I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. And I live in a cheap- Well, Commander, this looks like the sorryest collection of dogs. Sargent, there's someone here to see you. Oh, shi- I'm out of here. Thanks, Sarge. Ah, bite me. Back at you. The supporters of this channel and HCC788 present GI Joe's first Marine, Gun Ho. This is Gun Ho, GI Joe's Marine from 1983. He was first available in 1983 and was also available in 1984 and 1985. He was discontinued for the year 1986. There was a new Marine in 1986, Leatherneck. GI Joe had other Marines throughout the years, including Sergeant Slaughter and Mainframe. Gun Ho was the first. There were later versions of Gun Ho in the Vintage Line. The 1987 version 2 was in his Dress Blues. The 1992 version 3 included Extra America. There were two versions of Gun Ho in 1993. Version 4 was very similar to this version 3 and version 5 was in the Mega Marines Subline. The designer of this figure, Ron Ruddatt, who worked for Hasbro, was inspired by his father, who was a Marine. As has become a tradition on this channel, every time I mention Ron Ruddatt, I want to thank him for all of his hard work on GI Joe. So thank you, Ron. Gun Ho is an English term meaning overzealous or enthusiastic. It is based on a Chinese term that refers to industrial cooperatives. The Americanized version of the term doesn't really reflect the meaning in the original language. The Chinese characters that make up the word translate literally to work together. The term was adapted by Major Evans Carlson for the US Marine Corps. Gun Ho was the title of a 1943 movie about Carlson's Macon Island Raiders. The movie starred Randolph Scott. I discovered the movie as a kid and it helped cement my love of Gun Ho and my fascination with the Marines. Gun Ho was also the name of a 1986 movie starring Michael Keaton. It's a pretty good movie, but it has no relation to the Marines. The Marines are known for their motto, Semper Fidelis, sometimes shortened to Semper Fi. It's a Latin phrase that means always faithful or always loyal. Let's take a look at his accessories starting with his weapons and the contents of the card on which the figure was packaged call this an XM-76 Grenade Launcher. The Grenade Launcher has a strap that is very easily broken, especially at the points where it connects to the weapon itself. I do like straps on weapons like this, it gives the figure another way to carry it. This XM-76 Grenade Launcher is based on the real world M76 Grenade Launcher, which began service in 1961. As you can see, they added some details on Gun Ho's weapons and they added a grip, but otherwise it sticks pretty closely to that real world M76. This Grenade Launcher got reused a few times. There was the accessory pack version, this is from the 1984 accessory pack number two, and it's easy to distinguish this from the original, it's in a much lighter color. It was used for the 1987 Malloway Exclusive Star Duster and his was in silver plastic. On the 1984 Slugger, they used the same mold from Gun Ho's Grenade Launcher, but they added a barrel and a post and they turned it into a machine gun. Gun Ho's next accessory is his jungle pack, which is in a light blue color, the same light blue color as his uniform. It has some detail on there, looks like some straps and a trenching tool there, a few pockets on the side. Decent detail, but not the most, but it is very large. In fact, I think this may be the largest backpack that we got in G.I. Joe through 1983. Comparing this backpack to Airborn's, who also had a pretty big backpack for the era, Gun Ho's backpack is still a little bit bigger. One thing I like in a backpack is when you can see the backpack from the front of the figure. Some G.I. Joe backpacks are so small that facing the front of the figure, you can't even tell that he's wearing one. But on this one, you can definitely see the backpack when Gun Ho is facing you, that's good. One thing that I don't like though, is that there are no sculpted straps or anything on the figure that the backpack would attach to. Let's look at the articulation on Gun Ho. He had the standard articulation for G.I. Joe figures of 1983, meaning he could turn his head from left to right. The heads were not on ball joints at that time. 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, he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep, he could swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside, so he could move at the torso a 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 sculpted design and color of Gun Ho and let's go ahead and talk about this color scheme. He is wearing mostly light blue and this is something I always struggled with as a kid. Even though I loved this figure and this character, the lion blue always struck me as a bit weak. And now I've warmed to it a bit now. I appreciate it a bit more now as an adult collector. But even so, I think I would like to see this figure in green rather than this light blue. This light blue is susceptible to yellowing which will turn it green over time. Let's look at Gun Ho's head and on his head he has a green cap. This is a Marine Corps utility cover in olive drab. And it has on the front a sculpted, it looks like an anchor rather than a Marine Corps emblem. And I have to assume this is because it was just too difficult to get that level of detail in this scale to sculpt the actual Marine Corps emblem on there. On Leathernecks cap however, they just kind of scaled it up a bit so you could get that detail on there. Under that cap he has a bald head and he also has a pretty powerful mustache. Now let's look at the chest. This is where things really get interesting. He's wearing that light blue vest with some detail front and back. The vest is open so you can see his bare chest. He has a couple green grenades and then on his chest, very prominently right there in front, he has a tattoo and this tattoo is the EGA or the Eagle Ball and Anchor. This is the Marine Corps emblem. It's not an exact copy of the Marine Corps emblem. It is altered slightly to avoid any copyright complaints. His arms are bare and average size. Although the character of a Gun Ho I think is supposed to be exceptionally muscular and bulky, the figure doesn't quite come out that way. There is a green watch on his left wrist. On his waist we can see he's wearing light blue trousers with a green camouflage pattern. He has a belt with a crosshatch pattern, a couple small pouches on the sides and a gray belt buckle. This waist piece was reused for some versions of Steel Brigade. His legs continue that light blue and green camouflage pattern. On his right thigh he has a holster with a black pistol. On his left thigh he has grenades for his grenade launcher in gray. And I really like this when the sculpting on the figure matches up with the accessories. I think that is exceptional, very well done. Finally, he has some gray boots and there is a knife on his left boot. These boots got reused for Duke. Same lower legs, just different colors. Let's take a look at Gun Ho's file card and his file card had his faction as GI Joe. It has an excellent portrait of Gun Ho here. This is really great artwork, it's one of my favorites. He's the Marine and his code name is Gun Ho. His file name is Etienne R. Lafitte. And his first name is probably taken from Saint Etienne, which is a city in France. His last name, Lafitte, is probably taken from Jean Lafitte, a French pirate who was based in Louisiana, which incidentally is also where Gun Ho is from. His primary military specialty is Recando. Recando is a combination of two words, Reconnaissance and Commando. Secondary military specialty, Jungle Warfare, although he is not camouflaged for the jungle. He's also a training instructor. As a Jungle Warfare specialist, he shares a job with GI Joe's first designated jungle trooper, Recando from 1984. And Recando also has a pretty wicked mustache. As a training instructor, Gun Ho could fill the role of another one of GI Joe's Marines, Sergeant Slaughter. His birthplace is Ferdinand's, Louisiana, and this is a fictional town. Most GI Joe file cards use real locations for birthplaces. This is a rare fictional place name. As to where this Ferdinand's name could come from, well, Ferdinand's is the name of a snake. It's also the name of a 1974 TV movie. I haven't seen that movie, but I've read the description and it sounds like a really weird movie. The best I can describe it is Snakes on a Submarine. This paragraph says, born into a large backswamp Cajun clan, Gun Ho moved to New Orleans and won a reputation as a bare-knuckle brawler and a knife fighter to be reckoned with. Cajun refers to a French-speaking ethnic group in Louisiana, their descendants of Acadian exiles. When I think of Cajun, I think of Justin Wilson. And he got squirreled, took under his belt with the tail hanging down, looked like he got a hula skirt on, got about 16 or 15 squirreling, a limit 14. I only understood about half of that. Wait just one minute, Commander. Are you telling me that Gun Ho comes from a family of Frenchies? La-di-frickin-da! Why don't we all sit down to a nice brunch of snails, frog legs, and surrender? Sergeant, there's someone here to see you. I can't stood that. I'm hiding. Apparently he was a bare-knuckle brawler and a knife fighter as a teenager because the next line says he joined the Marines at 18 and graduated top of class from Boot Camp at Paris Island. He attended Airborne School, Recando School, and Marine Ordnance School. I'm pretty sure Airborne School and Recando School are army references. Qualified expert, all NATO infantry small arms and most Warsaw-packed infantry weapons, XM-76 grenade launcher. This bottom paragraph has a quote and it actually says who it's quoting for a change. Zap says all Marines are crazy but Gun Ho is the hairiest, scariest, craziest jarhead that ever scratched, kicked, and bit his way out of that hole in the swamp they call Paris Island. Gun Ho was pretty well used in GI Joe media. In the cartoon series he first appeared in the miniseries A Real American Hero and in that series he seemed to have an unnatural attachment to his rifle. He had a substantial number of appearances in the GI Joe animated series thereafter. This episode the Baroness attempts to harass Gun Ho's family but she learns not to mess with Cajuns. In the GI Joe comic book series Gun Ho first appeared in issue number 11 along with a lot of other Joes from the class of 1983. He had a few appearances immediately after his introduction and he continued to appear periodically throughout the series. One of my favorite Gun Ho appearances was in issue number 39. I think his banter with roadblock was some top notch writing. Looking at this figure overall, Gun Ho does go in the top tier but just barely. For a figure that I loved so much, it only just escapes the middle tier. That light blue color scheme is a bit weak for a character as strong as Gun Ho. That's my biggest problem with it. The figure is saved by excellent sculpting, a bold design, that chest tattoo, and his distinctive hat. I've told this story before and it bears repeating here that as a child I loved Gun Ho. Stalker was and is my favorite GI Joe character. He was a much more fleshed out character in the comic book. But Gun Ho sparked a fascination with the Marine Corps. At some point in my childhood I discovered the 1943 movie titled Gun Ho. I got it on VHS cassette somewhere. And I must have worn that tape out, I watched it so much. I was so infatuated with the character of Gun Ho and the mystique of the Marine Corps that I saved my pennies and I went to an Army Navy surplus store and I got a hat just like Gun Ho's. And I wore it all the time, everywhere. I only took it off for school because they made me. In 1986 when GI Joe's new Marine came out, Leatherneck, I exchanged the green hat for a woodland camouflage hat like Leathernecks and I wore that thing all the time. I think that was during the summer, I didn't have school so I had no reason to take it off. My parents kept telling me if I didn't take that hat off every once in a while I would go bald. I still have most of my hair mom and dad. This hat is exactly like my first hat, just in a larger size, but it looked exactly like this. As a child I could wear this hat because it's a bit of fantasy and a little hero worship. As an adult I can wear this hat as part of a costume for a character but I would never wear this hat in public. Why? Because I didn't serve, so I didn't earn it. For those of you who did earn it, semper fi and thank you for your service. Thank you to my patrons for choosing this review, I hope more of you get in on it, it's gonna be a lot of fun. The thumbnail image you see for this video on YouTube was drawn by me and inked and colored by my daughter Victoria. So thank you Victoria for doing that for me. If you would like a sketch by me just check out Patreon. Don't forget to like this video on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel, like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and share this video to help this channel grow. Don't forget to check out my website HCC788.com where you can see this review and all my other GI Joe reviews. Thank you for watching, I'll see you next time and remember until then only GI Joe is GI Joe. This is GI Joe.