 G.I. Joe was the fully posable modern army figure. It said so right on the packaging. What do armies have a lot of? Tanks. G.I. Joe would have plenty of tanks, right? Well, not as many as you would expect. Sure, they gave us lots of vehicles that were almost like tanks, but not quite. But G.I. Joe's true tanks were few and far between. This week we are going back to the beginning. 1982 to remind ourselves that this is the heart of G.I. Joe. Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. And this week we are looking at an original, an innovator, a classic. We're gonna look at G.I. Joe's first tank, the MOBAT. This is also a redo. I reviewed the MOBAT a long time ago, and I think I can do a better job of it now, so I'm taking another crack at it. Reviews of 1982 toys are never very popular. That first year of G.I. Joe may seem kind of dull compared to later years. There was a lot of green. There was a lot of green. But it may have grown a lot of green, if you know what I mean. It's important to always remember our roots. By knowing where we came from, we can better understand where we are and where we're going. For me, looking at 1982 is getting back to G.I. Joe's roots. It's a search for the heart of G.I. Joe. I have a lot more information in this review than I did in the first one. I can show you a lot more than the MOBAT. I can show you a mini MOBAT and a micro MOBAT and a model MOBAT. That's a lot of m's. HCC788 presents, again, the MOBAT tank. This is the 1982 and 1983 G.I. Joe tank commander, codename Steeler, and the MOBAT tank. This figure and vehicle set were available first in 1982. They were re-released in 1983 with some slight modifications. They were also available in 1984 and were discontinued for 1985. The MOBAT is motorized and battery powered and will really move on real rubber tank treads. In 1982, the MOBAT included the straight arm Steeler version 1. I will explain what straight arm means in the articulation section of this video. In 1983 and 1984, the tank included Steeler version 1.5, the so-called swivel arm figure, which had updated articulation. Steeler version 1.5 was available as a mail away offer from Hasbro Direct from 1986 to 1990 without the MOBAT tank. Surplus figures were sold at the 1994 G.I. Joe convention. The Jocon Steeler had a special convention file card and a convention command ring. Steeler was available in one form or another through nearly the entire vintage era. Despite this, there were no other versions of Steeler in the vintage G.I. Joe toy line. There were a few post-vintage versions. We're going to take a close look at Steeler later in this video, but I'm going to set him aside for now so we can take a closer look at the MOBAT. 1982 was the first year of the new G.I. Joe, so the MOBAT was G.I. Joe's first tank. In the later years, they had a habit of giving us vehicles that were sort of like tanks, but not really tanks, such as the 1986 Havoc. They did give us a few proper tanks, though. Precious few. In 1983, there was an approximation of a tank, the 1983 Wolverine with Driver Cover Girl. As much as I liked this vehicle, it's not exactly a tank. It's more of an armored missile platform. The replacement for the MOBAT in 1985 was the G.I. Joe Mahler and Driver Heavy Metal. Like the MOBAT, the Mahler was motorized and battery powered. It's also larger and has more features. It is, in many ways, an upgrade from the MOBAT. Also in 1985, G.I. Joe introduced a mini tank, the Armadillo. It was not motorized and had fewer features, but it was also more affordable and it gave kids a chance to have a G.I. Joe tank at a lower price point. MOBAT is an acronym for Motorized Battle Tank. The name is intended to showcase the motorized feature of the toy. Of course, any real tank would be motorized, so it would be unnecessary to point that out. On the Blueprints, it's referred to as Super Duty Battle Tank in parentheses MOBAT. And in the first issue of the G.I. Joe comic book published by Marvel Comics, on the back cover, it's referred to as Multi-Ordinance Battle Tank codename MOBAT. The MOBAT was designed by Wayne Luther for Hasbro, the same person who designed the Skystriker. As for a real-world inspiration for this tank, there isn't a single exact match. The main body is similar to the M60 Patton tank. The turret may be based on the prototype MBT-70. Mark Balomo's ultimate guide to G.I. Joe says it's based on the M60 and M48 Patton, and that may be true, but that turret looks a lot like the MBT-70. The designers at Hasbro like to base G.I. Joe vehicles on real experimental vehicles. The vamp had a similar kind of inspiration, so I wouldn't be surprised if the designers borrowed a turret from the prototype MBT-70. The mold for the MOBAT was used one other time in the US during the vintage era. It was used for the Sears Exclusive CAT, the Crimson Attack Tank. It was a Cobra vehicle instead of G.I. Joe. Outside the US, it was used for an all-black Canadian Exclusive Cobra Tank. There was a version of the MOBAT released for Action Force in the UK, the Z-Force Battle Tank. It was in a lighter shade of green, and it included the Z-Force version of Steeler. The MOBAT was made into a miniature diecast vehicle produced by Aviva in 1983. The color is not quite right, but it does capture a lot of the details of the toy pretty well. The diecast MOBAT may seem small, but there was one made even smaller. In 1991, there was a Micro MOBAT that was part of the G.I. Joe Micro Vehicles Collection. The MOBAT was produced as a model kit by Revell. Revell did three model kits of early G.I. Joe vehicles, the MOBAT, the VAMP, and the RAM Motorcycle. They were very similar in appearance to the toys, but they were in a slightly smaller scale. These were produced in 1982, according to the copyright stamp. This Revell model kit is pretty awesome. I just got it shortly before filming this review. The pieces are all here, and it's unassembled. I'm considering doing an on-camera build of this. I have the instruction sheet and the blueprints for the MOBAT, and I will be referring to this when I talk about some of the features on the toy. These blueprints are kind of unique in that it also includes features of the figure's visor, and it's very unusual to have the figure's accessory on the blueprints. In the Marvel miniseries G.I. Joe Order of Battle issue number four, there is a page for the MOBAT in which some of the features are described, but the information in here is different from what's on the blueprints. For example, under Armament it says it has a 90mm anti-tank cannon with 105 rounds, whereas on the blueprints it says it has a 130mm cannon slash sensor web. Where there is a difference between Order of Battle and the blueprints, I will refer to the blueprints to describe the toy. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the MOBAT. The MOBAT's main body is in green. It looks like kind of a medium green to me. It's not exactly an olive drab green. It looks a little darker than that to my eye. It's hyper detailed and looks really great, but it can only fit one action figure. It has no foot pegs. It has no space for a driver. It only has space for one gunner, or in this case the tank commander, and he has to stand up with half of his body outside of the tank. If he moves the turret to the side, we can see a couple small hatches and what the blueprints call a viewport right here. Now these hatches are far too small to accommodate an action figure, and even if they were large enough, the battery compartment for the vehicle is directly under these hatches, so there's no space there for an action figure anyway. This is where the driver should sit, but you can't fit a figure in there, so you just have to have Steeler drive the tank from the top turret. On the front starboard side, these blocks here are what the blueprints call track repair kit and spare tracks, and they are molded to look like the treads on the tank. So if the treads were damaged in battle, you could use these and pretend to repair it. There's a massive amount of detail on the body of the tank, including this tow cable, which is molded in and non-removable, and I'm really glad it is because on later vehicles, such as the Wolverine, the tow cable was removable, and this became a frequently lost or broken part. There's a tray with some molded in tools, including what looks like an entrenching tool, and there's another tool kit on the other side with what looks like wire cutters and a wrench. These minute details really add to the character of the toy. There's an armored skirt on each side that helps protect the tank tread as well as anyone inside the tank, and I think that looks great. It really beefs up the look of the vehicle. Behind the turret, there are some vents and an engine turbine. All exceptional details, which I love. At the very back, there is a grill and a universal tow hitch. This can be used to tow one of GI Joe's weapon systems, and in 1982, the obvious choice would have been the HAL Heavy Artillery Laser with Operator Grand Slam. You can just connect it to that universal tow hitch. I think the HAL looks great with the MOBAT. It has a subtly contrasting green color, and it can add some firepower as well. The main turret, the cannon, the top turret, and the machine gun are all in that same green color, and this is where a little color variation may have helped. Now I like the color, but changing the color up a little bit may have helped bring out some of those amazing details. The main turret will rotate 360 degrees, the cannon will scrape the body of the tank, but it will turn. The cannon can elevate a little bit, but not very much, and the barrel of the cannon can collapse for more convenient storage. This main cannon, the blueprints describe as a 130mm cannon, and attached to it is this box with a black sticker in the front, and the blueprints describe this as a tungsten spotlight slash laser guidance. On the aft starboard side of the turret, there is what the blueprints describe as the main hatch. It is obviously non-functioning. You can't open that, it's only molded in, and even if you could, it's too small to fit an action figure in there anyway. At the very tippy top, there is what the blueprints describe as the command turret with drive controls, and it has a cup in which the action figure stands. Just place an action figure in like so, and at the bottom there is a divider between the figure's feet. It has a couple control knobs, and these knobs are short and small, and you can't really place them in the action figure's hands. You can place the hands on the control knobs, but they're not really designed to go in the hand. At the front of the command turret is a .50 caliber machine gun, and the tip of this gun is removable, and this is a frequently missing and easily lost part. This machine gun tip has a slot, and there's a variation of this in which the slot continues all the way down to the base. This one has a slot that stops about halfway. This slot lines up with a notch on the machine gun post. You just line that up and press it on, and that's how you attach it. It doesn't snap in place though, so it's easily removable, and that's why this thing gets lost so frequently. The machine gun does not elevate at all, and there's limited rotation on that command turret, but there's a reason for that. This command turret is used as the control for the motorized mechanism, and I will demonstrate that later in this review. Let's take a look at these real treads that will really move this tank. They are black, or you might call this a very dark gray. They are rubbery, and they roll along these green bogies, and there's a variation on these treads that we need to look at. The earliest releases of the MOBAT had treads like this. They're still made out of that same black rubbery material. There's a track along the inside for the teeth on the drive bogie, but there's a risk that these treads will slip in rough terrain. Later releases, probably in 1983, changed the treads and put notches on the treads all the way down, and those notches run through these teeth on the front and the back bogie, and this would prevent those treads from slipping. Because these treads now feed through these teeth, both the back and the front bogies have been updated as well to accommodate that feature. These updated treads are no doubt more functional, but I prefer the look of the older treads. It's just a cleaner look, plus the extra treads on the body of the tank more closely match these older treads than the newer ones. On the underside of the tank, there's no real detail at all. Located at the front is the battery cover to remove it. There's a tab at the front. You just press down and forward at the same time, and it will slide forward and off. There are some variations on this battery cover as well, so you may run into that, and the battery cover has a connector attached to it, so the tank will not operate without the battery cover. Behind that cover, there is space for two D-sized batteries. These are really large batteries, but they can pop in like so. And then to replace the battery cover, you just have to make sure you line up these slots with those notches and line them up and then press back and down until it clicks into place. Those batteries add a lot to the weight of this tank. It is a lot heavier. The MOBAT is pretty to look at, but it's time for us to take this outside and see if it can move. Let's demonstrate how the motorized feature works. I have two D-batteries in the battery compartment, and this is a good opportunity to remind everyone to not store the vehicle with the batteries in. The batteries could corrode the connectors, and then your tank won't work anymore, so make sure you take the batteries out when not in use. To control the motor, you just use the top turret. By pushing the turret forward, you will cause the tank to roll forward, so just push it forward, and there it goes. You can also control the direction. You can cause the tank to turn right by turning the turret to the right or to the left by turning the turret to the left, and my tank has a harder time turning left. Oh, hold on. There it goes. To stop it, just put the turret back in the center position, and that will stop the tank. The MOBAT will also move in reverse. Just push the turret back, and that will cause it to move backwards, and it has directional control, so you can move it. You can turn it as well in reverse. Let's look at the MOBAT's ability to climb over obstacles, because it is advertised as having super climbing action. Here's where we run into a slight design flaw because of the battery cover in the front. It doesn't have a lot of clearance for the tracks in the front, so if you roll it toward an object, it will get stopped. Unfortunately, it can't really climb very well going forward. It does still have super climbing action though, because it has more clearance for those treads in the back, so if you roll the MOBAT toward an obstacle in reverse, like so, it will climb over it pretty well. It actually climbs quite well in reverse. It may seem amazing that GIZO got a motorized tank in the first wave of the 1982 relaunch, but the MOBAT was relatively featureless compared to toy tanks of earlier decades. For example, the Tiger Joe tank. That thing had all the features of the MOBAT and then some. It had a wired remote control. It had an automatic rotating machine gun. It had real firing shells. It was big enough to roll over your mom's car. The MOBAT seems basic by comparison. I'm sure cost was a factor GIZO vehicles needed to be affordable to the average family. Even so, I can't help but imagine what the MOBAT would have been like with more of Tiger Joe's features. Now let's look at Steeler. His name is likely inspired by the football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Steeler's birthplace is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so it would make sense for him to be named after his hometown team. Version 1 was released in 1982 and was a straight arm figure, meaning it had arm articulation only at the shoulder and elbow. Version 1.5 was released in 1983 and had swivel arm battle grip. There was a new point of articulation, a swivel at the bicep. He also had a new slimmer waist piece. I must point out, this figure is very fragile. It's made of light green plastic and the light green plastic that was used in 1982 is notoriously brittle. Steeler doesn't have quite the bad reputation as zap, but I have seen arms snap off just from moving it. Don't move this figure around any more than necessary. I will not place the figure on a stand or move the joints to show articulation. The hands on the 1983 figure are not quite as bad as the 82 figure, so I don't mind putting a weapon in his hands carefully. But on that 82 figure, I would not do that. As you can see, there's already the thumb snapped off on this one. Let's take a look at Steeler's accessories and let's start with his helmet because his helmet has a pretty amazing attachment. I'm going to remove the helmet carefully without putting any extra pressure on the plastic of the figure. The helmet has this large black visor. I'm going to remove that because I'm going to look at that in a moment. I want to look at the helmet for now. The helmet is light green. It's the same helmet that came with zap from the same year and it was reissued a few other times later. The helmet is very plain and standard. It has holes in the side and that is for attachments like the visor that was included with Steeler. There are pegs on the visor that fit in the holes on the side of the helmet and there you go. Now there's a visor attached and that's a very hefty visor. It's really big. It's almost the size of the helmet itself. The visor is dark gray, almost black. It is very well detailed and when attached to the helmet, it can be down over Steeler's eyes or it can be flipped up. There's information about the helmet on the blueprints for the MOBAT. This is a headset, helmet slash binoculars slash camera. It has an infrared lens, zoom control knob, shutter release button and motor drive. His final accessory is his Uzi submachine gun. It is in dark gray, almost black plastic and it is very well detailed. This is in my opinion the best Uzi in the vintage era. It looks very realistic, almost exactly true to the real weapon. This is the same Uzi that was issued with Snake Eyes from the same year. They just reissued it. They didn't change it but there is a variation. Some of those Uzi's had sights that were narrow and others had sights that were wider. Let's take a look at the articulation on Steeler and I'm not going to move these figures around to show the articulation. There's a good chance I would break them so instead I am going to use short fuse from 1982 and 1983. These figures had the same articulation but more sturdy plastic so it's safer to show the articulation using these. Both figures could turn their head left and right. They could not look up and down. No ball jointed neck. They could swing their arms up the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. They had a hinge at the elbow that allowed them to bend their arm at the elbow about 90 degrees and on the 1982 figures that's all the articulation they had at the arms. Starting with the 1983 release there was a new point of articulation, a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. These were o-ring figures 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 move 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 Steeler. Many of Steeler's parts were reused from other 1982 figures. There was a lot of parts swapping that year. A lot of figures share a lot of the same parts. Steeler had more unique parts than most other 1982 figures though. His chest back and arms were unique. On his head he has brown hair. Not much detail on that hair. He has a plain expressionless face. In fact I think he looks kind of bored. Same head on the 1983 figure but on my 83 Steeler the brown hair is slightly darker. This head was used several times. In 1982 it was used for flash, short fuse, and hawk. And in 1987 it was used for star duster. On his chest he has a green shirt with a collar that's partially open. You can see his gold undershirt. He has a black strap across his chest and over his left shoulder and he has a black pistol holster on his chest with a gold pistol in it. Those black strap details do continue to the back. As noted this back piece and the chest piece are unique. They were not reused for any other 1982 figures. It's not very realistic to have him wearing a gold undershirt but the gold paint was supposed to make the figure look kind of special. He is the driver of the premium vehicle that year. His arms feature long green sleeves and he has gold bars painted on his upper arms. That represents his rank. He is an officer. That gold paint is not very robust and will rub off very easily so be cautious about that. On the 1982 figure on the forearms there are molded on pockets one on each side and he is wearing black gloves. That was changed a bit for the 1983 figure. He no longer has the molded on pockets on the forearms. He has unpainted cuffs and he still has those black gloves. These arms were reused in 1983 on Wild Bill, the pilot of the Dragonfly helicopter. But Wild Bill's arms do not have any paint on them so those gloves instead of being black are just green. On the 1982 waist piece there is a wide belt with an H on the belt buckle and I believe this is a Hasbro brand stamp. On the 1983 figure there's an updated waist piece that's a bit slimmer. The belt is a bit more detailed and on the belt buckle instead of an H there is the shape of a house and that looks like Hasbro's logo. His legs are light green. That same light green as the upper half of the body. He has black painted pouches on the outside upper legs and he has black standard boots. These legs were the same from the 1982 to 1983 figure. Those were not updated. Let's take a look at Steeler's file card. This file card was printed on the back of the box for the MOBAT. There is nothing on the other side. It's just blank. It has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Steeler here. It says he is the tank commander codenamed Steeler. His file name is Ralph W. Pulaski, primary military specialty armor, secondary military specialty artillery transportation, birthplace Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and grade is 01. 01 is a second lieutenant which is the reason for the gold bars on the figure. In 1982 as an officer he was the second highest ranked member of the team right behind Hawk the leader of GI Joe. Despite this Steeler wasn't given any leadership opportunities. That may have been because of his attitude which we will read about in a moment. This paragraph says Steeler comes from a blue collar middle class background. He put himself through college on an ROTC scholarship and work as a heavy equipment operator. Familiar and proficient with all NATO and Warsaw packed AFVs that's armored fighting vehicles. Graduated Army school top of class special training cadre X AFV project artillery school AFV desert exercise covert ops school qualified expert m16 m1911 a1 mac 10 and uzi good thing they got the uzi in there since that's what the figure comes with this brief character profile at the bottom says young reckless often clashes with authority and parentheses superior officers but he's one tough soldier if he's clashing with superior officers that may be why he hasn't been promoted and why he's not a leader on the team I'd like to know more about his working class background that wasn't addressed very much in media that territory was covered more through his teammate clutch I like the story of a working class guy who worked his way through college and became an officer I just want to hear more of that story looking at how Steeler and the MOBAT were used in GI Joe media both Steeler and the MOBAT first appeared in the GI Joe a real American hero animated miniseries in 1983 neither had many animated appearances but Steeler was used more than the MOBAT by 1983 and 1984 there were a lot of new toys to sell so the MOBAT got pushed to the background Steeler's look was changed for the animated series he was given blonde hair and a light green shirt Steeler's most prominent animated appearances were in world without and parts one and two in which he in a handful of other Joes find themselves in an alternate universe where cobra controls the United States in a famous scene Steeler has a panicked freak out when he discovers the dead body of himself from the other universe worlds without end parts one and two are often cited as favorite episodes of the animated series and Steeler was an important part of that in the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics the MOBAT had a more prominent role especially in the early issues Steeler had more appearances too though his appearances became more sporadic as the series went on there was even a whole issue dedicated to Steeler and the MOBAT called tanks for the memories despite having a larger role in the comic Steeler doesn't have a moment as memorable as worlds without end looking at the MOBAT overall it is both brilliant and lackluster it is substantial and vacant it is special and ordinary the MOBAT was the premium vehicle in 1982 it was special because it was motorized it wasn't a cheap toy tank that you would just push around it would really move creating the MOBAT required extra effort and engineering on the other hand without batteries the MOBAT is a big green paperweight it doesn't have a way to free role without the motor engaged you may not always want to use the motor you may not always want to keep batteries in it if that's the case you'll just have to drag it along the ground it had the extra feature yet not enough features no removable engine cover no hatch no seat no foot pegs no space for a second figure the details on the MOBAT are exceptional you could stare at it for an hour taking in all those minute details it would have been easy to just make a playing tank with some armor plates on the outside but they went the extra mile with the MOBAT it has tons of technical detail and it looks great but it is all green it's all the same green there's no color variation at all there's no paint to pick out those details from a distance it looks like just a big block of green those intricate details are lost Steeler is a nice figure one of the better figures of 1982 he at least had a few unique parts he had gold paint he had the holster on his chest the light green and black paint is a nice contrast it's too bad Steeler didn't get more attention and didn't get a second vintage version I like both the MOBAT and Steeler they're from an era when G.I. Joe knew what it was it was an era before ninjas and aliens and mutants it certainly isn't all of G.I. Joe but if you want to see the roots of G.I. Joe if you want to see the heart of G.I. Joe look at the MOBAT that was my review of Steeler and the MOBAT I hope you enjoyed it I'm going to take next week off that's right two weeks off in September I can do that I'll probably still give you some kind of video because that's always what I do I never really have a week off haven't had a real week off in six years if you like G.I. Joe and you'd like to see more G.I. Joe reviews make sure you subscribe to this channel you can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website HCC788.com if you'd like to support the channel further I have Patreon Patreon really does help keep these videos coming you can get some special perks there like a sketch by me a secret code book to help you decode those messages you see in the videos sometimes you can get your name in a video like the people you see scrolling by right now these guys these guys make these videos possible on this channel 2020 is the year of the 90s I've been reviewing a lot of 1990s G.I. Joe toys we've spent the last few weeks in the 80s but in two weeks we will definitely be getting back to the 90s because that will be the beginning of ninja month I'll see you then and until then remember only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe there is one character you know even if you know nothing else about G.I. Joe he has been a Hollywood star a comic book hero and immortalized in plastic more than any other action figure he is the man in black snake eyes hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here this is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994 this is a review I wanted to get to for a long time I have reviewed version one snake eyes before twice actually but those were early videos on this channel and they weren't very good I want to take another crack at it snake eyes is popular so popular he has been overexposed there have been way too many snake eyes figures at times he has overshadowed the G.I. Joe team that wasn't always the case in the beginning he was just a guy he was one among the 13 original joes what made him special snake eyes may be silent but we're going to talk a lot about him HCC 788 presents snake eyes this is snake eyes G.I. Joe's commando from 1982 as you can see we have two action figures here so we will be looking at the 1983 release as well version one was released in 1982 as part of the first wave of G.I. Joe action figures when the line was relaunched that year it was only available in 1982 in 1983 it was replaced with version 1.5 all the 1982 version one figures were reissued in 1983 with updated articulation the version 1.5 figure was also available in 1984 and was discontinued for 1985 at some point snake eyes was available through Hasbro direct this figure was designed by Ron Rudat for Hasbro the all-black color was a cost-cutting choice there are zero paint applications on this figure the money saved on paint sprays could be applied to other figures such as 1982 stalker with his camouflage the characterization of snake eyes was done by Larry Hama the writer of the Marvel comic book there were six versions of snake eyes in the vintage era and dozens of post vintage versions in every scale snake eyes is the most popular G.I. Joe character version two was released in 1985 this is the most recognized and replicated design this version has the visor a sword and the wolf companion timber no later vintage versions of snake eyes included the wolf version three was released in 1989 this is lesser known but still a classic with the black and silver a very good-looking figure version four was issued in 1991 this is a departure from the classic black adding blue and gray this version has a lot of fans but I am not one of them this doesn't look like snake eyes to me version five was released in 1993 as part of the ninja force subset it was still mostly black with blue highlights it also had an action feature which limited the articulation version six was issued in 1994 which was the final year of the vintage G.I. Joe toy line before it was canceled it was part of the shadow ninjas subset it was a reissue of version five with a color change gimmick 1982 snake eyes is listed as a commando actually the first four versions are all listed as commando in the G.I. Joe comic book series it is revealed that snake eyes is a ninja is he a commando or a ninja I don't know why he has to be one or the other he is both and both are important to the character commando is a person or unit that specializes in raids in enemy territory originally commando was used to denote a specialized unit not individuals in that unit the usage of the word in military parlance originated with the boar mounted infantry in the first and second boar wars a ninja would bring a lot of relevant skills to the role of commando snake eyes is the strong silent type in fact he doesn't speak an injury on an early G.I. Joe mission disfigured his face and destroyed his vocal chords so he is unable to speak he only spoke one word in the comic book we will get to that later snake eyes is closely associated with the cobra ninja storm shadow these action figures are obviously intended to be enemies with the black versus white but their connection was deeper than that they are members of the same ninja clan the arashakage I'll cover that in-depth when we talk about snake eyes's media appearances the comic book also portrayed scarlet as a love interest for snake eyes in the animated series scarlet was paired with duke I am definitely on team snake eyes the origin of snake eyes starts before the creation of G.I. Joe larry hama was developing a special forces unit for marvel comics called fury force it was supposed to be led by nick fury's son the comic book was never produced but some of the ideas were implemented in G.I. Joe the character spook evolved into snake eyes snake eyes wears a mask but that wasn't always so larry has said he based the look of young snake eyes on bob light someone he knew in vietnam the name snake eyes refers to a pair of dice both landing on one it is the lowest possible role and is considered bad luck snake eyes has lived up to his name snake eyes his name is metaphorical it doesn't have anything to do with snakes or dice don't take his name too literally I'm looking at you writers of the snake eyes G.I. Joe origins movie oops too late there were many many post vintage versions of snake eyes released and I have one modern era version of the figure here this is version 28 from 2007 it was in the G.I. Joe battle pack with duke scarlet roadblock and gung ho the first thing I notice about this figure is it is gray not black that's an odd choice but the design is clearly meant to evoke that version one commando look for accessories he includes an uzi which is appropriate for snake eyes and a call back to the version one accessory not a bad uzi too it looks okay a little bit modified just changed a little bit there's no rear sight and there's also this folding stock on it but still looks pretty good he also includes an explosives pack with a strap that goes around the figure and this is another call back to the version one accessory it's well sculpted with texture and buckles it even says explosives on it and there's some paint application that's nice we rarely got paint on vintage accessories these modern era figures were able to have more working sheaths for knives and holsters for pistols this one has a removable knife on the right leg and a removable pistol on the left side of the belt the final accessory that's intended to be removed is this figure stand these modern era figures had figure stands with the name printed on them these modern era figures are slightly taller than vintage figures averaging closer to four inches rather than three and three-quarter inches he also has updated articulations so a ball jointed head the arms have comparable articulation to the vintage figure but added wrist articulation so you have a wrist swivel you have the chest cut so there's articulation at the torso and on the legs you have double jointed knees and you also have ankle articulation the vintage figures did not have that the sculpting is also updated in some ways it's more detailed in some ways it's less detailed the top half of the figure depends on this strap and belt piece for most of the details that is removable you can remove it it is on the figure in the package so you're not really intended to remove it and if you do remove it you will lose most of the detail on the top half of the figure standing next to the vintage figure the vintage figure is simpler but more elegant and it's actually black instead of gray so it's easy to pick the vintage figure over this modern version snake eyes jumps into the six inch scale there have been many snake eyes figures in the six inch gi joe classified series this one is most inspired by the version one figure it also includes the wolf timber and the head of a second wolf that he has murdered this is actually an alternate head for timber so you can pop on his mean face i've already done a full review on this figure so i won't go too much into it the accessories are pretty good he has an uzi or a submachine gun that's like an uzi close enough he also has a removable pistol and a holster on the right side and a suppressor that will fit either on the pistol or on the uzi he has a removable knife on the left side he does not have the explosives pack but he has a couple other submachine guns he has this one that has a removable magazine looks a little bit like an mp5 then he has this one looking kind of like a nerf gun it also has a removable magazine and that's nice no removable magazine on the uzi but the only way they could have done that is to make the grip thicker and that would not fit in his hand now these are fine there's nothing wrong with these accessories but he cannot hold all of his accessories at the same time there's just too many weapons for him to hold and that is a pet peeve of mine i would have preferred the explosives pack and leave off one of these submachine guns this figure has classified series articulation which is generally pretty good somewhat limited at the torso because of this vest and belt piece but like the 2007 figure it needs this extra piece for most of the detail on the top half of the figure the head articulation also seems kind of weird i mean he can look around and he can look up pretty well but this is as far as he can look down it just seems like it's obstructed a little bit and it seems like he should be able to look down more than that but that's as far as it goes the rest of the articulation is mostly similar to the 2007 figure but we have a couple extra points we have double jointed elbows we have swivels at the wrists and hinges at the wrist on the legs we additionally have a swivel at the thigh cut we have the double jointed knees we have a swivel at the boot cut and we still have the ankle articulation the design of this figure is obviously inspired by that version one figure on his head he has what almost looks like a hockey mask with goggles there's a lot of detail added here and that is necessary for the scale this scale must have additional detail and articulation which it does there are also a few reused parts from other action figures and that is also reminiscent of the version one figure this is a pretty good looking figure this is not my favorite classified snake eyes but it's a pretty good one let's get back to the vintage figure and look at snake eyes his accessories he didn't come with many in fact he only had two but let's start with the most important one that is the uzi it is in dark gray plastic it is based on the real israeli submachine gun there's a variation on this accessory some of them have thin sights at the front and the back and others have thick sights at the front and the back it's a very small difference and you may not even notice this same accessory came with 1982 and 1983 stealer the driver of the mobat tank there is another variation of this accessory in a lighter gray that came in a battle gear accessory pack in 1983 along with a lot of reissues of other 1982 accessories you can see it right there and compared with the one that came with the figure it is in a lighter gray version two of snake eyes from 1985 also included an uzi accessory that is very similar to the one from the 1982 and 1983 figure one way to tell the difference is the 1985 accessory has a thicker barrel the only other accessory is the explosives pack it's a very simple accessory it's a pack it looks like it has three segments and blasting caps and a strap to go over the figure shoulder or around his body as with the uzi there is a variation on this explosive pack that came with the battle gear accessories pack and it is also in a lighter gray that's it for accessories on version one and 1.5 snake eyes he has no backpack snake eyes travels light he only has what he needs to infiltrate enemy territory and do his job he doesn't need anything else weighing him down let's take a look at the articulation on version one and 1.5 snake eyes and the articulation is the main point of difference between these two figures version one had the articulation that was standard for a gi joe figure in 1982 so he had a swivel head he could turn his head from left to right he could lift his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around he had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees no other articulation points at the arm this is where version one point five was different in the articulation department 1983 figures had what they called swivel arm battle grip in addition to the 90 degree bend at the elbow he also had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around articulation for both figures otherwise was the same they were o-ring figures meaning they were held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed them 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 snake eyes like most other 1982 figures snake eyes shared parts from other figures he had more unique parts than most of his 1982 counterparts let's start with his head he has an all black mask that covers his entire head he has black goggles that cover his eyes and vent holes over his mouth he has a headband on the back this is a unique head some 1982 figures did not even have unique heads the chest is all black there is no paint there is an elastic collar straps on the front and the back pouches on the top part of the front straps a grenade on the right strap and a knife on the left this chest is shared by 1982 grunt breaker stalker and hawk and their 1983 re-releases the arms are all black they feature long sleeves square pockets on the outside upper arms elastic band cuffs and black gloves this is all unpainted these arms are shared by grunt by short fuse by hawk by stalker and by zap here's another difference between the 1982 and 1983 figures in addition to swivel arm battle grip the 1983 figure has the pockets moved from the side of the arm to the front of the arm and it has added detail these updated arms are shared by versions 1.5 of grunt short fuse stalker zap and hawk the waist piece is entirely black it has a single pocket on the back it has a wide unpainted belt with an H shaped belt buckle the belt buckle is probably a hasbro brand stamp the 1983 figure has an updated waist piece it is slimmer with a more detailed belt and the belt buckle now looks like the old hasbro logo the 1983 figure still has the single pocket in the back the version 1 date stamp says copyright 1982 on version 1.5 it says copyright 82-83 they're using a two-digit year in 1983 they didn't know about the y2k bug that's why on january 1st 2000 this waist piece rebooted the waist piece was used on all the 1982 male joe figures it was standard the legs on version 1 and 1.5 are the same so we'll just take a look at one of them they are of course all black and unpainted on the right upper leg there are two pockets on the left upper leg there is what appears to be a dynamite bomb with a timer the legs have stirrup boot covers with straps around the calf and of course he has black boots the upper legs are unique the lower legs are reused from flash and grand slam this figure has a lot of reused parts and a lot of unpainted details but this is the rare instance when it is an asset rather than a problem making this figure all black is inspired it is monochrome but it still looks right the black plays into his specialty and makes him mysterious it's the perfect blank canvas to create a great character let's take a look at snake eyes's file card the file card has his faction as gi joe it has a portrait of snake eyes excellent artwork that really brings the character to life his specialty is commando his codename is snake eyes hasbro can't seem to decide if snake eyes should be hyphenated or not there's no hyphen in this name but on the version 2 file card there is then the hyphen disappears again on the version 3 and version 4 file card and then on version 5 and on version 6 the hyphen is back current hyphen status is no hyphen his filename is classified his primary military specialty is infantry his secondary military specialty is hand-to-hand combat instructor his birthplace is classified and his grade is e5 so his filename and birthplace are classified all the information about him before he joined the army is a mystery this paragraph says snake eyes is proficient in 12 different unarmed fighting systems in parentheses karate kung fu jiu jitsu and is highly skilled in the use of edged weapons to get to the number 12 different unarmed fighting systems he had to include slap fighting p knuckle and rock paper scissors by that standard i'm proficient in five different unarmed fighting systems has received extensive training in mountaineering underwater demolitions jungle desert and arctic survival and some form of holistic medicine qualified expert all nato and warsaw packed small arms this bottom paragraph has a quote it says that the man is a total mystery but he's real good at his job heck he's the best there's no mention here of his inability to speak nothing about this says he's a ninja but it hints at it the ninja backstory is filled in later mostly in the comic book the file card was written by larry hamah the writer of the comic book series his 1985 version 2 file card had his vietnam and ninja backstory fleshed out and it closely follows the comic book continuity looking at how snake eyes was used in gi jo media he was used a lot less frequently in the animated series than in the comic book probably because he is silent he had more appearances than you probably remember but he was less frequently the focus of the episodes he first appeared in the first mini series in 1983 in the first episode in that series he sacrificed himself to save his teammates on a mission to retrieve radioactive crystals he was able to escape the crystal mine but the radiation was sure to kill him he was cured by a blind woodsman that's also where he picked up his wolf timber in the follow up series revenge of cobra snake eyes and duke get captured that gave snake eyes a little more screen time a little more snake eyes is forced to fight duke but i suspect they didn't have to force him too much all right all right i'm sorry i'm sorry thank you his role in the next mini series pyramid of darkness was even bigger he was paired with shipwreck probably because they both had animal companions they infiltrated a cobra base escaping was more of a challenge snake eyes had to break dance and dress and drag in the animated series there is no connection between snake eyes and storm shadow instead storm shadows rival was spirit this was again because spirit is a character that could speak and exchange dialogue with storm shadow his most screen time was in the episode the invaders a battle between gi joe cobra and the october guard is interrupted by flying saucers a purple alien not that one takes tomax and zamot for examination and you know they're talking about butt stuff the joes fire themselves out of cannons to get an october guard headquarters snake eyes and wong from the october guard get captured and the dreadlocks tell them the entire evil plan snake eyes takes over one flying saucer and shoots down the other snake eyes figured out the plot because the alien had a carton of milk next to him i didn't make any of that up except for the butt stuff snake eyes was briefly in the 1987 movie he was captured by cobra law escaped and was captured again he didn't do much he continued into the deke era of the series he was featured in the episode the sword which also included storm shadow in his ninja force year snake eyes was wearing his version four uniform in the comic book series published by marvel comics snake eyes was much more prominent he was one of the main characters in this series at one point in the 90s he got top billing on the cover to say he was a popular character is an understatement he appeared in the first issue in 1982 he wasn't the most prominent character in that story he was paired with scarlet on a mission to rescue dr berghard he was in most issues after that the cult of snake eyes didn't start right away he became a fan favorite character so more stories were written for him he was in a story arc with quinn and dr venom which ended with the death of both of those side characters issue number 21 is famous because it includes no dialogue silent interlude has scarlet captured by cobra and snake eyes infiltrates a cobra castle to rescue her she is resourceful and manages to escape and fly away with snake eyes on a cobra claw that issue also introduced the cobra ninja storm shadow on the final page it is revealed that snake eyes and storm shadow have the same hexagram tattoo on their right forearms a two part origin of snake eyes was published in issues number 26 and 27 it revealed his history in vietnam on a long-range recon patrol team with future gi joe teammate stalker and future enemy storm shadow he lost his family in a tragic auto accident after the war he joined storm shadows ninja clan the arashakage only to see the leader of the clan the hard master assassinated the assassin had ties to cobra after that he retreated to the mountains and befriended a wolf when the gi joe team was formed stalker recruited his old war buddy snake eyes on one of gi joe's first missions a helicopter crash burned snake eyes's face and made him unable to speak after that he always wore a mask storm shadow joined cobra to find out who killed the hard master and get his revenge when he learned that zartan was the man he was looking for storm shadow and snake eyes infiltrated cobra island on a mission to kill him that mission failed and it left storm shadow apparently dead he was still alive but that's a story for another time snake eyes storm shadow stalker and scarlet formed a tight circle of friends when stalker quick kick and snow job were imprisoned in the fictional country of borovia snake eyes and scarlet went on a secret mission to rescue them there was no way snake eyes and scarlet would leave their friend stalker in that prison in issue number 93 snake eyes his face is revealed for the first time he wants to get surgery to restore his face the baroness mistakenly believes snake eyes is responsible for killing her brother so she leads an assault on the hospital where snake eyes is under the knife she takes snake eyes captive and shoots scarlet in the head snake eyes is brought back to the cobra consulate building in new york to be tortured he escapes with some help from his buddies stalker and storm shadow but his face is burned again destro informs the baroness that snake eyes did not kill her brother scarlet is in a coma so maybe she has more in common with duke after all while scarlet was in her coma snake eyes spoke his only word scarlet well that is her codename her real name is shana but i guess they're not on a first name basis there are many other stories focused on snake eyes far too many to list in one video in the continuation of the marvel continuity written by larry hama for idw snake eyes was killed off and replaced by a new character throwdown the death of snake eyes was covered by codename new two vero two in my review of snake eyes version three snake eyes is a tragic figure but he is also honorable and loyal that is the key to his character he's someone we want to root for and we feel his pain when something bad happens to him i normally only cover media in the vintage era snake eyes has appeared in nearly every iteration of gi joe so it could be here for days talking about post vintage media in this case though i think it's appropriate to look at snake eyes's movie appearances snake eyes has been portrayed in three live action movies the first was gi joe rise of cobra in 2009 he was played by ray park the same actor that played darth maul as you would expect snake eyes didn't speak and wore a mask even so ray park was able to imbue him with some personality the second movie was gi joe retaliation in 2013 snake eyes had an even more significant role and ray park did a good job of letting us feel his emotions without seeing his face the most recent had snake eyes as the star snake eyes gi joe origins had henry golding playing the title role this movie focused on the time before snake eyes was silent and masked so he spends quite a lot of time unmasked and speaking that's okay as long as they got snake eyes's character right tragic honorable and loyal he spent most of the movie lying betraying the arashikage working for cobra and seeking revenge what the hell looking at snake eyes overall this is a very simple figure it has everything wrong with it it has a bunch of reused parts it has zero paint applications it's entirely monochromatic it works because it uses minimal resources in the best possible way if you're gonna go with only one color black is the right choice if you can have no paint then he has to be masked being masked makes him mysterious if you can't see his face maybe you can't hear his voice either he is masked and silent you can do anything with the character you can make him a ninja you can give him a tragic backstory snake eyes its design may have been a cost-cutting measure but it is genius it gives gi joe a layer deeper than just the good guys versus the bad guys with snake eyes you have secrets to uncover the accessories are good for 1982 this is still my favorite iteration of the uzi for gi joe the explosives pack is superfluous but also unobtrusive the uzi is the star of the show it is snake eyes's signature weapon a snake eyes without an uzi just doesn't feel right if snake eyes were just a mysterious badass that would sell a lot of action figures he's more than that though larry hama made something special out of him he is dangerous but he's a good guy he's not just on the side of the good guys he's a good guy he is honorable loyal and cares deeply about his friends when he hurts we feel his pain snake eyes has been hurt a lot he lost his family he lost his face he lost his voice he hasn't lost everything though he still has his friends and his teammates is snake eyes a commando or a ninja i have never bought into that dichotomy for me he has always been both and both are integral to his personality his experience in the army was formative his training with the ninjas completed his development snake eyes is not my favorite gi joe character but he's part of why i love gi joe snake eyes stalker scarlet and storm shadow represent what gi joe is all about with them you get the fighter with the heart disciplined leadership intelligence combined with strength and an enemy who got a chance at redemption if gi joe only had those four it would still have a lot that was my review of snake eyes and this is my definitive review of snake eyes version one and one point five i hope you enjoyed it if you did please give this video a thumbs up on youtube subscribe to the youtube channel so you don't miss more gi joe toy reviews and share this video with your friends that's what helps this channel grow you can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and i have a website hcc788.com if you'd like to support the channel patreon is a great way to do it you can get some early access and get your name in videos like the names you see scrolling on the screen right now i'll be back soon with another vintage gi joe toy review and for the next one you might need some batteries i'll see you then and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe imagine if someone told you i have a stalker would you consider that a good thing or a bad thing probably a bad thing but there is one situation where you would want a stalker and we're going to talk about that today hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here this is the show i re-review every vintage gi joe toy from 1982 to 1994 thanks to han's chow for the title card image really great work i love it thank you so much who is your favorite gi joe what character stood out to you what action figure did you always include in your play battles for me there is one answer to all of those questions and that action figure is the subject of today's review stalker was one of the original gi joes from the first wave in 1982 he was a leader he was a ranger he was a vital character in the mythos of gi joe today this ranger will lead the way hcc 788 presents my favorite gi joe in his original form stalker this is stalker gi joe's ranger from 1982 there are two figures here which means we are going to look at two versions depending on how you categorize them all the gi joe figures released in 1982 were re-released in 1983 with updated articulation and parts the 1982 releases are referred to as version 1 also called straight arm the 1983 releases are referred to as version 1.5 also called swivel arm i will explain the differences later in this video the straight arm stalker was released in 1982 and was available only in 1982 the swivel arm stalker was released in 1983 and was also available in 1984 it was discontinued for 1985 it was available through a mail away offer in 1986 and 1987 overstock mail away figures were sold at the 1992 gi joe convention larry homa the writer of the gi joe comic book series implied stalker was based on his friend and colleague ed davis ed davis served in vietnam on long range recon patrol and lost the use of one eye he was a gifted artist and a member of neil adams crusty bunkers at continuity studios according to larry the last anyone heard from ed davis he was heading to central america to work as a mercenary he never returned there are variations of these figures the straight arm release had a thin thumbs and thick thumbs variant the thick thumbs variant also had lighter camouflage the swivel arm mail away and convention releases also had lighter camouflage shown here are the thin thumbs variant of the straight arm figure and the standard release of the swivel arm figure there were other versions of stalker released in the vintage era version two was released in 1989 he came with a big kayak version three was in the talking battle commanders set in 1992 version four was in the arctic commando's mail away set in 1993 and version five was in the battle core in 1994 stalker is billed as a ranger us army ranger school was established in the 1950s in the early 1960s during the vietnam war the us army deployed long range reconnaissance patrol or lrp units in vietnam in 1969 those units were designated as rangers this tracks with stalker's backstory in the comic book he would have graduated from ranger school before serving in vietnam ranger is denoted as his specialty but most of the joes would probably be ranger qualified some other notable rangers or ranger qualified personnel for gi jo would include scarlet from 1982 beach head from 1986 repeater from 1988 and although it's not specifically mentioned on his file card snake eyes was probably ranger qualified as well stalker is a name that has not aged well the word stalker did not have the same negative connotation in 1982 that it does today this makes a live action version of the character unlikely at least with the same codename the light green plastic used for stalker is very fragile something about that light green pigment made the plastic very brittle other figures from 1982 made with the light green plastic were also notoriously easily broken that includes zap and steeler if you have one of these figures be very cautious i would not move the joints very much it would be very easy to snap off an arm just with the friction of moving the shoulder joints i would also not put the figure on a figure stand it would be very easy to crack the heel off i'm more careful now with my figures than i used to be i used to display stalker on the manta i used to jam that foot peg into his foot it's a miracle i didn't break it don't follow my example take care of your toys stalker was a popular figure and had many post vintage and international releases here are but a few examples this version of stalker was released in japan gijo did not have great success in japan but did see release there thank you to chris from comic tropes for sending this japanese stalker to me stalker was included in the current 2021 retro toy line even though these are called retro they are made in the modern 25th anniversary body style they are not vintage o-ring style figures that card art is beautiful though thank you to kevin from peg warmers for giving me this retro stalker in brazil the company astrella released a stalker that was very similar to the us release thank you to mr ulrich for sending me the astrella brazilian stalker this is 25th anniversary stalker it is stalker version nine from 2007 this figure shows off modern articulation and sculpting from the four inch figures released in that era let's take a look at stalker's accessory he included only one both the 1982 and 83 releases included the same accessory it was his m32 pulverizer submachine gun it was in dark gray plastic it is based loosely on the real world heckler and coke mp5 this submachine gun was a popular accessory and was re-released several times it was included with the 1983 male away and 1984 retail duke action figure recolored green it was released again in a dark gray almost black color with the 1988 tiger force duke it was released a couple times without action figures first with the 1983 battle gear accessory pack number one in a lighter greenish gray plastic it is distinguishable from the original because the color is much lighter it was included with the 1985 transportable tactical battle platform in a medium gray that is between the lighter gray of the battle gear accessory pack release and the original darker gray release there is also a molding difference the rear sight is flattened here are the vintage releases of this accessory this is the original this is the battle gear accessory pack version this is the duke accessory this is the transportable tactical battle form accessory and this is the tiger force duke accessory let's look at stalker's articulation but this figure is far too fragile for me to demonstrate the articulation so i am going to use a stand-in short fuse a figure that was released the same year and with the same articulation but with much more robust plastic both the swivel arm and straight arm figure could turn their heads left and right they could lift other arms up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around they had a hinge at the elbow so they could bend the arm at the elbow about 90 degrees there was no other articulation on the arm for the straight arm figure the swivel arm figure could do all the same things the straight arm figure could do but also had another point of articulation he had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around this was marketed as swivel arm battle grip both releases of the figure were o-ring figures 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 to design in color of stalker and first i have to point out that most of this figure is reused from other 1982 figures for example grunt also released in 1982 and re-released in 1983 used the entire body from stalker only stalker's head is a unique part even so that still made stalker special some 1982 figures didn't even have their own unique head let's look at that special head it is the same on version one and version 1.5 he is wearing a green beret with no beret flash he has black hair and a black mustache this is one of the few 1982 heads that was not reused on another figure for 1982 this was a really good head sculpt on his chest he has a light green shirt with dark green striped camouflage this may not be as impressive as the camouflage we got on later figures but in 1982 it was remarkable to get any camouflage he also has black straps on the front and the back on the front he has pouches and a sculpted on grenade and knife this camo pattern is probably meant to approximate tiger stripe camouflage which was used by some elite units in vietnam his arms feature long green sleeves with that dark green camouflage pattern and on the straight arm figure he has pockets on the outside of his upper arms the arms on the swivel arm figure are almost the same still has the light green sleeves with dark green camouflage pattern the pockets have been given more detail and moved to the front of the upper arm both the straight arm and swivel arm figures have bare hands there is a significant difference between the straight arm and swivel arm figures on the waist piece both have light green plastic with dark green camouflage on the straight arm figure he has a thick waist piece with a wide belt and an h-shaped belt buckle that belt buckle is probably a brand stamp for hasbro the waist piece on the swivel arm figure is still in light green plastic with dark green camouflage but it is a slimmer waist piece with a more detailed belt and the hasbro branding is more blatant because the belt buckle is now in the shape of hasbro's logo both the straight arm and swivel arm figure had the same legs again with the light green plastic and dark green camouflage pockets on the outside of both legs and we finish up with some solid black standard 1982 boots the camouflage made this figure special hasbro cut costs on the 1982 lineup of figures paint was expensive so hasbro tried to do as little of it as possible one figure snake eyes was made entirely of black plastic with no paint at all the money saved by producing one figure with no paint allowed them to add paint to stalker it really made the figure stand out let's take a look at the file card the file card was printed on the back of the card on which the figure was packaged this was the 1983 release because you can see the swivel arm battle grip blurb it shows his factionist gi joe it has a portrait of stalker with some wonderfully painted card art by hector gorito there is a difference between the card art and the action figure on the card his beret is camouflage not solid green let's talk about this beret the green beret was worn by us army special forces which is not correct for stalker starting in 1975 the us army rangers wore black berets that is probably the period correct option for stalker one vintage version of stalker did include a black beret but it had this funky yellow band that's not the weirdest thing about this figure by a long shot i did a review of it please check it out his specialty is ranger his codename is stalker his file name is lonzo r wilkinson his primary military specialty is infantry secondary military specialty is medic an interpreter he was gi joe's medic before doc his birthplace is detroit michigan probably a lions fan he's done more winning than the lions have since 1982 his grade is e5 this paragraph says stalker was warlord of a large urban street gang prior to enlistment fluent in spanish arabic french and swahili graduated top of class basic combat training advanced infantry training top of class special training us army language school explains why he knows so many languages intelligent school qualified expert m14 m16 m19 11 a1 autopistol m3 a1 grease gun which i believe was outdated in the 80s and probably even in the 60s m32 pulverizer submachine gun glad they fit that in there somewhere since that's the weapon he comes with this final paragraph has a quote it says functions well under high stress situations intelligent perceptive moves like some sort of jungle cat silent fast strong this is probably the source of his stalker codename this is a pretty standard file card for 1982 these file cards were written by larry hamma the writer of the comic book series it does not hint at the importance of stalker to the gi joe story in the future the urban street gang background is expounded upon a little in the comic book series it's a bit stereotypical to make the only african american character in gi joe a former gang member that part of his background is far less important than everything that happened after he joined the army looking at how stalker was used in gi joe media in the cartoon he first appeared in the real american hero mini series part one in 1983 he had a moderate number of appearances in the animated series but he was not as prominent as he was in the comic book series he appeared in the deke era of the animated series in his later uniform but was rarely more than a background character in the comic book series published by marvel comics he first appeared in issue number one in 1982 he was a main character in the series he served with snake eyes and storm shadow in vietnam on a long range recon patrol team he brought snake eyes on to the gi joe team he was a mission leader on numerous occasions the final issue of the marvel series issue number 155 explains that stalker joined the army to get away from the mean streets of detroit which had already killed his two older brothers there are very few characters in the comic book series more important than stalker i already loved the figure the comic book sealed stalker as my favorite gi joe here's an example of what i mean from issue number 39 a squad of joes is escaping from seara gordo after rescuing dr berghardt from captivity and certain death dr berghardt is lamenting that people had to die in order to save her life because she's a decent human being and she doesn't compromise her principles even for her own benefit and safety ripcord doesn't like this and starts tearing into her but stalker stops him and explains that the reason they fight is not so everyone can think the same way they do but so everyone can have the freedom to think anything they want stalker gets it not enough people get it even today stalker is not just a tactical and strategic master he also understands the why looking at stalker overall it's no secret that i love this figure it's beautiful it was a special figure in 1982 and that's a special figure to me and now stalker doesn't have the details and accessories that later figures would have it also reuses a lot of parts which is usually a big problem if you compare this figure with figures that came out during the golden age of the vintage gi joe era stalker seems a bit lackluster i can't pretend this figure is objectively better than figures that came out later with better accessories better sculpting and better paint despite that this figure was special in 1982 he had the beret he had the camouflage he had a unique weapon he was cooler than cool stalker included only one accessory that was probably another cost-cutting choice a backpack would have been appropriate but the accessory he came with was a great one the pulverizer submachine gun was so cool it got reused many times i review a lot of gi joe figures that are not very good it's fun to dunk on a bad figure and i do i dunk on them like wilt chamberlain wilt chamberlain and i have a lot in common or as i call him shorty but most gi joe figures are great that's why i enjoy collecting them looking at a beloved figure like stalker reminds me why i do this there is no dunking on stalker stalker dunks on you if you're watching this video you probably have some history and experience with gi joe i'll bet there was one figure that captured your imagination and drew you into the world if it wasn't stalker who was it what was the action figure that inspired you this is the figure that inspired me it wasn't my first gi joe figure but it was and is and always will be my favorite that was my review of stalker i hope you enjoyed it if you did please give this video a thumbs up on youtube share the video and subscribe to the channel for more gi joe toy reviews thanks again to hans chow for the title card image really well done great job if you would like to help me continue to make these videos you can support the channel on patreon you see the name scrolling on the screen right now your name could be there you can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and i have a website hcc788.com thank you very much for watching i will see you next time and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe ever since gi joe's bazooka soldier zap was introduced in 1982 fans have been puzzled by one thing why does he have a mustache in the picture but not on the figure in recent years new information has come to light and one person deserves a lot of credit for it dan cleansmith has managed to find some unreleased items that have given us a behind the scenes look at the production of gi joe toys he's been publishing a book series called three and three-quarter inch joe and these books are fantastic the books are loaded with information and photos and concept drawings that were used to produce some of our favorite toys i can't recommend these books enough you should pick them up dan has a website where you can order these books www.334inchjoe.com a link will be in the description of this video he gave me permission to use his photos in this video thanks to dan we can finally see zap with his mustache as he was always meant to be commander 788 here and this is a special episode and a special vintage gi joe toy review this is the last episode before joe con i will not have a new review next week i will be at the convention and i hope to see you there too we're looking at zap gi joe's bazooka soldier this is the last 1982 figure to be reviewed that's right we've looked at all of them there's a reason i hadn't reviewed zap before now it's an extremely difficult figure to complete for reasons we will discuss in this video i have to thank mike lopez for helping me get the final piece to get this figure ready for review thank you mike you are a superhero as many of you know breaker from 1982 was my first gi joe action figure i'm pretty sure zap was my brother's first action figure i've asked my brother about that he doesn't remember my memory is far from perfect but i'm pretty sure that zap was one of our first figures i don't remember playing with it very much that usually means that it belonged to my brother or it broke both may be true completing this figure was a collecting milestone for me it was a special thrill i still get that thrill from completing certain items that are are hard to find and i definitely got that thrill from this figure and it's my privilege to share it with you hcc788 proudly presents zap this is zap gi joe's bazooka soldier from 1982 i have both the 1982 and 1983 releases here the 1982 release referred to as version one was only available in 1982 the figure was updated in 1983 to add new articulation the 1983 version referred to as version 1.5 was available in 1983 and 1984 version 1.5 was released as a mail away offer in 1986 and 1987 as part of the original adventure team set we have both version one and version 1.5 here the biggest difference between these figures is the articulation the 1982 release is called straight arm because it did not have swivels on the arms only hinges at the elbows the 1983 release did have the swivels on the arms this was marketed as swivel arm battle grip the 1983 releases are often referred to as the swivel arm version the 1983 updates were not significant enough to call them second versions but they were too significant to just call them variants so they're referred to as half versions collectors call them version 1.5 there was a second version of zap released in 1991 as part of the supersonic fighters subset besides having a drastically different uniform and accessories the version 2 is sporting a mustache that requires some explanation we will talk about that at length when we talk about the figure's sculpt he was one of the original gijo characters when the line was relaunched in 1982 as with most other figures released that year he doesn't have any unique parts they reused a lot of parts that year we'll talk about that in detail this figure is notorious among gijo collectors it's probably the most fragile figure ever made this light green plastic was very brittle even when it was brand new few of these figures survived playtime intact the thumbs in particular are almost always broken simply placing the figure's accessories in his hand would be enough to break the thumb a figure with both thumbs intact is exceptional i was lucky to find this one guess what has two thumbs and has two thumbs this guy i can't overstate the fragility of this figure i don't recommend putting the figure on a stand the heels will crack off i do not recommend placing the accessories on the figure except for maybe the helmet the hands will break the bazooka and the backpack are made of the same fragile green plastic so you risk breaking the accessories too this problem is generally attributed to the light green plastic other gijo figures released that year weren't quite as fragile the medium and dark green figures were pretty sturdy other figures made of that light green plastic like stalker and stealer were also quite fragile zap has the worst reputation though because of the risk of breaking this figure i will not be showing the figure holding the accessories i will place as little pressure on this figure as possible and when i'm done looking at it it will go back in a case the 1983 release doesn't seem to have as many problems with breakage but i'll be careful with that one too as a bazooka soldier zap was gijo's first anti-armor specialist he was eventually replaced in 1985 with the missile specialist codename bazooka also in 1985 footloose came with a law rocket but he wasn't an anti-armor specialist much later in 1990 gijo got a more beefed up anti-armor specialist salvo salvo is one of the better remembered figures from the 90s contrasting salvo to zap the difference is dramatic the detail on the figures and the quality and sheer size of the accessories made a lot of progress in eight years his direct counterpart in cobra was scrap iron from 1984 scrap iron wasn't a bazooka soldier but he was an anti-armor specialist he also worked primarily for destro according to his file card instead of a bazooka he used a big missile launcher to take out tanks in 1989 cobra got a bazooka man the heat viper unlike scrap iron the heat viper was a trooper and he worked directly for cobra not for destro the heat viper also had some pretty crazy accessories in 1990 metalhead was an anti-tank specialist who was a replacement really for scrap iron metalhead also worked for destro though in his media appearances metalhead was pretty much a cobra a bazooka is a shoulder fired anti-tank weapon they first saw significant use in world war two it takes its name from a musical instrument invented by the radio comedian bob burns early gijo had some specialties you'd probably recognize they had a bazooka soldier a mortar soldier a machine gunner an infantry rifleman and in 1983 they had a minesweeper why these particular specialties well if you ever had the small green plastic army men you know they always included a bazooka soldier a machine gunner a mortar soldier an infantry rifleman and a minesweeper you could look at these early joes as big versions of those little green army men the success of the toy line after 1982 meant they could do more with it they could give us figures with more diverse specialties and styles and they really did branch out zap probably did not get his name from the 1982 movie zapped starring scott bayo there is an 80 chance he wasn't named after zap brannigan from future ama she's built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro there is a 75 chance he was not named after zap roused hour from final sacrifice yeah right that is a classic roused hourism when i reviewed the 1982 mortar soldier short fuse i said short fuse could potentially be more difficult to complete than zap because not only do you have the straight and swivel arm versions not only do you have three accessories variants you also have three file card variants the difficulty in completing zap though is not in the number of pieces it's in the difficulty in finding intact pieces let's talk about zap's accessories there's a lot to talk about here he came with what the card content simply called a bazooka it's made of light green plastic there are three versions of it the earliest bazookas had two handles this one is the hardest to find and thanks to mike lopez for helping me with this one the bazooka consists of a tube that has some detail on it it has a sight and it has a shoulder brace that's represented by this loop here there are some major problems with this two-handle bazooka first of all the straight arm figure couldn't hold both handles anyway and of course the thumb would break off the first time you put it in his hand so the weapon was quickly changed to a one-handle design in addition to removing the second handle they also reduced the size of the shoulder brace but this handle was a little bit thick and would also break the thumbs on the figure so they changed it to the final design the thin handle bazooka all of these efforts were made to prevent the figure from breaking but i don't think any of them worked very well the problem was not the size of the handle on the accessories the problem was the fragility of the plastic on the figure i've heard this bazooka referred to as a carl gustov or coilist rifle it has some design elements from the carl gustov i think it looks more like an m1 bazooka from world war two the m1 would have been terribly outdated by the early 1980s ironically changes on the m1 reflected the design progression of the gi joe accessory the m1 had two grips like zap's two-handle bazooka the later m1 a1 had only one grip these bazookas are often broken the site is often broken off the grips can break the main body of the bazooka breaks pretty easily too i have a whole bag of broken bazookas if you try to complete a zap figure you'll probably end up with a bag like this too next we have what the card contents call an ammo pack it is made of light green plastic just like the bazooka it has molded in bazooka shells and that's nice it's nice to have some coordination between accessories this is a reissue of the backpack that came with short fuse of course short fuses backpack being in medium green rather than light green and since short fuse was a mortar soldier these shells on his backpack are interpreted as mortar shells there's a slight variation with his backpack the peg on the 1982 backpacks were shorter and squared off the peg on the 1983 release was longer and rounded these screw holes where the backpack pegged onto the figure was slightly different from 1982 to 1983 as well so if you swap these backpacks around between the 1982 and 1983 figures they won't quite fit right finally we have the helmet this is a standard helmet in light green it has holes in the side for attachments but zap didn't come with any attachments this is exactly the same helmet that came with other 1982 figures in 1982 this helmet came in three colors light green medium green and dark green it's considered the standard helmet it didn't fit every gi joe head but it fit most of them it was released in other colors later in 1982 this light green helmet came with zap and stealer stealer of course had an attachment for his the medium green helmet was issued with breaker grunt short fuse flash clutch and hawk the dark green helmet was issued with rock and roll and grand slam a word of warning the color on these helmets seems to fade over time the original color should pretty closely match the uniform on the figure but you will run across some helmets that are the right helmet for your figure but they just look a bit duller some of the medium green helmets tend to look more gray to me than green just to give you an idea how many times this helmet was reissued and how many different colors you could get it in in addition to the three colors in 1982 it also came in brown two different shades of tan in yellow with wacky tiger stripes the light green helmet came with and without holes on the sides it came in kind of a bird amber color and we can forget about stardusters light blue identifying a zap helmet is made more difficult by the fact that other light green helmets were issued later duke and 1984 roadblock also came with light green helmets but the mail away duke and the roadblock figures had helmets that did not have the holes in the side so that helps identify them however the later carded duke action figures did have the light green helmets with the holes in the side so that can look very much like a zap helmet the helmets you see here do have slightly different colors but keep in mind these colors can fade over time so your best bet is to try to find a zap helmet that has not faded and closely matches his uniform color if you were to throw all these helmets in a box and then try to find the zap helmet you'd have a pretty hard time identifying it let's look at the articulation on zap by demonstrating on short fuse the standard articulation on these 1982 figures included a swivel at the head you could swing the arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around it had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend his arm at the elbow no swivel at the bicep the 1983 figures added the swivel at the bicep so the arm could swivel all the way around this was advertised as swivel arm battle grip and allowed the figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip these are referred to as the swivel arm versions these are o-ring figures they had a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed for movement out the torso a bit they could move their legs apart about so far they could bend their legs at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees let's look at the sculpted design and color of zap and i have to say right off the bat zap reuses the entire body of short fuse his 1982 teammate only the color and the head are different but the head was reused from other figures so i have to reiterate zap has no original parts let's talk about that head zap has black hair this face sculpt has been likened to sam donaldson or michael ironside i'll let you make up your own mind about that the face looks a bit older than some of his other gi joe teammates and he has a bit of a receding hairline this head was reused for grunt and grand slam so not even the head is unique grunt and grand slam however have brown hair instead of black this reuse of heads is a problem it makes the 1982 figure lineup look generic it's hard for them to develop their own personalities when they all look alike but the more generic heads were used as a cost-cutting measure there's something that was always a mystery to gi joe fans back in 1982 the figure looked different from the art on the card on the card zap had a mustache but the figure did not when zap appeared in the comic book series and the cartoon he had a mustache but no mustache on the figure where is zap's mustache thanks to dan clingensmith we have some insider information on zap's missing mustache early concept drawings included a mustache later drawings removed it hasbro executives considered a running change for the 1983 series which would have included updated heads for the 1982 characters one update was a change to zap's head a few rare carded samples of these figures have been found the new head would have given zap a fuller head of hair and most importantly a mustache behold the mustache i'm sorry hasbro didn't release these figures i know a lot of kids would have passed on them but i would have picked them up i had an affection for those 82 characters and i always wanted them to look more like they appeared in the comic book the generic heads always bothered me thank you dan for your contribution to the history of gi joe the fan community benefits from it i encourage everyone to check out his books zap's chest is light green with brown straps those straps go over his shoulders and under his arms and then there's a brown strap that goes between them these are the kind of straps you'd expect to see on a school backpack he has a ridged collar almost like a turtleneck collar that was pretty standard for 1982 the collar on my version one zap is chipped i'm not so much concerned about that because his thumbs are intact and that's the important thing his arms feature long light green sleeves and he has bright green pockets on his upper arms those 82 releases of course had the hinge at the elbow the 83 releases they added the swivel at the bicep but that's not the only change those bright green pockets they moved from the side of the arm around to the front and they added more detail you might notice the lower arms on the 1983 release is in a slightly different color they may have changed the plastic to make it sturdier and avoid more breakage of the thumbs the thumbs though on that 82 zap are extraordinary to see unbroken and unrepaired thumbs on a 1982 zap is rare so i'm giving you an extra close-up of them the waist piece on the 82 zap is pretty plain it has a wide belt an H shaped belt buckle a little pocket there in the back this was also changed for the 83 version the 83 waist piece is a bit thinner the belt is more detailed instead of having an H shaped belt buckle we have a belt buckle shaped like a house both of these waist pieces were pretty standard and used on a lot of other figures i think these belt buckles are a hasbro brand stamp the early belt buckle looks like an H for hasbro the later belt buckle looks like a house and that looks a lot like the old hasbro logo the legs are in light green plastic exactly the same as the rest of the body he has bright green pockets on each thigh and he has standard brown boots these legs were pretty standard they were reused on breaker grunt rock and roll short fuse stalker clutch hawk and stealer it's fair to say this figure is generic it has no unique parts it only has one unique accessory but the light green does help it he stands out among his teammates but he still feels like he belongs let's take a look at zap's file card this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the figure was packaged we have his faction as gi joe and a portrait of zap here with the mustache he's the bazooka soldier in big bold letters his code name is zap his file name is rafael j melendez this indicates that zap is hispanic in that first year the file card added some diversity to the team though most of the figures were caucasian later figures were more diverse in appearance primary military specialty is engineer secondary military specialty is infantry and artillery birthplace is new york city and is great as e4 this middle section has a quote it says zap is the team specialist in armor piercing and anti tank weapons but also functions as demolition man specialized education engineer school ordinance school advanced infantry training the gi joe team wasn't very big in the beginning some team members had to fill multiple roles like stalker was the team medic at the time breaker was a computer expert and rock and roll was the pt instructor qualified expert m14 m16 m19 11 a1 m79 grenade launcher m72 law rocket x m71 a tow missile x m47 dragon missile this bottom section has a quote it says zap is the fun loving type he's cool under fire the stuff he works on could blow up at any time this file card gives you a little bit of information about zap's personality but not very much these 1982 file cards tended to be pretty sparse looking at how zap was used in gi joe media in the cartoon he first appeared in the very first episode of the first animated mini series in 1983 he was only a background character in that series he didn't even get any lines until episode four since zap had a later version he did appear a handful of times in the deak animated series but he had no lines and was just a background character looking at his appearances in the comic book series published by marvel comics since zap was in the first class of gi joe characters in 1982 he appeared in the very first issue of the comic book some pages show him with a mustache and a beard in the first year of the series gi joe had very few characters so zap was able to get a few good moments in issue number four he and grunt disarmed a nuclear bomb in issue number 10 zap scarlet and snake eyes were imprisoned by cobra in their secret base in the town of springfield that issue introduced several important elements to the comic book dr venom the brainwave scanner springfield and the character that would later be known as billy cobra commander's son in issue number 33 zap along with most of the other original joe's was made a part of the administrative arm of the team he was no longer an operational member this was an attempt to make room for new characters that plot point was conveniently forgotten though the non-operational characters still tended to pop up on occasion there's one notable non-appearance of zap in issue number 50 his teammate flash explores the tunnels under springfield but he's mistakenly identified as zap in issue number 82 zap is an instructor training prospective joes that's not a bad issue because it gives you an idea of what it takes to become a joe zap isn't a major character in that issue though zap had another appearance in the special mission series issue number 24 i've already talked about that issue in the review of crystal ball is the issue where the female members of the gi joe team go undercover as dancers at a baseball game it's a rare issue not written by larry hama i don't think it's very good zap was never a major player in the comic book or the cartoon did he deserve better maybe so he was never given a chance to develop as more characters were added only a handful of the original joes became major characters unfortunately for zap the newer gi joe characters were just too interesting the older more generic characters were pushed out of the limelight looking at zap overall is this a top tier figure no of course not this is a figure with no original parts it was made as cheaply as possible it looks fine for a 1982 release but it doesn't have stalkers camouflage or snake eyes as cool black uniform or rock and rolls ammo belts the only thing that distinguishes zap is his light green color and unfortunately the light green is also the source of his biggest problem i cannot sufficiently express to you the fragility of this figure if you get this figure you can't really do anything with it you should not put the accessories in his hand you should not put him on a figure stand you should not move him around very much you could snap the arm off just by moving it as collectors we should try to preserve the history of these toys not every toy is rare not every toy is fragile not every toy deserves to be treated like a historical artifact this one deserves special care the number of intact examples is small and shrinking if we exercise a little care future generations will have a few intact examples to admire because this is such a difficult figure to complete i have to thank again mike lopez for helping me finish this guy and thanks to dan clingen smith for your special insight that was my review of zap i hope you enjoyed it this is the last review before joe con i hope to see some of you there i will be out of town at the convention so i won't have a new review for you next week but i may cook up a little something special for you thanks to dan clingen smith for allowing me to use those zap images we hit 5000 subscribers recently the channel is growing strong and i have you to thank for it you make this a joy it is my privilege to meet you here every week and talk about these toys that we loved and grew up with thank you for being awesome as always find me on facebook and twitter support the channel on patreon and don't forget about my website hcc788.com i'll see you at joe con and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe it's true a equals a it's only logical hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and it's time for another vintage gi joe toy review and based on my last two videos the viewers don't seem to be quite as interested in looking at these 1982 gi joes so naturally i'm going to do another one we've already looked at scarlet and rock and roll so this time we're going to look at the 1982 and 1983 breaker now i have already reviewed this figure but that video was the first video i ever did on this channel and that video wasn't very good it kind of sucked so this updated review of that figure should not suck quite as much this figure is kind of special to me personally so rather than sitting around talking about it let's look at the toy this is breaker gi joe's first communications officer from 1982 he was first available in 1982 in this so-called straight arm version he was called straight arm because he had a hinge here at the elbow but he could not swivel his arms the following year in 1983 he was reissued with swivel arm battle grip which added a swivel here just above the elbow this 1982 straight arm version was only available for that year the swivel arm version was available in 1983 and 1984 it was discontinued for the year 1985 and he didn't really have a replacement in 1985 however in 1986 there was a new gi joe communications specialist dial tone on a personal note breaker was the first gi joe figure i ever got as a child i got the straight arm version back in 1982 let's take a look at breaker's accessories starting with his communications headset which pegs into the holes on the sides of his helmet like that and it has this long wire which pegs into the hole in his backpack this communications headset does look like big 80s headphones it has a microphone that comes down it has some detail has some buttons here on the top and of course this long thin wire is just made of the same kind of hard plastic so that can break off those early gi joes did tend to use these long wires coming off the accessories to connect to the backpacks as did the 1982 flash he had this long wire from his laser rifle that connected to his backpack later gi joes replaced these long thin wires these breakable wires with removable black rubber tubing that would serve that purpose that worked a lot better and was much less likely to break one unfortunate thing about breaker's headset is when it's plugged into the backpack it does restrict the head movement a little bit it naturally wants to pull the head to the left in 1983 hasbro came out with battle gear accessory packs which were replacement accessories usually made in a different color plastic than the original and there was an accessory pack communication set and as you can see it's just a slightly lighter gray than the original the original is a dark gray almost black and the accessory pack version is a lighter gray so that is something you would want to watch out for if you want an original breaker communications headset breakers next accessory is his helmet and this is a standard helmet this is the same helmet that was issued with most of the 1982 gi joe action figures has holes in the side there that's where his communications headset pegs in a lot of other gi joe figures from that year had this helmet light grunt pretty much identical and as you can see the color of the helmet should pretty closely match the color of breakers uniform the last or perhaps the most important accessory is what the contents of the card on which breaker was packaged call a tv radio backpack and as you can see it is kind of lacking in detail this is supposed to be a very modern high tech device but does not have a lot of detail there I guess this is supposed to be the tv screen on the tv radio backpack there's the hole in which the communications headset plugs in and that's about it really kind of minimal comparing this communications backpack to the one that came with the 1986 dial tone you can see dial tones backpack is loaded with details lots of high tech wiring and things like that looks very futuristic very high tech and by comparison breakers communications backpack looks kind of primitive there's a difference in the pegs on the backpacks that came with the 1982 figures and the ones that came with the 1983 swivel arm figures the 1982 backpacks had kind of a shorter stubbier peg here and the 1983 backpacks had a slightly longer peg with the more rounded end and the holes on the back of the action figures are also slightly different such that the 1982 backpack fits very loosely on the 1983 swivel arm figure after looking at all these accessories that come with breaker do you notice anything missing that's right he comes with no weapon whatsoever and that i think is one reason why breaker was never a fan favorite he only comes with his helmet and communication set no weapons no guns at all and i think most kids would want their new army action figure to come with some kind of firearm but breaker didn't and so it kind of looks like he is intended for more of a support role rather than a combat role if you have an extra m16 perhaps from an accessory pack or you could take it from grunt since grunt gets no respect give that to breaker and that looks pretty good i think that looks appropriate there is another alternative for the weaponless breaker that i'll discuss a little bit later in this video let's take a look at the articulation on breaker the 1982 breaker had the typical articulation for gi jo figures of that year meaning he could turn his head from left to right like that he could lift his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around he had that hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow a little bit the figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed the figure to move at the torso a little bit he could move his legs apart about so far he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees the 1983 breaker had the same articulation except it added a new point of articulation at the bicep he could now swivel his arm at the bicep all the way around on both arms that was supposed to allow the figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip but breaker did not come with any weapons let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of breaker starting with his head and his head as you can see has brown hair and he has a brown beard looks a little bit like Jesus the breaker action figure shared a head with clutch and rock and roll from that same year this is pretty typical a lot of those 1982 gi jo action figures have shared a lot of parts among them as you can see they have different hair colors and that's really the only way to distinguish the heads of these different figures allegedly the breaker action figure was not intended to have a beard instead of sharing a head with other action figures he was supposed to have a unique head sculpt and supposedly collectors have found a pre-production packaged version of breaker with his unique head sculpt breaker's chest features black straps with an unpainted knife here and what is supposed to be an unpainted hand grenade on this side but it looks like a previous owner has taken some silver paint and kind of washed over that hand grenade but that is supposed to be unpainted like the hand grenade on this swivel arm version those straps continue to the back in this Y pattern the chest and back piece that have the straps that come all the way down were shared by other figures from 1982 including grunt hawk and snake eyes there's a difference between the 1982 waste piece on breaker and the one on the 1983 breaker the 1982 waste piece was thicker like this and the 1983 waste piece was slimmer also the belts were different and these belt buckles look like they're both intended to be brand stamps for hasbro breaker's arms feature rolled up sleeves and those are parts that he also shared with clutch and rock and roll you can see the difference in the 1982 and 1983 arms the swivel on the 1983 arms was added right at that cut where the sleeve ends these legs are pretty standard they are shared by many of the 1982 gi jo figures it has some pouches on the sides and these are painted in silver and then of course it has some pretty standard black boots let's take a look at the file card this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged you can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there you encourage to cut these out and keep them it shows his faction as gi jo and it has a portrait of breaker there and do note that the beard on the portrait of breaker is very faint there almost looks like a shadow and it may have been that this was added later breaker may not have originally been intended to have a beard this says he's the communications officer and his codename is breaker and breaker is a slang used by cb radio operators and it's just a signal to indicate that the operator is ready to send a message his final name is alvin r kibby his primary military specialty is infantry he has no secondary military specialty which is kind of odd because he is a communications expert his birthplace is gatlingburg tennessee and his grade is e4 this section says breaker is familiar with all nato and warsaw packed communications gear as well as most world export devices specialized education signal school covert electronics and project gamma the signal core handles all communications and information systems of the combined armed forces so that would be appropriate for breaker as a communications officer project gamma is a special forces detachment from 1966 to 1970 that ran covert intelligence operations in cambodia this means by extension that breaker served in the vietnam conflict and if he served in project gamma no later than 1970 then breaker must be older than he looks qualified expert m16 m1911 a1 mac 10 ingram none of which the action figure comes with in parentheses classified don't tell anyone but he speaks seven languages nine if you include pig latin and klingon this bottom section has a quote it says he's efficient and self-assured and has an uncanny ability to turn adverse situations to his favor what does this file card tell you about the character of breaker other than just his job nothing really this bottom quote down here reads like one of those motivational posters that hangs in your supervisor's office taking a look at breaker overall the first complaint is pretty obvious this is a very generic figure he's really made up of parts from other action figures he has no unique parts all on his own and he doesn't even come with a weapon even though i've let him borrow one for the purposes of this video he did not come with any firearms so he really didn't work very well as an action soldier in that first line of gi joe figures or other figures had big machine guns and submachine guns and vehicles breaker had none of that comparing breaker with his replacement dial tone the dial tone figure really just goes all out with paint color applications and detail and accessories and the breaker action figure just doesn't that's why it's really hard for fans to be very excited about this breaker action figure the breaker action figure is generic that cannot be denied but some collectors have complained that these 1982 gi joe figures are boring but i disagree these 82 figures are wearing essentially modified uniforms of american soldiers and people wearing uniforms very much like those were present at some of the most important events in all of human history so generic yes but boring i don't think so they may lack the flashy colors and details of gi joe figures that we would get later but as soldiers they represent the core of what gi joe is supposed to be and the very reason that the line was called gi joe in the first play breaker appeared in both the gi joe comic book and the cartoon and in both of those media he was more than just a radio man he was also a technology nerd and a computer whiz that gave him a little bit more to do the breaker action figure as you can see has a beard but in the gi joe comic book breaker did not have a beard he was clean shaven and he was known for chewing bubble gum all the time and blowing bubbles in the cartoon breaker did have a beard and i think i actually prefer breaker with the beard because in the comic book depending on who the artist was in any given issue if breaker wasn't blowing his bubble gum then he was almost indistinguishable from grunt so his beard makes him a little bit more distinguishable from the other very generic characters from that year breaker had a lot of appearances in the first year of gi joe comic books but in the later years he kind of took a backseat as new gi joe characters were introduced so you definitely didn't see him as often however he did meet a very tragic end as in issue number 109 he was killed along with some other gi joes breaker appeared in the live action movie gi joe rise of cobra but his nationality was changed to moroccan in the gi joe animated series breaker's role was partially taken over by a character called sparks sparks was a character invented specifically for the cartoon series he did not have an action figure in the vintage line i much would have preferred to see breaker more in the cartoon rather than have a character invented that sort of pushed him aside breaker was the first gi joe figure i got as a child way back in 1982 and i got the straight armed version now why would breaker be the first gi joe that i would select to buy and own for myself i've been thinking about that and i think there are a couple reasons first even though there was one gi joe commercial that came before it the first gi joe tv commercial that i remember seeing was the one with breaker on the ram motorcycle so that was my first exposure to gi joe secondly i think i got this action figure with my dad and my dad not knowing anything about 80s gi joe may have associated the bearded breaker with the 1970s flocked bearded action team gi joe and so breaker may have seemed like the main character and naturally the first one to get once i got the figure though my mind was blown before that like a lot of other kids i collected star wars and the star wars action figures they were fine i didn't really have a problem with them but then gi joe comes out with movable elbows and movable knees and it was just a whole new world and after that i'd still get star wars action figures every once in a while but i was a gi joe kid as a reviewer i have to be honest with you about this action figures shortcomings and it has many but on a personal level this figure is very special to me it has a lot of sentimental value this was my entry point into gi joe if not for this breaker action figure there might never have been a hooded cobra commander 7a a channel you probably wouldn't be watching this video the course of human events may have been altered irreparably maybe the communist would have won the cold war ever think about that and i think it's saying something when the most generic gi joe figure that was released that year still blew away any star wars figure that had been released before then it just took one gi joe to displace star wars the other solution to the weaponless breaker that i mentioned earlier is to put breaker on the ram motorcycle that came out that same year even though the gi joe comic book often features rock and roll writing the motorcycle i think it's much more appropriate with breaker he can still wear all of his communications gear and while he's on the motorcycle he has this huge gatling gun that he can use to fight cobra and if he's not on the ram i have to admit i just put him at the computer console in the 1983 gi joe headquarters command center because i don't know what else to do with him that was my review of the 1982 and 1983 releases of breaker i hope you enjoyed it and if you're thinking of getting a breaker action figure i hope you found it informative if you like it don't forget to give it a big old thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy reviews coming your way you don't want to miss them and don't forget to like me on facebook and follow me on twitter you get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else thanks for watching i'll see you next week with another vintage gi joe toy review hello everybody who did cobra commander seven eight eight here and at last cobra month is here yeah we are looking at all cobra for the entire month of july and we are starting with the most essential cobra figure ever the 1982 and 1983 version of the cobra trooper i've been saving this one just for this occasion take cover we're under attack these guys are lousy shots they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn well since i'm apparently in no danger let's carry on with the review hcc 788 presents cobra this is the cobra soldier also known as the cobra trooper although officially he was just called cobra he was introduced in 1982 in the so-called straight arm version the figure was reintroduced in 1983 with a change in the articulation he had a new point of articulation at the bicep referred to as swivel arm battle grip we'll take a look at the differences in articulation later in this video the swivel arm cobra soldier was available from 1983 all the way to 1985 so he was on the pegs longer than most gi joe figures were collectors refer to these guys as cobra soldiers or cobra troopers they're also sometimes called blue shirts for obvious reasons in public appearances larry hama the writer of the gi joe comic book also refers to these blue shirts as vipers in 1986 the cobra infantry trooper called the viper was introduced as an updated basic cobra soldier some fans consider the vipers to be a separate unit from the blue shirts perhaps a more advanced infantry unit now larry hama seems to view them as the same unit with different uniforms and equipment i like to think of them as separate troopers serving separate roles with the blue shirts being the lowest ranked and least skilled trooper these figures were intended to be army built meaning kids were supposed to buy multiples of them and build a whole army they were like the storm troopers from star wars there was nothing to individualize them so you could buy multiples of them and pretend they're different guys since adult collectors also like to army build these figures prices tend to run above average for a single complete figure let's take a look at the cobra soldier's accessory he came with only one the draganov svd this accessory is based on the real world draganov svd which was a soviet era sniper rifle it began service in 1963 and is still in use it has a 10 round magazine this is an odd choice of weapon for an unspecialized soldier these guys are not snipers the cobra officers ak-47 may have been a better choice for the rank and file soldier whereas the sniper rifle may have been a more appropriate weapon for the cobra officer it'd be easy to swap these out based on original concept drawings that have surfaced this is the weapon the cobra soldier was intended to come with there was no mix up so for some reason the design team did think this was a good accessory for this figure let's take a look at the articulation for the cobra soldier and here's where we get into the major difference between the 1982 and 1983 version the 1982 cobra soldier had the standard articulation for figures of that year meaning he could turn his head from left to right he could lift his arm up at the shoulder and he could swivel at the shoulder all the way around he also had a hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees and that was all the articulation on the arm in 1983 however they added swivel arm battle grip which was a new swivel at the bicep that allowed the figure to swivel his arm all the way around this was to allow the figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip and I consider it a great improvement beyond that their articulation is the same the figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that allowed him to move at the torso a bit he can move his legs apart about so far he can move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of the cobra soldier and it's useful to point out the similarities to the cobra officer who was released the same year these guys look a lot alike they are the same color they even share similar sculpted details but in fact there is only one part shared between the two of them and that is the waist piece other than that all the other parts are different on his head we have a sculpted on helmet a black mask that goes over his nose he has brown eyes which were later changed to black this helmet looks a lot like the classic steel pot helmet however in the gi jo comic book it was often drawn to resemble the nazi waffen ss style helmet although the cobra soldier's head looks almost identical to the cobra officer's head they are not the same the cobra officer's helmet has a sculpted chevron the cobra soldier's helmet is lacking he has a blue shirt hence the nickname and he has a red cobra emblem on it and this cobra emblem is slightly off center i don't know if you can see that it is tilted slightly and i don't know if this is because of poor quality control or what but whether by accident or design the cobra emblem is not straight he has black straps that continue around to his back in this y pattern and on this strap he has sculpted a grenade launcher with a pistol grip we know this is a grenade launcher because on concept artwork for the cobra soldier it is labeled as such grenade launchers with pistol grips do exist in the real world for example there is a pistol mount for the m203 grenade launcher although this is not based on that this is probably just a made-up design his arms are blue with long sleeves and blue gloves and on his right arm he has a piano wire sculpted and painted silver he would use this to strangle his victims on the swivel arm version that detail is moved from the side of the arm to the front of the arm on his left arm he has a couple bullet shaped objects which are probably grenades for his grenade launcher on his waist he has a black belt with some pouches and a circular belt buckle some detail on that the waist piece for the 1982 and 1983 version are almost identical they are the same in structure the only difference is the date stamp on their butts the 1982 version says copyright 1982 the 1983 version says copyright 82-83 again the cobra officer reuses that waste piece and it is identical as far as i can tell even in color this waste piece was reused for a lot of other figures it was used for the 1983 his tank driver the 1988 tiger force duke it was used on version 1d and version 1e of steel brigade it was also used for steel brigade version 2 the gold head steel brigade his legs are blue continuing that blue uniform on his right leg he has a pocket on his left leg he has a bayonet he has some fairly plain black boots but most importantly he has knee pads these are great knee pads and they are the first knee pads introduced in gi joe the entire mold of the 1983 cobra soldier was used to create the 1983 cobra viper pilot and the 1989 python patrol officer i think this uniform evokes a nazi vibe it has a large logo the iconic cobra head and you could easily picture a swastika in its place the cobra soldier is not camouflage i think cobra intends for you to see their troops coming they want to inspire fear upon their approach the designer of this figure for hasbro ron rudat said he wanted the cobra soldier to have a mask because he wanted the enemy to be nameless and faceless not designating any specific ethnic group i imagine the mask as a symbol of the submersion of the individual's identity into the collective cult of cobra under the absolute rule of cobra commander it's not to hide the soldier's identity who really cares who's under the mask it's to show that his identity no longer matters he has joined with something that he considers greater than himself let's take a look at the file card and i have a couple here because i have a variant the text is the same but most file cards were clipped from the carded retail packaging so you'll see some of the artwork on the flip side this file card has a plain red backing no artwork on the back just plain red there were a few ways to get these red back file cards one was through mail order the cobra soldier was available as a mail away direct from hasbro for a while another way was in multi packs which were available very early in the line also the cobra soldier was among the figures packed with the 1982 sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters and those would have come with red back file cards it has its faction as cobra and it has a portrait of the cobra soldier here and i do love this artwork i've been mesmerized by this artwork since the first time i saw it up here it says cobra not cobra soldier not cobra trooper just cobra and it has his codename as the enemy and of course that's not really a codename this was done really on all of the early cobra file cards the cobra officer just says codename the enemy the his tank driver has codename the enemy and even cobra commander just has his codename as enemy leader his file name is unknown and of course we're not talking about an individual he would have various file names his primary military specialty is infantry secondary military specialty is sabotage birthplace is various countries and grade is e4 or equivalent i think of these blue shirts as the troopers who have completed whatever cobra considers basic training so their ranks should be the lowest like e1 through maybe e4 troopers that have advanced to higher ranks and received advanced infantry training would become vipers this section says one of the nameless faceless legions of cobra command each cobra again referring to him just as cobra is highly skilled in the use of explosives all nato and warsaw pack small arms sabotage and the martial arts qualified expert scorpion vz or pistol draganov svd sniper's rifle uzi submachine gun and m16 this bottom section has a quote it says cobra's swear absolute loyalty to their fanatical leader cobra commander their goal to conquer the world for their own evil purpose this file card depicts a fanatical enemy that cannot be reasoned with and is bent on world domination the perfect enemy for gi joe since the cobra soldier was the basic gi joe enemy he was all over gi joe media they appeared in the very first episode of the cartoon series and frequently thereafter they still appear in the cartoon after the introduction of the cobra viper and they even appear sometimes in the same episodes as the viper which confirms that they were not replaced by the viper the cobra soldiers were notorious for shooting a lot of lasers but never being able to hit anything maybe if you guys moved a little closer that would help still nothing in the gi joe comic book they appeared in issue number one surrounded with a lot of fascist imagery they even flashed nazi salutes in issue number eight which was notably not written by larry hama we get a glimpse of the cobra soldier's fanatical loyalty to cobra commander as they choose to die rather than be rescued and taken prisoner by gi joe in issue number 38 through flashbacks with the aid of the brainwave scanner we see the beginnings of the cobra army with the earliest soldiers wearing street clothes and masks tied around their faces they're marching under the promise of something greater how does cobra gain the loyalty of so many recruits in issue number 43 we see how wade collins joined cobra wade collins was a war buddy of gi joe's stalker and snake eyes and the ninja storm shadow and he eventually became a crimson guardsman he was a disaffected vietnam veteran who was searching for something to belong to that's how cobra would get their grip on people they would find people who felt downtrodden like outsiders they would find them at their lowest point and promise them a role in their movement they may be a small cog in the machine but at least they meant something the viper didn't replace the basic cobra trooper in the comic book either the blue shirt continued to appear after the introduction of the viper looking at this figure overall even though it's kind of a plain and simple figure it will always be a top tier figure in my book i was super excited about this figure when i was a kid and i still love it this figure embodies what cobra means to me even more so than iconic figures like cobra commander and the baroness these blue shirts are the backbone of cobra and the cobra trooper was a monumental figure look at what this figure launched it introduced an enemy for gi joe which immediately gave the joe universe more depth it provided a color for the enemy blue so if all you wanted to do with gi joe was have play battles you had your blue team and you had your green team and you didn't have to go into any more depth than that it gave us that iconic cobra logo in its most recognized color red and that logo was emblazoned on everything it was a visual cue that required no explanation it became a stand-in for any enemy of the united states particularly drawing on nazi imagery this idea of the brainwashed enemy that's bent on destruction was the incarnation of all of our fears and most importantly he introduced d-pads when the new gi joe was created by hasbro there was no enemy for gi joe if you look at the earliest cardbacks you only see the joes listed not tobra kirk was again who was in charge of the gi joe brand at the time just thought gi joe would fight other toys in the kids toy box gi joe would fight star wars just the same way that hasbro was fighting kenner in the marketplace that's really a marketing mentality since the marketer is fighting against star wars the assumption is that's how the kids will play as well when the concept was presented to marvel to add their creative input it was marvel editor archie goodwin who first suggested an enemy for gi joe called cobra similar to hydra in the marvel universe it seems so elemental now but marvel understood what hasbro hadn't quite figured out yet marketing toys in the 1980s wasn't just about hawking plastic it was about universe building it was about using media tie-ins such as cartoons and comic books to create characters that kids would connect with and stories that would become the basis for their play gi joe follow that 80s formula to great success and in a lot of ways it blazed the trail for other toy lines they did it better than just about anyone else for a long time and the introduction of cobra was vital to that success right that's enough of that this is my video and you guys better clear out of here richie that was my review of the 1982 and 1983 cobra trooper i hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure you subscribe on youtube so you don't miss anything like me on facebook follow me on twitter comment and share this video you don't want any of your friends to miss cobra month cobra month continues next week i'll see you then and remember until next time only cobra is cobra hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this week we are going to look at another figure from 1982 i did not intend for september to be a theme month but we've been rolling with these 1982 figures so we might as well finish up the month with another one why is it important that we look at these 1982 figures it's important because you have got to know your roots whether it be music or art or literature you've got to understand where you came from to make any sense of where you're going and these 1982 figures were the foundation of eighties and nineties gi joe so with these reviews we are building our foundation so when we look at figures that came later we will understand them better because we took the time to build the foundation so let's build a little more this week we're going to look at a bad guy this time let's look at the 1982 and the 1983 versions of the cobra officer this is the cobra officer the enemy of gi joe he was first introduced in 1982 in this so-called straight arm version it was called straight arm because it had only one point of articulation here at the elbow he could not swivel his arm in 1983 he was reissued with swivel arm battle grip which added this swivel at the bicep so he could hold his weapon with a two-handed grip the straight arm version was available only in 1982 the swivel arm version was available in 1983 and 1984 it was discontinued in 1985 and in 1985 the closest to a replacement for this figure was the crimson guard but the crimson guard wasn't really a replacement for the cobra officer the crimson guard was a new separate unit within cobra the cobra officer was available in a lot of ways other than carded for retail he was available with the 1982 cobra missile command headquarters he was also in a jc penny exclusive three-packed in which he came with the mortar that originally came with short fuse in 1986 through 1987 he was available from hasbro direct as part of their original adventure team set in 1989 he was available as an individual bagged figure so this guy was available for a long time and in a lot of different ways in 1984 the entire mold of the swivel arm cobra officer was reused for the stinger driver and came with the 1984 stinger jeep in 1989 the entire mold for the swivel arm cobra officer was reused for the python patrol python trooper let's take a look at the cobra officer's accessory and he came with only one this ak-47 assault rifle the ak-47 was also known as the kalashnikov ak so what i'm saying is the ak-47 is aka the kalashnikov ak the ak-47 is a russian weapon that first saw service in 1949 and is still widely used around the world um it's used a lot because of its generally low production cost and its overall reliability the cobra officer's original accessory is a very dark gray in 1984 in battle gear accessory pack number two they reissued this same weapon but in a blue color and you often see cobra officers coming with this blue rifle but that blue even though it does closely match the color of the uniform that is not the original is this dark gray i don't know if the cobra officer rifle would be considered a rare accessory but i did have a heck of a time finding a loose one there is some controversy as to whether the cobra officer was originally intended to come with this ak-47 the 1982 cobra soldier came with a dragon of sniper rifle which is a more specialized weapon and the officer came with the more generalized assault rifle you would expect that to be reversed to add to the confusion when python patrol came out the mold for the cobra soldier was reused for the python patrol officer and the mold for the cobra officer was reused for the python patrol trooper and so the officer then had the sniper rifle and the trooper had the assault rifle there are some fan theories out there and some have speculated that somewhere in the design process the cobra officer got the accessory that was intended for the cobra soldier well if that's the case and there was also a mix up on the card art because the packaging for the cobra officer clearly depicts him with this ak-47 let's take a look at the articulation on the cobra officer the 1982 version of the cobra officer had the typical articulation for figures of that year meaning he could turn his head from left to right he could also lift his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel at the shoulder all the way around he did have that hinge at the elbow so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees he was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside so he could move at the torso a little bit he could move his legs apart about so far he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees the swivel arm cobra officer had the same articulation as the straight arm cobra officer but he did have that new point of articulation at the bicep he could now swivel his arm all the way around at the bicep let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of the cobra officer and let's make a quick note here you can see my cobra officers are different colors this straight arm version is darker than the swivel arm version however this is probably attributable to sun damage this has been exposed to a lot of sunlight the color on it has darkened but the original color for the cobra officer should pretty closely match the color for the cobra soldier that would be the original color and this one appears to be discolored the head features a blue non-removable helmet and a black mask that goes over his nose on gi joe team members i prefer to have the helmets be removable but i don't really mind the non-removable helmets on cobra figures the head for the cobra officer is almost identical to the cobra soldier but as you can see the cobra officer has this chevron molded onto his helmet and the cobra soldier does not the chest features that classic cobra blue uniform and he has web gear more elaborate web gear than the cobra soldier and some additional paint apps we have gray on the shoulders and we have this gray device here on the belt his straps carry on to the back again with a different profile than what you see on the cobra soldier and then on his chest is this very troublesome silver cobra sigil this silver paint is notorious for being very easy to rub off it's nowadays it's hard to find a cobra officer with his cobra sigil completely perfect in mint condition a lot of them are scratched away like this and some of them the cobra sigil is completely gone this is actually the best one out of all of the cobra officers i have here are all of the cobra officers i have with their cobra sigils in various states this one looks like he's got some road rash there this one is just barely visible and this one here is completely worn away his arms are blue long sleeves he features these rings here at the cuff and black gloves there was a change between 1982 and 1983 the 1982 version had this single ring at his cuff and the 1983 version had a double ring at the cuff there's a very minor variant on the straight arm version some of the straight arm cobra officers featured thick thumbs and some featured thin thumbs and this i believe is the thin thumb version but my straight arm cobra officer also has the ultra rare no thumbs variant the 1983 cobra officers arms were reused for the swivel arm cobra commander version 1.5 however the straight arm version of cobra commander did not reuse the straight arms cobra officers arms the straight arm cobra commander had unique arms another good way to tell the cobra officer apart from the cobra soldier is the gloves cobra officer had black gloves and the cobra soldier had blue gloves this waste piece features a black belt it's got some pouches pretty plain on the back we've got some pockets there the trousers are the same color as the shirt the waste pieces on the 1982 and 1983 cobra officers are the same however they do have different date stamps on the butt on 1982 cobra officer it says copyright 1982 hasbro on the 1983 cobra officer it says copyright 82 83 hasbro this waste piece was reused on a lot of other figures it was used on the 1982 cobra soldier that is the only part that the cobra officer and the cobra soldier share even though the figures look a lot alike other than the waste piece they share no other parts it was used on the 1983 his tank driver in 1988 it was used on tiger force duke and it was used on some versions of steel brigade it was used on version 1d and version 1e of steel brigade his legs are blue his right leg is pretty plain nothing there his left leg features a black dagger and then he has some pretty plain black boots the cobra soldier also features a black dagger on his left leg but it is not the same dagger the one on the cobra officer is more ornate the cobra soldier features these really cool knee pads and the cobra officer does not have knee pads and i gotta admit i really like the knee pads and the cobra soldier's boots are more detailed so with these added details i may prefer the cobra soldier figure over the cobra officer let's take a look at the file card and i have two file cards here because i wanted to point out something most of your cobra officer file cards would have been printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged so on the flip side you'll see some of the artwork from the front of the card like this this would have been from the 1983 swivel arm version because you can see a little bit of the advertisement for the new swivel arm battle grip the cobra officers that came as a mail away or that came with the 1982 missile command headquarters featured a plain red back like this no artwork on the back this is probably from the missile command headquarters because those figures were actually sealed on the back of the card on a bubble and this has that ripped off whereas the mail away cobra officers were in bags and the file card was just an insert in the bag so this is probably from the missile command headquarters i do not normally seek out those red back file cards because they're usually a bit more expensive but since i had one i thought i'd show you an example the file card has this faction as cobra naturally it has a portrait of a cobra officer it says his specialty is cobra officer and his codename is the enemy okay this is kind of a weird thing they did on the 1982 cobra file cards it just said codename the enemy and that's not really a codename they did the same thing on the cobra soldier who they didn't really call a cobra soldier they just called cobra again codename the enemy uh even cobra commander um his codename was enemy leader uh in 1983 even the his tank driver uh still had codename the enemy that was the year after this in 1983 they were still doing that and then in 1984 uh the cobra stinger driver carried over this codename the enemy uh this file card is textually almost identical to the cobra officer with just some minor changes it says file name unknown and that's not really true cobra would have had many officers so this file card really does not feature an individual uh this really should say file name various there would have been a lot of cobra officers within the cobra organization his primary military specialty is infantry secondary military specialty is artillery and intelligence and his birthplace is various countries which is correct they should have essentially done the same thing for the file name it has his grade as 04 or equivalent and 04 is a major and i don't think that's correct uh that would give him the same rank as major blood and i don't think a cobra officer should have the same rank as a major no pun intended character like major blood in my view a cobra officer should have any officer rank second lieutenant and up but would be below any of the command officers like major blood the baroness destro and cobra commander this section says cobra officers are frontline fighters who lead cobra attack units into battle many are also believed to be operating as spies at defense plants nuclear power facilities etc all are martial arts experts masters of disguise deceit and demolitions what they're describing here is a fifth column which is a group that is intended to undermine an enemy from within and that really pretty well describes what the crimson guard was intended to do qualified expert ak 47 assault rifle p m 63 machine pistol m 16 ingram m 11 submachine gun there's a quote here down at the bottom that says cobra officers are dedicated to destroying g i joe and the american way of life beware they are extremely dangerous enemies exclamation point end quote this file card doesn't tell you anything about the personality of a cobra officer but it isn't intended to as i said earlier there would have been many cobra officers within cobra so this file card is describing all cobra officers now this may seem kind of plain but for kids in 1982 this probably would have been enough to get them excited about this new enemy of g i joe let's talk about rank within cobra when the cobra officer came out the main difference between him and the cobra soldier is the cobra soldier had a red cobra symbol and the cobra officer had a silver cobra symbol so that silver symbol seemed to be some kind of officer designation in 1983 the his tank driver also an officer had the silver cobra symbol but in 1984 the baroness definitely an officer had the red cobra symbol and cobra commander the highest ranking cobra officer of them all had the red cobra symbol in 1983 the cobra viper pilot who reused the cobra soldier's mold and who was not an officer had the silver cobra symbol both the cobra officer and cobra commander had these little emblems here on their collars and that probably means something but the rank insignia within cobra was never very clearly defined looking at the cobra officer overall the first obvious thing about him is he looks almost identical to the cobra soldier in fact if that silver cobra symbol is worn off at a distance it's almost impossible to tell them apart these blue uniforms would work pretty well at night they would be pretty stealthy at night but they're not very good camouflage at all for daytime operations cobra seems to have a different philosophy though they want to be seen they want their enemy to see a huge wave of cobra officers and cobra soldiers coming over the hill and they want that to inspire fear in their enemy the cobra officer was depicted in various gi joe media but he often got folded in with the cobra soldier i guess when you're drawing throngs of cobra troopers there's not much point in differentiating between soldier and officer the gi joe comic book tended to focus on one particular cobra officer called scarface and he was a part of a story arc in the early comic books featuring snake eyes quinn and dr venom the scarface character started a bit of an urban legend among my friends since the character was featured in the comic book naturally we expected to get an action figure but there was no action figure for scarface but the legend went that some cobra officers were sculpted with scars under the eyes like the scarface character but there was no designation on the package you just had to look at the action figure and see if you could find the ones with the scar so when we went to the toy department we would look at all the cobra officers we would stare very closely at each one to see if we could find the one with the scar but of course we never found one because there never was one here's an interesting little bit of history about cobra originally hasbro did not design any bad guys for gi joe in fact if you look at the earliest carded example of gi joe figures from 1982 it does not feature any cobra figures on the cross cell on the back of the cards the idea for cobra came from marvel comics editor archie goodwin who suggested an organization similar to hydra in the marvel comics universe when we did finally get cobra action figures the only figures that were available at retail were the cobra soldier and the cobra officer cobra commander wasn't available until later as an exclusive mail away offer what a fortuitous suggestion on the part of archie goodwin would gi joe have been as popular as it became without its nemesis cobra the cobra officer was a good figure for its time but he was overshadowed by the more detailed and more specialized cobra troopers that came later like the snow serpent like the cobra viper but one thing i like about the cobra officer is he is still an officer and that means he's a leader so a cobra officer could lead a squad of any of these more specialized cobras except for the crimson guard i kind of see the crimson guard as a totally separate unit within cobra with its own unique command structure i really like seeing the cobra officer in a command position over these other cobra troopers because amidst all of these more specialized troops i really enjoy seeing that classic cobra blue that was my review of the 1982 and 1983 cobra officer i hope you enjoyed it and if you're thinking of getting a cobra officer i hope you found it informative if you liked it make sure you get a bit of big fat thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to hit the subscribe button i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy reviews coming up you don't want to miss them don't forget to like me on facebook and follow me on twitter you get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else and don't forget for my 500 subscriber giveaway i am giving away a gi joe vamp and swivel arm clutch action figure make sure you check out my video for that for the rules and don't forget to enter you don't want to miss out on thanks everyone for watching i'll see you next week with another vintage gi joe toy review see you then hello everybody hooded cobra commander 7a here it's time for another vintage gi joe toy review and i had a hard time deciding what i was gonna review this week until i finally settled on flash since there was a good positive response to my quick shot of flash i love looking at these old 1982 joes i really enjoyed the impromptu theme month that we did so i'm happy to look at another one of the original green 13 what do you think of when you hear flash do you think of the superhero that runs really fast maybe you think of roscope coltrane's dog or maybe you think of flash gordon not that flash gordon everybody knows the buster crab flash gordon is the only real flash gordon but you probably don't think of a gi joe character from 1982 flash was a character that was mostly forgotten after 1982 the year that he was released but here at the hcc788 channel we never forget our roots so let's take a look at flash this is flash gi joe's laser rifle trooper from 1982 he was in the first series of gi joe figures when the line was relaunched that year he was first available in 1982 in this so-called straight arm version he was reissued in 1983 with a new point of articulation with this so-called swivel arm version i will explain what those terms mean later in this video the swivel arm version of flash was also available in 1984 he was discontinued for the year 1985 and in 1986 there was a new laser rifle trooper sci fi the presence of flash in that first wave of gi joe figures means that there were science fiction elements within gi joe from the very beginning of the line it wasn't purely realistic military flash is often confused with grand slam another figure that was available at the same time uh figure that also had these red pads and came with a helmet and visor it's a little known fact but flash's pads are actually white but once a month for about a week they turn red and nobody knows why you get it anybody flash was one of the original green 13 he was one of the first 13 members of gi joe and just look at them they're mostly green let's take a look at flash's accessories he is a laser rifle trooper so he comes with a laser rifle and this is the xml r1a shoulder fired laser rifle and then it has an attached wire here that connects to his backpack this is a fantasy weapon it is not based on a real world design but it does have a lot of detail added to make it look more realistic the laser rifle has a thin curved stock and that is easily broken off as is this wire that connects to it so do be careful with those easily broken parts now this is a science fiction weapons but lasers are real lasers do exist and when they are weaponized they're considered to be a type of directed energy weapon most weaponized lasers are gas dynamic lasers which use a lasing medium gas which becomes very hot and i think that's why flash has this protective padding the soviets were the first to develop a handheld laser back in 1984 for use by their cosmonauts in most cases a laser rifle would be inferior to a regular rifle a firearm it would be most useful as a cutting tool or to blind the enemy if you did want a laser as a personal battlefield weapon it might look a lot like this it would require a lot of energy from an energy source that would probably be heavy and bulky and would probably be in a backpack like this in 1983 gi joe finally won its battle against the laws of physics with the introduction of the xmlr 3a laser rifle with the 1983 snow job the xmlr 3a that came with snow job is supposed to be the next generation laser rifle from flash's xmlr 1a and it became the standard laser rifle in the gi joe animated series i've never been a big fan of these fantasy weapons these laser guns i've always preferred the more realistic accessories for gi joe and i felt like every time we got one of these fantasy weapons i was being cheated out of a really nice replica of a real-world weapon for my gi joes as an adult collector i can appreciate the design and the detail of these fantasy weapons but as a kid i really wanted the more realistic gi joe accessories in 1983 has were released the first battle gear accessory pack which included some reissues of figure accessories in different color plastic and one of the accessories released in the first battle gear accessory pack was flash's laser rifle but it was done in this lighter color gray comparing the accessory pack version of the laser rifle to the original you can see the accessory pack version is a lighter color gray but if you didn't have the original accessory to compare it to it could be very easy to mistake this one for the original the original laser rifle is not quite a true black it is a very dark gray flash's next accessory is this clear visor and this visor clips onto the helmet these little tabs on the inside of the visor clip on to the holes in the sides of the helmet these visors are clear they are tiny they are very easily lost and if you're looking to replace one they can be almost as expensive as the figure itself a laser even a lower powered laser can be very damaging to the human eye which is why i think flash wears this protective visor of course the visor attached to the helmet and this is a standard helmet that came with most 1982 gi joe action figures and it is in this medium green color which matches the color of flash's uniform this helmet should not be confused with the helmet of grand slam which is a darker color green to match the darker green of his uniform there were a lot of gi joe figures released in 1982 with this exact same helmet clutch grunt breaker hawk and short fuse all had an identical helmet although the green may discolor over the years there are a lot of these helmets floating around so if you need to replace one you really shouldn't have any trouble finding one flash's final accessory is his backpack which serves as a power source for his laser the backpack has some detail not a lot of detail but i guess this is impressive for 1982 one peculiar thing about this backpack it is contoured to the shape of the back and when it's put on the way it's meant to be the hole for the wire on the laser rifle is connected on the left side which suggests that flash is left-handed and should carry his laser rifle in his left hand one problem i have with this theory is this curved stock does look like it's shaped to fit on the inside of his right arm so i do think this wire is supposed to run from the left side of the backpack to the right hand there is a difference between the 1982 version of this backpack of the 1983 version the original 1982 version that came with the straight arm flash had this shorter and kind of squared off peg whereas the 1983 version with swivel arm flash had kind of a longer peg with a rounded tip let's take a look at flash's articulation and this is where there's a major difference between the 1982 version of flash and 1983 the original version of flash could turn his head from left to right like that he could also lift his arm up at the shoulder and he could swivel it at the shoulder all the way around and then he had the single point of articulation at the elbow he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees in 1983 they added a new point of articulation on the arm not only could he move at the elbow about 90 degrees but he had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around this was referred to as swivel arm battle grip both versions of the figure were held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed them to move at the torso a little bit he could move his legs apart about so far he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of flash starting with his head and his head is very plain with a neutral expression he is a caucasian with brown hair and that's really all there is to say about him there's really not much to distinguish flash in 1982 gi jo figures were really bad about reusing parts including head sculpts in fact flash has a twin in the 1982 gi jo line the 1982 mobat tank driver steeler flash and steeler have the exact same head sculpt and even the same hair color this same head sculpt was used four times in 1982 flash and steeler had it hawk and short fuse also had the same head sculpt but with blonde hair instead of brown this is one way you can distinguish between flash and grand slam they both have the same hair color but grand slam has a different head sculpt on his chest flash has those very bright red pads with silver straps that continue on to the back this chest with the red pads and the silver straps was reused for grand slam but the green uniform on grand slam is a darker color green than the uniform on flash his arms features sculpted pads on his biceps and brown gloves and you can see a little bit of sculpting of additional pads on the back of his hands the swivel arm version of flash in addition to having the new point of articulation also has just painted on patches on his arms rather than the sculpted red pads there's a difference in the waist piece between the 1982 and 1983 versions of flash the 1982 flash has this thicker waist piece with a wide belt and an H shaped belt buckle 1983 flash has a thinner waist piece with a more detailed belt and a different shaped belt buckle flashes legs feature more red pads these kind of oval shaped pads here and he has boot covers with what looks like buckles that go around the back and brown boots let's take a look at flash's file card now this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged you can see some of the artwork on the front of the card there and you can tell this is a card from 1982 flash because in 1983 the swivel arm version of flash advertised the new swivel arm battle grip and down in this corner of the card it has its faction as gi joe it has a nice portrait of flash right here it says he is the laser rifle trooper and his codename is flash his file name is anthony escombello his primary military specialty is infantry his secondary military specialty is electronics and cbr this cbr stands for chemical biological and radiological this is often seen as cbr in which is chemical biological radiological and nuclear u.s. army has a cbr in school at fort lennard wood missouri and if flash is a specialist at cbr i'd have to assume that he attended that school this section says flash is highly skilled in many aspects of electronic technology and is capable of equipment repair in the field specialized education electronic school chemical school and maybe this is referring to that cbr in school at fort lennard wood uh covert electronics qualified expert m 16 m 19 11 a 1 xml r 1 a shoulder fired laser rifle which of course is the accessory that he comes with this bottom section has a quote it says flash is methodical and persistent he has an innate and unshakable faith in the order of the universe he's working on his master's degree in electronic engineering in parentheses nights during the day he's too busy g i joeing so he has to moonlight these 1982 file cards really didn't contain a lot of information compare that to a 1985 file card for crankcase you can see the text is tiny and it's squeezed in here they squeeze a lot of information on this file card but these early 1982 file cards really gave us just a very basic rundown on the character flash did appear in g i joe media in the cartoon series he did appear in frequently and his specialty was changed from a laser rifle trooper to a flamethrower but in the cartoon everybody used a laser rifle so having a laser rifle specialist was really unnecessary in the g i joe comic book he first appeared in issue number one where he used his laser rifle as a cutting tool which again is how i think it would be most effectively used flash did appear in other issues of the g i joe comic book but there are some peculiarities with his appearances for instance in issue number six grand slam is selected for a mission but in issue number seven we see that flash is actually on the mission i think flash and grand slam are so similar that even larry hama the writer of the g i joe comic book had a hard time telling them apart and got them mixed up in issue number 50 of the comic book flash appears but he calls himself zap now zap is the codename of one of his team mates the bazooka soldier zap has nothing to do with laser rifles and he doesn't even look like flash so this is just a straight up error taking a look at flash overall it is very difficult to rate this figure he's constructed entirely of reused parts from other action figures so it's very difficult for me to give him a top tier rating however he does seem like a special action figure he really stands out among his peers so it kind of seems like he deserves some special recognition i can tell you that i did not like this action figure as a kid i really didn't like the red pads at the time my other g i joe figures were all green and i kind of liked it that way but when i saw these red pads i kind of saw this it looked like he was making a big target of himself in the field also i was not on board with these laser guns these science fiction features that they were sneaking in with my army toys i'm much more accepting of things like bright colors in g i joe now as an adult collector than i was as a kid as a kid i was kind of merciless i wanted a military toy line not this science fiction stuff that's still my preference and there are some science fiction elements in g i joe that still really bother me but i'm much less hard-nosed about it now and i'm very happy to have flash in my collection i can also appreciate the fantasy elements in early g i joe yes they had some laser rifles but they did not go overboard it wasn't until later in the line that we got clones mutants and aliens and comparing flash to some of the goofy stuff that came out later in the line he looks almost subdued and realistic a lot of my viewers have said that flash was the very first g i joe action figure they got so apparently this figure appealed to other kids a lot more than appealed to me i hate to disagree with the general opinion of my viewership but when it comes right down to it i'm still not a fan of lasers and i still prefer the more realistic military g i joe's so while flash is a favorite of a lot of g i joe fans my favorite figure from 1982 is still going to be my old buddy stalker that was my review of the 1982 and 1983 flash i hope you enjoyed it and if you're thinking of getting one of these action figures i hope you found it informative if you liked it don't forget to give it a thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe to my channel i've got a lot of great new g i joe toy reviews coming up you don't want to miss them and don't forget to like me on facebook and follow me on twitter you get a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else thanks for watching and i'll see you next week with another vintage g i joe toy review hello everybody hooded court commander 78 here it's time for another vintage g i joe toy review and i have made a mistake there is an unwritten rule on this channel that i should review the first version of any figure before i review any subsequent versions but there's one example where i did not follow that rule i reviewed version two of grunt with the falton glider before i reviewed version one well we're going to fix that right now we're going to look at g i joe's first infantry trooper from 1982 codename grunt i know whenever i review one of these 1982 figures not as many people are going to watch but i don't care this is important this is our history this is our origin and i'm going to review every damn one of them in fact it's going to be a sad day for me when i finally reviewed the last of these 1982 figures and i won't have the opportunity to go back and look at them anymore but we're going to look at one today hcc 788 presents grunt this is grunt g i joe's infantry trooper from 1982 the first series of g i joe when the line was relaunched that year now we have two figures here they are similar but there are some differences and we will look at both of them in 1982 version one of grunt was released and this is referred to as a straight arm grunt straight arm because of the single point of articulation at the elbow in 1983 version 1.5 of grunt was issued this was a reissue of grunt but he had a new point of articulation a swivel at the bicep that was referred to as swivel arm a battle grip also in 1983 version two of grunt was issued version two of grunt was an exact copy of version 1.5 but in different colors and version two of grunt was a vehicle driver he was the pilot of the falcon glider there was a third version of grunt but i don't want to look at that one right now we will look at that one when the time infantry refers to a foot soldier an infantry trooper is a soldier that fights on foot and so when troops are sent into combat it's the infantry troops that are literally the boots on the ground grunt is a very basic army soldier and so grunt is most like the original g i joe action soldier from 1964 of course g i joe back then was 12 inches tall and g i joe in the 1980s was reduced to three and three quarter inches because grunt is a very basic army soldier he serves as the prototype for g i joe's green shirts which were non differentiated soldiers that were sometimes seen in the background of g i joe cartoons let's take a look at grunt's accessories starting with his weapon this is his m16 rifle and this is a pretty good replica of the real world m16 you can see it's got decent detail there and this is appropriate for the basic infantry troopers weapon it looks a little bit underscaled though when grunt is carrying it it looks just a little bit too small comparing grunt's m16 with other m16s of the g i joe line we can see the one that came with the 1983 airborne is about the same size as is the one that came with the 1985 footloose of course airborne had a bayonet on his and footloose had a strap on his grunt's m16 had neither of those then we have the one that came with leather neck and this one looks is quite a bit larger in fact this one looks like it might be slightly over scaled next let's look at grunt's helmet and grunt came with the standard helmet that came with a lot of g i joe action figures in 1982 in fact i think it came with most g i joe action figures in 1982 there's not a lot of detail on it it has a couple holds in the side of the helmet you could clip a visor to that but a grunt did not come with a visor it's in this medium green color which should pretty closely match grunt's uniform grunt's final accessory is his combat backpack and this is a really tiny backpack it's really i think just too small it's very dinky looking not a lot of detail it's so small that when you put it on the action figure uh facing the front you can't even tell he's wearing a backpack the sculpting on the 1982 and 1983 backpacks are the same but the pegs are different uh the pegs on the 1982 backpack are a little bit shorter and stubbier and squared off whereas the pegs on the 1983 backpacks are a little bit longer slimmer and rounded at the end and they do fit into the backs of the action figures differently so you will need to make sure you get the right backpack for your action figure now let's look at the articulation on grunt and this is where there is a significant difference between the 1982 and 1983 releases uh both of them could swivel their heads at the neck uh they could lift their arms up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around uh 1982 grunt had a hinge at the elbow he could bend at the elbow in 1983 though they introduced a new point of articulation he could still bend at the elbow about 90 degrees but he also had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around uh both figures were held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed the figure 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 let's look at the sculpt design and color of grunt and here i have to point out there is some discoloration on my 1983 swivel arm grunt this is grunt's original color uh there's some yellowing on the plastic of this one uh but better examples of the swivel arm grunt uh should still be in this original green color grunt's head features brown hair and a high hairline and he has kind of a stern expression here uh this is not the best head sculpt it's not the worst either uh but this head sculpt was used on a lot of other action figures in 1982 besides grunt this head was also used for zap but at least they gave zap a black hair so he looked a little different uh it was also used for grand slam and then in 1983 it was used for version two of grand slam and version two of grunt so this head really got around it was used on a lot of action figures and i'm not a big fan of the practice of reusing heads reusing other body parts for action figures is not such a big deal but when you reuse a head this many times it looks like gi joe has a lot of clones on the team grunt's chest features a green shirt with a collar and brown straps with a grenade on one side a knife on the other a couple pouches and that continues around to the back uh this also is not a part that is unique to grunt other action figures uh shared this chest including hawk and breaker and others his arms feature long sleeves bare hands and light green pockets on the upper arms these details were changed on the swivel arm grunt these pockets instead of being on the sides of the arms were moved around to the front and given a little bit more sculpted detail the waist piece was also changed between 1982 and 1983 and the 1982 waist piece was thicker had an H shaped belt buckle in 1983 they gave him a waist piece that was slimmer they changed his belt buckle they made his belt a little bit more detailed and they even added a little bit more detail on his back pocket grunt's legs are pretty standard in green that same color green and these legs like a lot of other parts on grunt were used on other action figures in fact these legs were pretty standard and used on most gi joe action figures from 1982 they feature unpainted pockets on the thighs and standard brown boots it seems like since the designers at hasbro intended grunt to be the basic infantry trooper they wanted to make the action figure pretty basic as well but with later infantry troopers it seems like they figured out that's not the best way to handle this type of figure so in 1985 with the infantry trooper footloose and with the 1988 light infantryman hit and run these figures are loaded with great details and great accessories it's just unfortunate that grunt was not given the same treatment let's take a look at grunt's file card this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged you can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there this file card is admittedly very plain but the reason it's so plain is because this is the first gi joe file card ever written these file cards were written by larry hama the writer of the gi joe comic book and he created these he called them dossiers at the time really to just keep track of the characters and their personalities it was later that hasbro decided to turn his dossiers into file cards and this is rather plain because this was larry hama's first attempt it has his factionist gi joe it has a portrait of grunt here it says he's the infantry trooper and his codename is grunt we have his file name is robert w graves primary military specialty infantry secondary military specialty small arms armorer and artillery coordinator armorer here is misspelled an armorer is someone who works in an armory and supplies and repairs weapons his birthplace is columbus ohio and his greatest e4 this section says familiar with all nato and warsaw packs small arms as well as domestic civilian arms graduated advanced infantry training finished top 10 in his class qualified expert m14 m16 m1911 a1 autopistol in this bottom section we have a quote it says grunt is a highly motivated systematic individual he's a stand-up guy who doesn't blow his cool in a firefight this file card is very short and it says very little about grunt we learn almost nothing about his background other than his training so why is grunt often ignored as a character well we're really not given very much here to latch on to in gi joe media he was mostly ignored by both the cartoon and the comic book in the cartoon series he appeared in the background sometimes but he had few or no lines in most episodes but grunt was given the spotlight in a two-part story called worlds without end in that storyline somehow a handful of joes find themselves in an alternate dimension where cobra rules the world it's sort of like the movie it's a wonderful life we get to see what the world would be like if the joes did not fight and defeat cobra grunt really shines in that episode and it's the first episode where we see evidence of death grunt finds the bones of several dead joes from that universe including the bones of the grunt of that universe he finds his own dead bones but grunt is strong and he holds it together his buddy stealer who's suffering from a fever caused by a mysterious insect bite he's not holding up so well and he falls apart those episodes are written very well yes they're kind of like twilight zone episodes but they're done so well and I really can't hold that against them they provide a lot of real drama and real emotions and real danger they represent the cartoon at its best in the gi joe comic book grunt had a few moments he had a fairly important role in issue number four entitled operation wingfield when he and hawk went undercover and infiltrated a militia his most notable moment in the gi joe comic book was an issue number 55 when he retired after serving his time he left the army for civilian life he went to georgia tech and he got a hot girlfriend named lola he returned briefly to help out when the joes were outlaws after being accused of misconduct during the cobra civil war grunt made other appearances grunt was really the face of gi joe when the line was relaunched in 1982 he appeared in promotional material his image was in the corner of the comic books he was on licensed items like color forms but he was an anonymous star kurt bezigian hasbro's head of marketing for boys toys back in the 80s has said that grunt was his favorite from that first series taking a look at grunt overall this is not a top tier figure it's not even a middle tier figure he has no unique parts including that head that got reused a lot of times and i really have a problem with that however the idea of grunt is very important grunt never really had a chance he's not flashy he doesn't have a cool specialty or an interesting background he doesn't come with great accessories and he doesn't have great detail on the figure instead of developing his character over time he got the spotlight a couple times before he was more or less the way grunt was handled in gi joe reflects the way we tend to think of the common soldier but the common soldier is gi joe the name gi joe was taken from the movie the story of gi joe which was a dramatization of the real life war correspondent ernie pile and ernie pile chose to not write about the so-called important figures in world war two he wrote about the common soldier he told the infantryman's story he refused to let the world forget about those men and their sacrifices they did the marching and the fighting and the killing and the dying and grunt is exactly the kind of soldier that ernie pile would have written about i think it's unfortunate that a toy line called gi joe couldn't find a way to tell grunt's story other than in a few moments of glory grunt would never be the star of gi joe but his character could have been developed more and one way to develop that character is to give him a battle buddy my suggestion would be to pair him up with flash because flash was another soon-forgotten character and there would have been a nice contrast between grunt as the traditional soldier and flash as the sci-fi laser trooper so as the main characters take the spotlight in the background you would have grunt and his battle buddy providing support laying down cover fire covering a flank and doing any other work that needed to be done they wouldn't be the focus of any story but through brief moments of dialogue spread out over a long period of time through a lot of stories their banter would develop their characters just a few lines here and there would tell us something about them and that would be fitting for grunt he's not a general he's not a commando he's just a guy that you can rely on to keep his head when the bullets start flying then if you give grunt an exit like he goes to fight cobra in another dimension or he retires from gi joe then you look back and you realize this guy was really important he was never in the foreground but he was always there always dependable he wasn't the star but he was vital so then when you lose him that loss has more impact and that's why i'm gonna do something about it i am forming a political action committee to get some respect for grunt we will call ourselves disgruntled which stands for defending infantry soldier grunt rejecting unfair treatment for lola's educated dude i'm not good with coming up with acronyms that's not the point the point is grunt deserves some respect grunt really is the core of what gi joe is not just the toy line but going back to when that term was first coined so disgruntled will fight for grunt will defend grunt we will march as grunt marched and we will win grunt the respect he deserves who's with me another mistake in my review of the 1964 gi joe action soldier i refer to him as a generic soldier well that's wrong there may be generic action figures but there are no generic soldiers so i'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of those real-life grunts out there thanks for watching my review of grunt i hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure you leave it a thumbs up on youtube subscribe on youtube like me on facebook follow me on twitter and share this video that's what keeps this channel going thanks again for watching and remember until next week only gi joe is gi joe we're letting the theme song run long in this video because this video is about rock and roll reviewing scarlet last week inspired me to review more of the 1982 gi joes and i just completed rock and roll and i wanted to show everybody so let's take a look at the 1982 gi joe machine gunner rock and roll this is rock and roll gi joe's first machine gunner he was first introduced in 1982 as part of the first wave of gi joe figures when the line was relaunched that year the 1982 version is the so-called straight arm version meaning he had a single point of articulation at the elbow here but he could not swivel his arms he had a hinge but not a swivel in 1983 he was reissued with what they called swivel arm battle grip which introduced a new point of articulation at the bicep a swivel at the bicep we will talk more about the articulation in a few minutes this swivel arm version was available in 1983 and 1984 he was discontinued in 1985 but in 1984 he was somewhat replaced with gi joe's new heavy machine gunner roadblock rock and roll was an excellent addition to that first series of gi joe figures he was much more practical than say a mortar soldier almost every mission your joe's would go on would need a machine gunner let's take a look at the accessories starting with rock and roll's weapon the contents of the card on which he was packaged just call this a heavy machine gun this machine gun is very long really too long for a single hand grip which is all you could do with the straight arm version because he could not swivel his arms i have however noticed that the length of the machine gun that's behind the grip makes it really too long to get any good two-handed poses even with swivel arm battle grip you can get a two-handed pose by putting the butt of the machine gun outside of his right arm but i don't think that really looks right normally you would want to sling that under his arm but it's so long here that it really doesn't like to go under and sort of wedges in his armpit so you end up with a single-handed grip even though you have swivel arm battle grip which is supposed to let him hold his weapon with a two-handed grip as a kid playing with this toy i always assumed this was an m 60 machine gun because it was pretty much the standard american machine gun at the time however it wasn't until i got some books on military weapons that i realized this is not an m 60 machine gun at all what this is is a modified mg42 which is a german world war two era machine gun that was created in 1942 the mg42 is known for having a very high rate of fire in fact it was nicknamed by american soldiers hitler's buzzsaw the high cyclical rate of the german 42 was so unnerving to american soldiers at the time that the army made a training video about it listen to that fast that thing sprays a lot of left and you're scared because the german gun fires faster than anything you've run into before well so it does have a high rate of fire does that mean it's a better fighting weapon than ours by 1982 the mg42 would have been an antique and i find it kind of odd that they gave an antique nazi machine gun to an american special operation soldier this is not an exact copy of an mg42 uh it has this sort of foregrip here which the original did not have but it does have a lot of really nice impressive detail a lot of detail for those 1982 gi joe accessories the most frustrating and annoying part of this accessory is this bipod which clips on and can be removed and therefore is very easily lost in fact i only recently got one myself i'd say about 90 of the rock and rolls that you see are gonna be missing this bipod that can be a very tough and annoying little part to track down so that's something you'll have to watch out for if you want a complete rock and roll you will have to try to find one with the bipod and uh good luck with that rock and rolls only other accessory was his helmet and this is the standard helmet with 1982 gi joe figures a lot of figures came with this standard helmet like clutch here you can see it's the same helmet however note the color difference uh rock and rolls helmet is a slightly darker color green to match the darker color of his uniform so it's very easy to get these mixed up but note that the helmet that comes with clutch and with breaker are slightly lighter color green let's take a look at the articulation on rock and roll he had the standard articulation for 1982 gi joe action that means he could turn his head from left to right like that he could lift his arm up at the shoulder he could swivel his arm at the shoulder all the way around he had a hinge at the elbow so he could move his arm at the elbow he was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed him to move at the torso a little bit he could move his legs apart about so far he could move his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and he had been at the knee about 90 degrees as noted earlier the swivel arm version added a new point of articulation at the bicep he still had that hinge at the elbow but he also had a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around that was supposed to allow the figures to hold his weapons with a two-handed grip but as noted earlier that wasn't always very useful with rock and roll let's look at the sculpt design and color of rock and roll starting with his head and of course the first notable thing about his head is he has a very blonde yellow hair and a blonde beard those 1982 gi jose were really bad about reusing parts they didn't have a lot of unique parts in that first series of gi jose as you can see here breaker clutch and rock and roll all have the same head their hair is just painted a different color that's better treatment than some figures in 1982 got for instance hawk and short fuse not only share the same head sculpt but the same hair color so they look like twins i've already done a parts and color guide for these 1982 figures and i recommend you watch that to learn about the reused parts so i won't go too much into that right now let's look more at rock and roll on his chest he has a ridged collar and he has gold bandoliers crisscrossed over his chest and that continues around to his back and these bandoliers have bullets for his machine gun so even though the machine gun did not include an ammunition belt you could pretend that the machine gun was being fed with these bullets that are on rock and roll's chest despite the fact that rock and roll reused a lot of parts from other figures the chest and back piece were unique and they were awesome you can't get much cooler than having bullets crisscrossed over your chest and these bullets are fairly well detailed for the time this gold paint though however does have a tendency to wear off so that's something you'll have to watch out for you see a lot of rock and roll's kind of like this one where some of that paint has just sort of worn away his arms feature rolled up sleeves and this cut here where his sleeve ends is where they added the new point of articulation that's where the swivel is on the swivel arm battle grip version and that's kind of nice the new point of articulation is somewhat seamless on these figures with the rolled up sleeves the waist piece from the 1982 version was changed for the 1983 swivel arm version the original waist piece was very thick almost looked like a diaper with a great big thick belt and an H shaped belt buckle the 1983 version with the swivel arm battle grip had a thinner waist with a smaller and more detailed belt note the H shaped belt buckle is probably supposed to be a brand stamp for Hasbro and the 1983 belt buckle looks exactly like Hasbro's logo these legs are standard a lot of other figures from 1982 shared these legs except of course rock and roll had gold painted pockets on the side and brown boots let's take a look at the file card this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged you're encouraged to cut these out and keep them you can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there it has his faction as gi joe it has a portrait of rock and roll right here and i do like this artwork that face does look like it has some character his specialty is machine gunner his code name is rock and roll note the spelling because i have seen this spelled a number of different ways it's rock space apostrophe and space roll his file name is craig s mcconnell his primary military specialty is infantry his secondary military specialty is pt instructor and this is our first hint that rock and roll may be physically stronger and tougher than some of the other characters his birthplace is malibu california and his grade is e5 this section says rock and roll was a surfer in malibu prior to enlistment he was also a weightlifter and played bass guitar in local rock bands perhaps the source of his code name is familiar with all nato and warsaw packed light and heavy machine guns graduated advanced infantry training top of class specialized education covert ops school as a kid when i read rock and roll was a weightlifter in my mind that made him super muscle man as far as i was concerned he was like arnold swartzenegger and so that's why i list him as gi joe's first tough guy and that was a role in which he again was also kind of replaced by roadblock just a side note it says rock and roll graduated top of his class in advanced infantry training whereas his teammate grunt it says he was just in the top 10 of his class in advanced infantry training grunt gets no respect no respect at all this bottom section has a quote it says rock and roll is cunning but naive forceful but shy possesses a strong sense of loyalty to his teammates and is sincerely concerned about their well-being a man of honor and integrity who can be counted on to hold the line okay cunning but naive forceful but shy these are kind of contradictory also i don't think these reflect how rock and roll was portrayed in the gi joe comic book at all so i don't know where this comes from taking a look at rock and roll overall despite the fact that he shares a lot of parts with other 1982 gi joe figures he still looks pretty unique i mean you're not going to mistake rock and roll for anybody else especially with those gold bandoliers and that bright yellow beard as noted before stalker is my all-time favorite gi joe character so by extension he was my favorite character from 1982 picking my second favorite character is not quite so easy i don't have quite as many detailed memories about a lot of the other 1982 figures however rock and roll may have been my second favorite i do kind of remember getting a lot of enjoyment out of this figure he comes with this big huge gun which is both an upside and a downside to this figure on the one hand it's awesome but on another hand it's maybe a little bit too big and long it's kind of unwieldy it's difficult to get him in a good pose with it and of course hunting down this bipod will drive you to drink and send you to the loony band rock and roll appeared in both the gi joe cartoon and the comic book probably more so in the comic book and like a lot of the other 82 joes he kind of had to step aside when new characters were introduced to replace them however he had a great appearance in gi joe issue number 35 alongside breaker and clutch when they encountered the dread knocks and rock and roll captured buzzer although the toys for rock and roll breaker and clutch all shared the same head in the gi joe comic book they did not look alike rock and roll had a full beard clutch only had stubble and breaker did not have a beard at all i'd never trust a man with a beard what's he trying to hide in gi joe issue number 22 rock and roll informally passed the machine gunning torch to roadblock with a statement of respect at general flags funeral so how do i assess this figure do i like this figure despite its unique parts like a lot of the other 1982 joes it's much more generic than the gi joe figures we would get later in the line so objectively this figure may leave something to be desired however subjectively i do remember getting some enjoyment out of this figure when i got it way back in 1982 if i only assess rock and roll within the universe of his 1982 peers he's one of the better ones and one of the less generic ones so i would say he is a middle to top tier figure among the original green 13 although rock and roll did not come with a vehicle he was often portrayed as riding the 1982 ram motorcycle in fact in the first gi joe comic book he refers to it as his motorcycle i prefer to have breaker driving that vehicle sometimes i display rock and roll gunning the 1984 whirlwind or the 1982 flak however now that i have rock and roll complete i will want to display one of them with his machine gun and bipod that was my review of the 1982 and 1983 versions of rock and roll i hope you enjoyed it and if you're thinking of getting a rock and roll action figure i hope you found it informative if you did please pretty please hit that like button on youtube and if this is the first video of mine that you've seen i'd really appreciate it if you'd hit the subscribe button on youtube so you don't miss any future videos thanks for watching i'll be back next week with another vintage gi joe toy review i'll see you then hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here it's time for another vintage gi joe toy review and this time we're looking at one that i think is special it's special because this action figure is a figure of a woman and this character came out in 1982 and she was portrayed as doing things that at the time women were not allowed to do and that makes her a pioneer and therefore i think she's important and special i'm talking about you already know who i'm talking about let's look at the 1982 gi joe counterintelligence specialist code name scarlet if you are a fan of gi joe you already know who this is this is scarlet she was first introduced in 1982 as part of the first wave of gi joe figures when the line was relaunched that year and she was released in this straight arm version we will talk about the articulation in a few minutes in 1983 the following year she was re-released with swivel arm battle grip like all of the 1982 figures she was re-released with a new point of articulation she was sold in this swivel arm version through 1984 and was discontinued in 1985 in 1985 she was replaced by the new gi joe covert operations specialist lady j but scarlet was never replaced in gi joe media she she continued to appear in gi joe media all the way through the end of the line scarlet was the first woman to appear in the 1980s gi joe toy line and as it has been revealed by former marvel comics editor-in-chief jim shooter hasbro believed that women action figures don't sell so it took some courage for hasbro to put scarlet out among the first series of gi joe hasbro may have been thinking of their first attempt to make a female gi joe action figure that would be the 1967 action nurse and that one did not sell well that woman's considered a failure on the other hand princess leah was part of the star wars toy line before the new gi joe came out so there was a precedence for women action figures let's take a look at scarlet's accessory she came with only one this was the xk one power crossbow and what exactly it means by power crossbow i'm not sure essentially this is a pistol crossbow with a scope this crossbow may not be a copy of a real world weapon but crossbows do exist and have existed for a very long time so this is not a fantasy weapon uh there's some detail on there but not a lot uh so uh it's a little bit short in the detail department but it's still not a bad accessory crossbows fire arrow like projectiles called bolts or quarrels and quarrel was the codename for the uk action force version of scarlet the weapon has a single bolt sculpted onto it and scarlet does not have any replacement bolts this is where a backpack would have been in order a backpack with some extra bolts would have made more sense this crossbow started a tradition of gi joe not giving their women characters firearms uh the 1984 bareness came with a laser rifle still not exactly a firearm but it was closer than this but most gi joe women characters got uh some kind of maybe projectile weapon or something like that but not a gun in 1983 gi joe started coming out with battle gear accessory packs which were reissues of old accessories this is the accessory pack version of scarlet's crossbow you can see it's using the exact same mold as the original but it's in a lighter color gray so do watch out for that it's very easy to get these two mixed up uh but the original is this very dark almost black gray and the accessory pack version is lighter gray now let's look at articulation the 1982 scarlet had the typical articulation for figures of that year meaning she could turn her head from left to right she could lift her arm up at the shoulder and she could swivel her arm at the shoulder all the way around she had a hinge at the elbow meaning she could uh move at the elbow about 90 degrees the figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside it allowed her to move at the torso a little bit she could move her legs apart about so far and she could move her legs at the hip about 90 degrees and she could bend at the knee about 90 degrees the 1983 version of scarlet had the same articulation as 1982 version except it added one new point of articulation at the bicep not only could she move at the elbow about 90 degrees but she had a swivel at the bicep she could swivel her arm all the way around let's look at the sculpt design and color of scarlet starting with her head and the first thing you notice about her head is her hair is very red fiery red fire engine red it could not be redder she also has short hair unlike how she was depicted in different gi joe media where she had long hair often tied back in a ponytail the action figure just did not reflect that these early women action figures in gi joe the hair they just hadn't figured out how to make the hair long so all the hair on them was short the first woman gi joe action figure to have long hair was the 1984 baroness who had a separate hair piece that was molded out of softer plastic to give it this long hair effect much has been said about these face sculpt for scarlet and yeah it's really not that good compared to the image on the file card it really does not live up to that image this does not look like the same person unfortunately it was kind of par for the course on those early gi joe head sculpts the other figures that came out in 1982 the faces on those figures left something to be desired the sculpting on these figures did get better as the years went on on her chest we see she's wearing a light tan or almost flesh colored leotard over sort of a pewter colored bodysuit this chest is a little bit short on detail but it does have a grenade on this side and on this side there is a red pad and this would be a shoulder pad probably for the butt of a rifle like if she were a sniper shooting she would rest the butt of a rifle on her shoulder unfortunately she doesn't come with any weapon that would utilize this shoulder pad also although it's difficult to see there is a zipper coming off of her neckline right there she has really no detail on her back other than that red shoulder pad the upper arms on the straight arm version are very plain and thin the upper arms on the swivel arm version have more detail and these upper arms were reused for other figures the figures that share these upper arms include the 1984 baroness the 1983 his tank driver and the 1983 cover girl her lower arms and hands however are unique and they have some points of interest on the inside of her right wrist she has a very small silver pistol which i guess counts as a firearm but it's just sculpted on so she can't hold it on her left wrist she has two silver throwing stars her waist piece is pretty plain she has a belt and that's a small waist piece that is smaller than the waist piece that came on the male action figures at the time and then on the back we have one of the strangest details sort of hooked here on her back pocket is a slingshot of all things i don't know why she would have a slingshot that's a very weird detail it is painted there in silver on her upper legs she has the pewter grayish colored body suit and on her right leg she has a pocket and she has a mysterious electronic device with silver paint on her right leg she has a dagger that is painted silver she has some very tall boots that have pockets on the inside and the outside they match the color of her gloves and her leotard and these boots have some heels scarlet is the only figure that could not use figure stands and that's because her feet did not have holes for foot pegs she is the only gi joe figure that i'm aware of that did not have holes in her feet for foot pegs even the 1984 deep six which had a whopping two points of articulation still had holes in the bottom of his feet for foot pegs i have to assume the designers made this decision because she has small feet and they probably figured her feet were too small to drill holes in them however the 1984 bareness also had small feet and she has holes in her feet for foot pegs let's take a look at scarlet's file card this file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged you can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there there are a bunch of different variations of scarlet's file card floating around out there including one version of the file card where the portrait actually has a picture of cover girl instead of scarlet i don't have any of those variations this is just the most common version of scarlet's file card her specialty is counter intelligence and counter intelligence is sort of like an anti spy so her job is to prevent intelligence gathering by the enemy by catching enemy spies her codename is scarlet her file name is shanna m o'hara her primary military specialty is intelligence her secondary military specialty is classified for some reason her birthplace is atlanta georgia and her grade is e five scarlet's personal information here is a scrambled up reference to gone with the wind the 1936 novel by margaret mitchell that was turned into the 1939 movie starring vivian lee vivian lee's character was named scarlet o'hara and the story was set in georgia this section says scarlet's father and three brothers were martial arts instructors she began her training at age nine and was awarded her first black belt at age 15 graduated advanced infantry training and ranger school and it's worth noting that this card was published in 1982 at that time women were not allowed in ranger school the first women to graduate ranger school happened this year in 2015 special ed covert ops school marine sniper school special air service school marine tai kuando symposium now just that part of this paragraph makes scarlet out to be a super lethal badass but it does not stop there look at all the weapons that she is a qualified expert in follow along with me qualified expert m14 m16 m19 11 a1 m79 m3 a1 m700 remington sniper rifle mac 10 xk1 power crossbow throwing stars garret and k bar she is an expert in all these weapons but instead of including scarlet with some of these high power firearms they included her with the pointy stick shooter this bottom section has a quote it says scarlet is confident and resilient it's remarkable that a person so deadly can retain a sense of humor does she really have a sense of humor or does everybody just laugh at her jokes because they're terrified of her looking at scarlet overall she is definitely more super heroine like than soldier like with these colors but i really think this costume is meant to look sort of like m appeal from the british television show the avengers uh m appeal kind of wore these uh full body costumes like this and if this uniform were all black that's exactly what this would look like scarlet was such a powerful character in gi joe media she probably deserved a better action figure we did not get a second version of scarlet until way toward the end of the vintage line and that second version of scarlet was not a very good action figure i still like this figure though despite the fact that in some ways it's kind of weird what with the strange color choices and the less than impressive head sculpt and the slingshot on her butt scarlet was very unique among that 1982 lineup first of all she was a woman among a bunch of men also the figure used entirely unique parts whereas the other figures in that lineup they reused a lot of parts between them whereas scarlet was entirely unique also since the other figures in the 1982 line wore green uniforms scarlet really stood out as scarlet was portrayed in the gi joe comic book her sex was a non issue she fully participated with all the other members of the team sometimes even in a leadership position as she was portrayed in the gi joe cartoon she was a little bit more feminized and she served as a love interest for duke the team leader in 1980s properties that were marketed towards boys women were treated probably better than you might expect however there was a common practice that women characters had to serve as romantic interests for one of the male characters usually the team leader and in the 1983 gi joe animated series that was duke in the comic book however scarlet was romantically linked to snake eyes and i always thought this pairing made a lot more sense i would think that snake eyes mysterious nature would appeal to scarlet a lot more than duke's machismo to be totally honest though scarlet doesn't need anyone she's smart she's strong she's independent and she definitely does not need some man to protect her in one of the classic comic book issues issue number 21 the silent issue scarlet is captured by storm shadow cobra's ninja and snake eyes goes in to rescue her but scarlet doesn't just sit around waiting to be rescued she escapes she does ultimately fly out with snake eyes but she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself i am somewhat biased towards this figure though objectively this isn't necessarily a very good action figure but it is the only scarlet figure that we got in that vintage line that portrayed her in her classic uniform this this is the best scarlet figure that we had and because i love the character so much i mean this character was one of the best developed characters uh in all of gi joe and she is integral to the gi joe storyline especially in the comic book uh so even though there are some shortcomings in this figure you still have to have it the diversity in gi joe influenced me as a child i mean the way scarlet was portrayed in gi joe she was an integral part of the team and so it really didn't make any sense to me this idea that women couldn't do certain things i mean just look at scarlet she could do anything the men could do and they really never thought anything of it it wasn't something that was played up as some kind of special thing that she was a woman doing things that were traditionally done by men no she just did it and that's sort of how i approached women characters uh in gi joe and elsewhere women uh were as perfectly capable of doing everything that male characters could do and scarlet was portrayed this way at a time when the general public was vehemently opposed to the idea of women serving in combat roles and now finally 30 years later we are slowly starting to get over these arcane ideas about women uh and we're no longer seeing women as objects that at best need to be protected by men i often refer to gi joe as a toy line that was marketed toward boys which is true but i do not call gi joe a boys toy line there were plenty of girls that also played with gi joe and it's not fair to them to call gi joe a boys toy line that's much too limiting gi joe was bigger than that and frankly i would rather my daughters follow scarlet and lady jay as role models uh then the characters depicted in toy lines that were in fact marketed directly towards girls like barbie i would lie for my daughters to acquire the strength and the toughness and the intelligence of scarlet she's an excellent role model for girls and she appears in a toy line that was supposedly for boys of course we can give scarlet all the credit for this transformation but let's give her a little bit of credit she was ahead of her time that was my review of scarlet i hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure you give it a thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy reviews coming up you don't want to miss them and don't forget to like me on facebook and follow me on twitter you got a lot of updates there you don't get anywhere else thanks for watching and i'll see you next week with another vintage gi joe toy review see you then hello everybody hooded cobra commander seven eight eight here and it's time for another vintage gi joe toy review and i apologize i was late on my review for this week i've been moving to a new house and i've been trying to get all this setup so i could do this review but now i am set up i'm ready to go and what is the first review i'm gonna do in the new house short fuse yay okay short fuse is not exactly a fan favorite but at some point someone did actually request a short fuse review so i'm doing a requested review here maybe some people think these 1982 figures are kind of dull and maybe so in some respects but i think they're important if you're a gi joe fan or i think really a fan of anything it's important to know your roots and there are some interesting things to say about short fuse there are some variations to look at so let's jump right in hcc seven eight eight presents short fuse this is short fuse gi joe's mortar soldier from 1982 from series one of the new gi joe when the line was relaunched that year in 1982 short fuse was released in the so-called straight arm version in 1983 he was reissued in the so-called swivel arm version and we will look at the differences between these two in this video the 1983 swivel arm version of short fuse was also issued in 1984 and was discontinued for the year 1985 and he had no direct replacement that year and there were no more versions of short fuse in the vintage line for gi joe collectors the straight arm version of short fuse is referred to as version one and the swivel arm version is referred to as version 1.5 short fuse was also available in 1986 and 1987 as a mail away normally i don't consider the mail away reissues to be important but for short fuse it is important because there was a change to the file card and we will look at that in this video as well collectors often think of zap as the most difficult figure to complete of that 1982 gi joe series and that may be correct the zap action figure is made of this light green plastic that is notoriously easy to break mine is broken and zap had three different versions of his bazooka so that's a lot of variations to collect however i think short fuse may actually be a little bit more difficult to complete than zap the action figure for short fuse is not as easy to break as the zap action figure but he also comes with three versions of his weapon and three different file cards that is a lot of variations to collect let's take a look at short fuse starting with his accessories and let's look at his weapon first and he came with this what the card contents call an m1 81 millimeter medium mortar this accessory is loosely based on the real world m1 mortar which was used in world war two and in the korean war but it was outdated by the 1980s it had been replaced by the m29 mortar in 1952 the m29 was lighter and had a longer range it came with a detailed bipod which could be removed a mortarer is a usually barrel loaded weapon that fires mortar bombs at short range and high arcing trajectories they lob explosives down on the heads of the enemy here's where we start to get into the variance the earliest versions of short fuse's mortar had a thin closed handle later that handle would change and short fuse came with a mortar that had a thin open handle the mortar was changed again and short fuse came with an open thick handle mortar and the handle on this one is thick enough that i would not recommend putting it in the action figure's hand short fuse's next accessory is his clear visor and this visor fits on the helmet with a couple pegs on the visor that fit in holes on the sides of the helmet and these visors are very small they are clear they are very easy to lose and they are hard to replace so if you're getting a short fuse you probably want to get one that already has the visor rather than try to track down a visor to replace a missing one short fuse was one of a few gi jo figures of that era that came with clear visors including flash grand slam and hawk short fuse came with a standard helmet this is the helmet that really almost all gi jo figures from 1982 came with it is in a medium green that should pretty closely match his uniform finally short fuse came with a backpack which the card contents called an ammo pack and it has sculpted on mortar bombs for his mortar this backpack was recolored in a lighter green for zap there is a difference between the backpack of the 1982 short fuse and the 1983 short fuse the 1982 backpacks had a shorter peg a thicker peg for the figure and the 1983 backpacks had kind of a thinner longer peg and they fit differently in the backs as well so you'll want to make sure you get a 1982 or 1983 backpack depending on which short fuse action figure you have let's take a look at the articulation on short fuse starting with the straight arm version he had the standard articulation for 1982 gi jo action figures that means he could turn his head from left to right he could swing his arm up at the shoulder about so far he could swivel at the shoulder all the way around and he had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend at the elbow about 90 degrees the whole action figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed him to move at the torso a little 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 the articulation was changed in 1983 when they added what they called a swivel arm a battle grip which was a swivel at the bicep so not only could he move his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees he could now swivel his arm all the way around let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of short fuse and like a lot of other 1982 gi jo action figures he reused a lot of parts in fact a short fuse has no unique parts on his head he has very yellow blonde hair and a very plain head sculpt a passive almost disinterested expression now this head is not too bad it's not too great either but the problem with this head is it exactly matches the head of hawk gi jo's commander that was also released in 1982 these guys were available at the same time and they look like twins the 1982 gi jo series was really bad about reusing parts and it's most noticeable with these heads this same head sculpt was also used for stealer and flash and as you can see stealer and flash have the same hair color so it looks like we have another set of twins as the 1982 gi jo series was originally planned all of these figures were supposed to have unique head sculpts but that was changed at the last minute as a cost cutting measure i think a regrettable decision in the gi jo comic book short fuse is shown wearing glasses the action figure does not have glasses so it is assumed that his unique head sculpt would have had him wearing glasses there is kind of an urban legend that short fuse's unique head sculpt later got used for dock in 1983 just changed the skin color and the hair color however based on what i've read that legend is not true and this head sculpt was always intended for dock so we still don't know what short fuse's original head sculpt would have looked like short fuse uses the same chest and back that was used on zap his chest features short straps and a collar and it is otherwise quite plain on the straight arm short fuse we have long sleeves with pouches on the sides of his arms with a little touch of silver paint on them and we have bare hands these arms are identical to hawk's arms right down to these silver pouches on the swivel arm short fuse those pouches have been moved from the side of the arms around to the front of the arms they are more detailed and they are still painted silver straight arm short fuses waist piece is thick with a wide belt and an h-shaped belt buckle he has a pocket in the back here but this waist piece is thick and kind of clunky looking that waist piece was changed on the swivel arm version to give him a slimmer waist a more detailed belt and belt buckle and even the pocket in the back has more detail that looks much better these legs are standard and were used on almost all 1982 gi joe action figures including again hawk uh he has brown pouches on each side and he has brown standard boots the only distinction between short fuse and hawk are the chest and back pieces and the color on the pouches and the boots other than that they are the same action figure let's take a look at short fuse's file card and this is where we get to look at more variants the file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged you can see some of the artwork from the front of the card there it has his faction s gi joe it has a portrait of short fuse here it says he's the mortar soldier and his codename is short fuse and note the spelling on fuse f u z e that's a very unusual spelling uh would normally be spelled f u s e his file name is eric w fristat and this is where we run into the variant uh this file name was changed on later file cards the file card that came with the swivel arm version of short fuse changed his name to mark w brinston the file name was changed again on the mail away file card these mail away versions came with red back file cards read on the back uh but that's not the only difference between this file card and those others they changed the name again they kind of took the first name from the second file card and the last name from the first file card and they made him mark w fristat that is why this mail away file card is so important i don't normally try to get these red back file cards that are really usually not important to me but they changed the name and it's very unusual for them to change the name of the character why the name changed this is not a typo somebody deliberately changed it uh maybe the name too closely resemble the name of a real person i don't know so what is short fuses canonical file name there are some fan theories about this but that's all just speculation what would be the official file name for short fuse if you're looking for any source outside the file card to confirm short fuses file name one source would be gi joe order of battle number two which has his file name as eric w fristat his primary military specialty is artillery his secondary military specialty is infantry engineer his birthplace is chicago illinois and his greatest e4 this section says short fuse comes from a military family in parenthesis father and grandfather both career top sergeants a top sergeant is a first sergeant often just called top enjoys abstract mathematics and can plot artillery azimuths and triangulations in his head specialized education artillery school engineer school advanced infantry training qualified expert m 14 m 16 m 19 11 a 1 m 79 grenade launcher m 260 millimeter light mortar and m 181 millimeter medium mortar this bottom section has a quote it says short fuse is logical and sensitive has a tendency to blow his stack hence the nickname short fuse this file card makes short fuse out to be kind of a hothead but that side of his personality is never really played up in his appearances in gi joe media which are admittedly limited short fuse made a few appearances in the various gi joe media but not many in the cartoon series he first appeared in the miniseries from 1983 a real american hero in the first part but he did not have a speaking role until part three and he was voiced by frank welker he did appear other times in the cartoon but he rarely had any lines and in the cartoon he was not depicted wearing glasses in the gi joe comic book short fuse appeared in issue number one and he had some things to do in that issue he used his mortar to take out an airfield and in the comic book he did wear glasses which helped to distinguish him from the other joes who at the time looked very similar after a few other brief appearances the character was mostly forgotten he was sidelined in issue number 33 along with a lot of other 1982 characters in favor of new joes looking at short fuse overall this is not a great action figure he has no original parts and i hate to put one of the original green 13 in the bottom tier but that's where he has to go there just isn't enough going on with this action figure nothing to really generate any interest the figure and the character are very forgettable and he was seldom used in gi joe media but if you think about it gi joe is a fast strike counterterrorism unit and a mortar soldier is better suited to more traditional large unit warfare and he would be part of a mortar team which really just isn't the way gi joe operates these early gi joes are like larger versions of those little green plastic army men and in those army men they always had a mortar soldier so in gi joe you had a mortar soldier whether you needed one or not even though it's not a great figure it is a great challenge for collectors because of all the variations it gives you a lot to sink your teeth into a lot to hunt down and track down and i did get a thrill out of completing this figure but chances are short fuse was not your favorite gi joe figure so in the interest of rehabilitating short fuses image let me suggest some other uses for short fuse besides a mortar soldier short fuse the hunter you killed Cecil short fuse the ladies man short fuse the lady short fuse the porn star unfortunately unsuccessful because he had a short fuse that's where his nickname really came from that was my review of the 1982 short fuse i hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure you hit the thumbs up and hit the subscribe button that's why keeps this channel going like me on facebook follow me on twitter and check back next week for another vintage gi joe toy review and until next time remember only gi joe is gi joe hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and oh boy i am really excited about this one i've been looking forward to doing this review for months this is my review of the 1982 and 1983 gi joe vamp with its driver clutch before we get started i want to remind everybody if you haven't subscribed yet go ahead and smash that subscribe button if you like this video give it a thumbs up if you don't like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs down either way is fine with me if you're watching this video from any website other than youtube i would greatly appreciate it if you would take a little trip over to youtube to the hooded cobra commander 788 channel and go ahead and subscribe i've got a lot of great vintage gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you don't want to miss it this is the vamp which the box called a multi-purpose attack vehicle also sometimes known as the gi joe jeep it was sold in 1982 and 1983 and was discontinued in 1984 although in 1984 it was released as part of a box set that included the howl laser cannon this is the howl laser cannon so the box set would have come with both of these in 1984 the vamp was replaced by the vamp mark 2 which was very similar to the vamp in almost every respect except a few details were added and instead of a machine gun on the top it had a missile launch system and instead of being a green color it was colored kind of a desert camouflage beige the vamp was worth three flag points and the design was loosely based on a real world vehicle the lamborghini cheetah fmc xr 311 i'll flash a picture of the lamborghini cheetah so you can compare the real world vehicle to this gi joe reimagining of it the vamp came with an action figure the driver clutch and i'm going to take clutch out here and we will take a closer look at clutch a little bit later so i'm going to set him aside for now let's look at the parts of the vamp the most prominent feature of course is this machine gun that it has on the turret on the back here this could be an anti-personnel or an anti- aircraft weapon the blueprints for the vamp refer to it as a 7.62 millimeter computer synchronized machine gun the turret could elevate it could turn all the way around 360 degrees and it had this feature here on the side this handle which if you moved it back and forth it would simulate the gun firing the machine gun is mounted on a green turret that's the same color as the vehicle and the turret latches on there through like through a kind of key system this notch here lines up with the hole there and secures the turret on and the turret in turn is connected to the machine gun by these pegs which slide in and latch in those holes now none of this snaps in permanently so you know these can all be taken apart which consequentially means that these can be lost and you see a lot of vamps out there on ebay and whatnot that are missing the turret and the machine gun here at the back we also have two gas cans which the blueprints refer to as bulletproof gas cans and even though they're essentially the same they do have different stickers on them there's gas can one and gas can two on the front of the vamp we have what the blueprints refer to as a tow bar and inside we have one of the most frequently lost parts and that is the steering wheel this steering wheel was actually the item that kept me from having this piece completed for a really long time it took me a good long while to track down a steering wheel for this thing that wasn't ridiculously expensive the steering wheel slides into this hole there that also has a key to it this notch goes in the top and once it goes in it can come out pretty easily and the steering wheel does not really turn it's not a functioning steering wheel since the vamp has a lot of parts that can be easily taken off these are frequently lost so if you're trying to complete a vamp you would do yourself a favor to try to find one that still has the steering wheel because you will have trouble finding one if there's not one already in there these gas cans they can be found sometimes without the stickers and you can find the gun and the turret reasonably easily but sometimes they can run you quite a bit to buy just the parts let's look at some of the features of the vamp and if we turn it over and look at the bottom it has something that's not obvious but is yet one of my favorite features and that is the metal bar axles for the wheels these allow the wheels to roll quite freely and it makes it a very sturdy vehicle it's a pretty durable toy i have occasionally seen a few of these with the wheels broken off and on this one you can even see there's a little bit of stress on the plastic there but despite that really you'd have to abuse this thing pretty well to get the wheels to come off they're on there quite solidly these are plastic wheels it would have been nice to have rubber wheels but that's okay i think the metal bar metal bars for the axles make up for that making this a nice solid vehicle something that a kid could play with and not risk damaging too much at the back here there is a standard gi joe tow hook uh which could be used to tow vehicles like the howl let's just hook it up here for a demonstration um the howl would just hook its tow arms to that and uh and since the howl had wheels the van could pull it along even though these wheels are pretty tough and are not going to break too easily uh they do have a downside and that is after a while they tend to squeak they can develop the most ear piercing squeak that you've ever heard uh there's kind of squeal whenever you roll them around this one has a bit of a squeak on the front here we have what the blueprints called a heavy duty winch and i've said it before and i'll say it again it would have been really nice if this had been a real winch some of the other gi joe vehicles especially the helicopters had working winches and if they had made this a working winch that would have been a really neat very cool feature but it's just kind of molded on there just a piece of plastic and that's all right i guess on the front here it has this small gun looking thing it almost looks like a small machine gun right in front of the steering wheel but the blueprints actually don't say what this is i'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to be looking at the interior of the vamp we have some detail in there we have a gear shift we have what looks like a radio in the center there and we have a little bit of detail on the dashboard and that's nice that's good detail but that's actually considerably less detail than the dashboard on the stinger cobra jeep that was obviously model after the vamp the stinger by comparison has a lot of detail on the inside much more detail a lot more instruments a lot more gauges that really is going the extra mile by hasbro giving us some detail that really you probably wouldn't have noticed had it not been there it would have been nice to see that kind of detail on the vamp but this vehicle was in the first line of gi joe vehicles when gi joe was relaunched in 1982 so for that early era this is acceptable i can accept this level of detail in the back we have a rack to hold the gas cans and honestly when i was a kid i never had much use for these gas cans uh you know what despite the fact that uh i could refill the vamp with these gas cans if i needed to somehow when i was playing with this it never ran out of gas apparently gi joe vehicles get unimaginable gas mileage because the thing never ran out of gas and i never had to refuel it so this really is kind of useless to me the cobra stinger replaced that with a platform and a bar with foot pegs that could hold two action figures and that i think is much more useful than a gas can rack that turned the stinger in from a two person vehicle to a four person vehicle and i think that adds a lot of play value to the toy the cab is kind of caged in here with a roll cage and this is a little bit of a weak point in the design of this vehicle these roll bars have a tendency to break here and here where they meet the body of the vehicle they can just kind of snap right there if too much pressure is put on them now if it does break you can re-glue it and it's pretty much invisible you can't really tell but if you are going to ship one of these to a buyer or if you are looking one for one to buy yourself just be cautious about that make sure that that's still solid on there make sure that it's not broken and don't put too much pressure on that to make sure that it doesn't break on you let's look at the action figure that came with the vamp this was clutch he had one accessory and that was his helmet looking at the sculpt of clutch he did reuse a lot of parts from other figures from the 1982 release but that was pretty much normal a lot of the 1982 figures did share a lot of parts between them in particular clutch has the same head as breaker obviously they've changed the paint on the beard and the hair and he also shared a head with rock and roll they also shared the same arms and the same legs but clutch did have a unique chest and back piece those pieces were only used for clutch and were not reused for any other action figures i mentioned that the vamp was sold in 1982 and 1983 the main difference between the 1982 version and the 1983 version was actually the action figure the 1982 release of the gi joe action figures had what they referred to as straight arm articulation which was a hinge here at the elbow that would allow them to bend at the elbow but that's all they could do other than you know their articulation at the shoulder but starting in 1983 they re-released all of the 1982 action figures with what they referred to as swivel arm battle grip and that added a point of articulation at the bicep so not only did they have a hinge at the elbow they also had a swivel at the bicep allowing the arm to go all the way around this was a very nice new feature which allowed the figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip looking at the rest of the articulation for clutch he could move his head from side to side starting with the gi joe figures in 1985 they had a ball joint here at the neck so that they could look up and down as well but in 1982 they could just turn their heads left and right the action figure was held together by a rubber o-ring that looped around through the inside of the action figure which allowed him to move at the waist a little bit his arm could swing out it could rotate all the way around at the shoulder as noted before he had a hinge at the elbow and a swivel at the bicep his legs could spread out about that far and he could move his legs about 90 degrees at the hip and his knee could bend about 90 degrees let's take a look at the file card this file card was printed on the back of the box that the vamp came in there's nothing on the other side it was just the back of the box and you were encouraged to cut this out because it contained this short biography of the action figure that came with the vehicle and this file card makes clutch out to be kind of a an interesting character it says vamp driver codename clutch file name lance j steinberg primary military specialty transportation secondary military specialty infantry birthplace asbury park new jersey and it says here that clutch was a mechanic at mani's mean machines and was heavily involved in racing street machines prior to enlistment graduated advanced infantry training covert ops school executive bodyguard school that's interesting ranger school qualified expert m14 m16 m1911 a1 m3 a1 m79 and m60 this quote down here says he greases his hair with motor oil rarely shaves choose on the same toothpick for months clutch still calls women chicks and if you remember clutch from the early gi joe comic books he was always trying to hit on scarlet which she regularly rebuffed essentially he sexually harassed scarlet throughout the entire his his entire appearance in the comic book series nowadays he would probably be court marshal maybe brought up on charges but i guess in the 80s you could get away with that kind of thing i always imagine clutch is kind of like a greaser but with a thick new jersey accent maybe a cross between this and this that's my review of the 1982 and 1983 vamp with its driver clutch and his file card thank you for watching don't forget to hit that subscribe button and hit the thumbs up if you like this video and hit the thumbs down if you didn't like this video but stay tuned for more vintage gi joe toy reviews and comic book reviews coming up you won't want to miss it i'll catch you guys later hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe vehicle and action figure toy review and after doing two helicopters in a row i decided to come back to something completely different i wanted to review one of my favorite small vehicles of 1982 and 1983 the howl the heavy artillery laser with its driver grand slam the howl and grand slam were issued in 1982 with the first line of action figures and vehicles it was also reissued in 1983 the main difference between the 1982 and 83 version is the action figure the action figures from 1982 were re-released with new articulation at the bicep but i'll get to that later this is a big laser gun as you can see um and so essentially it is a science fiction weapon um it is not a copy of any real world military weapon but as you can see it has a very military look to it so even though it is a sci-fi weapon and in general i don't care for excessively science fiction based weapons in gi joe this i think strikes a nice balance between science fiction and a real military look this is something that you would actually bring into battle with you it's got military colors a nice military design and so it doesn't look like something out of tron or star wars and that's why i really like this vehicle and and i wanted to make sure that i took a closer look at it this is a toad vehicle as you can see it's got wheels and it's got these uh toe arms here let's look at some of the parts one part that is frequently missing is this computer control panel and i'm going to attempt to take it out without breaking it so that you can see it's held in by this sort of uh notch here and it doesn't hold in all that firmly really and this arm that holds it in is very susceptible to breaking the first howl that i had actually this part broke off uh in shipping so if you are selling one of these and you're sending it to somebody make sure that you either pull this out uh and wrap it separately or if you're going to leave it in make sure that you package it in such a way that it will not break in transit of course we've got grand slam and we're we'll take a closer look at grand slam a little bit later so let's set him aside for now another piece that is often missing is this back support leg it does come out it just kind of has a ball joint there and just uh slide it in like so and it's while it's not necessarily essential to the stability of the vehicle as it uh the cannon as it sits here it is an important piece to look out for if you want a complete howl of course it has the toe arms and these are kind of unique they um they spread out like this to be support legs but when the vehicle is towed they come together like this in overlap to form a single tow hook or a tow loop like that it's it's different none of the other towed vehicles worked quite like that and one consequence of having tow arms like this is this cannon can take up a lot of shelf space if you're displaying it they spread out to stand up like this and uh and it kind of creates a wider profile for this cannon that's something to think about if you're going to display the howl is to make sure you leave enough shelf space for these tow arms which spread out pretty far another piece that is frequently broken is the uh the gun tips the gun tips are very easily breakable and you often see these uh either one or both of them completely broken off so keep an eye out for that if you're going to buy a howl and uh and if you get one just be careful with those uh and and don't let them get don't don't put too much pressure on them because those will break this is a towed vehicle so it has wheels they're just ordinary plastic wheels they are held together with this metal bar which I like a lot I really like these vehicles these wheeled vehicles that have the metal bar the metal bar is uh is probably not going to break it's a much more sturdy than a vehicle that uh that's just held in with plastic so that's that's a nice feature and you probably don't have to worry too much about the wheels being missing or broken off on this thing let's take a look at the features of the howl it's a cannon so of course it will swivel on its base it will also elevate and this actually is one of my least favorite features of the howl when you pull it up to elevate it it makes a very loud clicking sound that both feels and sounds like I'm breaking the toy just to elevate it as it's supposed to go this is the kind of ridged thing here that causes the ratcheting sound the very loud ratcheting sound and there's a metal bar in there that runs along these that makes that horrific sound as it goes back down though it clicks but not nearly as loudly and to be honest with you even though there's not really much chance of breaking the toy by elevating it the sound is so distressing to me that I don't like to do it so to display the howl I usually find a position that I like and I just leave it there so about that level of elevation is not bad and just won't mess with it after that point it includes a seat for the action figure and inside there is a foot peg for some extra support because as you can see there's no back peg which would on some of the vehicles the seats would have a back peg that would fit in the the back of the action figure here to help hold it in in this case it's got a foot peg meant to fit inside the hole on the bottom of the feet and you can put the figure in that way if you so choose but it's actually a little bit difficult to get them in I think I've just about got them and I don't really think it's all that necessary even though this is a very open cockpit the figure I think sits in there without the foot peg rather well and doesn't come out too easily so really most of the time I don't bother with the foot peg it's nice that it's there but I don't think very necessary as mentioned before this is a towed vehicle to change it from the stationary cannon mode to the tow mode you swing this back support leg up and there is a notch here that fits in the slot of the tow of the support leg and it just sort of wedges in there so now the wheels will make contact with the ground and of course you swing the tow arms together and now it will fit on the tow hook the standard tow hook on most GI Joe vehicles like the vamp here now the vamp is not a bad vehicle to tow the the howl but it's not my favorite I just as a matter of aesthetics I don't care for the light green and dark green together it's not a great color scheme so there are some other options it can be towed behind the 1982 mobat which has a tow hook fits on there quite nicely and it's a little bit better there's still a color difference there but one nice thing about the howl being towed behind the mobat is that it has a seat for the figure and the mobat really only accommodates one action figure so if you're towing a cannon that doesn't have a seat like this or for instance the MMS mobile missile system which doesn't have a seat for the for the action figure then you don't really have any place to put the action figure on the mobat tank so as the mobat tows the howl at least at least there is seating for grand slam there are other towing options and I suppose since it did come with a tow hook you could tow it behind the polar battle bear the 1983 snowmobile but I don't know why you'd want to do that it's the can is actually larger than the than the polar battle bear and it looks a little bit like the tail wagging the dog here my favorite towing configuration though is to tow it behind the 1983 wolverine tank I think that looks really nice the colors go pretty well together the howl is slightly darker but again there's this vehicle accommodates really only one figure and so it's nice to have a seat for grand slam so he can ride along as his cannon is towed but another thing that I like about it is that I think the weapons themselves go together the missiles on the wolverine tank these can be you can imagine these as either anti aircraft or anti tank missiles and the howl also is either an anti aircraft or anti armor weapon but the wolverine it's a 12 shot it has 12 missiles and if you have more than 12 targets you have a problem if you were the wolverine whereas the howl being a laser can keep firing until its power source is depleted so as a team you could have cover girl and the wolverine taking out the larger armored vehicles and aircraft with the high explosive missiles and you can have the howl taking out smaller vehicles and aircraft with its extremely precise laser cannon so the two of these together could take out a whole squadron of fangs and rattlers and his tanks and maybe stinger jeeps they could really cause cobra a lot of trouble just with these two vehicles and since they're towed they can be mobile at the same time they can run and shoot so I really like these two together let's take a closer look at the action figure grand slam and as you can see he also like the howl has some science fiction influence mixed in with his overall military look he's got these red pads on his chest arm arms and knees or his thighs which I guess is supposed to be some kind of shielding to protect him from the adverse effects of his laser now another character that is often confused with grand slam is flash who is the laser rifle trooper another laser operator who also had these same kind of the redish sort of slightly orange maybe pads in the same places as I said the 1982 characters were re-released in 1983 with this new articulation at the bicep that was referred to as swivel arm battle grip the 1982 versions did not have that like flash here could he could bend his arm at the elbow but did not have an ability to swing his arms in and out like this new version of grand slam here another difference between the 1982 and 1983 releases were the waist piece you can see here on the 1982 version it's got a thicker waist piece with kind of a wide belt here and the 1983 version has a slimmer waist piece a more detailed belt and just generally kind of looks better differences between grand slam and we should cover this because there seems to be a lot of confusion between these two let's take a look at let's take their helmets off both of them did come with helmets that had these clear plastic visors and these are were often lost and you can see why they're tiny they're clear you know you drop one of these on your carpet and it's likely to be vacuumed up I mean the thing that looks like a thumbnail honestly it's about that size so these can be a little bit hard to find if you're missing one but you can see that also the their color is different grand slam is slightly darker green and um flashes has a slightly lighter green color in the plastic grand slams gloves of course are black and his boots are black whereas flashes are brown and the head sculpt is different now these both of these head sculpts were reused for other characters the 1982 uh first release of gi jo action figures did reuse a lot of parts like this they did that quite a bit but their heads are really quite different they have the same hair color but flash has this kind of passive expression and grand slam has a slightly older looking face and a slightly more severe expression so don't get confused and order a flash instead of a grand slam they are they are similar but there are some significant differences oh I also wanted to point out one other difference between 1982 and 1983 the straight arm action figures had pads here on the arm that were had this um sort of checker pattern sculpt but when they were reissued and swivel arm battle grip those were just painted on with no sculpting at all not sure really sure why that is just one odd thing about this particular grand slam figure is uh this little mark of silver paint on his chest and what I think looks like a fingerprint I think a previous owner may have tried to touch up the silver paint on here now this silver paint does tend to wear off more easily than the other paint on the figures so I can see why someone would want to touch that up but maybe a slightly botched job here looks like somebody was not careful with the paint brush but even so it's a nice grand slam figure overall let's take a look at the other articulation of this figure he had the typical 1983 gi joe action figure articulation his head could turn left and right his shoulders could turn all the way around and his elbows of course could move up and down he had the swivel arm battle grip as mentioned before so his arm could swivel at the bicep he was held together with a rubber o-ring that would loop around here and would allow his torso to move a bit his legs would uh could move up at the waist here about 90 degrees and his knees would bend and that's about it later uh later gi joe action figures had a ball joint here in the neck so they could look up and down as well as turn left and right but and these older older ones they could just just turn their heads like that now I mentioned that there were two versions of grand slam the the original straight arm version like flash here and the swivel arm version like this but there was another version of grand slam uh issued with the 1983 version of the jump jet pack and that version of grand slam instead of having the red pads had all silver pads and that is the version of grand slam that I had as a kid and that version of grand slam is actually really rare and hard to find and pretty expensive if you're looking to buy one uh but I can kind of see why it's a highly desired figure the all silver grand slam just looked really cool and I I do like the red pads but the silver pads really made this figure pop and putting it together with the jump jet pack which in itself is not a very spectacular vehicle really combining the two made both of them more awesome the howl here was worth three flag points and on the back of the box of course was grand slam's file card you were encouraged to cut out these file cards from the back of the packaging and keep them it had some information about the the character in this case it says laser artillery soldier codename grand slam his file name is james j barney uh his primary military specialty is artillery secondary military specialty electronics engineer and basically the file card indicates that grand slam is really a very intelligent person but also a little bit of a geek as we might say I don't think they would have called him that in 1982 I'm not sure what the slang was but today we'd say he's a little bit geeky this section here says grand slam received initial training in conventional artillery and served with a 155 millimeter battery he graduated special weapons school top of class specialized education artillery school advanced tech school qualified expert in the m16 the m1911a1 and of course the howl artillery laser he better know how to operate the howl if he's going to be the operator of it he's soft spoken and calm just a bit shy intelligent loves to read escapist fantasy science fiction and comic books so grand slam is actually the kind of guy who would go to a gi joe convention and maybe cosplay and why not cosplay his own character so just picture grand slam cosplaying grand slam he would have the best costume at the convention the most realistic of course because he would just come in uniform so there you have the 1982 and 1983 howl heavy artillery laser with its driver grand slam thank you for watching this video and stay tuned for more gi joe toy reviews in the near future hello everybody hooded cobra commander seven eight eight here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review this time we are going to be looking at the 1982 mms with the action figure hawk before we get started i want to remind everybody to smash that subscribe button and if you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you hate this video go ahead and give it a thumbs down if you're watching this video on any website other than youtube i would appreciate it if you take a little trip over to the hooded cobra commander seven eight youtube channel and go ahead and subscribe i've got a lot more videos coming up and you won't want to miss them this is the mms mobile missile system with action figure hawk it was released in 1982 as part of the first series of gi joe action figures and vehicles it was also released in 1983 and it was discontinued in 1984 when it was replaced with nothing really the next surface to air missile system like this in the gi joe toy line didn't come out until 1985 that was the air defense battle station and that was a small play set that did not come with an action figure the mms was worth three flag points that's the same number of flag points as the howl laser cannon even though the howl was bigger than this but both the mms and the howl came with an action figure and that's probably why they were both worth the same number of flag points now i'm going to take a closer look at the action figure later but i'm going to set him aside for now and we're going to take a closer look at the mms the mms is modeled after a real world military armament the hawk mim 23 missile system the hawk moniker for the mim 23 is actually an acronym which stands for homing all the way killer let's take a look at the parts of the mms the mms came with three missiles what the blueprints referred to as patriot missiles as you can see they're pretty large and they each have four fins now these fins are very easily broken as you can see i have a couple fins broken on this one uh and the one behind it so as you can see they are very susceptible to breakage they connect to the missile pod with these slots which connect to these pegs and there are three one on the top and two on the side the pod itself rotates all the way around 360 degrees and it elevates one problem that i have with the missiles besides the fact that they tend to break like this is that they don't stay on very well i mean they slot in there but if you're rotating the missile pod uh they're very easy to knock off it also came with this firing panel and stand it was two parts came apart like that and the firing panel was connected to the main body of the toy via this very thin plastic black wire the stand connects to the firing panel here at the bottom in this little square partition that's the same shape as the post you just slide it in there and i have some sticky tack on the stand because it doesn't always like to stand up on its own on the front of the MMS we have two folding legs they're held down via this little notch same thing on both sides they fold up to change it to the toe mode and i'll demonstrate that more later uh the same with these two legs on the back they fold up and slide in we'll get a better demonstration of that here in a minute for transportation when the system is in toe mode it has wheels nice free moving wheels they are plastic wheels it would have been nice to have rubber wheels but that's okay let's look at some features of the MMS first of all we have some really nice detail on it look at all that detail this really does look like a high tech military missile system and even on the bottom we have some detailing on the bottom and that is really cool this is an example of hasbro going the extra mile with these toys if this had just been a plane bottom here you probably wouldn't have cared but they went through the extra trouble of molding on some detailing on the bottom of the toy i already demonstrated the missile pod and you can take off the missiles of course but the other main feature of this toy was that it could be towed by other gi joe vehicles to tow the MMS behind a gi joe vehicle you have to transform it from its stationary mode like this to the tow mode and i'll demonstrate how to do that now first of all of course you have to move the legs up these front legs go all the way up like this both the same and the back legs they go up and in then we have to take the control panel apart take it off of the stand and that fits nicely in this little slot right here and there's even a space for the stand and this little notch in the back under the back legs i've taken this sticky tack off just so that it looks a little bit nicer and now that it is converted into its tow mode this hook here can connect to a tow hook a standard tow hook on most gi joe vehicles like the vamp here and the wheels make contact with the ground and there it goes it moves very freely it's a nice towed vehicle now the vamp is a nice choice to tow the MMS because as you can see when the MMS is folded up and in tow mode uh hawk needs a place to ride and there is a passenger seat here in the vamp so just fit hawk right in there and he can ride along there you go that's pretty much it as far as features go the MMS was a pretty simple toy which accounts for why i did not get it when i was a kid it really just didn't look all that much fun to play with so let's take a look at the action figure hawk hawk is a special action figure in the first line of gi joe figures that came out in 1982 in that he was the leader of the gi joe team let's look at hawk's accessories he came with only two the helmet and a very tiny visor clear visor uh some of the other gi joe action figures came with these and these are very frequently lost as you can see they're clear and if they get dropped on the carpet they're pretty much invisible and very likely to be vacuumed up the visor fit in these holes in the side of the helmet like that and of course it could move up and down let's look at the articulation for hawk he had the typical 1982 gi joe action figure articulation which meant that at the head he could turn his head left and right about so far later in 1985 gi joe action figures had a ball joint in the neck so that he could also look up and down but in 1982 they could just move their head left and right his arm at the shoulder could swing up like that and it could rotate all the way around he had a hinge at the elbow so that he could move his elbow about 90 degrees in 1983 gi joe action figures added another point of articulation at the bicep which would allow the arm to swivel it was referred to as swivel arm battle grip and it looked like uh what was on steeler here the arms would move in and out like that as well as at the elbow he was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside of the action figure which allowed him to move a little bit at the torso he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend his knee about 90 degrees let's look at the sculpt of hawk now in 1982 the gi joe action figures reused a lot of parts between different action figures and that is especially true of hawk essentially hawk entirely reused the body of grunt same arms same chest and back same waist piece same legs same everything except for the head now the head actually was borrowed from short fuse and not only do they use the same head they have the same hair color look at this oh my god gi joe has perfected human cloning now i understand that in 1982 hasbro was not certain that this new gi joe toy line was going to be successful so they went the cheap route and they just reused a lot of parts they repainted them and they call them a different character but in this case they didn't even repaint the head they used exactly the same head for two so it looks like they're twins now this is not the only time that that occurred in 1982 for instance here are here's another set of twins flash and steeler not only did they reuse the same head they have exactly the same hair color sometimes for the sake of diversity they would at least change the hair color like with zap here who had the same head but at least he had black hair instead of brown hair now i think there's a missed opportunity here because the toy designers had an option that would have made hawk unique and it would have fit better with the second version of hawk so let's bring in hawk version two this is the version of hawk that came out in 1986 as you can see he has the ball joint and he can move his head up and down as well as side to side now take a look at these two action figures two versions of hawk these two action figures are intended to represent the same guy obviously they don't look anything alike consider if you will if instead of using short fuses head and hair color they had used grunts head but colored the hair blonde i know they wanted the character to be blonde because he was in the comic book and if they had used grunts head with blonde hair he would not have been a clone of anybody none of the other action figures used this head sculpt with blonde hair so he would have been unique also he would have looked more like the second version you could kind of imagine this guy as being a slightly older version of this guy it's closer certainly closer than these two of course you would have needed to keep the blonde hair in the second version the hair color change from blonde to brown is never explained this isn't the only time hasbro has spontaneously changed hair colors for characters when they issued a second version of them and i hated it every time i just really wish they wouldn't do that as you can see hawk has silver paint on his webgear now this silver paint rubs off very easily and the reason he's painted silver it may be to signify his rank uh he is a colonel and as i said he is the leader of the gi joe team he is the highest ranking officer on the team now when i was a kid i did not know that this action figure was supposed to represent the leader of the gi joe team when i saw it on the shelves in the store it looked like a very plain vehicle with a very plain action figure and i really just didn't have any interest in it i didn't find out that this was supposed to be hawk the same hawk in the comic books until after the toy was no longer available later in the gi joe storyline hawk was promoted to general and general hawk is represented by version two this is hawk as a general and this is hawk as a colonel let's take a look at the file card this was printed on the back of the box that the mms came in there's nothing on the other side it was just the back of a box and you were encouraged to cut these out and keep them since it contained a short biography of the character represented by the action figure up here it says interestingly missile commander not gi joe leader or gi joe commander if it had said something like that i might have taken notice of this toy earlier than i did his codename is hawk which could refer to the hawk missile system which the toy is supposed to represent or it could refer to a war hawk sometimes just called a hawk which is a person who favors war in a debate about whether or not you should go to war it says his file name is clayton m abbernathy his primary military specialty is artillery secondary military specialty is radar his birthplace is denver colorado that's a nice town i've been there his grade is o six which is a colonel here it says hawk comes from a well-established read loaded family he's a west point graduate top of class and has seen action in a number of trouble spots graduated advanced infantry training covert ops school served on cadre north atlantic range command and usa e n g com e v r missile and radar training classified qualified expert m 16 m 19 11 a 1 autopistol this quote down here says he's keenly intelligent and perceptive and quite capable of totally selfless acts in support of his teammates an excellent leader and that line right there is our only hint that this toy is meant to represent the leader of the gi joe team if you take a look at this guy closely you can kind of see why i didn't think he was the leader of the gi joe team he has a very passive expression he doesn't look like a leader in fact he just looks kind of sleepy his eyes are kind of droopy that was my review of the mms mobile missile system and the action figure that came with it hawk i hope you enjoyed this review and if you're thinking of getting an mms or a hawk action figure i hope you found this video informative if you liked it go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you didn't like it go ahead and give it a thumbs down and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great gi joe toy reviews coming up and you won't want to miss them thanks for watching and bye bye hello everybody hooded cobra commander seven eight eight here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this one is special this one is really exciting i've been working on this for a while i just wanted to make sure that i had all the pieces we are going to look at cobra commander and not just one version of cobra commander we're going to look at the 1982 1983 and the 1984 versions of cobra commander the ojoe.com gi joe toy database refers to the 1982 version of cobra commander as version one the 1983 version as version 1.5 and the 1984 version as version 2 now we did get a version 3 cobra commander in the vintage line in 1987 but he looked very different he had this kind of iron man armor uh but this is the classic look that we are used to this is the cobra commander that everybody remembers i'm really excited to look at the action figure that gives this channel its name so let's take a look at cobra commander and give him a very good thorough review cobra commander was released in 1982 as a mail away he was not available in the stores in 1983 he was released as a carded figure for sale in the stores and then in 1984 he was released as the hooded cobra commander as another mail away the hooded cobra commander was not sold in the stores the hooded cobra commander was sold through mail away offers like this one there's one right there and you could collect your flag points it says only two flag points and a dollar 75 in 1982 if you mail the way to get your own cobra commander this is what you would get there was something a little bit odd about this first issue of cobra commander his cobra symbol was actually highly simplified this one is actually a better view of this symbol as you look at it uh it has kind of detached eyes at the top that kind of makes the symbol look like it's wearing a mickey mouse hat so this variation of cobra commander is referred to as the mickey mouse cobra commander uh this is somewhat rare and desirable to collectors now later in 1982 if you mail away for cobra commander you would get one with the regular cobra symbol the the one that we're all used to let's take a look at the accessory and he came with only one the venom laser pistol which was a very dark almost black gray plastic uh and this one i think it looks a little bit lighter than it actually is under the camera uh but it's actually quite dark um not quite black but very close to black i actually have two of them uh i have one on the back of this cobra commander but this one the grip is slightly broken so i'm just going to leave that plugged into the back and we'll just take a look at this one now as a weapon i guess this is okay this is fine as far as laser guns go you know and i really don't care for lasers in gi joe i didn't care for the science fiction weapons but i i mean this is all right it actually looks a little bit more like a hair dryer than a gun but it did have a nice feature in that it did plug into the back the back of the action figure had some sculpted on detail here it was a recharging pack for the laser so had this hole in the in the top corner that corresponded with this notch on the gun and you just push that in there and it actually held pretty well i do like it when the sculpting on the action figure matches the accessories let's look at the articulation of cobra commander and there was a difference between 1982 and 1983 when you first mailed away for cobra commander in 1982 you got what they referred to as the straight arm articulation uh he could turn his head from side to side like that he could lift his arm all the way up and he could turn it all the way around and he had a hinge at the elbow and he could move his elbow at about 90 degrees all of the action figures in the vintage line were held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the center so they could move at the waist a little bit they could move their legs apart about so far he'd move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees starting in 1983 they introduced a new point of articulation at the bicep uh they had this swivel here that they referred to as swivel arm battle grip and not only could you move the arm at the elbow at 90 degrees you could also swivel it all the way around this allowed the action figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip let's look at the sculpt of these three cobra commander action figures the 1982 cobra commander was actually completely unique he shared no parts with any other action figures however when he was re-released in 1983 with the swivel arms he actually shared arms with the 1983 cobra officer you can see that their arms match they're just a different color the 1984 hooded cobra commander had exactly the same body as the 1983 cobra commander but with a different head the head on this 1984 hooded cobra commander was a slightly rubbery material so you kind of actually got the effect of the hood on his head it kind of actually did billow over his uniform slightly uh but as you can see it is a much darker color than the 1982 or 1983 version we already looked at the charging pack on the back and that's some nice detail and all of them featured that he has a very military looking uniform uh he has a dagger on his left leg and on his right leg he has this very formal looking red stripe down his pants and his trouser leg actually comes all the way down to cover part of his boot let's look at the colors of cobra commander and the color is the most obvious difference between 1983 and 1984 uh 1982 and 1983 cobra commanders had this reflective silver mask and this silver paint in fact any of the shiny metallic paint on these action figures rubbed off very easily so you're really lucky to get one that doesn't have any of the paint scratched off there's been some criticism of the color of cobra commander he came in this very light blue color when he was first released in 1982 1983 and I think that was to provide him some contrast with the two other cobra action figures that were released at the time the cobra officer and the cobra soldier which of course were very dark blue and so cobra commander in order to stand out was a much lighter blue he he looked unique uh he looked like he was uh set apart from the others and so you can kind of tell which one was in charge then in 1984 when the hooded cobra commander was released he was dark blue kind of like the other two but he does have a very regal look to him this is his ceremonial uniform uh the hood is meant to be a ceremonial hood a cowl and the uh the helmet and the mask that's supposed to be his battle helmet so when he goes into battle he dons his helmet and then when he's rallying the troops or doing some kind of a a ceremonial thing that he wears the hood in the comic book cobra commander was depicted as preparing for battle by taking off his hood and putting on his battle helmet uh but of course you couldn't really do that with the toy because they were totally different colors these were obviously meant to be totally different uniforms despite the fact that you could not reenact the comic book exactly I really don't mind this color scheme if you think about it if the hooded cobra commander had been done in the lighter blue plastic he would not have had this very regal effect he would just wouldn't have looked the same and if the uh regular cobra commander had been released with the darker blue he would not have stood out well enough amongst his troops so I really do think that this was the right way to go it also meant that when you mailed away for the hooded cobra commander you were not getting just the regular cobra commander with another head you were getting an entirely new action figure taking a closer look at the 1984 hooded cobra commander I think this is a really good looking action figure he's got the gold paint on him with a gold stripe on his leg in place of the red stripe from the original and it does look like a good ceremonial uniform he looks like he should be in charge of something one criticism I have of the hooded cobra commander is that his eyes do not look very evil you can see cobra commander's eyes there and they look kind of droopy frankly cobra commander looks a little bit sleepy if you were to take the head off the body he would look a little bit like a pac-man ghost cobra commander does tend to be more expensive than most gi joe action figures if you buy one on ebay but I don't think that's because he's necessarily so rare the 1982 and 1983 versions of the cobra commander action figure were actually available in a lot of different ways by mail order in the stores also with the 1982 cobra missile command headquarters and then the hooded cobra commander was actually available in mail away for a really long time so there should be a lot of these floating around out there but they still tend to run a bit more expensive I think because the demand is so much higher you really if you're a gi joe collector you've got to have cobra commander he's one of the iconic characters and you just don't want to have him missing from your collection so everybody wants a cobra commander let's take a look at cobra commander's file cards and we have several file cards to look at when you first mailed away for a cobra commander in 1982 you would have got a file card that was playing on the back like this later versions had a red back I don't have the red back version but this is a file card from the mail away cobra commander in 1983 when cobra commander was released on a card in the stores his file card was printed on the back of the packaging so you were encouraged to cut that out and keep it and then when you mailed away for the hooded cobra commander in 1984 you got a card that also had a plain back it also had this white border with a flag point up here which unfortunately was cut out on this one one minor difference between the card art and the actual action figure is that the portrait of cobra commander on this file card has a cobra symbol on his cowl which was not on the action figure itself the text of these file cards are almost identical so I'm just going to read one of them here this says cobra commander codename enemy leader and of course enemy leader is more his role not his codename the title cobra commander was always treated kind of as his name they just called him cobra commander his file name is classified his primary military specialty is intelligence his secondary military specialty is ordinance and in parentheses experimental weaponry his birthplace is classified and his grade is commander in chief so he is like the president of cobra the section here says absolute power total control of the world it's people wealth and resources that's the objective of cobra commander this fanatical leader rules with an iron fist he demands total loyalty and allegiance his main battle plan comma for a world control comma uh there's an extra common here I think that's a typo in fact on the hooded cobra commander card uh that is actually fixed they took out the extra commas there his main battle plan for world control relies on revolution and chaos he personally led uprisings in the middle east southeast asia and other trouble spots responsible for kidnapping scientists businessmen and military leaders then forcing them to reveal their top level secrets it's funny that it mentions the middle east and southeast asia because in the 1970s and early 80s those are the places where the united states had the most difficulty in its foreign policy it's kind of hinted that cobra commander is responsible for all the problems that the united states has had in those regions of the world this bottom section says cobra commander is hatred and evil personified corrupt a man without scruples probably the most dangerous man alive the personality that's depicted on the file card is pretty simple he's evil he's just plain evil but I think that raises a more interesting question which is how does a person become so evil what motivates him why is he the way he is in the comic book cobra commander's ideology is a little bit muddled but it seems to mostly draw from the extreme right wing not only does the file card make him out to be kind of like the new hitler but in the comic book especially in the earlier issues uh cobra used a lot of Nazi imagery I really like cobra commander as the leader of the enemy of gi joe and I like him not just because he's so evil but because he's so smart as he was depicted in the first issue of the gi joe comic book he was a step ahead of the joe team and pretty much at every point he's highly intelligent and charismatic a person of lesser intelligence simply could not accomplish what he has accomplished which is build an international network to take over the world his goals may be evil but he is a man possessed of uncommon intelligence ambition and ability but of course that's why he must be stopped because if he succeeds that will mean the end of freedom and the domination of worldwide fascism that's my review of the 1982 1983 and 1984 cobra commander I hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you didn't go ahead and give it a thumbs down that's what it's there but don't forget to subscribe because I've got a lot of great new gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them I'll catch you later hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and I'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this time by special request we are looking at the 1982 gi joe flak flak was an acronym that stood for field light attack cannon uh it was worth two flag points and it did not come with an action figure it was sold in 1982 it was also sold in 1983 it was discontinued in 1984 but it was available as a mail away from 1985 to 1990 so this was available for a really long time so there should be a lot of these floating around out there despite the fact that the flak was still on the shelves in 1983 its role was somewhat replaced by the 1983 whirlwind twin battle gun which was another gun an anti aircraft gun like the flak that did not come with an action figure uh in 1984 we got the cobra asp which was an anti aircraft gun that fit the role of both the whirlwind and the flak but this time for cobra the blueprints called this gun a 105 millimeter howitzer which is definitely what this gun is not a howitzer is a relatively short barreled gun that is intended to fire shells at high trajectories for a steep angle of descent so it's designed to lob shells down on the heads of the enemy this is an anti aircraft gun and in case there was any doubt as to whether or not this was an anti aircraft gun there's a sticker here indicating the number of kills that this gun has had and of course it's all aircraft also on the sticker for the control panel we see the gun targeting an aircraft the flak borrows design cues and its name from a series of german anti aircraft guns from world war two this i think most closely fits the german flak 39 uh main differences really the the flak 39 did not have the seat like this the flak 39 was a 105 millimeter gun so the blueprints did have that part right let's look the parts of the flak and it's a short list it has three support legs and they all fold it in like this you fold them out to uh to place it on the ground for support it had a seat in the back which came out really easily just very easily pop it out like that and for that reason these flaks are often missing the seat also the bar that supports the seat is pretty thin and these break off very easily so you see a lot of flaks out there without the seat and sometimes without this entire bar the seat just kind of kind of snaps in there like that and you can tell when you snap it in that it's not going to stay in very firmly the flak did not come with an action figure but the box art featured rock and roll in the gunner seat and i think he's appropriate as the gi jo machine gunner and this is how i always display my flak there are two control joysticks here that the figures can kind of put their hands on uh they're a bit thick so i wouldn't try to force the figures hands all the way on them but they can just kind of hold onto the edge there and that's really the only means of support for keeping the action figure in there's no backpack on the seat so that would go in the back of the action figure and there is no foot peg here on the foot supports which would have gone into the holes in the bottom of the feet of the action figure to help hold them in uh and i i think that that's a missed opportunity honestly i mean he does stay in there fairly well but i would have preferred something more for support something else to try to keep the action figure in just keep them from falling out let's look at the features of the flak and again it's a short list uh it will rotate all the way around on its base and it uh it can move it can move down it can elevate it elevates up to the point where the foot uh foot rests hit against the the supporting bar here and so that's about as high up as it goes and that's about it as far as features go but i think one of the main features really is not what the flak does but how it looks i mean it has a ton of really impressive details it looks kind of hyper realistic uh the control panel there has some uh stickers with some gauges uh and the sides of the gun just have a lot of detail the stickers have a very nice military look to them it's really an impressive looking gun the 1983 gi joe headquarters command center had a special emplacement just for the flak it had these inventions here uh one right there and another one up here and here and those exactly fit the footprint of the flak they're not very deep so they don't hold the flak in very well but they were designed for the flak and they fit perfectly the flak as a standalone toy is fine but it's not one of my favorites mainly because there are some missed opportunities with this uh with this toy and i think the main one the most obvious one is wheels just give the thing some wheels giving this some wheels and making it a toad vehicle like the whirlwind i think would have made a huge difference there's actually no way to pull this thing and get it on the battlefield it's actually a pretty static stationary toy uh but if you had slapped some wheels on it and put a tow hook on it it could have been towed by another gi joe vehicle and that i think would have made it look really cool alternatively if there were at least some kind of loop or cleat on here that would have fit the 1983 dragonfly's winch then it could have been airlifted into position but there's not really anything like that on there either now to be fair this came out in 1982 and the 1983 dragonfly didn't exist at the time maybe if this were designed in 1983 they would have thought of that but unfortunately it just doesn't have anything to hook on to really now you can still airlift this thing in here by just playing out the dragonfly's winch and uh looping it around the body there and then hooking the uh the hook there to the rope uh and then you know it can be carried that way which i guess is fine the fact that the flak did not have wheels means that it didn't have a way to move it onto the battlefield unless you just you know kind of picked it up and carry it and who would do something crazy like that if the flak had wheels it would have been a nice less expensive alternative to the 1982 and 1983 laser cannon which as you can see was bigger it came with an action figure grand slam and it had wheels so it was a toad weapon and so if you're a kid and you only have so much allowance money to spend and you have the more expensive howl in the store and on the same shelf you have the flak and the flak could do everything that the howl could do it could be toad and it could shoot it just didn't have an action figure you might pick up the flak just because it's cheaper and your allowance money would go farther that was my review of the 1982 gi joe flak i hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give this video a thumbs up if you didn't go ahead and give the video a thumbs down that's what it's there for but whatever you do make sure you subscribe to the hooded coper commander 788 youtube channel because i've got a lot of great new gi joe action figure vehicle and comic book reviews coming up you do not want to miss them in fact the next review is kind of special it's one that i've been working on for quite a while and i'm really psyched to actually be able to do it so you do not want to miss it so make sure you're subscribed i'll talk to you all later hello everybody hooded coper commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this time i am looking at the 1983 jump jetpack and the action figure that came with it grand slam i'm very excited about doing this review i've actually wanted to do it for a while i just needed to make sure i had all the pieces and this review is a special request from plastica from the yojo.com forum if you would like me to review a particular gi joe toy just leave me a comment below this video in youtube and if i have the toy i will review it if i don't have the toy if i ever acquire it i will review it so let's get started and look at the 1983 jump jetpack and grand slam this is the jump jetpack and jump stands for jet mobile propulsion unit which does not spell jump it spells jumpoo the jump jetpack with grand slam is the 1983 version of the toy but in 1982 the jump jetpack was sold on its own without an action figure so if you got this toy in 1982 this is what you got the action figure grand slam was also available in 1982 and 1983 with a different toy the howl heavy artillery laser as you can see there are some differences between the grand slam that came with the howl laser cannon and the grand slam that came with the jump jetpack i will take a closer look at the differences between these two versions of grand slam a little bit later so in 1982 you have the jump jetpack not a very popular toy not a lot to it so in 1983 hasbro re-released the jump jet pack but they packaged it with this new version of grand slam so the jump jetpack with an action figure now you've got something interesting so the jump was introduced in 1982 and then reintroduced in 1983 with the action figure and after that it was sold until 1985 as a mail away offer in catalogs that you would get with gi joe vehicles such as this and you could open it up and right there is an offer for a jump jetpack it was only three flag points and two dollars when the jump was sold in 1982 by itself it was worth two flag points and when it was sold in 1983 with the action figure it was still worth two flag points so you didn't get an extra flag point with the action figure and i think that's kind of a rip off i'm going to take a closer look at grand slam a little bit later so i'm going to set him aside for now let's look at the parts of the jump jetpack and the largest part was this launch pad the launch pad had four legs they're more like feet it also included this recharging station and control console and that has a lot of really impressive detail lots of high tech gadgetry there and on the bottom of this side of the control console it has these hooks and those hooks just hooked on to this recessed portion here that ran all along the edge of the launch pad and you hook that on there and the control console would stay there's actually no specific spot along the launch pad to place this control console you'd really hook it on any side all four sides would accommodate the hooks on it so you could really put it in any configuration you wanted to the jump came with this laser gun and this laser gun the blueprint say has a range of 100 yards and it has this kind of sight thing on here that's actually a quite narrow and thin piece of plastic these are often broken off so if you're looking for a jump jetpack and you want to make sure that it's intact take special note of this sight thing this kind of attachment on here that breaks off extremely easily the laser gun fits into the hand of the action figure and it has this C clip here that actually fits over the forearm so you kind of push the gun into the hand and the clip fits over the arm and it stays on there very securely connecting the laser gun to the jetpack itself was this black wire and this black wire is often missing these can be a real pain to find they were almost always lost on these things they would fit in the this hole in the bottom of the laser gun on one end and the other end which would look identical would fit on the bottom of the jet pack like that and it actually does not stay in very securely it pops out pretty easily so you can understand how this thing would get lost quite frequently in fact i've had to do several takes in this video because i keep having the thing pop out on me that brings us to the jetpack itself and the jetpack is loosely based on the real world bell textron rocket belt and that's a design that's actually been around for a while the us army did express an interest in building these things for military use and the program to build rocket packs was called the small rocket lift device or s r l d so jet packs or rocket packs are a real thing they exist in the real world but they're not very practical for a lot of reasons for one thing they have a very short flight duration roughly about 30 seconds and if you have a flight duration of only 30 seconds you can only spend about 15 seconds going up and you better spend the next 15 seconds getting back down because you do not want to be at the top of its arc when this thing runs out of gas because jet packs did not fly very high because of their extremely short flight duration they didn't get up high enough for the pilot to use a parachute if the device failed so you're high enough to get injured really badly if you fell but not high enough to use a parachute you can see why the military use of jet packs would be a little bit problematic the jump jet pack had some fairly decent detail on both sides and on this side it has a peg and that peg would fit in the hole in the back of the action figure and that would hold the jet pack on so the jet pack fit on exactly like any other gi joe backpack the legs are adjustable if you pull them out they can adjust to this notch right there like so or you could just pull them all the way out let's look at the features of the jump jet pack and on this side of the control console it has a hole and that hole fit the peg on the jet pack you just put the peg in the hole and it holds the jet pack on there for refueling and recharging and it has a slot right there that fit the barrel of the laser gun so you could kind of holster the laser gun and there you go as far as features goes that's it the jump jet pack does not do anything else it has nothing that is spring loaded or battery powered it's that there you have it let's be very frank about this the jump jet pack is not really a vehicle it is an accessory I mean as far as the jet pack itself goes this is it this is actually what goes on the action figure this part really isn't necessary you don't really need a launch pad to launch a jet pack so you don't really need this and the console that has the hole for the jet pack and the holster for the laser gun you only really use that when you're not using the jet pack it's basically just storage for the for the toy and so really what we're talking about here is an accessory with some extra bits the launch pad did have a foot peg that you could fit in the hole on the bottom of the action figure's feet so you could stand a figure on there but you don't need it for the actual jet pack itself it's really not very necessary so you know what this you know what this launch pad really is it's a really big figure stand you may recall that in my video review of the 1982 flak I kind of knocked it a little bit because I thought it was too simple I think it needed some wheels or some other features to really make the toy you know be really cool well as far as simple toys goes this jet pack is even simpler than the flak but I feel very differently about the jet pack than I do the flak I still really love this despite the fact that it really is just an accessory with a completely unnecessary launch pad I really love this toy I did have it as a kid and I had it with the grand slam with the silver pads like this and I loved it I mean if you think about it it's a wonderful toy it allows you to turn a gi joe action figure into Superman it allows your action figures to fly now a grand slam is an attack aircraft and that is pretty darn cool also as an adult collector I don't play with these toys anymore I display them and the launch pad and the control console actually looks pretty cool as a display when the jump jet pack was used in the comic book and the cartoon and probably when you were playing with it as a kid you would have your figures flying horizontally like this like Superman and I'm no physicist but I don't think that would actually work because I mean if you're flying horizontally and you don't have wings for lift and gravity is pulling you down then you're just going to arc downward until your face plants in the dirt to really fly this thing you would need to be vertical and the pilot would move forward by just leaning forward a little bit but he would still remain mostly vertical to illustrate this check out this video of a real jet pack in flight let's take a look at grand slam and let's look at grand slam's accessories he came with a helmet that was dark green to match the dark green color on his uniform and a visor that clipped onto the helmet on the holes in the side of the helmet like that and this visor was clear plastic it was very small and these were often lost you can see how they would get lost very easily they're tiny and they are clear and you know if you drop one of these it's just going to be invisible and it's going to be gone forever in addition to the helmet of the visor of course grand slam came with the jet pack itself let's take a look at the articulation of grand slam he had the typical articulation of 1983 gi joe action figures which meant that he could turn his head left to right he could move his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel it all the way around he had a hinge at the elbow and he could move his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees and 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 held the figure together and it allowed him to move at the torso a little bit he could move his legs apart about so far he could move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees let's take a look at the sculpt of grand slam his face has kind of an older look sort of a severe expression there and he has brown hair he has very prominent silver pads on his chest with kind of a checker pattern also on his thighs and painted pads on his arms he has black gloves and black boots with these straps here and these are obviously supposed to be boot covers he was pretty simple on the back he had silver straps that could just continued over to his silver pads on his chest now the grand slam that came with the jump jet pack was identical to the grand slam that came with the howl laser cannon also in 1983 but as you can see the grand slam that came with the howl laser cannon had these red kind of orangish red pads instead of the silver pads so when they decided to sell the jump jet pack with grand slam they really just repainted these red portions silver and i really like this new paint job i think the silver pads on here just really stand out very well he looks really cool it looks very science fiction but the green gives him a sort of an authentic military look even though he has this very futuristic pads on him these pads on the action figure are apparently to protect him from some kind of adverse effect of the laser that he operates he did have a laser with the jump jet pack and when he came with the howl of course the howl was a laser cannon and the only other action figure that had those pads was flash and he was the laser rifle trooper so apparently these pads have something to do with protection from lasers be very cautious with this silver paint this silver metallic paint that hasbro used was not very robust it would rub off very easily so just have a care and if you're going to get a grand slam take careful note of the condition of the silver paint in the early issues of the gi joe comic book and in the cartoon the jump jet pack was not associated with grand slam it was used by stalker and i really think it looks great on stalker it just looks really cool and before i had the silver pad version of grand slam i always used to display my jump jet pack with stalker let's take a look at the file card and this is the file card that came with grand slam with the jump jet pack it was printed on the back of the box that the jump jet pack came in on the other side there's nothing it was just the back of the box and of course that was the second version of grand slam's file card the first version was the version that came with the hal laser cannon and this of course the portrait is different because this is the art that was on the box for the hal laser cannon and this was the art that was on the box for the jump jet pack the text on these two cards are almost identical in fact the only difference is that the card with the jump jet pack adds this line jump jet pack which was missing on his card for the hal laser cannon the title up here says laser jet pack soldier codename grand slam file name james j barney primary military specialty artillery secondary military specialty electronics engineer birthplace chippewa falls wisconsin and his grade is e five this section says grand slam received initial training with conventional artillery and served with a 155 millimeter battery graduated special weapon school top of class specialized education artillery school advanced tech school qualified expert m16 m1911 a1 hal heavy artillery laser and jump jet pack this quote down here says he's soft spoken and calm just a bit shy intelligent loves to read escapist fantasy in parentheses science fiction and comic books i kind of like that about grand slam he's a comic book nerd and i can kind of relate to that that was my review of the 1983 jump jet pack and its pilot grand slam and his file card i hope you enjoyed this video and if you're thinking of getting a jump jet pack i hope you found this video informative if you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them and if there's a vintage gi joe toy that you would like for me to review go ahead and leave a comment below and i will do my best to get to it thanks for watching and i'll catch you all later i'm so happy to finally have you in my collection bomb disposal unit oh but i can't review you right now because you're from gi joe and this is cobra month you wait right there while i go look at something from cobra welcome to cobra convergence for commander seven at eight here and it is my privilege to bring you the fourth year of cobra convergence and we are going to be looking at a very special gi joe toy the 1982 sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters is a testament to ron rudett if you don't know who ron is he is the person most responsible for the look of gi joe in the 1980s he designed all the early figures he designed some of the vehicles he created the iconic cobra emblem ron's fingerprints are all over this play set he designed all three figures that came with it he designed the set itself he even did the artwork on it this is ron rudett's baby i was honored to meet ron rudett at joe con a few years ago i was able to thank him in person for all the work he did on gi joe now for cobra convergence it's my privilege to review the first play set in the gi joe a real american hero toy line hcc788 presents the sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters this is the 1982 sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters it was sold only at sears in 1982 and 1983 it was discontinued for 1984 this is the first play set of any kind in the gi joe a real american hero toy line it is made entirely of cardboard with the exception of some plastic fasteners this play set was exclusive to sears because it was exclusive to only one retailer and because it was made of cardboard this is a very rare set fewer were produced and many of them did not survive playtime the set came with three figures all three cobra figures that were available at the time cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper this set was the only way to get cobra commander at retail in 1982 the figure was otherwise only available through mail order according to former hasbro employee kirk bozigian who was in charge of boys toys at the time the gi joe toy line was launched in 1982 sears wanted an exclusive gi joe toy the presentation for the toy was made in august and needed to be ready by christmas the same year a plastic toy would take at least a year to produce the only solution use cardboard instead of plastic ron rudat the hasbro designer who created all of the early gi joe action figures did all the illustration on this set in earlier eras of mass produced toys cardboard play sets were more common fully plastic play sets were exceptional toy companies used a variety of materials to keep costs down some play sets were nothing more than vinyl cases that opened up for play some larger sets were made of tin occasionally the play set would just be a sheet of printed plastic that pieces were placed on the petroleum crisis in the late 70s increased the price of plastic which perpetuated the use of cardboard in play sets both the kenner star wars death star play set and the millennium falcon had cardboard walls after this future gi joe play sets would be made of plastic they would also get bigger in 1983 there was the gi joe headquarters command center in 1985 there was the transportable tactical battle platform also in 1985 there was the uss flag in 1986 there was the cobra terror drone for cobra this was a big upgrade from the cardboard set in 1987 there was the defiant shuttle complex also in 1987 there was the mobile command center in 1990 there was the general in 1992 there was a new gi joe headquarters play set and also in 1992 there was the toxo lab you may have noticed some pieces left out some vehicles were so large they seemed like play sets and some play sets had wheels so they moved around like vehicles however you classify them gi joe had a wealth of large toys to play with sears advertised the set in their 1982 wishbook for eleven dollars and 99 cents that's roughly the equivalent of the price of the three figures plus a couple extra dollars today they're worth at least twice that sears was a big supporter of the gi joe toy line and had several exclusive sets in 1984 they had the vamp and howl two pack in 1985 they had the cat and the sms in 1986 they had the dreadnought aerosol and the dreadnought ground assault these sets tend to be rare any toy that was produced exclusively for one retailer would not be produced in the same numbers as a general retail release they were also mostly reissues of earlier toys sometimes with different colors there was a modern version of this toy released in 2007 it was an exclusive to san diego comic con i will show you a side by side comparison between the vintage and modern later in this video i have the instruction sheet for the missile command headquarters and this is a little different from our usual vehicle blueprints in that it has the instructions on how to put the thing together but it does not have an illustration of the toy on a grid background with a numbered list of the features it does have illustrations of the various parts that go to it and it has this blurb here with a little bit of text that kind of tries to talk up the set this missile command station is a detailed copy of cobra commands super secret headquarters inside its thick steel walls is the world's most sophisticated state of the art missile system engineered to operate under the most extreme conditions it's made of cardboard folks although it is cool to have the instruction sheet and it's certainly handy when you're putting the set together a lot of collectors will consider the set to be complete without it let's look at the parts and the features of the cobra missile command headquarters and it's worth pointing out that everything is on one side of this play set the backside of it is just plain white cardboard for starters you have this large background piece which the instruction sheet calls the fully detailed cobra missile base it appears to be a domed base with a tunnel that lines up with the elevator rail and a couple guards in the tunnel on the wall behind the missile is a big cobra emblem cobra has its branding on everything then there's this little orange cart drawn on the floor there is exceptional technical detail on that background piece all of it drawn by Ron Rudat this is a two-dimensional piece on which all of the three-dimensional pieces are attached next we have the elevator and the elevator is functional it will slide along two sideways l-shaped slots you can place an action figure in the elevator and the elevator will slide and down and then of course back up and back over it may take a little bit of work but mine actually slides pretty easily this is a pretty creative way of making a 3d moving part out of two-dimensional cardboard there is some technical detail on that control panel some switches and buttons and control panels and monitors and a little pac-man there and it looks like there's an illustration of the missile so this is nice I do like the elevator the next layer out from the backboard is what the instruction sheet calls the missile support systems it's mainly a bunch of technical detail with a couple platforms that connect to the backboard and then of course the additional pieces connect to that piece adding another dimension to the play set if you move the elevator out of the way you can stand action figures on those platforms so they did try to give you ways to have the figures interact with the play set other than just standing in front of it and here is more of that amazing technical detail illustrated by Ron Rudat on that support system piece as you can see it's just a long piece that connects to that backboard in a couple spots and then other pieces are connected to that but really exceptional detail on that and that gives us another layer to look at the next piece is the cruise missile it is a flat piece it is two-dimensional it's just illustrated on a piece of cardboard it is connected to the missile support system piece at one point and it will pivot it will go all the way vertical and it will go horizontal if this set were brand new the missile should hold in any position but this is cardboard it does tend to wear so my missile will not stay up and at this age don't we all have that problem in order to help keep it up I usually use a piece of mounting putty and that will keep it up at a nice angle unfortunately the missile will not launch it will only pivot up and down and this is the center piece of the play set this is a missile command headquarters that cannot launch its missile it's a little disappointing that the focus of the set is flat and doesn't really do much a cruise missile is a guided missile that takes out ground targets there are cruise missile designs that look similar to this one cruise missiles have been around for a long time and would have been pretty well known to the public at the time this set was released there is a big red cobra emblem on the tail of the missile and cobra made sure to register their trademark directly in front of the missile is the work platform and as with all the other pieces there is exceptional technical detail all over it there's a ramp on one side but the primary function is as a platform so you can stand a figure on it and this guy can repair the missile or something at the other end of the play set is the control panel it is a U shaped computer control console with tons of buttons and gauges and monitors all over it it has three seats that attach to it unfortunately I only have two seats the third seat would go right here but the seats are all identical so you can see what the seats look like I really like this computer center the missile may be the showpiece of the play set but this is the heart the figures can use the seats at the control panel by straddling the seat and there are little holes in the cardboard for the figures feet it works more or less it's not perfect but they had to make attached seats out of cardboard pieces somehow and this is what they came up with that's all the features on the play set but we have one more piece to look at the file card holder this file card holder isn't technically part of the play set but it did come with the play set some collectors will consider the set to be complete without it this file card holder is nothing more than a box with a flap on the back it has a geijo logo in front uh cobra the enemy on each side it is blank on the bottom it is blank on the back and on the front of that flap it has the geijo figures that were available at the time at least most of them surprisingly it seems to be missing cobra commander he is not on there and the top of the box says geijo combat command file it has a slot in it and that is for holding the three included file cards we will be taking a closer look at these file cards a little later in this video here is one more look at all the amazing technical detail illustrated by ron rudat on this play set uh they did a good job of making a play environment out of cardboard some collectors may think this thing is cheesy but i think it's impressive considering the short amount of time they had to make it there was however an alternative construction they could have gone with some other cardboard play sets took a different approach and we will look at one of them later let's look at the figures that came with this play set these figures were packaged in two different ways in the earliest releases of this play set they were sealed in a plastic bubble on the back of the file card later probably in 1983 they came sealed in a plastic bag with the file card all of these figures like the play set were designed by ron rudat geijo did not have an enemy when they were first presented to marvel comics for creative input marvel suggested an enemy similar to marvel's hydra the late marvel editor archie goodwin came up with the name cobra an anecdote about archie goodwin he was born in kansas city missouri in 1937 but he spent his teen years in my hometown tulsa he attended will rogers high school the same high school as my parents he graduated in 1955 and he has been inducted into the will rogers high school hall of fame sadly he passed away in 1998 one of my great regrets is that i will never be able to meet him depending on when you bought the missile command headquarters you could get one of three cobra commanders the earliest releases of the play set in 1982 would have come with the straight arm mickey mouse cobra commander so-called because of the simplified cobra emblem on his chest with detached eyes on the top that look a little bit like mickey mouse ears these mickey mouse cobra commander figures are somewhat rare the earliest mail away figures also had this mickey mouse symbol we don't know exactly why this odd chest symbol was used on the early figures my guess is the factory mistakenly used a mock-up instead of the final design later in 1982 you would have got a straight arm cobra commander figure with the cobra symbol that we are more familiar with the later mail away figures also corrected the cobra symbol on the chest other than the corrected chest symbol this figure is exactly like the other one these are not as rare as the mickey mouse figures but they are still sought after and can be expensive and if you picked up the play set in 1983 you would have gotten a swivel arm cobra commander figure with the updated articulation on the arms and the regular cobra chest symbol this is exactly the same as the 1983 regular retail release before 1983 cobra commander was primarily available through a mail order offer this play set was the only way you could buy the figure in a store in 1983 the figure was broadly available at retail the retail 1983 version is the most common version but that figure is still in high demand among collectors whichever version of cobra commander you got he came with one accessory the venom laser pistol it's in dark gray it's kind of a clunky thing looks a bit like a hairdryer it does have a unique feature though it will plug into the back it has a peg there's a hole in the back of the figure he has a recharging pack molded on and the laser pistol will peg on there for recharging and that's not too bad i kind of like that feature thanks to a viewer curt kessler i have a full size venom laser pistol i haven't tested it to see if it works yet but you guys better watch out let's look at the sculpt design and color of cobra commander he's wearing a light blue uniform he has a light blue helmet with a silver mask he's wearing a black shirt under a blue uniform jacket with a red cobra emblem on the front he has that recharging port on his back for his venom laser pistol he's got a hole in the port that plugs in the pistol it's got a couple straps sculpted on to his back and another strap or perhaps some wiring that goes around his midsection his arms have long light blue sleeves and black gloves his waist piece has a black belt with a couple pouches he has a red belt buckle on his legs he has that light blue color with a red stripe that runs all the way down his right side on his left side he does not have the red stripe but he has a black dagger on his left thigh his uniform covers most of his boots but we do see he has black boots in addition to cobra commander depending on when you got the play set you would get one of two cobra officers if you got the set in 1982 you would have gotten the straight arm cobra officer so-called because on the lower arms he only had one point of articulation a hinge at the elbow in 1983 you would have gotten the swivel arm cobra officer so-called because he had a new point of articulation a swivel just above the elbow from the first time i saw this figure i thought he looked special he has a silver cobra emblem on his chest and i assumed that was tied to his rank he is an officer beware that silver paint flakes off very easily this one has a very nice clear silver cobra emblem but as you can see the silver paint on this one has partially worn away ron rudat has said he designed these early cobra figures to be a faceless enemy he did not want them to represent any particular country or ethnic group so they all wear these blue uniforms and helmets with black masks that conceal the face the cobra officer came with one accessory an ak-47 assault rifle and this is a pretty good likeness of that real world weapon some fans feel the cobra trooper should have come with the ak and the cobra officer should have had the sniper rifle however in concept art by ron rudat the cobra officer is clearly shown with the ak-47 and the cobra trooper clearly has the dragon of sniper rifle i've even seen some fans say the details of the cobra trooper are more fitting of the officer and the officer looks more like a trooper to add to the confusion both the officer and trooper were reissued in 1989 as part of python patrol but their roles were reversed the officer mold became the python trooper and the trooper mold became the python officer if you are of the opinion that the trooper looks like an officer and the officer looks like a trooper the python patrol versions could be validation of that opinion let's look at the sculpt design and color of the cobra officer the cobra officer has a dark blue helmet with a chevron molded on he has a black mask that covers his nose and mouth in the lower half of his face he has a dark blue uniform that same dark blue color with a silver cobra emblem on his chest he has black web gear front and back and he has gray on his shoulders and then a gray explosive device on the left side of his chest he has a long dark blue sleeves with black gloves on his waist piece he has a black belt with a couple small pouches he has dark blue legs on his left leg there is a black dagger and then he has tall black boots and finally we get to the cobra trooper depending on when you bought the play set you would get one of two cobra troopers in 1982 you would get the straight arm cobra trooper again with the single hinge at the elbow in 1983 you would get the swivel arm cobra trooper with the swivel above the elbow this is the backbone of the cobra legion the famous blue shirts they do the bulk of the front line fighting in 1986 they were replaced by the viper which filled the same role the vipers are the blue shirts just with updated uniforms larry hamma the writer of the comic book series even refers to the blue shirts as vipers on the file card they are just called cobra but the box for the missile command headquarters calls them troopers even though the cobra officer and the trooper look very similar they share only one part between them the waist piece all the other parts are unique the cobra trooper came with one accessory the draganov svd sniper rifle in dark gray uh this is another pretty good representation of a real-world weapon though slightly modified it's no surprise these guys came with russian weapons the soviet union was the biggest threat to the united states at the time looking at the sculpt design and color of the cobra trooper he has a dark blue helmet the same color blue as the cobra officer in fact this figure is the same color as the cobra officer but he does not have the chevron on the helmet he does have that same black mask he has a dark blue uniform shirt with a red cobra emblem he has a couple black straps they continue to the back he has a molded on grenade launcher on one strap he has long blue sleeves and blue gloves unpainted gloves on his upper right arm he has a silver wire on his upper left arm he has a couple grenades for his grenade launcher his waist piece is exactly the same as the cobra officer he's got that same black belts his legs are that same dark blue uniform color he has a pocket on the right leg he has a black dagger on the left leg it's a little different from the cobra officer dagger he has black knee pads and he has black boots the mold for the swivel arm cobra trooper was used twice in 1983 first of course for the cobra trooper and then for the 1983 viper pilot which came with the viper glider the difference was the viper pilot had the silver cobra chest emblem instead of red other than that these figures are identical this caused some confusion for me because i thought the silver emblem meant he was an officer but the viper pilot was not an officer let's take a look at the file cards that came with these three figures at first glance they look exactly like the retail file cards but there are a couple important things to look for these cards were not printed on the backs of retail card backs they were just rectangular cards with a black border and a flag point in the corner the black borders on my cards have been cut out without the black borders the best way to distinguish these cards from regular retail is to look at the back in the earliest releases of this play set the figures were sealed on the back of the file cards in a plastic bubble so on the back of the card you will have a red back usually with a tear where the figure was taken off later releases of the play set had the figures in a plastic bag with the file card so those file cards would just have a plain red back and they would not be torn off like this that's not such a problem with cobra commander but that could cause confusion on the other two file cards the earliest mail away cobra commander file cards had exactly the same text as the sears exclusive file card but it was not read on the back it just had a plain cardboard backing when the swivel arm figure was finally released at retail in 1983 it had a file card with exactly the same text as the other two but the back of the file card has some of the front card art on there so it's obvious that this card was cut out of the back of the retail card the cobra officer file card has the same red backing with the tear where the bubble was removed and it has exactly the same text as the retail file card but the retail card has the artwork on the other side so that's easy to distinguish one problem with the cobra officer and the cobra troopers red back file cards is with the later sears exclusive sets they did not have the tear on the back they were bagged file cards and both of these guys got later mail away releases that also had red backed file cards the mail away file cards had a white border instead of a black border but when the borders are cut out it could be very difficult to distinguish the sears exclusive file cards from the mail away file cards let's round out our look at file cards by looking at the cobra trooper file card again it just says cobra not cobra trooper codename the enemy in fact the officer also says codename the enemy and the cobra commander file card says codename enemy leader but this is the cobra trooper the text is the same as the retail file card and again we have the red back with the tear where the bubble was removed so this would have come from a 1982 sears missile command headquarters play set and once again on the retail card on the other side we have that artwork so easy to distinguish the retail from the sears exclusive but like the cobra officer there was a later mail away cobra trooper with a red back file card and a white border so with the white border cut out it could be difficult to distinguish the mail away file card from the sears file card in 2017 hasbro issued a remake of this play set and it was an exclusive to san diego comma con like the original it was made of cardboard and it came with three action figures the modern equivalent of cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper looking at these two side by side obviously they have very similar construction and they share a lot of the same details so it could be very easy to mix them up upon closer inspection though there are significant differences between these two in fact none of the parts are identical so if you know what to look for you should always be able to tell the modern from the vintage hasbro didn't help matters by making the box very similar to the 1982 box including some distressing some wear and tear some yellowing of the white areas this is made to look like an old box even though it's brand new however on the 2017 box the photograph includes modern action figures so that's of course a major difference from the 1982 box in fact the 1982 box had photographs of prototype figures rather than the regular retail production figures but if you see modern action figures on the front of the box that's a pretty good way to know that you have the modern box not the vintage the back of the box is also very similar to the 1982 box with the two-color printing on a white background but if you look at it there are brown spots all over it as if it's aged cardboard but this is a brand new box they just intentionally made it look old flipping the play sets around to the back you can see the similar construction and material i'd say the cardboard used in the modern release is thinner than the original but perhaps a bit sturdier one difference in the construction between modern and vintage is the vintage parts were printed on larger sheets of cardboard that were perforated so you would have to punch the parts out so you'll see little nibs of cardboard along the edges where the pieces were connected to the larger sheets of cardboard on the modern release all the parts were die cut so you didn't have to punch them out they came bagged exactly as you see them the biggest difference and the easiest difference to spot between the modern and the vintage is the artwork the artwork on the modern release is entirely done with computer doesn't look like any of it is hand drawn there are some additional details like the additional detail on the floor the background and the guards in the tunnel are actually photographs of modern action figures rather than hand drawn and mostly the details are the same except they are clearly done on computer rather than hand drawn as the original was compare that with the original and all of it is hand drawn and inked and painted and really shows the hand of the artist the details are a little bit different there's less detail on that floor in the background but otherwise a lot of the details are essentially the same as the modern version but you can see that this was drawn by somebody this was not done on computer and that's very evident when you have them side by side they both came with the file card holder the modern one here is in much better shape because it's brand new but the construction is pretty much the same and the artwork on them is almost identical the artwork on the back flap is almost identical to the vintage the printing is maybe a shade darker but it does look like they've used the vintage artwork on the modern some differences to look for on the vintage file card holder there is a number here in the bottom corner that is not present on the modern release also on the vintage it has Hasbro's copyright information here on the top and this number 6200 next to the Hasbro logo on the modern release it does not have the copyright information on there and it has a different number next to the Hasbro logo you can see though how it would be easy to mix these two up you have the cobra enemy on the sides and a blank back and bottom exactly as the vintage file card holder the file cards are also very similar so it's important to not mix these up the file cards have the black border but no flag point in the corner and they have the red backing one thing I noticed on this modern cobra commander file card is they fixed an error that was on the original the original file card had a typo there was an extra comma in this sentence his main battle plan for world control and they actually fixed that and removed the errant comma on the modern one the text is otherwise quite similar the artwork obviously is pretty much the same on the modern card they did add a disclaimer in fine print down at the bottom that does not appear on the original the file cards with the set use the classic file card shape that we're used to from the 80s modern file cards are mostly shaped like this with this longer section up here on top so they are really trying to make these look like vintage file cards let's compare the figures these two sets came with we've already looked at the vintage figures that came with the 1982 release the 2017 release came with modern figures with modern articulation and sculpting but it came with the same three characters cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper the modern version paid homage to the vintage particularly with the cobra commander figure the scale of the modern figures is slightly different from the vintage they are a little taller they also came with figure stands that had the name of the character printed on them this cobra commander figure instead of having the regular cobra emblem has the mickey mouse cobra emblem on his chest so that is a direct homage to the earliest cobra commander figures this modern figure like the vintage has the red stripe down the right leg and no stripe on the left leg that's a direct copy of the vintage and like the vintage the modern figure has a recharging pack molded onto the back on which you can connect his venom laser pistol this figure does have all modern articulation it also has a removable helmet and on his left leg he has a removable knife the cobra officer figure has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure he has that same dark blue uniform he has an ak-47 rifle similar to the original but it's updated it's not exactly the same he has that silver cobra chest emblem his web gear is removable it's not just sculpted on and he has a removable helmet and finally the cobra trooper with the figure stand that just says cobra has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure on the modern figure we actually lose some of the silver details that were on the vintage figure but he still has that dark blue uniform with the red cobra emblem on the chest he still has the knee pads and that's an important detail he has the draganov sniper rifle and that is similar to the vintage but not exactly the same it is updated like the cobra officer he has removable web gear and a removable helmet to give you a more thorough look at the san diego comma con missile command headquarters i recorded an unboxing and assembly video which you should see on my youtube channel later this week i said earlier there was an alternative construction they could have used for this cardboard playset and i was going to show it to you for that we have to go outside of the united states to the british version of gi joe action force produced by the uk company palatoy they made cardboard play sets that were dramatically different from this one palatoy was the licensee for star wars in the uk and they made a cardboard play set for the death star that we did not get in the us they made a similar cardboard play set for action force and it's my privilege to show that to you now this is the action force headquarters play set by palatoy it is made primarily of cardboard with a few minor plastic pieces this one is missing some of the plastic pieces but is made of a thicker cardboard than the missile command headquarters so it is sturdier but as you can see this is a true 3d play set instead of starting with a background and building forward they started with the ground and built up it has multiple levels it has a helipad it has a wall that unfolds into a runway it is spectacular it has so much more play value than the american play set i have to thank michael in the uk for sending this to me so yes if you're going to do a cardboard play set this is the way to do it but in fairness to hasbro and ron rudat they were on a time crunch and they probably did not have time to construct something like this but i can still daydream about getting this kind of play set for gi joe looking at how this play set and these characters were used in gi joe media cobra had many secret bases but not exactly like this so i think it's fair to say this play set was not used in gi joe media cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper however were used extensively in the gi joe animated series cobra commander had his origins in cobra law the secretive race of mutants hiding in the himalayas cobra commander was a cobra law scientist whose face was disfigured in an experiment for some reason he was chosen to lead cobra in an attempt to conquer the human world he was of course totally inept at that task the animated version of cobra commander tended to be more buffoonish he concocted wild implausible plans to take over the world and those plans invariably failed even so he was one of the most important characters in the series at one point they tried to get rid of him and replace him with serpentor but he came back in the 1987 animated movie they transformed him into a snake it looked like that was the end of cobra commander but they brought him back in the deak animated series he was a snake man and he wore his battle armor to cover his nakedness there were countless officers and troopers in the animated series they were most famous for having storm trooper aim they would fire their lasers all day and never hit anything of course this was an animated series for tv so the violence had to be toned down in the gi joe comic book series published by marvel comics cobra commander was again one of the most important characters in the series but he was very different from his animated appearance larry hama the writer of the comic book series in a toy fair magazine interview said he loved writing cobra commander he modeled cobra commander after conservative political personality william f buckley we know a lot about cobra commander in the comic book series more than most cobra characters we know his past occupation we know something about his family we have met his wife and son cobra commander began his journey to evil after the death of his brother dan in a car accident that same incident caused the death of snake eyes his family cobra commander blamed snake eyes for his brother's death at some point in his past cobra commander was a used car salesman he became a corrupt businessman amassing wealth through unscrupulous means and eventually forming the underground organization cobra cobra completely took over the small american town of springfield cobra commander contracted the assassination of snake eyes when he was still in training with the irishikage ninja clan the assassin zartan accidentally killed the hard master instead that incident set in motion a long chain of revenge deception and hatred his son billy became a resistance fighter in springfield he was recruited by the baroness and major blood to kill cobra commander but destro prevented him from doing it he was taken under storm shadows wing and given ninja training in a missile attack by scrap iron he lost an eye and a leg his leg was replaced with a mechanical one cobra commander's ex-wife reappeared in issue number 83 she reunited with billy at one point cobra commander was thought dead he was replaced by a crimson guardsman called fred seven who started a civil war with serpentor the imposter cobra commander prevailed the real cobra commander was not dead though he returned to retake command of cobra he trapped all his internal enemies in a landlocked freighter and buried it under a volcano that's his style cobra commander could have been a stand-in for any foreign enemy of the us but in the comic book that's not what he was he represented the enemy within he represented the allure of fascism and power over all else cobra was a domestic terrorist group there were plenty of cobra officers in the comic book series often the officers and troopers were used almost interchangeably their uniforms were almost identical there was one cobra officer that got special attention scarface he was identifiable by the v-shaped scar that ran across his eyes he operated as a courier for cobra during dr venom's plot to develop a lethal plague toxin scarface died in issue number 19 among my friends scarface created a rumor of a rare variant of the cobra officer figure we thought some cobra officers would have the scars sculpted onto the face we looked closely at every cobra officer figure we could find but we never saw the scars of course the scarred cobra officer figure did not exist at the time there is now a modern scarred cobra officer figure though there were countless cobra troopers in the comic book series even though they were replaced with the upgraded vipers they still appeared in the comic book long after the figures were discontinued larry hama refers to these blue shirts as vipers even though they weren't called vipers until they were upgraded in 1986 looking at the missile command headquarters overall the figures that came with it are great they're still among my favorite cobra figures in the entire line they were groundbreaking they were iconic they are topped here the play set itself has some rather obvious problems the cardboard construction is very fragile the rarity of the set makes it very expensive the play value is limited the cruise missile the centerpiece of the play set does not launch you can elevate it to launch position but gi joe had better stop it there because it doesn't go anywhere the elevator does move but that's not enough to elevate it to a top tier play set this play set is highly desired by collectors primarily because it is rare it is one of the most difficult play sets to complete the 1987 defiant shuttle complex may be more difficult to complete than this one but that is because of the sheer number of parts the missile command headquarters has fewer parts but those parts are very hard to find i'd say this is more of a diorama than a play set for that purpose it works fine it may not have much play value but the background and the platforms look nice on display the best thing about this set is the story behind it it was the first attempt at a play set in the line it was an exclusive to sears which created challenges to producing it on time it was conceived and executed by the architect of gi joe ron rudat it has a place in the history and legend of gi joe its legend was so great they tried to recapture it in 2017 were they successful you'll have to judge i wouldn't fault any collector for passing on this set you'll spend a lot of money for a few pieces of cardboard even if you have the money to spend you may not see the value in spending it on this and i understand that i am happy to have it because of its history and because i can share it with you that was my review of the cobra missile command headquarters i hope you enjoyed it we have more cobra convergence coming this week on monday july 8 we have seo toy review on youtube on tuesday july 9 we have the forgotten figures blog on wednesday july 10 we have retroblasting on youtube on thursday july 11 we have mc dowan on youtube on friday july 12 we have special mission force on instagram and on saturday july 13 we have my side of the laundry room on youtube there is a full schedule of the event on hcc788.com don't forget we have cobra convergence content for you every day this month if you like what we're doing here please consider giving this video a thumbs up on youtube subscribing to the youtube channel hitting the notification bell so you don't miss any videos and sharing this video with your friends i am on social media on facebook and twitter and my website hcc788.com thank you to my patrons i can't thank you guys enough if you like these videos and you'd like to support the channel in that way please consider checking out my patreon for some special perks and you can find out how to decode these mysterious messages i'll be back next week with another cobra convergence review it's cobra convergence all month on my channel i'll see you then and until then always remember only cobra is cobra but i left something there they're gone oh my oh oh oh oh thank god these guys are still there was that oh oh oh oh Susan Susan Susan this was your plan to destroy half of my collection destroy enough monster do you think i am do you really want me to answer that i didn't destroy anything i stole it and believe me steve you won't be my only target i need help here form bx257 form bx257 kevin kevin hello oh hey buddy i had a feeling you'd be calling timmer has gone mad he has an infinity gauntlet oh i guess that explains why half my collection is missing yours too this is bigger than just the two of us it's time for a convergence right hello sorry wrong number yeah maybe not include him in this right sorry force of habit it's time for the convergence initiative for commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review but that's not all i'm back with this is a special video i have hit 50 subscribers and that's fantastic i've only been doing this for a few months i'm still a newcomer and i've already hit 50 subscribers thank you to everyone who subscribed i'm very grateful i really appreciate it in this video we are going to be reviewing the gi joe ram motorcycle but i've got a special announcement after the review so make sure you stick around for that this is the 1982 gi joe ram motorcycle ram ram is an acronym that stands for rapid fire motorcycle which doesn't actually spell out ram it spells out the ram motorcycle was first released in 1982 in the first line of vehicles when gi joe was rebooted in 1982 it was also sold in 1983 it was discontinued in 1984 and it was not replaced with any other motorcycle in 1984 but there was a replacement for the ram motorcycle in 1985 the silver mirage motorcycle the ram was worth two flag points and it did not come with an action figure let's look at the parts and the features of the ram motorcycle starting of course with this very large prominent gun that attaches to the side the blueprints call this a 20 millimeter electric gaffling gun and it really does look very impressive lots of nice detail on here it has a wheel on here at the bottom so it can roll along when it's attached to the motorcycle the gun has these two pegs here one of them is round and another one is rectangular and they fit into the corresponding holes on the side of the motorcycle they fit right in there and they don't snap in they just friction in it doesn't always stay in very well so sometimes i use a little bit of sticky tack just to hold it in a little bit better on either side we have these saddle packs there are two of them and they fit into these holes these rectangular slots here in the back and these are frequently lost items so you will often see ram motorcycles missing one or both of these saddle packs and as you can see they're not the same although they are the same mold they have different stickers there's saddle pack one and saddle pack two so if you're wanting a complete ram you need to check and check the stickers and make sure that you're getting the right ones you need both of them in order to have a complete motorcycle the front wheel turns a little bit and not too much and that's a nice feature i'm actually glad that it doesn't turn too much otherwise it might not roll straight when you roll it along the ground so just a little bit of turn in the front wheel is okay one thing i like about the tires is that on the side it doesn't say good year or anything like that it has hasbro's copyright information this kind of hood looking thing up at the front here the blueprints call aerodynamic fairing and this may be taken from a real world vehicle the honda cb 900 f2 which has a similar sort of housing on the front end here on the other side we have a sticker control panel that's a nice detail and it's just hollow inside there are no handlebars but this was designed for the straight arm action figures like breaker here the straight arm straight arm action figures could not bend their arms at the bicep to hold on to handlebars so just having them stick their hands inside there was just much more practical it worked better with these 1982 figures with the less articulation all the way around the motorcycle there is a lot of really impressive detail this is a nicely detailed motorcycle a very nicely detailed vehicle especially considering this was the first line of vehicles and sometimes those early gi joe vehicles were a little bit lacking in detail compared to later vehicles but this this looks really nice this engine the blueprints call a 1000 cc twin cam engine fuel injected and turbocharged at the bottom there is a kickstand that will go up and down and this is another frequently missing item so if you are getting a ram motorcycle just make sure that it still has the the kickstand that is often missing on both sides we have some posts here two on this side and two on that side and those are for holding the action figure on the motorcycle i'll show you how that works the action figures legs kind of go between those posts on this side the the top of the foot goes under this post and the this post goes on the back of his ankle on the other side we have one post for the back of his leg and another lower post for the top of his foot and that kind of holds him on there with his hands inside the the hood and i i find it easier to put the action figure on before putting the gun on if the gun is on sometimes it obstructs the action figures foot so once you have the figure in like breaker here there you go and you have breaker ready to ride into battle on the ram motorcycle he looks like he's ready to do some business there is a minor controversy about who should ride the ram motorcycle in the comic book it always showed rock and roll as the driver of the ram always paired rock and roll with it and i don't know he looks pretty good rock and roll was the machine gunner of that first gi joe group and so i guess they kind of figured that machine gunner big machine gun those should go together however the box art did not show rock and roll on the ram it had breaker and breaker was featured in the first tv commercial of that included the ram motorcycle and i have always been partial to breaker on the ram i always preferred breaker to rock and roll on the ram motorcycle for a couple reasons first of all breaker doesn't have any weapons he didn't come with any firearms he only came with his communication equipment and his helmet and so he doesn't have any guns to fire so if you pair him with the ram he can still have all of his accessories on and he has this really badass gun on his motorcycle so he can ride into battle and actually fight cobra whereas rock and roll he already had a really big gun and it wasn't really very easy for him to carry his big gun when he was riding on the motorcycle so i think that rock and roll is pretty well equipped but uh breaker really i think fits the ram motorcycle better i even like the combination of the lighter green on the motorcycle and the darker or medium green on breaker's uniform i just think that looks really good so i put the question to you do you prefer rock and roll on the ram or breaker or one of the other action figures what's your preference that's my review of the ram motorcycle it is a pretty simple toy and so there's not a lot to go over here but it's still a really cool toy i loved this when i was a kid i think that it's just a really awesome vehicle uh it looks great with the action figures it looks really menacing with that huge gun on the side it looks fast so it really looks like something that the joe team would really want to have and that they would like to take into battle this this is like a fast attack vehicle with some great armament i hope you liked this video if you did make sure you give it a thumbs up on youtube and make sure you subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy reviews coming up you do not want to miss them and make sure you like the hooded cobra commander 788 facebook page there are a lot of updates on that page that you don't get anywhere else but this is not the end of the video i've got a special announcement coming up right now i hope you enjoyed the review now it's time for a special announcement i'm going to be giving away a vintage gi joe toy to one of my viewers i decided when i started that when i hit 100 subscribers i was going to give away one of my vintage gi joe toys so now that we're at the halfway point i'm letting you know that when i hit 100 subscribers i'm going to give away a toy and specifically i'm going to give away the ram motorcycle the very one that i reviewed in this video this is from my personal collection and this could be yours i'll tell you how it's going to work first i've got to hit 100 subscribers when i hit 100 subscribers watch for the 100 subscriber announcement video and then you will put a comment on that video to let me know that you would like to be in the running for the vintage gi joe toy then i will select one of the commenters at random and it will be yours you won't even have to pay for shipping now you might be thinking this is kind of a small toy and it's a fairly common item that's not much of a prize but hey this is just for my first 100 subscribers as i hit more subscriber milestones i'll be giving away bigger and better gi joe toys i want to share some of the vintage gi joe love with you the viewer so stick with me there are a lot of great gi joe toys yet to review and it's going to be a great time as we climb up toward 100 subscribers and then when we get there one of you is going to get this little guy thanks for watching and i'll see you next time hello everybody hooded co-commander seven at eight here and this time we're going to do something a little different this is not a quick shot this is a full review but we're not going to be reviewing a gi joe action figure or vehicle instead i wanted to look at a couple ways hasbro gave us to carry the figures we're going to look at the 1982 official collector display case and the 1983 pocket patrol pack i had both of these as a kid and i thought they were pretty cool so let's check them out starting with the 1982 collector display case this is an official collector display case this is not a licensed product hasbro actually produced these and this is pretty much what it looked like on the shelves didn't have any outer packaging or anything like that in fact this one still has the price sticker looks like it was purchased at rinks for four dollars and 89 cents on the front we have this really nice image that has most of the gi joe characters from 1982 with the mobat tank in the background it's very dynamic it looks great this same image was used on the 1983 battle gear accessory pack number one and it was used on the card for the pocket patrol pack a modified version of this image was used on the gi joe comic book issue number one you can see it carries and displays 12 gi joe team members there's the official hasbro logo there now this number 12 is a little bit of a problem because in 1982 there were 13 members of the gi joe team and there were three cobra figures if you count the mail away cobra commander so if you had the entire set you could not use them all in this display case you just have to pick the 12 you liked the best to display on the back side we have that gi joe logo there and we have some photos and some information about the display case we have a photo of some of the 1982 gi joe action figures not all of them though it looks like we are missing hawk uh and grand slam and clutch uh and the cobra officer then down here we have some photos showing how to use the display case you can either set it on a shelf and that's the way I like to do it you can close it up and use it as a carrying case or you can even mount it on a wall the case is hinged on one side and it has clips on the other side so it opens like a book and there's even a handy arrow right here on the top that says open here so let's open it as instructed and take a look at the inside here is the inside space to display the figures and there are some interesting choices here of course these are the spaces for the figures and there are strips that cover them and hold the figures in on these strips there are labels and the display case came with a label sheet that had a label for each of the 1982 figures and these were placed on here by the purchaser and so you just chose whichever labels you wanted to use and placed them wherever you wanted to for that reason as a collector if you get a display case that already has the labels applied it's very unlikely that any two of them will be exactly alike those strips peg in and can be removed and since they can be removed they are often missing these labels are interesting they do not include the character's codename only the specialty in red letters and the accessories in black letters and they don't even mention all of the accessories really only just the weapon no helmets or backpacks are listed this display case was reissued in 1983 and it included a new label sheet with the 1983 lineup the display case was also available in 1984 but i'm not aware of any 1984 label sheet next we have a weapons armory with a removable door and this is for storing accessories now obviously this is not going to hold every accessory from 1982 it probably won't even hold the accessories just for the 12 figures you can fit in here but it is large enough to hold most of the weapons it will even hold the largest weapon issued with a figure that year rock and rolls machine gun since this door is removable it is often missing and there's another problem with it it pegs on using three very thin pegs and those can crack off and they can even break off inside the case next we have the partition for the combat command file and this is a space for holding file cards it pegs in exactly the same way as the figure strips do about one of the pegs it actually goes behind the armory door so you have to remove the armory door in order to take off this strip there is enough space in that partition to hold all of the 1982 file cards holds it pretty snugly but they do all fit and they are fairly secure in there as mentioned earlier there are three ways to use this display case you can either set it on a shelf like that or you can close it up and use it as a carrying case or you can mount it on a wall and it actually has notches there are four of them one of them is behind the armory door where you can hang it on nails nailed into a wall the problem with this is these little notches here are covered by the label in the front and the back so if you mount this on the wall it will necessitate punching through the labels here is the display case filled with figures these are the figures that this particular display case has labeled and of course the figure is with its particular label and I went ahead and put the file cards in there as well this is how it was intended to be used but I don't prefer this as a way of displaying the figures the figures can't always keep their accessories on while they're in the display case and like I said that weapons armory is just too small to hold all of the accessories so I prefer to display the figures in a different way but I actually like to display the case itself this is what I like to do this case has some gorgeous artwork and photos and it's kind of a novelty in itself and deserves its own display and if you're using it to display figures then you are hiding this really nice artwork that I think deserves to be seen so this is what I prefer to do display the figures separately and then display the display case on its own now let's look at the pocket patrol pack from 1983 this shouldn't take nearly as much time as looking at the collector display case there's just much less to these again these are official Hasbro products these are not licensed these pocket patrol packs were first released carded in 1983 at retail and they were later available through the mail we have two of them here because we have a variant the gi Joe label on them changed over the years it started out at retail with this label the black background and that original gi Joe leg label which looks pretty good this is the most common version of the pocket patrol pack later ones updated the logo but not just the logo if you look at the space where the label goes it actually changed originally it was a rectangle with with an angled edge here on this side later it was changed to just a basic rectangle so it's not just the label that changed there was a change in the mold itself the label on this one is misapplied unfortunately it's a little crooked these pocket patrol packs were included with some later releases of the mail away starduster figure from 1987 later still the pocket patrol pack was given away for free for any orders of twenty dollars or more from Hasbro direct so there should be a lot of these floating around on the back of the pocket patrol pack we have a loop and this is for a belt you're supposed to wear this on a belt and it's very easy to use you have a clip here in front you just pop it open and that reveals three compartments for storing figures i've put three random figures from 1983 in the pocket patrol pack to show you how it works it only holds the three figures that's it it's really all it does but one thing that's nice about it is there's enough space in there that most figures can still keep their accessories on and the case will still close that's all there is to the pocket patrol pack that's really all there is to it it does nothing else it just holds those three figures and nothing more but i did have the pocket patrol pack as a kid in fact i think i had several of them and sometimes we would use them as ammunition packs when we were role playing as soldiers so they did have that function when they're not using them as figures they did kind of make a nice role play toy as kind of ammunition packs that was my review of the 1982 official collector display case in the 1983 pocket patrol pack i hope you enjoyed it i thought it might be fun to just do something a little different we do have full vintage gi joe toy reviews every week on this channel so please subscribe to the youtube channel so you don't miss those you can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and i have a patreon if you'd like to support the channel in that way and i do have to give a special thanks to my patrons their generosity is overwhelming and i greatly appreciate i also have a copy account if you like the videos and would like to leave me a one time tip i'll be coming at you with a full vintage gi joe toy review soon so please don't miss that and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and this time i'm not doing a review of a gi joe toy instead i wanted to do something a little bit different i wanted to do a video that might hopefully be useful to collectors of vintage gi joe since there seems to be a lot of confusion about the 1982 re-release of gi joe since the figures did reuse a lot of parts between them i wanted to do a parts and color guide for the 1982 gi joe release so that you can figure out which character you have and how he's different from the others even though they all tend to look very much alike before we get started let me single out a few that we are not going to take a look at today first of all i'm not going to look at the cobra action figures because they didn't really use many parts between them uh and they're all blue so they're pretty easy to identify uh so i don't think that really needs a guide essentially if it's blue it's a cobra also i'm not going to take a look at snake eyes because again even though he reused the sculpt from a lot of other action figures he was the only one that was all black so if you need any help identifying a part of snake eyes if it's black plastic it's snake eyes also i'm not going to look at scarlet because she had entirely unique parts so it is really not difficult to identify scarlet that leaves us with these 11 figures and these figures do tend to look a lot like each other because they reused a whole bunch of parts sometimes just recolored sometimes not recolored at all so we're going to look at each and every one of these i'm going to show you how you can identify which figure you have i'm going to show you all the parts that they share with each other and the different colors and the different ways that they try to differentiate these different action figures let's take a look at each one and as we go through i will label the names so you can know which figure we're looking at throughout this video over here we have breaker this is rock and roll short fuse stalker hawk zap grand slam stealer flash clutch and grunt gi joe uniforms came in three basic colors of green light green medium green and dark green this light green is pretty notorious for being very fragile and if you have a light green action figure you probably have some broken parts like zaps broken thumbs here the figures with the light green were stalker who was camouflaged but his base color was the light green stealer and of course that the figures with the medium green were short fuse hawk clutch flash grunt and breaker the figures with the dark green were rock and roll and grand slam of these 11 figures only one had a unique head and that was stalker who had a beret and a mustache none of the other figures had that the other figures reused three different heads sometimes repainting the hair so they look different but sometimes they didn't even do that so some of the figures had the same head and exactly the same hair the first head had kind of a passive expression it was a slightly younger face and that head was used for short fuse and hawk who both had blonde hair and flash and stealer who both had brown hair the second head was the bearded head and three figures share that head there was breaker with the brown hair and beard clutch with the black hair and beard and rock and roll with the blonde hair and beard the third head had a slightly older looking face with a more severe expression and three figures shared that head one was zap who had black hair and grunt and grand slam who both had brown hair to complicate matters even further each of these 1982 gi joe action figures was re-released in 1983 but with some differences the main difference was a new point of articulation in 1983 in 1982 for example breaker here had a hinge at the elbow so he could move his arm at the elbow like that but in 1983 he was re-released with a new hinge at the bicep he could still move his arm at the elbow but he could also swivel his arm all the way around at the bicep this was referred to as swivel arm battle grip or just swivel arm and the original articulation without that hinge at the elbow was referred to as straight arm articulation there were some other subtle differences between 1982 and 1983 although most of the parts were the same they actually changed the waist piece in 1982 they had this thicker waist piece with the kind of H shaped belt buckle and in 1983 they had a slimmer waist piece with a more detailed belt in 1982 the gi joe figures that had long sleeves had pockets on the sides of their arms in 1983 when they were re-released with swivel arm battle grip that pocket was moved from the side of the arm to the front in 1982 gi joe had two action figures with red pads like this and on their arms they had a sculpted on checker pattern that was the same color as the pads on his chest but in 1983 when they released the swivel arm battle grip those pads on the arms were just painted on there was no sculpting detail at all one very subtle change between 1982 and 1983 was the hole in the back of the action figure this was the hole that held the screw that held the entire action figure together but it was also the hole in which the backpacks would fit with the peg but those holes were subtly different between 1982 and 1983 to accommodate different size pegs in the backpacks the 1982 backpacks had kind of a thicker and stubbier peg and the 1983 backpacks had a longer and thinner peg with kind of a curved edge at the end the figures had three standard chest pieces the first was the piece with the two long straps like this and they had a sculpted on grenade and a knife in the back they kind of came to a v shape or a y shape and the figures that shared that chest were stalker hawk breaker and grunt another standard chest was the one with the short shoulder straps you can see that they have a strap that goes between them across the chest and in the back they come to this kind of x pattern the figures that shared that chest were short fuse and zap of course short fuse had black straps and zap had brown straps the third standard chest for 1982 gi joe action figures was the padded chest and this causes a lot of confusion the two that had the padded chest were flash and grand slam and as you can see they have these same colored pads and that causes a lot of people to mix up these two action figures in addition to the standard chests in 1982 gi joe had three unique chest pieces they belonged to stealer clutch and rock and roll stealers unique chest piece has this weapon this pistol with a black strap you can see how it comes together on the back so his back piece was unique as well clutch also had a pistol sculpted on to his chest but with different straps he had shoulder pads and this kind of brown lining on his jacket and you can see how that carried along to the back as well and then most distinctive was rock and roll who had a pair of gold bandoliers crisscrossed across his chest and his back there were two standard sets of legs and the main one was this one which just had a pocket on either side and a pair of boots but the other standard pair of legs was shared also again by flash and grand slam it had their pads on the thighs and it had coverings on their boots the figures had three standard sets of arms they had the rolled up sleeves which was shared by clutch breaker and rock and roll they had the long sleeves which was shared by stalker short fuse grunt hawk and zap the third standard set of arms was another part shared between grand slam and flash they were the gloved arms and as i said in 1982 they had these sculpted on pads on the shoulders which were just painted on in 1983 and they had one unique set of arms and that was owned by stealer his arms were not shared by any other action figure now i know this is a lot to take in and i've thrown around a bunch of names so you might still be a little bit confused so i'm going to go through each of these figures and point out the one or two special differences that will allow you to instantly know which action figure you have let's start with a figure that's maybe the most difficult to identify because he's the most generic this is grunt he has standard long sleeve arms standard legs standard chest and he has this head with the brown hair that he shares with grand slam but you can pick out grunt fairly easily because he is the only figure that used these long straps with the head that had the older looking face stalker should not be that difficult to identify of course he is the black guy but in case you're colorblind you can look for his beret and he of course is the only one that had camouflage so if you see a camouflage pattern that's got to be stalker another figure that should be pretty easy to identify is rock and roll you're going to quickly identify rock and roll by his gold bandoliers and his blonde hair and beard he was the only one of the bearded action figures to have blonde hair one that may be difficult to identify is hawk because he looks so much like short fuse but hawk is the only one that had this shiny metallic silver paint on his long straps so look for the silver and you will know that you have a hawk action figure in contrast short fuse even though he had the younger looking face and the blonde hair like hawk he had the short black straps with the black strap between them on his chest and he was the only blonde action figure to have that type of strap clutch may sometimes be confused with breaker but you're going to know clutch right away because he's the only one of the bearded action figures that had black hair and he has a unique chest piece with the gun molded on to his chest breaker had brown hair and a beard and he was the only one of the bearded action figures to have the standard long strap chest we now come to zap who should be fairly easy to identify he had a very light green color brown straps and he was the only one of the figures to have this older looking face with black hair we now come to the two figures that are probably the most difficult to distinguish because they shared essentially all parts between them except for the head and even though they had different heads they had exactly the same hair color so it's easy to mix these two up the complicate matters even further there was a second issue of grand slam in 1983 that had silver pads now the 1983 issue of grand slam is going to be much easier to identify because he has silver pads and flash was never issued with silver pads but the 1982 version you are going to distinguish between flash by looking for the black gloves and the black boots also grand slams green color was darker than flashes of course you can look for the different head sculpt but mainly look at the gloves and the boots grand slam has black boots flash has brown boots flash i said is only distinguishable from grand slam by his head sculpt the base color of his plastic which was the medium green and brown gloves and brown boots at last that brings us to stealer and stealer was the only one of the figures with the light green plastic to have the younger looking face with the more passive expression he did share a head entirely with flash including his hair color but you're going to distinguish him from flash because he did not have the red pads like flash did stealer actually had more unique parts than most of the other action figures he had unique arms and a unique chest and back piece so look for the light green plastic with the gun on the chest and a gold undershirt under the green over shirt there you have it we have looked at all of the standard parts that were reused for these 11 action figures fortunately in 1983 gi joe released a bunch of new characters that looked entirely different from these guys and shared a lot fewer parts between them but this 1982 reissue of gi joe hasbro wasn't quite sure if this toy line was going to take off so they went the cheap route they reused the same mold for a lot of different figures and it's understandable especially for relatively new collectors that you get confused between who is whom so if you get confused and you want to know how to identify your 1982 and your 1983 variants of the 1982 figures just refer to this video play it back and uh you'll never get confused and you know with a little bit of time a little bit of practice you'll be able to identify these action figures at a glance thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe because i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them i'll catch you all later welcome to the hooded cobra commander 788 channel and welcome to my first ever gi joe action figure review we are going to be reviewing breaker today but before i get started i did want to say a few words um first of all there are other gi joe action figure reviewers on youtube and of course they'll do a much better job than uh than i will they're much more experienced collectors than i am uh but it looks like fun and i've wanted to do it for a while so today i thought i'd give it a spin before we get into reviewing breaker here i wanted to make a few comments about myself i am a relatively new collector i haven't been doing this for a long time i did get gi joe action figures when i was a kid and i enjoyed them very much i've only recently rediscovered them as an adult and as an a collector um so i'm not a very experienced collector and i'm sure the more experienced guys out there will uh have plenty to say and plenty to correct me about and that's fine and that's how we learn um a comment on my collection my collection the scope of my collection is uh fairly limited um i am not looking for uh mint on card figures or mint in box vehicles uh for me a complete item for my collection will be a figure or the vehicle with all of the parts or accessories uh unbroken uh and with a file card if there's a figure involved um so to me uh or for my purposes that is what i'm looking for for a complete entry into the collection so as you might imagine i have a lot of incomplete figures and vehicles that i'm still working on completing and one of those figures is breaker here actually do not have breakers file card i will pick that up eventually um it's not high on my agenda but but eventually i will complete this figure but i wanted to review breaker first for a couple reasons first of all um breaker is not thoroughly reviewed by other reviewers you you don't see a whole lot of reviews of breaker and it's it's not hard to see why he's a pretty plain character but most importantly uh breaker was the first ever gizzo action figure that i got as a kid now this is not my original one um that one was misplaced or broken long long ago probably um about 30 years ago um but there's a lot of nostalgia for me uh in this breaker action figure and uh so i wanted to tackle him first um now a breaker came out in 1982 and in 1982 i would have been seven years old which is the perfect age that's the like the target uh age for these action figures i really they really came out at the perfect time for me to get into them and to love them and to uh want to get a lot of them and i remember uh the first wave that came out and i remember that i got the first few uh action figures with these uh straight arms like um like breaker here um these arms have this point of articulation at the elbows but they don't don't have the swivel um the swivel arm battle grip that came out in the following year and i remember how much um i how happy i was that they added a swivel at the uh at the elbow because uh it was it was a little bit awkward to pose some of these and to for some of the figures to carry their weapons uh but uh for collecting purposes i wanted to start out getting the actual first figure that i got as a kid which would have been the straight arm 1982 breaker and that's the guy we're going to be looking at today now um breaker as you can see is pretty plain uh he shares a lot of parts with um others in the 1982 series the chest piece was shared by hawk and grunt and the the waist and legs were shared by almost all of the 1982 series um his head was shared by by rock and roll here rock and roll had uh blonde beard and hair and uh and of course clutch uh who had black hair and a black beard uh but it's the same sculpt it's it's the same head just painted a different color um breaker came with some accessories he came with his helmet and the detachable communications headset which had a wire that connected to his communications backpack now um breaker didn't come with any guns um and which i think is a little bit odd but one thing that uh works for his favor with not having any handheld guns is that he goes great with the vehicle that came out at the time the 1982 ram motorcycle which with it's pretty awesome side gatling gun now i remember as a kid the tv commercial that um i think the first commercial that i saw um was uh with breaker on the ram motorcycle um and since he doesn't have a gun himself i think he works well with on the motorcycle he can still wear his communications backpack and his helmet and he can talk to headquarters as he's buzzing around and uh mowing down the enemy with his side gun uh one odd choice um is uh was in the um comic book rock and roll was paired with the motorcycle in fact there's a um uh seen in the first issue of the gi joe comic book in which uh rock and roll refers to the ram motorcycle as his motorcycle of course rock and roll did not come with the ram motorcycle um but i really think that breaker is a better choice um rock and roll he has this really massive uh machine gun um now i'm missing the bipod on it unfortunately that's another piece that i'll have to pick up in order to complete this figure but um but he has a gun and if he's riding the motorcycle then it's not really a good place to to store the gun to stow the gun um so i really think that breaker is the better choice here uh for for the ram motorcycle and that's the way that's the way i like to like to set him up now um breaker as i said is not complete um because he does not have his file card but there are reasons that for me to suspect that he's not complete for other reasons um and i'm going to point them out and perhaps uh a skilled collector uh can give me some answers on this and um you know it'll be a learning opportunity for me uh and uh yeah we'll we'll maybe we can all learn together um one reason one thing that's odd about this uh breaker action figure is let me get in closer he has a silver painted grenade on his shirt now pretty much all versions of breaker that i have found um have a an unpainted grenade it's just green the same color as his shirt um it is possible that a previous owner painted this um it's maybe it's a foreign version uh that has been cobbled together into uh this you know allegedly nine original 1982 um version of breaker but i do not know i do not know where that silver uh hand grenade comes from uh when again most of the time i see an unpainted hand grenade on these breaker action figures now i'm not particularly bothered by it um i will uh eventually pick up another breaker probably several of them uh and i do eventually want to get the swivel arm uh breaker um so for display purposes and for my purposes right now this is completely adequate um but i just would like to know exactly why that thing is silver i i do not know another thing um that doesn't seem to fit is the backpack the there was a a change between 1982 and 1983 the 1982 action figures like breaker were re-released in 1983 with the swivel arm better battle grip as i said and i don't have an example of breaker with the swivel arm battle grip but i do have clutch here from 1983 who shared the same arms and you can see his swivel arm here that's it would have been basically the same thing for the 1983 breaker but another thing that changed were the backpacks um the pegs and the backpacks were different and i have an example from the actual 1982 grunt let me pull your backpack out grunt and let's look at these uh look at these backpack pegs you can see that the actual 1982 uh pegs are a bit bigger kind of thicker a little shorter and have they have a flattened uh top on them whereas the 1983 ones were a bit rounded so i i and a bit longer and a bit thinner and so i think that this is a 1983 backpack not 1982 um an additional problem with that though is that it fits pretty well in this back uh in the uh the hole that is supposed to hold the backpacks whereas the actual 1982 backpack does not does not fit well at all i can kind of force it in there but but it doesn't stay um which is weird um so that's another reason why i think that this chest piece comes from something else and i don't know what um but like i said this backpack i'm pretty certain is a 1983 so in order to complete this figure first of all i need to figure out what's up with this chest and back piece uh and i need to get an actual 1983 backpack so i will eventually do that for the time being anyway i want to uh point out a couple of things that i don't care for about our breaker here um i do like him with the ram motorcycle as i said i don't mind that he doesn't have uh any handheld weapons i just drop grunts backpack um i'll pick that up in a minute but one thing that i that does bother me about this setup here with his his headset and the wire is that the the hole for the wire is over here on one side um and it tends to pull his head that direction or the opposite direction i you know if you try to have him look straightforward the the wire tends to make him you know look to the i guess his right um um or his yeah his left i mean um so i think these wires uh several of the figures had accessories that had this kind of wire that plugged in the backpack i really wish they had done something different with them uh perhaps made them more rubbery uh perhaps um uh made them longer i don't know but um but i had a hard time with that as a kid and i still have a hard time with it some people just keep it unplugged and that's fine sometimes you know it kind of use it as an antenna or something but i don't think it actually looks very good as an antenna even when it's straight and not curved like this um plus i think it's just it just looks right plugged into the backpack um but as i said um yeah we've got he's less posable with the thing on and with it plugged in he he wants to wants to look at often one direction as all of the 19 or all of really the 80s gi jo action figures except for one the 1982 and 83 scarlet had foot pegs or holes for foot pegs uh so that you could uh stand them up in a uh put them on this figure stand here um no there's grunt's backpack uh put them on this figure stand uh they did not come with figure stands at the time um you we got figure stands with the accessory packs that came out i think they first came out in 83 um but that's how you got the figure stands and we when playing with them we didn't generally use the figure stands but um occasionally they were nice to have if we were going to have a figure that was just going to be standing up and we didn't want to prop them up against something they certainly do stand better i mean you can stand them up without the figure stand but they're a little bit precarious especially when you're a kid and you know you're doing an action scene they get knocked over pretty easily um but i can tell you that the figure stands got lost uh frequently um and i and i can tell you that like this um this headset probably as a kid i probably lost that pretty quickly um if you hear a howling in the background that is not a werewolf that is the large dog in my backyard that is uh howling at the neighbors i guess um anyway i think that's where i'm gonna wrap it up um 1982 straight arm breaker my first gijo action figure um we have some things to learn about him uh and we have some things to get uh for him in order to make him complete but i wanted to make this my first ever action figure review there's this is the this is the first one for me um the first one as a kid and when i started collecting again it's the first one i got as an adult uh thank you for watching um i look forward to reading your comments um and if any of you have any knowledge about uh the 1982 straight arm breaker that would help me answer some of my questions i would appreciate it thank you so much i'm picking up a cobra plane on radar my aircraft gun cobra bombers can take out their command center flash to breaker flash to breaker cobra has taken the flak we need some help over here copy that crash one that's why you don't wear blue for a jungle off dummy this is the xml r1a shoulder fired laser rifle it is the most powerful handheld laser currently in existence it is powered by a high density battery in the backpack as you've seen from the demonstration it takes about one second of focus on a single spot in order to get a full burn that is hard to do on close range targets and impossible to do on long range targets but the laser is yeah that conventional firearms and it can slip through armor plate so it will give us some advantages in the field to get the kind of instant destructive power you see in the movies a laser would need a power source far larger than a man could carry for that kind of laser i direct you to my buddy grand slam and the how the heavy artillery laser is capable of instant lacing through armor plate the radar control can track the movement of vehicles and take out aircraft in flight it is designed to be towed behind a vehicle and it has the kind of massive power source that is impossible to miniaturize in the handheld laser it is about 100 times more powerful than flatch's laser rifle attention joes panel hawk i hate to interrupt the demonstration of the new equipment but i just got a top secret communication from general flag at the pentagon the gi joe team has its first mission i want to see everyone in the briefing room in five minutes yo joe yo joe i intend to deliver a healthy supply of women can't serve in combat their menstruations will attract bear but that's over this guy is going right back in a case makes me nervous just touching this there is where he will probably be entombed for all time