 Hello everybody, HoodedCobraCommander788 here, I'm back with another vintage GI Joe toy review and this time I'm doing another requested review video. I'm on a roll with these requested reviews, I'm knocking them out. This is a good time to remind everybody, you can request a vintage GI Joe toy to be reviewed on this channel. All you have to do is leave a comment in the video and let me know. I try to get to all requests, but some I get to quicker than others. It really depends on whether or not I already have the toy or if I have it completed. But I do try to get to all requests so if there's something you'd like to see on this channel just let me know. This time we're going to look at the 1986 GI Joe Communication Specialist Dial Tone. Let's check him out. This is GI Joe's Communication Specialist Dial Tone. He was first introduced in 1986 when he replaced the original communications officer, Breaker. Breaker of course was one of the original Green 13 from the first wave of GI Joe action figures introduced when the line was relaunched in 1982. The swivel arm version of the Breaker action figure was discontinued in 1985, so there was a year between the time this figure was no longer available and this figure came out when GI Joe did not have a radio man. Dial Tone was discontinued in 1988 and he wasn't immediately replaced with anyone who took that role. In 1987, Lieutenant Falcon came with a communications backpack, mine is missing the antenna, but he wasn't really a communications expert so he did not replace Dial Tone. Dial Tone is wearing a black beret and in my review of the Flint action figure, I listed some other GI Joe figures that were molded with a beret and I forgot about Dial Tone, which is a really weird thing to forget. I had the Dial Tone action figure at the time. He was sitting on the shelf staring at me, but I just forgot. So let's update that list and let's do it right this time. We have Stalker who has a beret, Flint Dial Tone, Lieutenant Falcon, and sort of Beachhead, although Beachhead does not have his beret on his head. Let's take a look at Dial Tone's accessories starting with his weapon and the contents of the card on which the action figure was packaged calls this a 9mm Parabellum submachine pistol with silencer. And when I look at this thing I say what? This sure doesn't look like a machine pistol to me, although the line between a machine pistol and a submachine gun is a little bit blurry. A machine pistol is usually built up from a semi-automatic pistol design. A submachine gun tends to have a longer barrel like this does. The 9mm Parabellum refers to the bullet. The Parabellum round is generally used in handguns, although it can be used in submachine guns too. It gets the Parabellum name from the Latin phrase, Sivis Peicum Parabellum, which translated means if you seek peace, prepare for war. That old adage, by the way, does not always hold true, so like any old adage it should not be taken as absolute truth. There's some great detail on this accessory. I really like these slotted vents along the barrel. That looks really cool. I have not been able to find a real world equivalent of this submachine gun, actually spent some time looking through a lot of photos of submachine guns, and I was not able to find an exact match. I found a few that were kind of close, but not close enough for me to say that this was based on one of them. For some of you gun experts out there, maybe this just obviously fits some design that you're familiar with, but I wasn't able to find it. Pyletone's other accessory is his anti-scrambler backpack with microphone, and I think this looks pretty good. It looks pretty high-tech. It has this microphone that will swing down over the head of the action figure. That looks pretty good too. Allegedly, you can remove this microphone, but I wouldn't try it. That's fixed pretty well on there. I would just leave it alone. This is a nice high-tech looking backpack, and it makes Breaker's old communications backpack look pretty low-tech by comparison. Pyletone's backpack actually reminds me a little bit of the communications backpack that Breaker got in issue number two of the G.I. Joe comic book, when he got kind of a beefed up, higher-tech version of his own backpack that could not only send and receive radio communications, it could get faxes and do video teleconferencing and stuff like that. I think the strangest thing about it is the color. It's made out of this light gray plastic, almost white, like the submachine gun. A normal Army communications pack would be either olive drab green or some other appropriately camouflaged color because, of course, unless this is carried by an arctic trooper, which dial tone is not, I don't know why you would want a communications backpack in this color. This backpack is not just a glorified cell phone. This thing would do things that your cell phone just can't do. It would be more akin, probably, to a satellite phone. It has to encrypt signals, it has to scramble signals, it has to do things that, you know, your cell phone is not going to do. This thing has to operate in places where there are no cell towers. It certainly is big and bulky, and it does look like 80s tech, but this is not something that would be replaced with a cell phone. Let's take a look at Dyletone's articulation. He had the typical articulation for 1986 G.I. Joe action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right like that. He could also look up and down. His neck was on a ball joint. He could move his arm up at the shoulder about so far. He could swivel it all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow. He could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep. He could swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside, so it 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. He could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the sculpt design and color of Dyletone starting with his head. On his head, he has a beret. It's a black beret. He's one of a few G.I. Joe action figures that got sculpted with a beret. In the 1980s, this black beret would have been worn by U.S. Army Rangers. Currently, it is the standard U.S. Army headdress for dress uniforms. His beret flash, judging from the art on his file card, most closely matches the third special operation support command. But as far as I can find out, that particular beret flash is no longer in use. He has brown hair, kind of long hair in the back, and he has a mustache. These mustaches were very common on these 80s G.I. Joe action figures. In the 1970s, the 12 inch G.I. Joe figures got beards, and some of the 80s G.I. Joe action figures also had beards, but a lot of them had mustaches. The 80s was the decade of the mustache. On his chest, he has this green, it's kind of a forest green pullover vest that is over a khaki shirt. And this, of course, is not your standard olive drab green, but I do like it. It's kind of a vibrant green color. It looks really good. It reminds me a little bit of the pullover sweater that Crane Case is wearing in almost the same color, but not quite. I don't know, a little bit of a similarity there. And of course, Crane Case also has a mustache. On his chest, he has some black straps. He has one that goes diagonally and one that goes over his shoulder. In the back, though, they are parallel, and this, of course, would be the straps for his communications backpack. He has some pouches and a couple grenades. He has khaki sleeves and on his right arm, he has this silver device, this piece of technology. Not really sure exactly what that's supposed to be. He also has silver cuffs on both arms. Again, not sure what this is supposed to be, some kind of wearable technology. And he has black elbow pads, forearm pads, and that's cool. I like that on both arms. He has black gloves with these patches here on the top of his hands. Pretty good looking arms. On his left arm, he has a patch and it looks like this comes from something in the real world that is not a patch. It looks like the beret crest of the US Army 10th Special Forces Group. And as far as I can find out, this is no longer in use. On his waist piece, you can see he's wearing black trousers. He has a brown belt and he has a silver belt buckle. We can see how the belt goes around to the back and he has more devices hooked to his belt. Again, not sure what those are supposed to be. They're just little bits of technology. There's some kind of a design on his belt buckle but I can't quite make out what that's supposed to be. He has black legs and on his right leg he has another silver electronic thingy and on his left leg he has a big pocket. On his knees he has some knee pads and I do really like knee pads, I've said that before so as many knee pads as I can get I'm happy. He has these boots which are also in the same sort of forest green that his vest is in as are the knee pads. I don't know how you get boots like this other than spray painting boots this color. It's a very unique color for boots but it does fit with the color scheme of the action figure. On the left side on his boot he has a black knife. Let's take a look at the file card and 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 here. It has this factionist GI Joe, it has a portrait of dial tone and it has his codename as dial tone. For those who don't remember regular landline phones, a dial tone was a signal that the switch gave you when you picked up a phone from the cradle to let you know that the line is open and it's ready to receive a dialed phone number. This portrait of dial tone where he's sort of looking over his shoulder like that sort of mirrors the artwork on Breaker's file card where he's doing the same thing only in the opposite direction. His specialty is communications and his file name is Jack S Morelli. He is named after John Morelli who is the Marvel Comics editor who edited the GI Joe Order of Battle miniseries. His primary military specialty is radio telecommunications, his secondary military specialty is infantry, his birthplace is Eugene Oregon and his grade is E4. This section says dial tone built his own crystal set when he was 10. Crystal set is referring to a crystal radio set which can be built from scratch or from a kit. At 14 he was part of a CB net and had his own ham station by the time he was 16. CB is referring to Citizens Band Radio which is a short range radio communications band. Ham radio just refers to amateur radio operations. Dial tone made all his own equipment, buying parts with quarters earned bagging groceries. He saw the army as a means to furthering his education in his chosen field and quickly found that instead of a stepping stone it was a goal in itself. Manning a radio in the field wasn't just passing time, it was a job with a purpose. So dial tone was a technology nerd who joined the army and then found that the army life suited him. This bottom section has a quote. It says one of the scariest things that can happen to you out in the field is to lose contact with your base. That means you are alone. Sorry it's all caps there so apparently it's shouting at us. No artillery support, no airstrikes, no medevac, no extraction, no nothing! If the file card wanted to emphasize these words it could use italics or underline rather than shouting at us. The cavalry ain't coming until the man with the radio tells him to. Oddly this quote in the bottom of the file card says nothing about dial tone. It just talks generally about the purpose of a radio operator. Taking a look at the dial tone action figure overall, it is a really good looking action figure. Although he isn't strictly wearing entirely military colors, the colors that he is wearing are fairly subdued except for the accessories which are in this light gray plastic. That's a bit harder to explain from a real world perspective but from a design perspective these lighter colored accessories balance the other colors of the action figure very well. It is an excellent design for an action figure just kind of looking at the figure on its own without thinking about how this would work in a real world situation. It looks really good. It's got a lot of great detail where it needs it. It's got a very nice color balance and a nice choice of colors. It's very very well done. Both the figure and the file card have many points of interest. These little random electronic devices that he's wearing provide avenues of play. You can imagine them to be anything. So if you're playing and you need some special electronic device to defeat Cobra, well dial tone has it. Dial tone's first appearance in the G.I. Joe comic book was an issue number 56 where he was a part of a G.I. Joe assault on a cobra terror drone in the fictional country of Sierra Gordo. I'd have to say his first appearance in the comic book was not exactly memorable because I didn't remember him even being in that issue. I had to go back and check it. I'd say dial tone was somewhat underutilized in the comic book. In the G.I. Joe animated series, dial tone is featured in an episode in which he is sacked by the G.I. Joe team. But that all turns out to be a ruse so he can become a double agent and infiltrate a cobra secret project. After he loses his job with G.I. Joe, he's unemployed, he's forced to live in a crappy apartment and eat beans out of a can. He's a highly trained communications specialist. He really couldn't find another job anywhere else. That's a weird episode. The figure and the accessories have a very high tech feel to them, but they don't feel excessively science fiction-y. They feel like they could exist in the modern world. I don't really see dial tone as a combat troop. I see him more as technical support for the team, although with a very important role. Comparing him with the original radio man, Breaker, obviously dial tone is better designed, better constructed, but he can never outshine Breaker in my mind because Breaker was the very first G.I. Joe action figure I ever got when I was 7 years old. So Breaker has a special place in my heart. But dial tone is a pretty good replacement and a very good looking action figure. That was my review of dial tone. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, don't forget to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe. There are 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 the Facebook page. 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. I'll see you then. I was going to do this whole skit about the mustaches, but I changed my mind. It was just stupid and I'm ashamed of myself.