 Hey there 788ers, this video was voted on by patrons. They got to choose what would be reviewed this week. I gave them three options, but I only gave them 1990s G.I. Joe figures to choose from. And each figure had a different rant level. And they chose the rantiest one. It's been a while since I've done a rant video. That's not really what the channel's about anymore. Now we're cool. Now we're mellow. What's inside? How bad could the figure be? Is it even worth ranting over? Oh my god! What did they do to Leatherneck? 788 here. It's time for another vintage G.I. Joe toy review again this week on time. This is a patrons choice review. It's been a while since we've done one of these. And the patrons chose Leatherneck version 3 from 1993. No, I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining because it is time. It's time we did this. Look here. Fans of 1990s G.I. Joe, I love you. I'm glad to have you in the G.I. Joe fan community and I hope you stay. And lately when I've looked at 1990s G.I. Joe toys, I've tried to look at the better ones. I've tried to polish that turd the best I can. But now it is time to look at the neon 90s in all its day glow glory. You want bright yellow on your action figure? We got it. You want a spring loaded missile launcher? We got it. You want generic accessories? We got it. Before we get started, we've added some new patrons. Thank you to everyone who's joined on Patreon. And some of those patrons are slated to get their own funny code name in a video. So I'm going to do one in each of the next few videos starting with the top name on my list. The top name on my list is Steve. Just Steve. Here's what I'm thinking for Steve's code name. My name is Brian. Timmer from Half the Battle has nicknamed me Steve. So Steve's code name will be Brian. That's right. Just Brian. Hey, Brian is a good name. Lots of historical people named Brian that even made a movie about it called The Life of Brian. I'm sticking with it. Steve is code named Brian. I'm a big fan of Leatherneck. If you've watched some of my earlier videos, you know that character has a special place in my heart. As a kid, I even got a Marine Corps hat like he had and I wore it around all the time. Leatherneck was one of my favorite characters growing up. So let's see what the 90s did to him. HCC788 presents what 1993 apparently thought a US Marine looked like, Leatherneck. This is Leatherneck version 3, GI Joe's infantry training specialist from 1993. This figure was available only in 1993. This was typical of these 90s GI Joe figures. GI Joe figures in the 80s were usually available for two years. In the 90s, they started cycling through new product every year. This is the third version of Leatherneck. The first version was introduced in 1986 as a GI Joe Marine and he looked a bit more like a Marine. Version 2 was also introduced in 1986 as part of the Special Missions Brazil set with some other figures. Both of these first two versions reused the same mold but with different colors. So version 3 is the first true new version of Leatherneck that we got. Leatherneck is a slang term for a Marine and GI Joe had several Marines on their roster. The first was Gung Ho from 1983. Then in 1986, the second one was Leatherneck. Also in 1986, there were no fewer than two versions of Sergeant Slaughter released. One as a mail away offer and the other as a vehicle driver. And also in 1986, Mainframe was a GI Joe Marine. So 1986 was the year of the Marine. In 1993, the same year this third version of Leatherneck was released, we got no fewer than two new versions of Gung Ho. One of them in the Mega Marine subset. The 90s had some pretty funny ideas about what Marines look like. As a trainer, Leatherneck continues a tradition in GI Joe that began with Rock and Roll in 1982 who had PT instructor as his secondary military specialty. Then in 1986, of course, we had Sergeant Slaughter who was a drill instructor. Then in 1987, we had The Fridge who was not an infantry training instructor in the sense that we would normally think of it. In 1986, Leatherneck was not a training specialist, but his version 1 file card does hint at it. He does have a background as a drill sergeant. As far as a Cobra equivalent, maybe Big Boa? He was a Cobra trainer, but he specialized in hand to hand combat, which is an infantry skill. I always kind of imagined major blood in that role. Hired because of his combat experience, he could whip the new recruits into shape. Let's look at Leatherneck's accessories, and we're dealing with another one of those accessories, trees from the 90s, which means he has a lot of accessories and they are mostly not unique, just reused from earlier action figures. But we do have a few unique accessories, so let's take a look at them, starting with this great big giant spring-loaded missile launcher. The missile launcher included one black missile, we'll take a look at that in a second. Yojo.com lists this as an orange missile launcher. To my eye, it looks more yellow. I suppose it does have a slight orange tint, but to me, it looks like it's much closer to the yellow part of that spectrum. It has a small grip, and because of that, it will actually fit in the action figure's hand. Some of these spring-loaded missile launchers did not fit in the figure's hands very well, but this one works just fine. It has a shoulder rest, and it has what I believe to be a targeting screen here on the side. It does have some detail, the detailing is not too bad, some technical detail there. It also has a texture pattern. This texture pattern reminds me of something. When I was a kid, it had to be the early 80s, maybe even the late 70s. My mother had a makeup case that had this same texture pattern on it. I remember it like it was yesterday, because we used to borrow that thing and use it like a Star Trek communicator, but for some reason this texture pattern just immediately makes me think of this makeup case that my mom had in the late 70s to early 80s. The missile launcher came with a single black missile. Let's show you how to work that. We place the missile into the launcher with the notch side up. Press it back until it clicks. Then it has a trigger here in the back, and let's test it by firing it at our favorite target, Dr. Meinbender. So just press, I guess, up on the trigger. Press up on the trigger, or down on the trigger, up on the trigger, somewhere on the trigger. Hang on. It really doesn't work. I usually test these before we get them in front of the camera, but I didn't, and I was wrong. I would have known that this is apparently broken. So what do we do in this situation? I've never come across this situation before. I guess we'll have to improvise. The rest of his array of accessories are not unique. We'll start with this really weird gun. This is just a reuse of the rifle that came with 1990 Air Wave just in black. This one is very strange looking, and I kind of want to wait until I review Air Wave to talk very much about it. But I mean, you can just see it. It's weird. Next we have this gun with the scope on it, and this is a reuse of the gun that came with 1991 Low Light, and this actually is not bad. I actually kind of like this gun. It's in the same color as the one that came with Low Light, but this one's actually not bad. We got this gun, and I have no idea what it's supposed to be, but this is a reissue of the gun that came with 1991 Mercer version 2. I do like that figure. Actually that's a pretty good version of Mercer, but this thing, I can't make heads and tails of this. What's this rail thing down here? I don't know. We have a pistol, and this pistol is a copy of the pistol that came with 1990 Sky Dive, and actually this pistol is okay too. I don't really have much fault with this pistol. Lastly, we have a black knife, and this knife is a copy of the knife that came with 1988 Hidden Run. Hidden Run's knife was in green, and this one of course is in black, and this is a nice knife, and I like it in black. But this figure has a lot of nerve reminding me of better action figures. After all that, we still have one accessory to look at. Leatherneck version 3 came with a figure stand. This was common for figures in the 90s, but this one is still a little unusual. This figure stand is made to be pegged onto the left foot. That is less common than the usual right footed figure stand. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation on Leatherneck version 3. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures well before 1993, so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of this figure starting with the head. We've really got to talk about this head, guys. Version 1 of Leatherneck was designed to look like Ron Rudat. He was a Hasbro designer who was responsible for designing most of the early GI Joe action figures. This head is actually kind of important, but they changed that for Version 3. It doesn't really look like Ron Rudat now, unless Ron got a much flatter chin and a much wider mustache and otherwise looked completely different. In this version, I feel that we've lost that connection to Ron Rudat. Also on that head, it has a tiny brown cowboy hat, at least that's what it looks like to me. It really is a boony hat that has both sides tied up here at the top. The file card has a name for this. It calls it a USMC Ranger hat, which does not make sense. Based on what I've been able to find out through research, I don't believe USMC Ranger is a thing. Although this head is kind of odd looking, it's actually one of the least crazy parts of the figure. Unfortunately, we must move on. On his chest, he has a brown jacket, and the brown jacket is actually fine. The brown jacket I have no problem with at all. Unfortunately, that's not all he has on his chest. He has a yellow undershirt, and he has yellow straps over the brown jacket. He's wearing yellow load bearing equipment, and then he also has blue grenades in this strap that goes across his chest. He has blue ammunition magazines, and these magazines don't fit any of the weapons that he comes with. He also has what looked like blue shotgun shells, maybe, again, that doesn't go with anything that he comes with. None of his accessories fit this ammunition. His arms have long brown sleeves for that brown jacket. There's a pocket sculpted on the upper right arm. That detail would be very easy to miss. There's not one on the left arm. You've got bare hands with a Caucasian flesh tone, and really these arms are okay, too. I have no problem with the arms. But now we have to look at the bottom half of the figure. Does the bottom half of this figure look familiar? Well, it probably doesn't, but it ought to. The bottom half of this figure comes from Falcon from 1987. Yep, that's Falcon's waist piece, Falcon's legs, but oh my God, look what they did with it. First of all, on the waist he has a yellow belt with some yellow pouches, and then we have a bit of the brown that's supposed to be part of the leather jacket, but the paint color is off and does not match the brown color on the upper half of the figure. So that's a problem right off the bat. Then we've got to get to the legs because he has, there's no other way I can describe this. He has giraffe pants. Not else to call these, but giraffe pants. In preparation for this review, I showed this figure to three different people, and they all immediately said giraffe. And that is not the camouflage pattern that's on the card art. The card art actually has better camouflage than the figure. It's almost as though the artist for the card looked at the figure and said, I'm not doing that, and then gave us something better. The legs are yellow with that brown block pattern on them. These legs have the same detail as Falcon's legs, not that you would notice, because the pattern actually goes right over all of those details. He's got pockets on each thigh, pockets on his lower legs. He's got brown boots, but he also has a flashlight here on his right leg. But because of that pattern, it is totally invisible. On Falcon, it was painted green, so we wouldn't miss it because that is a nice sculpted detail. But the way this pattern goes over the legs, all of that detail is just lost, and all you can see is the giraffe pants. I've got to be honest, guys, I've never seen a camouflage pattern like this. I have a feeling Leatherneck killed a giraffe to make these pants. No wonder Toys R Us died, Leatherneck killed Jeffrey. Let's take a look at the card back. We have the full card back for Leatherneck, so we can see how the figure was marketed. We can see the GI Joe logo up here, and this is part of the battle core subset, which is to say it was the main GI Joe line. That's what they were calling it in 1993. Then we have the card art here, and it has Leatherneck firing that giant missile launcher. And I guess this is okay. I mean, it's 90s card art and it's fine for 90s card art, but the card art for 80s figures was just better. There. I said it. Controversial video now. Card art in the 80s, better than the 90s, bring on the downvotes. We have some instructions for using the spring loaded missile launcher here. Unfortunately, mine is broken. Shame on me for not checking that before doing this video. On the flip side, we have the cross cell with some other figures in the battle core line here, some advertisements for some of the other subgroups here. We have our one flag point, and then here we have the file card. On the file card, we have a portrait of Leatherneck here. Then we have that card art from the front of the card again with some of the features labeled, but I'm not going to go into all of those. It has his codename as Leatherneck. He's the infantry slash training specialist. His final name is Wendell A. Mezger. His primary military specialty is Marine Drill Sergeant. Secondary military specialty is Brawler Driver. That's something they were doing on these file cards. They were using the military specialties of the figures to advertise the vehicles. The Brawler was a tank-like vehicle from 1991, but oddly, that vehicle was no longer available in 1993, so they are advertising a vehicle that the kids could not go out and buy. His birthplace is Stromberg, Nebraska, and his grade is E7. This stuff is mostly the same at this point as the Version 1 file card. It does have his secondary military specialty as Drill Sergeant. His grade is Gunnery Sergeant, but in the Marine Corps, that is an E7. After all these years, Leatherneck has not been promoted. Here we have a quote probably from Leatherneck himself. It says, there's only one way to train. Pause. Hard. So drop and give me 50. All right, 20, 40. We follow that with a single paragraph that says, Leatherneck was the hardest gunny that ever slogged through the mud of Camp Lejeune. Before that, he was the toughest Drill Sergeant on Paris Island. And this mostly just follows the same first paragraph on his Version 1 file card. Paris Island and Camp Lejeune are real Marine Corps bases. It goes on to say, men that have gone through his training say they would rather crawl over broken glass than be on his bad side. He demands countless push-ups for mistakes and enjoys leading 30 mile hikes through hot and humid Paris Island swamps. He insists he's a tough disciplinarian because he wants his soldiers to be prepared for the worst. And when you've dealt with Cobra as often as he has, you come to expect the worst. Taking a look at how Leatherneck was used in G.I. Joe Media, he first appeared in the animated series in Arise Serpentor Arise Part 1. In the animated series, he had a rivalry with the Navy Seal Wetsuit. In that series, he was presented as a gruff character and that is appropriate for Leatherneck. Leatherneck's last animated appearance was in the 1987 G.I. Joe animated movie. He had no appearances in the Deke Era animated series and he had no appearances in his Version 3 uniform. Since he didn't appear in the Deke animated series, that means I don't have to watch any Deke episodes for this review. Which is great. I take back everything I said about this figure, it's fantastic. In the G.I. Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, Leatherneck is portrayed as a gruff and belligerent character. Again I think that's appropriate for Leatherneck. He had a lot of personality but he didn't have a lot of appearances. His first appearance was in issue 49 during the Invasion of Springfield. That was barely a cameo. He had a better appearance in the next issue number 50. His most famous appearance is probably in Special Emissions issue number 4, where his belligerent attitude was contrasted against the pacifist medic Lifeline. His final appearance was in issue number 83 and that was just a cameo. He had no appearances in his Version 3 uniform. Looking at Leatherneck overall, this is infuriating. They managed to ruin one and a half figures. They ruined Leatherneck. They gave us a Leatherneck figure that don't look nothing like Leatherneck and he's wearing something the real Leatherneck would not be caught dead in. They gave us an impressively ugly spring-loaded missile launcher and I still wouldn't like it even if mine worked. And they gave us a bunch of generic accessories. Again, thank you 1990s. And they ruined another half figure by taking the bottom half of Falcon, a really good figure by the way, and turning it into giraffe pants. Falcon was such a great figure. The whole figure, top and bottom half, had fantastic details. The legs on Falcon had a molded in flashlight, it had a great camouflage pattern, jungle boots and they took those legs and they painted this crazy pattern all over it that makes those details just completely disappear. It's like they were intentionally trying to make it as ugly as possible. Bottom tier. Season 3 is a difficult year to review. First of all, there are so many figures from that year. They pushed way too much product to the shelves that year and they did it in a cheap way by giving us half of a new figure and half of an old figure. So we got a new figure for half the cost. The word that comes to mind is lazy. GI Joe fans from that era must have had a hard time finding figures they wanted in row after row of peg warmers. The aftermarket is still flooded with these figures. You can still find carded examples of these figures for almost the same price as a mint loose complete figure. I've got a question for 1993. 1993, answer this question for me. What did you think a marine was? What did you think that word meant? Because you gave us some marine action figures that didn't look like marines. That's it. We are done. That's all I can take. This is a review of Leatherneck version 3 from 1993. I hope you enjoyed it and if you like this figure, well then good. You shouldn't let me change your mind. Before you wrap up, there's one thing I needed to say. Last week I posted a video kind of letting you guys know some struggles that I was having in my personal life. That's always a risky thing to do. I don't want the channel to become about that. But I thought it was important to level with you guys, put everything out on the table so you understood some of the things that were going on. That could affect the channel. The support that I've received has been overwhelming and I want to thank all of you for that. You guys are my heroes. We have a fantastic community here and you guys are amazing. I don't know how I can express the full magnitude of my appreciation and my gratitude for everything that you've done for me. So thank you. Thank you for doing that. I am doing everything that I can to get my personal life back to something like normal so that I can keep coming to you every week with more reviews because I really cherish this time that we spend together. That being said, I will have to take next week off. That's an unscheduled break I hadn't planned on taking next week off. But the review that I had planned for next week was a little bit of extra work and I have not had the time to put that work into it. So that will have to be postponed. I will pick it up the following week and in the meantime I'll try to give you something. I don't want to leave you for an extra week with no content at all. So I will give you something but it probably won't be a full review for next week. So I apologize for that but I'm not going anywhere. I'm here. I'm here to stay. I'm here with you and so we're just going to keep moving forward. We're going to keep moving forward. We're going to get everyone who loves GI Joe together. We're going to have this fantastic journey looking at these toys, remembering these toys, talking about them and just sharing good times about them. That's what it's all about. So thank you everyone. Thank you for your patience. I will see you next week but not for a full review and you guys just keep on trucking and thank you really. Thank you very much. I'll see you soon.