 This episode of HCC 788 brought to you in part by the die-cast enterprise. Join us each week as we discuss the sexual proclivities of Commander William T. Riker. The bravado comedy of Lieutenant War. And the adorable monkey shines if one Wesley the sweater crusher. Or maybe we'll just talk about the golden girls. Or hairstyles. Or cartoons. That's equally likely. We also like G.I. Joe. There, we tied that in nicely. Well done everyone on that. By all our play sets and toys. Commander 788 here, back out here to love G.I. Joe. Ready? Silence killed. My situation has not improved. Beelzebub and I have struck a deal that will allow you to return to Earth. But there is a price to be paid. You will allow you to return and finish your project of reviewing every vintage G.I. Joe toy. But there is a limitation. When you have completed your project, you must return to us. So, when I review the last vintage G.I. Joe toy, then I die again? You will regenerate. And this version of you will be gone forever. No force in the universe can undo it. Can I stretch it out? Like, maybe I can review all the cartoon episodes too. Don't push your luck. This deal would let me finish what I started. It would give me time. It'll take several years to review everything. Will you accept this bargain? You really have to ask? Do it. Get me back where I belong. I feel like talking about G.I. Joe. I feel like talking about something else. Like, the bright channel, we move bright all the time. Review starts now and the real HCC788 presents Outback. Outback G.I. Joe's survivalist from 1987. He was first available in 1987 and was also available in 1988. He was discontinued for the year 1989. Version 2 of Outback was in the Night Force sub-team in 1988. Versions 3 and 4 of Outback were released in 1993, looking very different from his version 1. Yojo.com considers them to be two separate versions, but I consider version 4 to only be a color variation of version 3. There is a famous international version of Outback, Tiger Force Outback, and that version had an orange shirt with a tiger face printed on it, and white hair and beard. That version of Outback was never released in the United States. Tiger Force Outback was released in Europe, thanks to Timmer from Half the Battle for supplying the photo of Tiger Force Outback. Outback refers to a remote interior region of Australia. The term Outback entered American pop culture through the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee. The timing of the movie would have been about right for it to influence the name of this action figure. The movie would have been in theaters at about the time Hasbro would have been working on the 1987 figure releases. Let's take a look at Outback's accessories, and let's start with his weapon. He came with what the card contents call a Heckler & Koch G3 rifle. This is based on a real-world weapon. There is a real H&K G3, though it is named after the G3. It doesn't exactly look like it. This is shorter and kind of thicker. This weapon has a strap, which is nice because you can sling it over the figure's shoulder. But unfortunately, this strap is very easily broken. You run across a lot of Outback guns with broken straps. And because of this strap, I do not put the weapon in the figure's hand because the strap is so close to the grip that there's really no way to get it in the figure's hand without putting pressure on that point where the strap connects to the gun in the back. And that is just ready to break off. So I try to be very cautious with it, and Outback just does not hold his gun. Outback came with a backpack, a very large backpack. The card contents call this a survival backpack, and it is just really huge. It's in a tan color. It's got some sculpted pouches on it. It looks pretty good. It has a couple knobs here on the top. It's kind of hollow on the underside. But this looks like the backpack is on like a rucksack frame. I do like this backpack. It must have been tempting to give Outback a green backpack, but this tan color complements the other colors on the action figure pretty well and adds some additional color interest. Unfortunately, since it is so big, you do have to worry about Outback being top heavy when he wears it. He came with what the card contents call a web belt, and it goes around his waist and over his shoulders. It has a buckle in the back. You can unlatch it and take it off. You have to swing it over his head like that. It is made of a softer plastic, a pliable plastic. The web belt has some sculpted pouches, some large pouches. Unfortunately, these can hinder the arm movements a little bit. But the accessory itself is very nice. Very well sculpted. Some detail on the belt there. It's a nice complement to the backpack. It matches the backpack's color. And this is just great. I like it. I kind of wish we had gotten more of these for other figures. This would have gone well with a lot of other figures, maybe in some different colors. Outback's final accessory is his flashlight. And this flashlight connects to the action figure's leg, to his left leg, with a peg. It has a peg and it fits in the hole on the side of the left leg there. This is an angle head flashlight, and this is definitely the most frequently missing accessory. This flashlight is tiny. It is green. It has some nice detail on it. But it is so small that this is definitely the hardest accessory to find. It is often lost, and because of its size and color, I would imagine there are probably millions of these permanently buried in backyards all over America. This flashlight is a bit too thick to fit in the action figure's hand. I would not have Outback holding the flashlight in his hand. But that peg does fit pretty snugly in the hole on the action figure's leg. Once it's in there, it wedges in pretty good, and it doesn't come out too easily, so that is nice. With the accessories out of the way, let's take a look at the articulation on Outback. He had the articulation that was standard by 1987. He could move 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, so he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees, and 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. 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 he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpt to design a color of Outback, starting with his head, and on his head he has ginger hair and beard and a green bandana that is tied in the back, Rambo style. In fact, Chuck Norris wore a similar headband in the movie Missing in Action. Missing in Action was released in 1984, so someone at Hasbro must have rented it on VHS when they were planning Outback. On his chest he has a white T-shirt over a muscular build, and he has the word survival in black letters printed across the chest, and this survival may refer to something on his file card. We'll take a look at that later. As a child, I did write survival on my white T-shirts just like Outback. So there was a time when you might find me around the neighborhood wearing a gung-ho hat, an Outback T-shirt, and maybe even was my handy pocket patrol pack. My God, I was a nerd. Follow the international nerd team at nerdteam underscore int on Twitter. Obviously, this white T-shirt stands out because it contrasts to the more realistic military design on the lower half of the figure, and this does bother some collectors, but it never really bothered me too much just because overall this figure is done so well. On his arms he has the sleeves for that white T-shirt and muscular arms with big bulging biceps. He has gray gloves, and he has a watch on his right wrist. With the watch on the right wrist and the flashlight on the left pocket, they may be implying that Outback is left-handed. On his waist he has a brown belt with an eagle belt buckle and a couple of pockets in the back, on his legs he has this camouflage pattern. He has olive drab trousers with a gray camouflage pattern and I always thought this looked great. On his legs he has sculpted stripes that go all the way down both sides and of course he has pockets on the thighs and on the left pocket he has the hole for his flashlight. Then moving down on his left ankle he has a brown knife, an amazingly well detailed knife. It has like spikes on it there and it has like this little lace that goes around his shin. Just really well done and kudos to Hasbro for not leaving that detail unpainted. We finish up with some really nice authentic looking black boots. The lower half of Outback was very valuable to my friends and I when we were playing with GI Joe figures when we were kids. Now in 1987 we were getting a little long in the tooth. We were getting close to the age where we would be too old to play with toys. In the last couple years of collecting GI Joe we were customizing heavily. We really liked the lower half of Outback because we preferred the more authentic looking military figures and so I think all of us tried to get more than one Outback figure just so we would have extra legs to use on our customizations. As some of you may recall when I went through the toolbox that had the last of my childhood GI Joe toys I did pull out an Outback legs and waist and here they are half of my childhood Outback. Of course the white t-shirt was a problem it just was not appropriate for jungle ops but we had a way of dealing with that. We made these. We got some olive drab green colored t-shirts and we would cut them up and we would cut little holes in them and then we would draw with pen or marker Tiger Stripe camouflage and we would put these on the figures. This is how it would work. We would put it on the figure and secure it with a rubber band and this would cover any offending colors and make any figure ready for combat. We must have made hundreds of these. Let's take a look at Outback's file card and the file card has his factionist GI Joe and a portrait of Outback here. It says his code name is Outback and he's the survivalist. Survivalist refers to a fringe movement that emphasizes survival skills in the event of a disaster that disrupts civil society. Today we would call them preppers. In the 1980s the primary concern of survivalist was nuclear war since tension between the USA and the Soviet Union was high. In Outback's case, it's probably intended to emphasize his specialty of surviving in the wilderness. His file name is Stuart R. Selkirk. His primary military specialty is infantry. Secondary military specialty is survival training instructor. Birthplace is Big Piney Wyoming. Big Piney is a microscopic town in Wyoming with a population of less than 600. So Outback is a very small town boy. The only thing I know about Wyoming is that it's where the little doggies are supposed to get along to. His grade is E5 and this paragraph says Outback was an instructor at both the survival school and the jungle warfare training center. Survival school probably refers to survival, evasion, resistance, escape training, S-E-R-E. He has had extensive experience in Central America and may or may not have participated in clandestine operations in the Middle East. Most people are intimidated by the wilderness. What is this? This right here. It's a colon, a forward slash, a numeral one and another colon. What is that supposed to be? What does that mean? I thought maybe this was some kind of shorthand punctuation that I wasn't aware of. But after searching for a while, I've concluded that it's just a typo. Was nobody proofreading these cards? Moving on. The complete absence of the hand of man. Not Outback, he believes in being part of his environment, not its adversary. I could imagine Outback becoming a national park ranger after his military service. In this lower half we have something special. It says excerpt from the U.S. Army Ranger Handbook, 1969 edition. And this file card has a citation. That is cool. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to verify this. The 1969 edition of the U.S. Army Ranger manual is pretty old. And apparently this entry is not included in more recent editions. It has the word survival as a mnemonic device and it goes a little something like this. Size up the situation. Undo haste makes waste. Remember where you are. Earth. Vanquish fear and panic. Don't panic. Improve your situation. Value living. Done. Act like the natives and learn basic skills. This sounds like something you'd get on a poster at the Bass Pro Shop. Let's talk about Outback's G.I. Joe media appearances. Unfortunately, Outback did not appear in the cartoon series. He was only animated for commercials. He was released in 1987 and he fell in the gap between the cancellation of the Sunbow animated series and the beginning of the Deke animated series. He did have some great turns in the comic book. He first appeared in issue number 59. And for a figure that is so grounded in reality, he appeared amidst a lot of weirdness. That same issue also introduced Raptor and the Cobra Pogo. My favorite Outback story arc in the comic book began in issue number 61 where he, Stalker, Snowjob and Quick Kick are sent on a mission in the fictional country of Borovia. Outback and Snowjob in that issue look almost identical because they both have red hair and beard and Snowjob was not wearing his winter gear. Stalker, Snowjob and Quick Kick are captured and imprisoned. Stalker, the mission leader, orders Outback to escape and try to make it back home. The story continues in G.I. Joe's special missions number 6 where Outback must use all of his survival and evasion skills to escape Borovia. When he returns home in issue number 62, he faces some animosity from his G.I. Joe teammates for leaving his buddies behind. These stories represent some of the best writing in the comic book series and that's saying a lot because there was plenty of good writing in the series. Looking at Outback overall, this figure is easily in the top tier. Although I was getting frustrated with the direction of G.I. Joe by 1987, figures like Outback kept me in. Of course Outback isn't a completely military figure with his white anti-camouflage t-shirt, but he is totally realistic. There's nothing weird about this guy. He doesn't have bird wings. He's not a red paratrooper or a neon green psychologist. He's just a guy in a t-shirt who is trained to survive amongst the rocks, the trees and the birdies. When I was a kid, the camouflaged lower half of the figure was highly valuable as parts for customization. Although a lot of figures like the European Tiger Force Outback, I don't. The orange tiger t-shirt is a little too cutesy for me. If the white t-shirt really bothers you, then may I suggest Night Force Outback. He has a green shirt instead of the white one. Problem solved, right? I don't have Night Force Outback. I will eventually get Night Force Outback. I want Night Force Outback. I imagine that Outback wears the white t-shirt when he's on a training mission, but when he goes into combat, he wears the green Night Force t-shirt. It just makes more sense that way. That was my review of Outback. I hope you enjoyed it. And I want to say a special thanks to Karowak for doing the thumbnail image for this video. Thank you so much. Awesome work. It means a lot to me that you did that. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Share the video. Light me on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. Support the channel on Patreon. And remember, the patrons are here to review. Thanks for watching. Thanks again, Karowak. I'll see you next week with another vintage G.I. Joe review. And until then, remember, only G.I. Joe is G.I. Joe. Wait, hold on. I can see you smiling. In five, four, three, two. I can see you. What? Am I not supposed to be all smiling? I'm just kidding. I'm just joking. Alright, ready? Two seconds lead in. Can I feel like talking about something else? So close. You're gonna do that.