 The 100k commander 780 here is time for another vintage GI Joe toy review and I had a hard time deciding what I was going to 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 Rosco P 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 HTC788 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, a 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 him. 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. This is the XMLR1A shoulder fired laser rifle and 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 are 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 hand held 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 XMLR3A laser rifle with the 1983 snow job. The XMLR3A that came with snow job is supposed to be the next generation laser rifle from Flash's XMLR1A 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 Joe's. 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 Hasbro 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 onto 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 G.I. 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 G.I. 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 made 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 and 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 Joe figures were really bad about reusing parts including head sculpts. In fact, Flash has a twin in the 1982 GI Joe 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 4 times in 1982, Flash and Steeler had it, Hawk and Shortfuse 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. Flash's arms feature 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 is 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. His legs feature more red pads, these 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 G.I. Joe, it has a nice portrait of Flash right here. It says he is the laser rifle trooper and his code name is Flash. His file name is Anthony S. Gumbello, 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 CBRN which is Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear. The U.S. Army has a CBRN school at Fort Leonard 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 CBRN school at Fort Leonard Wood. Covert electronics, qualified expert M16, M1911A1, XMLR1A, 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. Joe-ing 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 infrequently 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 teammates, 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 now 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 gonna 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. 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 quieter than conventional firearms and it can climb 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 HAL. 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 Joe's, Colonel 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!