 This week, we are doing the first review of the year that was chosen by patrons. The winning figure won by a wide margin. We're going to look at a popular character, Shipwreck. But fans of 80s G.I. Joe may not be familiar with this figure. It's also a figure that found life outside of G.I. Joe. Do you smell something? Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here, it's time for another vintage G.I. Joe toy review. We are looking at Shipwreck. But this figure is known by another name. In fact, it may be known by that other name more than Shipwreck. This figure was used for the character Stinky Diver on the TV show Action League Now. It was a stop-motion animated show on Nickelodeon. As his name implies, his main character trait was Stinky. Stinky Diver, a former Navy commando with an attitude as bad as his owner. Hopefully this review won't be stinky. HCC 788 presents the second version of Shipwreck. This is Shipwreck, version 2 G.I. Joe's Navy Seal from 1994. This figure was only available in 1994. The G.I. Joe, a real American hero toyline, was cancelled after the 1994 series when it was replaced by the Sargent Savage toyline. G.I. Joe action figures in the 1990s, especially 1993 and 1994, departed quite a bit from what we got from G.I. Joe in the 1980s. You can see a lot of accessories here for this one action figure. We'll have a lot to look at. I also have the full card back so we can see how this figure was marketed on retail shelves. Version 1 of Shipwreck was released in 1985. The character was fairly popular and featured prominently in the animated series. I liked the figure, I thought he was appropriately attired for a sailor. His accessories were a little weird, but he came with a parrot, Polly. You would expect to have more versions of Shipwreck since he was a popular character, but the vintage line had only two. The original Shipwreck was a sailor. Version 2 is a Navy Seal, with Seal being an acronym for sea, air and land. The Navy Seals is an elite unit within the U.S. Navy trained to operate in all environments. This would enable Shipwreck to operate on land rather than just at sea. But they put him in diving gear, so he's still only equipped to fight in the water. Was it really necessary to make him a Navy Seal? G.I. Joe had several Navy Seals, starting with Torpedo in 1983. In 1986 they got Wet Suit, and he had multiple later versions. The next Navy Seal character was Tracker from 1991. In almost every instance, G.I. Joe Navy Seals were wearing diving gear. It seems like G.I. Joe only used Seals in the role of Frogmen. Which of course Navy Seals would be trained to do, but the whole point of them is they should be able to operate in all environments. They finally got a Seal that wasn't in diving gear, with Tracker from 1991. But he was wearing his workout clothes. Weird. Special mission at the gym, I guess. They could have changed it up with Shipwreck, but they went right back to the Frogman role by putting him in a diving suit. What would be Shipwreck's Cobra equivalent? Most likely the Cobra Eels. In their various incarnations. Cobra had some other underwater specialists, but I would imagine Shipwreck would most often encounter the Eels. I do have the full card back for Shipwreck Version 2. It is in pretty bad condition. It's all warped and it has some various stains on it, but I guess it's in good enough condition for our purposes. We can get an idea of how they tried to entice kids to pick up this figure. Unfortunately some of the artwork is covered up with a couple stickers. We have a price sticker from Walmart for $2.97. We also have this free GI Joe Commander Figure Offer sticker that covers up part of the artwork and unfortunately adds to the clutter of an already very busy card layout. From what we can see of the artwork, it's okay. It's pretty typical of the card art from the 1990s. He's in an exaggerated action pose. There's a white outline around all of the artwork and it even goes around these water drips and that just looks really weird. We don't have the classic explosion background, instead we have blue laser beams. This is one of the battle core figures and this is something that has been a mystery to me but that mystery is finally solved. In earlier reviews I wondered what battle core meant. There wasn't any clear explanation on the card and all of the basic GI Joe figures from 1993 and 1994 had this battle core label on them but now there is an explanation thanks to Mark Belomo's Ultimate Guide to GI Joe Volume 3. In the Belomo Guide, on the introduction for the 1993 series, there is a write up about where battle core came from and this was not in Volume 2. Apparently there was a line of talking action figures planned for 1993, similar to the earlier Sonic Fighters and Super Sonic Fighters. They were going to be called Battle Scan. The figures are going to use a new technology to play recorded phrases and sound effects. The new technology didn't pan out so the plan was scrapped. Instead, the figures were issued without the gimmick and Battle Scan was changed to Battle Core. There is a much more detailed explanation in the Ultimate Guide. If you are a GI Joe fan you should probably pick up this book. This is why researchers and writers like Mark Belomo are so important to the collecting community. A years old mystery has been solved. In the last few years of the toy line, carded figures were numbered. Shipwreck is number three. On the back of the card you have the cross cell with some of the other figures that were available. There are a lot fewer figures released in 1994 than in 1993. Thank God. 1993 was just too much. There's an advertisement for a couple of the sub factions, Star Brigade and Street Fighter 2. There's a single flag point. There's an ad for a couple of vehicles and we've already reviewed the manta ray. Then there's the file card and this example has some suspect stains on it. My rule about file cards is I will take it as long as it is readable. And this one is readable, but I don't know exactly what this stain is. It's pretty gross. Maybe Stinky Diver got his hands on this file card. I don't know, but leave a comment down below and tell me what you think this stain is. It's probably just rust or mud or something, but I will be washing my hands after this review. Look at Shipwreck's accessories and holy guacamole, he came with a lot of accessories. Most of these accessories came on a plastic tree like this one and kids would have to cut the accessories off of the plastic tree themselves. This was pretty typical of figures in 1993 and 1994. Most of the accessories were just reissues, few of them were original. It was a very cheap way of making accessories. The accessories didn't necessarily relate to the character's specialty. They were all the same color and there were more accessories than the figure could carry. Shipwreck does have a couple original accessories, so I do have to give the figure credit for that. Let's start by taking a look at the submachine gun. It is black like most of the other accessories. It is based on a real weapon. This is based on the Colt 9mm submachine gun. It originally came with Hidden Run in 1988. It's the same submachine gun and the same color, but the one that came with Shipwreck is slightly glossier and if you touch it you can feel a difference in the plastic. Of all the accessories, this one is probably my favorite, Shipwreck could carry this with him when he's storming the beaches. The next accessory is the rifle. This is a bullpup rifle. As you can see the magazine and the action are behind the grip. This allows for a shorter overall weapon while still having a full length rifle barrel. It has a pretty impressive scope on it. It is black of course. This originally came with the 1990 Bullhorn action figure and was later issued with several other figures. Next, let's look at the pistol. This pistol is black because it came on that same plastic tree. This is another reissue of an older accessory. This pistol originally came with Shockwave in 1988. Of course Shockwave's pistol is blue, this one is black. This pistol was reissued many times in a variety of different colors. Next we have the knife, this black knife and once again this is a reissue of an earlier accessory. The knife originally came with Hidden Run. This is another one of Hidden Run's accessories. Of course Hidden Run's knife was in green and this one is black. This is another accessory that was reissued numerous times in different colors. In fact we've already seen it once in black in the review of Leatherneck version 3. Like a lot of figures in the 90's shipwreck came with a figure stand and this is usually my favorite 90's accessory. These were actually fairly rare in the 1980's so it's nice to get figure stands with the figures. He came with a couple swim fins, appropriate for a diver and once again these are not new. They are reissued accessories. They originally came with Undertow from 1990. Undertow's swim fins were in gray, these are in black. These were also issued with the Cobra Eels version 2 but theirs were silver. These swim fins fit onto the figure by pegging them onto the feet by the foot pegs. Mine do not fit on very well. They do not stay on well at all but if you get them on you can stand the figure on the swim fins without the figure stand. Here is where on the vintage figures it would have been nice to have ankle articulation so you could actually pose him as swimming. But I guess the swim fins do kind of work as figure stands. I wanted to get those out of the way because those are the generic accessories that were just reissues of older accessories but shipwreck version 2 did come with some new accessories and we can look at those now. He came with an air mask. It is black, it's made of soft rubbery plastic and it has a couple hoses attached to it and this can fit on the action figure. The mask has a strap that goes around the head and another that goes over the head. You place it on the figure by just putting it over his head and covering his face. It's not a perfect fit but it's really not too bad and because it's soft rubbery plastic it actually does grip a little bit and it stays on fairly well. These air hoses then connect to a couple hoses on the chest of the action figure. It takes a little work to get them in there but once you get them in they actually do stay in fairly well. This one's being a little bit more difficult but there it goes. They're both plugged into the figure's chest. They do tend to push the mask up a bit so you kind of have to pull it down to make sure it covers his face. But there you go. There is his scuba system. I really like this. This is an improvement on the non-removable air mask on 1983's Torpedo. The only downside is when the hoses are connected they do tend to push up on the mask and push it out of position so you do have to keep pulling it down and keeping it snug on his face. Unfortunately there is no scuba tank backpack as we got on earlier action figures but they made up for that with molded in detail on the figure. Next we have the spring loaded missile launcher. This was a gimmick that a lot of 90's figures came with. It is in silver plastic with a black trigger. It came with two black missiles and this missile launcher is actually new to shipwreck. This is not a reissued accessory. The detail is acceptable but not exceptional. It has a hole on one side and oddly that hole will fit the air hose from the air mask but I don't know that that's intentional. I think that might just be a coincidence. I don't know why you would want to connect the air hose to the missile launcher. There's a grip on the missile launcher but it's too big to fit in the action figures hand. I would not try that. I'm interpreting this as being the top of the missile launcher. There are instructions on the card but on the instructions that missile launcher does not look like the one that came with the figure. The instructions even have the trigger on the top of the missile launcher when the actual missile launcher has the trigger on the back corner. Upon further inspection the missile launcher will fit in the figures hand. I was still very nervous putting it in his hand. That handle is fairly thick but I did try it and it did work. Stinky diver in action league now also has this missile launcher and he holds it this way. To operate the spring loaded missile launcher just place one of the two included missiles into the barrel with the notch side up. The trigger on this missile launcher doesn't seem to be working very well so I have to hold the trigger up to keep the missile from firing prematurely. For target practice let's use our old friend Dr. Mindbender. Just aim the missile and press down on the trigger to fire. This is not bad for a gimmick. A lot of these spring loaded missile launchers were oversized for the figures but you could imagine shipwreck using this underwater. Shipwreck version 2 has all of these accessories but no Polly. What happened to the parrot? Did the parrot die? Where's Polly? With the accessories out of the way let's take a look at the articulation for shipwreck version 2. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe action figures at the time 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 his arm 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. Before we look at the details of this figure I have to point out as with a lot of figures from 1993 and 1994 only half of this figure is new. The bottom half of the figure is reused from 1986 wetsuit. There was a lot of cost cutting in 1993 and 1994 and they gave us a lot of figures that were only half new. The top half of the figure was new but the bottom half of the figure was reused from an earlier figure. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of Shipwreck starting with his head. He is wearing a gray diving suit hood. It is mostly plain but it does have a groove that runs from his forehead over the top of his head to the back of his neck and the strap from the air mask could fit on that so that's a nice coordination between accessories and figure. His face is exposed and we can see he has a black mustache. The original Shipwreck action figure had a brown mustache and beard. It's hard to imagine Shipwreck without a beard but with the diving suit partially covering his chin you don't necessarily notice the missing beard. Looking at his chest he's wearing a gray diving suit. The diving suit does have a little bit of detail but not very much but it does have some molded on detail that is painted in black and silver. On the chest he has a silver device with an air tank. The file card calls this a top secret oxygen rebreather. That is top secret but I guess I've let the secret out of the bag. On that rebreather it has a couple holes for the air hoses as we saw earlier. There's a black strap that goes around his body under his arm and around his lower back and then a silver strap that goes over his left shoulder and another silver device on the left side of his chest. Overall not bad detail. On his arms he has long gray sleeves for that gray diving suit. He has black bands that go around his upper arms. There is a variant of this figure that has those bands unpainted. There's a raised line on each of the upper arms and on the right forearm. It looks like maybe that detail was originally intended to be painted but that may have been a paint application that was cut for cost. He's wearing black gloves and those gloves have a ridge detail on them. They're very nicely sculpted gloves. On his right wrist he has what is probably a depth gauge. On his left wrist he has a black knife and there's a black strap that goes around his left forearm. The knife is positioned with the handle side toward the hand positioned for a right handed draw but the knife goes over most of the hand so that would get in the way. It's a nice idea and a nicely sculpted detail but maybe not the best execution. On his waist he has more of that gray diving suit and he has a black weighted belt and once again this is not new that waist piece came from Wetsuit. The color change for Shipwreck version 2 works though. I like the gray and the black and since it is a weighted belt it would serve the same function as it did on the Wetsuit figure. This waist piece was used five times that I'm aware of. It was used in 1986 for Wetsuit and again in 1986 for version 2 of Wetsuit. Then in 1988 for Super Trooper and in 1990 for Rapid Fire and then once again for Shipwreck version 2. You may have been used other times but that's all I'm aware of. Moving on to the legs we have the gray diving suit with black details. The colors are pretty consistent on this figure. Once again these legs are reused from Wetsuit. On his right leg he has a black pistol in a black holster and a black strap that goes around his thigh. The file card calls this a standard issue navy pistol. Whatever it is it must be waterproof because he wears it while scuba diving. He has a black knife on his left leg and another strap that goes around his thigh. Moving down to his lower legs he has a black ridge details that go around each leg and he has gray diving boots which will fit into the swim fins. This overall look reminds me of two things. First it reminds me of Undertow from 1990. Another diver with a diving suit with a lot of gray in it and an air mask that worked in a similar way to Shipwrecks. It also reminds me of the Lannard Core Frogman action figure that had a very similar look with a gray diving suit. When I put all the scuba gear on I just think he looks like a really good diver. I like the gray and the silver and the black and the gear just works really well with it. I have to give this figure credit. It works well for its intended purpose. Now let's take a look at Shipwrecks file card and let's just try to ignore...yeah. It has a copy of the artwork from the front of the card here and it has some of the features listed. We've already talked about some of those. It has a close up of the artwork here. His codename is Shipwreck and he is a Navy Seal in parentheses Air Sea and Land. His file name is Hector X Delgado. His primary military specialty is Gunners Mate. Secondary military specialty is Machinist. Birthplace is Chula Vista California. Greatest CPO. CPO stands for Chief Petty Officer and this information is the same as the Version 1 file card. His serial number is even almost the same. They just added one digit at the end. I don't usually look at the serial numbers but often they did change from one version of the file card to the next. Here we have a quote presumably from Shipwreck himself. It says, I can swim a hundred yards underwater to plant mines on the hulls of Cobra battleships. And that's without scuba tanks. Sure, and I'll bet he can commune with the dolphins too. This paragraph says, Shipwreck is your quintessential sailor. He can splice a line with one hand, fry powdered eggs in 15 foot seas and tell taller tales than the Senate Appropriations Committee. Shipwreck grew up in the shadow of the Navy, specifically the shadow of the sprawling San Diego Navy Yards. He enlisted at the youngest possible age and proceeded to serve with distinction in the Mekong Delta, where hand to hand fighting with river pirates and smugglers was commonplace. Having graduated from Naval Gunnery School, he soon joined the elite Navy Seals team where he has earned almost as many medals on land as he has in the water. This text is mostly just modified from the Version 1 file card. They even took some of it word for word. They did add the bit about him being a Navy Seal. I don't think this transition to the Navy Seals is necessary for Shipwreck's character. I also don't think it makes a lot of sense for his backstory. It says he joined the Navy Seals shortly after finishing Navy Gunnery School, so that would have been before he joined the GI Joe team. Yet that was never mentioned in his past appearances. You'd think that would be important. I still picture Shipwreck as the gruff Navy sailor that he was in his earlier iterations and not as a Navy Seal. Taking a look at Shipwreck's appearances in GI Joe Media, he appeared in the animated series in the Sunbow Era many times. His voice was kind of an impression of Jack Nicholson. He first appeared in Revenge of Cobra Part 2, where Flint and Mutt found him in a cobra bar. She was allowed to join the GI Joe team without any questions. Like I said last week, GI Joe's recruiting practices are very lax. He appeared many times in the Sunbow Era, and he was often the comic relief. But he had a few dramatic moments. In the two part episode, there's no place like Springfield. He wakes up with amnesia after a battle with Cobra. He discovers that years have passed and he has a family. The story has elements of a psychological thriller. Those two episodes are among the best of the series. In the episode Memories of Mara, Shipwreck falls in love with a woman who was genetically modified by Cobra. She can only breathe underwater, which effectively makes her a mermaid. Shipwreck wants to do a shape of water with her. He was in the 1987 animated movie, but he didn't do much. He didn't make the transition to the Deke era, so there are no animated appearances in his version 2 uniform. He made a couple post-Vintage appearances, but those are outside the scope of this review. In the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, he first appeared in issue number 40. He was in charge of the transportable tactical battle platform. He was gruff, demanding, and irritable, not the goofball he was in the cartoon. I imagine Shipwreck as he was in the comic. Issues 40 and 41 had major repercussions for the storyline. The comic shifted focus to sea battles for a couple issues, which was a refreshing change. Cobra Island was created, one of the most important events in the whole series. Shipwreck had a few other appearances in the main series. His appearances were sporadic, and he didn't have much to do beyond his first few appearances. He did have a few appearances in the Special Mission series. He was in the very first issue, and we got to see his parrot. GI Joe had a few sea missions in the Special Mission series. Maybe Polly died on one of those missions. Where's Polly? Give me a break. I was hungry, and KFC was closed. In issue number 1 of Special Missions, the Joes fight Cobra and the October Guard on a mission to rescue a defecting Soviet captain. Shipwreck was a fairly popular character, but surprisingly wasn't used very much in the comic. But this particular version of Shipwreck had a life outside of the GI Joe animated series and comic book in action league now. It was a stop-motion animated series on Nickelodeon that ran from 2001 to 2002. The character Stinky Diver is a slightly modified Shipwreck version 2 action figure. As the name suggests, the character has an unpleasant odor, which is often the source of humor. He also has a beach house that is actually a toilet. Stinky Diver wouldn't be so stinky if he'd change out of his wetsuit every once in a while. He must have his own ecosystem in there. He's got to have the world's worst case of swamp ass. I didn't watch action league now when it was on TV, I only went back and watched it later. For the most part, it is funny. It's low brow, but it's not insulting or offensive. It's harmless fun. Looking at Shipwreck version 2 overall, I only want to give this figure half credit because only half of the figure is new. But in the past, I have given figures credit for reused parts when they are used well. And in this case, I think the use of the bottom half of wetsuit is fine. The color change improves on the original. I was never a big fan of the colors on wetsuit. On balance, I'd say this is a middle tier figure which is pretty good for 1994. I think the figure looks really good with all the scuba gear on. The other accessories are all just generic. The final card adds almost nothing to his backstory except making him a Navy Seal. Making Shipwreck a Navy Seal was unnecessary. I think it's a big deal for someone to qualify as a Navy Seal. It's a big accomplishment. But with Shipwreck, nothing's really done with it. They put him in a diving suit like torpedo and wetsuit. And that's all. Casting this Shipwreck figure as Stinky Diver is brilliant and hilarious. I love it. It just fits. Now I can't look at this Shipwreck figure and not think of Stinky Diver. And that was my review of Stinky Shipwreck and his poop stained file card. And that's good enough for the girls I go out with. Don't forget to like this video, subscribe to the YouTube channel, hit the notification bell and share this video. That's what helps this channel grow. Thanks to my patrons for choosing this review. If you would like to vote in future polls, just check out Patreon. You can also find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos. I'll be back next week with something big and until then I don't care what you smell, only GI Joe is GI Joe. Place it back until it clicks. We will use for target- oh crap.