 Hello everybody, Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and I'm back with another Vintage G.I. Joe Toy Review and this time we are going to look at the 1986 G.I. Joe Ranger Beachhead. Now this is a little bit different, I haven't actively started collecting 1986 G.I. Joe action figures and vehicles yet, but I had to pick up Beachhead because he was a favorite of mine when I was a kid and he just looks really awesome. So without further ado, let's jump right into the review of Beachhead. This is Beachhead, the G.I. Joe Ranger from 1986. As a Ranger that means he completed the U.S. Army Ranger School and he was the second Ranger in G.I. Joe. The first one of course was Stalker and since Beachhead came out in 1986 he was meant to sort of replace Stalker as G.I. Joe's Ranger, but in the comic book Beachhead never replaced Stalker. Beachhead was first sold in 1986, he was also sold in 1987, he was discontinued in 1988 and in 1988 we did get another Ranger for G.I. Joe, but he wasn't billed as a Ranger, he was the Steadycam machine gunner repeater. Beachhead takes his codename from Military Terminology, a Beachhead is a temporary line created by a military beach landing and that line is defended until more forces can come in to allow the attacking force to advance and that kind of describes Gung Ho's job as an infantry soldier that is equipped to storm beaches. Let's take a look at Beachhead's accessories starting with his weapon and this weapon is referred to on the card contents as an XF7 wasp submachine gun and this actually is pretty close approximation to a real world weapon. This looks like and is named after the Demro XF7 wasp. This is a very good looking accessory, you can see there's a lot of detail there, it looks like it has what's supposed to be a folding stock here in the back. And one thing I really like about this gun is that it fits really well in Beachhead's hand. The grip is exactly the right size to fit in the hand snugly, not too tight, it doesn't give you any danger of breaking the thumb off but it stays very securely, it doesn't flop around. Now really I kind of wish that all GI Joe weapons had this as the standard grip, the weapons would stay in the hands a lot better and you wouldn't have to worry about breaking thumbs. The grip may not be as aesthetically pleasing as some of the grips on other GI Joe weapons but it is very functional. Beachhead's second accessory is his ammunition satchel and I like to sling it across his body like that, I just think it looks really good and it secures it on very well. There are two versions of this, one version made with a very hard solid plastic and another, this version which is made out of slightly softer plastic, it's less likely to break on this strap, I think that's why they changed it. As you can see it has a bunch of ammunition magazines for his submachine gun, so he is loaded with ammunition and really ready for battle. And finally Beachhead comes with a very large backpack that has a ton of detail. This backpack as you can see has some utilities on it, it has a crossbow and that's really cool looking, Beachhead has a crossbow but unfortunately he can't use it because it's just molded on there, it's not removable, it looks like he has either a big flashlight or a scope, some bolts for the crossbow, he's got some pouches here and also on the side and he's got this thing and I honestly don't know what exactly it's supposed to be, maybe some kind of a flare gun or a grapple hook, I think I always imagined it as some kind of grapple hook and this was the line for it but I really don't know what exactly that's supposed to be. The backpack pegs in his back with one of these pegs as all GI Joe backpacks do and this is a pretty large backpack, this is much larger than most GI Joe backpacks, it's a really nice accessory even if I don't really know what this is, it does have a lot of other gadgets and utilities on here, very cool. Let's look at the articulation of Beachhead, he had the typical articulation of 1986 GI Joe action figures, that means he could turn his head from left to right but he could also look up and down, his neck was on a ball joint, he could move his arm at the shoulder up about so far and he could swivel it 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 and that allowed him 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 look at the sculpt design and color of Beachhead starting with his head and his head as you can see he's wearing a mask, a Balaclava style mask and with these lines in it it looks like it's like a wool knit mask and it has this line here that goes around the back and then over his nose which suggests that it's a two-piece mask, it could be a two-piece mask or he could have the bottom part of the mask rolled up over his nose and mouth, the head sculpt has the same detail all the way around, on Beachhead's chest you can see that he's wearing a green shirt that matches the color of his mask and he's wearing a black tactical vest that has some really nice detailing on it, it has some straps here on the shoulder and has some pouches here on the front at the bottom close to his belt, you can see the detail on the straps continues around to the back that looks great and he has a row of ammunition clips right here on his chest and as you saw with the accessories he had more ammunition in his pouch, so he is loaded with ammunition, he's not going to run out of ammunition anytime soon and these ammunition clips are painted the same color as the weapon he came with so that is really nice, I really like it when the sculpting of the action figure matches the accessories, that's a very nice touch, great attention to detail, on his left shoulder Beachhead has what people are assuming is a red beret, the U.S. Army does use different colored berets to designate different specialties and the U.S. airborne forces uses a maroon beret, so that may be what this is intended to be, on Beachhead's left arm he has a unit patch and this is the unit patch for the 75th infantry division in the U.S. Army and that is some amazing detail, that's some really tiny and still pretty amazing detail, you can read the 75 on there, that's pretty impressive for such a tiny action figure, Beachhead's arms are otherwise pretty plain, they are green to match his mask and his shirt and he's wearing some black gloves, on Beachhead's waist piece he has a belt with some pouches, a grenade on this side, he has a large pouch here in the back, it's a pretty good and well detailed belt, he has some straps here that go to his holsters, Beachhead's trousers are kind of a light brown with a green camouflage pattern on top of it and this would make a pretty nice forest camouflage, it looks pretty good, of course I'm happy to get any camouflage on these action figures so I just love to see this, on his left leg Beachhead has a holster with a pistol and the pistol is painted a light gray, the holster is black and it's interesting that this is on his left leg so it suggests that maybe Beachhead is left-handed, he has black sticks of dynamite strapped to his lower leg on the left side and on the right side he has two knives, he's really ready for anything, he has some black boots that look pretty nice, it looks like his trousers are bloused over part of his boots, let's take a look at Beachhead's file card and the file card was printed on the back of the card on which the action figure was packaged, you can see part of the front of the card here on the other side and it has a portrait of Beachhead, this is from the artwork from the front of the card and this looks really nice, very great looking artwork, it has his faction as G.I. Joe, it says his code name is Beachhead and he's the ranger, this format of putting the code name in large bold letters and putting the specialty in smaller letters under it is a change from earlier file cards, in 1985 and before then it had in large bold letters the specialty and in smaller letters the code name, it says his file name is Wayne R. Sneedon, a primary military specialty infantry secondary military specialty small arms armorer, birthplace is Auburn Alabama and his grade is E6, this section says Beachhead was a lane instructor at the ranger school in Fort Benning and an observer advisor at the covert ops school in Central America, he's meticulous patient and strong-willed, he likes getting up at 0500 hours to take a 10 mile run and PT physical training session before breakfast, he enjoys squatting motionless beside a jungle trail for three days straight waiting to ambush bad guys that might never show up, what he hates is people who aren't interested in doing their best, qualified expert all NATO and Warsaw packed small arms, this bottom section has a quote that says most folks who get mad on occasion or at least irritable not Beachhead, he thinks anger is a waste of time and energy, rage clouds division and pollutes logic, fury impairs judgment and makes you careless, the results of anger are totally unacceptable to Beachhead, he doesn't get angry he gets even, the file card describes Beachhead as a really tough guy, I mean he really thrives in the difficult army life, he really is suited for combat but he also seems to kind of have a chip on his shoulder, it seems like he sort of has something to prove, in the GI Joe animated series and the 1987 GI Joe animated movie, Beachhead had the role of a trainer or a drill instructor and he was fourth in command of GI Joe, the line of command would have went from Hawk at the top to Duke, then to Flint and then Beachhead, Beachhead's personality really shined through in the animated series where he was portrayed kind of as a jerk, also he had a quirky personal hygiene habit in that he never wore deodorant, although should he really wear deodorant into combat, I mean you don't want to go into combat smelling like old spice but then again when you're not in combat you don't want to smell like a gym sock either, in the GI Joe comic book Beachhead was perhaps underutilized and he never got the leadership role that he did in the animated series, of course in the comic book that would have caused him to displace stalker and of course that did not happen in the comic book, looking at Beachhead overall it's a very unusual design for a GI Joe action figure, at least one of the good guys, it's a GI Joe team member wearing a mask and that was kind of rare, of course snake eyes wore a mask and some other GI Joe characters had their face obscured by face plates and helmets and things like that, not so with Beachhead and it's not a helmet or goggles that are that that's hiding his face, it's a mask that he wears as part of his battle gear, this is a mask that Beachhead wears as a matter of personal preference as a part of his battle togs, not to hide his identity, the figure is amazingly detailed, it looks great, it's a very unique look, lots of detail, so many paint applications on there, he comes with some great accessories, he's very well armed and the military colors look really good together, I mean he looks like a military guy, the green on the top and the brown on the bottom and the black in between, they just seem to fit perfectly, he looks great, he's a unique looking GI Joe action figure and just very well designed, with Beachhead I get to do something that I don't normally get to do in these video reviews and that is compare him to a modern version of the figure, this is the GI Joe 50th anniversary Beachhead, as you can see it's an homage to the original, is essentially the same design but with modern articulation and modern sculpting and just looking at this, this modern version of Beachhead looks fantastic, it's got all of the elements of the original but so much more detail, it looks great, even the crossbow on the backpack is removable, which on the original it was not and we always wanted that crossbow to be removable, finally they gave us a removable one but it's in two pieces and it actually does not stay together very well so that's a little bit of a downside, he's got his ammunition satchel, it's got his camouflage on his legs and just a great looking action figure, it's got loads of articulation, it comes with a figure stand but it doesn't hold the weapon very well, I have him holding it this way with the two-handed grip and that's actually the only way I can get him to hold on to this without dropping it and of course it's nearly impossible to get the figure to stand up without the figure stand which you could sometimes do with the vintage figures, so the playability of the modern action figures is a bit less than the vintage figures even though the modern action figures I have to say look fantastic, as a kid back in the 80s if I could have gotten this action figure looking this good with the playability of this action figure I would have been the happiest kid, in fact I probably never would have gone to college because I would have just stayed home straight through my 20s and 30s playing with these action figures, they would have been fantastic, taking them as they are though I still prefer the vintage action figure, I think these were real toys, these excited our imaginations as kids, they were meant for kids to be played to play with them, to me this is what a GI Joe action figure should be, I mean that as no knock against the modern figures I know a lot of you guys collect the modern stuff and the modern ones look great, I don't want to downplay that at all, this is a great looking action figure but I'm a vintage GI Joe guy and that's just what I'm always going to be, that was my review of the 1986 beach head and his file card, I hope you enjoyed it and if you're thinking of getting a beach head I hope you found it informative, if you liked it make sure you give it a thumbs up on YouTube and make sure to subscribe, I've got a lot of great new GI Joe toy reviews coming at you very soon, you don't want to miss them and don't forget to like the Facebook page, you get some updates there that you don't get anywhere else, thanks for watching and I'll see you with the next vintage GI Joe toy review.