 here and this week we are looking at version 2 of Duke from 1988 and this is the first Tiger Force action figure that we've looked at on this channel. I'm talking about Tiger Force Duke. This is also an opportunity to revisit Duke. I have reviewed Duke on this channel before and my review was you might say not glowing. I do generally like Duke. I'm not a Duke hater but I do have some issues with the figure and the character. It's one thing to give a less than favorable review to Xandar. Nobody cares about Xandar but Duke is a popular character and I know a lot of my viewers are not going to agree with me. But you always get 100% honest opinions on this channel. Nothing watered down here. So HCC 788 presents Tiger Force Duke. This is version 2 of Duke also known as Tiger Force Duke. He is Tiger Force's first sergeant. This figure was on the peg from 1988 to 1989. He was discontinued for the year 1990 and there was no new Duke action figure that year. However in 1992 we did get another version of Duke which was now a master sergeant. In 1988 Duke was a first sergeant which is an E-8 in the US Army and that is equal to a master sergeant. A master sergeant is also an E-8. However they have different responsibilities. A first sergeant gets the diamond on their rank insignia after completing US Army first sergeant academy. They have some additional training. Tiger Force was a sub team within GI Joe and the focus of Tiger Force was really on the vehicles. The vehicles consisted of captured Cobra vehicles and repurposed GI Joe vehicles that were repainted in different colors. The Tiger Force vehicles are based on the NATO Tiger Association which was established in 1961 to promote solidarity between NATO Air Forces. They have an annual Tiger Meet in which NATO jets are painted with bright colors and Tiger Stripes very similar to the Tiger Force toys. The Tiger Force figures were uniforms in the motif of the Tiger Striped vehicles. There is nothing original in Tiger Force. It's all a reuse of old vehicles and figures with different colors. There was one new character Sky Striker but even that figure was made of reused parts. Tiger Force Duke is almost an exact copy of version one of Duke but there are some differences between these two figures other than just the colors and we are going to look at each of those differences in this video. Version one of Duke was first available in 1983 as a mail away exclusive. You could not get the figure in retail stores. However he was available as a carded action figure in 1984 the following year and in 1985 so you could get him at retail stores. He was discontinued in 1986 so there was a two-year gap between version one and version two of Duke. Version one of Duke only had two unique parts his head and his chest. Every other part of this action figure was reused from other action figures and there was a change in the head sculpt between the original mail away version and the carded retail version. The mail away version of Duke had less detailed hair and I think his face looks a little bit wider too. In the carded retail version they sculpted a few more lines on his hair. Let's look at where the parts for version one of Duke came from so when we look at the parts for version two we can see how they are different. Now the back piece for Duke came from the 1983 dock and that same back piece was later used for the 1984 spirit just recolored blue. Duke's waist and arms also came from dock. Duke's upper legs came from major blood and his lower legs and boots came from gung-ho. Let's take a look at version two of Duke's accessories starting with his submachine gun and this submachine gun is reasonably well detailed. It is modeled after the real-world Heckler and Koch MP5. This submachine gun is a recolored version of the submachine gun that came with the original Duke of course his was green and that itself was a recolored version of the submachine gun that came with 1982 Stalker. Around his neck Duke has a pair of binoculars. These binoculars have some detailing not a lot but they're okay but they do have this very handy strap so they can hang from Duke's neck. They are very similar to the binoculars that came with version one of Duke but version one of Duke's binoculars were more of a true black and these are a very dark gray. Duke's helmet is a standard helmet the same type of helmet came with a lot of 1982 and 1983 figures. It's a pretty generic helmet. It came with figures like grunt but they came in different colors. This helmet of Duke's version two should pretty closely match the color on his trousers. This helmet could easily be mistaken for the helmets on version two of grunt and version two of clutch but these helmets are slightly lighter in color. Duke's is very slightly darker. Duke's backpack has some detailing on it. It has what it looks like an entrenching tool there and a bed roll, some pouches, some fair detail. Once again this backpack is just recolored from an accessory that came with version one. That's just a recolored version of version one's backpack but that backpack itself was just a reuse of the backpack that came with the 1983 Airborne. This backpack was later reused for the Meilaway Exclusive Steel Brigade. That is a very similar backpack and a very similar color but you can see the color is slightly different. Let's take a look at the articulation on Duke. Duke did not have the typical articulation of 1988 G.I. Joe action figures. That's because he used a lot of parts from older action figures. That means he could turn his head from left to right but he could not look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that means he could move at the elbow about 90 degrees. 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 little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his legs at the hip about 90 degrees and it could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Now we can look at the sculpted design and color of Tiger Force Duke and finally address the elephant in the room. That hair color. The head sculpt for Tiger Force Duke is identical to the sculpt for version one of Duke. They didn't make any changes to the sculpting but there are two changes to the paint. Version one of Duke had white painted teeth that's unpainted on Tiger Force Duke and of course Tiger Force Duke has brown hair instead of Duke's original blonde hair. In all forms of GI Joe media Duke is clearly shown with blonde hair. He never has brown hair and no explanation is given for the change. Even on the card art they did not change his hair color. He still has blonde hair. The spontaneous hair color change from blonde to brown is something we already addressed was version two of Hawk where version two had brown hair versus version one's blonde hair. Now the stock excuse for this is that Hasbro did not want kids to confuse Hawk with Duke but that excuse does not work with this hair color change because now Duke has brown hair just like Hawk does. So if they thought kids would confuse these two figures or these two characters if they had the same hair color now won't they confuse them because now they have the same hair color again. I kind of have a problem with the unpainted teeth too. It's one of several things on this action figure that just make it seem kind of cheap. The chest and the back piece are the same as version one of Duke just in different colors. It has a brown strap here versus the green strap on version one of Duke has a hand grenade a couple of pouches and I had a problem with this strap on version one of Duke and I have the same problem on version two. That strap does not continue around to the back. It just sort of disappears there and I kind of have a problem with that. It just looks really odd to me. He has what looks like a parachutist badge here and this parachutist badge looks more like the Navy and Marine Corps parachutist badge than it does the army the US Army parachutist badge. I'm not sure exactly why that is now on the version one of Duke that parachutist badge is painted that's painted gold. It is unpainted on version two already we have a couple important unpainted details and that really hurts the action figure in my estimation. You don't want your second version of Duke to look like a cheap knockoff of your first version. The upper arms of Tiger Force Duke are a reuse of the upper arms of version one of Duke but the lower arms and hands are not. Those are different. These lower arms and hands are actually a reuse of a much later action figure the 1988 hit and run. These waste pieces are also different. Version one's waste piece came from dock. Version two's waste piece actually is reused from the 1982 and 1983 Cobra soldier and Cobra officer. This waste piece was also reused on some versions of Steel Brigade. The legs for Tiger Force Duke are the same as version one of Duke with those upper legs coming from major blood and the lower legs and boots coming from Gung Ho. The legs feature a gray pistol and a holster on his right leg a pretty plain left leg gray boots and a knife on his left boot. The legs had these horizontal slash marks and these were supposed to be the Tiger Stripe camouflage. Now we have had better Tiger Stripe camouflage in the G.I. Joe line. This is not my favorite. Let's take a look at Duke's file card and we get to do something we don't often get to do. I have the full card back for Tiger Force Duke so we can really see how this figure was marketed and of course here's the card art and that is essentially the same artwork that was on Duke's original card but he's been repainted with Tiger Force colors. Otherwise the artwork and the stance there is really identical to the first version of Duke. It has the G.I. Joe logo up here and has the Tiger Force logo stamped right here. It has a price sticker. It was $2.69 and part of the front has been ripped away when the bubble was removed. Oddly the rifle that's pictured on the card art is not the accessory that the action figure came with. The rifle that's pictured here is the one that came with the 1983 Arctic Trooper snow job. Duke was originally supposed to come with this rifle but at some point that was changed and he came with the rifle that originally came with stalker. On the flip side of the card we have a lot of interesting things. We have the cross cell here and we have this partition which shows the other Tiger Force action figures that were available at the time and it says right here Tiger Force uses captured Cobra vehicles and reoutfitted G.I. Joe weapons to battle the forces of evil. Each vehicle is specially modified and camouflaged for perilous assaults behind enemy lines. I'm not sure if you'd call that a bright yellow and black Tiger Stripes camouflage but they are repainted. Then of course it has these small panels around here that show the other G.I. Joe action figures available at the time. Like all other carded action figures this figure is worth one flag point and then of course we have the file card. The file card has his faction as G.I. Joe and it has a portrait of Duke here and this portrait is pretty much the same as the original file card. It's just zoomed in slightly. It says his code name is Duke and he is the Tiger Force first sergeant squad leader. His file name is Conrad S. Houser. His primary military specialty is airborne infantrymen. His secondary military specialty is small arms repairmen and this is different from his original file card where his secondary military specialty is artillery and small arms armor. His birthplace is St. Louis, Missouri and his grade is E8 in parentheses first sergeant and this is also different from his original file card which had his grade as E8 master sergeant. Now the grade of E8 is correct but he's going to be either a first sergeant or a master sergeant not both. And I think the Tiger Force file card is correct. I think Duke is an E8 first sergeant. Also between version one and version two of the file card, Duke's serial number changed which should not happen. This middle section is similar to the text on the original Duke file card but the phrasing is slightly different and there's some additional details. It says Duke was fluent in French, German and English when he enlisted, graduated top of his class for Benning Airborne School, opted for US Army Special Languages School where he specialized in Han Chinese and Southeast Asian dialects. Upon graduation he served in the Army's Special Forces Unit in Southeast Asia where he received the Congressional Medal of Honor and two bronze stars for single-handedly rescuing 34 POWs from a heavily guarded enemy compound. This section here about rescuing POWs must have been written after somebody watched Rambo II. This bottom section is entirely different from the original file card. It really has no similarity at all. It has a quote that says, the man's a walking legend. He's got more combat experience than some of the generals in the Pentagon. Duke's the kind of grunt you want to have right by your side when the going gets rough. He can assess any hostile situation with lightning speed and act upon it quicker than you could say Tiger Force. The man doesn't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I don't think he's ever heard of the word at all. This file card does the same thing that the original file card did but it cranks it up to 11. It paints Duke as just too perfect. He's the best at everything he does. He never fails and just everything he touches turns to gold. Duke appeared many times in GI Joe media. In the GI Joe cartoon series, Duke was the first leader of GI Joe. There was no Hawk in the cartoon series at the time. Hawk of course was the leader of GI Joe in the toy line and in the comic book. But as far as I can tell there were never any cartoon appearances of Tiger Force Duke. We did see Duke in the 1987 GI Joe animated movie where he went into a coma. But in that movie it was 1987. It was the year before Tiger Force came out and he was still wearing his version one colors. Duke did appear in the Deke animated series but the earliest appearances that I can find for him still show him wearing his version one colors. Duke first appeared in the GI Joe comic book in issue number 22 and he had many appearances thereafter and he sort of replaced Hawk as the field commander of GI Joe. I'm not aware of any appearances of Tiger Force Duke in the comic book either but I don't have every issue of the comic book. He may have appeared in the Tiger Force uniform in an issue that I don't have or haven't read but not to my knowledge. I think the best portrayal of Duke is not in the old vintage run. It's in GI Joe Resolute. In that more modern cartoon he's even more of an asshole than usual which is exactly what he should be. Giving Duke a meaner side makes the character more layered and more interesting. Duke is a first sergeant. He should have a commanding presence on the field. He should be a master of military tactics. He should be capable of getting his men to do what they must do even if he has to bully them into doing it. Duke should not be a nice guy. To do his job he's going to have to be mean and sometimes even brutal. But I don't think Duke should be the unit leader like he was in the old cartoon series. Hawk is the master strategist. He's the big picture guy. Duke knows the tactics to carry out the strategy. In the GI Joe cartoon series Duke is shown as having a romantic interest in Scarlet and I've said before that this pairing I don't think makes sense. I think Scarlet and Snake Eyes as it was in the GI Joe comic book makes a lot more sense. Now I've said before that I don't think Scarlet would have an interest in Duke but I'm not sure Duke would have an interest in Scarlet either. There are two strong personalities would clash right from the get go. You put these two together and you're going to have fireworks and not the good kind. I don't want to be too down on Duke. I've got some positive things to say about Duke too. I still prefer Duke to Flint even though Flint is a superior action figure. I've got a lot of good childhood memories tied up in Duke. When Duke was first available as a mail away I missed the mail away offer. So I thought I might not ever have a Duke action figure but then when I saw him the following year available on the card I was thrilled. By 1988 my original Duke was long gone either lost or broken. So when I saw Tiger Force Duke on the shelves I was really happy to have another Duke. I could replace my old Duke. Now I really wasn't happy about the hair color change but I just kind of ignored that. I was just happy to have a new Duke action figure. I've always had a problem with these expressive faces. It was always easier for me to project an emotion on a neutral face than it was for me to project an emotion that was contrary to the one that was expressed on these expressive faces. No matter how good the sculpting the expression is not going to fit every play scenario you're gonna have him in. Hey Duke I heard you had a colonoscopy over the weekend. How did that go? I have some bad news Duke. It's your grandmother. She got run over by a reindeer. Look out Duke. Cobra Commander is right behind you. See what I mean? It just doesn't work. The media portrayals of Duke are just a little too macho, a little too John Wayne, a little too perfect and characters that are too perfect have little room for development or internal conflict. Looking at Duke overall I thought the original figure was about a middle tier figure so version two using almost all the same parts as version one is also a middle tier figure but it's dangerously close to being worse than that because of unpainted details. The Tiger Force colors are okay. Weirdly the colors are almost the reverse of the original action figure where version one had top half was khaki and the bottom half was green on version two is kind of reverse. The red undershirt is kind of weird and random but the figure is still reasonably camouflaged so I could still use him in combat. I would prefer a traditional organic tiger stripe camouflage like stalker and like recondo to these black slash lines but still overall not bad at all. Some other Tiger Force action figures got much weirder color schemes so I'm really not complaining not a bad color scheme for Tiger Force Duke. But why does he have brown hair? Duke is not portrayed as having brown hair anywhere there's no reason for it it doesn't make any sense. Get that picture out of here I'm trying to talk about Tiger Force Duke. We had the same issue three weeks ago when we looked at version two of Hawk. What's with these hair color changes? These aren't the only two figures they did this to and usually hair color does not spontaneously change from blonde to brown without the help of a Clairall bottle. Okay mom you want to show the picture go ahead put the picture up. Yes that is a picture of me I used to have blonde hair I don't have blonde hair anymore but I don't really think that invalidates my point or maybe it does okay maybe it does okay I'm wrong congratulations you're right I'm wrong there you go you happy now happy I'm a naughty boy there you satisfied you know what I quit you can you can do your own vintage GI Joe toy reviews from now on I'm back but I do not like being wrong. This is my review of Tiger Force Duke I hope you enjoyed it if you did don't forget to leave it a thumbs up on YouTube and don't forget to subscribe that's what keeps this channel going 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 I'll see you next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review