 Hello and welcome to the return of hooded Cobra Commander 788. After my extended hiatus, I come back to find we're in a global pandemic with a deadly virus going around. Under the circumstances, talking about old action figures doesn't seem that important. Nonetheless, I want to let everyone know that I'm back making regular content. I should have a live stream on Tuesday and I miss you guys and I'm glad to be back with you guys. I hope everyone is taking the crisis seriously and is taking the appropriate measures to stay safe. We will get through this together and I would like for all of you to still be with us at the end of this. So please, as much as you can, stay at home, avoid contact, and wash your hands. Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage GI Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. Before we get started, I need to give a couple code names to some patrons. First, Damon Donoghan. He likes Copperhead, and he signed one of his messages, Papa Bear, so I'm going to call him Copper Bear. Then we have Terrence Johnson, Terrence Johnson, TJ and the Bear. Thank you Copper Bear and TJ and the Bear for your support. I've been fascinated by the Marine Corps since I was a child. It was the 1983 GI Joe action figure, Gung Ho, that sparked that fascination. The Marines, like Gung Ho and Leatherneck and Sergeant Slaughter, seemed gritty and tough and ready to take on Cobra. In 1987, Hasbro gave us a different kind of Marine figure. This figure was not ready to fight Cobra, it was ready for a parade. How could I possibly play with this guy? Even though it didn't integrate into my play time very well, I still loved it. I knew what it represented. It was a unique and special tribute to the Corps. Now that I know more about the figure, it's even more special to me. HCC788 presents Gung Ho in Marine Dress Blues. This is 1987 Gung Ho Version 2, GI Joe's Marine in Dress Blues. This figure was first introduced in 1987 and was also available in 1988. It was discontinued for 1989. Overstock of the figure was repackaged with different accessories and sold at a GI Joe convention. I'm not sure which convention, I wasn't able to confirm that, and I can't find a sealed example. There were five versions of Gung Ho in the vintage era, four pictured here because I do not have the 1993 Battle Corps version. Version 1 was released in 1983, version 2 was in 1987, version 3 was in 1992. There were two versions of Gung Ho in 1983, the Battle Corps version and the Mega Marines version. There were many post-vintage versions of Gung Ho, but none in his Dress Blues. To my eye, only the first two versions look like Gung Ho. The later versions look more like Major Dad. Version 1 had a prominent US Marines Eagle, Globe and Anchor tattoo on his chest. The chest is covered on version 2 and version 5. The 1992 version 3 made the tattoos smaller, and the 1993 version 4 moved the tattoo to his arm. That's not how tattoos work. Gung Ho Version 2 is a special figure. It's not intended as an action figure in that he's not meant for action. He is not mission ready. His uniform is unsuitable for the field, and his only weapon is ceremonial. In fact, the blue dress uniform would never be worn for combat. Marine uniform regulations prescribe it for specific occasions. The blue dress A uniform may be worn for parades, ceremonies and formal or semi-formal social functions, for NCOs and below throughout the year, and for officers and SNCOs as appropriate to the season, or those occasions requiring uniformity with NCOs and below. The dress A uniform will be worn for the following official military slash social occasions. Parades, ceremonies, reviews, solemnities, and entertainments when the commander slash senior officer present desires to pay special honors to the occasion. Official visits of, or to, the United States civil officials, officers of the United States armed forces, and officials slash officers of foreign governments, according to Chapter 12 U.S. Navy regulations. Receptions given by, or in honor of, officials slash officers listed in Chapter 12 U.S. Navy regulations. Despite Gung Ho not being combat ready in this forum, he still appeared on vehicle box art. He was on the box art for the Mobile Command Center and the Defiance Shuttle Complex. Is there a Cobra equivalent? In 1985, the Crimson Guard wears a red ceremonial dress uniform, but they are often depicted as going into combat with those uniforms. 1991 Red Star was a member of the Soviet Naval Infantry, the equivalent of the U.S. Marines for the Soviet Union. Red Star was a member of the October Guard, not Cobra. By that time, the October Guard was a GI Joe ally. I asked Ron Rudat, former character designer for Hasbro, for some background on this figure. Ron said he wanted Marines in the line because his father was a Marine in World War II. He favored Marines over the other branches. He acknowledges the requirement to change the uniform to fit the figure. They couldn't do the long blouse, as was on the real uniform, so they changed it to an Ike jacket. But this figure is special because it does have a connection to his family history. Let's take a look at Gun Ho's accessory. He came with only one. He came with what the card contents call a non-com dress saber. It is in gold plastic. The sword is sheathed, so it's not intended for fighting. It can be hooked on these knobs on the side of the action figure's waist. So he can hold it that way. This is a US Marine Corps non-commissioned officer's sword. This is a reasonable recreation of the real sword, but not exact. In theory, you should be able to put this sword in the figure's hand, but both of the hands on my Gun Ho action figure are way too tight, and I don't want to force the sword in his hand for fear of breaking the thumbs. The figure came with one other thing which you may or may not consider to be an accessory. He had rank and decoration stickers. It was a sticker sheet that would be applied by the purchaser, and it had the rank insignia and these ribbons that go on his chest. The placement of the stickers is apparent from the card art, so I guess that's how kids were supposed to figure out where to place these stickers. There is a problem with the rank insignia, but we will address that later. The card contents list one accessory the figure doesn't really come with. It lists dress hat as an accessory, but the hat is glued onto the figure's head. That makes me wonder, was the hat originally intended to be removable? Let's take a look at the articulation for Gun Ho. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1987, so he could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. Not very much, a little bit limited by his collar. 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. This was an O-ring figure, meaning 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. Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color on Gun Ho starting with his head. His face sculpt is very similar to Version 1. They really did not change it very much at all. His face may be slightly wider, but otherwise it's the same face, the same mustache. One difference is that Version 1 figure was bald under his green cap. The Version 2 figure does have some sculpted hair, even though this hat on Version 2 is glued on. Some broken figures have the hat removed and there is sculpted hair under the hat. If you want to know what Gun Ho looks like without the hat, here he is, and he does have detailed sculpted hair under that hat. So it is conceivable they originally planned the hat to be removable. The hat is primarily white with a black brim and a gold marine core emblem on the front. This is a pretty good approximation of the real world hat. This is the US Marines Barracks cover. On his chest he has a dark blue jacket with red pipe trim. He has six buttons down the front, and those buttons were originally painted in gold paint, as was the button on the right pocket, and there are a couple gold symbols on his collar. The gold paint on my example has mostly worn away. The chest has some seam detail, which is present on the real uniform. He has breast pockets. On the left side he has a gold parachutist badge. He has some silver medals. He also has that sticker with the multicolor ribbons, and I do think that's a really nice touch. I'm glad they didn't leave that out. Based on this configuration I would say this is the B uniform. The A uniform has the full size medals on the left side and the ribbons on the right side. The B uniform consolidates the medals and ribbons onto the left side. There's a difference between the jacket shown here and the real uniform. A marine dress uniform jacket is longer, extending below the belt. This one cuts at the waist. According to Ron Rudd, they had to shorten the jacket because at the time they couldn't make it go over the waist, so they made it an Ike jacket. His arms feature dark blue long sleeves. He has red piping around his sleeve buttons. He's wearing white gloves. He has rank insignia on each arm, that's from the sticker sheet. The white gloves are correct, the buttons are mostly correct, and the insignia is definitely not correct. According to the file card, Gun Ho's grade is E7, Gunnery Sergeant. For that rank he should have three upper stripes, three lower stripes, and crossed rifles in the center. This sticker has four lower stripes and an indistinguishable dot in the center. It could be either a Master Gunnery Sergeant or a Sergeant Major, both of which are E9. His waist features a white belt with a gold belt buckle in the center. This should be another US Marine Corps emblem, but it doesn't really look like that. Based on the card art, I think this is supposed to be a Marine Corps emblem with a leaf cluster, but that doesn't really come through very well in the sculpting. On the left side it has those knobs, they're painted white, that's for attaching the sword. That's not how real swords work, but it's difficult to approximate that on an action figure. On the right side he has a red stripe. His legs feature blue trousers. This is a lighter shade of blue, more of a cursey blue. He has red stripes down the outside seam of both legs, and he has black shoes. This is accurate to the Marine Corps dress blue uniform. There are some variations that have different color trousers, but this is the most commonly recognized uniform. This is easily one of the most military accurate uniforms in the vintage GI Joe toy line, especially in 1987, yet it isn't perfectly accurate. Some changes were made to accommodate the articulation points. The rank insignia is just wrong. Even so, it is a beautiful homage to the real uniform. Let's take a look at Gung Ho's file card. His file card has his faction as GI Joe. It has an excellent portrait of Gung Ho. His co-name is Gung Ho, and for his specialty it just says Marine Dress Blues. His file name is Etienne R. Le Fite. His primary military specialty is Rekondo Instructor. That's a little different from his version 1 file card, where his primary military specialty was Rekondo. Rekondo means he is a graduate of Rekondo School at Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg is an army base, Gung Ho is a Marine, so maybe he was sent there under special GI Joe assignment. Secondary military specialty is Jungle Warfare Training Instructor. The Jungle Warfare Training Center is a US Marine training base in Okinawa, Japan. His birthplace is Fertilance, Louisiana, and that is a fictional place. There is no real town named that. And his grade is E7 in parentheses sergeant, that would be a gunnery sergeant. He has the same grade as on his version 1 file card, so no promotions between 1983 and 1987. This paragraph says, Gung Ho was born and raised in a swamp, went to boot camp in a swamp, and spent most of his Marine Corps career sneaking around in other countries' swamps, with a grenade launcher in his hands. He can low crawl through the nastiest black water, stinking mud, and bubbling slime for a week, with half his body covered in leeches, and the other half raw with bug bites, and still make an 0700 inspection formation with polished brass, spit-shined shoes, razor creases, and a mean look in his eye. That's a Marine. This file card alludes to some of the same background as the version 1 file card. I'm glad it mentioned the inspection with the formal uniform, because he sure as heck isn't doing any of this other stuff in that uniform. Looking at how Gung Ho was used in G.I. Joe media, Gung Ho has been in G.I. Joe animation since the first animated miniseries in 1983. He got significant screen time in part 4. In the series he was treated as a tough guy, as he should be. He was a fairly popular character, and appeared in a lot of episodes in the Sun Bo era. He was briefly in the 1987 G.I. Joe movie wearing his version 1 uniform. He didn't make the transition to the Deke series. To my knowledge, he didn't make any appearances in his version 2 uniform. Gung Ho also had plenty of appearances in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in issue number 11, along with a lot of other new 1983 characters. He was in a snowy environment, but still wore his vest with bare arms and chest. It can be awkward to introduce a new character in an environment where his uniform doesn't make sense. But Gung Ho is so tough, he would rather endure the cold than cover up his Marine Corps tat. Surprisingly, he did appear in his dress blue uniform. Sort of. In issue number 22, he was a pallbearer at General Flag's funeral. You can see him in the procession, but he is miscolored. His uniform is colored green like all the army guys. Looking at this figure overall, I love this figure, but I can see why some collectors and even some kids back in 1987 just wouldn't be turned on by this figure. The only weapon he comes with is a ceremonial sword. He is in no way ready for action, and the whole point of playing with G.I. Joe was the action, right? This was an actionless figure. Back in 1987, I had watched enough movies and read enough books about the Marine Corps that I instantly recognized the uniform Gung Ho was wearing, and I had to have it. It's true, I didn't have a way to play with it, but I still had to have it. For fans who are less fascinated by the Marine Corps, you're probably not as interested in this figure, and I can't blame you for that. After all, we got hundreds of G.I. Joe characters from the army, but we tended to not get them in their dress uniforms. As an adult collector, I'm still impressed with how well they pulled off this real world uniform. But I'm just as intrigued about the inaccuracies as the accuracies. They did have to change the uniform a bit to fit the kind of figure it was, but there were some changes they made that they didn't have to make. Like the rank and signia stickers, I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't just make the rank and signia match the rank of the figure as it's stated on the file card. Despite these nitpicks when I look at the figure, I can see exactly what they were trying to do, and I still connect it with that rich history of the United States Marine Corps. And when I see it on a shelf, I still think it looks beautiful. That was my review of Gung Ho in Marine Dress Blues. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm back, baby, and thank you to Copper Bear and TJ and the Bear for their support. I should be back for another review next week as long as the isolation doesn't drive me mad. I hope to see you then. Thank you for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, I'm making more like it. So please give this video a thumbs up on YouTube, subscribe to the YouTube channel, hit the notification bell so you don't miss any future videos, and share this video with your friends. That's what helps this channel grow. You can find me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter, and I have a website, hcc788.com. If you want to know if I've already reviewed a vintage GI Joe item, that's a good place to check. Thanks to all my supporters on Patreon, including the names you see on the screen now. Support on Patreon helps keep this show going. So if you like this show and you'd like to support this show in that way, please consider checking out Patreon. You can get some special rewards, including early access to reviews, and you can find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos. Thank you for joining me on this adventure of collecting vintage GI Joe toys. I'll see you next time, and until then, remember, only GI Joe is GI Joe.