went the cheap route and they just reused a lot of parts they repainted them and they call them a different character but in this case they didn't even repaint the head they used exactly the same head for two so it looks like they're twins now this is not the only time that that occurred in 1982 for instance here are here's another set of twins flash and steeler not only did they reuse the same head they have exactly the same hair color sometimes for the sake of diversity they would at least change the hair color like with zap here who had the same head but at least he had black hair instead of brown hair now i think there's a missed opportunity here because the toy designers had an option that would have made hawk unique and it would have fit better with the second version of hawk so let's bring in hawk version two this is the version of hawk that came out in 1986 as you can see he has the ball joint and he can move his head up and down as well as side to side now take a look at these two action figures two versions of hawk these two action figures are intended to represent the same guy obviously they don't look anything alike consider if you will if instead of using short fuses head and hair color they had used grunts head but colored the hair blonde i know they wanted the character to be blonde because he was in the comic book and if they had used grunts head with blonde hair he would not have been a clone of anybody none of the other action figures used this head sculpt with blonde hair so he would have been unique also he would have looked more like the second version you could kind of imagine this guy as being a slightly older version of this guy it's closer certainly closer than these two of course you would have needed to keep the blonde hair in the second version the hair color change from blonde to brown is never explained this isn't the only time hasbro has spontaneously changed hair colors for characters when they issued a second version of them and i hated it every time i just really wish they wouldn't do that as you can see hawk has silver paint on his webgear now this silver paint rubs off very easily and the reason he's painted silver it may be to signify his rank uh he is a colonel and as i said he is the leader of the gi joe team he is the highest ranking officer on the team now when i was a kid i did not know that this action figure was supposed to represent the leader of the gi joe team when i saw it on the shelves in the store it looked like a very plain vehicle with a very plain action figure and i really just didn't have any interest in it i didn't find out that this was supposed to be hawk the same hawk in the comic books until after the toy was no longer available later in the gi joe storyline hawk was promoted to general and general hawk is represented by version two this is hawk as a general and this is hawk as a colonel let's take a look at the file card this was printed on the back of the box that the mms came in there's nothing on the other side it was just the back of a box and you were encouraged to cut these out and keep them since it contained a short biography of the character represented by the action figure up here it says interestingly missile commander not gi joe leader or gi joe commander if it had said something like that i might have taken notice of this toy earlier than i did his codename is hawk which could refer to the hawk missile system which the toy is supposed to represent or it could refer to a war hawk sometimes just called a hawk which is a person who favors war in a debate about whether or not you should go to war it says his file name is clayton m abbernathy his primary military specialty is artillery secondary military specialty is radar his birthplace is denver colorado that's a nice town i've been there his grade is o six which is a colonel here it says hawk comes from a well-established read loaded family he's a west point graduate top of class and has seen action in a number of trouble spots graduated advanced infantry training covert ops school served on cadre north atlantic range command and usa e n g com e v r missile and radar training classified qualified expert m 16 m 19 11 a 1 autopistol this quote down here says he's keenly intelligent and perceptive and quite capable of totally selfless acts in support of his teammates an excellent leader and that line right there is our only hint that this toy is meant to represent the leader of the gi joe team if you take a look at this guy closely you can kind of see why i didn't think he was the leader of the gi joe team he has a very passive expression he doesn't look like a leader in fact he just looks kind of sleepy his eyes are kind of droopy that was my review of the mms mobile missile system and the action figure that came with it hawk i hope you enjoyed this review and if you're thinking of getting an mms or a hawk action figure i hope you found this video informative if you liked it go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you didn't like it go ahead and give it a thumbs down and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great gi joe toy reviews coming up and you won't want to miss them thanks for watching and bye bye hello everybody hooded cobra commander seven eight eight here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this one is special this one is really exciting i've been working on this for a while i just wanted to make sure that i had all the pieces we are going to look at cobra commander and not just one version of cobra commander we're going to look at the 1982 1983 and the 1984 versions of cobra commander the ojoe.com gi joe toy database refers to the 1982 version of cobra commander as version one the 1983 version as version 1.5 and the 1984 version as version 2 now we did get a version 3 cobra commander in the vintage line in 1987 but he looked very different he had this kind of iron man armor uh but this is the classic look that we are used to this is the cobra commander that everybody remembers i'm really excited to look at the action figure that gives this channel its name so let's take a look at cobra commander and give him a very good thorough review cobra commander was released in 1982 as a mail away he was not available in the stores in 1983 he was released as a carded figure for sale in the stores and then in 1984 he was released as the hooded cobra commander as another mail away the hooded cobra commander was not sold in the stores the hooded cobra commander was sold through mail away offers like this one there's one right there and you could collect your flag points it says only two flag points and a dollar 75 in 1982 if you mail the way to get your own cobra commander this is what you would get there was something a little bit odd about this first issue of cobra commander his cobra symbol was actually highly simplified this one is actually a better view of this symbol as you look at it uh it has kind of detached eyes at the top that kind of makes the symbol look like it's wearing a mickey mouse hat so this variation of cobra commander is referred to as the mickey mouse cobra commander uh this is somewhat rare and desirable to collectors now later in 1982 if you mail away for cobra commander you would get one with the regular cobra symbol the the one that we're all used to let's take a look at the accessory and he came with only one the venom laser pistol which was a very dark almost black gray plastic uh and this one i think it looks a little bit lighter than it actually is under the camera uh but it's actually quite dark um not quite black but very close to black i actually have two of them uh i have one on the back of this cobra commander but this one the grip is slightly broken so i'm just going to leave that plugged into the back and we'll just take a look at this one now as a weapon i guess this is okay this is fine as far as laser guns go you know and i really don't care for lasers in gi joe i didn't care for the science fiction weapons but i i mean this is all right it actually looks a little bit more like a hair dryer than a gun but it did have a nice feature in that it did plug into the back the back of the action figure had some sculpted on detail here it was a recharging pack for the laser so had this hole in the in the top corner that corresponded with this notch on the gun and you just push that in there and it actually held pretty well i do like it when the sculpting on the action figure matches the accessories let's look at the articulation of cobra commander and there was a difference between 1982 and 1983 when you first mailed away for cobra commander in 1982 you got what they referred to as the straight arm articulation uh he could turn his head from side to side like that he could lift his arm all the way up and he could turn it all the way around and he had a hinge at the elbow and he could move his elbow at about 90 degrees all of the action figures in the vintage line were held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the center so they could move at the waist a little bit they could move their legs apart about so far he'd move his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees starting in 1983 they introduced a new point of articulation at the bicep uh they had this swivel here that they referred to as swivel arm battle grip and not only could you move the arm at the elbow at 90 degrees you could also swivel it all the way around this allowed the action figures to hold their weapons with a two-handed grip let's look at the sculpt of these three cobra commander action figures the 1982 cobra commander was actually completely unique he shared no parts with any other action figures however when he was re-released in 1983 with the swivel arms he actually shared arms with the 1983 cobra officer you can see that their arms match they're just a different color the 1984 hooded cobra commander had exactly the same body as the 1983 cobra commander but with a different head the head on this 1984 hooded cobra commander was a slightly rubbery material so you kind of actually got the effect of the hood on his head it kind of actually did billow over his uniform slightly uh but as you can see it is a much darker color than the 1982 or 1983 version we already looked at the charging pack on the back and that's some nice detail and all of them featured that he has a very military looking uniform uh he has a dagger on his left leg and on his right leg he has this very formal looking red stripe down his pants and his trouser leg actually comes all the way down to cover part of his boot let's look at the colors of cobra commander and the color is the most obvious difference between 1983 and 1984 uh 1982 and 1983 cobra commanders had this reflective silver mask and this silver paint in fact any of the shiny metallic paint on these action figures rubbed off very easily so you're really lucky to get one that doesn't have any of the paint scratched off there's been some criticism of the color of cobra commander he came in this very light blue color when he was first released in 1982 1983 and I think that was to provide him some contrast with the two other cobra action figures that were released at the time the cobra officer and the cobra soldier which of course were very dark blue and so cobra commander in order to stand out was a much lighter blue he he looked unique uh he looked like he was uh set apart from the others and so you can kind of tell which one was in charge then in 1984 when the hooded cobra commander was released he was dark blue kind of like the other two but he does have a very regal look to him this is his ceremonial uniform uh the hood is meant to be a ceremonial hood a cowl and the uh the helmet and the mask that's supposed to be his battle helmet so when he goes into battle he dons his helmet and then when he's rallying the troops or doing some kind of a a ceremonial thing that he wears the hood in the comic book cobra commander was depicted as preparing for battle by taking off his hood and putting on his battle helmet uh but of course you couldn't really do that with the toy because they were totally different colors these were obviously meant to be totally different uniforms despite the fact that you could not reenact the comic book exactly I really don't mind this color scheme if you think about it if the hooded cobra commander had been done in the lighter blue plastic he would not have had this very regal effect he would just wouldn't have looked the same and if the uh regular cobra commander had been released with the darker blue he would not have stood out well enough amongst his troops so I really do think that this was the right way to go it also meant that when you mailed away for the hooded cobra commander you were not getting just the regular cobra commander with another head you were getting an entirely new action figure taking a closer look at the 1984 hooded cobra commander I think this is a really good looking action figure he's got the gold paint on him with a gold stripe on his leg in place of the red stripe from the original and it does look like a good ceremonial uniform he looks like he should be in charge of something one criticism I have of the hooded cobra commander is that his eyes do not look very evil you can see cobra commander's eyes there and they look kind of droopy frankly cobra commander looks a little bit sleepy if you were to take the head off the body he would look a little bit like a pac-man ghost cobra commander does tend to be more expensive than most gi joe action figures if you buy one on ebay but I don't think that's because he's necessarily so rare the 1982 and 1983 versions of the cobra commander action figure were actually available in a lot of different ways by mail order in the stores also with the 1982 cobra missile command headquarters and then the hooded cobra commander was actually available in mail away for a really long time so there should be a lot of these floating around out there but they still tend to run a bit more expensive I think because the demand is so much higher you really if you're a gi joe collector you've got to have cobra commander he's one of the iconic characters and you just don't want to have him missing from your collection so everybody wants a cobra commander let's take a look at cobra commander's file cards and we have several file cards to look at when you first mailed away for a cobra commander in 1982 you would have got a file card that was playing on the back like this later versions had a red back I don't have the red back version but this is a file card from the mail away cobra commander in 1983 when cobra commander was released on a card in the stores his file card was printed on the back of the packaging so you were encouraged to cut that out and keep it and then when you mailed away for the hooded cobra commander in 1984 you got a card that also had a plain back it also had this white border with a flag point up here which unfortunately was cut out on this one one minor difference between the card art and the actual action figure is that the portrait of cobra commander on this file card has a cobra symbol on his cowl which was not on the action figure itself the text of these file cards are almost identical so I'm just going to read one of them here this says cobra commander codename enemy leader and of course enemy leader is more his role not his codename the title cobra commander was always treated kind of as his name they just called him cobra commander his file name is classified his primary military specialty is intelligence his secondary military specialty is ordinance and in parentheses experimental weaponry his birthplace is classified and his grade is commander in chief so he is like the president of cobra the section here says absolute power total control of the world it's people wealth and resources that's the objective of cobra commander this fanatical leader rules with an iron fist he demands total loyalty and allegiance his main battle plan comma for a world control comma uh there's an extra common here I think that's a typo in fact on the hooded cobra commander card uh that is actually fixed they took out the extra commas there his main battle plan for world control relies on revolution and chaos he personally led uprisings in the middle east southeast asia and other trouble spots responsible for kidnapping scientists businessmen and military leaders then forcing them to reveal their top level secrets it's funny that it mentions the middle east and southeast asia because in the 1970s and early 80s those are the places where the united states had the most difficulty in its foreign policy it's kind of hinted that cobra commander is responsible for all the problems that the united states has had in those regions of the world this bottom section says cobra commander is hatred and evil personified corrupt a man without scruples probably the most dangerous man alive the personality that's depicted on the file card is pretty simple he's evil he's just plain evil but I think that raises a more interesting question which is how does a person become so evil what motivates him why is he the way he is in the comic book cobra commander's ideology is a little bit muddled but it seems to mostly draw from the extreme right wing not only does the file card make him out to be kind of like the new hitler but in the comic book especially in the earlier issues uh cobra used a lot of Nazi imagery I really like cobra commander as the leader of the enemy of gi joe and I like him not just because he's so evil but because he's so smart as he was depicted in the first issue of the gi joe comic book he was a step ahead of the joe team and pretty much at every point he's highly intelligent and charismatic a person of lesser intelligence simply could not accomplish what he has accomplished which is build an international network to take over the world his goals may be evil but he is a man possessed of uncommon intelligence ambition and ability but of course that's why he must be stopped because if he succeeds that will mean the end of freedom and the domination of worldwide fascism that's my review of the 1982 1983 and 1984 cobra commander I hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give it a thumbs up if you didn't go ahead and give it a thumbs down that's what it's there but don't forget to subscribe because I've got a lot of great new gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them I'll catch you later hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and I'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this time by special request we are looking at the 1982 gi joe flak flak was an acronym that stood for field light attack cannon uh it was worth two flag points and it did not come with an action figure it was sold in 1982 it was also sold in 1983 it was discontinued in 1984 but it was available as a mail away from 1985 to 1990 so this was available for a really long time so there should be a lot of these floating around out there despite the fact that the flak was still on the shelves in 1983 its role was somewhat replaced by the 1983 whirlwind twin battle gun which was another gun an anti aircraft gun like the flak that did not come with an action figure uh in 1984 we got the cobra asp which was an anti aircraft gun that fit the role of both the whirlwind and the flak but this time for cobra the blueprints called this gun a 105 millimeter howitzer which is definitely what this gun is not a howitzer is a relatively short barreled gun that is intended to fire shells at high trajectories for a steep angle of descent so it's designed to lob shells down on the heads of the enemy this is an anti aircraft gun and in case there was any doubt as to whether or not this was an anti aircraft gun there's a sticker here indicating the number of kills that this gun has had and of course it's all aircraft also on the sticker for the control panel we see the gun targeting an aircraft the flak borrows design cues and its name from a series of german anti aircraft guns from world war two this i think most closely fits the german flak 39 uh main differences really the the flak 39 did not have the seat like this the flak 39 was a 105 millimeter gun so the blueprints did have that part right let's look the parts of the flak and it's a short list it has three support legs and they all fold it in like this you fold them out to uh to place it on the ground for support it had a seat in the back which came out really easily just very easily pop it out like that and for that reason these flaks are often missing the seat also the bar that supports the seat is pretty thin and these break off very easily so you see a lot of flaks out there without the seat and sometimes without this entire bar the seat just kind of kind of snaps in there like that and you can tell when you snap it in that it's not going to stay in very firmly the flak did not come with an action figure but the box art featured rock and roll in the gunner seat and i think he's appropriate as the gi jo machine gunner and this is how i always display my flak there are two control joysticks here that the figures can kind of put their hands on uh they're a bit thick so i wouldn't try to force the figures hands all the way on them but they can just kind of hold onto the edge there and that's really the only means of support for keeping the action figure in there's no backpack on the seat so that would go in the back of the action figure and there is no foot peg here on the foot supports which would have gone into the holes in the bottom of the feet of the action figure to help hold them in uh and i i think that that's a missed opportunity honestly i mean he does stay in there fairly well but i would have preferred something more for support something else to try to keep the action figure in just keep them from falling out let's look at the features of the flak and again it's a short list uh it will rotate all the way around on its base and it uh it can move it can move down it can elevate it elevates up to the point where the foot uh foot rests hit against the the supporting bar here and so that's about as high up as it goes and that's about it as far as features go but i think one of the main features really is not what the flak does but how it looks i mean it has a ton of really impressive details it looks kind of hyper realistic uh the control panel there has some uh stickers with some gauges uh and the sides of the gun just have a lot of detail the stickers have a very nice military look to them it's really an impressive looking gun the 1983 gi joe headquarters command center had a special emplacement just for the flak it had these inventions here uh one right there and another one up here and here and those exactly fit the footprint of the flak they're not very deep so they don't hold the flak in very well but they were designed for the flak and they fit perfectly the flak as a standalone toy is fine but it's not one of my favorites mainly because there are some missed opportunities with this uh with this toy and i think the main one the most obvious one is wheels just give the thing some wheels giving this some wheels and making it a toad vehicle like the whirlwind i think would have made a huge difference there's actually no way to pull this thing and get it on the battlefield it's actually a pretty static stationary toy uh but if you had slapped some wheels on it and put a tow hook on it it could have been towed by another gi joe vehicle and that i think would have made it look really cool alternatively if there were at least some kind of loop or cleat on here that would have fit the 1983 dragonfly's winch then it could have been airlifted into position but there's not really anything like that on there either now to be fair this came out in 1982 and the 1983 dragonfly didn't exist at the time maybe if this were designed in 1983 they would have thought of that but unfortunately it just doesn't have anything to hook on to really now you can still airlift this thing in here by just playing out the dragonfly's winch and uh looping it around the body there and then hooking the uh the hook there to the rope uh and then you know it can be carried that way which i guess is fine the fact that the flak did not have wheels means that it didn't have a way to move it onto the battlefield unless you just you know kind of picked it up and carry it and who would do something crazy like that if the flak had wheels it would have been a nice less expensive alternative to the 1982 and 1983 laser cannon which as you can see was bigger it came with an action figure grand slam and it had wheels so it was a toad weapon and so if you're a kid and you only have so much allowance money to spend and you have the more expensive howl in the store and on the same shelf you have the flak and the flak could do everything that the howl could do it could be toad and it could shoot it just didn't have an action figure you might pick up the flak just because it's cheaper and your allowance money would go farther that was my review of the 1982 gi joe flak i hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give this video a thumbs up if you didn't go ahead and give the video a thumbs down that's what it's there for but whatever you do make sure you subscribe to the hooded coper commander 788 youtube channel because i've got a lot of great new gi joe action figure vehicle and comic book reviews coming up you do not want to miss them in fact the next review is kind of special it's one that i've been working on for quite a while and i'm really psyched to actually be able to do it so you do not want to miss it so make sure you're subscribed i'll talk to you all later hello everybody hooded coper commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review and this time i am looking at the 1983 jump jetpack and the action figure that came with it grand slam i'm very excited about doing this review i've actually wanted to do it for a while i just needed to make sure i had all the pieces and this review is a special request from plastica from the yojo.com forum if you would like me to review a particular gi joe toy just leave me a comment below this video in youtube and if i have the toy i will review it if i don't have the toy if i ever acquire it i will review it so let's get started and look at the 1983 jump jetpack and grand slam this is the jump jetpack and jump stands for jet mobile propulsion unit which does not spell jump it spells jumpoo the jump jetpack with grand slam is the 1983 version of the toy but in 1982 the jump jetpack was sold on its own without an action figure so if you got this toy in 1982 this is what you got the action figure grand slam was also available in 1982 and 1983 with a different toy the howl heavy artillery laser as you can see there are some differences between the grand slam that came with the howl laser cannon and the grand slam that came with the jump jetpack i will take a closer look at the differences between these two versions of grand slam a little bit later so in 1982 you have the jump jetpack not a very popular toy not a lot to it so in 1983 hasbro re-released the jump jet pack but they packaged it with this new version of grand slam so the jump jetpack with an action figure now you've got something interesting so the jump was introduced in 1982 and then reintroduced in 1983 with the action figure and after that it was sold until 1985 as a mail away offer in catalogs that you would get with gi joe vehicles such as this and you could open it up and right there is an offer for a jump jetpack it was only three flag points and two dollars when the jump was sold in 1982 by itself it was worth two flag points and when it was sold in 1983 with the action figure it was still worth two flag points so you didn't get an extra flag point with the action figure and i think that's kind of a rip off i'm going to take a closer look at grand slam a little bit later so i'm going to set him aside for now let's look at the parts of the jump jetpack and the largest part was this launch pad the launch pad had four legs they're more like feet it also included this recharging station and control console and that has a lot of really impressive detail lots of high tech gadgetry there and on the bottom of this side of the control console it has these hooks and those hooks just hooked on to this recessed portion here that ran all along the edge of the launch pad and you hook that on there and the control console would stay there's actually no specific spot along the launch pad to place this control console you'd really hook it on any side all four sides would accommodate the hooks on it so you could really put it in any configuration you wanted to the jump came with this laser gun and this laser gun the blueprint say has a range of 100 yards and it has this kind of sight thing on here that's actually a quite narrow and thin piece of plastic these are often broken off so if you're looking for a jump jetpack and you want to make sure that it's intact take special note of this sight thing this kind of attachment on here that breaks off extremely easily the laser gun fits into the hand of the action figure and it has this C clip here that actually fits over the forearm so you kind of push the gun into the hand and the clip fits over the arm and it stays on there very securely connecting the laser gun to the jetpack itself was this black wire and this black wire is often missing these can be a real pain to find they were almost always lost on these things they would fit in the this hole in the bottom of the laser gun on one end and the other end which would look identical would fit on the bottom of the jet pack like that and it actually does not stay in very securely it pops out pretty easily so you can understand how this thing would get lost quite frequently in fact i've had to do several takes in this video because i keep having the thing pop out on me that brings us to the jetpack itself and the jetpack is loosely based on the real world bell textron rocket belt and that's a design that's actually been around for a while the us army did express an interest in building these things for military use and the program to build rocket packs was called the small rocket lift device or s r l d so jet packs or rocket packs are a real thing they exist in the real world but they're not very practical for a lot of reasons for one thing they have a very short flight duration roughly about 30 seconds and if you have a flight duration of only 30 seconds you can only spend about 15 seconds going up and you better spend the next 15 seconds getting back down because you do not want to be at the top of its arc when this thing runs out of gas because jet packs did not fly very high because of their extremely short flight duration they didn't get up high enough for the pilot to use a parachute if the device failed so you're high enough to get injured really badly if you fell but not high enough to use a parachute you can see why the military use of jet packs would be a little bit problematic the jump jet pack had some fairly decent detail on both sides and on this side it has a peg and that peg would fit in the hole in the back of the action figure and that would hold the jet pack on so the jet pack fit on exactly like any other gi joe backpack the legs are adjustable if you pull them out they can adjust to this notch right there like so or you could just pull them all the way out let's look at the features of the jump jet pack and on this side of the control console it has a hole and that hole fit the peg on the jet pack you just put the peg in the hole and it holds the jet pack on there for refueling and recharging and it has a slot right there that fit the barrel of the laser gun so you could kind of holster the laser gun and there you go as far as features goes that's it the jump jet pack does not do anything else it has nothing that is spring loaded or battery powered it's that there you have it let's be very frank about this the jump jet pack is not really a vehicle it is an accessory I mean as far as the jet pack itself goes this is it this is actually what goes on the action figure this part really isn't necessary you don't really need a launch pad to launch a jet pack so you don't really need this and the console that has the hole for the jet pack and the holster for the laser gun you only really use that when you're not using the jet pack it's basically just storage for the for the toy and so really what we're talking about here is an accessory with some extra bits the launch pad did have a foot peg that you could fit in the hole on the bottom of the action figure's feet so you could stand a figure on there but you don't need it for the actual jet pack itself it's really not very necessary so you know what this you know what this launch pad really is it's a really big figure stand you may recall that in my video review of the 1982 flak I kind of knocked it a little bit because I thought it was too simple I think it needed some wheels or some other features to really make the toy you know be really cool well as far as simple toys goes this jet pack is even simpler than the flak but I feel very differently about the jet pack than I do the flak I still really love this despite the fact that it really is just an accessory with a completely unnecessary launch pad I really love this toy I did have it as a kid and I had it with the grand slam with the silver pads like this and I loved it I mean if you think about it it's a wonderful toy it allows you to turn a gi joe action figure into Superman it allows your action figures to fly now a grand slam is an attack aircraft and that is pretty darn cool also as an adult collector I don't play with these toys anymore I display them and the launch pad and the control console actually looks pretty cool as a display when the jump jet pack was used in the comic book and the cartoon and probably when you were playing with it as a kid you would have your figures flying horizontally like this like Superman and I'm no physicist but I don't think that would actually work because I mean if you're flying horizontally and you don't have wings for lift and gravity is pulling you down then you're just going to arc downward until your face plants in the dirt to really fly this thing you would need to be vertical and the pilot would move forward by just leaning forward a little bit but he would still remain mostly vertical to illustrate this check out this video of a real jet pack in flight let's take a look at grand slam and let's look at grand slam's accessories he came with a helmet that was dark green to match the dark green color on his uniform and a visor that clipped onto the helmet on the holes in the side of the helmet like that and this visor was clear plastic it was very small and these were often lost you can see how they would get lost very easily they're tiny and they are clear and you know if you drop one of these it's just going to be invisible and it's going to be gone forever in addition to the helmet of the visor of course grand slam came with the jet pack itself let's take a look at the articulation of grand slam he had the typical articulation of 1983 gi joe action figures which meant that he could turn his head left to right he could move his arm up at the shoulder about so far and he could swivel it all the way around he had a hinge at the elbow and he could move his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees and he had a swivel at the bicep so 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 held the figure together and it 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 take a look at the sculpt of grand slam his face has kind of an older look sort of a severe expression there and he has brown hair he has very prominent silver pads on his chest with kind of a checker pattern also on his thighs and painted pads on his arms he has black gloves and black boots with these straps here and these are obviously supposed to be boot covers he was pretty simple on the back he had silver straps that could just continued over to his silver pads on his chest now the grand slam that came with the jump jet pack was identical to the grand slam that came with the howl laser cannon also in 1983 but as you can see the grand slam that came with the howl laser cannon had these red kind of orangish red pads instead of the silver pads so when they decided to sell the jump jet pack with grand slam they really just repainted these red portions silver and i really like this new paint job i think the silver pads on here just really stand out very well he looks really cool it looks very science fiction but the green gives him a sort of an authentic military look even though he has this very futuristic pads on him these pads on the action figure are apparently to protect him from some kind of adverse effect of the laser that he operates he did have a laser with the jump jet pack and when he came with the howl of course the howl was a laser cannon and the only other action figure that had those pads was flash and he was the laser rifle trooper so apparently these pads have something to do with protection from lasers be very cautious with this silver paint this silver metallic paint that hasbro used was not very robust it would rub off very easily so just have a care and if you're going to get a grand slam take careful note of the condition of the silver paint in the early issues of the gi joe comic book and in the cartoon the jump jet pack was not associated with grand slam it was used by stalker and i really think it looks great on stalker it just looks really cool and before i had the silver pad version of grand slam i always used to display my jump jet pack with stalker let's take a look at the file card and this is the file card that came with grand slam with the jump jet pack it was printed on the back of the box that the jump jet pack came in on the other side there's nothing it was just the back of the box and of course that was the second version of grand slam's file card the first version was the version that came with the hal laser cannon and this of course the portrait is different because this is the art that was on the box for the hal laser cannon and this was the art that was on the box for the jump jet pack the text on these two cards are almost identical in fact the only difference is that the card with the jump jet pack adds this line jump jet pack which was missing on his card for the hal laser cannon the title up here says laser jet pack soldier codename grand slam file name james j barney primary military specialty artillery secondary military specialty electronics engineer birthplace chippewa falls wisconsin and his grade is e five this section says grand slam received initial training with conventional artillery and served with a 155 millimeter battery graduated special weapon school top of class specialized education artillery school advanced tech school qualified expert m16 m1911 a1 hal heavy artillery laser and jump jet pack this quote down here says he's soft spoken and calm just a bit shy intelligent loves to read escapist fantasy in parentheses science fiction and comic books i kind of like that about grand slam he's a comic book nerd and i can kind of relate to that that was my review of the 1983 jump jet pack and its pilot grand slam and his file card i hope you enjoyed this video and if you're thinking of getting a jump jet pack i hope you found this video informative if you like this video go ahead and give it a thumbs up on youtube and don't forget to subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them and if there's a vintage gi joe toy that you would like for me to review go ahead and leave a comment below and i will do my best to get to it thanks for watching and i'll catch you all later i'm so happy to finally have you in my collection bomb disposal unit oh but i can't review you right now because you're from gi joe and this is cobra month you wait right there while i go look at something from cobra welcome to cobra convergence for commander seven at eight here and it is my privilege to bring you the fourth year of cobra convergence and we are going to be looking at a very special gi joe toy the 1982 sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters is a testament to ron rudett if you don't know who ron is he is the person most responsible for the look of gi joe in the 1980s he designed all the early figures he designed some of the vehicles he created the iconic cobra emblem ron's fingerprints are all over this play set he designed all three figures that came with it he designed the set itself he even did the artwork on it this is ron rudett's baby i was honored to meet ron rudett at joe con a few years ago i was able to thank him in person for all the work he did on gi joe now for cobra convergence it's my privilege to review the first play set in the gi joe a real american hero toy line hcc788 presents the sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters this is the 1982 sears exclusive cobra missile command headquarters it was sold only at sears in 1982 and 1983 it was discontinued for 1984 this is the first play set of any kind in the gi joe a real american hero toy line it is made entirely of cardboard with the exception of some plastic fasteners this play set was exclusive to sears because it was exclusive to only one retailer and because it was made of cardboard this is a very rare set fewer were produced and many of them did not survive playtime the set came with three figures all three cobra figures that were available at the time cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper this set was the only way to get cobra commander at retail in 1982 the figure was otherwise only available through mail order according to former hasbro employee kirk bozigian who was in charge of boys toys at the time the gi joe toy line was launched in 1982 sears wanted an exclusive gi joe toy the presentation for the toy was made in august and needed to be ready by christmas the same year a plastic toy would take at least a year to produce the only solution use cardboard instead of plastic ron rudat the hasbro designer who created all of the early gi joe action figures did all the illustration on this set in earlier eras of mass produced toys cardboard play sets were more common fully plastic play sets were exceptional toy companies used a variety of materials to keep costs down some play sets were nothing more than vinyl cases that opened up for play some larger sets were made of tin occasionally the play set would just be a sheet of printed plastic that pieces were placed on the petroleum crisis in the late 70s increased the price of plastic which perpetuated the use of cardboard in play sets both the kenner star wars death star play set and the millennium falcon had cardboard walls after this future gi joe play sets would be made of plastic they would also get bigger in 1983 there was the gi joe headquarters command center in 1985 there was the transportable tactical battle platform also in 1985 there was the uss flag in 1986 there was the cobra terror drone for cobra this was a big upgrade from the cardboard set in 1987 there was the defiant shuttle complex also in 1987 there was the mobile command center in 1990 there was the general in 1992 there was a new gi joe headquarters play set and also in 1992 there was the toxo lab you may have noticed some pieces left out some vehicles were so large they seemed like play sets and some play sets had wheels so they moved around like vehicles however you classify them gi joe had a wealth of large toys to play with sears advertised the set in their 1982 wishbook for eleven dollars and 99 cents that's roughly the equivalent of the price of the three figures plus a couple extra dollars today they're worth at least twice that sears was a big supporter of the gi joe toy line and had several exclusive sets in 1984 they had the vamp and howl two pack in 1985 they had the cat and the sms in 1986 they had the dreadnought aerosol and the dreadnought ground assault these sets tend to be rare any toy that was produced exclusively for one retailer would not be produced in the same numbers as a general retail release they were also mostly reissues of earlier toys sometimes with different colors there was a modern version of this toy released in 2007 it was an exclusive to san diego comic con i will show you a side by side comparison between the vintage and modern later in this video i have the instruction sheet for the missile command headquarters and this is a little different from our usual vehicle blueprints in that it has the instructions on how to put the thing together but it does not have an illustration of the toy on a grid background with a numbered list of the features it does have illustrations of the various parts that go to it and it has this blurb here with a little bit of text that kind of tries to talk up the set this missile command station is a detailed copy of cobra commands super secret headquarters inside its thick steel walls is the world's most sophisticated state of the art missile system engineered to operate under the most extreme conditions it's made of cardboard folks although it is cool to have the instruction sheet and it's certainly handy when you're putting the set together a lot of collectors will consider the set to be complete without it let's look at the parts and the features of the cobra missile command headquarters and it's worth pointing out that everything is on one side of this play set the backside of it is just plain white cardboard for starters you have this large background piece which the instruction sheet calls the fully detailed cobra missile base it appears to be a domed base with a tunnel that lines up with the elevator rail and a couple guards in the tunnel on the wall behind the missile is a big cobra emblem cobra has its branding on everything then there's this little orange cart drawn on the floor there is exceptional technical detail on that background piece all of it drawn by Ron Rudat this is a two-dimensional piece on which all of the three-dimensional pieces are attached next we have the elevator and the elevator is functional it will slide along two sideways l-shaped slots you can place an action figure in the elevator and the elevator will slide and down and then of course back up and back over it may take a little bit of work but mine actually slides pretty easily this is a pretty creative way of making a 3d moving part out of two-dimensional cardboard there is some technical detail on that control panel some switches and buttons and control panels and monitors and a little pac-man there and it looks like there's an illustration of the missile so this is nice I do like the elevator the next layer out from the backboard is what the instruction sheet calls the missile support systems it's mainly a bunch of technical detail with a couple platforms that connect to the backboard and then of course the additional pieces connect to that piece adding another dimension to the play set if you move the elevator out of the way you can stand action figures on those platforms so they did try to give you ways to have the figures interact with the play set other than just standing in front of it and here is more of that amazing technical detail illustrated by Ron Rudat on that support system piece as you can see it's just a long piece that connects to that backboard in a couple spots and then other pieces are connected to that but really exceptional detail on that and that gives us another layer to look at the next piece is the cruise missile it is a flat piece it is two-dimensional it's just illustrated on a piece of cardboard it is connected to the missile support system piece at one point and it will pivot it will go all the way vertical and it will go horizontal if this set were brand new the missile should hold in any position but this is cardboard it does tend to wear so my missile will not stay up and at this age don't we all have that problem in order to help keep it up I usually use a piece of mounting putty and that will keep it up at a nice angle unfortunately the missile will not launch it will only pivot up and down and this is the center piece of the play set this is a missile command headquarters that cannot launch its missile it's a little disappointing that the focus of the set is flat and doesn't really do much a cruise missile is a guided missile that takes out ground targets there are cruise missile designs that look similar to this one cruise missiles have been around for a long time and would have been pretty well known to the public at the time this set was released there is a big red cobra emblem on the tail of the missile and cobra made sure to register their trademark directly in front of the missile is the work platform and as with all the other pieces there is exceptional technical detail all over it there's a ramp on one side but the primary function is as a platform so you can stand a figure on it and this guy can repair the missile or something at the other end of the play set is the control panel it is a U shaped computer control console with tons of buttons and gauges and monitors all over it it has three seats that attach to it unfortunately I only have two seats the third seat would go right here but the seats are all identical so you can see what the seats look like I really like this computer center the missile may be the showpiece of the play set but this is the heart the figures can use the seats at the control panel by straddling the seat and there are little holes in the cardboard for the figures feet it works more or less it's not perfect but they had to make attached seats out of cardboard pieces somehow and this is what they came up with that's all the features on the play set but we have one more piece to look at the file card holder this file card holder isn't technically part of the play set but it did come with the play set some collectors will consider the set to be complete without it this file card holder is nothing more than a box with a flap on the back it has a geijo logo in front uh cobra the enemy on each side it is blank on the bottom it is blank on the back and on the front of that flap it has the geijo figures that were available at the time at least most of them surprisingly it seems to be missing cobra commander he is not on there and the top of the box says geijo combat command file it has a slot in it and that is for holding the three included file cards we will be taking a closer look at these file cards a little later in this video here is one more look at all the amazing technical detail illustrated by ron rudat on this play set uh they did a good job of making a play environment out of cardboard some collectors may think this thing is cheesy but i think it's impressive considering the short amount of time they had to make it there was however an alternative construction they could have gone with some other cardboard play sets took a different approach and we will look at one of them later let's look at the figures that came with this play set these figures were packaged in two different ways in the earliest releases of this play set they were sealed in a plastic bubble on the back of the file card later probably in 1983 they came sealed in a plastic bag with the file card all of these figures like the play set were designed by ron rudat geijo did not have an enemy when they were first presented to marvel comics for creative input marvel suggested an enemy similar to marvel's hydra the late marvel editor archie goodwin came up with the name cobra an anecdote about archie goodwin he was born in kansas city missouri in 1937 but he spent his teen years in my hometown tulsa he attended will rogers high school the same high school as my parents he graduated in 1955 and he has been inducted into the will rogers high school hall of fame sadly he passed away in 1998 one of my great regrets is that i will never be able to meet him depending on when you bought the missile command headquarters you could get one of three cobra commanders the earliest releases of the play set in 1982 would have come with the straight arm mickey mouse cobra commander so-called because of the simplified cobra emblem on his chest with detached eyes on the top that look a little bit like mickey mouse ears these mickey mouse cobra commander figures are somewhat rare the earliest mail away figures also had this mickey mouse symbol we don't know exactly why this odd chest symbol was used on the early figures my guess is the factory mistakenly used a mock-up instead of the final design later in 1982 you would have got a straight arm cobra commander figure with the cobra symbol that we are more familiar with the later mail away figures also corrected the cobra symbol on the chest other than the corrected chest symbol this figure is exactly like the other one these are not as rare as the mickey mouse figures but they are still sought after and can be expensive and if you picked up the play set in 1983 you would have gotten a swivel arm cobra commander figure with the updated articulation on the arms and the regular cobra chest symbol this is exactly the same as the 1983 regular retail release before 1983 cobra commander was primarily available through a mail order offer this play set was the only way you could buy the figure in a store in 1983 the figure was broadly available at retail the retail 1983 version is the most common version but that figure is still in high demand among collectors whichever version of cobra commander you got he came with one accessory the venom laser pistol it's in dark gray it's kind of a clunky thing looks a bit like a hairdryer it does have a unique feature though it will plug into the back it has a peg there's a hole in the back of the figure he has a recharging pack molded on and the laser pistol will peg on there for recharging and that's not too bad i kind of like that feature thanks to a viewer curt kessler i have a full size venom laser pistol i haven't tested it to see if it works yet but you guys better watch out let's look at the sculpt design and color of cobra commander he's wearing a light blue uniform he has a light blue helmet with a silver mask he's wearing a black shirt under a blue uniform jacket with a red cobra emblem on the front he has that recharging port on his back for his venom laser pistol he's got a hole in the port that plugs in the pistol it's got a couple straps sculpted on to his back and another strap or perhaps some wiring that goes around his midsection his arms have long light blue sleeves and black gloves his waist piece has a black belt with a couple pouches he has a red belt buckle on his legs he has that light blue color with a red stripe that runs all the way down his right side on his left side he does not have the red stripe but he has a black dagger on his left thigh his uniform covers most of his boots but we do see he has black boots in addition to cobra commander depending on when you got the play set you would get one of two cobra officers if you got the set in 1982 you would have gotten the straight arm cobra officer so-called because on the lower arms he only had one point of articulation a hinge at the elbow in 1983 you would have gotten the swivel arm cobra officer so-called because he had a new point of articulation a swivel just above the elbow from the first time i saw this figure i thought he looked special he has a silver cobra emblem on his chest and i assumed that was tied to his rank he is an officer beware that silver paint flakes off very easily this one has a very nice clear silver cobra emblem but as you can see the silver paint on this one has partially worn away ron rudat has said he designed these early cobra figures to be a faceless enemy he did not want them to represent any particular country or ethnic group so they all wear these blue uniforms and helmets with black masks that conceal the face the cobra officer came with one accessory an ak-47 assault rifle and this is a pretty good likeness of that real world weapon some fans feel the cobra trooper should have come with the ak and the cobra officer should have had the sniper rifle however in concept art by ron rudat the cobra officer is clearly shown with the ak-47 and the cobra trooper clearly has the dragon of sniper rifle i've even seen some fans say the details of the cobra trooper are more fitting of the officer and the officer looks more like a trooper to add to the confusion both the officer and trooper were reissued in 1989 as part of python patrol but their roles were reversed the officer mold became the python trooper and the trooper mold became the python officer if you are of the opinion that the trooper looks like an officer and the officer looks like a trooper the python patrol versions could be validation of that opinion let's look at the sculpt design and color of the cobra officer the cobra officer has a dark blue helmet with a chevron molded on he has a black mask that covers his nose and mouth in the lower half of his face he has a dark blue uniform that same dark blue color with a silver cobra emblem on his chest he has black web gear front and back and he has gray on his shoulders and then a gray explosive device on the left side of his chest he has a long dark blue sleeves with black gloves on his waist piece he has a black belt with a couple small pouches he has dark blue legs on his left leg there is a black dagger and then he has tall black boots and finally we get to the cobra trooper depending on when you bought the play set you would get one of two cobra troopers in 1982 you would get the straight arm cobra trooper again with the single hinge at the elbow in 1983 you would get the swivel arm cobra trooper with the swivel above the elbow this is the backbone of the cobra legion the famous blue shirts they do the bulk of the front line fighting in 1986 they were replaced by the viper which filled the same role the vipers are the blue shirts just with updated uniforms larry hamma the writer of the comic book series even refers to the blue shirts as vipers on the file card they are just called cobra but the box for the missile command headquarters calls them troopers even though the cobra officer and the trooper look very similar they share only one part between them the waist piece all the other parts are unique the cobra trooper came with one accessory the draganov svd sniper rifle in dark gray uh this is another pretty good representation of a real-world weapon though slightly modified it's no surprise these guys came with russian weapons the soviet union was the biggest threat to the united states at the time looking at the sculpt design and color of the cobra trooper he has a dark blue helmet the same color blue as the cobra officer in fact this figure is the same color as the cobra officer but he does not have the chevron on the helmet he does have that same black mask he has a dark blue uniform shirt with a red cobra emblem he has a couple black straps they continue to the back he has a molded on grenade launcher on one strap he has long blue sleeves and blue gloves unpainted gloves on his upper right arm he has a silver wire on his upper left arm he has a couple grenades for his grenade launcher his waist piece is exactly the same as the cobra officer he's got that same black belts his legs are that same dark blue uniform color he has a pocket on the right leg he has a black dagger on the left leg it's a little different from the cobra officer dagger he has black knee pads and he has black boots the mold for the swivel arm cobra trooper was used twice in 1983 first of course for the cobra trooper and then for the 1983 viper pilot which came with the viper glider the difference was the viper pilot had the silver cobra chest emblem instead of red other than that these figures are identical this caused some confusion for me because i thought the silver emblem meant he was an officer but the viper pilot was not an officer let's take a look at the file cards that came with these three figures at first glance they look exactly like the retail file cards but there are a couple important things to look for these cards were not printed on the backs of retail card backs they were just rectangular cards with a black border and a flag point in the corner the black borders on my cards have been cut out without the black borders the best way to distinguish these cards from regular retail is to look at the back in the earliest releases of this play set the figures were sealed on the back of the file cards in a plastic bubble so on the back of the card you will have a red back usually with a tear where the figure was taken off later releases of the play set had the figures in a plastic bag with the file card so those file cards would just have a plain red back and they would not be torn off like this that's not such a problem with cobra commander but that could cause confusion on the other two file cards the earliest mail away cobra commander file cards had exactly the same text as the sears exclusive file card but it was not read on the back it just had a plain cardboard backing when the swivel arm figure was finally released at retail in 1983 it had a file card with exactly the same text as the other two but the back of the file card has some of the front card art on there so it's obvious that this card was cut out of the back of the retail card the cobra officer file card has the same red backing with the tear where the bubble was removed and it has exactly the same text as the retail file card but the retail card has the artwork on the other side so that's easy to distinguish one problem with the cobra officer and the cobra troopers red back file cards is with the later sears exclusive sets they did not have the tear on the back they were bagged file cards and both of these guys got later mail away releases that also had red backed file cards the mail away file cards had a white border instead of a black border but when the borders are cut out it could be very difficult to distinguish the sears exclusive file cards from the mail away file cards let's round out our look at file cards by looking at the cobra trooper file card again it just says cobra not cobra trooper codename the enemy in fact the officer also says codename the enemy and the cobra commander file card says codename enemy leader but this is the cobra trooper the text is the same as the retail file card and again we have the red back with the tear where the bubble was removed so this would have come from a 1982 sears missile command headquarters play set and once again on the retail card on the other side we have that artwork so easy to distinguish the retail from the sears exclusive but like the cobra officer there was a later mail away cobra trooper with a red back file card and a white border so with the white border cut out it could be difficult to distinguish the mail away file card from the sears file card in 2017 hasbro issued a remake of this play set and it was an exclusive to san diego comma con like the original it was made of cardboard and it came with three action figures the modern equivalent of cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper looking at these two side by side obviously they have very similar construction and they share a lot of the same details so it could be very easy to mix them up upon closer inspection though there are significant differences between these two in fact none of the parts are identical so if you know what to look for you should always be able to tell the modern from the vintage hasbro didn't help matters by making the box very similar to the 1982 box including some distressing some wear and tear some yellowing of the white areas this is made to look like an old box even though it's brand new however on the 2017 box the photograph includes modern action figures so that's of course a major difference from the 1982 box in fact the 1982 box had photographs of prototype figures rather than the regular retail production figures but if you see modern action figures on the front of the box that's a pretty good way to know that you have the modern box not the vintage the back of the box is also very similar to the 1982 box with the two-color printing on a white background but if you look at it there are brown spots all over it as if it's aged cardboard but this is a brand new box they just intentionally made it look old flipping the play sets around to the back you can see the similar construction and material i'd say the cardboard used in the modern release is thinner than the original but perhaps a bit sturdier one difference in the construction between modern and vintage is the vintage parts were printed on larger sheets of cardboard that were perforated so you would have to punch the parts out so you'll see little nibs of cardboard along the edges where the pieces were connected to the larger sheets of cardboard on the modern release all the parts were die cut so you didn't have to punch them out they came bagged exactly as you see them the biggest difference and the easiest difference to spot between the modern and the vintage is the artwork the artwork on the modern release is entirely done with computer doesn't look like any of it is hand drawn there are some additional details like the additional detail on the floor the background and the guards in the tunnel are actually photographs of modern action figures rather than hand drawn and mostly the details are the same except they are clearly done on computer rather than hand drawn as the original was compare that with the original and all of it is hand drawn and inked and painted and really shows the hand of the artist the details are a little bit different there's less detail on that floor in the background but otherwise a lot of the details are essentially the same as the modern version but you can see that this was drawn by somebody this was not done on computer and that's very evident when you have them side by side they both came with the file card holder the modern one here is in much better shape because it's brand new but the construction is pretty much the same and the artwork on them is almost identical the artwork on the back flap is almost identical to the vintage the printing is maybe a shade darker but it does look like they've used the vintage artwork on the modern some differences to look for on the vintage file card holder there is a number here in the bottom corner that is not present on the modern release also on the vintage it has Hasbro's copyright information here on the top and this number 6200 next to the Hasbro logo on the modern release it does not have the copyright information on there and it has a different number next to the Hasbro logo you can see though how it would be easy to mix these two up you have the cobra enemy on the sides and a blank back and bottom exactly as the vintage file card holder the file cards are also very similar so it's important to not mix these up the file cards have the black border but no flag point in the corner and they have the red backing one thing I noticed on this modern cobra commander file card is they fixed an error that was on the original the original file card had a typo there was an extra comma in this sentence his main battle plan for world control and they actually fixed that and removed the errant comma on the modern one the text is otherwise quite similar the artwork obviously is pretty much the same on the modern card they did add a disclaimer in fine print down at the bottom that does not appear on the original the file cards with the set use the classic file card shape that we're used to from the 80s modern file cards are mostly shaped like this with this longer section up here on top so they are really trying to make these look like vintage file cards let's compare the figures these two sets came with we've already looked at the vintage figures that came with the 1982 release the 2017 release came with modern figures with modern articulation and sculpting but it came with the same three characters cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper the modern version paid homage to the vintage particularly with the cobra commander figure the scale of the modern figures is slightly different from the vintage they are a little taller they also came with figure stands that had the name of the character printed on them this cobra commander figure instead of having the regular cobra emblem has the mickey mouse cobra emblem on his chest so that is a direct homage to the earliest cobra commander figures this modern figure like the vintage has the red stripe down the right leg and no stripe on the left leg that's a direct copy of the vintage and like the vintage the modern figure has a recharging pack molded onto the back on which you can connect his venom laser pistol this figure does have all modern articulation it also has a removable helmet and on his left leg he has a removable knife the cobra officer figure has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure he has that same dark blue uniform he has an ak-47 rifle similar to the original but it's updated it's not exactly the same he has that silver cobra chest emblem his web gear is removable it's not just sculpted on and he has a removable helmet and finally the cobra trooper with the figure stand that just says cobra has a lot of callbacks to the vintage figure on the modern figure we actually lose some of the silver details that were on the vintage figure but he still has that dark blue uniform with the red cobra emblem on the chest he still has the knee pads and that's an important detail he has the draganov sniper rifle and that is similar to the vintage but not exactly the same it is updated like the cobra officer he has removable web gear and a removable helmet to give you a more thorough look at the san diego comma con missile command headquarters i recorded an unboxing and assembly video which you should see on my youtube channel later this week i said earlier there was an alternative construction they could have used for this cardboard playset and i was going to show it to you for that we have to go outside of the united states to the british version of gi joe action force produced by the uk company palatoy they made cardboard play sets that were dramatically different from this one palatoy was the licensee for star wars in the uk and they made a cardboard play set for the death star that we did not get in the us they made a similar cardboard play set for action force and it's my privilege to show that to you now this is the action force headquarters play set by palatoy it is made primarily of cardboard with a few minor plastic pieces this one is missing some of the plastic pieces but is made of a thicker cardboard than the missile command headquarters so it is sturdier but as you can see this is a true 3d play set instead of starting with a background and building forward they started with the ground and built up it has multiple levels it has a helipad it has a wall that unfolds into a runway it is spectacular it has so much more play value than the american play set i have to thank michael in the uk for sending this to me so yes if you're going to do a cardboard play set this is the way to do it but in fairness to hasbro and ron rudat they were on a time crunch and they probably did not have time to construct something like this but i can still daydream about getting this kind of play set for gi joe looking at how this play set and these characters were used in gi joe media cobra had many secret bases but not exactly like this so i think it's fair to say this play set was not used in gi joe media cobra commander the cobra officer and the cobra trooper however were used extensively in the gi joe animated series cobra commander had his origins in cobra law the secretive race of mutants hiding in the himalayas cobra commander was a cobra law scientist whose face was disfigured in an experiment for some reason he was chosen to lead cobra in an attempt to conquer the human world he was of course totally inept at that task the animated version of cobra commander tended to be more buffoonish he concocted wild implausible plans to take over the world and those plans invariably failed even so he was one of the most important characters in the series at one point they tried to get rid of him and replace him with serpentor but he came back in the 1987 animated movie they transformed him into a snake it looked like that was the end of cobra commander but they brought him back in the deak animated series he was a snake man and he wore his battle armor to cover his nakedness there were countless officers and troopers in the animated series they were most famous for having storm trooper aim they would fire their lasers all day and never hit anything of course this was an animated series for tv so the violence had to be toned down in the gi joe comic book series published by marvel comics cobra commander was again one of the most important characters in the series but he was very different from his animated appearance larry hama the writer of the comic book series in a toy fair magazine interview said he loved writing cobra commander he modeled cobra commander after conservative political personality william f buckley we know a lot about cobra commander in the comic book series more than most cobra characters we know his past occupation we know something about his family we have met his wife and son cobra commander began his journey to evil after the death of his brother dan in a car accident that same incident caused the death of snake eyes his family cobra commander blamed snake eyes for his brother's death at some point in his past cobra commander was a used car salesman he became a corrupt businessman amassing wealth through unscrupulous means and eventually forming the underground organization cobra cobra completely took over the small american town of springfield cobra commander contracted the assassination of snake eyes when he was still in training with the irishikage ninja clan the assassin zartan accidentally killed the hard master instead that incident set in motion a long chain of revenge deception and hatred his son billy became a resistance fighter in springfield he was recruited by the baroness and major blood to kill cobra commander but destro prevented him from doing it he was taken under storm shadows wing and given ninja training in a missile attack by scrap iron he lost an eye and a leg his leg was replaced with a mechanical one cobra commander's ex-wife reappeared in issue number 83 she reunited with billy at one point cobra commander was thought dead he was replaced by a crimson guardsman called fred seven who started a civil war with serpentor the imposter cobra commander prevailed the real cobra commander was not dead though he returned to retake command of cobra he trapped all his internal enemies in a landlocked freighter and buried it under a volcano that's his style cobra commander could have been a stand-in for any foreign enemy of the us but in the comic book that's not what he was he represented the enemy within he represented the allure of fascism and power over all else cobra was a domestic terrorist group there were plenty of cobra officers in the comic book series often the officers and troopers were used almost interchangeably their uniforms were almost identical there was one cobra officer that got special attention scarface he was identifiable by the v-shaped scar that ran across his eyes he operated as a courier for cobra during dr venom's plot to develop a lethal plague toxin scarface died in issue number 19 among my friends scarface created a rumor of a rare variant of the cobra officer figure we thought some cobra officers would have the scars sculpted onto the face we looked closely at every cobra officer figure we could find but we never saw the scars of course the scarred cobra officer figure did not exist at the time there is now a modern scarred cobra officer figure though there were countless cobra troopers in the comic book series even though they were replaced with the upgraded vipers they still appeared in the comic book long after the figures were discontinued larry hama refers to these blue shirts as vipers even though they weren't called vipers until they were upgraded in 1986 looking at the missile command headquarters overall the figures that came with it are great they're still among my favorite cobra figures in the entire line they were groundbreaking they were iconic they are topped here the play set itself has some rather obvious problems the cardboard construction is very fragile the rarity of the set makes it very expensive the play value is limited the cruise missile the centerpiece of the play set does not launch you can elevate it to launch position but gi joe had better stop it there because it doesn't go anywhere the elevator does move but that's not enough to elevate it to a top tier play set this play set is highly desired by collectors primarily because it is rare it is one of the most difficult play sets to complete the 1987 defiant shuttle complex may be more difficult to complete than this one but that is because of the sheer number of parts the missile command headquarters has fewer parts but those parts are very hard to find i'd say this is more of a diorama than a play set for that purpose it works fine it may not have much play value but the background and the platforms look nice on display the best thing about this set is the story behind it it was the first attempt at a play set in the line it was an exclusive to sears which created challenges to producing it on time it was conceived and executed by the architect of gi joe ron rudat it has a place in the history and legend of gi joe its legend was so great they tried to recapture it in 2017 were they successful you'll have to judge i wouldn't fault any collector for passing on this set you'll spend a lot of money for a few pieces of cardboard even if you have the money to spend you may not see the value in spending it on this and i understand that i am happy to have it because of its history and because i can share it with you that was my review of the cobra missile command headquarters i hope you enjoyed it we have more cobra convergence coming this week on monday july 8 we have seo toy review on youtube on tuesday july 9 we have the forgotten figures blog on wednesday july 10 we have retroblasting on youtube on thursday july 11 we have mc dowan on youtube on friday july 12 we have special mission force on instagram and on saturday july 13 we have my side of the laundry room on youtube there is a full schedule of the event on hcc788.com don't forget we have cobra convergence content for you every day this month if you like what we're doing here please consider giving this video a thumbs up on youtube subscribing to the youtube channel hitting the notification bell so you don't miss any videos and sharing this video with your friends i am on social media on facebook and twitter and my website hcc788.com thank you to my patrons i can't thank you guys enough if you like these videos and you'd like to support the channel in that way please consider checking out my patreon for some special perks and you can find out how to decode these mysterious messages i'll be back next week with another cobra convergence review it's cobra convergence all month on my channel i'll see you then and until then always remember only cobra is cobra but i left something there they're gone oh my oh oh oh oh thank god these guys are still there was that oh oh oh oh Susan Susan Susan this was your plan to destroy half of my collection destroy enough monster do you think i am do you really want me to answer that i didn't destroy anything i stole it and believe me steve you won't be my only target i need help here form bx257 form bx257 kevin kevin hello oh hey buddy i had a feeling you'd be calling timmer has gone mad he has an infinity gauntlet oh i guess that explains why half my collection is missing yours too this is bigger than just the two of us it's time for a convergence right hello sorry wrong number yeah maybe not include him in this right sorry force of habit it's time for the convergence initiative for commander 788 here and i'm back with another vintage gi joe toy review but that's not all i'm back with this is a special video i have hit 50 subscribers and that's fantastic i've only been doing this for a few months i'm still a newcomer and i've already hit 50 subscribers thank you to everyone who subscribed i'm very grateful i really appreciate it in this video we are going to be reviewing the gi joe ram motorcycle but i've got a special announcement after the review so make sure you stick around for that this is the 1982 gi joe ram motorcycle ram ram is an acronym that stands for rapid fire motorcycle which doesn't actually spell out ram it spells out the ram motorcycle was first released in 1982 in the first line of vehicles when gi joe was rebooted in 1982 it was also sold in 1983 it was discontinued in 1984 and it was not replaced with any other motorcycle in 1984 but there was a replacement for the ram motorcycle in 1985 the silver mirage motorcycle the ram was worth two flag points and it did not come with an action figure let's look at the parts and the features of the ram motorcycle starting of course with this very large prominent gun that attaches to the side the blueprints call this a 20 millimeter electric gaffling gun and it really does look very impressive lots of nice detail on here it has a wheel on here at the bottom so it can roll along when it's attached to the motorcycle the gun has these two pegs here one of them is round and another one is rectangular and they fit into the corresponding holes on the side of the motorcycle they fit right in there and they don't snap in they just friction in it doesn't always stay in very well so sometimes i use a little bit of sticky tack just to hold it in a little bit better on either side we have these saddle packs there are two of them and they fit into these holes these rectangular slots here in the back and these are frequently lost items so you will often see ram motorcycles missing one or both of these saddle packs and as you can see they're not the same although they are the same mold they have different stickers there's saddle pack one and saddle pack two so if you're wanting a complete ram you need to check and check the stickers and make sure that you're getting the right ones you need both of them in order to have a complete motorcycle the front wheel turns a little bit and not too much and that's a nice feature i'm actually glad that it doesn't turn too much otherwise it might not roll straight when you roll it along the ground so just a little bit of turn in the front wheel is okay one thing i like about the tires is that on the side it doesn't say good year or anything like that it has hasbro's copyright information this kind of hood looking thing up at the front here the blueprints call aerodynamic fairing and this may be taken from a real world vehicle the honda cb 900 f2 which has a similar sort of housing on the front end here on the other side we have a sticker control panel that's a nice detail and it's just hollow inside there are no handlebars but this was designed for the straight arm action figures like breaker here the straight arm straight arm action figures could not bend their arms at the bicep to hold on to handlebars so just having them stick their hands inside there was just much more practical it worked better with these 1982 figures with the less articulation all the way around the motorcycle there is a lot of really impressive detail this is a nicely detailed motorcycle a very nicely detailed vehicle especially considering this was the first line of vehicles and sometimes those early gi joe vehicles were a little bit lacking in detail compared to later vehicles but this this looks really nice this engine the blueprints call a 1000 cc twin cam engine fuel injected and turbocharged at the bottom there is a kickstand that will go up and down and this is another frequently missing item so if you are getting a ram motorcycle just make sure that it still has the the kickstand that is often missing on both sides we have some posts here two on this side and two on that side and those are for holding the action figure on the motorcycle i'll show you how that works the action figures legs kind of go between those posts on this side the the top of the foot goes under this post and the this post goes on the back of his ankle on the other side we have one post for the back of his leg and another lower post for the top of his foot and that kind of holds him on there with his hands inside the the hood and i i find it easier to put the action figure on before putting the gun on if the gun is on sometimes it obstructs the action figures foot so once you have the figure in like breaker here there you go and you have breaker ready to ride into battle on the ram motorcycle he looks like he's ready to do some business there is a minor controversy about who should ride the ram motorcycle in the comic book it always showed rock and roll as the driver of the ram always paired rock and roll with it and i don't know he looks pretty good rock and roll was the machine gunner of that first gi joe group and so i guess they kind of figured that machine gunner big machine gun those should go together however the box art did not show rock and roll on the ram it had breaker and breaker was featured in the first tv commercial of that included the ram motorcycle and i have always been partial to breaker on the ram i always preferred breaker to rock and roll on the ram motorcycle for a couple reasons first of all breaker doesn't have any weapons he didn't come with any firearms he only came with his communication equipment and his helmet and so he doesn't have any guns to fire so if you pair him with the ram he can still have all of his accessories on and he has this really badass gun on his motorcycle so he can ride into battle and actually fight cobra whereas rock and roll he already had a really big gun and it wasn't really very easy for him to carry his big gun when he was riding on the motorcycle so i think that rock and roll is pretty well equipped but uh breaker really i think fits the ram motorcycle better i even like the combination of the lighter green on the motorcycle and the darker or medium green on breaker's uniform i just think that looks really good so i put the question to you do you prefer rock and roll on the ram or breaker or one of the other action figures what's your preference that's my review of the ram motorcycle it is a pretty simple toy and so there's not a lot to go over here but it's still a really cool toy i loved this when i was a kid i think that it's just a really awesome vehicle uh it looks great with the action figures it looks really menacing with that huge gun on the side it looks fast so it really looks like something that the joe team would really want to have and that they would like to take into battle this this is like a fast attack vehicle with some great armament i hope you liked this video if you did make sure you give it a thumbs up on youtube and make sure you subscribe i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy reviews coming up you do not want to miss them and make sure you like the hooded cobra commander 788 facebook page there are a lot of updates on that page that you don't get anywhere else but this is not the end of the video i've got a special announcement coming up right now i hope you enjoyed the review now it's time for a special announcement i'm going to be giving away a vintage gi joe toy to one of my viewers i decided when i started that when i hit 100 subscribers i was going to give away one of my vintage gi joe toys so now that we're at the halfway point i'm letting you know that when i hit 100 subscribers i'm going to give away a toy and specifically i'm going to give away the ram motorcycle the very one that i reviewed in this video this is from my personal collection and this could be yours i'll tell you how it's going to work first i've got to hit 100 subscribers when i hit 100 subscribers watch for the 100 subscriber announcement video and then you will put a comment on that video to let me know that you would like to be in the running for the vintage gi joe toy then i will select one of the commenters at random and it will be yours you won't even have to pay for shipping now you might be thinking this is kind of a small toy and it's a fairly common item that's not much of a prize but hey this is just for my first 100 subscribers as i hit more subscriber milestones i'll be giving away bigger and better gi joe toys i want to share some of the vintage gi joe love with you the viewer so stick with me there are a lot of great gi joe toys yet to review and it's going to be a great time as we climb up toward 100 subscribers and then when we get there one of you is going to get this little guy thanks for watching and i'll see you next time hello everybody hooded co-commander seven at eight here and this time we're going to do something a little different this is not a quick shot this is a full review but we're not going to be reviewing a gi joe action figure or vehicle instead i wanted to look at a couple ways hasbro gave us to carry the figures we're going to look at the 1982 official collector display case and the 1983 pocket patrol pack i had both of these as a kid and i thought they were pretty cool so let's check them out starting with the 1982 collector display case this is an official collector display case this is not a licensed product hasbro actually produced these and this is pretty much what it looked like on the shelves didn't have any outer packaging or anything like that in fact this one still has the price sticker looks like it was purchased at rinks for four dollars and 89 cents on the front we have this really nice image that has most of the gi joe characters from 1982 with the mobat tank in the background it's very dynamic it looks great this same image was used on the 1983 battle gear accessory pack number one and it was used on the card for the pocket patrol pack a modified version of this image was used on the gi joe comic book issue number one you can see it carries and displays 12 gi joe team members there's the official hasbro logo there now this number 12 is a little bit of a problem because in 1982 there were 13 members of the gi joe team and there were three cobra figures if you count the mail away cobra commander so if you had the entire set you could not use them all in this display case you just have to pick the 12 you liked the best to display on the back side we have that gi joe logo there and we have some photos and some information about the display case we have a photo of some of the 1982 gi joe action figures not all of them though it looks like we are missing hawk uh and grand slam and clutch uh and the cobra officer then down here we have some photos showing how to use the display case you can either set it on a shelf and that's the way I like to do it you can close it up and use it as a carrying case or you can even mount it on a wall the case is hinged on one side and it has clips on the other side so it opens like a book and there's even a handy arrow right here on the top that says open here so let's open it as instructed and take a look at the inside here is the inside space to display the figures and there are some interesting choices here of course these are the spaces for the figures and there are strips that cover them and hold the figures in on these strips there are labels and the display case came with a label sheet that had a label for each of the 1982 figures and these were placed on here by the purchaser and so you just chose whichever labels you wanted to use and placed them wherever you wanted to for that reason as a collector if you get a display case that already has the labels applied it's very unlikely that any two of them will be exactly alike those strips peg in and can be removed and since they can be removed they are often missing these labels are interesting they do not include the character's codename only the specialty in red letters and the accessories in black letters and they don't even mention all of the accessories really only just the weapon no helmets or backpacks are listed this display case was reissued in 1983 and it included a new label sheet with the 1983 lineup the display case was also available in 1984 but i'm not aware of any 1984 label sheet next we have a weapons armory with a removable door and this is for storing accessories now obviously this is not going to hold every accessory from 1982 it probably won't even hold the accessories just for the 12 figures you can fit in here but it is large enough to hold most of the weapons it will even hold the largest weapon issued with a figure that year rock and rolls machine gun since this door is removable it is often missing and there's another problem with it it pegs on using three very thin pegs and those can crack off and they can even break off inside the case next we have the partition for the combat command file and this is a space for holding file cards it pegs in exactly the same way as the figure strips do about one of the pegs it actually goes behind the armory door so you have to remove the armory door in order to take off this strip there is enough space in that partition to hold all of the 1982 file cards holds it pretty snugly but they do all fit and they are fairly secure in there as mentioned earlier there are three ways to use this display case you can either set it on a shelf like that or you can close it up and use it as a carrying case or you can mount it on a wall and it actually has notches there are four of them one of them is behind the armory door where you can hang it on nails nailed into a wall the problem with this is these little notches here are covered by the label in the front and the back so if you mount this on the wall it will necessitate punching through the labels here is the display case filled with figures these are the figures that this particular display case has labeled and of course the figure is with its particular label and I went ahead and put the file cards in there as well this is how it was intended to be used but I don't prefer this as a way of displaying the figures the figures can't always keep their accessories on while they're in the display case and like I said that weapons armory is just too small to hold all of the accessories so I prefer to display the figures in a different way but I actually like to display the case itself this is what I like to do this case has some gorgeous artwork and photos and it's kind of a novelty in itself and deserves its own display and if you're using it to display figures then you are hiding this really nice artwork that I think deserves to be seen so this is what I prefer to do display the figures separately and then display the display case on its own now let's look at the pocket patrol pack from 1983 this shouldn't take nearly as much time as looking at the collector display case there's just much less to these again these are official Hasbro products these are not licensed these pocket patrol packs were first released carded in 1983 at retail and they were later available through the mail we have two of them here because we have a variant the gi Joe label on them changed over the years it started out at retail with this label the black background and that original gi Joe leg label which looks pretty good this is the most common version of the pocket patrol pack later ones updated the logo but not just the logo if you look at the space where the label goes it actually changed originally it was a rectangle with with an angled edge here on this side later it was changed to just a basic rectangle so it's not just the label that changed there was a change in the mold itself the label on this one is misapplied unfortunately it's a little crooked these pocket patrol packs were included with some later releases of the mail away starduster figure from 1987 later still the pocket patrol pack was given away for free for any orders of twenty dollars or more from Hasbro direct so there should be a lot of these floating around on the back of the pocket patrol pack we have a loop and this is for a belt you're supposed to wear this on a belt and it's very easy to use you have a clip here in front you just pop it open and that reveals three compartments for storing figures i've put three random figures from 1983 in the pocket patrol pack to show you how it works it only holds the three figures that's it it's really all it does but one thing that's nice about it is there's enough space in there that most figures can still keep their accessories on and the case will still close that's all there is to the pocket patrol pack that's really all there is to it it does nothing else it just holds those three figures and nothing more but i did have the pocket patrol pack as a kid in fact i think i had several of them and sometimes we would use them as ammunition packs when we were role playing as soldiers so they did have that function when they're not using them as figures they did kind of make a nice role play toy as kind of ammunition packs that was my review of the 1982 official collector display case in the 1983 pocket patrol pack i hope you enjoyed it i thought it might be fun to just do something a little different we do have full vintage gi joe toy reviews every week on this channel so please subscribe to the youtube channel so you don't miss those you can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and i have a patreon if you'd like to support the channel in that way and i do have to give a special thanks to my patrons their generosity is overwhelming and i greatly appreciate i also have a copy account if you like the videos and would like to leave me a one time tip i'll be coming at you with a full vintage gi joe toy review soon so please don't miss that and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here and this time i'm not doing a review of a gi joe toy instead i wanted to do something a little bit different i wanted to do a video that might hopefully be useful to collectors of vintage gi joe since there seems to be a lot of confusion about the 1982 re-release of gi joe since the figures did reuse a lot of parts between them i wanted to do a parts and color guide for the 1982 gi joe release so that you can figure out which character you have and how he's different from the others even though they all tend to look very much alike before we get started let me single out a few that we are not going to take a look at today first of all i'm not going to look at the cobra action figures because they didn't really use many parts between them uh and they're all blue so they're pretty easy to identify uh so i don't think that really needs a guide essentially if it's blue it's a cobra also i'm not going to take a look at snake eyes because again even though he reused the sculpt from a lot of other action figures he was the only one that was all black so if you need any help identifying a part of snake eyes if it's black plastic it's snake eyes also i'm not going to look at scarlet because she had entirely unique parts so it is really not difficult to identify scarlet that leaves us with these 11 figures and these figures do tend to look a lot like each other because they reused a whole bunch of parts sometimes just recolored sometimes not recolored at all so we're going to look at each and every one of these i'm going to show you how you can identify which figure you have i'm going to show you all the parts that they share with each other and the different colors and the different ways that they try to differentiate these different action figures let's take a look at each one and as we go through i will label the names so you can know which figure we're looking at throughout this video over here we have breaker this is rock and roll short fuse stalker hawk zap grand slam stealer flash clutch and grunt gi joe uniforms came in three basic colors of green light green medium green and dark green this light green is pretty notorious for being very fragile and if you have a light green action figure you probably have some broken parts like zaps broken thumbs here the figures with the light green were stalker who was camouflaged but his base color was the light green stealer and of course that the figures with the medium green were short fuse hawk clutch flash grunt and breaker the figures with the dark green were rock and roll and grand slam of these 11 figures only one had a unique head and that was stalker who had a beret and a mustache none of the other figures had that the other figures reused three different heads sometimes repainting the hair so they look different but sometimes they didn't even do that so some of the figures had the same head and exactly the same hair the first head had kind of a passive expression it was a slightly younger face and that head was used for short fuse and hawk who both had blonde hair and flash and stealer who both had brown hair the second head was the bearded head and three figures share that head there was breaker with the brown hair and beard clutch with the black hair and beard and rock and roll with the blonde hair and beard the third head had a slightly older looking face with a more severe expression and three figures shared that head one was zap who had black hair and grunt and grand slam who both had brown hair to complicate matters even further each of these 1982 gi joe action figures was re-released in 1983 but with some differences the main difference was a new point of articulation in 1983 in 1982 for example breaker here had a hinge at the elbow so he could move his arm at the elbow like that but in 1983 he was re-released with a new hinge at the bicep he could still move his arm at the elbow but he could also swivel his arm all the way around at the bicep this was referred to as swivel arm battle grip or just swivel arm and the original articulation without that hinge at the elbow was referred to as straight arm articulation there were some other subtle differences between 1982 and 1983 although most of the parts were the same they actually changed the waist piece in 1982 they had this thicker waist piece with the kind of H shaped belt buckle and in 1983 they had a slimmer waist piece with a more detailed belt in 1982 the gi joe figures that had long sleeves had pockets on the sides of their arms in 1983 when they were re-released with swivel arm battle grip that pocket was moved from the side of the arm to the front in 1982 gi joe had two action figures with red pads like this and on their arms they had a sculpted on checker pattern that was the same color as the pads on his chest but in 1983 when they released the swivel arm battle grip those pads on the arms were just painted on there was no sculpting detail at all one very subtle change between 1982 and 1983 was the hole in the back of the action figure this was the hole that held the screw that held the entire action figure together but it was also the hole in which the backpacks would fit with the peg but those holes were subtly different between 1982 and 1983 to accommodate different size pegs in the backpacks the 1982 backpacks had kind of a thicker and stubbier peg and the 1983 backpacks had a longer and thinner peg with kind of a curved edge at the end the figures had three standard chest pieces the first was the piece with the two long straps like this and they had a sculpted on grenade and a knife in the back they kind of came to a v shape or a y shape and the figures that shared that chest were stalker hawk breaker and grunt another standard chest was the one with the short shoulder straps you can see that they have a strap that goes between them across the chest and in the back they come to this kind of x pattern the figures that shared that chest were short fuse and zap of course short fuse had black straps and zap had brown straps the third standard chest for 1982 gi joe action figures was the padded chest and this causes a lot of confusion the two that had the padded chest were flash and grand slam and as you can see they have these same colored pads and that causes a lot of people to mix up these two action figures in addition to the standard chests in 1982 gi joe had three unique chest pieces they belonged to stealer clutch and rock and roll stealers unique chest piece has this weapon this pistol with a black strap you can see how it comes together on the back so his back piece was unique as well clutch also had a pistol sculpted on to his chest but with different straps he had shoulder pads and this kind of brown lining on his jacket and you can see how that carried along to the back as well and then most distinctive was rock and roll who had a pair of gold bandoliers crisscrossed across his chest and his back there were two standard sets of legs and the main one was this one which just had a pocket on either side and a pair of boots but the other standard pair of legs was shared also again by flash and grand slam it had their pads on the thighs and it had coverings on their boots the figures had three standard sets of arms they had the rolled up sleeves which was shared by clutch breaker and rock and roll they had the long sleeves which was shared by stalker short fuse grunt hawk and zap the third standard set of arms was another part shared between grand slam and flash they were the gloved arms and as i said in 1982 they had these sculpted on pads on the shoulders which were just painted on in 1983 and they had one unique set of arms and that was owned by stealer his arms were not shared by any other action figure now i know this is a lot to take in and i've thrown around a bunch of names so you might still be a little bit confused so i'm going to go through each of these figures and point out the one or two special differences that will allow you to instantly know which action figure you have let's start with a figure that's maybe the most difficult to identify because he's the most generic this is grunt he has standard long sleeve arms standard legs standard chest and he has this head with the brown hair that he shares with grand slam but you can pick out grunt fairly easily because he is the only figure that used these long straps with the head that had the older looking face stalker should not be that difficult to identify of course he is the black guy but in case you're colorblind you can look for his beret and he of course is the only one that had camouflage so if you see a camouflage pattern that's got to be stalker another figure that should be pretty easy to identify is rock and roll you're going to quickly identify rock and roll by his gold bandoliers and his blonde hair and beard he was the only one of the bearded action figures to have blonde hair one that may be difficult to identify is hawk because he looks so much like short fuse but hawk is the only one that had this shiny metallic silver paint on his long straps so look for the silver and you will know that you have a hawk action figure in contrast short fuse even though he had the younger looking face and the blonde hair like hawk he had the short black straps with the black strap between them on his chest and he was the only blonde action figure to have that type of strap clutch may sometimes be confused with breaker but you're going to know clutch right away because he's the only one of the bearded action figures that had black hair and he has a unique chest piece with the gun molded on to his chest breaker had brown hair and a beard and he was the only one of the bearded action figures to have the standard long strap chest we now come to zap who should be fairly easy to identify he had a very light green color brown straps and he was the only one of the figures to have this older looking face with black hair we now come to the two figures that are probably the most difficult to distinguish because they shared essentially all parts between them except for the head and even though they had different heads they had exactly the same hair color so it's easy to mix these two up the complicate matters even further there was a second issue of grand slam in 1983 that had silver pads now the 1983 issue of grand slam is going to be much easier to identify because he has silver pads and flash was never issued with silver pads but the 1982 version you are going to distinguish between flash by looking for the black gloves and the black boots also grand slams green color was darker than flashes of course you can look for the different head sculpt but mainly look at the gloves and the boots grand slam has black boots flash has brown boots flash i said is only distinguishable from grand slam by his head sculpt the base color of his plastic which was the medium green and brown gloves and brown boots at last that brings us to stealer and stealer was the only one of the figures with the light green plastic to have the younger looking face with the more passive expression he did share a head entirely with flash including his hair color but you're going to distinguish him from flash because he did not have the red pads like flash did stealer actually had more unique parts than most of the other action figures he had unique arms and a unique chest and back piece so look for the light green plastic with the gun on the chest and a gold undershirt under the green over shirt there you have it we have looked at all of the standard parts that were reused for these 11 action figures fortunately in 1983 gi joe released a bunch of new characters that looked entirely different from these guys and shared a lot fewer parts between them but this 1982 reissue of gi joe hasbro wasn't quite sure if this toy line was going to take off so they went the cheap route they reused the same mold for a lot of different figures and it's understandable especially for relatively new collectors that you get confused between who is whom so if you get confused and you want to know how to identify your 1982 and your 1983 variants of the 1982 figures just refer to this video play it back and uh you'll never get confused and you know with a little bit of time a little bit of practice you'll be able to identify these action figures at a glance thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe because i've got a lot of great new gi joe toy and comic book reviews coming up and you do not want to miss them i'll catch you all later welcome to the hooded cobra commander 788 channel and welcome to my first ever gi joe action figure review we are going to be reviewing breaker today but before i get started i did want to say a few words um first of all there are other gi joe action figure reviewers on youtube and of course they'll do a much better job than uh than i will they're much more experienced collectors than i am uh but it looks like fun and i've wanted to do it for a while so today i thought i'd give it a spin before we get into reviewing breaker here i wanted to make a few comments about myself i am a relatively new collector i haven't been doing this for a long time i did get gi joe action figures when i was a kid and i enjoyed them very much i've only recently rediscovered them as an adult and as an a collector um so i'm not a very experienced collector and i'm sure the more experienced guys out there will uh have plenty to say and plenty to correct me about and that's fine and that's how we learn um a comment on my collection my collection the scope of my collection is uh fairly limited um i am not looking for uh mint on card figures or mint in box vehicles uh for me a complete item for my collection will be a figure or the vehicle with all of the parts or accessories uh unbroken uh and with a file card if there's a figure involved um so to me uh or for my purposes that is what i'm looking for for a complete entry into the collection so as you might imagine i have a lot of incomplete figures and vehicles that i'm still working on completing and one of those figures is breaker here actually do not have breakers file card i will pick that up eventually um it's not high on my agenda but but eventually i will complete this figure but i wanted to review breaker first for a couple reasons first of all um breaker is not thoroughly reviewed by other reviewers you you don't see a whole lot of reviews of breaker and it's it's not hard to see why he's a pretty plain character but most importantly uh breaker was the first ever gizzo action figure that i got as a kid now this is not my original one um that one was misplaced or broken long long ago probably um about 30 years ago um but there's a lot of nostalgia for me uh in this breaker action figure and uh so i wanted to tackle him first um now a breaker came out in 1982 and in 1982 i would have been seven years old which is the perfect age that's the like the target uh age for these action figures i really they really came out at the perfect time for me to get into them and to love them and to uh want to get a lot of them and i remember uh the first wave that came out and i remember that i got the first few uh action figures with these uh straight arms like um like breaker here um these arms have this point of articulation at the elbows but they don't don't have the swivel um the swivel arm battle grip that came out in the following year and i remember how much um i how happy i was that they added a swivel at the uh at the elbow because uh it was it was a little bit awkward to pose some of these and to for some of the figures to carry their weapons uh but uh for collecting purposes i wanted to start out getting the actual first figure that i got as a kid which would have been the straight arm 1982 breaker and that's the guy we're going to be looking at today now um breaker as you can see is pretty plain uh he shares a lot of parts with um others in the 1982 series the chest piece was shared by hawk and grunt and the the waist and legs were shared by almost all of the 1982 series um his head was shared by by rock and roll here rock and roll had uh blonde beard and hair and uh and of course clutch uh who had black hair and a black beard uh but it's the same sculpt it's it's the same head just painted a different color um breaker came with some accessories he came with his helmet and the detachable communications headset which had a wire that connected to his communications backpack now um breaker didn't come with any guns um and which i think is a little bit odd but one thing that uh works for his favor with not having any handheld guns is that he goes great with the vehicle that came out at the time the 1982 ram motorcycle which with it's pretty awesome side gatling gun now i remember as a kid the tv commercial that um i think the first commercial that i saw um was uh with breaker on the ram motorcycle um and since he doesn't have a gun himself i think he works well with on the motorcycle he can still wear his communications backpack and his helmet and he can talk to headquarters as he's buzzing around and uh mowing down the enemy with his side gun uh one odd choice um is uh was in the um comic book rock and roll was paired with the motorcycle in fact there's a um uh seen in the first issue of the gi joe comic book in which uh rock and roll refers to the ram motorcycle as his motorcycle of course rock and roll did not come with the ram motorcycle um but i really think that breaker is a better choice um rock and roll he has this really massive uh machine gun um now i'm missing the bipod on it unfortunately that's another piece that i'll have to pick up in order to complete this figure but um but he has a gun and if he's riding the motorcycle then it's not really a good place to to store the gun to stow the gun um so i really think that breaker is the better choice here uh for for the ram motorcycle and that's the way that's the way i like to like to set him up now um breaker as i said is not complete um because he does not have his file card but there are reasons that for me to suspect that he's not complete for other reasons um and i'm going to point them out and perhaps uh a skilled collector uh can give me some answers on this and um you know it'll be a learning opportunity for me uh and uh yeah we'll we'll maybe we can all learn together um one reason one thing that's odd about this uh breaker action figure is let me get in closer he has a silver painted grenade on his shirt now pretty much all versions of breaker that i have found um have a an unpainted grenade it's just green the same color as his shirt um it is possible that a previous owner painted this um it's maybe it's a foreign version uh that has been cobbled together into uh this you know allegedly nine original 1982 um version of breaker but i do not know i do not know where that silver uh hand grenade comes from uh when again most of the time i see an unpainted hand grenade on these breaker action figures now i'm not particularly bothered by it um i will uh eventually pick up another breaker probably several of them uh and i do eventually want to get the swivel arm uh breaker um so for display purposes and for my purposes right now this is completely adequate um but i just would like to know exactly why that thing is silver i i do not know another thing um that doesn't seem to fit is the backpack the there was a a change between 1982 and 1983 the 1982 action figures like breaker were re-released in 1983 with the swivel arm better battle grip as i said and i don't have an example of breaker with the swivel arm battle grip but i do have clutch here from 1983 who shared the same arms and you can see his swivel arm here that's it would have been basically the same thing for the 1983 breaker but another thing that changed were the backpacks um the pegs and the backpacks were different and i have an example from the actual 1982 grunt let me pull your backpack out grunt and let's look at these uh look at these backpack pegs you can see that the actual 1982 uh pegs are a bit bigger kind of thicker a little shorter and have they have a flattened uh top on them whereas the 1983 ones were a bit rounded so i i and a bit longer and a bit thinner and so i think that this is a 1983 backpack not 1982 um an additional problem with that though is that it fits pretty well in this back uh in the uh the hole that is supposed to hold the backpacks whereas the actual 1982 backpack does not does not fit well at all i can kind of force it in there but but it doesn't stay um which is weird um so that's another reason why i think that this chest piece comes from something else and i don't know what um but like i said this backpack i'm pretty certain is a 1983 so in order to complete this figure first of all i need to figure out what's up with this chest and back piece uh and i need to get an actual 1983 backpack so i will eventually do that for the time being anyway i want to uh point out a couple of things that i don't care for about our breaker here um i do like him with the ram motorcycle as i said i don't mind that he doesn't have uh any handheld weapons i just drop grunts backpack um i'll pick that up in a minute but one thing that i that does bother me about this setup here with his his headset and the wire is that the the hole for the wire is over here on one side um and it tends to pull his head that direction or the opposite direction i you know if you try to have him look straightforward the the wire tends to make him you know look to the i guess his right um um or his yeah his left i mean um so i think these wires uh several of the figures had accessories that had this kind of wire that plugged in the backpack i really wish they had done something different with them uh perhaps made them more rubbery uh perhaps um uh made them longer i don't know but um but i had a hard time with that as a kid and i still have a hard time with it some people just keep it unplugged and that's fine sometimes you know it kind of use it as an antenna or something but i don't think it actually looks very good as an antenna even when it's straight and not curved like this um plus i think it's just it just looks right plugged into the backpack um but as i said um yeah we've got he's less posable with the thing on and with it plugged in he he wants to wants to look at often one direction as all of the 19 or all of really the 80s gi jo action figures except for one the 1982 and 83 scarlet had foot pegs or holes for foot pegs uh so that you could uh stand them up in a uh put them on this figure stand here um no there's grunt's backpack uh put them on this figure stand uh they did not come with figure stands at the time um you we got figure stands with the accessory packs that came out i think they first came out in 83 um but that's how you got the figure stands and we when playing with them we didn't generally use the figure stands but um occasionally they were nice to have if we were going to have a figure that was just going to be standing up and we didn't want to prop them up against something they certainly do stand better i mean you can stand them up without the figure stand but they're a little bit precarious especially when you're a kid and you know you're doing an action scene they get knocked over pretty easily um but i can tell you that the figure stands got lost uh frequently um and i and i can tell you that like this um this headset probably as a kid i probably lost that pretty quickly um if you hear a howling in the background that is not a werewolf that is the large dog in my backyard that is uh howling at the neighbors i guess um anyway i think that's where i'm gonna wrap it up um 1982 straight arm breaker my first gijo action figure um we have some things to learn about him uh and we have some things to get uh for him in order to make him complete but i wanted to make this my first ever action figure review there's this is the this is the first one for me um the first one as a kid and when i started collecting again it's the first one i got as an adult uh thank you for watching um i look forward to reading your comments um and if any of you have any knowledge about uh the 1982 straight arm breaker that would help me answer some of my questions i would appreciate it thank you so much i'm picking up a cobra plane on radar my aircraft gun cobra bombers can take out their command center flash to breaker flash to breaker cobra has taken the flak we need some help over here copy that crash one that's why you don't wear blue for a jungle off dummy this is the xml r1a shoulder fired laser rifle it is the most powerful handheld laser 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 yeah that conventional firearms and it can slip 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 how 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 joes panel 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 i intend to deliver a healthy supply of women can't serve in combat their menstruations will attract bear but that's over this guy is going right back in a case makes me nervous just touching this there is where he will probably be entombed for all time