Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first GI Joe review of 2018. We will start this year as we start every year by reviewing something big. And this vehicle is not just big, it is a weapon of mass destruction. Please join me as I review the Rolling Thunder! Hey, HodaCobraCommander788 here. Welcome back. We took a long break at the end of 2017. I've been busy working on this video and a few changes on the channel. A few changes, but not very many. We had a good thing going last year, so I don't want to change the format very much. We have a new intro, we have a new background, but the reviews will be the same. I'll try to give you as much information as I can gather on every toy. The Rolling Thunder wasn't the original vehicle I planned to review this week. I really wanted to review the Defiant Shuttle Complex, but I wasn't able to get one. I'm really going to try to get one for next year. The Rolling Thunder is a worthy subject for this week. It's one of the most popular large vehicles ever, and it's easy to see why. It's not just big, it's also loaded with features. Let's not just talk about it, let's look at it. HCC788 presents the Rolling Thunder! Rolling Thunder from 1988 and driver Armadillo. This vehicle and figure set were available in 1988 and 1989 and were discontinued for 1990. The Rolling Thunder is part of a tradition of large vehicles in G.I. Joe. Of course G.I. Joe had large play sets going all the way back to 1983 with the headquarters command center. They started to upscale their vehicles in 1984 with the killer whale. In 1985 we got the USS Flag, which was really a play set, not a vehicle. It was truly massive, with loads of room on the deck to land your G.I. Joe aircraft. G.I. Joe's air vehicles started to inflate in 1986. The first helicopter in the line, the Dragonfly, was pretty big, but it was dwarfed by the Tomahawk in 1986. Cobra's large play set, the Terror Drone, was also a release that year. The tradition continued in 1987 with the release of multiple large vehicles and play sets. The largest toys of that year were really both vehicles and play sets. The Defiant Shuttle Complex included a spaceship and a piggyback shuttle, both of which were big. Either one would have been considered a big vehicle on its own. The Mobile Command Center was also released in 1987 and it was also a combination vehicle play set. In 1988 there were a few fairly large vehicles, but none as large as the Rolling Thunder. The Rolling Thunder took the size inflation almost to an absurd level. This thing is so wide it would take up two lanes on a highway. It's also loaded with weapons and features. The big vehicle from 1989, the Thunder Clap, was actually longer than the Rolling Thunder. This was from an era when kids were still demanding as much GI Joe as they could get. We weren't far away from the dark years of the 90s. The 90s had its share of big vehicles too. The General from 1990 is one example, but as the years ticked by, the focus shifted to smaller vehicles with more gimmicky features. The Rolling Thunder came with a driver, Armadillo. It may be hard to find anything to say about Armadillo, but we'll take a look at him later. Let's look at the Rolling Thunder first. The Rolling Thunder was designed by Hasbro designer Guy Cassaday. He says he drew his inspiration from the movie Aliens and from the head of boys toys at Hasbro, Bob Pruppus. When asked what the ultimate GI Joe vehicle would look like, Pruppus replied that it should be big with lots of guns, lots of guys, lots of missiles. You know, lots of lots. We're definitely in the more is better school of design. This was Guy Cassaday's crowning achievement at Hasbro, and I can see why. When you create something like the Rolling Thunder, it's hard to go up from there. It has everything. How long is the Rolling Thunder? Well, it depends on how you measure it. If you turn the chin gun to the side, so it takes up as little shelf space as possible, by my measurement it is 24 and a half inches. However, if you point the chin cannon forward and slide the back cannon out for the maximum shelf space, I measure it as 33 and a half inches. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the Rolling Thunder starting here in the front. We have what the blueprints call the Hot Point. Chin mounted horizontally pivoting low level laser cannon. The blueprints are not entirely accurate. It doesn't only pivot horizontally. It also elevates a little bit as well. There's a really pretty good range of motion on this. I'm not sure what a low level laser cannon is, unless they just mean it's low to the ground. Next, we have what the blueprints call the Five Man Driver Navigations and Fire Control Cockpit. It has a clear canopy on each side, and they swing up on hinges connected to the center divider of the cab. There's a cab here. Just swing that up to get access to the driver's seat. Just swinging it around so you can see it is the same on both sides. The cab has two forward-facing seats, either one of which could be the driver's seat. Each one has a joystick and an elaborate and detailed center console. That's an amazing amount of detail for an area of the vehicle that's not easy to see. Each of the front seats has a seat belt, and the seat belt slides into a slot on the seat itself, and that secures the figure in the vehicle. The seat belt was an alternative to the back pegs we got on earlier vehicles. They started to pop up in the late 80s. I don't think they worked very well. They get in the way, and they tend to go missing. That's a problem if you're trying to get a complete vehicle. I usually just ignore them. We'll look at this gun in a minute. If you look behind the driver's seat, there is this open roof, and we have some space down in there. There's a rear-facing seat, and you can fit a figure down in there, but there is no seat belt or back peg or anything like that. Next to the seat, there's this open space, and if you're supposed to fit five figures in here, you'd have to fit two figures in that space, but there are no foot pegs or any other way to secure the figures. If you want to fit five figures in here, this is how you have to do it. You've got two in the front seat here. I've got my spare armadillo figure there. But then in the back, you have space for three figures, but you kind of have to just put them in any which way. Those two figures here just kind of lean against the control panels. Some foot pegs or some seats back there really would have helped. Now let's talk about this gun on the top here. The Blueprints call it a dual-barrel 50-caliber machine gun with positionable deflector screen. It pivots 360 degrees, but it can't fire rearward because it would hit the back of the cab. This is a little less sci-fi than the front laser cannon, but what do they mean by deflector screen? Does it have deflector shields like Star Trek? I'm going to call this a radar dish. It does tilt back and forward. Next we have what the Blueprints call the fully rotational forward-mounted single-seat laser cannons. There are four of them located on the four corners of the vehicle. Here, here, back here, and another one here. They are all identical, but the Blueprints call these rear turrets armor-piercing pinpoint laser cannons. There is no difference between them. They are interchangeable. These turrets consist of a light gray, almost white seat that can pivot 360 degrees. It has a double-barrel gun that can elevate, and it has the notorious seat belts. Ignoring the seat belt, I can just slide the figure in the seat, putting his feet under the double-barrel gun. You can fit the figure's hands on the gun pegs, but only at an awkward angle. I wouldn't bother with that. Directly below the front turrets, we have our first set of missiles. The Blueprints call these super-side-winder surface-to-surface tank destroyer missiles. They peg in using standard, dumbbell-shaped slots, but the pegs are fragile and can break off in the missile slots, as has happened with this one. There are six of these missiles in total. Two under each of the front turrets, two on that side, and then two around on that side, and then two more mounted on the main cannon, one on each side, one on that side and another one around there. We're just getting started looking at missiles. Here in the center of the main body of the vehicle, directly behind the cockpit, we have what the Blueprints call turntable magnetic array radar slash multi-missile air defense. It does rotate, and it has six of these short red-orange missiles. These missiles are supposed to be the Rolling Thunder's defense against air attacks. It would be a pretty big target on the ground. The Blueprints make this sound like a radar dish that is also a missile platform, because, of course, they put missiles everywhere on this vehicle. If the Rolling Thunder had a toilet, they'd probably have a missile mounted on the lid. This missile turntable has missiles aimed in every direction, but as you may have noticed, it can't fire missiles in every direction because some of the missiles are aimed at the Rolling Thunder. The forward-facing missile would hit the front gun. The rear-facing missile would hit the main cannon. The side-facing missile would hit the side turrets. Really, it can only fire missiles at the diagonal. And the missiles do not elevate to aim at an aerial target. This turntable platform is removable, and you will have to remove it so we can get to the inside of the vehicle, which we will look at later. Mine doesn't fit on there very snugly. I've looked at the instructions, and I'm still not sure if I'm mounting it right. Okay, let's look at this main cannon. The Blueprints call this a turret-mounted short barrel, 90mm short-throw cannon. The Blueprints undersell this weapon. There's nothing short about it. It is huge. The turret is large with space for two figures. The dark green color harkens back to classic GI Joe vehicles. It is covered in technical detail. There are detailed instruments inside the cannon operator stations. The cannon turret pivots 360 degrees, although it's not easy to do. You have to kind of move things out of the way. And of course, you have to have room to pivot at 360 degrees. This thing is really large. I can't stress that enough. On the turret, there are two antennae. Even though antennae are often missing parts on any GI Joe vehicle, I do appreciate the sense of realism they add. There is space for two figures in this turret. They just slide in there. There are no seat belts or back pegs or anything like that. They just rest in there, but they're in there pretty securely. They probably won't fall out. This cannon is impressively large. Just for a sense of scale, it is slightly longer than GI Joe's earlier big gun, the slugger. Oh, and on the cannon, you may have noticed, it has another missile. The blueprints call this an optically aimed right-on surface-to-air missile. There are three of these missiles in total. One on the cannon and one under each of the rear turrets. I have this missile rear-facing because it makes more sense as a rear-facing missile. If it were to fire forward, it would hit the front set of missiles. The rolling thunder has what the blueprints call eight, rollover landmine-proof heavy-duty tires slash wheels, four on each side. The wheels consist of black plastic tires and green hubcaps. They are extraordinarily large. I can't think of any other GI Joe vehicle with wheels this big. Each one rolls independently. The back of the vehicle is surprisingly plain. There is no universal tow hook in the back. Given the kitchen sink approach to the design of this vehicle, I'm surprised they didn't include that. There is some detail on the underside, and this underside detail gives you a hint at what's inside. It seems like we've looked at endless features already, but we've only covered the details on the surface. There's more to the rolling thunder when we open it up. To see what secrets the rolling thunder has on the inside, we have to slide the main cannon turret and the platform it's mounted on all the way back. Then, amidst ships here, we have ramps that fold down on each side, revealing a small vehicle. Finally, in this section where the missile turntable was mounted, we have a pair of doors that swing up on hinges. There are goodies inside the rolling thunder, but first let's look at the sub-vehicle, which the blueprints call a deployable six-wheeled ATSV, or all-terrain vehicle scout. It makes perfect sense for the rolling thunder to have a scout vehicle. The rolling thunder is too large to go everywhere, so they would need a smaller vehicle to check things out. This reminds me of Roller, the small six-wheeled drone that came with Optimus Prime. The ATSV is pretty sophisticated as sub-vehicles go. It is not helpless. It has what the blueprints call punch-it, synchronized dual-barrel 50 caliber machine guns. The machine gun turret can turn from side to side, and it has a grip here.  It has a joystick controller and some instrument panel details down in there. It's got some pretty good technical detail, and I really like the dark green color. The driver just sits in the seat snugly enough without a backpack or a seat belt. He's not going to fall out too easily there. There's plenty of room for one action figure. There is some excellent technical detail on the underside. Looks really good. The ATSV is a six-wheeled vehicle, three wheels on each side. It could have gotten by with four wheels, but the rolling thunder overdoes everything. Why have four wheels when you can have six? Why have six wheels when you can have eight? The ATSV can roll up the ramp on either side. Both sides are the same, and there's a track here in the center. If you park the ATSV on that track, one thing that I really like is there's enough room to close the ramps over the vehicle. It totally encases the vehicle. All right, let's get to what's inside the rolling thunder. Most of you probably already know what it is, but for those who don't, let's begin the erection by pulling up this tab to reveal two giant missiles. This missile rack clips into place on the front. The Blueprints call these double-team, solid-propellant quad thruster rockets. Although they are not marketed as nuclear missiles, the designer has said that's what they are. And of course they are. That's what they look like. Let's remove one of these missiles. They fit into the missile rack very solidly. Each missile has a hole and slot on both sides that can fit on either way. Connecting and disconnecting the missiles does put a lot of strain on the plastic clips, so do be cautious about that. I think it would be very easy to break off, especially this little tab right there. I've included the figure for scale. These incredibly large missiles are ICBMs, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. More specifically, they are MERVs, or MIRVs, which stands for Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles. As for which real-world ICBM these could be based on, they look a little like the LGM-25C Titan II. Even though these are designed to look like ICBMs, it's very unlikely a vehicle like the Rolling Thunder would carry strategic nuclear weapons. They are more likely to be tactical nuclear weapons, but a smaller tactical nuke would be less impressive as a toy. The Rolling Thunder doesn't do anything small. The missiles are well-detailed and realistic-looking. Each missile has two clear removable panels, one on each side. They are marked cluster bombs. They have a tab here on the top so you can remove them. Sometimes they can fit pretty tightly, and on each side there are three yellow bombs. That's a total of six cluster bombs on each of the large missiles. The cluster bombs themselves are pegged in and can be removed. These large missiles may seem to have a fairly simple construction, but there are a lot of removable parts on them. These bombs are what make the missiles MIRVs. When the missile reaches the apex of its flight, it would release these re-entry vehicles, each of which would hit a different target. I wanted to show you guys this. There is molded-in technical detail in the cavity behind where the bombs peg in. You wouldn't normally even see that detail. It would be covered up by the bombs and then by the clear panels, but the detail is there and that is going the extra mile. And look inside the rolling thunder with the missiles removed. There is additional detail in there, quite a bit of it in fact. I really have to say I'm very impressed with the level of effort on this toy. With the rolling thunder, G.I. Joe is taking weapons of mass destruction onto the battlefield. It's no wonder the rolling thunder has to be so heavily armed. The guns and missiles aren't needed for offensive firepower. They're needed to defend the main vehicle. Cobra would love to get their hands on those nukes. Cobra wouldn't want to destroy the rolling thunder. They would want to capture it intact. Just for the sake of completeness, let's put the rolling thunder back into its compact mode. First, let's lower the missiles. Just pull the clip out of the main body of the vehicle so you can lower the missiles down into the cavity. Then close those doors up. Let's put the ATSV on the platform and close the ramps on that. There we go. Now let's not forget to put the missile carousel back on. Something like that. It may not be doing that quite right, but that's where it goes anyway. And then slide the main cannon forward. And there you go.  Now that we've looked at all the features for the rolling thunder, let's look at the driver Armadillo. And I have to say, after looking at a spectacular vehicle like the rolling thunder, looking at this action figure is a bit of a letdown. The name Armadillo was used more than once in the vintage GI Joe line. In 1985, it was used for GI Joe's mini tank. In 1989, that mini tank was re-released for the Sargent Slaughter's Marauder subset, keeping the name Armadillo. The rolling thunder was still on the shelves in 1989. So that year, GI Joe had a figure and a vehicle with the same name. Here's what everyone really tuned in to see. Armadillo in the Armadillo. There were no other versions of Armadillo released into the vintage line, and that is probably for the best. The figure came with no accessories, so let's take a look at the articulation. He had the articulation that was standard for the time, meaning he had turned his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to move at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside. That allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could 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 design and color of the figure starting with the head. And right off the bat, we have a problem with a non-removable helmet. The helmet is green. It has some ridges and some texture on it, but no real detail. It sits low on his head, which makes his skull look small. He has a slightly expressive face. We can see his teeth, but they're not painted in. On his chest, he has a very plain green sleeveless shirt. This color is not exactly olive drab. It's more like the color of baby's first BM. We can see a little bit of his chest above the collar, but there is no other detail on the shirt at all, front or back. The card art shows him with an ammunition belt. That is not on the figure. But even dog tags would have helped. The gross green color on the shirt does not match the green color on the helmet. Those are two different shades. The arms are really weird. They have some additional muscle detail sculpted on, but the detail stops right at the universal joint at the shoulders. That is where the sculpting stops. It is really off-putting. He has light tan, almost flesh-colored wrapping around his forearms. Even these look strange. The wrapping continues up to the hinge on the underside of the arm, but it stops at the elbow joint. The wrapping is not seen on the hinge. In general, they didn't do any additional sculpting on these elbow joints. But because the sculpting goes up to the elbow on one side of the arm, but not the other, it looks wrong. It almost looks like a mistake. I assume the wrapping is supposed to continue up past the elbow, but they couldn't translate it to the figure with this articulation. On his waist piece, we have a sudden and unexpected color change. The base color is red. He has an unpainted belt with a silver belt buckle with a long horned bull's head sculpted on it. It is a good-looking belt buckle that looks like something Wild Bill would wear. Here's that belt buckle next to Wild Bill's long horn belt buckle, and yeah, that would look good on Wild Bill, but I don't think Wild Bill would wear pants that color. Moving down his legs, he's wearing red trousers, and it looks like he's wearing chaps. The sculpting on the chaps continues up to the waist piece and overlays his belt. There's some circular design elements on the outside of his thighs, and on the inside of his thighs, there's these crisscross patterns. But none of it is painted, so the detail is lost. These three shallow circle details on each thigh remind me of the built-to-rule figures that were released in the early 2000s that could accommodate Lego-like building blocks. But of course, none of that is painted in, which makes the figure look cheap. He has tall green boots with straps that go down the back, and silver buckles down the sides. And this green on the boots is different from the green on the shirt or the helmet. That's a third shade of green. These silver paint applications on the buckles on the boots could have been saved for elsewhere on the figure. It desperately needed some painted details. The red and green color combination is about the worst thing I can imagine. At least it isn't neon colors. The figure isn't bright and garish. Instead, it's dull and uninspiring. And it didn't have to be. Take a look at another figure with almost the same color scheme. Wildcard. Another vehicle driver from 1988. I'm not in love with the red and green on Wildcard, but still, he wore it much better than Armadillo. Let's take a look at Armadillo's File Card. This File Card was an insert in the vehicle box. And we can see right away, the artwork on the portrait is different from the figure. He's got a yellow shirt and helmet instead of green. And this yellow possibly could have been even worse than the green. Not much worse, but I'm glad they went with green instead of yellow. I don't think Armadillo needs an ammunition belt. He doesn't come with a machine gun. And it's unlikely he would be carrying around ammunition for the vehicle. That's an unnecessary detail. They should have replaced it with something else. His code name is Armadillo. He is the G.I. Joe Rolling Thunder driver. His file name is Filo R Makepiece. The name Filo R Makepiece is so distinctive, it seems like it must be a reference to something, but I can't nail down exactly where the name comes from. It could be a reference to Reginald Makepiece, and that's perhaps the reason for the R initial. Reginald Makepiece was a British World War I flying ace. But Armadillo is not a pilot. Filo may also refer to Filo Judeus, an ancient philosopher. Of course, I always think of Filo from UHF. Primary military specialty is armored assault vehicle driver. Secondary military specialty is advanced reconnaissance. Birth place is Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and his grade is E7 Sergeant First Class. This top paragraph says Armadillo is in command of the most heavily armed assault vehicle in the world, the Rolling Thunder. He's the most reliable driver in the whole G.I. Joe motor pool. Armadillo is versed in all the latest land assault technologies and his experience as a vehicle driver is second to none. When it came time to select a driver for the most formidable attack craft, Armadillo was a shoe in for the job. This first paragraph doesn't seem like it was written by Larry Hama. It's just a generic, wow isn't he great background. This bottom paragraph says Armadillo is no fun to ride with. You put him behind the wheel of anything with big tires and he just plain loses his sense of humor. His only concern becomes accomplishing his objective and getting to his destination. He used to make good time driving big rigs but he just left too many people pulled over to the side of the road with their teeth rattling. Nobody complains about the way he drives the Rolling Thunder. He gets you there right? This second paragraph does sound like it was written by Larry Hama. It paints a picture and tells a story. It also gives us a little bit of background on Armadillo. Apparently he used to drive big rigs but this it sounds like he was a really unsafe driver. That's not good. Taking a look at how the Rolling Thunder and Armadillo were used in GI Joe Media, neither the Rolling Thunder nor Armadillo appeared in the animated series. They were only animated for commercials. In fact, the commercial appears to show two characters that look like Armadillo side by side. Could it be that Armadillo was supposed to be an army builder? He's plain and generic enough to be one. Looking at the GI Joe comic book series published by Marvel Comics, the Rolling Thunder first appeared in GI Joe number 80. Armadillo first appeared in that issue as well but he wasn't called Armadillo. He was called Rumbler. Rumbler was a prototype name for Armadillo but it wasn't used for the figure. They couldn't use it for the figure because they had already released a figure called Rumbler in 1987. He was the driver of the radio controlled Crossfire vehicle. To my knowledge that Rumbler was never used in the comic book. In that debut issue GI Joe and Cobra were fighting over control of a new island that had risen from the ocean near Cobra Island. The Rolling Thunder was used to good effect in that issue where it took out Cobra maggots, with stood a direct hit from a Cobra bug and rolled over bats. In the end, the island came back into the sea. It only appeared long enough to provide a stage for introducing new figures and vehicles. Armadillo, as Rumbler, appeared a few more times in the comic book series but he was never a major character. Looking at the Rolling Thunder overall, I have to confess something. I was going to put the Rolling Thunder in the middle tier. It was going to be the first of these big reviews to not be in the top tier. Now back off with your torches and pitchforks I changed my mind. Let me explain why I was going to downgrade it. First, there's no doubt that it's a fantastic vehicle. There's a lot to it. There's almost too much to describe but it has one big problem. Actually, two big problems. I don't need the two nuclear missiles. As a kid playing with this toy, I never would have used nukes against Cobra. That just would not have fit in any of my play scenarios. I might have used it as a target for Cobra where they would always try to capture the nukes. But that would have made the Rolling Thunder a target and more of a liability than an asset. Of course, I could just ignore the nukes. But the Rolling Thunder did kind of need them. It needed something special inside the vehicle to be protected by all that armor and doors and cannons and missiles. The nukes are kind of baked into the design. But upon further reflection, the Rolling Thunder makes it to the top tier. The engineering is divine. And it deserves to be recognized. The sliding cannon, the folding ramps that perfectly encompass the scout vehicle, the weapons, the size. There's a lot to do with this vehicle. It's big enough to be impressive, but it's not too big. It's still playable. So yes, the Rolling Thunder makes it to the top tier. Armadillo on the other hand, goes straight to the bottom. The figure does almost everything I usually count off for. It has a non-removable helmet, poor color choices, unpainted details. There's very little the figure does right. They just needed a figure to package with an awesome vehicle, so they made one, and they put as little effort as possible in it. Guy Cassidy considers the Rolling Thunder to be his crowning achievement on GI Joe. And I have to agree. It's hard to top something this spectacular. That was my review of the Rolling Thunder and my first review of 2018. I hope you enjoyed it. I have to admit, as I was preparing this video, right about the time I needed to start shooting, I got very sick. It put me behind schedule. I'm still not fully recovered. If my voice sounds funny, that's why. Some of the things I had planned for the first few weeks of the year I've had to post Pone, but you know me, you know I'm always working on this stuff and I will deliver. I will do it. But I'll just have to put it off a little bit until I'm feeling better, but I will get to all that stuff and we've got some really good things coming up this year. Please check out my website HCC788.com. Find me on Facebook and Twitter. Support the channel on Patreon for some special perks. Now I have to immediately get started on next week's review, so that one will be done in time. What a week. But I will see you again next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review. Until then, remember only GI Joe is GI Joe.


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