I actually liked the Buzz Boar. I didn't have a lot of money as a kid, so I built a lot of playsets out of styrafome and I used to make weapons depots that Cobra could break into using the Buzz Boar.
This video would be better if images of the vehicles filled the entire screen and lasted for more than 5 seconds. Then we could see what the host is talking about.
Bailey Agreed. One step further would be to physically have them on hand and demonstrate in real time. I was a product of the 80s and live for this stuff.
Ive been thinking the same thing. Lovee the videos but my mind doesnt keep a vivid memory of a fleeting image. Besides that im loving every video ive seen thus far.
Ive been thinking the same thing. Lovee the videos but my mind doesnt keep a vivid memory of a fleeting image. Besides that im loving every video ive seen thus far.
Agree 100%. He flashes the item at the beginning and then when he describes what he is talking about I have to go back and rewind to video to notice what he mentioned. Good ideas for videos, poor execution.
Love your style and writing, but I'd enjoy these reviews so much more if you showed the actual toys for more than 5 sec. Like for example the entire time you're talking about them?
I'm sorry but the Havoc was freakin awesome. It's faceoff in the comics versus the Thundermachine was one of the most epic vehicle duels in the comics history, right up there with the Skystriker versus the Rattler. XD
It was a strange design but so much fun to play with. I never used it as a frontline vehicle like they did in the cartoon, rather as long range fire support from behind cover usually with '86 Hawk manning the big cannons.
I had the DEMON back then it was really fun to play with I just used it like an alien tank and fit just fine. Design be dammed I actually loved to have a Destro tank Destro being my favorite Cobra villain...closely followed by firefly.
@ Joe Eversole Me too, even though I never got a chance to own one during my childhood. I might pick one up at some point. Also I like the Sliver Mirage motorcycle, even if it is an out their design for a military toy line. Never had one of these either, but I still love the look of it. I am very pleased that Hasbro made a new one in the scale of the 25th anniversary action figures.
Hey now! Some of us had to have an LCV because we didn't have enough money for the Tomahawk or the awesome base vehicles.... it was perfect for our frontier GI Joe base made out of Lincoln Logs and a trench cut through the lawn we hated to cut. ^^
The Havoc is an all time classic Joe toy and the Cobra Rat was far from the worst thing being released in the line by that point.. Other than that, good list.
I was lucky enough to find a vintage Silver Mirage re-release with Duke mint in package five years ago. I was stoked. I don't understand how this vehicle wound up in this list, with the stickers complete, and an agent Helix riding with another figure riding the side compartment handling the gun, this vehicle looks sweet!
What's freaking HILARIOUS about this video is the fact that you said by 1991 you either moved on to comics or video games. And IRONICALLY I played with Joes fall of 85 til summer of 91. Hahah. I literally got into both video games and comics.
I guess I was a half way lucky. Back then I got just as much of my G.I. Joe stuff as gifts and from garage sales as I did hand picked from the store. Out of all of these on the list the only one I owned was the H.A.V.O.C. and it was gifted to me. I actually aquired two of them and heavily modified the second one.
Charles V I quite like the havoc as well. I had it is part of my collection years ago and thought I had a very interesting design even though I'm well aware that the pilot of that thing had to be the unluckiest son of a bitch on the planet. You might as well have had a glowing neon sign above his head saying I'm too stupid to hide please shoot me. I used to absolutely love collecting the G.I Joe toys but eventually ended up giving up on the series since a lot of the vehicle designs look like they came out of some bad Star Wars rip off or a Dr Seuss nightmare
I played with all of these as a kid and loved every second of it! Still have some of these, and now I get to play again with my son. New, old, as long as it had a rubber band, I was good with it!
What about the Cobra stun. The front of it split so that the 2 pilots could shoot at 2 different targets. I was actually "stunned" when I saw this vehicle as a kid. "Mission accomplished, Cobra". 😋 But even as a kid I thought the Cobra Stun was impractical but didn't know why until I grew up. Just create 2 turrets and this way your vehicle doesn't have to stop moving to shoot at 2 targets.
I know this is "worst" vehicles, but the one that I had that I thought was the absolute best was the Defiant shuttle with the huge launch platform. You got the shuttle, a single (reusable) orbital booster that turned into a huge command station and that MASSIVE launch gantry that actually raised and lowered with a crank in the rear I think it was a year later you got a re-release of the shuttle called the Crusader with some black accents and no booster/gantry, but it came with a neat little mini-shuttle in the main cargo bay that was a re-release of the one that came with the COBRA Night Raven. Good times, gooood times.
I just recently got my hands on a complete Defiant for the first time ever. An astounding accomplishment that is certainly underappreciated due to the fact that so few people actually owned one (and several engineering issues). But yeah, heck of thing.
I loved the G.I. Joe toy line when there were plausible vehicles and not too silly looking characters but damn, the longer it went on, the more it turned into G.I. Joke. Very sad how even Hasbro just gave up on it.
@@edwarddeguzman3258 If I remember this post from three years ago correctly, I was referring to how the first couple seasons of TFs used alt modes that were based on real life vehicles, like GI Joe did. In later seasons, the vehicles were less real life, or plausible, and more alien. If we were to take the argument that it was ok for them to use less plausible alt modes because they were aliens, we should be able to do the same for GI Joe because by the time the less plausibe vehicles mentioned in the original post came along, Cobra was shown to be backed by an "alien" civilization. (I put "alien" in quotes because the term indicates they are from a foreign location. In Cobra-La's case, IIRC, they weren't from another planet but were actually prehistoric. Either way, they had advanced technology which just happened to be organic and living instead of electrical.) So if the vehicles in the later TF seasons would not be implausible because the TF universe contained aliens, then the GI Joe vehicles referenced in the first post should also be considered plausible because they involved a highly advanced civilization that doesn't exist in real life. I can't speak for the first poster, but I believe in both cases we were talking about vehicles that would be plausible in real life regardless of the surrounding fiction. Just because one part of a fiction is fantasy based doesn't mean it all should be. Otherwise we'd have to allow talking animals in the TF universe and humans could use magic and it would be ok simply because there are already alien robots. Going with this line of logic, someone could say, "Duke's not a real person, it's all fantasy, so it's ok to have dinosaurs roaming the earth now." Different people have different rules that they like fictions to follow. Not that I have a problem with TFs using alien alt modes. In my post I just pointed out that, after a while, they were less plausible just like GI Joe.
I like the majority of the toy designs from 1982-1989. Past 1989 I lost interest. In 1991 I restarted my interested by looking for a few toys that I didn't get before 1991. I don't why many say they love the 1970's and I say that I love the ones from the 80's. They helped me out recently to build a few pieces of furniture. The gijoe vehicles of the 1980's enabled me to put together the toys I wanted to play with: fang, wolverine, sky striker, armadillo, water moccasin, viper glider, hiss tank, ram, howitzer, shark, PAC RAT flamethrower, claw, asp, and boar. Those toys included the instructions to assemble the toys on one side and the other side had blueprints in the same color. I think it's a blue type color. Interesting time to be a boy in the 1980's.
I never minded the more gimmicky Cobra vehicles as that was their shtick. Also, the irony that GI Joe flew the real world Cobra attack helicopter was not lost on me at the time
No place for the Septic Tank in there? A tragic culmination of the day-glo colour schemes, re-using classic vehicles, novelty water squirters and the awful 90s Eco-Warriors theme. Although I'll admit the Rat is pretty ratty - they didn't even bother with an acronym.
Some of these weren't when the sales started to decline at all. The surf board number 10 was '84, you said? GI Joe was at it's peak for another couple years after that. And I think some of the best vehicles are in the late 80's and 1990. Anything after 1990 is garbage. But, stuff like the Mean Dog, Rolling Thunder, the Night Raven, Stilleto, The Hammer just a few off the top of my head, are some of the best vehicles in the entire line. Realistic or not, some of them, they're toys, and meant to be played with hence their added play value with missiles and moving parts and such.
Great video/ list. I really liked the D.E.M.O.N. though, because I felt it doubled as a playset for the Iron Grenadiers; which AFAIK never had a playset. It was the last vehicle that I was able to stomach the amount of over-the-top missiles. G.I. Joe jumped the shark for me around this time, but the worst was yet to come!
Man I love the Cobra RAT :P it was the only vehicle I wanted so bad as a kid along with anihilator to drive it. But in Brasil man was so expensive, my mom couldn't afford it, I got it later in College tho :D
I loved the Buzz Boar. It was the ultimate terror weapon. A giant buzzsaw with guns. It could either shoot you or you could die a more horrific death of dismemberment. I remember a similar vehicle reappeared later on in the Dune Series of RTS Games by Westwood Studios. Also, loved the HAVOC, but I will concede the design issues. Still, not the first time Uncle Sam made bad design choices either in fiction or irl. See "The Pentagon Papers" for a film on the troubled history of the Bradley before it finally got patched up to proper fighting shape.
I’m sorry not sorry but I LOVE THE H.A.V.O.C!!! It works perfectly in the missions i designed it for as a kid so I don’t know what your talking about Willis! It went all the places it needed to and survived all of Cobra schemes (somehow). Can’t imagine how this got on the list 🙄😒😒😒
Coastal Defender - Cobra Commander: "I see nothing to be concerned about, merely an ordinary array of portapotties. Wait...why are there portapotties in the jungle??" "Yoooooo Joe!"
Back in the day, a buddy of mine requisitioned the treads from my DEMON along with two plastic wash tubs, a softball, and a lot of packing tape in order to create his own Technodrome (before the official one released).
Dan!! I generally got respect for you sir. But naming Destro's demon on this list? You've got to be kidding. The Demon is an awesome piece of toy and imagination.
Even though it was much used in the cartoon, I never liked the Trouble bubbles (Cobra flight pods) it looked ridiculous. And G.I.Joe's Bridge layer was kind of useless if the ravine or river were too large. And the Cobra stun... what's the use of splitting the front? They should make that the canon can turn to fire on the side and everything would be good. Aside from this, you're right about all the vehicules you mentionned. Nice review.
Trouble Bubbles would be the easiest target practice in the world. I never understood how a what was essentially just a glass ball with a jet pack attached to it was a good idea for battlefield deployment.
I had the Manta, I have the Havok, Cobra actually had more then one weapon designer. Doctor Mindbender built the Bats. Plus I think Scrap Iron did some weapons building. the Pogo was built by one of the Fred Crimson Guardsmen at least in the Marvel Comic. and also built the Cobra Commander Battle Suit.
I didn't think of GI Joe vehicles becoming more like baby toys until you mentioned it. I got the Cobra Earthquake in early 90's. The vehicle is one of my favorite Cobra ground vehicles. The bucket in front works like a Tonka truck bulldozer digger.
I had the Coastal Defendar and loved the surprise attack design of it. I had the H.A.V.O.C. and loved the hidden hovercraft. But the LCV will always be special to me. I received it and Bazooka as my first G.I. Joe toys for my 8th birthday. From then on that was Bazooka's vehicle. No other figure drove it and Bazooka never piloted anything else.
As a kid who grew up in the 80's loving this toyline, I can get behind most of the choices on this list. I actually wanted a Silver Mirage really badly and never got one as a kid, but once I got one as an adult collector I realized it was so fiddley and fragile it was an awful toy for play. I agree 100% on the HAVOC, that was a gimmicky nonsense vehicle with an ugly stereotype of a driver. Before the Rat, in 1989 Hasbro churned out 4 ultra-cheap garbage vehicles with the Hovercraft, Devastator, Radar Rat and Tri-Blaster. But the Rat was undeniably the worst vehicle at the lowest point of the line.
I never understood the stupid thing Tomax and Xamot drove around in. A weird large ATV type vehicle whose front end could split in two like a lazy-eyed tank. WTH...
The Ferret was the ATV that was much like the 4 wheel ATVs you can get. The vehicle he is refering to is the Cobra STUN, which had three wheels and pods on the front that could split. It came with Motor Viper.
Yeah. I was a huge fan of Gi Joe. was my favorite toy line when i was a kid. The Cobra STUN was the first vehicle i got that made me think "Oh No. i Don't think i'm going to like where this is going." ... I was right.
Are you kidding!? My MANTA was used on many a covert infiltration op and that outrigger mounted torpedo came as a nasty surprise to more than one exifil persuer. I loved that I was the only kid on the block with one. We had quite the strike force on Jean St.
I always envisioned the Coastal Defender as a stopgap measure: quickly towed in to secure a position, possibly left behind after a beach landing to guard the rear from counter assault.
For any child who had G.I. Joe, there is always that one vehicle will be their personal worst. That being the Joe vehicle that breaks on them at Christmas.
When you take into consideration the fact that cover Commander was a non-human soldier sent overthrow the world. And that his main job job with Cobra law before he came to start cobra was as a scientist and weapons designer, it makes perfect sense that some of Cobra's vehicles would be weird, and have a non-humanistic appearance.
This list prioritizes nostalgia over actually calling out the worst, slots #1 and 2 notwithstanding. Any random vehicle from the 90s is worse than anything pre-1989. But no one's familiar with any of that garbage, so it doesn't bear mentioning. The 90s Joes were so forgettable and bad, they don't even get 'worst of' list inclusions.
The Tiger Force line was the best. Yes- it was mostly just re-packaging of previous designs, but the tiger paint and inclusion of Joe characters (Recondo!) made it fun.
In the 1st World War there were experiments on what were basically sleds with armor in the front. While not powered, they were basically a mobile armored low-crawl "vehicle".
Hasbro the reason why Hasbro's Vehicles stop looking like actual military vehicles was a two-fold problem the first problem Hasbro had was Mother's thought their toys were too violent in appearance. The second in the early 90s was military weapons companies wanted to sue Hasbro. Hasbro' was making millions of dollars on toys that look like weapon manufacturers' products.
I understand the awkwardness of the HAVOC but I was attracted to its features and colors. Unlike my peers, I started a little late with G.I.Joe, getting fully into it in 1986, and was mostly drawn to the non-realistic vehicles at first. In a weird way, I was keen on real military vehicles at the time, so I nitpicked about the differences between an AH-1 Cobra helicopter and the Dragonfly it was resembling, or the F-14 and the Skystriker.
I loved the cobra pogo battle ball. It was my first cobra vehicle. Never forget how cool it was to snap it all together, and carefully put all the stickers.. err I mean decals on it. Lol It was weird sure, but still super rad.
Waaaaaaiiiiiit..... What about those mechanized sled backpack things?!? It was worn as a Joe (or Cobra) backpack with a movable head-and-shoulders shield (??!!?) but could be removed, the skids deployed and if the figure needed to be slowly moved up an 8" 14° incline at incredibly sluggish and loud speeds, he would be victorious. I can't remember how I ever ended up with one. Must have been some clearance item. Thank you, Laneco.
Yeah, me, too. I rarely ever took it off the shelf and used it. Besides, as I soon discovered, my MOBAT was too heavy to cross it. It would cause the bridge to fold in half!
That sawblade thing would have been totally cool if the average Cobra figure actually FIT inside of it. Also I am impressed this guy got so many toys standing up on his shelf because I personally have fumble fingers.
pictures need to be up longer fam
I actually liked the Buzz Boar. I didn't have a lot of money as a kid, so I built a lot of playsets out of styrafome and I used to make weapons depots that Cobra could break into using the Buzz Boar.
This video would be better if images of the vehicles filled the entire screen and lasted for more than 5 seconds. Then we could see what the host is talking about.
Bailey
Agreed. One step further would be to physically have them on hand and demonstrate in real time. I was a product of the 80s and live for this stuff.
Ive been thinking the same thing. Lovee the videos but my mind doesnt keep a vivid memory of a fleeting image. Besides that im loving every video ive seen thus far.
Ive been thinking the same thing. Lovee the videos but my mind doesnt keep a vivid memory of a fleeting image. Besides that im loving every video ive seen thus far.
Agree 100%. He flashes the item at the beginning and then when he describes what he is talking about I have to go back and rewind to video to notice what he mentioned. Good ideas for videos, poor execution.
My thoughts exactly! Hold the picture longer and even showing the actual product in action would have been good.
Love your style and writing, but I'd enjoy these reviews so much more if you showed the actual toys for more than 5 sec. Like for example the entire time you're talking about them?
Right dont need to see you except for 30 sec beginning and 30 end of video
I'm sorry but the Havoc was freakin awesome. It's faceoff in the comics versus the Thundermachine was one of the most epic vehicle duels in the comics history, right up there with the Skystriker versus the Rattler. XD
Minnie hover craft!!! It was so wizard!
By and far one of my favorite toys ever.
I agree, I liked the Havoc.
Havoc was by far my favorite!
The Havoc rules!!!!
The Havoc best gimmick was that when the giant guns move forward, it uses the gunner as a human shield to protect the drivers.
HAVOC is the first GI Joe vehicle I got. And I still have it today :-)
Coastal Defender? All these years I've been calling it the Outhouse Defender. LOL
It works that way too though so you weren't necessarily wrong.
The missiles make damned sure that people knock first
And it still sounds like a party!
XD
I was thinking portapotty
Depending on how long the poor bastard was deployed in that thing before the op started its name and designation would change from one to the other.
I really like The WARTHOG. It was my first GI Joe vehicle and I loved that it came packed with Sgt Slaughter.
The HAVOC was awesome. You’re high. 🤣
Totally agree
It was a strange design but so much fun to play with. I never used it as a frontline vehicle like they did in the cartoon, rather as long range fire support from behind cover usually with '86 Hawk manning the big cannons.
He is high , HAVOC freaking cool!
They shot lasers for gods sake, why is he so obsessed with realism.
I had the DEMON back then it was really fun to play with I just used it like an alien tank and fit just fine. Design be dammed I actually loved to have a Destro tank Destro being my favorite Cobra villain...closely followed by firefly.
Agree.I loved this vehicle.
Cobra: "Dreams come true!" GI Joe:"we gonna strap you in a box with some missiles and you gonna like it"
COBRA: privately funded.
JOES: Government red tape
i rather be in a ratt then in the box with missiles.
I have the silver Mirage and it's a great display toy. You can't play with it outside but it looks awesome on a Shelf.
The Pogo has always been my favorite. Years later I rebuilt one with a real paint job and eaverything.
I had 3 of them! They were on discount at KB toys! I took the legs off and they became the cobra elites escape pods!
@@RA10H56 That sounds like something that we need the boxart for.
"Its a box!" I laughed so hard! Ive been watching all of your old vids. So much fun on a lunch hour.
aren't the stickers above the guns the headlights on the HAVOC?
Yes
Was just bout to type that. Like brah were looking RIGHT at the headlights
Correctamundo.
Articulated refers to the dual axis steering capability. loved the havoc. you bring me tears. actually
+mantis999999999 Steering eh? I learned something today.
@ Joe Eversole Me too, even though I never got a chance to own one during my childhood. I might pick one up at some point. Also I like the Sliver Mirage motorcycle, even if it is an out their design for a military toy line. Never had one of these either, but I still love the look of it. I am very pleased that Hasbro made a new one in the scale of the 25th anniversary action figures.
You guys can buy mine, I thought it was the beginning of the end
When I was a kid, I just gutted the Coastal Defender, filled it with weapons and towed it behind the jeep.
Hey now! Some of us had to have an LCV because we didn't have enough money for the Tomahawk or the awesome base vehicles.... it was perfect for our frontier GI Joe base made out of Lincoln Logs and a trench cut through the lawn we hated to cut. ^^
I actully like the HAVOC and the DEMON
Agreed
You could have just said everything released under the Battle Force 2000 line and been done.
The LCV recon sled looks like something Mr. Garrison from South Park would design.
The Havoc is an all time classic Joe toy and the Cobra Rat was far from the worst thing being released in the line by that point.. Other than that, good list.
I'm a proud Rat owner. The blades spin man, the blades spin..!
What was done to Zartan’s Swampskier for the 25th anniversary fig definitely needs to be on the list. 😤
I was lucky enough to find a vintage Silver Mirage re-release with Duke mint in package five years ago. I was stoked. I don't understand how this vehicle wound up in this list, with the stickers complete, and an agent Helix riding with another figure riding the side compartment handling the gun, this vehicle looks sweet!
I asked Santa for GI Joes for Christmas. I wanted the aircraft carrier but I got the MANTA
What's freaking HILARIOUS about this video is the fact that you said by 1991 you either moved on to comics or video games. And IRONICALLY I played with Joes fall of 85 til summer of 91. Hahah. I literally got into both video games and comics.
I guess I was a half way lucky. Back then I got just as much of my G.I. Joe stuff as gifts and from garage sales as I did hand picked from the store. Out of all of these on the list the only one I owned was the H.A.V.O.C. and it was gifted to me. I actually aquired two of them and heavily modified the second one.
I wish I had known about the magic of garage sales back when I first started working at 16. I would have bought so many Joes and Star Wars.
Kenneth Malone I d say havoc is not that bad
Charles V I quite like the havoc as well. I had it is part of my collection years ago and thought I had a very interesting design even though I'm well aware that the pilot of that thing had to be the unluckiest son of a bitch on the planet. You might as well have had a glowing neon sign above his head saying I'm too stupid to hide please shoot me. I used to absolutely love collecting the G.I Joe toys but eventually ended up giving up on the series since a lot of the vehicle designs look like they came out of some bad Star Wars rip off or a Dr Seuss nightmare
This really needed larger images with longer screentime.
Great idea for a list. Wish the pictures stayed up while you're talking about them though instead of just a few seconds initially.
I played with all of these as a kid and loved every second of it! Still have some of these, and now I get to play again with my son. New, old, as long as it had a rubber band, I was good with it!
I had the HAVOC and thought it was awesome. I just hated the driver. He was quickly delegated to die first role in all adventures.
Lol Cross Country. Total tool on the cartoon also.
@@HATER506 he punched a shark!!!!
The HAVOC was a good vehicle and could hold a lot of guys.The figure was stupid looking and I didn't like the Cross Country's character either.
The HAVOC was great!
What about the Cobra stun. The front of it split so that the 2 pilots could shoot at 2 different targets. I was actually "stunned" when I saw this vehicle as a kid. "Mission accomplished, Cobra". 😋
But even as a kid I thought the Cobra Stun was impractical but didn't know why until I grew up. Just create 2 turrets and this way your vehicle doesn't have to stop moving to shoot at 2 targets.
At least the Cobra Pogo made more sense when it was reissued as a vehicle for the Star Brigade.
i like when old videos like this pop up on my "recommended for you list". Top notch
Thanks!
Cobra: If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It
That's a kick-ass catchphrase if I've ever heard one.
Finally...a toy video showing a toy I had. Go Havoc!!!
I had the Rat when I was growing up. It didn't suck to me.
The havoc rocked!
adam fox agreed.
all time favorite vehicle
For a toy yes, as for a practical military vehicle not so much. Seriously, the gunner seat is a death trap.
Yup, i was in my pre teens and i wanted one
Agreed completely. Hated the driver though with his stupid little cap.
I know this is "worst" vehicles, but the one that I had that I thought was the absolute best was the Defiant shuttle with the huge launch platform. You got the shuttle, a single (reusable) orbital booster that turned into a huge command station and that MASSIVE launch gantry that actually raised and lowered with a crank in the rear I think it was a year later you got a re-release of the shuttle called the Crusader with some black accents and no booster/gantry, but it came with a neat little mini-shuttle in the main cargo bay that was a re-release of the one that came with the COBRA Night Raven. Good times, gooood times.
I just recently got my hands on a complete Defiant for the first time ever. An astounding accomplishment that is certainly underappreciated due to the fact that so few people actually owned one (and several engineering issues). But yeah, heck of thing.
I loved the G.I. Joe toy line when there were plausible vehicles and not too silly looking characters but damn, the longer it went on, the more it turned into G.I. Joke. Very sad how even Hasbro just gave up on it.
Yeah, the same thing happened with Transformers...
@@hthrun so Aliens turning in to alien vehicles is somehow implausible?
@@edwarddeguzman3258 If I remember this post from three years ago correctly, I was referring to how the first couple seasons of TFs used alt modes that were based on real life vehicles, like GI Joe did. In later seasons, the vehicles were less real life, or plausible, and more alien. If we were to take the argument that it was ok for them to use less plausible alt modes because they were aliens, we should be able to do the same for GI Joe because by the time the less plausibe vehicles mentioned in the original post came along, Cobra was shown to be backed by an "alien" civilization. (I put "alien" in quotes because the term indicates they are from a foreign location. In Cobra-La's case, IIRC, they weren't from another planet but were actually prehistoric. Either way, they had advanced technology which just happened to be organic and living instead of electrical.) So if the vehicles in the later TF seasons would not be implausible because the TF universe contained aliens, then the GI Joe vehicles referenced in the first post should also be considered plausible because they involved a highly advanced civilization that doesn't exist in real life.
I can't speak for the first poster, but I believe in both cases we were talking about vehicles that would be plausible in real life regardless of the surrounding fiction. Just because one part of a fiction is fantasy based doesn't mean it all should be. Otherwise we'd have to allow talking animals in the TF universe and humans could use magic and it would be ok simply because there are already alien robots. Going with this line of logic, someone could say, "Duke's not a real person, it's all fantasy, so it's ok to have dinosaurs roaming the earth now." Different people have different rules that they like fictions to follow.
Not that I have a problem with TFs using alien alt modes. In my post I just pointed out that, after a while, they were less plausible just like GI Joe.
Unbelievable, until it pops out of a bush and turns your whole platoon into sloppy joes!
Passed on some of my vehicles to the kids...they call the HAVOC "the camper". Nailed it.
I like the majority of the toy designs from 1982-1989. Past 1989 I lost interest. In 1991 I restarted my interested by looking for a few toys that I didn't get before 1991. I don't why many say they love the 1970's and I say that I love the ones from the 80's. They helped me out recently to build a few pieces of furniture. The gijoe vehicles of the 1980's enabled me to put together the toys I wanted to play with: fang, wolverine, sky striker, armadillo, water moccasin, viper glider, hiss tank, ram, howitzer, shark, PAC RAT flamethrower, claw, asp, and boar. Those toys included the instructions to assemble the toys on one side and the other side had blueprints in the same color. I think it's a blue type color. Interesting time to be a boy in the 1980's.
I used to have the Havoc and Demon!!! But I still love GI Joe
I never minded the more gimmicky Cobra vehicles as that was their shtick.
Also, the irony that GI Joe flew the real world Cobra attack helicopter was not lost on me at the time
This video was hilarious! Would love to see a video on the top ten worst Joe figures to follow this up.
Thanks! I guarantee we'll get to that sooner or later.
No place for the Septic Tank in there? A tragic culmination of the day-glo colour schemes, re-using classic vehicles, novelty water squirters and the awful 90s Eco-Warriors theme.
Although I'll admit the Rat is pretty ratty - they didn't even bother with an acronym.
+Huw Morgan There would likely have been a lot of Eco-Force, Star Brigade and BF2K had I continued and done 11-20.
Some of these weren't when the sales started to decline at all. The surf board number 10 was '84, you said? GI Joe was at it's peak for another couple years after that. And I think some of the best vehicles are in the late 80's and 1990. Anything after 1990 is garbage. But, stuff like the Mean Dog, Rolling Thunder, the Night Raven, Stilleto, The Hammer just a few off the top of my head, are some of the best vehicles in the entire line. Realistic or not, some of them, they're toys, and meant to be played with hence their added play value with missiles and moving parts and such.
Great video/ list. I really liked the D.E.M.O.N. though, because I felt it doubled as a playset for the Iron Grenadiers; which AFAIK never had a playset. It was the last vehicle that I was able to stomach the amount of over-the-top missiles. G.I. Joe jumped the shark for me around this time, but the worst was yet to come!
Man I love the Cobra RAT :P it was the only vehicle I wanted so bad as a kid along with anihilator to drive it. But in Brasil man was so expensive, my mom couldn't afford it, I got it later in College tho :D
I loved the Buzz Boar. It was the ultimate terror weapon. A giant buzzsaw with guns. It could either shoot you or you could die a more horrific death of dismemberment. I remember a similar vehicle reappeared later on in the Dune Series of RTS Games by Westwood Studios. Also, loved the HAVOC, but I will concede the design issues. Still, not the first time Uncle Sam made bad design choices either in fiction or irl. See "The Pentagon Papers" for a film on the troubled history of the Bradley before it finally got patched up to proper fighting shape.
The headlights were above the guns on the HAVOC.
I’m sorry not sorry but I LOVE THE H.A.V.O.C!!!
It works perfectly in the missions i designed it for as a kid so I don’t know what your talking about Willis!
It went all the places it needed to and survived all of Cobra schemes (somehow).
Can’t imagine how this got on the list 🙄😒😒😒
What? The havoc was amazing!! Sure it didn’t have car seats but still an amazing vehicle! You’re crazy AF!
Wow, seven years ago. Still one of my favorite videos. Thanks guys for all the awesome conten.
I’m terrified every GI Joe vehicle I owned as a kid is going to be on here.
Epilogue: Surprisingly, only one of mine was... and it was my favorite! #8, the HAVOC! Hard disagree guys.
Coastal Defender - Cobra Commander: "I see nothing to be concerned about, merely an ordinary array of portapotties. Wait...why are there portapotties in the jungle??" "Yoooooo Joe!"
The coastal defender is war porter potty. LMAO!!!
Leave a guy stuck in there for a couple of days, and it damn sure will smell like one too.
Who remembers using the Buzz Boar and the Pogo in the old 8 Bit NES G.I. Joe game?
Back in the day, a buddy of mine requisitioned the treads from my DEMON along with two plastic wash tubs, a softball, and a lot of packing tape in order to create his own Technodrome (before the official one released).
Dan!! I generally got respect for you sir. But naming Destro's demon on this list? You've got to be kidding. The Demon is an awesome piece of toy and imagination.
The HAVOC was my favorite hehehehe
Even though it was much used in the cartoon, I never liked the Trouble bubbles (Cobra flight pods) it looked ridiculous. And G.I.Joe's Bridge layer was kind of useless if the ravine or river were too large. And the Cobra stun... what's the use of splitting the front? They should make that the canon can turn to fire on the side and everything would be good. Aside from this, you're right about all the vehicules you mentionned. Nice review.
Trouble Bubbles would be the easiest target practice in the world. I never understood how a what was essentially just a glass ball with a jet pack attached to it was a good idea for battlefield deployment.
My MOBAT would fold my bridge everytime. It was too heavy to cross it.
Hahaha! Wow! That battle-ready port-o-potty box one was hilarious! I started cracking up the moment I saw it. 🤣🤣🤣
Toilets in disguise.
Lmao, I had the HAVOC. Used to play with it in the tub.
HEY! I like the Pogo!!!!
With a 2 AA Este Rocket engine...
Strapped to the sides.
>_>
It's still somewhere out there in the Desert.
There is no low-crawl vehicle, but you are taught how to perform a low-crawl as a soldier. Spent many hours learning to low-crawl!
I had the Manta, I have the Havok, Cobra actually had more then one weapon designer. Doctor Mindbender built the Bats. Plus I think Scrap Iron did some weapons building. the Pogo was built by one of the Fred Crimson Guardsmen at least in the Marvel Comic. and also built the Cobra Commander Battle Suit.
You just reminded me of how I owned the coastal defender and I also loved playing with it...wow.
I didn't think of GI Joe vehicles becoming more like baby toys until you mentioned it. I got the Cobra Earthquake in early 90's. The vehicle is one of my favorite Cobra ground vehicles. The bucket in front works like a Tonka truck bulldozer digger.
I had the Coastal Defendar and loved the surprise attack design of it.
I had the H.A.V.O.C. and loved the hidden hovercraft.
But the LCV will always be special to me. I received it and Bazooka as my first G.I. Joe toys for my 8th birthday. From then on that was Bazooka's vehicle. No other figure drove it and Bazooka never piloted anything else.
As a kid who grew up in the 80's loving this toyline, I can get behind most of the choices on this list. I actually wanted a Silver Mirage really badly and never got one as a kid, but once I got one as an adult collector I realized it was so fiddley and fragile it was an awful toy for play. I agree 100% on the HAVOC, that was a gimmicky nonsense vehicle with an ugly stereotype of a driver. Before the Rat, in 1989 Hasbro churned out 4 ultra-cheap garbage vehicles with the Hovercraft, Devastator, Radar Rat and Tri-Blaster. But the Rat was undeniably the worst vehicle at the lowest point of the line.
I'll be honest... I wasn't expecting these vehicles to be nearly this hideous. The folks who made GI Joe really out did themselves.
I never understood the stupid thing Tomax and Xamot drove around in. A weird large ATV type vehicle whose front end could split in two like a lazy-eyed tank. WTH...
Ugh. Yeah. Totally agree. Never cared for that thing.
Yeah, I got that one in a trade. I gave another kid something I had a duplicate of.
The Ferret was the ATV that was much like the 4 wheel ATVs you can get. The vehicle he is refering to is the Cobra STUN, which had three wheels and pods on the front that could split. It came with Motor Viper.
Yeah. I was a huge fan of Gi Joe. was my favorite toy line when i was a kid. The Cobra STUN was the first vehicle i got that made me think "Oh No. i Don't think i'm going to like where this is going." ... I was right.
I had the MANTA. I got it with the points you get from buying various GI JOE stuff.
Less video of the dude talking and more footage or pics of the actual vehicles would have led to me watching the whole video.
actually I like most of these. not the manta though, that shit suuuuuucks!
+mantis999999999 Same here, bro. My 8yo self thumbs downed this vid!
The language was unnecessary.
mantis999999999 same here i love it 👍😍
lol i had it
Are you kidding!? My MANTA was used on many a covert infiltration op and that outrigger mounted torpedo came as a nasty surprise to more than one exifil persuer. I loved that I was the only kid on the block with one. We had quite the strike force on Jean St.
HAVOK? Are you serious? That was awesome
The H.A.V.O.K was Awesome buddy!!!
Haha, so Cobra Commander was like the current CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings. "Ok, great idea. So here's the money---just go make it!"
HAVOC...
Highly
Articulated
Vacationers
On
Crystal-Meth
That's funny !!! I had to do a double take on that one.
Worst G.I. Joe vehicle shoud be the Road Toad B.R.V. It's a trailer hitch with a winch and a gun. That's it.
I always envisioned the Coastal Defender as a stopgap measure: quickly towed in to secure a position, possibly left behind after a beach landing to guard the rear from counter assault.
For any child who had G.I. Joe, there is always that one vehicle will be their personal worst. That being the Joe vehicle that breaks on them at Christmas.
When you take into consideration the fact that cover Commander was a non-human soldier sent overthrow the world. And that his main job job with Cobra law before he came to start cobra was as a scientist and weapons designer, it makes perfect sense that some of Cobra's vehicles would be weird, and have a non-humanistic appearance.
This list prioritizes nostalgia over actually calling out the worst, slots #1 and 2 notwithstanding. Any random vehicle from the 90s is worse than anything pre-1989. But no one's familiar with any of that garbage, so it doesn't bear mentioning. The 90s Joes were so forgettable and bad, they don't even get 'worst of' list inclusions.
The Tiger Force line was the best. Yes- it was mostly just re-packaging of previous designs, but the tiger paint and inclusion of Joe characters (Recondo!) made it fun.
In the 1st World War there were experiments on what were basically sleds with armor in the front. While not powered, they were basically a mobile armored low-crawl "vehicle".
Hasbro the reason why Hasbro's Vehicles stop looking like actual military vehicles was a two-fold problem the first problem Hasbro had was Mother's thought their toys were too violent in appearance. The second in the early 90s was military weapons companies wanted to sue Hasbro. Hasbro' was making millions of dollars on toys that look like weapon manufacturers' products.
Hi from 2021.
Where did you learn this?
I understand the awkwardness of the HAVOC but I was attracted to its features and colors. Unlike my peers, I started a little late with G.I.Joe, getting fully into it in 1986, and was mostly drawn to the non-realistic vehicles at first. In a weird way, I was keen on real military vehicles at the time, so I nitpicked about the differences between an AH-1 Cobra helicopter and the Dragonfly it was resembling, or the F-14 and the Skystriker.
I loved the cobra pogo battle ball. It was my first cobra vehicle. Never forget how cool it was to snap it all together, and carefully put all the stickers.. err I mean decals on it. Lol It was weird sure, but still super rad.
Amazing how much “Joe” relied on the HAVOC in close-quarter combat.
Waaaaaaiiiiiit.....
What about those mechanized sled backpack things?!?
It was worn as a Joe (or Cobra) backpack with a movable head-and-shoulders shield (??!!?)
but could be removed, the skids deployed and if the figure needed to be slowly moved up an 8" 14° incline at incredibly sluggish and loud speeds, he would be victorious.
I can't remember how I ever ended up with one.
Must have been some clearance item.
Thank you, Laneco.
They all feel like Star Wars Mini Rigs. All about price-point on the shelf!
"This is a box" hahahahaha hahaha. I laughed my ass off
I had a feeling the recon sled would be on the list, but it was the first Joe vehicle I had and I loved it.
I always thought that the “ Bridgelayer” was lame.
Yeah, me, too. I rarely ever took it off the shelf and used it. Besides, as I soon discovered, my MOBAT was too heavy to cross it. It would cause the bridge to fold in half!
That sawblade thing would have been totally cool if the average Cobra figure actually FIT inside of it. Also I am impressed this guy got so many toys standing up on his shelf because I personally have fumble fingers.