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Author Topic: Vintage Review: The General!  (Read 7786 times)

olyeller01

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Vintage Review: The General!
« on: May 05, 2011, 01:27:11 AM »

Vintage Review – GI Joe General!

The Highs:
1.  Can hold a LOT of figures and even other vehicles
2.  Extremely heavily armed
3.  Integrated Locust recon chopper

The Lows:
1.  Not as well built as past large Joe vehicles
2.  Some unrealistic details
3.  Locust’s guns get floppy easily

The Verdict:
The last of the large Joe vehicles was a good one: THIS General has a commanding presence!

Among the large Joe vehicles and playsets out there, the Flagg, Defiant, Terrordrome, and Mobile Command Center seem to get all the love.  1990 featured the last of the REALLY big vehicles…the mighty GI Joe General.  And sure, ’91 had the Battle Wagon (which is not really on the scale of the General and featured some odd color choices) and ’92 had the HQ, but it’s not a vehicle!  So, the General could be considered the original 3 ¾ inch line’s swan song…and a good swan song it is, too.



The mighty GI Joe General!



…and from a higher view.


The General can basically be described as a rolling landing strip with a large cockpit bolted onto its front.  On the very front of the vehicle is a large pushbar with a molded-on, non-working winch.  Moving back, the cockpit features clamshell-style louvered canopy covers that flip up to reveal seating for four, back-to-back.  The cockpit has running boards on either side with footpegs that allow them to hold up to 6 figures.  Behind the cockpit is a large, yellow light bar with dual radar antennas, one on each side.  Underneath the light bar is the General’s electronics box.  The box slides in behind the cockpit and locks into place, and features a working yellow light as well as six sound effects buttons.  According to the instructions, the six sounds are a klaxon, engine noise, a pom-pom AA gun, a machine gun, missile lock-on and fire, and an explosion. 



The General’s cockpit.  Both sides look like this.



Moving back to the main body, the General rolls on ten wheels, which are powered by an engine on each corner!  I certainly wouldn’t want THIS vehicle’s fuel bill. The main body consists of two levels, the control/mortar level and the flight deck.  The General has two control rooms, one on each side.  The control rooms are accessed by flipping up the section of the flight deck covering them, and they feature standing computer consoles on each side and footpegs for four figures per room.  In between the control rooms is a massive, massive spring-loaded mortar cannon. 



Detail of an engine, with the forward gun and missiles also visible.



One of the control rooms,


The center section of the flight deck can be lowered to the General’s rear, and the mortar cannon can be raised on its rails and locked into one of two firing positions (the positions determine the steepness of the shell’s trajectory).  There are four yellow mortar shells that can be stored on posts near the front of the cannon.  The shells are quite large, standing as tall as a figure’s chest.  They have a fin on top of them that fits a slot on top of the mortar cannon.  This slot allows the shell to compress the spring and be locked into place.  Flipping the shell’s fin to the left once it’s locked releases the spring tension and fires the cannon. 





The mortar cannon, lowered and raised.





The loading ramp, which not only allows the mortar to be raised but also allows ground vehicles to be loaded onto the General.



Moving upward, the top level of the General’s main body is a flight deck.  It’s pretty large too, measuring approximately 2 feet long by 1 foot wide.  While not exactly large enough to launch planes, it’s perfect for choppers or other VTOL vehicles.  The center section of the flight deck (the part over the mortar) has slots molded into its top that fit the landing skids of the included Locust helicopter perfectly.  There’s also a ramp at the rear of the center section, so vehicles could be driven onto it and then raised to the flight deck level.  On either side of the center section are helipads, complete with landing markings.  The flight deck level is the perfect size for smaller Joe aerial vehicles and could accommodate a good number of them.  Sky Hawks in particular would be idea, because they fit perfectly and their small space needs (no rotor blades) means that four or five of them could easily fit on the General.  It should be noted that the General is not limited to smaller Joe aerial vehicles like the Sky Hawk, however.  A pair of Dragonflys could fit easily if you moved them to the sides enough so that their rotor blades wouldn’t hit each other (and if you don’t mind their tails hanging off the back), and even a Tomahawk fits very nicely if you land it longways across the deck. 



The flight deck…



…loaded with Sky Hawks and the Locust…



…with a Dragonfly…



…and with a Tomahawk!!!



If attacked, the General is no slouch at defending itself, either.  This is one of the most well armed Joe vehicles in existence!  Besides the previously mentioned giant mortar cannon, the General features no fewer than 8 gun stations and 20 missiles.  There are four triple-barreled cannons on the lower part of the vehicle, in between the front and rear wheels and just in front of the engines.  These cannons are of a large enough caliber to do serious damage, and they have an excellent range of motion…including even almost straight up if necessary!  The flight deck has double-barreled gun stations built into each of its corners.  The operators can stay low in their seats while flight operations are ongoing, and are also afforded a bit of protection by their low seating arrangement.  These guns can also be aimed almost straight up, and the seats they are attached to can be rotated almost completely around, so they also have a good range of motion.  Any of the guns attached to the General could be used in either an anti-aircraft or anti-vehicle/personnel role, due to their excellent range of movement.  They also cover every section of the General except for very close in front of it…and with all the weaponry it has, I doubt anything would MAKE it to get close enough to stand front and center in front of the General! 



Flight deck gun station



Flight deck missile launcher



There’s still more to the weaponry.  Each corner of the flight deck has three large yellow missiles hanging from underneath it.  They are set in a somewhat odd arrangement: the inboard missile sits further back than the one in the middle and the outboard missiles do, but since all four corners are like that it looks ok.  There’s also hidden weapons systems here…the helipads can be flipped over, revealing a folded missile rack and firing station that can hold and fire four medium-sized missiles!  Though the missile stations can make headroom in the control centers underneath tight when they are flipped down, I LOVE this feature.  It makes the General extremely versatile…it can hold a ton of vehicles, aircraft, or personnel on the flight deck while in transit…but as soon as the flight deck is clear, the missile stations can be flipped up to add to the General’s already overwhelming firepower, and can put what would otherwise be pretty much wasted, empty space to use!



The General with both missile stations deployed



The General has one final feature: it comes with its own little recon helicopter, the original Locust.  The Locust is a small, one-man chopper with a bubble-style canopy in front, a twin rotor blade design (like the Dragonfly) and a very short, stubby tail.  To add stability and maneuverability to the Locust that it would otherwise give up with its short tail, the tail rotor is a large one-piece unit that can be turned like a rudder.  The Locust may be small, but it still packs a punch.  Double-barreled machine guns sit on either side of the cockpit.  There are two small missiles/bombs positioned up high, just beneath the rotor cone.  And, there’s even a small bomb bay on the Locust’s belly that can be opened to drop a pair of bombs!  Further, there are small steps with footpegs on them at the rear of the Locust’s skids, though I can’t see these being used too often…for one, I can see their use making the Locust seriously unbalanced, and two, the Joes on them would have to be very careful of their heads!  I should also note here that Hasbro thought enough of the Locust in 1990 to release it as a stand-alone vehicle.  The regular Locust uses the same mold as the one included with the General, but it has a tan body instead of a green one, the weapons, skids and tail rotor are silver instead of yellow, and the canopy glass is blue instead of smoke-tinted.  The regular Locust has a more realistic color scheme than the General’s version, but the General’s Locust does fit the color scheme of the General well.  I really like this little chopper, and my only complaint about it is over time the machine guns can wear out and get droopy (I ended up fixing mine in position with glue). 



Locust Front…



…iso view…



…and bottom.



I’ve described the General as large and very versatile, and it is.  So, why doesn’t it get the love that the big boys in the line before it get?  Well, for one, it came out near the end of the original 3 ¾” Joe line’s run and well after the ’84-’87 heyday.  For another, it just doesn’t seem as rugged and well built as its predecessors.  It seems like Hasbro was starting to cut corners on the plastic.  Indeed, the wheels are attached to the vehicle using the same double clip design the Rolling Thunder uses.  These clips are EXTREMELY fragile, and care must be taken not to drop the General or bang a wheel on a doorway when walking through it, as doing so will most likely make it lose a wheel…and the clips are almost impossible to glue back on well enough so they will stay.  The tiny pieces that snap the cockpit covers in place are also extremely fragile.  The covers stay in place well enough if their clips break off, but it’s still annoying and a terrible design.  If you find a General that has unbroken cockpit covers, you’ve got quite the find.  Further, care must be taken with the clips that hold the flight deck onto the main body of the vehicle.  If they bind when raising the deck section, they can crack, break completely, or stress mark.  As with other old Joe toys, the electronic sounds are a pain to keep working (though the light seems much more durable).  Personally, I don’t like the design of the light/radar rack.  It seems unnecessarily large to me, I really dislike the yellow color, and I don’t like the fact that it sits tilted at a forward angle.  Plus, the antennae that stick out from the top of the radars (if you are lucky enough to still have them) look unnecessary and could interfere with rotor blades of vehicles on the flight deck. 



Side view.



Overall, I really love the General.  Since I got into the original line late, the General was my first really big Joe vehicle, so it still holds a special place in my heart.  If you want one, be prepared to shell out anywhere from $50-150, and it’s BIG so shipping will be costly.  It doesn’t get all the attention the other big boys of the Joe line get, so you might be lucky enough to find a bargain on it.  Though it of course has its flaws, I think that you can’t go wrong with the General!  There’s nothing like a heavily armed, rolling mobile base that can carry anything from a Tomahawk to a squadron of Sky Hawks to a bunch of armor!



The 1997 Joe A-10 fits nicely on the flight deck.



Ok, NOW I’m just getting ridiculous.  But hey, it fits.  Barely.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2011, 08:36:11 PM by olyeller01 »
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OlYeller01
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olyeller01

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2011, 01:31:36 AM »

I hope you guys like my updated format...because it took a LOT of time.  I don't know if I'll do every review like that (with captions) from now on.  Unless I hear a mighty uproar from the masses.

And before anyone says anything, YES I know that the tan Dragonfly was actually called the Locust when it was released.  However A. it was handier for me than digging out my Dragonfly and B. in the interest of clarity, I called it a Dragonfly because the General comes with a helicopter named the Locust.  Got it?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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OlYeller01
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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2011, 08:33:02 AM »

WOW! That is some play set! Great Review! When it comes to the format, this is nicer but you are making it so post it however you like it!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2011, 10:50:57 AM »

The new format is very nice but you know what?.. the important thing is the review itself.. and this one rocks! Justin has some competition now!  :lol:
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5h4rK

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2011, 10:51:54 AM »

..and that's not a Dragonfly btw.. it's a Locust! ;D
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turner

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2011, 02:01:30 PM »

I just love these reviews.  One of the few things online worth reading.
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olyeller01

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2011, 02:19:22 PM »

Quote from: "5h4rK"
..and that's not a Dragonfly btw.. it's a Locust! ;D

Jerk.   ;D  :wink:  :lol:
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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OlYeller01
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olyeller01

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2011, 02:25:09 PM »

Quote from: "turner"
I just love these reviews.  One of the few things online worth reading.

I'm glad you guys enjoy these so much, I enjoy writing them...and reading your comments.  I don't think I'm exactly competition for Justin, as he devotes so much more time to the Joe hobby than I ever could.  Plus, reading his reviews kinda gave me the idea to start these.  If you really want to thank me, keep commenting and requesting new reviews!  And support the Paint-Viper by supporting your local Sherwin-Williams!   ;D
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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OlYeller01
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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2011, 04:21:39 PM »

Another great review. I never owned that piece.

One thing that would make it better, chrome.  :wink:

I'm kidding, I'm kidding!

But the Locust might look good in chrome.

Anyhow,  :timbits: given.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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turner

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2011, 04:40:25 PM »

Yeah, chrome.  That would be stellar.
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olyeller01

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2011, 06:06:23 PM »

After re-reading my shameless plug, I can't help but to qualify it by saying that supporting Sherwin-Williams keeps me employed which = more Joes for me and thus more reviews for you!!!!  :lol:
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OlYeller01
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bandonov

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Re: Vintage Review: The General!
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2011, 08:19:41 PM »

Quote from: "olyeller01"
After re-reading my shameless plug, I can't help but to qualify it by saying that supporting Sherwin-Williams keeps me employed which = more Joes for me and thus more reviews for you!!!!  :lol:

When I move to my new house in December, I will get my wife to pick her colours from the Sherwin-Williams store they just opened near me. 

1. Markham #8771
2&3-5308 Highway 7
Markham, ON L3P1B9
Phone: (905)472-1885

Now that is Plug! 
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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