1983 Gung Ho
Gung Ho is a popular GI Joe character, but oddly for me I have no real attachment to Gung Ho. 1983 was full of cool designs I like a lot, like Snow Job, Doc, Destro, Major Bludd: there’s barely a figure from the year I’m ambivalent to besides Gung Ho. So while I’ve got some classic figures on the mind, I might as well hash out a post about my feelings on the figure.
Gung Ho is somewhere between being iconic and boring. On one hand, the figure is distinct with fun colors and a look that’s fairly unique among early 80‘s figures (this was before 1988 when every forgettable Joe ran around in a vest with no shirt on). On the other hand, being a shirtless marine is about the extent of his character, and I can’t say I find him all that fun to use. By comparison, Leatherneck is far more standard, which seems less interesting, yet I still find that figure more fun to have around than Gung Ho.
Despite my somewhat ill-defined disinterest in him, he’s certainly not a bad figure. The light-blue and green camo colors look eye-catching and distinct. The large marine corps logo tattooed on his chest is possibly the most memorable and well done detail on the figure. It’s hard to compose a group of figures where Gung Ho doesn’t stand out, which speaks volume to his charm.
V1 Gung Ho has some interesting repaints, though domestically we never got more than the brown one in 1997 with the Slugger. In the Action Force line, he got a repaint as the fairly famous Gaucho, and Funskool also used his tooling for their own release of him and a Complan Commando figure. Most of these figures come in colors I find far more interesting than V1 Gung Ho’s, but sadly they’re of value and rarity that’s unattainable for most.
His accessories are nice. He comes with a hand-held grenade launcher, and a unique backpack that’s one of the first in the line to be so bulky. It stands out and has a great shape to it, a shame to not be included with more figures. Personally I think this pack would’ve been nice to see in black with some Cobras, but such was never the case. The grenade launcher has a functioning sling you can use, and a good size grip that isn’t too scary to stick in his hand.
It feels like mint, complete Gung Ho’s tend to run around $15 to $18, but the challenge is in finding ones that are both mint and complete. Gung Ho is very prone to discoloration and it’s more often that his original grenade launcher is swapped for the white one from an Accessory Pack. If you aren’t too picky about these things you can get one a lot cheaper, but it can require some patience.
It’s funny the commercial, the comic and the box art of the Battle Bear used Gung-Ho in the arctic.
Also, the Slugger in the background of your photo, since its machine gun is a mod of Gung-Ho’s weapon. And GH’s weapon IIRC was based on a real one, but when 25th line came around, they ignored it and gave him a Vietnam War era M79 launcher.
I had Gung-Ho, my brother did not. This made him special to me. I guess. I only had 3 swivel arm Joes for the longest time, him, Doc and Duke. (I got sidetracked by crappier toy lines for a few years). I found his grenade launcher limiting, he needed a gun, too. Sure he had his holstered pistol but the only representation of usable pistols in 1983 were Cobra oddities.
Gung Ho is a strange beast, in that he’s a really well done figure, but also a pretty odd colour, so if you don’t have much attachment to him, he’s not really a strong enough figure to overcome that.
I like him, and got a kick out of his character in his first few appearances in the Marvel comic. However like a lot of that comic, Gung Ho and decent story telling fell off by the mid 20s.
A-Man, he has a China Lake Grenade Launcher, I don’t know if they ever made it into actual combat in Vietnam, but it would make sense for a G.I. Joe to be in possession of a pseudo-experimental weapon
“I like him, and got a kick out of his character in his first few appearances in the Marvel comic. However like a lot of that comic, Gung Ho and decent story telling fell off by the mid 20s.”
Heresy!