Toys / Comics to Toys / G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe Classified Gung Ho

By Hervé St-Louis
November 10, 2020 - 21:10

Gung Ho is the Louisiana Cajun member of the G.I. Joe team that joined the team in 1983 as their marine. He is tough, strong, and a non-nonsense soldier. Gung Ho likes his mom’s gumbo but very few others enjoy it as much. Gung Ho was always proud of being a marine and was one of the few action figures featured in dress uniform later. For most kids at the time, he was a useless action figure but in hindsight, the ceremonial Gung Ho is a great addition to a military mall or an aircraft carrier.

Perhaps G.I. Joe Classified collectors would welcome such a variant but since Hasbro is too afraid to feature the real military side of the toy line, in favour of Fortnite-like ethos, perhaps we can keep dreaming. Nevertheless, if you watched the cartoons as a kid or read the comics, Gung Ho was often featured as a supporting character with few storylines of his own, but he made the best impression wherever he went.


The main change is the Marine Corps’ tattoo on his chest. It is not the same for obvious reasons related to design trademark. Hasbro got away with using the design for years, but the service has become more proactive in protecting its intellectual properties lately and Hasbro would have to apply to use it. While this has bothered many collectors, it is a sensible decision by Hasbro. Yet, one could argue that Hasbro could have tried to obtain a licence for the use of the logo as it has worked with car manufacturers in the past to license design marks for its Transformers’ line.


Gung Ho’s advantage compared to Roadblock is that we can see his chest. That alone has made the action figure more popular with collectors even though they use the same parts. My only complaint about Gung Ho’s sculpt is that his head seems proportionally larger than it should be. When compared with Roadblock’s it is much bigger. This gives him a slight height increase over Roadblock. According to his statistics, he is 6’4 while Roadblock is 6’6.



Just like Roadblock, Gung Ho’s feet are too small to support his weight. Once I figured out how balance his top-heavy weight, he became somewhat stable. The backpack helps balance his weight by adding some backward. If he carries two weapons in his hands, he will lean forward. Were his feet larger, this would not be a worry.


Gun Ho has a lot of props. I wonder why he has so many compared with Roadblock which is the closest comparable action figure. He has two guns and one grenade launcher. He also wears a removable vest with three grenades attached to it. I do not know if these are standard-issued grenades. He is one of the few G.I. Joe Classified to not have an extra belt or torso strap on his chest. He does, however, has a strap on his left thigh with three extra grenades.

He also has no knife or blade weapon. He wears another strap on his right forearm that could offer support from backdraft. Gung Ho’s backpack stays on his back but not solidly. You can attach all three weapons on his backpack, but they fall off easily. The grenade launcher is the most difficult weapon to attach to his backpack. The grenade launcher’s design makes it difficult for the action figure to grab. I don’t like this weapon. One of the weapons is a long-range shotgun while the other one seems like mix between a laser rifle and an automatic weapon. The colour of these weapons is good because even without highlights, they look better than other single-coloured black or green guns.

Gung Ho’s hat is weird. Don’t press too hard for it to stay put. If you press too hard, it will fall off. Gung Ho has no peg hole in his brain to hold his hat so be gentle!

James Paick did the box art for the package. He is a conceptual illustrator better-known for environments than character designs, so his choice is odd. His art is good but more painterly. At the scale represented on the package, it is not the best artwork of the series. I was not sold on Gung Ho with his art.



The speculation around G.I. Joe Classified action figures is becoming ridiculous with the Cobra Island release being sold at exorbitant prices online and difficult to find in Target and Toys R Us Canada stores. At one point, everyone but me seemed to have received their Gung Ho action figures even though I ordered mine as soon as it was announced. People able to order theirs through Hasbro Pulse got them first. People ordering through other venues such as Amazon had to wait until November.

As long as Hasbro can guarantee that we will get mass-released toys eventually, I am willing to wait and continue collecting this line. But if Hasbro cannot guarantee that, then I will stop. I did not want to get the Red Ninja action figure or the Arctic Storm Shadow at first. Now, these seem impossible to get at a decent price. As for the Cobra Island series, this one has been a total train wreck for me and many other collectors. I would like to get them too, but I will not pay exploitative prices for them.

Rating: 9 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12