I've tended to think that around 1990, give or take, there were more character ideas than could easily be fit into specific specialties for the G.I.Joe Team. We went from basic titles like "Machine Gunner" and "Commando" to things like "Intervention Specialist", "Deceptive Warfare", and the like. And then we have Rampart, the "Shoreline Defender" for the G.I.Joe Team.

I'm not really sure what this means. I have this picture of someone standing on a coastline, picking off anyone who comes their way by sea. And perhaps this is not inaccurate. According to Rampart's file card, he is a member of the Navy. He grew up playing video games, and was gifted with unusually high hand/eye coordination and rapid reflexes. If you've got a brace of Cobra Moray's headed your direction across open water, that could be a good thing to have. For that matter, it would come in handy against enemy aircraft, and also according to his file card, Rampart attained the highest combat success ratio in the 7th Fleet for "splashing" enemy aircraft.

Rampart was released as part of the 1990 line-up of individual G.I.Joe figures. And his overall appearance tends to run counter to the notion that those years were far too filled with neon colors. There is no evidence of such on Rampart.

His uniform design has always struck me as being one who is dressed for inclement weather. Again, this is likely well within his specialty. If you're out on the high sees, trying to bring down enemy aircraft and set your sights on incoming Cobra missiles, you're likely to get wet. It can get choppy out there between the waves and the explosions. Rampart is wearing a cap, but his head is designed so that it appears as though the entire top, back, and sides of his head are protected with a thick fabric of some sort. This is pale tan in color.

He is wearing what looks like a thick coat, possible a raincoat, that is an unusually dark brown. His trousers are the same tan as his cap and protective headgear, and he has black shoes, while the upper parts of his boots are two shades of green camouflage, an interesting offset to the rest of his color scheme, but not a bad one.

Rampart also has black gloves, and is wearing a protective visor with blue lenses.

Rampart never saw all that much time in the Marvel comic that I can recall. He did turn up several times in the DIC animated series. Unfortunately, most G.I.Joe fans tend to regard that animated series as hardly being anybody's finest hour, and generally with good reason.

The figure is interesting in that as a result of the nature of the headsculpt, bringing the protective fabric headgear down around the chin and seemingly tucked into the collar of the coat, Rampart's head appears to be very slightly smaller than average, and for whatever reason, this tends to make him look slightly taller than the average Joe, even though he really isn't. It's just a curious effect of the sculpt and the overall proportions.

Other details on Rampart's file card: His real name is Dwayne A. Felix, and he is originally from New York City. His primary military specialty is "Shoreline Defender", but his secondary specialty lists him as "ADA Missile Specialist". ADA stands for Air Defense Artillery.

The bottom line is that if you have an enemy coming towards you, or shooting something fairly large at you, then Rampart is the man you want on hand to stop it before it can get to you, because that is what he does, and he wouldn't be on the G.I.Joe Team if he didn't do that very well. And he enjoys his work. One of the last sentences on his file card reads, "Rampart gets his jollies seeing a Cobra heat-seeker explode just before it hits the target."

Although the later years of the original run of the Real American Hero are often derided by fans, there are a good number of interesting and cool characters -- and figures -- to be found in those years. I tend to believe that RAMPART is one of them, and I hope you have enjoyed this profile of him!