July 3, 2018 • 52 mins
In episode 14, Dani and Ify dive deep into the world of G.I. Joe. They get into the history of the toys and how they came to be, how that lead into the television shows and movies, the rankings of the best G.I. characters, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, and welcome to hear I visit. I wanted your post.
Danny Carran isn't sitting across with me. They're ready. How's it?
How's it going? Iffy? Um? This is one of the
topics that I feel I grew up with, mainly because
I stole my brother's Jerry Joe's to be with my barbie. Yeah.
(00:30):
Ken was not cutting it, but she she wanted like
a burly man, they're fighting for his country. Um. I
also stole their batman. It was actually the George Clooney batman.
I believe so interesting. No, maybe those Val Kilmer's I
can't remember. But I stole their rubber batman and made
(00:53):
him make out with my barbie. So we're we're covering
g I Joe Joe American. We can we can't pay
for the for I don't want to have to invoice.
(01:15):
I don't want to get like a royalty situation. Um. Yeah,
so let's let's talk. We actually had I think we
had some request for this episode, right, Yeah, we had
a few people. Yeah, we had it. When we have
some friends, I think that have There are many many
A podcast dedicated just to G I j which kind
(01:35):
of reminds me. I don't know if every because a
lot of people have hit us up about we said
this before, but a lot of people have hit U
up about Dragon ball Z and IFFI and I actually
had a podcast that was just dedicated to Dragon ball Z,
and I can tell you when you have a podcast
it's just dedicated to one thing. It's kind of nice
that we do what we do now because after after
talking about it for fifty episodes, you're kind of like, yeah, um,
(01:59):
but I want to talk about G I Joe's the Yeah,
I want to get in on it. Um, So so
what is g I Joe? It is a well, first,
it started as a line of action figures that was
produced and owned by the toy company has Bro, which
I just found out today was Hasn't Filled Brothers really
that is yes, and shortened to Hasbro, which makes sense.
(02:20):
Um like Super Mario Bros. The initial product represented four
of the branches of the U s Armed Forces, So
that was Action Soldier, which was US Army, Action Sailor,
which was US Navy Action Pilot, Air Force, Action Marine
Marine Corps, and later on the Action Nurse. I don't
know they had an Action Nurse. Yeah, It's so funny
(02:42):
because I want to assume that it's probably their female
line that they're like action nurse, but it could be
the male line, which would be interesting because you know,
I feel like male nurses never get any love. Yeah.
I mean, if you think, let me look at U. No,
I think you're right it was a woman. Yeah. No,
(03:03):
that sounds about right based on when g I Joe
was created. I mean, if Ben Stiller was still made
fun of it and meet the Fockers, I think that
we back when g I Joe was created, definitely probably
wasn't normal. Yeah, seen as so. G I Joe was
the code name for America's daring, highly trained Special Missions Force.
(03:24):
Its purpose was to defend human freedom against Cobra, a
ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. From until
about Hasbro's g I Joe, a real American hero, was
one of the driving forces and kids entertainment conquering the
worlds of comic books, animated televisions, and tiny toy action
victors and then eventually movies. Yeah. Yeah, So the name
(03:46):
drived from the usage of G I Joe for the
generic U. S. Soldier um. So that was actually a
term So g I is an acronym used to describe
the soldiers of the United States Army and airmen in
the United States Army Air Forces, and also a term
for general items of their equipment. So the term g
I has been used as government issue or general issue,
(04:07):
but originally it was used as galvanized iron. Just a
little back, backstory, a little back So well, let's even
go further back and talk about just how this whole
thing got started. So Mantell was killing it with Barbie
and her accessories, but Hasbro not so much. Uh. In
nineteen sixty three, has We began development on a military
theme line of dolls that, like Barbie, could be accessorized
(04:28):
with the different outfits and equipments. The original strategy called
for a different figure for each branch of the military,
but when, like the film called The Story of g I.
Joe came out, they eventually decided to genericize it and
have everyone just kind of be their own guy. Yeah.
It was kind of interesting because, Um, in a G I.
Joe podcast that I was listening to that we're going
(04:50):
to link in the footnotes, they were talking about, Um,
they actually had a professor that has also studied a
lot of G I. Joe history, but he was talking
about how a lot of boys were playing with Kendall's
and apparently that was not allowed or not as heavily liked,
and so they wanted to capitalize and make a more buff, buff,
(05:12):
macho man. Yeah, action figure. Um. And actually that's where
the term action figure came from. It's g I. Joe.
I don't know if you know that. Yeah, So the
development of g I. Joe led to the coining of
the term action figure. The original idea for the action
figure was developed in nineteen sixty three by Stan Weston,
(05:32):
who was a Manhattan licensing agent, and Weston actually made
like these prototypes of the figure and basic like marketing
materials that showed the sales potential of a military action figure.
And when he showed these materials to Donald Levine, who
was a Hasbro executive, Levine told Weston, quote, you will
make a fortune with these, which he was right, and
(05:54):
Weston subsequently licensed the entire concept to Hasbro. So this
is kind of interesting and he likes sit for a
hundred thousand dollars um. Levine, though, is the one who
has seen as the father of Joe, Like he's kind
of seen as the father of Gio. But that it
is interesting because I just want to jump back on
it being called action figures. I always used to distinguish
(06:15):
between G I. Joe's and then my action action figures,
which I think really more yeah, which was more traditionally
known as an action figure. I looked at G I.
Joe's as dolls and action figures. I looked at them
as action figures because like they had the articulation that
would allow you to pose them and and so that's
why I made sense of my brain. But little did
I know it is just some weird gender politics that
(06:37):
made them come up a different names because all G
I joes are are dolls. Yeah. So, but in the
early nineteen sixties, they didn't think that boys would play
with quote unquote dolls action figures. U huh, yeah, and
and uh and since they also had America's Movable Fighting
Man was the registered trademark of Hasbro and was prominently
(06:58):
displayed on every box figure package. I did want to
go back though and say, uh in my research when
I was looking at Donald Levine, this is just a
side note. From two thousand and five to two thousand
and six, Levine designed and manufactured an action figure of
Osama Bin Laden for the c I a psychological warfare
program called Devil Eyes. Levine developed a twelve inch life
(07:22):
you can actually look it up, a twelve inch lifelike
figure whose face was painted with a material that, when
he did would peel off to reveal a demon like
uh face with green eyes and black markings. So when
asked Inteen about Levine's involvement in the program, his family
said in a statement, Don Levine was a dedicated patriot
and proud Korean War veteran. When called on, he was
(07:45):
honored to assist our country. That was their response when
they asked him about this Osama Bin Laden doll. Yeah,
that's interesting. Just a side fact here at nerdificent Uh,
but moving on, moving on, if you do, you want
to talk to us about the Yeah, so so just
rounding out. Nineteen sixty four to nineteen six nine was
known as the Movable Fighting Man years for G I,
(08:07):
Joe and up next. We have adventure teams. Yeah, they
have venture teamed. By the late nineteen sixties, in the
wake of the Vietnam War, Hasbro sought to downplay the
war theme that had initially defined Joe. The line became
known as the Adventures of Joe, and in seventy Hasbro
settled on the name Adventure Team. Adventure Team. You know
when you were singing the G I Joe song, Um,
(08:29):
I wanted to say, g I Joe Robots in disguise,
so many jingles, They're all pretty much the same. But
I do want to say which we will get to Sunbow,
Uh produce both of those transformers. Also, I believe my
Little Pony and g I Joe, So yeah, we'll get
into the ad the game on lock. So basically to
(08:52):
coincide with the new direction. Lifelike flocked hair and beard
and innovation developed in England by Palatoi for the license
version of Joe Action Man is introduced in nineteen seventy
and a retooled African American Whoo Whoop Adventurer was also introduced,
which came in two versions, as did the others in
the series, bearded or shaven. These were my kendles, Like,
(09:13):
it's really funny to talk about the introduction of that
technology as far as like the lifelike hair, do you
remember that? Did you have? Did you have? I guess
action figures because I don't know if you had dolls.
Did you have those that had the the hair, they
were like plastic see I had I had. My mom
gave me her old ken dolls, um, which were anatomically
(09:34):
correct and that kind of interesting. They had a penis,
like some of them were a little bit of a bump.
Are we allowed to say that, I don't know, it
might get bleeped um. I think we could say penises.
It's it's a normal. But here, this is what we
talked about in Erica. E She's Sailor Moon episode. Is
how censored we are in America that we get weird
about talking about even normal things that people have. Well,
(09:55):
I was talking about this the other day and here
goes one of those tangents. But just are concept because
I feel like it's a constant wave where like sometimes
we get so obsessed over what kids can see sometimes
we lean back, But when you think about it, kids
aren't you know. I'm sure there's psychological evidence that proved
this one way or the other, but kids don't aren't
(10:17):
as interested in like sexual things. Like I was talking
with my buddy when he was talking about when he
was a kidding, he saw water World and his friends.
Oh my gosh, I remember seeing it when I was
a little His parents freaked out because they're like, oh,
there's brooms in there. Yeah, and he was like what,
I didn't he And he was like I didn't even
care at the time because I was trying to see
the men fighting, you know. On a different tangent side, note,
(10:39):
my aunt when she first saw a little boy peen,
she thought they peed from their belly buttons. Your aunt,
my yeah, my aunt. Moving on. So in nineteen this
is white people come to this for far outside to
hear that I used to make my animals smashed their
genitals and also your tea. Yeah. Yeah, she actually had
(11:02):
a baby, very young, but um, okay, so but now
she's a young mom, Like she's younger than all the
other moms. So there you go. In nineteen seventy four,
named after the increasingly popular martial art, Hasbro introduced the
Kung Fu grip. This was a big deal to the
g I Joe line. Uh. This was another innovation that
(11:23):
actually was developed in the UK for Action Man, and
the hands were molded in a softer plastic that allowed
the fingers to grip objects in a more lifelike fashion. Yeah,
so so I was gonna say around this time, though
the line was canceled in nineteen seventy six, Joe had
become something of a superhero, so they were incorporating fantastic
(11:45):
elements like chrome plated Bulletman and bionic limbs of Atomic
Man who battled the Intruders, which is a group of
caveman from outer space. So they really did kind of
want to um move away from him just being a
war yeah, kind of individual, kind of seen as a
superhero because heroesque. The Vietnam War was not fun and
(12:07):
I think, you know, and that was also like there
were a lot of people who were against it, and
I think trying to distance themselves away from that is
kind of their idea where they looks like, well know,
this is a superhero. This isn't like, you know, army propaganda,
which it kind of was at first. Then we got
into a real American hero, which is more of the
G I Joe. I know, I'm familiar with these guys,
(12:29):
but we'll get into that after these messages. Welcome back, y'all.
Hope you enjoyed those messages, and we're talking about G I.
G O today on Nificent even a nice, light and spicy.
If you're just tuning in, which you shouldn't be because
(12:51):
this is a podcast and not a live radio show,
you you should know that Danny dropped a fun fact.
I'm probably gonna be thinking about that of the rest
of the week. Really, why be funny? Yeah, it's such
a funny image because I can see how that happened,
and it's just like so funny. We're just like, oh,
I can't really see anything, but I see it coming
(13:13):
out the belly button. Yeah, that's boy. I want to
also pee from my belly button. Yeah, probably well for women, Yes, Iffy,
it's annoying. I'm in a one piece right now and
I have to take this whole thing off to p Anyways,
moving on to Yeah, I would say if this was
a Golden Age, I would name it the Golden Age,
(13:36):
which is a real American heroin. I would say, I mean,
there's obviously a lot of people who grew up with
the toys and that was their first introduction, a lot
of die hards actually for the comics and the and
the toys, but the like we've talked about before in
(13:56):
our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one, you know, lot of
these shows are used to push A lot of the
animated shows were used to push the toy sales. And
so I don't know if G I. Joe would be
as big as it is without a real American hero.
The year was and it saw the highly successful relaunch
(14:20):
of the G I. Joe product line in a smaller
three point seven five inch scale. So that scale was
the same one that was used by Kenner's Star Wars
figures and Micronauts, which were also really popular. Um, yeah, yeah,
And this relaunch pioneered several tactics in toy marketing, combining
traditional advertising with an animated television miniseries and an ongoing
(14:43):
comic book. The decision to use a smaller three point
scale for the figures also made it possible for Hasbro
to produce a variety of matching vehicles and play sets
that further expanded the appeal and commercial potential of the line.
So this is the yeah, this is more the G
I the cheesy g I Joe. We remember that we
have the smaller toys, and I remember the Star Wars
(15:05):
toys to like, it was like, this is like the
action figure action figures that I was referencing because I
realized before I just repeated action figures, so people could
have been like, what did if you mean by that,
I mean like these scale action figures. Yeah. We also
had G I. Joe posters, t shirts, video games, board games,
(15:26):
and kites and kites both toy and lamp in. Hobby
World magazines ranked G I. Joe as the top selling
American toy. Yeah, and because the Enemy toys had never
sold well in the past, Hasbro actually didn't even consider
to bring them back for the G I. Joe. But
then Larry Hamma, who was writing the Marvel comic book series,
(15:47):
insisted that these guys can't just march around and go
on maneuvers or whatnot. They have to be battling some things,
you know, like a threat. That's a direct quote Froom.
And it was Marvel's writer Archie Goodwin that suggested terrorist
organization named Cobra, and inspired by the name, inspired by
the name, Ron Rudette developed the design for the Enemies
(16:07):
now iconic logo. Yeah. And, according to Jim Shooter, who
at one point was Marvel's editor in chief, later villains
became of their volume. So of the toys, isn't that crazy? Yeah? Yeah,
they're kind of right, though, I can't think of other
villains maybe now, but I can't think of toys where
the villain sold as well as this, you know, I can't. Well,
(16:34):
they look so cool, you know, they do. And it
was really interesting because a lot of people are like, well,
Cobra and Marvel was also working, you know, with Hydra.
That to me is kind of obviously they don't like
overlap at all in the comics, but that was kind
of there. They're kind of really similar. They're kind of
really similar. So yes, we have g I Joe a
real American hero. Um also known as Action Force in
(16:57):
the UK uh In It was a half hour American
animated television series that was created by Ron Friedman. It
was based on the toy line from Hasbro and the
comic book series from Marvel Comics. The cartoon had its
beginning with two five part mini series in nine three
and nine four. Then it became a regular series that
(17:17):
ran in syndication from to Night six. Yeah, and they
took these cartoons pretty seriously, like the producers didn't want
just like anyone who'd written a Saturday morning cartoon. Uh So,
Ron Freeman, who had worked on all in the family,
Star Ski and Hutch and Fantasy Island was recruited to
write the first fifteen episodes of G I. Joe. And
then other people were Marvel Wolfman who wrote the New
(17:40):
teen Titans. You had Danny O'Neill who wrote Batman, Steve
Gruber who was the co creator of Howard the Duck.
So like they it wasn't like, I feel like not
to kind of jam on teenage meaning Ninja Turtles, But
when we were describing that, it just seemed like it
was a couple of toy dudes again, like all right,
let's do this, like know with G I. Joe there,
(18:01):
like let's find some some big dogs. Well, it's kind
of fascinating if we were compared to Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtles,
because that was so much more lighthearted. Um. And if
you think of when we talked about like some of
their catchphrases that were created by the toy company, um
like how a bung that wasn't created by them, but
that was instilled by them. And then um, heroes and
a half shell was something else that they had come
(18:22):
up with in them being like pizza loving and stuff.
So um, yeah, this it is kind of interesting apparel,
like to look at how different these two ended up becoming.
UM and maybe partly because G I. Joe is rooted
in war, you know, like there's no way to get
around that, as much as they did try to make
them kind of superhero esque UM. But also another fun
(18:43):
fact that has to do with other cartoons in the era.
So in the G I. Joe movie, there's a scene
where Duke the leader kind of takes a staff to
his heart and dies on screen, and like, you know, uh,
the fellow Joe's like, uh, Scarlett and Hawk, they're crying.
And at the end of the film, Duke's half brother, Falcon,
he was looking to the heavens and says thanks big brothers.
(19:04):
But UM producers ended up panicking and added dialogue to
explain that Duke was actually just in a coma from
which he later had a miraculous victory, and the reason
was because kids were traumatized by Optimist Primes death in
the Transformers movie, so they so they scrambled and really
(19:26):
only only only like a decade later would we have
the horrific death of Mufassa at the hand of thousands
of willed de bees. Um. I mean Disney doesn't care
at all. No, Apparently Sunbow is over here trying to
protect children and Disney is trying to ruin everyone's life. Well,
technically they kind of work because they were going to
(19:48):
kill off Duke and Optimist Prime and only build because
they saw the consequences of their actions. Wow. Wow. Meanwhile,
Disney does not care. No, Disney's like Bambi, Yes, exactly.
Bambies was quicker, though faster. They really like dragged that out.
His death scene was like ten minutes and then it
(20:10):
was him like, you know, struggling. Okay, moving on, but yeah,
So GJ was promoted to a full series in and
the season began with a third Freedman penned five part adventure,
The Pyramid of Darkness, and that story sees most of
the existing cast from the two previous mini series held
(20:30):
Captive by Cobra, and then a second season of thirty
episodes followed in nineteen eight six, beginning with the fourth
five part story Arise, Serpenter Rise, in which Cobra scientists
doctor mind Bender, inspired by a dream, uses the DNA
of histories, ruthless conquerors, and rulers to genetically engineer Serpenter,
(20:51):
who usurps Cobra Commander's place as leader of Cobra Serpenter.
So then in this mini series introduced a new nine
range of toys into the story, who were at the
center of most stories across the rest of the season.
In particular, the mini series debut former WWF and then
(21:13):
current a W a professional wrestler Sergeant Slaughter as a
member of the G I Joe, who was played by himself.
And I remember this because that was like the cool thing,
and for the season, Buzz Dixon replaced Steve Gerber as
story editor. That's just some behind the scenes Hollywood facts.
I think people are still tripping off the Sergeant Slaughter
or your nostalgis kicking in because you remember that. Yeah,
(21:35):
I was gonna say so. G I. Joe was a
co production between Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, and Somebo's
staff would write the scripts based on the character and
vehicle designs provided by Hasbro. Again behind the curtain, which
I guess you can see. Um, I haven't had the
time to sit down because I didn't realize it was
multiple episodes, but um, the toys that made us that,
(21:58):
you know that series on Netflix? Oh yeah, Um, I
know that they have one on this so, um, yeah,
that's something some more. It's some extracurricular activity if you, yeah,
go check it out. But also you can see that basically, um,
a lot of our nostalgic stuff comes from selling toys.
So they would write the scripts based on the character
(22:19):
and vehicle designs provided by Hasbro, while the artists at
Marvel Productions would draw storyboards based on the scripts and
record voiceovers the animation. Though this is really fascinating. The
animation was outsourced to our friends at Toy in Japan,
who worked on all episodes as well as the movie. Well,
I want to talk about Marvel because there's a fun
(22:42):
thing that was kind of cool that never really happened.
So at the same time that Hasbro was developing its
three inch Real American Hero toy line, Marvel Comics editor
and freelance writer Larry Hamma, who we were talking about earlier,
was pitching a series called The Fury for which was
made up of an elite squad of soldiers and uh,
(23:04):
the lead was like Nick Fury's son. And when Hama
was signed on right g I Joe, he ended up
dropping the Fury Force and transposed like several of the
characters from that into the real American hero lineup. But
I mean that that would have been a fun world
that because it seems like Marvel and G I. Joe's
were kind of living that same kind of timeline, but
(23:26):
it just kind of never fully committed to it. Yeah. Yeah,
Toy had worked on the movie as well. So speaking
of the G I. Joe. Yeah, so it was a
feature league film version of the series that was intended
to be released theatrically followed by the Transformers movie. However,
(23:47):
the movie encountered unexpected production delays, which allowed the Transformers
feature to be released first and ruined it for everybody.
Because the poor box office performance of the trans Formers
and My Little Pony films, which were both done by Sunbow, Um,
G I. Joe was then sent to direct to video status. Um.
(24:09):
It was released on VHS on A and was later
split into a five part mini series for television syndication.
But um, it could have been in the theaters. I know,
you could have watched it on the big screen, but
the like like I said, Transformers seemed to ruin the
movie more ways than one. Yeah, So, if you do
(24:31):
want to talk about the movie a little bit. Yeah. So,
the movie follows up the events of season two, revealing
that Cobra Commander is actually an agent of a secret
civilization known as Cobra Lat led by a half serpent
humanoid named Globulus. The same organization is also revealed to
have had a hand in the creation of Serpenteur, as
the dream that inspired Dr Mindbender to create him was
(24:53):
actually a subconscious suggestion implanted into him by one of
Globulus's bugs. In addition to Cobra Law, two new sub
teams were introduced within the Joe Team, the Raw Hides
and the Renegade Renegade, both composed of characters introduced during
the toy Lines lineup. Remember the Renegades because those dudes
were fighting people from space? Yeah? Um, And then sadly
(25:17):
we have a cancelation. So Marvel Productions continued to produce
animated commercials for the toy line and comic books, which
also featured a new theme song with the lyrics Nobody
Beats g I Joe after g I Joe the movie,
which was intended to set up season three. However, the
(25:39):
company never got around to produce a third season, as
they end up losing the license to competing animation company
Dick d i C. During pre production. Uh here's another
weird interesting fact. But Rocky Balboa almost became a G I. Joe.
But what the found out? So they were doing a
(26:01):
four issue mini series that started in December of n
six that listed all of the various G I. Joe operatives,
Cobra agents, and vehicles that made up the universe, and
the second issue of the series, Rocky Boubo was uh
erroneously listed as a member of the Joe's because the
reason this happened was negotiations had been taken place to
license the character but had subsequently fallen through. But he
(26:24):
still was listed anyway, so it was like a teaser
of what could have been. Like can you imagine? The
picture is so funny too, because he has boxing glosses
like that, but they all have guns and lasers. What
were you gonna do? Yeah? I guess that doesn't make sense.
I think Sylvester stall alone makes more sense. Like just him,
he already looks like what tell them Brambo. Yeah. So
(26:44):
let's talk a little bit about Dick's involvement with the
G I. Joe series. So their series premiered in nine
nine with a five part mini series titled Operation Dragonfire.
It was turned into a regular series that aired from
two and lasting two season for a total of forty
four episodes. UM Sunbow would later return to the G
(27:05):
I Joe franchise UM and they co produced the pilot
Sergeant Savage and His Screaming Eagles UM and G I
Joe G I Joe Extreme TV series, which aired from
There was actually a lot. There's a lot more, I
think than people realize because people normally just equate it
to the smaller series. But it continued on. The Screaming
(27:28):
Eagles pilot also had characters from the Real American hero
series which was Hawk Doc Lady j as well as
Cobra Commander himself. Yeah, but otherwise it focused on new
heroes and villains. And just for those of my wondering, Yeah,
Dick Enterprises is Diffusion Information and Communications and it was
(27:48):
a French company and there there are there incredible slogan
which is a D percent true is the incredible world
of Dick. Wait, could we be saying it wrong? If
he is it? D I c Like, what how is
I don't know? D c um, there's already a d C. Yeah,
(28:11):
so there it is. I guess people probably call it
D I C. Maybe I don't know. Let's talk about
the g I Jo's p S A. I am so
excited about this, yeah, because this was I think one
of the biggest things that g JO were known for.
A series of p s a s were produced, starting
the characters from g JO from seven. Each p S
(28:32):
A public service announcements for those who might not know,
and it was one of the trouble kids spouting now
I know the more you know, yeah, and now they
know the future. Joe would then follow it up with
the infamous catchphrase and knowing is half the battle. There
were thirty five p s a s per each with
a different lesson to be learned. Uh, let's let's try
(28:55):
and run down these as fast as a kid. What okay? Okay?
You you take one, I'll take running away isn't the answer?
Featuring Shipwreck? Are you okay? Don't do what a stranger
says with wild Bill? How to tread water featuring Torpedo,
What to do if you catch on fire featuring Spirit
Being a handicap doesn't make one helpless featuring Spirit Be
(29:16):
careful around frozen ponds and Lakes featuring snow Job. Taking
something that isn't yours just asn't right featuring Shipwreck. You'll
never learn without trying featuring Scarlet. Don't go near down
power lines featuring Roadblock. Oh I love that one, um.
Don't give strangers your address featuring Roadblock. Have your eyes
tested featuring Don't get in anything that could close and
(29:39):
trap you featuring Rocondo. Anything worth doing is worth planning
featuring Quick Kick. Don't pet strange animals featuring Much Your
Proper Protection Out in the Sun featuring leather Neck. Stop
and think before you act. I mean that's just good
for anyone featuring Lady Jay Obey railroad crossings featuring Hawk,
Don't judge people until you give them chance featuring gung Ho.
(30:01):
How do stop a nosebleed? Featuring Footloose And That's that's helpful.
Teamwork helps you win, not arguments featuring Flint. It's better
to tell the truth featuring Flint. Put reflectors on your
bikes featuring Dusty. Never take medicine without adult supervisions featuring
Doc Have proper ventilation when painting? Why is your child
painting your bedroom? Featuring dial Tone. Don't Swim during a
(30:25):
thunderstorm featuring Always wear a life jacket when boating featuring
Deep six Instead of fighting, find a better way featuring Cutter.
Don't call the fire department from a burning building featuring Blowtorch.
Very very yeah, that's to go together. What to do
when You're lost featuring Alpine. Don't pull the fire alarm
(30:45):
unless there's a fire featuring Barbecue. What to do if
your house is on fire featuring Barbecue, Well, I already
know not to call the fire department. Love that one, Okay.
What to do if someone passes out featuring Airtight, Eat
the right foods featuring Lifeline, Wear a helmet for protection
featuring cross Country and beach Head. Listen to yourself featuring Flint. Oh.
(31:10):
Those were a lot, and they ranged from like helpful
to what um so I want to say? How I
was introduced to them was from the parodies which are
pretty popular and infamous on the Internet and Treat Yourself
truly So. In two thousand three, Eric Fenzler created parodies
(31:31):
of twenty five of the p S A s which
were hosted on The Bomb's World, prompting to take down
notice from Hasbro in two thousand and four, but They
have since been uploaded in various ways. UM, my favorite
is pork Chop Sandwiches, which you can google G I
Joe pork Chop Sandwiches. Yeah, I have it right here.
(31:51):
Oh yeah, god, did that smell good? Detected? Did you know?
Going and you tell me do things I don't running?
I know? Yeah, audibly you're probably like, what just happened?
But if you watch it, it's just insane. It's so funny,
and they made several of them, and other people have
(32:13):
made parodies as well, but I think, um, eric Is
Fendler is the one who's most notorious for it. Fendler Film. Um,
and uh, the first part of that we couldn't play
because it had a lot of the effort in it. Yeah,
just that that's our I guess our warning for you
is it curses a lot. Yeah. But yeah, I wanted
to say we should talk about the characters of G
(32:36):
I Joe because we didn't even really get into the
different Joes and Cobra's. Yeah, we mentioned Duke and that's
about it. Well, we did say all of those featuring
those p s a sum but we'll get into actually
the top ten Joes and Cobra's right after the break
(33:02):
and we are back. So yeah, I g M put
together this nice and handy list of the top ten
Joes and Cobras, which is more informative and better than
reading just all of them. There's too many. I was
going to say that, and I know that we're going
to leave out somebody's favorite. So instead of writing us, right,
I g N. No, instead of write us, send a
(33:24):
picture and tell us why you're the favorite, and then
I'll retweet and let you know if I agree if
that should be the best one. Yeah, do that, because
I was going to say, there's just there's so many.
There's there's They added a whole bunch like a hundred
and sixty or something really yeah, uh huh yeah, like characters. Yeah.
So our friends at I g N made a nice
little top ten. It's actually top five. It's top five
(33:46):
Joe's and top five Cobras. Uh. So starting out at
number five for them is Gung Ho. Yeah, who's It
seems like he is a you know, just what you
would expect at the Times version of Asian American warrior. Yeah,
except for he grew up in Louisiana. He honed his
(34:09):
skills in bare knuckle boxing and knife fighting at an
early age. As we all. Uh, those skills, along with
his exposure to the human bias of Louisiana. I love
that this is in his backstory, made him a perfect
candidate to join the Marines and fight in Vietnam. So
befitting his loud, colorful personality, Gung Ho loves carrying a
(34:30):
grenade launcher and lane waste to Cobra's forces. Um, so
he's basically wearing all he's wearing kneepads. That's fascinating. Yeah,
that's good. And you know he has the It almost
looks like the Marines. Yeah, he has the marine. Yeah,
he's part of the Marines. He has a tattooed on
his chest just so people know. And he kind of
(34:51):
has the handibore mustache. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's great. Uh,
he's very interesting. Y'all might have remembered this name, which
is uh Roadblock and uh and it seems like he
came from the Marvel comics series and apparently he had
a foul temper there. In the sun Bow animated series,
(35:11):
Roadblock became like a more jovial figure and he's developing
a tendency to speak in rhyme, while also emerging as
one of the great leader figures among the shows. It's
also important to note that Roadblock is black, so you
know he's easier wrapping Joe apparently. I would love it
if somebody out in war is speaking in rhymes and
(35:32):
the Rock played him in G I Joe Retaliation. There
we go, moving on to three. Her code name is
Scarlet in her civilian surname is O'Hara, and uh yeah,
she has good looks, fiery personality, and the fact that
she's one of the few female Jos. She has a
law degree and specializes in a number of firearms, though
(35:54):
her preferred weapon is the crossbow, and she also is
a eight martial artists. I feel like, yeah, if you're
a G I. Joe, you gotta know a little little.
I mean some of them you could have just weapons, yea.
And she also, if you don't remember, she was the
you'll never learn without trying p s a h. And
(36:16):
we got our man's Duke, who is basically the leader
of the G I. Joe, the one we were talking
about who was supposed to lose his life um, but
due to the death of Optimus Primes, it didn't Um, yeah,
Chan and Tatum basically played him in the Rise of Cobra,
and you know, he actually was able to reprise the
(36:39):
role in Retaliation as well, So it's cool. Do people
like those films? I don't know, because they kept getting
sequels like I want to be like what but yeah, no,
they kept getting sequels like Transformers, which which I enjoyed
and you didn't. He didn't even watch it. I don't think.
I still haven't watched a will transform Uhjo Retaliation the
(37:03):
budget was a hundred and fifty five million and it
made three hundred and seventy five So yeah, I guess
they're Yeah, they're pretty successful. Moving on, who do you
think number one? Who would you say would be number one? Uh?
For the Jo's Honestly, I have no clue it is. Oh. Yes,
(37:23):
Snake Guys was everyone's favorite. And I know this because
he was a ninja and like when the Jo movies
came out, my like little brother and little cousin were
of age and they both were on Snake Guy's head. Tough. Yes,
So the black Clad Ninja is a man of very
few words. He never speaks, is that truly never sneake?
(37:43):
He never speaks with various versions of the mythology, deferring
as to whether that's a self in pose limitation or
result of damage vocal cords. It's fascinating. Yeah, but he's
an unparalleled fighter, master of many weapons. He preferred is
to stick to his trusty Katana whenever possible. His pet
wolf Timber is always ready to assist him in battle. Um.
(38:07):
He has a deep seated rivalry with storm Shadow Dope suit. Yeah,
the suits dope. Storm Shadow is kind of in like
all white. So it's like the perfect Yan and Yang.
It truly is. But that is their top five, Joe's Now,
let's talk about what's really cool, which is the Cobras.
I mean everyone likes the villains. Yeah, I like, as
(38:29):
I've grown up, I've kind of now I prefer Scar.
I prefer Scar over Maleficent. I think that they have
and kill Monger in Thanos. I think they have good
points to make. Um, well, they're Number five is Zartan
and he was one of the major recurring villains in
the sun Bow animated series, and he frequently worked alongside
the Dreadknocks, a colorful biker gang with a high membership turnover,
(38:53):
and he has like disguised and espionage skills and apparently
runs in his family. And he works with his twin siblings,
Zarana and Zander. So it's Zartan, Zarana Zander and he
has a daughter named Zanya. Wait wait wait, so but
his name is Zartan. But that's their last name? Oh
(39:14):
is it? Um? Yeah? Who else? There's a couple of
other characters like that. That's really funny. I can't think
of it. But a couple of other characters like their
last name their their name is also their last name.
UM number four. Surprisingly at number four is Cobra Commander,
probably one of the most famous Cobras. I got belive it.
Maybe that's why how number far um? He has the
(39:39):
same mystery factor working for him that benefits snake guys.
Little is known about his past before becoming an international
super terrorist. He's very diligent about hiding his face, tending
to wear his signature helmet or hood even while sleeping.
That's how dedicated he is. According to the Marvel comic series,
he was a failing used our salesman that would turn
(40:01):
anyone evil. I love it, who was spurned to evil
by the death of his brother. But it also the
car sales. I feel like that was the major thing.
The death of his brother kind of sucks, but also
the death of his soul. Every day, sitting every day
he's been trying to sell it for the past five years. Yeah,
every day someone trying to haggle him down on his
(40:22):
price as he sits there and there and sits there
and gets their curing coffee that Cobra commanded. Number four.
Number three is the Baroness who's early early crushes. Look
at that, we look, that's like looking in the mirror
if you look at that all the just let black leather, glasses,
black hair. She's great, Oh my gosh, and she yeah.
(40:46):
So basically she was booed up with Destro. That was
the one thing she also with which was cool for
me because it's like, look, I'm thicker than deshtrows. So
you know, anytime you want to upgrade Baroness, let your
boy know. Um. And then Rise of Cobra the movie
tried to shake up the formula by making Baroness a
former love interest of Dukes, but uh, I guess in
(41:11):
the sequel they just never address it. Yeah, she has
one of the distinction of being one of the few
g I Joe characters to debut first in the Marvel
comics rather than the toy line or the animated series. Um,
and that's kind of like Harlequin. Yeah, and I guess
it was not in a good way, And it was
mainly because the toy companies are kind of reluctant to
(41:34):
make female figures and action thing that's in the past.
Oh wait, still have that issue a day. But yeah,
just to clarify, Harlequinn was debuted in the Batman animated series,
not the comic books, and she was so popular that
they made her a character who is now synonymous with Joker. Truly. Yeah,
(41:56):
she has her own Have you seen Batman and Harley Quinn? No,
it's good animated. I watched it on the airplane, and
I'm sure you know we I would like to think
that grown adults are like, okay, with the fact that
you know, other grown adults watched cartoons on the airplane,
but that was what I was choosing to do with
my time. Moving on a number two, Destro, who was
(42:19):
placed higher than Cobra Commander, very fascinating. I think he
was cooler because he had the baroness, you know. Oh,
so she like leveled him up. Um. Destro was once
layered James mccollan, Destro the twenty four Wow, the Scottish
nobleman carried on his family's long tradition. I love the
backstories of these on his family's long tradition of selling
(42:43):
advanced weapons and profiting from the wars of other nations.
Destro is the leader of Mars, a manufacturer responsible for
providing Cobra with many of its doomsday devices and other weaponry. Yeah,
and his signature, he has a signature steel mask is
worn as a homage yeah to his ancestor, who was
(43:04):
forced to wear an iron mask for selling weapons to
both sides of a conflict. It's fascinating. This is really
in depth for a quote unquote child's children's series. They
get in deep, they get in super deep um, although
in some versions of the mask is seen as a
protected device that hides his scarred face or, in the
(43:24):
case of I Dw's current comics, prevents his energy based
body from um dissipating. Oh nice, I didn't know that
about him. Yeah. Well, uh. Number one is they follow
the same suit with villains is storm Shadow, which is
Snake Eyes enemy and uh I gn basically describes it
this way. If Snake Eyes is the Wolverine of the
(43:45):
Joe universe, than storm Shadow is definitely his saber too.
To have a long history that dates back well before
the days of GIAI, Joe and Cobra that the details changed.
The gist of their feud is that storm Shadow view
Snake Eyes as an outsider, unworthy of clan or a Chicago.
In many versions of the Joe Verse, one of these
ninjas hold the other responsible for the death of their master.
There are many clashes in the comics, movies where he's
(44:08):
played by Byong Hung Le, and animated projects frequently number
among the most memorable CHII Joe moments of all, of course,
because everyone loves ninjas. I was going to say not included,
but I did want to mention Dr Mindbender, mad scientist
and former dentist. I really love this. We have a
used car salesman, we have a dentist, and both of
these both of these occupations would make people evil, truly.
(44:34):
He created several mind control devices, uh and was also
an expert in genetic manipulation. So he is the responsible
for the creation of Serpenter and Cobra Bat. Yeah, as
well as perfecting the brain wave scanner so it looks
like Back in two thirteen, reports surface that there would
(44:54):
be a third Gijo film and it would likely be
in three D. Studio announced Chew would return to direct
the film. Then one at San Diego Comic Count of
two thousand and thirteen, they you talked about bringing back
Scarlett in the next film, and then the writers of
the second film, we're bringing talking about bringing back Baroness
and there's all these talk, and then September of the
same year, she was confirmed to direct the film, along
(45:15):
with the writer Evan Dherty who wrote Snow White and
The Huntsman, Divergent, Teenage Muant Ninja Turtles, and then uh,
then it goes on, and then it seems like nothing happened.
Then they hired writers, hired writers, hired writers. Uh. Then
in two thousand seventeen January of last year, Crusoe stated
that the script for the crossover movie is now being written,
(45:35):
and in May two thousand seventeen, The Rock Dwayne Johnson
stated that if the opportunity rises, he might appear in
any future Joe films, And then The Hollywood Reporter has
reported that Paramount announced the film would be released in
March of So this is all the way since two thousand,
(45:56):
thirteen twenty and it seems like it's going to be
a crossover film with I Believe Terminator, I mean Transformers
and what did I say Terminating. They have G I
Joe The Rise of Cobra, which came out in two
thousand nine, then G I Joe Retaliation which came out,
and now G I Joe Ever Vigilant is the current
(46:19):
name that will be coming out in It has a
projected release date of March, and then it says they
have an untitled Snake Eyes film to be announced. Yeah,
it seems like they just announced that in um in
May of this year. So we're getting more G I Joe.
But it's taken a while. So that's the future of
(46:41):
G I Joe. It's coming, it's just taken a minute.
That's going to be insane, just hands down. I don't
see how those two worlds can come together and not
be insane. But I'm very curious to watch it happen.
I guess I have to watch the other G I
Joe's to really go. But there has been huge gaps
between it because Rise of Cobra. The first Gijo film
came out in two thousand nine. Yeah, and then G I.
(47:03):
Joe Retaliation came out in two thousand thirteen. That's a
full four years later. And now we're going to get
Ever Vigilant seven years later. Yeah. And I also wanted
to say that Crusoe had worked on the Triple X
film he directed the Return of Xander Cage. He said
that with such like, no, I don't I haven't watched
a lot of those. I think I watched the first one.
(47:24):
I haven't watched a lot of the G I. Joe
films either, So I guess let us know if we
should watch them. I don't know. Yeah, this came out,
the first one came out in two thousand nine. Liked them.
I was three years out of high school. I probably
thought it was way too advance for that. Like, sorry, y'all,
I can't watch G I. Joe. I have to go
watch Bible Black. Sorry, way too mature for these games. Well,
(47:47):
there's so many I feel like that are like that
are in this vein that I just kind of end up. Yeah,
not watching all of that. Plus, when you think of
the amount of actual um DC Marvel films that we
have and superhero films. It's kind of a lot to watch.
I have way behind on DC, like d C. I
have been seeing Suicide Squad. I haven't seen Justice League.
(48:08):
The last DC movie I watched was wonder Woman. Yeah,
I would say those were the other two that came out.
I'm I'm very excited, very excited to see wonder Woman
UM eighty four and also Flashpoint. I forgot Aquaman is
coming out. Um. I always forget that he was introduced
in the Justice No, I forget because he's just Jason
Momoa is Jason Momoa. Like it seems like he's always
(48:30):
been with us. It seems like he's been Aquaman for
the last like five years at least or ten years. Yeah,
that's how it feels. It just feels like, no, that's him, Yeah,
we know him. But these other like but who's this
as a Miller person? And who was the actor that
played Cyborg? Um? Oh, Ray Fisher, Ray Fisher who played Cyborg? Yeah,
and so those are newer to me, and probably also
(48:52):
because they don't necessarily have the film um or TV
legacy that I feel like Mamoa does just because he's older. Um.
But yeah, but somebody did correct us in our I
forgot which episode it was, but we were talking about
the introduction of those characters and someone reminded us that
Aquaman was also introduced in that but I totally forgot. Also,
(49:15):
while we're adding addendums to things, some uh, we got
a message because we called Hunter x Hunter Hunter x
Hunter and anime fans believe it should be called Hunter Hunter. Yeah,
but Erica also calls it Hunter x Hunter, and I've
feel like she's in the anime community and also Japanese American. Yeah,
(49:36):
so so yeah, some people said that you called it
hunter by Hunter and sometimes and people say Hunter x.
It seems like you know who cares just watch it
and support the show. But you know, there you go.
You got it all right. Um, I think we got
to get out of here, so let's just wrap it up.
You can find me at if you waddy wait on
(49:57):
Twitter and Instagram, I f Y and w I D
I w E if the s on Twitch. Thank you
to everyone. There's so much nerd fam coming over to Twitch,
so many dope people who are like I just came over.
I don't watch Twitch, but I came over to give
you my Twitch Prime Zone. Thanks do that. Make that
visit once a month though, because it doesn't keep automatically renewal,
(50:17):
so don't forget that. Also, um, shout out to Nicole
who spells it a real fun way she just gave me.
I just realized I should probably give those shoutouts. I
said that I was going to give to people on
the stream. But while I pull up my stream, labs Danny,
where can people find you? People can find me at
(50:38):
miss Danny Fernandez. It's M S D A and I
F E R N and easy and also at Nerdificent
on all the socials and if he and I are
going to be at Comic Con. Yeah, you can definitely
come check that out. Yeah, come check it out. And um,
we also launched our T Public site, so yes, very true.
(51:02):
Get that merch. Got lots of dope teas. You can
get stickers for your laptops or what have you. So yeah,
make sure you go to the T Public website. Will
share it with this video on one of the twitters
and instagrams. Go there, get the merch. Rock show your
nerd fam love. If you have to say something so
someone has the Captain America meme, you know the meme
of him sitting down at the chair um and someone said,
(51:26):
so you pronounced the X and Hunter x hunter and
then they follow and it has like eighteen thou likes,
but they followed it up with might I add I
personally don't care if you say some Hunter hunter or
Hunter x hunter or even you you hacka show part two.
This tweet is all in good fun as it should be.
Oh yeah, I forgot that you was another one, or
(51:48):
don't forget my hero academia versus boku no hero or something. Yeah,
and you know my hair academia is also how it's
known as. Yeah. Here's my shout out Heels Angels with
the Z thanks for that sub from the Nerd Fam.
Hannah Bataki, you came through, gave me that love. Thank
(52:08):
you so much. And I'm gonna give Sam Hi five
a shout out. I don't remember him that specifically saying
whether or not he was a NERD fan, but I'm
gonna give him a shout out because I feel like
the last few subs I have been Nerd Fam Tank
Chootsu you came through, Hondo Gray Nicole is spelled k
in I k o L. So thank you all for
them for them subs, it really means a lot to me.
(52:29):
Helps me keep going and stay strong, and I get
your energy to help me twitch, dream more. Oh, I
forgot staying nere to y'all.
Hello, and welcome to hear I visit. I wanted your post.
Danny Carran isn't sitting across with me. They're ready. How's it?
How's it going? Iffy? Um? This is one of the
topics that I feel I grew up with, mainly because
I stole my brother's Jerry Joe's to be with my barbie. Yeah.
(00:30):
Ken was not cutting it, but she she wanted like
a burly man, they're fighting for his country. Um. I
also stole their batman. It was actually the George Clooney batman.
I believe so interesting. No, maybe those Val Kilmer's I
can't remember. But I stole their rubber batman and made
(00:53):
him make out with my barbie. So we're we're covering
g I Joe Joe American. We can we can't pay
for the for I don't want to have to invoice.
(01:15):
I don't want to get like a royalty situation. Um. Yeah,
so let's let's talk. We actually had I think we
had some request for this episode, right, Yeah, we had
a few people. Yeah, we had it. When we have
some friends, I think that have There are many many
A podcast dedicated just to G I j which kind
(01:35):
of reminds me. I don't know if every because a
lot of people have hit us up about we said
this before, but a lot of people have hit U
up about Dragon ball Z and IFFI and I actually
had a podcast that was just dedicated to Dragon ball Z,
and I can tell you when you have a podcast
it's just dedicated to one thing. It's kind of nice
that we do what we do now because after after
talking about it for fifty episodes, you're kind of like, yeah, um,
(01:59):
but I want to talk about G I Joe's the Yeah,
I want to get in on it. Um, So so
what is g I Joe? It is a well, first,
it started as a line of action figures that was
produced and owned by the toy company has Bro, which
I just found out today was Hasn't Filled Brothers really
that is yes, and shortened to Hasbro, which makes sense.
(02:20):
Um like Super Mario Bros. The initial product represented four
of the branches of the U s Armed Forces, So
that was Action Soldier, which was US Army, Action Sailor,
which was US Navy Action Pilot, Air Force, Action Marine
Marine Corps, and later on the Action Nurse. I don't
know they had an Action Nurse. Yeah, It's so funny
(02:42):
because I want to assume that it's probably their female
line that they're like action nurse, but it could be
the male line, which would be interesting because you know,
I feel like male nurses never get any love. Yeah.
I mean, if you think, let me look at U. No,
I think you're right it was a woman. Yeah. No,
(03:03):
that sounds about right based on when g I Joe
was created. I mean, if Ben Stiller was still made
fun of it and meet the Fockers, I think that
we back when g I Joe was created, definitely probably
wasn't normal. Yeah, seen as so. G I Joe was
the code name for America's daring, highly trained Special Missions Force.
(03:24):
Its purpose was to defend human freedom against Cobra, a
ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world. From until
about Hasbro's g I Joe, a real American hero, was
one of the driving forces and kids entertainment conquering the
worlds of comic books, animated televisions, and tiny toy action
victors and then eventually movies. Yeah. Yeah, So the name
(03:46):
drived from the usage of G I Joe for the
generic U. S. Soldier um. So that was actually a
term So g I is an acronym used to describe
the soldiers of the United States Army and airmen in
the United States Army Air Forces, and also a term
for general items of their equipment. So the term g
I has been used as government issue or general issue,
(04:07):
but originally it was used as galvanized iron. Just a
little back, backstory, a little back So well, let's even
go further back and talk about just how this whole
thing got started. So Mantell was killing it with Barbie
and her accessories, but Hasbro not so much. Uh. In
nineteen sixty three, has We began development on a military
theme line of dolls that, like Barbie, could be accessorized
(04:28):
with the different outfits and equipments. The original strategy called
for a different figure for each branch of the military,
but when, like the film called The Story of g I.
Joe came out, they eventually decided to genericize it and
have everyone just kind of be their own guy. Yeah.
It was kind of interesting because, Um, in a G I.
Joe podcast that I was listening to that we're going
(04:50):
to link in the footnotes, they were talking about, Um,
they actually had a professor that has also studied a
lot of G I. Joe history, but he was talking
about how a lot of boys were playing with Kendall's
and apparently that was not allowed or not as heavily liked,
and so they wanted to capitalize and make a more buff, buff,
(05:12):
macho man. Yeah, action figure. Um. And actually that's where
the term action figure came from. It's g I. Joe.
I don't know if you know that. Yeah, So the
development of g I. Joe led to the coining of
the term action figure. The original idea for the action
figure was developed in nineteen sixty three by Stan Weston,
(05:32):
who was a Manhattan licensing agent, and Weston actually made
like these prototypes of the figure and basic like marketing
materials that showed the sales potential of a military action figure.
And when he showed these materials to Donald Levine, who
was a Hasbro executive, Levine told Weston, quote, you will
make a fortune with these, which he was right, and
(05:54):
Weston subsequently licensed the entire concept to Hasbro. So this
is kind of interesting and he likes sit for a
hundred thousand dollars um. Levine, though, is the one who
has seen as the father of Joe, Like he's kind
of seen as the father of Gio. But that it
is interesting because I just want to jump back on
it being called action figures. I always used to distinguish
(06:15):
between G I. Joe's and then my action action figures,
which I think really more yeah, which was more traditionally
known as an action figure. I looked at G I.
Joe's as dolls and action figures. I looked at them
as action figures because like they had the articulation that
would allow you to pose them and and so that's
why I made sense of my brain. But little did
I know it is just some weird gender politics that
(06:37):
made them come up a different names because all G
I joes are are dolls. Yeah. So, but in the
early nineteen sixties, they didn't think that boys would play
with quote unquote dolls action figures. U huh, yeah, and
and uh and since they also had America's Movable Fighting
Man was the registered trademark of Hasbro and was prominently
(06:58):
displayed on every box figure package. I did want to
go back though and say, uh in my research when
I was looking at Donald Levine, this is just a
side note. From two thousand and five to two thousand
and six, Levine designed and manufactured an action figure of
Osama Bin Laden for the c I a psychological warfare
program called Devil Eyes. Levine developed a twelve inch life
(07:22):
you can actually look it up, a twelve inch lifelike
figure whose face was painted with a material that, when
he did would peel off to reveal a demon like
uh face with green eyes and black markings. So when
asked Inteen about Levine's involvement in the program, his family
said in a statement, Don Levine was a dedicated patriot
and proud Korean War veteran. When called on, he was
(07:45):
honored to assist our country. That was their response when
they asked him about this Osama Bin Laden doll. Yeah,
that's interesting. Just a side fact here at nerdificent Uh,
but moving on, moving on, if you do, you want
to talk to us about the Yeah, so so just
rounding out. Nineteen sixty four to nineteen six nine was
known as the Movable Fighting Man years for G I,
(08:07):
Joe and up next. We have adventure teams. Yeah, they
have venture teamed. By the late nineteen sixties, in the
wake of the Vietnam War, Hasbro sought to downplay the
war theme that had initially defined Joe. The line became
known as the Adventures of Joe, and in seventy Hasbro
settled on the name Adventure Team. Adventure Team. You know
when you were singing the G I Joe song, Um,
(08:29):
I wanted to say, g I Joe Robots in disguise,
so many jingles, They're all pretty much the same. But
I do want to say which we will get to Sunbow,
Uh produce both of those transformers. Also, I believe my
Little Pony and g I Joe, So yeah, we'll get
into the ad the game on lock. So basically to
(08:52):
coincide with the new direction. Lifelike flocked hair and beard
and innovation developed in England by Palatoi for the license
version of Joe Action Man is introduced in nineteen seventy
and a retooled African American Whoo Whoop Adventurer was also introduced,
which came in two versions, as did the others in
the series, bearded or shaven. These were my kendles, Like,
(09:13):
it's really funny to talk about the introduction of that
technology as far as like the lifelike hair, do you
remember that? Did you have? Did you have? I guess
action figures because I don't know if you had dolls.
Did you have those that had the the hair, they
were like plastic see I had I had. My mom
gave me her old ken dolls, um, which were anatomically
(09:34):
correct and that kind of interesting. They had a penis,
like some of them were a little bit of a bump.
Are we allowed to say that, I don't know, it
might get bleeped um. I think we could say penises.
It's it's a normal. But here, this is what we
talked about in Erica. E She's Sailor Moon episode. Is
how censored we are in America that we get weird
about talking about even normal things that people have. Well,
(09:55):
I was talking about this the other day and here
goes one of those tangents. But just are concept because
I feel like it's a constant wave where like sometimes
we get so obsessed over what kids can see sometimes
we lean back, But when you think about it, kids
aren't you know. I'm sure there's psychological evidence that proved
this one way or the other, but kids don't aren't
(10:17):
as interested in like sexual things. Like I was talking
with my buddy when he was talking about when he
was a kidding, he saw water World and his friends.
Oh my gosh, I remember seeing it when I was
a little His parents freaked out because they're like, oh,
there's brooms in there. Yeah, and he was like what,
I didn't he And he was like I didn't even
care at the time because I was trying to see
the men fighting, you know. On a different tangent side, note,
(10:39):
my aunt when she first saw a little boy peen,
she thought they peed from their belly buttons. Your aunt,
my yeah, my aunt. Moving on. So in nineteen this
is white people come to this for far outside to
hear that I used to make my animals smashed their
genitals and also your tea. Yeah. Yeah, she actually had
(11:02):
a baby, very young, but um, okay, so but now
she's a young mom, Like she's younger than all the
other moms. So there you go. In nineteen seventy four,
named after the increasingly popular martial art, Hasbro introduced the
Kung Fu grip. This was a big deal to the
g I Joe line. Uh. This was another innovation that
(11:23):
actually was developed in the UK for Action Man, and
the hands were molded in a softer plastic that allowed
the fingers to grip objects in a more lifelike fashion. Yeah,
so so I was gonna say around this time, though
the line was canceled in nineteen seventy six, Joe had
become something of a superhero, so they were incorporating fantastic
(11:45):
elements like chrome plated Bulletman and bionic limbs of Atomic
Man who battled the Intruders, which is a group of
caveman from outer space. So they really did kind of
want to um move away from him just being a
war yeah, kind of individual, kind of seen as a
superhero because heroesque. The Vietnam War was not fun and
(12:07):
I think, you know, and that was also like there
were a lot of people who were against it, and
I think trying to distance themselves away from that is
kind of their idea where they looks like, well know,
this is a superhero. This isn't like, you know, army propaganda,
which it kind of was at first. Then we got
into a real American hero, which is more of the
G I Joe. I know, I'm familiar with these guys,
(12:29):
but we'll get into that after these messages. Welcome back, y'all.
Hope you enjoyed those messages, and we're talking about G I.
G O today on Nificent even a nice, light and spicy.
If you're just tuning in, which you shouldn't be because
(12:51):
this is a podcast and not a live radio show,
you you should know that Danny dropped a fun fact.
I'm probably gonna be thinking about that of the rest
of the week. Really, why be funny? Yeah, it's such
a funny image because I can see how that happened,
and it's just like so funny. We're just like, oh,
I can't really see anything, but I see it coming
(13:13):
out the belly button. Yeah, that's boy. I want to
also pee from my belly button. Yeah, probably well for women, Yes, Iffy,
it's annoying. I'm in a one piece right now and
I have to take this whole thing off to p Anyways,
moving on to Yeah, I would say if this was
a Golden Age, I would name it the Golden Age,
(13:36):
which is a real American heroin. I would say, I mean,
there's obviously a lot of people who grew up with
the toys and that was their first introduction, a lot
of die hards actually for the comics and the and
the toys, but the like we've talked about before in
(13:56):
our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one, you know, lot of
these shows are used to push A lot of the
animated shows were used to push the toy sales. And
so I don't know if G I. Joe would be
as big as it is without a real American hero.
The year was and it saw the highly successful relaunch
(14:20):
of the G I. Joe product line in a smaller
three point seven five inch scale. So that scale was
the same one that was used by Kenner's Star Wars
figures and Micronauts, which were also really popular. Um, yeah, yeah,
And this relaunch pioneered several tactics in toy marketing, combining
traditional advertising with an animated television miniseries and an ongoing
(14:43):
comic book. The decision to use a smaller three point
scale for the figures also made it possible for Hasbro
to produce a variety of matching vehicles and play sets
that further expanded the appeal and commercial potential of the line.
So this is the yeah, this is more the G
I the cheesy g I Joe. We remember that we
have the smaller toys, and I remember the Star Wars
(15:05):
toys to like, it was like, this is like the
action figure action figures that I was referencing because I
realized before I just repeated action figures, so people could
have been like, what did if you mean by that,
I mean like these scale action figures. Yeah. We also
had G I. Joe posters, t shirts, video games, board games,
(15:26):
and kites and kites both toy and lamp in. Hobby
World magazines ranked G I. Joe as the top selling
American toy. Yeah, and because the Enemy toys had never
sold well in the past, Hasbro actually didn't even consider
to bring them back for the G I. Joe. But
then Larry Hamma, who was writing the Marvel comic book series,
(15:47):
insisted that these guys can't just march around and go
on maneuvers or whatnot. They have to be battling some things,
you know, like a threat. That's a direct quote Froom.
And it was Marvel's writer Archie Goodwin that suggested terrorist
organization named Cobra, and inspired by the name, inspired by
the name, Ron Rudette developed the design for the Enemies
(16:07):
now iconic logo. Yeah. And, according to Jim Shooter, who
at one point was Marvel's editor in chief, later villains
became of their volume. So of the toys, isn't that crazy? Yeah? Yeah,
they're kind of right, though, I can't think of other
villains maybe now, but I can't think of toys where
the villain sold as well as this, you know, I can't. Well,
(16:34):
they look so cool, you know, they do. And it
was really interesting because a lot of people are like, well,
Cobra and Marvel was also working, you know, with Hydra.
That to me is kind of obviously they don't like
overlap at all in the comics, but that was kind
of there. They're kind of really similar. They're kind of
really similar. So yes, we have g I Joe a
real American hero. Um also known as Action Force in
(16:57):
the UK uh In It was a half hour American
animated television series that was created by Ron Friedman. It
was based on the toy line from Hasbro and the
comic book series from Marvel Comics. The cartoon had its
beginning with two five part mini series in nine three
and nine four. Then it became a regular series that
(17:17):
ran in syndication from to Night six. Yeah, and they
took these cartoons pretty seriously, like the producers didn't want
just like anyone who'd written a Saturday morning cartoon. Uh So,
Ron Freeman, who had worked on all in the family,
Star Ski and Hutch and Fantasy Island was recruited to
write the first fifteen episodes of G I. Joe. And
then other people were Marvel Wolfman who wrote the New
(17:40):
teen Titans. You had Danny O'Neill who wrote Batman, Steve
Gruber who was the co creator of Howard the Duck.
So like they it wasn't like, I feel like not
to kind of jam on teenage meaning Ninja Turtles, But
when we were describing that, it just seemed like it
was a couple of toy dudes again, like all right,
let's do this, like know with G I. Joe there,
(18:01):
like let's find some some big dogs. Well, it's kind
of fascinating if we were compared to Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtles,
because that was so much more lighthearted. Um. And if
you think of when we talked about like some of
their catchphrases that were created by the toy company, um
like how a bung that wasn't created by them, but
that was instilled by them. And then um, heroes and
a half shell was something else that they had come
(18:22):
up with in them being like pizza loving and stuff.
So um, yeah, this it is kind of interesting apparel,
like to look at how different these two ended up becoming.
UM and maybe partly because G I. Joe is rooted
in war, you know, like there's no way to get
around that, as much as they did try to make
them kind of superhero esque UM. But also another fun
(18:43):
fact that has to do with other cartoons in the era.
So in the G I. Joe movie, there's a scene
where Duke the leader kind of takes a staff to
his heart and dies on screen, and like, you know, uh,
the fellow Joe's like, uh, Scarlett and Hawk, they're crying.
And at the end of the film, Duke's half brother, Falcon,
he was looking to the heavens and says thanks big brothers.
(19:04):
But UM producers ended up panicking and added dialogue to
explain that Duke was actually just in a coma from
which he later had a miraculous victory, and the reason
was because kids were traumatized by Optimist Primes death in
the Transformers movie, so they so they scrambled and really
(19:26):
only only only like a decade later would we have
the horrific death of Mufassa at the hand of thousands
of willed de bees. Um. I mean Disney doesn't care
at all. No, Apparently Sunbow is over here trying to
protect children and Disney is trying to ruin everyone's life. Well,
technically they kind of work because they were going to
(19:48):
kill off Duke and Optimist Prime and only build because
they saw the consequences of their actions. Wow. Wow. Meanwhile,
Disney does not care. No, Disney's like Bambi, Yes, exactly.
Bambies was quicker, though faster. They really like dragged that out.
His death scene was like ten minutes and then it
(20:10):
was him like, you know, struggling. Okay, moving on, but yeah,
So GJ was promoted to a full series in and
the season began with a third Freedman penned five part adventure,
The Pyramid of Darkness, and that story sees most of
the existing cast from the two previous mini series held
(20:30):
Captive by Cobra, and then a second season of thirty
episodes followed in nineteen eight six, beginning with the fourth
five part story Arise, Serpenter Rise, in which Cobra scientists
doctor mind Bender, inspired by a dream, uses the DNA
of histories, ruthless conquerors, and rulers to genetically engineer Serpenter,
(20:51):
who usurps Cobra Commander's place as leader of Cobra Serpenter.
So then in this mini series introduced a new nine
range of toys into the story, who were at the
center of most stories across the rest of the season.
In particular, the mini series debut former WWF and then
(21:13):
current a W a professional wrestler Sergeant Slaughter as a
member of the G I Joe, who was played by himself.
And I remember this because that was like the cool thing,
and for the season, Buzz Dixon replaced Steve Gerber as
story editor. That's just some behind the scenes Hollywood facts.
I think people are still tripping off the Sergeant Slaughter
or your nostalgis kicking in because you remember that. Yeah,
(21:35):
I was gonna say so. G I. Joe was a
co production between Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, and Somebo's
staff would write the scripts based on the character and
vehicle designs provided by Hasbro. Again behind the curtain, which
I guess you can see. Um, I haven't had the
time to sit down because I didn't realize it was
multiple episodes, but um, the toys that made us that,
(21:58):
you know that series on Netflix? Oh yeah, Um, I
know that they have one on this so, um, yeah,
that's something some more. It's some extracurricular activity if you, yeah,
go check it out. But also you can see that basically, um,
a lot of our nostalgic stuff comes from selling toys.
So they would write the scripts based on the character
(22:19):
and vehicle designs provided by Hasbro, while the artists at
Marvel Productions would draw storyboards based on the scripts and
record voiceovers the animation. Though this is really fascinating. The
animation was outsourced to our friends at Toy in Japan,
who worked on all episodes as well as the movie. Well,
I want to talk about Marvel because there's a fun
(22:42):
thing that was kind of cool that never really happened.
So at the same time that Hasbro was developing its
three inch Real American Hero toy line, Marvel Comics editor
and freelance writer Larry Hamma, who we were talking about earlier,
was pitching a series called The Fury for which was
made up of an elite squad of soldiers and uh,
(23:04):
the lead was like Nick Fury's son. And when Hama
was signed on right g I Joe, he ended up
dropping the Fury Force and transposed like several of the
characters from that into the real American hero lineup. But
I mean that that would have been a fun world
that because it seems like Marvel and G I. Joe's
were kind of living that same kind of timeline, but
(23:26):
it just kind of never fully committed to it. Yeah. Yeah,
Toy had worked on the movie as well. So speaking
of the G I. Joe. Yeah, so it was a
feature league film version of the series that was intended
to be released theatrically followed by the Transformers movie. However,
(23:47):
the movie encountered unexpected production delays, which allowed the Transformers
feature to be released first and ruined it for everybody.
Because the poor box office performance of the trans Formers
and My Little Pony films, which were both done by Sunbow, Um,
G I. Joe was then sent to direct to video status. Um.
(24:09):
It was released on VHS on A and was later
split into a five part mini series for television syndication.
But um, it could have been in the theaters. I know,
you could have watched it on the big screen, but
the like like I said, Transformers seemed to ruin the
movie more ways than one. Yeah, So, if you do
(24:31):
want to talk about the movie a little bit. Yeah. So,
the movie follows up the events of season two, revealing
that Cobra Commander is actually an agent of a secret
civilization known as Cobra Lat led by a half serpent
humanoid named Globulus. The same organization is also revealed to
have had a hand in the creation of Serpenteur, as
the dream that inspired Dr Mindbender to create him was
(24:53):
actually a subconscious suggestion implanted into him by one of
Globulus's bugs. In addition to Cobra Law, two new sub
teams were introduced within the Joe Team, the Raw Hides
and the Renegade Renegade, both composed of characters introduced during
the toy Lines lineup. Remember the Renegades because those dudes
were fighting people from space? Yeah? Um, And then sadly
(25:17):
we have a cancelation. So Marvel Productions continued to produce
animated commercials for the toy line and comic books, which
also featured a new theme song with the lyrics Nobody
Beats g I Joe after g I Joe the movie,
which was intended to set up season three. However, the
(25:39):
company never got around to produce a third season, as
they end up losing the license to competing animation company
Dick d i C. During pre production. Uh here's another
weird interesting fact. But Rocky Balboa almost became a G I. Joe.
But what the found out? So they were doing a
(26:01):
four issue mini series that started in December of n
six that listed all of the various G I. Joe operatives,
Cobra agents, and vehicles that made up the universe, and
the second issue of the series, Rocky Boubo was uh
erroneously listed as a member of the Joe's because the
reason this happened was negotiations had been taken place to
license the character but had subsequently fallen through. But he
(26:24):
still was listed anyway, so it was like a teaser
of what could have been. Like can you imagine? The
picture is so funny too, because he has boxing glosses
like that, but they all have guns and lasers. What
were you gonna do? Yeah? I guess that doesn't make sense.
I think Sylvester stall alone makes more sense. Like just him,
he already looks like what tell them Brambo. Yeah. So
(26:44):
let's talk a little bit about Dick's involvement with the
G I. Joe series. So their series premiered in nine
nine with a five part mini series titled Operation Dragonfire.
It was turned into a regular series that aired from
two and lasting two season for a total of forty
four episodes. UM Sunbow would later return to the G
(27:05):
I Joe franchise UM and they co produced the pilot
Sergeant Savage and His Screaming Eagles UM and G I
Joe G I Joe Extreme TV series, which aired from
There was actually a lot. There's a lot more, I
think than people realize because people normally just equate it
to the smaller series. But it continued on. The Screaming
(27:28):
Eagles pilot also had characters from the Real American hero
series which was Hawk Doc Lady j as well as
Cobra Commander himself. Yeah, but otherwise it focused on new
heroes and villains. And just for those of my wondering, Yeah,
Dick Enterprises is Diffusion Information and Communications and it was
(27:48):
a French company and there there are there incredible slogan
which is a D percent true is the incredible world
of Dick. Wait, could we be saying it wrong? If
he is it? D I c Like, what how is
I don't know? D c um, there's already a d C. Yeah,
(28:11):
so there it is. I guess people probably call it
D I C. Maybe I don't know. Let's talk about
the g I Jo's p S A. I am so
excited about this, yeah, because this was I think one
of the biggest things that g JO were known for.
A series of p s a s were produced, starting
the characters from g JO from seven. Each p S
(28:32):
A public service announcements for those who might not know,
and it was one of the trouble kids spouting now
I know the more you know, yeah, and now they
know the future. Joe would then follow it up with
the infamous catchphrase and knowing is half the battle. There
were thirty five p s a s per each with
a different lesson to be learned. Uh, let's let's try
(28:55):
and run down these as fast as a kid. What okay? Okay?
You you take one, I'll take running away isn't the answer?
Featuring Shipwreck? Are you okay? Don't do what a stranger
says with wild Bill? How to tread water featuring Torpedo,
What to do if you catch on fire featuring Spirit
Being a handicap doesn't make one helpless featuring Spirit Be
(29:16):
careful around frozen ponds and Lakes featuring snow Job. Taking
something that isn't yours just asn't right featuring Shipwreck. You'll
never learn without trying featuring Scarlet. Don't go near down
power lines featuring Roadblock. Oh I love that one, um.
Don't give strangers your address featuring Roadblock. Have your eyes
tested featuring Don't get in anything that could close and
(29:39):
trap you featuring Rocondo. Anything worth doing is worth planning
featuring Quick Kick. Don't pet strange animals featuring Much Your
Proper Protection Out in the Sun featuring leather Neck. Stop
and think before you act. I mean that's just good
for anyone featuring Lady Jay Obey railroad crossings featuring Hawk,
Don't judge people until you give them chance featuring gung Ho.
(30:01):
How do stop a nosebleed? Featuring Footloose And That's that's helpful.
Teamwork helps you win, not arguments featuring Flint. It's better
to tell the truth featuring Flint. Put reflectors on your
bikes featuring Dusty. Never take medicine without adult supervisions featuring
Doc Have proper ventilation when painting? Why is your child
painting your bedroom? Featuring dial Tone. Don't Swim during a
(30:25):
thunderstorm featuring Always wear a life jacket when boating featuring
Deep six Instead of fighting, find a better way featuring Cutter.
Don't call the fire department from a burning building featuring Blowtorch.
Very very yeah, that's to go together. What to do
when You're lost featuring Alpine. Don't pull the fire alarm
(30:45):
unless there's a fire featuring Barbecue. What to do if
your house is on fire featuring Barbecue, Well, I already
know not to call the fire department. Love that one, Okay.
What to do if someone passes out featuring Airtight, Eat
the right foods featuring Lifeline, Wear a helmet for protection
featuring cross Country and beach Head. Listen to yourself featuring Flint. Oh.
(31:10):
Those were a lot, and they ranged from like helpful
to what um so I want to say? How I
was introduced to them was from the parodies which are
pretty popular and infamous on the Internet and Treat Yourself
truly So. In two thousand three, Eric Fenzler created parodies
(31:31):
of twenty five of the p S A s which
were hosted on The Bomb's World, prompting to take down
notice from Hasbro in two thousand and four, but They
have since been uploaded in various ways. UM, my favorite
is pork Chop Sandwiches, which you can google G I
Joe pork Chop Sandwiches. Yeah, I have it right here.
(31:51):
Oh yeah, god, did that smell good? Detected? Did you know?
Going and you tell me do things I don't running?
I know? Yeah, audibly you're probably like, what just happened?
But if you watch it, it's just insane. It's so funny,
and they made several of them, and other people have
(32:13):
made parodies as well, but I think, um, eric Is
Fendler is the one who's most notorious for it. Fendler Film. Um,
and uh, the first part of that we couldn't play
because it had a lot of the effort in it. Yeah,
just that that's our I guess our warning for you
is it curses a lot. Yeah. But yeah, I wanted
to say we should talk about the characters of G
(32:36):
I Joe because we didn't even really get into the
different Joes and Cobra's. Yeah, we mentioned Duke and that's
about it. Well, we did say all of those featuring
those p s a sum but we'll get into actually
the top ten Joes and Cobra's right after the break
(33:02):
and we are back. So yeah, I g M put
together this nice and handy list of the top ten
Joes and Cobras, which is more informative and better than
reading just all of them. There's too many. I was
going to say that, and I know that we're going
to leave out somebody's favorite. So instead of writing us, right,
I g N. No, instead of write us, send a
(33:24):
picture and tell us why you're the favorite, and then
I'll retweet and let you know if I agree if
that should be the best one. Yeah, do that, because
I was going to say, there's just there's so many.
There's there's They added a whole bunch like a hundred
and sixty or something really yeah, uh huh yeah, like characters. Yeah.
So our friends at I g N made a nice
little top ten. It's actually top five. It's top five
(33:46):
Joe's and top five Cobras. Uh. So starting out at
number five for them is Gung Ho. Yeah, who's It
seems like he is a you know, just what you
would expect at the Times version of Asian American warrior. Yeah,
except for he grew up in Louisiana. He honed his
(34:09):
skills in bare knuckle boxing and knife fighting at an
early age. As we all. Uh, those skills, along with
his exposure to the human bias of Louisiana. I love
that this is in his backstory, made him a perfect
candidate to join the Marines and fight in Vietnam. So
befitting his loud, colorful personality, Gung Ho loves carrying a
(34:30):
grenade launcher and lane waste to Cobra's forces. Um, so
he's basically wearing all he's wearing kneepads. That's fascinating. Yeah,
that's good. And you know he has the It almost
looks like the Marines. Yeah, he has the marine. Yeah,
he's part of the Marines. He has a tattooed on
his chest just so people know. And he kind of
(34:51):
has the handibore mustache. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's great. Uh,
he's very interesting. Y'all might have remembered this name, which
is uh Roadblock and uh and it seems like he
came from the Marvel comics series and apparently he had
a foul temper there. In the sun Bow animated series,
(35:11):
Roadblock became like a more jovial figure and he's developing
a tendency to speak in rhyme, while also emerging as
one of the great leader figures among the shows. It's
also important to note that Roadblock is black, so you
know he's easier wrapping Joe apparently. I would love it
if somebody out in war is speaking in rhymes and
(35:32):
the Rock played him in G I Joe Retaliation. There
we go, moving on to three. Her code name is
Scarlet in her civilian surname is O'Hara, and uh yeah,
she has good looks, fiery personality, and the fact that
she's one of the few female Jos. She has a
law degree and specializes in a number of firearms, though
(35:54):
her preferred weapon is the crossbow, and she also is
a eight martial artists. I feel like, yeah, if you're
a G I. Joe, you gotta know a little little.
I mean some of them you could have just weapons, yea.
And she also, if you don't remember, she was the
you'll never learn without trying p s a h. And
(36:16):
we got our man's Duke, who is basically the leader
of the G I. Joe, the one we were talking
about who was supposed to lose his life um, but
due to the death of Optimus Primes, it didn't Um, yeah,
Chan and Tatum basically played him in the Rise of Cobra,
and you know, he actually was able to reprise the
(36:39):
role in Retaliation as well, So it's cool. Do people
like those films? I don't know, because they kept getting
sequels like I want to be like what but yeah, no,
they kept getting sequels like Transformers, which which I enjoyed
and you didn't. He didn't even watch it. I don't think.
I still haven't watched a will transform Uhjo Retaliation the
(37:03):
budget was a hundred and fifty five million and it
made three hundred and seventy five So yeah, I guess
they're Yeah, they're pretty successful. Moving on, who do you
think number one? Who would you say would be number one? Uh?
For the Jo's Honestly, I have no clue it is. Oh. Yes,
(37:23):
Snake Guys was everyone's favorite. And I know this because
he was a ninja and like when the Jo movies
came out, my like little brother and little cousin were
of age and they both were on Snake Guy's head. Tough. Yes,
So the black Clad Ninja is a man of very
few words. He never speaks, is that truly never sneake?
(37:43):
He never speaks with various versions of the mythology, deferring
as to whether that's a self in pose limitation or
result of damage vocal cords. It's fascinating. Yeah, but he's
an unparalleled fighter, master of many weapons. He preferred is
to stick to his trusty Katana whenever possible. His pet
wolf Timber is always ready to assist him in battle. Um.
(38:07):
He has a deep seated rivalry with storm Shadow Dope suit. Yeah,
the suits dope. Storm Shadow is kind of in like
all white. So it's like the perfect Yan and Yang.
It truly is. But that is their top five, Joe's Now,
let's talk about what's really cool, which is the Cobras.
I mean everyone likes the villains. Yeah, I like, as
(38:29):
I've grown up, I've kind of now I prefer Scar.
I prefer Scar over Maleficent. I think that they have
and kill Monger in Thanos. I think they have good
points to make. Um, well, they're Number five is Zartan
and he was one of the major recurring villains in
the sun Bow animated series, and he frequently worked alongside
the Dreadknocks, a colorful biker gang with a high membership turnover,
(38:53):
and he has like disguised and espionage skills and apparently
runs in his family. And he works with his twin siblings,
Zarana and Zander. So it's Zartan, Zarana Zander and he
has a daughter named Zanya. Wait wait wait, so but
his name is Zartan. But that's their last name? Oh
(39:14):
is it? Um? Yeah? Who else? There's a couple of
other characters like that. That's really funny. I can't think
of it. But a couple of other characters like their
last name their their name is also their last name.
UM number four. Surprisingly at number four is Cobra Commander,
probably one of the most famous Cobras. I got belive it.
Maybe that's why how number far um? He has the
(39:39):
same mystery factor working for him that benefits snake guys.
Little is known about his past before becoming an international
super terrorist. He's very diligent about hiding his face, tending
to wear his signature helmet or hood even while sleeping.
That's how dedicated he is. According to the Marvel comic series,
he was a failing used our salesman that would turn
(40:01):
anyone evil. I love it, who was spurned to evil
by the death of his brother. But it also the
car sales. I feel like that was the major thing.
The death of his brother kind of sucks, but also
the death of his soul. Every day, sitting every day
he's been trying to sell it for the past five years. Yeah,
every day someone trying to haggle him down on his
(40:22):
price as he sits there and there and sits there
and gets their curing coffee that Cobra commanded. Number four.
Number three is the Baroness who's early early crushes. Look
at that, we look, that's like looking in the mirror
if you look at that all the just let black leather, glasses,
black hair. She's great, Oh my gosh, and she yeah.
(40:46):
So basically she was booed up with Destro. That was
the one thing she also with which was cool for
me because it's like, look, I'm thicker than deshtrows. So
you know, anytime you want to upgrade Baroness, let your
boy know. Um. And then Rise of Cobra the movie
tried to shake up the formula by making Baroness a
former love interest of Dukes, but uh, I guess in
(41:11):
the sequel they just never address it. Yeah, she has
one of the distinction of being one of the few
g I Joe characters to debut first in the Marvel
comics rather than the toy line or the animated series. Um,
and that's kind of like Harlequin. Yeah, and I guess
it was not in a good way, And it was
mainly because the toy companies are kind of reluctant to
(41:34):
make female figures and action thing that's in the past.
Oh wait, still have that issue a day. But yeah,
just to clarify, Harlequinn was debuted in the Batman animated series,
not the comic books, and she was so popular that
they made her a character who is now synonymous with Joker. Truly. Yeah,
(41:56):
she has her own Have you seen Batman and Harley Quinn? No,
it's good animated. I watched it on the airplane, and
I'm sure you know we I would like to think
that grown adults are like, okay, with the fact that
you know, other grown adults watched cartoons on the airplane,
but that was what I was choosing to do with
my time. Moving on a number two, Destro, who was
(42:19):
placed higher than Cobra Commander, very fascinating. I think he
was cooler because he had the baroness, you know. Oh,
so she like leveled him up. Um. Destro was once
layered James mccollan, Destro the twenty four Wow, the Scottish
nobleman carried on his family's long tradition. I love the
backstories of these on his family's long tradition of selling
(42:43):
advanced weapons and profiting from the wars of other nations.
Destro is the leader of Mars, a manufacturer responsible for
providing Cobra with many of its doomsday devices and other weaponry. Yeah,
and his signature, he has a signature steel mask is
worn as a homage yeah to his ancestor, who was
(43:04):
forced to wear an iron mask for selling weapons to
both sides of a conflict. It's fascinating. This is really
in depth for a quote unquote child's children's series. They
get in deep, they get in super deep um, although
in some versions of the mask is seen as a
protected device that hides his scarred face or, in the
(43:24):
case of I Dw's current comics, prevents his energy based
body from um dissipating. Oh nice, I didn't know that
about him. Yeah. Well, uh. Number one is they follow
the same suit with villains is storm Shadow, which is
Snake Eyes enemy and uh I gn basically describes it
this way. If Snake Eyes is the Wolverine of the
(43:45):
Joe universe, than storm Shadow is definitely his saber too.
To have a long history that dates back well before
the days of GIAI, Joe and Cobra that the details changed.
The gist of their feud is that storm Shadow view
Snake Eyes as an outsider, unworthy of clan or a Chicago.
In many versions of the Joe Verse, one of these
ninjas hold the other responsible for the death of their master.
There are many clashes in the comics, movies where he's
(44:08):
played by Byong Hung Le, and animated projects frequently number
among the most memorable CHII Joe moments of all, of course,
because everyone loves ninjas. I was going to say not included,
but I did want to mention Dr Mindbender, mad scientist
and former dentist. I really love this. We have a
used car salesman, we have a dentist, and both of
these both of these occupations would make people evil, truly.
(44:34):
He created several mind control devices, uh and was also
an expert in genetic manipulation. So he is the responsible
for the creation of Serpenter and Cobra Bat. Yeah, as
well as perfecting the brain wave scanner so it looks
like Back in two thirteen, reports surface that there would
(44:54):
be a third Gijo film and it would likely be
in three D. Studio announced Chew would return to direct
the film. Then one at San Diego Comic Count of
two thousand and thirteen, they you talked about bringing back
Scarlett in the next film, and then the writers of
the second film, we're bringing talking about bringing back Baroness
and there's all these talk, and then September of the
same year, she was confirmed to direct the film, along
(45:15):
with the writer Evan Dherty who wrote Snow White and
The Huntsman, Divergent, Teenage Muant Ninja Turtles, and then uh,
then it goes on, and then it seems like nothing happened.
Then they hired writers, hired writers, hired writers. Uh. Then
in two thousand seventeen January of last year, Crusoe stated
that the script for the crossover movie is now being written,
(45:35):
and in May two thousand seventeen, The Rock Dwayne Johnson
stated that if the opportunity rises, he might appear in
any future Joe films, And then The Hollywood Reporter has
reported that Paramount announced the film would be released in
March of So this is all the way since two thousand,
(45:56):
thirteen twenty and it seems like it's going to be
a crossover film with I Believe Terminator, I mean Transformers
and what did I say Terminating. They have G I
Joe The Rise of Cobra, which came out in two
thousand nine, then G I Joe Retaliation which came out,
and now G I Joe Ever Vigilant is the current
(46:19):
name that will be coming out in It has a
projected release date of March, and then it says they
have an untitled Snake Eyes film to be announced. Yeah,
it seems like they just announced that in um in
May of this year. So we're getting more G I Joe.
But it's taken a while. So that's the future of
(46:41):
G I Joe. It's coming, it's just taken a minute.
That's going to be insane, just hands down. I don't
see how those two worlds can come together and not
be insane. But I'm very curious to watch it happen.
I guess I have to watch the other G I
Joe's to really go. But there has been huge gaps
between it because Rise of Cobra. The first Gijo film
came out in two thousand nine. Yeah, and then G I.
(47:03):
Joe Retaliation came out in two thousand thirteen. That's a
full four years later. And now we're going to get
Ever Vigilant seven years later. Yeah. And I also wanted
to say that Crusoe had worked on the Triple X
film he directed the Return of Xander Cage. He said
that with such like, no, I don't I haven't watched
a lot of those. I think I watched the first one.
(47:24):
I haven't watched a lot of the G I. Joe
films either, So I guess let us know if we
should watch them. I don't know. Yeah, this came out,
the first one came out in two thousand nine. Liked them.
I was three years out of high school. I probably
thought it was way too advance for that. Like, sorry, y'all,
I can't watch G I. Joe. I have to go
watch Bible Black. Sorry, way too mature for these games. Well,
(47:47):
there's so many I feel like that are like that
are in this vein that I just kind of end up. Yeah,
not watching all of that. Plus, when you think of
the amount of actual um DC Marvel films that we
have and superhero films. It's kind of a lot to watch.
I have way behind on DC, like d C. I
have been seeing Suicide Squad. I haven't seen Justice League.
(48:08):
The last DC movie I watched was wonder Woman. Yeah,
I would say those were the other two that came out.
I'm I'm very excited, very excited to see wonder Woman
UM eighty four and also Flashpoint. I forgot Aquaman is
coming out. Um. I always forget that he was introduced
in the Justice No, I forget because he's just Jason
Momoa is Jason Momoa. Like it seems like he's always
(48:30):
been with us. It seems like he's been Aquaman for
the last like five years at least or ten years. Yeah,
that's how it feels. It just feels like, no, that's him, Yeah,
we know him. But these other like but who's this
as a Miller person? And who was the actor that
played Cyborg? Um? Oh, Ray Fisher, Ray Fisher who played Cyborg? Yeah,
and so those are newer to me, and probably also
(48:52):
because they don't necessarily have the film um or TV
legacy that I feel like Mamoa does just because he's older. Um.
But yeah, but somebody did correct us in our I
forgot which episode it was, but we were talking about
the introduction of those characters and someone reminded us that
Aquaman was also introduced in that but I totally forgot. Also,
(49:15):
while we're adding addendums to things, some uh, we got
a message because we called Hunter x Hunter Hunter x
Hunter and anime fans believe it should be called Hunter Hunter. Yeah,
but Erica also calls it Hunter x Hunter, and I've
feel like she's in the anime community and also Japanese American. Yeah,
(49:36):
so so yeah, some people said that you called it
hunter by Hunter and sometimes and people say Hunter x.
It seems like you know who cares just watch it
and support the show. But you know, there you go.
You got it all right. Um, I think we got
to get out of here, so let's just wrap it up.
You can find me at if you waddy wait on
(49:57):
Twitter and Instagram, I f Y and w I D
I w E if the s on Twitch. Thank you
to everyone. There's so much nerd fam coming over to Twitch,
so many dope people who are like I just came over.
I don't watch Twitch, but I came over to give
you my Twitch Prime Zone. Thanks do that. Make that
visit once a month though, because it doesn't keep automatically renewal,
(50:17):
so don't forget that. Also, um, shout out to Nicole
who spells it a real fun way she just gave me.
I just realized I should probably give those shoutouts. I
said that I was going to give to people on
the stream. But while I pull up my stream, labs Danny,
where can people find you? People can find me at
(50:38):
miss Danny Fernandez. It's M S D A and I
F E R N and easy and also at Nerdificent
on all the socials and if he and I are
going to be at Comic Con. Yeah, you can definitely
come check that out. Yeah, come check it out. And um,
we also launched our T Public site, so yes, very true.
(51:02):
Get that merch. Got lots of dope teas. You can
get stickers for your laptops or what have you. So yeah,
make sure you go to the T Public website. Will
share it with this video on one of the twitters
and instagrams. Go there, get the merch. Rock show your
nerd fam love. If you have to say something so
someone has the Captain America meme, you know the meme
of him sitting down at the chair um and someone said,
(51:26):
so you pronounced the X and Hunter x hunter and
then they follow and it has like eighteen thou likes,
but they followed it up with might I add I
personally don't care if you say some Hunter hunter or
Hunter x hunter or even you you hacka show part two.
This tweet is all in good fun as it should be.
Oh yeah, I forgot that you was another one, or
(51:48):
don't forget my hero academia versus boku no hero or something. Yeah,
and you know my hair academia is also how it's
known as. Yeah. Here's my shout out Heels Angels with
the Z thanks for that sub from the Nerd Fam.
Hannah Bataki, you came through, gave me that love. Thank
(52:08):
you so much. And I'm gonna give Sam Hi five
a shout out. I don't remember him that specifically saying
whether or not he was a NERD fan, but I'm
gonna give him a shout out because I feel like
the last few subs I have been Nerd Fam Tank
Chootsu you came through, Hondo Gray Nicole is spelled k
in I k o L. So thank you all for
them for them subs, it really means a lot to me.
(52:29):
Helps me keep going and stay strong, and I get
your energy to help me twitch, dream more. Oh, I
forgot staying nere to y'all.
Nerdificent News
Hosts And Creators
Dani Fernandez
Ify Nwadiwe
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