Episode 14: G.I. Joe

I believe so interesting. No, maybe those Val Kilmer's I can't remember. But I stole their rubber batman and made 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. 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 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, 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.

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 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, 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.

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 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, 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 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 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,

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, 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

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 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 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 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 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

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, 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, 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 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, 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

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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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,

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 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 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,

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 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 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

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 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,

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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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.

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 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 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

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 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, 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 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,

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, 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 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 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,

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 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, 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. 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

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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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

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 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. 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 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 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. 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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?

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. 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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.

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

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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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, 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,

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 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 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. 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.

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, 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. 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 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 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, 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, 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 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, 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 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. 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, 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 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 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. 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.