A great figure that unfortunately never saw the light of day, anything you could want to know, you can now find out!

• Adventure Team Dusty Review

Enjoy!

Obviously if you’re at this point, you’ve probably been reading all along, and have already perused the Season 1 Recap (Parts 1 and 2) as well as the first part of the Season 2 recap.  So far I’ve covered the animated series as a whole all the way up through Episode 9 of Season 2.  I’m actually somewhat surprised at myself for being able to stomach this out, because quite honestly I’m not a fan of the animated series.  While there were snippets of cool action, and I always love seeing my toys come to life on the screen, as a whole the writing was painful, the dialog abysmal, and some of the characterizations were straight out of the worst stereotypes I can imagine.  Yet some part of me enjoys the Sigma 6 universe so much, that it seemed a shame not to at least touch on the animated series to at least a degree.  And at this point, I’ve gotten this far, might as well wrap it up.

In Part 1, I left off with a Cliffhanger, as Episode 7 ended with Sigma Strike Duke landing on COBRA’s Island base, and slowly meandering towards the colliseum, waiting to see what was in store for him (and also hoping to rescue his teammates).

Within the base itself, Lt. Stone and Scarlett are still being held prisoner, when Stone reveals something of a surprising nature.

Of course anyone who bought the toy knows full well that the enigmatic Sigma 6 Lieutenant has a cyborg arm, but apparently it’s news to Scarlett.  This was sort of another missed opportunity, I thought.  Since Stone’s arm appeared whole throughout most of the season to this point, I was kind of hoping that Firefly’s betrayal would lead to Stone’s injury that required the arm and eye.  I figured that would add another element of drama to the situation, but unfortunately, the writers did not see it that way.

So Stone and Scarlett sneak out and go about setting the others free, but there is still some unresolved business between the Lieutenant and his former teammate.

Stone and Firefly trade blows throughout the bowels of the COBRA base while out and about, Sigma Strike Duke has to face off against numerous odds, including all of the former Overlords, and COBRA Commander himself.

That’s a perfect example of something I think the Sigma 6 cartoon got right.  COBRA Commander is a bad ass, as he should be.  He essentially went toe-to-toe with Duke, who is all ramped up in a P.O.W.E.R. suit, and pretty much took him down.  Sure, COBRA’s operations were halted and he basically retreated, but he still beat Duke in hand-to-hand combat and left of his own volition.  This is not your 80′s COBRA Commander, he’s got some punch.

As Episode 8 ends, we move on and sort of get greeted by a couple more standalone episodes that don’t offer nearly the fun of these larger scale ongoing story arcs.  Episode 9 focuses on Hi-Tech and Spirit as they battle Overkill in the “Bio-Dome” and really, the only thing worth mentioning is the first appearance of the awesome Iron Hammer mech (though they call it Metal Mayhem in the cartoon):

As I’ve mentioned, I always love seeing the computer generated vehicle battles going on, and this is no different, but once Hi-Tech steps out of the mech and starts talking, it’s time to claw my ears out.  Especially since in this episode he’s playing off of Spirit Iron-Knife (and the eternal conflict between technology and nature) and the voice actor for Spirit does a horrid job of over-acting, over-emphasizing, and generally sounding like an idiot throughout pretty much the entire episode.

Overkill does finally get out of his test tube in this episode and sets out on his own two feet, but essentially accomplishes nothing but getting smacked down in a Mantis Mech.

Episode 10 doesn’t fare much better as Zartan and the Dreadnoks are infiltrating a desert laboratory, and unwittingly set free some super-enhanced bugs.  Lt. Stone, Tunnel Rat, and Kamakura set out to stop the whole operation, and again, besides some nifty vehicle action (we see the 2.5″ Street Razor in action for the first time!) there isn’t much worth mentioning.

One slightly redeeming quality about this episode is that as it closes, you at least get the idea that COBRA has a plan and it’s nearing fruition.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned in the past, these two episodes kind of take you out of the “groove”.  The first 3 episodes of Season 2 were pretty good, and had a great rhythm, then these silly standalone focus episodes really pull you out.  Then we get to episodes 7 and 8, and once again, you’re back in a fairly quick-paced and decent story, but then we stumble back to magical bugs and Overkill acting like a robotic chick and you don’t even want to watch the next episode again.

Well, that wasn’t a worry for much beyond this, because there were really only two more real episodes of Sigma 6 in Season 2, and in fact, in existence.

It appears that COBRA had a master plan while they were stealing Sigma technology, testing a microwave emitter, and doing all of those dastardly things throughout Season 2…they were making a Weather Dominator!  Well, kinda.  COBRA unleashes their weapon on the world, then approaches the UN and demands an unconditional surrender.  When they refuse, COBRA freezes them solid and takes them by force.

The Sigma 6 team scatters, checking out COBRA Terror Drome installations in the South and North poles, with Snake Eyes leading the charge in the South.  He quickly infiltrates the base, and meets up with Firefly, showing up here in his COBRA uniform for the first time.

Firefly is one of my favorite characters in the Sigma 6 mythos…his characterization is obviously significantly different than the Real American Hero version, but his cocky, computer expert and flamethrower personality all just seem to “work”, and I enjoy his transition to the COBRA side.  He also goes toe-to-toe with Snake Eyes pretty capably, which is always a cool twist.  Even though the Sigma 6 ninja manages to take down the Terror Drome, Firefly captures him as the ‘Drome falls down around his head.

Episode Twelve is essentially the end of the Sigma 6 animated universe.  Even though there was a 13th episode, it was just a recap show, so the events of the story essentially end with this episode.  Even though there is something of a culmination and a resolution of stories, the lack of drama or impact throughout the second season (except for a few isolated instances) really makes this a non-ending.  It seems like it should be more satisfying, but so many of these episodes were so goofy and took you so far out of a realistic universe that the ending is just kind of there.

Essentially the Sigma 6 team all comes down on the last Terror Drome, determined to stop COBRA once and for all.  COBRA brings their “A Game” as well, launching an all out attack on the Sea Titan headquarters.

The Titan is apparently decimated and sunk, so it’s up to the remnants of the Sigma 6 team to lead the attack.  Piloting the VAMP, the RHINO, the Dune Runner, and the ROCC, Lt. Stone leads the attack with Tunnel Rat, Heavy Duty, Long Range, Kamakura, and Jinx, but they get a nasty surprise when they approach the COBRA base in the form of an energized snake-shaped energy tornado.  Yeah, I know.  Don’t tell me.

Thankfully the Sea Titan is revealed under the ocean, faking its earlier destruction.  It combats the energy tornado, and allows the Sigma 6 team to successfully approach the Terror Drome.

But more interesting than the energy tornado is once the Sigma team makes it inside the Terror Drome we get some cool action between Storm Shadow & Snake Eyes, Lt. Stone & Firefly, as well as COBRA Commander vs. Duke.  The animated series does at least make an effort to resolve the various different personal conflicts that permeated the Sigma 6 story, though none of them gets especially well resolved.

I pretty much captured the last 5-6 minutes of the 12th episode, just to show how these various conflicts get resolved and how the entire series ends.  Good or bad, there is a certain appreciation for seeing the 2 year long event come to an actual conclusion.

It’s nice to see some action in this last episode, and I do have to at least commend Hasbro and Gonzo for at least bringing the series to a conclusion rather than just ending it (even though the last half of season two never aired in the US).  COBRA is essentially captured (except for the Commander, who escaped) and the Sigma 6 team emerges victorious.  Their battle cry is a far shot from “Yo Joe” but there is a resolution, which is something, I guess.

I’m torn over the animated series, as if you couldn’t tell.  I love the Sigma 6 universe so much, so part of me does enjoy seeing them in animated form, though I try to focus on the action more and the dialog and over-acting characteristics much less.  There are various moments of greatness sprinkled through the series…or at least moments of fun, but unfortunately many of them are sandwiched between moments of agonizing dialog and sketchy plots.  This series will never be held on a pedestal, but I’ve got them all on DVD, and I’ll definitely keep a collection of them, there are things to like mixed in there amongst the rabble.

DAY 1 – CREATIVITY | DAY 1.5 – VIDEO | DAY 2 – ARTWORK | DAY 3 – UNPRODUCED | DAY 4 – HASBRO Q & A

DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 1) | DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 2) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 1) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 2)

]]> http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/13/sigma-6-celebration-day-6-season-two-recap-part-2/feed/ 5 http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/13/sigma-6-celebration-day-6-season-two-recap-part-1/ http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/13/sigma-6-celebration-day-6-season-two-recap-part-1/#comments Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:30:59 +0000 Justin http://generalsjoes.com/?p=1282 If you’ve been following along, you’ve seen me cover Season One of the Sigma 6 cartoon in two parts here and here.  I’ll be doing the same thing this time around with Season Two, covering the first 6 episodes in this article, then covering the next 6 episodes in Part Two.  Episode 13 of Season 2 was merely a “recap show” wrapped into a pseudo-Awards show, so I didn’t feel that was even worth including.

It should be noted that in the US, Season Two only aired through Episode 8, the rest of them were found on the Canadian station YTV, or Hasbro’s “MonkeybarTV” website.

Season Two, like the first season, was a very mixed bag of up and down moments.  The overall story and plot was more sinister and serious than the first season, and the atmosphere was a bit more grown up, but the dialog actually took a number of steps backwards.  We got introduced to some great new characters in Lt. Stone and Firefly, and the dynamic between them both had lots of potential, but when the show had a chance for great drama, it usually elected for ridiculous dialog and over-anxious voice acting which took it out of the moment.

Sigma 6 find themselves across the pond in Europe, attempting to thwart COBRA’s latest schemes, however they don’t realize that a stranger from the shadows is watching their every move, and may actually be closer than they think.

Like in Season One, Season Two placed a nice emphasis on well orchestrated and nicely animated vehicle battles, which fit into the Sigma 6 dynamic fairly well since they took this opportunity to launch their 2.5″ vehicle line.  While the “Mission Scale” series of toys didn’t fare very well at retail, the designs were just as impressive as the Sigma 6 action figure designs, and looked pretty slick in animated form.  The computer generated animation also meant that the models were very toy-accurate and it was really almost like seeing your toys come to life on the TV screen.  The Dragonhawk pretty much took center stage there.

Most of Season 2 seems to focus on COBRA utilizing a traitor in the Sigma 6 ranks and launching various sneak attacks on the team.  While the Dragonhawk took to the air for the Sigma 6 team, COBRA had their own huge battle cruisers and fleets of Firebats to fight back with.

Like the first Season, the second has it’s share of pretty darn cool animation, especially in the vehicle battles, as Firebats, the VAMP, the Dragonhawk, etc… all weave in and out of rocket fire, zip through the air or on the ground, and pull some pretty neat acrobatics.  So that part of the action in this series remains consistent.  However, it almost seems as if the more…”personal” fight scenes pick up a bit in their intensity as well, especially as we come into the third episode in Season 2.  What has happened is that COBRA launched a surprise attack on Sigma 6′s new base of operations, the “Sea Titan”, a massive submarine headquarters.  Their attack succeeds mostly due to a virus planted in their computer system by the COBRA traitor.  COBRA steals the Dragonhawk to harness the secret “Sigma” technology, and Sigma 6 is in close pursuit.

Lt. Stone then inflitrates COBRA’s island base and uses his “Sigma Sight” functionality for the first time, in a cool way that also emulates his toy, which came with a COBRA Trooper Disguise.

Typically in the Sigma 6 series, the action seemed somewhat choppy, at least where the human beings were concerned, but Season 2 seemed to be at least somewhat of an upgrade, even if the animation in general took a couple of steps backwards.  Episode 3 is actually pretty loaded with action, though, even as Stone infiltrates the base, Duke, Firefly, and Long Range take a more direct approach.

Once Stone gets to his destination, he comes face to face with Destro and a very cool battle scene ensues that is one of the best in the series.  As Destro studies the technology of the Dragonhawk, Lt. Stone confronts him and the two do battle in a way that two enemies hadn’t yet to this point.  The only way Stone even has a chance is when Duke makes a surprise rescue, and the two of them can still only barely hold their ground against the very powerful Destro.

Episode Three was surprisingly loaded with action, and turned out to be a lot of fun.  In fact, the first three episodes of Season Two seemed to indicate that Sigma 6 had really rounded a corner and had a load of potential, but I don’t think it ever met that potential from here on out.  There were definitely a few more flashes of coolness, but no sustained story arcs or drama that made any sort of impact.

Episode Four was a landmark of a sort as Hi-Tech finally ditched his old uniform and got his Sigma Suit, his new plasma cannon, and the H.O.U.N.D. Sentry.  Along with the appearences of those items, Destro also busted out his Mantis Mech and the two went head-to-head.  The end results are as you might suspect from a Sigma 6 show, but it’s a neat fireworks display regardless.

Of course a good deal of the coolness of this fight is taken away every time Hi-Tech opens his mouth, but still the somewhat annoying nature of his over-acting dialog can be at least a bit overcome by the toy-accuracy of the plasma weapon and seeing him absolutely lace the Mantis Mech with its full power.

With Episode 5, the entire Sigma 6 series takes a quick nosedive and immediately eliminated any potential hopes I had for a change in quality, as it showcases, believe it or not, a hamburger eating contest between Tunnel Rat and Heavy Duty, with the loser having to train to be a ninja.  No, I’m not making that up, and no I’m not making up the fact that the episode ends with Tunnel Rat doing a jig and singing “King Tunnel Rat, the ninja, King Tunnel Rat the ninja“…  ick.  Let’s move on, shall we?

The Sixth episode was at least a step up from the Tunnel Rat ridiculousness, and featured Snake Eyes, Duke, Scarlett and Heavy Duty in wintery Romania.  We do get a glimpse of Arctic Snake Eyes’ snowboard (though Snake Eyes himself remains in his standard ninja uniform), Duke in his own Arctic gear, and the Sigma 6 ninja meets up with this universe’s version of Timber for the first time.  All throughout this, we get re-introduced to Overlord Virus, and Destro tests out his new microwave emitter.  Not a bad episode, per se, but really nothing striking about it, and it does little to progress the story.  However, that changes with Episode 7.

The episode starts off with Firefly, Tunnel Rat, and Heavy Duty in a dark alleyway, making plans on meeting up with a COBRA turncoat…but the turncoat ends up being on their side, and they are quickly brought down.

This is one part where it seems like there was some lost potential.  We could have had some great build up to the big “betrayal”, but instead it just sort of happens, and it happens after two meaningless episodes to boot, so it loses all impact, all drama, and all necessity.  Nobody was on the traitor’s trail…so why reveal your cover now?

Anyway, after the betrayal in the back alley, we turn our attention to the Sea Titan.

You say “Product Placement”, I say “wow, cool!”  There’s no doubt that Sigma Strike Duke was meant to be a big ticket item for the toyline at this time (even if he did end up being one of the larger clearance victims of the year) and Hasbro made plans to push him big time.  Episode 7 starts up with Duke testing out the Sigma P.O.W.E.R. armor, to Hi-Tech’s delight, even if there are some apparent technical issues to be worked out.

More pressing matters are at hand, though, as Sigma 6 team members suddenly start dropping off the map.  Stone and Scarlett move in to investigate…

Like I said before, this whole sequence could have even more impact and more drama if it was drawn out a bit more, or led up to differently.  As it stands, Scarlett just seems to assume that Stone is the traitor, only to find out that she’s wrong at the end.  I love the scene above where Firefly forces Scarlett to gun Stone down in the alley, however again, the impact is lost by the fact that the shooting doesn’t even seem to do much damage, and Stone ends up awakening in a COBRA prison cell a short time later, practically unharmed.

However, Stone’s awakening happens in Episode 8…first we have to finish episode 7, which winds down with Hi-Tech and Duke tracking Sigma 6 to a remote location and launching “Project Defiant” an orbital rocket that delivers Sigma Strike Duke into the belly of the beast.

I’ve covered seven episodes in Part 1 of this article, so might as well end on a cliffhanger.  Come back later on today for Part 2, when I talk about episodes 8-12, which progress the story further and wrap up the Sigma 6 animated adventures.

DAY 1 – CREATIVITY | DAY 1.5 – VIDEO | DAY 2 – ARTWORK | DAY 3 – UNPRODUCED | DAY 4 – HASBRO Q & A

DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 1) | DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 2) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 1) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 2)

]]> http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/13/sigma-6-celebration-day-6-season-two-recap-part-1/feed/ 4 http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/12/sigma-6-celebration-day-5-season-one-recap-part-2-2/ http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/12/sigma-6-celebration-day-5-season-one-recap-part-2-2/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:24:24 +0000 Justin http://generalsjoes.com/?p=3915 In Part One, I gave an overview of the Sigma 6 animated series, and covered episodes 1-6 of the first Season. The first 5 episodes encompassed one 5-part tale, while Episode 6, “Race” began dipping into the Power Stones story and introduced us to Spirit Iron-Knife for the first time. As we continue on through the rest of Season One, Spirit sees some more action, we get a lot of robots thrown at us, and as with the first 6 episodes, the end result is more than a bit mixed.

Episode 7, “Jungle” continues on with the Power Stones as Zartan is trying to harness their energy, but ends up turning the B.A.T.s into almost invulnerable instruments of terror, who then turn against COBRA as well as Sigma 6. Another cool touch in the “Jungle” episode was an especially spirited battle between Zartan and Snake Eyes (shown in some sense above) and Snake Eyes seems very much unlike the “can’t be beat” ninja that we’ve seen in the past. Zartan is a character in the cartoon who I think actually got some “street cred” with a very nice updated design (if he appeared in 3 3/4″ scale like this, I think he would be a beloved update to the character) and a bad attitude. He’s also a capable fighter, which is a nice touch.

There are a handful of mostly “stand alone” episodes throughout the Sigma 6 story as well, and most of them are pretty unremarkable. I didn’t find much to comment on with Episode #8, entitled “Vacation” which finds the Joes undercover in Las Vegas trying to track down Destro.

As the battle for the Power Stones press on through the season, Sigma 6 travels to all corners of the globe, and the series quickly turns into a “freak of the week” type of formula (made famous in early episodes of Smallville), only instead of “freaks” we get “souped up robots”, called “Overlords”. We saw Overlord Vector in the original 5-Parter, and he returns here, going against Duke, Scarlett, and Heavy Duty.

As with all G.I. Joe mythos, the Sigma 6 series explores the back story between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes and their past history as “sword brothers” in the Arashikage Clan. In the Sigma world, though, it goes back even further and shows the two training when they were children as well. Though we get treated to several flashbacks of the two, we never actually find out what Snake Eyes did to “betray” the clan or exactly what Storm Shadow’s vendetta comes from. Throughout their latest confrontation, though, we also get introduced to another Overlord, this time one called “Virus”.

Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow end up teaming up together to face this new enemy and take him down, but once again they part ways with their issues unresolved, which is a theme that will go on endlessly (and somewhat tirelessly) throughout the rest of the series.

In Episode 11, “Space” we find Zartan taking hostages at a space station, and we unfortunately get re-introduced to Hawk’s son Scott. Overlord Vortex is the “freak of the week” during this episode, and ends up being a force to be reckoned with, though the team ends up taking him out with some brute force.

But of course this being a 13 episode season, with the Power Stone story sprinkled throughout, you know there must be some larger “end game”, and to the show’s credit, there is. It’s not a huge build up, but you do feel somewhat of a momentum shift as we go into the Episode Twelve of the series, which begins the two-part “Operation Zeus” season finale. If this Sigma 6 cartoon gets anything right, it’s that they finally give the COBRA agents some of the credit they deserve. COBRA Commander is a powerful warrior as well as the leader of the evil terrorist organization, which is a welcome change from his Sunbow portrayal. In fact, COBRA Commander is given so much credit, he single-handedly faces off against three members of Sigma 6 and pretty much torches them.

Tunnel Rat and Spirit manage to slip away, though Duke is left for dead as COBRA finishes powering up their nefarious “Zeus” super-robot. They send it on a crash course with Megalo City, yet unfortunately the writers felt the need to write Scott and SPUD back into the story, using SPUD as the “AI” brain in Zeus’ head. Silly yes, but Zeus is still powerful enough to pretty much wipe out the entire Sigma team, until they regroup and gather back together to launch their counter-attack.

Sigma 6 and Snake Eyes overpower Zeus’ shields and Snake Eyes sneaks in, then is able to convince SPUD to break his programming, which deactivates the monstrous robot. That’s right, once again the secret to Sigma 6′s success is a robotic android dog built and programmed by a 12-year old. Grrr.

Fortunately the battle isn’t quite over yet, as Duke, apparently feeling much better after being electrocuted into oblivion, uses his Jet Wing to track down COBRA Commander and face off, head-to-head.

Thus ends Season One of the Sigma 6 animated series. Calling it a “mixed bag” would be a drastic understatement, as we have periods of extreme coolness with the vehicle action and the sheer power of COBRA Commander (not to mention it’s always neat seeing your toys come to life), but then Tunnel Rat or Hi-Tech open their mouths, and all sense of coolness gets violently beaten into a mangled pulp. I love the uniform designs, the overall look of the series, and I even really dig the computer-generated robots that face off against Sigma 6 on a seemingly weekly basis, but that doesn’t change the fact that the dialog is nearly unlistenable, the plots are silly, and even for a show being targeted at kids, each episode at some point or another is almost blindly immature and juvenile. Watch it for the good parts, try to skip the bad parts, and take solace in the fact that in my opinion, Season Two is exceptionally better, which I will cover in the next installment.

DAY 1 – CREATIVITY | DAY 1.5 – VIDEO | DAY 2 – ARTWORK | DAY 3 – UNPRODUCED | DAY 4 – HASBRO Q & A

DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 1) | DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 2) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 1) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 2)

]]> http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/12/sigma-6-celebration-day-5-season-one-recap-part-2-2/feed/ 3 http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/12/a-sigma-6-celebration-day-5-season-one-recap-part-1/ http://generalsjoes.com/2009/06/12/a-sigma-6-celebration-day-5-season-one-recap-part-1/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:15:49 +0000 Justin http://generalsjoes.com/?p=1261 If there was anything that the G.I. Joe purists hated more than the Sigma 6 toys or the  Sigma 6 concept itself, it was the animated series.  We got our first taste of the cartoon at the G.I. Joe convention, and all came away pretty impressed.  With designs and animation by Gonzo studios, this seemed like a potentially great (if not somewhat “kiddified”) new super-hero type animated series, but featuring our favorite Joe characters.  While at the beginning, the animation impressed, the writing was an immediate drawback, as the cartoon came across as if it were almost written for the kindergarten set.  Overly emotional, wacky vocal patterns, and over-exaggerated expressions gave us the worst parts of the Japanese animation culture, but not much of the good stuff.  Still, there were some things to look forward to, if you could overlook the silliness.

The arctic battle was one of the first clips we saw at the convention, and it was a crowd-pleaser.  Seeing the  Ice Sabre in fully animated computer generated glory was pretty cool, and even if the characterization was rough, almost every time the vehicles showed up, they kicked ass.  Trust me, you’ll see your fair share of vehicle clips in this article and the next.

It was evident to most G.I. Joe fans that Sigma 6 was originally designed to take place after “Valor Vs. Venom” and was possibly conceived as an animated feature for the ill-fated Robot Rebellion 3 3/4″ line.  One thing that lends itself to this idea was the fact that COBRA Commander was a captive (he was captured in the Valor Vs. Venom animated feature), a condition which did not last long in the Sigma 6 series.

As anyone can see, when the characters stop talking and start doing things, the series picks up immensely.  I can’t stand to listen to Duke talk for more than 10 seconds, but once he starts kicking some Dreadnok ass, I get at least somewhat more interested.  That’s probably why you’ll see a lot of action scenes in these clips, and not necessarily too many speaking points.

Of course, at some point we do have to take a look at the way the characters interact, and how the Sigma 6 concept came to be, so yes, at some point we have to listen to Hi-Tech (and Tunnel Rat) talk about the Sigma Suits.

Oye.  Yeah, the dialog is rough.  Yeah, that IS Hawk’s kid Scott.  Yeah, Hawk’s 12-year old can apparently outsmart COBRA and hack into their top secret computer network to give all of their secrets to Sigma 6.  And we haven’t even touched on the “Spud” issue yet…maybe I’ll gloss over that one.

I can admit it up front.  This series can be painful to sit through at times…but if you can ignore the more ridiculous aspects and just enjoy seeing the toys come to life and seeing some action on the screen, then it does pay off, at least a little bit.  Essentially the first 5-Parter of the Sigma 6 series involves Overkill’s army of B.A.T.’s, Hawk’s kid getting kidnapped so Overkill can use his mind (and the especially advanced Artificial Intelligence in his…err…  robot dog.  Yes, robot dog) to further the development of his android army.  But  Sigma 6 needs to gather their forces to stop him in his tracks.  Even after COBRA destroys their headquarters, they deploy in their state of the art vehicles and strike back, in an attempt to rescue Hawk’s son Scott.  So yeah, even amongst the silliness, there are some VERY cool action sequences.

That above sequence is probably my favorite in the entire series.  The animation is smooth and realistic, the movement is fluid, and the choreography is great!  The above is the Sigma 6 cartoon at its best, and yeah, even amongst the painful dialog and bizarre characterization, there are some cool action bits mixed in between.  I especially like the fact that the vehicles used in the above clip are all 3 3/4″ vehicles.  It always does make me a bit sad, though, because I absolutely love the costume designs of Hi-Tech, Duke, and pre-Sigma Suit Scarlett, and am pretty bummed that those figures never ended up hitting retail.  Some great stuff there.

At any rate, Sigma 6 ends up in the belly of COBRA’s submarine base, rescues Scott, and ends up face-to-face with the various COBRA agents.

Not a bad little group of hand-to-hand battles there, and of course, in the end, Sigma 6 is victorious (I’ll spare showing the clip of the robot dog pee’ing on COBRA’s ultimate instrument of destruction to defeat the terrorist clan…  and yes, I’m being serious) and we move on to the rest of the series.

As we move on through the series, the focus shifts to the “Power Stones”, which are artifacts that COBRA wants to get their hands on in order to tap into their unlimited power.   The first episode dealing with this also tackles the timeless Storm Shadow/Snake Eyes conflict and introduces us to the Hovercycles.

While the animation does seem to take a small hit as the series progressed from the 5-parter (especially as Season 2 wore on) it’s still fairly crisp and watchable throughout the first season, and the characters don’t quite go so far over the ridiculous line (unlike Season 2, which pushed things a bit far).  Long Range and Spirit are an especially good team, I think, even though Long Range’s Hispanic characterizations and Spirit’s Native American tendencies are enhanced to the extreme.

This actually pretty much wraps up the first 6 episodes of Season One, and to avoid totally loading this page down with video clips, I will continue this recap in Part 2, which will get posted later today.  Do things get better or worse as the first season goes?  I’ll give you some insight in Part 2…

DAY 1 – CREATIVITY | DAY 1.5 – VIDEO | DAY 2 – ARTWORK | DAY 3 – UNPRODUCED | DAY 4 – HASBRO Q & A

DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 1) | DAY 5 – SEASON 1 (Part 2) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 1) | DAY 6 – SEASON 2 (Part 2)

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