For those of you folks who don’t know who Neil Ross is, you only have to watch some of the Sunbow cartoon, and you’re almost guaranteed to hear his voice.  Mr. Ross voiced the infamous Shipwreck, one of the most polarizing and popular characters from the 80′s G.I. Joe mythology!

The guys at Flag Points took some time and spoke with Neil, and it was a terrific conversation!  Getting some behind the scenes intel from the voice cast has been one of the highlights of doing the podcast for myself, and this was a great get for Flag Points.  The conversation is awesome and is a must listen for Joe fans.

Check it out at their Podbean page!

With an awesome YouTube promo to go with it!

New Years Day, The Hub will be showing a marathon of Sunbow G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episodes as well as old school episodes from Transformers, too.  Fans of either property don’t want to miss it!

Check out the awesome YouTube promo below.

In a strange move that is sure not to piss of our Hasbro Legal Overlords, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has dipped into the Sunbow G.I. Joe vault to bring us some admittedly hilarious promos for their upcoming Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem fight.

While the legalities are probably a gray area (parody seems to be able to skate relatively free, see Fensler Films) I can’t argue that these are pretty hilarious, even if I can’t tell Overeem from Wolverine.

Check out the clips below, courtesy of Youtube and BloodyElbow.com.

Big kudos go out to Comics Alliance who took today to celebrate the Winter Solstice by taking a deep and analytical look at Sunbow episode Skeletons in the Closet.  This was actually one of my favorite episodes of the Sunbow cartoon as a kid, finding that hidden relationship between Lady Jaye and Destro, and Comics Alliance brings an awesome snarky (but not mean-spirited) perspective.

It’s a hilarious and fun read with a ton of screenshots and a one-eyed tentacle monster.  Where can you go wrong?

Click here to check it out.

G.I. JOE FANS!

THE LONG-AWAITED COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

FROM THE 1990 G.I. JOE ANIMATED SERIES

WILL FINALLY HIT DVD SHELVES FOR THE FIRST TIME

G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO

SERIES 2, SEASON 1

Featuring All 24 Action-Packed Episodes and Fan Favorite 5-Part Miniseries OPERATION DRAGONFIRE in a Collectible 4-DVD Set

OWN IT ON DVD JANUARY 10, 2012

FROM SHOUT! FACTORY

The incredible adventures of GENERAL HAWK, Sgt. Slaughter and their international team of heroes — known as G.I. JOE — continue! Together they defend the globe against Cobra, a ruthless organization led by Cobra Commander, who is determined to conquer the world by any means necessary.

On January 10, 2012, Shout! Factory, in collaboration with Hasbro, will unleash the G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Series 2, Season 1 on DVD. This collectible 4-DVD set contains the entire 24 episodes from the complete first season, including the 5-part miniseries Operation Dragonfire. A must-have for heroes of all ages, G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero Series 2, Season 1 DVD set arrives in stores everywhere and is priced to own at $29.93 SRP.

In 1989, SGT. SLAUGHTER once again returned to battle against COBRA and DESTRO in the 5-part miniseries Operation Dragonfire; and the popular second series began airing thereafter. Loyal G.I. JOE fans and kids were also introduced to a group of new G.I. JOE heroes – CAPTAIN GRID-IRON, AMBUSH, PATHFINDER and villains – SERPENTOR, CESSPOOL, METAL-HEAD, GNAWGAHYDE, as well as new VIPER troops.

Now you can relive the adventures of second series of G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero from the beginning, including the miniseries that started it all — Operation Dragonfire!

Read the rest of this entry »

Thar she blows!

Just as I’m settling in to record the latest episode of Whats on Joe Mind, the news breaks from New York.  The latest 7-Packs have been revealed by HissTank.com and Toy News International…and WOW.  Some fantastic pictures especially are available over on Toy News International.

The two 7-Packs will consist of The Dreadnoks and the Marauders.  The Marauders obviously pull inspiration from the Slaughter’s Marauders, but with no Slaughter included, and also paired with Slaughter’s first team, The Renegades.

Meanwhile, the Dreadnoks truly retain the spirit of the Dreadnoks and manage to fill in pretty much every single empty spot on your Dreadnok roster.  Amazing.  Truly amazing.  Breaking down the two sets we have:

Dreadnoks

• Zandar (new head sculpt, Zartan parts, Arctic Storm Shadow torso, new gear)
• Zanya (new head, Zarana parts) …also…  HELL YES.
• Thrasher (new shoulder pad, new head, new battle club)
• Zanzibar (new head, new webgear, some RoC Arctic Storm Shadow parts)
• Road Pig (Resolute Roadblock body, new head, freaking AWESOME stop sign club and shield!)
• Gnawgahyde (looks like a new head, some PoC Recondo parts, new vest)
• Burn Out (new head, based on the 2003 Spy Troops figure)

Marauders

• Lt. Falcon (New head sculpt, removable beret, PoC Dusty parts)
• Mercer (New head, some PoC Cobra Viper parts, real COBRA tattoo!!)
• Taurus (AWESOME new head, new webgear)
• Red Dog (New head, repaint Bazooka body)
• Low Light (PoC repaint in green camouflage with some Marauder colors)
• Barbecue (25th Anniversary repaint with 30th Airtight Arms and legs in green camouflage with some Marauder colors)
• Spirit (PoC Spirit repaint with some Marauder colors mixed in)

As mentioned, awesome images are available at Toy News International, and they pretty much blow me away.  You’ll have to forgive my minor brevity, I’m in the midst of recording Episode 25 of What’s on Joe Mind as I type.

I’ve gotten numerous messages about this, just hadn’t had a chance to post it up yet…  but yes, Amazon.com has a pre-order listing for the upcoming Shout! Factory release of the DiC G.I. Joe series, at the moment entitled “G.I. Joe: Series 2″.

You can check out the pre-order page for the animated series right here, which features an image of some awesome box art with Battle Armor Cobra Commander, Scoop, ’89 Stalker, and Slaughter Marauder’s Low Light & Barbecue.  Check out the cover image below.  Thanks to Captain N for the intel!

If you’ve been watching cartoons for any length of time, chances are the name Larry Houston at least looks familiar.  He’s had his hands in several epic animated series throughout the past three decades including X-Men, COPS n Crooks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman: The Animated Series, Exosquad… yeah, the list is huge.

So what makes him such a hero all of a sudden?

Just this:

Yes, according to a panel at this past weekend’s PowerCon, Larry Houston was the storyboard artist who designed the entire opening sequence to G.I. Joe: The Movie.  Widely regarded as perhaps the greatest three minutes in G.I. Joe animated history, Mr. Houston was apparently surprised and very pleased that the final animated version came back so close to his storyboard.

I think it’s safe to assume all G.I. Joe fans are just as pleased.  A big thanks to the Twitter account of Joe A Day for relaying this cool bit of information.

This is SO COOL.

Of course the quality isn’t the best, but I can’t possibly give enough props to YouTube uploader BUDAONLINE1 as well as Comic Alliance for reminding me that this fantastic video compilation is out there.

Some folks may not realize it, but in the G.I. Joe world, animation was first used to advertise the comic, and in many cases was quite different than the Sunbow end result.  The below YouTube video collects nearly every single animated comic commercial and merges them into one ten minute marathon of nostalgic joy.

There are a few issues the uploader missed, but he has them in separate installments in his library, so check ‘em out, and check out the embedded video below.  I’m still smiling.

Over the past few years, Tim Finn has been working on a G.I. Joe themed book, looking to cover some of the more esoteric elements of the G.I. Joe mythology.  He has recently started a blog over on A Real American Book, and has been providing some really cool insight and behind the scenes peeks at the Real American Hero mythology.

Today, he posted some awesome concept art of Snake Eyes as seen in the Sunbow animated series, some of the art by Russ Heath, as well as a piece by Bruce Timm (who was an artist during the Sunbow era).

Check out the great post right here, and keep your eyes on the site going forward, it’s always worth a look!