“Got to get tough, YO JOE!” Man, was this a blast from the past, I remember 1991 where I was getting older and my interest was starting to wane from the usual cartoons; however, I never missed G.I. Joe.
The last 2 seasons of G.I. Joe were made by DiC who is famous for ‘Inspector Gadget’ and ‘Kidd Video’ and are known for really nice cartoon art and great voice acting and this final series of G.I. Joe really showcased some fine voice work.
Shout Factory issues a lot of great media and this 20 episode, 3 DVD set of G.I. Joe doesn’t disappoint. Featuring the best episodes of the entire G.I. Joe cartoon such as an environmental—pro-ecology story about ‘Cesspool’ a corporate executive who made toxin’s and becomes a nasty eco terrorist when he falls into one of his own vats in the style of Batman’s Joker.
The best of the batch is called “The Greatest Evil” which features ‘The Headman’ a drug kingpin who meets his demise at the hands of his own poison and is the first and only character to die onscreen—because DRUGS KILL! “The Greatest Evil” is really a well plotted masterpiece and features the Joes and Cobra teaming up to fight the war on drugs with funny results—the comedy is just to take the edge off of such a serious episode.
The set has a lot of episodes that are aimed at kids more so then the original Sunbow series, however they are all very entertaining and feature a mixture of classic and new characters, such as Baroness, Destro and Major Bludd with Metal Head, Overkill and The Interrogator on the side of Cobra and classic Joes such as Scarlett, Duke and Flint with 1986 movie characters such as Mercer and Falcon. The stories are good, however some episodes trump others—the age range of some of the stories can also be a factor in that. There are 2 episodes that resemble “recap” episodes that are prominent in Japanese Anime, but that’s ok, the full selection makes up for it.
The picture quality is DVD clean with the occasional flaws of a show that is over twenty years old. The sound is mono, but any system will sound just fine, giving G.I. Joe a very vintage feel when watching.
The only extra is a short featurette where the Hasbro Toy creators talk about the show while comparing the toys to the finished product.
I highly recommend this set to G.I. Joe fans to either complete their DVD collection, to enjoy the more serious stories or simply as a walk down memory lane.
GRADE: A+ (What a fun show)!
Follow the link to read all about “The Headman” action figure!
http://www.nerdsociety.com/vintage-toy-of-the-week-g-i-joe-headman/
Goes on sale July 10th, 2012 for about $30.00.
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