G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero! / The Revenge of Cobra

this mini series brings back cool memeories when certain syndicated american cartoons were cool. before the anime explosion of course.

now on to my favorite and not-so-favorite parts of the disc set...
the enclosed booklet pertaining to gijoe's history was very informative dispite a mistakes. I.E. Mego was not responsible for the six million dollar action figure, it was hasbro's once rival and parent company; KENNER who manufactured not only the six million dollar man toyline but star wars as well.

the interviews were ok, i loved ron friedman's perspective (or retrospective) regarding the series he helped define. on the other hand, i didn't care much more for marv wolfman's interview..too many "er's and ah's" and LASERS IN THE NIGHT was one of the worst epidsodes of the 1985-1986 series.

one thing i would have loved to have seen was the animated comic book commercials not only were they cool, but most were better executed than the regualer gijoe epidsodes. please rhino, put those awesome 20 spots in the next 2 disc installment plus add commentary from ron friedman, he had plenty to say unlike wolfman. props to the late archie goodwin of marvel comics who created the concept of joe's arch nemises COBRA.

I love the opening sequences of all the joe series. I.E. zartan has one of the joes running until recondo jumps outta knowhere and kicks zartan where the logo/title appears. how cool was that?

Firstly, the packaging is more deluxe than the earlier release, and includes a booklet with a layman's history or G.I. Joe in general. Additionally, there's a Snake Eyes figure-a repaint of the original (more or less), with Timber (again, sort of, as it's not the original Timber mold from the '80s), which mimics the midnight blue color scheme from the MASS Device miniseries. The only drawback is that the packaging hypes Snake Eyes as "one of the premier characters" released in connection with the 1983 A Real American Hero miniseries-something that is far truer about Duke, who spent 1983 as the line's primary mail-in exclusive before being released in stores and was the star of the MASS Device episodes.

Second, of course, are the episodes themselves, which are the A Real American Hero and Revenge of Cobra miniseries, completely restored and remastered (and excellently so, at that). If you purchased the previous release, you know what you're getting here.

The last part of this set are interviews with writers Marv Wolfman and Ron Friedman. Wolfman's interview certainly informative, emphasizing the freedom he had while working for Sunbow (and equally emphasizing that character development is why Joe succeeded, in addition to that creative freedom), and how the toy companies might benefit from allowing that freedom to return in their cartoons. He also admits freely to liking Quick Kick (whose development he was most responsible for) and Cobra Commander, which is no surprise given how much fun he had with them in "Lasers in the Night" (an episode Wolfman is understandably proud of). The rest of Wolfman's interview discusses his politics and the politics that allowed for the '80s success of G.I. Joe, with a few jabs at the lesser cartoons of the '70s for good measure. Friedman's interview is, simply put, a trip. His comments are often funny (like the example slamming Kevin Costner's Robin Hood movie as a violation of the spirit of a popular franchise), and certainly worth viewing. He does seem to take a bit more credit for creating the series than some would like (including taking a direct jab at the old filecards), but he does illustrate the key points in how he wrote the initial miniseries very well, and in very entertaining fashion. This interview alone is probably reason enough to buy the set if you purchased the version without special features. All in all, another excellent job by Rhino.