 everybody hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. We have more Cobra Convergence 7 today and we have the guys from AnythingJos. Gentlemen, could you introduce yourselves please? Tell everybody who you are and where to find you and what you do. Sure. So my name is Greg. I'm one of the co-hosts of AnythingJos. You can find us on AnythingJos pod on Twitter, Instagram, our Facebook and YouTube is just AnythingJos. I guess I've just introduced. He's going to run on Instagram and I'll run on Twitter. Sorry, Jaren. And so my name is Jaren. I'm the co-host. Yes, yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, cool. So you guys do AnythingJos. If people go there right now, what kind of thing will they expect to see? What do you guys do there on your show? So we try to tackle a little bit of everything if we can. When we started the show, I didn't want it to be tethered to one specific thing because I was afraid we might get tired of that idea and then we would lose interest. So I was just like, and plus Jaren is learning a lot of stuff from the show. So I thought we're just going to kind of throw a wide net out. Whatever interest this is what we'll pursue. So you can find content. We just did an episode where we were talking about using AI to as a springboard for story writing or telling, creating your own picture, filming something or you want to make a character how you can do that. We've been doing comic book coverage from the very beginning. We're up to like 15 or 16 right now. So and then we're also getting ready to start watching the cartoon for the first time. Jaren's not seen a lot of episodes of that. So I'm looking forward to that journey. So we got a little bit of everything. There's something for everybody. We do unboxings also when we can. We tried to just kind of throw it all at the wall and hope that it would attract a couple of different people. Yeah, so that so you do have when we started this. I keep interrupting. I'm sorry after you. You're fine. I was just saying when we started this, it was very much like I wanted to jump into Joe. And I'm sure we'll talk about that. But and so it was kind of a fun platform to have to where Greg could kind of take me under his wing. He's got way too much stuff. And I have inherited the ability to have way too much stuff now. So it's been kind of a fun learning experience. And that's kind of our fun little dynamic we have going. So that's that's cool. So you're about to plunge into the cartoon you said. And Jaren, you haven't seen a whole lot of those episodes. How do you feel about it going into it? Are you nervous? A little bit. My, my nervousness is that I won't love it as much as, as a lot of people do. But I'm also a big kid. So, you know, I might not have been raised on the GI Joe cartoons, but I have my cartoons I was raised on. I've watched a little bit here and there. So and I've liked what I have seen. So I'm excited to kind of talk about it and really get to dive deep and be like, hey, Greg, what the heck is what why do they do this. And for Greg to just pick, I don't know. Jaren, have you ever seen the animated movie? No, I haven't. That's, I can't wait. What a treat awaits you. When it was in theaters. How many have you seen any episodes of the original cartoon at all? Yeah, so I watched the, I want to say was the mass driver device episodes. I was in the hospital when my first kid was being born. I believe that I watched those because I was just sitting there, you know, as a dad and everything else. So I watched those few episodes. And those are the ones I enjoyed, but that's that's pretty much it. I think it was like three parts, I think. Yeah, you've got, that's the start of some good, I mean, there's, it's hit or miss, right? Sorry. I immediately, I like break into an episode of a show without even trying sometimes. Whenever I think about the animated series, especially somebody watching it for the first time, I think of great episodes and I'm like, yeah, yeah, then I think of other episodes and I'm like, oh, well, well, we'll see. It's a little uneven, but it's a blast. You should at least have a good time, I think. So, so that's awesome. And you said that you had done the, you would have done the comic books or how far have you gotten into that. And, and I guess either of you are you more comic book guys or cartoon guys, what's your preference? And Jeremy going to go first. So, I mean, we're on what I think we're on issue 16 is the one that is waiting for us to cover. I would definitely say that I have been prior to this more of a cartoon guy. And this has kind of been my diving back into comics in general. So reading Joe, I, you know, I jumped in and I think there's like, 278 of the current run. I've read from like 278 to 300. And now I'm in the waiting game with you guys. But then I, because of that, I jumped back into all the other comics DC and Marvel. So that that kind of was my jumping in point. So now I'm almost more comic than I am cartoon. So it's kind of flip flopped. Yeah, I've always been, I mean, I appreciate both of them for what they are, but I've always been a heavy comic book. I've collected the run almost from the very beginning. And I've done a lot of backfill, a lot of variant covers, etc. And when I was, I wanted to learn a lot about the, I guess the main continuity. And so I thought, how we got to start with the comic. So we started at the very beginning, I was just kind of going, we're going through the motions, right? Here's the original 13. And it's perfect because you get, you don't get too many characters introduced at once. So for somebody that's trying to take in a whole roster in a very small window, the comic is perfect. Every year you get, you know, three or four more guys. And as the more we got into it, the more I guess I got into it as well. These are books that even though I've read them many times, it's still, it's been five, 10 years since I've read them. So I was enjoying that experience. And then probably around, I'm going to say around issue six or seven, like October Guard era stuff. Well, we decided to take it up a bit and we started making it a little bit more interactive where I was at certain sound effects, we're at a narration. I hired voice actor, I hired actual Russian voice actors to do all the October Guard parts. When, when Dr. Venom came in, I found a gentleman that does amazing, like just exactly how I've always heard him in my mind. So we try to integrate a little bit more of that, but we're discussing it also, it's not a verbatim just like here is a visual novel. There are already people that do that and they do it well. So there's a little bit of discussion, a little bit of interaction, but then a little bit of that like audio theater, I guess. That's really cool. What a great idea. And I think you're exactly right. I know there are a lot of people who prefer the cartoon. There's definitely a big fandom around the cartoon. I think a lot of people were introduced to GI Joe through the cartoon, but to really like understand some of it. I think the comic book kind of gives you some background that you just don't get in the animated series. So that's exciting. That's exciting. So, Jaren, I hope you've enjoyed the comic book experience so far. Yeah, I've been loving it so far. It's hard because we're doing, you know, we've been doing once a month and I'm like, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready. You know, I'm talking a bit, but I don't want to read ahead because it's really fun to be able to discuss. And, you know, Greg really pulls some deep cuts really fixes some of the full some of the references. And then every once in a while, I can add in there like there's one with I think it was a Ford Pinto and I just, oh, hey, that's a little things I can throw. But for the most part, Greg really pulls those deep cuts in. Jaren has brought an interesting perspective because initially I thought I'm going to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for like the continuity stuff. But what I didn't realize is that Jaren covers a lot of my weak spots. I'm not a very military enthusiastic. I don't know weaponry vehicles and Jaren has like real world military knowledge that he kind of imparts on the fly and I've started to look for him more as we've developed that. So I appreciate that kind of like carry me where in the areas where I'm weak it really I think it makes the whole the overall flow of the show way better. You complete each other and I think that's beautiful. That's that's lovely. So, so we're both of you into GI Joe when you were kids is that something that I shared thing that you had from way back. What was your experience with GI Joe the first time around. So, I've been a collector from the very beginning, probably like in 1983 is when I got my first figure and I've never stopped I've collected basically my entire life. My first collectors have that phase where they're like, I like, I'm in college or I like women or I have no money. And I, although I did have those phases, you know, there's photos of me like in my early 20s, almost the least attractive age to be a toy collector. You see shelving almost just like this and be like shelving to me. I've got like bright red hair or something crazy. So I've always collected it from the very beginning, even when the line was basically do a and you really had to struggle to find an interest to kind of keep the line alive. I was, I was there to some degree or I had everything kind of ready in case there was a resurgence. The part of the formation of the show comes from when jaren first started was he was reaching out to be talking about the launch of the classified line, which I'll let him talk about but there was yeah there was like a big shift of somebody that knows maybe too much about it, and somebody that wants to start learning I thought that's a great concept for, you know, discussion based basically. Yeah, so Greg and I had worked together and like I knew if you were around Greg's area you knew that if you're in Greg's orbit so to say, you knew that Greg was the GI Joe guy. And I was a six inch collector I was always a Star Wars collector. I was, I've always collected Star Wars stuff. And then when they kind of showed off the snake eyes from that classified the Dweck's. And I was like the first woman to know this is this is really cool like it looks like it really works comes with sweet accessories. And I'd always kind of known of GI Joe. I am actually probably the minority that I love the movies, the ones of Channing Tatum in the rock so. And so I jumped in and the best thing was pulling that resource from Greg me like hey, I want to know more and then we started talking and I was like dude you know so much you need to start a podcast. And we just kind of started spitball and ideas and that's how we were formed is a pretty it was a natural development is pretty cool. That is awesome so so there is proof that like the new GI Joe is bringing in new people and getting more people interested that's fantastic. And there's no shame in liking those movies there are worse movies there are much worse movies that's not not that bad that's not not not to not too shameful at all. So, so yeah Greg it sounds like you didn't really have a period where you stepped away from it and step back in you kind of got the continuity from from 83 to current is that right. Yeah, I mean I can remember all those little milestones where they were like oh you know in the late 90s they're like we're going to put them put them back in big lots they were just like basic repaints. And I was like, yes, okay, got it. I remember when image was launching the relaunching the GI Joe comic and I traveled to Chicago to meet Josh black and devil's do and they were. They were completely unprepared for the response and I was like nerdy now this is before that even the first issue that I was just like I was every one of those little things that happened I mean what when I started running the comic book ads for the modern figures for the first time I was like every one of those little I remember every time it comes back in a big way and I would always get pulled right back again. That's awesome and jaren. I guess you said that classified snake eyes has has kind of what piqued your interest. Since then, though, has there been anything that's really stood out to you that you think is the coolest thing from the line so far. So my thing that I have latched on to the Greg already knows that I'm about to say is the badger. I love the vehicle the GI Joe, the badger that's my favorite so when we go around our like friends that run toy stores or we go to shows. Normally I've got people looking out for me for badgers so that's been the that was the kind of the classic thing that had jumped out at me. As far as fingers. Hey, I'm really I'm really bad about I guess it's a good thing. Each figure I get is my new favorite thing. So every time I get what I'm like oh this is the coolest one is the you know I send a message to our group of friends and I'm like this is the best figure that we've had so far and it's like dusty and they're all complaining about you know minor things that probably should be complained about and I'm like I love this thing it's so cool. But you know and I'm I'm being on like Duke with the Ram cycle like I love that figure, you can repaying it. I'll take it in any color way you want to give it to me and so, but probably if I had to pick when I'd say the bats the bats have been the one that is like stuck with me absolutely love those figures. The bats those are really sweet back in 1986 and the the classified bats that those are those are pretty awesome those those are those are pretty special. Anywhere without one. If I if I get if I find any more badgers I will let you know because I don't need no stinking factors. I got crimson cruisers as well. I'll take them. You know, okay, I'm okay. It's become it's become a bit of a running joke now that if somebody sees jaren and there's a badger. They'll be like oh look I got you another you know another badger everybody has that thing right the guy that you got guys that collect crystal ball. You got you know Zaisal Phoenix is a sergeant slaughter. Why not a guy that collects badgers. We found him. Alright, I'll keep my eyes out. Now that I know I'll watch I'll watch for it. So, so that's awesome. So, for everybody who is not aware we're recording this well in advance of Cobra Convergence seven you guys are participating this year. By the time people see this, you should have something up for Cobra Convergence seven so there will be a link in the description of this video so make sure you check out that link. Go to the link check them out see what they've got up. And I know that it's early. I know it's early. But do you have any thoughts feelings or ideas about what you might want to do this year for the convergence. We have discussed some ideas based on the theme but I don't think I'm ready to commit to anything now because inevitably I'll say it will do something else. The comment section will be like well you guys should have done that yet. So at this time it's a surprise even does I know we workshopped it a little bit and but yeah I don't want to I don't want to say it and then be like oh now I'm blocked in I have a much better idea tonight. Totally fair totally fair and yeah and this is well in advance so so there's time there's time. But I do hope everybody will check you guys out as soon as we're done watching this video I want to make sure that everybody knows about your, your podcasts and I know that you, you're on several sites I think you're on like the Apple and what will actually let me ask you where all can people find you. You should be able to find us on basically any major podcaster out there it's distributed the all the you know Spotify, Apple, etc. We also have the exact same content on our YouTube channel. It's not very graphic intensive it's mostly just for people that maybe have YouTube subscription or don't have access to other stuff. So if you just want to listen to the audio it's there sometimes if I got some extra time I'll throw some visuals in to go along with it but it's not like this we are rarely on camera the amount of work I had to do tonight is preposterous. I've looked like, but I had to shave my beard. I looked like walking Phoenix but not through the goggles of somebody that's extremely wealthy actor, just a guy that looks like he's been living in a box for three months. I was like, oh my gosh, my face is 10 pounds very anyway, the YouTube audio is available as well it's just anything jazz. All right, good. Good. I wanted to make sure that we covered that because I know that your, your show is available in multiple places I want to make sure that people track them down and make sure they, they, they find you and then check you out. So, it is Cobra convergence we're supposed to be Cobra theme jaren you already talked about a really cool Cobra figure that you like but I'll let you ponder further in case you have a deeper answer but I do want to know who everybody's favorite Cobra character. Cobra character is so I guess Greg will if we can start with you what Cobra character speaks the most to you or is your your personal favorite. So I'm going to cheat a little bit my favorite vintage Cobra is Zartan and has been for a very long time and my favorite modern Cobra is shadow tracker. And again, basically since as soon as I got him in my hand I was like this is sort of this is from a it's a great period of modern figures and was very creative and was covered a role that Cobra didn't have is, I mean, he's dynamite and then Zartan. What do I do I even need to say what's great about Zartan everybody knows what's great about Zartan everything from color changing voice acting a long term plot development he's the best he's amazing. I talked to somebody else just today whose favorite is Zartan he's and why not you know that that is a character I think really in both comic book and cartoon had a bit of a mystique to him so yeah that's a that's a pretty hot one that's that's a that's a good choice. But jaren, you mentioned the Cobra bats but is there a Cobra character. If it's the bats you can say that's fine. But if otherwise if is there a favorite Cobra character that you have so far. So, it, you know and I've said the bats for classified, my favorite trooper is actually probably like the astro viper v2, just because I love how goofy those things look I love them. The coloring so bright and out there. If I, if I had to pick I think I would probably go with Xandar actually. Wow. And there's no real reasoning behind it, other than that I got that figure and I loved it. I got the ring figure and I was like this is such a cool figure and and just played play the grab out of it and so I think that would have to be the one if it be him or or croc, croc master be be close. I have to salute you I don't think anybody has said Xandar so far that is, I that you know and that's a fairly deep cut. I mean who remembers Xandar that's interesting very fascinating related. We have two choices here both of you have characters that are in fact related. I think that's very interesting I feel like we're getting deep into your psychology here. So, I'll send you the bill, you know, I'll send you the bill for this therapy session when we're done. But, well, Jared, I'm going to, I guess, I'll stick with you. So, no, actually, Greg. I wanted you said you started in 1983. Do you remember who your first figure was? Yeah, so that year I got it was the Christmas of that year I got my first vehicle which was stealer when the mobile and then from my other grandmother my first single carded figure was airborne. Nice. A great, a great wonderful figure great starter figure for anybody. Absolutely. And, Jared, you, you got the, the, the, the first classified snake eyes is that right the one in the big box. All right, yeah the big special edition one I got I got one of those. That was the first Joe that was the start of a very heavy bill. It starts that way yeah it starts that way. Cool guys. So, again, link is in the description. Check it out. By the time you guys see this it will be co-work convergence and, and I know that that we're keeping, we're keeping an arrest or keeping the suspense we're keeping everyone in suspenders as far as what the, what the, what the, what the topic will be, but by the time you finish watching this, it should be available. So, awesome guys. Even though, again, we're recording pretty well in advance outside of Cobra convergence. Do you have any other material plan any other plans for the show that are coming up that people might want to look forward to or check out. I know I know I know he will never, never admit to it but we're trying to get to, I believe it's 1000 subscribers on YouTube because he has promised that when we do that, he will find track down an original box of the GI Joe cereal. I'm not a bad boy open on camera and eat it. So, that's the goal that is the number one piece of content that I want us to create. I'm tuning in for that. I'm, I want, I need, I need the, the APB to go out when that happens. So we'll hopefully we'll, we can get you that. That is freaking awesome. We'll be, we'll be live streaming my funeral procession. Very possible. Very, very, you know, hey, you know, it's for views. I think it's worth it. I think that's the, it's fine. It's good. But so outside of GI Joe, do you guys have any, any things that you follow or pick up or collect outside of GI Joe, what are your other interests. Go ahead, Jared, you got way more of this than I do. Yeah, so I'm still with the, at the part where I haven't cut everything else out yet, like I think Greg has. Man, I collect, I'm bad, I jump into anything I, when I go to like a show like Joe Fester, we have Kentucky and right here in our backyard, I like to pick up something from a line that I've never bought. So that's been plunderlings. That's been the sphero toys. I don't know, but there's the, like the monkeys and, you know, full on anthropomorphic animals. And then I've got plunderlings. I don't know if anybody out there has heard of that. But I'm a big Star Wars and DC guy. That's probably the other, that's probably the big things that are not non GI Joe that those are my big three that kind of fight for the budget with the DC multiverse from and then the Star Wars, the black series and the vintage collection. So those guys are always vying for the monthly budgets, those, those budgetary meetings really tense with those guys representing it. I'm nowhere near as bad as that, Jared. I mean, like I maybe 10 years ago, I was like, if I want to keep collecting as that the rate that I'm at basically everything else kind of got to go away. I used to be really big into Marvel legends and I used to collect those. I don't know those world of Simpsons figures. I was really into those for a long time. But nowadays, I'm very, it's got to be so good. It's, if it's not GI Joe adjacent, like if I can't use it imagine your universe, it's going to have to be an exceptional nostalgia pool. They, I bought those four real Ghostbusters reissues. And I bought those four Ninja Turtle reissues. And that's probably the only non GI Joe thing I've bought in a very, very long time. So you collect GI Joe with a side of GI Joe in a tall glass of GI Joe to wash it down. So, excellent. All right, cool. So, yeah, you guys you guys have been working together for a little bit. You mentioned a little bit about your background. I guess you guys used to work together. Is that how you met? Yeah, we worked, we both worked for a video game retailer. And we used to we were both store leaders managers, but I've still got the vernacular in my head. And so we would like to work together. We were talking on the phone a lot. And we became good friends like that, not anywhere near like what our friendship is now the show is brought Jared and I together in a serious way is very is a tremendous friend of mine now. That is awesome. So you guys are really got a rapport and you got a great show and a great idea for a show like the, the comic book stuff that's a really cool idea. When you get into the animated series, I think that's going to be super cool. And yeah, I'm doing it with somebody who hasn't seen it before or hasn't read it before it's like, sort of like experiencing experiencing it experiencing it for the first time again. So that's that's really awesome. Well guys, we are getting close to time what I'd like to do before we wrap up is basically give you the floor to say any last words that you have to the audience before we send everybody off to go check out your show. Go check out your covert convergence seven content so I will open up up to you guys for any final comments. I just want to say, first of all, thanks so much for watching this video, especially if you've never heard of us before. I appreciate you at least giving us a chance here. The show, you know, as designed for to appeal to lots of different types of collectors. I'm going to represent somebody that is just brand new to the brand, but knows very little about it. And we try to make the listener base. I have that same experience there you can go in even if you've been maybe you collected when you were a kid you've been gone for a long time. We, we try to keep that in our head so I try to be as maybe over explanatory of everything that comes up just you know if we're talking about Fred seven blah blah blah and I'm like, Well, wait a minute, you probably don't know who that is. And there's a good chance that maybe my listener base doesn't so the well, but the flip side of that is, you know, we talk about what we're buying what we need in our collection, and as somebody that's like a call myself a legacy collector because I've been collected forever. There are if you've been collect like me or lifelong collector. Well, there's something for you to because I'm talking about how do you organize, you know, 1500 figure collection when you've never put your accessories together. How do you organize, you know, 300 vehicles. We're talking right now we've been talking a lot about laying out our individual collectors room because Sharon just moved to a new house and we're talking about Hey, what's the best way to lay this stuff out so you can get to everything or what's what's your primary goal. So anyway, in a nutshell, there's something for everybody don't think it's it's not just for newcomers. It's not just for old dogs either we try to make it as accessible as possible and we're extremely open to feedback you come in and you are engaging with the community and there's something you'd like us to get into. If there's an area that's not being covered very well and you'd like to know more about it, where were the guys for you come to us we'll take care of you. Yeah, I just want to say, you know, I feel like Greg covered us really well on on kind of what we do but you know I want to say thanks to you for for bringing us on here and you know giving us the chance to talk with you it's been been a great opportunity and and if you're listening and you're going to check us out awesome and I definitely recommend checking out all the other wonderful people like you don't see all the work that that he's got to put in to to get everybody together and make sure everybody is included and putting stuff together and it's it's a massive undertaking so thank you for organizing it every year and letting us be a small part of it and check out all the other guys because there's a lot of great people putting out content and thank you thank you for doing it thank you for being here and thank you for being into it being in it and you're exactly right of the calendar will be up at hcc788.com so there's a full month of really cool people doing a lot of really cool stuff including anything Joe's so once again link will be in the description thank you again guys for being here and I think we're I think it's now required that we wrap up with a cobra cobra battle cry so if you're ready I'll count down ready three two one close enough close enough alright thanks guys and thank you out anything Joe's thanks everyone