 These are the notes that I have for the Duke review These are notes. It's not exactly a script Except sometimes if I want to say something in a specific way to get a specific a point across I will kind of type out word for word what I want to say, but that doesn't mean I won't change it on the fly If I think of something better The script starts with a cold open. I'm having a guest do a scripted segment So that's what this is what I do is I type the the note out in word and I Print it and then after I print it I go through and I mark it up. I highlight in pink Was a pink highlighter any other figures or vehicles? I need to grab for this review so I can have them handy I've got so I've got to have the other versions of Duke here If I don't have any of those figures then I usually ask for some help with some Images of those figures that I can throw in and Timmer is a huge help with that And I have I thank him frequently because he's just been a massive help with these with figures that I don't have yet Eventually, I will have everything I am trying to get a complete vintage collection, but I'm not quite there yet Few missing pieces So when you see pink Pink highlighter there, that's a figure that I need to grab So I've got like stalker because he's got the submachine gun that was used for Duke and roadblock because he has the green helmet without holes airborne because he has the backpack I also add if I Have anything in here that I need to talk about that I didn't type out then I've got I have to add it. This is one benefit of printing this out rather than just using an electronic copy I can When I mark it up if I see something that I've missed I can add so I didn't I Forgot to put in the notes the bit about the file card backing I talked about the file card variant as far as the front of the card, but not the back of the card So, you know, I made some notes there and Yeah, that's it. This is I think I think it's eight pages Seven or eight pages and that's about average. I think I'm averaging about seven or eight pages of notes for a video And that'll translate this will I'm guessing this will be roughly a half hour video Here's another second a scripted segment. What I've done is anytime I need to appear on Camera so the camera is pointed at me. I just take this light green highlighter and I I run a line Down those sections. So this is the open And So I've thrown in this little scripted segment was my guest and so I've highlighted that I've highlighted my own lines on there To make it easier to remember which ones I'm supposed to do and check them off when I've done them and And let's see So that means at the back of this That's where I give my overall impression of the figure when like in the background of doing the 360 spin of the figure and then I have some still images of the accessories and other things like that So this is what I intend to say during that segment and then I am finishing up With another little brief scripted part So this is what I've got to work with and this is what I've been working on for several days I've tried to Get as much information in here as I can I'm doing my best to make sure it's accurate information The sources for all of this information is in a text file, which I will be Putting in the end scroll of the video It's important to cite sources and so all my sources should be in there and this since this is the I always record the core review first and The core review starts here So this is the page that I'm actually starting with I'm starting with page two And we're starting with the general information about the the figure when it was released when it was available How it was available, you know where it falls in the vintage line later Later versions of the character and so on So that's where we start and I have my clipboard here just because Sometimes I need to move this around or set it on the table or whatever now. I just find it easier to Move it around and and keep it where I can read it if it's on the clipboard Here is my basic setup for doing a review. I've got My black background here black poster board On the tabletop That black poster board is getting a little rough. It's probably about time to replace it And I've got the two Duke figures set up ready for the first shot of the video I am not using figure stands for these guys because The plastic is a bit fragile, so I have just a little bit of sticky tack to Just stand them up there. I don't want to put any stress on the the footholds with the foot pegs I've got the file cards behind them There's the 4k camera with the microphone pointed at me I've got a couple desk lamps for lights here and I do move these around as needed to make sure that the lighting is Appropriate. I've got the camera at a slight Down angle because I find that that's better And easier to see the details on the figure then if you are like dead straight on So I just I find that more Aesthetically pleasing angle There is my my clipboard that's my notes there I've got a single backless chair here With that's I don't use a backless chair, you know because it's better. I just use it because that's what I have I don't have a better chair right now So that's That's where the action happens, but I also have over here I've created this table as like a staging area for the other items I will need in the review, so The figures that I have highlighted On the notes. I've pulled them out here. I've got the other versions of Duke that I have I've got roadblock there, you know, I've got the figures that made up the parts of Duke Such as gung-ho and doc and major blood I've got Flint and Beachhead here. Oh, I need to get Hawk version 2. I have Hawk version 1 there I need to get Hawk version 2 because I Think I will talk about the chain of command in the GI Joe animated series and If I do that I may want to show The figures for those characters Not a hundred percent certain. I'll I guess I'll just decide So that's my staging area That's much more full when I'm doing a vehicle because often I have other vehicles setting up there But I find it easiest to have Have those over there so I can just kind of swivel chair over and grab them and Move them into the frame of the camera when I'm ready. I'm shooting this video with my older camera It's a Sony HD handy cam the 4k camera Is what I'm using for the core review and the final video will be rendered in 4k But I have a two-camera setup right now I will not be doing that in the near future because the older camera. I am sending to a friend Sending it out on an extended loan to someone who needs it more than I do but for now I use the the HD camera the older camera for Video where I'm in front of the camera But the video of the action figures where I want it to be as crisp and clear as possible I use the 4k camera for that But then I but of course the entire video has to be rendered in 4k So that if you watch it on your 4k device It will it will come out with that picture quality. Okay, I'm set up I'm about ready to start recording about ready to start the the first segment of the review And there are a few techniques that I use to try to make things a little easier on me I Try to record maybe a paragraph or less at a time The reason I do that is because it reduces the amount of stuttering and stammering that I have to cut out of the final version also, I Want to keep the video Moving and so if I stop the recording Frequently enough I can move in other figures that I need to use I can adjust the figures So it's not just me because it's important because I'm recording the audio at the same time I'm recording the video So if I'm not moving things and if I'm not stopping the video in order to change the angle of things and such Then it's you're just seeing a static image on your screen and hearing me talk over it So I want to keep the videos visually interesting and to do that I need to make sure that it's not static at least not for very long So to do that. I have to stop the video from time to time move things around that gives me an opportunity to make sure that I Am ready to say the next segment without stuttering or stammering Even so it often takes me several tries to get through each video segment So what I will do is I'll start that segment If I screw it up, you know, I'll stop it and I'll just start it over And I'll keep trying till I get What I think will be the final version that will actually appear on the finished video And then I then I stop stop the camera What that allows me to do is when I'm editing I've got a distinct clip for each segment of the review Not necessarily each paragraph, but each part that's going to be a cut on the camera So that allows me to take each of those and as long as I do those as long as I get each of those clips then it means I don't miss anything and when I drop that clip into The timeline of the video usually I can look for the last Take in that clip and that is usually the one that I want to use for the final edit and not always but usually It allows me to Easily quick and quickly cut out all of those attempts that I screwed up and just use the one that I think is going to be the right one You'll also notice that sometimes I will I'll do a countdown before I start Speaking and talking about the the figure and saying what I want to say in the review That's just to make sure that the audio levels are kind of evened out So when I When I do the final edit You know, I don't have like You know my audio levels way up here at the beginning and kind of trails off I've had that problem a few times before and so this just sort of helps me when I'm editing make sure that The audio levels are where they should be When I clip that that final segment so That's it. The rest of it is just You know pointing The camera at these little dolls here and talking about them. So I guess that's what I'm gonna do now all right this is This is Duke G. I. Joe's first sergeant from 1983 the figure was introduced in 1983 as a male away exclusive offer released carded in 1984 Duke was released carded in 1984 He was also available carded in 1985 and discontinued for 1986 He was later available through the mail again from Hasbro direct Okay Here we go gotta make sure the microphone's on very important Okay, need a two-second at least a two-second lead-in This is Duke G. I. Joe's first sergeant from 1983 the figure was first introduced in 1983 as a male away exclusive offer Duke was released carded in 1984 He was also available carded in 1985 and was discontinued for 1986 He was later available through the mail again from Hasbro direct Not bad. There's a noisy automobile outside, but I don't think that got on the microphone, so My neighbors didn't spoil that shot. That was pretty easy Next I'm gonna overlay a picture of the order form On this next segment, which will again provide a bit of both information and visual interest for the video So I'm going to I'm keeping these guys where they are for this because I'm gonna put an overlay. All right In 1983 order forms for yeah That sucked or I was trying to get In 1983 order forms for Duke were included with boxed vehicles to order him You had to turn in seven flag points and one dollar All right, these I've kind of broken these next two lines up But I'm gonna try to say them together because this is going to lead in to The other versions that I'm gonna move into the screen When I have this first shot here, I try to line it up so that it looks good You can clearly see both figures and the file card and it takes up, you know, most of your screen I don't want them to be too far away. I don't want them to be zoomed in too much I want you to see everything And I wanted to when it's on your screen. I wanted to like take up your screen, right? So I don't mind holding this shot for a little bit just so that as you're First getting into the review, you know You have a chance to absorb that image for a few seconds before I change it But after this next segment here, it will be time to change it Because I've got to bring in some other figures. So let's do this I'm gonna say there are some variations between the mail away release and the carted release This is the first version of Duke, but there were many versions released throughout the vintage era Here we go. All right ready three two one. Here we go There are some variations between the mail away release and the carted release This is the first version of Duke, but there were many versions released throughout the vintage era See, I'm making it look like I Nail it the first try every time, but that is not the case. That is not the case I'm just getting lucky with these first few lines Okay, so I'm going to bring in later versions of Duke. I don't really care so much about their accessories I just want to show the figures. So there's version two Three and four Now there are a couple I don't need the file cards for this part And I think I really only need one of the Duke figures for comparison purposes And I'm going to put them in chronological order. So I'm moving this one off screen Version one needs to go over here Version two over here three Four let's kind of line those up. Now what I have to do with this shot because I don't have versions five and six Timmer has agreed to send me some images of five and six and I will thank him on screen with an overlay and The URL for his channel as I usually do Timmer great help Timmer a good guy too. He's been a good friend a Good collaborator Really creative guy I Like what he produces and I just I really love working with the guy So thanks Timmer if you're watching this So what I have to do is I have to frame this a little bit differently. I've got to pull this out I don't I'm physically moving the camera, but I can zoom out a little bit, too. I Need to get these Four guys in here, but I need to leave enough room enough enough space to Overlay the images from Timmer Okay Now I could absolutely do that in post-production right I could just Take a shot that is you know wide and Crop it you know crop it to fit But if I can just do that in camera where I have this space next to the figures on camera It saves me the trouble of having to do that. So I mean why make things harder on myself? so I have lined these up where I on In the frame, I'll be able to easily drop in two Images that I will get from Timmer. So here we go We are going to Talk about version two. I'll rehearse this a little bit so that I don't waste too much time recording In 1988 there was the version two from Tiger Force It had almost the same mold as version one, but with some updated parts All new colors including an occluding a new hair color. I'm gonna take his helmet off because I want to show The updated hair color. In fact, I'll just I'm gonna take all of all of his accessories. He doesn't need them I'm not I'm not reviewing version two So I'm not going to go into great detail about version two, but I do want to show the differences So we'll do it that way All right, where was I? Including a new hair color version three from 19 Version three was in was released in 1992. He's blonde again With a tan and red Camouflage uniform. This is desert camouflage uniform. This is not a bad version. I've reviewed this version and I generally like it 1993 I'm sorry version five was released in 1993 as part of the No, I skipped one. Sorry version four was introduced in 1993 in Battlecore it had a more realistic desert camouflage and a non-removable helmets not a fan of that non-removable helmet Version five was also it released in 1993 as part of star brigade It was an armor tech figure the same year It was released the same year as the realistic looking battle core figure Duke was also released Duke was in star brigade armor tech and he had a missile Missile launcher for an arm, which is insane. I have in my notes insane Okay, and then finally Version six was released in 1994 That figure was also in star brigade. It was not an armor tech figure But it was another space figure Okay, here we go Three two one ready Version two of Duke was released in 1988 as part of Tiger Force It used almost the same mold as version one, but with some updated parts He had all new colors including a new hair color version three was introduced in 1992 He was blonde again with a red and tan desert camouflage uniform. This is not a bad version Version four was released in 1993 as part of battle core It has a more realistic desert camouflage and a non-removable helmet Version five was also released in 1993 as part of star brigade in their armor tech Okay, I got lost there, but I'm not throwing all out of way. I'm gonna just start over with version five Okay, version five. I Mention armor tech twice. I'm gonna Mark out that first one that's redundant And maybe it'll make it a little easier to say. Here we go version five was also a Version five was also released in 1993 as part of star brigade the same versions Version five was also released in 1993 as part of star brigade The star brigade figure was released the same year as the realistic looking battle core figure. Duke was all I need this okay this This is why sometimes a script might work better. All right, let's try it again version five was released Version five was also released in 1993 at Version five was also released in 1993 as part of star brigade That was the same year as the realistic looking battle core figure This was an armor tech figure and he had a missile launcher for an arm. That's insane Version six was released in 1994. It was also a star brigade figure, but it was not an armor tech figure It was a normal o-ring action figure, but it was another space figure All right That's good enough for the girls I go out with Okay, I'm gonna keep this shot for the next Couple sentences and then I'm gonna switch it up because I'm gonna talk about Him splitting leadership with Hawk and I'm going to Well, all right, I'm not sure about how that was written. Let's see. Okay. No, I got I have a plan I have a plan. It'll be fine All right, three two one ready. Here we go most of Duke, okay Most figures of Duke emphasized his gritty military background until someone in the 90s decided to send him in Most figures of Duke emphasized his gritty military background until someone in the 90s decided to Most figures of Duke emphasized his gritty military background until someone in the 90s decided to send him to space I imagine Duke as always having his boots on the ground. All right, so I've made I've added an opinion I've made a point about the space figures, but I'm not going to belabor that point because This isn't a review of them. It's a review of version one. So For now, I'm done with these guys These guys back over to my staging area oops I dropped the Drop a figure stand there we go Don't need that What I need is Hawk and I'm for this segment. I'm using using version one of hawk, but I'm gonna have to use version two A hawk for the next segment Okay All right, I made a quick change Let's see this recording is Going fine Okay got to realign that shot see center Tighten it a little bit Adjust the angle a little bit. Let's turn them inward a little bit so they're not staring at you in the face Looks good Okay, okay ready Next segment it's a long one, but I'm going to where am I gonna stop No, I'm just gonna go I'm gonna flow through this one ready. There we go in all forms of GI Joe Media since the character was introduced Duke has had a leadership role on the team He was the ultimate leader of GI Joe when he appeared He was the ultimate leader of GI Joe when he appeared in the animated series later in the series it explicitly stated that he was Second in command behind hawk in the comic book series He became the field commander though. He was slower to field opposition than he was in the cartoon series I'm Gonna cut that last part because that would require too much explanation Then I am doing in this segment of the review And I've I've written in here a bunch of words that are really hard to say I could make things easier on myself by not writing words that are hard to say, but this just not how I roll Okay We're recording already. Wow. Okay. Here we go in all forms of GI Joe media since the character was introduced Duke has had a leadership role on the team He was the ultimate leader of GI Joe when he appeared in the animated series Later in the series it was explicitly stated that he was number number two not he was second in command bloody hell Okay All right in all forms of GI Joe media since the character was introduced Duke had a In all forms of GI Joe media since the character was introduced Duke has had a leadership role on the team He was the ultimate leader of GI Joe when he appeared in the animated series later in the series It was explicitly say to say did say did Stated in all forms of GI Joe media since the character was introduced In all forms of GI Joe media since the character was introduced GI Joe has had a leadership role on the team He was the ultimate leader of GI Joe when he appeared in the animated series later in the series It was explicitly stated he was second in command behind Hawk in the comic book series He became the field commander leaving it there Okay, so this is where My idea is to bring in I need to get I'm gonna pause this for a second because I need to go get version two of Hawk which I Inexplicably forgot to bring in here There's Hawk version two now why I want to do I have this idea of Creating a visual dichotomy Between the command structure in the animated series versus the comic book series so Even though I didn't write it down I recall From a rise serpent or arise that the packing order was Hawk duke Flint and beach head So I've got Hawk Flint and beach head and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use Hawk version one here and this Duke figure to just kind of show like Hawk and Duke in the comic book series kind of one and two there and Then in the animated series. I'm gonna use my other Duke figure And we'll go like Highest level on the Inside and working out so there's Flint and beach head so that's kind of the order That's the command hierarchy in the animated series. So I'm gonna have a little bit of space between them not that much space Just to sort of show a divide there right so we're visually representing the difference in the command structure in the animated series versus the Comic book all right and Another visual hint at that is that I'm using Hawk version two on the side that represents the animated series and Hawk version one on the side that represents the The comic book see here Come on man. Come on Duke stand up for yourself Be a man Stand on your own two feet. There you go. It's supposed to be a tough guy No fallen over. That's not allowed All right, I'm just trying to get everything in frame in a way that Look, okay, you know, it's like most of the visual interest so far has been created by Just changing wants in the frame Not very much in the frame is actually moving So I could practically use still images for this part and sometimes if if something is screwed up and like the audio is okay, but like the The figures aren't in the position. They're supposed to be or I forgot to put a figure Where it was supposed to be or a figure falls over When I'm talking Sometimes I will use a still image rather than what I've recorded here, but this is just faster than trying to Cut a bunch of audio and then cut a bunch of still images to fit over the audio If I were to do that, there's no way I could get videos done in time. So Let's roll with this Let me Figure out what I'm gonna say For fans of the animated series Duke was the first leader of GI Joe when Hawk was introduced in 1986 He showed up out of the blue with no introduction in the animated series the command hierarchy started with Hawk at the top and then Duke was next after Duke was Flint and then beach head in the In the comic book series Hawk was the first leader of GI Joe hold on a second Yeah for the fans of the comic book series Hawk was the first leader of GI Joe and Duke showed up abruptly and was given leadership responsibilities How you feel about Duke probably depends on whether you primarily follow the cartoon or comic book series Yeah, we like that. Let's do it Okay For fans of the animated series Duke was the first leader of GI Joe when Hawk was introduced in 1986 he showed up out of the blue with no introduction in the animated series the command Hierarchy started with Hawk at the top followed by Duke then Flint then beach head for fans of the comic book series Hawk was the first leader of GI Joe and Duke showed up abruptly and was given leadership Responsibilities how you feel about Duke probably depends on whether you primarily follow the cartoon or the comic book series Okay, I Wanted so okay, so I've got a segment here about Wrong root ass just a very brief Discussion of the the design of the figure So I'm going to move these guys out of the way And I'm gonna get a close-up because I will probably drop in like a A stock photo of Ron And by the way, I did ask Ron if he had any insight about Duke that he wanted to share for this review and he Did not give me anything so that's okay. That's okay I thought it would be a good idea to ask anyway Besides there's quite a bit written about Duke it's like Duke is not an obscure character There's a lot a lot written about this guy. So there is plenty of research material Excuse me research material to use For a Duke review. Let's see focus now focus focus Come on. There we go All right, hold on what I want to do is I want to frame this kind of from the waist up But with some space where I can drop an overlaid Photo and as much as possible if I'm using a single Duke figure in the frame I'm trying to use the mail away one the one with the flag sticker because The extra color Makes it a little more appealing. I think plus it's the the first one. That's the original one And so I want to use that As the example of Duke as much as possible and then we'll talk about the differences Between that one and the retail version in a bit This is just a quick couple sentences and then I've got another quick couple sentences and I want to add some kind of motion to the video So what I think I'm gonna do is I'm gonna manually like turn the figure around because I'm gonna talk about the reused parts But let's get this part done First Duke was designed by Ron Rudat for Hasbro Ron was tasked with creating a heroic character. His stature and demeanor Are imposing and authoritative Okay Duke was designed by Ron Rudat for Hasbro Ron was tasked with creating a heroic character. His stature and demeanor are imposing and authoritative sort of We'll talk about that And let's see Here's what I'm gonna do for this next spot Back it out a little bit move you out of the way All right, almost nothing on this figure is original Almost all of his parts and accessories are reused from other action figures This figure was made on the cheap yet. It is one of the most iconic figures in the entire line Okay. All right ready No, we're not ready. No, we're not a lot I Start recording and then decide that my camera angle isn't good. So now I have to adjust Okay there and okay ready Here we go Almost nothing on this figure is original almost all of the parts and accessories are reused from other action figures This figure was made on the cheap yet. It was one of the most iconic figures in the entire line I don't like how that you do this ready and go Almost nothing on this figure is original almost every part and accessory are reused from earlier action figures Not earlier other action figures somewhere at the same time Okay, try it again almost nothing on this figure is original almost every part and accessory are almost Almost nothing on this figure is original almost every part and accessory are reused from other action figures This figure was made on the cheap yet. It was that yet Yet it is one of the most iconic figures in the entire line Almost nothing on this figure is original almost every part and accessory is reused from other action figures Almost nothing on this figure is original almost every part and accessory is reused from other action figures Almost nothing on this figure is original. Almost every part and accessory are reused. Almost nothing on this figure is original. Almost every part and accessory is reused. Almost nothing on this figure is original. Almost every part and accessory are reused from earlier action figures. This figure was made on the cheap. Yet it was one of the most iconic figures in the entire line. Almost nothing on this figure is original. Almost every part and accessory are re-used from earlier, damn it. Almost nothing on this figure is original. Almost every part is... Almost nothing on this action figure is original. Almost every part and accessory is... Ah, fucking... Pardon me. I used a bad word. Okay. Almost every... Almost nothing on this figure is original. Almost every part and accessory are re-used from other action figures. This figure was made on the cheap, yet it was one of the most iconic figures of the entire line. Good enough. Okay. So, struggled through that one. Hopefully that will not be how the rest of the video goes, but there we go. And that is actually the end of that segment. It is now time to stop for a break. I want to take a shower. I want to clean up a little bit. And before I tackle the accessories segment. Alright, awesome. It looks like I had the microphone off for part of the recording of this behind-the-scenes. So what I'll probably do is a time-lapse of the video that I have without audio. So that's how we solved that. And it'll look like it was intentional. If I didn't mention it here, you'd never know, right? It would look like I intended to do it that way. Anyway, I'm down to the media section. It's a lot of reading. I've set up Duke in his hero pose like on the version 1 card art. I thought that would be nice. I've got a space in the frame here where I can overlay video and comic book images. This segment takes almost as long as the rest of the video to edit. It's just very time-consuming. And so what I've started to do is I've started to pare it down to just the essentials. Because a character like Duke appeared in dozens, maybe hundreds of animated episodes and hundreds of issues of the comic book. And I can't realistically go into a lot of detail about each of those appearances. So I'll pull out a few, I think, key appearances and talk generally about how he was used. But I'm trying to keep it to a minimum. Mainly just to help me edit the videos because, yeah, it's tough. It's really hard to finish that media section when I'm editing. But even though I've trimmed it down to what I think is the minimum, Mila Dog has decided to come up and join me. Hi, Mila. How are you doing? Even though I've tried to pare it down to the essentials for a character like Duke, it's still pretty long. So I'm going to go through this. I've got my notes here. I'm just going to look at my notes, read it. Well, I won't read it word for word. But I'll look at my notes and talk about it. And then I need to do the 3D spin. And then I need to take the still images. And then I think I'll be done. But I think Miss Mila wants to go outside. You want to go outside, Pop? If you don't want to go outside, why do you want to go outside? Okay, the dog just wanted to play. And so I played with the dog a little bit and gave her a treat. She's very happy now. So now I'm going to do what I intended to do when I first sat down here and do the media section. So if a certain pup will not crunch too loudly while I'm recording, that would be lovely. Okay. All right, and here we go. Looking at how Duke was used in G.I. Joe Media, he was involved in the animated series from the very beginning. He first appeared in the first animated miniseries in 1983. He was the main protagonist and the leader of the team. He was voiced by Michael Bell. He was in many episodes throughout the series. He had a knack for getting captured and going into comas. Twice Duke went into a coma, not just in that movie. He had gone into a coma before. Apparently he's coma prone. Let's see. This is the bit about the animated movie and a little bit about the Dieck era, and that's it for the animated side. Like I said, I'm trying to keep it minimal. All right. In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by Serpentor, yet he didn't die. He had another coma. He was supposed to die, but dialogue was added that were... Okay. In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by Serpentor, yet he didn't die. He was... Okay. In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by Serpentor, yet he didn't die. He went into another coma. He was supposed to die, but dialogue was added later that reversed his death. After the backlash from Optimus Prime dying in the Transformers movie... This is it. This is it. In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by Serpentor, yet he didn't die. He went into... Okay. In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by Serpentor, yet he didn't die. He went into another coma. He was supposed to die, but dialogue was later added that reversed his death. After the backlash from Serpentor... From Serpentor. Optimus Prime... Okay. In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by... In the 1987 animated movie, it was revealed that Lieutenant Falcon was his half-brother. Duke was mortally wounded by Serpentor, yet he didn't die. He went into another coma. He was supposed to die, but dialogue was added later that reversed his death. After the backlash from Optimus Prime dying in the Transformers movie, the decision to kill Duke was changed. Unfortunately, they had already completed the animation by then, so they had to do it with a bit of awkwardly placed dialogue. Alright. Last bit on the animated series... Duke appeared a few times in the Deke era of the animated series as well. He was a popular character throughout the vintage era, and if I go into any more depth on the animated series, I will be here all day, so that's all I'm saying about it. It's all factual, it's all true, but that's all we gotta say right now. Alright. Looking at how Duke was used in the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, he first appeared in issue number 22. He and Roadblock shot down a Cobra Rattler that was attacking General Flag's funeral. After that, he started leading the team in the field. In the next issue, number 23, he led an undercover team in the Alps that captured Cobra Commander. This next segment is about a Larry Hama interview, and I do have something that I can overlay from that interview. It took Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, some time to warm up to Duke. He had some appearances, but okay. I know that probably everybody who watches this knows that Larry Hama wrote the G.I. Joe comic book, but I have to present this for somebody who might not know. In fact, I mentioned the Deke era of the animated series without explaining what that was. Some people may not know what that is, so I gotta be careful about abbreviating things and not explaining them. Anyway, carrying on. It took Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, some time to warm up to Duke. He had some appearances, but on some missions other Joes took leadership roles. It took Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, some time to warm up to Duke. He had some appearances, but on, okay. It took Larry Hama, it took Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, some time to warm up to Duke. He had some appearances, but on other missions, okay. It took Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, some time to warm up to Duke. He had some appearances, but on some missions other Joes took leadership roles. roles. It took Larry Hama, the writer of the comic book series, some time to warm up to Duke. He had some appearances, but on some missions other Joes took leadership roles. Larry said the character of Duke never gelled with him. Duke always seemed like an afterthought. He said in an interview with Toy Fair magazine in 1998. Duke had some good leadership moments, such as when he led the team on the first attack on Cobra Island in issue number 42. His best first sergeant moment was probably in issue number 82, where he was running drills on new GI Joe recruits and selecting new team members. He was harsh, mean, demanding, and merciless. He was Duke. In issue number 109, he led a Joe squad into the fictional desert of Trucial Abysmia. The squad was captured and most of them were executed by a Cobra saw viper. The loss of the troops under his command severely affected Duke. He had some good moments in the comic book, but who was never the dominant figure that he was in the animated series. Okay, there is an odd appearance of Duke in Marvel Comics Secret Wars, actually not in Secret Wars, in Amazing Spider-Man. There's a character that looks like Duke and is called Sergeant, and I just wanted to comment about it and bring that up. Okay. GI Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. That appealed to me. I wanted GI Joe to occupy a space where nobody was bulletproof. GI Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. That appealed to me. I wanted GI Joe to occupy a space where nobody was bulletproof, except for bulletproof. GI Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. That appealed to me. I want a G.I. Joe to occupy a space where nobody is bulletproof, except for bulletproof. And nobody wears a cape on a regular- okay, dang it, okay, I got a flow, okay. G.I. Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. That appealed to me. I want a G.I. Joe to occupy a space where nobody is bulletproof, except for bulletproof. And nobody wears a cape on a regular basis. At least not until Dr. Meinbender and Serpentor came along. Ah, okay. G.I. Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. This- okay. G.I. Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was- Ah, Lordy. I gotta get through this. G.I. Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the- G.I. Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. G.I. Joe wasn't part of the Marvel Universe, even though the comic was published by Marvel. That appealed to me. I want a G.I. Joe to occupy a space where nobody is bulletproof, except for bulletproof. And nobody wears a cape on a regular basis. At least until Dr. Meinbender and Serpentor came along. 1986 was a weird year. Um, okay. But is it really true? Is it really true? But is it really true that G.I. Joe was separate from the Marvel Universe? Transformers appeared in G.I. Joe, and Transformers were in the Marvel Universe. Also an amazing Spider-Man number 268, a character called Sargent, who looks almost exactly like Duke, makes an appearance. Last bit. Duke had many post-vintage appearances in cartoons, comic books, and live action. He is in nearly every incarnation of G.I. Joe. Okay. That's it. I'm going to take the still images. I'm going to break out my turntable here and do the spin. And I'm not going to record that because there's nothing interesting about that. But I'm done shooting for the day. That's it. That's the core review. So tomorrow I can do the work in front of the camera, the col-open, the open, the overall assessment, the close, all the scripted bits. It's a lot. It's more than usual. So I mean this is, excuse me, it's a major character. I think it deserves a close look. I think it deserves a thorough review. It should be a lot. I don't think you should, I would not review Duke and just take 15 minutes and be done with it. Duke deserves more attention than that. So I'm expecting this to be a fairly long video. But I'm hoping that it'll be a good one. I'm hoping that the work that's going into it will be worth it. So anyway, that's all for now. I will be back tomorrow for the rest of the shooting and I'll see you then. It's the next day and it's time to do the work in front of the camera. There is my Sony handy camera right there. There's the green screen. I've got the lighting set up. I'm trying to get a nice, even, soft light on the green screen behind me so I don't have too many shadows. I have my spot marks in front of the screen. I have my scripted parts and my notes. I have my remote to operate the camera and we should be ready to go. Right now I'm working with a two-camera system. I've got the 4K camera that I normally use to record the core review and I've got this which I usually use to record the green screen stuff. As I said, this camera is going on an extended loan to a friend so I'm going to be back down to one camera and it will be the 4K camera so when I'm operating with just the 4K then everything is going to be shot in 4K. Those 4K files are really big and they can be a challenge to transfer and to edit and the fully rendered video is very large and takes a while to upload but the picture quality is much better and so we'll be in 100% 4K here shortly but for the time being I'm still using the Sony Handycam for certain shots. In order to get the full effect of the 4K on the core review I have to render the whole video in 4K but I figure I don't usually need a 4K camera to shoot my mug, right? But anyway, it's all set up. This is going to take a while. I've got a lot to do so I don't know how much of this I'm going to actually record. I'll record some of it so you can get an idea of how it works. It works much the same as the core review in that I'll stop the video after each line when I've delivered the line in the way I think I want it to appear in the final version. I will stop it so I have a clip and I can trim off all of the failed attempts and just keep the good one. And that's it. I've got the script in front of me and I've got, let's see, I need to stand right there in order to be in the proper place in the frame. The microphone is on. Double check. Microphone is on. And that's it. It's time to record. For the first line in the cold open and for the first line of the regular open I have to leave a few seconds lead-in time because it fades in. So here we go. All right. I wrote this so you'd think I would have it memorized but I don't. So I'm going to tune in with my communicator watch and the line is hoody to duke. Hoody to duke. Come in duke. That's easy enough. Recording. Hoody to duke. Hoody to duke. Come in duke. That's not bad. I want a little bit more lead-in so I'm going to do it again. Action. Hoody to duke. Hoody to duke. Come in duke. Next line. It's me. HTC 788. These are short lines. So now essentially I've tuned him in on the watch so now he's on an imaginary screen in front of me so I'll change my attention from the watch to the camera. It's me. HTC 788. Next line is know me. We did a video together three years ago. Know me. We did a video together three years ago. I'll do it again. Know me. We did a video together three years ago. All right. The next line is I'm reacting because he calls me Timmer and I say no it's yeah it's Timmer. Anyway, I'm doing a fresh review of the first Duke action figure and I'm inviting you to and I'm inviting you to join. It's no it's no it's yeah it's Timmer. I'm doing a fresh review anyway. I'm doing a fresh review of the first Duke action figure. I'm inviting you to join. Okay. It's important that I get this first reaction right. That's what kind of makes the joke work. No it's yeah it's Timmer. Anyway I'm doing a fresh review of the first. No it's yeah it's Timmer. Anyway I'm doing a fresh review of the first Duke action figure. I'm inviting you to join. Do it one more time. No it's yeah it's Timmer. Anyway I'm doing a fresh review of the first Duke action figure. I'm inviting you to join. I'll just pick which one looks best. Next line. I did but it was a long time ago. My videos were pretty rough back then. I think I could do a better job now. I did but it was a long time ago. My videos were pretty rough back then. I think I could do a better job now. Alright. Ready? Action. I did but it was a long time ago. My videos were pretty rough back then. I think I could do a better job now. I did but that was a long time ago. My videos were pretty rough back then. I think I could do a better job now. I'm not the best actor. In fact I'm not a good actor at all but if I have to make the choice between acting and clarity I usually choose clarity. So where I could deliver the lines sometimes more naturally I feel like I just want everything that's said to be understood. So sometimes I sacrifice like a natural delivery just to have it more clearly heard and understood. Next. Not everything is perfect on the first try. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Not everything is perfect on the first try. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Not everything is perfect on the first try. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Not everything is perfect on the first try. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Not everything is perfect on the first try. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Not everything is perfect on the first try. Haven't you ever made a mistake? Next line. That's impossible. Everybody makes an error from time to time. That's impossible. Everyone, okay, action. That's impossible. Everyone makes an error from time to time. That's impossible. Everyone makes an error from time to time. Next I have to pause because I am reacting to something ridiculous that Duke tells me. So, at this point I'm starting to get a little bit put out with Duke's hyper-perfectionism. So, it's gonna be something like pause. Do you wanna be in the video or not? Do you wanna be in the video or not? Do you wanna be in the video or not? Ready? Action. Like I said, action. Do you wanna be in the video or not? Longer pause. Do you wanna be in the video or not? A little bit more of a reaction. Do you wanna be in the video or not? Last line of this segment. No, it's, yeah, it's G.I. Joe. Yeah, it's G.I. Joeberg. The running gag through this video is Duke keeps calling me by the names of other people because he doesn't actually recognize me. Okay, ready? Last line is, and now there are sirens outside. I hope that's not being picked up by the microphone. Ready? Action. No, it's, yeah, it's G.I. Joeberg. No, it's, okay, hold on. No, it's, yeah, it's G.I. Joeberg. No, it's, okay, come on. No, it's, yeah, it's G.I. Joeberg. Okay, those are all my lines for the cold open. Now, after the cold open, we have the post-themed song. Probably what I'll do is I'll record this and then I'll cut off the behind the scenes bit because you get the idea. It's just more of this. So I'll do this segment and then I'll move on to something else. So we start this with the new standard open that I created for this year. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week I'm redoing a review I did years ago. When I first started this channel, I was so eager to show my toys, I reviewed some major characters right away. I probably should have waited until I had better examples of those features in vehicles and until I developed my style and format. Let me go through that one more time. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week I am redoing a review I did years ago. When I first started this channel, I was so eager to show you my toys, I reviewed some major characters right away. I probably should have waited until I had better examples of those figures in vehicles and until I developed my style and format. Okay, let's attempt that. Oh, and the following line, this means occasionally I will redo an old video. Let's see if I can sneak that into. All right, gotta be at least a two-second lead-in. Action. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. Four. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week, this week, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. Blah, blah, blah, slow down. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show, oh my God, okay. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week I am redoing a review I did years ago. When I first started this channel, I was so eager to show you my toys that I reviewed some major characters right away. I probably should have waited until I had better examples of those figures and vehicles, and until I developed my style and format. That means occasionally I will redo an old video. Okay. Hello, everybody. Hooded Cobra Commander 788 here. This is the show where we review every vintage G.I. Joe toy from 1982 to 1994. This week I am redoing a review I did years ago. When I first started this channel, I was so eager to show you my toys that I reviewed some major characters right away. I probably should have waited until I had better examples of those figures and vehicles, and until I developed my style and format. That means occasionally I will redo an old video. Next, Duke needs a redo. He's one of the most important characters in the entire line. He appears in nearly every iteration of G.I. Joe. He deserves special attention. Something has changed since, okay, I'm gonna, okay, that's a good stopping point. Duke needs a redo. He's one of the most important characters in the entire line. He appears in nearly every iteration of G.I. Joe. He deserves special attention. I wanna just get that part. I don't need to lead in this time. Duke needs a redo. He's one of the most important, hold on. Yes. Duke needs a redo. He's one of the most important characters in the entire line. He appears in almost every iteration of G.I. Joe. He deserves special attention. Something has changed since I reviewed, something has changed since I last reviewed the figure. I was never a big fan of Duke. I thought he was a little too perfect, a little too Hollywood, a little too much like Hawk. He, Hawk, who was the real leader of the team. Something has changed since I last reviewed the figure. I was never a big fan of Duke. I thought he was just a little too perfect, a little too Hollywood, a little too much like Hawk, who was the real leader of the team. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen a lot of weird, ugly, and bizarre figures. Now, I wanna, I wanna just get that paragraph. I think, let's just do that. Ready? Something has changed since I last reviewed this figure. I was never a big fan of Duke. I always thought he was a little too perfect, a little too Hollywood, a little too much like Hawk, who was the real leader of the team. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen a lot of weird, ugly, and bizarre figures in the last six, figures in the last six years. I didn't write that down correctly. A lot of weird, ugly, and bizarre figures in the last six years, but Duke has grown on me. I find myself liking the figure and the character more than I did before. That's why I invited the real Duke to join us as we look at his first action figure. And then I have to cut there because I'm bringing, I've got a clip of, or I'm going to have a clip of Will, as Duke that he's going to say a line and I'm going to react to it. So, all right, ready? Ready. Okay, maybe it's the fact that I've seen a lot of weird, ugly, bizarre, and bizarre figures in the last six years, but Duke has grown on me. I find myself liking the figure and the character more than I did before. That's why I wanted the real Duke to join us as we look at his first action figure. Let's try that. Ready? Maybe it's the fact that I've seen, yeah. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen a lot of weird, ugly, and what? Bizarre. Maybe it's the fact that I've seen a lot of weird, ugly, and bizarre action figures in the last six years, but Duke has started to grow on me. I find myself liking the figure and the character more than I did before. That's why I wanted the real Duke to join us as we look at his first action figure. As a reaction to Will's line, I am going to have a long pause and then I say, a little bit frustrated. HCC788 presents Duke. I can do this on the first try if I get my reaction right. Reacting to his line where, once again, he calls me by somebody else's name. Ready? Action. HCC788 presents Duke. Let me do it one more time, just in case I need one more. Ready? Action. HCC788 presents Duke. I like that one better. Okay. So that's all I'm gonna show you for right now because I don't wanna just keep running this camera. I'll finish up the green screen stuff and then I'll show you the next steps. So, see you in a bit. Okay, next phase. I'm not ready to edit yet because I don't have the clips from Will yet and I don't have the images from Timmer yet. So I've decided to start working on the thumbnail image and I'm going to draw Duke. I'm doing it on my phone because that's the only device I really have to do it with. I'm launching the full force on YouTube as I'm doing this. So it's late in the evening. I'm starting to relax a bit and working on this artwork. Let me show you how I did it. This is on an app called Sketch. It is an app that is no longer supported. I don't know if you can even get any more. Sony published it at one point and it's the best free app that I found for drawing on a phone. So, this is my canvas here and I'll kinda show you my process by getting rid of some layers here. I basically started with an orange marker and kinda blocked out where I wanted the figure to be and what pose I wanted to be in and what its proportions would be. And then on top of that, I blue penciled a bit more detail and kinda worked out where everything was going to fall. I marked out the eyes and the, the eye line and the center line for the head, nose and mouth and a little bit of the shirt detail, added a little bit of detail to his gun. Oops, hold on. Eliminate the orange. And so, this is what I started drawing the pencils on. So, with a pencil, I started actually doing like the real detail and you can see I got some scribbles on the hands a little bit. I'm working on getting those right. So, once I add the pencils done, you know, kinda get rid of the blue line and that's what I'm going to do the inks over. This app, oops, this app has a variety, hold on. There we go. This app has a variety of tips and pens and brushes and, you know, other things. This, I want this drawing to be kind of gritty. So, I'm gonna try to have a lot of really thin, scratchy lines and when I do the coloring, I'm gonna use a brush and really try to get a very organic, rough feel to it and hopefully that'll turn out good. And of course, there's the color palette and I can make a color if I need to. But that's the pencils and on top of that I have started Oh, here we go. I have started inking. So, if I eliminate the pencils, you can see how much of the inks I've done. I've got a long way to go. I want to kind of get the basic inks in and then I will, I'll add a lot more detail and then I will color it. So, yeah, that's the process. I don't know exactly where the text is gonna go. I'm kind of leaving a lot of negative space so I can move the drawing around if I need to to place the text wherever I want it. But this is how it works and this is just on the screen of my phone. That's how I do it every time. So, I'm gonna finish this. It's getting late. After I finish this, I'll probably go to bed and then soon I should get some clips from Will and some pictures from Timmer and then I will be ready to edit. Okay, I'm editing. I stayed up way too late last night working on this but I got video clips from Will and I got pictures from Timmer and I just couldn't help it. I felt like editing so I worked on this too late. So, I've already put probably a couple, maybe two and a half hours into this and I'm up to the file card section, as you can see there. So, this is what it looks like right now. These are the different layers that I have, video and a few audio layers because on some of the audio I needed to adjust the volume a little bit this section over here, you can see there is a bunch of the green screen stuff that I shot and I've chroma keyed out the green and the chroma key actually looks okay this time, a little better than the previous video, I think. So, and there's Will as Duke, the clips that he sent me. So, I've spliced those in so we can have a conversation. There is the introduction and theme song and there is the title card image, the finished one and here is where the actual review starts and there are those 4K files which the editing software has to build proxies for and that can take a while. This part's fairly straightforward and I've got the scripted bits here, I've got my introduction here and we've got the more traditional core toy review here and I start out talking about the the history and background of the toy and then we move into talking about the accessories and I've got these lead-ins, these text overlays for each segment. I've wanted to more clearly demarcate each segment of the video but this is the best way that I've found to do it is just doing these kind of these headers. I had played around with the idea of having like a musical stinger between each segment or to introduce each segment and I actually edited a video that way and I really didn't like it after I saw it so I gave up on that idea. I might try to get it sometime but at least for now each of the segments of the video has a header like there's file cards and that should be that should not be plural, I'll fix that. Anyway, so still some things to fix apparently. So this is it and each of the clips that I shot I have placed them, they're not in exactly the same order but most of them are. I discovered some mistakes that I made and some errors during the editing so I have fixed a couple of those, I've cut out a few lines, I have switched a few things around and used earlier takes for a couple of things because I realized that in my final take I didn't say certain things right so I've had to correct myself and unlike text I can't just go into a word processor and clip something out or edit, this is video so if I've recorded something wrong I have to find a way to work around that or I have to re-record it. Fortunately I don't think I need to re-record these bits, I think I've got enough good video and audio here so I can work with it. Guess I should show you what I'm working with here. This is my folder for Duke. I have 2020 reviews, there's not very much in here right now because this is a new laptop, I had to replace my old one, it was having some hardware issues, some technical issues so this is what I've done so far in 2020 on this laptop. So there's Duke, I've got a folder for Duke and I've got a folder for, when I'm including comic book pages I usually crop the part of the page that I want to use and I have a folder there for the page crops although I haven't gotten all of those done yet, I will have to crop some comic book pages when I get to the media section which is coming up pretty soon. This is the raw video, this is the unedited video of all the stuff that I shot, all right? So from both cameras that's just the unedited stuff and let's see, this is the stuff that's actually gonna be uploaded so that's gonna go in the uploads folder. Right now I only have the thumbnail that I finished, the fully rendered review video will go in here and also the early access video and I think I'm done, this is the final edit. It's, the video turns out to be just a little over half an hour long so I was pretty close in my prediction that it would be half an hour. I've got all these cuts here, everything from here to here is the core review of the figure, that's the introduction, that's the, well I guess that is the review as well, that green screen is me talking about the figure and then the rest here is the close and that's it, I've got multiple layers of stuff on here, text and image overlays, kind of minimizing everything so you can see the whole thing pretty much on one screen but yeah, every single cut there has to be made. Every time something appears on screen like the name of a figure and the year it came out that all has to be put in and fade out and fade in so it's not too abrupt. Every time there's an image on the screen that has to be added in. So yeah, the things that you see on the screen they just don't appear there, I have to add them. So that is the final edits and I am ready to render this. There we go, that'll take a few hours so that's the perfect time for me to make some dinner for the child. There it goes, the final edit is uploading now, it's quite a bit of time, I get the weight while it uploads and we're done, that's basically it. It is scheduled for next Sunday at four o'clock in the afternoon, my time and hopefully everybody likes it. I really enjoyed putting it together and yeah, it's done, now I can move on to the next project. I'm sitting on my back patio enjoying some wine and celebrating the completion of another video. I'm pretty happy with this one, I hope everyone likes it. I put a lot of extra work in it. I got a guest in, a cosplayer to play Duke for me. That was fun and thanks to Will for doing that. Timmer helped out as well, so thank you also to Timmer. And yeah, it's done, what do I do now? Now I move on to the next project. I'm going to take a week off after the next video but I want to get the next video moving and get it in the can. I know what it's gonna be, it's gonna be something from the 90s and something pretty wacky. But it's time to get started. Tomorrow is Father's Day, it's Saturday evening right now. So I'm gonna be busy tomorrow, lots of activities tomorrow and of course Monday I work but after work I really need to be writing. I need to be writing. In fact, tomorrow if there's any time at all I need to write on the next episode. And you know, kind of pace myself. So the writing is done maybe by Wednesday evening and I'm set up and ready to record. So I can be finished recording by Friday and so I can edit and have everything up hopefully by Saturday evening. And yeah, that's it. I do put a lot of work into these videos. I don't want to be known as just the guy that works hard. I want to produce good videos. So hopefully you see the work that I put into the videos on the screen. But whether you like them or not, you know, this is what I do. This is my process. I want to end this video with a challenge. A challenge to everyone who creates videos for YouTube on a regular basis. I challenge you to make a behind the scenes video and show us your process. I think most people who watch videos don't understand how much work goes into producing them. And so show us. Also, I'm just curious about everyone's process because a lot of people are doing it like me. It's a one person project. I'm doing everything myself. I'm not trained to do any of these things. So I had to learn how to do them myself. So another person's method may be totally different. As you made videos and developed styles and techniques, your process may look totally different. And I'm curious, I want to see how you do it. So that's my challenge. If you make YouTube videos, show us how you do it. I think that will be very enjoyable. But that's it for this behind the scenes. I hope it was fun. It, no doubt, is very long, probably boring, but this is not for everyone to watch. This is really just for people who are curious about the process. And I know that'll be a small percentage of the audience, but for those of you who would like to see the process, I hope it was enjoyable. That's all. I'm done. This one's in the back. Now it's time to start the next one. See you later, everybody.