 So I wanted to start about the start out and apparently I will be talking today is talking about first of all how little Hasbro is doing with GI Joe and the women and I think we all know that. We have a easy promised movie coming up soon, the date on that keeps getting pushed back so we hope that it will happen but it's not, we don't know and I think two years ago at Joe Conn they said that we shouldn't expect any new Joe product until there's a movie to tie it to. So yeah, GI Joe just doesn't have a lot of presence in the pop culture anymore. There was a little bit of a renaissance not too long ago where we had GI Joe theme shows, themes show up in sitcoms and things like that but you don't really even see a lot of that anymore. I like the adult swim stuff and for a time I actually think your therapy was popular on YouTube, just some fun stuff but you don't even see necessarily that like really hitting the pop culture anymore. Yeah exactly, that's what I'm talking about but it's been a little while since even we've seen that so I think until we get a movie we're just not going to see a lot of like GI Joe in the pop culture. However, at the moment though in my opinion it's a great time to be a GI Joe fan because while Hasbro isn't doing a lot, the fans have been creating a lot and it's just a massive amount of really great creative work going on including podcasts and I think you guys are related to some podcasts. Toy photography which is now exploding and is incredible. I'm just blown away by some of the stuff that you can do with photography and I actually think it's awesome. Logs. I forgot to put on books. Marco Lomo just came out with the third edition of the Ultimate Guide to GI Joe. That got snatched up really fast. You've got Dan Plain and Smith's books out there so I mean there's stuff happening. It just doesn't come from Hasbro. So from my perspective being a fan of the vintage GI Joe, of the classic GI Joe, it's a great time. A lot of people talk about it and a lot of people are creating I think some really amazing things. But one of the things including this Joe Fest right now, one of the things that is being created is a lot of stuff on YouTube. In my opinion this is like the golden age for GI Joe on YouTube. And if you like GI Joe, there's stuff that you can watch on GI Joe essentially every day on YouTube. There's new stuff going on and depending on what you like there's all kinds of different things you can watch. I mean we've got a lot of people who do reviews but not everybody does reviews. I know you guys have caught like GI Joe Burns blazing sand stuff. That's just an amazing thing. It's just a massive amount of creativity going on on YouTube right now. And so if you're a GI Joe fan, there's a lot out there. You don't look to Hasbro for it but we look to each other for it. Right now from a fan's perspective essentially the fans are keeping it alive. And I don't think just keeping it alive, if you know where to look, it's really thriving. So my thought was about some people who are doing it other than me. Also I wanted to point out like although I do vintage stuff, if you like modern stuff we've got people doing that. If you like the 12 inch stuff we've got people looking at the 12 inch, the old and new. And if you like the animated series, we've got guys doing reviews of the comic books of the animated series episode by episode by issue. And so whatever it is that you like about this, there's somebody doing it. And by the way if there isn't anyone doing this specifically what you like about it, get a camera, get something together because there's a really nice community that's being built up at the moment that I think is being supportive of each other. I think more supportive than you see in a lot of other fandoms. And so that's really nice for me to see. And so if you want to jump in, if you have any creativity at all, and if you just want to see something out there that nobody else is doing, now's the time. So let's talk about some people who are doing it right now. And they're all stars, I think, was FormBX257. Guy with a crazy name, but it is a G.I. Joe reference, but it's a deep cut though. If you watch the first animated miniseries, you hear it and it's like, oh my god, that's where you got it from. So Kevin, FormBX257, one of our favorite Canadians, has been doing it, I believe, for the longest. I don't know if he was the first one to start doing it, but I think he's the earliest who's still doing it. So he is, I believe, this year in October, it's his anniversary on YouTube. And he is the godfather of all of this. That guy has inspired many more people to try their hand at doing G.I. Joe on YouTube. He does reviews, he does vintage figure and vehicle reviews. And he is a very experienced collector. That's one thing I think he picked up when you watch his videos. I mean, he's been doing it for a long time, he knows his stuff, and he's got a very easy-going personality. I've had the privilege of working with him for a few times, and he's just a sweet person. I can't find anybody who doesn't like Kevin. But he's got that adorable Canadian accent, and he's posting things, maybe not every week, but almost every week. And I feel like that's kind of the starting point. That's, you know, the jumping off point. And personally, he's still in my favor. I love watching all of his videos. I like his personality, I like the sort of easy-going nature of all of it. And, you know, his great insight and the fact that he will answer questions if you have him. And he has the experience as a collector jet to have a background of knowledge. So if you are looking at what to watch on YouTube, I would say start with 4BX257. He's got a massive catalog of episodes, tons of stuff that he's done, going back 10 years. I think his earliest videos were like, he was just filming like his collection, I think for like insurance purposes. Like this is what I got. And I, people watched it, and then he started doing more and more and like adding some more production value to it. And he often ends his episodes with like a little stop-motion action scene, which I think is great. So 4BX257 is still my favorite, and still I think the person to start with. Another person that I enjoy watching a lot is Timur, who has the show Half the Battle. Timur is our Belgian contingent, so he broadcasts from Belgium every week. And he does kind of everything. He does focus on a specific character, and then he'll look at like all the iterations of the figures, vintage and modern. He does reviews of the animated series, he does reviews of the comic book. And so he's kind of a one-stop shop, he does kind of a little bit of everything. Timur tries to put a lot of humor into his stuff, I like his humor. For some reason he wears a mask, that's a little bit creepy, but we forgive him for that. We did have an incident where he took off his mask, and we just asked him not to do that anymore. He literally put that mask back on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I've had the opportunity to work with Timur quite a bit too, and he's also a lot of fun to work with. So we've got Kevin in Canada, we've got Timur in Belgium, and we have G.I. Jober, three-fourths of which is from South Africa on the podcast, and one-fourths of which is right back there. But G.I. Jober is our South African contingent, and they have both a podcast and a YouTube channel. The podcast is a lot of fun, I've been on it and it was really fun to do. But their YouTube stuff, I mean they started out, they did like sort of more traditional reviews, but they have expanded into just whole new areas of creativity. And they use their assets, one of which is the fantastic scenery of South Africa, which is just incredible. So they have some beautiful shots, they got the USS flag to float, they built like a floatation thing for it, which I think is crazy, I wouldn't do it. But they had the courage to do that and get that out of the water, and it's amazing. But yeah, they're blood in the water and placing sand videos. If you look up G.I. Jober, you've got to see those. They've just been getting better and better. Just a bit of fun to start out with, but they've been putting more into it, getting more people to do voices for it, more intricate action scenes and plots and stuff. So I've had a chance to work with those guys, they're a lot of fun. So we've got our Canadian, we've got our Belgian, and we've got South Africa represented. And while we're going around the world, another person I'd really like to watch is Fun School Ronnie. Now, Fun School, for those of you who know anything about the international G.I. Jo, Fun School produced G.I. Jo for India. And so Fun School Ronnie hails from India, and he covers all that crazy Fun School stuff. Now, if you don't know what Fun School stuff, you should probably look at it, because Fun School is bonkers and bananas, but also kind of amazing. It is G.I. Jo, but it's different. It's different, and it's special for that particular market. And Fun School Ronnie's got a great collection. I've had the opportunity to work with him twice, and he's just a really cool guy and funny. And so while we're looking at G.I. Jo around the world, you've got to stop in India and check out Fun School Ronnie. Now, you may be saying, we've gone around the world with G.I. Jo. Where is the real Americans and the real American hero? Well, for that, I might suggest Joe Fanning too, especially if you like modern G.I. Jo figures. He refused a lot of the modern stuff. You know, he came in the G.I. Jo war in the 90s. So if you like the 90s stuff, Joe Fanning too, he's a really easy going guy. He does videos, he does live streams, but he mostly looks at the modern stuff. So I often use his channel as a reference because I don't know as much about the modern stuff. And it's nice to see his videos where he'll look at all sides and he'll talk to you about the parts and things that go with it. So if you're interested in watching, you know, an American talk about a real American hero, Joe Fanning too, who regrettably couldn't be here, is hoping he can make it. That's one guy who still haven't had a chance to meet in person and missed him. He didn't make it to Joe Conn when it was in Orlando. He was close by, but yeah, I didn't make it. But Joe Fanning too, and then also there is, I guess I got to talk about myself a little bit. So, alright, but I've been on YouTube doing this for just a little over five years. I was first inspired by 40X257 this Friday. My original plan was not to do reviews, although that's kind of what I ended up doing. But my plan was to do kind of like the action scenes that Joe worked out. I was going to kind of do something like that, do this whole mini movie with the G.I. Joe figures and it was going to be awesome. But it turns out that's really hard. So I thought, okay, let's try something else. So I decided to point the camera at the toys and talk about them. That was a little easier, but my early videos, I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't edit anything. So all my stutters and everything was in there kind of like this presentation here. But I eventually learned to cut that stuff out, you know, I tried to make it a little bit more interesting. The Hooded Cobra Commander, if anybody wants to know, I liked the Hooded Cobra Commander action figure as a kid. The 788 is from the HIST tank, and I just wanted a name that was unique. But I chose one that's now just too long. So if I've been thinking about it, like Timber calls me Steve for some reason. That's not my name. But he just won't say the whole thing. It's a mouthful. So HCC 788 came about as kind of a shortened version. Also Hoodster or Hoodie or Hoodie Coco, whatever. But yeah, I mainly do reviews, vintage reviews of the action figures and vehicles. I'm just doing the domestic stuff, which is why like Thumb School Honey is cool for me because I can see the international. I don't really do the international. But my project is to review everything from the vintage line into to 94 domestic releases only. And my hope is that when it's done, when I've actually reviewed everything, it's going to take a while. But when it's done, I'll have this capsule of just anything you would want to know about anything from the vintage line. It'll be a complete set, a complete set of videos, and you can go in and see all of that. So that's my goal. That's my thing. Sorry. I'm going to sink. But yeah, I do video reviews that post every Sunday, except for these next two Sundays because I'm busy. But normally every Sunday I do live streams every Tuesday evening. And I do a lot of dumb jokes. I did a thing where I had like an aluminum foil outfit on. Any crazy idea I can think of, since it's my show, nobody can stop me from doing it. So any not so idea that I come up with, it just goes in. Be realistic, man. The aluminum hat was just a two-pack. Yeah. And they kept like the alien transmissions from getting into my brain. That wasn't filming that day. That was a two-pack. So that worked out great. But yeah, we try to have some fun with it. And I understand that my videos, that's not everybody's cup of tea. I don't try to please everyone, but I do try to have fun with it. And I encourage everyone else to have fun with it. I do have my opinions about things, but I also try to make sure everybody knows that that doesn't invalidate anybody else's opinion. What I really like to see is when somebody can watch my videos, maybe watch a review of something that I didn't particularly like. And they still come away with it, still enjoying it, if that's what they like. I don't need to change people's mind, and I absolutely do not need people to agree with me. Yes, sir? Is there a video that changed your mind that you were reviewing the toy edition and that light was bigger than the one you were reviewing? There have been a couple. I ended up liking the Pathfinder a lot more than I expected. And as far as the vehicles go, like the Demon tanks, the Ironman beers, I wasn't expecting to like that one because it's weird. But you know, playing around with it, I did that though. It's kind of fun. I got to give them credit for making a fun toy. So yeah, there have been a few. I appreciate that you put on the bottom of the opening. When you do your long openings, I think you always do a long opening. I appreciate that you put the time stop when it begins. But I'm not completely this, so I have to watch it. But that's kind of a concession. I know that not everybody wants to watch the lead-in. Or even if you do want to watch the lead-in, you might have watched already, but then you want to watch the video again and just want to skip to the review. So I've been trying to each here kind of tweak my format a little bit, see what I can do better. I always try to typically do like a more professional presentation. It never ever turns out exactly the way I'm expecting it to. I've had the goal of being like super professional. Like modeled after like some bigger channels and really designed to draw and use. But then some dumb joke comes to my head. And so the professionalism goes out the window and they approach a dumb joke. So if you like dumb jokes, then that's what we do. But the other thing that, actually before I get to that, beyond the people that I've talked about in spending an excessive amount of time talking about myself, there are a ton of people doing this. Some YouTube channels focus exclusively on GI Joe. Others do GI Joe as a sideline of one with other things. So at Retro Blasting and Toy Pull-Away, some fairly big channels and they do quite a bit. Analog Toys does a lot of action man and action force stuff. More international. One of my friends Joe Motion videos, 82, he does reviews. A codenamed New Tube Vero 2 is doing comic book reviews of the IDW series. The IDW GI Joe series I think is underserved in media. Not enough people paying attention to it while he is doing over views of that series. So that's a great way to get caught up on that. I'm now reading the series. I should have been reading it a long time ago, but I'm in it now. But his videos help me understand like the backstory and get caught up on what's going on. Because that series has now been running for quite a while. It's got its own history well beyond what's picking them from the Marvel brand. So like SEO Tour review and comic tropes, My Side of the Lawn Room. If you watched Cobra Convergence last year, you saw all of those guys. They sometimes have varying degrees of how much they focus on GI Joe. But they all do GI Joe stuff. So whatever you like, there's somebody out there probably doing it. And the one thing that we are doing together is Cobra Convergence. Cobra Convergence started out a few years ago. Actually it started out on my channel when I had done a whole bunch of GI Joe stuff and I had done anything related to Cobra for a while. So I decided that all July I'm just going to do Cobra stuff. And I called it Cobra Month. And then the following year, I thought, what can we do to make it more interesting? So I contacted 4BX257. I contacted Timur, see if they'd be willing to work together to do something. And they said yes. And so we started doing that and we started focusing on Cobra in July. I started out with just the three of us and it's expanded each year. And the way we kind of look at it now is that we try to use it to raise the profile of GI Joe just on the internet and social media and to kind of give GI Joe a boost by looking at Cobra. But it's gotten a bit bigger each year. Last year I think it was really big and I was thrilled to work with some bigger channels and smaller channels. Not so much the size of the channel, but I'm just trying to bring a lot of people in. Well, for this year, the game's been working really hard. We have Cobra Convergence 4 coming up in July. And we're going to have more. It's going to be more and more. And I had, if I can do it, a video that I'm going to play. And apparently I do get to play it on the laptop. Everybody can just crowd in if you need to. But it will be available after it's shown here to the public that has the full lineup for Cobra Convergence 4 this year. And it'll be the first time that the full lineup has been announced. So it was going to be up there. That didn't work out. So I'm going to see if what we can do instead. Let me pull it up here and print the volume on this thing. It's not super big room. So we're going to see what we can do. Full screen. Oh, how are we doing? Are the belly dancers coming? We got a little bit of time. And then after this we'll see if anybody has any questions or comments. And I have the table down at the end of the hall. And I hope to see everyone. I've already seen a lot of you folks, but I want to see you again. And I have the card. I have the card that I'm asking everybody to sign. That's my own little souvenir from the show. So hopefully everybody will give me your autograph. Okay, so let's see if this works. That'll be interesting, huh? Can anybody see? Can anybody see? Anybody see it? Yeah, alright, okay. Now let's see if I've got home. Secondary. Remarkable. It's almost a video. Once. By side of the locker. A small purchase floor. And health tourney. Well, starting tomorrow I'm going to have a video going up so that everybody who wants to participate will have a chance to participate. There will be a calendar of the event on my website so you know who's coming up each day. We do have somebody every single day in July. We filled up every single day with new stuff. But it was just impossible to get everybody on the calendar. So if you have a YouTube channel, or if you have a blog, you can have a podcast out of anything. And you want to be a part of it. What I'm going to do... For July. For July, yes. Last minute. Yes. But we've been working on this so we've been doing the best we can. So, but yeah, if you create something, there will be, like you can use a logo that will be available to you. And if you create it and if you email it to me, I'm going to do like a weekly promo video where I take clips from whatever you do. And I'll put that up and try to help promote it for you. But my goal is to make it a community-wide event. And to have everybody feel like they can participate. Our theme, if you can call it one, is basically blue. We just want to turn everything blue. So like my website is blue, our logo is blue. If you want to turn your stuff blue, just turn that stuff blue and participate if you can. And if you do, I will do my best to help promote that as well. But as far as our featured participants on the website, in fact, they should be there now. You can get a rundown of what's going to go up when. That is the whole shebang. How does everybody feel about it? What are we doing? We'll do it better next year, okay? It's a work in progress. So that's it. That's what I wanted to show you. And I wanted to talk about some people. I see some people in here that are in the event. So I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. Unless anybody has any questions, we can about make way for the belly dancers. What do you guys have questions or comments? Any feelings? One of the belly dancers is coming. Any second now. We will know when they get here. They will let you know. But yeah, do stay with the belly dancers. That sounds fun. Actually, I do have a few questions. You're going to be in trouble for the images you use. You've never been flagged by YouTube or has or anything? Not all right. This is one, I think, good thing about having a legal background and taking copyright law. I'm always, on my stuff, very careful to keep things well within the fair use statute. So I'm actually really cautious about that. Also, in regards to images, I always try to grab images that are licensed for creative comments and properly credit everything. All those words that scroll at the end of my videos that nobody reads, that's to make sure that everything's properly credited. Now I have been doing it a couple of times on music, but I usually let that go. I'll change the music. Since YouTube is a visual medium, there are some images that I just won't use because I don't think I can use it within the problem of copyright exceptions. But I would try to be real careful about that. So yeah, that's one thing. If you were thinking about doing it, make sure you properly credit everything. If you can, that's in the public domain and just be smart about it. A good question though. In fact, you can use some music video clips and stuff like that, but you have to use it for a proper fair use purpose. There have been a couple of times that I've been deemed because I didn't really have a fair use purpose. I just wanted some additional color and fun. Well, I can't like do that. But there have been some occasions where content, I'd be caught by a couple of my things, but I knew that it was within fair use. So I challenged those and I always wanted those. They can be done, but you've got to be smart about it. Good question. Yes, sir? I'm sure anybody that's a collector has a point where you're looking at a fresh toy you just bought or whatever you've kind of checked out. Have you ever been doing a review and like broke or messed up one of your toys? All right. Good question. I haven't actually broke one during the review, but after I reviewed Hit and Run, I was going to do this action scene where he parachutes in and he was going to walk through the jungle and stuff and so I had him on a parachute and I tossed him up and he fell and he broke his foot. That was after the review. And also that was really stupid because it was like a long shot. I couldn't tell what the video was. I couldn't use anybody, but I put my only Hit and Run figure in the parachute and it fell and he broke his foot. Other than that, I haven't broken anything yet. But I've resolved that if it happens, I'll put it on camera, you know, it works and all. Here it is. I broke the thing. Hey, and if it's something fragile, maybe it'll be a caution that you will be careful with it and not break your own. That's right. And I did end up getting another Hit and Run. I'm very careful with it now. No parachutes for me. Yeah. Anybody else? Are we good? Yes, sir. Actually, on those lines, I see that you put the figures on the stands. That's really scary because I had a A2 stalker in the back of his yield probe. And actually, I don't put stalker on the stand anymore for that exact reason. There are some where I feel fairly safe. Some are a little bit notorious for having fragile plastic. But what I do, a lot of times, if I need to put it on the stand and I'm not sure, is I'll grind down those foot pegs. I'll just grind them down a little bit so they're a little thinner and don't put that pressure on the plastic. So, yeah. I haven't broken one that way yet because I'm trying to be careful. Are the belly dancers ready? Okay, we're good. All right, any other questions? Yes, sir. What do you have planned after COVID? After COVID Convergence, I'm going to take a little break and then I'm going to get away from COVID stuff and start doing back to GI Joe. And I think what I might do is like a poll for patrons. It's been a long time since I've done a poll for patrons. On Patreon, a lot of people vote on what they want to see. I haven't done that for a while and I won't be able to do a one through July. So I think that'll be first. And then I have to keep a calendar of what I'm going to do for the year and I don't remember what's on it right now. That's why I write now. So, yeah, I've got to line up and I've got things scheduled, I think at least up to October. So, yeah, we've got stuff ready. I always try to work ahead. That's the only way I can manage it. Six months. How long does it take to do an average video? We've got a full-time job. How do you... You don't skimp on your videos than your regular. How does that work? Sometimes that means staying up late and stuff like that. But I have a routine. If you're on a schedule, routine is your friend. And I do change things up because I try to do something that makes each video special. But I have a routine and I get it done within a week but I always work a week ahead. In case something takes an extra long, I'll have that room. That will be. But I get it done within a week but there's a routine. There's a system. I'm writing today. I'm researching today. I'm setting up today. I'm shooting today. I'm editing today. And I just keep... It's got to take some discipline and sometimes it takes some late nights. But the deadline is... To me, the deadline is what I owe to you. The best review that I can do on time. That's what I try to do. Yes, sir? You're doing the whole modern era all the way to... Yeah. What are you going to do when you get that last review? The last review. Undecided. I had some ideas but I'm not announcing what I'm going to do in case I change my mind. The answer is I'm not 100% sure. And follow-up. What percentage are you at now? Oh my gosh. I think I'm not even halfway there. There's a lot of stuff. Especially in 1993. It's going to take a while. It's going to take a while. So we've got a long way to go. We've got years to go. All right. It looks like the next review is ready. So I will say thank you everyone. Thanks.