 Hello everybody, Hunter Cobra Commander 788 here, and it's the last video of 2015. 2015 is in the books, and it turned out to be a really great year, both for this channel and for me personally. It didn't start out as a great year, but it ended up being one of the best years ever, and 2016 has the potential to be even better. I asked you to ask me questions, and I have them right here. I'm going to go through these. If I missed your question, I apologize, but I think I do have everyone's question here. So let's get started. MG Villain says, I want to know two things. The Joe Toy you favor above all others, and the one you absolutely dislike and you would avoid. Well, as you probably know, Stalker is my favorite GI Joe character, and I do highly value that toy. But right now, the one I probably favor above all others is Steel Brigade version 1E. Because that one was just so hard for me to find. It seemed like I was searching for it forever, and I was ecstatic when I actually got the thing. So right now, that one would probably be at the top of the list. And the one that I dislike and I would avoid, that's actually probably Steel Brigade version 2, the gold hand Steel Brigade. Now I'll eventually get it and review it, because I want to review everything from the vintage line. But I don't really like the look of that figure. It's not a good action figure to me. I don't like the way they change the colors around. And they're pretty expensive. So I'm not really looking forward to spending a lot of money on a figure that I don't really like. So that one has a pretty low priority. Joe Eversole asks, do you know anything about the Mego three and three-quarter figures like Buck Rogers from the late 70s that had an articulated O-ring design practically identical to the 80s Hasbro GI Joe's? A little bit. I had some as a kid. I think I had some Dukes of Hazard. And I think there were mash action figures too. I'm not sure if that was Mego, but I'm pretty sure they also had sort of an O-ring design. So yeah, I am somewhat familiar with them. At some point, maybe if I wanted to do like a history of the three and three-quarter inch action figure, I might get some of those. I think that would be an interesting video. But I don't have any of them right now. And so I don't really incorporate that history into my reviews. But that is an interesting kind of part of the history of what made up GI Joe. Alamo Patriot says two questions first, do you have a favorite childhood memory associated with finding that one GI Joe that you had wanted for a while? The answer to that one is yes. And it's actually probably the Duke action figure. And I found that on the shelves as a carded figure. I was really excited about that because it had previously been available only as a mail away and I didn't mail away for him. And so I wasn't sure I would ever actually get to own a Duke action figure. But when it actually came out, it was in the stores and I was able to get it. I was pretty excited about that. Even though Duke is not my favorite character, I was just particularly excited about getting that figure. One question was, do you still have a few of your original favorite GI Joe's in your current collection? No, I do not. I don't have any of my original collection left right now. Everything that I have right now, I've gotten as an adult collector and I regret that. I regret letting go of my old childhood toys. Mark Kerouac says, do you have any memories of getting certain Joe's on Christmas or for your birthday? And what is your favorite year for the Joe's squad? The first question, I do remember, I think it was Christmas. I'm pretty sure it was Christmas when I got the 1983 headquarters command center. And that was a big deal. And we got a lot of play out of that play set. We used that a lot. In fact, my mom had this idea that we tried out. We got some glow in the dark paint and we painted the inside of the spotlights. So when we turned the lights out, the spotlights would glow. We thought that was kind of fun. So yeah, the 83 headquarters and what's your favorite year for the Joe's squad? Probably 1984. 1984 is a great year, especially for Cobra. Great year for villains. But 1985 is a really close second. I mean, 1985 is a great year, too. It's really hard to choose between those two. But I think 1984 just barely edges it out. I think because of some of the really sweet realistic military figures like Ripcord, I really like Ripcord. I got a lot of use out of that figure. And just great villains, Zartan, Wild Weasel and the Cobra Rattler. The first Cobra boat, the water moccasin, it was a great year. Great year for Cobra and a good year for GI Joe 2. But honorable mention for 1985, really also a really great year. War Machine Vengeance. What's your favorite kind of beef jerky? Mine's teriyaki. Get it? I'm such a stinker. See, I said I wasn't going to answer any jerky questions. So I don't have to answer that one. But teriyaki is pretty good. James Strickland says, have you ever made your own special Joe team or Cobra team? And will you ever do the Mission Brazil team? Okay, two questions. First is, did I ever make my own special GI Joe team? Yes. As a kid, we did sort of make our own special squad of Joe's. And it was called the Wolverines. And it was named after the group of kids in the movie Red Dawn. Remember that 80s movie? So we kind of borrowed from that. And then towards the end of our collecting, when we were starting to get older and we weren't getting as much GI Joe's, and then of course the GI Joe figure started to get kind of weird with a bunch of crazy colors and stuff like that. That's when we kind of started doing a little bit of customizing. So I mean, if they were going to give us a purple action figure or something like that, well, we just painted green and we switched the parts around and we kind of make our own guys and then they would be part of our Wolverine squad. Kind of like a guerrilla warfare squad or something like that. Let's see, what was the other? Ever do the Mission to Brazil team? Yes, I will eventually. I don't have it yet. But that I do consider to be part of the vintage toy line. So yeah, that at some point will need to be reviewed. Let's see, Ben Pensurga. I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name. But Ben asks. I'm going to ask too. What got you into YouTube and what's your camera editing setup? What got me into YouTube? I actually had an old channel in which I did video blogs about law and philosophy and political science. And that was kind of fun for a while. But I got out of it, especially when I went to law school. I just didn't have time to keep up with it. And I didn't feel like picking it up again when I got out of law school. But I felt like I wanted to do something on YouTube. I really like that format and that forum. And so when I started collecting GI Joe, I wanted to find something to do on YouTube. And it kind of led to this. As for my camera and editing setup, the camera is a Samsung HD camera. It's really not an expensive camera at all. And my editing software is Sony Movie Editor 13. It's like Sony Vegas Pro 13. I think that's what it's called. And I've had that for a while. I upgraded last year to the most recent version. And that's worked pretty well for me. Part of the problem that I had with some of my older videos is that I was using an old version that was starting to not be compatible with anything anymore. And it just wasn't working. But since I've upgraded, I think the editing has been a little bit better. Okay, John Byrd says, will you be reviewing any of the Sergeant Savage screaming eagle figures or vehicles from that line? I don't think so. I don't really consider that to be a part of the vintage line. If I ever do it, I'll kind of maybe do it as a side thing. But I haven't really thought about it. And it's not immediately in the works. So I don't think so. BigTragicOne says, can I have a steel brigade figure? Yes, yes, you absolutely can. Just go to eBay and buy one. The Skull Reviews says, do you collect anything outside of GI Joe? Well, I did. I kind of dabbled in Star Wars a little bit. But I've kind of gotten out of that. Right now, it's just GI Joe. I'm really trying to limit the scope of my collecting to vintage American release GI Joe. Because I don't want the collecting ticket out of hand. I want it to be fun. I don't want it to be an obsession, at least not too much. So I'm trying to keep it limited to that. Now, at some point, I may branch out into other things. But that's it for right now. Oh, except I do have, I did get this He-Man at a flea market for $0.50, just because I never had one. Let's see. A Foster79 says, what's your favorite Cobra figure and Cobra vehicle? The Cobra figure, that's hard to choose. It might be Zartan. It might be Storm Shadow. But that's hard to choose because there are a lot of really cool Cobra figures. I almost feel bad about leaving out some version of Cobra Commander. But Zartan and Storm Shadow, they're really great figures. They're original 1984 figures, really good. That's one of the reasons why 1984 is such a good year. And favorite Cobra vehicle would have to be the His Tank. I just think that's a nice design. I really like that design. And I like that it's black. That, just to me, is the embodiment of a Cobra vehicle. That's just what a Cobra vehicle should be. Let's see. Comic book nostalgia says, are you a lawyer? Yes, I am. I'll talk a little bit more about that later in this video. Kiriakos Vafiatis asks, is major blood equal to a Cobra officer? Well, according to their file cards, yes, they are equal. But I think that the way that major blood was used in really both the comic book and the cartoon, he was definitely higher up in the command structure. So rank in the Cobra organization. I'm not sure exactly how that works. But I do think major blood should outrank your garden variety Cobra officer. Let's see. Red, vitamin, blue. Two questions. First one, in an alternate universe, what vintage Joe member and or vehicle do you think would have made a better Cobra agent slash asset and vice versa? As my college philosophy professor used to request from his students, expand and explain. And two, will we get any more comic reviews in 2016? OK, the first one, a Joe character or vehicle. I'm going to stick with a character that would have worked, maybe made a better Cobra agent. I'm going to say snake eyes. I think snake eyes, if he had just gone left instead of right one day, would have been a pretty amazing villain, a great villain. And so as a Cobra asset, that really would have been something. You could have done a lot with snake eyes in Cobra. That would have been really interesting to see. And as far as a Cobra agent or asset that would be better as a Joe, maybe Destro. Because Destro did kind of have a sense of honor. And half of the time, he was trying to undermine Cobra. So he's worked with GI Joe before. So I think that he's someone that Joe's could work with at least. And you can't get much better as a strategist and as a fighter. Destro, Destro would make an interesting Joe. Your second question, any more comic reviews in 2016? I will try. And here's I have to apologize specifically to Mark Sardoni, who has been good enough to scan comic book pages so that I can do the reviews. And I've still stalled out. And it's mainly because of the editing. It takes longer to edit a comic book review than it does to edit just a video review, like a toy review. So it's just something that is hard to fit in my schedule and also get the other stuff done that I want to do. But I really want to, and I'm really going to try to, I want the comic book reviews to be part of this channel. It's just tough finding the time to do it. Roadbuster reviews. What is your least favorite G.I. Joe character? Not figure, but character. I'm going to say Galobulus from Cobra Law is just, I mean, that's like the worst of the worst. I mean, not just the figure, but in the movie, the way that he's portrayed with like the crab shells on his body and the, like he's in this like globe thing. And then he has a snake tail. I think he would have made a fine villain for He-Man if you put him in Masters of the Universe. But just the worst for G.I. Joe, it tears me apart just seeing him on screen. Bragminion says, do you follow any of the current comic book runs of the Joes? No, I don't right now. I'd like to eventually, but I haven't even gotten all the way through the original Marvel Comics run yet. And I want to get all of that before I look at anything new. So eventually I will, but I haven't yet. Jack Mayofer says, was your likeness used for the 1983 airborne figure? Yes, in 1983, I was eight years old and I looked exactly like airborne, not real. The Volition Society says, how would you pitch code name Snowjob to the boss? I would have the secretary do it. Matt in 69v3 says, what's your favorite episode of the old 80s cartoon? That's hard to choose. And oftentimes I rag on the cartoon. I definitely prefer the comic book over the cartoon by a wide margin, but there were some episodes that I enjoyed. The ones that I can think of, The World Without End, Two-Parter, I thought was pretty good, even though it had a lot of science fiction and fantasy stuff. I just thought the story was told in a very good way that was very dramatic and I did enjoy that. The episode, The Viper is coming. It's a quirky episode, but I kind of liked it. Not everybody liked it and I understand that, but I enjoyed it. And then the first episode of the original miniseries, a real American hero. I remember being very excited about seeing that. That first episode, the first time I saw G.I. Joe in a 30 minute animated cartoon, very excited. Of course I thought, I had no idea what would become of the cartoon that it would sometimes get as weird as it did. At the time, I was just very hopeful. I was seeing my favorite G.I. Joe characters in animated form. And I did kind of wonder if they were always gonna shoot lasers? Are they never gonna have real guns? But it was a good start. I was happy to see them on TV. Let's see, Mr. T.J. Bang. Any relation to T.J. Hooker? Mr. T.J. Bang says, which member of Ninja Force other than Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow is your favorite and why? I thought Scarlet was an unexpected but welcome addition, but it's pretty obvious who I'm a fan of. I think Scarlet, if I had to choose. And I'm not, again, I'm not a big fan of Ninja Force. I think that G.I. Joe went a little bit Ninja crazy in that era, but if I had to choose like a favorite other than Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, yeah, Scarlet. Although the figure, the Ninja Force Scarlet figure is a little weird, but I like the character of Scarlet and so I think she would fit in that team. So yeah, Scarlet. Let's see. Project Dark Corp has a whole bunch of questions. Let's start at the beginning. Number one, among all your reviews, what was the hardest toy to review you've done and why? It was the Cobra Knight Raven. That was the hardest to review. For one thing, it was a vehicle and a figure that makes it longer. There's more to do, there's more to research. It was a long video. My voice was hoarse by the time I was done and I made a lot of mistakes in it. I had to do a lot of takes. That one almost killed me. That one was really tough. Number two, how do you feel about the newer G.I. Joe toys that came out, like the modern era toys? I mean, I have a few, but not my thing. I don't really have any connection to the modern toys. I don't really see them as an extension of the vintage toys. I'm a vintage collector and that's pretty much it. They look nice. They look really good. I mean, the sculpting is pretty cool. The accessories are really cool, but they're just not that kind of emotional connection to them that I have with the vintage toys. Let's see, three. What is the total number of your entire G.I. Joe collection by Wave Release? What Joe's Cobra toys are you still missing from your collection by Wave Release, of course. I don't think I can break it down quite that much. Most of my collection is actually right here behind me. I have a few things here and there and a few things in some boxes. But for the most part, what you see is what I have. And I do have a list of what I have and what I don't have, but I have most of 1983, sorry, 1982 through 1985-ish, but I'm still missing a few things from each year. After 1985, when you started into 1986, I don't have nearly as much stuff. I still have quite a bit of work to do there. That's kind of how it breaks down, though. I still have quite a few gaps and I'm still a relatively new collector. There's a lot that I don't have. For what is the future plans for your show? Like, if you manage to review all the Joe's or what other goodies are you planning to do for 2016? Okay, I want to improve the look of the show. I want to improve the production value of the show and I just want to make the videos more interesting and more fun. What if I reviewed all of the vintage Joe's stuff? Like, I'm done. Nothing else to do. I'd like to do the comic books. I'd like to do all the comic books. Maybe after that, do all of the cartoon episodes. Just cover everything that has to do with vintage G.I. Joe. I mean, that's my passion. That's what I want to do. Maybe if all of that's done and I just don't have anything else to do for a vintage G.I. Joe, maybe I'll look at something else that's not G.I. Joe, but that's so far into the future that I don't really have to think about it right now. Del Noir says, what's your day job? Okay, this relates to the earlier question. I am a lawyer. I work for the public defender's office in the county in which I live. I specifically work in the civil division, in the mental health division, doing cases involving civil mental health commitments. So I represent people who have mental illnesses and who are being committed to hospitals because of their mental illnesses. And I make sure their rights are protected and I make sure that they're represented. And that's what I do. I love the job. It's a great job. I really enjoy it, but I do see a lot of very mentally ill people pretty much every day. That's what I do. Let's see, Sonic 360 says, what vehicle would you have Hasbro update and release for the modern Joe figures? As I said, I don't really collect modern G.I. Joe, even though I do have a few, I don't consider myself to be a collector of them, but I don't know. I'm not really even sure what vehicles they have done. So maybe the killer whale, it'd be interesting to see that updated. It's big. I might even buy it if it were out on the shelves, maybe. But I don't know. That's the only thing I can think of. Other than that, I'm not sure what they've done and what they haven't done up to this point for modern. Let's see, Silo Wubby says, I kind of have two or three wrapped in one. Okay, what made you want to start reviewing G.I. Joe figures on YouTube and do you plan on reviewing almost everything that Hasbro had to offer in the original ARA line? Also, what is your favorite vintage Cobra Troop builder and how many do you plan on obtaining? Okay, that was four. Sorry, LOL XD. Okay, let's start at the end and work our way back to the beginning. Let's see, favorite vintage Cobra Troop builder and how many do I plan on obtaining? I still really like the old blue shirts, the original 1982 Cobra Trooper. Still, I just love staying a whole bunch of them. That to me is what Cobra looks like. A whole bunch of guys in blue shirts with guns and black masks, love them, great army builder. But a close second place would probably be the snow serpent. I really like the look of the snow serpent, really cool action figure and a whole bunch of them together looks pretty awesome. As far as how many that I would obtain, I really only need one complete example of each one. After that, if I pick up one here and there in a lot of other figures, that's fine. But I'm not gonna go out and intentionally acquire a whole bunch of them. I really, especially for review purposes, I really just need one that's complete with the file card. Okay, other questions. Do I plan on reviewing almost everything that Hasbro had to offer in the original line? Yes, that's the plan. I want to eventually, over the long term, review every G.I. Joe toy. Every vintage, real American hero G.I. Joe toy. All of them. That's the goal. You know, one week at a time, we'll get it done. The first question is, what may you want to start reviewing G.I. Joe figures on YouTube? Okay, my original plan for this channel was not to do figure reviews. That wasn't the plan. What I originally wanted to do was little action scenes or skips, kind of like what I'm doing now. It's a little action scenes that I sometimes put at the end during the credits of the video. That's what I wanted to do, just for the whole channel. But instead of just doing little vignettes, I wanted to do a whole bunch of them that you could put together, string together, and make like a whole movie with a story arc. And I had part of it written already. And I actually got a little bit of it started. But I ended up not ultimately doing that for a couple of reasons. First, it's very time consuming to do the special effects, to create the sets, to make it look at least decent and make people want to watch it. It takes a long time. And then the other thing is, I read Justin Bell's diorama stories on Generals Joe's. And they're really good. I mean, they're really good. I mean, the sets that he builds are awesome. The storytelling and the stories and the characterization, I really enjoyed them a lot. And I realized that there is no way I would ever have the time in my day to commit to making anything even halfway as good as that. My best effort wouldn't even approach the kind of quality work that were in those diostories. So I kind of gave up on that idea. And so looking for something else to do, I know there were other GI Joe reviewers out there and I think they're really good. I didn't think I would necessarily be as good as them, but I decided I was gonna try my hand at that and see if I could do something different, bring something a little different to the table, not necessarily better, but just different. Maybe my own individual personality. One idea that I had was that maybe I should, instead of going for more entertaining reviews, I should just try to be very analytical and be very detailed and just get a lot of information and just be more informative. And that I think is why my early reviews are so dry and so slow and sometimes so long, because that's kind of what I was going for. I really wasn't trying to be entertaining in any way, but after a while, I wanted to have more fun. So I decided to kind of enjoy doing the reviews more and kind of try to make them better, try to make them more interesting and put a little bit more of my personality into them. And that's how sort of we got to where we are today.