 Hello G.I. Joe fans. HCC 78 here. And I have here my first G.I. Joe acquisition of 2024 and it's a doozy. This is the omnibus, the art of G.I. Joe, the 3D Joe's kickstarter from my friend Carson and others who also helped create this thing. This is the giant book. This is the book that has all of the G.I. Joe painted artwork. So that amazing artwork, like some of the stuff that you see in the background right now, this collects all of that artwork into one place with a lot of historical information as well. And this is a giant book. I just got it today. It's been a really long day. I've worked all day, but I'm going to open this in front of the camera here and show it to you. I don't want to wait. I want to open this right now. I want to see it and I want you to see it as well. So let's see how this book turned out. Carson has been showing off the progress on this for quite some time. And if you went to Joe Fest in 2023, you got a bit of a preview of it. This is another reason you just got to go to these shows. You got to go to these conventions. If you want to see this stuff in person before it gets out there, you got to come to the shows. You got to be there. I was there, so I have an idea of the general size and heft of this huge book. So now I'm going to figure out the best camera angle so that I can open this and so that you can see it. So let's do it. I think this camera angle will work if I stumble over my words. It's because I'm tired. It's the end of a very long day, but we're not waiting on this. I'm extremely excited about getting this, so I'm opening it right now. I'm opening it the very day that I got it. You should see this video. I shouldn't wave the knife around. You should see this video probably tomorrow. So let's do this. Let's carefully cut this tape and free this thing from its shipping box. There we go. Let's see. These are numbered, so I guess that's an incentive to keep the shipping box. What number is mine? 3780. I can read those numbers. The handwriting is a little sloppy, but I can read that. 3780 out of 8400. So I'm close to the middle, not quite the middle out of 4800. So here we go. All right. It's packed very well. This means that you won't accidentally cut the book while cutting the tape. So we've got another strip of tape here. Let's carefully cut that. I feel like I'm the last person to get this. It seems like that's always the case. It seems like everybody gets their stuff before I do, but I did finally get it. People have been posting their own pictures, and finally I can post mine. So here's another set of flaps. So this is packaged very well, and that's a good thing. I have seen some images of people's boxes that arrived with dents in them. Sometimes dents so bad that it penetrated to the book inside. Of course, that's not the manufacturer's problem. That is the postal service that is abusing the stuff that's sent to you. Fortunately, that didn't happen on mine, but it has happened. They packed it well. This is a lot of protection for this book. It was well packed, so if it got damaged in transit, it's not the fault of the people who packed it. This has got to be kind of a mixed bag for Carson, who's worked on this for so long, and finally is getting in people's hands. So there's got to be the elation of people getting the product that they supported and the disappointment when some of them arrived damaged because of the postal service. So this one, fortunately, is in good shape. So we have, after opening all those flaps, we have a sheet of cardboard for even extra protection. So here it is, and it's facing me. I'll turn this around to face you. This is my first look at it, and it is stunning. At least this cover here is in the style of the G.I. Joe Collector display case from 1982. It's got some gorgeous artwork on here, and we need to take it out so we can actually see it. It is shrink wrap. It's got a plastic wrap around it. It's sealed. Wow, that is heavy. Let me see. I'm going to have to stand and lift it. I got to stand and lift it out, and then we will all get a good, get a good look at it. There we go. There we go. That's a large book. It's a heavy book. All right, it's time for the box to move. Time for the box to move. I will keep that box. Absolutely, I will keep that box. And there it is. It's really heavy. This is shrink wrap, so what I need to do now is remove that carefully without damaging the cover and the artwork. I'm going to do that right here, carefully, carefully, keeping the blade totally away from the book itself. There we go. All right. So this is, you know, I'm really happy for Carson. This was a labor of love, and I'm just proud of his accomplishments. He should be proud of this accomplishment. This is beautiful. This is beautiful. And it should be the most comprehensive collection of GI Joe painted artwork that there ever has been. That is so big. So let me see if I can remember how to open this up. So by our Carson Metaxas and Chad Hukal. Thanks guys. Looks really cool, but let's continue opening it. I believe it opens, and it has a, like the collector display case, it has an open here on the top. That's clever. It's very cute. So this opens to reveal cool stuff inside. So this is continuing with the motif of the collector's display case for GI Joe fans and collectors. This would look very familiar. And oh my goodness, this is, this is, this is something special. Okay, this, these are the prints. These are the art prints. Look at this. This one is this painted piece. You may have seen this before, but this is the highest quality version I've ever seen of it. But this is Stars and Stripes Forever. And this was painted by Ron Rudat, our friend at Ron Rudat, who designed many of your favorite GI Joe action figures from the 80s. This, that is, that's amazing. To the rescue, that was a GI Joe poster. This is some very familiar artwork. This is the artwork that was on the front of the collector's display case and has been adapted in many ways. It was adapted for the cover of the first issue of the GI Joe comic book series. I'm not going to go through all of these, but these are very high quality prints of some famous pieces of art from GI Joe and some more obscure ones like the train set, the GI Joe train set. This was by Tyco, yeah, the Tyco train set. I had its own painted artwork, own painted package artwork. Well, it is here. So this is awesome. And I will go through each of those in my own time, but I want to get to the book. I want to show you the book. So let's carefully set that aside. And this is the omnibus itself, omnibus hardcover, the art of GI Joe. And one thing that I like that I've done, they've done here is they've provided a ribbon that should assist with lifting it. Yes, lifting it out, which, yes, that makes a difference. This would be very difficult to get out without that help. So now we can see the inside of the box of the display box. And yeah, we've got some of the creators of GI Joe represented here. So these aren't just random choices. Each of these choices has a specific meaning. So that is the the box itself is quite beautiful. Yeah, that's, we've got some representations of some of the artwork on the box on the back of the box here. And we need to now set this aside very carefully and look at the book itself. It's heavy. It's large. If that's a problem for you. Just take that into account. It's very large. It's very heavy. But there's a reason because it's got so much in here. And this is this is like a once in a lifetime kind of thing. This is not something that you can do in multiple volumes. This is the kind of thing where you've got one shot to get this out there to do it right and to have everything included in it. And you know what they shot their shot, they got everything in here that they needed to. So let's let's look at some of it. We've got some photos of some collectors, some kids with their G.I. Joe toys. We've got some credits and we've got looks like a forward and look at like it just jumps out at you. It looks like it is arranged chronologically, at least this part is. So you've got the carded figures for 1982 here. And this looks like actual size. I know that we can't go through every single page because I mean, there's a lot of pages. But I'll just I'll just skim through. I will be going through every page. I'll be doing that. But for our purposes, we're just going to take a preview. Look at this. There is some of Ron Rudat's design pre production artwork. Yeah, look at that. You got your Cobras here. There's Ace. This is how all of this originated. It all started with drawings, usually by by Ron Rudat working for Hasbro. So we've got some artwork here. And this is this is actually some of my favorite artwork. I'm going to try to move this so as you can see, this is some artwork from the the lunchbox from 1982. So there it is on the lunchbox. Here it is much cleaner, you know, really looks a lot better, a lot more crisp on here than it does on here. But this artwork has always been some of my favorite GI Joe artwork is this on the lunchbox. And it only appeared on the lunchbox. They did this artwork specifically for this lunchbox. And it's brilliant. It looks amazing. So this is special for me to see. I really love this. Let's get that out of the way. And I need to skim a little faster. I know, I know. So we've got some 1983 here. And we've got some Yeah, these are some documents about the Sunbow animated series. So if you came into GI Joe's through the animated series, it's got some information about that as well. It's got like this is this is looks like a markup sketch for what eventually became the cover for the first issue of the comic book. Let's skip ahead a little bit faster. I won't go through the whole thing. At least not right now. But I will be going through this whole thing. I may go through the whole thing tonight. This is some artwork from some of the books, the GI Joe books that appeared in various forms. And look at this. Look at this storm shadow. Look at that. That is amazing. Even expanding it and enlarging it to this size, it's very striking and it's still very sharp. We got really lucky as GI Joe fans with the the package artwork and the character artwork. Look at that Duke. We had some of the best artwork in the business. And it's here. It's all here. Now we've got some vehicles, some 84 vehicles. There's the Rattler and the Water Moccasin. This is it's it's it's got some gatefold as well. Oh, look at that. This is still 84, right? Well, the Killer Whale was a very large 1984 vehicle. So it's got a gatefold presentation here to fit the entire thing on the page. I love this. I think that it is amazing. It's amazing that we have it. It's amazing that it was even created, right? It's the kind of work that went into this is unfathomable. I was a Kickstarter backer on this. Yeah, I jumped in on the Kickstarter. I did not want to miss this. And one thing that I will say about these Kickstarter's that that Carson is doing is that he's got a reputation for delivering on the promises and even over delivering. So there are a couple of things. Actually, one major thing, there was going to be a DVD of interviews with the creators of G.I. Joe. That's still in the works. That was part of the Kickstarter campaign. So if you were one of the people who were expecting to get the DVD, that's still coming. You will still get that, but it's still in the process of being made. But the book is here. And that's the main thing I wanted is the book, not only for this incredible artwork, but also for the information that is in it for someone like me who does G.I. Joe toy reviews, getting like getting this this documentation, this historical documentation is incredibly valuable. So I'm thrilled. I'm stunned. I'm thrilled. And I think that you will be too if you get it. Obviously, this won't be for everyone. It's a fairly expensive item. It's a very large item. Not everyone can can do that. And you know, that's just that's fine. Not everybody can. And so if you can't, that's that's understandable. It's really understandable. But if you are able to, I think that you'll be pleased with it. Look at this. Look at this. Some Ron Rudd at artwork, unproduced. And, and it just goes on and on. I'm going to skip a little bit further ahead. If you did not back the Kickstarter, then you can still get it right now. If you go to 3djoes.com and I think it's in their store, if you click on the store link, you can still purchase these. But I got it on the Kickstarter. This is not something that was sent to me. I didn't I didn't get this for free. I backed it like everybody else. And I'm really, really happy I did. Look at this. Battleforce 2000. And look at this. This is the hit and run, the Toys R Us hit and run, I'm sorry, the target hit and run with the parachute pack. This is this has got everything should be about everything in here. Anyway, I wanted to show this to you. And it's facing away from me so we can, you can see it on the camera so that it can be facing you. Well, I'm going to have to rack this up now because I would like to turn this around. So it's facing me because I would like to look at every single page here. So that is the Omnibus hardcover, the art of GI Joe by Carson, the taxes and Chad who call. Thank you guys for doing this. Thank you for making such a stunning product, making something special. To me, this is special. To me, this is beautiful. And I'm just amazed that it was that you could even make it happen. So congratulations guys. If you're interested in this, you know, go check out 3djoes.com. I get nothing for it. They give me nothing for it. I'm just showing this to you because I'm excited about it. And I think you might want to see it. So yeah, this goes this goes all the way into the 90s. And yeah, about all the way to that that final year of 1994. And it looks like they have a little bit from 1995 as well. Of course, the line was canceled after the 1994 year, but there were some things that were planned for 1995 that never got released. So anyway, that's it guys. Thanks for watching. I'll be back soon with a regular GI Joe toy review pretty soon. But in the meantime, I'm going to read this baby. See you all later and remember only the art of GI Joe is the art of GI Joe. See you all later.