The Transformers – Seasons Three and Four [25th Anniversary Edition] DVD Review

The Transformers – Seasons Three and Four
[25th Anniversary Edition]
2010, Shout! Factory
Originally Aired: September 15, 1986 – November 11, 1987

Bonus Features

• “The Autobots, The Decepticons & The Fans” – A look at the loyal fans of The Transformers
• From the Files of Teletraan-2
• Rare PSAs
• Archival Hasbro Toy Commercials
• Art Gallery

Picking up a few months (years?) after the events of Transformers: The Movie, Seasons 3 & 4 continue down the dark sci-fi path that the film set forth. Up to this point, The Transformers was basically G.I. Joe with a cast of robots but the series now goes completely sci-fi and gets dark and weird. When this season started up, if you had missed out on the movie, your brain would have exploded… New characters, new setting, new attitude, new theme music!

Various planets and creatures are seen and the show doesn’t spend too much time on Earth. I should point out that it seems like most of the remaining/surviving Autobots from the first two seasons are stationed on Earth so it’s the cast from the animated movie that is still front and center.

Season 3 kicks off with the five-part “The Five Faces of Darkness”. You can count this as a sequel to Transformers: The Movie. After the events of the movie, the lifeless head of Unicron now orbits Cyberton, Decepticons are desperate for energon and leaderless, Cyclonus & Scourge go off in search of Galvatron (who returns as a mad man due to some of his circuitry being damaged) and the Quintessons are back as well and scheming to destroy all Transformers so they can reclaim control of Cyberton (turns out they created Cyberton AND the ancestors of the Transformers).

So now the rest of the series is a battle between the Autobots, the Decepticons and the Quintessons although the Decepticons and Quintessons often are uneasy allies and attempt to use each other. Then there’s Starscream who makes two appearances in Season 3. He is now a ghost who can take control of other Transformers’ bodies (none of that is explained) and he is scheming to get his old body back plus get revenge on Galvatron.

Starscream’s real shining moment is in “Ghost in the Machine” where he forces Scourge to help him bring Unicron’s head back online and attempts to join Unicron’s head to Cybertron in order to bring Unicron back to full power so that Unicron will give him his body back. This is one of the better episodes of the season and could’ve easily been flushed out to being another multi-part story. Unfortunately, it’s the last we see of Starscream as he’s blown out into space (he got his old body back) at the end of the episode and is never to be seen or heard from again for the rest of the series.

A few words about Galvatron: I don’t like him. I loved Megatron. Megatron was a villain but he had a sense of honor, common sense and leaderskills that Galvatron is severely lacking. Galvatron is nuts and temperamental and even though it’s explained why he is this way after the events of the movie, I still don’t like it. He’s always flying off the handle, shooting and punching his own Decepticons in the middle of battle just because things aren’t going the way he wants. Megatron would have never acted like that. Frank Welker voiced Megatron and voices Galvatron as well (though the role of Galvatron was originally played by Leonard Nemoy in the movie) but I don’t like the voice he’s using for him. I was hoping he’d use something closer to Megatron’s voice.

There’s an episode that devotes itself even more to Galvatron’s insanity. In “Webworld”, Cyclonus tricks Galvatron into going to a planet that treats beings for mental illness. It does not end well for that planet and Galvatron’s sanity is not restored.

As far as characters go, pretty much everyone in the movie is still heavily featured. For the Autobots there’s Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Arcee, Wheelie, Blurr, Wreck-Gar, Springer and the old guard are mostly represented by Perceptor, Blaster, the Aerialbots and Grimlock (the other Dinobots are rarely seen and Swoop is completely MIA for some reason). I was surprised by how much Perceptor and Blaster get used. Cosmos, Omega Supreme, Warpath and Jazz make cameos. Bumblebee is rarely seen and his only notable role is during “The Return of Optimus Prime” when he joins the Throttlebots and becomes Goldbug.

The Witwicky family (Spike, Carly and their son Daniel) are still around and there’s a new human Autobot ally: Capt. Marissa Fairborn of the Earth Defense Command. A few new Autobots have been brought in: the city-bot Metroplex (the biggest Autobot of them all… he’s the Autobots’ base on Earth), Sandstorm, Sky Lynx, the Throttlebots and the Technobots being the most prominent.

On the Decepticon side, the main characters are Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps. Soundwave, the Constructicons, the Stunticons and Astrotrain play various minor roles and the rest of the old guard are basically background characters. New Decepticons include Octane, the Predacons, Runabout, Runamuck and the Terrorcons. Both the Predacons and Terrorcons appear in the series with no explanation. I always liked the origin episodes for the combiners so I was disappointed to see them thrown out there with zero back story.

Then there’s the Quintessons and their Sharkticons and all of these guys are basically interchangeable and were seen in the movie.

Despite some good episodes such as the five-parter, “Dark Awakening” (Optimus Prime returns from the dead), “The Return of Optimus Prime” (Opitmus Prime returns from the dead for real) and the episodes featuring Starscream’s ghost there are some truly horrid episodes. “Carnage in C-Minor” may be the worst TF episode EVER and “The Dweller in the Depths” (written by Paul Dini!) & “Nightmare Planet” are garbage too although my online research says “Dweller” is a fan favorite. There are also LOTS of animation mistakes throughout the these episodes.

1987′s “Season 4″ is just three episodes. Hasbro was ready to cease production on the cartoon but as a gesture to the fans we get “The Rebirth” three-parter to give the series a conclusion. I’m fairly certain Hasbro’s motives weren’t entirely altruistic though because in addition to starring Optimus Prime and some major Season 3 characters these episodes are FULL of recent additions to the Transformers toy line such as the Targetmasters, Headmasters, Punch-Counterpunch, the Horrorcons, the Decepticon/Autobot Clones, Scorponok and Fortress Maximus. It’s unfortunate that the transfer on these final three episodes is not very good. The  color is washed out and the animation isn’t all that great either but animation wasn’t Season 3′s strong-suit either.

Technically, there is a Season 5 that aired in 1988 but it was a “best of” season that features a stop-motion Optimus Prime in Powermaster form re-telling Autobot adventures to some kid.

Despite some terrible episodes, truth be told, this set is pretty good. It’s just that the series has a totally different vibe from Seasons 1 & 2 and it’s a bit off-putting at first. I really don’t have a problem with the new characters but it would have been nice to have seen other surviving Autobots from the earlier seasons interact with the new regime and Rodimus is no Optimus. I think Season 3 was really hurt by the fact that Optimus Prime was absent from it.

Still, I had fun watching these two seasons and the set is definitely worth picking up for G1 fans if only to see the original Transformers saga come to a close (in the U.S. anyway but we’ll get to into that at a later date).

Highlights: “The Five Faces of Darkness” Parts 1-5, “Dark Awakening”, “Starscream’s Ghost”, “Fight or Flee”, “Webworld”, “Ghost in the Machine”, “The Ultimate Weapon”, “Grimlock’s New Brain”, “The Return of Optimus Prime” Parts 1 & 2, “The Rebirth” Parts 1-3

Buy the DVD set at Amazon.com

Transformers: The Movie [20th Anniversary Special Edition] DVD Review

Transformers: The Movie [20th Anniversary Special Edition]
(2006, Sony & BMG Music Home Entertainment)

Like every kid back in the ’80s, I was really hyped for this movie when it came out. It was released theatrically on August 8, 1986 but I’m not sure if I actually saw it in the theater. What I do remember is being very excited to make the trip to the local Curtis Mathes and renting it when it had just been released on VHS in 1987. They had the poster up for a few weeks promoting its arrival to video and that poster had been teasing me that whole time (just as it was meant to). It’s funny though because looking back, the movie’s trailer doesn’t spotlight the Autobots we had come to know and love at all. It’s all about the new guys and whoever is voicing them.

Despite the fuzzy nostalgia factor for this movie, I do have some complaints about it and I guess they are pretty much the same complaints that everyone else has.

First, all of those Autobot deaths. Honestly, it would’ve gone over better if more Decepticons had died so we could’ve had more of a balance. The Autobots were completely massacred in the opening moments of the film. They looked so helpless and the only Decepticon that ended up dying was Starscream and that was at the hands of Megatron! Pretty much all of the Autobots from Season 1 were destroyed. Of course, the whole point of the animated Transformers was to sell the toys and they had new toys coming out so this is why they killed off so many of the older Autobots. It just seems so disrespectful though to finish this guys off so quick. Wheeljack only got a brief cameo, he was never even seen alive in the movie! And of course, the killing of Optimus Prime was a big mistake that backfired for Hasbro. It was such a mistake that the planned death of Duke in G.I. Joe: The Movie was changed. I don’t even really have a problem with the new Autbots introduced here, I just didn’t like how they handled getting rid of the previous Autobots.

So the second complaint would be the soundtrack. The songs themselves aren’t that bad. It’s cheesy ’80s rock & pop, which I love, but a lot of it just seems so inappropriate with its placement during the movie. I really love Lion’s version of the Transformer theme though and it was cool to hear Spectre General/Kick Axe’s original version of “Hunger” (which was later covered by King Kobra… a band that’s guilty pleasure of mine).

Transformers: The Movie
(1986, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group)

As for the actual plot, there isn’t much of one. It’s nonstop action and is set in 2005, twenty years after Season 2. The Decepticons attack the Autobots, meanwhile a giant robot called Unicron is making his way across the universe eating planets (Galactus, is that you?). The only thing that can destroy Unicron is the Autobot’s Matrix of Leadership (Ultimate Nullifier, is that you?). So, after saving Megatron’s metal butt after being left for dead by Starcream, who briefly assumes control of the Decepticons, Unicron upgrades Megatron into Galvatron and upgrades a few other damaged Decepticons such as Thundercracker, Bombshell & Skywarp and sends them to destroy the Matrix (currently being held by Ultra Magnus who was appointed Autobot leader by a dying Optimus Prime). After that, the movie mostly stars the new Autobots (Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Arcee, Springer, Blurr, Wheelie) along with minor roles being filled by Dan Witwicky (Spike’s son), the Dinobots, Percepter and Blaster.

Does it feel like Transformers? Not really. Too much old was (coldly) thrown away in favor of too much new. It’s hard to relate when most of the characters that we’ve come to know as Transformers just aren’t there. The soundtrack is a fish out of water and there’s some language that you wouldn’t hear on the cartoon series. I like the fact that they finally took the Transformers off of earth for the most part though. I’ve always thought it was silly to see the Autobots & Decepticons continuously battling each other on earth. It was good to see the Autobots interact with other planets and creatures.

Overall, it’s a fun goofy movie but a tad depressing due to the treatment of the characters that the franchise built its name on (just like G.I. Joe: The Movie).

I will say this, for this particular edition, the bonus features are great. This is a two-disc collection complete with widescreen & full screen formats, audio commentary, photo gallery, theatrical trailer, TV spots, trivia, alternate footage, storyboards, toy commercials, easter eggs, the Japan-exclusive “Scramble City” episode (with audio commentary only) and a few new featurettes. The bonus features alone will keep you occupied for some time. I really wish the G.I. Joe animated movie DVD had gotten this type of treatment. There was a cool lenticular card insert that alternated DVD cover art featuring Optimus Prime with a version featuring Rodimus Prime and other characters but I lost it.

I know there’s a Blu-ray copy of this movie but all I have found is a All Regions disc and it’s running for about $60 on Amazon. I’m sure the bonus features are all the same but I would say it’s best to stick with this 2006 DVD release until a more legitimate Blu-ray version pops up. Although, this copy isn’t getting any cheaper. It’s out of print and even used copies are going for about $25 these days.

Buy the DVD at Amazon.com

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume Two [25th Anniversary Edition] DVD Review

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume Two [25th Anniversary Edition]
(2009, Shout! Factory) Originally Aired: November 6, 1985 –  January 9, 1986

Special Features:
“The Combiner: Forming The Transformers Animated Series”
Rare PSAs
Archival Hasbro Toy Commericals
Concept Art

Ah… So HERE we have the special features. Looks like Shout Factory was saving them for the second volume of Season 2. Which I think is weird. Not that I’m a special features guy anyway but if it was up to me, I would’ve split whatever features they had between the two volumes.

So I’m starting to like the TF cartoon a lot more than I did when I was a kid. I still prefer G.I. Joe but it’s pretty hard to deny how cool it is to see giant robots knocking each other on their butts!

The second half of Season 2 is very strong. We get a lot more Transformers introduced, more sub-teams: Stunticons, Aerialbots, Combaticons and Protectobots. I really love these episodes, it’s always fun seeing a bunch of new Transformers join the team and it’s also fun to see what they can combine into.

On the Decepticon side, the Stunticons combine to form Menasor. Not really a fun of these guys. The Stunticons are stunt cars that Megatron used Vector Sigma (the computer that created Cyberton) to give life to. Tough cars, they love to speed around and crash into stuff but individually and combined as Menasor, they look generic. The other new Decepticon combiner is Bruticus who is composed of the Combaticons. The Combaticons and Bruticus all look pretty cool. Combaticons are earthly military vehicles that were given life by Starscream through the use of 5 Decepticon personality components that had been imprisoned on Cybertron.

For the Autobots, there is Superion, which is the combined form of the Aerialbots. The Aerialbots were originally used as transport shuttles on Cybertron and were also given life by Vector Sigma, with the help of Alpha Trion, in order to combat the Stunticons. Finally, there is the Protectobots and their gestalt known as Defensor. No origin story here, they just showed up in one of the last episodes and the seasons and seem to primarily spend their time in the city protecting humans rather than hanging out at Autobot HQ waiting for the Decepticons to strike.

There’s some good character/origin episodes in this set. We learn about more Omega Supreme and his relationship with the Constructicons, how Optimus Prime became Optimus Prime and as mentioned above we get to see more hows and whys of the combiners joining the ranks.

Granted, there are some pretty stupid episodes but that’s the be expected. “The Girl Who Loved Powerglide” is awful and shows Powerglide and some human girl falling in love (!!!). “Hoist Goes Hollywood” is another bad one and it features the Autobots becoming actors and they end up battling the Decepticons on set. I didn’t really care much for “Prime Target” either which has a human game-hunter going after Optimus Prime in order to mount his head on his wall.

Out of all 21 episodes included in this set, there’s only one I vaguely remembered from my childhood — “Auto-Bop” and that’s just for the dance club scenes alone. Ah, nostalgia!

Very good set that concludes a very good season. Looking forward to picking up that Season 3 & 4 DVD collection but there’s a movie I have to talk about first…

Highlights: ”The Secret of Omega Supreme”, “The Search for Alpha Trion”, “Triple Takeover”, “The Key to Vector Sigma” Parts 1 & 2, “Cosmic Rust”, “Starscream’s Brigade”, “The Revenge of Bruticus”

Buy ‘Transformers: Season Two, Vol. 2 (25th Anniversary Edition)’ at Amazon.com

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume One [25th Anniversary Edition] DVD Review

The Transformers – Season Two, Volume One [25th Anniversary Edition] (2009, Shout! Factory)
Originally Aired: September 23, 1985 – November 5, 1985

I actually own Season 1 (and talked about getting it way back in the day) but never got around to posting my thoughts on it… or at least I couldn’t find the link if I did. Honestly, I don’t know if ever finished watching Season 1 but it’s a pretty short season so maybe someday I’ll talk about it. For now, let’s get underway with Season Two, Volume One. I own Season Two, Volume Two but haven’t watched it yet so who knows when I’ll get around to talking about it.

Let me say this, I realize Transformers are a bigger deal than G.I. Joe to the rest of the world, but even as a kid, I’ve never seen it that way. Back in the ’80s, I liked TF but it didn’t compare to G.I. Joe or He-Man. Still doesn’t, IMO. I wonder if the fact that I didn’t have many of the toys factors into my enjoyment for the show itself (I did have a few awesome TF lunch boxes though). Another factor could be that I’m just not much of a sci-fi fan and can’t really relate to indestructible robots from outer space battling other indestructible robots from outer space (a superhero with a power sword battling a blue guy with a yellow skull-face — that I could relate to). As I was watching this set, I found myself enjoying the episodes that deal with the Transformers interacting a lot with humans (or human-like creatures). I definitely prefer that over seeing the Autobots and Decepticons blowing each other up in some unnamed desert.

Unlike with G.I. Joe or MOTU, I don’t have many memories of Transformers episodes. Even watching the show now, nothing is coming to mind making me go “Oh YEAH! I remember this!” other than the “Megatron’s Master Plan” two-parter. There’s not a HUGE nostalgia factor at play for me when I think of Transformers. And I think the movies suck. Nonetheless, the show was a part of my childhood and I liked the show so here I am watching and reviewing the series.

A lot of children of the ’80s say Transformers is the best cartoon ever but it’s pretty far from it in my book.  The main problem I see in the series so far is that it seems like every few episodes Optimus Prime is thought to be dead OR some of the Autobots get their circuits/memory chips messed with and they fall under the control of the Decepticons. It’s done way too much for my liking.

One of the highlights for this DVD set has been the Dinobots, who are introduced in this season. I remember playing with their figures at my friends’ house as a kid and I always thought they were really cool looking in both of their forms. I love how they are written as super-strong and super-dumb. Their dialogue and I like the voice-work done with them. Their fight scenes are done very well too as they put over just how powerful these guys are. They kinda remind me of Frankenstein’s Monster in a way. Even though they were built by Wheeljack and Ratchet, it still seems somehow wrong that the Autobots use them for a lot of their dirty work. To the Dinobots’ credit, there are actually times when they grow resentful of how the Autobots treat them and express desire to be left alone. This is the focal point of the fun two-part “Desertion of the Dinobots”. This show seems to excel at two-parters, by the way. Most of them are very well done.

A couple of other subgroups are featured in this half of Season 2. The Insecticons are kinda like the Decepticons’ answer to the Dinobots. They keep to their own for the most part and seem to come and go as they please and don’t always get along with Megatron. The Constructicons (who are full-fledged cooperating Decepticons) make frequent appearances after debuting in the final episode of Season 1. The Constructions combine to form the gigantic Devastator and I’d LOVE to see the Dinobots battle that monstrosity. Or even an Omega Supreme/Devastator battle. Hopefully at least one of those match-ups happens later in the series.

Surprisingly, even though this is a 25th Anniversary Edition, there are NO bonus features. I mean, the packaging is nice. There’s a nice booklet that summarizes the episodes (which is more than we can say for the G.I. Joe Series 2, Season 1) but why wouldn’t you include any short interviews, art or commercials for such an occasion? Really cheap of them to do that. You can pretty much bet the house they’ll do 30th Anniversary collections in 2014, maybe by that time they’ll add some bonus features.

Anyway, this is a great collection and I enjoyed it more than I thought it would. It seems as the series progresses the episodes keep getting better because I found myself liking almost all of Discs 3 & 4. I’m really looking forward to diving into the S2V2 set and seeing how things go from here.

There was a complete series box-set that was released in 2011 so you may be better off picking that up if you’re planning on getting the entire series. Or just wait 2 years and buy the 30th Anniversary editions.

Best Episodes: “Dinobot Island” 1 & 2, “Traitor”, “Changing Gears”, “A Prime Problem”, “Attack of the Autobots”, ”The Insecticon Syndrome”, “Megatron’s Master Plan” 1 & 2, “Desertion of the Dinobots” 1 & 2, “A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur’s Court”, “The God Gambit”, “Make Tracks”, “Quest for Survival”

Buy ‘Transformers: The Complete Series’ at Amazon.com

Buy ‘Season Two, Volume One [25th Anniversary Edition]‘ at Amazon.com

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Series 2) – Season 1 DVD Review

WARNING! Really long “review” ahead…

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Series 2) – Season 1 (2012, Shout! Factory)
Originally Aired: September 2, 1989 – February 13, 1991 syndicated
Run Time: 9 Hours

So it finally has happened. The DIC series is finally on DVD. There was a time I never thought we’d see it. Sure, episodes have been on YouTube for years and I could’ve probably bought the entire DIC run on a bootleg DVD-R somewhere but where’s the fun in that?

First, let’s talk about the presentation of this DVD set. As far as the packaging goes, it’s nice, clean, colorful and bright. I like it for the most part and it actually looks like new artwork designed for the DVD but I’m not sure. Unlike the previous Joe releases, there is no booklet that summarizes the episodes for you. The only insert included is one that advertises other Shout releases. It’s always nice when you buy a season to have the episode info readily available. I swear, for as many websites and books there are about G.I. Joe it seems like they all go out of their way to avoid addressing the DIC series any deeper than just the title of the episode and the air-date. Shout is out there selling this stuff and even they can’t be bothered to write any summaries like they did for the Sunbow series or Transformers! At least there’s a rundown of the episodes on the inside of the cover slip.

There are NO bonus features. No toy commercials, no PSAs (Did DIC even do PSAs?). Nothing. Given that the DIC run isn’t much-loved or respected, I guess I can kind of understand Shout going bare-bones but still it would have been really nice to get a 15 or 20 minute documentary with writers, producers, animators and fans talking about the changeover from Sunbow to DIC.

My initial reaction when this series originally started airing on TV (and I mostly remember catching it on USA Network’s Cartoon Express) was that it sucked. This wasn’t my G.I. Joe. All of my friends agreed. We didn’t like seeing a gold-faced Destro, Storm Shadow as a Joe or Cobra Commander dressed in armor that looked suitable for space warfare. We didn’t like all of these re-designed characters with all of those bright color schemes. Seriously, you guys take Low-Light, G.I. Joe’s residential “night spotter”, out of his black/dark gray outfit and put him into a bright blue, yellow & green costume?

My friends and I had more questions like: Where were classic characters such as Roadblock, Dr. Mindbender, Shipwreck, Alpine, Wild Bill, Beach Head, Gung-Ho, Quick Kick, Snake-Eyes, the Crimson Twins and Zartan & most of his Dreadnoks? Why is Flint dressed like he’s either from the Super Fright Features Real Ghostbusters or Centurions toy lines? Why does Hawk have a jet-pack and look like he was designed by Rob Liefeld?  Who is this Captain Grid-Iron guy with the lame football puns that’s calling the shots and getting so much face time? Why is Duke pretty much missing?

The Joe cartoon and toys during this time were more gimmick-based than ever and they were designed by people who were seemingly colorblind. The entire brand was becoming less military-based and more sci fi-inspired. Lots of bright blues, greens, yellows, purple and oranges were used on characters old and new. Even the vehicles went from a straight-ahead military design to more far out there looks & color schemes. Cobra Commander even introduces a Python Patrol during the Operation Dragonfire mini-series that features vehicles and characters with snake-like outfit designs and colors. How does he do this? By transferring the essence of snakes onto the people/vehicles. Or something like that using his “Pythonizing Ray”.

Most of the voice acting is pretty terrible. The great thing about the Sunbow series is that the voices were recognizable and you really felt like each character had their own personality. Not so much here. Without looking at Wikiepedia or IMDB, it seems like most of the original voice cast has been jettisoned with only Sgt. Slaughter, Cobra Commander (Season 1 only unfortunately), General Hawk and the Baroness retaining their original voice actors. At least the new voice actor playing Destro tries to make him sound like the original and does a decent job of doing it too. Chris Latta’s work as Cobra Commander puts everyone in this series to shame. Legendary voice actor for his work as Cobra Commander and Starscream. It’s good or bad however you wanna look at it but Season 1 provided him with a number of chances to show off his comedic skills. Whoever is voicing Scoop is absolutely terrible, same goes for Serpentor and Stalker (who has traded his camouflage, that he could y’know… stalk people in, for a canoe and an outfit that makes him look like Iceberg). Serpentor’s redesign is lame as well, he actually gets some darker colors added to his costume but he’s drawn with a smirk on his face all the time. Coupled with the bad voiceover work, he doesn’t come off as the fearsome short-tempered force that he was in Series 1.

As far as music goes, the Dragonfire mini-series uses the original Joe opening theme but with some altered lyrics (instead of “A Real American Hero” they are “International Hero” and there’s no Cobra or Destro mentioned, just “the ruthless enemy”) that I think was used for the internationally syndicated version of the original series. The animation during the opening is new. During the show itself, it’s a mix of the typical and generic background music of early ’90s toons with rare moments of using some of the classic Joe score. If they had the rights to the original music, why not just use it during the whole show? The closing theme is more generic stuff. Once you get into the proper season, the infamous “Got To Get Tough” theme is used with more new animation and any trace of the original score is now gone.

I will say that, ultimately, some of the new character designs are pretty cool. Rock ‘N’ Roll has a new look that is a lot less generic than the previous series, Cobra’s new troops known as Alley Vipers are pretty cool (one of my favorite Joe figures) and even Destro has a cool new look once you get past the gold. My only issue is that I think it was a missed opportunity to not explain how he went from being chrome-plated to gold-plated. Could’ve made an episode out of it. I also have come to accept the Series 2 Cobra Commander as being a pretty cool version of him as well.

The series kicks off in traditional G.I. Joe fashion with a 5-part story called “Operation: Dragonfire”. For the 1989 wave of toys, a sub-series of Joes was introduced called Slaughter’s Marauders. The group consists of team leader Sgt. Slaughter, plus Barbecue, Low-Light, Mutt, Footloose and Spirit. It was basically a bunch of repainted figures. This group of re-colored Joes are the stars of this mini-series with Stalker and Lady Jaye making appearances. I’m pretty sure I saw an updated version of Tollbooth but I can’t find any confirmation online.

Four new Joes are introduced in Dragonfire: Long Range, Downtown, Backblast & Scoop. Of those four, only Scoop has a speaking role and he is a major part of the story. He is the head of Cobra’s Crimson Guard and originally starts off as a Cobra spy posing as a reporter but by the end of mini-series he becomes a legitimate member of G.I. Joe after seeing the error of his & Cobra’s ways.

Interesting to note that the DIC era got off to a slow start. Just as both the ’83 & ’84 mini-series were followed by a year of inactivity, it would be another year before new DIC episodes arrived in September 1990 to officially kick off the first season. I guess you can consider this mini-series sort of a soft relaunch. It’s a mix of old and new and I’m sure Hasbro was standing backing waiting to see how successful it was going to be before going all in and ordering a full season.

While the show does ignore some things from G.I. Joe: The Movie like Cobra-La and most of the new characters that were introduced, it does carry the plotline about Cobra Commander being turned into a snake. As the series starts, he is encased in a glass bowl and is Serpentor’s pet. Feeling scorned by Cobra and Destro (who is now dating Zarana), a vengeful Baroness gets Dreadnok member Gnawgahyde to steal Cobra Commander and they try to restore him to human form but he is only restored to a humanoid form that still is covered in scales. As Cobra Commander plots to take control of Cobra back, Serpentor and the rest of the organization have been trying to harness a natural weapon known as Dragonfire while the Joes are out to stop them.

“Operation: Dragonfire” starts off slow, and it isn’t up to snuff with previous Joe mini-series, but once Cobra Commander is brought into the mix, it starts to pick up. We not only see the Joes battling Cobra but also Scoop’s dilemma and the Commander’s rise to power again. Sadly, the battle for power between Serpentor and Cobra Commander is a short one. Serpentor is captured by the Python Patrol and the Commander uses the pythonizing ray to turn him into an iguana and he is last seen during the series running away from Gnawgahyde (who threatens to barbecue him!). Pretty anti-climatic way to write him off.

Another thing that bugs me about Series 2 is that a number of characters seem to be analogues of previous Joe characters. I guess Hasbro felt maybe they’d be better off trying to sell an entirely new, yet similar, characters rather than just redesigning the same ol’ guys. Pathfinder is Recondo, Ambush & Pathfinder have a bickering friendship like Wet-Suit & Leatherneck, Airborne is um… Airborne (yes, they re-used the name), Salvo is similar to Gung-Ho, Heavy Duty is like Roadblock (they are cousins after all), Grid-Iron is the new Duke, Stretcher has phased out Lifeline just as Lifeline phased out Doc and so on and so on.

If “Operation Dragonfire” was an acceptable if disappointing effort, the rest of Season 1 goes back and forth between “sucks” and “decent”. In regards to the battle roster, Lady Jaye & Sgt. Slaughter make frequent appearances while General Hawk, Low-Light (in yet another redesign and a proper one at that), Rock ‘N’ Roll, Dusty, Sci-Fi and Duke (YES!) make a few appearances, as do the Oktober Guard’s Big Ben & Colonel Krimov (he’s referred to as Captain Krimov in the show). It should be noted that Ben & Krimov act as full-fledged Joes during their appearances. Maybe there was a roster swap and the rest of the regular Joes are off having missions in Russia..?

The majority of the season revolves around Captain Grid-Iron, Bullhorn, Ambush, Heavy Duty, Pathfinder and Salvo. That’s pretty much the core Joe team by this point with other newbies Scoop, Rampart, Stretcher, Sub-Zero, the Sky Patrol (team leader Skydive, new Airborne, Altitude, Drop Zone, Static Line & Airwave) and Topside pinch-hitting at various times. These really aren’t bad characters (other than Grid-Iron who is obsessed with making football puns and analogies) but I just hate the fact that they got shoved down our throats with no introduction as to who they are or when they joined G.I. Joe. It was just “Here they are! G.I. Joe!” and everyone else got ignored. Granted, the whole point of the show is to sell toys but it still sucks for fans of the original series.

On the Cobra side, Night Creeper Leader (yes, that’s his name), Metal-Head (who I HATE, he’s so over the top he should’ve been a villain on C.O.P.S.), Baroness, Zarana and Gnawgahyde are the top henchmen while Destro and/or Cobra Commander continue to appear in every episode. Although there are TONS of new and various Vipers, the Cobra side seems short on actual characters. It’s like they refused to use any of the old characters and couldn’t be bothered to create any new Cobra villains. During Operation Dragonfire, an Alley Viper actually figures into the whole Scoop thing heavily and during the awful “Pigskin Commando” episode (maybe the silliest and worst episode of G.I. Joe ever) it’s a nameless Range Viper who is the main villain due to his football rivalry with Grid-Iron. Then there’s another episode that centers around a female Range Viper and her history with Ambush. Range Vipers, by the way, are really ugly and look so out of place with Cobra. They look like they belong on Masters of the Universe. Too much of a horror/sci-fi look for this show… are the Range Vipers’ helmets supposed to look like brains?

One thing I have to point out again is how lame the color scheme is for characters and vehicles. It gets really bad after Operation Dragonfire. Other than Slaughter’s Marauders and Lady Jaye’s ugly jumpsuit, most of the Joes look decent. They’ve all got some kind of brown/gray/green camouflage going on and the vehicles are the color that you’d expect from the military. Cobra on the other hand… They’ve gotten absolutely flamboyant. In the previous series, Cobra’s primary colors were blue, red and black. For uniforms and vehicles. Now, you’ve got all kinds of Vipers running around wearing baby blue, neon orange, purple, yellow, fuchsia and lime green. The same can be said for Cobra’s vehicles. They have PINK tanks! A bright lime green floating fortress! Purple speed boats! It’s just ugly, man.

Some of the stories as just awful and are played more for laughs than anything else. Everyone in Cobra is portrayed as a bumbling fool. There are no more serious and competent threats like Zartan, Storm Shadow, Major Bludd, Dr. Mindbender, Firefly or Tomax & Xamot. Night Creeper Leader hits his head and starts to think he’s a pharaoh. Metal-Head’s granny comes for a visit. G.I. Joe plays Cobra in a football game (wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t pushing Grid-Iron so hard) with Sgt. Slaughter at stake. Cobra Commander masquerades as a superhero. This is terrible! And they even recycle premises from the previous series about a Joe traitor, G.I. Joe getting disbanded and Cobra Commander & a Joe having to work together to survive a situation. I can’t decide if DIC & Hasbro dumbed down the show on purpose or if they were dumb themselves.

The look of the show, the feel of it, the plots, the music… It’s all just so bad and low-budget. The entire show screams early ’90s and not in a good way. The only reason DIC even got the rights to the show is that they offered to do it on such a low-budget that Hasbro couldn’t refuse. The animation can be downright ugly at times but generally it is decent even though it doesn’t hold a candle to Sunbow.

Even though the DIC series has been disliked for years, a release such as this is still targeted to the hardcore Joe fan. I mean, who else is gonna buy this? They know we’re completists!

Overall, Season 1 is a below-average effort but because I am a completist, I’m still happy to have it in my collection. There are some good episodes here but there’s also a number of terrible plots that insult your intelligence as well. A lot of the season is used to jokes. Humor is fine but it was done much better during the Sunbow years when it was done for spoofs and satire. Here it’s just straight up goofy stuff. The second half of the season is definitely better than the first though. Maybe everyone started getting a better feel for the show by that point.

Season Highlights: “Operation Dragonfire” mini-series, “Victory at Volcania” Parts 1 & 2, “General Confusion”, “Night of the Creepers”, “That’s Entertainment” (because it co-stars Jackie Love — a spoof of Bob Hope), “The Mind Mangler”, “BIOK”, “Stuck On You”

Buy ‘G.I. Joe Series 2: Season 1′ on DVD!