I think we’re all familiar with the Toy Hall of Fame, which indoctrinated G.I. Joe as a brand a couple of years ago. But for the first time ever, we have an established Action Figure Hall of Fame!
Right now it’s a digital only representation, but you can check it out at ActionFigureHallofFame.com as well as on Facebook and Twitter. There are a few G.I. Joe offerings up on the first ballet, so I’m hoping Joe fans can all come together and push them right to the top.
First and foremost, this video is NSFW and NS for a younger audience, but it’s pretty funny regardless. One of the most common ongoing jokes in G.I. Joe spoofs is “what if G.I. Joe were actually super violent like real war!!?!” but nonetheless, this Robot Chicken skit is still pretty hilarious.
We are painfully aware that we’re not recording quite as often as we did in the past, but we’re trying to make every one of them count!
For Episode 94 we excitedly welcomed back two long time friends of What’s on Joe Mind, Bill Ratner (the voice of Flint) and Arune Singh (Executive Director of Television Communications, Marvel Entertainment) to have some very different discussions.
Mr. Ratner provides awesome detail about G.I. Joe history, while also breaking down his exciting new endeavor at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Meanwhile, Arune celebrates Transformers return to movie screens this summer (and the debut of the IDW comic book) with a spirited discussion about how a G.I. Joe/Transformers team up could work.
As always, check out the latest episode on Podbean, or through the embedded player below. Show notes after the jump!
If you’re a G.I. Joe fan on Facebook, but are not a member of the G.I. Joe Discussion Facebook group, you are really missing out on some great insight.
Some really fun conversations can be had there, but aside from that, we also get some really great perspective about toy making in general.
Today Gary “Gyre Viper” Head posted a fantastic conversation with a former Hasbro employee who gave him a terrific run down of how certain elements of toy production are performed, and even went through a rough timeline from concept to tooling and production. These are some great insights into that magical world of toy building that have been somewhat lost in the ether of corporate oversight and management. This is where the magic happened, and if you’re a toy fan, you owe yourself to check this stuff out.
Hit up this thread on the G.I. Joe Discussion Facebook group to see some great detail on the making of a vehicle from the Real American Hero line. You’ll feel better for it after wards!
As excited as many Real American Hero fans were about some of the announcements at Toy Fair a short while ago, there is a segment of the community that felt a little bit left out. So when three representatives from that community invited me onto their podcast to chat about Toy Fair reveals, I jumped at the chance, eager to see their perspective. It certainly helps that Barry, Tod, and Dave are all great guys who are really closely invested in the G.I. Joe fandom and do regular work for the G.I. Joe Collectors Club!
Well, I couldn’t have had a better time. All three of them are veritable geek experts (as listeners of their podcast can certainly attest to) and we talked about everything from G.I. Joe’s 50th Anniversary to Guardians of the Galaxy, Harold Ramis, and many other things in between. It was a blast.
And folks looking for information about my dio-story may want to listen to… I break a bit of news on that front as well. 🙂
Heck, we even talk a little bit about the Adventure Team Chronicles and “Shattered Glass” concept, considering podcast host Tod Pleasant is the writer of that particular adventure.
You can find the latest episode over on iTunes, and the show notes are below.
SHOW NOTES
In 1964 Hasbro introduced G.I. Joe, America’s Movable Fighting Man, and the Action Figure was born. As fans of G.I. Joe gear up to recognize their plastic hero’s golden anniversary, controversy, Joe’s frequent companion, one again makes an appearance. Is Hasbro giving Joe his due? Barry, Dave and Tod, the Regular Joes are joined by Justin Bell from the What’s on Joe Mind podcast to talk it out. Also, a salute to the late great Harold Ramis, with movie picks, and another round of Who Would Win in a Fight. Yo Joe!
Straight from the floor at Toy Fair, 2014, Bloomberg Television sat down with Vice President and G.I. Joe historian Derryl DePriest to talk about G.I. Joe’s history and it’s present incarnation.
I’ll be honest, it’s not a softball interview. The host asks some hard questions about G.I. Joe’s military ties, about the role model it sets for boys, and about what the brand is doing to innovate, and to his credit, DePriest answers those questions, but quite artfully.
I find a lot of these interviews to be somewhat “more of the same” but this one stood out…it’s a good five minute watch, check it out.
