2 things were got wrong here. One was that Mrs. Cobra Commander asks if Lady Jaye was involved in The Sgt. Savage movie to which he replies no. She actually was. She was the blonde soldier who seemed to be at the right hand of General Hawk in this movie. Why they made her blonde I'm not really sure, but if you look at the IMDB page of this movie the voice actress who voiced the blonde's character is listed as Lady Jaye. The other thing was he said that Savages gear, namely the p40 warhawk were all outdated, however his crew discusses how these items have been updated to 'stay in the game' as they put it, namely the P40 Warhawk was given some notable upgrades, now for my 'real' proper comment where I try to tell you what my feelings were on Sgt. Savage.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Lady Jaye was the driver of the Jeep with Hawk? (I read it somewhere) (Another point) When G.I.Joe on it's last days in the 90's, I was in High School. I started putting down my toys and picking up my Electric Guitar , Metallica, Nirvana and Guns N' Roses Cassette tapes and a Tennis racket. after 1999, that's when I got back into toys.
Honestly, General Blitz’s visual similarities to M. Bison from Street Fighter is probably the one thing about Sgt. Savage that seems genuinely in tune with what kids liked in the mid 90’s.
The scoped rifle from Sgt. Savage was later colored gray and was an accessory for Shipwreck in the Spy Troops series. Despite the failure of the line, I must admit they have nice accessories. I am glad that I was had moved on from G.I. Joe by the time Sgt. Savage and G.I. Joe Extreme had come out. Thankfully in 1997 & 1998 Hasbro reintroduced the classic characters via exclusive Toys RUs releases. Despite using lower quality plastic in the toys construction, I must admit it was nice to see the classic characters again. Also I am pretty pleased with the newer action figure offerings from 2007- present. However I do wish that the retail releases had a little bit more diversity, just how many versions of Snake Eyes or Cobra Commander does one person need?
I had the one basic Sgt. Savage as a kid. I remember thinking it was cool for a second but then I just missed finding the 3"3/4 figures on the shelves. Shoot, I'd even take one of those weird Ninja Storm figures over Sgt. Savage! Ugh, and then Extreme came out, even worse. I just wanted the old Joe's! I was born in an unlucky time, 87, because the original style figures were still on shelves and that's what I was introduced to, but by 94 or 95 they were getting harder and harder to find and they started coming out without Savage and Extreme but I just wanted the style of Joe figure and characters I was used to!
I loved SGT Rock the comic! I still have a few of my old comics left from the 60s and 70s, Cooper is a legend! I just realized I have a SGT Rock figure , no helmet or accessories , and I have a couple more..un identified. I'm looking into it.
I was 17 years old in 1990. Didn't watch as much tv as I did back in the 80s. I don't remember even hearing about this toy back then. This is my first time even seeing it.
the message reads "be sure to drink your ovaltine" bloody hell it's an advertisement for ovaltine. that opening was brutal to watch, but like all great tragedy's i had to watch. i never liked this line r the extreme line. thank god that hasbro restarted the classic line under the collector series in 1998. yep they quit the vintage line when i joined the Navy, and restarted when i was discharged. I collected everything that i could from '98-'04. Glad that you're broadening your horizons a bit, just as long as the primary focus is on the vintage line. Keep up the great job. i don't have a decoder ring, but in true form, this being december, the only decoder ring message i know was from 'a christmas story' . oh wait, i mean, "SLAUGHTERIZE IT!"
... I had all the Sgt. Savages. The only things I didn't have were the tank and plane, and possibly the mail away. My brother and I had 1 Extreme toy each, and they were laughably bad, as was the cartoon. Like you, I need my toys to have articulation. Great video.
I love these...as a fan of WWII history I think they're really cool. I like the larger size too...makes them stand apart from the regular Joes, and the fact that it's a small self contained line means you can collect them all without going broke.
I like the VHS copy I'm searching Savage I like the Screaming Eagle Warhawk his villains fit in pretty well with Cobra I'm on the guys that likes the Cobra from the original movie back in the late 80s adding robots in World War II was pretty cool I really enjoyed that I got that for Easter when I was a kid I think that's why I really liked it because it was GI Joe for me and I had a lot for my old crew collection than my brothers I like a lot of their characters lot of their vehicles with mine that giant robot from the space and GI Joe works very well I like having bad guys piled in it more than good guys I liked a lot of the good guy base being taken over by cobra and then shows would have to fight back a lot and when I play with Ryan we would use like a few Joe as still on our team and most of them are integrated with Cobra and we had to fight her way through those are great memories that with Marvel superheroes and DC and GI Joe and the Ninja Turtles
Truth to tell, I completely ignored this line until it went on clearance at my local KB Toys. When it did, I bought a number of the action figures. Sgt. Savage I used pretty much as the Captain America substitute he was written as, since I liked the idea of Captain America fighting alongside the Joes. I really liked the General Blitz toys and used him as a new character. I had D-Day and a couple of the IRON soldiers, but was kind of meh about them. Dynamite however, I bought every one of his urban figure that I could find. He's a nice toy, but I actually loved his little bike, as they were perfect for my Dreadnoks, and gave them the motorcycles that I always wished that they'd had in the vintage toy line.
Never was aware of these two GI Joe series before viewing this video. Given their place in the timeline I'm not surprised Hasbro pooched it yet again! It was a fun time though as always, thank you!
I am just old enough to remember the 10 inch "Action Aliance" line just before the 3 3/4 inch " Real American Hero" line. So when I saw the wild detections the RAH was going like a one off "Dino-Hunters"( I used the JP T-Rex, it was way better then the t-rex that came with it) I knew the end was coming. Then they did a retrospective line bridging the classic 12 inch "Origanal" line and the 3 3/4 inch. It was a time of remembering the past with G. I. Joe in general. So just before the long I remember a 3 3/4 inch release of Sgt. Savage nearly a year before the line came out. They went back to all there inspirations. They based the enemy as they had with both classics and RAH on Nazi. Then gave it all a Vetnam wash to update it a little. I rely liked the line in general. But then the next two lines bothered me enough to walk away from all G. I. Joe line for a long while. This next two follow up lines were far less thought out. And had less articulation in the "Extream" line. At least by the time of the "Sigma 6" they may have gotten the articulation back, but just no! I just couldn't get into it, that was when I completely stoped paying attention.
My father give me this toy with the tape when i was little, i remember like ir was yesterday… Watched and rewatch a thousand times… Fun fact, im brazilian and Never imagined such a masterpiece in that time, i have good memories of that.
I liked that the Sgt. Savage figures were closer to the size of my other, non-gi joe figures, but with almost all the articulation of a joe. I had the Savage that came with the VHS, and I had a blonde one that came with something else, and we pretended they were brothers. GI Joe extreme was... not good.
I believe that Hasbro was chasing the competition in the late eighties. The Transformers line that I review had signs of that. In 1989 they released the Micro Masters line of small scaled Transformers, mainly to compete with the Micro Machines toys. Then in 1990 Hasbro brought in the Action Masters, an action figure Transformer that didn't transform and had rather poor articulation, especially when compared to their GI Joe toys. Naturally the Transformer line died out after 1990, so then they could do the same to GI Joe.
I remember a profound feeling of sadness when I saw GI Joe Extreme figures on the shelf. The comic had a Frank Miller cover, but that was about all it had. Sgt. Savage, I don't remember at all.
I had normal Sgt. Savage and the edit: original hispanic dynamite guy. In the show they're retrofitting all the old vehicles for some reason: "This plasma cannon is just what this old tank needs to stay in the game!" ...Said cannon apparently runs off the miniscule amount of power from the tanks alternator, needs no actual plasma supply, and apparently composite, spaced, or reactive armor, NBC protection, night vision or infrared capability...not at all important advances. Nope. Just a plasma cannon. I was moving out of action figures about that time, but I thought that was silly. Also, a vintage gripe of mine: how does Sgt. Savage know how to fly a plane? He's an infantry sergeant turned commando, not an airman, much less a pilot. While the inclusion of kind of sad, undeveloped one-off driver characters in most every G.I. Joe vehicle gets old, they didn't skimp on them, even when they were combinations of other figures parts. Hasbro could at least have changed the pilot Sgt. Savage's head and given him a different name--there's another Screaming Eagle, right there, one less Savage clone. They combined several different parts from G.I. Joes to make different characters, couldn't something similar have been done to replace one of the other Savages? I mean you don't have to torso-groin separation as with the O-ring figures, but still.
Spot on analysis! I totally agree with everything you said. The only thing that I would have added was how much nostalgia for World War 2 was out there in 1995. I remember how much celebrating was happening with connections to VE Day and VJ Day 50th anniversaries. All the news in 1995 seemed to be focused on World War 2 and OJ Simpson's trial. I can understand Hasbro wanting to cash in on that considering most kids had at least 1 grandparent who served in World War 2. I have 3 or 4 of these figures that I picked up for a buck each back in 1996 during my mid teens.I started collecting in 1992 through 1994 and those 3 years had faults as well as some good aspects. "Only G.I.Joe is G.I. Joe" and it's a struggle to count Sgt. Savage as G.I. Joe.
I'm hoping this video generates a lot of discussion. I chose strong words in hopes it would elicit a lot of opinions. So far I think we're getting some good comments. Thanks for asking for this one. I would never have thought of it.
You are very welcome good sir. Time for me to create two more comments, one informative, and one of my opinions on the figure, which as you can guess by my username, will be mostly positive.
Is was 5 and 6 when Savage hit the shelves and I was blown away! We went on vacation to Arizona and I lost my Sgt Savage :( luckily the figure isn't over priced! I thought he was cool being big I just thought well he's a super soldier. idk at that age I thought Sgt Savage was the shit
I was 12 when Sgt. Savage came out. Still young enough to play with toys, but almost at the age of growing out of them... So the Sgt. Savage line appealed to me. It felt more grounded less silly, despite the cyborgs and I wanted to see more Screaming Eagles, more officers for the Iron Army and maybe even Destro and Snake-Eyes.
That was my go to. You would grab a GI Joe and then head to target or Toys R' US to get the Soldiers of the World accessory packages to make your Joe have more stuff.
@@5500somerandomdude I would also look at the 21st century Ultimate Soldier accessories and weapons. I also modified figures to give them a trigger finger. Certainly was a great time.
I haven't been watching the CLASSIC reviews as much lately BUT I still got your back Hoodie Coco and I pray you're finding a bit of peace!!! I too, like most dont care for Sgt Savage and/or his Screaming Eagles!!! But I did pick up a Major Blitz or whatever his name is this week...it's the basic V1, I THINK!!! haha it's the figure in all black...looks a bit like an S.S. uniform and I couldn't argue with the price....FREE! He was just loose but my comic book shop down the street has a loose Joe bin and there was a MINT Techno Viper V2 in there...I told the owner it was was $200 figure and his thanks was up hook me up with Major Blitz! I've crossed over otherwise and stopped buying/selling vintage and moved into 25th/50th/Rise of Cobra/Pursuit of Cobra/Walmart Retro Line/Modern figures for a change and I have really been enjoying them! During my absence from watching these CLASSIC reviews I was shortly collecting 09 era Marvel Universe figures and 2011 Bandai Thundercats Figures.... Anyhow, I just wanted to check in and say I was thinking about you and hope you're hanging in there! *Dy-NOOO-MIIIITE!!!* this week's/recent pick-ups Pursuit of Cobra Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes w/ Timber....Snake Eyes from the 1st live action film w/ trench coat.... Great version!!! Pursuit of Cobra Stormshadow....basic Stormshadow from also from the 1st live action film... Great figure and really cool is that so many of these figs fine with didn't missile shooting oversized guns...this Stormy has a small gun he can hold(!!!) that has a small nano-mite warhead that detaches....it can't be fired but it's like the one he fires at the Eiffel Tower in the film. Pursuit of Cobra Destro.... In his winter/Major Blitz style S.S. Officers style uniform... Displays very well with one of the Uzi style weapons that packs in with retro Stalker. Pursuit of Cobra ULTIMATE Coco....best hoodie head Coco that also comes with chrome vac metalized helmet Coco head Duke & Scarlett 2-pack comic book accurate 2-pack....25th anniversary Zartan and Major Bludd and Nightforce Wayne R. Sneeden...which is particularly cool because, aside from Dashiell Faireborne, Beachhead is my favorite Joe ANNNND after looking for forever I recently just found the O-Ring/vintage style/toys R Us Exclusive Nightforce Beachhead....so now I have both the O-Ring and the Modern style of Nightforce Beachhead!!! Also .... I didn't understand why Hasbro didn't go ALL OUT with SGT SAVAGE AND USE THE VISIONARIES molds....they're in scale BUT better made and with a larger O-Ring. Oh well! Oh shit I forgot....I also picked up the Hiss III this week too!!!
I loved my SGT. Savage figures. I was a little older and had already been well versed in WWII. Plus I watched a load of WWII movies by that point so these where awesome to have. The VHS cartoon does not age well at all, but it was neat to have an action figure that came with a "movie" back then. Not GI.Joe awesome, but these where cool if you wanted to play WWII with GI.Joe "like" action figures with WWII weapons.
I´m from Perú, I was 13 or 14 years old when Captain Rock... I mean Sgt. Savage line was released. If these figures were made in 3.75" I would have bought them for sure because they were awesome, but they just didn´t fit my other Joes so I skipped the line. Otherwise, The Kenner Extremes (I won´t call them Joes) were a total shame. BTW excellent documentary/review :)
Its kinda silly to think they would cast a Austrian born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Sgt. Rock. Back then Bruce Willis would had been my choice. Cool history lesson did not even know bout this toy line.
Honestly, instead of going the direction they did, they should have doubled-down on the Sunbow cartoons AND THE PERSONALITIES. The first season was phenomenal. The second season was still pretty great. They should have done as follows: -Around '86, start re-issuing the earliest Joes in new uniforms, with improved gear. -Around '87, evaluate what niche positions they don't have filled, and fill them. e.g. Doc is a Doctor, Lifeline is a Combat Medic. Do Cobra the opposite - include Army Builders for most basic specialties, and lots of unique figures for all kinds of niche situations. Fewer total named figures, more development for each character. -Around Season 2 of the Cartoon, expand on it and make it more distinctly a separate reality from the gritty comic books. Introduce a companion set of Cartoon tie-in comic limited series for unproducable episodes (budget reasons, story reasons, etc.) and make those Comics buyable with Flag Points. -Around '88, produce the Steel Brigade figures as Joe Army Builders. Make them as simple as possible and make them cheaper than the fully fledged figures. -Make the movie more realistic. Don't get me wrong, I loved the entire idea that something primordially evil was behind Cobra, and CC wore that mask for a damn reason (it was hinted WAY WAY back in the cartoons, when Destro walked in on him eating). However, I would have toned it down. Still would've gotten Burgess Meredith to do the BBBEG's voice, though. He effing sold it. --Sub note for the film: Focus on the Cobra Civil War. Yes, go ahead and make Cobra-La, but cast them as an ancient cult that's been messing with alchemy and radical science since ancient times. Cast them as the big reason behind many of the world's worst conflicts and evils - make fiction-history simple for the kids to get, and tie it in to the big events in history that they and their parents witnessed. Cobra-La comes up as the ones that were, again, responsible for Serpentor (hell, Mindbender talking about it all being a dream set this damn thing up at the beginning of S2). Show Mindbender to be twice as incompetent as he really was, leading him to change sides and support CC along with Destro and the Dreadnoks - make sure everyone knows that Serpentor's idea of Cobra Victory isn't what the Military Industrial Complex of Destro and the fun times of the Dreadnoks would ever want to see. It's literal hell on Earth with the majority of the population turned into monsters or the world flung back into the dark ages with no technology (heck, have Torch point out there'll be no more arcade machines to rob). --Make Season 2 longer and make it even more of a set-up for the film. Include a line of companion mini-series comics that go into the motivations of some of the major groups involved - CC and his initial faction, Serpentor speaking to mysterious people or seemingly talking to no one, making some rank-and-file Cobra troops question him in secret. Destro taking the middle ground, at first, before creating the Iron Grenadiers and their army from disaffected Crimson Guards and rank-and-file Cobra troopers (old time Blue Boys). Yes, this means making the IG before the film, but having it unseen. --Have the film open with the direct follow-on to the opening sequence with Destro, CC, and Serpentor arguing, with Destro defending CC, Serpentor threatening him, then Voltar coming in to protect his boss. Destro leaves, Cobra fractures, Sepentor's faction moves to wreck the world. The Joes have to stop them. Destro helps, but turns on the Joes at the last minute in order to take some of the MacGuffin Device's tech for his own army. CC's faction just slinks away after heavy losses. --End the film with Cobra-La's seeming destruction, Serpentor marginalized but in control of more *named* Cobras (all nutjobs introduced as niche figures between '86 and now '88), as well as two sets of Army Builders - the Crimson Guard Immortals and the regular Crimson Guard. CC with less named Cobras (including Major Bludd - ESPECIALLY Major Bludd), but most of the Army Builders. Destro has the IG, and he's basically turtling up. -Open Season 3 of the cartoon by expanding the Joe line a bit more, and make it clear there are three major formations in the Joe team - one led directly by Hawk with Beach-Head and occasionally Sgt. Slaughter (as long as the contract with the real Robert Remus Slaughter holds out), one led by Duke, Scarlett and Snake-Eyes, and one led by Flint, Lady Jaye, and Roadblock. This allows the stories for S3 to be sectionalized, with some cross-over. S3 would focus on each of the three major teams trying to handle the "three factions of Cobra." Duke Stories would focus on real Spec Ops type stuff. Hawk stories would be more hard-hitting action. Flint stories would have the science fiction and stranger sub-team elements. On the occasions that Serpentor, CC, and Destro team up in pairs or all together if they have suitable plans, or team up with one of the Joe factions against the other, you get some cross-over episodes. S3 would set-up for Operation: Dragonfire, which would be produced at Sunbow quality as an intentional mini-series or broken-up movie around 1990 and more or less replace Season 4 with a 6-12 episode mini-season. -Use this season as a vehicle to again update the existing Joes with new designs. Slim down the Cobra line and use the Season to pick off un-needed Cobras with actual arrests and imprisonments. Continue the direct Cartoon tie-in comic to include the loss of these Cobras, with the Comics hinting that they might escape at some times in the future (for playability). -Starting in 1990 (S5), visibly and intentionally start retiring the less popular Joes, and promote the more popular secondary ones to fill their places. Slim down the line again to a set number of specific Joes at the forefront. With Cobra now re-united, there's no behind-the-scenes need for three Joe teams. Intentionally install a proper command structure with Hawk and Keel-Haul at the top, interchangeably used as the Commander-of-the-Week. Flint, Duke, Roadblock and Beach-Head would rotate as the Field Leaders of the week. Include the episodes focused on the sub-teams (DEF, Eco-Fighters, etc.) with their respective commanders. -Note which episodes and figure sets are the most popular by tracking the Flag Points most used - mark the Flag Points that come with specific sub-teams and see which are redeemed the most. Increase the number of mail-aways with the Season 2/3 Joe over-runs with new accessories. Include some more rare ones with notations of limited availability, and make some intentionally limited runs of some characters in higher detail. -Based on this casually-acquired (almost cost free) research, plan up another major mini-series or film. Use that to further slim down the named figures on both sides until you end up with your Core Characters. -"Season 6" (1991) would be the next Mini-Series. Season 7 (1992) would be the Core Characters. At this time, intentionally show Cobra as on-the-ropes. Add in a complete line of Oktober Guard as mail-aways for Flag Points. Both as sets and as individuals. Retool some older vehicles as OkG vehicles (another Vamp, perhaps the Persuader with a new turret, etc.). -"Season 8" (1993 TO '94) would be the final mini-series and a couple of follow-on Two Parter's (6-8 episode mini-series final battle, 4 sets of Two-Parters, 4-6 individual stand-alone episodes). That's it, done, all over. CC is captured for good, the last remnants of Cobra-La are destroyed, Destro's company and Extensive Enterprises are all arrested and shut down. Every named Cobra goes off to a specially-made jail (final major Playset). Bing-bam-boom, wrap it up at the end of 1994. -All figures released between 1990 and 1994, with a few exceptions, are existing Characters with new uniforms and equipment, some of them going in to some of the sub-teams (Law & Order/Mutt & Junkyard going to DEF, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow going to the Ninjas, etc.). A few totally new characters would be added as well (Stretcher as an addition to the Joe medical team, etc.) but not nearly as many.
-Starting in 1995, rebrand G.I. Joe as "International Heroes." At this point, you could upgrade the line to 4-inch more premium figures with better articulation, accessories, and actual holsters and scabbards and things. Make a very visible passing-of-the-torch to some of the younger characters that joined towards the end of the first series. Fully and permanently retire almost any character that was created before 1991. This includes the stalwarts of Duke, Flint, and the others. A few exceptions would be made for certain specialists that were seconds-in-line in the later original series (e.g. Dial-Tone, Lifeline, and etc. being the new top experts of those fields - Leaders and Mentors). Make the younger General Flagg the new G.I. Joe Commander to replace all the other senior officers. - _INVERT THE STORY_ with the UK figures, and make the Joes go after Action Force's old enemy, Baron Ironblood. Make it clear that Baron Ironblood and his faction basically grabbed up everything Cobra had left over, and they'd initially intended to rule the world themselves, but were smacked down by.. Cobra and Cobra-La, playing into the trope that if you kill the BBEG, another, more fearsome one may take his place. -Make this a limited series running from 1996 to 2000. Instead of a regular cartoon series, make a series of linked episodes and released direct-to-video. Produce about 6-8 mid-quality episodes per year for 4 years, for a 24 to 32 episode "tenth season." -In 2000, totally end the initial toyline completely. Go on hiatus for a few years and evaluate the conditions as you do. Graceful exit. -Around 2004, start producing limited runs of '86 - '94 figures in higher quality for collectors. -Around 2012, do the same to the International Heroes line. -Around 2007, start producing Collector Editions of some of the most popular vehicles from both lines. -Around 2016, release the CAD/3D Print files to certain accessories, vehicle parts, and the like, to the public. Buy the Technical Data Package for around $60 and you get full tech support from Hasbro/Kenner, access to new TDP's for a discount, and some other VIP perks. If you pirate it.. well, you have the TDP's. Good for you. You don't get the Exclusive Club stuff. -Gradually expand the market for the TDP's to collectors and more. Move all the way to "Make your own Joe, Cobra, IG, etc. armies with these parts that totally interchange now with these slight redesigns! Make them in your own colors! GO NUTS, YOU FORMER KIDS WITH DISPOSABLE INCOME AND REAL JOBS!"
I bought one Sgt. Savage. I forgot about the toy line until today. I think it may be in my parents garage. I remember being impartial to it, I liked the cartoon though.
I like the Savage line but your points are bang on . we didn't need 6 versions of him .. they needed more characters. and Gijoe Extreme was just total BS I think another influence for it was Spawn. cause at the time you had Mcfarlanes spawn figures coming out and some where pretty much inaction statues as you put it.
I was very happy to get a little bit bigger guy to be the heavy hitters in my G.I. Joe collection. I wish they had a few more decent characters to add to my Joeverse.
I bought a SGT. Savage figure and at the time I found it too big to play with the other G.I. Joe figures I had. I thought it was a throwback to the twelve inch kind. Later on (1996-97) I would get and love the reissued twelve inch line.
Hasbro also launched the ill conceived Super Joe's line in 1978. They were trying to copy the success of the Megos super hero toys along with a space age bionic man kinda theme. Yeah it was as bad as it sounds. Of coarse it still wasn't as bad as GI Joe extreme. Hasbro has a history of trying to milk every last dime out of a toy line. Looks like they would have learned from the failure of the Super Joe's.
Some time after I had quit GI Joe I realized I still had fond memories of it. One day I was in ShopKo when I thought I'd check the toy isle to see what my favorite brand had been up to long since. Low and behold, what did I see but GI Joe Street Fighter crap that looked so horrible it was astounding! I liked Street Fighter games just fine, but this combination was lame-brain erroneous to the max! Lol, I didn't like where Joe had been going when I quit during series 6 - but I never imagined they'd go that far out asinine!
Well what can I say about Sgt. Savage and Gi. Joe extreme. Hasbro as we know are in the "business" of making toys and that "business" is based off making money not the preservation of the brand. Let's look at a few other brands that Hasbro had to understand their thinking. Transformers toys from the first 2 years were basically repaints of Japanese transforming robots from the 70's and early 80's that while didn't have much in articulation, they were awesome in there transformations and a huge hit with kids. By the 3rd year as I like to call post animated movie, they were huge hunks of plastic that didn't hold a candle to the Japanese based figures with there diecast parts and thus the line started losing momentum and by '91 the original g1 line was done. Another 2 examples are Visionaries and Cops N Crooks both released in 1987, both had the same type of mold as articulation as gi joes but in a larger scale. Visionaries lasted 1 year in part due to there hologram gimmick (in my opinion to rival Tonka's Supernaturals toyline also released in 1987). Cops N Crooks fared a little better by lasting 2 years but ultimately failed to catch on despite having a small following. And finally Gi.Joe itself, a line that as early as 1986 started moving away from what the toyline had originally started out as. Take Joe from 1982 such as breaker and stand him next to a figure from 1994 such as Beachhead and it's almost like your looking at 2 different toylines. Hasbro has always been a toy company about making money and crushing it's competition hence why they bought every other toy company from the 80's out with the exception of Mattel. Hasbro's greed created a monopoly and the toys suffered because of it, look at toy shelves now and there isn't an ounce of originality left. Hasbro's Sgt. Savage and Gi Joe extreme toylines were the beginning of destroying the Gi. Joe brand name and the great toylines we all had in the 1980's
I like the GI Joe Screaming Eagles the GI Joe extreme my friend Ryan had that character the grill he was used as the helicopter pilot when we would use Punisher Johnny Blaze versus Alien versus Predator I think we have Terminator in there too
**************WARNING, MASSIVE WALL OF TEXT INCOMING**************** As a little kid who was already very impressed by the G.I. Joes of the 90s, I had fallen in love with the ninja force, the battle corps, the street fighter joes, the talking battle commanders, The Mega Marines, I loved the Joes of the 90s while they lasted. When Sgt. Savage EXPLODED onto the scene, the character was, for me, beyond manly, everything a G.I. Joe was supposed to be and more. When I was a little boy, at that time when the figure came out there was truly nothing more Epic than seeing Glorious Sgt. Savage punch through steel reinforced walls, and for that matter, any cyborg foolish enough to get in his way. *Technically* on the same scale as the ARAHs, but clearly bigger, he was meant to tower over the other G.I. Joes, and he did quite nicely. This was clearly what they were going for, he was bigger, badder, and better than all the other puny G.I. Joes you played with before, and it worked quite nicely on me. My only real gripe with the line at the time was they didn't make all of Sgt. Savage's unit. The figures themselves were very good, and the vehicles weren't bad either. As a kid I remembered getting the Grizzly, quite a remarkable and glorious vehicle, built for exactly as many members of the Savage team as they actually made, and with the actually-fireable rockets. I didn't have it all, I didn't have the p40 and I didn't have the tank they made for the IRON Army, but the grizzly was enough. My final thoughts I'd say were, I don't really feel he was a ripoff of Captain America. There are a lot of key differences between the two of them. For one thing the appearances are *completely* different which should account for something. A good ripoff usually takes at least a few cues from the design of whatever it's ripping off. For another thing, despite being World War 2 soldiers who were frozen in time, there were a lot of key differences in their character and back story. For one thing, Captain America was a weakling, too weak to serve until he was given the Super Soldier Serum which made him manly enough to fight. Sgt. Savage was already in the military when he was experimented on, and his physique and appearance didn't change much from when he was a regular soldier to a super one. He effectively went from bad to badder, and one would have to wonder if his super strength, if stable would be all the more magnified because of it. Another thing was Cap's super strength was constant whereas the Sarge's was unstable, effectively making him a normal man of his strength and size at times. Now finally was the way his backstory was constructed, in the Sarge's backstory there was more of a theme of betrayal by a close comrade and a strong desire for vengeance. This is part of why I see more parallels between The Doomguy and Sgt. Savage. For one thing, like Savage, The Doomguy's brothers in arms were also ambushed and slain by an inhuman enemy, and the desire for vengeance is emphasized by both characters. Also, in an iconic manner the Sarge and Doomguy use a chaingun, are both capable of superhuman feats of strength at times, and finally, at times their eyes both glow gold. This is why I ultimately named my DOOM persona Sgt. Savage, because I recall being more reminded of The DOOM guy by Sgt. Savage than Cap.(And of course Doom Guy also took cues from Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness.) And this likeness only enhanced my love of all three of these characters and further pumped my adrenaline as a little kid. Well that massive bar of text pretty much concludes my thoughts on Sgt. Savage and why I love him.
Thanks for this one. I really love Sgt. Savage and only recently caught onto it and got a bunch of the stuff as they are near dirt cheap. It is a really cool thing with the WWII tie in and a pity it fell apart as quickly as it did. I love the Warhawk plane and Iron Anvil tank that has the look of what a cool new Cobra tank would have looked like. Things were so cool and I love the working Compass! Thanks for the energy with these! However I did like the Iron CLAWS figures in the later Extreme line.
I thot they were great they had some of the coolest weapons dynamites 30 cal went great with road block the only thing i didnt like was they didnt have o rings
worst of gijoe hands down. BUT, Check out the iron panther tank. It is a decent vehicle and has some great play features. works for iron grenadiers as an MBT
I would like to figure to come with his minigun like in the cartoon or a Thompson machine gun I like to figure the cartoon was pretty good they brought him back. But I agree with you Hasbro was chasing the trends at the time within Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers being very popular they put an aliens mutants dinosaurs more of the weird and Supernatural in GI Joe I'm going back with a throwback and add a character fighting robots that look human yeah I'm on the fence on this one I like the figure just things I can agree nowadays
I had some of these sgt. savage figures, not because I was a kid at the time, but because I have been a collector of GiJoe since the 80's. Did not like them much. When Gijoe Extreme line came out, I was like WTF??, those where probably the worst of the worst.I really like your cannel by the way
I think that the G.I. Joe Extreme toy line was a BIG mistake for many reasons. However, I recently had a chance to watch the animated series and was surprised with how good it was - at least for the major story line that started near the end of the first season and continued into the second. If you get a chance, I would recommend giving it a watch.
I liked the line but was disappointed with the lineup. And one MAJOR omission. No Tommy gun with a pistol grip that would fit and work so much better than those rifles. I did hate the hip joint making it impossible to sit the figure down. I thought the vehicle line had the greatest potential. however Hasbro were cutting corners. As good as the jeep looked. the figures were awkward trying to sit them in it and the 6 missile launcher only had 2 missiles. I went into the like thankful for a return to military colors, gone was the neon, and back to realistic looking vehicles. Honestly I think Hasbro screwed up. Look at the toys out there in the 90s. Imagine if the small GI Joes went the same direction as the 12s did. GI Joe should have went the Adventure Team route again. Used the classic characters like Alpine, Snow Job and Recondo. But gear the line like the old Fisher Price Adventure People. Boats, planes, and Trucks. Bring in the animals that worked in some of the figure packaging, and remake the white Tiger hunt, the Gorilla, Dog sled team, Mummy's tomb, and spy island. Make it something that would have blended in with Kenner's Jurassic Park line.
I actually have no memory of the Sgt. Savage line at all. The design of the toys seemed quite good, it's to bad the marketing failed so badly. Extreme meanwhile I remember, and egads it was horrible. I actually caught a couple of episodes of the show they put out for it (I think it aired as a special for a very short time), and they were just unwatchable drek.
This is all new to me. I stopped buying GI Joe in 1993 and started collecting Jurassic Park. I actually never saw these figures in stores. I do like the look of Sgt. Savage but I don't care for the larger scale, like you said if these were in scale with ARAH I would have bought them. That Arctic Storm Trooper in the back of the card looks interesting I may have to look him up. The vehicles do interest me and I wonder if they will work with vintage and modern Joe figures. That sleek black motorcycle would be a nice custom for Retaliation Firefly. Sgt. Savage also had some nice small gun stations one for the good guys the other for the bad that could fit modern GI Joe's. Your mention of Arnold doing a Sgt. Rock movie reminds me of a scene in Predator where one of the soldiers is reading a Sgt. Rock comic.
If you haven't picked up any Sgt Savage yet, I would suggest that you get some. They are pretty cheap, and you may be surprised at how much you like them. It is too bad the scale is different from vintage Joe. That was the trend in action figures at the time, but it also means Sgt. Savage won't fit into most Joe vehicles.
After some research of the brand I did pick up a MIB Iron Panther and MIB P 40 Warhawk. May also look into getting the small battle station pieces as well. While the vehicles do fit the bigger Sgt. Savage figures they also fit the modern Joe's very well. If you haven't been to Toys R Us in a while I suggest you go check out the action figure toy isle TRU now has there own line of action figures and vehicles called True Heroes. While the figures are cheap the vehicles are something else entirely. They have a wide selection of large vehicles and sets the Hasbro never thought of. A C 130 cargo plane, hovercraft similar to the Killer Whale but can carry tanks and medium sized vehicles, a large submarine set perfect for Cobra, even a Battleship to go along side the USS Flagg. There is even a new Sky Striker type of jet the True Hawk with working ejection seat and wings that fold out with the landing gear retracting. These vehicles will fit all vintage and modern G.I. Joe's and are easily customizable. Cobrastickers.com even has a decal sheet for the C 130. Walmart right now has a large personnel helicopter the Rain Fire by the Corps! that is ideal for modern and vintage Cobra figures.
2 things were got wrong here. One was that Mrs. Cobra Commander asks if Lady Jaye was involved in The Sgt. Savage movie to which he replies no. She actually was. She was the blonde soldier who seemed to be at the right hand of General Hawk in this movie. Why they made her blonde I'm not really sure, but if you look at the IMDB page of this movie the voice actress who voiced the blonde's character is listed as Lady Jaye. The other thing was he said that Savages gear, namely the p40 warhawk were all outdated, however his crew discusses how these items have been updated to 'stay in the game' as they put it, namely the P40 Warhawk was given some notable upgrades, now for my 'real' proper comment where I try to tell you what my feelings were on Sgt. Savage.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Lady Jaye was the driver of the Jeep with Hawk? (I read it somewhere)
(Another point) When G.I.Joe on it's last days in the 90's, I was in High School. I started putting down my toys and picking up my Electric Guitar , Metallica, Nirvana and Guns N' Roses Cassette tapes and a Tennis racket. after 1999, that's when I got back into toys.
I always thought Cover Girl was the woman.
Honestly, General Blitz’s visual similarities to M. Bison from Street Fighter is probably the one thing about Sgt. Savage that seems genuinely in tune with what kids liked in the mid 90’s.
The scoped rifle from Sgt. Savage was later colored gray and was an accessory for Shipwreck in the Spy Troops series. Despite the failure of the line, I must admit they have nice accessories.
I am glad that I was had moved on from G.I. Joe by the time Sgt. Savage and G.I. Joe Extreme had come out. Thankfully in 1997 & 1998 Hasbro reintroduced the classic characters via exclusive Toys RUs releases. Despite using lower quality plastic in the toys construction, I must admit it was nice to see the classic characters again. Also I am pretty pleased with the newer action figure offerings from 2007- present. However I do wish that the retail releases had a little bit more diversity, just how many versions of Snake Eyes or Cobra Commander does one person need?
I gust ordered some Sgt. Savage figures. This review made me a little nostalgic. I am anxious to watch the video again!
Awesome!! I'm glad we inspired a new collecting adventure! You shouldn't have to pay much for Sgt. Savage figures. Really.
I had the one basic Sgt. Savage as a kid. I remember thinking it was cool for a second but then I just missed finding the 3"3/4 figures on the shelves. Shoot, I'd even take one of those weird Ninja Storm figures over Sgt. Savage! Ugh, and then Extreme came out, even worse. I just wanted the old Joe's! I was born in an unlucky time, 87, because the original style figures were still on shelves and that's what I was introduced to, but by 94 or 95 they were getting harder and harder to find and they started coming out without Savage and Extreme but I just wanted the style of Joe figure and characters I was used to!
cryo freeze savage was my favorite joe when i got him. the ww2 tie in is what i loved so much about the character
You actually told Susan an untruth. Lady Jaye IS in this. She's the blonde in the jumpsuit.
I loved SGT Rock the comic! I still have a few of my old comics left from the 60s and 70s, Cooper is a legend! I just realized I have a SGT Rock figure , no helmet or accessories , and I have a couple more..un identified. I'm looking into it.
I was 17 years old in 1990. Didn't watch as much tv as I did back in the 80s. I don't remember even hearing about this toy back then. This is my first time even seeing it.
The bad guy looks like a copy of Bison from street fighter
yup
the message reads "be sure to drink your ovaltine" bloody hell it's an advertisement for ovaltine. that opening was brutal to watch, but like all great tragedy's i had to watch. i never liked this line r the extreme line. thank god that hasbro restarted the classic line under the collector series in 1998. yep they quit the vintage line when i joined the Navy, and restarted when i was discharged. I collected everything that i could from '98-'04. Glad that you're broadening your horizons a bit, just as long as the primary focus is on the vintage line. Keep up the great job. i don't have a decoder ring, but in true form, this being december, the only decoder ring message i know was from 'a christmas story' . oh wait, i mean, "SLAUGHTERIZE IT!"
Don’t forget, “You’ll shoot your eye out”.
I had some Sgt Rock action figures, as a kid. They were pretty cool.
... I had all the Sgt. Savages. The only things I didn't have were the tank and plane, and possibly the mail away. My brother and I had 1 Extreme toy each, and they were laughably bad, as was the cartoon. Like you, I need my toys to have articulation. Great video.
I love these...as a fan of WWII history I think they're really cool. I like the larger size too...makes them stand apart from the regular Joes, and the fact that it's a small self contained line means you can collect them all without going broke.
For me, Extreme was the official death of GIJOE
I like the VHS copy I'm searching Savage I like the Screaming Eagle Warhawk his villains fit in pretty well with Cobra I'm on the guys that likes the Cobra from the original movie back in the late 80s adding robots in World War II was pretty cool I really enjoyed that I got that for Easter when I was a kid I think that's why I really liked it because it was GI Joe for me and I had a lot for my old crew collection than my brothers I like a lot of their characters lot of their vehicles with mine that giant robot from the space and GI Joe works very well I like having bad guys piled in it more than good guys I liked a lot of the good guy base being taken over by cobra and then shows would have to fight back a lot and when I play with Ryan we would use like a few Joe as still on our team and most of them are integrated with Cobra and we had to fight her way through those are great memories that with Marvel superheroes and DC and GI Joe and the Ninja Turtles
Sgt. Savage was one of my favorite toys growing up. I had the video tape too lol.
I actually have a gen. blitz action figure which I got in a lot. I think the iron army would been a good sub group for regular g.I.joe.
Truth to tell, I completely ignored this line until it went on clearance at my local KB Toys. When it did, I bought a number of the action figures. Sgt. Savage I used pretty much as the Captain America substitute he was written as, since I liked the idea of Captain America fighting alongside the Joes. I really liked the General Blitz toys and used him as a new character. I had D-Day and a couple of the IRON soldiers, but was kind of meh about them. Dynamite however, I bought every one of his urban figure that I could find. He's a nice toy, but I actually loved his little bike, as they were perfect for my Dreadnoks, and gave them the motorcycles that I always wished that they'd had in the vintage toy line.
Never was aware of these two GI Joe series before viewing this video. Given their place in the timeline I'm not surprised Hasbro pooched it yet again! It was a fun time though as always, thank you!
It may have failed but it was EXTREME!
I am just old enough to remember the 10 inch "Action Aliance" line just before the 3 3/4 inch " Real American Hero" line. So when I saw the wild detections the RAH was going like a one off "Dino-Hunters"( I used the JP T-Rex, it was way better then the t-rex that came with it) I knew the end was coming. Then they did a retrospective line bridging the classic 12 inch "Origanal" line and the 3 3/4 inch. It was a time of remembering the past with G. I. Joe in general. So just before the long I remember a 3 3/4 inch release of Sgt. Savage nearly a year before the line came out. They went back to all there inspirations. They based the enemy as they had with both classics and RAH on Nazi. Then gave it all a Vetnam wash to update it a little. I rely liked the line in general. But then the next two lines bothered me enough to walk away from all G. I. Joe line for a long while. This next two follow up lines were far less thought out. And had less articulation in the "Extream" line. At least by the time of the "Sigma 6" they may have gotten the articulation back, but just no! I just couldn't get into it, that was when I completely stoped paying attention.
My father give me this toy with the tape when i was little, i remember like ir was yesterday… Watched and rewatch a thousand times…
Fun fact, im brazilian and Never imagined such a masterpiece in that time, i have good memories of that.
I liked that the Sgt. Savage figures were closer to the size of my other, non-gi joe figures, but with almost all the articulation of a joe. I had the Savage that came with the VHS, and I had a blonde one that came with something else, and we pretended they were brothers.
GI Joe extreme was... not good.
Just ordered the commando Sgt.Savage yesterday, It will be the first sgt.savage I will own.
I believe that Hasbro was chasing the competition in the late eighties. The Transformers line that I review had signs of that. In 1989 they released the Micro Masters line of small scaled Transformers, mainly to compete with the Micro Machines toys. Then in 1990 Hasbro brought in the Action Masters, an action figure Transformer that didn't transform and had rather poor articulation, especially when compared to their GI Joe toys. Naturally the Transformer line died out after 1990, so then they could do the same to GI Joe.
I remember a profound feeling of sadness when I saw GI Joe Extreme figures on the shelf. The comic had a Frank Miller cover, but that was about all it had. Sgt. Savage, I don't remember at all.
I had normal Sgt. Savage and the edit: original hispanic dynamite guy. In the show they're retrofitting all the old vehicles for some reason: "This plasma cannon is just what this old tank needs to stay in the game!" ...Said cannon apparently runs off the miniscule amount of power from the tanks alternator, needs no actual plasma supply, and apparently composite, spaced, or reactive armor, NBC protection, night vision or infrared capability...not at all important advances. Nope. Just a plasma cannon. I was moving out of action figures about that time, but I thought that was silly.
Also, a vintage gripe of mine: how does Sgt. Savage know how to fly a plane? He's an infantry sergeant turned commando, not an airman, much less a pilot. While the inclusion of kind of sad, undeveloped one-off driver characters in most every G.I. Joe vehicle gets old, they didn't skimp on them, even when they were combinations of other figures parts. Hasbro could at least have changed the pilot Sgt. Savage's head and given him a different name--there's another Screaming Eagle, right there, one less Savage clone. They combined several different parts from G.I. Joes to make different characters, couldn't something similar have been done to replace one of the other Savages? I mean you don't have to torso-groin separation as with the O-ring figures, but still.
I still have my VHS!! Oof I forgot about g.i. joe extreme! I used to read the comic tie ins lol
I joined the army thanks to Sgt. Savage.
I had no idea of where this sgt savage toy line came from. As a kid I had dynamite and cryo freeze sgt
Savage and he was my favorite joe.
I wonder how many GI Joe Extreme figures are floating around in the plastic garbage patch in the ocean?
Spot on analysis! I totally agree with everything you said.
The only thing that I would have added was how much nostalgia for World War 2 was out there in 1995. I remember how much celebrating was happening with connections to VE Day and VJ Day 50th anniversaries. All the news in 1995 seemed to be focused on World War 2 and OJ Simpson's trial. I can understand Hasbro wanting to cash in on that considering most kids had at least 1 grandparent who served in World War 2.
I have 3 or 4 of these figures that I picked up for a buck each back in 1996 during my mid teens.I started collecting in 1992 through 1994 and those 3 years had faults as well as some good aspects.
"Only G.I.Joe is G.I. Joe" and it's a struggle to count Sgt. Savage as G.I. Joe.
"the next review will be Iceberg"
Dude i was obsessed with this line especially the bad guys.
YOU'RE ALL WRONG THIS TOYLINE WAS GREAT! *Says the mysterious "Guy at Joecon who asked him to review Sgt. Savage."*
lol
I'm hoping this video generates a lot of discussion. I chose strong words in hopes it would elicit a lot of opinions. So far I think we're getting some good comments. Thanks for asking for this one. I would never have thought of it.
You are very welcome good sir. Time for me to create two more comments, one informative, and one of my opinions on the figure, which as you can guess by my username, will be mostly positive.
Is was 5 and 6 when Savage hit the shelves and I was blown away! We went on vacation to Arizona and I lost my Sgt Savage :( luckily the figure isn't over priced! I thought he was cool being big I just thought well he's a super soldier. idk at that age I thought Sgt Savage was the shit
Everything you said about freights articulation, or lack of. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I was 12 when Sgt. Savage came out. Still young enough to play with toys, but almost at the age of growing out of them... So the Sgt. Savage line appealed to me. It felt more grounded less silly, despite the cyborgs and I wanted to see more Screaming Eagles, more officers for the Iron Army and maybe even Destro and Snake-Eyes.
I still have them and video they are so cool
Kinda glad I moved on to chasing girls (with little success) by this point. It's painful to see your childhood go so........
sgt.savage and gi joe extreme were most joes franchise but 2 good things come out are Lt.Stone (in sigma six had better look) and Iron Klaw
I loved that P40 was cool as a kid I had the jeep too. But as a 90s kid I enjoyed the 12 inch line a bit more.
That was my go to. You would grab a GI Joe and then head to target or Toys R' US to get the Soldiers of the World accessory packages to make your Joe have more stuff.
@@5500somerandomdude I would also look at the 21st century Ultimate Soldier accessories and weapons. I also modified figures to give them a trigger finger. Certainly was a great time.
I haven't been watching the CLASSIC reviews as much lately BUT I still got your back Hoodie Coco and I pray you're finding a bit of peace!!! I too, like most dont care for Sgt Savage and/or his Screaming Eagles!!! But I did pick up a Major Blitz or whatever his name is this week...it's the basic V1, I THINK!!! haha it's the figure in all black...looks a bit like an S.S. uniform and I couldn't argue with the price....FREE! He was just loose but my comic book shop down the street has a loose Joe bin and there was a MINT Techno Viper V2 in there...I told the owner it was was $200 figure and his thanks was up hook me up with Major Blitz! I've crossed over otherwise and stopped buying/selling vintage and moved into 25th/50th/Rise of Cobra/Pursuit of Cobra/Walmart Retro Line/Modern figures for a change and I have really been enjoying them! During my absence from watching these CLASSIC reviews I was shortly collecting 09 era Marvel Universe figures and 2011 Bandai Thundercats Figures.... Anyhow, I just wanted to check in and say I was thinking about you and hope you're hanging in there! *Dy-NOOO-MIIIITE!!!*
this week's/recent pick-ups
Pursuit of Cobra Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes w/ Timber....Snake Eyes from the 1st live action film w/ trench coat.... Great version!!!
Pursuit of Cobra Stormshadow....basic Stormshadow from also from the 1st live action film... Great figure and really cool is that so many of these figs fine with didn't missile shooting oversized guns...this Stormy has a small gun he can hold(!!!) that has a small nano-mite warhead that detaches....it can't be fired but it's like the one he fires at the Eiffel Tower in the film.
Pursuit of Cobra Destro.... In his winter/Major Blitz style S.S. Officers style uniform... Displays very well with one of the Uzi style weapons that packs in with retro Stalker.
Pursuit of Cobra ULTIMATE Coco....best hoodie head Coco that also comes with chrome vac metalized helmet Coco head
Duke & Scarlett 2-pack comic book accurate 2-pack....25th anniversary Zartan and Major Bludd and Nightforce Wayne R. Sneeden...which is particularly cool because, aside from Dashiell Faireborne, Beachhead is my favorite Joe ANNNND after looking for forever I recently just found the O-Ring/vintage style/toys R Us Exclusive Nightforce Beachhead....so now I have both the O-Ring and the Modern style of Nightforce Beachhead!!!
Also .... I didn't understand why Hasbro didn't go ALL OUT with SGT SAVAGE AND USE THE VISIONARIES molds....they're in scale BUT better made and with a larger O-Ring. Oh well! Oh shit I forgot....I also picked up the Hiss III this week too!!!
I loved my SGT. Savage figures. I was a little older and had already been well versed in WWII. Plus I watched a load of WWII movies by that point so these where awesome to have. The VHS cartoon does not age well at all, but it was neat to have an action figure that came with a "movie" back then. Not GI.Joe awesome, but these where cool if you wanted to play WWII with GI.Joe "like" action figures with WWII weapons.
Lol I would play with my WWII Sgt. Savage while watching saving private ryan!
Lady Jaye actually shows up near the end of the video with Hawk
I´m from Perú, I was 13 or 14 years old when Captain Rock... I mean Sgt. Savage line was released. If these figures were made in 3.75" I would have bought them for sure because they were awesome, but they just didn´t fit my other Joes so I skipped the line.
Otherwise, The Kenner Extremes (I won´t call them Joes) were a total shame.
BTW excellent documentary/review :)
I really like the plane they had and I wish early 80s Joe's had it. still I might get it anyway one day
Its kinda silly to think they would cast a Austrian born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as Sgt. Rock. Back then Bruce Willis would had been my choice. Cool history lesson did not even know bout this toy line.
Yes, kids, they resurrected a soldier from the Civil War. Got a good chuckle over that one.
The best thing in this review its your t-shirt
If it wasn't for sgt. savage I wouldn't be a fan of G.I joe thanks to them I got into G.I Joe and I started getting the action figures and cartoons
Honestly, instead of going the direction they did, they should have doubled-down on the Sunbow cartoons AND THE PERSONALITIES. The first season was phenomenal. The second season was still pretty great. They should have done as follows:
-Around '86, start re-issuing the earliest Joes in new uniforms, with improved gear.
-Around '87, evaluate what niche positions they don't have filled, and fill them. e.g. Doc is a Doctor, Lifeline is a Combat Medic. Do Cobra the opposite - include Army Builders for most basic specialties, and lots of unique figures for all kinds of niche situations. Fewer total named figures, more development for each character.
-Around Season 2 of the Cartoon, expand on it and make it more distinctly a separate reality from the gritty comic books. Introduce a companion set of Cartoon tie-in comic limited series for unproducable episodes (budget reasons, story reasons, etc.) and make those Comics buyable with Flag Points.
-Around '88, produce the Steel Brigade figures as Joe Army Builders. Make them as simple as possible and make them cheaper than the fully fledged figures.
-Make the movie more realistic. Don't get me wrong, I loved the entire idea that something primordially evil was behind Cobra, and CC wore that mask for a damn reason (it was hinted WAY WAY back in the cartoons, when Destro walked in on him eating). However, I would have toned it down. Still would've gotten Burgess Meredith to do the BBBEG's voice, though. He effing sold it.
--Sub note for the film: Focus on the Cobra Civil War. Yes, go ahead and make Cobra-La, but cast them as an ancient cult that's been messing with alchemy and radical science since ancient times. Cast them as the big reason behind many of the world's worst conflicts and evils - make fiction-history simple for the kids to get, and tie it in to the big events in history that they and their parents witnessed. Cobra-La comes up as the ones that were, again, responsible for Serpentor (hell, Mindbender talking about it all being a dream set this damn thing up at the beginning of S2). Show Mindbender to be twice as incompetent as he really was, leading him to change sides and support CC along with Destro and the Dreadnoks - make sure everyone knows that Serpentor's idea of Cobra Victory isn't what the Military Industrial Complex of Destro and the fun times of the Dreadnoks would ever want to see. It's literal hell on Earth with the majority of the population turned into monsters or the world flung back into the dark ages with no technology (heck, have Torch point out there'll be no more arcade machines to rob).
--Make Season 2 longer and make it even more of a set-up for the film. Include a line of companion mini-series comics that go into the motivations of some of the major groups involved - CC and his initial faction, Serpentor speaking to mysterious people or seemingly talking to no one, making some rank-and-file Cobra troops question him in secret. Destro taking the middle ground, at first, before creating the Iron Grenadiers and their army from disaffected Crimson Guards and rank-and-file Cobra troopers (old time Blue Boys). Yes, this means making the IG before the film, but having it unseen.
--Have the film open with the direct follow-on to the opening sequence with Destro, CC, and Serpentor arguing, with Destro defending CC, Serpentor threatening him, then Voltar coming in to protect his boss. Destro leaves, Cobra fractures, Sepentor's faction moves to wreck the world. The Joes have to stop them. Destro helps, but turns on the Joes at the last minute in order to take some of the MacGuffin Device's tech for his own army. CC's faction just slinks away after heavy losses.
--End the film with Cobra-La's seeming destruction, Serpentor marginalized but in control of more *named* Cobras (all nutjobs introduced as niche figures between '86 and now '88), as well as two sets of Army Builders - the Crimson Guard Immortals and the regular Crimson Guard. CC with less named Cobras (including Major Bludd - ESPECIALLY Major Bludd), but most of the Army Builders. Destro has the IG, and he's basically turtling up.
-Open Season 3 of the cartoon by expanding the Joe line a bit more, and make it clear there are three major formations in the Joe team - one led directly by Hawk with Beach-Head and occasionally Sgt. Slaughter (as long as the contract with the real Robert Remus Slaughter holds out), one led by Duke, Scarlett and Snake-Eyes, and one led by Flint, Lady Jaye, and Roadblock. This allows the stories for S3 to be sectionalized, with some cross-over. S3 would focus on each of the three major teams trying to handle the "three factions of Cobra." Duke Stories would focus on real Spec Ops type stuff. Hawk stories would be more hard-hitting action. Flint stories would have the science fiction and stranger sub-team elements. On the occasions that Serpentor, CC, and Destro team up in pairs or all together if they have suitable plans, or team up with one of the Joe factions against the other, you get some cross-over episodes. S3 would set-up for Operation: Dragonfire, which would be produced at Sunbow quality as an intentional mini-series or broken-up movie around 1990 and more or less replace Season 4 with a 6-12 episode mini-season.
-Use this season as a vehicle to again update the existing Joes with new designs. Slim down the Cobra line and use the Season to pick off un-needed Cobras with actual arrests and imprisonments. Continue the direct Cartoon tie-in comic to include the loss of these Cobras, with the Comics hinting that they might escape at some times in the future (for playability).
-Starting in 1990 (S5), visibly and intentionally start retiring the less popular Joes, and promote the more popular secondary ones to fill their places. Slim down the line again to a set number of specific Joes at the forefront. With Cobra now re-united, there's no behind-the-scenes need for three Joe teams. Intentionally install a proper command structure with Hawk and Keel-Haul at the top, interchangeably used as the Commander-of-the-Week. Flint, Duke, Roadblock and Beach-Head would rotate as the Field Leaders of the week. Include the episodes focused on the sub-teams (DEF, Eco-Fighters, etc.) with their respective commanders.
-Note which episodes and figure sets are the most popular by tracking the Flag Points most used - mark the Flag Points that come with specific sub-teams and see which are redeemed the most. Increase the number of mail-aways with the Season 2/3 Joe over-runs with new accessories. Include some more rare ones with notations of limited availability, and make some intentionally limited runs of some characters in higher detail.
-Based on this casually-acquired (almost cost free) research, plan up another major mini-series or film. Use that to further slim down the named figures on both sides until you end up with your Core Characters.
-"Season 6" (1991) would be the next Mini-Series. Season 7 (1992) would be the Core Characters. At this time, intentionally show Cobra as on-the-ropes. Add in a complete line of Oktober Guard as mail-aways for Flag Points. Both as sets and as individuals. Retool some older vehicles as OkG vehicles (another Vamp, perhaps the Persuader with a new turret, etc.).
-"Season 8" (1993 TO '94) would be the final mini-series and a couple of follow-on Two Parter's (6-8 episode mini-series final battle, 4 sets of Two-Parters, 4-6 individual stand-alone episodes). That's it, done, all over. CC is captured for good, the last remnants of Cobra-La are destroyed, Destro's company and Extensive Enterprises are all arrested and shut down. Every named Cobra goes off to a specially-made jail (final major Playset). Bing-bam-boom, wrap it up at the end of 1994.
-All figures released between 1990 and 1994, with a few exceptions, are existing Characters with new uniforms and equipment, some of them going in to some of the sub-teams (Law & Order/Mutt & Junkyard going to DEF, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow going to the Ninjas, etc.). A few totally new characters would be added as well (Stretcher as an addition to the Joe medical team, etc.) but not nearly as many.
-Starting in 1995, rebrand G.I. Joe as "International Heroes." At this point, you could upgrade the line to 4-inch more premium figures with better articulation, accessories, and actual holsters and scabbards and things. Make a very visible passing-of-the-torch to some of the younger characters that joined towards the end of the first series. Fully and permanently retire almost any character that was created before 1991. This includes the stalwarts of Duke, Flint, and the others. A few exceptions would be made for certain specialists that were seconds-in-line in the later original series (e.g. Dial-Tone, Lifeline, and etc. being the new top experts of those fields - Leaders and Mentors). Make the younger General Flagg the new G.I. Joe Commander to replace all the other senior officers.
- _INVERT THE STORY_ with the UK figures, and make the Joes go after Action Force's old enemy, Baron Ironblood. Make it clear that Baron Ironblood and his faction basically grabbed up everything Cobra had left over, and they'd initially intended to rule the world themselves, but were smacked down by.. Cobra and Cobra-La, playing into the trope that if you kill the BBEG, another, more fearsome one may take his place.
-Make this a limited series running from 1996 to 2000. Instead of a regular cartoon series, make a series of linked episodes and released direct-to-video. Produce about 6-8 mid-quality episodes per year for 4 years, for a 24 to 32 episode "tenth season."
-In 2000, totally end the initial toyline completely. Go on hiatus for a few years and evaluate the conditions as you do. Graceful exit.
-Around 2004, start producing limited runs of '86 - '94 figures in higher quality for collectors.
-Around 2012, do the same to the International Heroes line.
-Around 2007, start producing Collector Editions of some of the most popular vehicles from both lines.
-Around 2016, release the CAD/3D Print files to certain accessories, vehicle parts, and the like, to the public. Buy the Technical Data Package for around $60 and you get full tech support from Hasbro/Kenner, access to new TDP's for a discount, and some other VIP perks. If you pirate it.. well, you have the TDP's. Good for you. You don't get the Exclusive Club stuff.
-Gradually expand the market for the TDP's to collectors and more. Move all the way to "Make your own Joe, Cobra, IG, etc. armies with these parts that totally interchange now with these slight redesigns! Make them in your own colors! GO NUTS, YOU FORMER KIDS WITH DISPOSABLE INCOME AND REAL JOBS!"
Pissed me off that it was taller because I couldn’t used him with my old joes
Lady Jaye appeared at the end of the pilot cartoon
I bought one Sgt. Savage. I forgot about the toy line until today. I think it may be in my parents garage. I remember being impartial to it, I liked the cartoon though.
@hoodedcobracommander788 Nice shirt! Good to know I'm not the only SoM fan into Joes too!
I like the Savage line but your points are bang on . we didn't need 6 versions of him .. they needed more characters. and Gijoe Extreme was just total BS I think another influence for it was Spawn. cause at the time you had Mcfarlanes spawn figures coming out and some where pretty much inaction statues as you put it.
Wait... the leader of the bad guys had the last name of KRIEGER????? Poor Cover Girl!
She gets no respect.
Looks like someone stretched for connections without really doing their homework! AGAIN!
I had all of Sgt Savage and Extreme, I threw Extreme out in the trash ten years ago, Kept the Savage stuff
when you showed the two knives he came with I immediately thought of crocodile Dundee that's not a knife. now this is a knife lol
That would have been a good drop-in :)
Sgt. Savage Figures Were Pretty Sweet! That Camo Mail Away Savage Is One Of The Coolest Joes In Either Era!
I was very happy to get a little bit bigger guy to be the heavy hitters in my G.I. Joe collection. I wish they had a few more decent characters to add to my Joeverse.
I think that GI Joe extreme was pretty cool...better than this Gi Joe Joe/reboot/Captain America ripoff idea that's for sure!
Call me crazy, but I liked the cartoon and I think these toys are really cool! G.I Joe looks best, when they're military-styled.
Will you ever cover the 2003 reboot of the line?
Man, I love Joe Kubert's art. Fantastic!!!
So this is the guy I have :P thanks man now I got his name for the next video :D :D
Hes supposed to be sgt rock. A fav of mine
I bought a SGT. Savage figure and at the time I found it too big to play with the other G.I. Joe figures I had. I thought it was a throwback to the twelve inch kind. Later on (1996-97) I would get and love the reissued twelve inch line.
Well I have found out where that gi joe backpack cane from, thanks
Hasbro also launched the ill conceived Super Joe's line in 1978. They were trying to copy the success of the Megos super hero toys along with a space age bionic man kinda theme. Yeah it was as bad as it sounds. Of coarse it still wasn't as bad as GI Joe extreme. Hasbro has a history of trying to milk every last dime out of a toy line. Looks like they would have learned from the failure of the Super Joe's.
Now, Hasbro has the Marvel Legends, and, Star Wars: The Black Series lines, so, I'd say they're doing alright.
I remember this line... Some of the vehicles were ok but the figures....
Tune in, turn on, burn out - The Sisters Of Mercy! You're my man
Some time after I had quit GI Joe I realized I still had fond memories of it. One day I was in ShopKo when I thought I'd check the toy isle to see what my favorite brand had been up to long since. Low and behold, what did I see but GI Joe Street Fighter crap that looked so horrible it was astounding! I liked Street Fighter games just fine, but this combination was lame-brain erroneous to the max! Lol, I didn't like where Joe had been going when I quit during series 6 - but I never imagined they'd go that far out asinine!
I laughed my butt off at just the opening because that was literately me when they introduced Sgt. Savage. I couldn't figure out what it was.
Well what can I say about Sgt. Savage and Gi. Joe extreme. Hasbro as we know are in the "business" of making toys and that "business" is based off making money not the preservation of the brand. Let's look at a few other brands that Hasbro had to understand their thinking. Transformers toys from the first 2 years were basically repaints of Japanese transforming robots from the 70's and early 80's that while didn't have much in articulation, they were awesome in there transformations and a huge hit with kids. By the 3rd year as I like to call post animated movie, they were huge hunks of plastic that didn't hold a candle to the Japanese based figures with there diecast parts and thus the line started losing momentum and by '91 the original g1 line was done. Another 2 examples are Visionaries and Cops N Crooks both released in 1987, both had the same type of mold as articulation as gi joes but in a larger scale. Visionaries lasted 1 year in part due to there hologram gimmick (in my opinion to rival Tonka's Supernaturals toyline also released in 1987). Cops N Crooks fared a little better by lasting 2 years but ultimately failed to catch on despite having a small following. And finally Gi.Joe itself, a line that as early as 1986 started moving away from what the toyline had originally started out as. Take Joe from 1982 such as breaker and stand him next to a figure from 1994 such as Beachhead and it's almost like your looking at 2 different toylines. Hasbro has always been a toy company about making money and crushing it's competition hence why they bought every other toy company from the 80's out with the exception of Mattel. Hasbro's greed created a monopoly and the toys suffered because of it, look at toy shelves now and there isn't an ounce of originality left. Hasbro's Sgt. Savage and Gi Joe extreme toylines were the beginning of destroying the Gi. Joe brand name and the great toylines we all had in the 1980's
I think it's ironic that chasing money is what ultimately led to the demise of one of their biggest money makers.
HoodedCobraCommander788 couldn't agree more.
I like the GI Joe Screaming Eagles the GI Joe extreme my friend Ryan had that character the grill he was used as the helicopter pilot when we would use Punisher Johnny Blaze versus Alien versus Predator I think we have Terminator in there too
I've ever seen this in toys r us and I was like what are they doing this is insane That's not GI Joe
You're right. It's Capt. America! HA! Gota love Kubert's art, though.
Oh my god.
GI JOE Extreme is actually Small Soldiers before Small Soldiers. Its literally just a year apart.
Whoa i didnt realize Kenner had a hand in this
I could have sworn Doc and Lady Jaye was in this
is it just me or does the Sgt Rock cover art @ about 19:15 look like he was maybe modeled after William Holden?
**************WARNING, MASSIVE WALL OF TEXT INCOMING****************
As a little kid who was already very impressed by the G.I. Joes of the 90s, I had fallen in love with the ninja force, the battle corps, the street fighter joes, the talking battle commanders, The Mega Marines, I loved the Joes of the 90s while they lasted. When Sgt. Savage EXPLODED onto the scene, the character was, for me, beyond manly, everything a G.I. Joe was supposed to be and more. When I was a little boy, at that time when the figure came out there was truly nothing more Epic than seeing Glorious Sgt. Savage punch through steel reinforced walls, and for that matter, any cyborg foolish enough to get in his way. *Technically* on the same scale as the ARAHs, but clearly bigger, he was meant to tower over the other G.I. Joes, and he did quite nicely. This was clearly what they were going for, he was bigger, badder, and better than all the other puny G.I. Joes you played with before, and it worked quite nicely on me. My only real gripe with the line at the time was they didn't make all of Sgt. Savage's unit. The figures themselves were very good, and the vehicles weren't bad either. As a kid I remembered getting the Grizzly, quite a remarkable and glorious vehicle, built for exactly as many members of the Savage team as they actually made, and with the actually-fireable rockets. I didn't have it all, I didn't have the p40 and I didn't have the tank they made for the IRON Army, but the grizzly was enough. My final thoughts I'd say were, I don't really feel he was a ripoff of Captain America. There are a lot of key differences between the two of them. For one thing the appearances are *completely* different which should account for something. A good ripoff usually takes at least a few cues from the design of whatever it's ripping off. For another thing, despite being World War 2 soldiers who were frozen in time, there were a lot of key differences in their character and back story. For one thing, Captain America was a weakling, too weak to serve until he was given the Super Soldier Serum which made him manly enough to fight. Sgt. Savage was already in the military when he was experimented on, and his physique and appearance didn't change much from when he was a regular soldier to a super one. He effectively went from bad to badder, and one would have to wonder if his super strength, if stable would be all the more magnified because of it. Another thing was Cap's super strength was constant whereas the Sarge's was unstable, effectively making him a normal man of his strength and size at times. Now finally was the way his backstory was constructed, in the Sarge's backstory there was more of a theme of betrayal by a close comrade and a strong desire for vengeance. This is part of why I see more parallels between The Doomguy and Sgt. Savage. For one thing, like Savage, The Doomguy's brothers in arms were also ambushed and slain by an inhuman enemy, and the desire for vengeance is emphasized by both characters. Also, in an iconic manner the Sarge and Doomguy use a chaingun, are both capable of superhuman feats of strength at times, and finally, at times their eyes both glow gold. This is why I ultimately named my DOOM persona Sgt. Savage, because I recall being more reminded of The DOOM guy by Sgt. Savage than Cap.(And of course Doom Guy also took cues from Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness.) And this likeness only enhanced my love of all three of these characters and further pumped my adrenaline as a little kid. Well that massive bar of text pretty much concludes my thoughts on Sgt. Savage and why I love him.
Thanks for sharing your Sgt. Savage memories!
Sgto Robert Steven Savage coming with VHS (G.I.JOE Sgt Savage and his Screaming Eagles)
My father. (QEPD) buyed for me long years algo .
Sgt Robert Steven Savage
The warhawk looks awesome!
It was, it came with a pilot version of Sgt. Savage.
He really look like AMALGAM (yup it was a DC\Marvel crossover in '90) of Captain America and Sgt. Rock.
i would much rather had sgt savage than the planned manimals figures at least sgt savage is based on what gi joe is supposed 2 be
Thanks for this one. I really love Sgt. Savage and only recently caught onto it and got a bunch of the stuff as they are near dirt cheap. It is a really cool thing with the WWII tie in and a pity it fell apart as quickly as it did. I love the Warhawk plane and Iron Anvil tank that has the look of what a cool new Cobra tank would have looked like. Things were so cool and I love the working Compass! Thanks for the energy with these! However I did like the Iron CLAWS figures in the later Extreme line.
I thot they were great they had some of the coolest weapons dynamites 30 cal went great with road block the only thing i didnt like was they didnt have o rings
worst of gijoe hands down. BUT, Check out the iron panther tank. It is a decent vehicle and has some great play features. works for iron grenadiers as an MBT
I would like to figure to come with his minigun like in the cartoon or a Thompson machine gun I like to figure the cartoon was pretty good they brought him back. But I agree with you Hasbro was chasing the trends at the time within Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers being very popular they put an aliens mutants dinosaurs more of the weird and Supernatural in GI Joe I'm going back with a throwback and add a character fighting robots that look human yeah I'm on the fence on this one I like the figure just things I can agree nowadays
Intro😂😂
I had some of these sgt. savage figures, not because I was a kid at the time, but because I have been a collector of GiJoe since the 80's. Did not like them much. When Gijoe Extreme line came out, I was like WTF??, those where probably the worst of the worst.I really like your cannel by the way
Thank you!
I think that the G.I. Joe Extreme toy line was a BIG mistake for many reasons. However, I recently had a chance to watch the animated series and was surprised with how good it was - at least for the major story line that started near the end of the first season and continued into the second. If you get a chance, I would recommend giving it a watch.
I liked the line but was disappointed with the lineup. And one MAJOR omission. No Tommy gun with a pistol grip that would fit and work so much better than those rifles. I did hate the hip joint making it impossible to sit the figure down. I thought the vehicle line had the greatest potential. however Hasbro were cutting corners. As good as the jeep looked. the figures were awkward trying to sit them in it and the 6 missile launcher only had 2 missiles. I went into the like thankful for a return to military colors, gone was the neon, and back to realistic looking vehicles.
Honestly I think Hasbro screwed up. Look at the toys out there in the 90s. Imagine if the small GI Joes went the same direction as the 12s did. GI Joe should have went the Adventure Team route again. Used the classic characters like Alpine, Snow Job and Recondo. But gear the line like the old Fisher Price Adventure People. Boats, planes, and Trucks. Bring in the animals that worked in some of the figure packaging, and remake the white Tiger hunt, the Gorilla, Dog sled team, Mummy's tomb, and spy island. Make it something that would have blended in with Kenner's Jurassic Park line.
Also as blues music fan I hope you don"t hate on Blues Brothers 2000. It is an important piece of music history probably more so than the original.
I actually have no memory of the Sgt. Savage line at all. The design of the toys seemed quite good, it's to bad the marketing failed so badly. Extreme meanwhile I remember, and egads it was horrible. I actually caught a couple of episodes of the show they put out for it (I think it aired as a special for a very short time), and they were just unwatchable drek.
This is all new to me. I stopped buying GI Joe in 1993 and started collecting Jurassic Park. I actually never saw these figures in stores. I do like the look of Sgt. Savage but I don't care for the larger scale, like you said if these were in scale with ARAH I would have bought them. That Arctic Storm Trooper in the back of the card looks interesting I may have to look him up. The vehicles do interest me and I wonder if they will work with vintage and modern Joe figures. That sleek black motorcycle would be a nice custom for Retaliation Firefly. Sgt. Savage also had some nice small gun stations one for the good guys the other for the bad that could fit modern GI Joe's. Your mention of Arnold doing a Sgt. Rock movie reminds me of a scene in Predator where one of the soldiers is reading a Sgt. Rock comic.
If you haven't picked up any Sgt Savage yet, I would suggest that you get some. They are pretty cheap, and you may be surprised at how much you like them. It is too bad the scale is different from vintage Joe. That was the trend in action figures at the time, but it also means Sgt. Savage won't fit into most Joe vehicles.
After some research of the brand I did pick up a MIB Iron Panther and MIB P 40 Warhawk. May also look into getting the small battle station pieces as well. While the vehicles do fit the bigger Sgt. Savage figures they also fit the modern Joe's very well.
If you haven't been to Toys R Us in a while I suggest you go check out the action figure toy isle TRU now has there own line of action figures and vehicles called True Heroes. While the figures are cheap the vehicles are something else entirely. They have a wide selection of large vehicles and sets the Hasbro never thought of. A C 130 cargo plane, hovercraft similar to the Killer Whale but can carry tanks and medium sized vehicles, a large submarine set perfect for Cobra, even a Battleship to go along side the USS Flagg. There is even a new Sky Striker type of jet the True Hawk with working ejection seat and wings that fold out with the landing gear retracting. These vehicles will fit all vintage and modern G.I. Joe's and are easily customizable. Cobrastickers.com even has a decal sheet for the C 130.
Walmart right now has a large personnel helicopter the Rain Fire by the Corps! that is ideal for modern and vintage Cobra figures.