Story and production flaws aside, the first miniseries is interesting as a pilot/prototype -- we see characters (like Cover Girl) and devices (droid-like PAC/RAT artillery) that never again appear, and early versions of things that do (various COBRA vehicles). (In the first scene, Major Bludd & co. seem to be flying Saab Viggen fighters.)
From the deliveries, it sounds like "mass device" (the teleporter) is really "MASS device," an uppercased acronym that was never defined in dialogue. There are, alas, no closed captions to confirm it (as with the "Invader ZIM" DVDs -- the c'captions are copyrighted), but most everything *else* in GIJ was acronymic -- COBRA, HISS tank, FANG, SNAKE.
The individual musical cues are decent enough, but they're edited together in a choppy way. Like the rest, it was probably a matter of time and staff pressure -- though not to the shoestring extent of "Gigantor" c.1965, which was adapted in the US with exactly four voice actors, with an all-new musical score performed by the Radio City Music Hall orchestra during intermissions. (Unlike the Rhino disks, the "Gigantor" ones come with commentary.)
Both the GIJ and TF:BW case-copy feature "special thanks to Tim Finn," who is a TransFan [Transformers fan] of some note, having collected numerous artifacts related to those two 1980s Hasbro-Marvel-Sunbow-Claster productions. (Remember GIJ's "And knowing is half the battle?" PSAs [public service announcements]? Similar ones were created for TF:G1, but never aired.) With no bonus features, I can't imagine what he contributed (though it'd be easy enough to ask).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosecarmine
Re[2]: Old-School G.I.Joe
Date: 2005-07-25 03:06 am (UTC)From the deliveries, it sounds like "mass device" (the teleporter) is really "MASS device," an uppercased acronym that was never defined in dialogue. There are, alas, no closed captions to confirm it (as with the "Invader ZIM" DVDs -- the c'captions are copyrighted), but most everything *else* in GIJ was acronymic -- COBRA, HISS tank, FANG, SNAKE.
The individual musical cues are decent enough, but they're edited together in a choppy way. Like the rest, it was probably a matter of time and staff pressure -- though not to the shoestring extent of "Gigantor" c.1965, which was adapted in the US with exactly four voice actors, with an all-new musical score performed by the Radio City Music Hall orchestra during intermissions. (Unlike the Rhino disks, the "Gigantor" ones come with commentary.)
Both the GIJ and TF:BW case-copy feature "special thanks to Tim Finn," who is a TransFan [Transformers fan] of some note, having collected numerous artifacts related to those two 1980s Hasbro-Marvel-Sunbow-Claster productions. (Remember GIJ's "And knowing is half the battle?" PSAs [public service announcements]? Similar ones were created for TF:G1, but never aired.) With no bonus features, I can't imagine what he contributed (though it'd be easy enough to ask).
http://www.yojoe.com/
http://joes.propadeutic.com/index.html