the vynsane asylum

...the exact year that the GIJoe: A Real American Hero line officially jumped the shark.

Sure, there was goofiness early on. Serpentor, Dr Mindbender, Toxo-Vipers, the Eco-Warriors, Hydro-Vipers, Battleforce 2000, Super Trooper, etc. But 1993 was the year it officially fucked up royally.

There was a set of GIJoes fighting dinosaurs. No shit. There was also a line called "Mega-Marines," heavily-armed Joes who fought Vipers who had been mutated into giant monsters. And a team called Star Brigade: Joes in space led by Robo-Joe (and not only just in space, but actually on other planets). As a kid, I couldn't have come up with anything more retarded. The card style took a major change for the worse. Plus, there was the sudden unexplained integration of Street Fighter 2 into the line. And ridiculously stupid new costumes for Zartan (orange mohawk), Scarlett (green battle armor), Dr Mindbender (yellow and purple cybernetic armor), Cobra Eel (bright yellow), Gung Ho (tiger stripes--you thought he looked gay before?), and Firefly (green chainmail armor with a baseball cap).

As bad as 1993 was, 1994 was worse. Now Joes were fighting aliens in space. It should come as no surprise the line died in 1994.

Poke around the 1993 page at yojoe.com, and check out the figures, cards, and filecards. It was a fucking joke.

What year did Cesspool, the CEO of a major chemical corporation come out? That was the end for me.

1991. I wasn't collecting, but there was some silliness in the toys. The comic was still pretty decent. It took about a year to shoehorn the Eco-Warriors in, and something like two or three to force in Star Brigade (which, even then, was Joes in spacesuits trying to destroy a Cobra satellite, IIRC).

At least Cesspool was a crazy fella who joined Cobra, and not an alien bounty hunter fighting dinosaurs with his orange mohawk.

And I never noticed until I just looked him up, but check this shit out. First read his bio, then look closely at his picture. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

For the record, scroll down for what I'm thinking:















































Uncanny resemblance, eh?

Are you sure it didn't jump after that whole Cobra-La thing? That was pretty lame.

Cobra-LA killed the cartoon, but it seemed like a tacked-on afterthought in the toy line, and was never mentioned at all in the comic. I think it was definitely the beginning of the end.

So, in retrospect, yes. 1993 was the year where they added kids and did all sorts of gimmicks to drum up ratings for a doomed show.