We’re only on Day 4 of our Covid-19 lockdown, but I have a feeling that a bunch of you may have already exhausted the full extent of activities you had planned to keep your kids entertained. Hell, you may have exhausted all the activities you had planned for yourself (or the government threw a spanner into those works with that pesky no alcohol plan). Luckily, Hasbro has heard your cries of anguish and has something for both you and your kids!
The giant toy company has gone and proven just how heroic they can be by uploading a whole batch of G.I. Joe episodes on YouTube for everybody to enjoy for free. Yes, the classic G.I. Joe cartoon series from the 1980s and not the lame modern movies.
Co-produced by Marvel (who also published a comic tie-in) and Sunbow Productions, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was released in 1985 as nothing more than a very blatant marketing tool to sell Hasbro’s line of US Armed Forces-inspired G.I. Joe action figures which debuted 3 years earlier (fun fact: this line originated the term “action figures”). As much as it was just a promo ploy, the animated series was also pretty damned cool. After a series of popular 30-second commercials, two five-part animated miniseries – titled The M.A.S.S. Device and The Revenge of Cobra, respectively – were released that established the storyline of the elite G.I. Joe team battling against the nefarious Cobra organization. These led to a full-on 55-episode series order in 1985, which was extended to a second season of another 30 episodes that coincided with the release of a new G.I. Joe toyline, and then again another new series in 1989 that ran for three years.
It’s those first two mini-series and the opening five-episode story arc of the first season, The Pyramid of Darkness, that Hasbro has now made available on their YouTube channel. It’s unclear if we’re going to get more in the coming weeks, but right now that’s 15 episodes of retro cartoon awesomeness for you to enjoy while at home. You can check out the entire playlist on Hasbro’s official channel, or (thanks to IGN) you can hit the links below to jump straight to the individual episodes.
- The M.A.S.S. Device, Part 1: The Cobra Strikes
- The M.A.S.S. Device, Part 2: Slave of the Cobra Master
- The M.A.S.S. Device, Part 3: The Worms of Death
- The M.A.S.S. Device, Part 4: Duel in the Devil’s Cauldron
- The M.A.S.S. Device, Part 5: A Stake in the Serpent’s Heart
- The Revenge of Cobra, Part 1: In the Cobra’s Pit
- The Revenge of Cobra, Part 2: The Vines of Evil
- The Revenge of Cobra, Part 3: The Palace of Doom
- The Revenge of Cobra, Part 4: Battle on the Roof of the World
- The Revenge of Cobra, Part 5: Amusement Park of Terror
- The Pyramid of Darkness, Part 1: The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe
- The Pyramid of Darkness, Part 2: Rendezvous in the City of the Dead
- The Pyramid of Darkness, Part 3: Three Cubes to Darkness
- The Pyramid of Darkness, Part 4: Chaos in the Sea of Lost Souls
- The Pyramid of Darkness, Part 5: Knotting Cobra’s Coils
Last Updated: March 31, 2020
