Some time I ago I was privileged to be asked to contribute to a G.I. Joe podcast hosted by the now-legendary Gyre-Viper.  The Joe Declassified Spec Ops Podcast features some pretty in depth discussion regarding the G.I. Joe toy line and this episode is now slouch.  Starting off with the (then) debut of the Dollar General Joes, the conversation delves into some intriguing variations from the classic ARAH (Generation 1) line.  The cast was a veritable “who’s who” of the Joe community including members of the “What’s On Joe Mind” crew, PLuv from cornerstone community JoeCustoms.com, “variation king” Patrick Stewart, Gyre-Viper, and JoeDeclassified.com admin Sam “Nomad” Damon.  It’s a solid two hour “Joe jam session” that is definitely worth a listen.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The Joe Declassified: SPEC-OPS Team is joined by some very special guests… the mighty pluv of JoeCustoms.com and the one and only Leonardo T Dragon of JoeBattlelines.com//

For this episode we take on a hefty helping of variations and errors from the revered vaults of Pat “notpicard” Stewart.  Pat takes us through his categorizing process of what falls into variant and what gets marked an error and how that all fits into his work on YoJoe.com and around the community.  We also give the yet to be released discount repaints a quick once over… sort of gathering our thoughts on what they are, what they mean, and what they might be telling us about the future of the brand.  And to top it all off… Pat speaks to the functionality of YoJoe.com’s legendary archives… its achievements, criticisms, and everything in between.

You can find the images referenced in the episode here:

http://joedeclassified.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=579

As indicated above, there’s an entire gallery of accompanying images found over at the JoeDeclassified forum!  (See– there’s homework and supplemental material with this one!  I told you it was “in depth”!)

You can listen to the entire 2 hour podcast via the embedded link below or over at the Spec Ops Podbean page!