The Failure of GI Joe: Sigma 6 (Or Sigma Six if ya nasty) 

And remember; rebooting is half the battle

Sigma 6 may have been a failure, but it did give us the most kick ass Snake-Eyes figure of all time, so there's that

Fun fact: The actress that voiced Lady Jay in the original series was also the original voice of GM’s OnStar for years.

My sister stuck the suction cups from the Snake Eyes figure on my head while I was sleeping and I had to go to school for a week straight with beet red circles on my forehead. Fond memories of Sigma 6!

Ahh Sigma 6, I have a soft spot for this, mainly because it was the only GI joe media my country got and it was one of my earliest shows i watched and remembered

Man, Marc Thompson really built himself up quite a filmography of 80's icons over the years. He was Cobra Commander in this, Megatron in Transformers Cyberverse, and last but certainly not least, Casey Jones in TMNT 2003. Guy must have a lot of fun in the booth.

i love the way Baroness,Scarlett and jinx looked my subjects of cosplay as Gi joe Sigma six of course i wish Lady Jaye was in this animation. When i moved to the USA with my husband i was happy to see this animation

Should be noted, but it’s batted around online that Sigma Six was originally going to be something of a continuation of Valor Vs. Venom, based on the plot points of Cobra Commander being imprisoned at the start and General Hawk recovering from something. In fact, I remember reading that parts of Sigma Six heavily drew upon elements of the scrapped Vvs.V follow-up “Robot Rebellion”.

This show along with TMNT(2003), & the Transformers Unicron Trilogy were a huge impact on my childhood.

Karate Kid did it right! No reboot, no reimagining, no BS. Just continue the story, keep the same tone, be respectful of the source material and the original audience, create new stories that the new audiences can get into. That’s it. That’s the formula.

Do a video on Renegades. I F'ing loved Renegades!

One thing I will applaud with this series, character design. Everyone, with the exception of one or two, looked amazing.

A little off topic, but CGI Duke from "Valor vs Venom" kind of reminds me of Chip Hazard from "Small Soldiers"

My favorite part of the cartoon was the crazy voice direction. Scarlett's accent was so bad that you couldn't tell if she was supposed to be Southern or Australian! I missed all of the figures, they were long gone by the time I learned about the show. Too bad, the toys look pretty cool.

So like zoids , thundercats, gi joe it keeps rebooting but it struggling to find it's foot holding in the west .... Sadness but a hidden gem in the GI Joe universe of tv shows ❤❤❤ and knowing is half the Battle

“We’re only a reboot away from the next reboot” is a very telling statement on the day they announce the next reboot with the Transformers and GI Joe movie.

The main problem was introducing kids to project management best practices via a toy line…

The best reboots since the 80’s has been Resolute and Renegades. Resolute was freaking amazing and Renegades was good also. I’d love to see a video on both of those.

I love Sigma 6... HEAR ME OUT. If you're falling asleep, or working and you just want positive background noise, the Sigma 6 show is PERFECTION. There's really no space between people yelling stuff. No one talks, everyone is shouting. There's no scenes where it's just lasers and sound effects or music like 80's GI Joe. It's just good guys on a team, yelling affirmative, positive shit at each other. It can all be summed up as "OH MAN, HERE'S A NEW PROBLEM - TIME TO BUCK UP, MAKE A PLAN AND KICK ASS". It's never a bummer, it's just "positive go-getter" attitude all the time. And I love it. I treat that show like mood music. Juxtapose that against "GI Joe Resolute" ( which I also love ), but that movie is going for "harsh, gritty and mean" the whole time. Everyone in the movie has a bad attitude 100% of the time, and the Joes are always being A-holes to each other. Just say'n.

GI Joe Resolute was my favorite modern reboot. That would make an awesome video.

Notice how *none* of the G.I.JOE cartoon reboots worked? That's because the first was the exact right thing, at the exact right time. It had a quality that could not be reproduced. 1980s America was riding a wave of Jingoist Cold War-era patriotism and the original G.I.JOE series was "America *FUCK* yeah!" in cartoon form.

Not to be confused with 6 Sigma, another US / Japan collaboration that the manufacturing industry is undoubtedly familiar with. While the character designs were good, the lack of success for the figure line was likely due to the deviation from the 3 3/4" standard. The Sigma 6 series turned the anime up a bit too much I think, but they dialed it back just a touch for Resolute - which in my opinion is peak modern GI Joe.

The Helldivers 2 mania is going to lead to the G.I. JOE reboot we always wanted getting greenlit.

The vehicles were awesome, the figures should have been at least as good as Mask figures. The sigma 6 Firebat airplane would have been amazing as a 3 3/4 toy.

Man, I loved Sigma 6. I was a TF and TMNT kid, Joe never really clicked with me so this was the first version I really got into.

G.I. JOE SIGMA 6 has seriously lacking Porkchop Sandwiches.

It’s a true treat to see this video. I personally am a kid of the 90s and the early 2000s and this cartoon was my first exposure to GIJOE. I don’t care what anyone else says, this will always be my favorite GIJOE cartoon! I loved it from the very first time I watched it. I have come to also love and appreciate the original 80s series but this is still the cartoon that I was watching as a teenager and it is forever fantastic to me! So glad this series is on Tubi and it has all the popular versions of the franchise. I desperately need to catch up with your videos because I accidentally blocked them from my account but I swear I never meant to do that! Sorry for being gone for a long time but I’m going to find a way to fix this issue again in the future! I’m still a huge fan of your videos and I will continue to support you and watch you a lot more this year! I’m looking forward to catching up on more of the videos that I’ve missed! Glad you’re still doing well and making all the fans happy! Yo Joe! Respect to the 80s fans and their original cartoon, but Sigma 6 will always be fantastic in my eyes!

Gi joe multiverse would be fun crossover. Could even bring in the old 50s version

I guess X-Men the animated series is a 90’s show, but I think X-Men ‘97 is the shining example of a return to a franchise that capitalizes on nostalgia and tries to advance the narrative for a new and old audience.

Still an amazing toyline. I hope they start bringing some of these character designs into Classifieds, especially Long Rang. I loved his toy

I still remember being on a message board when we heard “GI Joe anime” and then realizing what we were getting wasn’t going to be on Toonami or the like. It was especially weird since it was the same time Devil’s Due relaunched the Joe comic, so being overly naive we thought “that, but anime” which sounds like it would be awesome on Toonami after G Gundam. We were not so lucky.

I do remember kinda digging what I saw of that series, but definitely sounded like it wound up having a similar fate to the 2011 thundercats reboot, which I also loved.

I didn't enjoy this version of GI Joe. Now that I am much older and have experienced NUMEROUS reboots, reimaginings, and restarted franchises (live-action, animated, and gaming) I can appreciate that Sigma 6 a little more for its uniqueness. I still don't like the show. I just dislike it less.

I was at a convention some time ago where, one of the dub voice actors Tom Wayland was talking about how excited he was to be doing voicework for a G. I Joe cartoon, as he was a fan, but was disappointed he had to deliver typical anime dub dialogue for his character, Storm Shadow. I blame this on 4Kids just trying too hard to get another successful franchise like TMNT and Yu-Gi-Oh, since they just lost the rights to Pokemon. Plus, even if it was made for the North American/Western market in mind, there were several Japanese Transformers series by then, and it was the first and only attempt at a Japanese G.I. Joe series. I don't know how popular that franchise was in Japan, but far from the embrace of Transformers. That's for sure. Also, Marc Thompson was the voice of Destro and Cobra Commander for this series. Years later, he'd be the voice of Megatron in Transformers Cyberverse. Strange that he wasn't Starscream.

Is GI JOE a franchise grounded in military reality, as typified by much of the 1982-1984 toy line and the Marvel comics written by Vietnam combat vet Larry Hama? Or is it Naruto-running ninjas and robot dinosaurs and sharks with lasers?

When I worked a corpo job we all had to go to sigma six training to become black belts or something like that

The trick to good reboots is... good writing. When we saw these franchises as kids that wasn't very important because children are not that discerning, and we were limited to what was on certain channels at certain times. But even by the time of Sigma 6 most Americans had cable to give more options, and now with streaming that's even more true, so we need plots and characters that we can get invested in and will actively seek out. That's one of the reasons almost every time companies try reboots that are more kid-friendly and less serious they fail terribly, and the same goes for reboots that don't grow but just use a gimmick like in space, in the future, in the past, in a computer, etc..

I keep thinking "is this the one Warren Ellis wrote that was actually pretty good?" and IT KEEPS BEING SOMETHING ELSE! How many spin-offs does this toyline have?!

I remember getting mad this didn’t get more love. Back then tho we were not encouraged to hold on to our childhood favorites like we are now

Grew up in the 80's so obviously had loads of the OG GI JOE figures and toys (not easy to aquire since I lived in Greece and initially had to rely on friends at the American bases there and distant relatives in the USA). Later once I'd 'grown up' and years after I'd finished my Bsc in Product Design I started collecting all the Sigma Six figures and vehicles and I still own them 20 years later! I just love their design in form and function, it's a shame they never did a Baroness or Scarlet etc.. I think I own every version of each SS figure made and quite a few duplicates too. All the OG stuff was sold in the early 90's to fund building a custom BMX.

Holy sh** a Suikoden moment! Mind blowing. You’ve earned my forever loyalty w this one, Secret Galaxy

It should be mentioned that Sigma 6 also sorta tied into the "Direct to Consumer" continuation of the 3.75" line that followed Valor vs Venom (working title was something like "Robot Rebellion"). Some of those vehicles and figures (Ice Sabre, BAT) seen in the show were available in the DTC line...

Sigma 6 was pretty cool IMHO. The cartoon was meh, but the figures were awesome, especially the packaging that turned into a locker for their accessories.

funny enough studio Gonzo animated both Transformers Cybertron and G.I.Joe Sigma 6 thus missed opportunity for another crossover in animation form.

Zartan, hair or hood? Watching old episodes most of the time it's animated as hair but it's clearly a hood in comics and toys.

Honestly, maybe Secret Galaxy should cover G.I. Joe Renegade one single season show where G.I. Joe goes the A-Team route.

I'm fairly certain the main problem with gi joe Is no matter what they do to refresh it it's going to still be associated with the us military, which is why the toy line in the modern age has had a tough sell.

My 2 favorite characters in GI Joe were in the show (Baroness and Jinx).....neither got a figure.

Or: "The Transformers Unicron Trilogy: GI Joe Edition".

Cool video, guys! S6 had a great toy line, but it wasn't without its flaws. The 8 inch figures were great with all the articulation, accessories, and cloth clothes one could want. The way they were packaged practically screamed "buy me" when they were hanging on the pegs. The two inch companion scale is where a lot of the trouble arose. The figures were lacking in articulation and many were fused to base stands, making them incompatible with the vehicles. Additionally, many of the vehicles were simply retools of the 3 3/4 scale ones from previous lines, so the 2 inch figures tended to rattle around in them like little kids messing around in their parents camper. There were some awesome samples, like the Dragonhawk, but also a lot of failures like the ROCC. The show was kind of goofy at times, but watchable, and was one of those that actually made Cobra Commander appear as a real threat. For years, this was my GI Joe fix until Classified brought the Yo Joe magic back into the world. I'll always have a soft spot for S6. Heck, to this day I still use S6 Duke's line : "Note to self- don't try that again!"

Ah yes, Sigma 6… that was indeed a thing that happened 🙂 [Pulls blankets back over head until _Resolute_ video drops]

I was not a fan of the scale changes, but I really did like the design of the characters and vehicles. I felt that it was about time Hasbro did something different yet familiar and I felt Sigma 6 did that in spades. I have always loved GI Joe, yet I've always been a huge Sci Fi fan, so the look and feel of Sigma 6 played right into my hands except for the stupid issue of scaling. It frustrated me, yet my wallet was happy. Despite the scale, I still couldn't help buying a couple of the 8" figures. Sigma 6, IMHO, gave us the coolest versions of both Snake Eyes and Firefly. I had to get those two. The 2.5" scale was more appealing to me for the vehicles. I hated how the figures were mostly static. I did buy some of the vehicles, but mainly after the show had been cancelled, and the toys went on clearance. With all of this talk about the scale, I believe that is what truly put the nail in the coffin for this reboot. Most toys for kids are purchased or allowed to be purchased by the parents/adults. I believe the scale changes made it alien to the actual people who would purchase the toys. Not being 3-3/4" or even 12" turned everyone off. Parents probably connected more with the Transformers at the time and would convince their kids to get those instead. But that is my theory. I think the only reason why the current 6" GI Joe are doing somewhat okay is because the figures retain the nostalgia of the 80s and early 90s, but with a modern twist. I can't bring myself to buy them now, because I can't stand the scale and they are too darn expensive.

And now we have the official announcement of a true Transformers & GI Joe crossover movie coming soon. I'm sure we'll all hate it lol.

This is what introduced me to G.I. Joe. It sucks that it was a failure.

This was my GI Joe. I had a ton of the toys, and remember really loving how many accesories they had and how detailed they were.

Great vid! I really liked Sigma 6 and agree with you would love to see these design in the Classified series.

It’s no G.I. Joe Extreme but it’ll do I guess.

Loved the series and have Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow figures

Still better than its predecessor GI Joe Ligma 😎

DUDE, yall's cut-ins are the best! I lost it at the hang glider announcement reaction!

This show was my introduction to the franchise. Suck it got canceled.

I have been watching every era of GI Joe with my 7 yr old and he loves them all. Sigma Six, Renegades, and Resolute were new to me, but I enjoy them in their own way. I am also so happy my mother saved all my of 1980s action figures which I have rebuilt and he takes them with him everywhere. Such a (fun) trip.

Please do videos on Jackie Chan Adventures, Megaman the animated series, Ozzy & Drix, & Max Steel

Ah Gi Joe Sigma 6. My first introduction to the franchise. Despite it flaws, I have fond memories with the anime.

I only saw a few Sigma 6 episodes when it came out. I remember the action figures. I thought Hasbro was taking a page out of Hideo Kojima with the designs of the armor as it looked like some MGS2 stuff. I did like the designs, Lt. Stone, Tunnel Rat, and High Tech were my favorite. I would love to see this in some form to the Classified, same with the designs from Renegades.

The Delta 6 suits in the GI Joe movie are a reference to this series.

Could you please do a video for Gundam Seed? The Gundam Seed Freedom movie hits US theatres on May 7th. So, it would both be cool and relevant. The Big O would be a good contender for a video as well.

A comic series about the stuff that didn't make it into the 87 GIJoe film (deleted scenes, side plots, etc.) needs to be written.

My boys loved G.I. Joe when the anniversary action figures. Hayden Liked Snake Eyes, Hunter liked Storm Shadow he swore up and down that he was a good guy.

It was interesting they picked up the plot threads from the two previous direct to DVD animated films including General Hawk recovering from his super mutation

Never even heard of this show, but then again I was in college at the time. From the clips I see here it looks like the 2003 animation style of Masters of the Universe and honestly looks pretty awesome. Love some of the new looks for the characters and man would I have loved to get my hands on an 8" Snake Eyes figure to put on my shelf. I'd love a Skarlet figure too...but apparently they never made one. Sad. I have new like 9" or something figures of He-man and Skeletor that I love.

As an anime guy I watched it years after it aired. I has some weird decisions and I cant figure out if it would have been better as more anime with a silly side or more serious.

The only incarnations of GI Joe I ever cared about were certain runs of the comics (specifically the original Larry Hama stuff), GI Joe Extreme, SIGMA 6, & Renegades. Also, Sigma 6 is the ONLY time in the entire Franchise where Cobra Commander was actually cool and intimidating.

Good stuff! Can't wait until you do Renegades, which is either the next reboot or the previous one, I can't remember anymore. I actually enjoyed that one!

Maybe we will get an edgy G.I Joe anime in the future. 😁

I discovered it online, I liked it a little better than Renegades, but not as much as the Marvel Comics or RAH v1 cartoon.

The credits for this show suggest it was originally produced in Japanese (like its Transformers contemporaries) but to this day, that version has never seen the light of day. It's also been claimed there's a separate dub (maybe a pilot?) featuring the Vancouver voice cast of the DTV CGI movies. Unfortunately, the documentation for that has been lost to time.

I always loved the designs from this series. I just wished the toys scaled with literally any of the other toys I had at the time.

The best part of this show was the introduction of the Rhino. I loved being able to finally get it in 3.75 scale as I believe a Target exclusive for one of the live action movies.

I wish to aay something about Sigma 6. The DIC fiasco was so hard to get through, that the idea that anyone was at least trying to better, was much needed relief.

Super Joe and Sigma 6 could play together…

I always wanted to watch it as a kid but I never knew where it was airing. I even had that big helicopter for the 2 inch figures.

I hope you guys do the history of The Silver Surfer animated series. I remember loving it, but I also vaguely remember them messing with the time slot, so I missed a bunch of episodes. Definitely deserved more seasons like X-Men and Spider-Man got.

I hope one day soon you do a video on the 89 series as I’ve been really curious about it.

I'm trying to remember how many years it was from this show which came and went like a fart in the wind to the much better totally awesome GI Joe retaliation. (I think that's what it was called and not the second live-action movie) But the true anime GI Joe we all wanted with all the violence intact that someone who loved the 80s show would want but way better. They have never and I doubt they ever will make a better version of GI Joe after that. It was short and sweet and freaking awesome.

I will never not love this show. It is a part of my childhood, half of my gate to anime, and it was just plain fun to watch the supertech in action, giving me my enduring fondness for various combat tropes, especially missile spam.

Maybe it's because I'm older now, but I'm much more nostalgic for G.I. Joe being marketed towards kids, even if it's not for me who grew up with ARAH. I miss the early 2000s when Joe versus Cobra and the subsequent toy lines were in stores. There were repaints of vintage even o-ring figures in those.

I only remember this show cos it basically Gi Joe but Anime!

For me I thought the sigma 6 toys were really cool. The size felt like a perfect mix between the original dolls and the smaller figs. The accessories were also a great feature for the line. I loved how the top and bottom of the package turned into weapon storage cases for all the accessories.

i have almost every figure and vehicle. i loved the 8" line despite how tall they are. the Zartan of the line is one of my absolute favourite figures of all time.

Loved the series for what it was. It could have fit nicely with TRANSFORMERS ENERGON or TRANSFORMERS ARMADA. It's still nowhere as impactful as G.I. JOE RESOLUTE. But it was a fun G.I. JOE anime styled series.

Kind of liked the premise of Sigma Six and would have been awesome to see what other GI JOE and Cobra would have been showed off in the show. Funny that it was taking off from those two GI Joe 3D movies.

I never even heard of this before. The one I recall that I did mostly enjoy was GI Joe Renegades though it was a bit heavy handed.

a great awsome cartoon, with the best designed joe vehicules ever but a very bad main toyline that was not compatible with what came before or after. Most vehicules were released afterwards in DTC and they were awsome.

I'm looking forward to watching the complete show.

I watched most of Sigma 6 when I stumbled across it, but I definitely wasn't a dedicated fan. From my perspective it just disappeared from TV one day, and I never questioned what happened to it until now. The most I ever got into GI Joe were the two "GI Joe vs Cobra" CG movies when they aired on Toonami.

I feel like Turtles gets the backlash every few years since they reboot so frequently compared to other properties. I saw someone trying to dunk on Mutant Mayhem the other day in an attempt to show their love for Rise and couldn’t help but feel like time is a flat circle. I feel like I don’t see it as much in transformers, but that might be because they’ve had to survive so many drastic shifts that RUINED FOREVER is a wiki page.

Thank you for the information on synchronistics. I didn't really watch significance until about 6 years ago.👍👍👍👍

I watched this in college and I was learning about the management concept of Six Sigma at the same time I wonder if this started as a Six Sigma project

Sigma 6 was underrated, I think it was unfortunate it never got more attention