The Brothers Chaps have just created a new product line for their Homestar Yahoo store! If they run a few more Cheat Commandos episodes on the site, they'll have to start churning out collectibles. I'm in for the whole set for Christmas... - A Websurfer

I really like this cartoon, although I wish it had gone a little farther with the "kid's playing with action figures" gimmick. I used to do that all the time. It would have been interesting to see how far they could've carried that.
-The Brothers E

I think that they made it too obvious that it was a commercial by A: Calling the truck the "action figure storage vehicle" in the cartoon and B: Having the end phrase being "Buy all our playsets and toys". If that were real, it wouldn't work. -CE5

I think the Brothers Chaps were pointing out that toy companies manipulate their audience by changing one little feature on an existing toy (even though both still do the exact same thing) then selling it as a new product. Did you notice that each vehicle mentioned looked almost identical to each other? ~WindWaker??68

It was a commercial.Did you notice that it's Cheat Commandos not The Cheat Commandos? -- Another Fan

They weren't trying to make it look like a real TV cartoon, CE5; they're parodying TV cartoons. The whole thing is a slick bit of commentary on the fact that so many cartoons are just vehicles for selling merchandise. This has been true since GIJoe (and I'm sure before), but recent cartoons have pushed this to its limit: even most kids realize that the Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cartoons are just cheap excuses to push the merchandise. -- InterruptorJones

You forgot one: Neopets. Has anyone noticed that Neopets is pulling a Pokemon? It's starting to sell out, yo! ~Yaanu~
You can't sell out if you sucked to begin with. --Xhad

Anyone else note the title of the window? "Compy 386!!" strikes again! - JamesGecko

"I just hate you so much!" FireBert... I mean Bird

Did you notice that the one action figure was called Silent "But Deadly" Rip? That is most certainly a reference to "Crud Vapors" if I ever saw one. - "Some Guy"


That's what animation was like in the 1980s. Badly-drawn, badly-acted commercials for toys. Lots of stock footage, cookie-cutter characterization, and a good dose of spoonfed jingoism to hide the lacklustre writing and moral relativism. But the cartoons had to be that way, because it was the only way they could get funding. Maybe George Orwell was right...

On a lighter note, can anybody catch the words to the theme song? I can't hear it over the dialogue and narration until the end. Anybody have a more sophisticated sound system? I think at one point they sing "Across the sea", but it's too hard to tell. Notice how the singers' voices nearly break at the end? I'll bet that military style is hard to do if you're not trained. - JP

One of the lines is "Cheat Commandos, maybe fighting for freedom/And each is sold separately". Thanks to DeadGuyPerez. - "Douglas"

The copyright is for 1986 - that's the year I was born. Creepy.
I thought this cartoon was spot-on in its parody of commercial cartoons (which, of course, hit its peak with G.I. Joe and the "Greed Decade"). One has to love how they use the same animation of the Blue Laser Commander twice in a row. - RaisedByACupOfCoffee

The Blue Laser leaders' voice was hilarious. "We'll blow up the ocean!" This is a great parody to those 30 minute commercials/TV shows like G.I. Joe. "Buy all our playsets and toys!" Coach Z's new best line is definetly "Justice Backpack Rocket Rocket Go fire!". That should be the new QOD. -Super SBsonic

My memory of the original G.I. Joe cartoons is a little fuzzy, but doesn't the Blue Laser leader's voice sound a lot like Cobra Commander's? ;) -Reeve

Yes, that high-pitched raspy voice does sound like Cobra Commander (voiced by the late Chris Latta). A couple other specific G.I.Joe references:

--In the cartoon, G.I.Joe's guns shot red lasers while Cobra's shot blue lasers. Thus "Blue Laser".

--Blowing up the ocean did actually feature in the two-part episode "There Is No Place Like Springfield". Actually, it was a formula that Cobra was trying to get that loosened the molecular bonds in water, turning it into an unstable mix of hydrogen and oxygen. --Duck A L-Orange

I like that one guy's Apartment Playset. "I need groceries. I wish my girlfriend didn't leave me."

--At first, this cartoon started off a little awkward. But I was cracking up by the time they got to the cartoon.-- Mike

That one called Fightgar is probably supposed to be Rambo from those old Sylvester Stallone movies.

when I first saw it, I thought of GI Joe. Now it's more like Rescue Heroes -- Mr. Man

I got to go with Joe on this one. I don't know much about Rescue Heroes, but that one Blue Laser guy is most definitely a parody of Cobra Commander. "We'll blow up the ocean!" Great stuff!
Actually, what should be pointed out is that Matt and Mike are shamelessly ripping off the plot of an ACTUAL EPISODE of G.I. Joe (a 2-parter, if I recall correctly) that involved Cobra discovering an extremely efficient method for transmuting water into an explosive chemical, and threatening to use it on a large body of water. So yes, they were planning to blow up the ocean... and what stuns me is that the Chaps REMEMBERED this when they came up with the parody almost 20 years later. - "Jake Was Here"

On the blue/red laser thing, when the vehicles are shooting each other, they shoot red & blue lasers. -M'fox

Hilarious. I haven't laughed so hard since I read last weeks 8-bit theater. - Heir_of_Lindeen

8-Bit Theatre? I love that strip. I also love Bob and George.

You people are debating on if it is a parody of G.I. Joe? IT IS A PARODY IF THERE EVER WAS ONE!! I mean, the show was meant to increase the popularity of G.I. Joe.
- Mysterious-Stranger

I don't think it's what you would call a "debate" exactly. No one is actually arguing that it's NOT a parody of GI Joe. Mr. Man just said that it also reminded him of Rescue Heroes, too. Most of us were thinking it was more like GI Joe. You could just as easily argue that it's a general parody of all those 30-minute toy commercials, like Thundercats, He-Man, and Transformers.

Did anyone else find it strange that H*, SB, and CZ were playing with action figures and drinking Cold Ones?

I must say though, I found the talking The Cheats a bit creepy... - PrinceOfTown

BOB AND GEORGE ROCKS!!! Ha ha! I was introduced to it by this site about buddy icons. You should check out ResLife?, or Residence Life. -- Mike

I've actually seen that old GI Joe show. It came on certain channels relatively recently, but it was one of those shows that a network would only play at about 1 AM. What I was trying to say earlier was that they made it just a little too obvious that it was a 30-minute commercial, what with "buy all our playsets and toys" and "to the action figure storage vehicle. Nevertheless, it was hillarious. Oh, and did anyone notice that when they were marching and it said "Cheat Commandos is an elite fighting force" that they showed the same character march by about three times? -My Favorite was "Ripberger"

hee hee when the pan falls off the stick one of the bl gys are crushed

To paraphrase something I read on the web once: Shows like G.I.Joe, Transformers and Master of the Universe are not, were not, and never have been 30-minute toy commercials. They are 22-minute toy commercials (with other commercials interspersed through the course of the program). --Duck A L-Orange

I'm still waiting for them to come up with 30-minute (or 22-minute if you prefer) commercials for breakfast cereal. Can't you just imagine The Count Chocula Show or The Adventures of Lucky the Leprechaun. How about this one: Snap Crackle and Pop MYSTERIES.

when the toys come up, the blue laser toy is not there.

Heh-heh. Lucky the Leprechaun MYSTERIES would be better. To quote a friend from another website: "It's magically suspicious." -That One Dude

One must wonder what The Cheat thought about all of this... -CE5

Thought about what, Lucky the Leprechaun? Oh, you mean The Cheat Commandos.

I'm sure The Cheat would dig Cheat Commandos to a degree... That way, he may get more email than SB. But other than that, he may be disturbed at Foxface...who would want their gender changed on an action figure? -Katt

I'm fairly sure that the Cheat Commandos (apart from Firebert) are supposed to represent different members of the same species. --Upsilon

Gunhaver, in the tv show version, has a formation of dots on his feet that looks like mickey mouse. Strongrad