Action Figure:
3 out of 4 stars.
This was a VERY solid figure, even though Scoop gets lapped in "coolness" factor for being a support non-combatant that really provides no support to other Joes at his base purpose, Combat Information Specialist.
Scoop did provide texture and world-building of G.I. Joe as a force, but he was also doomed to be a C-Lister.
He's working on behalf of military oversight to give data, recordings of combat missions for evidence, and training. Lifeline could patch you up, and a communications guy could call for help, a ninja could go all OG and rip through Vipers, Sgt. Slaughter could go one-on-one with Serpentor. What can Scoop do? That's sort of the blessings and curses of one-off specialized characters. Unique, but lacking appeal in play.
Scoop's head mold and file name, Leonard Michaels, was a direct nod to Mike Leonard, the longtime NBC Today Show correspondent. I thought one of the strongest things about this figure was the removable helmet and seeing that face. The resemblance was very well done, even though I didn't know about the connection at the time of the figure's release. There's a softness to his expression, a bit of a smile, and a calm gaze. That reads less like "combat-ready" and more like "curious observer."
Scoop shouldn't be hypermasculine like Sgt. Slaughter, or Stalker, or Gung-Ho. He's the guy who documents the moment, not defines it. There's value in having that counterpoint. Not everyone can lean into archetypes of military masculinity such as command, grit, and brute force. Too much "sameness" impacts contrasting play patterns and adventures. Not everyone can be the hero, the rogue, the anti-hero. Scoop could bring introspection, observation, and emotional nuance.
Scoop's color palette was rather controversial. A yellow jumpsuit and green reporter vest definitely marked him as a non-combatant (this was right on the edge of G.I. Joe toy line, going fantastical outright with the figures as the children buying were trending younger).
This was a standard practice of support characters in bright colors. Barbecue, the G.I. Joe firefighter, in red. Airtight actually used the same color palette as Scoop years ago, yellow and green, as G.I. Joe's hostile environment specialist (part of the 19985 lineup, what many consider the greatest year of G.I. Joe as a toy line). Lifeline was in red.
Scoop ended up color-coded more like field journalism than providing battlefield bravado, but the issue remains: Was it cool? Most kids saw a guy in yellow as "shot first, killed first" ... "picked last" ... or "left in the toybox."
The featured accessory, which the card art focused on, was his grey high-tech camera. 1989 seemed to be a period where accessories trumped figures, looking around the assortment; this might be a case here where the camera was more interesting. Viewfinder, a microphone at the front bottom, a light, and then a big camera lens, so Scoop could record all sorts of action and adventures. Hold, point, record. An easily understood play pattern. Then it had a peg which connected to the standard black hose, which in turn connected to his leg.
Even if a kid didn't like Scoop as a figure or character, there could still be value in buying him just for this camera, because it encouraged different play patterns. Information and recordings might have become reasons for conflicts.
Scoop also had a rather striking pistol to protect himself, with a silencer on it. For a weapon that was sort of his afterthought accessory, I always thought it was visually cool. The removable helmet had a red visor and a removable microphone. That microphone seemed to always come off easily, and likely many kids lost it.
Then, Scoop had his satellite relay station backpack, which gave him a more active role. This allowed him to transmit and send live video feeds, encrypted reports, and battlefield updates. He could also receive intelligence, mission briefing updates, or Cobra battlefield analysis. So, he could serve as an information hub, rather than just a passive node that other Joes need to monitor, keep safe. Data could be routed through him in either direction.
That depended on how much a kid paid mind to his backpack, of course. Another neat aspect was that his backpack could also hold his camera, with a circular peg, the camera having a circular indent, which created further play patterns between accessories and figure. He could put away his camera when G.I. Joe had to get on the move.
Scoop existed in the communications-adjacent/all-purpose tech guy realm. A kid, aging into G.I. Joe as it went into the 90s, likely didn't have a Dial-Tone or Mainframe or, further back, Breaker, so this Scoop could fill different roles as a com guy on the field and also come up with solutions with tech on the fly.
Scoop was held back as a figure because of two things: the yellow jumpsuit and his role as a field reporter. A kid with very little pocket money would pick the "cooler" option.
G.I. Joe Is Back? Cool! Oh, Wait, It Sucks:
So, after G.I. Joe: The Movie, the IP went silent in the animation world. There was no season 3 of G.I. Joe by Sunbow. How would Cobra Commander be de-mutated? More adventures with Lt. Falcon, Jinx, the other Rawhides? Would Mercer still be distrusted? introductions of Crystral Ball, Croc Master, Big Boa, etc. It never happened. Reruns of G.I. Joe aired, and that was that. I certainly didn't know that Sunbow lost the license.
Then, in 1989, suddenly, there was a new G.I. Joe cartoon on the air, with the new series kicking off with a five-part mini-series, Operation: Dragonfire. It came on in the mornings before school in my area, so I had to juggle getting ready for school and watching it. I was just happy to see G.I. Joe again, with new stories, and characters.
That didn't really last long, as I came to realize quickly, DIC (Do It Cheap) G.I. Joe sucked.
The animation style was less fluid and lacked detail in the Sunbow era. The characters had jerky movements, and the backgrounds were simplified. Much of the voice acting was outright bad. There was an odd stiffness to the dialogue and character beats. The plotting and scripting were basic and dumb. DIC altered, even, the Sunbow theme song, now G.I. Joe was "international heroes."
Destro and Zarana:
Hmm. That was sort of my first big "spidey-sense" moment, briefly into the first episode, that Operation: Dragonfire completely and utterly sucked.
Sunbow Destro was a principled arms dealer, a firm believer in the "Cobra cause," with a deep aristocratic pride. He despised the Dreadnoks as crude money-grubbing mercenaries, often mocking their lack of discipline, providing no valuable skill set, and having a lack of a real ideology. Baroness and Destro had a shared higher upbringing and strategic ambition, and a volatile passion for one another. Even when they played mind games against one another, it was with flair and purpose, and they worked each other up. They got off on it.
Sunbow Zarana had feelings for Mainframe, a G.I. Joe operative! The episode "Computer Complications" showed her torn between loyalty to Cobra and genuine feelings for someone who saw past her façade. They had a mutual respect and curiosity for one another. This challenged stereotypes of both characters, Mainframe, the tech guy, and Zarana, the punk gang member. It was a surprisingly tender arc that hinted at vulnerability beneath her punk exterior. Zarana was capable of emotional risk.
DIC's G.I. Joe had a smaller budget, and it was targeting a younger audience. So, Baroness and Destro's relationship was flattened into simpler, easier-to-understand relationship tropes; Zarana was reduced to a floozy. Baroness was getting older; Destro wanted a younger woman; Zarana wanted a sugar daddy! Jealousy, Betrayal! Shock value over continuity! The result, though, was that these weren't really the same characters from Sunbow.
Destro was shallow, and all Zarana cared about was money. Sigh.
(In a regular season DIC episode, Zarana would be outright slut shamed by both Cobra Commander, Destro, and even a G.I. Joe agent she liked for good measure, reinforcing the notion Zarana deserved to be alone, tossed out like kitty litter)
Cobra's Media Warfare, Sunbow vs DIC:
Part 1 of Operation: Dragonfire opens with the Joes acting as a Peace Corps-style unit in a remote village. Scoop was a reporter for International News, offering critical coverage designed to damage G.I. Joe's reputation. Scoop was, surprise surprise, a Cobra Crimson Guardsman undercutting G.I. Joe as a media figure.
This seemed all rather familiar. Hmm.
In the Sunbow episode, "Twenty Questions," the Baroness was disguised as a peace activist; she collaborated with/egged on TV host Hector Ramirez, who was already skeptical of G.I. Joe's legitimacy, casting G.I. Joe as a needless, extravagant expense as best and a blatant rip-off of the American tax-paying public as worst.
So, this entire plot thread DIC was doing, Sunbow already did it, and did it much better. Cobra was trying to control the widespread narrative and public opinion by exploiting Ramirez's ego and ambition, the Baroness dangling the promise of an Emmy-worthy exposé while guiding his coverage.
"My mission was to undermine Joe support and morale by feeding you mindless drivel for your news program, but that sailor ruined everything!" she revealed.
Scoop's coverage was a tepid, mild critique of Joe's humanitarian operations, "interfering in the lives" of an indigenous people, but that stuff would have hardly moved the needle on overall public perception like what Baroness was doing in Twenty Questions.
Twenty Questions was a satirical commentary on media bias and manipulation. Scoop was a much more simplified moral lesson internalized for him and him alone, with Scoop learning, "Oh, G.I. Joe does good and maybe I shouldn't just buy into Cobra propaganda at face value!" It was earnest, that much I can give it.
Scoop did save Sgt. Slaughter's life, then, offered recruitment into G.I. Joe just like that. "Michaels, when I see someone who's got right stuff, I'll sign them up right on the spot," Sgt. Slaughter explained. Which, I will admit, was one of the few things in Operation: Dragonfire I didn't have a problem with. Shipwreck joined G.I. Joe in The Revenge of Cobra. Quick Kick joined in The Pyramid of Darkness.
Idiot Reporter:
Yeah, did I forget to mention, Scoop for a reporter was an absolute fool, a stooge for Cobra, without any critical thinking?
"Fanatical devotion is always music my ears," Serpentor remarked about Scoop's success and loyalty. Destro then replied, "That particular guardsman joined Cobra shortly after he was told G.I. Joe had destroyed his parent's home." Serpentor then asked, "Did they?" Destro, in a gleeful manner, answered, "Of course not! We did. Only an accident of course." Then Serpentor echoed, "Of course!"
Blah. Again, this is all rather strangely familiar. DIC, for lack of any creativity, further cannibalized elements from Sunbow's already used story beats.
In the Sunbow episode, "An Eye for an Eye," Charles Fairmont was just a regular man whose home was destroyed, his family injured during a Cobra-Joe skirmish. Instead of being a passive victim, Fairmont took action, broke into Joe HQ, demanded accountability, and ultimately joined Lady Jaye on a mission.
The episode had something to say about recklessness and agency, trauma, and also confronting a monster. Fairmont did have a showdown with Cobra Commander. An Eye for an Eye centered the civilian experience, providing that point of view. We needed to see the impact Cobra's terrorism actually had.
Fairmont's story challenged the Joes. It forced them to confront the unintended consequences of their battles. Lady Jaye's empathy and willingness to involve Fairmont did allow him to make a difference. Fairmont wasn't a soldier and also saw the real cost of fighting Cobra. He and G.I. Joe (as seen through Lady Jaye) forged a respect for one another. He didn't just dismiss them as "glory hounds" anymore.
Whereas Scoop's backstory felt like a convenient justification for his redemption. But the emotional impact was off-screen, and his family was never shown. It was a plot device, not a lived experience, reduced to Scoop getting panties in a bunch over property destruction.
Scoop didn't even bother looking at a police report, local news coverage, no questioning the people who lived in the area, people he or his parents might have known and seen it in real time happen. That's not just poor judgment, it's a failure of basic critical thinking.
Scoop believed Cobra's version of events without vetting it. This guy was a trained journalist, but he's a reporter who doesn't investigate, a reporter who doesn't seek facts. His very mission was to undercut G.I. Joe with Cobra propaganda, so there's no excuse. Scoop understood how Cobra operated.
The Computer Glitch Heard 'Round The Plot:
Scoop leaned in, looking at the information being transferred to his camera. The screen blinked: Recruitment Data – Restricted Access.
"Restricted?" he muttered. "Hmm. I wonder what's restricted about that…"
Scoop fluttered, said what he knew to be true, "The G.I. Joes blew up my parents' home, and I joined Cobra to get even. Everyone knows that!"
Back at Cobra HQ, thanks to some bugs in the works, the system hiccupped, causing lines of code to stutter, then unfurled. A glitch.
A voice recording played. Destro and a Cobra recruiter stood in front of the burning parents' house in real time (surely, that'd be the moment the file on Michaels was made, a well-known terrorist standing around recording his schemes while local firemen show up, just dumb).
Destro's unmistakable cadence began, cold and clinical, "Leonard Michaels is a promising young man, which is why I want you to lie and tell him that G.I. Joe has done this to his parents' house."
Scoop froze, and on that day, his brain grew three sizes. "Destro had the Cobra recruiter… lie to me?"
"If Michaels knew the truth, that Cobra blew up his home, he'd never join us. But as long as he believes the Joes did it, we can use his anger as a weapon against G.I. Joe."
Scoop staggered back to reality, heart pounding. "Cobra destroyed my parents' home," he whispered pathetically. "G.I. Joe had nothing to do with it…"
"A great job," he said bitterly, "for the people who burned down my parents' home and want to ruin my friends in G.I. Joe."
“Scoop… what have you done?" he cried as the show went to commercial. Complete with hooky "reveal" music cues. Embarrassing. What a loser.
This was no great earned moment; it's just an information dump.
So, realizing he's on the wrong side, Scoop aided the Joe team in their efforts to defeat Cobra and had to earn the trust of Low-Light, who had suspected Scoop was a spy early on.
He also learned the "moral lesson" that Cobra doesn't have friends, only convenient allies. Bad guys, bad. Good guys, good. Learning that Cobra lacked loyalty or camaraderie was treated like a profound insight.
But Cobra's entire brand was authoritarianism, deception, and betrayal.
Scoop saw it play out in real time during the mini-series with his "friend" Alley Viper falling out of favor, Copperhead trying to get ahead, sucking up to both Cobra Commander and Serpentor, and how Cobra forces sided with Cobra Commander in a coup against Serpentor.
If Scoop needed firsthand experience to grasp that Cobra steps over one another, he was either willfully blind or absurdly sheltered.
Lame Cobra, Lame G.I. Joe:
DIC's handling of the Scoop character was a textbook example of narrative convenience stacked on top of itself. DIC relied on contrivance to make Scoop a Cobra operative in the first place; the plot called on the contrivance that he didn't know the truth; then the plot relied on the contrivance that Scoop finally found out the truth.
This selective ignorance was necessary for the plot to maintain tension, but it undermined Scoop's credibility as a journalist, a spy, or, for that matter, just a reasonable person. Having a character do brash, foolish things is one thing, but having a character outright be a dumb geek is quite another.
The truth was spoon-fed to Scoop, and that was not a redemption arc; it's a plot pivot. And the "lessons" he learned are all rather kindergarten after-school meant for very young children, not a grown man who is both a reporter and spy.
... but as it was, DIC's imitation of a five-part Sunbow-style mini-series was at least... "okish." For what it was. It's watchable if only for the amount of Cobra backstabbing that goes on in it. And Cobra Commander does come back, so there's that, too.
DIC G.I. Joe would get much, much worse as it went on in its proper season episodes.
"Scoop believed Cobra's version of events without vetting it. This guy was a trained journalist, but he's a reporter who doesn't investigate, a reporter who doesn't seek facts. His very mission was to undercut G.I. Joe with Cobra propaganda, so there's no excuse. Scoop understood how Cobra operated."
ReplyDeleteSo, Scoop is a modern reporter?
I'm going to go with the DIC universe being where Copperhead ended up in "Worlds Without End." He stuck around, not finding a way home.
Yeah, the Copperhead deal is such an interesting thing, but I wanted to keep this focused mainly on the failure of the Scoop character in Dragonfire. I did use Scoop as Cobra turned Joe or even still a Cobra as a kid, mind you, but only for lack of any better character beats. Scoop flipping to the other faction is sort of the biggest thing he has going for him. Mercer is much cooler as a ex Cobra because he made an active choice on his own.
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