Dear Vector Prime, do GI Joe and Cobra exist somewhere in the Viron cluster?
Dear Real Anime Hero,
Indeed they do! Under the purview of the United States military, the G.I. Joe Rescue Corps worked tirelessly to combat the evil terrorist organization Cobra, who caused disaster from the shadows. By inoculating key individuals with their behavior-altering "Venom" serum, Cobra could engineer crises such as dam breaks, reactor meltdowns, bank robberies, and forest fires. When the call came in—"YO JOE!"—it would be up to Sergeant Duke and his emergency response team to fight back and save the day!
To challenge the dragon cult's mystic brainwashing and command over the elements, G.I. Joe was equipped with state-of-the-art high-tech vehicles—like Duke's "Attack Cruiser", a weaponised police car and peacekeeping machine. Joining him were the serious-minded pilot Scarlett, who flew the "Sky Hawk" helicopter; empathetic paramedic Lifeline, who drove the "Road Defender" ambulance; hot-headed firefighter Hot Zone, who drove the "Inferno Engine" firetruck; and boisterous construction worker Heavy Duty, who operated the "Drill Bit" mining machine. Depending on the mission, they would sometimes be joined by laid-back coast guard Beach-Head, who used the "Wave Crusher" hovercraft, and stubborn engineer Steamhammer, who drove the "Silver Streak" train. With General Tomahawk's tech-savvy son, Vinnie, backing them up at Rescue Corps headquarters, they used teamwork and ingenuity to defend the free will of every citizen.
Most curiously, the confrontations fought between these iterations of G.I. Joe and Cobra are repeated in an entirely separate timeline, deep in the megaverse! There, it was not Sergeant Duke who fought Cobra, but rather Officer Morishita of the Shinsei Foundation who investigated and counteracted the machinations of the Black Dragon Empire. Events played out almost identically between these two timelines, but where Duke had utter conviction, Shun Morishita was gripped with doubt over whether the Black Dragon Empire's rituals truly held sway over the minds of men—or if it was simple human apathy and incompetence which precipitated these daily emergencies.
This version of events may already be known to you! They are recounted in Kinkyuutai Shinsaver, a Toei anime and accompanying toy series from the year 2000. In certain markets, pleased with the cost-effectiveness of importing Car Robots for western audiences as Robots in Disguise, Hasbro would then do the same for this series—adding their own iconography and references that might be more recognisable, along with two new toys designed from scratch to fit the more militarized concept: the "Night Raven" stealth jet piloted by Snake Eyes, and General Tomahawk's "Super Slugger" battle tank. The line was unpopular with existing fans in the US, as the gimmick-heavy vehicles and 2" figures with limited articulation did not scale nicely with their older toys, but it sold well with its target audience, and the vehicles' action features went on to inspire similar gimmicks in Transformers: Armada toys developed later that year.
Anyway, I can see why you might not at first draw the connection to the continent-spanning battles between Optimus Prime's Autobots and Megatron's Predacons, as these groups never directly interacted at the time. It was only many years later that hidden "Ask Vector Prime" text in Transformers: Animated: The AllSpark Almanac II would declare that both Transformers: Robots in Disguise and G.I. Joe: Rescue Corps, together with A.T.O.M. - Alpha Teens on Machines, all took place in the same universal stream, Viron 901.8 Alpha.
