New Dio posted on my Website

I took a bunch of pictures using my 1/6th scale troops. I've got a little story to go along with it. Check it out here.

Check out my website!

Prehistoric Scenes - Just plain Awesome!

I absolutely loved these models from back in the early years of the 70s. I wound up with the whole collection. Very cool stuff! Too bad it's all gone!

This first picture shows the first series. Dinos and humans together! Still awesome despite being extremely scientifically inaccurate.

Here's the lay out for the total series. I'll have to post scans of each individual kit.

More Classic GI Joe Coolness!

Some more paperwork from the classic days of GI Joe!

Interesting replies from Hasbro for some of their mail in orders. Out of stock? Mail the kids some Flag Points as compensation.

An example of Flag Point bonuses for ordering from the bonus catalogs.

The mail-away order form for Duke and the Manta sail board.

The mail away for the Hooded Cobra Commander, along with the Manta sail board.

Cool stuff! I've got more to dig out and post. Stay tuned!

Old School GI Joe Goodness!

I recently found some old ads that I had cut out years and years ago and had stuck away along with some other GI Joe paperwork. Cool stuff! I thought I'd share it with my "vast" audience.

IMHO, the finest, most awesome GI Joe vehicle! The Defiant Shuttle Complex! $129.99 at Toys R Us - I never saw it anywhere else. I think I bought mine a couple years after the initial release for $99.00.

Tiger Force advertisement - very cool stuff! I still have the Tiger Cat. The picture with the four figures shows that mythical Tiger Force character - Sabertooth. I think that was supposed to be his name. Proof that he existed in some form!

Another great ad - $2.99 for a GI Joe figure - oh those were the days!

Exclusive Night Force stuff from TRU. I was never really impressed with them and never bought any. Damn shame. The Night Striker (black Whale) is a huge pile of win wrapped in a soft taco shell of awesome!

More treasures uncovered and coming soon! Stay tuned! (both of you...)

Layering images in Photoshop

I'm currently in the slow process of creating a photo montage with my 1/6th scale GI Joes. The basic idea is that the Joes are being pursued by Cobra forces - nothing very new there. The problem is that I don't have any Cobra vehicles or a large amount of Cobra figures. The two main 1/6th scale vehicles that I have are the HMMWV and the Chenowth light strike vehicle. The Chenowth doesn't have any insignia, so it gets to be used as a Cobra vehicle.

I wanted to create the illusion of multiple pursuers and came up with an easy way to do that with photo editing. I thought that if I used a tripod and had my camera in a stationary place and moved the vehicle to multiple locations, I could edit the pictures in Photoshop.

Here's the first picture.

Second shot, moved the Chenowth a little farther back and to the left.

Third shot, a little farther back and again at a different position.

Here's the final result after several attempts. The picture with the most distant vehicle wound up being the background with the other pictures being layered over in order of the distance.

Careful erasing and shifting layers to get the desired effect of multiple vehicles. Worked pretty good to me!

What do you think?

New GI Joe: ROC Exclusives @ Sam's Club

Sam's Club has ROC exclusives - two packs of vehicles for $24.83. Snake Trak ATV w/ Armored Panther & Rockslide ATAV w/ Mole Pod. No variations on drivers - they look the same with no visible variations. Sorry for the lousy pictures - too close with the camera!

Oh, the carnage!

My two newest Power Team guys were doomed before they even left the store. Once I got a glimpse of the detailed head sculpts, I knew they were destined for Hasbro super articulated bodies.
So much for the review, time for some carnage! Above is a Power Team head that I used for my tutorial on head swaps between Power Team and Hasbro bodies. The utility knife is ready to go!

One head sliced, needing to be trimmed and another ready and waiting!

The thick o-ring wedged in, ready for test fitting.

The Green Beret gets the treatment as well. Bottom of the neck post sliced, thick washer installed.

And here they are... Both successful survivors of radical head surgery! For a more detailed look at the process, check out this earlier post.

HEY!

YEAH, YOU!

Please feel free to leave a comment!