Joelanta 2014 Recap

Well, Joelanta 2014 has come and gone. This was the first time that Joelanta was a two day event. Usually, there's a Commander's Package that involves an exclusive 12" figure and some activities on the night before. I've only pursued the Commander's Package once, primarily because I'm just really not that interested in the original vintage style of GI Joe.

Usually, the show runs on a Sunday with a dealer room, an exhibit hall with custom figures and dioramas, and a section of celebrities for autographs. The only celebrity of note for me during the past few years has been Larry Hama. Due to an injury, Larry wasn't able to make it this year.

The local GI Joe club also does a massive display as the centerpiece of the entire event. This year's display was based off the Walking Dead. Really cool stuff, too. I'll post some pictures soon.

This year's show began on a Saturday and included several different panels throughout each day. The dealer room was packed and very lively, very energetic. It was amazing to see all of the various old toys that were for sale.
I was surprised at how many 3 3/4" Joe vehicles were selling. Decent condition vehicles were just flying out of the show. One comment I heard is that they vehicles still basically work with the modern GI Joe figures. True enough; even if the figures don't quite fit into the vehicles, they still look good next to them. 

I went to a few of the panels on Saturday. One featured one of the set dressers from The Walking Dead and it was a decent panel. Interesting to hear the behind-the-scenes tidbits about the show. There were two more that I went to, one was about the "50th Anniversary of GI Joe" and another was the "State of the Hobby." Both of them were entertaining enough, but still a little frustrating.

I was frustrated primarily because I'm a weirdo - I like both 12" and 3 3/4" Joes. While I am nostalgic about the original vintage GI Joe, I'm basically over that portion of the line. 

The mood seemed to be that this was the 50th Anniversary of the original painted hair GI Joe 12" action figure. Uhh, no... that figure has not been produced for the entire 50 years.

It's the 50th anniversary of the BRAND, not just a portion of the life span of the brand. Hell, the Real American Heroes characters have been around for over 30 of those 50 years. Damn, son, get over it.

One of the biggest problems that I had with going to Joelanta again was just not really needing to buy anything. Years ago, I stupidly sold off a bunch of 3 3/4" vehicles at near yard sale prices. Oh well, I don't really want to replace them at the higher costs now. I don't need them anymore.

Prices have jumped as well on the secondary market. Last year, I was buying up all the Vipers that I could find for $10.00 each. This year, the one Viper that I saw was for sale for $20.00. No, thanks, I don't need another Viper that bad.

I did get to meet Carson, the creative genius behind 3DJoes.com. He's a great guy and we were able to just hang out and talk about GI Joe and assorted other silly stuff. 3DJoes.com is an amazing site. If you haven't been there, you really need to check it out. Plus, you need to grab some of his posters. One day, I'll get some frames for the two that I bought and post some pictures on this silly blog.

If you're a fan of the original GI Joe, you can also check out Vintage3DJoes.com, a companion site to 3DJoes.com. Both sites have some amazing 360 degree photography of all sorts of GI Joe figures and accessories.

So my purchase list was quite short. I picked up a carded Renegades Duke (for customs), a loose Renegades Duke (after buying the carded version, dang it), the two 3DJoes posters, a Steeler figure from that big Target set (mainly for the head - custom), and that odd Jurassic Park - GI Joe type figure. He's got the Resolute Duke head on the Night Adder/Roadblock body with a deep tan skin tone and some well done tattoo work on the left arm and left side of the face.

This guy.

I just didn't really need anything. There were quite a few dealers that had plenty of small Joe stock, even new stuff, but there just wasn't anything that I simply needed to have.

The customs and diorama displays were a bit lackluster at this show. Not to slight anyone who entered their work, but there just wasn't much to look at. Some seemed to be re-entries from last year.

I really shouldn't complain that much. I've done customs and I've got some half-assed dioramas started, so I just need to make more of an effort to enter or show off something.

I can imagine that next year will pretty much be the same, expect dealers will have 50th Anniversary items at ridiculous prices. Oh yeah, 3 3/4" 50th Anniversary stuff, not 12" stuff. 

Even if I had won the mega-millions lottery the night before, I don't know if I would have loaded up on some of these vintage toys. Well, maybe I would have picked up that vintage yellow AT helicopter.

It was nice to see the Tiger Force truck there again. There were some other "celebrity" vehicles there as well, but I really didn't give a rat's ass. Seen one Mystery Machine, you've seen them all.

See you next year, Joelanta.

Questionable...

So anyway...

I recently saw a picture of Shadow Tracker that was exceptionally well done. Some simple mods to the figure and new life was breathed into the figure. So I decided to dig out my Shadow Tracker figure.

Around the same time, there was a brief discussion on Twitter about the merits of some of the Rise of Cobra figures. Night Adder's name came up. Another interesting figure, but, like Shadow Tracker, one that I had never really given much thought to.

Hmmm... I wonder what would happen with a simple head swap?

So this is how "Voodoo" came into existence. Neither Shadow Tracker or Night Adder, Voodoo is a seriously sick SOB. A cruel heartless beast of a man, perfect for a hired operative that even Cobra would like to disavow.

So anyway, due to the size of this figure and the petite nature of the new Renegades Scarlett figure, I had a thought.

Now, I'm not intending to promote or glamorize anything, but situations similar to this occur in real life. A larger, more powerful man takes advantage of a weaker woman. Ugliness, but it's out there.
The different environments that I posed the two figures in didn't really help. Still a bit disturbing.
Yeah, this is just too creepy as well.

So I tried something a little different with the same basic poses. Voodoo overpowering Scarlett and Roadblock about to slam into Voodoo and rescue his friend.

Better? I don't know.

Sneak Peek - G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Hell yeah!

Three of the Best by Hasbro

Without a doubt, Hasbro has done some excellent work with G.I. Joe figures recently. There have been a few misses, but there have been a great many hits.

These three figures stand out to me as easily being in the top 5 GI Joe figures sold this year.

The Cobra Viper gets an incredible redesign into the 30th Anniversary line. A great update for one of my all time favorite Cobra troop builders. These guys were the shit for me back in 1986. I had around 25-26 of the originals. I have one left, the rest got sold on eBay and helped us out of a rough financial patch.

Hasbro's update of the Viper primarily uses pieces from previous figures. I don't know if anything is new for this guy. I think the head is a correction for the "Hall of Fame" exclusive Viper over that 25th Anniversary nightmare (except for the vest). Everything else comes from Pursuit of Cobra figures and everything works great together.

I am up to 9 Vipers right now. I really think I should just stop there. Seriously, how many more do I really need? (25 - 9 = ? No, don't do the math...)

I really had no use for the original version of these guys. Premiering in 1982 along with the original GI Joe figures, the Cobra Troopers were the nameless, faceless soldiers of Cobra Commander. And like many of the early figures, not really the best sculpted figures. True, they were some of the first and sculpting did improve, but the basic Cobra Trooper was never really revisited in the o-ring years.

Along comes the 25th Anniversary line and the troopers get a new sculpt makeover. In my mind, not much better than their original o-ring counterparts. Awkward limbs, bald heads... Ugh.

This was a learning curve for Hasbro and they responded soon after with a vengeance. Again, here is a figure almost completely made of parts from other figures. Maybe all reused parts - I'm not that clever.

And the Trooper kicks serious ass. A little short in the accessory department, but I can come up with extra weapons. These Troopers are awesome!

I'm up to 12 now. STOP THE MADNESS!!

And of course Snake Eyes. It took Hasbro 54 tries to make the perfect Snake Eyes and they finally got it right.

The level of detail on this figure is exceptional. There is a temple Guardian version and the Renegades version out there after this guy. Who cares? This is THE Snake Eyes figure. Even non GI Joe collectors can appreciate just how bad-ass this figure is.

And with two head sculpts, you get your choice of which version of Snake Eyes that you would like. Me? I like the commando goggles over the ninja visor. I prefer Snake Eyes as a Commando w/ Ninja training as opposed to a Ninja w/ some commando training.

100% perfect? Figure - yes. Gear - almost. The swords don't quite fit in his hands. The explosive pack, while a cool nod to version 1, is almost useless. There is still plenty of extra gear out there that can make up for any perceived deficiencies in weapons.

Hasbro has done an incredible job with these 3 figures and with several others. Stay tuned! I'll check out some more soon.