Creative Outlets pt.2

OK, so here's where the geekdom really comes out....

... as most people do (or don't) know, I've been collecting G.I. Joes since I was a kid. Well, let me rephrase: The reality is that I bought G.I. Joe toys from about the age of 11-17ish & then stopped for a while, partly 'cause they were hard to find & they had reduced the quantity that they were releasing. I more recently (2004?) rediscovered this as a hobby through having seen the new whizzy 'night attack chopper' in stores & finally made up my mind (a year or so after it had left stores) to buy one & so went hunting on the net to find it.

This led me to discover the marvels of Ebay & after not too long I got the idea stuck in my head that I could now, as an adult engineer with no dependents, purchase all of the stuff I wanted as a kid, but never had money for.... so yeah, that started the pursuit of old & new G.I. Joes (& Transformers) that now take up pretty much every available flat display place in the house... when my roommates laugh at me about it, I threaten to kick them out to make more room for the collection & they seem to get really quiet, real quick after that... they figure I'd likely do it.

It's been an interesting time collecting them. I've enjoyed building the collection. Each new piece/figure has been great & it's always exciting to get new stuff in the mail or at the toy/hobby stores. Part of the fun has just been the pursuit of it all. It's given me something to do to occupy my time in the empty places over the last couple of years. Part of it is that I've needed something to fill the void after backing out of all ministry activities. Part of it is maybe (& this is likely just spiritualizing things) because some of my dreams have been to bring together an army of people to sow love in the earth; to put together groups of like minded, like hearted people in like-gifted or cross-gifted teams to go out into the world around & bring beauty, love, hope, joy.... and yeah, after the sense of losing those dreams, I guess the army-building instinct had to turn somewhere else to express itself.

I sort of ended up trapped in a mini-arms race for a while & so I now better understand the cold war. I kept trying to balance out the firepower of the noble, heroic, fight-for-freedom G.I. Joes, with that of the ruthless, terrorist organization of Cobra.... & yeah, you'd sort of get things nearly balanced, figure you needed only one more piece for one side to make it even & then you'd get a good deal & get two vehicles for a 'deal' & then that would bump one side into being more powerful than the other & so you had to look for another vehicle/plane etc. to help maintain the balance of power... (yes, yes, this is all sadly geekified, I know)

& yeah, part of the collecting stuff has come from my job of working with the military, er, excuse me, 'defense' industry. I've been learning a little bit about army organizational structure & so I've been putting all of my G.I. Joes & Cobras into 'units' & squads.... I've got the full blown organizational chart in an excel spreadsheet showing which teams & sub-teams everyone belongs to....

So yeah, anyhow, they are coming out with less & less of the 3 3/4" guys, in order to make way for the next generation of G.I. Joe fans who will be playing with a combined 8" and 2.5" line (or who will ignore the line all together & let the mythos fade into history), so my collecting days are starting to wind down (mind you I've been saying this for the past year). Mostly I've noticed that since choosing to hang out with the community house folks & start to get back into more relationships past just the 'inner circle', the obsessions levels have dropped a bit. Just have more stuff to fill the holes now.....

...but, I've been on a bunch of message boards listening to the greater 'Joe' community & have been seeing a number of 'customs' being made. This is where they take old figures & 'Frankenstein' them & repaint them. The 3 3/4" figures basically come apart into a head, boots, thighs (2 pieces/leg), waist, torso (2 piece) & arms (which, if you're good can be taken apart further, but I haven't figured that out yet. So people who 'Frankenstein' the figures just mix & match parts to create the form or 'sculpt' of the figure they want & then they just repaint it. Some people are creating entirely new characters. Some are creating their take on classic characters or characters from the comic books & cartoons that have never had a figure created for that character.

There are also a number of custom stores open now on the web selling custom heads, body parts & weapons. For a taste of this, check out: http://www.marauderinc.com/ - this is a guy who makes tons of little tiny guns & accessories for G.I. Joes. They're cheap(ish) & highly detailed & high quality... & (the engineer is coming out again), it's amazing that he can make some of the parts as small as he does....

So yeah, one of my new creative outlets, as geeky as it may be, has been trying my hands at the customizing. I'm not that good at it, but it's been kind of fun. It's been really relaxing & I have to really concentrate with painting the little parts, so it eats up time that I could spend worrying about other stuff, which I need every once in a while... I was able to complete quite a few customs done over Christmas (when I wasn't playing with niece & nephew) & here's a look at some of the projects (feel free to mock me at any time :) ):

So, some of these 'customs are really simple. I've been buying helmets from one of the custom stores on the web & you just paint up the helmet & add it to the existing figure. To the left is Dragonsky, the Oktober Guard flame throwing specialist. For whatever reason, when they finally release a figure of him, they didn't include a helmet. Dude had a helmet in the comics, so some guy on the 'net makes a helmet, the rest of us geeks buy the helmet & paint it & voila (the red star on the top was a pain & I had to paint the helmet twice 'cause I used a dull coat on the first one that kind of ate the paint. This is with a clear coat.

I'm using an acryllic paint with on the figures & it'll kind of come off, so they get you to spray it with a coating when it's done. One hobby shop employee told me to use an enamel dull coat, so the figures aren't so shiny. Another hobby shop person told me to use only the clear coat 'cause the dull would eat the paint, so yeah, I'm thinking the 2nd dude was maybe right....

This guy 'Ghost' is a figure of my own creation (i.e. does not exist in the comics or cartoon). Again this involves just painting the helmet. This was originally a figure named 'Firefly' & he didn't look like the classic image of Firefly & so I eventually got another figure to be 'the' Firefly' in my collection. But still liked the overall look of this figure & then found a helmet that would fit him. & the helmet really completes the figure for me.... Painted one of the helmets up at Marty & Kari's place & talked colour choices over with Marty. Again, the dull-coat kind of ate the first one & so I painted up a 2nd (the shinier one).

Other figures I've done are just full repaints. You don't change any parts in or out. You use the exact same figure, but totally redo the colours &, to steal a favorite phrase from my neice, 'Ta da"...new figure. On the left is the original 'Footloose' figure, on the right is my repainted 'Claymore' figure.

The only real different physically between the figures is the gear. Claymore has a vest that I've bought off of a custom store. Otherwise the core figure is the same.

There is an existing Claymore figure, but it's rare & costs an arm & a leg on ebay, so figured I'd make my own so I have the 'character' as part of my collection without needing to fork out the money for a, honestly, kind of dorky looking figure (the original figure is really yellow)

Other cost saving figures is this one. On the left is the Hasbro released A.V.A.C. figure which also costs a lot on ebay (this picture taken from http://www.yojoe.com, along with all other pictures not taken from me - it's the crazy web based G.I. Joe encyclopedia with tons of info on all things Joe). Found a sculpted AVAC head on one of the custom websites & picked it up. This is a frankenstein figure. Waist down is from one figure, the torso from another, the arms from another figure & the head bought off this custom website.

F.I. Joe was released as toys in other countries & a few of them have created their own unique figures that have become popular with the fandom. These two are my take on a couple of Brazillian figures, Cobra de Aco (Steel Cobra) & Cobra Mortal.

Here's are the art work from the toys to show what I was trying to emulate with the figures. Cobra De Aco (on the left is a Frankenstein with a new head. The Mortal figure is pretty much an existing figure with a new head & new paintjob.



Another interpretation of a Brazillian figure is this one of 'Glenda'. Again, pretty much a full repaint of one figure with a new custom head from one of the custom websites.

Fought for a long, long time with the eyes. Really like the detail on the left eye (her right). Really botched it on the right eye (her left), but got tired of dealing with it....
This is Lt.Stone. A character from the 8" line that I thought was cool & wanted to make a 3 3/4" figure. The 8" figure is pictured on the left, mine on the right.

The "Sigma 6" logo on his chest got all painted by hand. Pain in the butt, but turned out not too bad all things considered.

Maybe not as happy with the face. Took another figure's head & 'shaved' it's moustache by sanding it off. Didn't take the time with it like I should've.... and the robotic arm is a little loose, but haven't figured out how to fix that yet....


And here's a random collection of other figures I've completed. Again, pretty much all are non-preexisting-character creations (cept for a the guy with the ey patch & the guy with the green helmet - he's an existing figure with just a helmet repaint). Most of these, I just liked how the parts came together to make a decent looking figure/person.

The copperish guy is going to be called 'Gladiator'. He got put together 'cause I found this nice copper paint & thought it would look cool with the helmet & got the sword & shield to go with it. Pretty much the same figure as the 'Duke' in green (see a few pictures below), just different helmet & different arms.

The cobra symbol on the shield is all painted by me eyeballing it & using tiny brushstrokes & coat after coat of correction. Pretty happy with how it turned out after all the work put into it.

And have included a picture of Gladiator & Ghost. You can see the full figure & the two helmets for Ghost in this one.


The figure with the funky thing on his head is taking an existing torso & arms, leaving it untouched & adding new legs/waist & a custom head bought of the web.

The trenchcoat on the cowboy figure it actually made by a guy in the states who specializes in making & selling tiny G.I. Joe clothes.

So yeah, crazy geek world out there. Quite a number of middle aged men trying to relive their childhood with too much time & disposable income on their hands....

...oh well, it's a creative outlet & quirky hobby. Might as well get it out of my system while I've got some time...

(Again, feel free to laugh :) )