Where does he get those wonderful toys?

I'm assuming that most anyone who would be reading this is familiar with my weekly photo comic, Minions at Work. MaW is created (mostly, some occasional photo manipulation is used to) using 1/6th scale action figures, sets, and props.

The other day, I got this note from Minions reader Phil M.:

I love your comics. I was wondering, where did you find all the scaled down items? most of them look like the correct scale for the "minion" you have. I have never seen trash cans, golf carts, etc.
Just wondering...

Fair, question, but one I figured only a fraction of Minions readers would be interested in. So rather than cluttering up their space with what would have to be a lengthy post, I decided to answer over here, at my seldom-used hobby blog, where it was more likely to be seen by interested parties (and where interested Minions readers would be able to find it).

So, just for starters, let's take a look at the latest cartoon (you can, by the way, click on any of these to view a larger version):


Okay, the pat answer to Phil's question is, "everywhere." I've spent several years obsessively building up huge collection of figures, set-pieces, props, and accessories. Some are made. Some are found as action figure or doll accessories. Some come from the most unlikely places.

So what I'm going to do is use some cartoons as examples, talk about where the various items in them came from, and use that to offer more general advice about where you might find things of your own.

Let's just kind of go left to right and discuss things as we find them.

Number Two is talking on a pretty nice phone. The phone is a modified kitchen magnet I found at a kitchen store. I had to do some cutting and modification to make the hand-set removable.

Since the set is non-magnetic, I stuck it to the wall temporarily using a putty-like reusable adhesive clay sold for mounting posters and the like. You can find it in most any office supply stuff, and it's good for a million and one things when making dioramas. It doesn't dry out, so I keep blobs of it stuck to the side of a cabinet adjacent to my "Minions" workbench/studio, ready for immediate use. Like I said, it's reusable, so when I pull down the blob holding the phone to the wall, it will go back up there for reuse.

In the foreground there are some sandbags. Those are accessories that come with "Power Team" military action figure play-sets. Since most of my Minions use Power Team bodies, I've bought a lot of those over the years. The bags are actually hollow plastic, and open on the back, and so only look good from the front. I almost threw them away at some point, but I'm glad I didn't.

Not only are they handy for giving a set that pseudo-military "lair" look, but the hollow backside is great for hiding battery-powered LED "puck" lights, which I often use to as blue fill-lights in my photo set-ups. Actually, there's a light hidden there, but I forgot to turn it on before shooting. Whoops.

The rats fighting on top of the bags are toy-store items, sold as part of line of clear plastic tubes carrying various plastic animals. Some tubes are sold with nothing but various colored rubber rats, and I've bought a bunch of these. Again, handy around the lair, and I use mostly the black ones, which most of the rats in the tubes are white or tan. Save those for the lab-scenes.

The broken table and green storage drum are also Power Team items. The table isn't broken. It just snapped together in the first place, so I just snapped it back apart to make it appear smashed. It will be good as new next time I need it.

You can't see it well here, but the cell door is scratch-built. It's made from foam core, cardstock, toothpicks (for bars in the window), craft store hinges, and a padlock-charm found in a bead store.

1/6th scale doors are hard to come by, and I should make some more in various styles.

The wooden crates were found in thrift stores. Crates like these are used as containers for gift-soaps, bath products, little jars of jelly and jam, and other such things. I think the fad for these may be over, but there are still zillions of them cluttering up grandma closets everywhere.

The trash cans also came from thrift stores. They're at once surprisingly common, and hard to find. They're made as promotional items and sold to garbage and recycling companies, usually imprinted with their logos. The idea is you use them for pencil cups, paper clips, and the company's number is on your desk next time you need trash service. I've managed to pick up maybe half-a-dozen different ones in various colors. I don't know ANY place to pick these up at retail, but if you really want one, calling up the various trash companies in your area might turn one up. Good luck explaining WHY you want it.

Okay, let's move onto another prop-intensive cartoon.


Phil mentioned the Minionmobile, so I had to include it. The Minionmobile is obviously a golf cart. It was sold as part of some die-cast vehicle line a few years back, and it's actually more like 1/8th scale, not 1/6th. The roof was way too low for a 1/6th figure, so I had to extend the metal rods that support the roof and raise the seat to allow for more leg-room. You can see details on how I did it here. It doesn't look bad, and actually, I think the "clown car" aspect adds a subtle bit of humor everywhere it appears.

The clips in the back are designed to hold golf bags, which were missing on my example of the golf cart (I saw it in stores, but mine came from a thrift store again). So, instead, we have a GI Joe anti-tank missile launcher back there, and a scuba tank from an 18" knock-off action figure sold at Wal-Mart a few years back. (I bought some on clearance with idea of making giants or monsters out of them.)

While this golf-cart may be hard to find (check eBay), there are alternatives. Wal-Mart sold an RC Yamaha Rhino 4-wheel ATV last year, and there's a golf cart in the current "High School Musical" fashion-doll line that has possibilities.

The traffic cones are Power Team items again, and I wish I had more of them. They're great little props.

The high-tech curbs are rails from an Imaginex building set I think. More thrift store finds. The nukes are actually launchers from a Quest Aerospace Micromax model rocket starter set. I bought a bunch of these on clearance a few years back, mainly for the rockets and motors. The launchers I didn't have much use for, until I noticed how much they did look like some kind of nuclear storage canister or warhead. Now they show up regularly in Minions at Work sets.

Now onto something that shows a whole variety of prop-sources:


Going left to right again:
The wonderful console is part of a "Muppets in Space" action figure playset from a few years back. I got a bunch of these very cheap on clearance, and they're just full of great parts and set pieces. The console was plenty big enough, but it was too low, so it's removed from its original base and mounted on an inverted plastic cup sold as a desk organizer.

You can see the edge of an arched doorway in the back. This is actually one of those "sold on TV" gizmos called a "Can-A-Round." They're white plastic tracks designed to allow you to slide cans of soda and beer around to the back of your fridge. Or something. Seems like a stupid idea to me, but when painted gray, they look like high-tech girders and bulkheads. I have two or three sets, and I use them all the time.

The back wall is foam-core board (office supply or craft store) painted silver. It's decorated with PVC plastic pipe from the hardware store, held on with metal clips, screws, and nuts, also purchased there. The louvered vents are sold as under-eave vents for home roofs. Lots of goodies can be found in the hardware store, if you browse everywhere, and thing of things in terms of form, not intended function.

The equipment rack in the background is another one of those wooden gift crates I mentioned earlier. I painted it black, and stuffed it with a variety of military field radios (Hasbro GI Joe, Power Team, 21st Century toys), again, repainted and detailed using hardware spray paints and craft acrylic paint.

The chairs are all fashion doll items. Fashion doll lines are good sources for furniture and household items, though they often need repainting (lots of pink). Barbie, Bratz and My Scene lines are all good sources of stuff.

The table is thrown together. The top is just a piece of scrap wood put in as packing material in an "assemble it yourself" bookcase I bought a while back. The pedestal bases are a couple of curtain hardware things I spotted at the thrift store (form, not function, again). The top is held on with more of that poster putty stuff.

The top of the podium is a doll-house item. Standard doll-houses are 1/12th scale, half the size of 1/6th, but a lot of usable items can be found at doll-house suppliers. This was a desk-top lectern though, so I had to build the base myself, using wood scraps, and decorative molding strip (hardware store). Craft paint tied it all together.

The map and stand are from a Power Team set again, as is the green crate.

The briefcase actually was sold as a novelty gift item. It has a manicure set inside! But the latches, handle, and all the hardware work fine, and it's in pretty good scale. I've also seen these sold as business card holders. Business and desk-top novelty items and premiums often yield interesting items. In addition to the trash cans and briefcases, I've also picked up some cool office chairs, beach chairs, desktop computers, and other goodies sold as novelty or promotional goods.

The red table is another wooden crate. The yellow thing on top is part of some toddler playset. I found it at a thrift store, liked the shape, and made a few modifications to the "screen" on the side, replacing animal stickers with green cardstock (so I can easily Photoshop in computer displays or whatever).

The phone is our magnet again from the first cartoon. I've got a lot of novelty magnets that are useful props: computers, desk phones, pay phones, blenders, coffee-makers, dustbusters, clothes irons, toasters, lunchboxes, crates of fruit, pots and pans, toaster ovens, microwave ovens, aquariums, lunchboxes, gumball machines, wine bottles, all sorts of stuff. It pays to spin through the kitchen store every once in a while.

Okay, one more, in part to see how the same props get used again and again in different ways. This is Cap'n Rehab's submarine.



The porthole in the background is some kind of fiberboard ring I found in the floral section of a craft store. I have no idea what it's used for. I spay painted it gray, put in some scrapbook paper for the "reef scene" outside, and stuck it to the wall with more putty.

The ship's wheel was a wall hanging I bought at a tourist-trap gift store (I live in a beach town). The metal base for it (which you can't see) was made from a brass candle holder and some copper-pipe fittings from the hardware store.

In the foreground, there's the Muppet's in Space console again. Behind Number 9, you can see one of those rocket-launcher "nukes" again. The red barrel is a repainted Power Team item. The lamp thingies on top is actually an old, novelty salt-and-pepper set. I think I got it for $2 at a junk shop.

The arched doorway is made from our friend the Can-A-Round again. The door in the middle is cardboard and some textured scrapbooking paper I got at a craft store.

The high-tech crates came with figures in the GI Joe "Sigma Six" line.

The rubber duck around Cap'n Rehab's neck was part of a set of novelty earrings I spotted while following my wife into an accessory store at the mall. (Really guys, if your wife or girlfriend is at all crafty, it pays to follow her into bead, craft, and fabric stores now and then. You can go in by yourself, but the strange women who work in these places seem to have a talent for asking embarrassing questions.)

The little Nautilus desk model in the foreground was an accessory for a smaller scale Captain Nemo action figure I bought on deep clearance a while back. (I had no interest in the figure, but he came with a ton of cool accessories. I've also seen cool, usable for 1/6th accessories in other small-scale figures. Wrestling figures, the entire Muppets line being examples. (I got a cool mop and janitor's rolling bucket, a footlocker, some books, and food items with Muppets figures.) But for things like desk models, look for smaller die-cast toys. Nothing spruces up a military office like a model fighter plane, missile, or tank on the desk, and they're all over the die-cast section of the toy store. I've also found similar things in gumball machines and museum gift-shops.

I could keep doing this, but this post has gotten pretty long already. General hints:

Develop a "one-sixth eye." Develop the habit of looking at things in scale. Potential props are everywhere. For instance, I noticed one day while taking the protective cap off a "sports bottle" style bottle of drinking water I got at the theater, that it looked like a miniature Tupperware style bowl. I collected a few and added them to my box of kitchen and food items.

For specific ready-made 1/6th items, check fashion doll toy lines, but also look for novelty items elsewhere, sold as novelty clocks, souvenirs, key-chains, lighters, pencil sharpeners, magnets, desk accessories, business give-aways, jewelry, charms, etc. In addition to toy and hobby stores, you should also be browsing craft stores, bead stores (lots of interesting charms, bits of metal hardware, clasps, etc.), kitchen stores (especially for magnets and other novelty items), gift stores, souvenir stores (in my experience, the junkier the better), museum gift shops, zoo gift shops, and office supply stores.

Finally, you'll notice that a lot of my stuff comes from thrift stores. Thrift stores, garage sales, junk-stores, swap meets, rummage sales, are full of useful prop items. Just use the 1/6th eye. A wooden jewelry box is a desk. A pencil cup is a waste basket. A novelty metal cocktail skewer or letter-opener is a sword.

This stuff is literally everywhere, and often the coolest items are cheap or free. It's all a matter of having the eye, and the creativity, to find them.

Thinking inside the Box

After doing over 125 "Minions at Work" photo cartoons, I'm getting a little bored. Not with the Minions but with the sets I photograph them on.

My "stage" for the Minions is nothing but a small workbench on which I throw together sets using a variety of backdrops and walls (most built of foamcore board) and a variety of other "wild" set pieces, such as columns, beams, arches, and doorways. I can really do a wide variety of sets by swapping my basic pieces around, but for the most part, they have one thing in common. They're flat.

Because of the single-panel format for "Minions at Work," it's generally important to see all the characters in a scene clearly: who they are, what they're doing, what their body language is, and what they're holding. That's hard to do when you get more than two characters in a scene, especially if you're also struggling to get an interesting angle on the set (something else my current setup makes difficult).

Somebody is always turned the wrong way, or you can't see their hands when you need to, or you can't see what they're holding, or where they're looking, or something else that's important to the scene or the joke.

But it's also difficult to make multi-level sets to my requirement. I need modular flexibility. I need things that are sturdy and versatile. I need things that are self-supporting and that don't eat up too much of my limited (especially front-to-back) bench space. And most of all, I need cheap.

Here's a solution I've come up with (click on any of the images for larger versions):


Yeah, boxes. These are recycled "shoebox" sized Express Mail boxes. I've just glued the flaps shut and covered them with self-adhesive shelf-paper, also known as contact paper.

Contact paper is wonderful stuff, with all sorts of uses. It's cheap, comes in useful sizes, sticks well to most surfaces without additional glue or tape, and can be used to disguise or repurpose all sorts of common objects for use in our 1/6th world.

The big problem is the limited patterns available and their applicability to 1/6th sets. A lot of the patterns are florals or other decorative patterns that aren't much use to me, and there are wood-grain patterns that are way out of scale for 1/6th use.

On the other hand, there are sold colors, geometric patterns (like black and white or other checks, good for floor coverings, and stripes, which have some uses), and metallic. Here's an on-line-site to show you some of the patterns and colors you may also find in your local stores.


I've used the metallic papers before, but for this project, I went with a couple of stone patterns, one a gray granite and another a gray marble.

Why two patterns? Well, while either pattern can be used for both walls and floors, it's my feeling that the coarse pattern of the granite is better for floors, and the smoother pattern of the marble is better for walls.

Also, cover a box with one pattern, and it still looks rather like a box. But if the sides are one pattern, and the top another, then it takes on a bit more weight and reality.

But remember, I said flexible, and that's where I got sneaky. The trick her is that, in a photo, normally you can only see at most three of the six sides of a box. If you see an exposed side with one pattern, you'll tend to assume that the reverse face of the box is the same, but it doesn't have to be.

So for my boxes, I covered the ends, one wide side, and one narrow side with marble, and one wide side and one narrow side with granite. By flipping and rotating the boxes to expose various combination of surfaces, two little boxes can be used for an awful lot of different things.

Let's start with something simple. Stood on ends, the boxes become modular, free-standing wall panels. These can be used to provide a stub wall in the foreground of a picture, or to suggest a doorway or hall where none actually exists. Turn them one way, and you've got granite walls.

Turn them the other way, and you've got marble.

One thing to remember for photo purposes is, it isn't important what you build, it's what people see, and what they fill in mentally to complete the picture.

So while we can see this is just a couple of boxes on end, if you were to zoom in or crop to eliminate the tops of the boxes, the viewer will just assume it's a wall that extends all the way to some invisible ceiling. Same with the sizes. If the picture doesn't show the end of the wall, the viewer will assume it continues well beyond the picture, even if the wall overhangs the frame by a fraction of an inch.

Of course, I've only got two boxes, so the wall is necessarily pretty small. Making two more would allow for much more sizable walls, and the flexibility to create a doorway in the middle.

But while this is useful, my primary purpose for creating these was to create some verticality to my sets. Let's see how that works...

Here, by flopping the boxes on their side, I create a raised walkway or second level along the back of the set. This isn't a full "story" bump by any means, but it's enough to allow background characters to be seen clearly over foreground ones, and it adds some visual interest.

Note that I've put the granite "walkway" side on top, and the marble on the front. The fact that the floor is also covered with granite pattern ties the set together.

This setup would also work as a large display shelf of some sort, like a museum or trade show-exhibit, or a runway for a fashion show or a strip club. These things are just as flexible as your imagination.

In a perfect world, the gap between the two boxes wouldn't be dead center in the shot, but it's easy to hide behind an object or character, or to Photoshop out. You could also use a scrap of the same pattern contact paper to cover the gap. Or, you could just live with it, and assume it's a natural seam in the stonework.

Okay, here we flip the boxes, and we have a higher, narrower walkway. Still not a full story, but enough to provide some real separation between the levels.

Okay, the next step to tie these things into a scene is to enhance them with props. I happen to have three of these Power Team traffic barriers, so I'll put them on top of the box walkway. Now it looks more like a balcony or catwalk of some sort.

Of course, you may not have something ready made like this. One thing to remember is that cardboard is really easy to work with. You could punch or drill some evenly spaced holes and make removable stanchions out of wooden dowels or tubing. (Remember though, any holes you make in a side may limit its usability as a wall for later use) Connect the stanchions with scale-sized-ropes or small chain (check the jewelry department at craft stores) and you've got hand-rails.

Now, let's get a little more creative in both our arrangements of the boxes, and the use of props.

In this example, by flipping the boxes in two different directions, and careful exposure of a bit of that granite pattern, we've got a wall with a set-back shelf that we can fill with decorative props.

This somehow reminds me of Stargate SG-1 and the interior of a Goa'uld mother-ship. Once again a longer wall would be better, and you could also add to the height by stacking more boxes on top.

(Most of the Egyptian props, by the way, were purchased in the aquarium department of a pet store. The gong is a brass nick-nack I picked up at a thrift store.)

This arrangement suggests the base of a massive column, perhaps along the side of a great temple or hall. Once again, I've arranged the boxes to create a shelf, and added another aquarium department prop to sell it.

A row of two or three of these would be even more effective in suggesting a large and impressive space. As I said before, let their imaginations work for you. Show them three, and they'll imagine a dozen.

This scene would also be greatly improved by a backdrop more in keeping with the foreground (it could just be a sheet of foamcore covered with more marble paper, and some decorations added, like hanging tapestries created from cheap scarves or from scrapbook papers purchased in a craft store.

Finally, here's a slight variation on the above arrangement, used to create an impressive platform from which an Evil Overlord can address their attentive Minions. The custom-built lectern that I've built from wood and molding scraps is a big plus, but you could simply provide a box of roughly the same proportions (perhaps also disguised with shelf paper) for them to stand behind.

This scene would be greatly improved by hanging something on the backdrop, such as a flag, banner, shield, or logo.

Ironically, my first use of these in Minions at Work really doesn't fit any of the above. Mostly they're used to support a pre-existing set piece, my metal catwalk prop. Here's the cartoon. If you're interested in seeing how the catwalk was built (it's an easily reproducable design from parts you can get in most home-centers or hardware stores), you'll find a post on it here.

Of course, while the granite and marble patterns work well for me in a lot of applications, they won't work everywhere, or for everything. If you don't find the pattern you need in contact paper, check the fancy papers sold by the sheet in the scrapbook section of most craft stores. Paper can be glued to the box or applied with double-sided tape. You can even create your own papers by taking photos (culled form the net or shot with your own camera) and printing them on a color printer (heavier paper stock is easier to work with than standard printing paper). Using your own camera, you can capture weathered wood, cracked concrete, stone, rock tile, rusted metal, or whatever else you need, and scale it for use in 1/6th (or other scale) scenes.

New Bright CXT Truck

I found one of these monsters, trashed out and no remote, at the Goodwill yesterday for $3.99. Despite a little flack from my wife, I couldn't pass on it. As big as it is, it's 1/10th scale or smaller, and the cab (even if the door opened) is way too small for a Joe. Maybe if you wanted a Sigma 6 semi, this would be just about right. I think this came with a dump bed, but it was broken off this one, as were many of the grab bars, and the steps on the driver side.
What really interested me is the chassis and the wheels. It's BIG. The wheels are 6 inches in diameter (with duals on the back). It's 29 inches long (14 feet 6 inches in Joe scale) and 14 inches across (seven feet scale), which gives it a bigger footprint than the New Bright H2, and it's taller. They learned their lesson with the H2. It's very light for its size. The motor is also small too though, which makes me wonder how much power it has, even with a 19.2v battery.
Operationally, it's a bust. It came with a battery, but I don't have a charger for the 19.2v batteries. But more importantly, no remote, and since it has a multi-band switch, I'm guessing it won't work with the New Bright 49mhz remote that I already have (it IS 49 mhz, so there's a slight possibility that it might work on one switch position, but not the others). I hate to invest $20 in another battery and remote (if I can find one) if my remote isn't going to work, and I can't test it without a charged battery.

My thought is to strip the body and use the chassis for some project. But if I want it motorized, I may have to install a completely new RC system (and I'd probably go to standard RC-type batteries too).

Here are some pictures, with a Soldiers of the World Jeep and some Joes for size reference.


The underside. The battery compartment looks almost identical to those with a snap-in 9.6v battery. The batteries do have the same footprint, but the 19.2v battery has slightly different contacts and flanges so you don't accidentally get them mixed up, and the 19.2v battery is twice as thick. Note that while it looks like there's tons of ground clearance, the front end and gearbox are still pretty low to the ground.


Note that the truck looks plenty tall, but when you compare Joe to the tiny doors, you seek the scale doesn't work at all


It's not tons longer than the Jeep, but it's wider.

Star Wars Helmet Tutorial

I'm not hugely into 1/6th Star Wars figures. I have a few, but not many. But I know there are tons of Star Wars fans, collectors, and customizers out there, so I'm passing along a couple methods of producing removable helmets for Empire troops.



The first is pretty straight-forward. The starting point in this case is a Hasbro TIE fighter pilot, though this technique would probably work for other Hasbro troops such as the storm-trooper, sand-trooper, clone-trooper, and maybe even Boba Fett or Darth Vader.

The figure shown is in fact just a thrift-store special I found nude. As you can see, the Hasbro TIE pilot is mounted on one of those awful Action Man/Hall of Fame bodies. I don't much like the proportions on these, or the lack of articulation (especially the lack of ankle rotation and head tilt).



One option on improving one of these figures is simply to remove the head and transplant it to a GI Joe body of your choice. The head-posts are completely compatible. Of course, you still have to contend with transplanting the molded glove-hands and the sewn-on costumes, but it's doable. But you're still stuck with a non-removable helmet, and that bothers me. Besides, maybe you just want a helmet to sit on a shelf or table in a diorama. So lets turn that TIE fighter "head" into a helmet.

First step is to remove the head. I used the "boil and pop" method. Dip the head into a pot of boiling water to soften the rubber, the pry it gently off the neck post. A narrow tool like a small screwdriver is very helpful in this task.

Take great cautions not to scald yourself, as the hot water likes to find its way inside the hollow head and cavities of the bodies and arms, then dribble out on you as you're working on the figure.

Here's the bottom of the removed head. You can see the opening for the figure's neck post. You can also see a ridge around the bottom of the helmet that probably represents where the real helmet ended. I chose to use that as my cut line. I've heard of people using Dremel moto-tools to cut these, but that's huge overkill. The head is soft vinyl and not very thick. I used a brand-new hobby-knife blade, and it cut like butter.

Again, use caution not to slip and cut yourself, or to cut too far into the helmet. Slow and gentle pressure is the way to go.

Here's the bottom of the helmet. The opening is plenty big for almost any kind of 1/6th figure head.

Here's the finished helmet shown on a molded-shirt CC-Joe with a WW2 head. If anything, this helmet is over-sized.

Our next project is much more challenging. Our starting point is a Burger-King kid's meal toy. These were out a year or two ago, and they aren't hard to find on eBay, or for that matter, at thrift stores and garage sales. There are a couple other figures in this line that might also provide useful helmets (I think there was a Clone Trooper and a Boba Fett, for instance).

The toy is a solid molded figure held together with those damned security screws (triangular openings in the head) that are on so many fast-food toys. (If anyone knows a source for an affordable driver to fit these, please tell me about it.) There's a light mechanism inside activated with a button on the backpack.

Since the helmet is molded as part of the whole, the first challenge is to cut it off. This would be MUCH easier if you could take the figure apart first, but lacking the right tool, and not wanting to take the time to try and drill the screws out, I just started cutting.

A Dremel tool probably would be useful here, but I don't use mine much, and I wasn't confident I could avoid cutting too much, especially in the complex little curves around the "jaw" of the helmet. So I opted for one of my favorite tools, a razor saw. I just took a lot of time and patience going round and round the helmet, coming at the joint line from all angles and taking away a bit of plastic at a time. It was tricky, but I got it done.

Here's the bottom after I cut it off. First problem, the neck opening is way too small. Second problem, the head is full of STUFF, including the LED light and battery holder. I used small needle-nosed pliers to break the tabs holding the light in and removed it. I then was able to work a small pair of diagonal-cutting pliers inside from the bottom and cut the post that contained the screw. This weakened it enough I was able to rip the two halves apart. Again, the right tool for the job would have made this so much easier.

Here are the two halves of the helmet. All the interior junk needs to go. I attacked it using two different sizes of diagonal cutters to "nibble" plastic interior parts out, and a pair of needle-nosed pliers to grab, twist, and break off what was left. Again, patience is required. Again, a Dremel tool would be an option, but be careful not to cut or grind through the outside shell.

Here's what I was left with. A Dremel probably would be the best way to enlarge the bottom opening, but I just sort of whittled things out using a sharp hobby knife, taking away the plastic a sliver at a time. Though I removed all the alignment pins, there's a lip around the edge that makes it easy to put back together properly. I glued the halves together with a bead of super-glue.

Here's the finished helmet on a CC Joe. This is a much tighter fit than the TIE helmet, but I had no trouble getting it on the Joe, and even got it on a much larger Power Team head. I think this is rather close to scale, actually. At least it looks right to me.

The nice thing about this is the you can care up plenty of extra Storm Trooper helmets, if you want them for custom projects or to make a squad of troops. Of course, you'll need to come up with armor for them. Since the original 1:1 Storm Trooper armor was made from vacuum-formed plastic sheet, and home vacuum-forming isn't difficult at all, it wouldn't be that hard for somebody to create some molds to mass-produce 1/6th Storm Trooper armor. Combine that with some simple black body suits, and you could crank out 1/6th Storm Troopers by the dozens!

Go on! I dare you! (And send me a set of armor when you're through.)

Max Steel Ultra Action Body, a spotter's guide

In the spirit of my previous "Spotter's Guide" post on the Hasbro, GI Joe CC body, I present a somewhat less extensive post on a body-style whose importance and usefulness has been greatly underestimated, one that remains a favorite of mine, the Mattel, Max Steel, "Ultra Action" body.

Though eclipsed in the U.S. by the 12" GI Joe line, though the late 90s Hasbro had a second 12" line, Action Man. Many adult collectors disliked Action Man. Most Action Man bodies had limited articulation, and the colorful and toy-like accessories and uniforms were clearly geared to younger children. But on the other hand, Action Man explored non-military themes more in keeping with the 70s GI Joe Adventure Team, and there were some interesting vehicles, play-sets and accessories in the line.

Why are we talking about Action Man in a post about Max Steel? Because, though Mattel would probably never admit it, Max Steel was very-clearly Mattel's attempt to do a knock-off of the Action Man line.

That may seem a strange move for a major toy company, but outside the United States, the Action Man line was a big seller, and even in the U.S. reached a younger market segment than GI Joe. At this time, Mattel was also still hugely successful with it Barbie doll line for girls, and therefore it would have seemed natural to offer a similar product line for boys. Max Steel was that line. (Interestingly enough, M&C's Power Team line also seems to have been created as an Action Man knock-off, but it evolved in its own, very interesting, direction.)

However, while most knock-offs are done by lower-tier toy companies with the idea of creating a cheaper, but inferior copy. While Mattel was pretty slavish in copying Action Man and his accessories, their intent seems to have been to surpass Hasbro at every turn, and I must admit that in almost every case they succeeded. Action Man had a plane, Max Steel got a better plane. Action Man had a car, Max Steel got a better car. Action Man had a high-tech wind-surfer, Max Steel got a better wind-surfer.

And though the original and most common Max Steel body (sometimes known as "Super-Action" was a copy of Action Man with only minor enhancements (slightly improved neck articulation and a high-tech arm-band, to be described later), Mattel wasn't content to stop there. In some of the higher end sets they started to offer what was sometimes known as the "Ultra Action" body, an improved body with double joints at the elbows and knees plus cut rotation joints (two in each leg, and one in each arm). This post will focus on this very interesting body design, which I regard as one of the best compromises ever in creating a well-articulated but robust and kid-friendly body design.

Though it's little known to 12" action figure hobbyist (except for those few who specifically collect the Max Steel line), based on the numbers of these I see in thrift stores, I think the Max Ultra Action may be the most-produced "super-articulated" action figure bodies in history (though the M&C G3 Power Team body may be catching up).

This first picture shows two very basic Ultra Action bodies. The one on the left is a plain-vanilla UA body, which is actually a rarity in the line, as I'll go into. The one on the right is a "motion talker" body, with added electronics in the torso and head. More on this later.

From a kitbashing standpoint, one thing I like about the body is how beefy and muscular it is. Many "super-articulated" bodies, such as Hasbro's SA body, tend to be rather slender. Making the arms and legs thin makes it easier to have a large range of motion. But not every character is suited to be a bean-pole. For others, such as super-heroes, a muscular body is a necessity, and the Max body offers that option.

As I said, it's unusual to see an UA Max without some kind of action feature or modification. It's fairly common to see them with black molded bodies, arms, and sometimes even legs. There were action torsos, like the talkers seen here, and many figures were issued with "hybrid" bodies, that has UA legs with a Super Action torso, or some kind of action-feature torso or arms that even further limit articulation. Like Action Man, this was first and foremost a toy line, and the desires of adult collectors and kitbashers were probably never a consideration.


This shot gives some idea of the articulation offered by the improved joints. Though the arms and legs can't bend as far as some super-articulated designs, the range of motion is very good considering how muscular the limbs are. It could be argued that the joints are somewhat large and obvious, but one real advantage to the design is that the joints seem to have lots of internal surface contact area. I've never seen a loose knee or elbow joint on one of these, and they hold poses very well, even holding heavy accessories.

The same applies for the rotating cut joints in the arms and legs. The arms have a cut joint in mid-bicep. The legs have one mid-thigh, and a second one in the ankles to allow for full rotation of the feet. (The latest Power Team G3 design also has similar cut joints, though it lacks the ankle joints, and they're more more likely to become loose over time.)

Unlike other super-articulated designs, the UA body doesn't have any additional joints in the torso. Again, I think this is a kid-friendly choice. Such joints tend to be fragile and are difficult to design so that they don't become floppy. Uniforms and accessory straps can also become caught in the joints. The utility of such joints is limited too. They most often come into play in prone shooting positions, and Max was more of an adventure line than a military one.

One other thing that should be noted is the pelvis. Like Action Man, Max came molded and colored with "underpants." This is kid-friendly as younger kids often remove and lose the uniform. With the underpants, they still have a playable figure. There may also be modesty concerns in some countries where the toys are sold. One less obvious design feature is the "waist band" on the shorts. This double-row of raised ridges is designed to hold the elastic waist-bands used on many of the uniform pants and shorts. Without these ridges, the elastic would tend to slide over the top of the pelvis and get caught in the upper torso joint. It's one of these little details of design that you have to admire.

I think there are a couple of reasons that Max never caught on with kitbashers. First is the head, and the way it's mounted. The only character ever to use this body (that I'm aware of) is Max himself. There are several variations on the Max head though, including one with a molded-in headband and a more determined facial expression, and one with a Terminatorish high-tech headpiece that covers one eye.

Also, the mounting design used is non-standard and makes head-swaps challenging (though not impossible, as we'll see).

The other disincentive for customizing is the arm-band, featured on every Max figure in the line, no matter the body style. The molded-in band is painted silver over the flesh-colored plastic, and has decal "controls" (often missing or damaged on the ones I find in thrift stores).

The back of the armband has a socket, and many Max accessories have a plastic "cable" that can plug into into it. I think this is so he can control the accessories with some kind of build-in bionics, but I've never paid a lot of attention to the character's back-story.

Some customizers have carefully carved away the band using a hobby knife (though I imagine it's difficult not to leave the arm with what looks like a horrible burn scar of some sort). Others have covered it with custom cuffs or arm bands of their own. In most of my Max-based kitbashes, I've either gone with the arm-band as an accessory, or covered it with a long sleeve and a tight cuff.

Let's get back to that "talker" Max seen above. I'm going to cover this in some detail, in that it seems to be one of the more common UA variations out there, an unlike most "action features" that have been added to action figures, this one doesn't interfere with the utility of the figure must, and I actually kind of like it.

The talker-torso can be identified by the speaker holes in the chest, an activating button on the front (the "third nipple" on the right pec), and a three-position slide switch on the left side of the body.
There's also a battery door on the back, secured by a screw. The bit of cloth ribbon is intended to make it easier to remove the button batteries, and normally would be tucked inside out of sight. The torso is otherwise the same size and shape as the standard one, and this doesn't limit the articulation in any way.

The slide switch has three positions, off, button activation, and motion activation. The first position is self-explanatory. In the second, a sound clip is activated when the chest button is pushed. As I recall, Max's vocabulary (at least in the versions I have) is pretty limited. He will alternately say "Going Turbo!" or let out a "yeeee-HAAAA!" worthy of the Dukes of Hazzard.

The motion activation is more interesting. This kicks in the voice chip when the figure is moved drastically. I think this figure was originally built around the concept of tornado surfing, believe it or not, and came with something like an aerial snow-board. The child could swoop and flip Max through the air, and he'd shout and whoop enthusiastically in response.

I made another interesting discovery when I tried doing a head-swap on these. I'd naturally assumed that whatever kind of motion sensor it had, it was mounted in the chest with the rest of the mechanism. Instead, I discovered that there was a special neck attachment piece with a post extending up into the middle of the head. At the top of a post was a metal canister was a component that is apparently the motion sensor (my guess is that it may be a magnetic sensor that responds to movement in the Earth's magnetic field, but it could be something simpler than that.) It's fascinating to me that Mattel's designers decided to put the Max's "balance organ" in approximately the same location as the human inner-ear.

In case you were wondering, though the size of the neck post was somewhat different than other Max heads, I was still able to successfully transplant a modern Action Man fuzzhead onto the body and keep the voice/motion feature intact. That figure is currently dressed in a spare FAO Schwartz-exclusive Adventure Team "Skydive to Danger" uniform and accessories. It's amusing to watch people's faces as I toss he and his parachute into the air, and the character shrieks "yeeeee-HAAAA!"

This shot shows one of the most annoying limitations of the UA body. There's just no ability to bring the arms together across the chest. They stop at a 90-degree angle. The rotating cut-joint compensates for this somewhat, but it still prevents a lot of poses.

I may go into this in greater detail in a future post, but for now, I'd just like to offer some evidence of how other types of heads can be transplanted onto the Max Steel neckpost. This first shot uses a 30th Anniversary GI Joe head. The 30th Joes were Hasbro's first, crude attempt at recreating the vintage GI Joe, an used a barely articulated doll-like body. The head design almost makes it impossible to transplant to later GI Joe bodies.

The design, however, had a concave socket in the bottom of the head that fit over a rounded neckpost on the torso, very similar to Max Steel's, making this a natural head-swap. The 30th head is also kind of large, and I think large heads look better on the beefy Max Steel body. The only problem is that the neck on the 30th torso is longer and the socket on the head proportionally deeper. The result is that the transplanted figure is something of a "no-neck," but it does work.

Here's an assortment of head transplants onto Max Steel bodies. All the heads are Hasbro of one sort or another. Left to right, 1, 4 and 5 are from the GI Joe Hall of Fame line. Number 3 is obviously a from a Star Wars Luke Skywalker. Number 2 is a modern Action Man fuzzhead. Most modern Action Man use a neckpost identical to CC and SA GI Joes, but for some reason, this one used a socket-on-dome similar to the 30th body and head. Likewise, an easy transplant, but a no-necked result.

The figure on the right, by the way, as an example of one of the "hybrid" figures I mentioned. The legs are UA, but the upper torso and arms are a mish-mash of parts. The left arm is a less articulated arm from a Super Action body. The torso has a battery compartment, and the right arm is a special part. Moving the elbow activates a led light feature visible in a clear window in the bicep. Because of the lever that activates the feature, that elbow loses its ability to rotate. Still kinda cool in a Six Million Dollar Man way, though.
And finally, for something completely different, a more unusual transplant. As mentioned above, some of my first transplants onto UA Max bodies were Action Man heads, bringing this high-class "knock-off" full circle. Given that the build and proportions are similar, Action Man heads look pretty good on the UA body. But the result isn't perfect. The UA arm still has that wrist band, and most modern Action Man have a cool AM logo arm tattoo. How to get some improved articulation and retain that tattoo?

I started to wonder, if Max Steel is an AM knock-off, is is close enough that some parts might be interchangeable? In fact, at least in the case of the mid-torso joint, they are! Using the "boil and pop" method, I was able to remove an Ultra Action lower body and snap it onto an Action Man upper body! The result still has AM's limited (but distinctive) arms, but the improved leg articulation of the Ultra Action Max.

I've used the same method to improve other figures in the Max Steel line, namely the "Bio Constrictor" villain, a favorite kitbash subject of mine. The Bio Constrictor has a unique upper torso, arms, and head, but the pelvis and legs are simply recolored (Bio Constrictor's skin is kind of a putty-brown) Max Steel parts. When I run across a Max Figure with black-colored UA legs, the lower body usually gets transplanted onto one of my Bio Constrictors. They don't look any different, but they're much better at assuming realistic poses than stock figures.

The real shame of the Max Steel Ultra Action body was that it was used for so little. Mattel never created other heads for the body, and as the line wound down, the UA body parts were pushed aside by the less articulated Super Action body, and increasingly gimmicky action bodies with even less articulation and utility. One assumes the molds still exist somewhere, an excellent body design going to waste. Let's hope this isn't the last we've seen of Max, or at least, of his better body.

A CC Joe Spotter's Guide

(Click on photos for full-sized versions)

(Minor revisions made 12/12/07. Typos corrected, sections on hands and "Kung-fu Gimp" edited.)
Though it only ceased mass-market production a few years ago, it seems more mysterious to many people than the original GI Joe body-style first produced in back in 1964. As I was cleaning up a box of CC Joes caught in our recent storm damage (see previous post for details) I saw an opportunity to sort out some of the many variations of the CC Joe body and document them in one place.

Though many people seem to treat CC Joes as being interchangeable except for the different head-sculpts and hair colors, there were actually a huge variety of body versions, some quite distinctive and unusual. The basic CC design had many variant parts, hands, feet, torsos, different arms, and many had unusual coloring and marking variations. Given all the heads, parts, and ethnic variations, I'd guess (and it is just a guess) that Hasbro probably made somewhere between 100-200 distinctly different CC figures over the life of the line, and literally thousands of configurations were possible (and many are available to the kitbasher as well.

This is by no means a definitive guide, and I don't claim to be an expert. I'd welcome input, corrections, and additional information that can be used to expand and improve this post.



Let's start with some basic body types.

The figure at right is a "CC Blockhead," defined by his flat-top head-sculpt. I think this is one of the very early CC figures. He seems to have a somewhat distinctive neckpost, but otherwise his body parts set the pattern for Joes that continue through the life of the line.

The CC Joe was intended as a modern replacement for the vintage style (AKA, "Timeless Collection" or "TC Body.") GI Joe. The original Joe body style continued to be produced (and is still produced today, in GI Joe Collector's Club exclusives, and store exclusives like the recent GI Joe Adventure Team reproductions sold through Wal-Mart and other outlets) and is preferred by old-school collectors. But the CC body was aimed at younger collectors and kids, who wanted more realism, posability, and durability than the vintage body provided. The CC body was also likely much cheaper to produce with less hand labor, a body designed for modern mass production.

He's got the original gripping hands. I think these are known to collectors as "lobster claws" (correct me if I'm wrong here, guys). Unlike the original GI Joe hard-hands, this Joe could hold his weapons and gear. In some respects, these were more like the Adventure Team Kung-Fu grip hands, but they were larger (too large, some would say), more realistically sculpted, and the fingers were molded together. The design of the hands and arms still had some shortcomings. Joe could hold his rifle, but not in a shooting pose. He also lacked a trigger finger. Later hand variations would address these problems.

Another big improvement over the original Joe is the hip design. Original Joes can't sit properly because of their ball-and-socket hips. The new design featured a hip piece with wide openings, and a hip joint consisting of two friction swivel-joints mounted in a ball. Joe could sit or kneel in a way vintage figures could not. But the hip-joint had its own shortcoming, possibly a fatal one where kids were concerned. See discussion of the "Kung-Fu Gimp" below.

The figure in the middle is a later model. While the original arms continue to be used in many later figures, new "muscle arms" were added to the line. These have more realistic sculpting, and gave the basic Joe a buff new look. This figure features "Gung-Ho Grip" hands. More on these later.

The figure in the left shows just how tricky CC identification can be. This one doesn't look that unusual. But the unusual gloved hands (these hands weren't used on many other figures, and may even be unique to this one) and the anchor tattoo mark this as being part of the Modern Navy Deep Sea Diver set, one of the last high-end mass-market CC Joes. The torso features interior ballast weights that help the figure to dive using the special gear in the set. It just goes to show you that, when it comes to CC Joes, details sometimes count.



I wasn't sure if I should include this picture, but the arms and legs on this figure are definitely CC, so I'm including it, even though the torso is unique. This is another late entry in the CC line, the talker body, used for Talking Duke, as seen here, and a modern military figure whose name escapes me at the moment. You can see the talk button in the stomach. The head is a soft rubber skin (damaged in this example) over a hard plastic skull with moving jaw, molded teeth and tongue, and fingers that move the upper facial features slightly. Pushing the button opens the mouth, moves the face, and causes the interior electronics to utter a single word. You can "puppet" Duke through a wide variety of phrases by pushing the button over and over.

Because of the talking gimmick, the talker body loses waist and neck movement. The hands on Duke are also unusual, and don't swivel like most GI Joe hand. They only rotate on the ends of the arms. The upper part of what seems to be the glove's cuff is actually a separate plastic band (not removable) that rotates freely above the glove. I don't have one of the military variants, so I don't know if those have the same kind of hands, or more conventional CC hands.



Another common CC variation, added in the later years of the line, is the molded shirt. Molded shirts were almost universally criticized by adult collectors as being unrealistic looking and toy-like (as though GI Joe wasn't a toy!), but they were definitely kid-friendly, saved money on manufacturing, and some of the started to grow on me (I think many of them look great layered under an open jacket or long-sleeve shirt).

Here are the three major shirt types (there is also a "vest" torso and matching sleeve arms, which get their own photo below).

On the left is the most common molded shirt, the molded tee. Though not easily visible here, the shirt has a subtle molded-in fabric weave. The arms appear to be a variation of the muscle-arms. The molding of the shirt is such that it's easily hidden under most uniforms, and as I said, looks good layered under an open shirt or jacket. Many of the tee-shirt figures such as this one had graphics or patches painted on the shirt front, back, and sometimes sleeves. A few figures used just the tee-shirt torso with regular arms (there's an example pictured below in the color-variations section).

The headless center figure features the sweater body and arms. The molded in weave is much more pronounced in this version (some kitbashers have painted these in metallic colors to pass as chain-mail). The sweater sculpt doesn't hide under cloth uniforms as well as the tee, and the arms lose some range of elbow movement. (The particular body pictured is from a Sinbad animated movie figure, a couple of which were inexplicably grafted onto the GI Joe Adventure Team line.)

The figure on the right is an "Agent Faces" from the Valor vs. Venom line, and has the "wifebeater" shirt torso. This is an excellent variation for the layering effect I mentioned above. Great for "tough-guy" kitbashes.



This shot shows some of the many types of color variations seen in the line. The Venom figure on the left doesn't have a "shirt" torso or arms. He's got a regular torso, arms, and neckpost molded in red. Likewise his hands don't used a special glove mold. They're just "lobster claw" hands molded in black.

The center figure is a what Hasbro calls an "ethnic" figure. Specifically, this is a Hispanic Joe, identifiable by its slightly darker skin-tone. Hasbro also made African American, Asian, and Native American figures through the course of the line, all with distinctive skin-tones.

The guy on the right shows how Hasbro really mixed parts, and colors on various figures, especially later in the CC line's history. He uses the tee-shirt torso, regular arms, a variation of the lobster-claw hands with molded half-gloves painted to match the shirt, and a color molded pelvis to provide underwear.



These next two guys have what I call "wetsuit bodies." No special parts. These are basically base-line CC Joes with bodies molded completely in color.



This is the final evolution of the "molded shirt." I call it the vest torso, and it was created with a new "sleeve" upper arm mold, with which it was often used. The vest torso was bulky and over-sculpted, with a Peter Pan collar. which the tee-shirt sleeve had been tight and form fitting, this one was sculpted into a wide cuff. These was no hiding this monster under a uniform shirt, and it remains my least favorite common variation on the CC type.

Here you see the variety of ways in which Hasbro employed the mold. On the left, the sleeves and torso get an elaborate paint scheme to represent a body-armor combat vest over a contrasting uniform shirt with rolled-up sleeves.

The center figure has the sleeves and vest painted in matching colors, apparently to represent something like a safari jacket.

Finally, the headless right on the right uses the vest torso with regular arms for a much different look.



Here are just a few of the many, many variations of hands used on CC figures. There are other types, and many color and paint variations. Almost all early figures have flesh-toned lobster-claw hands, but many other hand types would follow.

The most important variation is the "Gung-ho Grip" hands mentioned above. These are smaller and more realistic than lobster-claws, and have hinged fingers that allow them to pose and hold small objects. They also have a separate trigger finger, and a special up-down (rather than left-right) swivel on one wrist that lets the figure hold a sighted rifle for the first time in GI Joe history. Despite their many advantages, the fingers were loosely jointed and so couldn't support the figure's weight, and in fact, often had trouble holding rifles and other heavy accessories.

Late in the line, a single command0 figure was released with "rope-climbing" hands. These had jointed fingers much like the GHG hands, but they were spring loaded. I've never seen these but most people who have them spoke well of these and wished they had been available on more figures. The spring-loaded GHG might have been the near-perfect GI Joe hand, and a lost opportunity for Hasbro and collectors everywhere.

Let's identify the hands pictured. On the left is a variant of the lobster-claw hands with molded-in half-gloves.

Next is the "Duke" gloved hand.

Next is a lobster-claw molded in black

Center is a Gung-ho Grip hand with molded in half-gloves.

Next is the Modern Navy Diver Glove.

Next is a basic lobster-claw in flesh-tones.

The final hand is a rarely seen version used on some high-end collector figures. I think these are known as "flipper hands." They're small, have unusually long wrists, and don't hold most accessories as well as the lobster-claw hands. I think the intent is that sleeves with more tightly fitted (and therefore more realistic) sleeves will fit over them.

I'm including this picture simply because I didn't spot a nude figure with these unusual gloved hands. I call them "hard gloves." They're bulky, with index fingers sculpted in an extended position. Unlike most Joe hands, they hard, and the fingers don't flex much, if at all. They have long cuffs (mostly hidden here by the sleeves) and heavily sculpted folds and wrinkles in the fabric. These are used in various colors on various fire and military figures as hazmat or flame-resistant gloves.

This Snake-Eyes figure is pictured for one unusual feature. It uses the modern version of the Kung Fu Grip hands. Like the vintage KFG, the modern version has individually molded, flexible, fingers. The fingers are also sharply hooked to allow the figure to easily hang from objects or slide down a rope. Mostly these were used on modern Adventure Team figures (most of which used the updated Super-Articulated, or "SA" GI Joe body, which isn't covered in this post). But unnoticed by almost anyone, a heavily advertised Snake-eyes vs. Storm Shadow two-pack was offered in huge numbers late in the CC line. Both figures had CC bodies, and both had the modern KFG hands molded in black rather than flesh tones. Adventure Team kitbashers, take note. Zillions of these figures were made, and they're common on the secondary market.



CC Joes had two major types of feet. The original style, shown in the middle, seems to be modeled on the vintage style-GI Joe foot. It's larger and has the backwards pointing heel (probably designed to keep the original hard-plastic boots in place).

Many later figures have the "baby foot" design shown at left. These have a smaller, narrower foot, and no heel to speak off. They're necessary for some smaller footwear, more compatible with rubber boots, and are probably make it easier for kids to remove and replace footwear.

The "green baby foot" feet at right may not be a variation at all. My suspicion is that they may have started out flesh toned, but some defect in the plastic mix caused them to turn green when exposed to UV light (probably sunlight). I've seen such "greening" on other body parts when exposed to the sun.


These final two figures do illustrate a couple of other variations in the CC line. Note the chest-tattoo on the figure at left. Many figures had tatoos on the chest or arms. The figure at right has camouflage stripes on the arms (and on the face, but mainly we're talking bodies in this post) and unusual hands. These are standard lobster-claws, but rather than molding them all in black or all in flesh, they seem to have been molded in black and then had the upper parts painted flesh-town to create "shorty-gloves." These look kind of strange to me, so I don't really know what they were thinking.

But the major intent of this picture is to illustrate the most outstanding flaw in the CC body design. I call it the "Kung-fu Gimp."

My observation comes from having purchased or examined many hundreds of used CC Joes in thrift stores, garage sales, etc. A fair number of them, probably well over half, arrive there with their legs and sometimes lower-torsos, reversed as you see here above.

To understand why, you have to look at the design. It's easily possible to reverse the hip ball accidentally. Once that happens, it isn't obvious (without removing the pants for examination of the joint) how to correct the problem. It's far easier to twist the knee, foot, or even waist 180-degrees in an attempt to compensate. Then consider that most modern kids didn't dress and redress their Joes as we baby-boomers did. Most of them played with their Joes just as they came from the package. The kids never saw the leg joints, and so had little hope of understanding how the joints properly worked. (In fact, I just noticed that in the very first picture in this post, the Navy Diver figure on the left is sporting Kung-Fu Gimp as well. It's subtle, and easy to miss even on nude figures unless you're looking for it, or unless you try to pose the figure.)

Combine this with the fact that Hasbro almost always packaged Joes with an odd sideways twist to one leg. Removing the Joe from the package, the child (or sometimes the adult) would attempt to straighten the leg, and it wouldn't work properly. Usually one hip joint would end up flipped. Sometimes the entire torso would end up twisted around and the feet reversed. But the end result was that for the Joe's entire play-life, his legs would be twisted from their proper position. In particular, one leg usually ended up with "gimped" hip and knee joints. For those kids, Joe never posed or moved as he should, and that must have been frustrating. Since, despite us adults, the majority of Joes needed to sell to children in order to make GI Joe a mass-market success, this has to have hurt the line.

Okay, it's a tragic flaw in a great and under-appreciated action figure body. While it lacked the nostalgia value of the Timeless (and later 40th Anniversary) bodies, or the elegant posability of the later Super Articulated body, the CC body was the literal backbone of the modern GI Joe line. They were produced in countless variations by the millions. They were rugged, attractive, more flexible than the vintage-style Joes, and cheap to make.

Though few if any CC Joes are being made any more, they still exist in countless numbers, and likely will continue to exist far in the the future. Consider that if your child reaches middle-age and in a fit of nostalgia decides to track down the 12" GI Joe he knew as a kid, it will probably be a CC Joe that he or she is looking for...

Joe Sleeps with the Fishes

Over on my regular blog, in the posts here and here, you can read about the recent storm that turned my section of the world into an official disaster area, and how I got off relatively easy by only having a storage shed blown to bits. Lots of Joe stuff in that shed, but my wife and I got most of it out before any real damage was done. One box I intentionally left behind was a big box of nude CC Joes. I figured they could stand the water, and what was left of the shed needed ballast.

By 2AM the night of the storm, the roof of the shed had blown off, and the crate of Joes was exposed to the elements. As it was a flip-top box, it wasn't water tight from above, and it started to fill with rain.

So I dragged the box onto the porch to drain it and dry the contents so they could be brought inside. There was a lot of water. It was clean water though, and CC Joes are tough. In fact, since many of these were thrift store finds with price tags still attached, the soaking actually helped me easily remove a ton of the sticky tags.

Though the box was empty by this point, the condensation inside showed a clear water line. Even though it missed most of the storm and was only in the rain for a couple hours, it had an even four inches of water in the bottom. Not sure how much rain we got total over the course of a day, but I'd say it was probably over twice that much! Of course, places down the coast got up to 12 inches in just a few hours, so it could be worse. We traded rain for 125 MPH wind, and I have a ruined shed to show for it.

But Joe. Joe is a survivor.

Sea Adventurer Pappy

Buddy Finethy has recently been having some parody-fun reimagining various cartoon characters as members of the 1970s GI Joe Adventure Team line. You can see them here.

I couldn't resist playing myself. Here's my take on the Sea Adventurer. I used Poop Deck Pappy as a starting point instead of Popeye because, well, Pappy already has the beard. Note I did not call him the "Poop Deck Adventurer," as that is a strict violation of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

New Bright 1/6th RC Hummers

Click on pictures for full-sized versions



Because somebody over on my Joe's Garage Yahoo Group requested it, here are some pictures of my latest Goodwill find, a 1/6th (more or less) New Bright RC H3 Hummer, seen side-by-side with the yellow New Bright H2 Hummer I've had for a couple years.

I only paid $9.95 for the H3. It didn't have a charger or remote, but the remotes on most of the large New Bright vehicles are interchangeable as long as you have the right frequency (either 49 MHz, or as in this case 27 MHz, and I've got remotes for both frequencies). Last I checked, you can also order replacement remotes directly from the New Bright website for a very reasonable $10 plus shipping. I can use the same remotes for both Hummers, my two New Beetles, and my F-150 pickup.

The H3 is lighter and has more guts (perhaps just because it's lighter) than the H2, and corrects the H2's too-soft springs (which have it bouncing all over the road). On the other hand, it isn't as pretty or detailed, and lacks the working doors, or even clear windows and an interior. The body is just a shell. I may end up stripping it down to the chassis for an Adventure Team vehicle project of some kind. I haven't decided.

As for the H2, it has its problems, but with a GI Joe Adventure Team passenger and driver inside, a few accessories, and some understated Adventure Team decals, it still looks cool, and nothing will ever take that away.

A Store for Pop Culture

I'm going to go off-topic a little this post (though hopefully in a way you'll still find entertaining). My friend Dean Wesley Smith has just opened a new store out here on the Oregon coast (in Lincoln City, to be specific) devoted to pop culture collectibles. We're talking all manner of nostalgia goodness here, but primarily toys, comics, marbles, and jewelry. It's shaping up to be a pretty amazing store, and you should definitely check it out if you're ever anywhere near Lincoln City. (Pop Culture Collectibles, Streetcar Village, 6334 S. Hwy. 101, Lincoln City, OR)

The store is located on the far south end of Lincoln City in Streetcar Village. Streetcar Village is an institution on the coast, a fun collection of antique stores and an auction house, unmistakable because of the antique streetcar grafted onto the front of one of the buildings.

The interior of the store is something of an accomplishment in itself. The storefront had been unoccupied for a long, long time. It had suffered extensive fire damage back in some dim bit of history, and the wooden floor had settled for that you could have used it for a skateboard park. Well, to be honest, that floor is still kind of a fun-house, but it's better than it used to be, and the interior has entirely new wiring, lighting, floor, ceilings, door, and interior walls, courtesy of Dean. And when I say that, I don't mean that he hired a contractor. He was his own contractor, and did a substantial percentage of the work himself. It was a back-breaking marathon of construction.

I got to watch.
These pictures were taken several weeks ago, when the store was still early in stocking. The front section of the store is primarily toys, games, and jewelery (including a large selection of vintage watches and some bead art). Up here you'll find everything from collectible teddy bears to Transformers. You'll might even find a few GI Joes if you look around.
This is another look back towards the front of the store. The tarp is the corner covering a last bit of construction that was still being cleaned up.
This is looking toward the rear section of the store. This will eventually house tens of thousands of comics, a huge selection of Hot Wheels, vintage marbles (Dean is something of an expert on antique marbles, and he has some amazing stuff). The alcove in the back is the office and eBay area. Dean is an eBay power-seller under the name "Pokerhat."
Here are the Hot Wheels shelves. These have since been completely filled with some gazillion cars. There's also a good selection of mint-in-package Hot Wheels and other die-cast available. The cases in the foreground will be filled with marbles going all the way back to the Civil War, and you can see a selection of fast-food character glasses as well.
This is the early stages of getting the comics out. This is a huge job. Dean has an incredible inventory of comics, and his section is going to be filled to the brim, and still won't hold but a fraction of them. The racks on the wall will display some of the rarer and more expensive items.

More of the comic section. The bins on top and the file drawers underneath will all be completely filled with comics. The ramp connecting the front and rear sections makes a good place to test out Hot Wheels cars.
More of the toy section. This is a lot more crowded since this picture was taken.
Okay, disclaimer here. Dean's an old-friend, I have some stuff in here on consignment, and there's also a section of my wife Chris' bead-art in a case up front, but heck, I'd think this place was cool even if I was a disinterested stranger. Plan your entire vacation around it. Yeah.

Power Team 1/6th UAV Set

Drones and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)are becoming increasingly vital in modern combat, but they've been little represented in action figure form. Hasbro announced a nice-looking GI Joe UAV set a few years back, but this was shown just as they canceled the 12" line, and to the best of my knowledge, it was never sold in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Well, this year, in the assortment of goodies just arriving at Big Lots stores, M&C Toys has stepped up to the plate with their Power Team line. They offer a set with a figure, a ton of gear, and a mini-UAV for about $20. It isn't perfect, but it's a good deal at the price, and a unique item that will fit in well with your more realistic modern soldiers as well.
(Click on most photos for larger versions)


Here's a look at the contents. You get a fully uniformed soldier with a "G3" super articulated body, rifle, grenade launcher, scope, pistol, helmet, goggles, battle-damaged wall, table, wooden crate, jerry can, backpack, tool box, laptop computer, full satcom set with antenna, and of course, the UAV itself.

The figure itself is the most familiar part of the set. Standard G3 body, for what's good and bad about that. Has black-gloved hands. No ungloved hands in this set, unfortunately. Mine had a bit of a floppy (in the arm rotation, not the elbow joint itself) right elbow but I've got no reason to suppose this is a common problem. The head sculpt in mine is one of their newer ones. Not the best one I saw in Big Lots that day, but not one of the really objectionable ones (with the goofy grins) either. I can't decide if this guy has a look of grim determination, or if he's just smirking a tiny bit. The former, I hope.

Though all the ones I saw on the shelf had the same head, I wouldn't be surprised to see different heads through the run. Check yours before buying.



Given that we've seen most of the stuff in this set before, let's first address the most interesting thing, the UAV itself.

My assumption, given that Power Team is definitely a toy line, not an adult collectible, was that the UAV was probably a generic item not based on any given prototype. The rather plain look of the top of the UAV visible in the window box does nothing to correct this. In fact, I almost didn't buy the set for that reason. Fortunately, I pressed on, figuring I could use the rest of the gear for my Minions at Work cartoons, if nothing else.



The surprise came when I flipped it over. The bottom is much more detailed. I could recognize on one wing the outline of what was most likely a satellite or communications antenna, and there's an open bay where camera and sensor equipment would be installed. The design of the antenna alone strongly suggested that this was based on a real prototype, and some searching on Google's image search verified that fact.

The UAV modeled is a Lockheed-Martin product known as the Desert Hawk, designed by the famous "Skunk Works" who also designed things like the SR-71 Blackbird and the U-2 spy plane! This is a rather mode modest affair, however. Constructed of rugged plastic foam, the real plane is effectively an aerial robot, flying a set of programmed GPS waypoints downloaded in the field from a laptop computer. There's no joystick (and so no supervision or piloting skill required of the operators), though the waypoints can be reprogrammed from the ground, and the plane can be set to "orbit" a specified waypoint of interest.

This is in use by the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan and other places around the world, and has also been used by the British in Iraq (but was abandoned after local mobile phones interfered with the radio downlink) and Afghanistan.

Let's have a look at the real thing:


(Photo Global Security)
As you can see, while the proportions and some of the details are a little off, this is a pretty darned close replica of the original. Also note that I've seen a lot of variations in photos of this UAV, and they tend to be damaged and field repaired with every use (it doesn't land so much as have a controlled crash, depending on the foam to protect the delicate inner workings). In the field, these are likely to be covered with dings, dents, and repair tape. So the Power Team version isn't bad at all.



Here's the camera bay of the Power Team version. My first thought was that something was missing, that there might be a removable cover that had fallen off in the box, but no, the real thing flies like this. The molded details inside appear to represent the visible light camera package. I think the camera is a small molded detail on the left center bay wall in this picture. The real thing also flies with a thermal imaging package. This has a large sensor mounted in the fore-body, pointing at a large, round gold-colored mirror that takes up most of the bay. Modeling this would be a fun modification for those into serious kitbashing.

As for the current version it desperately needs some detail paint to enhance the realism. In most of the pictures I've seen, the exposed bits (all the raised details in the PT version) appear to be flat black. This is an easy fix (though a steady hand is required). You could probably also just paint the entire bay black, and it wouldn't look too bad.

(US Air Force Photo)

This shot more clearly shows the camera bay. Notice the reflector for the thermal imaging system. Also note the clearly visible grain of the foam, and the tape holding things together. This is a launch photo. There's a long elastic cord attached to the nose, and the airman at right is holding the plane as the cord is stretched out.

When released, the plane is launched, and the motor automatically starts. The real deal has a 2 bladed propeller, not a three-bladed one as on the PT version. The PT propeller isn't that realistic anyway. It could easily be replaced with a 2 or 3 bladed propeller from a die-cast airplane would would really enhance the look. The launch cord could easily be modeled from string or sewing elastic.

(Photo: UK Ministry of Defense)

This shot shows the top of the real Desert Hawk. It seems that the photos Power Team worked from didn't show the top very well, as this is under-detailed in their version. There are lots more folds, joints, and panel lines. Note also the RC-model-plane-style control horns and push rods on the wing and tail control surfaces. Those would be easy details to make some some wire and scrap plastic, and would really enhance the look.

I haven't measured, and web accounts give somewhat conflicting specifications, but the PT version seems close to scale.

(Photo: UK Ministry of Defense)
This shot gives a look at the ground-support equipment. It all comes in a big, foam-lined, suitcase. There's a standard looking laptop computer (the PT one is just fine), plus a smaller unit (center bottom in this photo) that looks like one of those portable DVD players with the flip up LCD screen. I'm guessing this provides video from the aircraft in real-time. There are a couple of "black box" electronics modules, the gold one in front of the computer in this photo, and a second flat box located in a recess in the lid.

(Photo: Code One Magazine)

Here's another look at the ground support equipment. You can more clearly see the smaller LCD screen and the recesses in the lid of the case. In some photos (naturally, none I could locate to post here) there are two antennas that mount to the top of the open case lid. One is a black rubber whip antenna (like you see on an older walkie-talkie or police radio) about a foot long, and a white rod antenna (looks like a piece of white PVC pipe, about 3-4 feet long, and maybe an inch in diameter). Both would be easy to reproduce in 1/6th scale.

This setup isn't accurately represented in the Power Team set, but it wouldn't be that hard to create a fairly good representation. The flat satcom radios in the Power Team set would be serviceable as the two black-box modules in the real thing. I suspect that somewhere there's been a fashion doll portable DVD player that could work for the smaller screen. The case could be a fashion doll suitcase, or made from a small plastic box with a lid of some kind. Black craft foam could be cut to create inserts. (See my tutorial on making an easy fitted rifle case here for ideas on making those inserts.

I know, I'm suggesting a lot of modifications, but we're not talking Dragon Models here, and it's not like there are a lot of options for a 1/6th UAV. This is a toy, and it's very nice for what it is. It's worth the potential effort of modifying it into a more realistic representation of the real thing, if that's what you need.


Here's a closer look at some of the other gear in the set. Most of it is familiar to Power Team fans. The crate is hollow and has a removable lid. The backpack is flexible plastic with working straps, hard plastic frame, and a hollow interior. That table and jerry can are also standard issue.
Here's a close look at the electronics. The satcom boxes look pretty realistic, the antenna less so (but at least it's more durable than some of the other versions out there. There's a telephone handset, and cables to patch everything together. The computer is the newer one see in some previous sets. It doesn't look like much closed, but it's actually very realistic. The standard "thermal imaging" graphic sticker on the screen is especially appropriate in this case.
This is the tool box, previously seen in the combat engineer and possibly other sets, but no included tools this time. Molded in one piece of soft plastic with a removable tray. Not very realistic, and nearly impossible to paint. Not my favorite part of the set, but the thought is there.
A final look at most of the set (the electronics were all stashed inside the crate, and I forgot about them in this photo. Several of the items in the set, such as the wall, table, and crate, could have their realism greatly enhanced with a little paint. For less reality-obsessive play, this set is very nice.

This is a very unique set, even if most of the contents are familiar. With a little work, the UAV would work great with more realistic modern troops, especially in middle-east setting. It would also be a great addition to an Adventure Team type scenario. All it needs is an Adventure Team symbol on the wing. It's definately worth the $20.

If past experience is any guide, these won't last in Big Lots long, so if you want one, buy it NOW. Don't wait for Christmas, as they may be long gone.

Comicon 1 Hasbro

(Lots of photos. Click on them for bigger versions.)

I'm currently in California working on a project and taking a few days to go to Comicon. Actually, two well seperated days, Thursday and Sunday. I've never been to a Comicon before, but this year we had other reasons to head south, and my wife Chris is up for the "Scribe" award for best young-adult media tie-in book of the year for her ALIAS novel, "A Touch of Death." So we decided to come down for the award ceremony (which is on Sunday) just in case she won.

I've never been to a Comicon before, so this was a way of putting our toes in the water, and learning enough to plan a full-on assault next year (or some future date, anyway).


Okay, if you've never been to a San Diego Comicon, you just can't comprehend how BIG this place it is, how many people are there, or how intense it is. I've been to five or six World Science Fiction Conventions, but they're a drop in the bucket compared to this. It isn't just the number of people, but the number of exibitors, the amount of stuff going on, the SIZE of the exibits, or the sheer volume of money, and stuff to be swapped for money, going around.

The above shot is looking the length of the exibit hall from pretty near the MIDDLE. There's almost as much stuff behind the camera as in front of it. This is looking south, towards the end of the hall where the major comic, toy, game, and media companies are located. Behind me are book publishers, comic dealers, toy dealers, swag dealers, cartoonists, and a zillion other things.



This is another shot looking across the floor. This place is geek heaven. It just feels like EVERY possible fannish thing you might possibly desire is out there somewhere. There are toys and statues of every description, clothing, jewelery, art, original comic pages, collector comics, magazines, books, hats, candy, you name it. The only problems: A, finding what you want, and B, finding enough money. Okay, there's also C, how the hell to get it out of there and carry it home. Parking is a huge problem (we parked at Qualcomm (sp?) statium and took a trolley the rest of the way to the convention center. Good for parking purposes, bad for hauling stuff. We only picked up three things, a "King Kong" 1/6th scale "V-Rex" skull (a steal at $15), one of the new-issue Perfect Body Females (Minions need women!), and a con-exclusive "vanishing cream" Bugs Bunny action figure. I had a cocktail thing with the Conan Properties folks that afternoon before leaving, so I didn't want to get too loaded down with stuff. I'll probably buy more on Sunday.



I didn't really see half the exibit floor, and of what I did see, we rushed past most of it. I did try to take a LITTLE time in a few key places, mainly the Hasbro and Sideshow booths. Sideshow was huge, with a ton of 1/6th stuff, with other goodies ranging from statues to full-sized prop replicas. I tried to photograph most of the 1/6th stuff, but I'm not going to try and post it yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe when I get home. But I am posting all the Hasbro stuff I have so far.



The GI Joe section was a pretty tiny part of a very large display. Transformers (note the large, fiberglass, Optimus Prime out front), Marvel, and other properties (most of which didn't interest me as much, if at all) got a lot more space.

There was at least a little 12" stuff on display. They had the Wal-Mart AT Joes lined up (which makes a pretty cool display), the Club member figure (which I already have, of course), and the box and a sea sled from the next convention set, photos below.



I don't know if the sea sled was vintage, a prototype, or the real production item, but it was sure clean and nice to see there. The box looks great. No giant veggie-clam on display yet. Sigh.



The rest of the Joe display was three double-sided glass cases. Sigma-6 and 12" shared one case. They had the S6 adventure sets on display, but I was disappointed the Joe Colton one with the vintage-style AT head was not on display.



Significantly, 3 3/4" stuff got two full cases. I don't know if they're making announcements about an RAH movie at this Comicon, but I would not be suprised.



If Joe, in all his forms, is in decline, then lets hope there is a movie. If it doesn't suck (and after Transformers, I don't think anybody isn't going to give it their best effort), then it could really give the brand a HUGE shot in the arm. Yeah, I'd rather see an Adventure Team movie, but if RAH will see the brand, GO JOE!



There was quite a bit of 12" Marvel rotocast on display (what Toy Biz called Marvel Icons, but the one box on display was marked Marvel Legends, just like the smaller figures). I've picked up a couple of these (Iron Man and Dr. Doom, plus I have all the 12" FF movie rotocasts) and I like them a lot. Some of these (like Thor) appear to be previously released figures, but there were several that were new to me.

Here you see Thor, Colossus (he IS colossal!) and Dark Phoenix. Good to see more female figures.



Here you have a brown and tan costume Wolverine (his best costume, IMHO short jeans and a brown leather jacket), Magneto (this didn't impress me as much as the others for some reason), and yellow costume "vintage" Daredevil.



Here we have red-costume Daredevil, Cyclops, Nightcrawler (I liked both the X-Men), Silver Surfer (I liked this one a lot, note his big, two-piece board for packaging purposes), regular Phoenix, and "flamed-on" human torch.



Another shot showing the packaging of a "flaming on" human torch variant, Daredevil and the two X-Men again.



Finally a shot of that whole shelf. Note the smaller 6" Legends figures on the shelf above for size comparison.



Finally, along with the Marvel license, Hasbro also has the license for the upcoming "Iron Man" movie, and they had a few actual props on display. Of most interest were a couple of very detailed prop boots. From the looks of them, these either represent part of Tony Stark's first prototype armor, or the under-construction interior of an incomplete suit. Either way, cool.




Sideshow photos (and anything else I take of interest on Sunday) to follow when I get time. Tomorrow busy, Sunday is Comicon again, and then two days to drive home and who knows how many to sleep this all off.