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.

New Star Trek Cover

Over on my writing blog I just posted the cover for my upcoming Star Trek the Next Generation ebook "Sea of Troubles," and the upcoming paperback reprint of our Star Trek Corps of Engineers ebook "Spin." See them here.

A Top for the Schwimmy

Yesterday at the thrift store I spotted one of these Land-Rover-like Bratz "Safari Cruiser" vehicles. It was missing some key parts (most notably the doors and windshield) but I didn't complain because it was only a $1.99! I figured that at this price I could scavenge a few parts and throw the rest away if I wanted. I was especially intrigued by the soft-top, and wondered if possibly I could adapt it to some other vehicle.

Once I got it hope, I carefully separated the top, which somebody at the store had helpfully attached with several complete wraps of clear packing tape. Looking around the room, my eye happened to fall on my AT-converted 21st Century Schwimmenwagen. I plopped the top on there, and to my amazement, it was a near perfect fit!



In these front views, it may look like the top hangs off the side, and in the back it does a bit, since the top is straight-sided and the side rails o the schwimmenwagen curve a bit, but I don't find it objectionable. Though it may appear to hang out a bit in the front too, the bottom rails of the top-frame are almost exactly the width and size of the schwimmy's side-rails at that point.

It sticks out a bit farther in the front than it really needs to (though having a sunshade over the windshield in the tropics is logical) and it looks wide, but that's mainly because the schwimmy windshield is so darned narrow. It isn't the width of the interior cabin space, which in turn is much narrower than the vehicle itself.




The top has a rigid plastic frame over which is stretched a removable fabric top with clear plastic windows. It is quite nicely done. The side and rear flaps are held down with plastic snaps, and can individually be opened and rolled up. Three tie-back straps with their own snaps are provided to hold the retracted flap.


The only real issue is how to attach it to the vehicle. Actually, it sits there pretty well, but it's easy to knock off. At the very least, some kind of positioning pins or tabs would be nice. I'm also planing to paint the frame black (it's currently dark green).

Of course, as you can see, the AT Schwimmy still doesn't have headlights or tail-lights. I plan to add operational ones with a slightly more modern look than the original, but I haven't worked out the best way to do that yet. I plan to use high brightness LEDs, but it's the housings that I can't quite work out. One of these days.



As for the Safari Cruiser, fear not that it will end up on the scrap-heap. Though it would certainly provide a load of cool parts, once I got the top off, I realized that without the doors it reminded me of the Mini Mokes that were used as Village taxis in the classic TV series, The Prisoner. That caused me to take a liking to it, and I decided that it may become yet another Minions at Work vehicle to go with the two golf-cart-style Minionmobiles.

My solution to the RC Yamaha Rhino head-room problem

A lot of people earlier this year were lucky enough to pick up radio controlled Yamaha Rhino utility ATVs that Wal-Mart had clearanced out at fire-sale prices (I got mine for $25, but I've heard of them going as low as $15).

This is very close to being a 1/6th vehicle, but the head room allowed under the roll bar makes getting a figure in there a tiqht squeeze. To fit, a figure needs to be short and well articulated (like an SA-body GI Joe). Taller figures, or with legs that aren't as flexible, or that had large head-gear just didn't fit.

There have been many solutions to this. Some people have removed the top cross-bar completely, or removed it to the rear, or raised the entire cage. Well, here's my solution, using hardware taken from a "Steel Tec" building set that I got at a thrift store for just a few bucks. Steel Tec sets and collections of parts often go for cheap on EBay (shop wisely, and you'll spend more shipping it than buying it) and all those little brackets and beams are great for work on 1/6th vehicles.



I used a couple of triangular brackets which raise the bar a little in the front, and a lot in the back. I think this configuration blends in well, and allows more head room while still preventing an un-belted figure from flying out of the vehicle during violent maneuvers. I had to drill out the side bars of the roll cage to take the larger Steel Tec screws, and I had to use my drill to slightly elongate the rear hold in the bracket to line up with the spacing of the existing screw locations in the side bar (find some small nuts and bolts, and you might avoid both steps, but I used what I had at hand).

The figure in the vehicle is one of my Minions, which is based on a G3 Power Team figure (tall body with a big head) and has a bulky combat helmet, making him pretty close to a worst-case for me. He fits just fine, so this can double as a Mk 2 Minionmobile.

Oh, and that's our cat Sydney. She seems to think she needs to be in every picture we take around here. Well, here she is in another one.

What ever happened to Angry Joe Day?

Well, March 1st has come and gone, and no Angry Joe Day this year. It's a little bit of a bummer that there's no photo contest this year, but frankly, I'm just not that angry about Joe at the moment. First, we have some great Adventure Team figures from the GI Joe Collector's club, last year's member "Foreign Adventurer," and this year's new arctic figure. Then there are the exclusive KFG figures from Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters. The new 9" Adventure Team figures from Hasbro look disappointing, but perhaps there will be something to salvage from the line. So that situation isn't wonderful, but it's a lot less dark than two years ago when I started this blog.

I'm not saying Angry Joe Day is gone. It could come back if the situation goes the wrong way. But I really don't feel like doing a "Grumpy Joe Day" just yet, so I'm taking a "wait and see" attitude...