Konami Eagle Pods – Improvements

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Sean

I was sure, due to some quick test prints, that the Freighter and Winch pods I modeled for the 4″ Konami Eagle would not sustain printing the superstructure at either end of the pods.

After tests with the Dinky version (which is almost twice as large) worked rather well, but I expected that. Here is a pure white version, next to the Product Enterprise pod that inspired it:

So I decided to adapt that model for the 4″ Konami model, meaning the pod itself would be about 4cm long, and those struts would be tiny.

But here is the result:

I was very impressed that this actually worked on my printer. It turned out very nicely.

I even printed very very tiny Alpha Moonbase badges for the winch barrel caps.

I glued the Nuclear Waste containers down using Elmer’s white glue, so they would be easily removable.

NOTE: For anyone who buys these models from me at my shop (Fourth D) on Shapeways, you may want to print the decal sheet I created. The two links below are to PDF files you can print.

Pod-Decals-Better-Layout

Pod-Decals-Instructions

You can print them on white waterslide paper either in laser or inkjet (make sure you have the right paper and follow instructions that come with the paper) or you can print them on simple white paper and use simple glue if you like. The decal sheet has both the Konami and Dinky scaled decals. Also, the instructions for the decals (for waterslide) are available here.

Space: 1999 Moon Buggy – First Full-Sized Print

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Sean

Even before I got my Afinia H479 printer, I was modeling a Moon Buggy from Space: 1999. It was one of the first things I wanted to print.

Here it is, in a publicity shot from the TV show. (It’s clearly a publicity shot… they’re on the moon without helmets!)

So as a test, I sent a file to them to print. It was not my model. I found it on the internet, and it was not optimized for 3D printing. It had its problems, not the least of which being that it was not correctly proportioned, and was not overly accurate. Here it is:

I spent weeks modeling this, refining it, and it was indeed one of the very first things I printed on my Afinia. As a smaller sample, just to see what it would print like:

Then I printed it a little larger, with the rest of the parts, in neon yellow and black:

I let this project sit for a while as I was working on many GI Joe toys and other things.

But this last couple of weeks I have been modeling pods for my Dinky and Konami Eagles, and I finally got up the urge to print the whole Moon Buggy. One reason for my delay is that it would take about 13 hours to print the body, if I wanted the highest resolution. Since I had never printed it fully before, I decided to do a test print at .2mm, rather than at .15mm. It took 8.5 hours to print. The result was not bad. It had some issues with oxidization on the print nozzle which dropped carbon deposits into the print at inopportune places, but hey, it’s dirt. Moon Buggies get dirty.

Here is a close-up of the sloped front, which was always an area of concern for me, because a layered printing method will inherently add stepping, which could be unsightly.

But it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, and I’m sure it will be better when I embark on my later, highest-resolution print. But for now, I completed this version:

I printed the black parts (there are six wheels. Only four are pictured here.)

Then I printed some white parts (not pictured: Mirrors and headlights)

I masked off the yellow bumper every .5cm and then painted it black. I snapped it to the body.

Then I glued on the wheels, using a cardboard spacer to ensure they weren’t too tight against the body:

Here is the completed model, with black gas cap, white mirrors and headlights, wheels with coat hanger lengths for axles, the seats are in place, and the control rods (paper clips) glued in place with handles.

Update: June 5, 2014

Since I posted pics of this on the facebook Space 1999 fan pages, I was commissioned to create two 1:30 scale versions, without the engine hub, just a flat rear bed. So I printed a 1:30 version as a test, or close enough. Probably more like 1:36 or so… a bit smaller than 1:30. Here you see it next to this larger one, and a tiny one I had printed at Shapeways to scale with my Product Enterprise Eagle:

I haven’t yet painted the black banding on the medium one, or the small one, though I intend to. And then I have to do decals for them.

Dinky Eagle – Winch Pod

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Sean

After making the Winch Pod for the 4″ Eagles made in Japan by Konami, I decided that next I would tackle adapting it for the Dinky Eagle.

The Dinky Eagle is approximately 9″ in length and has a strong metal spine for support, but that gets in the way of having an open pod.

The tiny size of the Konami meant I had to cut corners on the design of the superstructure at either end of the Winch Pod. I made it solid rather than of interlaced piping, for scale and convenience. It would never print on my printer that small.

But the Dinky Eagle had to have it.

I had to first make a holding system that would work with that spine while not getting in the way, and working with the double-claw mechanism that the Dinky Eagle uses to hold onto its pods.

The Prototype

(I print in neon yellow to ensure the model is working, and so I don’t waste colored filament, and so I can always know it was a test print.)

So here is the holding rack, with hole for the grasping claws, attached to the floor of the pod:

But you can’t see the hole from here.

Here is the fully assembled test print, from above, showing the claw hole:

Here is the same model from the side, showing all of the detail of the Winch Pod:

Here it stands next to the Dinky Passenger Pod:

The yellow doesn’t photograph terribly well due to its slight translucency in bright light.

Here it is, snapped to an Eagle:

When I looked at the finished pod, I realized that the holding rack did not have to be fully closed. I remodeled it to open it up, thusly:

Note: This made cleanup of the piece harder, so I may have to strengthen it a bit by making it just a tad less open. But the concept worked well.

Production Model

First, I printed the barrels, legs and engine cones in silver:

I started printing final production pieces at .15mm slices in Slow mode, for the best possible print my Afinia H479 can do, using Premium White for the body and Silver (which is really just a shiny grey) for the winches, legs and engine cones.

Here is the floor, the two pieces on either side of the floor, and the winch base, with the rectangles I printed to align them:

A word about those pieces. Why not just make holes in the platform? When you 3D print something, it prints the underside on a raft. It’s fairly easy to peel up a flat surface. But it gets harder the more detail you have underneath, and having an underneath with “floors” at different levels makes cleanup much harder. So I printed these “plugs” to just work better. You may notice some messy plastic in the holes in the larger pieces. That’s ok because these parts are hidden, and I only needed enough vertical room in these places for the plug to align them. It looks a bit more complicated than it had to be, but for 3D printing, this is actually just easier.

Here, I have placed the “plugs” into the holes on the three pieces, and now they will be a breeze to align to the floor:

Ouch. Lighting! Shooting these shots on my table means sometimes the detail gets lost. Anyway, here is the floor assembled:

Here is the Winch Pod basically assembled:At this angle you can’t see the legs and engine cones, but more or less this is finished. Note, however, that I messed up and the barrel on the right has the wrong cap on the front end. I figured it wouldn’t matter since the barrel is just a barrel, but I was wrong. The barrel is not just a barrel. It has a slice taken out of it to fit it into the winch housing.

Here is the bottom. Feet and engines in place:

The Toy Version

Since the original Dinky Passenger Pod has red legs and rocket engines (mine does anyway) I decided to make a more toy-like version as Dinky itself might have made it (without the metallic green and/or blue parts.)

Here is the assembled toy version:

And here is the bottom:

I think for my own interests, I’d prefer to have (for my white Eagle with red jets) a version with the silver/gray winch barrels, but with red engines and silver feet.

I also decided to experiment with a more ivory-toned white, which I think closer matches the original Eagle.

I put a finished pure-white/silver version up on eBay with a starting bid of $19.99 (shipped free US).

Here it is next to the Product Enterprise version which I used as a reference in modeling this.

Of course proportions and other features had to be changed to make it work well with the Dinky Eagle, but the result is strong and plays well. You can drop the Eagle down onto the pod and pick it up with ease, and then drop it off using the clamp trigger. Very fun.

My Favorite Version

Since the white Dinky Eagle (usually shipped as a Freighter with a red cargo bay to carry nuclear waste containers) had red underjets, I printed a new version of this pod with two changes:

– It’s printed in a less pure white. This is more of an ivory color and has no translucency. It seems to fit the Eagle a bit better.
– I printed the feet in gray/silver, but the underjets in red, to match the Eagle itself.

I think it looks very nice:

One Last Change

I have to say I am very satisfied with this project. I was able to make two pods with quick revisions. The Winch Pod was modeled for the 4″ Konami, scaled up, superstructure ends added, structural functionality put in for attachment/detachment, and with minor changes (removing the central winch) I was able to make a true Freighter Pod, sometimes called a Pallet Pod, used to carry the Nuclear Waste Containers around.

But I wondered if I could make this just a tad more accurate by adding longitudinal ridges to the floor. I wasn’t sure this would print well, since that floor has to be on the raft. I print these upside down, and cleanup with this color is harder.

However, it printed rather nicely, and I was also concerned the ridges would be too small to resolve on my printer. I needn’t have worried. The result is rather nice:

Freighter Pod (Pallet Pod)

Also featured on the TV show was a pod that was essentially a flat-bed. It held containers of nuclear waste which was off-loaded into storage on the moon.

I made a minor adaptation to my Winch Pod, removing the central winch pieces, and then I modeled some Nuclear Waste Containers. Here they are for my Dinky and my Konami Eagles:

I have to say, putting those decals on the Konami-scaled barrels was difficult. Each decal is less than an inch long, wrapped fully around a barrel about the size of half a Tylenol.

NOTE: For anyone who buys these models from me at my shop (Fourth D) on Shapeways, you may want to print the decal sheet I created. The two links below are to PDF files you can print.

Pod-Decals-Better-Layout

Pod-Decals-Instructions

Shapeways-Printed Konami Eagle Launch Pad Diorama Base

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Sean

Some time ago now I modeled a forced-perspective display base for the 4″ Konami Eagles, for printing on my Afinia H479 3D printer.

Here is a sample, printed on my printer:

It’s hard to see the detail because the sub-surface light scattering on this particular plastic hides the ambient light and detail.

I made my model available on Thingiverse, a repository of free downloadable models.

Marco Scheloske, a member of Space: 1999 Merchandise facebook group, sent my model to Shapeways for printing. He had it printed in the various colors, but then added paint detail (including the landing lights that I completely left off my original model – but intend to add in) and here was his result:

Now I have to do this myself! I must send this away to Shapeways, and though it was a bit expensive – he says about 40 Euros for him – I must have one, to see what the quality is like.

For that matter, maybe it’s time I opened up a Shapeways shop…

Komani Eagle Pods – VIP Pod

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Sean

In “Breakaway”, Space 1999’s first episode, the moon’s nuclear waste storage facilities are proving unstable, and an investigation begins to determine why. At one point, Commissioner Simmonds flies to Moonbase Alpha to oversee operations. He travels in a VIP pod attached to an Eagle:

As you can see it is a standard Passenger Pod with distinctive orange side panels and door.

So this should be a fairly easy job, now that I already had my own Passenger Pod already completed.

I wanted to print it in its native colors, since I do have orange filament. I cut away the side detail on the passenger pod, separating it out into its own thin strip, and leaving a space on the main body to snap it in place when it was printed in its own color.

Here, you can see it in progress:

The door panel was the biggest problem. At these tiny scales, printing can be quite iffy. The orange panel had to be fairly thin, and I would have to print it flat. In these photos, due to the semi-translucent nature of the plastic, it’s hard to see the details, but they’re there.

The door panel was going to be a problem. I wanted to make sure the orange door was its own color, and so I had two choices. I could print the orange panel with a hole for the door space, and then indent the door, and print an orange door insert.

I chose instead to print the whole side strip and indent the white door space, extruding the orange door out a bit. Then the white part of the doorway would become its own piece and snap over the door.

Thusly:

At this tiny detail, flat, filled surfaces sometimes get left somewhat open by my printer. It’s a problem for making small text letters or any filled areas that have a very small surface area. But I soldiered on.

And here is the final result, showing first the underside, and second loaded in an Eagle, with the other pods I created:

Oh. Right. Behind it is my Pallet pod, which is used to transport containers of radioactive waste.

What I have not done yet is print water slide decals for the containers, which should have a radioactive warning sign and a text sign on them. That’s coming.

I won’t do a page on the Pallet pod because it’s really just the Winch pod with the winch removed, and cylinders added.

Konami Eagle Pods – Winch Pod

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Sean

Moonbase Alpha exists as a colony on the moon partly in order to maintain a nuclear waste dump. Earth, by 1999, was powered almost exclusively by nuclear energy plants, and getting rid of the dangerous toxic waste became a problem. Why not just store it on the moon? Well why not?

In “Breakaway”, the first episode of Space 1999, Eagles are seen transporting and managing containers of radioactive waste. This waste builds up in energy and explodes in a massive nuclear blast that knocks the moon out of Earth’s orbit.

The Eagles used to transport these hold winches on a cargo flatbed with a magnetic winch head that picks up and deposits nuclear waste cannisters.

Konami, makers of a quite nice and sought-after 4″ Eagle model, made two pods for their model: A passenger pod and a Rescue pod. These are essentially the same pod with the exception that the Rescue pod has red stripes.

But they did not make any of the other pods the Eagle could be seen carrying in the TV show.

So I set out to make a Winch (often called Freighter) pod for this Konami Eagle.

I started by making a copy of the original pod (for scale and fit) so I could then use those dimensions to make further pods.

I decided to model my small Konami Freighter (Winch) pod after Product Enterprise’s 12″ Eagle model from a few years back, a gorgeously detailed model. They painted the winch barrels grey, so I made mine grey, though they appear to be white in the TV series.

Here is the Product Enterprise Eagle with Winch Pod (Product Enterprise called this the Eagle Freighter)

Here, then, is the progress I made in the past two days on my Winch Pod:

Here are all the parts: Winch Barrel bodies, Winch Barrel heads (two different per barrel), plugs to make the heads fit on the bodies, four Legs, four Engine Cones, two Rectangles (no idea what purpose they serve) for the pod flatbed, the Pod Flatbed itself, and the Winch Holding mechanism, and finally at the top, the superstructure holding it all together.

(Note: The superstructure is not shaped like this, but for this small Eagle, this made more sense. The front and rear baffle walls are completely open in the real deal, with piping acting like a scaffold for strength. My printer would not print those with any consistency or neatness, so I abandoned that idea for this one, which works, and looks pretty good when the pod is installed in the Eagle, as you will see.)

Here, the four engine cones and four legs are installed on the underneath of the flat bed.

The two rectangles are placed, with small plugs underneath for alignment. The winch holding mechanism is placed in the center, with a similar plug to align it to the flat bed.

Here I put the caps on the winch barrels. These are two identical barrels, which are turned at 180 degrees to each other when on the Eagle.

The caps are printed separately because the barrel is printed vertically, and the cap detail would disappear if it had to be printed on the bottom of a single-piece barrel.

Four plugs are used to align the parts.

Here the winch barrels are glued in place.

And the superstructure is glued in place, which allows the pod to attach to the Konami Eagle:

NOTE: For anyone who buys these models from me at my shop (Fourth D) on Shapeways, you may want to print the decal sheet I created. The two links below are to PDF files you can print.

Pod-Decals-Better-Layout

Pod-Decals-Instructions

Konami Eagle Pods – Passenger Pod

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Sean

Konami, a Japanese company, has made an amazing collection of vehicles and figures from Gerry Anderson’s body of work. These are small models, about 4 inches or less, and gorgeously detailed.

I have had the Eagle with Rescue Pod from Space 1999 for some time now, seen here, mounted on a display base I created in my 3D printer some time ago:

This one came in a two-set box along with the SID satellite from the TV show UFO.

Last week I happened upon the rarer white version (no stripes on the pod). It hit me then that these are the only two Eagles Konami made, but there are others Eagles in the Moonbase Alpha fleet.

Well, first, the Eagle itself (the lifting body) is standard, but can be made to carry different pods. The red striped one is a Rescue Pod, the white one is a standard passenger mission pod. There are also a VIP pod (essentially the same pod with orange detail), a Laboratory Pod, which has extensions to either side and extra attitude jets, and a Freighter pod, used to carry nuclear waste around the moon.

So I set out to create extra pods for my Eagles. First up, a replica of the passenger pod.

I iterated through many variations of the model, tweaking it for fit and detail. At this size (4cm long) the tiny detail tends to get lost with my printer. But I made some adjustments to accentuate the details. It’s still not perfect, but here is the result, which isn’t bad, if I must say so myself.

Here, I assemble the “model kit” I created.

Here are the various parts as they came off the printer. There is extra “rafting” material underneath all of the parts. Here you see the pod upper body, the pod bottom (printed separately to retain detail), four legs, four engine cones, and a bunch of window inlays.

Here, the rafting material and support scaffolding (supporting the roof overhangs) are pulled away.

Here you see all of the parts, cleaned up and separated from their rafting bases.

Here, the four engine cones and four support legs are glued in place. The windows are all pieces designed to fit into deep holes in the pod’s upper part.

And here the 12 windows are glued in place.

The assembled bottom, glued to the assembled top.

And here it is docked with the Eagle. The white is not a match, but I intend on priming and painting later versions of these.

Et voila! The Eagle, with my pod in place, next to the original white pod.

2014 GI Joe Convention – Dallas and Back Again

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Sean

This is going to be a long post, guys. Take it in stages. But it has lots of nice pictures to keep you entertained, and will include photos of diorama entries, convention sets (for 12″ collectors anyway) and just lots of generally cool stuff! It’s worth sticking with it!

I just got back from the 2014 GI Joe Convention in Dallas Texas. This is an annual event held by the GI Joe Collectors’ Club where thousands of fans of GI Joe gather to buy cool, exclusive GI Joe toys made just for the event, and in this case, to celebrate GI Joe’s 50th Anniversary.

The 50th Anniversary of GI Joe And How To Handle It Badly

GI Joe was first introduced to the world at Toy Fair in 1964. He and I coincidentally share a birth year, and when I decided not to go to this convention, Carol and Charlotte thought it would make a very nice birthday gift to send me. So I went.

First, let me say this: Here’s what Hasbro, the owners and creators of one of history’s most iconic toys did to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their signature brand – the brand that made them rich and famous:

NOTHING!

Ok, so perhaps not nothing. Here’s what they did do. The put out two Kre-O figures honoring the GI Joe Adventure Team. These are little Lego-sized figures, and here they are:

Yeah.

Yup. That’s it. That’s all they did for the 50th Anniversary of their signature line.

Which prompted me to post this to the Sandbox, facebook’s prominent GI Joe collectors’ forum, (which morphed from the old newsgroup alt.toys.gi-joe)

The 50th Anniversary of GI Joe And How To Handle It Properly

However, thankfully, the GI Joe Collectors’ Club seems to think a bit more about Hasbro’s famous action hero. Every year when you join the club, or renew your membership, you get a free figure, or figure set. For the 12″ collectors like myself, here’s this year’s figure:

Also, each year the club puts out an add-on accessory set for the free figure, which normally costs in the range of about $40 or so, depending on complexity. This is the accessory set that goes with this year’s figure:

It is an homage to the 50th Anniversary that Hasbro couldn’t even touchthis year. It also completes the GI Joe Adventure Team reproduction line the club was doing. Their past figures can be seen on this page I wrote up some years back.

So that’s not a bad homage to the 50th.

Convention Exclusives – A Resurgence of the Adventure Team

Each year, too, the club creates exclusive toy sets for the convention attendees that members (and non members) can purchase after the con if there are any left. The last few years saw some wonderful 12″ Adventure Team-themed convention sets. I am proud to own several of those, and am envious of those who own them all.

In 2005, the club re-cast the recently-re-released dog sled, and made a two-figure set using, (if I’m not mistaken) the original GI Joe body, and a new Super-Articulated body versions of the Land Adventurer, along with a plush wire-articulated polar bear. Fight For Survival: Polar Bear Attack!

(I do NOT have this set)

Their second AT themed Convention Sets was Terror on the Sea Floor, made for the 2007 Convention.

(I do NOT have this one)

This set reprised a vintage Adventure Team set, bringing back the yellow Undersea Explorer, and replacing a giant clam with a genetically manipulated venus flytrap-like plant, and a great diving suit.

In 2008, they did Search for the Sasquatch.

(I have this one. Got it for Christmas thanks to the Club’s Thanksgiving sale of 2013.)

This one reprises the Adventure Team “Search for the Abominable Snowman”, moving the search this time to a bigfoot Yeti. This one makes a brown version of the white Yeti done a few years back.

2009, Eight Legs of Danger:

(I do NOT have this one)

Cutely, this set took the name of a set that originally included a deep-sea diver and octopus and morphed it into a set about giant spiders.

Ahem… Certainly they did not get the idea from my 2003 photo story: “Black Spider Rendezvous“, right? :-)

When I attended the convention in 2010 (because it was in Providence, Rhode Island, an easy 40 minute drive away) I got the Escape from Spy Island Convention Set, and it rocked my world. It was beautiful!

(I do have this one, thankfully! Got it by attending the convention.)

This set has it all – a red/black colored Undersea Explorer, a great diver, with a Spy Island commando outfit as well, a box full of scuba gear and an inflatable raft, a radio, dynamite, and to top it all off a mechanical shark missing only a frikkin’ laserbeam on its head. (And if you attended the con they gave you a black version of the shark for free.)

The Add-on figure was a MARS Henchman.

2011 – Drive into Danger:

(Got this one during the 2014 Spring Club Sale)

This one is a yellow cast version of the black Desert Patrol Vehicle Hasbro released a few years back. Gorgeous vehicle. The first AT Vehicle in many years.

The Add-on figure for this was an astronaut with a red space suit, black helmet and gear, and a parachute. In the comic book that comes with the set, he space-dives from a satellite in time to stop a nuclear reactor from exploding.

Then in 2012 they did Last Man Standing:

(I do NOT have this one, but as you will see later, I have some vital pieces of it!)

This set, interestingly, contained add-ons for the previous year’s set, including a winch, and cage top (with gun mount) for the yellow Sand Rail vehicle. Centered around MARS, a Cobra pre-cursor organization (like the Escape from Spy Island) it dealt with baddies masquerading as mummies. It included almost every heavy weapon made for the modern GI Joe era, and a beautiful reproduction of the rifle and scope set from Magnum Power, a rare vintage GI Joe set.

I do not know if this set had an Add-On figure.

And finally (and I’ll explain why “finally” shortly), in 2013, Secret Mission to Dragon Island, a very James Bond theme including tuxedo-wearing agent, and Nehru-jacket-wearing bad guy:

(And sadly, I do not (yet) have this one.)

The Add-on figure for this one was a Laboratory Guard, wearing a blue version of the yellow Haz-Mat suit.

In previous years, the club also produced add-on figures for the 12″ set.

This year, 2014, there was nothing extra at all for the 12″ set, and it irked many collectors.

Here are some of the club exclusives from the past. This image includes the club freebie figures with accessory sets, as well as one-off figures the club created, and a couple of Convention add-ons.

Anyway, the reason I said “and finally” is that the 2014 GI Joe Convention Exclusive was not Adventure Team themed. In fact, that’s completely appropriate for this year since it is the 50th anniversary, and GI Joe did not begin in 1964 with the Adventure Team, it began as a military figure, and this year’s club exclusive set pays homage to him.

So, 2014 – Codename: GI Joe:

This set includes GI Joe (rectonned as Joe Colton some years back) in three forms: His original Military incarnation as a Green Beret, as an Adventure Team Commander, and in his 3.75″ Real American Hero incarnation, as civilian head of security, Joe Colton.

As for next year, my gut tells me that will be the last year they do a 12″ set, since the number of 12″ collectors is dwindling, and the number of 3.75″ collectors are vastly outnumbering us.

But I have no insight into that, nor into what next year’s set may be, but it seems they have plumbed the depths of what Adventure Team themes they can apply. Still, you never know.

And Now On To The 2014 Convention

I arrived in Dallas on Thursday afternoon and began to set up my dioramas.

I set up the Test Flight diorama and while I was doing that, the guy next to me was setting up his Tattoo Parlor, and I knew I had stiff competition. Mine was clearly showing a toy, and that was its intent. It was very Adventure Team-themed, with a blue tower with a red top, orange jumpsuit, yellow jetpack, and then below, some reality injected – the Adventure Team Oversight Comittee member meeting with the Adventure Team Commander, poring over blueprints.

(From here on, cross your eyes to see the image in 3D. Click on it to make it larger.)

Then I went to set up my Save the Endangered Pygmy Rhino set.

Diorama Entries

Here are my competition. However, these photos only represent ones I thought were interesting. I missed some that were very nice, but mostly because my battery was running low. No offense to anyone whose entry is not here. One winning entry by none other than Kurt Bozigian, the man who brought the 1981 Real American Hero revival to life. His entry was one of the winners and I’m sorry I have no picture of it.

Here we go:

The tattoo parlor won Third Prize in the Medium Diorama competition.

This ADS Diver was one of my choices for a prize. I loved this one.

Apologies for the blurry image. Can you please tell me how this didn’t win ANYTHING? This should have won Best In Show (not a real prize). It was 3D printed, except for the figures, and some details. My god, what a piece of art!

A closer view. (3D a bit weird due to reflection in the glass front)

This is by a guy named Andre Bynoe, who runs DioWarriors.com. His stuff is very very nice.

The Contest Winners

For boring, flat images of the winners of the Photo Contest, Small Diorama Contest and Franken-Joe Contest, see the Club’s Page of Winners. Note, as of this writing, they do not include photos of the Medium Diorama winners. I’m sure they’ll fix that. (Lanny!!!)

Here are some that I shot in 3D. (Again, I was not completely comprehensive.)

Franken-Joe (3.75″ figures only)

Small Diorama

I didn’t get any photos of the Medium Diorama Winners either. Mostly they were packed up when I got down there to pack mine up.

A Better Prize

When I went to pack up my Save the Endangered Pygmy Rhino diorama, there was a note tucked in under the playmat:

Thank you for this diorama in name of the 1004 rhinos killed illegally on S. Africa in 2013, in name of all the rangers that combat and lost their life against poaching and in name of all people that fight to stop this carnage.

I will share this photo on the facebook page “Grupo de Madrid WWF” in Spain

Thanks again

Gerardo

Sadly, I never met Gerardo. But apparently my diorama had a great effect on him, which to me is far better than winning a prize.

During the show, I had about 20 or 30 copies of the comic book I made for the diorama, and I gave a lot of them away. I left the few I had left on the table with a note that they were free to take.

The Coin

For $135 extra, each attendee could get a silver and gold coin. Real silver, with real gold on the surface. The coin commemorates the 50th Anniversary of GI Joe.

On the night of the dinner, each person got a brass version of the same coin.

Front:

Back:

The Cake

At the dinner, an amazing cake was unveiled, and each person got to take photos of it.

The Takedown

On Sunday I went to take down my dioramas and the Regular Joes were doing shenanigans, setting up some of their hero characters on my Test Flight diorama, as well as the Tattoo Parlor next door:

The Parachute Drop

On April 11 was the official Parachute Drop. This is an annual tradition that happens at any con with a hotel with an amenable atrium. Luckily the Hyatt Regency in Dallas has a gorgeous 16 storey (or more) atrium.

Here, then, is the official parachute drop. (I apologize for the lack of sound. My phone’s front camera has a malfunctioning microphone. It’s probably a mercy. All you would have heard was crowd noise.)

The figure was a 3.75″ character known as “Crazy Legs”. The chutes are dropped to the floor below. If you catch one, you can keep it, I believe. The hope is mostly the kids get them. Cordoned-off areas below are manned by Club volunteers who gather up those that land in those areas. Those get sold.

When I was going down to the show floor afterwards the lineup to buy one was hundreds of people long.

I have seen these on eBay for as much as $175. No idea how much they are actually selling for. Probably a bit less, but not much.

The Clandestine Drop

Now I have no idea who did this or how or why or anything else. Let me make this clear: I had absolutely nothing to do with this rowdy crowd of Joe fans who chucked five 12″ GI Joes over the 16th floor balcony into the deep, deep atrium. But I happened to be on the 10th floor looking up when I saw the first Joe take the plunge.

The first one hung on the restaurant sign (later to be retrieved safely.) You don’t quite see him hang on in the video, but when the camera pans down for the second one (which ends up in the elevator shaft) you can clearly see the first one (black chute) hanging on the restaurant sign.

Rest assured, all five Joes were rescued, including the one that took a dive into the elevator shaft, though I have no idea how they managed to get him back.

Gives me an idea for an exclusive figure “Elevator Diver” – A figure dressed in grubby, oil-stained jumpsuit, with parachute, and elevator repair gear.

My Convention Purchases

I didn’t spend a ton of time or money on the sales floor. During one of my brief passes through, I met Haz Ardis and Karl, two well-known Joe fans, who had a booth there. I was happy to browse through a bin of Sigma 6 stuff, but didn’t buy much.

The next morning, Barry Kay piled some stuff on me – stuff he and the Regular Joes found at the Let’s Make A Deal table, and I was thrilled.

I found the table and found myself some nice deals too.

Here, then, is the total of my haul from the convention:

This is the first thing I bought – An Arlen Ness metallic blue motorcycle. I saw this in Walmart several years ago and really wanted it, but money was tight at the time and I couldn’t justify the $18.00 they wanted for it at the time. I was crazy! This was one of the things I regretted for some time. Even though it’s missing a few pieces, I can 3D print them easily.

This is a crate from the 8 Legs of Danger convention set, empty. The black crate is from the Escape from Spy Island convention set, packed with SCUBA gear and grease gun. Thanks, Regular Joes!

I found these at a table in a bin of small bits and pieces. I pored through the bin and came up with just a few cool items including a great tool box with insert tray, bolt cutters, short-handled cutters, a die-cast Mag-Light and a GI Joe briefcase. I liked this briefcase enough that I wanted a second one. There was one next to my AT Commander at the Test Flight diorama at the same time.

Laboratory Guard figure. This is a near-complete one Tod handed me. It is missing only the white hip holster with red tie, and pistol. I have seen two variants on the actual figure on eBay. The Asian flocked head (Man of Asia) and the Foreign Adventurer head. Note the two right hands. That’s why this was a second. Easily fixed. But on the other hand (pun intended) if I pose him with gloves on, no one will ever notice.

I found this guy in Haz and Karl’s bins among MANY Fraken-Joes. He appears to be the “Man of the Sea” Club Exclusive head and uniform, but with a CC body with black gloved hands. What a great find!

I found the red/black Underwater Explorer (from the Escape from Spy Island convention set) and the Desert Patrol Vehicle (from the Drive into Danger convention set) winch which came with the Last Man Standing convention set. Though not pictured, I was smart enough to grab a bag with a white net in it, because that also had the winch line carriage and stop peg that go with the winch. (These are now installed on my yellow AT Desert Patrol Vehicle.)

Also there are three “Man of Evil / Lost Adventurer” jumpsuits and two yellow jackets.

The gun is a Sigma 6 piece that I quite liked.

This was in a poly bag all together. Most of it, if not all of it, is from the MARS Guard which I believe was a Convention Souvenir the year they did the Last Man Standing Convention set. I did not have this guy, so getting this uniform set was fantastic. It’s only missing a blue helmet. Again, Thanks, Tod, Barry and Dave for this one.

I know the AT flag and Shark came from the Regular Joes. I believe I found the rest of this stuff at the Let’s Make a Deal table: A blue Laboratory Guard glove (there was only one) a “Comrade of Action” jacket and double red shoulder holster, two Laboratory Guard guns, a “Man of Evil” gun set which includes a .45 and holster and Lebel pistol and mini dog tag, and also one extra Lebel.

Note: Not shown here, but I will photograph later:

The roll cage roof for the yellow AT Desert Patrol Vehicle; green weapons crate, stuffed with weapons; and net. That’s all on my vehicle at the moment, and I haven’t photographed it yet.

ABNA – The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards – My Reviews are Up

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Sean

Each year for the past … not sure how many… Amazon and CreateSpace have teamed up to create a novel writing competition. They give you several categories you can enter in, and every person can enter one entry. The first 10,000 entries (or fewer at Amazon’s discretion) are considered entries in the competition.

In 2012 I entered “The Black Blade: A Gull Village Story“, a Young Adult fantasy novel I originally wrote decades ago now, but I managed to make it into a saleable novel in 2011 and entered it in the ABNA. That novel made the Quarter Finals.

In 2013 I entered “Loose Change: The Case Files of a Homeless Investigator“, a gritty murder mystery told over 8 short case files, telling a larger story about a homeless man who gets caught up investigating injustices done to others. This one didn’t make it into the Quarter Finals mostly due to a review written by a bitter person who, rather than review my book or my work, took offense at some of my main character’s opinions on the Iraq war. This scuttled any chances I had of moving on.

In 2014 I re-entered “Loose Change” because I felt I was badly done-by in the previous year, and, hey, it’s allowed. I figured it deserved a fairer shot.

A few weeks back, I found out I made the cut for the first round, with 499 others. I was in like Flynn. This cut is based on a 300 word pitch document.

So on April 14, just after getting back from Joe Convention in Dallas, the Quarter Finalist list was released, and sure enough, I was on the list. 100 entries in each category advanced. My category was Mystery/Thriller.

This cut was based on an up-to the first 5,000 words of your actual entry. You can’t pick and choose excerpts. It must be the first 5,000 or less. I was not able to complete the first chapter, but I got close, to a logical stopping point which is kind of a cliff-hanger.

Anyway, anyone who gets into the Quarter Finals (100 in each category) gets an “ABNA Expert” review. Like I did the past two years.

Three out of the past four reviews (2012, 2013) were quite positive. One was more of a rant than a review of my work.

However, here are the reviews I got today:

Review 1:

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?

The author has given us a mystery to solve and it’s done nicely by slowly building us up into the story. The characters are described well and we know where and how these people live. I enjoyed reading this excerpt and am interested in reading more.

What aspect needs the most work?

I believe that this excerpt is done quite well, the dialogue and the characters work well and we anticipate what will happen next. I don’t see that this excerpt needs much improvement.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?

I was interested in the story from the beginning, it’s a nice comfortable murder mystery with the victim already dead. We look to her parents for answers and the street people to give us hints as to what may have happened. The dialogue is well done and the writing pulls us in. It’s a good story and one that I’d like to read more of…. A good author with the knack of telling stories…

Review 2:

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?

FINALLY! 30 entries in, you gave me a story that I haven’t read or seen a million times. It is technically clean. There are no major weaknesses that would detract from the originality. I got to just read a great story. Now I am a little annoyed because I didn’t get to finish.

I am so thrilled that a fresh voice and viewpoint were the basis of such a well crafted story.

What aspect needs the most work?

Your dialogue is fantastic. There is a little clumsiness when transitioning out of dialogue. For example:
“I told them my name, then reverted to
deferential silence, prompting her to
continue her story. ”
This feels over done and intrudes on the fabulous dialogue. Don’t be afraid to go simple and say, “I said my name.”

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?

I love this piece a crazy amount. We get a fresh literal “man on the street” view. You make some effortlessly profound observations about things without being twee or overwritten.

“I knew two things. He would learn; and I
would not be the one to teach him.”

This is simple, clean perfection. I have read overwrought pieces that sound like a thesaurus spill. None of them have shown me as much about a character as these two lines. That is the hallmark of a truly gifted writer.

However this competition goes (and I hope it goes great for you) keep writing. Write and write and write. You are very good at it. Your work stands out. Your voice is valuable.

So yeah. That happened. And now I must go. I have a cloud to go float on.

Now to wait for June 13, when each category gets whittled down to the top 5, based on the entire novel, apparently as well as any reviews written by customers on Amazon who download the excerpts.

Sigma 6 – The Unproduced Sets

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Sean

I have lauded the Sigma 6 line in several posts now. I showed the three Adventure Team sets: Pyramid of Peril, Terror of the Swamp and Danger in the Jungle.

But in doing some web searching concerning the Sigma 6 Adventure Team sets, I stumbled across a concept sketch that caught my eye:

Clearly this showed an Adventure Team Sigma 6 set that had not hit the market. And it made complete sense since it was another homage to the original Adventure Team sets.

It was never released, but some searching did turn up this image, seemingly shot for the cover of the set:

It has the same styling of the three released set photo images.

Pyramid of Peril was an analogue to Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb (with a little Indiana Jones thrown in).

Terror of the Swamp was clearly an homage to Mouth of Doom, and other sets featuring an alligator.

Danger of the Jungle is an homage to the White Tiger Hunt set.

And clearly, the unreleased gorilla set was to be reminiscent of Capture of the Pygmy Gorilla.

But then when you look at the centerfold map in the book that comes with the Sigma 6 Adventure Team sets, you can clearly see six red dots on the map. Three of them coincide with the three released sets.

A fourth clearly depicts a gorilla (Ituri Forest, central Africa).

So then there are two other red dots. One depicts a scorpion (Atacama Desert, South America), and one a shark (Great Barrier Reef, Australia). (Sharks were often used in vintage Adventure Team sets.) Clearly the Sigma 6 line was an homage to the original AT line. Except for the scorpion. There was never a scorpion. There were giant spiders, though.

Were these two to be made into sets as well?

Armed with this knowledge I did some Google searching and came up with this concept sketch, clearly done by the same people who did the gorilla concept. Clearly this was to be the Atacama Desert Scorpion set:

And armed with this knowledge, I found out that this set was to feature Dusty. In fact, this is a picture of a prototype of the set, again, never released:

And here is the scorpion (not on his back):

You can search and find more images, including castings of the individual pieces of the set. There was some nice gear intended to go with this set, including a somewhat oversized Leatherman pocket pliers set, with swing-out blades at the bases that most people would love to have for 1:6 figures.

And I also saw this concept, clearly intended to be the Great Barrier Reef Shark set:

And lest people think that all of this concept work and prototype work was in vain, note that in 2010, the GI Joe Collector’s Club released what I think is their finest Convention Set ever: Escape from Spy Island:

Observe the shark.

What does this mean?

It means the shark was actually tooled, even if not ever produced, because the GI Joe Collectors’ Club could not have afforded to have had it tooled in a factory, but it could easily use the molds Hasbro had access to. So the mold was finished.

This leads me to wonder, (if they still exist) could the GI Joe Club create a convention set that uses the scorpion or the gorilla? Another Pygmy Gorilla wouldn’t be too crazy, but something new and unique like the Scorpion might do quite nicely.