Adventure Team Backpack Surveillance Drone – Now in AT Colours

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Sean

Last year I posted an article about my 3D printed Adventure Team set, the Action Pack Backpack Drone Surveillance. I designed it and 3D printed it on my Afinia H479 printer. Originally the drone was white with black structure and red highlights. The backpack was orange and black. These are acceptable Adventure Team colors.

But I decided I wanted to see how it looked in the more typical Adventure Team colors of red and yellow. I bought some Afinia Premium Red filament for the first time. (I had some Afinia Premium Yellow before, and I printed my Backpack Jetpack with that material.)

The result is pretty nice:

Note: To apply my laser-printed water-slide decals I had to do some experimentation. These decals do not stick to ABS plastic. I discovered that spray-painting the top part with a satin clear coat paint, the decals would stick pretty well. Another spray coat over it and it should seal them down nicely. (Of course rough treatment may still make them come off.)

The Parts and Assembly

You saw how the drone was assembled (though in a slightly smaller scale it is an identical process) in my post about the Cotswold Deluxe Midnite Mission set.

The backpack frame, legs and screws:

The legs form the side of the backpack when being carried, and support the frame as a launch platform for the drone when in use:

Next, the harness. It is comprised of a 22-inch strip of .375 inch wide black elastic. First, I fold the elastic in the middle and place it into the space modeled into the harness bracket front half. While this picture does not show it, the red half has a channel modeled to fit the elastic on a folded angle.

Then the two short, stubby screws are screwed into the black back plate through the elastics to hold it firmly:

Here are the four black strap brackets that will hold the elastic harness in place on the frame:

The elastic is carefully placed so there is a 7cm distance between the top bracer and the harness chest piece. A screw holds the elastic and the bracer in place firmly. Then the elastic is stretched somewhat (consistently) to the lower bracer and that is screwed onto the frame. There is equal tension between the two bracers for a purpose:

Next the strap adjuster and harness clips are placed onto the elastic strips:

The completed harness:

Next, the solar cell (which charges the drone’s recharging batteries when it is in the air) is glued to the circular aperture:

On top of this the drone’s holding tray is glued: The drone fits perfectly between the three clips, and the top clip is used to free it by pressing gently until the drone is released from the grip of the tray.

Here you see the touch-screen tablet used to fly the drone, and to monitor the drone’s camera capturing ability. This is a single printed piece with clear-coat and a glossy printed screen spray-glued (with permanent glue hopefully) to the surface:

Ok, I’m going to claim some cleverness now. This tablet stores perfectly flat in the backpack frame in a cavity modeled to fit it, held in place by the harness straps:

Here it is, stored fully:

Lastly, for the backpack, these four black “bolts” are glued onto the legs (so as not to interfere with the screws) to finish off the look:

Et voila:

Cotswold Collectibles – Deluxe Midnite Mission Set

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Sean

At the GI Joe Convention in Dallas in April I met Greg Brown of Cotswold Collectibles. I had sent him some of my 3D print samples some months earlier and he expressed interest in doing some project work together for Cotswold Collectibles, which had recently begun to issue mail-out catalogs in full color again, featuring some Adventure Team-themed outfits and full sets

He showed me plans he had for a complete stealth set which harkens back to the good old days of the GI Joe Adventure Team. Here was a modern take on the Spy Island set, and it included a black and silver version of my AT Surveillance Drone which I had designed last year and 3D printed. The drone featured in one of my diorama entries at the Convention, seen here:

The drone, printed in white, hovers above the scene, suspended by a thread on an armature.

I began work immediately. First, the construction of my drone was a bit flimsy, especially the working camera head which pivots around a hub using a tenuous connector that was easily broken and came loose easily. I opted to fix that by using a screw. Second, the struts that hold the central hub to the outer ring were individually printed and had to be glued together in another relatively tenuous connection.

My first improvement was to combine the three struts with the central hub for a single, strong part. Then I created notches in the ring and pins in the struts so the hub part could snap to the body accurately and strongly. The rest remained relatively unchanged; the legs (not seen in this photo) which form the bottom segments of each strut hinge down as landing gear.

But the drone had to fit into an existing Cotswold backpack which Greg sent me. I found that I had to scale the drone down to 75% of the original. This meant that moving parts may not work, since tolerances at that scale would be different.

cots-drone-scaling-test-01

(I test print in neon yellow to make sure I don’t confuse them with final parts. And I have a lot of neon yellow with not much use for it.)

To my surprise, I printed three test drones. One at 50%, one at 66.66% and one at 75% of the original size. To my utter shock and astonishment, each one functioned perfectly when printed. Even the 50% scaled version had working legs that folded without an issue.

The 75% version fit the backpack perfectly.

I began printing a couple of test models, sent them to Greg for approval, then began printing in earnest.

Here, I assemble the drones:

The bodies are split into an upper half and a lower half. The lower half has spaces for the legs to hinge down.

Small pegs align the upper and lower halves. The legs are held in by square blocks that, when pushed into place, form a perfect hinge space.

The pegs are put in place, and the top glued to the bottom, clamped down by six strong clamps.

Next the hub gets snapped in place and glued.

Then a small screw is used to screw the camera head to the hub.

Then (not shown here) the camera is placed in the camera head by friction so it can swivel on its axis freely.

Then the repulsors are glued in place and a jet vane is glued to the top of the hub.

And after a heck of a lot of work, I had 30 ready to go:

Then I had to design the arm controllers. I had a simple idea in mind and wanted it to be a single piece. But the design made me want an accent color so I made the control pad red on a silver cuff that can snap to a GI Joe’s dressed arm.

The space below the control pad in red is reserved for a sticker which will show the view as seen from the drone’s camera.

So here are some pictures Greg posted featuring the finished prototype:

And here is the catalog, which I got in the mail a couple of weeks back:

P.S. I am currently at work on my second Cotswold set. News on that as I am allowed to post it. Stay tuned.

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.

GI Joe Convention 2014 – Contest Entries

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Sean

I entered two contests at the 2014 Dallas GI Joe 50th Anniversary Convention. I’ll put those at the bottom of this post. This post is to showcase some of what I thought was the most impressive work at the table. Please forgive me if I didn’t include yours. It’s not that it wasn’t good. If it was on one of the tables, I can assert it was good. There were no un-good entries. I was short on battery space, and had to pick and choose.

However, that said, here then are some of the fine entries in this year’s diorama competitions and Franken-Joe. (I didn’t photograph the photograph competition entries.)

More later, including my own. And when I get home, I will set up 3D cross-eyed versions. But for now it must be flat.

And here are my dioramas:

I entered two in the contest to win, and no pun in ten did. Or something. No prize for me. But my predicted winner in the medium diorama is the tan HISS tank seen in my diorama picture below:

UPDATE:

This morning I went to dismantle my dioramas to pack them up in a suitcase when I saw a note next to my diorama:

(I will post an image of it later when I’m not cobbled together in hotel Wi-Fi sitting on a futon in a lobby, but the text reads:)

Thank you for this diorama in the 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.

And they told me I didn’t win any prizes! I’ll prize this over any award any day.

Adventure Team Dog Tags

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Sean

GI Joe comes with a dog tag. Almost always have. It’s part of being a GI Joe. Hasbro began by mimicking dog tags used by soldiers during World War II, slightly oblong tin things with a small dent in them.

Then when the Adventure Team came about, this continued, but they changed the dog tag to be a circle with the AT logo of the Adventure Team. The back side had the GI Joe logo with bearded face over the J.

Here are a line-up of the dog tag as it has been used over the years since the originals (I regret I can’t show a photograph of an original, mine are all in storage. And I’m not even certain I have any vintage dog tags):

Face

Left to right:

Counterculture GI Joe 2003
reproduction GI Joe dog tag used in the past decades in sets such as their revised Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb set
metal 30th Anniversary version used in the Timeless Collection and some of the Club exclusive Joes
the 35th Anniversary one (these two had a thicker circle border)
the smaller Sigma 6 AT dog tag
the metal real-scale club exclusive dog tag

Obverse
Left to right:

Full-color peace symbol
accurate reproduction with bearded head over the J on the GI Joe logo used in the reprised Adventure Team sets
30th Anniversary metal
35th Anniversary plastic (these also come in metal)
Sigma 6 (with what looks like a stylized version of the cobra snake that comes with the set)
the blank back of the club exclusive mini dog tag

When Hasbro brought out the 30th Anniversary figures, they reproduced the original AT dog tag for the 12″ figures. The back of these had 1970-2000, 30 Years of Adventure on them.

Then when they brought out their Timeless Collection Adventure Team sets, many of these had a metal version of the dog tags.

The 35th Anniversary editions had 1970-2006, 35 Years of Adventure on their reverse sides. Some club exclusive figures came with a metal version of this one too.

The GI Joe Collectors Club created a smaller version of the AT dog tag to proper scale with the 12″ GI Joes. Those had the AT logo on one side, and the obverse was blank.

But what I find interesting is the Sigma Six Adventure Team line (three sets produced a few years back) had its own AT dog tag. It’s about 2/3 the diameter of the original, and the one I have here has a symbol on the back that may represent the cobra snake in the Snake Eyes “Pyramid of Peril” Sigma 6 Adventure Team set.

And for further fun and joy, the club created a very special figure in 2003 for the convention that had an Adventure Team GI Joe dressed as a hippie with bell-bottom jeans, platform shoes, a dashiki, a white T-shirt with shoulder holster and pistol. He was the Counterculture Joe, operating undercover.

One side of his AT dog tag was a beautifully colored (for the first time) AT logo, and on the obverse, a peace symbol.

This figure was making a number of inside jokes about GI Joe from the two-finger (toke) grip to the longer fuzzy hair (a ‘fro) to the idea that the AT logo was intended to look like the iconic peace symbol from the hippie years.

And now for the 50th Anniversary, the Club is creating a gold version of the miniature AT dog tag for the 12″ Adventure Team figure in the set.

In the 1970s joining the GI Joe club (then run by Hasbro itself) could get you this special-edition dog tag. It is a child-sized dog tag and measures approximately 2″ across and was meant for the kid to wear.

And last, this piece is a bit of a mystery. I can find no reference to it online but I managed to get my hands on it. This one measures just over 4″ in diameter and has a very large metal ball-chain.

It’s next to a metal 35th dog tag for scale.

Joseph Colton – The Original Retconned GI Joe

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Sean

GI Joe is of course one of the most iconic toys in history. He has some competition, but not much when you consider just how many toys there are in the world.

But what is the story of GI Joe? And how did his origins as America’s Fighting Man morph into his history as the Adventure Team? And how did he then become the Real American Hero?

It started out in 1964 with the introduction of a very risky toy. At that time the general wisdom was “boy will not play with dolls”. So Hasbro did something very clever. It coined the term “Action Figure” and the first Action Figure was born with GI Joe.

It being just 20 years after World War II, America had military accomplishments to be proud of, and many kids grew up knowing their fathers had been in the war. Honoring them by playing soldier with GI Joe was something many kids thought was cool. With the glut of Hollywood movies about the war, war comics being popular, there was a lot supporting the sale of GI Joe.

With the Viet Nam war, however, everything changed. It was a war that became so hated that the soldiers who came back were often shunned when they returned, if they returned. War was no longer popular.

Hasbro switched gears and created the Adventure Team, a globetrotting group of heroes who hunted white tigers, or searched for the Yeti, or dealt with dangers in the depths of the ocean.

By 1976 GI Joe, at least in his 12″ form, was no more. An attempt was made to bring back Mego-scaled (8″) SuperJoes, but that didn’t take off either.

In 1980 Hasbro brought Joe back to immense popularity with a new 3 3/4″ line of figures that were doing rather well in the Star Wars line, and so GI Joe, the Real American Hero was born with some very cool equipment, lots of figures, this time with real names and identities kids didn’t have to infuse into their toys themselves, with real villains and a comic book series that sold the toys perfectly.

But the connection between the original 12″ GI Joes, at least back-story-wise, was tenuous at best.

So the writers of the comic book “rectonned” (retcon: (n) a portamteau of “retroactive continuity” – deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction) Joe Colton into the story to link the current line to the original, and not many people complained about it.

In 1989 in issue #86, “Not Fade Away”, of GI Joe: A Real American Hero, (reproduction cover seen above) featured a battle against Cobra inside the Chrysler Building in New York. Inside, the GI Joe team meet the head of security for the building, and a female psychologist. His is not revealed until the end, when one of the GI Joe crew says he looks familiar, and was good enough that he should join the GI Joe team. The psychologist, named Jane, laughed, telling the newcomers that they were talking to the original GI Joe, Joe Colton.

Joe Colton would later be solidified in the lore by being in the second GI Joe movie, as played by Bruce Willis.

To honor GI Joe in all of his most successful incarnations, the GI Joe Collectors Club has previewed images of its Convention Exclusive 12″ figure set for the upcoming 50th Anniversary Convention in Dallas, Texas.

The set will come with a 12″ Green Beret figure to commemorate the original 1964-1970 military GI Joe, a 12″ Adventure Team GI Joe to commemorate the Adventure Team era, from 1970-1976, and as a special treat, a 3 3/4″ Joe Colton figure to commemorate the Real American Hero figures that have been so enormously popular.

Joe Colton is designed to look like the character revealed in the comic book.

And in honor of that 50th Anniversary, and now very real connection between the original GI Joes and the subsequent lines, I have created a custom 12″ Joe Colton myself.

Here is my custom Joe Colton. I used a reproduction Land Adventurer, dressed in a Donald Trump suit, with shirt and tie from an Unknown Soldier figure. He’s wearing Neo’s twin shoulder holsters, though you can’t really see those in the picture, and is carrying one of his two .45 pistols.

Adventure Team Crates (Sigma 6)

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Sean

A couple of years ago Hasbro tried a new line of GI Joe toys which I thought were quite beautiful. Sigma 6 were six-inch stylized versions of the GI Joe figures from other lines. Despite the fact that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are Real American Hero Joes, created in the 1980s for a new 3 3/4″ toy line and comic book series, Hasbro incorporated them into a few Adventure Team Sigma Six sets and the sets were quite nice. They also created a couple of more traditional, bearded GI Joes in this line for the AT sets.

The released Adventure Team Sigma 6 sets are shown here:

Pyramid of Peril

Snake Eyes here is trying to retrieve a rare green gem from a pyramid, protected by a giant cobra (irony?) and the gem itself is booby-trapped behind two spring-loaded swords. The set comes with a bunch of gear including a zip-line for Snake Eyes.

Danger in the Jungle

This reprises the vintage Hunt for the White Tiger set from the original GI Joe Adventure Team line, as well as the Save the White Tiger from the more recent Adventure Team revival of a decade ago. Here, for some reason, Storm Shadow faces down an orange tiger.

Terror of the Swamp

This also reprises the Secret of the Savage Swamp sets from both the original Adventure Team line as well as the more recent Classic Collection Adventure Team line.

There was a fourth set that Hasbro apparently planned, but I don’t think it was ever released. I only know this because a web search brought up this image:

This one would have reprised the famed Pygmy Gorilla sets from the Adventure Team’s illustrious past.

Holders of these sets will appreciate the packaging. Sigma 6 sets were packed in plastic boxes sealed at either end with an intricately molded cargo box in two pieces. When the package is opened, you can snap the two pieces together to form the top and bottom halves of a cargo crate which you can fit all the gear into.

The regular Sigma 6 sets had gray ammo cargo boxes, but the Adventure Team line had them modeled in Adventure Team theme, including the familiar and beloved AT logo.

Top:

Bottom:

Here my 3D printer comes in handy again. I designed an AT logo that can fit into the recessed AT logos here to add color to the crate.

Here is the AT logo fresh off my Afinia H479 printer:

It prints on a raft of plastic to secure the print to the bed and ensure good printing. Using a small chisel I lift the logo off the bed and clean it up:

Then I can glue it into the recess. Here is the top:

And here, the bottom:

Voila. Another nice GI Joe Adventure Team project created with my 3D printer.

Adventure Team Set Five: Cyber Counter-Attack – EMP Grenade

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Sean

As I posted earlier, I’m creating a new GI Joe Adventure Team gear set. This one is to counter cyber-terrorists. It’s called Cyber Counter-Attack, and features several helpful bits of equipment to thwart an active local cyber attack.

First, the concept:

The first model I tackled was the Cyber EMP Grenade. It’s a bulky hand-thrown grenade that contains a very powerful magnetic pulse circuit. Simply push the plunger and throw. A timer, set by using the hacking console, counts down and then BOOM! A massive localized Electro-Magnetic Pulse knocks out any electronic equipment a hacker may be using.

To make it a bit more useful, there is also a magnetic base the grenade can fit in to make it a plantable mine. You simply stick it to a wall and let it count down. Same result without having to toss it.

To make this, I modeled five separate parts:

– Plunger
– Body
– Body Bottom
– Base Cup
– Base Bottom

I also use three rare-earth magnets in each grenade/mine combo. One very small one for the base of the plunger, a cylindrical one for the bottom part, and one for the mine base.

The first one is glued to the base of the plunger:

The second magnet, the cylinder, is fitted into the grenade bottom, rather snugly. No glue is necessary for this one:

Then the red plunger is fitted up inside the blue body from below, and the black bottom glued in place. The two magnets repel each other so they act as a spring when you push the red plunger:

Then a third, flat magnet, is placed into the base bottom piece:

Then the base bottom is glued to the base cup. This is intended so there is no magnet exposed. You can see part of this largest magnet from the top, but it’s safely glued into the base:

Here’s a little movie I shot showing how it works:

GI Joe Convention – The Fiftieth Anniversary of GI Joe

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Sean

It’s true. GI Joe turns 50 this year. And it’s also true we were born in the same year, within weeks of each other.

This year the GI Joe Collectors’ Club is holding its annual convention in Dallas and as a birthday gift, my wife and my daughter gave me this convention.

The only other convention I was able to attend was the 2010 Con in Providence, because it’s a half-hour drive from here. I went, met some great people, some of whom I have known for years online, and I had a good time. I got the Convention Set, which is this amazing piece of work:

One thing the Convention offers is contests. There are two diorama contests I will likely be entering. One is restricted to a 15″ x 15″ table space, and the other is less restrictive at 30″ x 48″.

Here are my two entries from the 2010 Convention. I scored a prize for the TARDIS Interior dio.

Large Diorama: – The Regeneration.

Here, two characters from my epic 8 chapter “The Second Key” photo story, Sir Edmund of Sussex and Ellanuir of Aquitanis, watch as my Doctor undergoes a regeneration.

This one was my full TARDIS interior set, on a foam-core floor, with a small hole cut into it for a blue LED which slowly flashed. I used a clear GI Joe figure, whose head diffused the light beautifully, lighting up the whole head. He was dressed in my Doctor’s costume, and there was a photo frame monitor in the back wall flashing images of space, and the title of the diorama.

Small Diorama: Return to Metabelis III

This one did not win a prize. You could have knocked me over with a feather. The thing is, this is a GI Joe convention, not a ComiCon. This diorama shows MY Doctor character with a blue crystal in his hands, landing on a planet, leaving the TARDIS, and being approached by dangerous spiders. This is a fairly deep diorama in that it makes many references to the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who era. In that era, he keeps promising his companion, Jo, that he will take her to Metabelis III because it has these amazing blue crystals. He never gets to. For most of his time his TARDIS is out of commission as a punishment from the Time Lords. But he does get there at one point, and steals a blue crystal. This comes back to bite him in the ass in another episode “The Planet of the Spiders” because the spiders want the crystal back. It is a very important crystal to them. However, at one point, the Doctor mails the crystal to Jo who is in the South American jungle doing missionary work. While there, the crystal, apparently, spooks the natives. They can feel its power.

So my diorama is the Doctor returning the crystal to Metabelis III. The crystal is a real cobalt crystal, the spiders are Shelob from the Lord of the Rings series, and one from a creepy Little Miss Muffett action figure.

Photo Contest: Remote Delivery

This one is a dog sled in the snow, being driven by one of my Joes. It’s a photo from my “Remote Delivery” photo story, a one-page sentimental story I did when Charlotte was young.

So this year I will be entering two dioramas, but probably will not submit a photo.

The two sets will highlight my 3D Adventure Team sets.

1) The Adventure Team Backpack Flight Pack

2) Save The Endangered Pygmy Rhino

Without going into too much detail, since I don’t want to alert the competition, I will be doing a test flight of the Flight Pack, and I will be displaying the Rhino set as an AT set.

Here is the comic I did. This is not the final, and it has test fonts, but it’s close. This will also be a part of the set. I’m also going to print a bunch to give away.

I’ll do a more detailed photo spread when both dioramas hit the Convention floor in April.

AT Set 4: Save The Endangered Pygmy Rhino

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Sean

Overview

With Set One done, (Adventure Team Action Pack Flight Pack), Set Two done, (Adventure Team Remote Drone Surveillance), and Set Three done (Adventure Team Action Pack Backpack Drone Surveillance) I set my mind to a third set that would harken back to the iconic Adventure Team days.

You may recall that one of the Adventure Team’s main activities was conservation. If Joe wasn’t searching for a Pygmy Gorilla or a White Tiger, he was after the Abominable Snowman.

Admittedly, in the 1970s, he was sometimes hunting these things, but in modern times, it was clearly “Save the White Tiger” and “Rescue the Pygmy Gorilla”.

One of today’s most endangered species is the White Rhinoceros. Many rhinoceros species are hunted for nothing more than their horn, and that demand comes from superstitious idiots who think that ground up rhino horn is useful for aphrodisiacs and medicinal application. It is not. Poachers kill rhinos for no good reason. They kill tigers for the same reasons. The fact is they do it because the creatures are rare. If there was one unicorn in the world, some fuckwad out there would be hunting for it because its horn would cure gout.

One way to save rhinos is to remove their value to poachers. How? Well, it’s a bit controversial, but hey, this is the Adventure Team, so I figured that the Adventure Team’s goal would be to find rhinos in the wild, track them, tranquilize them, perform a surgical removal of the horn and the rhino would walk away relatively unharmed. But rhinos have need of their horns for digging and defense. So instead of just removing the horn, I figured the Adventure Team would replace the horn with a prosthetic. But not just any prosthetic. This one would have a panoramic camera which would record any attempt to kill them, with satellite uplink to track them and should harm come to them, video of the last hour would be uploaded to AT HQ and the poachers could be hunted down and prosecuted.

The Rhino

To that end, I first scoured the internet for a suitably-sized rhinoceros. There were a few on eBay, including a Big Jim one, but these were all too small. I found, thanks to some fellow collectors, a great Rhino from Safari Ltd, Wildlife Wonders line. I got it on Amazon for under twelve bucks, and was thrilled when it arrived. Very detailed, very accurate, and nicely scaled. He is more than a foot long from tip to tail, just about big enough for a small-ish 1:6 scale Rhino. So, again going back to old GI Joe days, I’ll call it Save the Endangered Pygmy Rhino.

So I immediately removed its horn with a sharp knife. It was soft rubber, so it wasn’t hard. And then I figured I would use some of my rare earth magnets, one in the horn and one in the nose of the rhino. But my magnets are either way too small, or a bit too big. So I ordered some cylindrical ones online and they arrived about a week later and I used a drill bit to drill out spaces of appropriate size and inserted magnets.

Now the horn can be reattached almost without noticing it was ever cut off. And when Joe removes the horn, he can apply the prosthetic using another magnet. Of course the fiction is it was surgically removed, and the prosthetic applied and sealed surgically for a solid join that would make the prosthetic as strong as the original.

So the set has a rhino. Now what?

Surveillance Drone

I needed something to track the rhino. Great. I just completed Set 3: the Adventure Team Action Pack Backpack Drone Surveillance. Clearly this backpack would be ideal. Using a remote drone to track the rhinos would be perfect.

The drone is meant to be carried on a backpack:

Removed, the backpack has four legs that fold down to form a launch pad:

The backpack’s back part stores a control tablet:

Which stores behind the elastic straps in a small notch shaped specifically to hold it:

When the drone is launched, it exposes a solar cell which powers up internal batteries to keep the drone charged:

Taking Down A Rhino – Safely and Harmlessly – Tranquilizing Darts

The set will also include a tranquilizing bazooka with six tranq darts, an ammo case to store the six darts, a surgical sealant gun, a bone saw, and of course a prosthetic horn with magnet to replace the beast’s real horn. I also have a nice Soldiers of the World set of surgical instruments, and will likely include that as well.

So far I have two tranq darts printed. These were prototypes, but I don’t think they need any changes. I will just print some more to make up six.

This photo shows the orange prototype, then the first test-print in color. You see two bodies, two heads and the two tranq injector tips, which use a spray-like injection system, not a needle.

Here are two completed.

I designed them to be 1cm in diameter, and that will perfectly fit the bazooka that comes with the GI Joe Collectors’ Club Convention Set: “Search for the Sasquatch”. That bazooka “fires” net rounds that blow up and a capture net comes out.

Here’s one of the Convention Set’s net rounds next to my orange prototype print.

Ammo Box

Here are the first pics of the Ammo box. It is a hefty, armored box designed to hold six tranquilizing rounds.

This is the box frame, the box insert which holds six rounds, then an orange version of the box top with upper insert, a black version of the box top (with orange handle in place), a black handle (should I opt to use an orange top instead) and two rounds.

Here, the inserts are placed in their box shells, and two rounds are placed, fins-up, into the protective packing.Same box but with rounds point-up. I wonder if this doesn’t look better. Doesn’t matter, though, because it fits either way, leaving it up to the kid, if this were a real production set.

And this is the box, closed, using the black top. I think the black works better. Soon, an AT logo will be applied to the box front.

Note that the box is flat-bottomed. I’m planning a second print that has a beveled bottom just like the lid.

Concept Sketches

I sketched out some of the parts for the set and decided to let people see it. I don’t normally post concepts or early sketches, but I thought this would kind of force me to stick to these ideas, rather than go wildly off-plan when I’m modeling.

Note: Things will change, surely, while I’m modeling, but hopefully what I end up with will remain fairly faithful to this. The box and darts were actually sketched after modeling, so they will be pretty accurate.

What you’re seeing is concept for the prosthetic rhino horn which has at its base a solar cell, and in the middle a panoramic web cam, and at the top, a satellite uplink antenna/GPS unit.

To the right is a sealant gun. It’s like a caulking gun but with surgical sealant to ensure the horn stays on even during the roughest rhino behavior.

Air-Powered Tranquilizing Bazooka

The main event, you might say, is the air-powered bazooka. It will be a hollow tube for the darts to fit in, and my current plan is for the two pistol grips to be rotatable so Joe can rotate them to a comfortable fit. The target sight is either going to be a traditional cross-hair, or more likely a video screen. The red canister at the back is a compressed air tank.

Here is the Tranq Bazooka in pieces. This is a first attempt. I modeled and printed this in one evening, and it is not complete. It was a test for fit and concept.

Here are the parts:

Here is the bazooka, assembled:

Note that hi-vis yellow is a color I use to test-print. But I actually like it. I am not sure I’ll keep it. The next print will be in AT yellow and I’ll decide which I like better.

The gas canister is supposed to be red, but again, this is just a test print.

Here, the Land Adventurer is aiming it:

When I saw the test print I thought it was ok. But I felt I could add some character to it.

I decided to change the whole design to an octagonal shape, and here is the 3D model of the redesigned version:

Note that it does not have a sight system yet. That’s coming. And some other detail may be added. I also added a carry handle which is in fact the same handle the ammo box uses, slightly altered to fit the bazooka.

If this print works well, I will be making additions including a way for the two pistol grips to rotate. I found that if the two grips were vertically aligned as you see in the 3D model, it’s harder for Joe to hold. So I wanted to angle the forward one outward for a more comfortable hold.

I also don’t want grips that are permanently angled, since I hope to also include a storage crate. My original concept sketch doesn’t show it, but I always intended for the grips to rotate. The photo of Joe holding the bazooka shows this. However, I want to limit the range of rotation. I don’t want you to be able to rotate the handle all the way around. So I am going to try to put in a peg/slot system into the barrel and the handle ring so that it can rotate outward to a maximum on either side, and then back to center for storage.

This may not be necessary and will complicate the model a bit, but I think if I decide it’s necessary it won’t be too hard to do.

Here is the first print of the second version, which has an octagonal outer body:

Here you see the bazooka, completed, with decals. These are water-slide decals printed on my laser printer, cut and slid into place. I’m not sure the ones on white “paper” are sticking well, but the clear ones seem to be.

On the left is an explosive warning, then there’s an AT logo, a “Contents Under Pressure” with a red arrow. Then the gas cylinder has a pressure warning triangle, with “Compressed CO2 Gas” in text.

The darts themselves say “Caution Etorphine”, which is an animal tranquilizer for large animals.

The box, you can see, has the AT log with Adventure Team, and “Tranq Ammo Darts – 6 -“.

Here you see the Land Adventurer aiming the bazooka:

Note the new detail I added – a very small but noticeable laser sight. The small red dot is 1mm in diameter, and it printed fairly well. The hole in the handle printed nicely too. I was a bit surprised, considering the scale.

One feature I built in was the ability for both handles to swing out for a more comfortable grip, which you can see better in the following picture:

Next: Sealant Gun

Here is a new concept for the Sealant Gun. Instead of using what, in my original concept above, a caulking gun, I figured this should be higher-tech. I had purchased these small glass vials for Steampunk gun (full sized) customizations. I bought a lot of them. I think it was a 100 count from China.

Here you can see them filled with two types of mouthwash for color.

So I figured how perfect would it be to use these for the sealant gun and make them a much more high-tech device that would resemble a lot of the injector guns you see in science fiction TV and film.

So I began sketching.

I modeled one up fairly quickly and test-printed it in silver.

I found this to be just a tad too large. It reminded me of some 1990s 12″ Real American Hero Joe pistols, or modern Action Man guns which tended to be oversized.

So I scaled it down a bit:

…glued the parts together and attached the bottle:

And posed in Joe’s hand it is now actually quite right.

The Rhino’s Horn

Now that most of the set is together the remaining piece to design and build was the solar-powered prosthetic rhino horn.

I modeled the base in blue, so it can pass as a solar power cell, keeping the electronics going. The middle section is white with eight lenses for a panoramic web-cam that constantly uploads to a satellite through the top section, a GPS locator/satellite uplink just like in any smart phone.

What’s Next?

So glad you asked.

Some of the GI Joe collectors I know expressed great interest in these sets, so I made available four sets of the bazooka; six darts; an ammo box; and a sealant gun. I sold four in very short order.

Perhaps later I will make more available.

Also, I thought it would be nice to have a case to hold the sealant gun with sealant bottles. I could probably model a briefcase or something, but I have this wonderful aluminum briefcase which is meant for business cards but is a perfect 1:6 Samsonite-like aluminum briefcase for Joe. The sealant gun and vials would fit nicely. But I only had one case.

I made contact with a vendor in China and may be buying a few of them in black, so I can make the sealant gun case. I would use it outright, but would 3D print an insert to hold the gun and vials.

Huxter's Words

The Truth About 3D Printing And My Other Many Obsessions

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