scott (firefox) may have recorded some of saturdays presentation...mark's presentation was by far the best roundtable of the con. super interesting info....

Hey Tanner I counted those Sky Hawk's I got. I bought 25 of them (total) so that means I have 21 of them. Becouse of the 4 I traded to you at the con. Guy's I had a blast at the con. Except for the time I got lost down town by my self on Saturday, if I just turned left instead of right outside of ****'s Kitchen (good peanutbutter...YUMMY), I would have never been lost.......Oh well.....LOL.........
All in all I did have fun visiting everyone. And I got a lot of vehicals with boxes I needed.

Con finds and comments
 

As usual most items are usually more expensive than you can pick them up from the boards or on e-bay. However, there are always a few treasures to be found. For me: 1. The new repo weapons were a great buy and a must have. 2. I picked up a blue PTE little bird from Curt (GI JOE HQ) for a great price. A few Cobra stickers and this thing will be a great addition to my cobra forces. 3. A straight arm Zap from F & M Enterprises. I picked him up for about half of the going e-bay price. Mike and Faith are great people and usually have some of the best deals at the con. I have bought literally a car load of joes from him at past cons. 4. This one will be a shocker. I got a great item from Brian's Toys. Although most of their stuff was obscenely over priced, I picked up the the General Tomahawk statue for $15. A great bargain IMO. I heard of someone snagging a complete Tomahawk with Lift Ticket including mic for $25 during the first couple of hours that the sales floor was open.
The new stuff from Hasbro looks great and I placed my order on-line at the con. I am really excited about the figures and the Humvee looks GREAT. I can't wait for the items to get here. I would agree that shipping seems a little high. $25 on a $114 order (ouch)!!!
Mark Bellomo is an incredible wealth of knowledge. I went to both of his round table discussions and they were great. Mark is a scholar (literally), a gentleman, and after hanging out with him at the con, a friend. I hope his book sells a million copies.
The gay pride parade definitely added an interesting twist to the convention. The "Diva Rodeo" at my hotel would have been great, if they hadn't taken up all the parking.
Speaking of the hotel. Let me start by saying a word of thanks to ET Martin for getting things arranged. If I had it to do over again I would not have done anything different due to the HUGE savings in the hotel bill. That being said, the Ramada was only a slight step above camping in a tent. Air conditioning did not work right ANYWHERE. You might get towels and you might not?? One of the elevators smelled like a urinal. I could go on (and my wife does). I don't mind camping and I loved saving the cash but if you ever have to go to Minneapolis and someone else is paying the bill...don't stay at the Ramada. There is a reason it is the cheapest hotel in the area.
The con sets were really nice as well as the extras. I had a blast meeting people from the boards, milling around the sales floor, and attending the round tables. I would definitely recommend the conventions to any collector that has an opportunity to go. The conventions really get better each time you attend because you have the opportunity to meet and develop friendships with more and more people from the Joe community.

Does anybody know if they sold out of the Steel Brigade figures and vehicles? Thanks!

They did not sell out of anything except hydrofoils and they supposedly have 100 more back in TX.

Presentation Pics...
 

I'll make the presentation text available in some form soon, but for some pics - here's a link to mastercollector: http://www.mastercollector.com/neat/...rs.cfm#bellamo

the rocc will probably be more like 60-70 .
that is gonna be a hot seller at any price

The ROCC will retail for $39.99. At least while its in the stores....

Tanner

wow that is excellent.

i dont think it will be that hard to find, stuff that big usually isnt.

i was just looking at the dios/ customs at MC site, some pretty cool stuff

The ONLY pics I have been waiting on from the con....
 

http://www.joecustoms.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=27835

Thanks Sledge Hammer...I think I must have been standing on something, i didn't realize I was that much bigger than Curt.

Now, if we can get Corey to email me that pic of of a dozen 200+ pound Joe collectors piled in the back of my van so i could get it out of the parking garage...