2013 GIJCC Convention: The Wrap-Up

[Sgt_Flash]

The hallmark of good journalism is to strike when the proverbial iron is hot, which makes this... pretty bad, from a purely journalistic standpoint. You'll have to forgive me. Sometimes, after an event like the 2013 GI Joe Convention, real life has to be readjusted to a lot quicker than I'd like, even if it's in a good way.

Suffice to say, the Con was an absolute blast. Some personal highlights:

• If any of you know me at all, you know me as one of the hosts of "What's On Joe Mind?" We got to do a live show as a panel on Saturday afternoon, and it was a blast. We got to sit down with GIJCC head honcho Brian Savage and find out a little bit about his past, what makes him tick as a collector, and some of his interests outside the world of GI Joe. He was a great sport and I hope he had as much fun as Gary, Justin and I did. We'll have information about where you can see or listen to a recording of our panel as soon it's available.
• I also got to help David Tree with his outstanding Action Force panel Saturday morning. Dave made the long trip from England this year and put on an outstanding panel. He's been a great friend to us at WOJM for a long time now and it was my pleasure to provide an assist. Hopefully, the finance gods will throw a little help my way so I can return the favor and fly out to Roll Out Roll Call, the premier international GI Joe and Transformers convention, sponsored by Dave's shop, All The Cool Stuff.
• I spent a little time manning booths for Joe Declassified, COIL Club and (way too little time with) Yojoe! Joe Declassified brought even more hidden corners of the fandom to light, the COIL Club revealed some (not all!) of its exclusives for August's COIL Con IV, and Yojoe! was signing even more collectors for Yojoe! Pro, which may be the easiest way to catalog a collection... ever. One of these years, I'm going to actually take some time and actually shop on the sales floor.
• If you listened to WOJM Special Edition #30, you heard me remark that I thought the Convention Souvenirs may have been stronger than the Convention Set itself. You can get blow-by-blow reviews from lots of places (most notably GeneralsJoes.com) and I won't belabor this post by trying to mine them for new material. However, a week later, my favorites from the show are still Chuckles, Freestyle, Steeler and the Night Boomer, with Repeater and Muskrat joining them from the Set. I still like last year's Operation: Bear Trap set a little more overall, but Nocturnal Fire will still be regarded as one of the Club's stronger offerings as time goes by. Many thanks to the Club staff for putting together such great toys.
• If you ever get the chance to see a GI Joe movie in a theater full of GI Joe fans, go see that movie.
• KIRK BOZIGIAN AND BILL RATNER RECOGNIZED ME BY VOICE. How cool is that? And Mary MacDonald-Lewis gave me a hard time for missing her interview with WOJM. Plus, any weekend you can chat with The Godfather Larry Hama is a good one.

If there was one lowlight, I missed out on seeing this year's Hasbro concept case (it was shown during the WOJM panel), so I do have some catching up to do there. Sadly, I was also unable to convince Derryl DePriest to repeat his Battle-Kata demonstration during Hasbro's panel. Maybe next time, Derryl.

Wherever the GIJCC decides to hold their 2014 convention, it'll be a tall order to top 2013. I can't even begin to list all the folks I was happy to see this year. Be safe, and God willing I'll catch you again sometime soon.

Looking forward, what do you want to see in upcoming Convention sets? New characters? Established characters in new decos? New-sculpt era characters? Con-goers, what did you ask the Club for?

[jbeutel]

I couldn't agree more. I think that this year the Club really hit it out of the park with the con exclusives. The question is, have they set the bar so high that they can't possibly top it next year?

[Black Llama]

They gave Chuckles a shirt with glow in the dark flowers. GLOW. IN. THE. DARK. FLOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is no topping that.

[Sgt_Flash]

It's going to be tough for the GIJCC to top Operation: Bear Trap, simoply because there are very few segments of GI Joe folklore that are as universally loved as the Oktober Guard. Throw in a popular enemy faction like the Iron Grenadiers and that was gold from the start.

The complaints that I've heard about Nocturnal Fire, while few and far between ("too much teal," "where are the 'regular versions,'" "where's Crazylegs," etc.), are still more than I've heard about O:BT, even with its nine-month head start.

I think the only way the Club could put together a more popular set is to incorporate some of the old 1982/83 characters in a 30th-Anniversary format... kind of a modernized Tanks For The Memories, although I'd like to see what they could do with "stock" uniforms for Grunt, Clutch, Flash and the gang, and not so much winter garb. That's the only group of characters I can think of that are more unilaterally loved than the Oktober Guard. They could probably re-use the female COBRA force as the villains there, too.

[Plastica]

I for one would love to see Steel brigade get high level billing with incorporating them into a box/bag set instead of relegating them to attendee 2pk/3 pk status as was done in 05 though they did put 3 named members in a 6pk with 3 members of the Plague Troopers in fact a fellow member and I were thinking that that 6 pack could be expanded into a box set the plague is big enough and wouldn't need much

[MonkeywrenchF118th]

Nice recap! I could really get down for a Modern Version of Tanks for the Memories!

[nickvree]

Good recap Mike! I thought the set was great! I love me some SAW Vipers! My OG 2012 set is in the mail, so I don't really have a strong opinion on that one yet.

[Sgt_Flash]

I for one would love to see Steel brigade get high level billing with incorporating them into a box/bag set instead of relegating them to attendee 2pk/3 pk status as was done in 05 though they did put 3 named members in a 6pk with 3 members of the Plague Troopers in fact a fellow member and I were thinking that that 6 pack could be expanded into a box set the plague is big enough and wouldn't need much

Nice! Combining the Plague with some of the 1982 Joes might be a good way to save on body parts, since so many of them could be done with that 30th Anniversary Stalker torso and legs with new heads.

[FireFox91]

I had a great time at the convention. I attended most of the major events, got some seriously nice stuff on the sales floor, and even spent some time as a dealer on the floor selling some extras I had.

You mentioned the attendee exclusives outshining the set itself. Yeah, I would say that is true. And honestly, it should continue to be that way. The club likes to hype up the attendee items by not revealing them until the day of the show. If what they show ends up being less than what we already knew we were getting, it doesn't go over well. Consider the October Guard theme last year. The attendee items were a Indiana Jones cargo truck and a repainted Dragonhawk chopper. Both were completely average if not below average compared to the kinds of things we got in the past.

[General_Hawk]

Very well put, Mike. I agree.

I think the Operation: Bear Trap Convention set was a very nice combination of factions that brought some great stuff to the table, but I don't totally agree about it being all wine and roses. I've heard from many folks that weren't all that happy with the Iron Grenadier figures included in the set, and of course people (like FireFox above and like myself) who didn't have much love for the extra vehicles.

In my opinion, the Nocturnal Fire set was successful on many more levels. Perhaps the highest level wasn't as high as the Oktober Guard, but I think looking at consistency, the overall set should be held at a higher regard. The enemies have been a bit more well received (though complaints are still out there for the Frag-Viper's skinny legs and SAW Viper pinkness), and the Night Force figures themselves have gotten pretty rave reviews.

Add that on to the fact that the Night Boomer is far and away more popular than either of the two vehicles from last year, not to mention Steeler, Chuckles, and the carded Lady Jaye... I think the overall opinion of this year's set might just eek out above last year's.

That is certainly my opinion, anyway.