I’ve been talking about it for a little while now, and now you can vote in it!

A short while ago, Robert Atkins (artist extraordinaire for IDW’s G.I. Joe and Snake Eyes titles) decided to hold a contest for the best custom version of his updated Cobra Commander design…and the fans have come through!

With a very nice selection of several different figures in many different formats, there are some great choices for the best custom version of this new Cobra Commander!  You can view all of the entries on Robert Atkins page right here.

I’m torn.  A lot of beautiful work here…  but I gotta say I’m pretty partial to Troy’s version, which even included a mock up of the packaging and a Krake head that can be swapped out!  It’s really gorgeous.

Although I absolutely love that Chad and Matt went the o-ring route, and Sidewinder’s 12″ version is truly inspired as well.

Some tough choices here.  Go vote!

A couple of months ago, I revealed to the Joe community a great new custom parts service called Yetibrew Design, and showcased a “Dragonfly Upgrade Kit” that seemed to get some pretty good response.

Well, as the infomercial says, “That’s not all!”

Ian, proprietor of Yetibrew sends along word that his Dragonfly Upgrade Kit has spawned some cool new items, such as ”…small (7 round) and large (19 round) rocket pods as well as a land mine dispenser with removable mines and a two part gatling gun assembly which is based on a gatling pod used on AH1 helicopters in Vietnam.”

He has also adapted a rocket pod for use with the awesome Pursuit of Cobra Ghost Hawk vehicle!  Images of these items can be seen below:

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If you want to check out the Dragonfly parts, click here.

But…wait for it…  ”that’s not all!”  Yetibrew has something else big in the wings that a lot of fans seemed to indicate a desire for.  Many fans have wondered why the HISS Tank has a clear glass canopy.  Well, Ian wants to change that.  He doesn’t have the actual model done yet, but he has sent along some beautiful renders for an armored canopy for your vintage HISS.  This thing looks awesome!  Check out the images for that below:

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How freaking cool is that?  Man.  Seems like the sky is the limit with this stuff.  Bad ass.  Head over there and spend some money!  If we can show that this stuff is viable, there could be some even better stuff down the road.

To celebrate the upcoming Halloween season, JoeCustoms.com is launching an exclusive costume contest!  Between now and October 23rd, you can submit images to JoeCustoms.com of yourself dressed up as your favorite G.I. Joe or Cobra character. This comes straight from the horse’s mouth:

“We were able to secure a SDCC regular Zarana figure through a shady backdoor channel *cough*JoeArmory.com*cough*. Since Zarana is a master of disguise, we thought what better way for one of you lucky Joe fans to get her than to show off your own mastery of disguise, or in this case costume making skills.

Rules
What can be submitted?

This contest is open to anybody who reads this. You do not need to be a member of the JoeCustoms.com forum to enter, although you will need to be a member in order to vote on the forum (See Judging below). The costume can be of any established character in the GI Joe universe including the comics, movies, and cartoon. As long as you can show a picture of it from recognized GI Joe media or toys, then it is acceptable. Only one entry per person please. Any additional entries submitted by the same person will not be accepted. We try to maintain a PG-13 atmosphere for the site so any nudity or conduct that violates local or Federal laws will not be accepted.

Please include in your submission email to projects@joecustoms.com the following:

* JoeCustoms.com Halloween Costume Contest in the Subject line of the email.

* Attach up to 3 pictures of your custome including one 1 “action” shot – see JUDGING below. The pictures will be auto-resized so don’t worry about dimensions.

*Your screen name if you have one, your real name, and the name, specialty, and affiliation of your character should be written in the body of your email.

NO CHEERLEADING

We like to have the work judged on its own merits, so please NO CHEERLEADING. If we discover you promoting your costume anywhere in order to garner more votes, you will be disqualified. These will remain anonymous (as much is possible), even to the judges, until the winners have been chosen.

JUDGING

There will be two rounds of judging. The first round will be by poll voting on the JoeCustoms.com forum, open to any member of the board. Each member will vote for their favorite. The poll results will be visible as soon as you vote. The top 3 costumes will then move on to the second round. The second round of judging will be done by an esteemed panel of judges consisting of multiple GIJCC Convention Costume Contest winner Kuukuuson, GI Joe super fan and the man with his finger on the pulse, General Hawk, and the man who made this contest possible JoeArmory’s ZombieGuide. If for some reason there is a tie, I will serve as the final vote tie breaker.

Customs will be judged on the following categories:

Style – 40%
Originality of the concept – 20%
Quality of the fabrication – 20%
Overall aesthetic value -20%

You will notice that Style is weighted heavier than the other categories. We want you to wow us. Use your “action” shot to make us laugh out loud or show us how awesome the costume is. Whether it is a character out on the town or deep in the heat of battle, we want to see something beyond the standard at ease pose.

DEADLINE
Entries need to be submitted to projects@joecustoms.com by Sunday, October 23 at 11:59pm. Voting on the Joecustoms forum will take place between Monday, October 24 and Thursday, 27 at 8:00am EST. The Judges will then decide the winner which will be announced on October 31st, Halloween day.

Legal jargon

All submissions will be hosted on JoeCustoms.com for as long as we see fit and may be used on marketing material for the site with due credit given. Submissions will be denied if they contain objectionable or offensive content, including nudity or illegal activities, that goes beyond our PG-13 rating we try to maintain for the site. If any issue arises that is not heretofore already outlined in the above rules I, pluv, as acting administrator, will have the final say about what action will be taken. Please email contact@joecustoms.com any questions or concerns before submitting an entry.”

Look out, What’s on Joe Mind is officially legal!

It seemed like just yesterday I was begging and pleading for the guys to let me be included on the podcast, and here we are, 16 weeks later, still going strong.  We act our age this week, speaking maturely and intelligently to some of the awesome customizing gurus of our hobby, Richard from Ratfink Customs and John “P-Luv” the current admin of JoeCustoms.com.  We also talk about the very exciting “SlayerCon” which is kicking off this weekend in Maryland!  Check here for more details on that.

We also talk about the latest news and intel, and Chuck gets all sensitive new age man.  Check it out on our Podbean Page, or hit up the embedded player below.

Anyone who pays attention to the hobby at this point has heard about the wonders of 3D printing.  The idea that you can design something in CAD, and actually model it and print it in 3 Dimensions.  Previously restricted to very high end production processes, these 3D printers are becoming more common place.

With this in mind, GeneralsJoes is very proud to introduce the latest sponsor to the site Yetibrew Design, who works with Shapeways to produce manufactured 3 dimensional components for G.I. Joe vehicles!

Their first item is a “Dragonfly Upgrade” kit of sorts, which includes two fins for the side of the copter, as well as a replacement chin gun, both of which harken back to a bit more realistic “Huey Cobra” design aesthetic.  These items are hard plastic, clean cut, and fit very nicely into the vehicle they’re designed for.  No cutting, no trimming, no worries, just plug ‘em in slap some paint on ‘em and enjoy!

The coolest thing here, too, is that the proprietor of Yetibrew Design is also a fan, and wants to make items with a fan appeal.

Please check out his site at Yetibrew Design and take a peek at what he’s done so far, but best of all keep in mind everything that could be coming down the pipe.  Some great potential here.  I have a set of the Dragonfly parts in hand, and they are extremely well produced.  A full review is coming, but for now, enjoy the images of these great items:

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You know, you really don’t see much in the way of o-ring style customs these days, so when I see them, I take notice.  Over on Facebook, Tom posted a link to the Cobra Re-Color project, which is an ambitious undertaking, essentially creating cohesive design and color schemes for the different Cobra divisions.  It’s a fascinating idea, made only cooler by the execution of it.

You can find the website right here, and I’ve hosted just a few images below.  You don’t really think about what a difference cohesive military color schemes make until you see some of these customs.  Great stuff, thanks to Tom for pointing it out.

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I’ve seen many fans lambasting the original G.I. Joe line, and most of their anger is directed towards “the 90′s”.  Invariably, that entire decade gets blamed for the downfall of G.I. Joe, but I’ve often felt like 1990 itself was a fantastic year for G.I. Joe, and almost perfectly exemplified what the fans want.

The figures were all new characters, very cool military colors, tons of original accessories.  Yes, 1990 was awesome.  And amazing customizier extraordinaire “Bad Sociologist” is tackling 1990 head on, with “Project 1990″.

I’m not even that huge a fan of modern figures that perfectly resemble the classics, but holy crap, these just must be seen to be believed.  The original thread is on HissTank.com, check out these amazing mirrored images below.

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I figured it was pretty much a done deal when the silhouette was shown alongside Dial Tone a short while ago, but the GI Joe Collectors Club has now confirmed that we will indeed be getting a Sea Adventurer to finish off the awesome Adventure Team figures, and he will come with a repainted Mantis vehicle from the Valor Vs. Venom and Rise of Cobra toy line.

Unfortunately, Lody from HissTank.com does not mention the initial source of this information, but I assume it’s from the latest Collectors’ Club newsletter, which should be arriving in some folks’ mailboxes currently.  Lody mentions the description saying that it will come with an Adventure Team Joe in blue, and a repaint of the Mantis submarine in white.

Toy Nutz, also on HissTank.com has also posted a customized version of the Mantis, with some approximation of what we might expect.  Gotta say, I’m not real big on the Mantis, but my twisted sense of completism will force me to pick this thing up.  The figure should be cool, and who knows, maybe I’ll warm up to the Mantis in person, but as it stands, not my first choice.

Check out the custom images below.  This is not necessarily an indication of what the final product will look like!

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For anyone interested in this item, or interested in more information from the G.I. Joe Collectors’ Club, hit up GIJoeClub.com and join up!

You know, to be honest, I could put nearly every one of Jin’s customs on this page and not feel guilty about it.  Dude does some amazing work.  But once in a great while…  holy wow.

This time he took one of the recently released Iron Man 2 Combat Drones, smashed it together with a 25th Anniversary B.A.T., added some paint and flair, and…again…  holy wow.  Showcased on HissTank.com, this is one nasty version of the Cobra Battle Android Trooper, and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t even like the B.A.T.s all that much.

Check out Jin’s page right here, and some mirrored images below.

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I’ve covered the awesome guys from TS118 plenty of times in the past…and they’ve given me good reason to do so.  They do some absolutely awesome work.  A big thanks to GlenMarc (Flash) once again for putting us in the loop for one of their latest projects…another Dynamic Modular Diorama, entitled “Operation: Snake Rising”.  Here are some notes:

- Inspired by oriental movies and ninja-themed displays.
- Displayed last weekend October 2-3, 2010 at the Robinson’s Place Manila Mall (Philippines) in celebration of Collecticon 2010, organized by Hobbiworx and PinoyToyKolektors (PTK).
- Brought to you by the same team that came up with O: Shock and Awe, O: Killzone, O: Forced Entry, O: Gothic Serpent, O: Sidewinder Verde, O: Grayia Seize-r, and O: Ivory Blanket…the Philippines only local 3 3/4 (1:18) Joe online community..TS118
- This diorama changes display every three to four hours. It is the first of its kind in the Philippines for action figures (regardless of scale). We dubbed it as a “dynamic modular diorama” or DMD. In this case, it is called Dynamic Modular DOJO-rama.
- Took 3 weekends of preparation and actual dio-work to complete (figures/structures/vehicles). Mostly done on Saturdays only.
- Collaboration done by at least 8-10 members (builders, pledgers/financiers, consultants, etc.).
- Dojo panels allowed the team to display it as U-shaped to show dojo interior, or in a straight line to simulate the dojo facade.
- Featured GI Joe customs in 25A body (Slice, Dice, Jinx DDP, unmasked SS & SE) plus hidden mickeys (Deadpool Sensei, Kakashi Sensei, Deathstroke, Rha’s Al Ghul, and a tribute to the legend…BRUCE LEE).

They also have a dedicated Photobucket album here, and I’ve mirrored a number of the awesome images below:

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Along with all of this, they’ve posted some videos of set up, too…I’ll embed all of those after the jump.

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