We have had a lot of good feedback regarding our ongoing 1982-1994 section, we have added a few more items this week including loose Palitoy SAS Hunter, Blades, Red Shadows Escape Armour among others:

http://www.allthecoolstuff.co.uk/Action-Man/-Action-Force/-GI-Joe/Action-Force/-International-Heroes/-GI-Joe-1982-1994__c-p-0-0-107-111.aspx

There is still a lot still to list and we ship worldwide, so please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything specific you are looking for?

Just a reminder on GI-Joe Retaliation pre-orders. We are close to the official launch of the new toys and we have wave 2 available for pre-order allowing for easy ordering for UK and European collectors:

http://www.allthecoolstuff.co.uk/Action-Man/-Action-Force/-GI-Joe/Pre-Order__c-p-0-0-107-114.aspx

As always, keep checking back for more new updates, both new releases and vintage lines,

All the best,

Dave.

All The Cool Stuff

64 High Street

Fordingbridge

Hampshire

SP6 1AX

Tel: 01425 650696

Web: www.allthecoolstuff.co.uk

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/All-The-Cool-Stuff/105735936130063

You Tube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AllTheCoolStuff

Twitter: @allzecoolstuff

Nah.  I’m nothing if not forgiving, so I’ll play nice and post the latest update for the What’s on Joe Mind podcast.  This episode the guys are joined by Sunbow voice actor Neil Ross, who voiced the indelible Shipwreck, one of the most popular characters in the G.I. Joe mythology!

They also tackle all the latest news and information, and talk about the GIJCC 2012 Convention Set in its entirety. I’m jealous that I didn’t get the chance to share my .02.  Ah, well, maybe I’ll make them revisit it tomorrow night.

Check out the latest episode on our Podbean page, or via the embedded player below, and don’t forget to hit the jump for our show notes.

FLASH EMBED:

HTML5 EMBED:

SHOW NOTES

What happens when Justin misses a show?  Well, we tend to have awesome interviews with voice actors.  So when Justin told us he would be missing this week’s show, we knew our interview would be a blast!  Joining us this week is Neil Ross, or otherwise known as the Sunbow voice of Shipwreck!  We talk to Neil for an hour about his many works – past and present.  Right before halftime, Shogi Scott reviews many of the souviner JoeCon exclusives from 2010.  In the second half, we start off with the mailbag and answer another JoeCon question, talk about Sideshow and our thoughts on the Operation Bear Trap set, and we get a text message from Chuck’s sister Barbra.  In the news we talk about the final reveals of the 2012 3.75″ JoeCon set, once again we mention that the JoeCon Brochure is out, local Filipino GI Joe  collector group, TS118 will be setting up displays and dioramas in the lobby of many movie theaters in the Philippines to help promote the hobby to new fans.  Retaliation and “Dollar Store” figures are the topic of discussion in our wrap up segment.  A few of the guys got their hands on early stuff, so hear what the guys thought of the new movie toys.  Its an exciting time to be a fan!  Sit back, and enjoy this double-nickle edition of WOJM!

Neil Ross

• NeilRoss.com
• IMDB
• WikiPedia

News and Intel

• GIJoeCon.com Convention Exclusive Oktober Guard vs. Iron Grenadiers
• GIJoeCon Convention Brochure
• G.I. Joe fans in the Philippines celebrating the premier of G.I. Joe: Retaliation
• 2010 “Vacation in the Shadows” Convention Set (which Shogi Reviewed)

This has led to an interesting dichotomy in my life as I try to continue G.I. Joe related motivations while juggling work, finishing my bachelor’s degree, and deal with living with my in-laws for the next six weeks.  Hit the jump to see how I’m trying to keep myself sane.

As I write this, the family and I are currently between homes.  Our trusty hold one-floor ranch has been sold and we’ve made a commitment to the new house, which currently continues construction, on track for completion at the same exact time that I happen to be in New Orleans at JoeCon 2012.  I really need to work on my timing.

The work on the new home continues full steam ahead, with the majority of external construction complete, and work being done on the inside.  Most of the sheet rocking is up, and as the walls are completed inside, it quickly becomes evident to me that a lot of my “sky is the limit” hopes and dreams aren’t quite as realistic as they appeared when the walls were opened and the final room dimensions weren’t so clearly defined.

Not that this is a bad thing.  Quite the opposite, actually.  I’ve quickly found that the more strict the dimensions of what I can do, the more realistic my expectations become and the firmer my plans start to form mentally.  When my toys were stashed in my garage, the mentality was all about “storage”.  I need enough room in my garage to “store” my stuff, and that took prescedence in a big way.  I have…well… a lot of stuff.  Way too much stuff.  Bordering on a hoarders situation kind of stuff, and when it was in the garage “out of sight, out of mind” it was a matter of digging away enough space in the garage to stack things from floor-to-ceiling in order to properly stash my worldly possessions.  Check out images of my storage unit below.

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Now, as I rethink my priorities and start to consider an “inside” situation with a home office and a desire to showcase my collection rather than just store it, I find my mentality changing drastically.  Collecting, for a long time, has been a total “gotta catch ‘em all” mindset, where the main goal was simply accumulation.  Gather as much as humanly possible to maintain my mythical “collection”.  But I have started asking myself some questions…what is the value of a “collection” if it really is just that?  A “Collection”?  Does merely collecting stuff really bring some sort of satisfaction, or is what you do with that stuff much more important?  Personally, I find my attitude shifting.  Don’t get me wrong, I have an immense amount of respect for those folks who can do both…who can collect a massive amount of stuff and do some cool stuff with it (see Kevin Watts), but I’m not in a situation where I can do that.  So now, as I design this room in my head, some hard decisions are starting to form over what I really need.  I have mentally converted already from “storage” to “display” and I’m already considering the best possible way to display my collection in a way that makes it fun and interesting, not just a ridiculous stack of tubs from floor to ceiling.  After all, this room is going to be an office inside my home, and not just a dank garage that nobody ever goes into.  That changes the characteristics of what a toy room should be drastically, in my opinion.

First and foremost, we have the room, almost completely sheet rocked.  You’ll have to excuse the pictures, there is no electricity directly to the home yet, so the pictures were taken in low light with my cell phone camera, but hopefully you can get the idea.

[View with PicLens]

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is quite a bit of room in here.  It’s a 13′ by 14′ space with a ton of wall area.  I will want an office desk in here for my computer, and I need a review station, but besides that, this is all open floor and wall space available for toy display.  But when you’re talking to someone who has a 10′ by 10′ storage area filled top to bottom with tubs of crap, suddenly this room doesn’t seem like sufficient space, which is where the hard decisions will have to come in.

My first series of decisions revolves around my shelf choices.  I’m strongly considering using rails and shelves on the walls in order to best optimize my space, but I would love input from anyone else who uses these methods.  The idea right now, is possibly putting a table with the USS Flagg in the center of the room, as that should leave enough room on each side to walk around, with my action figure cabinets on one wall, and display shelves on the other.  That leaves the far wall for the office desk/review station and the near wall for some other potential space.  But again, my architecture skills aren’t the best, and until I get stuff in the room, I’m betting my internal measurements will be way off.  But you know, part of me doesn’t care if they are.  I am fully resigned to the fact that whatever happens, this room is going to look good, and the focus is going to be on display, not on storage, so no matter what happens from here, things will be sold, and my whole “gotta have them all” mentality is going to be seriously questioned.

For the shelves themselves, I’m taking some inspiration from Destro at HissTank.com who recently posted images of his collection, including the shelving he’s using, and that matches pretty well with what I’ve got in my own head.

[View with PicLens]

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see myself parting with a lot of my figures.  After all, I’ve got a pretty good system for storage and display for those.  But do I really need half a dozen three foot long vehicles from the late 80′s in my collection?  And as pained as it makes me, do I really need a 7′ Aircraft Carrier that will just sit in the middle of the floor and take up valuable walking or display space for hundreds of other items?

I don’t know if I’m ready to answer that question yet, but the fact that it’s being asked is an eye opening, somewhat life-changing experience for me.  It may be the best thing about this new house purchase.

Stay tuned.

The decision makes sense with Jinx being a big part of G.I. Joe: Retaliation and with a desire to fill in some gaps in the old school roster.  Well, old friend Gyre-Viper has gotten his hands on one of these excellent looking Jinx figures, and we’ve got some great in hand pictures at JoeDeclassified.com.  He was also kind enough to supply an exclusive image to GeneralsJoes featuring the card back and file card.  Excellent!

I’ve mirrored a chunk of the images here, but you should hit up JoeDeclassified.com to see the full selection.  Some great details revealed!

[View with PicLens]

I know a lot of fans have been hopping up and down just waiting for this fan favorite character to make his appearance in the Convention boxed set.  Well, the fans have gotten their wish!  Last night the Collectors’ Club revealed the convention exclusive Horror Show, which is the last figure in the boxed set for 2012, and they’re ending with a bang.

We all should have assumed that this figure would not resemble the familiar quilted jacket that we knew from the comics and cartoon, since no existing tooling could match that.  So the Club did something rather unique.  The vest is from Shadow Tracker and it seems to be covering a torso that also utilizes the jacket bottom from G.I. Joe: Renegades Cobra Commander.  The end result is a long jacket with some great pockets and pouches that gives the figure some extra bulk.  Looking at his legs, too, he’s using the Resolute Roadblock legs, so obviously he will have some nice height due to those parts being used, too.

One more cool touch are his arms, which look to be pulled from the previously canceled Pursuit of Cobra Arctic Duke.  The result is a nice, hefty looking figure with an absolutely perfect head sculpt that is a pretty neat update to the familiar Oktober Guard heavy weapons specialist.  I’m not entirely sold on the way the vest meshes with the jacket underneath, and look forward to a bit more explanation on that one, but the figure itself looks great.  Check out some images below:

Horror Show

Group Shot (this is my own Photoshop work, NOT the Club’s)

The Entire boxed set

[View with PicLens]

For the latest details make sure you keep checking GIJoeCon.com.  Registration will be live any time!