A possible "A" team?

Well, in a couple posts just previous, I've mentioned the possibility of trimming back on my figure collection. I've been playing with some ideas, in my head, here and there.

Lately, I was wondering if I could make a good effective "13-man" team out of thinking about what specialties would be strongest suited for a small team. "Back in the day," when we all didn't have it all, I think we still had fun with what we had. We really made more out of less, at least I think so. Even more recently, like in about 2006, I was having fun with just my security team. But, could I just have 13 figures now and have fun with it?

I started with trying to focus on JUST the needed specialties.

Then that plan sort of fizzled into just looking at all my figures and thinking these are all cool.

Then I was contemplating just the collectors series figures ('97-'02), seeing if it would be better to try and make a team out of the figures with softer hands as opposed to getting the harder older Joes in the mix. I've thought of just having more modern "O-ring" figures on hand at times.

Then I started asking myself why some figures appeal to me, and I started to think about different character personalities that have been presented to us all over the years.

Well, essentially, here's one possible team that I came up with and will be evaluating on how much fun these would be if this was all I had:

Heavy Duty
Wild Bill
Roadblock
Dial Tone
Outback
Tracker
Stalker
Lowlight
Jinx
Snake eyes
Gung ho
Flint

I guess I'll explain some of these choices separately below, the same list, but with the reasons why these are chosen now:

Heavy Duty, Heavy Ordnance trooper, laser weapons systems, indirect fire. I thought, here is an anti-tank guy most obviously, and I've liked this Heavy Duty, while strongly disliking every other incarnation after.

Wild Bill, he's a helicopter and fixed wing pilot, my team would have to get places and the Tomahawk is most likely going to be a major player. There are plenty of other pilots that could do it, too, but Wild Bills air cavalry scout character add-on's are giving him the edge for ground adventure/ versatility. Plus, he has a removable hat.

Roadblock. I think there may be more cartoon exposure affecting me with this pick, even though, a heavy machine gunner is very important to have. Plus, the guy in Renegades is a different take, but, still, I'm digging it. And I really like the Battle Corps mold for him.

Dial Tone, well, I think this is the character I would pick, being 1986 was a bigger year for me, and Breaker hasn't really stood out to me. Plus, add in that I'm thinking of using the 1994 mold, where I think it is pretty neat, the only thing I don't like is the yellow pack, otherwise I would feel really good about this pick for my communications slot.

Outback is really mostly Big Brawler in body here, but I think it works. I was thinking a survival expert all around would be pretty handy. I think his Marvel Comic appearances really sit with me for personality. Being the one guy to get out of that gulag really made him feel like a guy that could go it alone if need be.

Tracker would be my Navy SEAL. The head and torso are the only things "Tracker" in the picture above, but, the way I read the file card, he seems like a guy that can go out there alone and keep pace with the likes of Snake eyes. On this team, as-is, I would have a land-based SEAL, and Tracker is really a fairly "open-ended" character that could be fun to build up in my head.

Stalker is simply the man. Really, I don't hate Duke, but Stalker is a natural leader in my books, and in some ways would very much be the sarge-in-charge Ranger.

Lowlight has been with me from back in the day. With Hawk and Sci-fi, those three were the real army men figures that did most of the battle for many years. He's kind of the team sniper, essentially. But, it's all night spotter, night survivalist, night fighter, dinosaur spotter. He's been around, and in some ways like his file impresses on me, he is the quiet guy. I may have to replace my original one, but it's a great mold. I guess if he were on the team, he could play his traditional role, but also I could see him becoming a door-kicking commando, too.

Jinx has been around for awhile, and in a red suit, not a real stealthy feel. The Vypra is in the picture, and I've not really gotten a 4WD driver sense out of that figure. It's Jinx, all around, right down to the accessories. So, while I don't like re-naming figures somewhat, I think this figure as Jinx is going to be very useful. Relative to Storm Shadow, and NOT Scarlett. This way we have no hooking up on the team. Plus, Jinx can better serve in the intelligence role, assassin role, and take care of the teams finances.

Snake eyes: Do I really have to say anything more than, commando?

Gung ho. The craziest, hairiest, scariest, of them all! Airborne, Recondo, Ordnance. Jungle Warfare training instructor. The thing is, he's a Marine, and I think the team would have the best advantage with a well-rounded group made up from as many branches as possible.
Gung-ho hasn't been one of my favorites by any means, but, consider that he has been around and been back again true to his original form form over and over. A consistently done character, despite multiple generations of designs and media?! Is it possible?!
Being that I did attend the GIJOE convention in 2005, that Gung-ho figure would represent that trivia fact of my GI-history.

Flint is a character that really sticks out to me from not only the old cartoon, but also the Marvel comics. He's even in Renegades. He's got hostile environment experience, Desert Paratrooper experience, Night Force experience, as well as Tiger Force, a vacation in the shadows, among others.
Plus, he's a helicopter pilot. This would be useful on my small team. I've often thought of him as a commando of sorts that parallels Snake eyes in some adventures. The hardest part is picking one figure out of all of his, without picking just the 1985 version.



Below are some of my older set-ups where I was playing more with creating "squads." These were small teams that were like teams in the whole team that operated separately.

Above: Each team had a it's spread of weapon specialists. And every team had one AWE. I guess I didn't plan on how everyone would be able to get a ride. But, this is late 2004, early 2005, I would say.

Below: I think this was about later than the above picture, maybe in early 2006? But, really, the small team idea is something I've been kicking around then and now, as you can see. In the team below, it's a 13-man team. It's got a lot of the same figures as what I picked out in my recent picks way up top. Except, instead of Storm Shadow, I have Jinx. Instead of "chief Torpedo", I have Tracker. Duke was replaced with Stalker. Then Beachhead, Grunt, Tunnel Rat, were replaced by Dial Tone, Wild Bill. Downtown became Heavy Duty.
(And I'm just now figuring I have only 12 figures in my team at the top. HA!)

Something about the team below, where I think it is nice to have a matching team, a "uniform" team, the Night Force folks matching is something while I think it looks great, well....it just doesn't mix in what I want. In such a small team, it looks like a team within a team, or the non-N.F. guys look like they are too cool for the Night Force school?


Below: This is my original team, before "becoming a collector." I've posted about it before, but it's kind of interesting to me when I look at this.

Dreadnok Thunder Machine

I've mentioned how 1986 was really my "big year" when it came to getting into GIJOE and COBRA. In 1986, you may already know that the Dreadnok Thunder Machine was new that year. It came with Dreadnok driver, Thrasher.

Along with the Dreadnoks vehicle of destruction, I also had Zandar, Zarana, and the Swampfire in my early collection back in the day. That is how my Dreadnoks were shaping up at the start of things. That's kind of an interesting mix of characters now that I think about it, Zarana, Zandar, and Thrasher.

I can't recall off hand if this was a birthday or a Christmas present back in the day. And, I don't know if this is THE very Thunder Machine from back in my day, either. I know I had two Thunder Machines at one point, and I think I picked the better one to keep in my big vehicle draw downs in the past few years. Not knowing that sort of bugs me, more since it's a memory thing, but it also bugs me in that I had been accumulating so much and not really getting much enjoyment out of it.

But it has a tow hook. And front steering wheels . And real rubber wheels. And a JET ENGINE. And a rear view mirror. And removeable armor plate. And foot pegs for eight! And a big twin barrel machine gun with ammo.
It's a lot of detail. Headlights, tail lights, roof-top lights, emergency lights, and whatever that thing is with the yellow dot.

It's a lot of that very detail that was a decision in me keeping this vehicle when I was making cuts in my motor pool. Everybody, every faction took a cut. The Dreadnoks lost a Swampfire (my 2nd one), two Air Skiffs, and two Cycles.

The Thunder Machine is really pretty awesome, and thinking back, this was kind of my main Cobra "Jeep" back in the day. I had a STUN at about the same time, but when it came to just normal "army guys" style action I think I used the Thunder Machine more often that not. (versus a Tiger Cat, ha!) I did have a Cobra Stinger join in the mix at a later point, though.


Thrasher was really one of THE big characters, I mean big as in tough, He came with a stick and spiked ball (that's how I thought of it). As much as I would have rather have had a gun instead, I at least was able to find a spot to store it on the Thunder Machine. Hard to say if that is what that open spot behind the seats was left for, but it works!
Of course, I've lost the antenna. I don't really remember the antenna at all. And I'm trying to remember it, but was it just left on the parts tree? I dunno... (if anyone has an extra, wink, wink....)

I don't think I ever "elevated" the gun barrels when I was playing with the Thunder Machine back in the day, I was one of those guys for the most part that felt like, I don't know, non-destructive to my stuff. I wasn't gonna chance breaking something. Looking at it now, it is a nice simple thing, and really, how many toys nowadays have just big chunky blocks with cylinders sticking out of it. The detail is there, and that's good design in my book. Seriously, what toy in recent general retail-o-sphere has a front "cage" brush guard this thin? It could have just been left without that little feature from the get-go.

The interior is pretty accessible, the whole top comes off without me feeling like something is going to snap or some tab is going to wear down. And it's got seat and floor details, as well as dashboard gauges and controls. Man, if this is 25 some years old, that's 25 five years worth of toy design that should have been evolving into things we have today!

And you know, since archive pictures and other reviews don't show the bottom sometimes, I thought I would. Just for the heck of it.

I guess as I write, I should say I'm considering chopping more vehicles off the shelves. But for the size and basic nice design of this vehicle, I'm thinking this one is a keeper.

What do you think of the Thunder Machine? Have you never had one? Did you only have the Beast Blaster? (that's one S.F. vehicle I never had, although I did see it in the stores back in the day)

I have never seen this T.A.C. page, either, until this write up.
Evilface has a nice custom here. Look at how tough this looks with the new detail!

Here's an older picture I took with the Dreadnoks hanging out by the Thunder Machine:
The Thunder Machine has played an important part in helping Cobra stay dangerous.

Can you pick just a few figures to keep?

Well? Could YOU really do it?

A lot of my thoughts may be in this area for awhile. While most of life is always a big set of unknowns, I'm considering a pre-emptive draw down of figures.

Not simply because of the possibly of not having income to stay in a home which serves as storage for my stuff, but partly for maximum enjoyment of what I have. It's like a quote I suppose in a Cheryl Crow song, "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got."

There's so many things out in the toy and hobby world that I would consider "cool." And I bet I would have a hard time finding people who would disagree on many of the cool things that are out there. But, do I NEED it all? What's the ultimate purpose? Does my collection say anything about me? When I'm dead and gone, does it all just end up in the Goodwill?

With SO many cool GIJOE figures in my collection, it's going to be a hard choice to pick just the essential characters. To start with, I thought I would take a look at the "Original 13" GIJOE members specialties and see if it is something I can perhaps get some good basis for what my potentially small GIJOE team would need.

____________
Communications
Driver
Laser Rifle
Laser Artillery
Infantry
Missile Commander
Machine Gunner
Mortar soldier
Counter Intelligence
Commando
Ranger
Tank Commander
Bazooka Soldier
--------------------

I don't know, are these the essential end-all-be-all tasks that make for the small GIJOE anti-terrorist task force? I think Tank commander, Missile commander, Laser artillery and rifle, and Driver would spots I could nix. So 5, if I kicked out these and replaced them with the next offerings in the line up, I might see which of those are more essential, and nix those I don't think are.

So, to add in the mix:
______________
Communications
Infantry
Machine Gunner
Mortar soldier
Counter Intelligence
Commando
Ranger
Bazooka Soldier
+
Fighter Pilot
Helicopter Assault trooper
Wolverine Driver
Medic
1st Sgt.
Arctic trooper
Marine
SEAL
Mine detector
Helicopter pilot
------------------------

That gives me 18 on the team. Right now, I think I'll nix Fighter pilot, Wolverine Driver, Mine Detector, and Infantry, and Arctic (we'll put thicker coats on).
________________
Communications
Machine Gunner
Mortar soldier
Counter Intelligence
Commando
Ranger
Bazooka Soldier
Helicopter Assault trooper
Medic
Marine
SEAL
Helicopter pilot
1st. Sgt.
-----------------------
So, I think I will play with a process like this for a little bit and see which specialties remain, which are nixed, and perhaps by some reasoning I can pick out 13 of the strongest, more needed spots on my potentially tiny team.

Have you ever done this, or are there any specialties on a team that you think a person like me should never go without? Let know!

Maybe I'll even go out to the forums and ask, what are the 13 most important specialties?

Real Life Strikes!!!

The title makes it sound more dramatic, and to an extent everything in real life could go bad now. But, I did, yes, I did just quit my Job.

While Icebreakers' HQ is much more intended solely for me to share my crazy GIJOE thoughts and experiences with the world, I thought this would be an alright personal note to make. Not so much because of the "real world" impact, the actual life reality of not having a secure income. More so, because, my only real hobby or distraction from real life as it is, is GIJOE. Well, and biking to a very limited extent, but really, a lot of my spare time and [a reasonable amount of ] spare change have often gone to GIJOE.

What does this mean for the future of collecting for me?

Well, right now, nothing. I have more time to play, which is good, I just don't want to find myself with so much of this kind of free time a few months from now. In the positive short of things, I hope to organize some of the GIJOE stuff, as well as other personal areas of stuff.

But really, this is just one reason why I made the drastic cuts to my once rather large vehicle collection. In fact, I was entertaining trimming down the small collection even more just a few weeks ago and had many items ready to go. I have been able to face the reality that I can't really have it all. That's a life-long reality. I had a good and fun run for a few years, but often bought things without real long-term regard. (I'm looking at you, Patriot Grizzly!)

As much as it is easier to pack and store figures, I may need to sell if I don't have a rent-producing income in a few months.

I very much may have to pick my last 12 Joes to keep with my uncertain future. And you have probably seen on the GIJOE forums over the years many threads and posts where we all pretend to pick the very last GIJOE figures to keep. The best of the best, but, when it really all comes down to the act of doing it....., I think we can all agree that it is extremely not easy.

But, positivity is me. That's how I want to live, and without going into details, that's why I quit my job. It wasn't a positive job for me, not that I minded the work (it was easy), but when the boss creates such a negative culture, ...it's just not enjoyable.

So to leave this post on a positive and fun note, send me some ideas on the very, very last GIJOE and Cobra figures I should keep. What should I not give up, EVER? Just remember, I'm mostly a classic 80's/90's O-ring collector if you send me your ideas!

A pod cast

I haven't gotten in on much Joe interactivity past the forum boards really, and those are kind of quiet lately compared to "back in the day," which was not too long ago.

This podcast, which is the first podcast of anything I've ever listened to officially, is here. I'm going to follow this, looks fun! It's like listening to the radio!

If there are other podcasts out there, too, let me know!

Post-con'

Well, I didn't make it, but thanks to the many fan sites and everyone out there, I was able to see a little bit of what happened at the GIJOE convention this year. It hardly seems like convention time, I kind of got used to it being more in the middle of the year. Or maybe that's since we still have some snow piles on the ground this year, that it doesn't seem like we're in spring yet.

I like a lot of the new stuff that I see coming out in the stores this fall. While I may not incorporate any of the Renegades cartoon into my own realm of imagination, I do like that show...and may just go for some of those figures. I have no Scarlett and this one would work very well. I'm mostly looking forward to the Black Dragon Helicopter. It seems smaller when a figure is sitting by it, but I'm digging helicopters lately, and tilt-rotor is just as good in my book. I hope it is in the $20-range, but if the Skystriker is at the $30, this one might be, too. And the Skystriker is looking good, but I'm very much on centered on the fence on it at this point.

It's a "need" thing for me these days, and since the post prior to this, besides checking the Joe sites, I haven't done much with my own collection at all. I did try to repair the cockpit on the Night Raven with some glue, it has a snapped peg that keeps the lower belly part connected. it didn't work. But other than that, not much in the way of Joe.

Now that it is getting nice out, I should be outside more: spring!

FMC inspiration?

I have a relative that worked for FMC in Minnesota some years back now. The company is now more based in chemicals and other things, and you can look up information on them on the web now. Here are a couple of possible "GIJOE" inspired concepts that came from FMC's defense contractor days. I am purely speculating on the inspiration part, but I'm thinking very much so in regards to the Night Rhino (Warthog) angle.

In the above picture, what is being launched from that amphibian is a essentially a beach clearing device. The rocket would get the projectiles over the area to land on and 'clear' it of danger. There is another FMC publication that had more details laid out in it, but I think I set it aside for sharing among the Joe community....and now I don't know where I set it aside to. But, I have this issue with the cover above.

Below is what was probably many sketches for the real world competition to build a bridge-layer. So, perhaps the Joe design team was inspired by this, or another companies bid sketches. Or maybe the Hasbro team challenged themselves and created their bid for the bridge layer competition and that is how they made their "unique" toy design?