JoeCanuck

...For reaching the milestone of 500 members now.    I know some have come and gone, but plenty are here to stay.  I'm pretty sure I'm one of em.  Cheers to ya, guys! 

Well all, I made the trip to Shiner this weekend for my 10 year high school reunion, and while there one of my goals was to pull out and go through my Joes.

The reunion went quite well...anybody that I gave a crap to see was there.  Unfortunately for me I drank WAY WAY WAY too much that night and felt TERRIBLE yesterday.  Geez, I bet I had 30 beers.  Fortunately this time I did not end up naked 

Of course, I know that most of you don't really care about the reunion, you want to hear about my Joes.  Well, in plastic tubs behind me are two tubs of figures, the Rolling Thunder, Mobile Battle Bunker, Avalanche, Fort America, Sky SHARC, Hurricane VTOL, Fang II, Thunderclap, Skystorm X-Wing, Python Conquest (original), Arctic Blast, Mudfighter, and one of the two main things I was looking for...the Cobra Z25 Condor.  I was very relieved to find that the Condor hadn't turned into a yellow turd on me.  The Skystorm did, but hopefully a good cleaning will help it.  Also, amazingly, Fort America's lights and sounds STILL WORKED 15 years later.  They were faint, but they worked, by God. 

Still MIA vehicle-wise were the Cobra Bugg and the Sky Havoc.  I found plenty of Bugg parts, but no Bugg itself.  Of the Sky Havoc I only found one gun that goes on the scout craft.

As for the figures, I still have to go through them.  I was quite happy with the condition of most of them, and since I'm looking to trade most of them, some people are gonna get some good, tight jointed figures.  Of course, there were also several that I picked up whose o-rings gave up the ghost.  Cesspool's crotch and legs are still stuck in my Hammerhead, for example.  I also found several that I forgot I had, or at least I don't know how I got them.  I never had a Rattler, so how the heck do I have a Wild Weasel?  I also have the Village People guy from the Bridge Layer.  I have the Bridge Layer NOW, but I never had it as a kid.  And how the heck did I end up with two Serpentor Air Chariots?  I also found a black, straight-arm original '82 Snake Eyes with a silver Cobra emblem on his chest!  Who the heck is that?

So anyways, that's my story and I'll be sure to post more news as I go through the figures over the next few days.  And in the meantime, if there's any any of you guys are specifically looking for, just pm me your email addy and I'll send you my list.

So, what other sites (not just Joe sites) are you guys addicted to, and which ones do you visit every day?  Besides JoeCanuck, the ones I visit almost every day are...

Sports Illustrated
YoJoe
1Up
GameSpot
Yahoo! Sports
and of course Facebook.  I'm addicted to Farmville 

I was pleased to see elsewhere that these sets were hitting Canada.  Glad to see you guys are getting some exclusives after all.  I happened to pick all three up myself today, so here goes.  I'll do separate posts so you guys don't have to read so much in just one    And I'll be doing the review as I open the guys up, so you'll be getting first impressions!

First off is the Gung-Ho/Copperhead set.  Gung-Ho is dressed to appear as he did in Resolute (white shirt, gray vest/hat, dark bluish-gray pants).  His torso and arms appear to be from Rock n Roll, among others, while his legs are the standard legs used on a lot of the RoC figures including the Pit Commando.  The head is the same sculpt as used on the other Gung-Hos and on Leatherneck, while his vest is a repaint of Resolute Cobra Trooper's.  For accessories, Gung-Ho comes with both the grenade launcher that was included with the "Cobra Island" Range Viper, the nice looking rifle included with "Cobra Island" Ripcord/Altitude, and a black backpack that is the same as Resolute Cobra Trooper's.

Copperhead is pretty much a straight repaint of the previous versions, but with better hands than the 5-pack Roadblock hands the comic 2-pack one had. (he can actually hold a weapon in both).  The only difference I can see is now Copperhead has a sheath on his right leg for a rather nasty-looking knife that was included with a few other Joes (it resembles a small machete, which makes sense for a guy who is supposed to spend a lot of time in the swamp).  Copperhead is painted in his most realistic scheme yet...no bright teal blue and neon green for this guy, he's in a olive drab helmet & wifebeater (with red Cobra logo), yellow shoulder harness (the only thing I would change) and medium brown/dark brown pants.  He comes equipped with a black version of the Viper's rifle, a black M60 w/tripod and ammo belt that was originally included with the cartoon Roadblock, and a black backpack that is a copy of General Hawk's.  Customizers take note: the paint scheme on this Copperhead would make the easiest starting point yet for a custom 25th Sgt. Slaughter.

Is this pack worth the $13.68 (US)?  It depends.  If you are a big Resolute fan, it definitely is just for Gung Ho.  If you're a Copperhead fan but wish he was more realistic or if you want a great starting point for a custom 25th Sarge, it's also worth it.  I really like three of the four heavy weapons included with this set, and they must be taken into consideration as well.  I don't like the M60 as much because the tripod makes it difficult for figures to hold, let alone hold without falling over.  If you hate repaints of previously released figures or figures that are made of mix-n-match parts, avoid it at all costs.

As I have embarked upon the process of creating my first custom GI Joe figure, I have run into a few problems, as expected, and those problems have left me with a lot of questions.  I figured that my many years spent building model cars in my teenage years would help me, and it has to a certain extent, but I still have some questions.

What paint is the best to use on custom figures?  I used Testors Model Masters enamel (cause it's what I had laying around, that's why!) and it takes absolutely freaking FOREVER to cure.  Is there anything I can do to speed up the curing time that won't melt my figure or my paint job?

What tool/brush/etc is the best for fine detail work?

Any other painting tips you can give me?

I can't wait to finish my first custom and post him on the board for all to see...but the freaking paint has to cure first.

I can offer a couple of painting tips, some of which is based on my time as an assistant manager for a Sherwin-Williams store.

First, for painting really bright colors, consider priming with a medium-gray primer.  Not only will the gray primer help the bright color cover better, it'll also make it pop more.  Even on (gasp!) the dreaded bright reds.

Second, if you're doing a custom vehicle...or anything else for that matter...and you're gonna have to paint some of that hard, slick ABS plastic, consider using XIM 400 White spraycan primer underneath your paint.  XIM is a bonding primer that can be used to paint glass, so it'll laugh at being asked to stick to your wimpy plastic.  Ever since I started using XIM to prime pretty much everything, I have had absolutely NO adhesion or lifting problems.  Trust the paint guy on this one.

While I'm not INTO into them, I ran into two today at TRU when I went looking for (and successfully found!) the RoC Senior Ranking Officer packs that I just had to pick up.  Which makes three that I have now, and two of these you guys should be familiar with.  The first one that I already had was Warren Moon, the most prolific passer in pro football history if you include his CFL years.  Of course the Moon I have is in a Houston Oilers uniform    Also, coincidentally, my brother did some legal work for Mr. Moon in the early '90s.

The second one, which I found today and you guys will probably be familiar with, is Hakeem Olajuwon of Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors fame (guess which uni my Hakeem is in?).

The third one which I also found today is Nolan Ryan.  Nolan is of course a Texas legend, and the figure I got today depicts him from a famous scene during his Rangers years: blood on his chin and uniform after he took a line drive to the chin but stayed in the game.

So now I have my three favorite childhood sports icons on my shelf in super-detailed form.  Now if I could just get Nolan in an Astros uniform...

And don't be shy about putting those hockey McFarlanes out there either.  I'm a rare south Texan...I freaking love hockey (favorite team's the Stars, of course) and Ed Belfour was always my favorite player, even during his Blackhawks days BEFORE he came to the Stars.  So I'll probably know the hockey names you guys throw out.