JoeCanuck

Jon..... UPDATE!
Man..... you don't even have ME on your site!

I put up a link to your website and took a photo of my Joe Canuck figure. If it would make you (and the rest of the planet, ahahaha!) happy, I can do a short dio about Joe Canuck (and his new pals Crazylegs, Airtight and Cloudburst) fighting Python Patrol, but otherwise I don't have access to most of my collection.

^Jon

http://individual.utoronto.ca/gijoecanada - in case you haven't been there yet![/quote]

The Big Ben mold is shot. If you look at a '91 Big Ben and a '00 Big Ben, you'll notice that the detailing is a lot softer. It's been overused, and as a result, the tooling is worn out. A '91 Big Ben is a great figure. All the others? Baloney!

^Jon

BTW, I kinda lean towards the cartoon myself

^Jon

I was at Toys Toys Toys yesterday and they were carrying mission disc Joes, Spy Troops Wave 1 (aka Wave 5), JvC Wave 1 and Masterpiece Prime ($150).

Toys "R" Us on Yonge/Queen is closing down. I won't really miss it because it seemed like I was always leaving the store disappointed. They still have a Road Rebel and a lot of BTR.

^Jon

I was in the room for most of the incident, and I think I was able to see both sides of the story.

I've only met Mike a handful of times, but I can tell that he is very passionate. He's definitely very passionate about his hobby. He put a lot of time, effort and thought into this event. This wasn't just a get together, but Mike's chance to bring people together. I could tell from watching him during the event that he was under a lot of stress. This is the burden of hosting these things. You don't get to relax until it's over.

I got to sit next to Colin in the car ride from the airport to BountyHunters. A really nice guy. He was clearly the youngest of us. (even younger than me!) I was more than a little perplexed why someone would fly all the way to Toronto to attend a little convention. When he told me about his mother's book, it became clear to me that "Joe Canuck" would be appearing in a Joe book in the future.

The carded Joe Canuck figure was pretty much the symbol of the event. It was the combined effort of EVERYONE involved. There was a spectacle in the far side of the room Charles's terrordrome was decorated with the "leftover' parts from the 2-packs. Some Snow Job figures with Police heads and some Police figures with Snow Job heads. A couple of Loop's other customs and even Big Brawler had occupied the customized Terrordrome. A HEAT Viper MOC was being raffled off, but the carded Joe Canuck figure was the real prize.

Mike carried around the raffle box and asked us if we would participate. Pete and Ed each bought a number of tickets. Not just because they wanted the figure, but because they wanted to contribute to the expenses of the convention. I bought a ticket because I wanted to participate in the raffle. I already had a Joe Canuck figure. I just wanted to play the game! I watched Colin pull out a significant amount of money ($30) to enter the raffle. The bagged figure was a great find, but the carded figure was even better. Colin spoke of his mother's collection with such pride in the car ride over. This was his chance to add a one-of-a-kind item to it. I know that whenever a Cobra Mortal appears on eBay, airedevon tends to be the winner. One of the greatest G.I. Joe collections in the world would not be complete without this one-of-a-kind item. The Joe Canuck figure wasn't just a custom at this point. It was the centrepiece of the first Joe Canuck Convention.

We had the raffle around 7:30. The winner was announced. (his name was Ken?) Unfortunately, he wasn't even around to collect his prize. To some, this wasn't a big deal. We can wait. To others, this was a sign of disrespect to the symbol of the convention. Why would you sign up for the raffle if you weren't gonna be around to accept your prize? Shouldn't the carded Joe Canuck figure go to someone who actually cares enough about it stick around for the raffle? "Not to worry," says Mike. He said he'd be back at 8:00. We can hold it until then. To me, this was a fair compromise.

8:00 rolled around and Ken was nowhere to be seen. The Joe Canuck figure would go to somebody else. The next winner was picked at it was Pete (Deadshot). He pumped his fist and claimed his prize. The people who didn't win didn't seem outraged that Ken wouldn't be receiving the figure.

Some time, and several pepperoni sticks later I heard Mike confronting Colin about the traded figure. At first Mike only seemed a little intense, which tends to happen to people at the end of a busy day. Colin's arguments had phrases like "well, in business a deal is a deal" or "but you see, my Mom is a completist". Mike had a number of arguments, mainly involving the risk he was being exposed to "Hasbro can sue me!", the disrespect being shown to the figure "you traded a UNIQUE figure for a pair of Crimson guys!", and the drastic change in mood that occured once the argument began. I know some people were leaving because it was late. I also know that a number of us moved to the opposite corner of the room and tried to focus on other things. Still, it was impossible not to overhear what was happening.

You can describe it any way you want, really. You can liken it to a large man bullying a slight teenager, or you can liken it to the-kid-who-has-it-all ripping off another kid, then refusing to trade back. I find either description to be useless. What we had here was a very passionate person losing his temper and dealing with a scared teenager who really just wanted to please his mother. Mike was not systematically bullying anybody, he just had so many negative feelings flowing through his mind that he couldn't think straight (what do we do when we can't think straight? we get even madder). Colin had gone through considerable lengths to obtain the figure, only to see it slip away.

Last year's mini-con was Mike's reward to his loyal customers. He gave us a generous discount and we all went for dinner. This year had the same theme. Mike would find a way to please his customers. As far as G.I. Joes go, living in Canada and living in the US are two totally different things. Hasbro Canada ships very little to us. A peg-warmer in Texas is a prized possession up here. Very few of us have a chance to pick up Crimson Vipers or Black Dragon Ninjas. But someone always makes the trip. This year, a very dedicated collector flew to Toronto for the inverse case. An American travelling for the Canadian exclusive. It was at this point that the line between what the event was perceived to be, and what the event actually was became blurred. To me, this was never about exclusive figures or "conventions." This was about visiting my Joe dealer and meeting some local collectors. To others, this was OUR version of the San Diego Convention (or whatever the one that MasterCollector supplies to is called)

We can't put the Joe Canuck figure in the same category as Black Dragon Ninja. That's not what it's all about. This was a Bounty Hunter Toys event, not a Canadian Convention. The forces at work made it into a one-of-a-kind, special event that brought happiness to everyone, and for a time, reminded us of WHY we got into the hobby in the first place. (half a dozen of us were playing with the figures and making gun sounds - something I NEVER see around grown men)

If you want to talk about fair, I can propose a solution. A deal is a deal, and I can't help but think Pete was influenced by Mike to trade back, this may not have been Mike's intentions, but it doesn't matter. If you want to be FAIR, then you say that a deal is a deal and that Joe Canuck belongs in Texas as a part of "The Ultimate Collection."

But I don't give a shit about fair. I think there exists a solution that can make everybody happy. I would like to see Joe Canuck take a trip to Texas, carded, to appear in airedevon's book. This would make the book ONE OF A KIND. No other book would contain photos of the carded figure. Joe Canuck would then return to Hamilton and hang on the wall at Bounty Hunter toys. Mike is so generous that he was willing to give away the symbol of his convention to one of the attendees. I'm sure he was hoping it would go to one of his regulars, but I will not fault him for this bias. I would feel the same way. Pete was willing to trade his carded figure for some Crimson Cobras. He has them. As much as he loves Joe Canuck, I cannot believe that he loves the figure as much as Mike does. I'll estimate that Mike is too proud to accept the figure into his own collection. So it won't go into Mike's collection. It will hang on his wall so that whenever a customer walks into Bounty Hunter Toys, he/she is free to look at the spectacle that was the centrepiece of an amazing event.

We are stuck in a situation where there are a lot of broken hearts and disappointed people. The most common thing I heard was "it's just a custom." This is true to some, but to others this is a link to a unique event. I'd like to see the figure remain with the man who put his heart into the event.

^Jon

Special thanks to all the organizers of the event. I know it takes a LOT of time and effort to put these things together and even running the thing takes energy out to ya. I had a real great time at the meet today and I hope we can do it again next year.

I especially enjoyed having the G.I. Joe cartoons on TV. Something about having the show playing in the background really helped the atmosphere. The pepperoni was delicious. The timbits were delicious.

It was a great chance to put some faces to same names. Now I'm trying to decide whether I want to take my Joe Canuck action figure out of the package. I guess I'm never going to sell it, so I might as well open it, but it looks so damn good in the bubble. Decisions decisions...

^Jon