Lost Something Have You?

Lost Something Have You?

Friday, January 31, 1997. I pulled into the movie theater parking lot and there were already three people in line. It was a rare day weather wise. 44 degrees and no precipitation. T shirt weather in South Dakota.

Soon more strangers came and sat on the theater steps and we began to talk. We talked about Star Wars, the saga, the comics, the figures, the games, anything and everything connected to Star Wars that had happened over the past twenty years.

Tickets did not go on sale until a certain time, but we sat there for hours, waiting patiently, and to be honest, passing the time with new found compatriots. We were all ships passing in the night, but for a few hours, we were a band of brothers and sisters.

Fast forward a month to February 21st. This time it was snowing. We were back. Bundled up in our winter gear, checking our watches but still talking and socializing. This time about the Empire Strikes Back and maybe about the changes to A New Hope. Ahem. Han shot first.

March 14th brought worse weather. Snowing harder and only 9 above that day. We were still back for more.

These were the first times I had ever “camped out” for a movie. Really it was more like a sit-in since it was just for a few hours.

People really did camp out in tents and full costume in May of 1999. I have never gone to that extreme but I can imagine it was like a mini Star Wars convention for those who made the movie theater parking lot their home for a few days, or in major cities, weeks.

I began to enjoy this experience. It did not happen very often, just with the bigger releases, like Batman, the other Star Wars prequels, James Bond, and of course Star Trek. Star Trek fans are no less enthusiastic than any other fans, but they do have a different vibe, It is a fun experience sitting in line with a bunch of red shirts.

Thanks to modern technology, at least in my experience over the past two years, the phenomenon of camping out has died. It is not just reserved for movie theater sidewalks. It pertains to concerts, plays, events of many kinds. No longer do people wait in line for hours to have the box office hand them those precious tickets. I suppose the tailgate is an exception but I have never experienced one. Football fans share in that experience.

Fast forward to October 2015. Tickets for The Force Awakens were finally going on sale. I eagerly donned my Star Wars shirt and headed to the theater expecting to find a long line wrapped around the building. I would be able to talk to fellow fans and absorb the excitement they felt and share my own. There was no long line. No people laughing and sparring with lightsabers in their Jedi and Sith robes. There were two people in the lobby, and myself.

Technology had left me behind. I still talked with those in the lobby for a bit but it was just not the same. The feeling of camaraderie, of a shared love and passion amongst many was gone. The essence had disappeared.

The feeling returned once everyone arrived and took their seats. Cheering and such a positive vibe. The young man in front of me in his Vader garb was snatched up and interviewed for the news.

This year I went in a week ahead of time to buy tickets for Rogue One. The theater was not even selling tickets live until opening night. Worried I would not get my tickets I bit the bullet and bought them on a very popular ticket selling site. I messed up while checking out and had a typo in my email but was able to screen cap the confirmation number. I was still worried and after an hour on the phone with a repeating voice telling me my call was very important to them, I gave up.

It just was not the same.

Undaunted, I smiled the night before as I donned my Imperial Officer uniform for the first time in its entirety. Selfie time. I could not stop talking about it the next day. The people I talked to did not share my enthusiasm. They placated me and my craziness and went about their business shaking their head.

Perhaps such fervor is a bit off kilter but not to me. To me this is something to be celebrated. I find movies and the people who are passionate about them to be comforting.

The following night I could not wait to get suited up. This was it. The premiere for my city.

But it was cold, 9 above everyone was bundled up in their winter gear. Hats, gloves, heavy coats, scarves, all to fight back the bitter cold. I imagine underneath those winter jackets many people were wearing Star Wars shirts. The theater was packed inside. There was confusion as to which line was for 2D versus 3D. 

I did see a few fellow costumers. A young woman in Padme hand maiden make up who was wearing a stocking cap and heavy winter coat. There was “Dan” who had a First Order Stormtrooper helmet and nice dressy suit. His companion appeared to be wearing her finest under her winter attire. I was wearing my officer uniform, I had a Star Wars tee underneath, and nice warm flannel pants under my jodhpurs. I had to wear something with pockets. Car keys, wallet and cell phone had nowhere to go. I guess Imperial Officers don’t need such things but we citizens do. I did find that my phone fit nice and snug in my boot.  I saw a Jedi outside in the lobby as I departed after the show. The winter weather I am sure affected many people’s decision to show their spirit. In fact once I heard it was in December, I had toyed with the idea of a Han in Hoth uniform, or a Rebel Hoth trooper, just because I knew I would be warm. This was an idea I had formed back when I heard there was to be a snow battle in The Force Awakens. I searched for months for a hint of a Rebel trooper in snow gear appearing in the film to no avail. Then when there was no snow planet to be had in Rogue One the decision was made to go period accurate with an Imperial Officer costume. Period accurate to the saga that is. To reality as well I suppose.

Since there were so few who dressed up for the occasion, I did feel a little bit less confident. That soon dissipated when a fellow moviegoer walked by and said one word. “Dedication” and pointed at me approvingly. That washed all the trepidation away. The smiles and compliments from others also helped. Meeting “Dan” was a bonus as well as he too expressed his concern he was the only one who dressed up.

Perhaps in these modern times, this particular type of expression will now be reserved for conventions and special events. A person can still find a kindred spirit at a convention and you immediately have something in common. You and a few other million people. Those lines still exist even with pre-ordering systems in place. Those lines are not going anywhere any time soon. Remember that the next time you hug a wall waiting for a panel, or are sitting on the floor, waiting to get a wristband to see a popular celebrity and shake their hand. That person next to you is not that different than you and would probably not mind a discussion on the finer points of moisture vaporators and their similarities to load lifters…in most respects.

Fridge Jersey

There is a connection between football and G.I. JOE that has existed ever since that Patriots fan at Hasbro decided to give Bazooka his bright red number 14 jersey.

 A jersey that lets you instantly know that Bazooka is on the scene. Whether or not you consider that a bad thing, we would see two more links to football in the G.I.JOE roster as well as a cartoon dedicated entirely to a scrimmage. Captain Grid Iron with his football grenades and obvious player's helmet. He played a game against Range Viper a former West Point student in his class.
That is one game I think most fans want to forget but has a charm of its own, especially for those kids who never saw the Sunbow series.

There was a real football player on the team as well. In 1985 The Chicago Bears dominated the stadiums and made it all the way to the Super Bowl to became world champs. They even sang about it in a chart topper called the SuperBowl Shuffle

He was no dumb cookie. He was The Refrigerator Perry and he was a star .

He was such a big star that Hasbro took notice. They decided that he needed to join another team, the G.I. Joe team. And he did.

That's right it is William the Refrigerator Perry!

I as a kid had no inkling what football was all about nor did I care to. I did however love my G.I.JOE.
Ironically after basing a uniform on a Patriots team member, two years later Hasbro created a character based on a player from a team that decimated the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

I want to re-capture some of that nostalgia and at the same time create something new.
G.I. JOE is a team and by rights since they have two football players on the docket, they need a uniform.

I want to make custom replica (but not replica) Fridge inspired jerseys.
The colors are not the Carolina blue that was actually used on the Fridge figure. The colors are straight up red white and blue, in the style of the Jersey Perry wore for the commercial.
The team name of GIJOE is on the front of the Jersey.
Number 72.
Fridge on the back of the jersey.
American flag with a white border stands out on the front of the jersey and lets you know this is not a Cobra fashion statement it is a G.I.JOE team.

Here is a mockup of what the jersey will look like:


Notice that it is an original design but still retains the basic look of the Fridge prototype figure seen in the commercial.

Any name and number combination may be used on the jersey.
Wrist bands not included, NOT sold separately.

A high quality jersey, built for the red zone enthusiast who loved his G.I.JOE as well.

My only issue is that to get this made, I need a minimum order of six for the local shop.
I have three team members drafted I need a Quarterback, A Tight End and A Wide Receiver. Heck at this point I will take a Water boy.

If you enjoy the wild podcasters on What's on Joe Mind Then you don't mind mixing in a little football with your Joe talk.

If you want to be a member of this team give me a shout and we will work something out.
(who let Roadblock in here?)

So Just How did I Shop for GIJOE When I was a Youngster?

      Today a message board topic really stirred up some thoughts in my always running brain.
I know that as a kid, I had a huge passion for G.I.JOE. It stemmed from two things really, a love of war comics and a love of little green army men.
      I would sit for hours and set up two opposing forces on my living room rug. All of the guys were green of course, but I knew who was on what side and that was all that mattered. Lincoln logs were also an integral part of this ritual. Two of those smaller pieces stacked together made for a great cannon. Many times I had too many cannons and not enough pieces to build a small fort. Those little defense contractors must have had budgetary constraints or limited supplies. Those forces always grew. Bags of army men were inexpensive and after a few years they created a minefield for the adult feet of my parents. I loved the way it looked, one army on each side of the living room, no air support, just a tank and a jeep and one transport truck.  Yes there must have been hours upon hours of battles in that living room with oral reports of machine guns rifles and cries of pain when they were shot and or knocked out of the action. My favorites were the bazooka men, the kneeling machine gunners and the radio operators. My least favorites were the crawlers and the ones with their M-16 held high over their head ready to stab with their bayonets. They were usually the first casualties. Worthless combatants in those rug burned knee battles of yesteryear.

Then all that changed in 1982, in 1982 something captured my eye and my heart igniting a passion that has lasted decades.

G.I.JOE was back and I did not even know he had been gone. I honestly did not have any G.I.JOE stuff from the 70's. I had Mego and a Lone Ranger and Tonto, I had the Batmobile and of course I had Star Wars. I had never heard of GIJOE though.

     The first thing I remember was there was a comic. A comic that would become a monthly ritual for 155 or so months of my life. I would visit the local drug store and search the comic rack in vain for weeks but when it did come out it was like finding gold.

      That same ritual applied to my favorite new toy, G.I.JOE, A Real American Hero. We lived in a small town, maybe 1500 people at that time. It did not afford much in the way of shopping opportunities. There were two stores that carried GIJOE. The Coast to Coast, and the Johnson Store, owned by Mr. Johnson. Now we were in town at least once a week, to buy groceries such as milk or bread, you know, the staples. We would load up my bike into the back of the truck on some occasions and I would ride around town. We certainly did that in my Grandparent's hometown. 

      I am not sure why but I was given an allowance. $1.00 a week. It eventually grew to $5.00 and then just around middle or high school it reached $10.00 a week, at first though, it was $1.00 a week.

$1.00 for comic books which were a quarter, and anything else I wanted back then. So if I really wanted anything I had to save. Save for many weeks.

      That is how I got my GIJOE VAMP. I put it on Layaway at the Coast to Coast. $1.00 a week. Sears had the VAMP for $8.99. This was a Coast to Coast so it was probably close to that price but I imagine a bit more.

Simple math tells you that it took, oh I imagine ten or eleven weeks to get that VAMP.

3 months of waiting, eagerly looking forward to having it in my hands. I was so eager that I nearly drove my best friend's mom nuts when she was somehow placed in charge of me the day I was to pick it up. She lived even further from town than we did, five miles instead of three. Listening to a ten year old ask if we were going to the store every time you got in the car was probably more than a little grating on her nerves. I purchased a  Dragonfly the same way the next year. Coast to Coast layaway. It was 11.99 so I imagine that may have taken longer. Maybe not, maybe my allowance was up to $2.00 by then. That is one of those many things lost in my memory banks.

     How then could I have ever gotten all the figures and all those vehicles every year with such a small allowance? Well I was also paid $1.00 an hour to mow the lawn. Now mowing the lawn was more fun than work. I got to ride around on the lawn mower for a few hours. I also had to push the smaller mower. I would sometimes go a little slower on the riding mower by putting it at the first speed instead of the second speed, but I was told to. Go too fast and that half acre would not be cut right. Once the mowing was done I would lift up the blade, and it was the fifth speed all the way to the garage.

     The best part is yet to come. We made a monthly pilgrimage to the big city of Grand Forks. Once a month we would hit Kmart, the mall, and later Target, and the Columbia Mall. There was also a toy store in the Columbia Mall. I bought hundreds of Star Wars Empire Strikes Back trading cards there.

     I would tear through that rack looking over each multipack very carefully. I knew exactly what cards I had or didn't have. Imagine packaging like that today where you could see what cards you were getting! Unthinkable right?

     It kept me out of my parent's hair while they shopped elsewhere in the mall. I was allowed to spend as much time as I wanted to in that store until they came and got me. Such irresponsible parents eh? leaving a kid all alone in the mall. Not in those days though. Not at all.

Star Wars was my second hobby you see. Just like every other kid my age at that time. We all had Star Wars. I was the kid with the GIJOE collection, there was another kid who had Transformers, and yet another who had He-Man. Interesting how a bunch of ten year olds each found their favorite thing to collect and no one else really did the same thing. We each had our own joy.

      We did the rounds every month, as I said. Most of the year it was pretty uneventful. Then the masters of marketing at Hasbro, who I must thank for the anxiety I am about to discuss, ahem, yes I mean you, Kirk Bozigian, came up with the brilliant idea of putting inserts in the packaging and card art on the back of figures.

      In those days before the internet, that was the way we knew what delights awaited us each year. The last waves of an assortment to hit stores contained those pamphlets.

The ones so wonderfully archived here. Those catalogs whet our appetites for several years. They were maps to annual treasure. Lovingly read over and over with anticipation. Look at  that vehicle. What in the world is that ? Oh wow a new fighter jet!

      So began the hunt, even though it was not going to be possible in reality to see those the next week. The mind of a child ignores that. I looked. I looked every time I was in a store for those new figures or vehicles. In hindsight perhaps that was to my benefit that they were not readily available. It gave me time to save allowance, mow the lawn, do the dishes. You know G.I.JOE actually kept our household in order in a weird indirect way.

     The hunt did not last though, once all the assortment of those figures for that year was in my bedroom, things became more of a situation like buying a lotto ticket. The toy aisle was my first destination. Many months were probably filled with disappointment. Nothing new yet. I still looked through every peg to see if next year's wave was here though. I think based on my pattern of behavior at that time, I would probably pick up the vehicles I did not have yet and read those file cards, looked over the details that may or may not be what I found inside. Actual colors may vary you know. Oh and the flag points, don't forget those flag points. Figures were one flag point. Vehicles however, varied. The bigger the vehicle the higher the amount of flag points. This was actually pretty critical. You might plan your next purchase based on flag points. You had to get those mail order items too. Now this vehicle was not going to be much help. 1/2 of a flag point? Where is the other half?  Ah here it is. Crafty Kirk, at it again.

     My shopping habits became adventures. Always hoping that the next time we went to the store there would be a new set of figures on the pegs. Once a year, my eyes would light up and my fingers would fly. Who is that? Some years the figures beat the pamphlets. Not many but it did happen. Pamphlets were key to discover new vehicles in that case. Once I saw that new specialist on the pegs the first thing I did was flip it over and begin to rifle those pegs. I would take out the wallet and look. OK I can get these three..."Mommmmmmmmmmm". The next step was to hit up Mom for the other new ones. "Can I have an advance?"

     

Brian Cummings Dr Mindbender himself gives a hilarious
interview on What's on Joe Mind episode 79 and  talks about his upcoming appearance in Rapid City South Dakota this Saturday

http://whatsonjoemind.podbean.com/

Final group shot of custom figure door prizes!
5 ninjas
one trooper

For those of you flying in there is a free shuttle service provided by the Rapid City Fairfield Marriot

see you there!

If you are attending the Mindbender's Clinic and acting class on May 18th in Rapid City. Be sure to sign the event page over on facebook!

Mindbender's Clinic

GO NOW!