Kentucky Review

[GI Defender]

Returned form the 10th Annual Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo and once again, Steve has hit it out of the park. Larger event space crammed with more vendors than you could have imagined. The Show Hotel was nice. We did not stay in it in the winter show because it filled up fast so we stayed in the overflow hotel across the parking lot. Having stayed in both we can recommend either one from a guest perspective. The show hotel did have a much better Continental Breakfast, but the other hotel had way better coffee. Both Hotels are walking distance to the event space. Sadly the main bridge going into Louisville was closed which caused some traffic issues all weekend, but we were not overly affected by that. Though some folks did experience delays we were only mildly inconvenienced. We did the Early Bird and knocked out some of our shopping on day one. Was able to pick up my Cotswold stuff and sneak it out before I had to explain to Charlotte what the 3 foot long box was. (Darn Greg Brown and his trickery) Also picked up a ton of cool stuff. Two Marine helmets from George Gray, Takara MP-40 from Ace, AT Commander jacket from Derryl and a near complete Land Adventurer from Ricky Puckett in need of a cleaning. Got a Marauder fig (still have to assemble) and a near complete first run Aurora Batman model in need of restoration from Scott Wilde. Worked a horse trade for a few Dreams and Visions figures as well as picked up a bunch of the new Super Joe figures. (One Commander, two Darkons, an Abominable Snow Gore and a Dark Forces Synthoid Trooper.) One of the Darkon figuress and the Commander are Christmas gifts for a 6 year old little buddy of ours. I know he will dig them. The two holy crap items I brought home were the Kid Action Robin and an unbroken bayonet. Finally after 30 years, both are mine. Jim Bush gets the cool guy award for challenging me to salvage probably the loosest Joe figure I have ever seen. Challenge accepted. Got to see and say hi to a you tube celeb "Anthony from Froggie Flips" who walked by us as we were talking to Ace. Pretty nice guy, watch for his video soon. As for me, I had to scale back a lot of spending and only was able to grab most stuff I "phoned in '' due to a plumbing issue that won't be addressed until tomorrow. Last week was a tough week and this show could not have come at a better time for us. So thankful we went and were able to rub elbows with our pals. So glad to meet up with everyone and catch up on friendly chit chat. Sorry that we didn't get to hang out as much as we usually do but like I said, it had been a rough week and things were catching up with us. As always, if I were to rate the show I would give it an 11 out of 10. Floor is still a little hard on my old knees but the new carpeting did help tremendously. The spacious vendor space was laid out expertly and the attendee flow was unrestricted. Loved the show dio and as always, can't go wrong with a concession stand! Thanks Steve and company for a wonderful weekend and look forward to next time!

[GI Defender]

[ATC]

Agree wholeheartedly, Scott!
I had fun and really enjoyed meeting folks (or re-meeting them in some cases).
Unlike Scott, I haven't got a long in-person history with other JoeHeads.
I didn't make any big purchases. Just a bunch of little odds and ends. I mostly dug around in "buck boxes" for undiscovered gems.
The mine detector was a great find... I built a metal detector that's Joe sized, but lacked the stick and frisbee part. I'll repurpose this one.
Also scored some parts for my rocketship project, and a few pieces for my German squad. There were some things I couldn't resist, like the Stony Smith footlocker.
I didn't find a new chest for my AA Adventurer, but I DID find a tan uniform (walmart repro) and a Cots AA head so I could pull the body out of my parts bin and make a figure out of it.
Haven't tried the Hasbro parachute pack yet; it was something I just couldn't resist for five bucks.
It was good that I left early, because we had a storm come through right after I got home, so I was busy with a wet-vac in the basement.
Had I stayed an extra day and left Sunday morning, I'd have had a MUCH bigger mess on my hands!
- ATC

[GI Defender]

I was amazed at the amount of Capt Action stuff this year. Saw the parts I needed to finish my Superman but the dealers would not part out the sets. (I would not have either) That computer top left I think has a message to B Kay on the screen somewhere. An homage to Barry Kay the collector who helped with the set. I may be wrong, but that might be Ernie Pyle's typewriter. All really good finds,

[ATC]

Good eye, Scott, but that's not Ernie's typewriter. It's a German enigma machine! I have one enigma, but my poor German Joes aren't able to send any messages, because nobody has a second machine on the other end to decode it with! What set did that white computer come out of with the Barry k Easter egg on the screen?

I was surprised at how many cool goodies I found in the "buck boxes" this time.

I sure missed Ricky Puckett's trunk full of Joes though. At the last Kentucky show I made, I was able to piece together a vintage blonde forehead Joe out of Ricky's trunk, and scouring the odds and ends hit everybody else's booths. I think I ended up putting together the whole German Joe for about 60 bucks! Needless to say, I was really excited to dive into Ricky's trunk full of Joe's this year. The absence of the trunk was a bummer.

Got a lot of comments about my AT Commander hat at this convention. Adventure team logo on the front with scrambled eggs on the visor. That was fun.

I really want to see that Batman when you get done with it. What a basket case! Seeing the end result will be interesting!

ATC

[GI Defender]

Will do! Stripping the paint as we speak. I was able to pick up the Land Adventurer in the pic above from Ricky for $40. So I still got a good deal in his booth. I returned the Bulletman Helmet to him I rechromed. It was on his talking Bulletman. As stupid as it may be, I may end up buying that one because I already have the Eagle Eye Bulletman custom, having a Bulletmen with a commander talk box would really round out my "citche" Bulletman collection.

[ATC]

It' would be funny if you ended up with it back on your own shelf! And since the figure now has a helmet, you'll have to pay even more for it!
Ha!
- ATC