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MON AMI! WE'RE IN PARIS (ILLINOIS)! Meeting #10 was hosted by CIGCC member Jeff Sherer (shown at right with some of his GIjOE comics) and took place in his beautiful home in Paris, IL. The drive to Paris was all on farm roads laid out like a grid, straight, simple and easy to follow. You couldn't get lost if you tried. If we missed a turn off (and we did), we just said, "oh well, keep going that way and we'll get there." After a quick break at Dairy Queen, we reached Paris and found Jeff waiting for us on his porch. TOURING JEFF'S BASEMENT COLLECTION Jeff's home is VERY nice. Neat as a pin and very comfortable. We learned that his collection is housed in two locations, the basement and an upstairs office, so we started in the basement. It is AMAZING. Jeff's done a lot of work to convert it into a home bar and party room, complete with custom counters, bright red bar stools, lights, lots of Fighting Illini decor, and much more. These pictures only give you a hint of all he's done. Imagine having your own "Cheers" type bar room in your house. That's what it's like (without tables). As to his collection, Jeff has hundreds of GIjOEs and other brands of action figures, plus as many comics and other toys. There are figures from all eras, tons of vehicles and boxes and footlockers full of accessories, signed comic posters, customs and much more. WOW! It's not an overstatement to say this is a really GREAT collection. Fortunately, if you missed seeing it all this time, Jeff kindly indicated he'd be pleased to host a club meeting again someday. You are 'da man, Jeff! Here are some pictures of his basement collection. Enjoy!
We headed upstairs to see MORE of Jeff's amazing collection. The collection room upstairs is smaller but brighter and included a lot of Adventure Team, Captain America, Hellboy and other comic-related stuff. Jeff's fondness for comic books quickly became apparent as there are comic art posters on all of the walls and boxes upon boxes of comics throughout the room (with overflow kept in a closet in the hallway). Jeff told us that he regularly goes to the big ComicCon show in Chicago and often meets artists and creators of comic books there, getting them to sign posters and other mementos for his collection. That's just FAR OUT, dude! His Adventure Team figures all looked very clean and near mint too, and largely vintage. He has most of the big items including an AT Headquarters set, the AT Training Tower, a working Mobile Support Vehicle and at least 4 or 5 AT helicopters. Jeff admitted he REALLY likes vintage AT helicopters (uh, we kinda figured that out for ourselves, Jeff. HA). Take a look at some more pictures from this amazing room:
JOE SHOW-N-TELL Next, we moved into Jeff's dining room for our Show-n-Tell segment of the meeting. Everyone had brought something fun to show so we all had a great time oohing and ahhing over everyone's stuff. Here are the pictures we took:
PIZZA AND TRADING TIME By now, we were all pretty hungry, so Jeff treated us to a pizza dinner and sodas (THANKS JEFF!). After refueling ourselves, we eagerly began our Trade-a-palooza. Tub after tub, box after box is dumped out on a big table and each member sets to scrounging through the goodies making deal after deal. We always agree this is one of the best benefits of being in a club! See some of the action below:
Finally, what would meeting be without another "hands on" demo by "Big Guy, " Don Hanke? This time, Don brought along his Dremmel tool and showed how you can "polish your helmet" back to perfection. <snicker> Anyway, it really worked and soon the scratches and pits of 40 years were gone and the helmet looked brand new. Mark mentioned that you can also use plastic polish to do the same thing, as well as clear and clean windshields for helicopters. All in all, a very handy little demonstration. Thanks, Don! If you missed it, take a look at the video NOW. Once again, thanks for hosting this month's meeting Jeff. We had a blast and hope to see everyone at the next one!
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