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Meeting Number 3
Bloomington, IL October, 2006
"Search for the Missing GIjOEs"
Meeting #3 took
place at the Third Sunday Market in Bloomington, IL (see
flyer at right). It was the last flea market of its size (in
this area) for this year, and if you missed it you'll just have
to wait until next May for them to start it all up again. Wow.
Was this thing BIG.
THE SEARCH BEGINS
Upon arrival, we had to park waaaaaay out in this huge field and then hike up to the gates where you pay a fiver per adult to get in. The first thing I noticed were two vintage flocked Adventure Team GIJoes, just to the left and inside of the gate. One figure needed a trip to the reflocking hair doctor, but the other looked pretty nice. Both had KFG hands that seemed to be in good shape too. But...I felt it was too early to spend my measly moolah, so I continued on. Of course, when I returned an hour later they had been snatched up! Robert passed on them as well in favor of some vintage battery-op toys (see his collection HERE). Oh, well...hopefully they went to a good home.
Proceeding ahead to the first pavilion, we were immediately overwhelmed by the size of this event. Size-wise, it's like 5 or 6 Joe conventions all thrown together, but of course, it's not all about GIJoes so you really have to search the tables carefully. It was crowded too, and that made searching kind of slow and go, but that was okay because if you went too fast you'd miss stuff anyway.
There are SIX pavilions in all--two indoor and four outdoor. There were also a lot of venders who were simply outside in the open air with no roof over their heads, and since it sprinkled now and then, they were often scrambling to cover their goods with tarps.
LOOK CAREFULLY
Working methodically, you could eventually find repro Captain Action figures, vintage Johnny West figures, vintage Barbies and Kens, and a few more 12" GIJoes including the 30th big box guys with the repro coffin boxes. If you kept a keen eye out too, you occasionally spotted items that were in 1/6th scale and would have worked great in dioramas. The one item that really stood out was this cast iron replica of an old 1800s stove. But...the price was way too high and I believe even with dickering it wouldn't have come down enough to seriously consider buying. So it was left on the table.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Personally, what caught my eye was a couple of GIJane helo pilots (see photo below). I've always enjoyed the AA versions of this figure especially and am currently making some custom Vietnam nurses and other Army figures out of them. They have FANTASTIC AA head sculpts, don'tcha think? So, I picked both of 'em up for myself, dickered the man down to $25 total and left a happy collector. All in all, the "Search For the Missing GIJoes" was a complete success.
