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"The Search for Scott's Hall of Heroes"
Meeting #7 took place at the home of CIGCC member and GIjOE comic artist Scott McCullar in Sherman, IL. Of course, to get there, everyone had to drive. But that's not uncommon since all of the members of the Central Illinois GIjOE Collectors Club live in separate communities (spread way out here in America's "Farm-Belt"). However, the more we do this (hold club meetings), the more we realize how fun these road trips to each other's homes are. It's great to get out there and explore a new town, a new neighborhood, a new GIjOE Collection! Since Mark and Robert both live in Champaign-Urbana, they decided to carpool and save gas. Mother Nature was cooperative for most of the trip, but click on the movie link (above left) to see actual video taken during their return leg. Aaaaaaaa! But regardless of the lightning and rain, this meeting was definitely going to be worth the drive. Soon after they arrived, fellow CIGCC member Robert Mitchell and his (very pleasant) son Derek also showed up. There were now five of us (a quorum!). So while Scott's supportive family watched TV in another room, we began club meeting #7. And what a meeting it was going to be...
Somehow (and we don't really understand how), Scott's managed to convince his family to allow him to display his entire GIjOE collection in the FAMILY ROOM. That's right. We were standing in their family room, just off the kitchen. It even has a fireplace! (I guess that makes Joe collecting more cozy in the winter.) Scott's located his entire office in there too, essentially taking over the entire space. Sensing our amazement, his lovely wife Roxie walked by and jokingly declared, "I just don't go in there!" (Ha) What an amazing room. Shelf after shelf is literally LOADED to busting with the best GIjOEs you've ever seen. Scott also has an entire fireplace mantle filled with 13" DC Superheroes. And there's a Panther Jet, Stuart Tank, and Trouble Shooter vehicle. (For more about Scott McCullar the man, and a comprehensive look at his collection, jump over to the GIjOE Collections website found HERE.) Over in a corner, Scott's assembling a full-size, stand-up video game system (see pic at right), which he tells us will be able to play ALL the old arcade classics we grew up with as kids. That is so cool! Scott also admitted to being an aggressive ebayer, and that that was how he's acquired so MUCH of his amazing collection. To succeed, he's been willing to be very patient and wait for the price of an item to drop dramatically before buying. Are you listening out there? The affordable and enjoyable way to build a great collection is to learn from Scott's example and: Don't feed the "scalpers!"
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SCOTT'S "REALM OF WONDER" Inside Scott's "Hall of Heroes" lies the fabled "Realm of Wonder." This is where Scott creates his comic book fantasies and other works of art for various projects. It is also HERE, at this very workstation (see above), that Scott creates the official GIjOE souvenir comic books currently being commissioned by the national GIjOE Club for inclusion in their exclusive convention sets. Wow! |
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This meeting's "show-n-tell" was a rambling sort of "Hey, look at this" type of affair that began with Scott showing us many of his convention exclusives. The quality is very high on most of these sets with only minor exceptions. The crowd favorite was clearly the "Battle of Britain" set with the "Unknown Heroes of WWII" medic set coming in a close 2nd. FANTASTIC stuff. But at $300 a pop, they're hard for most of us to justify. Oh well, at least we can enjoy the pictures! Next up was Mark with an assortment of yellow motorcycles he's been gathering together for his "all-yellow" AT motor pool. Sharp! He also brought in a custom Battlebox he had made for his new Bob Hope figure. Sweet! And some of those big SEAL rafts for a side-by-side comparison (we were surprised that the Hasbro version wasn't as big as the others).
Scott then showed us many of the different custom hair flockings he's had done over the years. There's even one he's dubbed "Race Bannon" for his all-white custom hair (see photo at left). Fantastic quality! We were all very impressed. Flocking jobs can vary greatly in quality depending on who does them (just look at Hasbro) and these were all very nice. Finally, we all headed out to another room to see where Scott stores his "overflow" of goodies. Here, we found boxes and boxes of comic books, boxes of GIjOEs, Star Trek figures, various other action figures, and much more. We always look forward to checking out the latest stuff brought in by our fellow club members, and this show-n-tell segment was quite enjoyable. |
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We always order pizza for our meetings, and the host treating us to pizza has sort of become the tradition. As usual, Scott didn't accept any money for the pizza, and we are VERY grateful for his generosity. A big club "THANK YOU" goes out to Scott and Roxie for the wonderful pizza pie from Antonios. Mmmmm! (Hey Don, where were you? This was GOOD stuff, big guy!) ;-) After eating, we cleared the table for our biggest "Trade-a-palooza" EVER! |
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There's trading, and then there's TRADING. And this was the biggest trading event we've ever had. Tub after tub after tub came before us for our painstaking piece-by-piece inspection. Everyone found something they wanted. Trades were made. Sales were made. All of us left the table happy campers. WHAT A DAY! Finally, our thanks go out again to Scott and his generous family for hosting our meeting this month. Our "Search For the Hall of Heroes" was clearly a resounding success. If you missed this month's meeting, we sincerely hope you can make it to one in the near future. Our club is all about having fun with your GIjOE collection, and that's what we're doing! Go JOE!
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SCOTT'S
"HALL OF HEROES"
Suddenly, Mark's
Steven Segall figure (see photo above) challenged Scott's Bruce
Lee to a quick 3 rounds. Any guess how it turned out? (Psst...Bruce
won.)
TRADE-A-PALOOZA
