Meeting Number 13 Washington, IL, August 24, 2008 "How much fun can you have with GIjOE in just 4 hours?" (Let's find out!) Downstairs, we discovered a fantastic collection of armored vehicles and tanks. Holy Heavy Metal, David! TOURING DAVID'S COLLECTION Meeting #13 began simply enough. NINE members of the mighty CIGCC had driven in from all corners of the state to converge upon the sprawling Washington, Illinois estate of David Thompson, GIjOE collector extraordinaire. David greeted us warmly as we unloaded and we knew it was going to be a great Joe day. While his son Geoffrey busied himself with a Star Wars game, we took a tour of David's home and his wide-ranging collection. David had spread his collection throughout the house, with no one room being designated solely a "Joe room." In fact, it was more like a "Joe house!" Upstairs, downstairs, main floor, EVERYWHERE there were Joes and other action figures displayed and ready for action. Let's take a look... Robert and David discuss the luck of finding one of these amazing Hasbro Navy jeeps. WOW, is it sweet. Every corner was filled with some sort of GIjOE display. On the left, a WAV salutes sharply while her fellow members of the Navy stand ready for action, any time, anywhere ("How about my place tonight, baby?"). Meanwhile, on the right, R. Lee Ermey "dresses down" a startled Orville and Wilber Wright. "Are you eyeballing me, flyboy?" "Y-y-yes, sir! I mean NO sir, Gunny!" David's interest in WW1 is clearly obvious as his collection of figures on the left demonstrates. We also noticed a wide selection of books and other materials referencing WW1 throughout his home. The war to end ALL wars? Hmm...regrettably not. On the right is an interesting Bratz vehicle that we all thought would fit nicely into a Jonny Quest diorama. "Hadji! Jump in and let's go surfing with Bandit!" "Sim, sim, salla-bim!" From Jonny Quest to Johnny WEST. Check out these nice vintage MARX figures with original boxes. FANTASTIC! This tall picture is a good closeup of some of David's vintage Adventure Team gear and vehicles. Too cool! A mini-diorama with Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur at his (hand crafted) wooden desk. David even made the telephone out of sculpy! "I SHALL RETURN (the charges)!" HA An amazing tabletop diorama of Miss Fear's Bar created by David. Outstanding work! A closeup of the bartender reveals David's great eye for appropriately scaled detail. Just perfect. David told us he made the bar by combining a shelf with some spare pieces of wood. And check out the 1/6th scale abacus! A closeup of the popular tanks created for 1970's Action Man figures. These are in great condition. David also has the Desimmone landing craft LST and the USMC halftrack. Both are outstanding! PARACHUTE DROP ACTION After touring David's amazing collection, we headed across town to a bridge he had scouted out in advance. It had the advantages of being in a quiet, low-traffic area with a "soft" landing area of grass below. Believe it or not, NONE of us had ever dropped a GIjOE with a parachute before. That was an embarrassing revelation, but it made us all the more determined to THROW JOES OFF A BRIDGE! For the next hour, we proceeded to untangle chute lines and toss GIjOEs out into the wild, blue yonder, while chasing down broken and missing helmets, boots and assorted body parts. For added fun, we tried using a 3-person "water balloon" slingshot (with mixed results) in an attempt to gain higher altitude on each throw. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. We quickly learned we needed to aim REALLY high or we'd just launch a Joe full-speed into the metal railing of the bridge with a sickening THUD. Ouch. (Please forgive us, Joe.) Mark prepares to launch his Joe...into the railing. (Tip to others attempting this: aim a little HIGHER. Ouch!) THE RIGHT STUFF? For a really "big show," we threw Mark's vintage space capsule up too. He had attached two Timeless chutes to its nose and we heaved it over with our fingers crossed every time. It's first and second flights went flawlessly (see photos below), soaring high into the air before floating gently down to Earth again. We all agreed that a third parachute would have been ideal, but the two chutes it had did the job quite well. Mark's capsule looking great upon reentry and landing softly in the grass below. How cool is that? Unfortunately (and hilariously), upon reentry from it's third voyage, Mark's capsule met its fate and finally "screwed the pooch." Despite a perfect launch by Robert Mitchell and a nice grasping catch by Don Hanke, the capsule's 40-year old glue could no longer hold the hull together and it completely separated, sending pieces crashing to Earth. L- Mark and Robert untangle the capsule's chute before its fateful final voyage. R- Members search the LZ and gather up bits and pieces of the capsule. (Hmm...coulda really used a third chute.) Cameras were rolling! Watch a video of our Mercury space capsule's tragic "final voyage." The results of the third and final voyage of Mark's capsule were, shall we say, less than "stellar." But look! The all-too-often missing or broken control handles remain undamaged. As a matter of fact, most of the pieces are present and accounted for. Maybe the capsule can be restored and will someday FLY AGAIN. Stay tuned... More photos and videos of our parachute drop: L- Geoffrey asks, "Is this better than playing Star Wars, Dad?" Center- Scott searches in vain for a hand his Joe lost when it too, hit the rail. Sigh... R- Tony retrieves Mark's capsule after a successful voyage. Now, on to the MOON! Watch a video called "Don's Big Toss" Watch a video called "1,2,3!" Watch a video of the action called "Pretty Good!" Members who weren't currently tossing their Joes acted as "retrievers" and chased down Joes as they drifted overhead. Fortunately, no Joe or capsule got stuck in a tree. If you have a parachute drop in your area, make sure the Joes stay "free of the trees." Michael tries to control the "Fearsome Foursome" of 2 GIjOEs and 2 GIjANEs riding in the Scorpion. (They wanted to par-TAY.) The Scorpion's tires are EXTRA spongy for greater gripping action. This thing could climb over ANY obstacle, but Mike mainly just drove it "straight and true" down the road. Isn't that like a fireman? Let's just call him "Mr. Safety!" R/C "ROAD WARRIORS" After we called it a day at "parachute bridge," we returned to David's house for some on and off-road R/C fun. Don and David decided to stay at the house and have a driveway battle with a pair of massive 21st Century Stuart M3 tanks while other members took three Adventure Team R/C vehicles down the street and onto a nearby multi-use path. New member Michael Hamilton drove the 4x4 Scorpion (see photo above) while Derek drove a 4x4 ATV Quadcycle and Tony had a BIG, BAD, black Hummer. R/C vehicles open up a whole new level of fun with action figures. Each vehicle had a least one figure riding inside. The Scorpion had FOUR figures! Here are some videos of the action: Watch a video called "Adventure Team Traffic Jam" Watch a video called "Adventure Team Drive-by" The trading was especially brisk and enjoyable at this meeting. Everyone found something they wanted. SHOW-N-TELL, TRADE-A-PALOOZA, PIZZA...and FREE GIjOE DOOR PRIZES! After the R/C fun, we returned inside to take a pizza break. David had ordered Monical's pizza (thanks!) and after satisfying our hunger, we began the club's Show-n-Tell segment. Everyone took turns showing something cool. Afterwards, we swapped and traded (see frenzied photo above) for a long while, actually running past our meeting time by a good 30 minutes. But there are ALWAYS great deals and fun to be had at a CIGCC Trade-a-Palooza, so we just kept going on until it was all over. Finally, each member brought along a "secret door prize" to give away, so we drew names and gave out everyone's free Joe goodies. Some of the prizes were AMAZING! Congratulations to everyone. Scott showing his latest custom Star Wars figures, describing how he replaced the bodies with ones that were more realistically poseable (are you listening,Hasbro?) GREAT stuff, Scott. Your collection is AMAZING. L- Scott again and his Obi Wan and Darth figures. R- Robert Findlay brought his ULTRA-RARE Highway Patrol figure that he found at a flea market! Yes, there are still such great finds available if you're willing to do the legwork and go look. STUNNING! ON THE ROAD AGAIN... What a great meeting! Thanks again to David and Geoffrey for hosting this month. You were VERY generous. After the door prize giveaways, everyone loaded up their Joes and headed for home. With all the Joe stuff that was around, it's understandable that something might've been left behind. And sadly, that was the case... Mark is planning a "rescue mission" soon to retrieve these members of his "LOST ADVENTURE TEAM." GO JOE! Events Calendar Member Bio Pages Photo Gallery Past Meetings Archive Helpful Links Home Page Please visit our sponsor: If you'd like to advertise here, contact Mark at sterling@shout.net