Subject Matter: Attempting to break the past

I mentioned in a previous post how I kind of wanted to break away from the licensed and history of toylines and create my own stories. I've noticed that just creating a light para-military team is a hard sell. People know GI Joe. Good luck getting people really interested in something else with other characters. Looking at Eagle Force, Valaverse, Operation: Recall, etc. Now, a friend up in Canada as well as one currently in Bangkok have asked for years, why not just do your own crew??? Now, I was writing stories based on GI Joe; particularly with the figures because I was doing diocomics. While I wasn't going to try to make money off it, I was happily doing what I wanted with the characters and to an extent, not destroying the rich and convoluted history/canon. (GI Joe has cartoons, movies, comic books, etc all feeding into it.)

Let's talk about Marauder Gun Runners. This was an independent company who started by making 1:18 scale weapons for 1:18 figures. At a certain point, they launched Marauder Task Force which were customizable military (collectible) military action figures. A lot of the early adopters were 'porting' over GI Joe characters into MTF format. I ended up doing that and at first, it wasn't received with open arms. It felt like people thought it was blasphemy. It took a few years for the toy community to chill on it.

The real point here is that I was making up MTF teams. For the most part, no relation to GI Joe or anything else. But there was references to GI Joe. Later, many GI Joe would join the Marauders Task Force (in my universe). This was a chance to do stories with all new characters! Yet, all I did was link them into the GI Joe universe. Well, sort of. The Desert Foxes were initially a GI Joe team that transferred over to Marauders. But the Desert Foxes were not a GI Joe property (even tho I used Hasbro heads for most of them). I had the Iron Fists (no relation to Warhammer 40k) which were my 1st (and they were built from the very 1st Kickstarter campaign that started this whole MTF thang!).

Skip ahead nearly 10 years, I had moved out of the diostory arena and into good old fashioned writing. One of the projects (I call them projects because if I bail on them, no big deal), I wanted to tell a story of a military crew whose name gets used in the Warhamer 40k universe. The World Eaters. The story would follow a crew who get manipulated, become more violent, and ended up hunted by the world for their actions. They started as the Marauders' Devil Dogs, later to become the War Hounds, and in their last manifestation, the World Eaters. The Demon Hunters are another Marauder group, tasked with hunting them down. They are already a hunter group; the World Eaters, in this form, are not actual demons. Kind of metaphorical. 

As I was writing the 1st story, it was definitely stand-alone in terms of lack of GI Joe or any other toyline influence. Except, the World Eaters belong to the 40k entity so I am kinda treading in copyright territory. These guys don't become 40k World Eaters, they only end up with the name. The premise is, people are forgotten, it's the titles and names that transcend the ages. I had this fun idea that when the Emperor created the War Hounds/World Eaters, he would have been sitting on his throne, thinking like he does all day and night... "I have a new chapter. They need a name. I seem to remember, in the history of the world, there was a particularly nasty military group called the World Eaters... And so shall this chapter be named. THIS I COMMAND!!!"

I don't really consider the Devil Dogs stories a 40k thing. Story 2, a couple characters from the GI Joe side come into play. But that will also be setting up for the 4 Horsemen project which will come after the World Eaters series (4 Horsemen will most likely take place at the same time, not actually after time-wise). Basically, will I ever write a pseudo-military story that stands on its own? Probably not!

 Writing Evolution?

I started writing stories, I think back in 8th grade. Probably the same with comic books, which never got far. But I think it was just me with a lot of ideas and needed a creative outlet. The artist side in me. By college, there was a catalyst that got me really working on my own story. Started writing it on paper and then later entered into a computer. Or rather computers. Cuz while it was a on lil 3.5in disk, it migrated from one computer to another. And back then, computers burned out pretty quick and the concept of saving and having back-up, wasn't quite a thing for people who simply used computers but weren't overly knowledgeable about them. That said, the story, the 1st in a series, had a full 1st draft. I think it was around 75 pages. All the times I tried to rework it, it got longer. It also got more in-depth as I had started reading Robert Jordan (I came from a Tom Clancy/Stephen King background). I think the longest it got was 250 pages and it was complete. I've lost the story so many times and had to restart it, I kind of ended up changing details. The initial story was a fantasy/sci-fi story (we'll skip the hard definitions here) started in 1993.

Throughout college, I did lil dittys here and there of different subject matter. Nothing ever panning out (ie; completing). Great at starting, never finishing.

I started doing diostories/diocomics around 2005. GI Joe-based. That's where my storywriting went.

Fast forward to now (and let's say 2024-ish), I'm rewriting the GI Joe stories. And then, I started this Demon Hunters project. It was just for fun, doing something outside the GI Joe realm. Yet, the Zedd Universe already linked Marauder Task Force and GI Joe (amongst a bunch of other toylines). I was, for the most part, thinking it was neat to break away from GI Joe and all their history and canon. Yet... it's still kinda there. 

AND then there's the VS story which  brings me back to writing GI Joe stories! What I was trying to get away from. As I write Vs #2 and Demon Hunters #3, they feel worlds apart to me. GI Joe: VS has the familiar GI Joe vibe (well, my vibe, not the GI Joe vibe). Demon Hunters usually references GI Joe and has some elements. It's just fun for me to write it all and make it all connect. (There's more to these writing projects but I'm out of time)

Will I get back to my own story? Someday. It's in my writing bag w/ 3-4 other stories.

 Distractions and STFC

Star Trek Fleet Command. Just hit their 7th year back around Thanksgiving. That's a long time to play a mobile game. Lots of hours logged in; it's not a casual game and it's definitely not a passive game. It's the biggest time killer probably in the same way World of Warcraft and Everquest are/were. Cept, STFC started as a mobile game which means, if you had any sort of connection, you could play it anywhere at any time (well, barring the game being down for maintenance and updates). It it also the ultimate distraction because, for the most part, you can jump on for awhile and end your session w/o worry about save points or not finishing something.

What's this have to do with anything. Well, I'm pretty sure my writing could be a lot further these last couple of years (when I started writing more). I find myself thinking more with what to do with the stories; parts and chapters to be created, etc. That's something I never really did, where I thought I had to meditate on what to do next or how to tell a certain scene, etc. I try to tell myself, as long as I'm able to do something semi-creative a day, that's good enough. So if it's not VS: Story2: Beach Head vs Zandar, I might be working on landscape photos or toy photos. Or I might actually draw something. That last one is a stretch because I really don't pick up a sketch pad often.

But, with the way my life is, it's hard to sit down and concentrate on something, like my writing or drawing because it's very possible to get pulled away a moment's notice. I'm sure there's some adulting getting involved here too. Makes me wonder how people work their regular 9-5 job and then have any time to do anything. It very much feels like, come home, make dinner, eat, and then we move into nightly chores. By the time I'm done, it's the night routine which means, I'm heading to bed in short order. And I swear, getting older, I'm going to sleep earlier?!? (yet, I can't sleep thru the nite; up and down...)

Back to the writing hobby. I tell myself, also, if I can even put down a few sentences, that's better than none. The thing will never get written unless I actually do something about it. I only got about a paragraph written yesterday; wanted to do more but had distractions give or take me looking up information (for this particular story).

Aaaaaaaand, gotta get ready for work...

 The 7 Orochi

The 7 Orochi project is part of the MTF: Demon Hunters project. It is an evolution of the project, this actually being Volume 3. When my mind isn't occupied with other things, it goes to this group and idea. Probably doesn't help that I have the figures on the dresser as photo'd. My struggle with the team, and I've mentioned this before, is that member #7 is a mystery to me. I'm not sure who to use. Aleph on the far right, is a, I think, a comic book character. He is a Night Creeper character; the toy even comes with a different head. Why he's #7 is because I'm not sold on him. Or rather, I'm not sold on the figure. The character, I think I'm ok with using (haven't thought real hard on it).

The 7 Orochi, like the 4 Horsemen that precede this group, each character has a purpose. The concept of Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War, I'm going a bit beyond that. When I start writing it, it'll make more sense. The 4 Horsemen has sneakily made their appearance in the 2nd Devil Dogs story. So back to the 7 Orochi... My issues with the Night Creeper are the colors and the figure itself. If you look at the characters involved, most are customs. Red 5 and Skull Buster were made from a culmination of parts from the GI Joe Classified HISS Strike Team. Mindbender's body is Dracula's from Operation: Monster Force. Lady Obitus is simply a movie Baroness that has been renamed (she's different enough from the original Baroness that she feels like someone else. Plus, the Walmart Classified Baroness is more than I'd prefer to pay these days. I wanted Baroness to be in the 4 Horsemen, but market prices changed that!) At the moment, that leaves Major Bludd as the only non-customized figure! His figure is so bad ass in the first place, there's nothing I would change. To make him special, I stole an idea from another creator and it's al about his primary weapon. (because the weapon and accessories can often make a character/figure unique)

Crystal Ball is waiting on a new body; the figure I'm after hasn't been released yet!!! Supposed to be sometime 1st quarter of 2026!!! It's for this reason, I have yet to photograph him.

Other character options for the 7 Orochi, as I've mentioned before is Firefly, Scrap Iron, and Storm Shadow. I thought today, "what about Zandar?". For me, his look is too different. Looking at the photo, there is a visual vibe which just kinda happened. Night Creeper doesn't fit. Even more random thoughts would be a BAT that has become self-aware. Not sold on that because I'd need to find a different BAT to fulfill that role.

I might just do an entirely new character in the end.

On a slightly different note, when the 4 Horsemen evolved into the 7 Orochi, the Horsemen titles might get lost. I might not even call them by the titles. Storywise, might be more of an analogy when the characters are being talked about. It's really weird to think about it; how closely related Pestilence and Famine are. Pestilence can be looked as the sickness of the mind and body. Famine can be starvation of the mind and body. That latter will start to come into play in the Devil Dogs stories.

 VS: Story2: Beach Head vs Zandar

As I was working on it today, man, I wasn't joking that the way the story goes is rather organic. I just do stuff and it goes its own way. At the moment, the Joes have found their target. At the moment, I have to think and decide just what the target really is. Not to give too much away, but the Joes are at a Cobra underground bunker/outpost. It's not meant to be some big, elaborate maze of a thing nor is it a gnarly high-tech place either. I am asking myself, is a concrete bunker or something more like a mine and its got dirt walls and floors? But another question I'm asking, just how deep do I want to go into the ZEDD UNIVERSE on this one. The original plan for VS were quick stories. I hadn't really considered using VS as a way to flesh things out. I guess I was with Story1 when I referenced the VSS. The visual version of it had a bit more explanation and details. The VSS is not my creation, it is someone else's. For me to cross over to Andre Bynoe's 'baby', I'm trying to be very respectful and not go too deep on it. It's his story to tell and his physical model to show.

Eventually, I have to get to the guts of the story. At the moment, it's very much all prequel-ish. Kinda like in Predator where you meet the posse then they go and blow up the camp. Then the story starts after, right? Yeah, same idea here. Want to see if I can get the reader (not that anyone will ever read it) to think it's just a straight forward mission/story. I also want to throw in a little Star Trek VI in there too. Might have some fun with Zandar once he shows up. 

"Can you see me? Oh, now be honest, Beach Head, warrior to warrior. You do prefer it this way, don't you, as it was meant to be? No peace in our time. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends."

Here's a raw teaser image

 Rambling On...

I'm one of those types that is good at starting things, but not finishing them. The creative projects that I do finish, they are often rushed. I fully admit, I start with all this energy and by the time I get near the end, I'm tired and thinking of the next big thing(s). It's been said that for people like me, accomplishing small things can really help mentally. In fact, I had just read advice from a 1990s comic book artist; don't try and do a whole comic book or series of stories, tell a story in 3-5 pages. I won't say my diostories are too long. But they have gotten bogged down due to lack of technology, money, time, whatever. AI, these days, has nothing to do with it, surprisingly. In fact, I found how limiting it can be from a proper 3d diorama set that I built with my own hands.

The VS series I'm working on, it was originally to be a 3-5 pages diocomic. (I use the term diostory too. same thing). I was struggling with getting the figures posed right; those darned GI Joe Classified figures have really stiff joints to the point, I can't get them to bend. Hot water technique, yes, but it doesn't last long). VS is just a fun lil series of pitting GI Joe vs Cobra. Or rather, the bad guy world. Because it's more than just Cobra out there. The original version of this was in 2002 when Hasbro relaunched GI Joe: Joe vs Cobra (aka JvC). I got back into GI Joe at that time and I loved the idea. Now I'm playing with the idea.

I wrote in a post on Facebook that I was moving to the written format for the story. I, for the most part, retired from diocomics. They take too long, too expensive, and I have no space to build stuff (or a decent place to store them). I dabble in shorts and I mean they are short. (compared to 20-some pages; hundreds of photos, etc). The 1st VS story, Storm Shadow vs Helix was a fast write. It took a little bit of thinking on how to make things work. Otherwise, I think I wrote the 1st draft in a day or two. Then entered in WORD, revised it (there wasn't much), and published it. An accomplishment to get the 1st one finished!

I'm working on the 2nd one. I chose to restart it because it wasn't going the way I wanted. Each story is an exercise, it feels like. But almost as interestingly and I never noticed this in the past when I was writing on what I consider my real story (it has nothing to do with toys, started in 1993. Written on different computers, had been on floppy disk, and well, lost on multiple computers too), the stories sometimes write themselves. And with that mindset, the 7 Orochi story project, which is over a year away, I've been struggling with the 7th member should be. This should be for another post but since I'm in the groove... The 7 Orochi stem from an upcoming project called the 4 Horsemen. The full title, I suppose, should read Marauders Task Force: Demon Hunters: Vol 2: 4 Horsemen. Vol 3 is 7 Orochi. Vol 1... uh... errrrr, did I actually call it World Eaters? Or did I call it Devil Dogs. Uhmmmm, anyway, 7 Orochi is the evolution of the 4 Horsemen. I've decided that as I write the story, I might come up with an idea of who #7 should/could be. 

All these ideas to write...

Want to see how Story1 was going to look? Doing the visual version is much different than the written version.

The Lair still exists?!?

 I'm finding myself more and more frustrated with Facebook. Just jumping on here to see if I still had an account. Which apparently I do and it logged me in right away. Now, how do I do this again?

Relaunch the Lair blog?

Has it really been 6 yrs since the last post.

I'll make this quick.

Considering relaunching this old blog so I can use it as a record of what I was doing in life. Probably with a heavy emphasis on the GI Joe stories.

Is there hope for mankind?

http://www.viralnova.com/hilarious-facebook-fails/

So I found this on Facebook today. It is a quick compilation of people posting things that end up being really dumb. It’s not the first time something like his has shown up. I’m sure millions of people have read it and it’s been shared probably by at least half. I’ve been noticing a lot of these types of posts been going up lately. It’s good for a laugh, which is the purpose.

But I can’t help that there’s more to it than just a laugh.

We are laughing at people’s dumbness. We are laughing, rolling our eyes, saying “omg, are they really that stooooopid?”, and etc. This isn’t any different than watching the ‘fail’ videos on youtube or the different tv shows where people do stuff, fail at it and we laugh. There’s an industry for this. Charlie Chaplin comes to mind.

A skateboarder trying a rail trick, fails and racks his nuts on the railing. It’s funny. It’s actually NORMAL (for skateboarding). We wince at how painful the hit is. We laugh. We point. We tell others all about it. Rob Dryek, pro skateboarder, managed to create a tv show from people’s video taped follies. But when it comes to txts and what people post on facebook,  something feels different. It’s more like this…

                                                                         Random Picture

Should I even be laughing at how dumb people are? Should I be shaking my head and wondering about the state of education of normal people??? All because some dude doesn’t know the difference between an eagle and a parrot? Or that kids don’t actually know what the Civil War was for? Or that Africa is a continent not a country (wait till they found out where Egypt actually is!). Those are just 3 examples of the 31 ‘fails’ that was compiled.

Part of me says, “why am I laughing at these people?”
Part of me says, “this is bad karma to laugh at the dumb”.

Random picture





Because I know, I’ve done dumb things with all intents and purposes being truthful and honest. To be called out on it in this way, it’s almost character assassination. Yet, these people texted/wrote it, right? Should these be reproduced on a social website for everyone to see? You don’t see a whole lot of students’ grades being posted, right? I’m not entirely sure I’d want to be called on every other mistake I’ve made in life.

A simple post like that got me thinking in other weird ways too. The world human population keeps rising. The village gets bigger and bigger. When it keeps getting bigger, does that mean there are more village idiots to the point that you have a village of idjits? (I sometimes wonder if the amount of dumb people is a certain percentage of the world population. Therefore, 30 years ago, there were significantly less people so were there actually less dumb people? OR because of the internet (and tv), the dumb become more pronounced?) And I’ve heard that Alaska is really an island and can only be reached by boat.

Corrosion Of Conformity

For those who have known me for awhile, know I that I started skateboarding in 1986. Or at least, I got my 1^st skateboard that Christmas. Debate the timeline all you want, but the real point here is that some of my musical tastes came from Thrasher magazine. Back in 5^th grade, I checked out the magazines a friend had. 6^th grade, I think I ended up with a subscription for a couple years. Thrasher, unlike Transworld, covered the world (ie; culture) of the skateboarding scene. From clothing to contests to skaters all over, but also, music.

At that age, aren’t we all pretty susceptible to the stuff around us? Music, tv shows, how to act around females (and vice versa), clothing style, etc, it all comes into play. Thrasher covered music; good and bad. From what I could remember, they were usually pretty fair in their reviews. I’m not sure how many albums I bought from random bands just because Thrasher had ads for them or a quick blurb about them. Despite being a skateboard magazine, they didn’t cover just punk. Heavy Metal and some hip-hop/rap showed up. I found bands like Metallica (good), Warrior Soul (gah), Prong (good), Boneless Ones (gah), Drunk Injuns (good), and hundreds of others. The focus of today’s blog is CORROSION OF CONFORMITY.

The album they kept on putting up ads for was for Technocracy. I never did end up with the album, but it looked hella cool (see picture). I believe this was also around the time Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” was coming out.

It wouldn’t be until college that I picked up a Corrosion of Conformity album. “DELIVERANCE”. MTV was airing the video for “Albatross” and it got me interested. I think one of the Mack Dawg snowboard videos used one of their songs too. Since I remembered these guys from middle school, I figured, “hey, I remember them. They are often in the same sentence as Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, etc (and other metal bands around at that time)” Got the album probably from Columbia House or one of those mail order music companies (I’m sure they are long gone) where you can get like 12 albums for 1 cent or something like that. 

The album in itself was ok. They weren’t my favorite heavy metal band all of a sudden. But for that one album, it was cool enough. Yet, I never picked up another album for some reason.

Recently, the Corrosion name has been popping up on Facebook. Mainly because it’s through a band I “liked” tagging them or something. Don’t know if it was Anthrax or Metallica, but there were ads popping up for their new album. Besides downloading it thru Amazon.com, I also looked up info about the band. I suppose I was always curious about them since I would see Pepper Keenan’s name pop up now and then. Probably due to the fact that he showed up in the band DOWN with Pantera’s singer, Phil Anselmo. So if Pepper’s hanging with down AND he tried out for bassist for Metallica, I figured CoC had called it quits. But with a new album, then who was in it and how would it sound?

Well, it’s definitely not the sound I remember. I looked ‘em up on Wiki. It’s southern metal! (But isn’t Down and Zack Wylde’s band southern metal too?) It’s a 3-piece. With the creation of the internet and Amazon.com (and youtube.com), one can sample music. Sure, I didn’t sample their new album which is self-titled. But I did try out Technocracy and OMG, it sounded PUNK! Just babbling on here.

Oh right, talking about where some of my heavy metal tastes came from. Thrasher magazine. Targeting Corrosion of Conformity. Their new album which is self-titled, really don’t know what to say about it. Other than I find it hard to listen to. But I do admit this, they definitely did things their own way and not worry about what anyone else was going to think. Good old Thrasher magazine…

Roll Bounce Part 1

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Roll Bounce Part 2

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I'll admit it. It can take me months to finish a set. A diorama set. For my DioStories (you know, I photograph action figures in either handmade sets or outdoor locations that tell a big ass story). I've been working on an engine room for months and it'll only be for a handful of shots for the scene!

I stopped at Ace Value (or Ace Hardware, whichever you want to call it) and picked up some random plumbing pipe pieces. It turned into what is pictured. What'll be fun here is that I can reuse that tubing in different ways; just a quick repaint and it'll be something entirely different. The engine room set, well, it's pretty close to being finished up. I'm actually waiting for the paint to dry on the base. Cuz then I'll use a watered down black paint to make it look slightly dirty and weathered (like what you see here).

My sets are usually pretty simple. I'm not a welder or sculptor so I don't do some of the really cool diorama sets. Plus, I do stories so I need the sets to be able to be broken down easily and quickly. Then used again. Even the walls are reused. Because I almost never show the whole set, the viewer doesn't get to see the whole thing. It's very manipulative in that way. Which is sometimes a mistake on my part cuz I won't convey the possible sense of 'grandeur' of the set. And honestly, sometimes it's not worth showing the whole thing.

Even with the set shown, you really don't need to see anything else cuz there's nothing there! :D

It’s rambling time!!!

Every now and then, Shane Welin, a member of DioWarriors.com, holds a DW HANGOUT on google.com. It’s a chance for toy collectors from, in theory, all over to chat. However, most come from DioWarriors.com. At the last hangout, a topic was brought up about the state of toys in today’s world. In particular, the state of the plastic action figure. How will it survive? Will it survive?

This is how I see it. (there are a lot of thoughts going on here…)

To make a toyline successful:
-Support (the wave needs to be able to build on itself. Also primarily includes tv show and/or movie)
-Advertising
-Quality Product (includes good design>Sculpting>Colors>Paint Applications>Excution/Production)

-Overall Interest

-Character selection (Snake Eyes has 50+ versions, most starting from 2002)

-QUANTITY produced
-Price point

I’m gonna skip over most of those and just get to the point.

There’s one other aspect that isn’t part of the original points. That would be ‘additional series’. This is when a toy company will “kiddy-fy” their original product to try and target a younger audience to buy. Sometimes they come in the form of some sort of game. Other times as little trinkets to look great on an office desk or shelf.

For a business to expand, they have to take so many things into account. When these toy companies start making expansions, all it really does is confuse the consumer. It spreads money thinner in terms of what is bought. At the same time, the energy needed to support all series of a toyline is spread thin.

It’s a gamble. Will it sell or be a total mistake? How many resources do we need to make these? What will the cost of the resources? Resources aren’t just the ingredients used to make the thing. We’re talking about marketing, design, sculpt, the time frame of when they can be mass produced (cuz we all know those Chinese factories gotta change the molds up and they are also making all sorts of toys, right???), packaging and everything else that goes into this addition to a toyline.

Does that mean companies can’t do this? No, but listening to their staff analysts with their expensive degrees are proving to the buyers that they are failing more than they are succeeding. It’s a mixed bag for the consumer. Some companies will ‘leak’ comments like, “we have a lot riding on this. If this fails, the whole line will fail.” When the regular buyer hears this, then they feel compelled to buy ‘the crap’ just to sustain the numbers. When reports pop up about ending whatever expansion occurs, it creates distrust in the company.

We’ve all heard, “well, if they put in more effort in the main line, they would’ve been better off.” Or “well duuuuuuh, it was a stupid idea”. Or “if they supported it, it would have done better”.

What I’m saying here is that anything that detracts from the primary line is a distraction. If something has the potential to be kiddy-fied, it probably shouldn’t. Focus should really be on what needs to succeed.

What am I thinking of when it comes to kiddy-fied/expansions for the GI Joe brand?

GI Joe Micro Force
GI Joe BTR (Built to Rule; Lego wannabe)
GI Joe Combat Heroes (according to yojoe.com, aimed for pre-schoolers!)

GI Joe cosplay gear
GI Joe TCG (anyone remember that cool product by WOTC that lost support way too early???)
GI Joe Retaliation 12” figures (like 5 POA and a total waste of space)
GI Joe KREO (This one is a stretch cuz it hasn’t been figured out if it’s selling well. Collectors are going after the blind bag figures but otherwise, it seems to be gathering dust. IMO)

If you’re in TRU in the next week or so, take a gander at the TMNT and Power Rangers sections. You’ll see the regular figures. And then you’ll see EVERYTHING else that is going with it.

And that’s my 2 cents.

It’s rambling time!!!

Every now and then, Shane Welin, a member of DioWarriors.com, holds a DW HANGOUT on google.com. It’s a chance for toy collectors from, in theory, all over to chat. However, most come from DioWarriors.com. At the last hangout, a topic was brought up about the state of toys in today’s world. In particular, the state of the plastic action figure. How will it survive? Will it survive? What will happen to the GI Joe brand since it’s the 50^th Anniversary and Hasbro is selling it only through Toys R Us? Death of GI Joe?!?!

This is how I see it. (there are a lot of thoughts going on here…)

To make a toyline successful:
-Support (the wave needs to be able to build on itself. Also primarily includes tv show and/or movie)
-Advertising
-Quality Product (includes good design>Sculpting>Colors>Paint Applications>Excution/Production)

-Overall Interest

-Character selection (Snake Eyes has 50+ versions, most starting from 2002)

-QUANTITY produced
-Price point

I’m gonna skip over most of those and just get to the point.

TOO MANY FIGURES ARE MADE!!!

I would love to point fingers and say a brand like He-Man rehashes the same characters too many times. GI Joe uses their Core to death. How many versions do we need of Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker figures?

I would love to say that wasting resources (like PLASTIC) on 5 Point Of Articulation figures will cause the death of the action figure and GI Joe.

I could say that lack of support is a great way to kill a series. Like what Sigma6 became (cartoon, but lack of new toys AND vice versa!). Or how GI Joe’s Pursuit of Cobra just fizzled out (even tho the movie was coming) with no love on small screen or big screen.

It’s tempting to point out that a single GI Joe figure in 80s was on average, $3 MSRP. It became $7 for the 2 packs from 2002-2005 (Could go back a couple years to RAH rehash packs just before the JvC theme). When Sigma 6 came out, an 8” basic figure was available for $8 MSRP. By 2007, a single 25^th Anniversary figure went for $6 MSRP. 2014, Retaliation figures were, on average, $10 for a single figure.

The way I see it, what will kill the action figure genre is not the plethora of competing toylines, but the amount of product created.

Being a fairly frequent TRU and Fred Meyer shopper (with a side of Target on occasion), all I see are masses amounts of plastic made by factories in China and companies trying hard to get the attention of a passer-by. Admittedly, I’ll check out Adventure Time or Regular Show product. But visiting the action figure section (which of course, is divided up by brand), is a sorry state of affairs. To this day, I can still find figures from the Avengers movie (2012), 1^st wave GI Joe Retaliation figures (Mar. 2013), even stuff like Green Lantern (2011), Captain America (2011), Dark Knight Rises (2012) and several others seem to still linger.

Fact is, the toy companies release the 1^st wave of movie toys one month before the movie release. They usually release the toys in very large numbers to saturate the market. A company like Hasbro will even back off on other lines to support whatever movie is being released. What I have found is that those wave1 toys clog the pegs to a choking point and the stores have a very hard time getting rid of them, even on clearance.  Successor waves, if produced, come in far smaller numbers to the point that they can be hard to find.

It is my opinion it’s that these 1^st waves of figures are going to kill the action figure toy genre. I’ll even spare the ‘kiddified’ versions if they were made in smaller number. But the fact is, these companies come up with certain numbers to produce what that they think will sell. Unfortunately, the inflated numbers for movie figures just kills the releases of successor waves.

And that’s my 2 cents.

HA! I'm still around.

For future reference in what I babble about from work, I'll explain it here.

The plane is often divided up into FWD, MID and AFT. And of course, Left Side (LH), Middle (CTR) and Right Hand (RH).

Now, you all know I'm Seat Crew. 

If I'm correct, the order of our events kinda goes like this (I don't have a lil seat card w/ SOIs on it)

-Unload seats from cargo containers

-Install 'Life Vests' (can't believe they call it that, not PFDs)

-Load seats onto plane

-Install seats onto plane

Uh, I think there are like, 2 more steps. Each of those steps above have MULTIPLE steps to them. 

Now, this might seem odd, but the SOIs are further broken down. So there's LH AFT and LH FWD. Which usually means, 5-6 seats in AFT and then 5-6 FWD on left. For those who can spot it, I already said AFT and FWD refer to sections of the plane. 

Well try this. We do a lot of installs based on the doors or stations. Doors are easier to recognize. So we'll do DR 3-4 LH FWD then DR 3-4 LH AFT. We know this as Left side of plane, in the aft section of the plane and well, that area is divided into 2. 

Therefore, last Wed, when looking up SOIs to see how they were doing, I was looking up DR 3-4 LH FWD, LH AFT, CTR AFT, CTR FWD, RH FWD, RH AFT... And keep in mind, RH AFT has 4 steps to it (see above). We'll be getting laptops at some point so we won't have to run up and down as much.

Lastly, I believe it was on Wednesday, I had a chance to speak to a couple of the big wigs when I was finishing all those steps. I can't go into the conversation but hey, at least I wasn't standing around doing nothing. ;)

Isn't it funny how 4 weeks doesn't necessarily mean 1 month? For example, I started in the factory on the 1st or 2nd of this month. I just finished out my 4th week but there's still practically 1 week to go before the month is over, right?

It's had its ups and downs. I'm quite happy that, well, I've been designated as SEAT CREW. Not just Interiors, but seat installation specifically.

This last week has been nutty. We started installed seats in the AFT, MID and FWD. Recap...

Wednesday. The big bosses (ie; the 2nd & 3rd mgrs) wanted the Business Class seats in as well as the rest of the Economy seats in the FWD section. But usually, we have to make sure that everything in AFT (or the other area of the plane we had worked in) was fully finished. So that day, I was up and down stairs getting all the SOIs (work instructions) in order to see what steps we missed or weren't finished. So I went thru each SOI (technically, this is the lead's job, ahem) and kept on finding random places that we hadn't bought off. It was only a few lil things but with a crew of approx. 15, communication gets lost.

In this case, we couldn't find the seat track covers (these lil things that cover the installation bolts). 1st shift had finished doing a bunch of stuff but hid the covers. The original people who were looking for 'em didn't find 'em. Then I looked (after doing some other stuff) and didn't see them. Matt finally found a bunch of 'em. Being new, I didn't actually know where to look (I'm used to economy seats where you put them on the outer installation bolts, not the centers). Once found, I put 'em on, waited for QT to pass it, etc.

So we installed a couple of seats with the help of a couple of terrific guys from the EMC. The business class seats weigh in around 500 lbs. That's significantly heavier than the 2-seat economies that I can actually lift. (economy 4-seat for mid aisle I ran away from) I spent a lot of time on the computer and chilling with QT. At least I'm getting to know them...

Thursday was more of the same. Cuz we were homeless for a time (no work for us, we go help other crews), I learned how to install Sidewalls. Then later that day, we put in the FWD seats. (I'm going off memory from a busy week...). I think on Wed, they were starting to install FWD seats...  I just know by Thursday nite, I stayed till 1.30am to get all those seats in with Sean and Josh. (A few others stayed but left a bit earlier thinking everything was done) Our manager promised us a bbq if we got them all done.

Friday was a slower day. Seats were in so some of us worked on #67. In the end, I stayed busy helping teach a couple guys how to put EDWs (windows) in. So I stayed busy those last 4 hrs. The 1st 4 were hell in that I was tired and my legs weren't happy with going up and down stairs...

I learned a bit more about installation. We took care of a lot of jobs this week. I know I txt'd fuller stories to a friend that went into more detail.

So it's Saturday now. Lost in Space was just on and now it's old skool Star Trek. :D

Kind of a nutty week.

Finally reported to the factory after 10 weeks of training.

I think, to a certain degree, I'm getting the hang of at least 2 things that us interior crew types do. I'm also the first of the group that came in Friday/Monday/Tuesday to have been victim of hazing. I won't go into details here.

Come monday, we'll see if I get in trouble or not. Hopefully not. (I accidentally took a tool bag key home, returned it early saturday morning) The lead/managers on 1st shift seemed to think it was no big deal. But as noob, I don't know what the protocol for such things is. Gee whiz, I had things to babble about, but I'm not remembering much.

I'll find out if the concept of 'atta-boys' are really destroyed by a single 'oops'.

It's finally over.

Training. Boeing Training. 10 weeks.

Let me back up here to clarify a tiny bit. After I graduated from Bellingham Technical College (BTC) with an AS in Civil Engineering, things didn't pan out. I moved back with my parents and picked up two part times jobs with a 3rd doing yardwork. I dinked around on AdSet at Kohls (working truck and in the end, other random places) and was an on-call janitor for the Riverview School District.


Late in 2010, we heard that Boeing was on a hiring spree. Sure, I had tried to get on but didn't know what sort of job I was looking for. They didn't have a 'civil engineering' position. I had no clue where to start and their job site is hell to navigate in the first place. Sometime in Winter, the Seattle Times ran a couple of articles about Governor Gregoire spending millions to get this Washington Aerospace Training & Research Center going. It was to be an aerospace training facility/program to help get people the novice/beginner skills that would help them get a job at Boeing (who was hiring cuz they need bodies for the 787 plane). We got more information about this program and by late July, I started the online portion of the Assembly Mechanic certification program. The AM program lasted till 10.21.11.


Fast forward a bit. I officially started at Boeing 2.17.12. That's after a month or so of getting all the paperwork in order. Now, one doesn't just start at Boeing. There's a training period. For some, it's a 10-week standard program. For other's they get a week or 3-weeks. (I won't get into the WHYS of that).

The 10 weeks of paid training was a mix of computer-based classes, instructor led classes and hands-on work. The last 2 weeks (w/ the exception of 2 days) was in the High Bay (aka Lab). Last Thursday, I had finished up my projects and took the written exam (04.26.12) which was a bit harder than expected. (Mind you, none of us really knew what was on the exam and it's not like we could study for it.)

Last Friday (04.27.12), we started the hands-on final project. It was to be a 10-hr project but I doubt we were really given that proper amount of time. That Friday, things went to hell. I oversized holes. I countersunk holes in the wrong place. I couldn't focus, couldn't move my butt out of 1st gear, etc. The whole weekend, I had it over my head (now, others still had to retake the written so they had 2 things over their head...). I kept making plans in my head of what to do. How much time to allow for each step. Literally, I was thinking, "ok 5 mins to get the holes by the Winslow passed off, IF they are passed off...  Then 5 mins to install the nutplates w/ the cherry puller. Get that signed off. Install fasteners, 15 mins most..." Supposed to have h ad 2.7 hrs to complete. I finished with 20 minutes to spare.

Now, this project allowed one to only get docked 12 points before it was a fail. 90% + was passing. Seeing how my friday was wasted on drilling holes and REWORKING holes, I wasn't feeling at all confident I could pass and/or finish. (hence me trying to assign time limits on each step) In the end, I moved with a purpose and zipped around the high bay to get stuff and take care of business!

In the end, I passed. 95%.

Tomorrow (errrrrrr, later today), I head to the factory to see where on the 787 line I will be assigned!

Thanks to Andrea, Shannon and Jessica for giving me support. As well as several others in class who knew I could get it done and pass. :D