JoeFest 2023: Special Report

** Editor's note: This post was started on Thursday evening, 06/15/23, however I ended up having to take my wife to the ER before I could finish. So instead of completing this post before HeroesCon, I'm completing it on the evening of 06/18/23 instead after HeroesCon.

One the eve of attending the annual Heroes Convention in my hometown of Charlotte, NC, I thought I'd first recap my first ever JoeFest that was held last weekend, June 9-11 in Augusta, GA. While I've heard of this show before, it would sneak up and pass me by in previous years. Late last week however I started seeing all the social media blitz so I looked into it a little more. I had no idea that August was just under a 2 hour drive from my home so I took a look at my calendar to see if I could swing attending the show. As it turned out my family already had plans on Saturday, but Sunday was wide open. I called my older brother to see if he'd want to ride down with me and shortly there after we were on our way to our very first JoeFest!

Going in I really didn't have many expectations. I saw some awesome panels scheduled for Saturday, which I was sad that I missed, however the pictures I saw of the sales floor made the show look pretty massive. Once I got there, paid for admission and slipped on my cool rubber JoeFest band and walked inside, I was in awe. I was immediately taken back to the first few Botcon shows I attended, however at this show there was a great mixture of vendors and exhibitors. One of the first exhibitor tables we visited was Fresh Monkey Fiction. While I can't say I had heard much about them prior to the show, I did see some of the early pictures online from Friday night and Saturday at the show.

One of the lines being worked on is Operation: Monster Force. These figures look fantastic and I can't wait to see a more finished product. The werewolf character is an instant buy for me. I had a chance to talk with one of the guys at the booth and he told me this line of figures was actually being manufactured by BigBadToyStore! I was very impressed with everything that had on display.

I didn't get the chance to ask about the Zombie test shots they had displayed, but they looked equally as awesome as the Monster Force stuff. Over on the edge of their table was some 3 3/4 figures, but what really caught my eye were these small Cops 'n Crooks figures! These were done up in the same vein as Hasbro's old GI Joe Combat Heroes (remember those?). This wouldn't be the only appearance by this what I thought was a forgotten Hasbro brand...more on that in a bit.

The next booth I stopped by was the Valaverse/Action Force setup. Again, I've heard of this brand before and I've seen some pictures of their 6 inch figures, but that was about it. One side of their booth had a really cool SUV type vehicle on display that apparently is in the works. I'm not sure why I didn't snap any pictures of it though, I guess I was just in awe so much. 

The opposite side of their square shaped both had a large castle diorama with some very cool action scenes. I'm familiar with blast effects for guns and such, but blood effects? After gazing over this awesome diorama I decided to go around to the front of the booth to check out the figures they had for sale as I knew I wanted to buy at least one figure to get a hands on feel for them.

free Action Force stickers!

Being that it was getting late into the day on Sunday, the selection of figures being offered was starting to become slim pickings, but they did have some of the figures from the first wave still in stock as well as the JoeFest exclusive Warpath Eclipse. I really didn't know which direction to go, but as you can see I ended up with more than just one figure! Condor is the leader of the good faction and he had a GI Joe Steel Brigade look so I figured he'd be a good choice. If you get a good guy you need a bad guy too, right? I ended with The Bone Collector as he just looked pretty tough looking. I believe all of series 4 is comprised of women characters and this version of Eclipse I purchased was the show exclusive. I say they twisted my arm a bit, but I also didn't put up much of a fight. Look for more detailed reviews of these figures on the blog at a later date.

Continuing to make my way around the outer aisle of the show room floor, the next table we stopped at was Chicken Fried Toys. I had previously seen they were working on some western themed 3 3/4 figures, which I thought was cool, but what really caught my eye at their table was this "press release" and blister card mock up for Cops 'n Crooks! 

I had no idea that this was a even a thing. While I didn't own many of the original toys, I always thought it was a pretty cool line and enjoyed the cartoon series. Chicken Fried Toys and Fresh Monkey Fiction are tag teaming to bring back this futuristic line, this time in 4 in form. As you see above, they had the test shot for Marshall Sundown on display and looks fantastic. I believe they said they are shooting for fall of 2023 so you have time to prepare your wallets if this sort of thing is up your ally.

The next booth over was for Keone Young, the voice of Storm Shadow from the original GI Joe Sunbow cartoon. He had a nice spread of different photos for sale of him from various movies and shows he's been a part of. I got to talk to him briefly, however when he learned I was from Charlotte, NC he went on to tell me how much he hates the airport (Charlotte Douglas International)! Apparently the concourses are too spread out (which they are) making it hard to catch a connecting flight if you don't have much time in between. He also asked if I had been to Greenville, SC and asked if I've been to Retro-Toy Con. This was another show that I've not been to, but really want to go. Greenville is about a 2 hour drive for me so it's easily doable. Every year I put it on my calendar, but when November rolls around I swear something happens and I haven't been able to go. One day however, I'll make it there.

Once we made it around to the next aisle we stopped and looked at several different booths and talked to some great people. Whether it was Needless Toys or Crimson-Toys, it was awesome talking to the guys and taking a look at their offerings. Needless Toys had some great stuff available while Crimson-Toys had some freakin' awesome diorama pieces available. Definitely check out both of them and throw them some business if you see fit.

Another great group of guys I got to briefly talk with was the team behind the forthcoming Delta-17 line of o-ring figures. They had several test shots on display at their table and they looked phenomenal, check them out.

I wished I had taken more photos of the figures they had on display as they looked fantastic. They looked so good it started to fire up that competition for my wallet between 3 3/4 (4 inch) and 6 inch figures! I believe these figures will be offered through BigBadToyStore along with their own website later this fall.

The booth I probably spent the most time at talking GI Joe shop at was the table for After Action Report. If I'm being completely honest, I don't recalling seeing or hearing much about this project that first started on Kickstarter. I think in the days leading up to JoeFest I may have seen something, but overall the authors, Roger Taft and Josh Eggebeen schooled me on what their project was all about. 

While I didn't read a lot of the Marvel GI Joe comic series growing up, my older brother did and I had a few issues here and there. I was more into the original Sunbow animated show personally. However when Devil's Due was awarded the license I was "re-introduced" all over again to the Joes in comic format. Volume 1 of the After Action Report covers the Marvel era of 1982-1996 while Volume 2 covers the Devil's Due era of 2001-2008 (I got mine autographed by Josh Blaylock!) Both of these volumes are chocked full of information on the various comic seriess. The layout on each page is fantastic and what I've read so far has been great. I look forward to delving into these deeper as time allows.

I don't know if it's because this was a late day purchase of the final day of the show or if they were just excited knowing these books were going into the hands of another collector/fan, but they gave me a lot of freebies with my purchase, including several Ashcans, prints and more.

Above are some of the prints given to me. I hope to have these framed so I can hang them, but first to find a place on the crowed walls in my toy museum/room. I also was given a poster that was rolled up, but I wasn't able to get it flatten good enough to photograph.

The last items I was given were these metal bookmarks which features an image of Grunt along with a small "file card" on the back and a cool dog tag.

All in all it was a great show and one that I'm very much looking forward to going to next year. The whole show reminded me of Botcon conventions from years past. I miss attending a dedicated show as such so it was a lot of fun being surrounded by fans of the same property like GI Joe. If you are within driving distance of Augusta, GA and you are available next summer, I highly recommend putting this convention on your calendar. I believe the dates for the 2024 show will be announced on Wednesday, 06/21/23 if my memory serves me correctly. Until then, Yo Joe!

Charticon 2013 Exclusive - Baleful

I had the privilege to be on the staff of Charticon 2013, a Transformers convention held in my hometown of Charlotte, NC back in the summer of '13. The brainchild of a friend of mine, Arkvander, one of the exclusive items available only at the show was a new head for the Botcon exclusive Spinister figure. The mold Botcon chose to use for Spinister was pretty good, but the head looked off. Arkvander worked with Wheeljack's Body Shop to cast a new head. Also included in the package with a G1 style tech spec.

The head itself looked much more like the G1 character and was a much needed add-on to the Botcon exclusive. The head attached via a simple ball socket on the neck so it was as easy as popping the old head off and popping the new head on.

Sorry for the glare. I never opened my specimen so the plastic bag it was contained in gave off a reflection of the flash that I couldn't edit out. For a garage kit piece, the head looked amazing and the paint job was spot on. I really don't know much more about how this came to be a Charticon exclusive, but it was nicely done.

On the back of the cardboard packaging was an add for a set of exclusive Mastershooter Collectibles "Targetmasters" Nit-Picker and Firebrand that was available at the show. This really helped round out the new look of the Botcon exclusive Spinister.

Charticon was a blast and we recently got the guys back together to celebrate it's 5th anniversary. Lots of great memories were made that day and if the show were to ever rise from the grave, I'd be there with bells on.

Heroes Aren't Hard to Find: Charlotte Mini-Con 2018 Haul (part 2)

If you stopped by the blog yesterday then you would've seen the first part of my Charlotte Mini-Con haul from this past weekend. One of the things I noticed with this show is that there were more "modern" comics in the $.50 boxes than I normally see. I assume this is because dealers over ordered on certain titles. Sucks for them, hooray for me! Because of this, I grabbed several books that I may not have messed with before.

This is the only copy of Super-Villain Team-Up that I own. It's a series that I've often thought about picking up, but rarely do I find issues in the boxes I comb through. I paid $1 for this book. Overall it's in pretty good condition for it's age.

A-Force is one of those titles that I picked up 1) because they were $.50 each and 2) because I found all but two of the issues. This is the 2nd volume of the title. It started as a Secret Wars mini-series, one that I didn't buy/read. I sat down this morning before I jumped into my work and I worked the Civil War II issues into my stack of books I'm currently reading. Yes, I'm that far behind on my reading...I'm about half way through reading CW II and most of the accompanying issues.

I'm glad I did sit down to read the pre-CW issues of A-Force as I greatly enjoyed the story and the art. I hate that I'm missing two issues, but I went ahead and read #1-7. I'm a big fan of Captain Marvel and I've enjoyed reading She-Hulk in the past. Good stuff.

I got back into the Avengers stuff last summer after finding all but one issue of the Avengers Standoff story at HeroesCon. This has led me back to reading more Avengers related titles, especially after looking over what's happening currently in the Avengers family of titles. Since I'm still behind in my reading, it was fun finding a few books I needed to fill holes. It'll make my reading that much more enjoyable once I get to these titles now that I have the majority of the issues.

I read the first volume of Uncanny Avengers for awhile and I enjoyed seeing mutant characters interact with long time Avengers. I picked up the Secret Empire crossover issues of Uncanny Avengers and shortly after I started finding back issues for cheap. I figured if I go back to at least issue #15 and fill in the holes that should make for a fun read.

I have to be honest. Secret Empire got me back into reading Captain America. I really hadn't read a Cap title since he was "killed" in the first Civil War event. When I heard what they were doing with him, I was intrigued. In a way it reminded me of what they did w/ Peter Parker and Doctor Octopus in Superior Spider-Man, a series that I LOVED. I was able to piece together all of the issues off the rack from various comic shops until I got caught up with the current issue at that time. 

Of course this means I didn't have any of Sam's Captain America title. I still don't have many, so I was glad to find these. All but the Steranko variant were found in the $.50 boxes. Flipping through a few of these issues I saw that the former New Warriors character, Rage, played a part in the story with the AmeriCops. His appearance alone made me want to read this title.

I found all but this one issue of Captain Marvel's title that crossed over w/ CW II at a comic show last fall, so the timing of finding issue 10 was pretty perfect. I've already got it qued to read as I'm getting close to finishing this event.

My brother has asked me on more than one occassion as to why I wasn't buying/reading Champions. I love Humberto Ramo's art and I'm already reading Nova and Spider-Man (Miles Morales). It makes sense that I should. I was tempted to pick up the Champions issues that crossed over w/ Avengers, but there is only so much money to go around. Having found several issues for $.50 however now has me looking to fill in the holes.

I found the first 7 issues of Contest of Champions last fall, but the last issue was nowhere to be found. I was glad to find #8...now I just gotta find where I put the other 7 so I can sit down and read them!

I can't get enough of the 80's/90's stuff from Marvel. The Siege of Darkness story I first learned about through the old Marvel Universe trading cards. I've slowly been picking up the various issues of this storyline and I just happened to find this issue of Marvel Comics Presents.

Speaking of 90's Marvel, I found the last 3 issues I lacked to complete Nightwatch's title. Very happy about these 3!

Amazing X-Men is a title I never would have thought to look for. I'm not a huge fan of the mutant titles, but I grabbed these solely because Firestar was part of the team/story. I guess you could say I have a soft spot for former New Warriors characters.

The only non-Marvel books of my haul (well technically I guess you could say these are Marvel titles) was Rune. My first exposure to Malibu Comics came with an issue of Godwheel #0 packaged inside Wizard magazine. As I learned more about the characters I became more intrigued and started to pick up select issues, mainly of UltraForce and Rune. Being a fan of Marvel's cosmic books, it was fun seeing the Infinity Stones, Adam Warlock and other Marvel characters interacting with the Ultraverse characters. It's a shame that Marvel really can't do anything with these characters these days.

Well, that wraps it up! I was surprised at just how much I found. I didn't expect to find so many books from recent years, but I'm glad I did as I have begun to expand my reading horizons a little bit more lately. Had I had more time, more money and my back and hip not been bothering me, I'm sure I could have brought more home with me. That's OK though, time for me to get back to reading and gearing up for the next local show in the spring.