The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #411: Updates on Making Articulated Action Figures, GI Joe Nostalgia, and A Surprise Gift from AC Toy Design

Updates on making articulated action figures and GI Joe figure nostalgia.

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #411: Updates on Making Articulated Action Figures, GI Joe Nostalgia, and A Surprise Gift from AC Toy Design

https://archive.org/download/podcast-411/Podcast%20411.mp3

This week, aside from continuing to fiddle with making the cardbacks for the hunter from A Shadow in the Moonlight, I’m discussing one of the concurrent projects I have been working on – making heads and removable helmets for a new wave of articulated Rocketeer action figures that are about as close to GI Joes as I have been able to manage.  Besides lots of articulation at a shirt-pocket sized scale (3.75″), GI Joes were also known for having a lot of accessories – backpacks, helmets, guns, skis, etc that could be attached to the figure in some way.  So with this new Rocketeer figure, I wanted you to be able to see Cliff’s head and then put the Rocketeer helmet on over it … and actually have it fit and stay on securely (this was something GI Joes generally did quite well.  The accessories that were supposed to fit in hands didn’t always, but for the heads, they usually did a pretty good job).  

Frequent guest and friend of the show, Adam Crohn, recently sent an amazing care package full of action figures and their parts.  There was a whole bag of just GI Joe parts!  I dumped them out on a old cookie tray and the kids and I had fun mixing and matching parts to try to make complete figures.  We had a whole conversation about the GI Joe O-ring – both a source of the figures’ great mobility as well as their fragility (the O-ring would eventually degrade and break, rendering the figure useless unless you found a replacement), and while I’m glad figures today have more or less phased that feature out for the sake of longevity, modern designs have a certain stiffness to them owing, I suspect, to the rigid “spines.”  GI Joes had much flexibility there, making them perfect toys for kids who were going to be rough on their toys (which I was, as were a lot of other kids).  “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists,” the saying goes … certainly true of anything intended for kids.

I recorded a few minutes of us putting these figures together.  Adam threw in a vehicle and a number of figures from other lines as well.  Below that, you can see a close up of some GI Joe heads.  I love the expressions they sculpted.  I forget which figures these heads belonged to but the impish expression on the white guy’s face is hilarious.  It makes him look like he just ate someone’s canary (or maybe was the secret farter in a room full of people now holding their noses). The faint smile on the black guy’s otherwise stern face is perfect for a hero type – it makes him look like a teacher or policeman or maybe a retired ball player making an appearance at a middle school auditorium – “don’t do drugs, kids!”  

This figure has already been repurposed for another project!

So, now, I should have more than enough parts for just about all the future action figure customs I can think of for the foreseeable future.  Thanks, Adam!    

And thanks for listening!

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Check out the growing line of Thirteenth Hour toys and other products on the Thirteenth Hour Studio Etsy store (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio).  There are a number of custom figures from retro films being sold for charity that available there as well. 

Check out this collaboration with past show guest Jeff Finley on handpan: 

Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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