Hangin' out in the Toy Room

Ahhhh... Nothing like relaxing while surrounded by a lot of vintage plastic, much of it accumulated at various JOElanta's over the years. See you at next year's show!

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The JOEpit Report - Johnny West Score!!!!

Joe Pit Report
Thursday, March 04, 2010
This week’s Host: Buddy Finethy

Steve and I are making great progress on the diorama. We completed a dozen windows for the castle with a hot wire, foam, and 3 layered window templates Steve developed. Steve and I are taking a break from the Wednesday night meetings until after Joelanta to complete the construction of the diorama. So in the mean time David Lane and Marten Jallad will be helping out with the Joe Pit Reports.

As Ya’ll know down here in Atlanta the Wednesday night JOE fun doesn’t always start that night. Take yesterday for instance when EJ and Marten (AKA The Marx Brothers) spent the whole day Joe-ing. Marten had received an email from Spidee (George Felix) who has a toy booth in an antique mall. He had just purchased a large collection containing some Johnny West items! That, coupled with the fact Spidee needed to replenish his stock and EJ wanting to thin out some of his collection made it a win - win situation for all involved. The great thing about knowing so many toy enthusiasts in town is that we have an awesome network to work with. After leaving Spidee’s and a Chinese Buffet later it was over to EJ’s to continue culling through his massive collection to get ready for Joelanta. Then Bryan comes over and digs through about 5 tubs of loose figures before the group headed on out to Buddy’s.

Charles had gotten there ahead of us all and grilled up a bunch of burgers and hot dogs and made some killer slaw. After some recaps on how great everything was coming along with the show and Buddy unveiling the 1st print of this years killer poster we settled down to watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. After the group (in much disbelief) learned that Marten had never seen The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. We decided that Marten was horribly deprived as a child, even for someone who grew up in Kuwait. We agreed that we need a crash moviethon to close the holes in his edumacation. The flying monkeys alone could bridge countless gaps in his cultural understanding and enlightenment. Incidentally Sky Captain was great, especially seen in Buddy’s theatre room.

Come see the following Dealers at this year’s JOElanta. COTSWALD, Horror Works, Toy Chest & Collectibles, Dean Morrison, Capt. Cosmos Collectibles, Stewart’s Attic & Circle X Ranch, Foot Soldiers, House of Anime, F & M Models, The Toy Surgeon, Ace Allgood, DASH, Monocrhromatic Studios, Full Circle, Don Coffee with his “Flocking machine” This is just a sampling of the many great dealers at this years show.

Don’t forget about the custom figure, small diorama and custom vehicle contests. We have great prizes to give away to the best in each field.

As always the time for us to disband came too soon.

Until next week this is David Lane, Marten Jallad and Mike Gardner saying… ”Play with your toys! “
23 days to lift off

Mountain man scouting in the Jallad wilderness

Here's a character I put together using vintage and repro (mostly Marxman http://www.circlexranch.com/ accessories).

What type of horse is this?

So my latest foray in collecting is that of MARX Johnny West as I have mentioned before. I realise that a number of head sculpts and figures were actually originally supposed to resemble licensed characters. One such example is the Captain Maddox head sculpt that bears a striking resemblance to Robert Conrad's character James West in Wild Wild West. I came across this poster for the movie "Broken Arrow" starring Jimmy Stewart and also noticed that one of the characters was Geronimo. What struck me was how similar Johnny West lanky frame is and how much it is very similar to that of Jimmy Stewart. Coincidence? I wonder?

As I continue to pick up more and more Marx and Johnny West figures I am starting to find some items that baffle me. One such item is this horse that was obviously taken from the MARX Thunderbolt mold, although this one does not have any Marx stamps and has a hairy main and tail?

Big Boys at Play

Here are some shots of Buddy and I working on putting some Johnny West figures together- great fun!

My Action Figure Collection

I remember getting my first Action Man (UK's cousin of GI Joe) back in 1970. Over the next 6 or so years I was enthralled with them and although I never had that many, playing with them certainly helped stimulate my imagination until I discovered MAD magazine which helped further warp my mind.

Over the last 10 years I have rekindled that love of Action figures, specifically Action Man and GI Joe (I have been involved with JOElanta, helped start The Great Atlanta Toy Show and helped out at various National GI Joe Conventions around the country) and more recently Johnny West and Marx Action figures. Strangely enough I had never even seen Johnny West as a child but after seeing so many of these great figures at various shows I was tempted beyond the breaking point to start collecting them.

Here then is my collection which includes various JOElanta exclusives. Check out www.joelanta.com and come to our 10th anniversary show next year on March 27th & 28th. We are in the process of putting together next years exclusive set. Pretty exciting!

Also check out http://www.circlexranch.com/ to see the latest from MARX TOYS, including many great head sculpts.

"Dieing 'aint much of a living boy"

Clint Eastwood aka the coolest stranger to ever appear on screen. Figure from www.circlexranch.com the brand new Marx company (Home of Johnny West) .

At play in the Game Room

Here's what has become a typical fun afternoon for me and my two "little ladies" after acquiring some new Johnny West/Marx action figures.

This particular event happened a couple of days after the latest JOElanta Action Figure and GI JOE show http://www.joelanta.com/ I picked up a boxed BOTW Johnny West (excellent condition) as well as a Sam Cobra (which I'm turning into James West from "Wild Wild West") , a pancho pony, a couple of Janice's for my girls and a Stony Smith, plus tons of accessories.

It seems that lately I have been able to pick up a number of interesting figures and horses, some from e.bay and more through trading with the local GI Joe club here in Hotlanta.

Luckily I also have "scouts" out there keeping their eyes open for Johnny West and his pals at Flea markets, Garage sales and Antique stores.

My girls and I love cleaning years of grime off everything, then organizing all accessories, "dressing the figures" and finally trying to mend or paint them. What great fun!

Johnny West and his compadres at JOElanta

Here are a couple of pictures from this weekend's JOElanta '09 Toy Show. These include a variety of vintage Marx Johnny West and the Best Of The West line from the mid '60's-mid 70's. They are set up around the Sheriff's building from last years "Killer Mine" old ghost town diorama. The figure in a box and the Clint Eastwood figure behind my own custom tracker are from Circle X Ranch. These guys are the "new" Marx toys and do a fantastic job of putting out some quality product reminiscent of the vintage feel.

Check 'em out at http://www.circlexranch.com/