Welcome to the inaugural Joecustoms.com Year End Achievement Awards for 2002. The following role call of winners reflect the very best of the best that the Joecustoms.com community has to offer in the fields of Customs and Dios. Although many talented individuals and their customs may not have won, they're still recognized as being outstanding entries.

Special thanks go out to Grand Slam for originating the idea and gathering the nominees, as well as beav for allowing us to try out these awards. hopefully depending on its success, we'll see these awards again this time next year. Please note that not everyone voted for every single category.

Custom Figures & Vehicles

• Best G.I. Joe Custom: Spirit by sgartz
• Best Cobra Custom: Copperhead by MUNDO
• Best Dreadnok Custom: Hot Rod by GI JONNY
• Best Iron Grenadiers Custom: Darklon by beav
• Best Oktober Guard Custom: Horrorshow by Stormavik
• Best "Other" Custom: Bruce Lee v2 by LIVEVIL
• Best Custom of an Existing Character: Cobra Trooper by Mercer
• Best Original Character (Excluding Group Projects): Jarhead by LIVEVIL
• Best Group Project Custom: Redwolf by Capolan
• Best Vehicle Custom: Cobra Battleship by StuntMatty
• Best Overall Customizer (Figures): chad_ghost
• Best Overall Customizer (Vehicles): Stormavik
• Best Use of a Bad Part: Jadoku (Destro v7 head) by beav
• Best Humorous Custom: Pimp Destro by BgDdyPhil
• Most Improved Customizer: MUNDO
• Best Use of a Non-G.I. Joe Part on a Figure: Stars 'N Stripes Set ( assorted 6" scale figures ) by Invisible Wraith
• Best Use of a Non-G.I. Joe Part on a Vehicle: ORCA ( funoodle base ) by Mercer
• Best Female Custom: Snowbird by Grand Slam
• Best Custom Figure of a Customizer: beav by beav
• Custom you are Most Likely to try and Duplicate: Mutt by sgartz
• Customizer you "Borrow" the Most Ideas From: Raptor & Mercer

Technique

• Best Camouflage Painter: Wowboy
• Best Overall Painter: LIVEVIL
• Best use of Sanding: Snowbird's torso by Grand Slam
• Best use of Putty/Epoxy/etc.: Scarlett by Kowalski

Dioramas & Dio-Stories

• Dio-Story of the Year: Power Struggle by General Hawk
• Mini Dio-Story of the Year: To Catch a Slippery E.E.L. by Bandalero
• Best Single Shot in a Dio: Moray in a Cobra Dock by Trooper
• Best Set Design: Cobra Dock by Trooper
• Best use of a Known Character: Destro by General Hawk & Shipwreck by Bandalero
• Best use of an Unknown Character: Hit & Run by General Hawk
• Best Special Effects: General Hawk
• Best Photography: General Hawk
• Most Improved Dio-Storiest: zedhatch

Miscellaneous

• Most Helpful Board Member: Dasaffe & Sapper

  The call came earlier this year for someone to produce custom emotes for the joecustoms.com message boards. It was answered by two individuals, and together they have been able to reproduce the majority of G.I. Joe characters in emoticon form. Their work has inspired other similar message boards to try their hands at these high quality emoticons. But these guys are not only appreciated for the work they put into making those creations, because both of them have contributed to the boards with insightful, supportive, and encouraging posts concerning the hobby and real life itself.

  Although these two were the only ones nominated in this category, it was a true testament to their contributions that many of you hand a hard time choosing which one to vote for. In fact there were at least five voters who voted for both of them. Sapper is usually one of the first people to post an encouraging message when someone is down on their luck, and he's no slouch at customizing either. Dasaffe is always willing to show you the proper way to assemble accessories and is definitely one of the nicest guys I've had the pleasure of trading Joes with.

In 2002, Dan Carber, the webmaster of The Bivouac passed the responsibility of handling a site that specialized in the customizing of 3 3/4" G.I. Joes to Brad Sandidge. In May of 2002 the joecustoms.com domain was created and the website launched. Since then, past members of the old message boards and members who have registered this year have contributed a great deal of creativity to the hobby. Thanks to beav, customizers now have a solid meeting place to discuss various aspects of our hobby. The boards have been modified to allow easier submissions of customs, file card creations with the FC Creator Program, a large spectrum of forums, a fully archived library of past customs, the ever popular group projects, and an extensive list of links with similar interests.

Our customizers were present at the big G.I. Joe convention in Virginia (chad_ghost & Matt got to stand inside a life-size G.I. Joe package) and we were front and centre for the little Canadian Mini-Con hosted by Bounty Hunter Toys in December. There was even a "Cobra Musical", a short parody on Shakespeare's Hamlet. We have seen a number of experiments come and go, like the Real Time Chat client that never really took off, and the current "Go" Joe Project that is becoming a huge success. It was not a year without controversy, the closing of the flaming forum comes to mind and the B.W.F title was retired, however months later another forum for dios was created due to the growing interest in that field. 2002 did see the bad posters, but they have been few and far between. During the year we've had informative news, intellectual debates, helpful tips & advice, creative ideas, humorous conversations, and most importantly - fun!

In closing, congratulations to all the winners in this inaugural award ceremony, and we would like to thank everyone who participated by sending in nominations and/or voting for their favourites.

- Bandalero