Assembly Required, how to describe it properly? It is a one day show, but a packed full one day show. nova called it a "JoeCon reset button" and I think that is really accurate. It is community building at its best and it isn't trying to be like any other toy or hobby show.
We usually all get in on Friday and help Brian Sauer and the gang finish up the remaining odds and ends before checking into the hotel and regrouping for dinner. This year that meant helping put together and package the exclusive Marauder figures for the show. Bucky did a pretty good job tweaking them to be slightly different. Grimskull had a modified mask and Goldfinch had a gold star decal on her shirt and a touch of paint in her hair. AvacsLab also added a custom cast drone for Goldfinch which had its own decal that JoeCzar and I helped cut and place. The box itself is based on the carded Mexican figures and is pretty sharp looking. I may have cut myself within the first 5 seconds of sitting down to help trying to switch out an xacto blade. I dropped the new blade, it bounced on the table, and stuck in me right under the pinky knuckle.
Behind me and Joeczar you can see Chad from the Declass group putting together the package insert.
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nova attaching figures to the insert with George Washington sternly supervising.
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And finally notpicard making sure each package got the right set of accessories before sealing it up.
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My phone died while waiting for dinner at the Tap Room. The food was good, but I got a hamburger with peanut butter on it and it did not leave feeling warm and fuzzy. Also, joemichaels70 touched Crosshairs tacos. Just saying.
Since the majority of guests this weekend were there for AR, we kind of took over the lobby. Raginspoon showed us a prototype of something he's working on that I think everyone will be really excited about. Mostly though, it was just catching up with people I talk to online, but rarely get to see in person as much as I'd like.
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Saturday. It was a long day. Dealer setup started at 7am. I helped nova unload for his booth and helped Travis setup the contest tables. Then we started setting up the room for the custom class. The Papajohns Center is an Educational center. So the custom class was in an actual classroom. That was nice because we had a screen projector hooked up to the internet and could pull up things for reference. At one point I pulled up different desert camo patterns someone was trying to paint. The tables and chairs were all on wheels so we could move things around, which we did. Plus plenty of outlets for heat guns, dremels, and hot glue guns. Shout out to Lance Sputnik who gave us a tote bag filled with Locktite glue, gel, and precision applicators.
For the first time, the JC traveling display was in the same room as the class. We lined everything up along the outer wall and GI Joe King had his diorama displays along the left wall right when you came in. It was a good setup that got people who weren't there to customize to still drop in to check things out. Plus it allowed us to have more people on hand to help or cover for small breaks. Since we had a first aid kit on hand we also saw a couple of people in search of bandages throughout the day.
Here Bucky is checking out 2DARK2C's Fridge Joe Cart while helping HypnoHustler setup the customs display. 2DARK2C also sent a dozen metal cast pistols that we gave for the show raffle. Everyone was very impressed.
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The class itself went really, really well. We had a free form build with set times for specific demos. The bulk of the people who customized were kids who were able to turn around and enter there custom into the show's Kid's Custom contest. It was nice seeing a lot of parents helping out their little ones. We offered something for every age and at the end of it they got to leave with a figure they customized and if they stayed long enough, a custom cardback for their figure.
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Speaking of the custom cardback, at the end of the day we had our speed painting contest that also let the people who had been customizing all day finish up whatever they were working on before the end of the show. joemichaels pulled together some parts but then had to start the custom cardback demo, so I finally got to sit to "paint stuff grey and slap some black on his neck". JoeCzar counted us down Iron Chef style as everyone frantically tried to finish before they started calling out the final raffle prizes and there were some good ones this year. We had nova come in form the sales floor where he'd been all day to serve as guest judge. He picked joemichaels' which we disqualified and then picked Mrs. Raginspoon's Sgt. Serpentor Guard. Her very first custom ever and one she wants to take back apart and improve on now that she's back home.
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My second favorite moment from the show was seeing the cosplay Cobra Commander and his Storm Shadow bodyguard playing the GI Joe arcade game outside of the custom class. This wasn't staged. They were just playing. I got a chance to play the game later on with Christopher from the Full Force podcast and instantly reminded me of back in the day playing TMNT or Contra with your buddies.
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What's my Favoritist moment from the show? When bucky waited until right before joemichaels was about to start his diorama "Using the Whole Buffalo" demo to give him a custom based on joemichaels' first ever custom, Blue Hood -
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The customs at AR are voted on by all of the attendees throughout the day. The winners are announced at the end of the day right before the raffle prizes. The Equalizer tank won for vehicles which also encompassed diorama displays. Mrs. Spoon got a show trophy for her speed painting win. The kids custom winner won with his Red Shadows Tom-1 robot. The kilted Destro won for the figures category.
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Then the raffle prizes which included everything from 2DARK2C's metal cast pistols to art prints, to a Ron Waggoner art print, to a boxed Fort America, to JoeCon set, to a Red Shadows RoboSkull.
Finally breaking everything down and packing everything back up for Chattanooga, TN. We lost bucky in the process...and a sandwich. We didn't all get regrouped back at the hotel until 7:30pm. After being on our feet all day, the JC crew opted out of the annual Zombie Burger meet up with everyone else. I'm not gonna lie, that peanut butter burger was still kicking my insides around. Instead we went to Jethros and had various meets and mac&cheese. Then we caught the latest Thor movie. Finally back to the hotel to meet up with everyone else. I must be getting older, because I didn't last very long in the lobby that night. Despite wanting to hang out more with everyone, my body was done for the night.
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Sunday, we caught brunch with those who were still and in town at Bubba's and said our goodbyes before hitting the road. nova started a tradition where we put an action figure in the wiper before heading to or from Iowa and see how long they last there. The I-80 is a trail of dead action figures. The ones on the way there never even made it further then a single use of the wipers. On the way home the PTE solider rodeoed the entire way back.
Credit to notpicard for comping up with what he thought the PTE guy was saying.
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