JoeDeclassified.com’s Ultimate G.I. Joe Custom Contest!

JoeDeclassified

The folks over at JoeDeclassified.com have launched “The Ultimate Custom Contest” with a bevy of prizes that are hard to beat!

Check out the official announcement:

Joe Declassified and Joe Customs have joined together to bring you the ultimate custom contest! Here at Declassified, you know we love the history of the G.I. Joe brand and we love the production process – which leads to your chance to recreate unproduced Joe toys in order to win some pretty swell prizes.

Custom contest rules:

1. Customs may be figures or vehicles.
2. Any customs created for any prior contest, or that have been shown prior on the web are automatically disqualified. Customizers should submit a photo with their entry that shows their construction materials with any dated item (magazine, etc) created after the contest start date.
3. Customs must be of an unfinished Hasbro product (Rocky, for example). Anything that ever existed in any state of design is eligible. Please see the references at the bottom for further inspiration.
4. All entries are due no later than 15April2013.
5. All prize-winning customs become property of Joe Declassified, and will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to help support future Declassified endeavors. If contest winners do not wish to participate in the fundraising process, we will select the next highest rated customs to take their place.
6. No more than 3 custom entries per individual.
7. Entries MUST include real name, any online screen names, city and state of origin. All entry photos should be submitted to damnedmp@gmail.com. Please include no more than 10 photos per entry. Any questions or clarifications of contest rules should be sent to the same email address.
8. All judges and Joe Declassified staff are automatically disbarred from entry.

The Prizes:

1st prize: Carded wave 14 Storm Shadow

picsay 1358302861 175x300 The JoeDeclassified/JoeCustoms Ultimate Custom Contest!
2nd prize: all 13 Club FSS figures (these will ship to the winner after all 13 have been released)

gijoe collectors club figure subscription service 12 figures 223x300 The JoeDeclassified/JoeCustoms Ultimate Custom Contest!

3rd prize: Set of white and red SDCC Jinxes

sdcc jinx 01 300x236 The JoeDeclassified/JoeCustoms Ultimate Custom Contest!

4th-6th prizes: Red SDCC Jinx

Judging:

Judging will be on a rating system among several categories. Points assigned by each judge individually will be averaged to determine a winner.
Judges will include:

  • Joe Declassified Staff
  • Joe Customs Staff
  • Chris Chung – Admin of Joesightings.com
  • Fred Meyer – Owner/Admin of Joe Battlelines.com
  • Fran O’Boyle – Owner/Admin of Hisstank.com
  • Justin Bell – Owner/Admin of GeneralsJoes.com
  • Terry Dizard – Admin of YoJoe.com
  • John Warden of Hasbro

Judging categories are:

  • Faithfulness – How accurately the custom reflects whatever existing source material is available. Difficulty – Customs accomplished through minor parts swapping vs. those that require parts fabrication.
  • Obscurity – The lesser known the concept, the better -bonus points for revealing unknown sourece material.
  • Part usage – How creative the customizers parts choices are. Paint – Painting execution and detailing.
  • Buyability/Playability – How much does the finished product look like something likely to sell, as well as durability to play.
  • Overall execution

References:

The sites listed below all include some preproduction material, but are by no means intended as an all-inclusive list.

Joe Declassified forums
Joe Intel Preprodution Archives
Joe Declassified SpecOps podcasts
YoJoe.com’s preproduction archiv
A Real American Hero Book
The 788th Armored Division

Additionally, not only do we have big prizes and big name judges, but true to Declassified form we also have some big reveals to accompany the custom contest. Over the next few weeks, in conjunction with Joe Customs, we will be revealing some previously unseen G.I.Joe 80’s history in the form of concept art images and sculpts. These concepts can be used for your customs for this contest as they are all unproduced material. See the sneak peak images below, and get ready for more to come. Keep an eye both at JoeDeclassified and JoeCustoms over the next few weeks for more inspiration and history!

Good luck!

Start preparing the parts bins and dust off those painting skills– this is going to be one contest to win!

Podcast: G.I. Joe Declassified Spec Ops Episode 6 – Variations Awareness

Some time I ago I was privileged to be asked to contribute to a G.I. Joe podcast hosted by the now-legendary Gyre-Viper.  The Joe Declassified Spec Ops Podcast features some pretty in depth discussion regarding the G.I. Joe toy line and this episode is now slouch.  Starting off with the (then) debut of the Dollar General Joes, the conversation delves into some intriguing variations from the classic ARAH (Generation 1) line.  The cast was a veritable “who’s who” of the Joe community including members of the “What’s On Joe Mind” crew, PLuv from cornerstone community JoeCustoms.com, “variation king” Patrick Stewart, Gyre-Viper, and JoeDeclassified.com admin Sam “Nomad” Damon.  It’s a solid two hour “Joe jam session” that is definitely worth a listen.

Here’s the official synopsis:

The Joe Declassified: SPEC-OPS Team is joined by some very special guests… the mighty pluv of JoeCustoms.com and the one and only Leonardo T Dragon of JoeBattlelines.com//

For this episode we take on a hefty helping of variations and errors from the revered vaults of Pat “notpicard” Stewart.  Pat takes us through his categorizing process of what falls into variant and what gets marked an error and how that all fits into his work on YoJoe.com and around the community.  We also give the yet to be released discount repaints a quick once over… sort of gathering our thoughts on what they are, what they mean, and what they might be telling us about the future of the brand.  And to top it all off… Pat speaks to the functionality of YoJoe.com’s legendary archives… its achievements, criticisms, and everything in between.

You can find the images referenced in the episode here:

http://joedeclassified.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=579

As indicated above, there’s an entire gallery of accompanying images found over at the JoeDeclassified forum!  (See– there’s homework and supplemental material with this one!  I told you it was “in depth”!)

You can listen to the entire 2 hour podcast via the embedded link below or over at the Spec Ops Podbean page!

 

Robert Atkins discusses the new IDW Cobra Commander design! Custom figure contest!!

Okay, I’m starting to sound like a broken record here with all of the new IDW Cobra Commander love.  However, if there’s one thing that can sell me on a new character design in a comic it is the caliber of the artist– and there are currently non better on Joe than Robert Atkins!

In his latest blog post, Robert deconstructs the process of creating the forthcoming Cobra Commander cover as well details exactly why the costume design turned out the way it did.

It’s a great “behind the scenes” look at the genesis of the design for Joe’s signature villain.

While you’re there– check out the “Robert Atkins Art Custom Figure Contest” — in which one lucky customizer will be able to win an original 11″ x 17″ commission from Robert himself!