Note to self: Stop the "self-editing."

There. Had to get that out of the way. The problem, in case you wanted to know, is I live too much in my head and constantly self-edit my thoughts and ideas and have a hard time getting them down on paper, or in this case, into all these cute, little electrons on the blog. In "real" life, it might be called the "white paper syndrome." It's when a writer can't start writing something because of all that "white paper" they are staring at and find intimidating.

OK...I've been having these neat ideas for the Joes lately and found it helpful to create an Org chart to figure out where everybody in the collection belongs, like the troops in the Armor section, the Medical people, the Quartermaster/supply section, the Air Section, and so on. I need to organize my troops so I can figure out what 1/6th stuff I have and need for my various Joe projects. The Org chart helps me determine what projects have priority in my little twisted brain, and what equipment and gear I need to buy from the on-line 1/6th retailers and e-bay sellers.

I guess this is as good a time to explain as any--I have so many figs that I can't hardly keep track of everything, so I developed this fictional organization called the "Special Services and Security Force." (SS & SF.) It's the over-all concept for my collection and how each figure fits into the collection. Some guys have it simple because they only collect one type or theme of items in their collections, such as the guys that collect WW 2 Germans, or WW 2 US troops, or Desert Storm Special Ops guys, or only Vintage GI Joes...see the pattern? Many fellows have a specific theme they follow and it's easier for them to know what they have and what they need for their collections. I'm not like that--I have too many interests and "fascinations" to stay with only ONE specific theme.

It's not that I like everything. I don't. Some stuff just doesn't appeal to some part of my internal processes, like WW 2 SS figs, or modern desert troops. I just don't care for some of these areas. But, what I DO like, I need to organize in some fashion to keep things straight in MY head. It helps me to develop a "fiction" as to why I have WW 2 troops, medieval troops, fem-figs, Police, Viet Nam era, Korean era troops and modern Woodland camouflage soldiers. I "may" have left out a few eras, but you get the idea.

The "umbrella" all these various eras fit under is my SS &SF fictional unit. It's a modern-day mercenary/private military contractor organization headed up by me, in my "mini-me" persona. The SS & SF unit is quietly sanctioned by several western governments to provide a ready, private military force to deal with military situations "legitimate" government forces would rather NOT be associated with, for political or legal reasons. As part of my organization's "cover," it does several things that would explain to cursory examinations it's existence, such as providing private military schooling for civilians in areas like firearms, first aid training, parachute/sky-diving lessons, SCUBA lessons, hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, tactics, and survival training--all areas where private civilians may have interests in learning skills not normally available outside actual military sources. Also, the SS &SF has personnel trained as "historical re-enactors" or if you prefer, "living history" docents and interpretors that contract and schedule to appear at various events throughout the year, like Civil War encampments.

It also explains why military-style operations go on at my "secret military base" near Blackwater, Michigan, year round so as not to alarm the residential and local governmental populations that they have an "army"in their community! They get used to the idea that the base is really a training school for "wanna-be's, crazy survivalists, and those guys playing dress-up" while the SS & SF is actually preparing for, and executing clandestine military ops right in their back-yard.

OK, maybe it's a stretch, but it works in my twisted mind, and it does what I need it to do to keep my collection "coherent," if only in my mind. And, that's why I have and need an "Org chart"--to keep all the various aspects of my collection moving in a coherent fashion.

Well, with my Org Chart, I figured out what I need and where to establish some priorities for my collection. I figured my medical folks need some cots for the field hospital and another few troops to be "up-to-strength" for the whole unit--I'm short a few medics. So, I have to examine my collection to see if I have enough gear to outfit at least 2 medics, and I have to find one of my GI Jane figs that's supposed to be my head nurse--she seems to be AWOL right now. I "may" have inadvertently used her for another project, or she may still be boxed up and waiting for release.

My Armor section currently has 3 armored vehicles, so I need to figure out how many armor crew uniform sets I have and need. As of today, with my recent purchases from e-bay and one more pending offer, I think I'll have exactly enough to crew my armor section. Maybe. Unless I mis-counted, and "if" I get a positive response about the one pending deal, I should have 3 crewmen for my Sunny Smile Light tank, 2 crewmen for my 21C Bradley Recon APC, and 4 crewmen for my Power Team main battle tank. That "should" do it for me, unless I can find a couple of extra sets to keep "in reserve." Ya never know when another armored vehicle might show up on e-bay or somewhere.

My Air section consists of 2 helicopters and 2 fixed-wing jet aircraft. That's a 21C Blackbird chopper, a JC Penny's Apache chopper, a James DeSimone repro Panther jet and a JC Penny's F-22 jet. I'd maybe like to add some other aircraft someday, but it's NOT a priority right now, and I have figured out that I have more pilots for the choppers and the fixed-wings than I have A/C, so I can stop buying up more uniforms. What I AM short within the Air section, is mechanics and attendants, such as fueling and ordnance specialists. Recently I found some Joe 40th Anniversary figs for clearance price, so I bought 'em and made 'em my fixed-wing attendants. I have 2 Joe figs I use for my chopper crews as crewmen, but I could use a few more troops for "proper" attendants there in the chopper section. Uniforms can be simple cover-alls or utility uniforms. Wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure I have some "security troops" for the airfield in my fictional unit operations. My Org chart helped me identify this short-coming, too.

Next, and utterly the last thing about the SS & SF unit I wanted to write about today is my Motor Pool section. I recently came into possession of another 21C Hummer Command/Anti-tank vehicle. When I examined my Org chart, I find I don't have anywhere near enough support troops here, for drivers or mechanics/maintenance personnel. I have a Warrant Officer 1st grade, in charge of the Motor Pool and several drivers assigned to the direct action combat teams, but only 1 general driver/mechanic. That can't be--I must have more troops assigned as mechanics, and that means I need to examine how many troops I have, but aren't using, and how many, if any, cover-alls/uniforms I have to outfit the mechanics. Seems to me I DO have at least one or two cover-alls of some type I could dress-out a mechanic figure, but I don't KNOW what or where that gear might be right now.

OK, why am I telling you all this in detail? Well, it's only to give you some idea of what I do when I "play" with my Joes. See...not everyone plays with their collection like I do. Some guys buy a figure and dress it up and stick it on a shelf to collect dust. Some guys buy a figure, dress it up over and over, each time varying the gear and clothing load-out for that particular troop. Some guys buy a figure, dress it up and take pictures of it in various poses or even as part of a photo-story! Me? I do lots of "head-work" with my figs. I give 'em names and assignments. I develop histories and back-stories for my figs. I dress 'em up and take pictures sometimes, even! Rarely, but I do and I have! So, the idea is there's more than one simple way to get maximum "play" value out of having a 1/6th Joe collection IF you want to do something else besides dress a fig and set it on a shelf. There's tons more things you could do and maybe one day I'll write something else about playing with Joes.

For now--thanks for reading along and have some fun with YOUR troops soon!

Vacation's over. Damn! I hate it when that happens. I was off work for the last 10 days and enjoying that I had to do only what I wanted and planned to do...or I could do nothing at all. Getting back into harness and doing what other folks wanted me to do got me thinking throughout the day...no need to do "exactly what others wanted me to do." It's the routine, you see? We all have one no matter what work we do to earn our keep.

It occured to me today while at work about "routine." We have our own personal routines about our hobbies also. We decide what hobby we will enjoy, when, and how much time, money and energy we devote to "having fun." If you're like me, you get into a routine at home, in your hobby, and again, just like work, we get tired of what we do, more or less. We do the same general things with our hobby materials regardless of what that hobby is. What bothers me when I view the 1/6th boards is that some guys "burn out" on the hobby, and post a notice they are "getting out," and then they proceed to sell off all their stuff to pursue some other interest.

I am surprised at times to see new-comers to the hobby posting questions and posting progress about their "newest and greatest" achievement with some 1/6th project, and that's all cool for now. In a year's time, (or some passage of time)...yup. They are all done and selling off the hundreds or thousands of dollars of merchandise they have bought over the years and sometimes, if not always, take a severe loss in the dollar value of their stuff, often just to be "done with it."

I "think" a big part of the problem is "too much available." There is soooo much 1/6th stuff on the primary and secondary markets that when a new-comer shows up and gets bitten by this hobby of "plastic crack," they try to get everything their heart desires. Now, normally that's not so much a problem if the person is keeping the bills paid and the kids fed, right? The hobby is tons of fun--hobbies are supposed to be!

But, ya soon find out, it all takes up space, which is finite for most of us normal folks, and it is expensive trying to buy EVERYTHING available, and everything your wicked imagination creates as a new project in 1/6th, but...reality sets back in eventually. Ya realize just how much money you're throwing to the retailers and e-tailers each week or each month and...you positively FREAK!

If that doesn't happen to you, or even if it does, and you survive the "sticker shock," another aspect shows up and that's organizing and finding all the cool stuff you've been purchasing like a crazy person over the weeks and years. Ya got so much, ya can't find it! Or, you realize just what a pain it IS to drag out all yer cool stuff to play with it. It's the "Law of Diminishing Returns" setting in. You...just...have...too...much.

As a kid, I use to have only so many Joes. I knew them all. I knew what accessory sets I had. I knew where it all was. At the time, I could keep all my Joe-stuff in one general location, and when I wanted to play Joes in the back-yard or downstairs in the basement, I could gather up my troops and head off for hours of adventure. Easy. Got tired, and I could put it all away again in one general location until next time.

Isn't like that anymore, ya know? As an adult collector, I have way more stuff than I need, and it's scattered to every nook and cranny I can find to keep it in. I no longer "know" exactly how much stuff I have or where it's all located...might be in my library/work room. Might be in the garage--somewhere--in some box or another. Might be in my storage locker down the street--in some box, somewhere.

Am I going to sell it all off next week because I'm burned-out? Am I ashamed at how much money I spent on all those toys? Not only "No," but "Hell, NO!" I'll let my estate administrator worry about finding and cataloging all my gear for the sale or auction I know will take place after I'm cold, dead, buried, and otherwise "transitioned" into the next Life!

I have all this stuff because I recognize I get tired of my toys from time-to-time. Sometimes I just can't stand to look at it. I get annoyed, frustrated, or burned-out. So, when THAT happens, I just walk away for a while because I KNOW I'll get bitten by the 1/6th bug all over again in a week or a month, or six, and I will be only too glad to explore through my stuff and "re-discover" all my cool toys!

I learned this about myself after several disastrous episodes of "getting rid" of some of my things over the years, and then spending inordinate amounts of time and money trying to get it all back again. Fortunately, I "got over it" 20 or 25 years ago--the last time I tried to get it all back. Since then, I just tuck things away for another day. It works for me, but what about you?

Another strategy that might work for you is simply break your "routines" with your hobbies and do things different. I don't know what that means to YOU. Only you can figure that out for yourself. If you collect Joes, maybe it means collecting and working with the more accurate, but more expensive, Dragon or DID guys. Maybe it means that if you do World War 2 figs, maybe you should try working on Medieval warriors. If you only collect fully-weathered, "museum-quality" figures, well...I don't know what you poor guys are gonna do--you're already "over the edge" to my way of thinking!

Maybe the thing to do is just simply put away your troops for a while...except for three or four of your very favorite ones. Write a story about these special figs of your's. Imagine them as real people...how would they get along? Where do they come from in the real world? What did they do before they became soldiers or whatever? What missions have they been on? What training did they have? What weapons and equipment do they have, or favor, or prefer? How do they "perform" on their missions or during training?

Your "toys" can be "gateways" to places your adult bodies have never been, or maybe have been, but don't, or can't go anymore? Play involves more than sitting at a desk and building up a modern-day paratrooper from the 101st Airmobile Division during Desert Storm... ya know? Play can be fairly unlimited "imaginary" travels and experiences. And, no, you don't have to get down on the floor and go, "bang, bang," so relax on that count--the men in white coats won't come take you away for a long rest. 'Course, I personally don't worry about going "bang, bang." I might set up an ambush team and some un-suspecting terrorists and mow 'em all down with automatic fire: "RATT-A-TAT-TAT--Die, you cowardly, murdering bas..." well, you get the point. The Lady Graemon probably will chuckle. She might roll her eyes. But, she'll leave the telephone alone and after I put everything away, she might ask if I had fun. She's a good ol' girl, ya know?

I've told "my story" before, but not here--I got started in 1/6th--again-- when Hasbro released their 12 inch line of figs back in the early '90's, albeit they were making their "Real American Heros" line based upon their 3 3/4 inch Saturday Morning Cartoon characters. I saw them and thought they would be cool to represent my role-playing game characters "IF" I could find the right costumes and weapons for my rpg characters. I needed some female characters as well, so I began looking in the "pink aisle" for Barbie/fashion doll figures. And, it should go without saying that I felt mighty out-of-place shopping for girl dolls, as if buying 12 inch boy dolls wasn't bad enough! Sheesh! A "manly man" buying and playing with dolls! What if my friends and family found out? Horrors!

Well, didn't take too long for me to settle down and realize manly men can do just about whatever they want--that's WHY they're manly men, right? RIGHT!

Anyway, not to belabor the point, but I was already "playing" at my "role-playing game" stuff, so what did it matter that I included toys as part of that effort. I really didn't care if some of my friends found out I played Dungeons and Dragons or Traveller or Twilight:2000! Heck, my best friend invited ME to JOIN HIM in a "Twilight" game, so he shouldn't be too upset if I showed him my kitted-out T2K main character in 12 inch size. Well, I was right--all my fears were un-founded and he thought my soldier character, whom I think was Duke, wearing 21st Century Toys Viet Nam era fatiques was utterly cool and just right for T2K.

One thing led to another and here we are today. Joes and all the 1/6th figs can be almost anything YOU want them to be, whether a static 101st Paratrooper from Desert Storm, sitting on your bookshelf, or a medieval knight fighting orcs, or a platoon of Viet Nam era Marines troops running a "Search-and-destroy" mission in the Nam in your back-yard "jungle," which you lovingly photograph and post pictures of on the OneSixth Warriors board.

The whole point of all this yammering is--you have NO EXCUSE for burning-out in this hobby. There are far too many things you can do with your soldiers to EVER get bored with them. You could probably NEVER run out of things to do with your collection because there are so many different aspects of this hobby to explore.

All you need to do is "imagine." Or not. The choice is always your's.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you again!

Hey, I'm having fun today! I received several packages in the mail for my e-bay wins from last week. I bought a bunch of 21st Century Toys Modern Soldiers uniform sets. These sets are bad-a$$. 21C doesn't make them anymore, so the supply is dwindling rapidly. They're around, just hard to find. 21C missed the boat when they stopped making these very cool items for 12 inch action figures. They were intended for use with 21C's action figure, called a SSAM, (for Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Marine,) but the sets fit GI Joe and several of the other toy company's figures, too.

These sets represent the Woodland camouflage battle dress utility uniforms that emerged in the Army after I left in the late 70's. They came into service during the 80's for general issue to the troops. The US Army didn't much go in for cammie uniforms. The Army did experiment with them, but they weren't real happy with the patterns, as opposed to, say, the German Army in World War 2, which had scads of different camouflage schemes for each branch of the service as well as different theaters of operations.

The US Army has lost it's conservatism and has issued tons of cammie uniforms to it's troops. The other US services have followed suit and developed and issued numerous different uniform sets to their troops as well. Generally, they are desert-toned uniforms which I positively abhor. I got a bad thing about the desert--totally irrational, I know, but I can't help it. I like GREEN. I liked the older Army Olive Drab Green and I like the Woodland scheme green. Desert colors are BEIGE!

Beige is fine for living rooms and doctors' offices. I don't mind wearing beige trousers once in a while and during the summer season. But, BEIGE as a regular color for work clothes? No thanks. Thank you, Lord, for holding Viet Nam in a jungly green environment. Well, I don't mean thanks for having a WAR, but...well, you know what I mean about green. I hope.

Anyway...in the upper left I hope you can see an older photo of one of these neat Woodland Cammie uniform sets on one of my troops. It'll give you an idea of what I'm ranting about if you don't already know. I'll get around to publishing more up-to-date photos of the troops once I get the hang of running this blog. Hopefully, there will be many pix of the troops once they are generally ready to go for back-yard combat manoevers and such.

Now, just to clarify, that fig in the upper corner...he's wearing a 21C Woodland cammie outfit with boots from one of the sets. The rest of his gear is by other manufacturers. Since it IS an older fig, I don't remember all what I used on him. The figure itself, is from Lanard, which makes lower-end figures. Lanard figs are about half-a-notch below the "Classic" Hasbro Joe figs for articulation. For instance, this guy's feet doesn't have rotational articulation--the ankles only move front-to-rear, NOT side-by-side. That's not quite so good, ya know? Makes it hard to pose him naturally. But, it's what I had to work with at the time. His beret is an older Hasbro beret from back in the mid-90's. His holster and pistol, neck-scarf and sunglasses are Soldiers of the World, (So/tW,) the pistol belt is, I think, also from 21C, but from a WW 2 German soldier.

The over-all effect I was going for with this guy was to make a "mini-me." Many guys and ladies in this hobby, at some time or another, try to make a 1/6th scale Joe replica of themselves, usually just for "grins." This was one of the only figs at the time that had a beard, so this is also one of my first and only attempts at painting a Joe fig. Yah, I have a beard and long hair, too. I was NOT terribly successful with painting because my hair is more white that grey, but this fig DOES convey some of "me," in case you're wondering about that--I can't imagine too many people reading this might be.

I have changed some of his accoutrements to reflect some improvement of the figure, but I just can't get inspired to change the paint job on this guy to more accurately portray "the real me."

OK, this is how it goes...a friend, who shall remain nameless right now, "suggested" that I might find joy and happiness running my own Blog. I think it's because I have a tendency to write a lot of "stuff" on other boards and some folks seem to take great offense because of that simple fact--don't ask me why. I might tell you what I think about folks that have the attention span of seconds and experience the world through sound-bytes. I'm NOT making a comment about their intelligence level, although I think that may have something to do with it. It might be that folks are busy and they visit discussion boards to write their cute, little "Yah, me, too's," and their clever little "Kewl!" things because they are in a hurry and don't have time to ...discuss things. (OK, see where I'm going? If you're BUSY, why are you visiting a discussion board, and then you don't DISCUSS anything?)

So where is THIS board going? Well, I don't know right now, today, what's going to happen. It's a start. That's all. I collect 1/6th scale figures commonly referred to as Joes or G.I. Joes, which is a specific AND a generic name for 12 inch military dolls--yes, dolls. Technically, "G.I Joe" was, and is, made by Hasbro. Many other companies make similar figures, but go by different names. Sams, Dragons, Elite Force, So/tW, to name a few others, are made by 21st Century Toys, Dragon Models Limited, Blue Box Toys, and Formative International, respectively. There are more, but these are some of the more common companies today.

Many people in this hobby greatly prefer to collect "action figures," but face it...these are dolls for men and boys. These are testosterone-laden dolls, make no mistake, but they are dolls. They come with fairly accurate uniforms that reflect many different periods, weapons, and accoutrements to deck them out for combat. Generally speaking, the most popular eras for Joes is World War 2 and the two Gulf Wars. There's lots of stuff for WW 1, Napoleonic/19th Century, Ancients, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Korean War, Viet Nam, and a host of other periods, but they are a little harder to find and collect.

Some folks are entirely content to go out and buy whatever figures catch their eyes. They take 'em home and dress them up with all their gear and equipment. Other folks don't even take the figures out of the boxes. Some guys take them out of the box and customize them beyond all recognition from the original figure. It's a very broad-appealing hobby. There is no "One Right Way" to play with or collect your joes. That's a big part of the appeal for me and so many other guys and ladies. Yah...some women are involved with these 12 inch figures as well. Probably nowhere near as many women as collect Barbies and other fashion dolls, but there are some women in this hobby, and all I'll say about that is, "Good for you! Do what ya like and have fun doing it."

What are we big, strong, manly men doing playing with dolls, you might ask? Well, hate to break it to you, but people have been collecting and playing with dolls and toy soldiers for THOUSANDS of years. Yup, ya read that right--1000's of years. Tombs of Eqyptian Nobles and tombs of Viking Lords have been opened to find small and large examples of accurate re-creations of people, animals, and animal-drawn vehicles. Granted, these artifacts may have had other purposes rather than simply "play," but I sort of expect that a Viking Chieftain might have taken offense if somebody gave him a toy, intended to BE a toy. More likely, it was a representation of the Chieftain on his favorite steed, but who knows for sure?

Now, another little-known thing is that men used toy soldiers for war-gaming purposes--"practice warfare." Joes might be a little big for that, but not unreasonably so. The famous author H.G. Wells is credited with actually publishing a book of rules for playing with toy soldiers for his friends. These rules are published on the web, and there are many modern gaming companies that have printed rules for war-gaming purposes available commercially. And, yes, there are some guys that have actually used their joes to play 1/6th war-games at conventions and in their back-yards!

I guess the whole point is--manly men have made and collected and used toy soldiers for thousands of years. Us modern day men and boys follow in the footsteps of History. So, if guys playing with dolls bothers you in your sub-conscious areas associated with the fear of being considered "childish" or worse yet--"gay," get over yourself. I won't give you the whole background of MY personal history to give credence to anyone that thinks by me doing so, I "justify" why I am NOT childish or gay, well, I am not going there. I'm a big strong, manly man that can pretty much do whatever I choose to do and if you don't like it, too bad. Go read somebody else's blog 'cause if you give me grief, I'll just delete your comments and move along.

I'm here to have some fun for MYSELF, and if some other folks can come here and maybe find something of interest for THEM, then that's very cool for all of us involved.

Hey! Thanks for reading and have a pleasant day.