Joe Declassified

Mind.

Blown.

As the custom submissions began to come in for our Ultimate Custom Contest, a few things were immediately made clear: First, that some amazing people with top-notch talent had decided to participate. Secondly, that some truly inspiring work can be accomplished in a very short amount of time.

I want to seriously thank all our participants. One of the key hitches in the contest, despite what we feel were some overwhelming prizes, was the fact that the contest winners had to be willing to donate their work. The fact that each of these individuals supported us in such a manner is beyond flattering. I’m pressured to live up to their support.

Thanks as well to our partners-in-crime, Pluv and the gang from Joe Customs, as well as our guest judges – including Hasbro’s own John Warden. While the participants did their best to make sure our judges were drooling over customized eye-candy, our judges lent their time, analysis, and commentary.

Enough from me. You’re here to see some great work.

Grand Prize:

Coby Brown
Coby’s web-site: AVAC’s Lab
Judges Score: 9.06
The Man-O-War. (1993 Leviathan Defender – cancelled due to overly high production cost)

Original Hasbro Prototype:

Coby’s prize-winning work:

Judges’ commentary:

- Very nicely done, I have seen the actual model of this concept from the bygone era of 1990′s Joe, and I am impressed with the level of playability here. Clean and nicely done.
- Sweet merciful Zeus! This is a fantastic custom with a lot of fabrication going into the weapon system. Most impressive work.
- This looks deceptively easy, but let me assure anyone looking, those cuts are super clean and the removable, playable launcher is fantastic. This one goes beyond custom and enters the area of a preproduction mock-up. That is the level of skill it takes to pull this off.
- I think it completely looks like it fits in the GI JOE line.
- Wouldn’t expect anything less from AVAC. The dude’s vehicle custom skill is unmatched. He KNOWS how to make things that fit in your collection, whether they are from his own mind, whether he’s just changing a few things around, or if he’s dragging something out of GI JOE’s history… his stuff LOOKS like it was released or should have been.
- This was a wonderful piece, and a perfect example of what this contest is all about. This vehicle demonstrates superior craftsmanship, inspiration, innovation, and talent.

For his awesome Man-O-War, Coby takes home the Grand Prize itself, the cancelled carded Wave 14 Storm Shadow:

2nd Place:
Mike Switzer
Web-Site:  MSWI Customz
Judges Score: 8.77
Space Force. (Cancelled mid-80’s figure design)

Original Hasbro concept art:

Mike’s awesome work:

- A very nice recreation of a cigar-chomping swaggering Space Ace wannabe. Honestly– some very nice work here.
- Perfection. This concept art has been on my to-do list forever and now it has stepped right out of the source material. I’m not sure which I want more, the figure or Mswi’s voodoo magic to make that happen.
- My 1st place pick. I think it completely captures the contest and the source material.
- See now the Rocky is nice… but this to me LOOKs like what this contest should look like. Everything seems accounted for.
- This is a wonderful figure, and a near flawless representation of the original source material. It really works, and I wish Hasbro would make this officially.

Mike racked up 2nd, 3rd, and 5th place – for this one he claims the GIJCC Subscription figure set:

3rd Place:
Mike Switzer
Web-Site: MSWI Customz
Judges Score: 8.45
Dreadnok.

Original Hasbro presentation art:

Mike’s entry:

- FANTASTIC replication of a lost Dino-Hunters design. This is the kind of obscure piece that the GIJCC should POUNCE upon for the FSS. It looks like the figure stepped right off of the page!
- The head and accessories on this guy look amazing. The sculpting is so super clean. Well done.
- I like them all for different reasons, but I will pick dreadnok for being the most true to the original design.
- I think it is the cleanest and most to the point entry of the contest guidelines.
- While I dinged him pretty hard on Obscurity since from my own personal experience talking to people, everyone recognizes this character from the first pages of Bellomo’s book, this thing looks like you could play with it, makes me want to play with it, and wouldn’t be out of place in an unproduced concept themed 7 pack. And I think that’s the point of this contest is to bring archaeology into what should have been said archaeology’s eventual toy form. The personality of the custom really matches up to the personality in the art.
- While there were a few minor detractions here and there, overall I feel this is a most excellent figure that really captures the look and spirit of the original. This is further enhanced by the excellent detailing to make art-accurate weapons and gear

For this, MSWI takes home the carded SDCC 2012 white and red Jinxes:

4th Place:
Eric Magee
Eric’s customs at Figure Realm
Judges Score: 7.82
Insecticycle

Hasbro presentation art:

Eric nails it:

- Okay, sure we’ve seen pics of this Cobra-La vehicle for years but this is possibly the best execution I’ve ever seen done on the concept. I’d buy these in a cold second if they were mass produced.
- I’m really glad someone did the Insecticycle. The Tron cycle is an obvious place to start, but the guns and python pattern on this along with the exoskeleton are really hard to pull off.
- Upon first glance, I was certain the Insecticycle would run away with first place

Eric’s custom entry earns him a carded 2012 SDCC red Jinx:

5th Place:
Mike Switzer
Web-Site: MSWI Customz
Judges Score: 7.81
Rocky Balboa

Hasbro art:

Mike’s faithful work:

- Most fans know about Rocky, but this is a perfect and playable update to Rocky that I can see as a carded figure. What a “Knockout”!
- A nice Generation 3 take on a very familiar unproduced figure. This would be a good piece for the GIJCC’s FSS. Nice work!
- This is an amazing figure, and the likeness is incredible. A fantastic entry.

Mike’s 5th place custom entry earns him another carded 2012 SDCC red Jinx:

6th Place:
Darkwynter
Web-Site: The Angelforge
Judges Score: 7.45
Translucent Joe

Original prototype:

Darkwynter’s take:

- I love this custom. The overall design is something I would snap up in heartbeat. What hurt it is the Modern interpretation and the red lines not being super clean. The light up feature adds a really cool element to the piece.
- While not perfect, this was still a cool figure to bring to concept, and a neat choice to make when one has the capacity to cast transparent heads, chests, and arms—and even a cool bonus gun

Darkwynter’s custom entry earns him a carded 2012 SDCC red Jinx:

The rest: (In alphabetical order)

Bombardier
By Joemichaels70
JoeCustoms Custom Profile: Joemichaels70.

Original:

Custom:

Gnawgahyde
By Chad Smelcer
JoeCustoms Custom Profile: Chad_ghost.

- Excellent, great kit-bash and parts usage with an innovative concept that has gravity for fans and kids alike. However, I would have kept the Poacher name for accuracy.
- Clean, looks like a GI JOE TOY as opposed to a GI JOE custom. So points for that. But I don’t think it was true to the concept.

Hot Foot
By Marc Valentine

- This was my favorite total package custom. From the parts to paint, to accessories to the awesome bio, every aspect of this custom is fun. Lava Shoes!
- A guy in Spain did an amazing o-ring custom of this concept last year when I first revealed this image. So that was the standard I based this on. I applaud Marc for picking one of the concepts from my slides, because anyone doing one of those have to really think about parts usage, or even attempting parts usage. Not stellar, but brave.

Lt. Claymore
By Chad Smelcer
JoeCustoms Custom Profile: Chad_ghost.

Mega Marines Barbecue
By Arkadiusz Bojda
Facebook page: LLucz Customs.

- This was a nice try, but as stated, Modern Era parts don’t do this type of figure justice, especially since the parts library is too limited. The color pattern is too bright and kiddie for my tastes, and I do not get the “Mega Marine” feel from this.

Mercenary Adventurer
By Matt Smelcer
JoeCustoms Custom Profile: Matthew.

Outback Adventurer
By Matt Smelcer
JoeCustoms Custom Profile: Matthew.

Raider Adventurer
By Matt Smelcer
JoeCustoms Custom Profile:Matthew.

- This is a decent translation of what would happen if you turned a Modern Era figure into an O-ring. It was fairly simplistic in design, but I think it works in the favor of the figure.

Replicator Destro
By Cory Godfrey
Customs collected at Hisstank.com

- Excellent work at recreating the original w/o adding too much artistic license. Well done!
- If Hasbro ever does a modern interpretation of the Replicator concept I hope it looks this good. I’m all for play features that don’t hinder the base figure’s playability like this.

Replicator General Hawk #1
By “Starbuck”

- Starbuck obviously had a lot of fun with this. It just isn’t very true to the source material art but is actually pretty true to the source material CONCEPT. He also reached out to Chris Murray for further information on Chris’ Replicator collection, so for doing the homework (despite the overall execution), I gave him some extra points for hunting down more info for his entry.

Replicator General Hawk #2
By Arkadiusz Bojda
Facebook page: Llucz Customs.

Replicator Gung Ho #1
By “Starbuck”

- Very nice, cool concept, with playability.

Replicator Gung Ho #2
By Arkadiusz Bojda
Facebook page: Llucz Customs.

Sabretooth
By Nick Vreeland

- Quite nice, and I can actually see this as a carded figure. Great and faithful to this rare castaway from Tiger Force. Love it .

Thrasher
By Darkwynter
Web-Site: The Angelforge.

- Without a parts recipe I’m going to assume he used Goro. Which I think is too obvious. If I’m wrong please correct me. That being said, this thing looks like a lot of fun to play with.
- This was a risky figure to attempt, but the creator pulled it off. It’s also cool figure for a niche audience that required time and effort to make. A few aspects like the grenades, web-gear, and face could use some polish—and it was not wholly accurate in terms of clothing or footwear, but still, it was a labor of love and a great entry.

Tiger Force Ripcord
By Cory Godfrey
Customs collected at Hisstank.com

- In a contest like this, the simplicity of this design is going to hurt its chances of winning. At the same time, that simplicity, and the right people seeing it, is what lends it to one day possibly being a real production figure.

Tiger Ray
By Scott Perrett
Customs collected at Hisstank.com

- A nicely executed repaint of the Sea Ray. Solid homage to the original artwork.
- Not a winning entry but definitely a great paint job.
- This is not a complicated piece, but it works very effectively to convey the materialization of the concept art. A very good entry.

Trap Viper
By Chad Smelcer
JoeCustoms Custom Profile: Chad_ghost.

Urban Storm Shadow
By Dan Morris
Web-Site: Out of Commission Toys.

- This is a cool figure that successfully takes the art and jumps off the page into reality. It also reminds me of a G.I. Joe/Assassins Creed crossover with a VNF (Very Near Future) edge.
- The paint work on this and the overall look is almost perfect. If he added the symbols and the small pouch it would have been a perfect 10

Zombie Shock Trooper
By Dan Morris
Web-site: Out of Commission Toys.

- This custom makes me wish that more of the concept vault zombie figures would become a reality!!
- While a slight departure from the source material, it’s still a great looking figure highly reminiscent of Resident Evil.

That’s it! Some entries were disqualified due to lack of meeting contest criteria, and thus not shown. Additional judge commentaries are available to participants upon email request. Like or hate the judging, tell us here.

Thanks again to all who participated!