Monday 09/10/2007 1:49:01pm Name: Slimster22 Comments: Hey, great writings and photos on the Les Paul. I have a Professional and your site is one of the few that have anything about these guitars! ========================================== Thanks! It's certainly a guitar that you can write a lot about, and I had great fun writing about it. (I can't do that for my new Les Paul Deluxe, other than to say "Gee... It sure looks pretty, plays & sounds good!" LOL) I still can't bring myself around to putting a Bigsby on it though. --Jimbobwan, 09/21/07

Friday 07/27/2007 8:49:27pm Name: mechajim Comments: Enjoy your site, *esp.* the Ultraman model/toy info. Gotta ask ya': are you gonna be picking up the CCCP *closed head* Gabora? How can you resist? http://www.xofacto.com/justin034/gabora.jpg ====================================== Ah, temptation... DAMN, that's cool! Thanx! Ideally, I'd have just one that could pose either way, but then I'd have to figure out how to make it happen... I sure hope I don't run across that 'round about the time that Medicom ships their Garamon or King Joe. (Ya see, there's this small matter of all the nifty guitar stuff that has been eating my wallet lately...) --Jimbobwan, 07/30/07 (later) Uhhhh... thanks for the heads up and exposing me to the temptation... I guess? Kaiju-Taro got some in, so naturally, one's on its way... --Jimbobwan, 09/21/07 (later) And now it's here! --Jimbobwan, 09/26/07

Wednesday 04/18/2007 7:54:24pm Name: KC Comments: Jimbobwan, Some how your pics on all your JBWID Raunchy Projects are all unloadable or gone. ------- Uhhhhhhh... DA-YUM! You're right! You mean that stuff hasn't worked since uh... December, maybe January? Yikes! I guess if 1 person visits those pages in 4 months, it's worth fixing... and so I have. (Duhhh... I guess it got overlooked when I changed webhosts.) Thanks for pointing this out. If you happen to notice anything else that's broken (besides the old off-site links, LOL), let me know-- I've changed webhosts again, and I think everything FTP'd okay, but there are over 2600 files. If you know the location of the top secret e-mail contact page, you can use that-- it's been revised, and I think it works again. Jimbobwan, 04/20/07

Monday 03/19/2007 1:04:28am Name: Rick Hill Comments: Band of Brothers .. er .. I mean Band of Spenders. That's us Bro! On a whim, I looked to see if your site was still up Jimbob. Thank God it was! Eons ago when the only true custom 1/6 stuff (gotta love how kitbashes are called custom work on ebay .. freakin idiots) was available from the likes of Ran, Polo, Paul Walmsley, etc.Pierfrancesco told me about your work (you've got a bunch of pics of his collection on your site). You were kind enough to send me photos of your work and posted pics P gave me from the master customizer in Italy .. Luciano .. on your site. I was blown away to see your passion for slot cars! I went the same route after becoming disenchanted by 1/6 scale. 1/6 editorial .. I loved the artistic work even if we had to wait almost a year sometimes for figures. Once the likes of Dragon went nuts with 1/6 the pioneering artistic guys could not afford to sell anymore. Back to slots .. I went crazy buying stuff when a commercial track opened near my home. Unfortunately, the business with 4 amazing tracks went belly up, so all my stuff (like my 1/6 collection) went on the ebay auction block to fund other pursuits. Like you I became interested in guns and burned up some cash there. Now, I find myself looking for another hobby and find your helicopter adventures calling my wallet! I agree with you that the RTR RC hobby really works. Life is busy and a guy needs to find something that fuel the boy's imagination that resides inside us, but RTR RC is a hobby that you can get a burst from .. like the RC heli stuff. You can tinker, play, invent, and still have time to balance it all with so many demands we find upon us as middle-aged boys stuck in men's bodies. Bravo to you for helping us out there keep the faith by sharing what you are up to via your site! Thanks again for keeping your site up and running and all the details you share about your pursuits. Best Wishes and minimal crashes if you get into more complicated helicopters! Rick Hill ---------- Howdy Rick, Thanks for writing! I started writing a reply but never got finished-- you cover a lot of territory, so this will have to serve as a placeholder until then. Later... --Jimbobwan, 04/21/07

Thursday 03/01/2007 12:14:00am Name: Tom Brown Comments: Just stopped in to see how things are. I still look at the your stuff. It is a great site. Good luck with what ever you decide to do! Tom ---------- Hey Tom, thanks for writing! To the general visitor: I'm sorry for the lack of updates, but darn-- I'm still enjoying all my other nerdy hobbies & interests! My "lost time" since the last update has been spent learning to fly "real" toy helicopters-- the single rotor kind. Much more difficult and waaay more scary. I was thinking of videoing some of my garage hovering with my T-rex, but I'm afraid that I might accidently film my demise (How humiliating!). There's actually a new, under-the-radar article linked to the last Ultraseven article. (If you're one of the 6 native English-speakers that's interested in that stuff -- darn, make that 5. One just died of old age.) Hey, I'm back in Mac! Just bought a MacBook, and boy, howdy! It's definitely not yer grampa's ol' OS 9.2.2. In a move closely parallelling the real world, the wonderful UNIX permissions scheme will aggravate you just like the new, improved airport security! (However, you are permitted to operate a Zippo while changing OS X's folder permissions.) It's unbelievable, but they've got this new interface thingie named "Terminal" where you can do all sorts of stuff that you can't through that primitive GUI thing. >CLS >CLOAD (Courtesy of Tandy Corp.) I'm not a rabid Mac fan (I use both, and until lately, mainly PC) buuuuuut... dang, Macs are pretty kewl. Colorado was looking really good, until it got cold... and stayed that way. Sheeee-it, I luvs my Tex-Mex! And humidity. (And not shoveling snow) Anyhow... that's sort of wassup. I haven't been active in the customizing arena lately, but there's always time for that later (Just wish there were room for it though). --Jimbobwan, 03/07/07

Tuesday 12/19/2006 3:50:44pm Name: Jimbobwan Comments: Ken, I'm sorry-- apparently your message got purged with the spam (even though I swear I didn't flag it!) I did read it though, and thanks for writing! I'm a poster child for Collector's OCD: I'm currently up to 3 RC helis (with enough in broken and spare parts for a 4th). The shameful and demented part of it is that I haven't even hovered the Trex yet! (The spool up sound really gives meaning to the expression, "pucker factor".) If I can train my Blade Pro to stop trying to decapitate me, I may be willing to risk the Trex-- right now, it's too purdy to get bloodied. I don't know why I decided that I just had to have it NOW: Must be that Collector's dementia? Meanwhile, those RC planes do look like an awful lot of fun... To think that it all got started by a cheap little RC submarine! Jimbobwan, 12/19/06

Sunday 12/03/2006 7:39:55pm Name: Ekachai Homepage URL: http://eajiaravanont@yahoo.com Comments: Hi Jimbowan, thanks very much for responding to my question on 11/09. I actually decided to take the plunge and just ordered some hands and feet from Cotswold. Well, I found out that the pegs are slightly bigger than the holes in the combat joe body, so it looks like I will have to bring out the files and start clipping away. But just wanted to let you and others know in case someone else is curious. cheers! ps- I also read your review of the Volks Neo Guy body, and at the time of your writing you said there isn't many source to order from. If you don't know already, Volks started a US website and can be ordered here: http://store.volksusa.com/dollfie-neo.html I am going to order me some since my medicom RAH 301 is cracking in random spots. ----------------------------------- Howdy-- I don't know if this helps you in any way, but another plan of attack is to transplant hands to the pegs at the hinge. If that's not viable, you can also slice the hand off at the base, leaving the hinge intact. Depending on the type of plastic and how much "meat" you've got to work with, you can sometimes add another rotational axis there, by inserting a headless screw (or leaving the head on and sinking it into the plastic). That's great to hear that Volks has a USA site. (I don't really keep up with this stuff nowadays). My recollections/impressions about this is that it's a kewl novelty figure. I think everyone needs at least 1 to marvel at the engineering & sculpt quality. However, I don't think I'd go and replace all my dude dolls with neo guys; the hyperarticulation means that there's just too many things to adjust to get the damn thing to stand! Bummer about the RAH 301s... -Jimbobwan, 12/04/06

Monday 11/20/2006 10:24:12pm Name: ilaf Comments: Jimbob, I have to laugh the sound of the damned also! I tell people I live in a toy shop... and I even bought a bigger place to hold the stuff. My interest have ran all over the place. I did laugh about the DOOM sprites, since I turned many of clay figures to try and capture the 8 positions required in the game! I have used many hours doing odd hobbies also... Hate to say wasted time, since everything has some amount of new learning. But seeing my efforts sometimes does tend to indicate wasted effort! I am lucky now, that all my efforts can be given to my son... so he gets tons of stuff because ol' dad thinks it is cool! I am up North of you about 200miles... and my garage is packed with stuff from 1/6th vehicles to a milling machine and welders.. A few HD's hold prime real-estate near the door. So, like most folks doing hobbies, I sure understand the shift in focus. All I can say is, keep having FUN. There will be a few of us out there cursing (I mean cheering!) you for showing us a new hobby trick or path. LOL!!

Wednesday 11/15/2006 8:03:58pm Name: Wes Homepage URL: http://hometown.aol.com/classicplastick/index.html Comments: O mighty Jimbob! Happy to see you are still having some goofy toy fun even if the creation of wacky plastick mannequins has taken a backseat for the nonce. Just keep that feather duster busy, mon frer, until you once again take up the mantle of homespun toymaker par excellence! You rock, dude! Seeya, Wes

Monday 11/13/2006 10:48:26pm Name: ilaf Comments: Jim, I have visted your site for many years.Learned a lot of neat things, even with the slot car portion... the rc/helios are too cool. But the one thing I never did understand, was what did you do with the 1/6th figures after making them. I guess you explained that they just collect dust. Well after all the focus on keeping articulation, it only seems natural to make them move. IE Stop Action movies... of course it means more building of sets and props, and writing stories... but it is a fairly cheap hobby, sucks many hours for a few minutes of enjoyment... but the movie can be re-watched over and over and that few minutes of enjoyment still is there. And man, I wished I had that much EMPTY garage space! Anyway glad to see that you are keeping the site around. --------------------------------------- Howdy ilaf, I'm very proud of my empty garage-- it's extremely unusual for a garage in Texas! My wife thought we should park cars in there (whaaa???- in a garage???); anyway, that justified the big storage shed out back, for my "valuable junk", and the empty garage space comes in handy for special occasions. Junk, stuff, whatever-- boy howdy, that's my favorite topic! I mention it a lot because I seem to wrestle with it all the time, and it's the perpetual backdrop of my at-home life. It's a fact-of-life with these collector-type hobbies. As a USA-'un, it's my duty to keep the wheels of commerce greased, and even in most cultures where people own cars, Consumerism usually whups Spiritualism's ass. One of the consequences of our greater longevity in this consumer-driven world is that we have more time to acquire neat toys, which means more toys. Unless we use them up or dispose of them, they do stack up. I'm convinced that when I was a I kid, I focused more intently on my toys, and enjoyed them more fully. Of course, there were fewer toys, and more carefree hours to devote. Unless you live a spartan life, as your earning power increases, so does your accumulation of stuff. At some point in our lives (probably pretty early), despite periodic cullings, we have such an accumulation of neat stuff that there aren't enough hours in the day to revisit and appreciate it all. Yesterday's toys become decoration for our lives, a backdrop that we appreciate simply because it's there. Call 'em "eye candy", or "dustketchers", they're the tangible evidence and history of our consumption and productivity. (Pragmatic people call 'em "eBay fodder", but that's another topic altogether.) Some folks strive to find more active uses for dolls/figures than as wallpaper-- as you suggested, stop-motion video is one of those, or even still-image captioned storytelling. They can be used to visualize blocking for stories, or as perspective guides for drawing... or even blasting with pellet guns and blowing up with fireworks. I think it's natural to go through phases where you try to think of things to do with this stuff to revive the shine, besides just letting 'em enjoy their fate as dustketchers: I've gone through all those phases just mentioned (even pellet guns & firecrackers), and learned a lot from those exercises (maybe not so much from the pellet guns & firecrackers, but it was fun). It usually involved a blending of interests, like acquiring an 8mm camcorder with a flying erase head to play with stop-motion animation, and wanting to write computer programs "back in the day", first with my 3-3/4" RPG characters, and later with digitized stop-motion animation fight sequences, cleaned up pixel-by-pixel for a Hypercard game. When the "Doom" game engine editors came out, I created sprite sequences using my 3-3/4" figures digitized from different angles on a turntable. I went through a comic book drawing phase right before starting this site back in '97; of course, based on my toy figures. Was it fun? Heck yeah! All of these things gobbled up hefty chunks of obsessive-compulsive time, which took time away from other interests-- and in doing so, creating new dustketchers. The website is my latest (and most productive) effort to squeeze extra mileage out of those fun projects. As with earlier efforts, I learned a lot of new tricks, this time in the realm of webstuff. So it's not really lamentable that stuff has become dustketchers-- it's the fate of movie props, the DVDs in your personal collection, the exercise bike... It's the fate of all stuff that you don't devote daily time to. Time moves on, and we move on to new stuff (anyone still mess with Doom .wads?) In the case of my doll projects, the ones I like the most are out for display (articulation lets them assume kewl poses for their dustketcher duty) and they've become the wallpaper of my daily life. --Jimbobwan, 11/17/06

Saturday 11/11/2006 3:52:57am Name: AngryBoot Homepage URL: http://www.freewebs.com/angryboot/ Comments: Great to see you still having fun and playing with some nice toys, Jim! I actually picked up a PicooZ a couple of weeks ago and have been enjoying getting it sucked into the ceiling, wall, door, monitor, bed.... Addictive little suckers.

Friday 11/10/2006 6:09:55pm Name: Ken Comments: Hi Jimbob, I've been visiting your site for some time now, almost as long as I have been collecting dolls...er.....action figures! While I am not up to your level of skill (waaay down here...), you've been inspirational in alot of ways, for that I thank you. I felt complelled to comment on your latest "phase", as I too have entered a similiar phase. And I have come to the conclusion that "once a collector, always a collector". I figure it's an obsessive-compulsive thing! Two years ago I bought a Twister RC electric chopper and promptly put blade nicks in all my wooden furniture! Now I have 3 choppers, 4 planes (2 flyable- 2 "disassembled" by terra-firma), 3 cars (2 heavily modified with powertrains that would make Tim Taylor proud!). While I do hope you will one day return to once again fill our monitors with nubile things from your imagination, I (and I'm sure all who have admired your work) understand if you do move on and thank you for sharing. All the best Jimbob! Ken kenlms@myrealbox.com

Thursday 11/09/2006 9:35:58am Name: Alex Homepage URL: http://eajiaravanont@yahoo.com Comments: Hi Jim Bo Wan, I came across your site when doing a web search on Takara base bodies on the Medicom figures, and enjoyed your article comparing the Combat Joe body with the Cotswold's Elite Brigade and the Hasbro reissue. You body of work (non pun intended :D) is absolutely awe-inspiringa and extremely thorough to say the least. Thank you for sharing your exhaustive research with the customizer community! I figure you will be the best person to help me on my current situation, and would greatly appreciate any advice. I recently came across a real bargain of 6 loose 12" Medicom Kamen Rider figures with Takara Combat Joe Base bodies. Although i love Medicom stuff, my major annoyance with them is that their glove and boots are usually not secured to the limbs in any manner, and it only slips onto a arm/leg stump. Everytime I pick up these figures, pieces will fall out. I fixed this problem before with another medicom figure by simply replacing the Combat Joe body with a Dragon Model body, chop off the fingers and toes (ouch!) and then fitting the gloves and boots over the extended anchor point. This method is pretty effective, although it require a lot of doctoring around the neck area to make the head fit properly. So for this time round, I am planning on just buying stock hands and feet from Cotswold's collectibles, and then work from there (with more finger and toe chopping). I don't have a Cotswold body readily on hand, and I am wondering if you know whether the Cotwold parts are compatible with the Takara new Combat Joe bodies. I figure since the Cotswold figures are based somewhat on the Hasbro Joes, and the Takara Combat Joes are also loosely related to GI Joes, that there are some attempts by the companies to standardize the parts and connection sizes. But I just want to know before ordering a bunch from Cotswold. Many thanks to you in advance!!! I look forward to your further posts. ****************************** Howdy Alex, (Thanks for the props.) I don't think I can provide much help or advice since I've been out of the loop on this stuff for so long, and don't know much about Combat Joe bodies, new or old! I have some older Japanese clones of the vintage style body (i.e., Alien & Predator) with loose fitting pegs, and are close to the size of the vintage Joe "standard". Wrapping Teflon tape around pegs can help to tighten them, especially if the gap isn't too big. On the other hand, the Joe "standard" doesn't seem to be a tight standard, since Cots hands sometimes fit slightly loose in vintage-style Joes, and some vintage-style hands are a bitch to remove! It sounds like it's worth investigating-- We all prefer turn-key solutions, but you get a lot of satisfaction when you come up with our own work-arounds. (Hey, if nothing else, you build up your collection of spare parts, which may come in handy later.) -Jimbobwan, 11/09/06

Tuesday 10/10/2006 10:13:18pm > Yo jim! I've just finished browsing your site. One word, awesome! Though I'm not a sculptor or toyfigure-making enthusiast, but your work really sparked my interests. I wish you the very best in your future projects! Cheers!

Monday 04/03/2006 11:36:57am Name: Urban Spaceman Comments: I will miss all those fantasmagorical action figures of your's. Especialy the females. I'm lossing interest in 1/6 scale stuff myself and going into 1/32 scale painted PVC figures. So far I've collected loads of Medieval Knights and a castle as well as some cowboys and indians. Almost all of them are toy quality rather than collector's items. Those few metal minatures I leave on my shelves for display. The plastic guys get to do battle.

Tuesday 02/07/2006 11:34:10am Name: drag-5 Homepage URL: http://www.theguver.net Comments: no updates yet? when is it gonna change?

Wednesday 10/12/2005 3:51:24pm Name: Reed Homepage URL: http://www.inspirational-posters-store.com/fine_art/c19281.html Comments: Jim you are a fine sculptor.

Tuesday 10/04/2005 10:35:19pm Name: Dahlia Comments: Dump Bush...hahaha! That's awesome...props to ya man, great stuff! XD

Wednesday 09/21/2005 2:09:32pm Name: B.G. in L.A. Homepage URL: http://www.polarfilms.com/gauba Comments: I like very much the "Dump Bush" image on the vixen's breast. And thanks for the info on how to do my own home studio vacuform machine. I know how to do it, been around it for many, many years, but the idea didn't even occur to me to just build my own machine. I was just researching small shops who could do a one-time job for me, but now that I found your site, I'm determined to just do it myself and save myself the extra expense and headache of dealing with outsourcing such a small project. Thank you Jimbob! Blaise in Redondo Beach, CA

Tuesday 09/13/2005 10:44:45am Name: Jim Homepage URL: http://www.phentermineeffect.com Comments: Thanks for this resource. I enjoyed browsing your site.

Sunday 08/07/2005 5:06:32pm Name: Bel Armach Comments: Man, I love your work. Particularly the medieval figures, and especially the demoness figures.

Wednesday 07/06/2005 1:41:58pm Name: Jimbobwan Comments: Great Googly Moogly!!! This must be my lucky day cuz this is the first time I've been able to visit this @$%#@! Guestbook in ages. (I'm not gonna press my luck by trying to get in through godmode... Damn that Procto-Server and his confounding messages!!!) Anyway, I wanted to say thanks, and rather than make my rambling project articles even ramblier, uh... turn in my absence excuse slip here? If you've been curious, that is. I wish I had an exotic story to tell but it's all pretty humdrum ordinary: Hey, my wife now works regular hours, from home! I don't have to spend evening hours doing something, waiting for her to get home from work. At last, I can have a normal, dysfunctional family life! And focus on wasting money on the oddball stuff that I like! (Some folks think that the Golden Age of Joe has passed, but all one has to do is visit some Japanese sites to see that it's alive as the Golden Age of Shintaro... and just a little pricier.) The other part of that is that-- meh... I've made more junk than I ever should have made, including really wacko stuff, just to be wacko. (I enjoy being a subtle asshole.) But for those prone to OCD, the webstuff is kinda like a treadmill that keeps you doing something, though you may not know why. It's dangerous territory. Anyway, I do have to say that there's a downside to my wife always being home: I can't crank up my electric gee-tar. I guess that's what acoustic guitars are for, so I bought a Martin travel guitar. Very cool, and since it's mebbe 3/4 the size of a regular guitar, I can even play it sitting in the passenger's seat when she's driving us somewhere. Talk about payback!!! Anyway... that's the whole, honest truth. -Jimbobwan, 07/06/05