INTRO—–
The story of me attending the 2025 DFW G.I. Joe and Action Figure show begins in September of 2023 when I went to JoeLanta, which you can read all about elsewhere on this blog. Greg Brown helped run that show, was friendly, and one of several people who asked if I was attending “the next show.” Not the following year’s JoeLanta, but the next G.I. Joe convention in an informal circuit of smaller regional shows, like Kentuckiana, ToyLanta, or DFW, whatever that acronym meant. I was already committed to two other annual G.I. Joe conventions, plus a film festival every September. Trips are great and I never regret attending a con because there are always book people to meet or catch up with, but trips add up and can be tiring. Every flight or drive to a hotel is a weekend I’m not at home working on immediate projects, or at my store.
Here’s Greg Brown at that show two years back. Click on any photo to enlarge:
But the regulars at that ’23 JoeLanta did have an affinity for DFW. I started thinking I might check it out. Actually, Brown took over the DFW show in 2023! Dan Klingensmith, who’s done great work connecting with former Hasbro employees, and who helped organize the incredible guest line-up for the G.I. Joe portion of the 2017 HASCON, was getting a bunch of them to the 2024 DFW show. This was amazing for several reasons. One, such a reunion of colleagues had only ever happened that one time at HASCON, and no one necessarily assumed it would happen again. (Maybe Klingensmith did!) Two, it was happening again at a small show, the kind that you wouldn’t expect to pull in so many top-tier guests. That’s worth calling out: The 2024 DFW show had an attendance of 1,000. Great for the space, but not big compared to some other conventions. It was almost lopsided with all those Hasbro alums!
But last year’s DFW convention fell on the same weekend as JoeFest, another G.I. Joe convention. They were geographically distant, so there was no good way to squeeze both into one trip. JoeFest had its own excellent guest line-up, there was a chance I’d be moderating a panel there, and it would be a much bigger convention. Plus, my podcasting partner would be flying from England to attend JoeFest. It was settled: I would regretfully miss DFW ’24 and instead attend JoeFest ’24. I made a mental note: probably attend DFW ’25. In fact, Greg Brown specifically invited me to attend DFW ’25 a year early! Then Klingensmith and Brown announced that the same line-up of former Hasbro guests would again be present for DFW ’25. The two summer conventions, held in different states, each announced their dates for this year. No conflict! JoeFest ’25 one weekend, and DFW ’25 the next. (You can read all about JoeFest starting here.)
Jumping ahead, here are some toys that would be for sale during DFW ’25:
A CHALLENGE AND ANOTHER CHALLENGE—–
A two-and-a-half day convention can easily be a five-day project. If the formal events begin Friday evening, perhaps you arrive earlier that morning, add in a buffer for travel delays. But what about the informal events, the socializing? Maybe you get there Thursday so that you can start catching up with friends. That convention will end Sunday afternoon, which suggests a Sunday evening flight out. But there may not be any Sunday night flights, or arriving home very late Sunday night (or after midnight) is less desirable than just staying over one more night and heading out Monday.
Since I just did the five-day version of JoeFest, it would be hard to do such an expanded trip for DFW. When I’m away from my store, I need to play catch-up once I get back. And the week between these two conventions has multiple family commitments like birthdays and an anniversary. Plus, the manager at my store, Jesse Farrell, would be holding his first-ever event at the shop the same day that DFW wrapped up. (I don’t mean he’s in charge of it, I mean he self-published an amazing comic book and vinyl record and wass having a release party with a band — not just an event he’s hosting, but he’s the guest — it’s his event!) In my 14 years with Hub Comics this is the only time Farrell has said “Can I have this date for my own book?” All of this meant arriving at DFW on Friday, and missing the first five workshops, then departing on Sunday, and missing the final four panels.
That shorter trip means that this is a truncated con report. I can’t ever attend every panel, or witness every aspect of a convention, but I try to make these blog posts thorough. This three-parter, by design, is missing pieces.
Still wondering what “DFW” means? That’s “Dallas-Fort Worth.” The DFW club helps run the show, and members attend or deal, and the nearby airport is DFW. (The old official JoeCon moved from city to city each year, while other shows stay in the same city.)
Again with the paragraphs! Here are more toys that would be for sale during DFW:
MY TICKET IN—–
A quick flashback to the previous weekend’s JoeFest. Toymaker John Kukovich told me about the Vehicle Building Workshop that would be at DFW. He’d loved the 2024 iteration of that workshop, and would now be helping run it for 2025. With four Hasbro vehicle designers on hand in the actual session, participants would cut, bend, and glue a form into a rough model of a vehicle. He thought, since I write about this stuff, I might be interested. He was correct! I messaged Greg Brown about sitting in. I would be happy to pay for the workshop, but I’d be covering it a little like a reporter, taking pictures and notes, and didn’t want to take up one spot if there were toy customizers who wanted it more. Brown graciously offered me a press pass for the whole show!
Here’s John Kukovich (right), not from the earlier JoeFest, but from this DFW, a day in the future:
FRIDAY—–
I’m going to take two paragraphs here to frown at Frontier airlines. I booked my flight online, and there was no way to print my boarding pass at home. The email confirmation pointed me to an app. No thanks, I don’t want to download one more app just for the privilege of flying one time on an airline I’ve never paid attention to. In the Frontier area of the airport, there were no kiosks to print my boarding pass. At the counter, the airline rep told me I needed to download the app, that my boarding pass would be on my phone or I needed to pay $35 for her to print my boarding pass and assign me a seat. No good, no good. I responded that I didn’t have a phone, and it didn’t make sense that I needed to pay for the privilege of getting on the plane having already bought a ticket. We went back and forth a few times. She finally said that she could print my boarding pass this one time, for $15, but next time I needed to download the app. Once again I pressed back, that no, it wasn’t fair to charge a customer twice. She relented, and offered to print it for free. I then asked if I could change seats. She said it would cost $15. I considered it, and took out paper money. She said they only accepted cards. Nevermind, I said. We went back a half-step, that if I didn’t need to pick my seat she could print the boarding pass for free. I took that deal and said this was my last time flying Frontier. I then thanked her, having kept my cool the whole time.
At the gate, I heard two other passengers roll their eyes at the $15 seat change fee. Onboard a family of five needed to move seats to sit with their autistic child. The stewardess said they couldn’t, that seating was based on weight and balance. (That seemed absurd, as we don’t tell the airlines how much we weigh.) The stewardess continued that she didn’t have the authority to switch their seats, that the gate agent had to come aboard, that Frontier’s responsibility was one parent with one child, that they’d needed to pick their seats beforehand to all sit together or pay extra now. See a pattern forming? I told all of this to the cabbie who drove me from the DFW airport to the Marriott, without mentioning the carrier by name. He asked “Did you fly Frontier? I hear that about them often.” At times I’ve felt powerless to chastise a large entity’s behavior as it pushes around the little guy. But Frontier Airlines, your policies don’t work, so I’m telling my modest-sized internet audience! End soapbox.
Was that a drag? Perhaps some photos of toys for sale would make you happy.
Dramatic photo of the Marriott:
Stepping into the hotel, I immediately felt comfortable. In the lobby were a dozen Joe fans sitting around a table, many wearing G.I. Joe or G.I. Joe convention t-shirts, a pile of toys in the middle.
Near the front desk were former Hasbro designers and marketers Kurt Groen, Greg Berndtson, Frank Coroneos, and Guy Cassaday, along with latter-day researcher Dan Klingensmith. The Hasbro gents were greeting each other warmly. These were co-workers 35 years ago, when they collaborated on one of the most popular products of the day. It wasn’t a small company but it felt small. Now these guys are in their 60s and 70s, and they don’t see each other often. They all used to live in Rhode Island and drive to work. Now they’re more spread out. It’s a reunion. To witness a slice of it is great.
Years ago, entering such a hotel lobby was cause for a little anxiety. Had I already missed something cool or important? Did everyone know everyone else and I’m the new guy? Should I not go reintroduce myself to that former Hasbro person? I mean, we spoke on the phone 15 years prior, I got what I needed, and I didn’t want to bother him. But by now I’ve attended a lot of conventions and I feel more confident about my place there and in my book-writing. I still have a bit of that anxiety: I am the new guy here since this is my first DFW con, but overall I’m relaxed and excited in a good way. People like to pose for photos, like to tell me where they’re from, most are here to buy stuff. And I shouldn’t forget the lesson of my first faraway toy show:
On the elevator at BotCon ’94, I saw a guy who was there for the same reason as me, to buy Transformers and see a Hasbro presentation. He wasn’t holding any toys he’d just bought, he wasn’t wearing a Transformers t-shirt, or any pop culture clothing. But this was a tiny show at a small hotel in a small city, and he was young like me. We made eye contact. He was definitely there for BotCon. I bugged my eyes out and nodded my head, smiling. He nodded back. I said “Right?” He agreed. Below us was a room filled with 1980s treasure. We had arrived.
Present day, back to 2025: headed to my room. This was a Marriott, and last week’s Joe con was also at one, so there was some familiarity — same kind of soap, same blank postcards by the bed. Oh, the TV remote is leaning against one of those “frame” TVs that look like a framed painting.
Oh, that’s just a painting.
I needed a jog. On my way to the hotel fitness room I passed this very helpful sign:
Below the lobby were the two diorama rooms, the silent auction room, and a smaller panel room with an in-progress one on repairing 12-inch figures. My camera was on the 4th floor, and I regretted that I’d miss taking a photo of the workshop. I made a mental note to not forget the other three rooms. I had a feeling, since they were on the lower level, on the other side of the hotel, away from the main dealer room, that I might.
(Related: a day later I heard someone say that the silent auction lots had some bids, but not a lot. Were people unaware of the auction? Someone responded that there was no PA system in the main hall, so there was no way to make announcements. I thought back a week to the other Joe show I’d just attended. Every so often a booming voice in the exhibit hall reminded attendees that the next panel was starting, that certain guests were at their tables ready to meet you, and that additional dealers were upstairs in a hallway annex. At the time it was a bother. These announcements were loud and invariably I was talking to someone and had to pause. But they performed a vital function! Here is my first of two suggestions for improvement concerning next year’s 2026 DFW show — make announcements over a PA.)
Let’s briefly acknowledge the five Friday panels that took place while I was on an airplane or arriving at the hotel, starting early, at 10AM! First was the Tips & Tricks of Toy Photography panel, and then the Diorama Design and Construction (more on dioramas in Sunday/Part 3), followed by a lunch break. I’ll cover the third panel in the next paragraph. In the afternoon were Tips and Tricks of Vehicle Customization and then concluding with the aforementioned Basics of 12” Figure Repair. This is an impressive spread, the kind of panels that a larger convention should really go for. Some of this is an outgrowth of the DFW Show being put on by and attended by the DFW Club, so there’s a local audience and a built-in “tier” of experts who can suggest and run such panels. I don’t know that the 12-inch community is any more focused on photography and customs than the small-Joes community, but at this show, at least proportionately, it felt that way. (Maybe that’s an unhelpful comparison because at a giant show like JoeFest, a big portion of attendees are casual fans there to buy stuff, and sort of drown out the hardcore collector/makers.)
Let’s jump back to Friday’s 1PM event, the Scale Figure Workshop. This required an extra admission of $50. While I missed it completely, I saw a few remnants of it later in the show, managed to talk to the duo that had run it, and even snap a late photo, so I can somewhat report on it here. John Kukovich and Mikey Kukovich have a business called Couple of Kuks (“kooks”) for customizing and accessorizing action figures. To their workshop they brought 11 Classified Destro bodies. Using one of their custom kits, participants would turn that Destro figure into a “Classified” version of the 1979 Fisher-Price Adventure People alien, even down to a new, blue head. All the light grey pieces, the helmet, and the weapon are new:
Back to around 5pm on Friday: I picked up my Press badge (thanks again, Greg!). So shiny! I’m a sucker for holograms. Is this the best-looking con badge I’ve ever seen? The DFW “G.I. Joe” logotype isn’t an official Hasbro Joe logo, but it sure could be.
Didn’t know what this little annex room next to the check-in tables was. Oh, it’s con merch:
Down the first hallway were cosplayers, G.I. Joe and decidedly non-G.I. Joe:
Have I mentioned that my phone camera is terrible? Don’t worry, I dropped it soon after this show and have since upgraded.
A life-size statue of an Imperial Guard stood across from those Star Wars folks, the Imperial March playing from someone’s phone. I thought for a moment it was actually a person, and pulled up my camera phone, when–
Ha! The Star Wars trio all laughed. I appreciated a good scare. I mean, if those silent, motionless, red-cloaked bad asses from Return of the Jedi aren’t scary, what are they good for?
There was a ramping up as I got closer to the big dealer room. I rounded the corner and saw one, two, three dealers in what felt like the hallway before the hallway before the main space. One such dealer had toys and a laptop playing G.I. Joe: The Movie on YouTube. That would be Wendell Hart of Dallas, Texas, who sells at a few shows:
After the first hallway was the larger, main one that hugged the entrance to the main con hall. At the prime corner was Valaverse:
And then Jason Greene and Buck Hernandez of Boba Joe’s, selling at shows for 32 years:
Their use of LED light strings made their shelving really pop.
Steve of Eagle Toys, who sets up here and will set up at Metropolis Collectibles’ monthly toy show:
At the Grindstone Toys table I saw a familiar face from both JoeFest and Assembly Required, it was Spoon of Raginspoon. I didn’t know what Spoon did or how he collaborated with other toymakers, and so he explained: Spoon started out making custom parts, then basebuilding with his brand Complex. He had started his own line of action figures, and has done prototype work for Skeletron and Callsign: Longbow. Here’s Raginspoon’s Starplex Universe, including this resin sample (blue, left) and two factory samples (yellow, right). No photo of Spoon himself, here, just his wares:
Briefly saw Ace Allgood, who lent me a hard drive of stuff for my book a few years back. I wish I saw him at the other two cons I attend, but he’s a ’60s/’70s GI Joe guy, so he focuses on other shows. We started to catch up, and then I realized I might be distracting him from setting up his table, so I moved on.
The next table over also had vintage 12-inch Joe, but also ’80s Joe, assorted modern bits, and curiously, a table with three copies of a gorgeous book of toy photography all about the Star Wars Vintage Collection. Why, this must belong to Derryl DePriest. It did.
Suddenly, DePriest appeared. It was great to catch up. DePriest wrote a book on G.I. Joe in 1999, and worked at Hasbro for roughly the next two decades. We talked about his art collection, and a wonderful original painting he just acquired, plus the current Heritage auctions (including Rosebud from Citizen Kane — I said “didn’t that burn up?” He said there were three). We also talked about DePriest’s convention schedule (8 shows a year), a panel he might do at the 2026 DFW Show, and a trip he’s taking to New England this fall. This turned into a discussion of us perhaps having lunch in September and me showing him my comic book store, with a funny contrast: DePriest locking in a date on his phone’s calendar app, and me holding up my 8-year old Blackberry smartphone and my lack of apps and describing a paper day planner back home in Massachusetts that I would consult later.
Jamie Sullivan walked over and he and DePriest caught up. Sullivan had started on an art gig for Hasbro that DePriest was curious about, and the two compared notes about recent personnel changes as Hasbro. Sullivan’s wife, Erin, walked over, and she had thoughts as well, and then Jamie asked if I was going to Comic-Con in San Diego. I had no plans, and he had a clever way for me to attend, but I was uncertain — four weekends of travel in a row this summer and then an out of town friend visiting me in MA made this tough. Besides, aren’t all the hotels booked? DePriest and both Sullivans had suggestions for where to stay, how to get around that problem. It was a funny scene, me thinking that fate was telling me to in fact attend the big show in California. I left it at “maybe.” (And later, a “not this year.” But I hope Jamie and Erin Sullivan have a great time about a week after I post this.)
DePriest and I got back to talking. We were lightly, occasionally interrupted by customers — the con had now opened for its “Friday Night Preview.” It was wonderful seeing DePriest in his element, rattling off what a certain loose G.I. Joe action figure was (this particular Cobra Commander was red because he was part of a “Crimson” multipack, Cobra Commander having traditionally been protected by the Crimson Guard). Also, seeing two different people eyeing his book and then DePriest explaining what it was. There was a particular power in the use of the first person voice, “this was a line I worked on at Hasbro/I led this line of Star Wars figures at Hasbro,” neither cocky nor self-effacing, just casually factual. Someone browsing at a toy convention night not think a former Hasbro VP would be reselling old toys, but he was. A fancy Star Wars book at that dealer’s table was even more intriguing. I told DePriest a funny Larry Hama story, about Projects X, Y, and Z in my own life (separate from my G.I. Joe history book), and then DePriest offered some advice for my book. A few times I thought “I should go get food,” but was also enjoying the chat, and I’m averaging seeing DePriest in person only once every two years. This felt like the time to talk, when the con room was quiet, as the next day I’d be busy with panels, and there’d be crowds of people, hopefully taking up all of DePriest’s time!
I checked my phone. I think we talked for an hour and a half! Lovely. Conventions are so important and great. Instead of leaving and getting very late lunch, I kept walking the con room, taking photos.
Joey and Ibby of Frisco, Texas. They do one toy show a year — this one — and Pokemon card shows.
More dealer photos will appear in Part 3. Over on the far wall were tables for four voice actors, including Keone Young. I had dined with him and Larry Hama two years earlier at JoeFest, where he had said something interesting about voice caster and voice director Wally Burr. I had half-remembered it, and had put it in Chapter 6 of my book, but suspected I got it wrong, so I wanted to check. He corrected me, and offered a little history lesson, which I appreciated.
At around 7:30 I realized I was faltering. My plan had been to get lunch one, two, or three hours prior, but now I desperately needed food. Con organizer Greg Brown told me the 8pm mixer would have snacks, maybe finger food, but not dinner. I headed to the little snack kitchenette next to the front desk and bought a premade salad, a cookie, and nuts. If I ate these down in the lobby, I would surely get distracted by yet more interesting people, so I needed to gobble these up in my room.
At 8:15pm I headed down to the mixer. The hotel had two bars. One was its own self-contained space, while the other was part of the hotel restaurant, where folks would get breakfast the next day. Neither of these had a name as far as I could tell, just the Marriott’s bar and its restaurant.
COMMANDERS PACKAGE MIXER——-
For attendees who paid extra, this was a casual get-together in the self-contained bar. There, you could mingle with the con’s Hasbro guests away from their tables in the con showroom, a casual way to kick off the con. I don’t love bars, and even though this was brightly lit like a cafe and not a raging party, I still had a moment of “I should leave and just go sit with whoever’s in the lobby” when I saw this:
But I spied Kurt Groen (design) and Vinnie D’Alleva (marketing) with a spot open next to them. Both of these are guys who kindly gave interviews to me some years ago, plus several follow-ups, a mixture of in-home, at-office, and by phone. Groen I had gotten to show my book before the pandemic, and D’Alleva I had called just a few months prior, so these were guys I wanted to check in with. A fellow attendee was there, but after a bit he ambled away. Brian Savage, who gets a paragraph below, joined us, here in the middle:
I wasn’t sure how much into G.I. Joe or toys-nowadays or my book they wanted to get as the show had just started, so I began with small talk. Someone mentioned hot dogs and I asked about mayonnaise, if Groen, Savage, and D’Alleva liked mayo on french fries, that kind of thing. Artist Larry Selman walked up for a minute and I lobbed that dumb question at him, too. Groen has foodies in his family, and talked about a few European cuisines. A waitress brought a pizza that Savage had ordered. I gave D’Alleva a little update on my projects and we talked about childhood and imaginative play. I told a long story about some G.I. Joe figures I have hidden in my house (I’ll share this with you one day, dear reader) and D’Alleva seized upon the idea with a way to turn it into a business. We chuckled over that — I’m too busy to start another job, so maybe he’ll do it and cut me in. It was great to catch up, to be con buddies with a Hasbro guy or two for a half hour or so.
Some people left the bar, and I looked for water, which was not free. I grabbed a little package of Planters trail mix from the prepackaged snack “finger food” area and thought the next day I’d surely have a food emergency. I went back to the high table where I’d been, but sat on the other side, and queried Brian Savage. Years ago he ran the Official G.I. Joe Collectors Club and the Official Transformers Collectors Club, and along with those, the two official conventions, JoeCon and BotCon. (Long time readers of this blog will recall I went to Savage’s cons in 2010 and 2014 through 2018 — read all about them by searching “joecon” here at the blog — plus a BotCon or two in there.)
For a long time I was both a little grumpy at Savage, as well as harboring some guilt over something I did at some of his shows. It was fascinating to re-evaluate Savage over the course of this long conversation, almost an interview, but no audio recorder present. My grumpiness had developed over what I thought was his bedside manner at cons. Now I realized he just had a matter-of-fact way of speaking, and a sense of humor I hadn’t caught before. Additional grumpiness had come from the high prices of his conventions and con toys and merch. Savage contrasted his business plan with those of the people who had run G.I. Joe and Transformers conventions before him, and explained why and how he had needed to charge what he did. And even though he was a 12-inch Joe fan, looking back to the guests and toys at his con, and the evolving demographics of fandom, I can see how he was an ally for the 3 3/4-inch G.I. Joe toy line even while not being its biggest fan. The same goes for Transformers, that Savage didn’t seek out the Transformers club and con licenses, that he was asked to take them on. Quite interesting.
I don’t have many photos of Savage, but I wanted to break up these paragraphs a bit, so here’s a flashback:
At two of his final conventions, I snuck into the Saturday night dinner party without paying, which I later felt bad about, like I should call him up and mail him $80. Especially since two decades back he put a Boston Globe reporter on my trail, which got me a half-page photo and some quotes in the newspaper. Savage waved it off, no need to feel guilty about crashing those parties.
We also talked about a key person in 1980s G.I. Joe fandom, who owned a store in Texas, and of whom I’m trying to track down a photo. That led to a bigger recitation, from Savage, of his involvement in G.I. Joe fandom in the ’80s, his day job before that, how his Master Collector evolved, and how he approached his conventions. With a little scuttlebutt mixed in. I could feel a new paragraph emerging in Chapter 13 of my book. I should probably actually interview this guy!
Frank Coroneos walked over and I took a photo.
Interesting fact about Brian Savage: despite managing hundreds of exclusive Transformers toys and both G.I. Joe figures and vehicles in the 3 3/4-inch and 12-inch scales for 20+ years, despite knowing so much about where Hasbro’s steel toy molds were and their condition, he has never been to China.
Gray Childs walked over and we caught up. I had briefly met him in person at JoeCon in maybe 2015, where he was a guy in a cowboy hat handing beer to people in a crowded hotel lobby, a hangout I didn’t stick around for. More importantly, two years back he contacted me and we worked it out that my comic book shop in Massachusetts would send him his comics in Texas. Effectively, here at the Marriott in 2025, this was us meeting in person for the first time, despite me occasionally fielding a phone call or social media message from him. I asked Childs what his role was at the DFW Show and he said he had appointed himself its guest social coordinator. I thought he was joking.
Aiden Childs, who I wouldn’t properly meet until Sunday, walked over. I didn’t know who this person was, but he was excited that Guy Cassaday had drawn something for him. I recognized the Persuader tank, that Cassaday designed in the ’80s, and thought this was a fun twist on getting art from a convention guest — not a Batman drawing by a comic artist, but a tank drawing by a toy designer. Cassaday was beat from a long day, and he mentioned this the following morning, so I have replaced him here with his well-rested counterpart:
After I left the bar, I was going to retire to my room. In deviating a few feet to get more photos of me in front of the vertical DFW Show banner, I started talking to Gray Childs again. This was funny, because we had just been talking in the bar, and we’d all agreed not thirty seconds ago that it was late and we should call it a night. Childs and I talked about a comics writer whose work we both like, and then Frank Coroneos walked over, and we talked for another 10 minutes about the feeling at a con like this, the friend- and family-reunion of it. Childs had a story about picking up guests at last year’s con, and a particularly nice interaction with Larry Hama therein. I noted the percentage of dealers at this convention that were selling comics books, and talked a little about comic book history, which I’m always ready to rattle off. At 12:30am I was very tired and we three actually called it a night.
—-End Friday!
In our next exciting episode, Tim sits in on panels, sits with an artist, and eats standing up!
A Real American Book! 