Assembly Required 2025 – the A Real American Book! Convention Report / Part 1 of 3

Click any photo to enlarge.

INTRO—–
I’ll assume you’re familiar with Assembly Required from my 2022, 2023, and 2024 con reviews. If not, it’s run by Codename: Iowa, which is about six people, it’s a great convention, and it’s very small. Last year’s attendance was I believe 300. To use a boxing analogy, it’s greatly punching above its weight.

[Skip ahead to PART TWO or PART THREE]

THURSDAY—–
For a week I’d been concerned about getting to Iowa. With the federal government shutdown and the FAA’s cutback to 4% and then 6% and soon-to-be 10% of all domestic flights at our top 40 airports, I assumed I’d have travel complications. Especially since there are no direct flights from Boston to Des Moines. I had a connection both ways, so I packed two books and a magazine, thinking I’d be sitting at an airport or on a tarmac for hours. To my great surprise, Logan was quiet and empty, and both flights there and both flights back went off without a hitch.

As I was mid-air a few early arrivers in Des Moines went to the warehouse of a toy store. I wouldn’t feel any FOMO this year — just making it on time would be a victory. Post-pandemic my take on fun trips has changed. Rather than feeling like a missed day is a loss, I see each day with friends at a festival or conference as a victory. I was just happy some folks got to go to that toy store! Especially since I already knew that pal Jason Murrell of the Order of Battle podcast, who’d texted me a few weeks earlier about our shared interest in the G.I. Joe (card) Deck-Building Game, couldn’t attend; and especially since pal Carson Mataxis of 3DJoes and the incredible Art of G.I. Joe publication couldn’t attend; and especially since pal/writer/famous person had called to say he couldn’t make it due to travel complications. Hama had had a travel challenge the previous weekend getting out of Durham for a different convention. If these three people I anticipated seeing wouldn’t be at AR, I’d just have to have extra fun. Of note, a few people did have small flight delays, or drove instead of flying, but it’s mostly a con that attendees and dealers drive to.

In the Hilton lobby I said hello to con co-organizer Travis Webber, who told me about his day job and his interesting day job-before-that. Here’s other con co-organizer Brian Sauer, one more reminder to click any photo to enlarge:

There’s a fun G.I. Joe reference in that shirt, which Sauer designed. That’s one of the ways CNI (Codename: Iowa) raises money, by selling amazing t-shirts. Did a little saying hello to other con pals, and then got dinner with Ron Wagner. This is where I’d post a photo and type out all the interesting things he said about drawing comics, but I did most of the talking (my trip to NYCC and getting my comic, The Center Holds, off the ground, read about that here), and then we forgot to get a photo. But the tacos were good, and the series of white, red, blue, and yellow lights in the ceiling cast a pink light over us. Wagner has been chipping away at a long-term comics project that he can’t talk about, but he’s almost done. Half as a joke, on the drive back I brainstormed for Ron what he might do next, which editor to contact at what publisher and which story to try and draw.

Outside the hotel I said hello to Tristan Rudat and con guest Ron Rudat outside. We caught up a little. I’d briefly seen Ron at a show in June. Inside I talked with Kenny Koepnick. He manages The Toy Department, a toy collectibles shop in Ohio. We compared notes on retail. Mike Irizary of the What’s on Joe Mind podcast, Pat Stewart of the Articulated Points podcast, and Josh Eggebeen of the After Action Report guides joined us.

No gaming took place. (Two years ago the Thursday night involved a small game of G.I. Joe: Mission Critical and last year was the G.I. Joe Axis & Allies.) I was fine with one less thing to do. Just standing and sitting and seeing friends was plenty, and there’d be some gaming the next day. Chris Murray, who (as I keep typing here at the blog!) let me photograph his toy collection for my book and is reading all of my book, suggested we have breakfast the next morning.

Jumping ahead to the next day for this fun photo, hey, it’s that guy I know!

I retired at 11:30pm.

FRIDAY—–
Here are myself, Chris Murray, and Dan Musick having breakfast!

They live near each other in Texas and traveled together. Musick collects international Joe, and while I’ve said hello and goodbye to him several times over the years, I think this was our first real conversation. Murray and Musick had to get to the con room to start setting up the Declassified booth, the traveling “museum” of rare pre-production art and artifacts.

I headed to the hotel lobby to see who I might run into. There I found Mike Irizary, quick-witted longtime member of the What’s On Joe Mind podcast, and Joe Slepski of the Joe on Joe podcast. I had never met Slepski, nor really heard of his podcast, so I asked him about it. He explained he’s been doing his show for nine years (wow!), and described his format, and we talked some about comics aesthetics, and I realized we’re pretty aligned on what makes comics good. Josh Eggebeen wandered over and said “Oh, good, you’ve met. I’d wanted to introduce you.” I took a selfie.

CUSTOMS CLASS—–
Friday 9am to 2pm was the Customs Class, run by Coby Brown of AVAC’s Lab.

Inside what would become the panel room were a handful of folks hunched over tables. Their extra $60 had gotten them in, including instruction from Brown, access to tools and paint, and a kit. Here’s the beautiful, little box–

–with pieces to turn a 6-inch G.I. Joe Classified Footloose figure into a land-based non-wetsuit-wearing Wet-suit–

No one would be disappointed if the accessories came in a plastic baggie! There’s an example of dealer Kenny Koepnick referring to how “overproduced” this show was. But that’s a compliment, that in every way Assembly Required goes above and beyond to make this tiny show more fun, more relaxed, and more beautiful.

(When we were kids, my brother explained to me that the Joe who looked the most like Wet-suit without that gear would be Muskrat.)

People at work:

This gentleman said his daughter (who had stepped out for a moment) was choosing not to follow any guidelines to create a particular version of Wet-suit:

Certainly some of the supplies that Brown brought:

Before I left, I noted the three previous years’ signs for this Customs Class. I appreciated the visual history, each sign reflecting that year’s con theme.

BACK IN THE DEALER ROOM—–
Still setting up, here’s Brian Kauffman with one of his cool/weird customs. As the Snowcat is my favorite vehicle, I can’t decide if this is an unholy union or a hilarious and cute effort.

Stopped by the Declassified booth, still getting set up, and talked to Peter Hubner about the mind-blowing Hector Garrido original cover art (from the Ballantine Books Find Your Fate novels on display there. As Joe Declassified has a no-photos policy, here’s what it looked like:

Talked Patrick Stewart at the Declass booth, and to Josh Eggebeen, whose After Action Report booth was next-door, about Chinese and Japanese G.I. Joe comics publications. Walked over to Eggebeen’s booth to see what was new with AAR:

Here’s a dealer, I think Midwest Vintage Toys, setting up:

There were two tables filled with oversize stuff like this, a few Transformers characters and ’80s Joe vehicles scaled up to 6-inch/Classified size. The table was sponsored by Mark 2 Toys, and a sign read “Do you 3-D print and G.I. Joe?” along with a QR Code, so it was not a part of the art contest, but a display. I think the color reference for the Whale and the Tactical Battle Platform here link to Autobot Seaspray.

And one row over was the Mark 2 Toys table, with these 6-inchers for sale:

Here’s 1980s Hasbro designer Ron Rudat (right) and Tristan Rudat (left):

And Ron’s prints for sale:

I talked to them for awhile. Over the years Tristan and I’ve cross paths a few times in the Boston night club scene, and now we cross paths at G.I. Joe cons. I first met him in 2005 when I at Ron’s home in Rhode Island for my book research. I told Tristan about the two different current G.I. Joe comics continuities. He mentioned he’s about to move, and someone in his circle likes tabletop games. I pointed over to my shoulder where The Dealt Hand would be teaching and running three different G.I. Joe games, and joked he should join me. He said he probably would.

Out in the hallway, at the Registration Table, a bunch of show programs:

And here are two Codename: Iowa volunteers applying stickers to CNI merch, cabinet video game accessories scaled for 6-inch Joe toys.

Ran back to the hotel for lunch. And back at the con. Still in dealer-set-up mode, here are artists Ron Wagner and Phil Hester pretending to have a conversation:

And some Phil Hester and Travis Hymel original art pages from April’s G.I. Joe: Special Missions – Beach Head issue #1:

Here’s YoJoe Java, which specializes in 3-D Printed products and services and customs toys.

Here’s Mark O’Byrne at the Skeletron table:

Aaron Detrick, longtime toy seller, who I wrote about in last year’s AR review (the “Aarons of the Universe” charity auction) and in this year’s JoeFest review (Detrick’s memorial/wake), has been immortalized as a 3 3/4-inch Skeletron figure. The Skeletron booth had a few for sale, with more to arrive in the future. It’s a stunning action figure, and proceeds go to Detrick’s family. Kudos to Skeletron and Grindstone Toys for this:

At this point it was 4pm and the Friday Preview hours began, so dealers were done setting up and shoppers started roaming the con room.

Here’s Kenny Koepnick selling as The Toy Department, a brick and mortar in Ohio that also does dozens of conventions each year.

Note on Koepnick’s left shin a tattoo of the Doug Hart art for the Yeti toy package. Something I forget is that dealers are generally stuck at their tables/booths for the whole con, so they can’t make it to a panel. They everal waves and sizes of Transformers Blokees caught my eye, and Koepnick explained what they all were. I started salivating. It’s one thing to see the first wave at a pop culture store in New York a year back, overpriced. And as blind bags, I likely wouldn’t get the one I wanted. Also, aren’t they unpainted? (No. That is incorrect.) But here at the convention a toy expert broke it all down. If you don’t want duplicates as you hunt for a complete set, buy the complete box! While we talked, someone walked up and was startled at the large-scale Soundwave Blokee, and bought it. Koepnick asked if I had any, if I’d built any. No. He offered to let me open one and build it, so he’d have a loose sample on display, which he explained makes them sell better.

I’ve been thinking about these a lot as targeted ads for them appear more and more in my Facebook feed. Those ads have digital renders of the toys, so they look amazing, plus fun CG animation of them running and doing battle. And the almost-chili proportions are mega appealing. I’m generally not in favor of Transformers that don’t transform, but Koepnick said they’re big sellers because adults and kids like them, and since you build them and then play with them, they cross over to LEGO fans. Plus, The Toy Department’s prices were really good. I could feel myself weakening — was I going to buy one? A case? Several cases? Building one and leaving it there would scratch an itch!

I picked one from the Transformers One wave (the CG movie) at the “regular”/second-smallest scale (the scales have confusing names, like “Galaxy” and “Classic”) and had a lot of fun building Wheeljack. The piece with the eyes and his head fins was particularly satisfying.

Here’s dealer David Bell (third from left) with an impressive Flagg display and a bunch of Classified figures. He explained that he’s moving to Washington, D.C., and needs to sell his collection. (I would buy a Classified Copperhead from him for $20 the next day.)

Here’s David Marroqion of Craft & Conquer. He’s now part of Codename: Iowa, so he was helping out with the con. This was only his second year as a dealer, so that’s quite a journey.

Close-up:

And one of his 3-D print designs, a new take on Dino Riders, but using modern Jurassic World dinosaur toys as a base.

At around 5pm, I corralled Tristan Rudat over to learn Renegade’s G.I. Joe Deck-Building Game. While I own the game (and several expansion kits) at home, I don’t make the time to play, so it ends up being an annual thing, and only at this con. The Dealt Hand’s Joel Roth guided us, and a Joe fan named Becky Clemens joined us.

Roth had to leave early, as The Dealt Hand was booked for two different gigs on this evening. I think he was headed to the science museum in town to run D&D. A con attendee named Jason Jensen, who I’ve not met before, happened to be watching Roth leave, said he played the game and knew well its rules, and so we invited him to sit in as replacement guide.

At 7pm the con room closed. Everyone slowly scattered. Some were headed back to the hotel for a break, others would get their own dinner, not part of the ticketed event next door. That one didn’t start until 8, and I didn’t need to walk back to my room, so I stood in convention center’s outer hallway, hoping to bump into someone interesting to talk to. It was quiet, but Tim Dzieciatkowski walked up and said that someone had suggested he look at a toy photo I’d brought. Indeed!

A few years back I acquired a model of what I thought was a G.I. Joe prototype vehicle, a one-person tank. I’ve sent a photo to two former Hasbro folks, and they didn’t recognize it, so I brought the photo with me to AR and showed it to six toy expert/friends who’ve already appeared in this “Friday” blog post. None of them recognized it, and one thought it might be from a different toy line based on the size of its seat — a little big for an ’80s Joe. I showed the photo to Dzieciatkowski. He didn’t recognize it, and then asked if I had the part number. This model is in a box at home, and I hadn’t photographed the bottom, so if it did have a part number, I didn’t know it. Turns out that Dzieciatkowski has over the years paid careful attention to G.I. Joe pre-production part numbers. It feels less and less likely this tank is part of G.I. Joe. Cyndy Allard took this photo of us:

We walked across the street to Buzzard Billy’s for dinner. Here’s the ticket in, another example of Brian Sauer’s fine design skills. Not a county fair/Skeeball “admit one” ticket, but this little card printed on 26lb. stock:

I complimented Sauer on the ticket, and he pointed out they were individually numbered. Note that sideways “052” — mine was the 52nd dinner ticket bought. Why make things easy when you can make them hard and beautiful?

The temperature was unseasonably warm all weekend. No jacket! For Iowa in November, that’s odd.

DINNER AT BUZZARD BILLY’S—–
In the back of Buzzard Billy’s there is a separate room. People were ordering drinks at the bar, standing in line for the buffet, and sitting four to a table, talking with friends. There’s always a nice energy at this event because the convention guests tend to come along (Wagner and Rudat were there already), it’s easy to get to from the Hilton and the convention center, and after a long day of setting up, selling, and buying, people are ready for food. While at the bar I stood next to Tristan Rudat, and we talked about his dad and Hasbro. We walked back to his table, which is how I ended up with Tristan, Ron Rudat, and Becky Clemens again, those latter two from my card game just two hours prior!

We talked about Tristan’s G.I. Joe documentary, my book, and a little bit about Hasbro in the ’70s. It’s funny how the tides of a convention take you in one direction or another. I hadn’t set out to spend so much time with Tristan Rudat, but the convention kept bringing us together, and it was all interesting and delightful.

G.I. JOE TRIVIA AT BUZZARD BILLY’S—–
After finishing food, I had said goodbye to the Rudats and Clemens, and thought to wander around the bar and find other friendly faces.

I happened to be standing near the front of the room when trivia started, and I got invited into a team. It was 9:30pm, with the venue switching from one with a limited number of tickets available to an “open to the public” one. I’m normally not interested in bar trivia, but G.I. Joe trivia with G.I. Joe fans at a G.I. Joe convention is up my alley. (Also, there’s a movie trivia that just started up near me at my local movie theater’s event space I’ve been meaning to check out.) Josh Carlson MCed, with his son, Xander, running the slideshow and checking answers.

There were six rounds, and they went faster than what I’ve experienced at bar trivia. My team would name itself “T&A,” which I would like to think stood for “Tele-Vipers and Alley-Vipers.” It consisted of (left to right) Josh Eggebeen, David Hernandez (who I’d passed earlier at the Customs Class), Greg Agustin (part of the After Action Report team and a great designer), Paul Panfalone, and another fellow whose name I didn’t catch.

There were different categories, and some were a little cheeky, like “Crappy Vehicle Brigade.” Our team was weighted with expertise on the comic books and cartoons, and less so the toys. My goal at trivia is to not come in last. Out of let’s say ten teams, 7th or higher is a win.

We came in 2nd place, to my great surprise! Also, before the final round began, MC Josh Carlson stated that we’d probably need to all answer the tie-breaker question. My team got that right, but the 1st place team did not, so while it wasn’t weighted more than any other question, and we did not need to use the tie-breaker, emotionally it felt like we won the whole game.

For the record, that tie-breaker question: In the ’82 to ’94 line, how many distinct G.I. Joe characters are there in the toy line? (For example, Roadblock counts as one, no matter how many versions he got, and Steel Brigade is not a character.) As our team quietly huddled, I did some math, guessing an average for each year and multiplying it by 13. Eggebeen and Agustin started higher, thinking to their After Action Report ITAL character guide. That number seemed too high to me, so I arbitrarily added some to mine, and we settled at 180. The winner team (that got this answer wrong) guessed 140, and the answer was 166, so we were closest, off by only 14.

Here’s the fun Codename: Iowa merch each of the dinner attendees got, a neat pin set. I asked Brian Sauer about his process to come up with that background image, which I guessed was either a stock photo he’d futzed with, or an object he’d poked holes in and illuminated from behind. I love how it reminds you of a Hector Garrido explosion without being one, and its soft focus doesn’t overpower the little pins sitting over it.

Someone called me over to where a group of Aaron Detrick’s friends were about to toast him with shots. I’m no fan of shots, but I understand their occasional importance. It was just one year ago that Detrick and his wife renewed their vows, right here.

The crowd had thinned out, and the last of returned to the hotel lobby to hang out.

Hey, it’s that other guy I know!

—–TO BE CONTINUED!

In our next exciting chapter, Tim moderates a panel, buys some art, and surprisingly at this toy convention, buys some toys! [Part Two] [Part Three]