[Part One] [Part Two]
In our last exciting episode, Tim moderated a panel, bought a few toys, took a bunch of photos, and solved all six Assault on Cobra Island puzzles! What’s inside the locked metal safe? Read on to find out and click on any photo to enlarge.
A quick refresher: each year the Codename: Iowa team has a simple scavenger hunt for children at Assembly Required. Kids visit certain vendor or guest tables, collect “Flag Point” stickers, and redeem them at the Registration Table for a prize box. (An excellent prize box.) For AR ’25, the CNI folks, wanting to level up that kind of game, but also wanting to tell a story at the convention (and in the months before it, with fans picking which Joe characters would take part in the “mission”), created a multi-step puzzle for grown-ups. Kids could take part as well, and I did see a dad and two older kids filling out the word puzzles after solving a mission “objective,” but I think someone younger than, say, 10 wouldn’t be able to do this on their own.
While some knowledge of G.I. Joe was helpful, it was not a pre-requisite to solve the puzzles. They were more logic-based. But they were G.I. Joe-themed! This game was a remake of the 1986 “Live the Adventure: Mission I — Invade Cobra Island” contest, when kids picked certain characters based on specialty, filled out a form, and mailed it to Hasbro. (My brother and I tried but gave up because it was too hard.) Winners got a patch, and 10 winners would be selected to win a USS Flagg! In 2025, Codename: Iowa was running a version of this, except instead of getting a map in specially marked G.I. Joe vehicle boxes and mailing in our guesses, we picked up the mission game card upon entering the convention and turned it back in there.
Returning to my con report, it’s Saturday afternoon. I’ve solved all of the mission objectives. Each was a different mini-game or logic problem, and each took place at a different place within the convention room. At the Registration Table, CNI’s David Muenchrath handed me a second level objective. This turned out to be a puzzle in the form of a letter from Hawk, referring to someone on Cobra Island trying to get intel to the Joes. Without a spoiler, there was a kind of word jumble to solve, and using that and the answers from the five “level one” objectives, I now had a code to unlock the sealed metal safe.
Would it work?
Yes! Yes it did.
Inside the safe were several tiny, black padded envelopes, each sealed. (You’d take one and leave the rest for other people Assaulting Cobra Island.) Inside was:
-a patch
-a raffle ticket (yellow, not red — for the Grand Prize raffle, not for the hourly raffles)
-another printed letter
-a fan-made G.I. Joe accessory sized to Hasbro’s 6-inch Classified toys
The patch was G.I. Joe-adjacent, and again, a way of re-creating the 1986 Live the Adventure contest with its patch.
The letter was an intercepted communique from Cobra Commander.
It referred to an “unearthly energy source,” and that we’d now be heading to space. I took this to be teeing up next year’s Assembly Required theme. (2023 was Dreadnok-themed, while ’24 was Destro and Iron Grenadiers.) So 2026 would be… I’m not sure. Star Brigade? Somehow tied to Transformers, since the communique referred to a “space bridge,” the Decepticons’ preferred method of traveling from Earth to Cybertron? (I don’t actually think Assembly Required is suddenly going to be a joint-G.I. Joe/Transformers convention next year, but to the extent that Joe and TF have always casually crossed over, and it’s in the air right now with the Energon Universe comics from Skybound, I couldn’t help but think “Transformers!” for a moment. No, I think it’s a cheeky reference, and next year’s AR will just somehow involve Joes and Cobras in space. And maybe the Lunartix Empire? Probably not.)
The toy accessory was a 3D-printed container of, well, it’s definitely Energon crystals, even if no one called them that.
All in all, the Assault on Cobra Island game was a lot of fun. I appreciate this leveling-up of themes at Assembly Required. It reminds me what 3H Enterprises (Jon Hartman, Karl Hartman, and Glen Hallit) did at BotCon ’98 through ’00. That was the official Transformers convention, with Hasbro approving exclusive toy releases and sending representatives to the conventions. And because this was during the era of the Beast Wars toy and TV show, the “Reaching the Omega Point” convention story took place during the Beast Wars, used those characters, and even added a few, all in an expanded continuity. A script reading with TV voice actors in the ’98 show hinted to something bigger, a text story included with pre-registration materials and the BotCon ’99 program continued it, and a comic book available at BotCon 2000 wrapped it up. The con-exclusive toys were those new characters, and the story (mostly written by Simon Furman, known for the US and UK Transformers comics and one episode of Beast Wars), was on a big scale considering the dribs and drabs we were getting. Since there were no Transformers comic books being published, that BotCon had pulled off a new one in 2000 (and ’97) was a big deal for comics people like me. Because the story was told across several years, and mostly the only place to experience it was at a single weekend con (in Anaheim, then St. Paul, then Fort Wayne), it felt special and exclusive.
There are big differences between 3H Enterprises and Codename: Iowa, and the Hasbro of the late ’90s and 2025. Importantly, CNI does not have a license for G.I. Joe conventions. Assembly Required is an unofficial con. And for better or worse, 3H spent a lot more money than CNI.
I don’t wish to imply that CNI is going to tell a multi-year convention story with escalating exclusives. And there’s certainly a limit to what AR can do with its smaller footprint, fewer attendees, and no official collectibles or cooperation from that big toy company on the East Coast. But there is a parallel. The Codename: Iowa crew, or maybe just Brian Sauer and Travis Webber at the top of it, want to have a theme that carries over, that escalates. And having an activity and a bit of merch this month at AR that we’ll learn more about next year reminds me of that three year BotCon cycle. I imagine that in addition to actively planning for AR ’26, CNI has a jot list for the ’27 show.
All of this was buzzing in the back of my head as I opened the safe, read Cobra Commander’s message, marveled at my little Energon container (yes, that looks like it could stick onto the MASS Device), and later, when the Grand Prize was raffled off.
I want to accentuate this point. As kids we played G.I. Joe games, pretending we were the characters and acting out stories with our toys. And here at this convention, in the middle of all these toys, we were playing a G.I. Joe game, pretending we were the characters and acting out a story. Lots of fun, and I heard from a few other attendees that they enjoyed this game specifically. I’ll add that in a general sense I enjoyed having one more new thing to do. Even with talking, looking at toys, buying, panels, and the Dealt Hand’s gaming tables, I could still feel like I’ve seen this all, done this all, since I’ve been to several ARs and many other toy cons. A puzzle-game-story was a great addition.
But let’s get back to the afternoon between the second and third panel.
Three of the Finest’s 234th Tigerhawks were posing for photos on the mini stage, so I grabbed a shot. Note the Assault on Cobra Island/Fans in Command theme in the backdrop:
This Tele-Viper had a scrolling LED display, transporting me into a 1985 animated episode of G.I. Joe.
On the topic of cosplay, here was a fellow as Chuckles.
Besides The Finest, there wasn’t much cosplay at the convention. I saw a gent dressed up as Clutch, but I think he and Chuckles were it for attendees. This was a little disappointing. And here I’ll mention that not only was the cosplay attendance off, so was just plain attendance. The show looked and felt thinned out from last year. Assembly Required never gets crowded, but there just weren’t a lot of people walking around the show room or the outer hallway.
Some of this was an illusion since the convention had more space. The organizers rented another exhibit room, so the whole dealer space was spread out. But there’s that two-word explanation for a lot of America’s problems these days: the economy. I don’t know how many people heard about Assembly Required in the last year and decided to attend, but then changed their mind months or even weeks ago, but it happened.
Good news, CNI isn’t trying to maximize profits. Rather, its proceeds go into next year’s show. And this is a year-long cycle, from appearing at JoeFest in June to sell merch and advertise AR, to the online-only A.R.M.O.R. “convention,” to non-attendees buying Assembly Required 2025 items before and after the show. I don’t think a less attended show means that next year’s show is in trouble. I think it means that the team will work hard starting now, and like all cultural events (big movie releases, concert tours, toy conventions), we’ll hope for an upswing in the coming months.
As it’s thematically related, I’ll point out a few more missing pals. A year ago I’d had lunch with mega collector/super nice guy Drew Hagerty, and we’d said hello in June at JoeFest. He wasn’t in attendance. Author/researcher Dan Klingensmith was also not in attendance. I’d seen him this summer as recently as June selling books at the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) show. And live-streamer Chris McLeod of The Full Force not in attendance. There’s just a good feeling when a G.I. Joe convention, whether big or small, has a certain, minimum population of G.I. Joe experts, whether they have a table to sell and a big banner announcing their merch, or are just walking around and not really buying or selling. We talk, catch up, get a meal. All three were missed!
That said, there was still a lot of fun, and anecdotally I overheard someone in CNI saying that several attendees had raved about the selection of stuff for sale. And as hopefully this con report communicates, I was mightily satisfied by my friend-hanging, toy- and -art-shopping, food-eating, and game-playing. Let’s get back to the chronology. Now it was time for…
PANEL #3: INDY TOYS WITH RON RUDAT—–
At 3:30 the final panel of the day began. Left to right are Ron Rudat, who in his post-Hasbro career has contributed greatly to Carson Mataxis’ Operation: Recall figures; Troy McKie of Grindstone Toys, makers of Callsign: Longbow; RaginSpoon, who’s contributed to many of these indy lines; and Ben Conway of Skeletron, maker of the bananas Robo-Skull vehicle and Skeletron 6-inch line. Part of the story here is the sharing of expertise and crossover of skills — both Grindstone and Skeletron worked on Skeletron’s 3 3/4-inch figures, and both companies plus Spoon worked on the Skeletron “Yeti” figure. And of course all these people grew up loving Rudat’s G.I. Joe work.
This would be a good place to note that while getting into Assembly Required for the three-hour Friday preview cost $15, admission on Saturday was free. That’s another key element to the relaxed feeling there. At many conventions I’m aware that everything costs money: the added dinner, the early entry, the meet and greet, the exclusive merch, and so on. And I don’t wish to be unfair to certain con organizers — when the scale of attendance and show space demands a huge financial investment, it might equally demand a series of charges for con items and experiences. And con-exclusive items at Assembly Required do cost money. But at least with AR’s small size and monetary ethos — Codename: Iowa just wants to maximize experiences — the overall feeling is like a big picnic. You can see that as people stroll into the hallway on Saturday and don’t fork over any money to get in. No, the CNI volunteer just says hello, hands them a program, and welcomes them to the door into the con hall.
But who pays so that admission on Saturday is free? Why, it’s sponsor Skeletron!
Somewhere late in the afternoon, the Declassified guys let me have some of their pizza. Thanks, Sam Damon!
BACK TO THE EXHIBIT HALL—–
Artist Phil Hester was three-quarters through a commission he’d started the day before:
Artist Ron Wagner was on one as well:
With panels over, at 4:30pm the convention slowed down for the Grand Prize Raffle. Travis Webber took to the miniature stage again, and thanked the Codename: Iowa team. I realized I hadn’t made it to artist Kickliy’s table, and stepped away to look at art. Not prints, these are all originals!
Kickliy remarked that he hadn’t been sure what to bring, so he just brought all of it. Well, maybe not all, but a giant box filled with paintings and drawings of various sizes. It took me ten minutes to flip through! There were G.I. Joe, Transformers, Shogun Warriors, Beast Wars, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, He-Man, and more. There were paint-and-ink battle scenes, painted recreations of package art, toys-as-objects, and color sketches of characters in action. It was extraordinary. Here I’ve now flipped through one-third of the box:
Podcast Mark and I have had Kickliy on Talking Joe [watch or listen], so you can learn more there, and I had sat with him for a half-hour at the DFW show in June, so I very much think of him not just as an illustrator, but as an artist. This next image is another stack of originals, with prints to the right and bound booklets on top:
We didn’t really talk — the show was ending and I needed to concentrate on this amazing cache of work — but it was nice to just stand there with the artist and his art.
Travis Webber continued with announcements, including Skeletron’s Ben Conway calling out winners for the coloring contest. And then Webber called out raffle winners. (These were the red raffle tickets that you could buy.) A friend won two recent G.I. Joe toys, and immediately handed them to a stunned 12-year old kid standing next to him . The raffle is yet another bit of community-building. Dealers donated prizes, and while some are common, like a Classified figure-in-package from last year, some are rare and valuable. But all the raffle tickets purchased help fund the convention, both this year and next, and the feeling amongst the 50 or so people gathered around Webber was less “I want to win a prize” and more “let’s watch people win cool stuff, and we might win, too.”
Then came a reveal for next year’s AR. Someone pulled the red cloth off that mystery object between the Assault on Cobra Island boxed set and the metal safe. It was a diorama with Classified Joes (regular ones you can buy at stores, not customs) heading into what can only be called a Space Bridge:
Note that the Classified Joes are all the same characters at the 1980s 3 3/4-inch scale in that custom box set, so here the story of the convention was being depicted: We (the Fans in Command/these Joes) were successful in the Assault on Cobra Island mission, so now we need to follow that intelligence into — where else does a Space Bridge go? — outer space. Here’s a slightly different angle, note the Energon fuel on the left:
I think the Space Bridge was a custom piece. What’s up with Roadblock’s blue bowler hat?
Webber drew a yellow raffle ticket from the Grand Prize box and some lucky person won the 1980s-style Assault on Cobra Island boxed set (a photo of which you saw in Part Two).
SHOWROOM CLOSES—–
At 5:30pm the convention officially ended. Attendees were encouraged to head out, and the process of breaking down booths would begin for the dealers. I find this part a little sad, so I took some stuff back to the hotel room, including some Transformers Blokees — yes, I had caved. But the con room was also where the action (or un-action or de-action, as it were) was taking place, so I headed back and talked with Patrick Stewart for awhile. Kenny Koepnick and Chris Neal were finishing packing up around us, and carting boxes of toys out to their vehicles. While Stewart and I waited for someone to come fetch us, I inspected a loose Roboskull Yeti figure, which I hadn’t handled up close. Amazing.
And then Chris Murray texted me to say a bunch of people had taken the hotel shuttle to Zombie Burger. This is the Saturday tradition. Stewart and I did the 15-minute walk across town to catch up. The weather wasn’t too cold, although I did wear a winter hat if not a coat. I asked about Stewart’s work at movie theaters, and when we got to Zombie Burger I told him about the animation jobs I had before I started teaching. There was a giant line for seating on the left side of the restaurant, but no line at the takeout register, and a bit of seating at the shared stool tables on the right side. We found a tiny table no one had noticed, and wolfed down burgers, fries, fried pickles, and shakes.
This is an important balance, that half of a toy convention is the dealer room and the panel room, with toys for sale, and raffles, and gawking at rare and valuable stuff on display while talking with friends. And the other half is walking to and fro, getting lunch, getting dinner, and talking more about G.I. Joe, but away from the sales room.
Some folks headed over to Up Down, a barcade two blocks away. We lingered with some of the Toy Department folks at Zombie Burger, and then walked over ourselves.
UP DOWN—–
My Saturday dinner ran long at last year’s AR and I missed the video game/bar excursion, so I was pleased to catch it this year. And even moreso that the main group of Joe fans stayed for what seemed like two hours! I have a lingering childhood feeling that all video arcade time is limited, that my parents have only given my brother and I three quarters, or they’ll be back in 20 minutes to pick us up. Now, as a grown-up, I have a feeling of getting away with something when I can put a ten or a twenty dollar bill into the token machine and stay as long as I choose.
The game of choice was once again Killer Queen, a retro-graphics TEN PLAYER GAME (yes, up to five on one team against up to five on the other) that most resembles the 1982 Joust. Various Assembly Required dealers/attendees took up all the spaces for a good hour, which initially disappointed me, but that allowed me as much time as I wanted to play Paperboy (still charming), Moon Patrol (still hard), and Arkanoid (still impossible). One game in particular was a funny serendipity — I’ve only ever played it about five times despite my childhood arcade having it — because I had just read the section of Brian Jay Jones’ 2016 biography of George Lucas on this very same movie:
Indeed, Artoo, I made it.
Next I played Smash TV, which felt topical with the new The Running Man in movie theaters. The guy next to me reacted in surprise that this game was here, and nudged his girlfriend to pay attention to it. He asked if he could join, and so we killed a lot of mutants and robots for a good while. Later, I was standing in front of it again when Chris Murray decided to pump five bucks into it, so I played it some more, this time as Player 2 (taking up the role that was mine when my brother and I played in 1990). A spot finally opened up at Killer Queen! There all of us on Team Gold felt the wrath of Team Blue, led by Skeletron’s Ben Conway — he once owned one of these machines, had gotten very good at it, and was the most vocal each time his side crushed ours. Then some people switched around, and maybe a non-Assembly Required person took a spot.
It took me a little while to remember the rules. There are three ways to win a round. I appreciated that in the age of smart phones and AI, here were ten or 15 guys just pumping quarters into a retro game where you try to grab as many berries as you can, get your snail to the goal, or kill the other queen. Left to right: Bill Leach, Sam Nekola, myself, and Sean Harker.
Somewhere around 10 or 11pm, a few of us walked back to the Hilton, leaving a bunch of folks still playing Killer Queen. I noted that Off-Road was still at Up Down, but the two-player Konami G.I. Joe was not. I also played a little pinball upstairs. Come to think of it, I had barely gone upstairs in ’22 and ’23, and for being at ground level and more about the bar and less about the arcade, it had a different vibe. Two more awesome things about Up Down: all games took one token, like in the ’80s. (Nowadays old games have been priced up to cost two, three, or four quarters/tokens. Or worse, a card you load with credits.) And we got there early enough that for a time the bar was giving out two-for-one tokens!
Back at the hotel lobby, about ten of us stood around, and then sat around, talking about, what else, G.I. Joe toys. Someone brought up the Aire Devon collection, a highly-regarded but now broken up and sold off collection of domestic and international figures and vehicles. I told a story about buying some animation art at BotCon ’94, and past midnight said my goodbyes.
Up in my room I packed.
SUNDAY—–
I grabbed food and headed to the airport. I missed the group breakfast, but still had a tremendous trip. To repeat from Part One, rather than focusing on the fun things and people I missed, I was relieved that I even made the trip at all, what with air traffic control and government shutdown delays.
Thanks again to the Codename: Iowa team for putting on a great show! I’m always tired and a little grumpy after running an event at my store, and those tend to be two hours and limited to a single room. I can’t imagine blocking out hotels, coordinating with a convention center for tables and chairs and getting doors unlocked at the right time, making sure that VIP guests are taken care of, and that dealers are happy. I look forward to Assembly Required 2026, and it’s (probable?) space theme. I sincerely hope that my friends who didn’t make it this year can and do next year!
A day or two later, Travis Webber posted some thank yous online, and by including it here I can credit everyone who made the convention happen: “Mark G. Gerwig, Coby Brown, and David Marroquin for your awesome design work and your help before, during and after the show. David Muenchrath and Steve Kelting always taking care of the guests and crew. Alex Bainter always doing everything that needs done. He even got his mom to help out with registration. Big shout out to Luke Slaymaker and Taylor for stepping up and pitching in. You guys are officially part of team Code Name: Iowa now, lol. Chad Baker really hit it out of the park with the story and game elements this year.”
Goodbye, AR ’25!
Click [here] to listen (will update when the episode is posted) or watch (again, not up yet) my Assembly Required panel. To re-live the adventure and jump back to early sections of this AR ’25 con report, [click here for Part One] and [here for Part Two]
A Real American Book! 