Does the $70 price tag include shipping or is that extra? I would expect it to be extra but I just thought I would ask. I'd really like to get one of these myself. Considering how hard the originals are to find and how fragile they are, $70 is a very reasonable price. When will you start taking official orders for them and what is the expected turnaround time? Also, how long will you be making these for? While I could afford to get one now, I have myself on a self-imposed spending freeze because of the rediculous amount of money I have spent since JoeCon. So I will have to wait to get caught up on my expenses to get one.

_________________

That Cobra base sounds great!

Yeah I'll have to do shipping as extra, but I will get shipping costs based on where one lives so I can make sure I get the lowest cost for each person. Really I don't mind this at all. It'll be something great to do for the G.I.Joe community and I'm willing to put out the foot work for it.

Timeframe is for as long as it takes to get one for everyone that wants it. Once I do start taking orders, I'll get a list and just go down that list to fill. Anyone else that ends up wanting one can be added. So it'll be an open list. Since they'll be made to order I'll email the next person after the previous person's order has been filled. I can't really say for sure what turn around time will be since it'll depend on how far down the list someone may be. Once you are contacted though, my thoughts are to have it to you within a 2 week span at the latest. Starting to take orders will depend on this little extra stuff I want to add to the project. Once I hear someone on this, I can go from there. It's something that came about at the G.I.Joe con and was an unexpected surprise addition that might happen.

One other thing, if I contact you and ask if you a ready to place the order, you can opt to move to the next person on the list if you are not ready. I'll just move to the next person and contact you again aftwards or even further on the list if need be. These aren't mass produced so it's not like I'll have hundreds at a time and pressure anyone. I have all of the equipment to make these myself, so there's no 3rd party involved that'll cause me any limits.

A little history on this project, for instance. When CabanaJack wanted to do these several years back, there really wasn't too many ways to do these without having to settle for some crappy low quality printing. He found someone willing to do it, but they wanted mass print runs that was going to cost in the thousands of dollars. Passing the cost along to the next person and we were looking at $300+ per set and that's when he was thinking to offer cardboard reproductions. That ofcourse was not an option he wanted to even try. A few people got a little upset at him at the time, but it was better that than the other option.

I had been looking for ways to do this for him myself along the way and there just wasn't anything out there that was good enough. If you just did a print out with an inkjet printer, it wouldn't look good. It would look crappy really plus you'd have to do some parts in pieces. You'd also still be stick with a cardboard version.

Finally I found an option that was going to allow a plastic version with a perfect reproduction backdrop. I had a friend that was going to help me out, but that cost factor came in again. That extra stuff I was going to have done put the cost over $100 like I mentioned. That just really wasn't satisfactory to me, so I invested some money to buy the equipment necessary to do this. Really it's stuff I needed to further my business with t-shirts anyway. It also opened the door for the other options I mentioned along with other future projects. Now that brings us to where we are now.

I just thought a little history recap might be appreciated at this time. It's been a long process. If CabanaJack had actually just put the images out there, someone would have probably taken them and at this point you'd be seeing Ebay version on cardboard running for a few hundred dollars or more. I doubt it would have turned out to be something great. So yeah, CJack and myself have been talking about this for all this time trying to get something to work. Finally it is going to happen and I hope it'll be something great for everyone.

_________________

I think $70 sounds like a very fair price for what you are producing. Definitely add me to the list!

I'm now getting together the official parts I'll be using with the base. I've got some photos to share now. As you can see, the ball is starting to roll. First up:



The backdrop is uncut here. I figure I'll show this so everyone can see how there is no peg holes now. I redid the whole base so that no peg holes willbe on any part. There's not going to be any pegs, so we don't need the holes uglying up anything. It worked out nice.



Here you can see the rocket has the single hole in the back fixed. It was off center on the one CabanaJack had and I think actually off on a good portion of the originals ones. I can drill the hole where it's suppose to be now.

Also the chairs are on this image. I left them the same since I'll be cutting them and modifying them to look better than what the original one was. They'll be nice clean chairs.

You might also see the G.I.Joe Declassified cover on there. I was just making me a sticker to put on my van, hehe. It's a cool image and I figured that would be a neat sticker. This is within the idea of some of the things I'll probably offer for car logos.



Stickers! Yeah this is a 6"x8" sheet. I might put this in as one of the custom sets I'll offer. It'll be $6 (cheaper than the bigger sheets). I'll put these on something tomorrow to show how they look.



This is a Star Wars backdrop. I don't even remember where I got this, but I'm just messing around. Something like this does go along with an idea I have for a future project. I just thought some of you might like to see it for a "things to come" preview.

Again, feedback is welcome on anything here. More shots to come. This first one is actually promised to Kirk Bozigian. He was one of the designers of this and liked the idea of this project. He wanted one and I want him to have the very first base.

_________________

J_Man, you are a class act -- kudos to you!

_________________

Thanks! CabanaJack had talked with him before I did. He had told me about Kirk liking it. He wanted to offer money for it, but I can foot the cost for him. Heck yeah I'll give him a free one. We wouldn't have a lot of the G.I.Joe line the way it was (and is) without him and Ron Rudat. Others too of course but they were some of the biggest parts of it. I saw him later on and told him about it. He was telling me he wanted to pay me for the time and materials, but I was like, no way! He's a real nice guy and I'm pretty sure everyone would agree he should get the first one.

_________________

Better not include shipping! Why you giving away my money Joe! You better charge these MF's $120 - cause I want my big fat cut.



I guess I should chill out since you pretty much did all the work.

But I think I should go back and check out all the hate mail from people from 2004-2007 regarding our delays in producing this steller play set, and be sure they're charged a "foot in mouth" fee. What ya think?



Guys, Joe has done an awesome job on this. You'll definately get your money's worth. Now pay this man for his hard work. Buy one for yourself and one for the guy that posted before you. Buy one to use as a fridge magnet, buy one to use as a car air freshner. And while you're at it, BUY ME ONE!

I haven't figured out how to put mine (which this is based on) back together yet.

-CJack

_________________

wow, that is frickin sweet.

Great job, man, I think everyone agree that sometimes waiting is worth it,

_________________

I really think that looks great, and I think $70.00 is an outstanding price for a project of this complexity. I'll gladly pay that, as it's a bargain. I'm also interested to see the other stuff you mentioned.

G.I. Joe playsets!! YAY!!

like i said at the con. When they are ready to go you guys just tell me ware to send the money.

_________________

I've been holding off posting again about the Cobra Base due to wanting to make sure I have all the supplies and that it will be the best presentation possible. I think in about 2 - 3 weeks I should be making the announcement for taking orders. I'll have shots of the full "production run" version so to speak when I do post. The one I shoot pictures of will be the one going to Kirk Bozigian.

For now, you can check out the display bases I've been doing. Those will be an ongoing thing and I should have a website up soon with at least 50 backgrounds to pick from:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=10966

_________________

I was waiting to fully be ready to fill orders for the Cobra Base, but I guess I can "pre-order" it so to speak. Since I'm hand making these orders will technically be a waiting list anyway, so that won't be any different than letting everyone go ahead and get on the list now. The display bases are up for order now though and will be filled immediately. So head for this address and you'll find a bunch of backgrounds to pick from:

http://djtoys.muchtobuy.com/

New backgrounds will be added periodically. New ideas will also be added. I will be doing the larger sized bases as well, but for now I'm leaving those off the page until I get at least 5 ideas to lay out.

This is the only board I'm launching the page on too for now. Everyone can tell other people they know if they'd like. I don't mind, but for now I won't be posting the page elsewhere. Just more of a thing where I want to officially be filling orders for the Cobra Base before I actually post elsewhere.

_________________

####UPDATE####

Well since it's taking me so long to really go into full production with the plastic base, I'll go ahead and offer something I had in mind to offer early next year. Replacement parts!

People have asked if it's possible to get cardboard parts for a base they may have. I'll go ahead and do this now. The parts will come uncut so they will ship better than having all the tabs sticking out, plus it's easy enough to cut cardboard anyway. These parts have all the tabs and notches on the design. The plastic one does not and has a solid image.

Yeah you could actually buy all the parts and make a cardboard base if you want, but it's cardboard. It'll look like the original, but it's still cardboard. I'd only recommend these parts for those who already has the original but a part is missing or messed up.

The issue with the plastic base is getting parts to line up correctly. I'm hand cutting the pieces and you have to cut the angles just right so that the parts glue up and look good. Basically I'm building a rig to hold the parts so I can make the angle exact on every piece. I'm just not going to send a base to someone and not feel happy with the work I put into it. I have a few pre-orders in and the pre-order is still open for those that want to get at the front of the line. I'm filling orders in the order they come in. It's not much further away til the plastic base is getting a release date. I should have my rig built and working in the next 2 weeks.

_________________

For those of us hardcore 82 folks, would you offer a package deal on an entire cardboard base?

_________________