Any Joefan who’s spent more than ten seconds of time around me knows my biggest lament these days, and it’s not any different than a healthy percentage of the group as a whole… I don’t have any space for displaying my stuff.

Now, it’s not really a question of space itself.  I share a two-bedroom apartment with my roommate.  I bought a couple of small shelves for my room which have already been filled with 25th Anniversary figures, from the beginning of the line until Wave 02-08.  Everything else that I have, including many army builders from the initial waves, is still in its package and arranged in neat stacks.  This includes:

• 5 COBRA Troopers and a COBRA Officer
• 3 COBRA Air Troopers
• 6 Crimson Guardsmen
• 7 HISS Drivers
• 4 Snow Serpents
• 3 BATs
• a COBRA Night Watch 5-pack, and both COBRA TRU-exclusive 3-packs
• a COBRA Legion 5-pack
• Waves 03-08, 04-08, and 05-08 in their entirety
• 6 Target-exclusive vehicles, including 4 HISS tanks
• 7 Wave 1 vehicle packs, including 3 HISS tanks and 2 RAM/Trubble Bubble packs

There’s a reason why I refer to my bedroom as “Cappy Mike’s Army Builder Emporium.”  When I finally do make some room/buy some shelves, it’s going to be a long afternoon of freeing my toys from their plastic prisons.  Despite having a large amount of space to work with in the common area, the only G.I. Joe piece in the common area is the G.I. Joe Hydrofoil from a couple of years ago, perched high atop the entertainment center.  Why this particular piece, you may ask? The answer is because it’s both bitchin’ and boss.  But I digress.

My roommate, Nate, is actually quite immersed in geek-culture himself, although he’s kind of between foci right now… it was anything related to dragons a few years ago, it was CDs for a while, and he’s really into movies, but his going back to school has limited his ability to buy those, either.  He thinks the Joe stuff is pretty cool, actually.  However, I tend to be more concerned about his two cats, Georgie and Bugs, and how they think the Joe stuff is pretty cool, too.  As it is, Bugs, who’s a year old but has a vertical leap reminiscent of Shawn Kemp’s in “NBA Jam,” can jump to the top of the entertainment center and has shown some interest in Flint and Beach-Head’s ride, but he’s still too weak to move it very easily, and there isn’t enough space for him to walk around behind it and knock it off.  This will most likely change within the next few months, so I’m thinking I’ll need to move the Hydrofoil sooner rather than later.

Georgie, a female eight-year-old tabby who’s got an extra pound or two, has been causing more trouble of late.  The cats have never been allowed in my room, but she’s finally interested in getting in there.  She has the ability to headbutt the door to my room open, with the singular purpose of running to the off-limits windowsill.  Again, as she’s getting up there in years and is a little overweight, she has to use everything in her path as a stepping stone to get there.  Still, this usually works out okay.  However, she has no ability to get down without crashing though the stacks of army-building goodness.  And man, does she scatter ’em good.  Good enough that I’m glad I’m not a mint-in-box guy.  Furthermore, when she gets into the room, Bugs, ever the dutiful little brother, runs in after her and takes shots at the loose Joes standing on the wall-shelves.  (He can’t quite jump that high.  Yet.)

Suffice to say that Georgie and Bugs are basically good little critters who are far more personable and approachable than most cats and haven’t broken or lost anything yet, so other than squirting my water bottle at them until their little faces are good and soaked, I’m not inclined to exact any further punishments on them.  So what’s the point here?

I just thought it was a funny little juxtaposition of G.I. Joe crossing into my day-to-day life.

Don’t roll your eyes at me.  You were tired of reading about Tom Brady.  You know it.