So, when Hasbro has very little presence at JoeCon and there’s no real new product reveals, beyond the toy dealers, what is there on the sales floor to garner the interest of the fandom?

Turns out, there’s a whole bunch!

The sales floor this year was pretty amazing, actually, with a plethora of excellent dealers and a TON of G.I. Joe product (among other things).  As always, I didn’t get a ton of time to walk around, but the time I did spend was pretty incredible.  Chris Neal’s booth was astounding as usual, and I got a chance to have great conversations with Robert Atkins, Marauder John and Carson from 3D Joes.

Perhaps the most welcome and pleasant surprise, though, was the new product reveals that WERE there.  No, nothing G.I. Joe related, but several companies had a presence on the floor, introducing new product and upcoming releases.  Even if Hasbro themselves had little to share, for fans of 4″ scale action figures, there was still a LOT to love.

Complex

RagingSpoon had their brand new Complex base building kits on display and available for purchase, and by all accounts, they were exceptionally popular.  I saw folks buying all weekend long, putting things together, and really loving what they’re doing.  The diorama was amazing, and they also introduced a new “catwalk” addition that is in production phases now for a series 02 release.  Complex base building kits are still available for pre-order on SmallJoes.com and should be shipping within the next few weeks!  You can also check out my review of the Complex building kits right here on GeneralsJoes.

Eagle Force

Yes, it’s been a while since their Kickstarter was funded, but I’m happy to say things are moving right along for Eagle Force.  They had paint masters on display at the Dime Novel Legends booth and they’re looking pretty awesome!  I don’t have a precise time table for shipping yet, but it’s always cool to see the physical product out there in front of you.  It makes it a little more real.

Marauder Task Force

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to talk with Marauder John for a few minutes at the booth, and it’s always a huge pleasure.  He also had his amazing JoeCon exclusives on display along with test shots for the Exo-Suit, the K-9’s and some of the upcoming World War II Kickstarter figures!  Always a highlight of JoeCon to me.

Dime Novel Legends

Some physical samples of the upcoming Dime Novel Legends cowboy figures were also on display at the Chicken Fried Toys booth, and things look like they’re coming along very nicely there, too.  Things are still in the midst of the production process but it seems like they are moving right along.

Animal Warriors of the Kingdom

Also at the Chicken Fried Toys booth was the latest samples from Animal Warriors of the Kingdom (Deluxe Wave up on Kickstarter now!) which featured a nice mix of samples of their Deluxe product as well as more regular releases as well.  Great stuff for 1:18 scale fans.

VSS

Okay, this blew me away!  An amazing project that looks to take a well-designed schematic and make “build to order” sets for the Venomous Sea Serpent, a COBRA-themed aircraft carrier/attack boat.  It looks like a spectacular display piece and it was great talking to the folks behind it.  More information can be found right here as well as in the Facebook group.

JoeDeclassified

I need to take a moment to talk about JoeDeclassified as well, even though I couldn’t take any pictures of their fantastic booth.  Pete Hubner was there with his 2-up collection and it was IN-SANE.  Dude even had a Hit & Run 2-up.  As always, the DeClassified guys were very awesome, had a fantastic freebie, and always a steady stream of people in and around their booth.  One of the highlights of JoeCon for sure.

All things considered, the sales floor was pretty amazing this year, full of great product, access to awesome Joe-lebrities and some really cool new reveals to keep things interesting.