My latest Projects

I've always wondered how to tell the difference in the baby feet. It's my understanding
they are smaller, but I've never found feet that were smaller than the others I have.

And the beefy hands, are they thicker than usual? Both make this a first edition Joe,
don't they? The shirt has no pockets, which is consistent with the first wave of figures.

I rarely see Joes with brown hair. The uniform looks to be in really good shape. If it were
me, after clean up and repair I would put him back in that uni. A first run figure is quite
a find!

Darryl,  The feet really are smaller.  I have a couple in my collection and side by side, the difference is obvious.  The hands are thicker too.  I would have to defer to an expert as to whether this is a first edition, but it is early for sure.  The uniform has some problems, but the jacket is in very good condition, so he will keep that. One of the boots is cracked, and will be replaced.   The pants are missing snaps, which I can correct.  And I need to take another look at the shirt. My goal is to have him restored by New Years. We'll see.

Enjoyed your Joe photos Myles...

It's my understanding the first Joes had baby feet and rubber boots. The boots are
basically impossible to find. Are those boots rubber?

I think they are. They seem thinner and more flexible in the toe than the plastic ones I have.

My latest project is my very first muscle body rebuild. I'm using a Cotwold rebuild kit. I started by cutting the elbow rivets and removing them, and then cracking open the bicep pieces using a hair dryer for 2 minutes to warm it (not sure it that helped at all) and then prying it open by shoving a pair of needle-nose plyers into the large hole until the pieces broke in half. As you can see, some pegs are broken, however it fits together very securely, and will bond tightly together when reglued. I'll show "after" pictures soon. First I'll get the rejoint kit installed, and show you how it looks fit into the arm pieces.

Looking forward to seeing him progress!

Me too .

Nice !! Looking forward to see it completed.

My newest project will be a double restoration of these two figures I picked up from Ebay on 4/12/22.

Last night I put the talker's left hand back on his left arm. I also gave him two feet which are roughly of the same vintage. The right shoulder is cracked in three places, which is why the original owner scotch taped it together. It wasn't enough to hold the pin which attached to the rest of the arm, so they taped the arm in place. I am now looking for a shoulder piece for a painted rivet Joe talker. I'd rather not have to put the metal rivet in a a non-talking shoulder piece. The hunt is on! I also ordered two feet for the AT Land Adventurer. Once those arrive, I'll restring him - however his original string looks good, so I may only need to replace the hook which attaches the cord to the neck post. I'll hope that's all that's needed. Once he's together, I'll have a look inside the talker. The string retracts SLOWLY, and the sound is garbled. Probably a bad speaker maybe shifted to block the string. We'll see.

Tonight I restrang the Land Adventurer. I was able to use the original elastic, since the figure hadn't been played with much after the hook holding the head on snapped. This must have happened early in this Joe's life, because he's in really good clean condition with the most pristine elastic I have seen. I still am waiting for his feet, but here he is as of tonight. By contrast, the talker's strings are worn out. He's very floppy, and will need a restringing as part of his restoration. Also a really good scrubbing. This is one of the dirtiest figures I've ever purchased. He should look much better after the full treatment

Today the feet for the Land Adventurer arrived, and he has them on now. This figure is complete except for his uniform, which I'm still deciding on. I decided the talker's arm is so damaged that I used another spare talker arm I had in my parts box. I kept only the forearm, as it is more of a color match with the rest of the body. I took a look at the talking mechanism while I had the chest open, and noticed that the fly wheel is having a hard time turning on it's own. So maybe a little oil there will solve the problem. The original speaker is in there and looks good, so maybe all it needs is a cleaning and a little oil. I'll try it and post once I know. There are two blue marks on the left side of the talker's head. Some zit cream is on my shopping list.

I looked more closely at the talker's mechanism tonight. Tried replacing the speaker, but it didn't do any good. The string retracts slowly and haltingly. Right after I replace the speaker the first time, it retracted all the way with no effort. But after putting the new one in, it went back to being slow, and with the old speaker it's no better. Must have been a fluke. Nothing is impeding the string. My next thing was to look a the needle and tape. Nothing seems amiss. However I didn't look at the needle under a magnifier so who knows? Next I'll check the fly wheel and see if the felt is out of place. I feel like I'm a long way from fixing this.

Thanks for the update Myles. I wish I knew more about the talking mechanisms.

Here is my latest project. You can see two figure need both lower arms and hands. The third is pretty beat up but only needs a left hand. The two feet on the Sea Adventurer were left feet. One turned out to be a Mike Power foot. So I need a complete pair of feet. I think I have some on an AT Commander lower body. I'll use those. The hand will be a bigger problem. And two of these Joes need reflocking. More to follow.

This evening I worked on the three newest Joes quite a bit. I found feet for all of them. I decided to give the "new" feet to the Sea Adventurer since the skin tone was the closest of the two. So the other foot on the Sea Adventurer went to join the right foot the Land Adventurer still had. I found lower arms for the Sea Adventurer and a left hand. I also found two lower arms for the Land Adventurer that was missing them. I still need hands for him. The other Land Adventurer that was missing only his left hand, I realized I had one left hand in my parts bin with a painted rivet. However that Joe's right hand had a painted rivet too. So he got the left hand and they both match. The foot on the Land Adventurer to the right was broken off. The peg had to be knocked out with a hammer and screwdriver. I had to remove the lower leg first, which required a vise, some rubber gloves, and a lot of sweat equity! But it got done. I love my vise! I have a nice magnetic attachment to it which will hold objects at different angles and in different sizes. It's extremely useful for removing stuck pegs.

Great work indeed!

Nice work John! I too have a hobby vise, but no magnetic function.

I envy that you have vintage parts for your Joes. I have recently had to go to Cots repro parts for bicep down to
hands to try to get some complete, along with feet. Works in progress due to funds, unfortunately.

It's always great to see old figures brought back to shape!!

I've bought a few sets of arms several times over the years, and sometimes pairs of feet. I also get parts sometimes in the lots I buy. Up until now that helped me complete a lot of Joes. Now, I mostly have upper arm assemblies, a few lower legs, and some neck posts. I also have several of the chest and abdomen parts, and thigh parts. Those came from one lot I bought a long time ago. I've just always liked using vintage if I could. Now that parts and everything else are more expensive, I'll probably resort to Cots for any new restorations. These may be the last I can outfit with arm pieces for a long time. I'm hoping inflation comes down before too long. My hobby depends on it!

I also prefer to use vintage parts when I can. I have chests, abdomens and thighs, but it's rare I need those.
It's the arms I usually need. And hands and feet. Not having those in my parts box I've had to go to Cots.

I guess the arms, hands and feet are the most easily broken? Or most consistently broken? Or the easiest lost?

Probably so. I've had several arms that had destroyed shoulders, and forearms cracked along the entire length. So yeah, they're most likely the most "fragile". Most incomplete figures I see for sale are missing the forearms and hands. I think people strip them off to repair other figures, and then sell the rest on Ebay for people like me to buy.

Great work. They are coming along nicely. I hope we get to see the fully finished articles. You guys are right about damage to arms on these figures.
I think you may be on to something Daryl.
Are they just the elements that impact the ground more often in the myriad drops, knocks and falls these vintage figures suffer?

I didn't think of the falls and bumps, you're probably very much correct on that Kev.