As I have said many times across the Fwoosh, vehicles for 6-inch figures are rare enough, but 6-inch scale playsets? You really can’t afford to pass on those, regardless of line, size, and sometimes even price.
So if customizing vehicles isn’t stressful enough, then taking on the playsets is just asking for it. A lot of collectors don’t even bother with them, no doubt because of the commitment in space and money it takes. I’ve always loved them, though. And as I’ve gotten older, and since my imagination doesn’t run as strong as it used to, I’ve needed them more to enjoy my collection — where once a bookshelf and some Legos could suffice, now I have to be able to actually see the base of operations, etc., rather than let my brain fill in the details.
Now, you combine that affliction with a love for G.I. Joe — a line that is pretty much dead to all but nostalgic collectors and customizers — and you have a painfully tall order. You have to build custom playsets and vehicles to go with your custom figures.
But that just makes it tougher, but not impossible. Unlike most custom projects, I’ve known for some time what I wanted to make and how I wanted to make it, I’ve just been waiting on the right price, the right parts, and enough time to put them together. And if there is one good piece of advice you walk away from this series with, when it comes to building your own playsets, it is take your time; let things fall into place.
When it comes to choosing a G.I. Joe playset to revisit, there’s really only one option: the USS Flagg.
… yeah, in my dreams. No, the obvious choice for an updated playset for me, at least, was the original 1983 Headquarters Command Center.
There are a few reasons for this, lots of them nostalgia-based, but the important ones here are the practical ones. The original HQ was very clever in its simple and open-spaced layout, with lots of room to store and service the medium-sized Joe vehicles of the era. It was a good call for play as well — the idea being that to augment the firepower of the exposed main turret in the center, you would pull your MOBAT or Vamp into the two vehicle bays, where they could add their weaponry through the slotted walls.
But aside from the vehicle storage — a near impossibility with most of my 1:12 scale military rides — the HQ had some solid staples that any playset should have: a command center, with computer consoles and such; a jail cell; and storage for weapons and accessories.
So the idea at its simplest form is to use that same three-segment design of the HQ, and apply those three specific features to the space inside.
I had a candidate long in mind for a “base” for my base:
Mattel’s Bravestarr line was a fascinating and sadly short-lived line that really had a lot to offer. For starters, the larger 7- to 8-inch figures had impressive sculpts and articulation for their day, and the few vehicles and accessories were equally as ahead of their time. Fort Kerium has regularly made the lists as being one of the best playsets of the 1980s, and while the collector market has definitely started to climb, patience and persistence can get you one for almost retail. I snagged one in a box over Christmas for about $75.
With Fort Kerium in hand and a plan in place, it’s now just a matter of sourcing the parts needed to bring it out of the “space Wild West” theme and into the Joe-verse military theme. Interestingly, the very outline of the Fort actually reminded me of the second HQ playset from 1992, the fold-out one with the tower.
Not bad, but obviously I’ll need to push the homage a little further. A little scrounging came up with some vintage HQ parts — I’ll talk about those as we get into the build on the next part. As of this writing, I’m actually already into painting the un-assembled parts of the Fort, but I can tell already — with a starting point as nice as this playset, it’s going to be hard to go wrong.
*images courtesy of my friend Carson Mataxis over at 3Djoes.com. Go see him, buy some books and posters!