The late but ever great Charlie Chaplin, a truly timeless "action figure" in his own right

In honor of the 83rd anniversary of the original release of the iconic final speech from Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' (October 15th, 1940), and with much deserved applause and enduring gratitude to all of the many folks who continue to share clips from the film like the one embedded below.

Perhaps all I can add then, is that... okay, sure, Chaplin himself later in life said that if he'd known while making the film that the Holocaust was actually taking place at the time, he'd most likely have never made it at all. But I for one am really glad that he did.

I've read quite a bit about Charlie Chaplin, and although I think most people would agree that, behind the camera, he was far from perfect, at the very least, the vast majority of his impeccably crafted films will, I am quite sure, continue to stand the test of time.

Was Charlie actually "a communist," or just merely naively sympathetic to "the cause" at a time when Marxism wasn't yet well understood in the West? Not that it actually is, even to this day! Worse yet, was Chaplin a perhaps unsuspecting pioneer of Hollywood's now infamous "casting couch" tradition?

Maybe so. And if so, and there really is, as I truly believe, an Afterlife, where we all eventually must go to atone for our often blindly committed sins, then so be it. And besides, far be it from me to judge.

All I know for sure is that I still adore Charlie Chaplin's films, and The Great Dictator is beyond doubt my absolute favorite. Because I could watch and listen to that perfectly worded and flawlessly performed final speech a million times over and never ever get tired of it.

And believe me, I'm no Marxist. Never have been, and I never will be. But I know universal truths when I hear them. And I know good art and timelessly classic artists when I see them, too, and as far as I'm concerned, Charlie Chaplin was most definitely one of the very best there has ever been. Whether he was ever actually a completely flawless human being, or not.

20101123 - War Games CQB

On an isolated island somewhere in the South Pacific, our favorite boys in green face off in one of their usual bouts of fun and war games. Though they all fall down eventually, they just keep getting right back up to do it over again the very next day. Such is the eternal life of a venerable toy soldier.

This 1:32 Scale diorama was created with air and hand-brushed acrylic paint and spray enamel on fiber board and Styrofoam (with just a few little digital enhancements here and there). For this particular project, I used 63 of the 'Toy Story Green Army Men' (from the 72-piece "Bucket O Soldiers" playset). The diorama itself, I created primarily from garbage. Yes, garbage!

You see, in South Korea, all household trash must be meticulously separated to comply with the government's national recycling program. However, as one might imagine, not everyone here (or unfortunately, even in many other parts of the world) is particularly orderly, conscientious. or fastidious when it comes to putting out their garbage.

In fact, South Korea, like other countries in the Asia Pacific region in particular, tends to be quite awash with litter (particularly in certain areas) because many people here are either just too poorly educated (or just too lazy) to put their trash in the proper receptacles. But then.... there's the South Korean government that doesn't even provide public trash cans! And no, I'm not joking.

But the good news is, that if you're a big, "dumb," foreign (American!) guy like yours truly, then all you need to do to find some real gems from time to time is to take a walk around just about any neighborhood in South Korea on any given day.

So, believe it or not, this particular project was assembled using a discarded fiber-board table top I found on the curb outside my apartment. Then I added a few strategic sprinkles of aquarium rocks and various pieces of Styrofoam that tend to get carelessly thrown out on just about every street corner over here.

I'm not really sure if Koreans don't realize that improperly discarded Styrofoam blows away in the wind with relative ease, or... they just don't really care. Though, sadly, I'm afraid that it's more often the latter rather than the former.

Anyway, my trash collecting ways makes my Korean wife sometimes affectionately refer to me as "고물상 (Gomul-sang or, junk man)!" Ha-ha! Or rather, bwu-ha-ha! Because, as the old saying goes, "One man's garbage is another man's treasure." ;)

Lastly, if you love toy soldiers (and specifically little green army men) as much as yours truly, you've absolutely got to check out Mega Hobby.com.

Quark, the Quirky Sci-fi TV Series That Premiered Right Before Star Wars

I don't know if Quark was actually the best show on TV, but way back in early May of 1977, even before the premiere of the very first Star Wars feature film (on May 25th, '77), it sure as heck was a lot of fun to watch. Especially if you happened to be a big fan of science fiction and fantasy in a day and age when the genre was as yet almost completely ignored and unappreciated by most TV networks and major motion picture studios.

Richard Benjamin & the babealicious Barnstable Twins

Then again, maybe the real reason why Quark was such a sight for sore eyes was because of "The Bettys," the scantily clad clones, Betty I and Betty II (Cyb and Patricia Barnstable - and don't ask me which is which in that photo!), that shapely pair of blond, disco-era hotties that any self-respecting heterosexual, pubescent American boy would eagerly ogle every time the show graced the NBC airwaves - though perhaps clandestinely, especially if your parents just happened to be watching too - right there in the very same living room....

Ahem.

To be more accurate and fair though, one of the Bettys was supposedly a clone, while the other was the original. Either way, they were the pilots/navigators of the United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol Cruiser commanded by Adam Quark, played by the sly, wisecracking, ever grinning like a cat in ye olde catbird seat Richard Benjamin, whose character, hilariously enough, claimed to only be in love with one of the Bettys - though he was never quite sure which girl was which....

To be honest though, as a kid, I couldn't quite figure out how a guy like Richard Benjamin even got the starring role in the first place, but then, the rest of the cast was pretty comical (and some even came off as downright miscast) too, come to think of it. It sure wasn't cerebral-minded Star Trek fare, that's for darned sure! This, despite the fact that several of the episodes were direct parodies of the aforementioned Original Series.

And given that the short-lived (mid-season) replacement comedy was the brainchild of Buck Henry, who is perhaps most famous for co-creating the original Get Smart comedy TV series, the sometimes stale humor set against the backdrop of sci-fi themed sets and scenarios makes a whole lot more sense. Well... even though a lot of times, it still didn't make all that much real sense at all. But hey! I was still elementary school at the time, so what did I know?

So maybe I just need to find that wonderful old show and watch it all over again. Because, hey! I still have incredibly fond memories of Quark, and even of Richard Benjamin's cheesy lead performance. But then... maybe it's just mostly that I miss ogling the Barnstable twins. Hmm. Maybe! Just maybe.

Further Reading:

* The Super Saturday Short-lived Showcase

* RetroPhaseShift

* Space:1970

The End, and a Whole New Beginning

This isn't exactly an historically accurate Appomattox Court House scene, but rather, an Old American West set that I recently built for my growing collection of Marx Johnny West action figures and accessories, and since I absolutely love these Timeless Collection GI Joe Wal-Mart exclusive figures from 1998 that pay tribute to Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee and Union General-in-chief (Lieutenant General) Ulysses S. Grant, I decided to set up a photo to commemorate the April 9, 1865 surrender of the Confederacy that effectively ended the American Civil War on this day 155 years ago.

Imagination is the True Beginning of All Things Great and Small

So use your imagination. Not drugs. For not even nostalgic dreams of bygone days when once you were (or could have once been) "somebody," can truly save you from the often frightfully all too real horrors of Life. In fact, you, all of us really, we're all somebody at this very moment, on this very day. Everyone matters, no matter how small, no matter how old, no matter how young. Absolutely everyone. 🙂

Not All Apes Look Alike

Yeah, that's Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) in the middle, but that's not Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) on the left there. That's Dr. Maximus (Woodrow Parfrey), who, in this particular scene, is just about to admonish Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), saying, "And you know the rules. No animals allowed outside the compound. And most especially not without a leash." 'Cause not all apes look alike you know.

It's Always a G.I. Joe Adventure Team Christmas

20151224 - A G.I. Joe Adventure Team Christmas

What's Christmas in the Action Figure Universe without a little trip down memory lane to good times long past?  For me, one of (if not THE) most wonderful and memorable Christmas gifts I've absolutely EVER received was in the early 1970s, when I got my very first ever G.I. Joe action figure for Christmas!  That Hasbro, G.I. Joe Talking Commander (as represented in the image above, top row, center) was and still is my absolute favorite G.I. Joe figure of all time.

Of course, a whole lot of G.I. Joe and related toy history has come and gone like water under that proverbial old bridge since those thrilling, imaginative and exciting days of the original sixth scale Adventure Team, but I guess I'll just have to always be an old softy for that particular era of Hasbro's perennial favorite toy for boys.  Heck, even us bigger boys (and plenty of girls, too) still love really well made toys, do we not?

Interestingly enough, unlike Ralphie in the timeless classic, A Christmas Story (by the late, great satirist and author Jean Shephard), who wanted nothing more in all the world than "an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle" for Christmas, I didn't even have a single clue what I was getting from Santa the year I was lucky enough to get my first G.I. Joe.  Not until that magical, misty, nostalgia enshrouded December morning all those wonderful years ago anyway.

But why, kid?  Ask Santa for an Adventure Team G.I. Joe!  I promise you WON'T shoot your eye out!

So way back then, I had no idea how G.I. Joe and the classic Adventure Team would end up having such a profound effect on my life.  I  really didn't.  Seriously.  Only dear old Santa Claus (and my thoughtful, incredibly generous and hard working parents, of course) had even the slightest inkling just how much good old fashioned Adventure Team style goodness was headed my way on Christmas morning.  And I'm pretty sure that even they didn't realize just how much that one gift was going to stick with me for literally decades and decades to come.

So was my young mind just plain wasn't prepared for just exactly how many seemingly never ending hours of imaginative play time fun I was about to enjoy.  I was really young that Christmas, of course, so I sincerely doubt I could have been much more than 5 or 6 years old when I first beheld the now immortal visage of my Talking G.I. Joe Adventure Team Commander.

But let me tell you, fellow kids and kidults of all ages, the moment I laid eyes on that pint sized beauty (that rugged, manliest of manly action figures, actually) in his trademark green jacket, trousers, and nifty removable black boots - who also just happened to be packing a shiny black shoulder holster, complete with Lebel revolver, it was all over.  Even more pleasant to my prepubescent peepers was that trademark fuzzy, "life-like hair and beard!"  So, as you might well imagine, I was hooked for life, dude!  I mean, come on... how could any self respecting boy child reared in the 70s ever possibly ask for anything more?

Oh yes, friends of the G.I. Joe, Action Man, Geyper Man and Action Team faith, the momentous year that the Talking Adventure Team Commander magically appeared under my family's Christmas tree may very well have been the very best one ever!

And the real beauty of it all was that with that tiny, 1:6 scale revolver (that was standard issue with every G.I Joe Adventure Team figure up until 1974, when Hasbro switched to a hunting rifle accessory), there was absolutely no way whatsoever that I'd ever end up being haunted by the perennially confounding words of dire warning uttered by just about everyone to poor old Ralphie: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

Ralphie (Peter Billingsley), about to shoot his own eye out!

But strangely enough, the thing that I remember most vividly about that golden Christmas past, was struggling to put my own tender young mitts into the exact same pose as that original "hard hands" G.I. Joe figure.  Which, as most collectors of vintage original Joes know, looks something very much like this:

My now much older mitts in that classic "hard hands" G.I. Joe pose

Yeah, those were the days, my friends!  Unfortunately, most kids nowadays don't have a clue how much fun collecting sixth scale G.I. Joe really is.  On the bright side however, there's still the International G.I. Joe Collectors' Club for all us old die-hard vintage style G.I. Joe collectors.  Thankfully, they still produce exclusive Hasbro licensed figures.  Most are the 3 3/4" variety of G.I. Joe (which I also really like), mind you, but thank goodness, they also offer "12 inch" G.I. Joes as well.

Actually, the term "12 inch" annoys the crap out of me, because technically, vintage style G.I. Joes have never been a full 12 inches tall.  Okay, call me a stickler, but most Joes tend to be much closer to 11 1/2 inches in all actuality.  Some of the sixth scale Club produced G.I. Joes (made from body molds originally used for Hasbro's Timeless Collection figures) are even just a bit short than that.  Unless you count the ultra detailed (but also equally EXPENSIVE) Real American Hero figures that Sideshow Collectibles has produced for a number of years now, that is.  Those guys are definitely 12 inches tall.

At any rate, this Christmas, as with every Christmas, would never be quite complete for yours truly, without G.I. Joe and the good old Adventure Team under the Christmas tree.  Okay, okay, I'd take some Star Wars figures, too, I guess.  They'd do in a pinch, of course.  Maybe some classic, MEGO style 8 inch Star Trek "retro" action figures.  Yeah!  Or some Marx Johnny West style "recast" figures from Classic Recasts.  Yeah!  Oh, what a greedy kidult I truly must be!  But Christmas tends to do that to kids of all ages, you know.  One way or another, Merry Christmas, everyone!  And "God bless us, everyone."