JoeLanta 2024: A Con Review!

I was asked to have a demonstration table at this year's fabulous JoeLanta! Of course, I still have to cover the astounding showroom and other figure festivities!

This year was quite larger than previous shows!

JoeLanta 2024 took place on September 27-29 at Gas South Convention Center in Duluth, GA! In early 2000's, JoeLanta was a smaller toy gathering by Mellow Mushroom artist, Buddy Finethy! The new show is now under the reigns of Brett Barton and Alex Massey, and they did a super job!

Jason Soule of newly kickstarted Brutal Realm toys is showing off some prototypes of their 1/12 Barbarian figures! He was super nice and very enthusiastic about his upcoming figures!

I am looking forward to these! They have some unconventional subject matter such as West African mythology and North American Indian war chiefs! I only invested in "Mighty Chief Mato;" I like to test a figure before going all in.

Custom Oscar Goldman with suit made by Kathy Ellis! She makes many TV accurate costumes for these vintage 13 inch figures!

Ryan Bonavia of Toy Federation standing at his annual toy booth! I have been buying figures from Ryan for years, and he always cuts me good deals on hard to find stuff. He also has a very entertaining and informative YouTube channel about his store in Greer, SC!

Steve Stovall's revival of Hasbro's short lived 10-inch Super Joe! Named Adventure Command, these figures are super playable and full of imagination! Steve is constantly evolving the series as well, introducing new modular pieces like transparent limbs!

I am assuming this is an ode to Cobra's Destro, but every time I see a silver head, I think more of Micronauts from Takara!

Live from the Man Cave's Paul Knapp! I love Paul's channel and watch it weekly!

These are my favorite type of figures to pick up at toy shows! 1/6 figures are becoming increasingly niche, and fortunately JoeLanta is still one of the venues that focus on them!

White Elephant Toyz is expanding their modular O-ring line, Scorched Earth! These are the villains!

Here are the heroes! I like the Atomic Man-inspired character that is from Huntsville, AL!

Here is their figure of 1980's G.I. Joe Product Manager, Kirk Bozigian! It looks eerily similar to a certain G.I. Joe member who likes to enforce law and instill order...

Spero Toys brought their Primal Series of Animal Warriors of the Kingdom! They even sold a case of Wave 4 which is not available on their website yet! Apparently they got one shipment in, and the others are still at sea!

Spero Toys also introduced their JoeLanta 2025 show exclusive, Falonius! I am super psyched for the new larger, deluxe figure model they introduced in their latest kickstarter!

1/12 fantasy figure company, Savage Crucible, brought their lizard men as well! These are very playable, detailed figures that go well with the Animal Kingdom figures and Mythic Legions. My only problem with them is that they are a tad bit pricier than I would like them to be.

Fellow customizer and friend Matt Bill brought these outrageous customs of Steve Austin and Oscar Goldman as Jules and Vincent from Pulp Fiction!

I did not catch who made this diorama, but I always like to highlight these! This is a G.I. Joe Classified Cobra throne room with a custom hooded Cobra Commander! Creativity is dying, so whoever busted ass making this, kudos to you!

The show also had some very late-announced exclusives! Astro Command supplied a Super Joe with unique uniform, and Alex Massey sold a 1/6 adventurer uniform set with eagle Buddy!

The Super Joes had accompanying artwork!

The 12 inch uniforms came packaged in "Backyard Patrol" baggies reminiscent of the way Hasbro sold leftover G.I. Joe pieces in the 60's and 70's!

There was some cosplay presence as well! Above is a Cobra trooper, Rey, and Brock Samson from the Venture Bros! The guy playing Brock's real name is Xennial MacGuyver; he's super nice and makes  custom figures and cosplays on Instagram as Alpha Magnus!

Bobby Vala marketed his line Valaverse by bringing in cosplayer Chenz18 dressed as the character Pandora! She was very eye drawing!

Chenz18 was also very nice (and nice looking), so I included this second photo of her as well! Good job on that badass cosplay of an action figure!

One of my favorite events of a toy convention are seminars on rare toys. Vintage G.I. Joe expert Ace Allgood conducted a seminar on his collection of vintage 1/6 South American figures!

This is a vintage Lili Ledy G.I. Joe medic; these Mexican figures are hard to come by and are not as well made are their American counterparts.

Joe Super Temerario was vintage G.I. Joe's licensed cousin in Argentina! These are hard to acquire and had very little rhyme or reason as to what they came packaged with!

This is the back of the packaging; these particular figures had a luxury life theme going on!

This is the "Smoking" costume Joe Super Temerario! He has a very Hugh Hefner vibe to him and was definitely an entertaining topic at the seminar!

This is a Mexican Lily Ledy Bullet Man! Instead of super boots, he has red colored Action Soldier boots!

These are accessories from Estrela's Brazilian G.I. Joe cousin, Falcon! These are from when they started making their own space line, Futurista! This was coolest stuff they made!

These are two vintage Falcon figures. They have a unique space/super hero vibe. They were made with muscle bodies, and sadly, their joints did not fare well in the Brazilian climate.

The top floor of the convention had the maker's room where I was set up!

Here are 1/6 customs I made of the trio from one of my favorite movies, Jaws!

Kathy Ellis also had a maker's table! She is an expert seamstress and has given me much golden advice in making 1/6 clothing!

There were a few entries for custom figures. Here are some 1/18 figures made heavily with Marauder Task Force parts!

This is a 1/6 figure of David McCallum's character, "Dispersal," from the 1963 classic, The Great Escape!

This year's JoeLanta was a very fun show with many well-priced finds! Unfortunately, Hurricane Milton made travel hectic, so turnout was not as high as it should have been. I hope to attend JoeLanta again next year. My next article will talk about the exclusive uniform I made for this show and my diorama collaboration with Matt Bill!

G.I. Joe forever!

-Chuck