Since putting this website on hiatus six(!) years ago, the big thing I’ve gotten into with my toy collecting is making dioramas. This doesn’t always mean a full-on structure like a castle or a building (though I do have and love those) – sometimes it’s more representational or abstract, like this one.
I’ve titled this diorama “Incoming.” I love to add dynamism and motion in my action figure displays, which is why I’ve amassed a large collection of effects pieces and various action figure stands (the industry has come a long way from Whippy Superpose).
While I made some of the purchases for this diorama earlier, this one began with the ATV Scarlett is driving. It’s the Suzuki Vinson 4×4 500 Quad Runner ATV Green 1/12 Diecast Motorcycle Model by New Ray, and I got it for a great price from Diecastmodelswholesale.com. It’s maybe a little small for G.I. Joe Classified, particularly the male figures, and that’s not unusual for a lot of today’s “six inch” lines – many of them, such as Marvel Legends (especially the comic ones), Mattel’s WWE, and G.I. Joe Classified – run closer to a 6.5″ scale (meaning six feet = six and a half inches). Diecast 1/12 toys tend to be a more accurate scale. That said, the ATV looks great here and wasn’t really an issue.
The ATV is intended to represent a hunter’s vehicle, so it comes with some great accessories: two 1/12 rifles, a case that can hold either rifle (which fits in a slot on the side of the vehicle itself) and a compound bow. All in all it’s a good deal for the retail price of $20 and a great deal for Diecastmodelswholesale.com’s current sale price of $13.
The next step was giving a sense of terrain. The ground under the ATV comes from the Beasts of the Mesozoic “Desert with Mononykus” accessory set. It’s hard to come by these days, but as of this writing it’s available for $50 here and here. I got it for cheaper (I think $35?) as a backer for the original Kickstarter for this toy line, and honestly I’ve probably had the accessory set on display with various dioramas more often that I’ve used it for the Velociraptor toys it was designed for.
Next I knew I wanted to have the ATV getting knocked by an explosion. The explosion comes from the Bandai Tamashii Nations Tamashii Effect Explosion Red Version. I got this for about $25 back in 2014, and finding an official one of these is fairly difficult now, although there are a lot of cheap bootlegs on eBay.
The ATV is held up in the crash position by a Tamashii Stage Act stand. There are a lot of different versions of these, and this particular one is the Act 5, which is designed for Gundam models and is a little heavier-duty than the Act 4, which is made for Figuarts figures (which tend to be a little lighter than most American 6″ action figures).
Next is Snake Eyes. For those wondering, the body of Snake Eyes is the retail version, but the head (with the silver visor) comes from the Hasbro Pulse Exclusive. The motorcycle he is riding is a Maisto Harley Davidson 2014 Sportster Iron 883. Like the ATV, it’s in a 1/12 scale and thus runs just a tad small for Snake Eyes, but it works.
The muzzle flash on his Uzi (which also comes from the Exclusive Snake Eyes) was purchased from eBay seller juicetinscustoms.
Finally there’s Duke. He’s flying the McFarlane Toys Fortnite Mako Glider Pack. It’s just a bit cartoonish compared to the aesthetic of G.I. Joe Classified, but only just, and it would fit perfectly in the old 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon. I wanted to fill the space to the left of Scarlett and offer a good contrast to the right-angle lean of Scarlett and Snake Eyes, so this worked out great. The Glider comes with its own stand, but it was way too big and cumbersome for the display, so I used a NECA Dynamic Action Figure Stand. (You can find these at Target sometimes in the NECA section.) It took a lot of fiddling to get the pose I wanted, and it’s a bit precarious.
All of it is placed inside the top shelf of the ever-popular Ikea Detolf display case.
So, I pulled from a lot of different parts of my collection to put this piece together. That’s pretty common for my dioramas, as I may showcase in later posts.
If you’re interested in more of these type of posts, let me know in the comments here or on Facebook or Twitter.