Last year over on the Chap Mei board, a member posted that Lanard has a Christmas sale in their US corporate offices out in MO. I love the Corps, almost as much as I love Joes, and since I am cheapskate, maybe more…..Plus, I love the Lars Laser figure, so much that I army build him, and cast heads to place on Justin Case and Full proof figures (and Hit and Run, and arctic Joes, and space Joe bodies and divers and more….I think I may be obsessed with him)
Anywho, I vowed that if possible I would like to go there this year, and we did. It was a bit of a drive, almost 8 hours, but we also got to see a buddy of mine from Korea who is in Leavenworth (for the Command and General Staff College, NOT the correctional facility!), so we had dinner with him. I used my Holiday Inn Express points so the hotel was free, and gas was below $1.50 (I would not have done it at $3 plus) plus we got to go to the Harry Truman Presidential Library and Museum where they had a special exhibit of WWII photos (my wife is a Huge WWII fan and scholar).
Anywho, when all is said and done, I got a huge haul of corps stuff. I figure I got stuff at 50% - 60% off of retail, not even factoring in things like the Shuttle and launch gantry set that retailed for $20 in 1999, but can only be gotten on evilBay for upwards of $60 plus.
I got a total of 7 Lars Laser, 16 Full Proof and 12 Justin Case (so 35 soldiers for my army.) Plus I got a Home Depot truck and crew, and the Shuttle set with launch facility that I passed on back in the day (I can still picture it there on the shelf at k-mart in '99).
I also got some of the newer stuff that the nice ladies gave to me for free since they were mockups (sealed in plastic, but the accessories and figures are positioned and posed with hot glue). She only offered me these after I said they were all for me, not for resale! I passed on the space cowboys sets, they just do nothing for me, plus I got a Dire Wolf tank and a BMT to customize. As I open all my stuff, there may be some excess, but I am very excited about the trip. The pile of loot set me back around $150, we figured at retail it would have cost $320 or more.
The wife also picked up some stuff for some of our friends kids, catwalk kitties, xylophone, nerf type guns and more. The pics only show the 3 ¾ side of the house, nearly an equal portion of the space is dedicated to the rest of their toy lines.
I was disappointed to not get any of their Sky Raptors pictured on their website here: http://www.thecorpshq.com. I plan to get a few of those to customize when they come out. I was also disappointed in that there were no WOW girls, and only 2 of the Space Shuttles. I also wanted 1 additional fire truck, but they only had the one (big plans for that inspired by the Cobra M.A.C.C. http://www.joecustoms.com/customs/custo ... ge=2&id=51).
They also had a .25 cent box, I picked though and got the loose guys. They probably had about 100 more figure in there, I just got the ones I wanted, leaving the rest for others.
Well, enough about this, suffice it to say I had a great time, got some great stuff at great prices.
pics below:
