parrish333 wrote:
GITrekker wrote:
For the 1998 Oktober Guard three-pack, yes -- not these guys. But it was a lot of fun. Always been a major Oktober Guard fan.
Too cool that you got to do that! And nice job btw - on filecards there's very little space, but hopefully it can still convey background, personality, experience, skills, etc. Those three are a great examples of what filecards should be. I'd put them alongside the best.
Thank you very much! But I will always put Master Hama first!
Levantine wrote:
I especially liked what you wrote about Gorky's beard.
I've always been curious, though: why is Daina called Volga in that set?
I had to say SOMETHING about Gorky's beard when I realized they were going to use Big Bear for him.
As for Volga -- okay, history lesson time on that. I've told this tale before, but it's been a while. When it was decided to do an Oktober Guard three-pack, at that point in time, there had only ever been two Oktober Guard figures -- Red Star and Big Bear. At the 1997 G.I. Joe Convention, I entered a series of Oktober Guard custom figures in the Custom Contest, and I won the 3-3/4" division (in fairness, there were only two other entrants in the 3-3/4" division that year for some reason, and there was a first, second, and third prize. Although I did take first.)
This, along with the fact that I was among a handful of collectors that Hasbro had contacted to evaluate -- and write some of the file cards -- for the 1997 line, landed me an assignment pertaining to the Oktober Guard for 1998. Specifically, they wanted to know who I thought would be the easiest established Oktober Guard members to "frankenstein" for a third figure.
The nod ultimately went to Daina. At the tail end of 1997, I received this prototype figure via special delivery. It was a 1997 Lady Jaye body with an all-new sculpted head, along with instructions to please paint the figure to look like Daina. I did so -- with an alarmingly short turnaround time -- and returned the figure to Hasbro.
Somewhere along the way, the colors were changed. The figure was given auburn hair, and a different camouflage scheme. I'd based the colors off of Daina's likeness on the back cover of G.I. Joe Yearbook #2. I have no idea why this was done.
Setting that aside, a while after I'd painted the prototype, I was contacted once again. For what I assume were legal copyright reasons at the time (that were obviously cleared up by 2004), the actual name "Daina" couldn't be used. The figure needed a new code-name. Like -- inside of an hour and a half.
So, I had an hour and a half to come up with a code name for a female, Czech-born Soviet military helicopter pilot and sniper who had never been known by anything other than "Daina". Hey, no pressure, right?
I resorted to Soviet geography. There is a large river in the former Soviet Union known as the "Volga", and I had occasionally heard it referred to as the "Mother Volga" (mostly in comic books featuring Russian characters). It had a Russian sound to it, and a female sound to it, so I submitted it. Thus was born "Lt. Volga", but the "Daina" name was still used as her real name on the file card.
It was an interesting time, and I'll always consider myself honored to have been a participant to that degree of G.I. Joe.
DETH OF TEH LINE!!1!one!!1
