The PopCulteer
August 15, 2025

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a month since the big Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo in Louisville. This summer has been a bit of a blur with near-constant travel punctuated by a few medical misadventures, and it’s taking me way too long to get stuff posted.

To make up for that, and since we’ve already covered the people, dioramas this year’s music video and the Bulletman tribute, this week I’m going to drop a ton of photos of toys…nothing but toys…any people captured in this pictures were purely coincidental.

And a lot of these are not going to have captions. for the most part, what you see will be obvious. I will point out a few things here and there, but I’m trying to get this posted ASAP.

Sunday night I’ll be posting the raw video footage we shot at Kentuckiana, with music replacing the audio because I don’t want to accidentally publish anybody’s private conversations.

Next week you can expect more toy content as The PopCult Toybox returns, and the week after that, this blog turns 20 years old and there will be special posts and new material to commemorate that.

But today we have a bunch of photos that, despite numbering over forty, just scratch the surface of this cool toy show, which has become one of the largest and best action figure shows in the country.

Now, let’s look at some toys, shall we?

The 12″ GI Joe

He’s my main interest in the hobby, and he was very well-represented at this show. We’re going to start with the original action figure…

How to wear crocs

Ace notices me photographing his booth

Greg Autore’s Ghost Tank

Greg, from Cotswold Collectibles, keeping the hobby supplied

I was on a tighter budget than usual due to some impending car repairs, so I had to pass on this excellent updated GI Nurse, as well as several other high-quality sets

Adventure Command

We just have a couple of pictures of this renamed Super Joe Unlimited revival, but you’ll be reading more about this next week.

A Real American Hero

Another huge component of the show was the 1980s Real American Hero GI Joe, where the figures shrank to 3 3/4″ and the vehicles and accesories got way more ambitious. The collectors of these guys are in their prime collecting age, and they had plenty from which to choose…

Custom figures from The Marauders. I’m guessing you supply your own lower body for these guys. They missed a golden opportunity to do Lt. Dan.

Famed Hasbro package illustrator Ron Rudat in a rare moment when his table wasn’t swamped.

Miscellaneous Toys

There was something for everyone at the show…

You can literally find anything you want from the Kenner Six Million Dollar Man line from these folks.

The ToyLanta crew were there with their show exclusive GI Joe: Classified scale figure. GI Joe: Classified was all over this show, but most of it was boxed and didn’t make for exciting photos.

This custom job made me wonder if I picked up a spare Iron Giant from Walmart a few years back.

In the back, a rare sighting of the Scowling Baby action figure in the wild.

Come for the Rat Fink…Stay for the Monsters!

I had to ask Mel to drag me away from this.

It’s not even remotely my cup of tea, but there was He-Man stuff all over the place.

See that Green dude? He’s Gargon. Remember him for later.

I already have some of this stuff.

3D Printed Goodness

There were quite a few folks offering 3D printed cool stuff, not the least of which was my friend, Brad Curry, who is not represented here because by the time I found his booth, I was tired and my pictures were too blurry to use. But this is probably the wave of the future for toy shows, with folks printing replacement parts, add-ons and entire custom creations…

So, the Cobra Throne and a gun tower both came home with me. Photo reviews are likely, but not for a few weeks.

The same guy did this.

This booth was filled with impressive 3D printed creations

Some of these are gigantic, too.

They also had some impressive art.

Our last pic is this 3D printed Lafufu with iridescent plastic. He’s staying with us temporarily before he gets deployed to Liverpool to join our friend, Pixie.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for fresh content every day, and tons of stuff popping up over the next two weeks as we celebrate two decades of pretending this is work.