Magnum, G.I., Is Born

On Saturday, July 21, 2007, a nice lady who lives near Atlanta remembered that she had a G.I. Joe in her computer/sewing room, and she decided that she needed to "create" --- ME! Magnum action figure. With a few touches of paint, she added Tom Selleck's heavy eyebrows and iconic moustache. But my "hair" was just painted on. I needed "real hair." Unable to find any fake fur at fabric shops, she decided the only alternative was to find some plush stuffed animal and cut its foot off, and thus create a wig cap. Now, this is an economical lady, so she wasn't going to spend a fortune buying a stuffed animal just to cut it up. Ergo, the Dollar Tree! Of course, when one is looking for something specific, it's never available and there was no $1 plush animal with the right color of brown hair. So using the same paint as for the eyebrows and moustache, she painted my hair. Voilá! Magnum, G.I.!

But I was naked! Of course, there exists no fabric in action figure size portion with the appropriate parrot-and-palm-leaves pattern; however, she was able to dig through old fabric and find a floral print with a red background and teal flowers, so it became the substitute for Magnum's signature Hawaiian shirt. She also found some old khaki duck cloth and made me some shorts -- not quite as short as Tom Selleck wore, but they'll do for now.

I began to think that I needed to go lots of places to have pictures taken of me. I would become the Roaming Gnome of action figures. And so I christened myself Roaming Magnum, G.I. (with the assistance of several other Magnum P.I. (MPI) fans from http://www.magnum-mania.com/).

First, I needed documentation of the beginning of my Great Adventure. I thought it would be appropriate to look as though I were standing among palm trees. But there aren't a lot of action size palm trees around Atlanta. However, in my "home" there was a potted Hawaiian ti plant that has trunks that look rather palm-tree-like, so I hopped up into the potted plant. Looking around the room, I spotted a couple of Madame Alexander dolls dressed as hula dancers. "Hey, girls! Come join me!" Well, I tell you, they couldn't have been more thrilled! They hadn't been doing anything but standing around ever since my Creator had made THEIR Hawaiian outfits, so there was quite a scuffle to see who got first honors of being in the first picture. Cissette, with the "teenage" body, got there first, followed shortly by Wendy in a gold hula skirt. Then the OTHER Wendy in a green skirt insisted she be included, and Cissette graciously stepped aside and let both Wendys strutt their stuff with me.

So this was the first of my episodes. Stay tuned!




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