July 20, 2001

Had a SPRUE all made up complaining that since the HANK/HOBBYTALK/DICE/JL/PL fiasco had come to a close, there just wasn't anything juicy going on this week to make fun of!!

Not only was there nothing stupid posted by anyone that we could say, 'Uh??!' over (and the current MonsterLuver thread don't qualify... Nor was CultMan's attempts in redefining the English Language! These are just feeble attempts to rehash old, tired broken records), but there wasn't even any good subject matters to latch on to and explore!!

Man, was I pissed!!

I was left with nothing else to type up except for saying some thank you's to some of the good people around this hobby of ours, and you know how much I hate being nice around here!! Wouldn't want folks to become bored with these columns! I do have a reputation to uphold, after all!!!

But then in the nick of time my old, reliable newsgroup started filling up with hundreds of posts! The original, no-man's-land, battleground forum... good old faithful, Rec.Models.Scale!!

The flaming thread this week, bumping almost everything else to the curb, is entitled;

IPMS will ban sexually explicit models in the future!

I missed the initial post that started this whole thing off, but did read this message posted by Rusty White:

"...If someone wishes to build and display the XXX figures fine. I (and IPMS/USA) have no problem whatsoever with that. They can have their own shows and handle them anyway they like. Remember, as you say, this is America."

"We on the IPMS/USA Contest Committee have been watching this "trend" towards nude figures for some time. This year in Chicago the line was finally crossed to the point where we had to erect (no pun intended) a barrier for some of the figures because of the exposed genetalia. Not to protect the adults in the room, but to shield children from this kind of thing."

"It came down to we had to make a decision. Is IPMS/USA a family organization or not? We came down on the family side of the argument. We have a lot of young kids with their parents going through the room, so we have to think of them first. As I said, we on CC have been watching this for some time. It just finally got to a point where we HAD to make a decision. I'm certain you won't agree with us and that's okay too (this IS America remember?). We have the right to disallow any model that could offend young modelers or their parents. I suppose we are a little anal about this, but if this is going to continue to a be a family organization, then parents must feel confident that their kids can attend the shows in the future without them having to explain what the ol pirate and the young maiden were doing."

Sorry if you're pissed.
Rusty White
2003 IPMS/USA National
Convention Chairman
OKC in 2003!

Now if you've been around the hobby for awhile, you'll know that this subject between Nude Models vs IPMS isn't new. In fact I thought there was a policy in effect already, made many years ago and was surprised to learn, via this thread, that indeed there isn't?!

Personally, I don't see the cause of all the hoopla?! After attending four CHILLER THEATRE Expo's so far, I can tell you that explicit photo's on display by the Scream Queens and past Playboy Bunnies aren't allowed to be shown in the dealer's room! In fact, if the girls are showing just a little too much skin, they're told to 'cover it up' as well.

As for the model kits themselves. I've seen some kits on display in the dealer's room that were rather risque. Many times, if they're unpainted or in pieces it's okay. Other's painted up have Post-It notes over the offending areas. Dealer's didn't mind and if a potential customer wanted to see the whole kit, the seller would oblige and then simply replace the Post-It's afterwards. Piece of cake.

And for the exact same reasons as stated by Rusty above. Families do like to come to these events, and the organizers want to make it an enjoyable experience for all the attendees.

As for the model contest, itself? In the last four shows I've been helping, I can only recall one kit that might be classified as risque. A female vampire laying on her back on a bear skin rug, masterbating, that was entered in the scratchbuilt category. Went on the table with all the other entries and I didn't hear any comments either way on it.

But since Ed 'Diceman' Bowkley is our grand Poo-pah for the Model Contest at CHILLER, and the eyes for Kevin in the dealer rooms, I gave him a call and asked for his input.

He said in the dealer rooms he usually has to tell the photo folks more than kit dealers. He gives them three choices: remove them, cover them or leave the con. In all the time he's been doing the show not one dealer has elected to leave.

With kits entered into the model contest, he's never seen an explicitly risque kit entered. When I pushed the issue and asked what he would do if one was entered, he said he'd probably not allow it. But overall, most of the female kits entered into his Model Contest are horror figures and 99.9% of those are from films, and clothed. Kits like 'The Guardian' would have no problem being placed on the table. Kits depicting an explicit sexual act would more than likely not be allowed to enter.

He also informed me that WONDERFEST has a strict 'Cover-It' clause for their dealer's room, and in the last two years, at least, have had a separate area in their model contest just for the 'Adult Models', which was off-limits to kids. Both Ed and John (Ziz) tell me that the display room for the build ups was set up so that you couldn't just glance in the door and see things. You had to actually enter the room, and there was a guard there keeping kids out!

Ed said they're more strict with the kits down there and at first he was slightly bummed with the policy. Kits like Cellar Casts' 'Ecstasy' would be required to follow this policy, whereas at Chiller it wasn't perceived as a problem. But he also noted that you have to realize that this is 'Bible Belt' country, down there, and again, the dealer's had no problem, overall, with this policy.

So what's the problem with IPMS making this a policy change at future events? Maybe not excluding them altogether, but instituting tighter rules in the Dealer rooms and a seperate area in the Model Contest area. Here we have two major modeling shows, CHILLER THEATRE Expo and WONDERFEST, where one would expect to see these types of kits and they have policies in place, as compared to IPMS shows, where you wouldn't expect to see as many, and they can't?

Frankly I'm rather surprised at all the messages this thread has garnered up til now!! Where are all these female figure kit builders suddenly popping up from within the IPMS organization!!?! And where have they been hiding all this time?!!?

And here I've been under the firm belief that IPMS was made up of 99.99999% military and car fanatics!!

Is there truly this huge, underground conglomerate of secret, card carrying, IPMS Female builders, who until now have been unknown to ALL of us in the modeling hobby!!? A group so large that they can suddenly come out of the woodwork in such a massive cry of 'FOUL' as to shake the Convention committee into realizing that the Tank-Ships-Planes-Soldiers contingent is in fact actually a minority of this mighty Modeling Organization?!!?!

Or are we actually seeing nothing more than a bunch of Tank-Ships-Planes-Soldier kit builders who are extremely horny son's of bitches who desperately want their naked eye-candy!??!

If so, then we need to capitalize on this and convince them that if they're that horny, we have a bunch of kit producers who would be more than happy to sell them their very own female kits!! They can take them home, build and paint them, pet them and call them George, for all we care!!

Let's seize this opportunity NOW to boost sales, boys!!!  :)

Til next week...

Happy Modeling - Buc          Email   Archives