Dismantling the Gon

by Crazy Ivan

I think we all knew it would be hard.

I likened it to retiring Big Momma.  The Myachi Mobile was the single most visible and recognizable symbol of Myachi Mania in the world.  It was one of my first impressions of the game and it seemed to exemplify everything that the game, the company and the movement was all about.  The RV was unique, cool, hard to look away from and, just like Myachi, it started slow and took a while to get up to speed, but once she was going it was a chore to stop her.

When we retired the Myachi Mobile, I was heart broken.  It had been my ride, my home, my office and my refuge for years by then.  It had come to symbolize the nomadic lifestyle of the Myachi Master and it was hard to imagine that the company could carry on without her.  It really hit me on an emotional level when I knew I'd never take another trip in Big Momma's Brick House.

And last night I felt that same thing.

Bones was working that day so he was the first one there, but I arrived second.  Two Maniacs were hanging out to see the Myachigon off (and big shout out to Slimjim and Smooth for all their help last night).  When I got there I took a long look at the Gon, taking in every line and every angle as I approached.  It was such a familiar scene that it was hard to believe that it was ever going to change.

But it did.  The very first thing I did was disconnect the jamcams.  I figured if it was heartbreaking for me to watch it was probably best not to broadcast it online.  I went to work disconnecting the bazillion cords and cables that controlled out TVs, the cams, the computers, the router, the wireless mics, the DVD player and the Bluray.

While I was doing that, Myachi Man and Kid showed up and got to work with Bones, Smooth and Slimjim pulling the product off the shelves and boxing it to go to our new spot upstairs.  Before I knew it, I glanced up and Animal, Monk and Mav were there as well.  We all acknowledged each other, but we weren't talking much.  The task was a bit too dismal for chatter.

Once the product was down and the wires were disconnected it was time to take down the 6 big screen TVs.  That was actually much easier than I expected, but the difficulty of wrapping the 14 miles of cables that were running through that steel trussing was tough enough to make up for it.  Once we got that taken care of, we took her hat off.  Myachi Man, Kid, Monk and Animal each got on one pillar, we pulled a bunch of pins and then took the whole top of the Myachigon off completely.

In all, it took us about 3 and a half hours to deconstruct the Myachigon.  The only real highlight of the night for me was that I did actually get one of my Black Beards back.  I also got whacked in the knee, funny bone, head, hand, finger and shin at various points in the night, but that's to be expected when you've got so many people all working so close together.

We took the last piece out to the truck, one of the sections of the rear computer cabinet, and hefted it on to the liftgate of Kid's rented Penske.  I wandered back inside to wash my hands and grab my jacket and as I did, I walked the same route I'd walked when I first arrived.  I cam upstairs from the basement and instead of seeing the Myachigon as I had for the last 3 years, instead I saw a big empty space with Myachi Man standing in the middle looking disheveled and forlorn.

And I thought of the Myachi Mobile.  When we retired her it seemed like the end of an era and I wondered if the movement could even carry on.  I feared that it was a sign of the Myachi-pocalypse.  It seemed back then that the Myachi Mobile was too big a part of the company for us to carry on without her.

Of course, we did carry on.  Not only did we carry on, but we thrived.  We've had the best 3 year run in the company's history and last year we smashed all our worldwide sales records.  We're in five times as many countries as we were the day the Myachi Mobile retired.  Half of the Myachis ever made were made after the Myachi Mobile retired.  Most of the people who've ever played the game learned it after the Myachi Mobile retired.

Make no mistake, the end of the Gon is the end of an era, but it is not the end of Myachi.  Not by a long shot.  As hard as it seems now, we'll carry on and we'll get stronger and stronger.  The store felt so bad about us having to take down the Gon that they're compensating us with a much cooler spot over at Toys R Us Timesquare so odds are that in the end we'll actually do better now than we did before in those stores.

I will miss the Myachigon.  I will look upon the old video of the Myachigon with fond memories, the same as I look at footage of the old Myachi Mobile.  And I wonder, now that the Gon is gone, what will come to symbolize us next?