The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[cooleddie74]

I could be mistaken, but the Obi-Wan body might be from an upcoming three-figure Battle Pack called "Duel on Naboo" that features three all-new sculpts but which have 1990s style articulation to make them easier to tool and more kid-friendly. No elbow, wrist, knee or ankle joints, and everything is a cut or swivel design. No modern ball joints whatsoever. If it's not a reuse of the Battle Pack mold then it's a shameless reuse of a 1999 or 2000 body with just eight points of articulation. Either way, it's not impressive. That head is clearly from 1999 and there have been a hundred Ewan McGregor heads since then that look better.

And I agree on the droids being inaccurate, but Hasbro reps at the recent New York Toy Fair admitted that folded-up droids hanging on a rack didn't offer any real play value so they decided to have 16 of the 20 droids in the set standing with a poseable right arm with blaster so they could be used in battle scenarios. The other four droids have normal articulation and can be posed like just about any other Battle Droid figure of the past 13 years, though I'm fairly sure they'll be of the quality seen in the Saga Legends or Movie Heroes lines. Cheaper plastic and marginally less accurate sculpting and paint apps. Having four Vintage Collection Battle Droids in the MTT would probably jack the price up another ten or fifteen bucks.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Here are a few of my Babylon 5

B5 Micro Machines

G'Kar figure, possibly my favorite.

B5 Action Figures
Kosh & Alternative Version

I believe this is the Alternative Version of Londo

Same with G'Kar, think this is the Alternative Version.

I'm missing some stuff, think I can't find a box. I'm missing the G'Kar, Londo and Shadows figures, plus I'm missing all the other B5 Micro Machines.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

And I agree on the droids being inaccurate, but Hasbro reps at the recent New York Toy Fair admitted that folded-up droids hanging on a rack didn't offer any real play value so they decided to have 16 of the 20 droids in the set standing with a poseable right arm with blaster so they could be used in battle scenarios. The other four droids have normal articulation and can be posed like just about any other Battle Droid figure of the past 13 years, though I'm fairly sure they'll be of the quality seen in the Saga Legends or Movie Heroes lines. Cheaper plastic and marginally less accurate sculpting and paint apps. Having four Vintage Collection Battle Droids in the MTT would probably jack the price up another ten or fifteen bucks.

Here's the the thing that they, (and all other toy makers, really) seem to be missing. When you make such a large and expensive product, you are no longer targeting kids. You are now targeting the collectors, who demand a certain amount of accuracy.

 

[Saga]

i remember being frustrated cause i could never find those B5 micro machines as a kid. i had and later sold off all those B5 action figures. that first G'kar is impressive. i only had a few from the larger 'doll' line.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Man, do I wish some company would pick up the Babylon 5 license and make some good modern figures with it. Diamond Select, maybe? NECA? Nah, probably too far out of NECA's usual area. Diamond Select did some pretty decent Star Trek stuff though. Might not be too much of a stretch for them. Then after they grab Babylon 5, they should grab Farscape as well.

 

[Disruptor]

Whatever

 

[Saga]

Man, do I wish some company would pick up the Babylon 5 license and make some good modern figures with it. Diamond Select, maybe? NECA? Nah, probably too far out of NECA's usual area. Diamond Select did some pretty decent Star Trek stuff though. Might not be too much of a stretch for them. Then after they grab Babylon 5, they should grab Farscape as well.

i'd buy any kind of NECA or Art Asylum B5 figures in a heartbeat.

 

[cooleddie74]

The first complete, carded shots of the upcoming Dr. Evazan and the much-anticipated Wedge Antilles repack:

 

[C.E. Evans]

i remember being frustrated cause i could never find those B5 micro machines as a kid. i had and later sold off all those B5 action figures.

Yeah, I had to get rid of all my B5 figures when I had to move house and couldn't take a whole lot of stuff with me to the new place. I did keep my B5 micromachines though...

 

[Unicron]

The upcoming (and San Diego Comic Con-exclusive) Jar Jar Binks in Carbonite figure.

This might very well be the stupidest waste of plastic I've seen in the 3-3/4" STAR WARS line in years...and that includes all the lame, repetitive repaints and repacks that clog store pegs.

I wouldn't pay for it either, but it is funny.

 

[C.E. Evans]

^^^
And hardcore collectors have been drooling over this figure for months already.

 

[Davros]

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Ah, simpler (and cheaper) times.

 

[cooleddie74]

Today you couldn't even get the time of day from Hasbro for $2.95. As late as the Episode II/CLONES merchandising blitz of 2002 basic action figures still cost just $4.99 or thereabouts at almost all retail outlets in this country and went up just a dollar or so for Episode III/SITH a few years later. I remember getting most of my Episode III action figures for just $5.99 plus tax. Then the price increases started to kick in in the latter half of the last decade and now the cheapest non-sale or markdown action figure you can score at retail is $8.96 before sales tax...there are even some Targets in other states and locales where the price of a Vintage Collection figure has risen to a nausea-inducing $11.99 before tax.

I'm guessing that all action figures from all the lines we collect will cost more than ten dollars each before too long. The trend is definitely towards double-digit retail pricepoints and I won't be surprised in the least if Hasbro has an MSRP of around $10.99 for Basic figures starting in 2013 to coincide with the 3-D release of ATTACK OF THE CLONES. The era of five-dollar action figures is long over, my friends. An awful lot of kids and collectors are going to be priced right out of the market.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Part of the problem is that the figures are made from petroleum-based plastics. So their cost is reflecting the rise in oil prices--to a certain degree.

The bulk of it, though, has less to do with that and more to do with keeping a nice profit margin to offset a dwindling customer base (it's been going on in the comic book industry for decades now, where a once cheap commodity has become essentially a luxury item).

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I remember when Marvel Legends were $8 a piece. Now, they're pushing $20 depending on where you go. Crazy times.

 

[Jetfire]

I was trying to collect everything Jetfire, Superman and Eeyore related.

[edit] Plus everything Rita Hayworth ever touched.

 

[cooleddie74]

For a short time recently many Walmarts across the country were marking down most or even all of their SW Vintage Collection figures to just $4.00 each, and for some lucky collectors that included all five figures in the brand-new Deleted Scenes wave. The $4 sale wasn't universal by a longshot but I'd say that most Wally Worlds in the U.S. sold the figures for that price. There were even examples of the Walmart-exclusive 2012 Dewback lizard going for only $3.00 at at least one store! A guy posted a photo on one of the collecting sites showing the six or seven Dewbacks he purchased for barely twenty bucks(the original retail price for those was $29.96 each).

If your timing is great you can still find amazing deals on toys and collectibles that will remind of you of the good old days, but those opportunities are getting rarer as time passes and stores try to pad their profit margins however and wherever they can.

 

[Jetfire]

I once saw a Jetfire/Skyfire on Amazon for $2000. ...One day...it was G1.

 

[Saga]

I remember when Marvel Legends were $8 a piece. Now, they're pushing $20 depending on where you go. Crazy times.

i miss those $8 days. it was so much easier to buy figures you didn't want just so you could get the build a figure piece.