The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

[cooleddie74]

Let's do this! I have connections.

[Dr. Evil] Actually, that's not true. I can't back that up. [/Dr. Evil]

If you're looking for Mon Mothma there are actually two action figures of her already in existence.

Mon Mothma (Return of the Jedi), 1998 Power of the Force 2 line
Mon Mothma (Revenge of the Sith), 2005 Episode III line

The 1998 figure is little more than a well-sculpted and painted salt shaker that resembles the actress (Caroline Blakiston) from the Original Trilogy. Pitiful articulation. We need a super articulated remake with a closer likeness to Blakiston, but the way the focus of the Star Wars license is directed at the moment I wouldn't hold my breath to see a new version of her anytime soon. The prequel figure from 2005 is by far the better Mon Mothma on the market.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Hasbro is a lot more willing to make female figures than Mattel is. There's plenty of female figures still coming out in the Marvel Lines. Yet, oddly they still managed to leave Black Widow out of the 6" movie figures, leaving everyone with an incomplete team.

 

[cooleddie74]

I still don't get the Black Widow thing. I really don't. I give up trying to come up with an explanation that doesn't sound completely stupid and counterproductive.

 

[Kira's Mom]

I'm pissed that they left out the 6 inch Black Widow. My big Hawkeye is lonely.

And why don't they give us movie Maria Hill?

 

[cooleddie74]

Because they're shortsighted numbnuts.

 

[Kira's Mom]

Truer words were never spoken. Er, posted.

 

[cooleddie74]

Word, baby.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The Black Widow thing doesn't make sense since 'Tasha was a huge part of the overall story of phase one, and a critical character in both "Iron Man 2" and "Avengers" and will be again in "Captain America: Winter Solider". Female characters are just as important, and in some cases...just as popular if not more so than their male counterparts. I've never been able to figure out this mentality. At the very least you could do limited edition versions if you were really concerned about not fully making money. Either way it's dumb. I really wanted a Movie Masters Miranda errrrrr Talia.

 

[cooleddie74]

It's futile to try to decipher a lot of toy company logic. There are still repacks and carry forwards of unpopular, poorly selling Episode I figures shipping to stores an entire year after the market demand for them was met while countries outside the U.S. are getting the new stuff that would help freshen and reinvigorate American store pegs and shelves.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

I can only hope that Winter Soldier gets a 6" line that brings us a Black Widow. I'm not holding my breath, though.

 

[cooleddie74]

One of the best selling Star Wars action figures of 2012 was Shae Vizla, the female bounty hunter from a video game most people have never played or even wanted to. Chalk up part of her success to being an Expanded Universe character with a smaller production run and thus a more popular target for collectors, but at the end of the day she's a redheaded woman most people will never hear of nor see from a video game that isn't exactly the modern version of Space Invaders in terms of popularity.

Female characters will sell and make you money if you market them properly and with cunning skill....or just bother to make them in the first place.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Yeah, its not like you really have to try hard to sell the major female character from one of the biggest god damn movies ever.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Toy companies still hold onto the long-held idea that female action figures do not sell well in the U.S. market*. IMO, they're not looking at the collector's market, but rather at the retail market where the female figures tend to be peg warmers unless they're produced in low quantities. They'd rather have people scrambling to find the one or two female figures in a case than have the shelves filled with them collecting dust.

*I actually saw something that supported this at a local Wal-Mart that apparently messed up and had a lot of Power Girl, Cheetah, and Zatanna DC Universe 7-inch figures. I don't know if potential buyers were feeling self-conscious or what about buying fairly sexy female action figures, but they sat on the pegs for at least a year before the store finally just took them down and replaced 'em with some Toy Story figures.

 

[cooleddie74]

The brand new Sideshow Collectibles Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Padawan, Episode I) looks absolutely spellbinding. Even if you're not the biggest fan of the first prequel or a clean-shaven Obi-Wan with a Padawan braid this entry in the Sideshow line is one of the best Prequel-era Obi-Wan collectibles I think I've ever seen.

 

[Saga]

finally got my 6th Doctor figure.

 

[cooleddie74]

Nice! Congratulations. We need more Who toy pictures.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Character Options/Underground Toys switches to the 3.75-inch scale. Some classic Doctor Who figures were never released in the 5-inch scale...

 

[Kira's Mom]

Hawkeye is proud of his "boys":

He's also impressed with his cup:

 

[cooleddie74]

Outstanding.

You'll get your own spinoff thread on a major network at this rate.

 

[AstroSmurf]

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Character Options/Underground Toys switches to the 3.75-inch scale. Some classic Doctor Who figures were never released in the 5-inch scale...

I am still pissed off about this little change. I finally managed to get all the Doctors last summer and if/when a new Doctor comes along he is not going to match the rest. I was also hoping to get a few of the major adversaries to go along with them but that isn't going to happen either, unless I want to pay ten times what they originally sold for.