The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

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That's a cool box.

A major increase in the retail price of 3.75" Black Series figures is now happening?

This bears watching, because a couple of the reported numbers spotted in random Target stores could mean that this line is about to be priced clear out of the range of a lot more kids, parents and collectors. Could just be a Target price hike, although somebody else said they saw 3.75" Black Series figures become more expensive at a Kroger. Testing the waters to see if a price hike can stick? Or the new normal for this line?

 

$12.99 for a 3 3/4" figure? No. Screw everything about that. Pure greed, plain and simple. Oil prices are bottoming out. There's no excuse for this.

 

Be glad you didn't see the $14.29 price tag at one Target somewhere in California. It's getting ridiculous and if more big box chains implement price increases of this size then Hasbro's pricing themselves out of the market. 5-POA just doesn't have the fans and buyers to make up for a major drop in super-articulated/premium figure sales due to big price hikes.

Even factoring in increasing labor costs it seems like a profit grab, pure and simple.

 

I remember the good old days (for me at least) when a Star Wars figure was under $5. Or the 6" super articulated Marvel Legends figures were $8. We're paying almost three times that now. Ridiculous.

 

$5.99 for POTF2 and the related sublines (Shadows, EU).
$5.99 for Episode I.
$4.99 for Episode II/Saga.
$4.99 for Original Trilogy Collection and Post-OTC.
$4.99 for Tartakovsky Clone Wars.
$4.99 for realistically-sculpted Clone Wars.
$5.99 for Episode III.
$6.99 for The Saga Collection.
$7.99 for The 30th Anniversary Collection.
$7.99 for Legacy Collection (blue packaging).
$7.99 for Legacy (red).
$7.99 at first for Vintage Collection and The Clone Wars, then it rose to $8.99 and then $9.99.

So forth and so on.

$14 for one 3.75" figure when $20 will get you a 6-inch character with more articulation and detailing? That's a joke.

 

Last night I finally finished the Patriot, completing my Liberty Legion. Interesting because Patriot was the one I wanted to do most but ended up the last one done.

I used the current Captain America figure with legs from the Grim Reaper and modified the head.
I also finally got a pic of the only complete MoE roster to date.

I am working on a Dragonfly figure from a Wasp which is almost finished, but that left me with the Wasp head which went on an extra Supergirl body I had to create Rainbow Girl.


CCC.

 

and here is the finished Dragonfly.

I particularly like that I was able to keep the wings fully articulated.

CCC.

 

Good customizing work there. You certainly put a lot of time into those figures so congrats on your hard work and the impressive results. They're all pretty cool.

In other news, Saga Legends (Rebels) Wave 2 has just hit retail in Singapore. What this means for American retail is anybody's guess since a lot of domestic collectors have yet to see many if any of the figures released in Wave 1.

 

I accidentally broke off the elbow of my "Batman: The Animated Series" Catwoman. I was testing it's articulation and it just broke off, super stiff joint, while all the other joints were perfect. So looks like I'll be replacing this at the end of the month. Batman is tremendous though.

 

Quick break from action figures for me- I just got the mini version of the new American Girl "Girl of the Year". She's adorable.



The rumor is that this year two historical dolls are being released- one is a girl from the 50's, the other a black girl from either the 20's or 60's. The leaked photos of the 50's girl, "Mary Ellen", are cute:



I know what I want for my birthday and Christmas for 2015!

 

The Girl of the Year doll is based on modern-day fashions and history, right? I'm so used to most of them depicting girls throughout the country's history and wearing antiquated dresses and outfits from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

 

Yep. Modern day. Although fashions really haven't changed much since these dolls debuted in 2001.

 

At Wal-Mart earlier tonight, I picked up the new dancin' Groot toy.

I told the nephews it will be for my Halloween costume next year.

 

Went ahead and picked up the Zeb/Stormtrooper Rebels two-pack in the Mission Series line. There aren't a whole lot of 3.75" Rebels figures on the pegs right now for a myriad of reasons both retail- and manufacturer-related so this is a good time to grab some of the existing two-packs. Besides, Zeb's not yet planned for an individual carded release so for right now it's the only way to get a figure of him.

 

We got that two pack as well, also the R2-D2 & C3P0 one as well.

 

The Boba Fett and movie-style Stormtrooper 2-pack is also very good.

 

NECA has been making more and more video game repaints of older figures. Mostly because it's a cheap and easy way to reuse old sculpts, but also because the results are just awesome and collectors are going nuts for them. Case in point, that latest is a series based off the SNES Robocop vs. The Terminator game. I just had to pick up that "Rocket Launcher Robocop" when I saw him because, well just look at him!

The video game colors look great, and he's on freaking fire! There's nothing about this figure that isn't awesome. In fact, it gets better, because here's his rocket launcher:

Hell yes! Now I'm going to have to go and get more of this line. Damn you for being awesome, NECA.

 

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I saw that at Hasting's yesterday...they had the one with the flamethrower, too.

 

The American Girl dolls are cute. I didn't know that already had a mini of this year's Girl of the Year.

 

^They usually release them on January 1st.

My Funko Baby Groot is finally coming!