Action Figures, C/D

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http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/catalog/action/images/pic_medfa3_ntw.jpg

Half-inspired by the derailment of the ILE thread thing, and half because DC has just announced the above, along with the hideous transparent green Hal Jordan action figure.
I sometimes think about getting action figures, because I used to really, really love them. The 1980s Super Powers figures were about the coolest thing to ever happen to me (cooler than Star Wars a/f's even), but what possible justification would a grown man like me give myself for spending money on action figures today?

― Huk-L, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Absolute favorite of all time, a hand-me down jumbo Batman with jointed limbs and magnets on his hands and feet so he could climb up the refrigerator. I had a Spider-Man who was similar, and for some reason I'm pretty sure there was also an Aquaman (because of all the ... climbing ... Aquaman does...).

The Secret Wars action figures rocked. When I was a teenager, the impossible-to-find-in-regular-stores Hobgoblin one was the Big Collectible. Their shields with the little flippy things were lame and all, but they were pretty well-made action figures (albeit not as well-made as GI Joe or Star Wars, and they nearly all had the same splayed-leg pose).

I have a stuffed Flash and stuffed Hulk sitting near me at the moment, both of them won from one of those toy crane things at an arcade during GenCon, but those aren't action figures.

For awhile, I'd buy a new action figure every now and then -- the modern-day ones, I mean, I'm talking about a few years ago not when I was a kid -- because I'm still not quite over the novelty of how meticulous they are these days (although the faces are rarely as carefully made as they look in ads), and how many points of articulation they have, things like that. But then I realize there's nothing for me to actually do with it.

(Most recent example: the Kingdom Come Superman and Wonder Woman set.)

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

You know what I liked best about the Secret Wars figures? They had serious weight. You could really throw 'em.

― Huk-L, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic! When your're a kid.

Though, yeah, the being a grown up and buying action figures thing...The way I see it is that just end up being ornanments. On my desk is a bunch of Transformers, Star Wars Lego and an R2D2 and C3PO. So, if you want some cool looking ornaments, then sure, go ahead and buy some - and you could play with them when no one else is around!

I would dearly love to have all my Star Wars and Transformers toys back, but they would probably spend their time in boxes, to be occasionally bought out for nostalgia sessions.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The Johnny Alpha action figure is beautiful:

http://www.dreddtimes.com/johnny2.jpg

The best thing about it is that it looks like an Ezquerra drawing.

― Wooden (Wooden), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I have some cool Pez dispensers, an ancient Hulk, and more recent Darth Vader, Boba Fett & Chewbacca.

― Huk-L, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

http://store1.yimg.com/I/toycup_1818_7376653
This little guy guards my kitchen for me from avenging ninjas.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Tep OTM, about points of articulation, I was obsessed with that too.

Did I mention that my R2D2 has a little button that can be pushed to produce authentic R2D2 dog annoying sound?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Ornaments, exactly. I think the impulse to buy them comes from the fact that they're so much better made than when I was a kid -- not to mention the variety, stuff like the Leatherface action figures, and all the baseball ones from McFarlane (Manny Ramirez is in my bathroom), etc.

Of course, at the prices they go for, I couldn't have afforded them as a kid anyway, so either they're aimed at people like me or kids today get huuuuge allowances.

(Then again, if I'd gotten my allowance in comic books it would have been about five to ten comics depending on my age, which today would be enough to buy an action figure, I guess.)

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been meaning to buy action figures to spruce up my cubicle. Possibly one of those Hellboy sets.

x-post, that's awesome Jocelyn.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

And this one actually looks rad, and it's obscure enough that people would be all, wtf, if they saw it and wouldn't assume that I'm just another man-child, unable or unwilling to cope with the mounting realities of adulthood.
http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/catalog/action/images/pic_medbeetleact.jpg

― Huk-L, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, I am all for comics as a means of indulging juvenile impulses but action figures have always been across a line for me. I don't think I've ever seen one and thought "whoa, cool!" even.

I do have two stuffed toy moomins though.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I think they were grown-ups buying toys "Kidults" a few years ago. I mean, obviously alot of toys these days are designed for grown-ups as kids are all out getting drunk or playing computer games or both(this may be a massive generalisation)

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I gave my friend an articulated Gollum figure when she went to Philly to visit her sister, and she had this startling revelation:
http://store1.yimg.com/I/tisinc99_1818_16530728
http://www.figuremania.com.au/images/Vital%20Toys/rockylarge.jpg

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Nobody needs this:
http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/catalog/action/images/pic_medmaxmercuryact.jpg

this, however, is pretty cool:
http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/catalog/action/images/pic_medfa3_cmpsm.jpg

― Huk-L, Monday, 15 November 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure about 80% of these sell to Scott Campbell and Joe Mad.

― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 15 November 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

OH HELL YES!
http://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/article/682/682416/batman-20060120101223445-001.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 23 January 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

Sooo buying those. But having a lego penguin just doesn't work, does it? He has to be a fattey!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 23 January 2006 18:05 (twenty years ago)

Legos are all fatties!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 23 January 2006 18:09 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but not...rotund enough.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 23 January 2006 18:11 (twenty years ago)

Okay, agreed. The Kenner Super Powers Penguin was awesome, very Burgess Meredith and very round (though BM wasn't round).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 23 January 2006 18:13 (twenty years ago)

http://www.actiontoys.com/Merchant/graphics/00000001/BATKSPL-02.JPG

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 23 January 2006 18:14 (twenty years ago)

The Lego message board is great:

http://club.lego.com/messageboards/showpost.aspx?PageIndex=1&PostID=248364

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 23 January 2006 20:27 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha ha.
ya for sure people will buy there are probably 5 million, or more people that love batman

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 23 January 2006 20:34 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Apparently I care more about the Penguin than I thought! I recently had a birthday party, and got a Penguin action figure. It's from that new "(Are You Dense? Are You Retarded? I Am) The (Godamn) Batman" animated series. He has orange hair, and carries a mace.

Wtf???

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Strawberry blonde, dude!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:24 (twenty years ago)

And he has two ninja girlfriends! (I saw the episode he debuted in)
The new The Batman series is aimed at kids who don't give a fuck about art-deco or Neal Adams or even Burt Ward. I kinda applaud them for it.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:24 (twenty years ago)

I haven't made it more than a few minutes of that show cause the The Batman's The voice is just The wrong. Blonde Penguin? What?

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Orange, dude!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:54 (twenty years ago)

I'm looking at the back cover of the packaging now, and there seems to be an albino Man-Bat. Also, now all those silly Batman variants that they always come up with for action figures make me think of "I MUST wear a different colour outfit every day of the week, Robin!", which is good.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:57 (twenty years ago)

There's a reason for that!
In the 90s, during the Batman must be a gritty, urban legend thing, DC's licensing told the action figure people that they could only make Batman toys in colours he'd actually worn in the comics, and the action figure people (who are not literally action figure people) pulled out THAT VERY ISSUE and said, HOORAY!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 17 February 2006 15:59 (twenty years ago)

there seems to be an albino Man-Bat

I can see the path to the "albino man batter" joke so clearly I don't even need to walk it. I'm just gonna stay right here in the forest.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

The new The Batman series is aimed at kids who don't give a fuck about art-deco or Neal Adams or even Burt Ward. I kinda applaud them for it.

No, I'm sorry, the kids can fuck right off. Look what they did to Poison Ivy:

http://www.azundris.com/output/rp/characters/Ivy/img/tmp/TheBatman_PI.png

What kind of Brady Bunch looking bullshit is that??

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

I applaud them for their aim (to make a Batman who's interesting to kids who don't shave), not for their results.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

http://kidswb.warnerbros.com/files/kidswb/us/zp-424/558/BTM_GAL01_EP001_PIC14.jpg

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

They did make Bane look cool, howev.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

http://www.legionsofgotham.org/THEBATMANwave2BANEloose.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

fwiw Huk, I grew up with the 90's art deco series and my friends and me all loved it. Granted, I was already a fan of the 60's series, and had read some comics, and of course they'd all seen the movies, but still.

(hmm, I wonder whether the disconnect between this and "Batman Begins" will be bigger for kids today than the one between the movies and "Batman: The Animated Series" was for me? At least those last two shared a certain sense of goth darkness...)

That action figure story's great!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Poison Ivy has turned into a strange Tinkerbell/Helena Bonham Carter hybrid.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:11 (twenty years ago)

The Nu-Penguin, complete with Kabuki Twins:

http://www.the-trades.com/hprice/Comics/BatmanStrikes1Panel.jpg

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, the BTAS and the (Burton) movies at least shared that futuristic-40s aesthetic. Batman Begins is definitely NOT a kiddie movie (in the sense that the French Connection is not a kiddie movie), while The Batman is like 8 & under EXCLUSIVELY.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

I can't see kids being interested in Batman Begins if they're not already into Batman. None of my friends' kids seem to have any patience for movie that aren't louder and more colorful (Spy Kids 3 and Lavaboy and Sharkgirl: total hits). Granted, one of those kids is really fucked up. But I doubt Batman Begins would unfuck him down.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

Ignore the typos, I'm on a broken keybord until my new Dell gets here.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 17 February 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

SHAMEFUL, BROS.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Friday, 17 February 2006 17:27 (twenty years ago)

i was in the comic store the other day and some guy was asking about alex ross JLA figures, specifically The Flash. and i was like "oh."

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Friday, 17 February 2006 17:36 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...

FRESH ACTION FIGURE SMELL HMMMM!

So I was at the FNAC, doing my usual happy consumerist thing, and looking at the toy section I noticed they had OMG JUSTICE LEAGUE FIGURES WTF* So I enthusiastically grabbed a few of them, before I even realised that, uhm, they're not very good.

Zatanna and Green Arrow come from the Identity Crisis line:

http://www.superhero-zone.com/assets/images/identitycrisis/ic-zatanna-af.jpg

http://www.superhero-zone.com/assets/images/identitycrisis/ic-greenarrow-af.jpg

I really wanted Zatanna to have her classic costume, with this one she looks like she could be just about anyone. Also, GirlWonder baiting bust, her breasts are like as big as her head. Not a good purchase.

Green Arrow is a lot cooler, I'm happy with him, except sadly his hand doesn't have the articulation necessary to give anyone THE FINGER. Now how will he be able to call my Oscar Wilde action figure and lego Spider-Man cheap punks???

Both figures come with "Identity Crisis" bases, which will soon get an added "SUCKED" in big red marker. XD

http://www.superhero-zone.com/assets/images/justiceleague/jla-classifieds1-aquaman-af.jpg

AQUAMAN comes from the JLA Classified line. He looks very angry, like someone just explained to him that he's AQUAMAN. Actually all the figures in this line have angry frowny faces. But, you know, it's AQUAMAN! I'm gonna carry him around in my man-purse wherever I go, just so's if I ever get depressed I can bring him out, look at him and go "well, at least I'm not Aquaman!"

* the FNAC toy sections usually don't stock much in the way of action figures, it's all just Tim Burton nonesense and other goff-friendly stuff, thus my surprise.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 5 October 2006 12:14 (nineteen years ago)

"Green Arrow action figure" GIS yields intriguing results:

http://www.superherostuff.com/OtherItems/Action_Figures/images/Ultimate_Captain_America_WWII_Action_Figure2.gif

http://figures.nohomers.net/Customs/Custom_Green_Arrow_Homer.JPG

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 5 October 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

I'd feel all wrong licking the backside of Green Arrow.

-- Pete (pb1...), December 1st, 2005.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 5 October 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

I'd feel all wrong licking the backside of Green Arrow

I bet Green Arrow would love it though, the slag

― Mark Co (Markco), Thursday, 5 October 2006 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

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