This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection 26 26

[fantastic_four]

What's the best forum for action figure talk?  I'm finding myself going very vertical with my figure questions these days.  My latest need for info is that I'm in the market for the Revoltech figures, but apparently China is making tons of knockoffs and I'm wondering if there are quick visual clues to look for on knockoffs.  Virtually EVERY Revoltech figure on eBay is a knockoff, which is easy to see since the list prices on most of the Marvel figures are around $65 yet there are plenty in the $15 to $35 range on eBay.  But I've heard stories of knockoffs being picked up from more reputable sources, too.  For example, there's someone selling them for inflated prices near $100 on Amazon, but the comments on that seller suggest some or all of what they're selling are actually knockoffs.  The problem I'm hearing with the knockoffs is the quality is shoddy and the joints break far more easily.

Also Hot Toy long-term quality, what's the best version of a particular character, etc, etc, etc...I'm just having a lot of questions that go beyond the expertise one would expect in a forum not dedicated to that topic.

[Senormac]

I find myself looking at this thread more and more.  

Nice pictures FFF

[F For Fake]

10 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

What's the best forum for action figure talk?  I'm finding myself going very vertical with my figure questions these days.  My latest need for info is that I'm in the market for the Revoltech figures, but apparently China is making tons of knockoffs and I'm wondering if there are quick visual clues to look for on knockoffs.  Virtually EVERY Revoltech figure on eBay is a knockoff, which is easy to see since the list prices on most of the Marvel figures are around $65 yet there are plenty in the $15 to $35 range on eBay.  But I've heard stories of knockoffs being picked up from more reputable sources, too.  For example, there's someone selling them for inflated prices near $100 on Amazon, but the comments on that seller suggest some or all of what they're selling are actually knockoffs.  The problem I'm hearing with the knockoffs is the quality is shoddy and the joints break far more easily.

Also Hot Toy long-term quality, what's the best version of a particular character, etc, etc, etc...I'm just having a lot of questions that go beyond the expertise one would expect in a forum not dedicated to that topic.

For a catch-all forum for several types of action figures, I'm partial to 

http://thefwoosh.com/  Which has dedicated forums for several different brands and lines

and

http://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/content/  Which is ostensibly dedicated to Sideshow collectors (duh) but has forums and threads for just about every kind of figure out there.

For specific lines, I like

http://www.hisstank.com/forum/  Hiss Tank for Joes

and

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/  TFW2005 for Transformers

But yeah, for your Hot Toys questions, definitely hit up the Sideshow Collectors forum. There are threads dedicated to every figure they've ever released.

Edit to add: and as for your eBay searches, it may help a bit to limit your searches, excluding China and Japan, as most of the items offered from those countries are bootlegs. I hate to generalize and don't want to sound xenophobic, but that's just the sad truth about toys these days. Since I'm in the US, I limit my searches to "US Only" and that tends to cut most of the bootlegs out. YMMV.

Edited December 12, 2018 by F For Fake

[F For Fake]

11 minutes ago, Senormac said:

I find myself looking at this thread more and more.  

Nice pictures FFF

Thanks! I'll try to keep 'em coming!

[fantastic_four]

29 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

For a catch-all forum for several types of action figures, I'm partial to 

http://thefwoosh.com/  Which has dedicated forums for several different brands and lines

and

http://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/content/  Which is ostensibly dedicated to Sideshow collectors (duh) but has forums and threads for just about every kind of figure out there.

For specific lines, I like

http://www.hisstank.com/forum/  Hiss Tank for Joes

and

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/  TFW2005 for Transformers

But yeah, for your Hot Toys questions, definitely hit up the Sideshow Collectors forum. There are threads dedicated to every figure they've ever released.

Edit to add: and as for your eBay searches, it may help a bit to limit your searches, excluding China and Japan, as most of the items offered from those countries are bootlegs. I hate to generalize and don't want to sound xenophobic, but that's just the sad truth about toys these days. Since I'm in the US, I limit my searches to "US Only" and that tends to cut most of the bootlegs out. YMMV.

Great info, thanks!    The Fwoosh does seems quite active with lots of posts just this morning across multiple topics.  I was reading some long threads in the Sideshow Collectors (or is it Sideshow Freaks?  That's the logo at the top) yesterday about deterioration of Hot Toys figures, so I noticed that's probably the best source for that specific line of figure.

[F For Fake]

7 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

Great info, thanks!    The Fwoosh does seems quite active with lots of posts just this morning across multiple topics.  I was reading some long threads in the Sideshow Collectors (or is it Sideshow Freaks?  That's the logo at the top) yesterday about deterioration of Hot Toys figures, so I noticed that's probably the best source for that specific line of figure.

Sure thing, happy to help! Yeah, the Fwoosh is a very active board, lots of posts every day. And yes, the other forum is called Sideshow Freaks but I think the actual URL is sideshowcollectors.com so that is how I think of it in my mind. But it is a TREMENDOUS resource for info on Hot Toys, Sideshow, and pretty much any other figure line. Like I said, they'll have a dedicated thread for every figure HT and SST (and NECA and etc) make, and it'll run for pages and pages. Sometimes you have to wade through some inane chatter, but there's tons of good info there. Have fun!

[fantastic_four]

I don't know why I would continue to collect statues given how good figures have gotten.  Statues were cool at first because they were so big and detailed, but with figures getting more and more detailed over the past decade, they seem a LOT more fun than a static statue.  Probably going to start a separate thread to discuss this exact idea sometime soon.

[fantastic_four]

10 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Have fun!

I definitely will.  There's a thread on The Fwoosh that started in 2016 before the Revoltech Marvel figures came out that has continued to this day, so I'm pretty sure I'll be spending hours today and tomorrow reading that one.  

http://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=94757

[F For Fake]

35 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

I definitely will.  There's a thread on The Fwoosh that started in 2016 before the Revoltech Marvel figures came out that has continued to this day, so I'm pretty sure I'll be spending hours today and tomorrow reading that one.  

http://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=94757

Yeah, definitely some rabbit hole potential on there, which is helpful when the work day is long and dull...

[followtheleader]

16 hours ago, F For Fake said:

And FINALLY, I know I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was picking up a collection of G1 TF's from a good friend of mine, as I'm helping him sell his collection of stuff. I'm just about done selling the comics for him, so now I'm finally digging into the Transformers. Lots of goodies hiding in these piles. It's a real hodgepodge; many of the first wave cars are broken or have missing parts, but he also has several near complete pieces in nice shape, including many missiles and weapons never removed from their sprues. There are also some random gems like a Bumblejumper in nice shape. Lots to go through. I'll come back with more pics later once I've cleaned them up and sorted everything out, probably during my Christmas vacation. 

Very good load.

If you sell, I'll be interested in a couple. 

Patrick 

[F For Fake]

11 hours ago, followtheleader said:

Very good load.

If you sell, I'll be interested in a couple. 

Patrick 

Sounds good! I'll let you know once I finish going through everything and get it sorted. At the moment I'm leaning towards selling off the broken stuff and keeping the complete stuff for my personal collection, but probably won't make up my mind until I get it all cataloged. 

[Senormac]

I needed a Santa action figure for a project and this one seemed to be the best available.  He is NOT very posable cuz his red suit is so bulky, and his beard and hair color were all wrong.  I painted  them solid white

 

Edited December 14, 2018 by Senormac

[GeneticNinja]

On 12/11/2018 at 10:28 AM, F For Fake said:

I was an early adopter of Hot Toys, but have sold nearly all of the figures I've owned over the years. Once the secondary market prices start to pop, I end up finding an excuse to sell. I've only got a handful of them now, and they are gorgeous, but once again I have to balk at the rising prices. A standard figure with nearly zero accessories is what, $250 these days?  Just seems like insanity. Also, they seem to only be interested in cranking out figures from the Marvel movies, and while I enjoy the Marvel movies well enough, I'm generally not a enough of a fan of the costume designs that I'd want to own figures of them. I don't buy the Marvel Legends MCU figures for the same reason. It looks fine on screen, but in a toy, I'm just not interested. If HT got back to doing a wider variety of licenses, I'd be onboard.

I too would like to see Hot Toys get into some different properties. But with the prices, I'm ok with a few figures per year. Especially since they are making another Jedi Luke Skywalker.

 

https://www.sideshowtoy.com/collectibles/star-wars-luke-skywalker-deluxe-version-hot-toys-903108/

 

I just got the recent one. But this looks like another nice set. Still from $229 to $282. Ouch. They know everyone will want an Endor set of the heroes as Return of the Jedi was the last great Star Wars movie.

 

On 12/11/2018 at 12:16 PM, fantastic_four said:

Also, what about the other Sideshow premium figures, do you like those?  Sideshow distributes both Hot Toys and other figure creators, too, right?  Here's a Daredevil based upon the comics, not the Netflix show like the one Hot Toys makes.  Are the other artists that Sideshow distributes as good as the Hot Toys figures?

Hot Toys is tops when it comes to 1/6 and 1/4 figures. Every other company seems a bit off here and there. Especially when they make the same figure. There was a comparison of the Sideshow and Hot Toys Deadpool figure. And the Hot Toys one was way better.

 

On 12/12/2018 at 7:55 AM, F For Fake said:

And FINALLY, I know I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was picking up a collection of G1 TF's from a good friend of mine, as I'm helping him sell his collection of stuff. I'm just about done selling the comics for him, so now I'm finally digging into the Transformers. Lots of goodies hiding in these piles. It's a real hodgepodge; many of the first wave cars are broken or have missing parts, but he also has several near complete pieces in nice shape, including many missiles and weapons never removed from their sprues. There are also some random gems like a Bumblejumper in nice shape. Lots to go through. I'll come back with more pics later once I've cleaned them up and sorted everything out, probably during my Christmas vacation. 

Toys and whiskey. I needed a drink after seeing the price of the new Optimus Masterpiece toy. $450!!!

 

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/84183

 

Edited December 14, 2018 by GeneticNinja

[fantastic_four]

When I want a figure, I find myself instantly wanting opinions about what the best version of that figure is.  What's the best way to figure that out?  Even in a focused forum like the Fwoosh forum I would expect to see ongoing threads for the most popular characters like "Best Superman 1/6" or "Best Spider-Man 1/12", but I just don't see that.  Google searches on "best <insert character name here> action figure" are helpful, but extremely incomplete with major versions of a figure just not showing up at all in a random search as I end up discovering weeks later.  I could mention a character I'm interested in, but I won't because there are just too many.  I want to know what the best Spider-Man is, the best Magneto, the best Batman, etc etc etc etc etc.  So I could go and start three dozen topics titled "Best <insert character name here>," but that may be too much of a tax on readers so I won't.  Yet.

One thing that would be EXTREMELY useful in doing that kind of research is an exhaustive list of every version of a figure that has been released.  Anyone seen such lists?  If you take a character like Spider-Man there have probably been hundreds of versions.  That's an intimidatingly large pool of figures to choose from, and becoming fully familiar with the available options would easily take YEARS without a dedicated resource.

Edited December 14, 2018 by fantastic_four

[F For Fake]

6 hours ago, GeneticNinja said:

I just got the recent one. But this looks like another nice set. Still from $229 to $282. Ouch. They know everyone will want an Endor set of the heroes as Return of the Jedi was the last great Star Wars movie.

 

Hot Toys is tops when it comes to 1/6 and 1/4 figures. Every other company seems a bit off here and there. Especially when they make the same figure. There was a comparison of the Sideshow and Hot Toys Deadpool figure. And the Hot Toys one was way better.

 

Toys and whiskey. I needed a drink after seeing the price of the new Optimus Masterpiece toy. $450!!!

The HT Star Wars stuff sure is pretty, and I have been very tempted to get into the line, but I swore off Star Wars many years ago, and am trying to stick to my guns. There's just too much product to keep up with. Even if you only concentrate on one type of toy, like 4", or Black Series, or 1:6 scale, there's still an enormous amount of product. I just can't do it. So, I just look at the pics and think "Wow, that's really cool".

Yes, the new MP Optimus is crazily priced, and I'm not really sure why.I haven't kept up with the MP stuff, but what's new about this one that justifies the price? The last model also came with the trailer, didn't it?

[fantastic_four]

2 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Even if you only concentrate on one type of toy, like 4", or Black Series, or 1:6 scale, there's still an enormous amount of product. I just can't do it. So, I just look at the pics and think "Wow, that's really cool".

I look at pics and say "Wow, that's really cool," too.  Then four days later I see another version of that same character and think "Wow, that's even cooler!"  A day later I'm not sure if I think the new one is cooler or the other one is, and I spend another three days mulling that over.  Two weeks later I see yet another version that looks even cooler than the first two, and keeping track of everything starts to seem too overwhelming.  

[F For Fake]

22 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

When I want a figure, I find myself instantly wanting opinions about what the best version of that figure is.  What's the best way to figure that out?  Even in a focused forum like the Fwoosh forum I would expect to see ongoing threads for the most popular characters like "Best Superman 1/6" or "Best Spider-Man 1/12", but I just don't see that.  Google searches on "best <insert character name here> action figure" are helpful, but extremely incomplete with major versions of a figure just not showing up at all in a random search as I end up discovering weeks later.  I could mention a character I'm interested in, but I won't because there are just too many.  I want to know what the best Spider-Man is, the best Magneto, the best Batman, etc etc etc etc etc.  So I could go and start three dozen topics titled "Best <insert character name here>," but that may be too much of a tax on readers so I won't.  Yet.

One thing that would be EXTREMELY useful in doing that kind of research is an exhaustive list of every version of a figure that has been released.  Anyone seen such lists?  If you take a character like Spider-Man there have probably been hundreds of versions.  That's an intimidatingly large pool of figures to choose from, and becoming fully familiar with the available options would easily take YEARS without a dedicated resource.

I think you'll be hard pressed to find any hard answers in your search because the answers you'd get are going to be totally subjective. What represents the "best" for one collector may not be the best for another. For instance, I tend to favor sculpt over articulation, but there are many folks who just want as much articulation as possible. To me, all of those cuts mess up the sculpt. To them, there's no point in having the figure if you can't pose it however you want. Neither of us are right or wrong. 

And of course, with characters like Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine, there are literally HUNDREDS of action figure versions of those characters, primarily because there are so many different costumes, art styles, etc, that the character has been portrayed in over several decades.

So, I think your hopes of a "best" list might be hard to come by, but I'm certain there are lots of folks with lots of opinions that might be helpful, and as for checklists, surely somewhere out there in this obsessive nerd culture, SOMEONE is making master lists of very figure released. There HAS to be. Maybe for starters, rather than start a thread for each character, just start a thread along the lines of "What are the best versions of each character?" and let people add their own thoughts? You could mention that you're looking for the absolute best version of Batman, Magneto, etc, then mention the criteria that you're judging them by (articulation, sculpt, accessories, ruggedness, etc) and see what results come in. I'm sure you're going to get a lot of different answers, but it might help you steer your searches.

 

[F For Fake]

2 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

I look at pics and say "Wow, that's really cool," too.  Then four days later I see another version of that same character and think "Wow, that's even cooler!"  A day later I'm not sure if I think the new one is cooler or the other one is, and I spend another three days mulling that over.  Two weeks later I see yet another version that looks even cooler than the first two, and keeping track of everything starts to seem too overwhelming.  

Well, unfortunately with the major franchises and characters, the toys are just going to keep coming, and they're always going to be improving things. The train doesn't slow down. You just have to pick a spot to jump on safely!

[fantastic_four]

2 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

Well, unfortunately with the major franchises and characters, the toys are just going to keep coming, and they're always going to be improving things. The train doesn't slow down. You just have to pick a spot to jump on safely!

That's fine.  But at any point in time it seems quite difficult to even find out what all the options are to begin to assess.

Maybe price guides?  Is there an equivalent with action figures to what Overstreet or GPA are to comics?

[fantastic_four]

17 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

I think you'll be hard pressed to find any hard answers in your search because the answers you'd get are going to be totally subjective. What represents the "best" for one collector may not be the best for another.

Yea, but there's usually a small set of contenders for best, no more than 5 to 10 for even a character as popular as Batman or Spider-Man.  Narrowing the field down to a small set is of tremendous use because it doesn't take long for most people to pick their favorite from a list of the best.