Just what the hell is it about 1/6th that makes it so addictive?

[wookster]

OK, I'm sure we all have our own stories, and reasons why we end up collecting 1/6th stuff.
I started the traditional route, Action Man (GI Joe to my US cousins), then I got into Star Wars in a big way (I was 10 when the movie came out in 77, the perfect age for its release). Then I left collecting from the age of about 15 through to about 27 (the wilderness years if you will... but they were oh so fun!).
Then I started collecting 12" Hasbro SW stuff again, I had/still have pretty much everything up till TAOTC (my wife wrangled for me to attend the world premiere of the movie... I should have liked it, but it was just plain lazy, messy and bad, dissapointment is too small a word, and yes I liked and still like TPM!).
Any hows, in the interim I started on Medicom & Sideshow etc (my wife bought me Franks 1st monster, so as I like to point out to her, it's partly her fault). Then I discovered HT, I was there from the start of the MMS range.
They did what I had wanted someone to do for so, so long.
They took the love and attention to detail that was being lavished on military lines and applied it with real passion to the fanboy movies and properties I loved.
Since those first releases from Terminator, and ALIENS the beast has grown enormously, as has my collection. I still love the work of all the manufacturers in my collection, as they all earmark a period in the collections history, but right now, we seem to be in a golden age with so much amazing stuff available and due out soon.
But what got you hooked, what is it that made you decide... right, I'm gonna spend $100 + on a toy for my shelf?

And am I right in thinking that after the pain, and soul searching of that first purchase, it got easier to justify... and ever so slightly addictive, do you now search out a weekly, monthly, occasisional fix of the good plastic stuff?
Statue shmatsue... 1/6th is the new black!

 

[Kuzeh]

I never was big into 1/6 scale, they always looked a bit weird proportion-wise IMO,
but to me it was Medicom's Darth Vader...
Shortly after, SS Jedi Luke...
Then HT Preds... the rest is history...
!!!

 

[Chouzi]

mini people in our hands... make me feel like god

 

[OSCORP]

Statue shmatsue... 1/6th is the new black!

Can't pose a statue, that's why i like 1/6 (and the accessories) But my 1/6 have to be done WELL. SS's earlier efforts look not much better than Hasbro dolls to me, but they've gotten better. HT is makin dreams come true.(and this hobby would not be nearly as addictive if it wasn't for them)

 

[krec9]

never was a fan either thought it was just a doll till
i saw the rpd leon from resident evil im like wow that looks nice and that was my first 1/6 figure now i cant stop love the customs section here

 

[BuddyGus]

I started with Hasbro 4 inch. Found out about Sideshow with their Platoon line. Once they released Jedi Luke that was all she wrote. Now all my 4 inch stuff is packed away waiting on my boys to get old enough to play with them.

 

[Batty]

I think it's the caramel coating that makes them so addictive.

For me it all started with SW, both in the 70s and again in the 90s. But it was the Sideshow Uni Monsters that really got me hooked. For awhile it did get pretty out of hand with me buying tons of figures. But now due to space and the cost of figures, I really am selective with what I buy.

I do love this hobby.

 

[Centrocal]

I keep telling myself "I'll only buy the cool ones" but then everything is so cool. Also taking picture is part of collecting. Now I want a new camera, when before I didn't give a damn about a camera.

 

[wookster]

I keep telling myself "I'll only buy the cool ones" but then everything is so cool. Also taking picture is part of collecting. Now I want a new camera, when before I didn't give a damn about a camera.

Don't even get me started on cameras, but with 2 kids and a mortgage (and a serious plastic addiction) I can live with my happy snappy Fuji Finepix camera (it's actually pretty good).
I think I need to work on someone giving me a decent digital SLR, I'd give them plenty of credit!

 

[karamazov80]

I guess my route to collecting these differs from some others, as I am too young to have collected the 12 inch Joes, and never had "dollies" like these as a youngster. However, I did collect the 3 3/4" Joes, Transformers, Super Powers, Secret Wars, MASK, and Masters of the Universe type fare. Then later, the TMNT and crappy Toybiz Marvel figures of the early 1990s a little. Of course, I also was a big-time comic book collector. Got away from all of that for a loooong time, and was sucked back in after I graduated college by the JLU and Transformers Classics line a few years ago (I saw Starscream in Target and couldn't believe how close they got to the cartoon incarnation). That led to Palisades Muppets, MP and Alternators Transformers, and the 25th Joes when they started, as well as Minimates (which led to Kubricks), and somehow that led to the 12 inch dollies (mostly thanks to that amazing Joker figure), 1/4 scale statues, and various other things. Just sort of a progression (though not necessarily a logical one) from one thing to another, as my interest would shift from one type of toy to another. I think that with all the various licenses and innovations with these figures, though, that my interest in the 1/6 scale dollies will last a bit longer than some of my previous collectible interests. Maybe not, though.

 

[Darkseed]

I always had interest in Marvel either comics or Mego-action figures. I graduated to Big Jim (Wolf Pack) then eventually Star Wars. From my earliest memories, I always had some sort of action figure around.

During high school, I concentrated on sports and girls and eventually sold my collection before going off to college. I kept a few of my favorite pieces which managed to get "lost" at my parents house. After college, I worked on my marriage and career. I loosely followed Marvel and SW over the years until I discovered SS Jedi Luke. I collected SS and Medicom at first then discovered HT.

I am dedicated to the HT Marvel line (my grail) with a few accessory pieces. I will eventually sell my older pieces and my collection will come full circle with Marvel.

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

I started with small toy figures back in the 90's, but the buzz wore off after a few years as I realized they were better for playing than displaying. I stumbled onto Sideshow figures in a Suncoast store in the mall, and I've been hooked ever since. They were the toys for grown ups.

What's also makes 1/6 my sole focus now is the ability to customize. With all the the great sculptors out there and the wealth of loose parts, you can make almost any character you want.

 

[robbiethepainter]

My older brother and I were a bit late for the 12" Joes but thank god for my eldest brother and our cousins handed down old, worn and some times broken Joes. G.I.Joe was very well know word in our house growing up. I was at the right age for the next generation of Joe but those old 12" were always on my mind. So much so that when I was 14 or so I designed a 12" steel skeleton, rubber skin figure that would be indestructible. Probably from having to repair the old Joes for so many years. Time passes and lot of great toys and then I'm introduced to Garage Kits. Wow! Movie people of all my favorite horror and sci-fi characters. I collected these bad boys for my high school and some college careers. Then more college and loans and life and nothing for many years, then I got an email from Monsters in Motion that I had finally bought one of my all time grail models GEO Metrics Pumpkin Head that I had been looking for since it came out in the 90's and in it was Sides Shows Snake Eyes. I lost my mind. It was GIJoe to the max. Which then led to Hot Toys and the all the movie characters that I have always wanted. Like the Garage Kits but better because I don't have to build them and I get to pose the way I want them to. My girl friend tries hard to understand why I do this and for the most part is supportive, but doesn't truly get it. Why do we do this? For me its a combination of factors. The first is I love movies. I love them. And to have a scale character from some of them is just amazing. The next is Hot Toys makes mass produced works of art. These are toys but they are in fact Art. And finally they are also things that I have wanted my whole life. Even if I didn't know I wanted them. A little boys dream come true that has taken over 25 years to get here.

 

[Atheris]

um...ya never got into the whole collecting small plastic dolls thing. I use to have small plastic figures when I was a kid....but thats where I left it. Collecting dolls as an adult just seems very.......strange. IMO, their is no piece of plastic worth $150+....thats just ridiculous. I reserve my cash for actual hand sculpted art pieces. I mainly only collect PF, busts and 1:2. Everything else will end up in a garage sale eventually and/or forgotten...not worth the investment. The only HT piece I own is a 1/6 tumbler...and thats where it stops.

Chris

 

[dominishin]

I think the design of today's 1/6 figures are more sophisticated and impressive than many statues.

Companies have to think about how to fit and tailor clothing. Articulation. Body types. Proportion. Paint. Sculpting likeness. What makes them more impressive is how many details they've managed to pack in these small figures... it's not too hard to find a 1/6 figure that has more complexities in facial sculpting than a 1/4 or even 1/2 scale statue. Even packaging is often more beautiful and functional on these things.

 

[Mongoleone]

I think they're the perfect size to play with in the bathtub.
I'm pretty new to 1/6 and only have mechanical figures (Iron Man, Terminator) so to me they are poseable machine sculptures and not really "dolls" at all. And with the exception of the Dark Knight DX I have on pre-order (cause it's just so damn cool and all you see of a person is a chin), I'm not really planning on collecting any human figures. But then, I wasn't really planning on collecting any of the things I've acquired over the years, so who knows.

 

[firefly2121]

I never was big into 1/6 scale, they always looked a bit weird proportion-wise IMO,
but to me it was Medicom's Darth Vader...
Shortly after, SS Jedi Luke...
Then HT Preds... the rest is history...
!!!

THat Medi Vader was my beginning as well, then Medi SS...Medi SDCC Sandtrooper...SSC 12", now those wonderful Hot Toys figures all ROCK!!!

 

[King Darkness]

Its either coke or toys for me. I have found that toys are cheaper and present less of a health or legal risk for me.

 

[wookster]

Its either coke or toys for me. I have found that toys are cheaper and present less of a health or legal risk for me.

You know if you buy the 2ltr, 4 bottle multi-packs it works out cheaper!

 

[King Darkness]

Noted.