Your 1/6 collecting History

[fbang]

Quick glance at my relationship with action figures:

1978: Saw the first Star Wars in a rerelease and was instantly hooked like the rest of the planet. Had about 50 figures by the time Jedi came out, but as I grew older, I lost interest and pretty much destroyed them all.... worst mistake of my life lol. I also collected a bit of Micronauts.

1984: Somewhat got interested in GI Joes even thought I was a bit too old (and honestly felt ashamed by playing with them in secret)

1997: The Star Wars hype is back! Out of guilt of killing all my figures in the 80s, I get back into collecting, even though the figures all look like apes.

1999: I stumbled across my first McFarlane (Michael Myers) while shopping randomly and it's the first time I realise toys can be "serious". From then until 2013, I collect 6" McFarlane, Necas and what not.

2012: I buy my first Kotobukiya (Stormtrooper), feeling guilty paying $100 for it.

2013: While googling for Scarlet's Johnasson Black Widow, I stumbled across her picture, which seems kinda off but real... I'm confused. I realise it's a toy. A Hot Toys. Google the price and yell: "They must be INSANE paying that price!".... but then I say screw it and buy my first Hot Toys: Jack Sparrow.....

...the rest is a spiral downward into hell.

Seriously, been collecting 1:6 since 2013, but taking a break from time to time. It's the most fun hobby I've ever had in my life, but have to keep my passion in check so I don't go nuts.

 

[abake]

Some very cool stories, thanks for sharing guys.

 

[zeiss]

I have been collecting 1/6 for about 27 years now.

In junior high, I found a vintage 14 inch Vader.

I found it in the early 90's at a local toy show. I was done with toys by that time but I was just in awe of the thing. It was before I had access tot he internet and it was so much nicer than the 3 3/4th figure.

A little while later, Hasbro released the 1/6th scale Gi Joe Hall of Fame line. I got the Cobra Commander figure and loved it.


I then collected their Star Wars 1/6 Action Collection which was fun, but most of them were pretty awful. I enjoyed the aliens and the FAO Schwartz exclusives the most. A few years later, Sideshow came out with universal Monsters line which was so exciting because these were much more high end than anything hasbro or kenner had released. I got a few of them and Dracula was my favorite.

It was the release of the Sideshow Star Wars line that kicked things into high gear. I had bought the Medicaom RAH Vader but the excitement of high end 1/6 scale Star Wars figures at a fourth of the cost of the medicom figures meant that I could collect all the major characters. Anyone that was on these boards in 2005 will remember the excitement of seeing Sideshow's Jedi Luke.



It was a little while later that Hot Toys came on the scene and the first figure I got from them is Rambo for a measly $75. I so wish we could still get nice figures at that price. I remember being really impressed with the rubber body as it looked so nice compared to tthe art s. buck used on the sideshow figures.


After that, both prices and quality skyrocketed.

Before getting into Hot Toys, I bought a lot of Medicom stuff. I really liked some of the Medicom figures from awhile back with my favorites being the metal gear solid figures. Their Snake figure was amazing and came out around the same time as the game. At the time, those were much more expensive than other brands but that soon changed.



Then I REALLY got into Hot Toys. I dabbled in all kinds of Hot Toys lines for awhile including Marvel, DC, Star Wars, video games, and Indiana Jones. My favorite figure from all that exploring was definitely the Keaton Batman figure.

I still feel excited seeing it on my shelf all these years later. Such a striking figure.

I do have one Iron Man figure. The Mark 4 from Iron Man 2. Whenever I look at it, I am reminded that the character basically took over half of all Hot Toys releases for awhile. As such, I feel a little mixed about it, lol. It is however, the figure I pull of the shelf most frequently when my 4 year old wants to engage in Avengers battles.



One of the most odd figures I bought was the Hot Toys Optimus Prime. Most people hate the figure but being an optimus prime collector, I love it.




Currently, I only collect Star Wars 1/6 with the hopes of grabbing a Marvel figure every now and then. I don't even go all in with the Star Wars figures and am more of a cherry picker of the main characters. I want to collect more but space is now lacking and it is becoming harder for me to stomach the prices. Nonetheless, I still get excited at seeing new releases and buy stuff I am truly excited about.

 

[Sardo Numspa]

Like others, I grew up in the 70's and early 80's, but everything I had then was a toy, and I played with them, and didn't keep them/store them.

A lot of younger people really don't understand what it was like back then. Certain TV shows or movies had a much bigger impact on us back then, because we had less entertainment (no VCRs, no DVDs, no streaming, few tv channels, and only select few families had a games console like Atari, or personal computers). So any toy line, show or movie that became popular (eg. Star Wars), was for the most part, UNIVERSALLY POPULAR across the whole generation. Entertainment today is totally disposable, and has less impact.

But as far as 1/6-type collectibles, I started in the early 2000s... maybe 2001 or 2002. It started in a real wave. I was in a local comic store (which normally had statues on display), and I realized that a lot of the boxes they had high on the shelves were actually figures instead of Statues. And some of them were either characters who were significant to my childhood, or just cool figures that were way better than the ones I remembered.

Hard to remember which one was the absolute 1st, but I think it started with Marvel Studios Punisher, and Marvel Studios Blade:
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/product/12-inch-marvel-studios-ser-1/tb73400a
As well as the Sideshow Billy The Kid:
https://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_012502a.htm
And the Sideshow Bonds:


I'm pretty sure those all came out around the same time (2002 - 2003).

The Bond collection, and then the subsequent GI Joe and Star Wars lines made me realize that I could end up buying way too much for my space, and spending way too much money, so I gave myself some specific rules to the collection.

My rules are pretty simple. 1) Everything has to have a nostalgic connection (something I grew up with, that was significant to my childhood entertainment), and 2) Only 1 version of every character (except Batman), and 3) Only buy pieces that I liked enough to keep my whole life.

There are 1 or 2 exceptions, but as one of my old teachers used to say, "the exception proves the rule".

So after I came up with my set of rules, I got rid of the figures that didn't fit. The rules have been good for me, kept me buying at a reasonable pace, and everything so far fits in my "man-cave" without the display shelves looking over crowded. It also saved me from getting sucked into the black hole of Hot Toys Marvel or Star Wars, since I don't buy anything outside of Original Trilogy, and (for the most part) the 1/6 superheroes I have are all comic inspired, not film. I have roughly 100 1/6 figs, and a couple of vehicles, and an assortment of MP Transformers, or Mecha. Since the rules, I've never sold anything, and everything I have is on display.

The only issue for me now, is that there are companies that are making improved versions of some figures I already own. A great example are the Big Chief Studio Bonds. They have their issues so far, but they are certainly better than the old Sideshow ones. Also, there is the possibility of a couple of vehicles, and I just don't know where I'd put them.

1st world problems...

 

[Gruff Old Bear]

...with poofy suits that felt like their undertaker dressed them up in a hurry.

Jameson, I am absolutely stealing that line.

This is what hooked me. Arnie Kim's replacement parts for Art Asylum's quarter scale figure. The scale didn't matter to me. It was the idea that artists could go beyond what mass production offered.