Toys / Toy Collecting

How Bright Is The Future of Action Figure Collecting?


By Randy Herkowitz
April 3, 2008 - 08:48

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Every adult action figure collector most likely believes the toys from their generation were the best and who can argue with them? It’s part of their childhood.  As a child of the 1980’s I could easily write an editorial on why that was the best decade for action figures.  Perhaps, I will in the near future but the fact of the matter is we are arguably experiencing the best decade for action figures.

Today’s action figure market no longer only caters to children but the growing numbers of adult collectors resulting in a plethora of different licensed toys from today’s and yesterday’s movies, comic books, television shows and video games.

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What collector could have imagined that over twenty years after the release of Jim Henson’s wonderful film Labyrinth, that we’d see action figures of Jareth the Goblin King (David Bowie)?  Or the continuing expansive line of Street Fighter 2 action figures and statues?  I could go on but I think you get the point.


On top of all that goodness, the changes in action figure technology is so far advanced then ever before.  Try comparing an original Transformer to the sophistication of today’s engineering and complexities of a Transformer.  There is none.  Articulation is another amazing improvement the action figure market has seen.  A large selection of action figures including Hasbro Toys: Marvel Legends and McFarlane Toys: Halo 3 action figure boasts 18-28 points of articulation.  We’ve never seen anything like that before!

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More importantly, is the art that action figures have become.  With today’s high quality sculptors and technology, an actor from a movie or television show can be translated into plastic and look like three dimensional photographs.  Oh, and I certainly don’t want to forget to mention the increased amount of paint applications action figures have today, using many different techniques to bring out the mass details such as washes and dry brushing.  Many of these items look as if they were hand painted (and actually may be).  These sort of improvements are not only limited to action figures targeted towards the collectors.  As I mentioned Transformers are primarily marketed to children along with many other popular brands.

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One of the advantages of the added collectors market to the action figure market is the introduction of smaller independent companies.   These companies don’t have a board of corporate executives to answer to and therefore don’t need to push ten million units of each product produced.  This brings me back to the point of having the opportunity to see minor licensed products to see the light of day that a toy company such as Mattel Toys or Hasbro Toys would never consider in a million years.

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This is just the tip of the iceberg.  I haven’t even mentioned the amazing toys that Japan creates that are now easily imported by many online retailers and auction sites.  This opens the doors to a whole other spectrum of products and universes that North America would have never known existed twenty years ago.

I also want to mention the introduction of “Designer Toys”.  Designer toys are usually made out of vinyl or plush and are created by today’s most popular urban artists.  Some of the more popular designer toys are Kidrobots: Dunnys and Toy2R’s: Qee’s.

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So, when you think back to that magical decade that you grew up in and the toys you played with, nothing will replace those memories created with the help of action figures and other toys but comparing yesterday’s toys to today’s variety and quality is like comparing apples and oranges.  However, with that said, I am still prepared to prove the 1980’s were better then any other decade up until now but I will save that for another time.


Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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