The Art of Reviewing Action Figures

Toy Collecting
The Art of Reviewing Action Figures
By Hervé St-Louis
June 14, 2008 - 07:42

For those who used to come here regularly and read my various action figure reviews and miss them, I offer these sincere apologies. The very moment the Comic Book Bin was created, action figures were part of the mix. I’m quite proud of this and although we are not an action figure site per se, our reviews were second to none. However, as the Comic Book Bin has been growing, to my displeasure, I find that the time required to do more action figure reviews properly is painfully lacking.

When I started, I used to review one action figure per week. Every Sunday afternoon, there was a new review. Back then, I did not have a good camera, so the pics were the standard ones offered by the vendors. They weren’t great, but the reviews themselves were quite detailed. I’ve read many action figure reviews over the years, and few people scrutinize them the way we do at The Comic Book Bin.

Most reviewers look at them quickly and add a few comments. Only a few go further and dig through them and report on minute details. Some still do it to this day and I admire their work.

In 2005, I finally got a good camera and I’ve been adding pictures ever since. I moved last year, and suddenly, I found that my set up to take good photographs was lacking. Light wasn’t as abundant and bright as before in the one spot I could afford to install action figures to take pictures of them. This has severely affected my ability to take pictures. I still haven’t figured out what to do, but one solution is to get a light cage. Professional equipment and lighting seems like the way to go, if natural light is lacking.

Just like the camera scarce before 2005, this will take some will for me to go out and buy that cage. But it might be worth it.

Meanwhile, action figures have been piling up. I’m still buying them! However, I find that I have fewer opportunities to display them because of a lack of time and greater responsibilities. So for the most part, they stay in their packages. This is not a situation I enjoy. So I ask of my readers who came to expect a review every week to be patient with me. I want to get back in the game desperately. I really like reviewing action figures.

If you have any suggestions, comments of word of support, please let me know. What I’ll do for now, is finish up reviews on action figures I do have pics of, so that I get back into the program. I can’t promise more than one review per week, but I guess Sunday mornings are still the best time for me to add reviews. Thanks you for your continuing support.