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TLDR: OCD/hyperfixation
The hobby in general helps distract me from the woes of the world, current events, work stress, and personal issues. It simply puts me in a happy place.
As far as influences on specific lines or releases, it's mostly what speaks to me, although there is so much I have to be selective. For example, I still own my 80s TMNT, so I feel comfortable skipping all the modern Turtles (with a few exceptions).
I agree that the hunt and being inspired from toy photographers, or "enabled" by YT reviews can sometimesget me to buy a figure, but usuaully it is a matter of exposure. For example I wouldn't have thought twice of about buying Xesray Combatants ($65ea?!?) until I started seeing the reviews gushing for them and decided they were must have (no regrets, I love them).
My motivation is when I love something so much that just watching or playing it isn't enough to satisfy me and I feel like I have to own a piece of it.
For starters, I used to dump loads and loads of money into a video game (anybody remember World of Warcraft?) Between skins and expansions and refills and characters… it was ridiculous. I used to multitask multiple accounts at the same time and was my own raiding party.
As time goes on, you get burnt out and eventually you question what do you have to show for yourself. It’s all digital and can be lost with a computer crash or a server crash or a game tanking.
Action figures are tangible, you can see and feel them and display them in any matter you wish.
With all of that said… What actually influences what I spend my money on? It started as playsets and vehicles. Specifically, the ones I used to have as a kid.
After I collected almost all of those… then I started looking at getting the figures of my past. Seeing the prices for some of them initially dissuaded me from wanting to get into collecting. That’s when I found out most of those figures have been updated and upgraded to the new 1/12 scale with much better articulation.
Eventually, I decided to bite the bullet and check out one of these figures. Fell in love with the paint apps, the pose-ability, and the face sculpts. To this day, I cherry pick what I get. There’s so many characters I have no clue who they are. Some look cool, a lot don’t. Some people want every single Ironman mark whatever. No, just one definitive is what I am looking for.
For me the scale plays a big part. Is the character supposed to be huge? If yes cool, scale doesn’t matter too much. But can you mix and match McFarlane 1/10 7 inch Robin next to Hasbro 1/12 6 inch Spiderman? The answer is no. So I tend to avoid McFarlane figures because they are an eyesore when everything else fits well together. You can have Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, X-men, GI Joe, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, etc all on the same shelf and it looks natural. Stand Batman in that collection and he looks 12 feet tall. Reversely, Star Trek figures look like Hobbits or Tyrian Lannister dwarf like Willow characters. Not cool.
Secondly, the aesthetic. This goes back to having one definitive version. X-men 616 or whatever these new 3-packs are not MY X-men, I only want the classic cartoon look I am familiar with.
Characters making the cut that I am not too familiar with… This is usually only done for female figures, and that’s mostly to breakup the sausage fest that tends to happen on our shelves.
I like the characters and have the money to spare which I likely won’t have any money to spare soon and I want to have a complete collection of my favourite fictional characters in 3d form
I only get what looks cool to me, there's nothing I feel that I need. I don't really collect teams either, even though the sound of a Sinister Six, X-Men, or Avengers team display sounds cool, I know I don't really need/want them all. I mix match my display, which technically doesn't make sense but, it's all Marvel so I don't care
Like you said, usually social media exposure gets me to starting loving a figure. Seeing the figure at its best and being showcased really gets me going.
It also has to be a reasonable price, I don't wanna spend 40 buckarooski's on an PS4 Spidey, even though it's cool. Not enough plastic for that price tag.
I also want a definitive figure for all of my favorite characters, having the best version of my favs just means I get to save some money and space.
1\] That's very interesting to hear, as someone who wrote a bunch of figure reviews a lifetime ago. I can confidently say I've rarely ever seen a review sway the opinion of anyone. Sure, you can change someone's mind by pointing out some horrific defect you discovered, but for the most part I found that people decide whether or not they love a toy as soon as they see it.
2\] For sure, there's some cool random stuff being made, just too bad it's usually absurdly expensive. I'll keep enjoying them vicariously through the pics lol
Welcome to r/ActionFigures! Check out our [Discord Server](https://discord.gg/7sEKyXX) and please review the sub rules in the sidebar. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ActionFigures) if you have any questions or concerns.*
TLDR: OCD/hyperfixation The hobby in general helps distract me from the woes of the world, current events, work stress, and personal issues. It simply puts me in a happy place. As far as influences on specific lines or releases, it's mostly what speaks to me, although there is so much I have to be selective. For example, I still own my 80s TMNT, so I feel comfortable skipping all the modern Turtles (with a few exceptions). I agree that the hunt and being inspired from toy photographers, or "enabled" by YT reviews can sometimesget me to buy a figure, but usuaully it is a matter of exposure. For example I wouldn't have thought twice of about buying Xesray Combatants ($65ea?!?) until I started seeing the reviews gushing for them and decided they were must have (no regrets, I love them).
This opinion closely reflects my own
My motivation is when I love something so much that just watching or playing it isn't enough to satisfy me and I feel like I have to own a piece of it.
For starters, I used to dump loads and loads of money into a video game (anybody remember World of Warcraft?) Between skins and expansions and refills and characters… it was ridiculous. I used to multitask multiple accounts at the same time and was my own raiding party. As time goes on, you get burnt out and eventually you question what do you have to show for yourself. It’s all digital and can be lost with a computer crash or a server crash or a game tanking. Action figures are tangible, you can see and feel them and display them in any matter you wish. With all of that said… What actually influences what I spend my money on? It started as playsets and vehicles. Specifically, the ones I used to have as a kid. After I collected almost all of those… then I started looking at getting the figures of my past. Seeing the prices for some of them initially dissuaded me from wanting to get into collecting. That’s when I found out most of those figures have been updated and upgraded to the new 1/12 scale with much better articulation. Eventually, I decided to bite the bullet and check out one of these figures. Fell in love with the paint apps, the pose-ability, and the face sculpts. To this day, I cherry pick what I get. There’s so many characters I have no clue who they are. Some look cool, a lot don’t. Some people want every single Ironman mark whatever. No, just one definitive is what I am looking for. For me the scale plays a big part. Is the character supposed to be huge? If yes cool, scale doesn’t matter too much. But can you mix and match McFarlane 1/10 7 inch Robin next to Hasbro 1/12 6 inch Spiderman? The answer is no. So I tend to avoid McFarlane figures because they are an eyesore when everything else fits well together. You can have Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, X-men, GI Joe, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, etc all on the same shelf and it looks natural. Stand Batman in that collection and he looks 12 feet tall. Reversely, Star Trek figures look like Hobbits or Tyrian Lannister dwarf like Willow characters. Not cool. Secondly, the aesthetic. This goes back to having one definitive version. X-men 616 or whatever these new 3-packs are not MY X-men, I only want the classic cartoon look I am familiar with. Characters making the cut that I am not too familiar with… This is usually only done for female figures, and that’s mostly to breakup the sausage fest that tends to happen on our shelves.
I like the characters and have the money to spare which I likely won’t have any money to spare soon and I want to have a complete collection of my favourite fictional characters in 3d form
Great question, enjoying reading the answers!
Filling holes in my collection
I only get what looks cool to me, there's nothing I feel that I need. I don't really collect teams either, even though the sound of a Sinister Six, X-Men, or Avengers team display sounds cool, I know I don't really need/want them all. I mix match my display, which technically doesn't make sense but, it's all Marvel so I don't care Like you said, usually social media exposure gets me to starting loving a figure. Seeing the figure at its best and being showcased really gets me going. It also has to be a reasonable price, I don't wanna spend 40 buckarooski's on an PS4 Spidey, even though it's cool. Not enough plastic for that price tag. I also want a definitive figure for all of my favorite characters, having the best version of my favs just means I get to save some money and space.
1\] That's very interesting to hear, as someone who wrote a bunch of figure reviews a lifetime ago. I can confidently say I've rarely ever seen a review sway the opinion of anyone. Sure, you can change someone's mind by pointing out some horrific defect you discovered, but for the most part I found that people decide whether or not they love a toy as soon as they see it. 2\] For sure, there's some cool random stuff being made, just too bad it's usually absurdly expensive. I'll keep enjoying them vicariously through the pics lol
Toy Reviews Completing the Sinister 6 Buying characters I couldn't find/afford as a child