Oct 6, 2009

Action Figure woes

I am an action Figure Collector. Not a Mint on Card collector, because I like to take the suckers out and set them up in Dynamic Poses. Every now and then I happen to get a defective toy. It happens. I hate it when it happens, especially when the fig is one of the harder to find figs.

There are Four kinds of defects:
-Loose or mega stiff joints. These are one of the most common and range from mild looseness or Stiffness (Easily fixed) to extreme looseness or Stiffness. (The latter could cause breakage.) Toy Biz's Scorpion from the Spider-Man Classics line and Mad Jack (Jack O' Lantern) from said line suffered from the prone to breakage ultra stiffness. (I went through 3 Scorpions.)
Splotchy and messed up paint jobs. These are easiliy avoided when you shop on brick and mortar stores. The problem is when some of the figures have logos or insignias with smudges. Pretty minor, but easily avoided uless you're buying online.

-Freak shows. Figures that have disproportionate limbs, hands, feet, etc. Two left feet or two right hands. Missing limbs or heads. (I saw a headless Destro at a Wal*Mart.)

The two yellow Circles show that Sgt. Flash has no hands. This Sgt. Flash was bought at the same Wal*Mart that had the headless Destro. (I didn't notice the lack of hands... until I got home.)

-Misspackaged figs: This one is a bit iffy. There are true accidents in the factories in which they place the wrong card/info on a figure, but there is an evil breed of collectors the "repackagers" a different breed of evil than the "scalper". These "repackagers" buy figs and then return the toys but there is a surprise. (I still do not know how they do it.) You see that nifty GI JOE: The Rise of Cobra Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes cardback. It is now housing a 25th Anniversary Cobra Officer with GI JOE tRoC Duke's Weapons. That could not be a Factory error since the GI JOE 25th Anniversary line is over thanks to The Rise of Cobra.





If that is Snake Eyes, then The Jonas Brothers are the best band ever...

- Broken figs. I don't mean the ones that accidentaly break with use. I mean figs that are BROKEN INSIDE THEIR PACKAGE. (Or seemingly ok figures that break off on their own.) Unlike the super stiff/or super loose figures these gusy make me angry. Especially when it's a hard to find figure. Like say Mattel's DC Universe Classics line. That line is infamous for being hard to find and the Exploding Butts of some figures.

Either Siniestro had a really great night, or he ate one too many extra bean and chili burrito.

Toy collecting is not easy. As you can see we have to deal with these flaws. We also have to deal with the "scalpers". What is a "scalper"?
A Scalper by definition is a person who scalps.
Scalp: to buy and sell so as to make small quick profits ; especially : to resell at greatly increased prices


In this case is a person who buys action figures to resell them at greatly increased prices. (Most likely on eBay.)


Some people deny their existance, other blame everything on the "scalpers". Unfortunatley they DO Exist. They're not easy to identify, but some of them follow some strategy:


-They seem to know when the store gets new stock and when the aisles are restocked.


-They buy the "best sellers" in multiple numbers it can be: variants, fan favorite females, shortpacked figs, etc.


-They seem to have lists and browse multiple series.


-If they don't have the money to buy said figs, they hide them. (GI Joes hidden behind the playsets on the Barbie aisle? "Scalper"!!)

Now there is also the bad fame that collectors have. Some people think that collectors are as bad as "scalpers". Just because I am an adult buying toys I am "theoretically" denying "little Timmy" the chance from getting said toys. IF I get said toy it's gonna get almost the same amount of use as if "Little Timmy" had gotten it. The bigger difference is that I might take better care of the figure. (Unless it's purpose is to be Custom fodder.) Besides how many little kids play with Marvel Legends, SOTA Street Fighter, NECA Street Fighter IV, NECA TMNT, DCUC? GI Joe, maybe because of the movie, but those 25th Anniversary were bought pretty much by adults. Most kids today are playing Bakugan, or Videogames. I Open my figs and pose them in cool poses, take pictuers of it and at times make stories with them... Basically I'm playing with them in a more adult manner. Kinda like "Little Timmy" would do. Heck some people take it even further by making Stop Motion animations.







KiwamutheKappa's stop motion video... One of the tags reveals why it's here...



Mint on Card collectors om the other hand, don't open their figs, play with them (or do my fancy adult version of playing with them.) They keep their toys in their plastic and cardboard prisons. BUT they buy for their own personal enjoyment. A similar reason to "Little Timmy's".
The ones who buy them to re-sell, now those are EVIL!! Like the guy who did this...






WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?
http://www.poeghostal.com/2009/09/your-daily-dose-of-something-to-hate.html

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