New collector some questions to help me please

Posted in Action Figure Chatter

Ok so I just bought my first collectible action figures the new hot toys Chewie and Han Solo or preordered rather. I love starwars it's mandatory watching in our house lol. Now the more I'm looking at some of these figures I see a few more I'd like to buy but I'm not sure of all the variations in each character. For instance the movie masterpiece versions, dx versions, die cast versions, then I'm only assuming there's just the normal 1/6 scale. If any one would car to enlighten me I'd be very appreciative I had like 4 hot toys in my cart but then I wasn't sure what version I was getting and I'd prefer to gain a little knowledge on the subject before I drop a 1000$ I searched Google and kept looking around for answers for some of the questions I have but to no avail so I figured find a forum with others that like what I do and hope for the best.

Second part the only reason I went with hottoys over all the others is there fharacters look so real and true to form. I'm open to other manufacturers but I'm not as well versed on who makes good quality figures. I know sideshow collectibles has some nice stuff but them and hot toys are about the only places I've found and well ebay. So I guess my question is what are good quality makers of well made action figures that pay attention to detail. I'm into marvel, starwars, and dc little bit of movie stuff as well. Also where a good place to buy. Seems like ebay has a ton of figures as does sideshow collectibles but if there's some places I don't know about id love to here about them. I'm from wisconsin and my local comic stores don't carry really anything for action figures unfortunately.

I'd love to learn from you guys and be able to share the things I get appreciate any help you guys could give me to make good wise decisions on my purchases. Money isn't really the object I guess depending on the characters I could spend more or less depending on how bad I want it really lol.

For a little background I started out collecting starwars adidas I have 10 pairs now and always looking for more. However I saw a hottoy recently at a friends house. It was captain America and I instantly fell in love with it I was like I have to have some of these so I did the only thing I know how and started reading and trying to learn everything I could about action figures.

Thanks, Tom