Starting out: Buying from the "real" store vs. dol

Posted in Custom Workstation

Hi,

I'm very, very new to figure customization and was wondering if anyone could offer some advice about where to buy bodies.

Is it necessary to buy figures from, say, a comic book store or Toys R Us rather than picking them up from a dollar store? The price difference isn't really a concern but if I'm going to mess something up with practice, would it still be better to buy a "real" figure instead of the kind at a discount store? The plastic is probably not the same quality but I wasn't sure if the difference is significant enough for practice purposes.

Thanks for any help!