the future of figures

action figures have come a long ways. example: zipline batman had a great sculpt, but lacked articulation. down the road comes the better batman. same sculpt with some tweeking, we got better articulation. now its one fine figure. sure the plastic isn't the best, but it's not the worst.

the best line I have ever seen and own is the mezco comic hellboy line. hands down, the best. compare that line to marvel legends of old and todays, mattel's old school he-man, etc. they don't hold a candle to mezco. they are not hyper articulated like ML, but the sculpt, size, paint more than make up for articulation.

I don't think a figure can be further engineered to give us more. the japanese are going at it with the revoltech joints, but they are more for posing than playing. they even emphasis this on their packaging. the future in the eyes of the manufactures is profit, and 'if the wheel ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality. they don't really care about a handful of collectors. they are more interested in the 7 year olds who see eye candy at the toy isle and nag mommy to buy it. if she does, the big company wins.

I beleive we are in the hayday of figure collecting. the magic is really gone. all we'll get is rehashes of already produced figures. I remember ML bullseye as one of the best engineered figures out there. all the rehashes of the same figure make the figure base so outdated.

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice I want!

The very ones! Plan-B also did a WWII series with a wider variety of sculpts and ball-joint hips.

The Charmed figs are probably the Valkyrie set, yar, great fodder!

And you mean these things? They look awesome!
http://www.toymania.com/columns/spotlig ... ces2.shtml

If it's cops or firemen you want, there was a line of Emergency figures released by Plan-B toys (also the manufacturer of Special Forces action figures). The line included several different styles of firemen and some Swat police officers including a K-9 cop with dog and a Bomb Squad member. They also released movie figures of firefighters based on the Box Office stinker "Ladder 51." These figures are pretty detailed and have pretty decent articulation as well. The heads on all of these figures are swappable which is kind of neat, but the drawback is that the cop base figure bodies are all the same basic sculpt, size, and dimensions (It's the same body as the Special Forces line), so there's no "Bus Driver" style uniforms with the ornamental hats, just BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms) or fatigues. The firemen are a different sculpt with bulky limbs which limit their articulation slightly, but these are the absolute best and most realistic 1/12 scale firemen you will find anywhere. I think they all have spare heads with SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) masks. Every once in a while, you can find any of these on a certain auction website. It's a shame that Plan-B no longer puts out these figures.

As for great dioramas, the "Charmed"...yes I said Charmed...tv series figures have some great BAF dioramas. The first series is kind of a dusky attic with a stained glass bay window and boxes and other kind of crap you may find in anyone's attic. The second series entitled "Valley of the Dolls" or something like that has a nice stone-walled throne room scene complete with flaming torches. This series includes a male figure in a very accurately depicted Hellenistic period soldier. Plus the chicks look kind of hot! Great fodder for the "Winter of Women" contest!

I'd love some generic cops and firemen and paramedics in ML style, dioramas are a great idea but toy companies can't seem to find a way to give them to us at a reasonable price, and when they do give us play-sets, they're expensive and bland and rarely worth the money.

There are some great ideas here...I think the toy industry is becoming more and more competitive, so hopefully that will result in better figure sculpts, paint jobs, and quality control. I am almost never satisfied with an action figure's articulation so better and less visible joints would be at the top of my wish list. There are ways of engineering cleverly concealed articulation that is also functional. I like the idea of BAF dioramas, Neca did this with the Pirates of the Carribean (although what I have seen of them was kind of lackluster). On that note, how about BAF vehicles? Who wouldn't want a Punisher Van like Variable Penguin made? I'm also a sucker for entertainment value, what I mean is stuff like the extra accessories including interchangeable heads, weapons, kitchen sinks, etc. NO ACTION FEATURES ARE NECESSARY! No Smash-Blade, Power-Punch, Karate-Chop, Spring-Loaded type of crap that requires an unsightly lever or button. Lights are O.K. as long as buttons are well hidden.
Advances in technology has brought us the fairly recent "scanned" sculpts which have produced very accurate likenesses of movie and celebrity figures. As time goes on of course you can expect more advances in toy making. Better materials, better manufacturing, and hopefully on-schedule releases. I do worry what effect the recent problems in the toy industry (Lead Paint fiasco) and the struggling economy will have on the future of toy making. I suspect that prices may start to rise while supply will fall short of demand. But I'm no Alan Greenspan, so who knows? I would sure like to see some manufacturing done in the good old U.S.A. for a change. One thing is for sure though, there still is and will most likely be plenty of fodder in the future for us to turn into something good!

[quote="Finally, a buddy and I have been talking and this is more his idea than mine: Instead of BAF figures they could do BAF dioramas...all six pieces fit together to make a scene the whole wave could fit in. Also they could put out a generic display/playset of the danger room that you could take the BAF scenes and plug them into it and make different locales for the danger room. I'd really hate to see the BAF figures go cause they are awesome, but having Build-A-Scenes would be cool too.

Does sound cool. Sve people a lot when it comes to building display sets and lairs for the figs.

Most Art Asylum figures have their joints hidden under rubberized clothing. And its pretty cool, it does limit how much they can move before the rubber starts to give, but not much.

I'd like to see two packs with the hero and the alter ego in everyday regular clothes...I'd like to see this in the Marvel and DC lines. It would give us a great bunch of "regular" looking people for customs.

I'd also like to see a wave of everyday heroes, this is more of a side line. Have a fireman, policeman, teacher, marine, etc. They could get a couple of good waves at least out of this, and it'd be cool not to mention the good PR.

Finally, a buddy and I have been talking and this is more his idea than mine: Instead of BAF figures they could do BAF dioramas...all six pieces fit together to make a scene the whole wave could fit in. Also they could put out a generic display/playset of the danger room that you could take the BAF scenes and plug them into it and make different locales for the danger room. I'd really hate to see the BAF figures go cause they are awesome, but having Build-A-Scenes would be cool too.

Holograms..Programmed to react the way you want.

Agreed. But they are still around six inches, and maybe different clothes for superheroes and removable armor for guys in video games.

I would like figures in the future would have hidden articulation, you know, without joints. Or maybe with the joints hidden under sculpted rubber just like Mattel Barbie dolls or like Hot Toys muscular bodies.