Action Figure Resource Magazine March 2016 | Page 2

ACTION FIGURE RESOURCE MAGAZINE TODAY’S TOYS, TOMORROW’S TREASURES Hi, When is a Toy Not a Toy? What is an action figure? I mean in its purest form, it’s a toy, right? So why is it that when I was looking at all the reviews and products etc from last week’s New York Toy Fair there weren’t any TOYS? Produced & published by: Colin Dorman Articles by: Colin Dorman, Alex Shaw Reviews supplied by: Michael Crawford http://www.mwctoys.com Action Figure Resource Website: http://action-figure-resource.com ACTION FIGURE RESOURCE MAGAZINE Email: [email protected] Advertising enquiries, please send to the above email address. If you have any question, queries or remarks about any of the articles please contact me. If you are interested in advertising in the AFR magazine or website please contact me for a rate card. Don’t get me wrong, there were hundreds of action figures of all shapes and sizes from a diverse range of licenses, but these were all imprisoned in glass cages. I don’t remember seeing any TOYS. To me a toy is something you can play with, bash about, and have some fun with. But nowhere did I see any loose action figures laid out for kids to play with, and surely that’s the grass roots of this hobby and If we DON’T encourage kids to play with their toys and action figures the industry will die. Many people will argue that kids only want to play video games etc on their phones and tablets these day and not with real, physical toys. However, I disagree. The London Toy Fair this year reported a huge resurgence in retro toys with such licenses as Danger Mouse, Teletubbies, Stretch Armstrong and Action Man all doing well. I think we need to get more action 2 figures into the hands of the kids, let them handle them, play with them, bash them, even break them. I used to blow mine up, and tear them apart in huge battle scenarios and had great fun. Today we take it all to seriously, even the “toys” from Hasbro and Mattel seem to be more geared to the collector rather than actually being made to be played with. Let’s face it, most are not made to withstand being played with, only for display. Take your average NECA, or Mezco action figure. If you took them out of the box and played with them, what would happen? They would almost certainly break. Don’t get me wrong I love their figures, the detail, the paintwork and the sculpts etc. But are they toys, or works of art? I read so many posts from people complaining about their figures breaking or falling apart when taken out of the box and the standard answer seems to be that they should be left in the box, but surely this is wrong? After all, first and foremost they are, or should be, TOYS, shouldn’t they? What do you think? Colin [email protected]