It is very much the gift-giving season, and if you’re on the hunt for something for a fellow collector, or need options for somebody else to give to you, here’s a good one . . .
Figure Fantasy is a gorgeous hardcover showcasing the action figure art of Daniel Picard, a Sideshow collector who’s definitely made good on his collection. Inside, along with some kinds words from Kevin Smith and Simon Pegg, you’re for some beautiful, and often ridiculous, color spreads of figures from various lines doing very banal things, doing ridiculously awesome things, or meeting each other in interesting world-colliding ways.
Daniel is very much flesh of my flesh, talking about being that kid who always wanted to have the Joker square off with G.I. Joe, or having his Star Wars figures duke it out with superheroes. And while all of the photos are very meticulously selected, laid out, and rendered, it’s still very apparent how much he enjoys messing around with his figures.
The “candid” shots of characters doing regular stuff are obviously the funnest, but there’s also plenty more serious shots that are really kinetic in their action. The cold war bunker he used as a backdrop for some of them is A) a place I should put in a bid on, and B) the most excellent action backdrop I have ever seen.
Anyway, I’m going to do the smart thing and shut my gob, let the pics do the talkin’. You can find his book at the usual suspects, like Amazon or the other big book shops, but since this was a gift for myself, I tempered the selfishness by getting it at a little local gift shop called “Cabin Fever.” But wherever you get it, or whomever you buy it for, this one should be on your list.
