@enigmaticclarity they tend mix PVC and ABS quite frequently. Some of the import figures are almost like armatures with pieces that slot over them. Their plastics tend to be quite firm, but not brittle, and lightweight which is crucial for a figure expected to be able to comfortably sit on a flight stand in exaggerated poses. I've never thrown any of my SHF or Medicom figures at a wall, but I've had shelf dives and never any breaks. Bandai, especially, uses so many ball joints that you almost have to be pretty deliberate with them in order to break them. Push most of the joints too far and they just pop off. Conversely, a figure that's cheap and made it out of a gummy plastic is going to absorb more impact and be less likely to break than something with less give. I don't think that makes it better quality plastic.
I've seen this conversation come up from time to time elsewhere, where people question why Mafex/other imports sometimes feel fragile compared to MLs, etc. The response is usually "Imports are collectors items! They're not meant to be handled like a kids' toy!" My question to that is - why is fragility a sign of higher quality? Wouldn't a better design, articulation, paint, AND construction be the true hallmark of a good product?
@misfit, you actually gave a better reason than I've seen anyone else offer. I could accept that an effort at making the figure light enough in certain areas to achieve/hold poses might involve a tradeoff in plastic quality. I also assume Hasbro is obliged to meet certain minimum safety/quality standards - either regulated or set as internal policy - to be able to sell their products in as many markets as they do.
For a while, I'd opt for the import like Mafex or SH Figuarts because that was the only place to get digital face prints. The likenesses were stellar compared to what Hasbro had been doing UNTIL they started employing digital face prints. Then I never looked back. I did pick up some of the import figures from Into the Spiderverse, because they were the ones making sculpts closest to the animation style and proportions. Hasbro caught up there too. So I've pretty much given up on the imports because of the expense. I know plenty of people swear by them, but they just aren't for me. I'll admit lots of them look good, but even aesthetically, proportion-wise, there's a disconnect with what the majority of my collection from Hasbro looks like.
@h-bird I don't really think of MAFEX and SHF as being fragile. They just have more moving parts (and more parts in general) and every joint added to an action figure can be viewed as another fail point. And more complex joints probably have a higher fail rate than a more simple setup. For example, the rotating cup piece inserted into a thigh for a thigh swivel isn't necessarily fragile, but it's still more likely to fail than a simple peg setup in a standard thigh cut you see on a Legends figure. And any figure that uses a lot of paint is going to be needed to be handled with more care than one that's mostly bare plastic due to paint rub, though both Medicom and Bandai make liberal use of colored plastics.
Aside from my desire to get an Iceman from this line with ice slide and multiple icy accessories, I'm thinking maybe Puppet Master could be a perfect fit?
Imagine a Puppet Master figure complete with a work table, a few tools, and numerous puppets; not just the standard 4 F4 characters. It could include a handful of affiliated characters (Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, Namor, She Hulk, Black Bolt), and maybe a few peripherals (Black Panther, Hulk, Wolverine?).
Ideally I'd like to see the puppets at least have 5 points of articulation, but that's not a deal breaker.
I don't really think of MAFEX and SHF as being fragile. They just have more moving parts (and more parts in general) and every joint added to an action figure can be viewed as another fail point.
I generally agree with that, but those added articulation points still make them fragile. And the plastic is still significantly easier to break than the current Legends or Jada Toys plastic.
The easiest example I can think of is the ball and hinge wrists that both Mafex and Bandai use. Legends figures just use a hinge, but Bandai and Medicom usually add a ball to the base of that hinge--which is an added point of articulation as you suggest. If you bend the wrists along the hinge you're fine, and of course you can rotate the ball to achieve a different angle and that's a great thing since Legends hand pegs are hard-sculpted to hinge either vertically against the hand or horizontally for characters that wield guns, swords, etc. The problem with the ball and hinge on wrists is that it's difficult on many figures to determine which way the hinge is oriented, and if you apply even a 9-year old's limited strength in the wrong direction that peg is going to snap right off. I've almost broken a few of those myself mistakenly thinking I had knew which way the hinge was oriented if the ball is well-hidden in the forearm and hand sculpt as we'd all prefer, but I've NEVER had my kids break a Legends figure's wrist. And I freely let them play with virtually every one of the hundreds of Legends figures I own with a tiny few exceptions when a figure is unusually fragile at some joint.
Many or most adults can adjust to this extra complexity, but even we can make mistakes with it at times. If I didn't have kids it probably never would have occurred to me that they're fragile, but they just are. They're much easier to break. There's an extra reason they're more fragile--Hasbro does a LOT more breakage testing than the import companies do. Occasionally an interviewer will ask the Legends team why they didn't implement a figure with some more-advanced engineering like extra joints, bendy-wires, etc etc, and Ryan and Dwight quite frequently give the same answer--they couldn't use that tech at that joint because it wouldn't pass their QC standards. The Legends team is clearly making their figures work to be played with, whereas the import companies work towards the standard of maximum poseability for the purpose of posing on shelves, not child-like rough play.
I'm going through this weekly--and sometimes daily--with my son right now. He's gotten into S.H. Figuarts Dragon Ball, Naruto, and One Piece figures. Target is stocking a $35 version of these figures in their stores, and to him Target is like Toys R Us was to me as a kid. He saw Naruto on the shelf within the $40 toy budget we often give him when going on a periodic shopping trip, so now he just spent his entire October 2024 birthday and Christmas 2024 budgets on S.H. Figuarts figures. And there have been many breakages as I anticipated just within the 2-3 months he's had them. I begged him for months to not do this, but I'm a libertarian and want him to be free to choose as much as is safe so I let him make his own choice with multiple warnings that this may easily end in tears. Hasn't been terrible so far and he's clearly learning from the experience so I think it has been a long-term positive experience for him. But S.H. Figuarts and Mafex figures are undeniably fragile as compared to those from Mattel and Hasbro, and he's breaking parts about once every 2 to 6 weeks.
I'm thinking maybe Puppet Master could be a perfect fit?
You're right, but they said they're sticking to mainstream popular characters. Only hardcore Marvel nerds like us know who Puppet Master is. 😳
@enigmaticclarity yes, I agree, they're more fragile than a Hasbro figure, but I still don't think of S.H.Figuarts and MAFEX as being inherently fragile brands. My elementary school aged son also has some interest in figures and he has a couple SHF and Dragon Stars and none have broken even though they get left on his floor, tossed around by my nephew (who has broken every Transformer and Legends figure I've given him so no toy is safe from some kids), and so on. I can't speak much to MAFEX as I don't have many, but I have a large collection of SHF and have never had a break on anything. And they've taken shelf dives onto my floor which is just a thin carpet over concrete in my basement. I have broken a hand on a Lightning Collection Power Ranger though when trying to swap hands when the softness of the hand rips off the hinge. There's no denying though that Hasbro has a different set of standards for their figures and it all goes back to the company being primarily one that creates toys for children. The culture is obviously changing and I think we're going to see less and less of that going forward so long as they stay in the action figure market since it has clearly become one dominated by adult collectors. MAFEX, S.H.Figuarts, and other lines have never been designed with kids in mind. When I think of "fragile" though I'm thinking Mezco and their soft goods, Super7 and their varying degrees of quality, and even a brand I like, Mondo, as they have well documented failures.
My elementary school aged son also has some interest in figures and he has a couple SHF and Dragon Stars and none have broken even though they get left on his floor, tossed around by my nephew (who has broken every Transformer and Legends figure I've given him so no toy is safe from some kids), and so on.
I did manage to get my son to agree to half a dozen Dragon Stars figures for his birthday, so I agree. That seems to be Bandai's brand designed for kids to play with as opposed to adults to put on a shelf. Figuarts on the other hand he's broken several joints on, but he's 9 whereas your son must be at least 12 if he's in middle school, and those are like dog years in terms of maturity.
But he's all-in on Figuarts now. I think he's so pissed that I stop letting him play with mine when he breaks something on one that he's just determined to show me he can play with figures just like Daddy's fragile ones without a problem. When you've got a short memory like Dory who quickly forgets about the joints he breaks on his own figures I can see how that makes sense to him...I've really created a monster. 😥 😆
@enigmaticclarity nah, elementary school. He's actually 9 as well. He'll have legs and stuff pop off his SHF unintentionally, but has yet to break any of them. Now does he still have all of the extra hands and such? That I don't know and would not be surprised if he's lost some. The only figure of mine my kids (and it was probably the nephew) have broken is a vintage Bandai Green Power Ranger. I figured it was safe to let them play with it since it was a kid's toy, but they proved me wrong. Now he has a floppy head because they broke the neck housing inside the body somehow. Lesson learned.
I'm thinking maybe Puppet Master could be a perfect fit?
You're right, but they said they're sticking to mainstream popular characters. Only hardcore Marvel nerds like us know who Puppet Master is. 😳
That might change in a few months thanks to John Malkovich. But yeah ... that isn't going to happen.
I think Puppet Mast could have a vertical rack with 7 or so hanging puppets behind him. I have a custom Puppet Master which I made a big marionette staff to hang FF puppets on. Doom puppet just lies at his feet. He's a fool to mess with Doom.
Now does he still have all of the extra hands and such? That I don't know and would not be surprised if he's lost some.
My son picked up my habits on that so it's the one thing he's doing really well. I put all of my figures in clearbags.com polypropylene zip bags, and the accessories go in the bag with the figure. If any accessories are painted I have small zip bags that those go in, and that small bag goes in the larger bag.
Since my twins were four I wouldn't let them open any of my bags unless they agreed to never leave accessories out of the bag when they're not actively playing with them, and they've been regularly finger-wagged for five years when they do it. So all of his figures with accessories have bags, and he's fully in the habit of using them for my stuff and also his own stuff. That was one of my conditions before I bought him Figuarts figures--you HAVE to put accessories away in the bags and not leave them around the house. He's done great with that, and every time he gets a new figure he seems to enjoy asking me for bags to store them in.
Since his sister loves the female Legends figures she's also in the same habit. She uses them for her Rainbow High doll accessories.
I put all of my figures in clearbags.com polypropylene zip bags, and the accessories go in the bag with the figure. If any accessories are painted I have small zip bags that those go in, and that small bag goes in the larger bag.
Are these acid free as well or is polypropylene safe enough inherently for action figure storage? Trying to find some decent baggies for stuff as I've had some McFarlane figures get sticky in just ziploc bags.
I put all of my figures in clearbags.com polypropylene zip bags, and the accessories go in the bag with the figure. If any accessories are painted I have small zip bags that those go in, and that small bag goes in the larger bag.
Are these acid free as well or is polypropylene safe enough inherently for action figure storage? Trying to find some decent baggies for stuff as I've had some McFarlane figures get sticky in just ziploc bags.
Ziploc bags are for food storage. Most people don't store food for more than 6 months or so, so the bags begin to degrade in under a year. Everything I know about plastic storage bags comes from comics which I've been a hardcore collector of since about 1981, and ClearBags sells all of the better types of bags I'll mention below.
Polyethylene begins to degrade after about a decade, or much less in higher temperature and humidity environments such as a shed or attic in the southern US. I swapped hundreds of polyethylene bags that I stored my childhood comics in from the 1980s through about 2001, and most were slightly yellow after that amount of time. I don't use it because polypropylene is better and only about 10% to 20% more expensive.
Polypropylene (ClearBags calls them "crystal clear" bags) lasts longer; maybe 2-3 decades, not really sure. I do have lots of comics in polypropylene that have been stored for over 40 years that I haven't seen in a while, so I'll get a feel when I look closely at those again. I looked at them around 2002 after they had been in use for about 15 years, and they weren't at all yellow yet like the polyethylene bags were. ClearBags calls their polypropylene "acid-free" which I cringe a bit at. For 95% of purposes I suppose they're right since they don't become acidic for decades, but they do eventually become acidic. I really don't know of anything better for action figures though since they're very clear and flexible enough to store anything you'd want for an action figure. Polypropylene is particularly nice because it's clearer than polyethylene which is slightly cloudy, so it's about 80% to 90% translucent instead of being completely transparent like polypropylene.
The gold standard is mylar or some of its equivalents, but that type of plastic is quite crinkly or stiff depending upon the thickness so it's probably not useful for action figures. I suppose you could make clear mylar boxes for action figures, but I don't know if anyone has done it. It's great for paper products though, and it's what the Library of Congress uses for permanent storage items. I'm not sure we entirely know how long mylar lasts before it starts to degrade and release acid, but it's at least a century. It's probably overkill for action figures--being able to store in it for a century essentially means you're curating the figures for future generations, and not many of us care about that.
Latest Post: Mattel regains the DC license Our newest member: Count von Curdles Recent Posts Unread Posts
