I unabashedly love action figure accessories. They add so much to the ability to pose and display figures. I also love talking about accessories. 😊
Here’s some topic ideas to seed the discussion:
Storing Accessories
I used to use ziplock bags until I learned they were bad for toys. Then I switched to special bags with less acidic properties. Now I’m moving over to Acro Mills mini drawers. I’m mixing accessories from figures and lines in storage. I have several small drawers for guns, some for swords, some for knives, etc. I don’t care which line they came from, if they are 1:12 scale, they go together since I want to be able to consider all of a certain type of accessory when I am looking for one.
I make exceptions for figure-specific accessories. For example Mafex hands are specific to the figure. So I make one small drawer per Mafex figure. The figures are expensive enough to justify their own!
Larger accessories that don’t fit the small bins are something I struggle with.
Mixing Accessories
As long as they are 1:12 scale, I mix them. I refuse to collect 7” scale figures because the accessories can’t mix and match. The exception is Marvel Select for big daddy figures which scale nicely with 1:12, and they don’t come with universal accessories anyway.
Third Party Accessories
I’m a big fan of Corey from Casting Cave and Can of Beams. Robo does a Fwoosh Play Date episode a few times a month where he showcases various third party accessories.
Dioramas & Playsets
We can add vehicles to this category now, too. With various Haslabs. These are great, if you have the space. Galactus and the Sentinels fall under this category too. Figures in themselves but essentially meant to be a backdrop to displays other figures.
Made a torch for my Liberty Chica figure
I tend to mix 'em all up in bins too but I will say some of the most underrated accessories come from the McFarlane Toy lines, so much detail. If they can be fudged in 6 inch I keep them. Some, even if they are oversized I keep just of how great they look. On the other hand, a lot of them become or are fragile so Im gentler when handling those.
So, I recently picked up the MS General Hibernation Pod from Big Bad Toystore and dang, I really dig it. It comes as a kit and takes a bit over an hour to put together, but it feels nice and hefty and it's about the perfect size for a standard sized Marvel Legends fig. The LEDs are nice and bright and the little bonus console I got is a great extra touch. Seems like they're sold out now on Big Bad, but some other places seem to have them online last I checked. I'm tempted to pick up a couple more, but even if I don't it makes a great centerpiece for a dio.
It was listed as 1/10 scale and that's largely why I took the risk. A lot of import stuff skews small relative to ML, but just a little bump up the scale ladder and it works like a charm.
Storing Accessories
I shudder. I used to keep hands in one box, small arms in one box, bigger guns in another box, heads in a different box, close range weapons in a separate box, magic effects in a box, weapon flash in a box... I think I had about a dozen different boxes and it was a nightmare when I decided to sell some stuff.
Mixing Accessories
I will do this temporarily for pics or short term displays.
Third Party Accessories
This is preferred. I hate hard plastic capes, so I take the opportunity to replace them with soft goods. Also, this way I don't have to worry as much about keeping track of who has who's gun/sword/knife/club/merkin.
Dioramas & Playsets
I've picked up a few cheap, random aquarium pieces and I've made some walls and floors as well. Making your own is pretty satisfying once you get the hang of it.
Storing Accessories
So, since I'm a real fiend for organization, I use one of those Michael's Photo & Craft Keeper by Simply Tidy. Each separate container I use for a different line basically. One for all my Black Series stuff, one for Marvel Legends, one for Valaverse guns, etc. It's been a really good solution for me. Only real drawback is the boxes aren't the best for larger figure accessories like spare ML Juggernaut heads or similarly sized stuff. For most things though, works like a charm.
I tend to group accessories into 3 categories:
- weapons
- food
- household items and misc (pots, pans, toys, etc)
I bag them in ziplocks and tend to store them in those groups for easy retrieval.
In general, if you're looking for toy and food accessories, Mini Brands works for most cases. World's Smallest also has a bunch of stuff that can work for 1/12 & 1/10 scale.
I cam across these at 5 Below in June.
There was also a cake shop set and a refrigerator that I picked up.
This might be slightly gauche, because I did the art on one of these (the Cats vs Knives one), but since I've already been paid for my work and won't be making more off it hopefully nobody minds. Anyway, Super Action Stuff's new arcade machine/game on accessory set is up on Big Bad Toystore and other online retailers for preorder. There's a more Galaga/Silpheed inspired one as well with palette-swapped accessories. Anyway, I had fun on it and it's probably as close as I'll ever get to contributing to this hobby.
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/254469?o=1
I thought it would be great to have some kind of Cthulhu or deep-sea creature appendages. Searching for "tentacle toys" is not something I suggest.
So I didn't do art for the upcoming Superactionstuff acifi set like I did for the Game On set, but it's looking pretty cool already. The fact that all the effect parts swap between the Mega-man style blaster, the laser gun, and the legally distinct light emitting swords is a good choice.
I'm admittedly terrible when it comes to storing my accessories. I had one teeny little drawer thing (I think it was technically made for jewelry, but I used it for stuff), and after that filled, I just use ziploc baggies (didn't know they weren't good for them, though- that's good to know).
I don't often change out accessories. I often pose them with the most crucial/well-known accessories to begin with, and then keep the others stored for wherever they may be useful for next. Due to lack of space, I mostly do vanilla poses, but whenever I get a bigger place, I'd love to go more dynamic and use some of the more action-focused accessories. The vast majority of what I have in the baggies now are probably alternate hands, which as you can imagine, are much tougher to re-use since they're often specific to a certain figure. Lots of extra blasters from Star Wars figures too.
I've gotten some good mileage out of the flame/power effects that are included with Marvel Legends, though. For characters that don't have them but should, I'll just take one of the extras and slide them on. It can be amazing how much character a little effect like that has on a figure. I hope we keep getting them, even if I am growing to prefer unique, powered up hands, like with the MCU Classic Loki or Scarlet Witch.
One of the best "accessories" (if you can even call it that) are the stands included with the McFarlane figures. They've saved me so many times, not even on McFarlane products- Marvel Legends, Diamond Select, NECA, etc.- I've got some from almost all my other lines rocking those McF stands. They fit surprisingly well on most, especially the NECA figures.
I've always wanted to get more into dioramas, but again, no room. I've had my poor DC Direct BTAS Batcave sitting in its box since I got it because I have no room. One day!
I'm admittedly terrible when it comes to storing my accessories. I had one teeny little drawer thing (I think it was technically made for jewelry, but I used it for stuff), and after that filled, I just use ziploc baggies (didn't know they weren't good for them, though- that's good to know).
I don't often change out accessories. I often pose them with the most crucial/well-known accessories to begin with, and then keep the others stored for wherever they may be useful for next. Due to lack of space, I mostly do vanilla poses, but whenever I get a bigger place, I'd love to go more dynamic and use some of the more action-focused accessories. The vast majority of what I have in the baggies now are probably alternate hands, which as you can imagine, are much tougher to re-use since they're often specific to a certain figure. Lots of extra blasters from Star Wars figures too.
I've gotten some good mileage out of the flame/power effects that are included with Marvel Legends, though. For characters that don't have them but should, I'll just take one of the extras and slide them on. It can be amazing how much character a little effect like that has on a figure. I hope we keep getting them, even if I am growing to prefer unique, powered up hands, like with the MCU Classic Loki or Scarlet Witch.
One of the best "accessories" (if you can even call it that) are the stands included with the McFarlane figures. They've saved me so many times, not even on McFarlane products- Marvel Legends, Diamond Select, NECA, etc.- I've got some from almost all my other lines rocking those McF stands. They fit surprisingly well on most, especially the NECA figures.
I've always wanted to get more into dioramas, but again, no room. I've had my poor DC Direct BTAS Batcave sitting in its box since I got it because I have no room. One day!
I bought a case from Michaels that is meant for storing photos. It's a larger transparent case with smaller individual cases that slot into it and I use that for all my accessory storage. It's almost full, but it's great for sorting. I keep stuff generally separated by toyline and that works well. I'm like you in that space is my major limiting factor, but since I'm wanting to cut back on my collecting overall I want to focus some time on dio making since I've got access to some good tools for it through work (3d printers and an oversize laser cutter). I just need to sit down for a week or two and finalize some designs.
I think ultimately I want to have some sort of armory or villain trophy room (or both) to show off a lot of the accessories. The former would be good for weapons and artifacts, and the latter, though gruesome, would be a great place for spare heads.
I bought some little clear boxes from Walmart. They were really cheap and I bought maybe 4 or 5 of them. They are about 2 inches deep, maybe 4 x 3 inches and transparent though you can't really see in to them. I have been getting a lot of 3rd party and loose parts, guns, heads etc for kit bashing and I have started misplacing some things (lost a pair of three stick nunchucku I got from some kind of Disney toy I was going to give my TMNT Classics Michelangelo. Pisses me off). These boxes latch shut and are stackable. They also kind of resemble metal crates or gun cases, except they are clear plastic. I think they came from housewares or the cosmetics isle but this was some time ago. While they may not work in a gun display or dio, some may find these useful to store accessories in like I have.
@badguy543 I've got some of those too and that's what I started with. They're a pretty good solution though I've found the latches can sometimes come open easily if you, like me, have curious cats. I have considered taking one or two of mine and painting them so they look like industrial cargo containers.
So I've been (very) slowly putting together a Marvel Legend Sentinel factory diorama for my Haslab Sentinel to live in and part of that has been getting all of the sentinel figs modern ML has to offer, but that still leaves the place rather sparce. I mean, I want a team of X-Men in there wrecking shop, and there just aren't enough sentinels to really sell a big ass robot factory, so I've been on the lookout for ways to fill the ranks (unless/until Hasbro gives me an army builder sentinel that's person-sized, either more prime sentinels or some that are like the ones you saw int he old X-Men arcade).
In that search I found these lads, little gachapon skull heads with teeny tiny robot arms. I had a feeling and picked some up on a whim, turns out they are *exactly* the right scale to serve as a sort of "unskinned" sentinel head. I'm taking inspiration from that one issue of X-Factor where Master Mold's head pulls together a bunch of junk bits to give it almost the same sort of look. The perfect props for a sentinel factory, and cheap army builders to boot. Each comes with some sort of appendage setup out of the box, but those ports all over them are all 3mm pegs, meaning they'll take a lot of Japanese Gundam upgrade kits (particularly things like Modeling Support Goods). So you could (and I plan to) upgrade them further with things like lasers and rocket launchers and such.
I grabbed 8 of the little buggers for around $80 from ebay and I might go back for one more set soon. Just search "gashapon epoch skull and you'll find them". The sets come with two silver and two copper colored skulls, and I think I'll probably repaint all of them to a gunmetal and give them a panel-lining treatment/wash to really make all the detail stand out, but they look great out of box and they're really fun to handle and play with. Since the head are hollow you could also stuff them with LEDs or whatever. Lot of potential there. I made a little stand to hold up the one with the spidery legs as they just aren't enough to support it's own weight for that one, but I think that one will look better floating about anyway.
Latest Post: Daredevil Top 10 - Just For Fun! Our newest member: aajs Recent Posts Unread Posts
