Anyhow, on that note if you are here to find Barbies and that sort of thing, sorry. Yeah, I figure you may have jumped to the conclusion after reading up above that I'm female. So I'll clear that up real quick.
The kind of 12" figures I am referring to happen to be mostly of the military variety. It started with G.I. Joe, of course. I collect other types of figures too, but the bulk of my collection consists of military figures. Civil war and WWII make up the bulk of it.
I'll go back to where I am pretty sure it all started:
When I was about 9 years old, which would have been the Summer of 1982, my friends down the street wanted to play G.I. Joes. Now, being a tomboy, I had a lot of guy friends as a kid. A couple of my pals had just gotten some of the newly released 3 3/4 inch G.I. Joe figures and some vehicles and what-not. I decided to see what they were talking about.
My little brother and I were soon hooked on the Joes, and one day at K-Mart we begged my Mom to buy us one. I think both of us got "Rock n' Roll" that day. I'm not sure why we got the same guy, but I know that "Rock n' Roll" and "Breaker" were my favorites so far.
I think those figures ran around five bucks back then, which was a little high for an action figure, and my folks were on a tight budget so we had to slowly collect the Joes over time. However by the end of that summer, I had at least four, I remember: "Rock n' Roll," "Breaker," "Grunt," and "Zap." I know that later down the line somewhere I acquired "Flash", "Short Fuse," "Snake-Eyes," and "Duke." I don't believe I ever got any of the vehicles, but I do remember my kid brother getting the tank that came with "Steeler."
Well, my fondness for the Joes never really waned. All my adult life I have picked them up in flea markets or whatever if I saw one I had always wanted as a kid or whatever. I even played G.I. Joe with my two brothers until some people were raising eyebrows about a kid my age (and a girl, to boot!) playing with G.I. Joes. But I was a cool big sister, y'understand.
A couple of years ago, for some odd reason I caught some old G.I. Joe cartoon episodes on T.V. very late at night and it got me lamenting about my very first Joes and how I didn't still have them. I'm one of those people that keeps damn near every toy I ever had. Only recently have I been able to sever the sentimental ties and part with some of my childhood treasures on Ebay. But at that point, watching those old Joe episodes (and getting a huge kick out of them), I thought I might check Ebay and see what those original 3 3/4" ones were selling for.
They weren't cheap, but they weren't outrageously expensive either. So I replaced my figures of Grunt, Zap, Rock n' Roll, Breaker, Flash, Short-Fuse, and Stalker. I got some additional ones I hadn't had too. I got the jeep thing driven by Clutch (I forget the name of it at the moment) and the Mobile Missile System that came with Hawk. Duke was the only one I couldn't find at a reasonable price.
Now to come to where the 12" stuff enters the picture...
On my search for a "Grunt" figure, the result list came up with a lot of 12" Grunt figures. In the early 90s, Hasbro released some 12" Joes in their "Hall of Fame" series, and he was one of them. "Basic Training Grunt" was his official title. I remembered having seen the H.O.F. Joes in the store and thinking "Hehe! Cool." However by that time I wasn't collecting much of anything, I had just entered college and didn't have mad money to spend, so to speak.
So whilst on Ebay, perusing the results of the "Grunt" Search (man, that sounds funny), I decided to buy one. I think he was 5 bucks or something. When I got him, I thought he was pretty awesome. I mean, Grunt had always been one of my favorites and was one of my first Joes as a kid. He's not real articulated like the original 12" Joes from the 60s-70s, but he's pretty cool. Definitely made to play with.
That led to my next stage in the 12" process. I was hooked now, but I had no idea what kind of sixth-scale stuff was out there.
At Toys-R-Us one day in 2002, I decided to look in the G.I. Joe section. By then, they were selling 12" Joes of all kinds. After the Hall of Fame 12-inch figures, they came out with more and more, and they eventually got more articulated and detailed. They eventually even came out with a line of "anniversary" figures about 2 years later that were repros of the original 1960s Joes.
On the day I was looking at Joes at Toys-R-Us, I noticed another line of 12" figures in the same area put out by 21st Century Toys. They had a couple of German WWII figures, and after taking a look at them, I decided I had to have the Panzer Commander. He was just too awesome to pass up, and at 15 bucks wasn't priced badly at all.
The Panzer Commander was my first step toward even cooler brands, like Sideshow and Dragon. The 21st Century Toys figures are really nifty for the price though, and articulated like the early 12" Joes. This was the first "highly poseable" 12" figure I had ever had, so it was fascinating. I also marveled at all the detail in the clothing and accessories.
I ain't seen nothin' yet though!
I was at a flea market in a nearby small town and noticed, in a display case, some German and U.S. WWII figures by a company called Dragon. I had seen some Dragon figures briefly online someplace, so this was exciting to see them at a local place. I was now really hooked on the Panzer troops after buying the Panzer Commander (I'd even bought a book about Panzer Divisions) and they had one figure called "Viktor" who was a Panzer LEHR officer. The price was steep, about 45 bucks, but I went ahead and bought him. So I now had my first Dragon figure.
The quality of the figure and the detail bowled me over. I was now a full-fledged addict. I was soon on Ebay daily, browsing through Dragon figures. Soon, I was looking at other brands like Sideshow and Ignite.
And soon, I was purchasing my first Sideshow figure. It was Baron von Richtofen, better known as The Red Baron. A couple years later, I bought a "companion piece" to go with him, a WWI Lieutenant. They look snazzy together, and for fun I put the Lego Fokker Triplane in there:
...and the rest is history I guess!
Basically, I started collecting more and more and couldn't stop for awhile. I am bad about that. Today I have over 100 (which is actually small potatoes compared to a lot of collections I've seen online!) and have even begun to sell a few. There are ones I would never sell, of course, but sometimes it's nice to rotate the collection a bit, see new faces. You know?
So this blog is going to be about my collection, mostly. I will review figures, share thoughts/feelings/opinions/etc etc about stuff, post pictures of newly acquired figures, that type of thing.
So after that extremely wordy and rambly intro, Welcome and Enjoy! Please feel free to post comments and suggestions and the like. I love hearing from other 6th scale enthusiasts.
A couple of things to add real quick: The links over on the right are action figure related sites I recommend/have dealt with. If you know of other good ones, please let me know and I will add them.
Another thing: I have a lot of WWII stuff, and a lot of it is German guys. I am not a Nazi sympathizer or anything even remotely like that. I have a fascination with WWII, the uniforms, the history--I look at them as educational figures. Sure, they have swastikas on them but the companies that make them are making them as authentic as possible, so that is necessary. Don't get the wrong idea about me, in other words!
Now for a few more quick snapshots taken in 2007 of some of the figures I have:
BELOW: The Kubelwagen is made by Dragon, as is it's driver, "Eugen", the medic. The wounded character in the back is a kitbashed Luftwaffe pilot I call Maynard. Just to the left of him is a Soviet NKVD, Alexei Petrovich, also by Dragon.
One of my favorites, "Dieter," by Dragon. He's a Wehrmacht Bicycle Scout.
Various 6th scale figures (clockwise from top left): Dieter again; George Taylor by Dragon, Georg by Dragon, Bazooka (A G.I. Joe), Vladimir by Dragon, and Dmitri by Dragon.
Another favorite: Horst and Blitz, by Dragon.
Another hodgepodge of dudes (L to R): Sepp by Dragon, the Panzer Commander mentioned in the story above, Herbert by Dragon, Edmund by Dragon (on bike customized by me), Marius by Dragon. The G.I. Joe in the background (in package) was a 40th anniversary Action Pilot from 2004 (since sold on Ebay).
There will, of course be many more pictures in this blog so stay tuned!
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