It's not until I was older that I noticed every single GI Joe figure was the same height. We didn't notice as kids. Made it easier to fit them in vehicles. They were perfect for play. If you market to older collectors who won't be rolling the vehicles down hills but putting them into cases, I understand the desire for better sculpting vs actual play value.
@@danieljeyn9847 There were a few figures that were slightly taller than others though. Sgt. Slaughter, The Fridge, Road Pig. Also, Lady Jaye was noticeably shorter than the other figures. But yeah, most of them were the same height.
@@spectorcreative1872 - As a kid, if they had broken o-rings, I would unscrew them and use newspaper rubber bands. Worked quite well and kept the party going.
@@spectorcreative1872 you have to admit tho, fixing as o-ring is way easier for a kid to fix than He-mans legs :-P we just used rubber washers at that size for Joes. It was always the crotch or thumbs, but u would just tape the weapon in hand!
I'm a primarily 3.75 collector because of the G.I. Joe and Star Wars figures from the 80's. Spin Master makes awesome DC figures for $7.99 with 15 POA and accessories which is a great bang for your buck. Super7 3.75 figures are 5 POA with minimal accessories for a whopping $17.99 which to me seems unreasonable.
If I have to guess, Spin Master produces at a higher volume since they make toys for big box retail as compared to Super7, who make at a much lower volume that caters to adult collectors. Funko also makes 5 POA figures, though I'm not sure how much those are. A relatively new player is Mezco, though they currently sell their 5 POA figures as sets instead of individual characters. I'm primarily a 1:12 scale collector (except for some figure lines, of course, such as TF Masterpiece and Soul of Chogokin) but I'm increasingly enamored by 5 POA figures.
spin master makes AMAZING kids batman toys! My son and I have been all in on their DC offerings. Great price, great articulation, accessories, vehicles, playsets, variants, fan favorite characters, Arkham villains! And to top it off, the figures fit in the mattel arkham knight sdcc batmobile. Its all around score! I found the new GIANT batcave yesterday at target.
I remember as a child receiving my first Micronauts Time Traveller action figure one Christmas and being blown away by the amount of articulation that they had when compared to other figures.
I like the 5poa actually. Cheaper and tuffer. I’ve been making some vehicles for GI Joe classified 6” guys I have on my printer and even if u scale it exactly to scale from 3.75” you can really only get a female figure or the base size buck like Snake Eyes to fit - with some serious work at crossing the legs etc. A bigger figure like Roadblock could never fit it. Even with more poa they just aren’t as flexible or have more mass? To make a vehicle that fits everyone they come out just massive and scarlet looks like a child in them haha! Plus as a kid we actually played with our toys, in two seconds throw a figure in a vehicle roll it down a huge rocky hill and attack. I think we would have destroyed pretty much any modern line in probably week. Where as I still have several of my vintage figures from the 80s. They are pretty scuffed up though, but geez we played the hell out of them. Good times! Original GI Joe 12” (my first toys) is a bit of an outlier there tho being bigger and massive articulation that you could quickly throw a vehicle that was half your size. So many play options, yes even changing outfits like Barbie, but we sure didn’t play with them like girls. Big difference though is my brother and I had maybe 4 Joes with tons of stuff some vehicles, and lived on a farm growing up. It’s hard to actually use action figures of that scale right if you live in an urban environment like most of us do, plus to put them away? Sigh. Smaller scale also provides more options, bigger armies. 5poa you can afford you twice as many characters or used to, and the companies used to make a lot more of them. It’s a very mixed bag as a boy toys fan for over 40 years. Sorry ladies. LOL!
I love the 1/12 Marvel Legends details and articulation but there is a soft spot in my heart for 3.75 figures. I honestly believe 3.75 figures are the perfect size for play.
Sir. This episode is really good. I'd forgotten about that "mini-figures" blurb on Star Wars materials back in the day; always wondered about that as a kid. Thanks so much, as always!
I think the original G.I. Joe 3.75" offered the best play value in terms of 80's action figure lines. The use of the rubber O-ring provided for a lot of articulation in the waist and legs, ball jointed heads allowed for realistic head movement, and of course the swivel-arm feature in addition to knee and elbow joints really expanded how the figure could grip a weapon and interact with a vehicle. They also had amazing vehicles and playsets that really worked at that scale.
I miss 5POA Star Wars so much. Sad we never got to at least finish the line with Rise of Skywalker. The retro figures don't really do it for me. Hasbro's sculpting on some of those 5POA figures near the end was astoundingly good. That rose figure in the video, the butt of so many jokes over the years, happens to be one of their most amazing sculpts with so much detail.
It is sad as it was a way for us to get more niche characters that we'll probably never see now. I can't really blame them though as there are 5 POA peg-warmers from across the Disney-era films that are still knocking around shops, so there were plenty that just weren't selling (you can always sell a trooper, everything else is tricky). The negative reception to the Prequel Trilogy really dragged all the toylines - the Episode 9 TVC figures are very thin on the ground, even ones that would sell (no Sith Eternal Emperor, no Elite Snowtrooper, no white armoured Jet Trooper, no other Knights of Ren, etc - the KoR were clearly designed to help shift a range of toys but the releases petered out very quickly, see also the Imperial Guards each with unique armour and weapons and the Treadspeeder). So they pivoted into the Galaxy of Adventure 5" line which, along with the 2.5" Mission Fleet, seem to be their focus on toys for the kids while collectors get TVC. Not the best idea as 3.75" 5 POA fitted in well with the more articulated TVC and it looks like their Galaxy of Adventures line is no more and they are pivoting back towards 3.75" with the Retro Collection, which has been a success as far as I can tell. What they should do is get Waves 1 and 2 back on shelves for whenever the RoTJ Retro Collection figures drop (40th Anniversary?) as that's a really iconic set of figures that will sell well, especially at the lower price point.
@@MightyEmperor Great frikkin comment, Your Majesty. (I'm being jokey but not sarcastic. Good points here. And if they DO bring that line back during RotJ anniversary then they could sneak in some more obscure characters too, from across films. Thanx!)
I gotta say your comments are why I talk so much on your channel. I've spoken on random toy channels here and there, but seldom has the host responded. Those that do are much more likely to get my participation in comments, likes and whatnot. What strikes me is that the first video I responded to was months old because the algorithm worked against me finding the channel in a timely matter. A host who responds to a comment on a six month old video? It blew my mind.
Correction fortnite currently have realsed 6 bulidable playsets and around 8 vehicles but no carry case so yes figures are the main part of line but other stuff also
I do miss a good letters column. I pored over those as a kid, even hoping to return to the news rack to finish one in a comic I wouldn't be able to buy, if the maternal unit had finished the grocery shopping before I'd finished reading. Thanks for so much nostalgia, Scott. It hits just right. ;)
That kind of blew my mind when I first heard 3.75 GI Joe and Star Wars were made to sell vehicles, but it makes sense. It would be cool to do a video on toys like Mighty Max!
@@spectorcreative1872 well even star wars and DC did the flip open head mini playsets, that could be a good place to start since you have worked on both brands. I honestly would love to see what a company like NECA would do with that style of toy!
Wow, this all makes perfect sense. In 1980 my friends and I were THRILLED with the "Black Hole" figures; their multiple points felt like a massive improvement over the stiff-seeming Kenner fig's. We started making up new Star Wars characters just to bring 'em all into our adventures! When the similar GI Joes premiered the next year (was it '81 or '82?), I felt like I was in on a new wave of precision toy-making. MOTUs were almost a step back in that regard. I digress. Thanks for another installment in a long line of infotaining toy vids!
Great video as always! Thanks for sharing! I was kinda surprised there wasn't any mention about the Fischer Price Adventure People toyline from the 70's.
Interesting insights as usual....really miss the Marvel Universe line. We really got a good range of characters at a lower price point to the Marvel Legends line.
Bandai's non premium shodo kamen rider line retails approx 5 dollars per box for a 4" figure, with about 14 poa, accessories (multiple hands./weapon/stand), and a peice of candy. Would like to see more products like this.
I was introduced to Micronauts before Star Wars figures were available. I can still remember posing my Space Glider and Acroyear on my Star Wars figure stand while waiting for my Early Bird figures to arrive. While I LOVED my Star Wars figures when I go them, I always felt a little 'cheated' somehow by the detail and articulation compared to Micronauts, but just accepted that figures were always going to be that way. Later on, when I started seeing the Black Hole and Buck Rogers figures, and the Micronauts Aliens line, I once again fell in love with the greater detail and articulation of them. That primed me for the GI Joe line when it hit. Holy cow, I can remember how excited and happy me and my friends were about them. I don't think I bought another Star Wars figure until I was an adult collector in the 90s. The MOTU phenomenon was a difficult one as well. They were cool, but out of scale for what I was playing with and they had so little articulation. I was given a number of MOTU figures as a kid, but never took to them like Star Wars or GI Joe. I also kind of blamed MOTU for muddying the waters when it came to action figures, as they took a lot of attention and resources away from the better articulated 3.75" figures.
Great video Scott. I used 3 3/4 for my scale. After measuring as many playsets as I could and box sizes I upscaled my playset so that 2 special 5 inch characters could fit. I’m glad I did bc it made the set more grand all the while staying within my perimeters of box size. Another reason 3 3/4 scale is better is bc as a kid I could sneak my gi joes into church and school. They fit in a pocket or jacket more undetectable.
I would love if you made a video about how the OPEC oil crisis in the 70s also affected the move of toys from 12” to 3 3/4”. I was so used to Six Million Dollar Man 12” large scale and when I got a 3 3/4” Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi around my 11th birthday in 1978 it really surprised me they hadn’t done this before…
2nd that. The cost of oil really seems like urban myth and would love to see some true calculations from the 70s. Like Joe going from 12 inch to super joe 8 wasn’t because Mego was popular?
Do you have any insight on why ~1/24 lines such as MASK, Dino riders, etc. that pushed the vehicle first play model even further is so dead? So much cool stuff was done in that scale, but it then it just stopped.
@Spector Creative M.A.S.K. can easily be the bridge between Transformers and G.I.Joe in their shared universe dream. It doesn't have to *compete* with their other brands when it could be incorporated into them.
The story of Mark coming up with the scale based off his hand is a nice myth but just a myth. 3 3/4th figures had already been around before Star Wars. The Fisher Price Adventure People was a 5 POA 3 3/4th figure vehicle line that was doing well 2 years before Star Wars. It was doing so well that they used the Adventure People as the prototypes of the Star Wars figures.
Yeah but didn't that get confirmed by the people who were actually in that meeting? They were interviewed for the Star Wars episode of The Toys That Made Us. However, I do recall that it was Bernard Loomis who made that hand scale approximation. I could be wrong, though. I need to watch that episode again.
@@iampoch01 I've seen that episode too and I think you're right about it. But there's no way he could have come up with the scale when it was already being used years before and they even used the Adventure People as the prototypes for the coming Star Wars line. I think it's a case where the guys memories are playing tricks on him and now the story has become a myth in the story of the toy line.
@@luiszuniga2859 I just learned about those MAC figures last year and it's a shame that I never saw them as a kid because the vehicles would have been perfect for my Micronauts and GI Joes.
Never argued with that, even when i collected Mega Bloks Pyrates merch it was awesome to see these small lego sized pirates interacting with amazing detailed ships and playsets, definitely an undeniable charm, yeah it's more of a construction play compared to action figure but the feeling is similar i can say that.
I grew up with vintage 5 POA Star Wars. In 1995 when Modern Star Wars came back I was excited for the comeback. Today I collect the 3.75” VC and vintage. If the 3.75 Star Wars 5 POA comes back I’ll be glad to collect those again. Some figures such as Stormtroopers work really well as 5 POA figures. The Rogue One Stormtroopers are a really good example in my opinion.
I loved 3.75 and 5POA figures because I grew up with them. That’s why I jumped into the current Marvel Retro Kenner-style despite the fact that I don’t really collect modern Marvel stuff. That 3.75 scale remains my favorite though I collect other lines in different sizes. The vehicles and play sets were also great but the figures were always the mainstay of these lines. I’m enjoying the Retro Mandalorian line as well.
Always, great vid- interesting info provided in an entertaining way. I was hoping you could comment on the evolution of this form factor WRT how and why we started seeing this form factor adding in more articulation over the years (I’m especially thinking especially with the GI Joe brand)
I remember asking my mom in the 1970s why Star Wars figures were so much smaller than Mego figures. She replied that the price of plastic had skyrocketed the same way that gas prices had at that time. By 1979, sugar prices jumped, and candy doubled in price as a result.
In the 70s, the 1st 3.75" figures I had were Adventure People, which were pretty neat when you're 4-6 years old (I loved the news van with TV camera), but I was way more impressed when Micronauts came out-- I could pose them like my 12" GI Joe! (and some were even diecast!) Then the Star Wars figures came out, & god knows I had enough of them, I was still disappointed that they weren't more articulated like Micronauts... Not that I could articulate it (doh) at the time, but this was a primary reason for my dropping them when the 80s Joes came out... Between that & ewoks, Star Wars figures became like "little kid" toys to me (sorry all)... GI Joes were just "cooler"... By the time more articulation came to Star Wars figures, I was already way out of the franchise... To this day I'm still not a fan of 5POA, & cringe when I see these "retro-style" figures on the shelves... 😅
I sometimes rail against 5 POA figures as relics of the past (and the success of the Super7 ReAction stuff still mystifies me sometimes), but then I remember getting joy out of vintage Transformers that had a whopping 2 points of articulation and any argument I have falls on its face.
Greatly informative as always! You touch on it here how the figures are made but I've always been curious about the manufacturing process of action figures from start to finish. You've talked about tooling and paint apps before, and now a little about the assembly process.. but would you be able to do a video or series of videos that walks through standard production of a 6" fig (like what's the deal with the plastic inlay trays, how are they made?)
I think FP Adventure People are deeply under-estimated. They are really well-engineered, both from a play and business perspective. FP has really cornered the preschool market, and AP were designed to be the toy kids would play with as they exited preschool, but weren't yet coordinated enough for Joes, etc. The amount of tooling re-use really made them a business value, and the universal hand-grip meant almost every figure could use accessories from any playset. It's hard to under-estimate this, as a lot of other lines really didn't put enough effort into testing that. Kenner added the foot pegs, though I'm not sure if they were the first ones to think this up. It did add a lot of value to the figures for playsets/vehicles. But I'm not sure if they had time, in the rush to get product to market, to really internalize how well AP were made, despite using them as a starting point for the SW line.
Does the lack of price difference between a super articulated 3.75 and 6” apply to the vehicles as well? Like in theory, would a scaled down version of the black series snowspeeder only be a 10/15 bucks cheaper?
Funny you mention the 6" scaled snowspeeder. I recall about a year ago getting a couple of those vehicles and a couple of the 3.75" x-wing for $18.99 each during a one day sale at gamestop. To your initial question, I think package size and weight play a factor as well. How many units can be fit/shipped to a store in a comparably sized shipment, for how much, and what's the profit margin for comparably sized shipments when sold. While I'd initially think a $10-$15 difference in price for a 6" vs 3.75" vehicle seems on the low side, checking prices for those vehicles on amazon, best buy, pulse shows a price difference of about $125 for black series 6" scale snow speeder and about $100 for the vintage collection x-wing.
Scott, do you remember Hasbro's M.A.S.K. or Tyco's Dino-Riders? Both those toy series had smaller figures with few points of articulation than the 1/18 scale 3.75 in figures popular today. I think the scale was a little taller than Lego Mini-figures. I always wondered why that scale never really caught on. It seems like a no-brainer: the figures are smaller, so larger vehicles and playsets can be made (almost true to scale). I think in the 90s, Hasbro and Playmates tried it again with GI Joe Sigma Six and Exosquad, but that is the last time I saw that scale on shelves. What do you think of the M.A.S.K. or Dino-Rider scale, and do you think that it works well the vehicle/playset play?
Excellent video Scott! I had an idea for a topic of a video in light of the fallout from the debate with Retroblasting. One of the fair( I think) criticisms I’ve seen in regards to your channel and perspective has been that you offer a lot of structural knowledge and insight into the toy industry while addressing fans frustrations and some of the misinformation that causes. I think it would be interesting to watch a video where you talk about potential ( key word potential, pie in the sky, in a perfect world, if Scott ran the toy companies) solutions that could address these problems. I know this is obviously a complex issue but given your background I would be curious to hear your “what if: the toy industry met fans expectations “ episode. Just a thought, keep up the great videos!
This video was really enlightening about several things. While I was aware of how Star Wars was envisioned as a vehicle line and not a figure line at first, I think a lot of toy collectors believe most of the rising costs of action figures was due to the price of plastic and the amount of deco in addition to labor costs. Even you Scott have said in your MOTU Classics videos that you and your team making decisions on figures like Rattlor where you were over budget and had to make the call to either lose his armor or the deco on his legs and you said you didn't want to do that. I assume you meant the LARGEST driver of a figures cost is the labor or something to that effect. I also think that as far as POA for this scale goes (which is my favorite scale btw), nobody has gotten it perfect, but the closest to perfect so far was G.I.Joe ARAH. Yes, the O-Rings wearing out were troublesome, but with elbows, knees, and the swivel biceps that were introduced very early on, those figures were perfectly posable, but without becoming the mini-statues we have today were you put the figure in a pose, add a stand since it'll fall over if you don't, and put it on a shelf behind a glass case and just look at it.
In all honesty, I think 5 POA is the way to go for figures actually intended for play. As much as I enjoy hyper-articulated/posable figures as a collector, they just tend not to be robust if a kid is actually going to be banging the figures around. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is the 3.75" GI Joe line from the 80's, which somehow managed to accomplish both.
This is exactly why Funko/Super 7 are becoming so popular with their 'Reaction Figures' lines. You cannot help but feel nostalgic just looking at them. And how else would Han, Teela, Zira and Willow Rosenberg hang out together ? ;)
I'll always love the 3 3/4 inch figures or even 5 inch(MOTU) because of the vehicles and playsets. I wish MOTU classics would've released their figures in the 5 inch so we could've had more vehicles.
A shout out to the underappreciated Last Jedi and Solo 5POA figures. Absolutely incredible. We need the original 96 in this style on vintage cards. I would crowbar Super Powers in, but they're 7POA...
I'm never quite sure if I believd that whole 'held apart my fingers' story - it seems a little seredipidous to me that he did that and just so happened to get a figure size that was the same as great selling lines on the market at the time like Micronauts, Comic Action Heroes and Adventure People. I suppose he could have done this and then found that he just so happened to make a size that was roughly the same as 3 3/4 and use that scale?
@@spectorcreative1872 and that's where some of my never quite sure comes from, because either he's REALLY comitted to this one lie or it did, in some way, happen.
Very interesting to hear that Kenner originally designed the toys to sell vehicles. It really shows in the design going into an X wing vs the figures. Come to think of it, with Micronauts we only had a few figures. The same figure would end up driving multiple different vehicles. And going from Micronauts to zombie pose Star Wars was tough. Even 5 joint Adventure People had some life molded into their arms. Han Solo was a one off with his bent arm. How I miss my fragile, fragile Time Travelers. And I also call BS on the “Make them this big” statement. Might have said it but it means Adventure People scale.
I really commend the stat wars mission fleet line, as they seem to be trying to rekindle the "toy vehicle that can fit in a kid's hand, with an accessory figure" that M.A.S.K. did for some kids in the 80s. The mission fleet vehicles didn't have a lot of assembly out of the box (unlike a mega construx or lego set), and typically had some gimmick, like a firing weapon as well. Figures in between 2inches and 3inches gave me M.A.S.K. nostalgia.
No mention of Fisher Price Adventure People at all in this history? While we've all heard the story of "I want them to be this big," it seems a little too coincidental that they were accidentally the same scale as the extant Adventure People line.
I little off subject: The other day I was chatting with a good friend and during the conversation, we each confessed that for some reason MOTU Origins figures makes us want to play with them the same way we did as kids, while our other collections don't. (I primarily collect 3.75 Star Wars while he primarily collects G1 looking Transformers) I've been wondering about why this is. The conclusion that I'm currently at is that the MOTU figures feel good and solid to hold. They feel like they want to be played with. Where as my Star Wars Vintage Collection figures, as much as I love them, feel very fragile. They feel like they want to be displayed rather than played with, but the 5poa figures don't have this problem. They feel more sturdy. Anyway, I was just assuming that this would be at least part of the reasoning. But maybe it wasn't.
I'd still argue that Star Wars was always about the WORLD, not just the figures, not just the vehicles, not just the beasts, not just the playsets - each element was equally important. It's obvious the characters were the most popular, but I would never in a million years call figures accessories to the vehicles. The vehicles are always accessories to the figures - they are the heroes driving or piloting them and sitting inside. It gives the figures a new action to "do" or display in - likewise with the playsets. I think this is exactly why TVC's popularity is finally skyrocketing again, because with Hasbro bringing in playsets to the line (FINALLY!), the display options are increasing and so is the toy photography. Now it feels like the world building of Kenner again....
Thanks for the video. Would you be able to (if you haven’t already and I just missed it) do a video on the Mattel “Justice League Action” toy line? I really liked the figures and vehicles, but I think it may have ended prematurely due to the show not being picked up for another season by Cartoon Network. Would have loved to see more villains in it. The vehicles were cool too. They had the 4.5 inch main line (I think it was around 4 1/2 inches anyway) and then the mini figures and the big/large figures as well. Thanks!
@@spectorcreative1872 Wow! Thanks so much! Another one if you get to it would be the Mattel "The Batman" line. I know the designs were divisive, but I thought the toys looked great!
How much assembly is done by hand versus machine these days? How many hands really touch a figure before it gets sealed in package - and obviously that will differ based on size and parts count? Maybe you covered the assembly process in another video already?
I’ve learned a lot through your videos. - Now I don’t like that 6 inch TBS figures our priced about $10 more than the 3 3/4 inch TBS figures, since the labor and manufacturing cost are the same. A fair price increase should be $3 or $6 even. - The Disneyland Neighbor
I loved MAC figures and vehicles. I had quite a few. I wish there was a modern version if them. Someone should bring them back for nostalgias sake . When Marauder Task Force 1/18 figures first came out the had a MAC vibe to me.
I like to see a video on how many different 3inch toy lines there were in the 70s compared to now. I think super7 is the only one doing 3 inch and Hasbro .
I find it hard to believe Hasbro would abandon the 3.75" scale for both Star Wars and GI Joe. Despite cost being very close (Vintage Collection vs Black Series), kids still want the accessories ie vehicles. And it's always going to be cheaper to do the vehicles to fit smaller scale figures and retailers it seems like are stocking less and less large toys if they're over $100. I dont have children, but i do have nephews, and I would never buy them the expensive Marvel Legends or Black Series figures, because they will eventually beat them up, lose their accessories and throw them away for the next toy they get on their birthdays or christmas. Dont remember if it was last year or two years ago I found a Star Wars line of figures, Galaxy of Adventures, that were sold in plastic tubes. The figures looked just like the Vintage Collection, very detailed, at least the first few waves, then the figures shifted to more animated style, but they were only 5POA. Point is those were very cool, and very affordable. I ended up getting the Darth Vader cause I didnt have a classic looking detailed Vader in 3.75" scale. Shoulda gotten the rest Han, Chewy, Leia and Jedi Luke. Those would have been a great mid level toy to give to a kid and for Hasbro to keep making. Not so cheap, but not as expensive as the full fledged collector line like the Vintage Collection.
5 POA works best for me because the more articulation you get in the 3 3/4 line, they seem more fragile. As a kid, I had a Big Jim, and bent his head upwards and it broke off. They just seem more fragile and less likely to be played with, more likely to be posed and displayed.
I always liked the 3.75 inch action figures to be 5 POA because those figs are my first ones in my collection (Star Wars POTF, Star Wars vintage, Super Powers, GI Joe, Final Faction). Plus, I always display them on my shelf like they were "waiting for the bus to arrive" poses. He he.
I'm in a bit of a quandry here. Even as a kid, I preferred the GI Joe articulation, as it allowed the Joes to hold a rifle properly instead of like a pistol which was what happened with the Star Wars figures. However, I also recognize the realities of the situation. Not every kid was like me, and no kid will ever use all of those POAs during play. That being said, I do think that the 5 POA model would be better served with ball joints connecting the arms to the torso, instead of the swivel joint (a 5+ POA model, so to speak). That might help soldiers hold rifles better, and swordsmen grip their blades with both hands. But I'm no professional, so what do I know?
Hey! If you're interested in letter sections in comics I recommend the current Thor run by Donny Cates. The letters are answered by his ravens and are a hoot. Also when Saga picks back up their letter column is great. I switched from reading in in trade form to monthly issues in part because the quality of the letters was so good.
I like the 3.75 inch figures, they have a more nostalgic feel. I have two versions of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends “Iron Man”, but I prefer the smaller 3.75 version.
I’ve always wondered why the legs on more figures didn’t bend at the knee? It seems to me that’s something you’d want in a vehicle based line, since the figures would fit in seats better. Some modern stuff seems almost too articulated, I’ve had 12 in figures that can be floppy at times because they have too many POA to stand up. Equally, sometimes I wonder why there are so many POA on figures that are clearly going to break: the EQG mini dolls I collected could have been just as adorable with 5 POA while being more durable (way to many kids with them seem to have lost the feet! Sometimes the used toy aisle is a terrifying place…). Though with the lithe limbs and big heads, I’m not sure how much it really would have helped. I would if there isn’t a “sweet spot” of POA above five but less than super articulated, like seven or nine? IIRC that is what the GI Joe’s from the 80s did. Of course, the more POA the less the figure is going to resemble the sculpt. Too many and everyone looks like Frankenstein!
Only problem with 3 3/4 was that the Super Heroes weren't in 3 3/4 until much much later. I was collecting for 20 years or so before 3.75 Super Heroes. Maybe not that long as I don't know when DC Unlimited started. But even then, that was just one of the big 2. If the Super Heroes had been the same size to slug it out with Star Wars and Joe's I would have had a collection of 3.75. And I actually started late, despite being in the Comic Book store business since 1984, I didn't start Action Figure collecting until 1994 when I had kids. And Star Wars started in 77 or 1978. No telling what my collection would be up to now.
It is a travesty that Super Powers, which was also made by Kenner, was not 3.75". I suppose they picked a larger size to support the action gimmicks, but I would have preferred no gimmicks anyway.
Yes, I actually started with Super Powers. I was manager, and eventually owner, of Comic Book stores from 1984 to 2008. I didn't start collecting until 1994 when my son was 4. Despite the line ending in 1992 my local Toys R' Us had a ton of Super Powers and even some leftover Secret Wars figures. Because I was working in Comics stores, my kids wanted Super Heroes not Star Wars or Joe's. And that's how it started for me.
I just picked up a newer Skeletor. I'd say 75% of the old school MOTU media could be re-enacted pretty damn close. I'm contemplating selling of some of the ho-hum Motu I'm back in the day to make room for some diorama action.
Action Fleet! Now that’s an epic line, some are super expensive now as well. If any Star Wars line needs to return its 3.75 and Action Fleet/Micro Machines. The Power Of The Force I… that’s good that is.
What's you're opinion on why almost all of the Kenner jedi figures came with staffs/poles instead of guns? I think that was a factor in SW decline (besides the juggernaut of gi joe) because I didnt play with those figures nearly as much. Any alien could be a bounty hunter if he had a gun.
Have you worked for Hasbro? Do you have their ear? How can you possibly speak about why Hasbro makes figures with 5 poa? Another great video! Love all the insider info.
@@spectorcreative1872 Look at mister popularity here with his friends! For real though tell them to make more 6" compatible vehicles. OldEmceemoney says so.
For some reason...the only 5POA figures I have and ever bothered to buy were 3.75" 'Rogue One' figures. I cant explain it but for that line it worked! Would i buy 5poa on another line?...no!
I'm primarily a 3.75" 5POA collector because I find the Star Wars Vintage collection and black series too expensive. For me it's about the toy-hunt and collecting experience more so than the quality. With the cheaper lines manufacturers tend to produce more figures as well. I was very disappointed when Hasbro dropped the 5POA Star Wars line. I've not bought any new figures but just concentrate on collecting the older figures. This will keep me busy for a while.
Man I love Mission Fleet! Oddly enough they have wrist articulation and a ball joint in the head. It almost feels like articulation overkill for that scale.
My first action figures in the late 80s TNG 7PoA figures and the DC Comics Super Heroes 7PoA. Then Playmates came out with figures that were, for the longest 12 PoA. I counted to make sure. I never liked Star Wars figures, really, until Episode III when the figures had more points of articulation. Then it was off to the races. When they went back down to 5 I was very disappointed. I, personally, prefer more posable figures.
5 poa will come back eventually, just look at how pricey things are becoming just for your toddlers to smash against each other. Adults are growing old and dying, but there will always be toddlers
So why were GIJoe and Stat wars figures the same price when articulation is a major price factor? I remember 2.97 at Toys R us in early eighties. JOES had harder plastic, more paint ops and more articulation, it seems they would have cost more than Star Wars.
Star Wars were a licensed property, GI Joe was a toy line first. I assume Hasbro had better margins on their product than Kenner did, since Papa George didn't need his pound of flesh.
G.I.Joe RAH figures are the sweet spot of size and articulation for me. 5POA is not enough, and I don't need the hyper-articulation of Star Wars Vintage Series figures. Too much articulation makes them too expensive, less sturdy, and harder to play with. Why won't Hasbro go back to that (whether with or without O-rings)?
Because that's all you need 👌 Looking through the comments so far it's clear I'm in the minority. As a child I hated the over articulated Black Hole and Action Force figures. The gangly, scrawny buggers were a pain in the backside, I wanted tough figures that could be quickly put into position when playing.
In the 80's, I felt GI Joe was the next advancement in 3.75 articulation. Then the 90s came around and it felt like action figures took a step back.
It was but those damn O rings
It's not until I was older that I noticed every single GI Joe figure was the same height. We didn't notice as kids. Made it easier to fit them in vehicles. They were perfect for play. If you market to older collectors who won't be rolling the vehicles down hills but putting them into cases, I understand the desire for better sculpting vs actual play value.
@@danieljeyn9847 There were a few figures that were slightly taller than others though. Sgt. Slaughter, The Fridge, Road Pig. Also, Lady Jaye was noticeably shorter than the other figures. But yeah, most of them were the same height.
@@spectorcreative1872 - As a kid, if they had broken o-rings, I would unscrew them and use newspaper rubber bands. Worked quite well and kept the party going.
@@spectorcreative1872 you have to admit tho, fixing as o-ring is way easier for a kid to fix than He-mans legs :-P we just used rubber washers at that size for Joes. It was always the crotch or thumbs, but u would just tape the weapon in hand!
I'm a primarily 3.75 collector because of the G.I. Joe and Star Wars figures from the 80's. Spin Master makes awesome DC figures for $7.99 with 15 POA and accessories which is a great bang for your buck. Super7 3.75 figures are 5 POA with minimal accessories for a whopping $17.99 which to me seems unreasonable.
If I have to guess, Spin Master produces at a higher volume since they make toys for big box retail as compared to Super7, who make at a much lower volume that caters to adult collectors. Funko also makes 5 POA figures, though I'm not sure how much those are. A relatively new player is Mezco, though they currently sell their 5 POA figures as sets instead of individual characters.
I'm primarily a 1:12 scale collector (except for some figure lines, of course, such as TF Masterpiece and Soul of Chogokin) but I'm increasingly enamored by 5 POA figures.
Prices are up as labor increases
spin master makes AMAZING kids batman toys! My son and I have been all in on their DC offerings. Great price, great articulation, accessories, vehicles, playsets, variants, fan favorite characters, Arkham villains! And to top it off, the figures fit in the mattel arkham knight sdcc batmobile. Its all around score! I found the new GIANT batcave yesterday at target.
I remember as a child receiving my first Micronauts Time Traveller action figure one Christmas and being blown away by the amount of articulation that they had when compared to other figures.
What an awesome line
Blue clear one with I think a gold radiator. And Hydrocopter.....
I like the 5poa actually. Cheaper and tuffer. I’ve been making some vehicles for GI Joe classified 6” guys I have on my printer and even if u scale it exactly to scale from 3.75” you can really only get a female figure or the base size buck like Snake Eyes to fit - with some serious work at crossing the legs etc. A bigger figure like Roadblock could never fit it. Even with more poa they just aren’t as flexible or have more mass? To make a vehicle that fits everyone they come out just massive and scarlet looks like a child in them haha!
Plus as a kid we actually played with our toys, in two seconds throw a figure in a vehicle roll it down a huge rocky hill and attack. I think we would have destroyed pretty much any modern line in probably week. Where as I still have several of my vintage figures from the 80s. They are pretty scuffed up though, but geez we played the hell out of them. Good times!
Original GI Joe 12” (my first toys) is a bit of an outlier there tho being bigger and massive articulation that you could quickly throw a vehicle that was half your size. So many play options, yes even changing outfits like Barbie, but we sure didn’t play with them like girls. Big difference though is my brother and I had maybe 4 Joes with tons of stuff some vehicles, and lived on a farm growing up. It’s hard to actually use action figures of that scale right if you live in an urban environment like most of us do, plus to put them away? Sigh.
Smaller scale also provides more options, bigger armies. 5poa you can afford you twice as many characters or used to, and the companies used to make a lot more of them.
It’s a very mixed bag as a boy toys fan for over 40 years. Sorry ladies. LOL!
They will stand up to play
I love the 1/12 Marvel Legends details and articulation but there is a soft spot in my heart for 3.75 figures. I honestly believe 3.75 figures are the perfect size for play.
They very much are!
I agree with you. Hasbro even has a line of 3.75 Marvel Legends. I got three for less than 15 dollars each.
Sir. This episode is really good. I'd forgotten about that "mini-figures" blurb on Star Wars materials back in the day; always wondered about that as a kid. Thanks so much, as always!
Yup. Not the main item in the line!
I think the original G.I. Joe 3.75" offered the best play value in terms of 80's action figure lines. The use of the rubber O-ring provided for a lot of articulation in the waist and legs, ball jointed heads allowed for realistic head movement, and of course the swivel-arm feature in addition to knee and elbow joints really expanded how the figure could grip a weapon and interact with a vehicle. They also had amazing vehicles and playsets that really worked at that scale.
Oh the GI RAH line amazing and the number of vehicles and playsets so unparalleled
I miss 5POA Star Wars so much. Sad we never got to at least finish the line with Rise of Skywalker. The retro figures don't really do it for me. Hasbro's sculpting on some of those 5POA figures near the end was astoundingly good. That rose figure in the video, the butt of so many jokes over the years, happens to be one of their most amazing sculpts with so much detail.
It broke my heart when Rise of Skywalker didn’t have a 5POA line. I agree the sculpting was top notch on the Rose Tico figure.
I like Rose, personally.
Yeah so weird that only one film never had these
It is sad as it was a way for us to get more niche characters that we'll probably never see now. I can't really blame them though as there are 5 POA peg-warmers from across the Disney-era films that are still knocking around shops, so there were plenty that just weren't selling (you can always sell a trooper, everything else is tricky). The negative reception to the Prequel Trilogy really dragged all the toylines - the Episode 9 TVC figures are very thin on the ground, even ones that would sell (no Sith Eternal Emperor, no Elite Snowtrooper, no white armoured Jet Trooper, no other Knights of Ren, etc - the KoR were clearly designed to help shift a range of toys but the releases petered out very quickly, see also the Imperial Guards each with unique armour and weapons and the Treadspeeder). So they pivoted into the Galaxy of Adventure 5" line which, along with the 2.5" Mission Fleet, seem to be their focus on toys for the kids while collectors get TVC. Not the best idea as 3.75" 5 POA fitted in well with the more articulated TVC and it looks like their Galaxy of Adventures line is no more and they are pivoting back towards 3.75" with the Retro Collection, which has been a success as far as I can tell. What they should do is get Waves 1 and 2 back on shelves for whenever the RoTJ Retro Collection figures drop (40th Anniversary?) as that's a really iconic set of figures that will sell well, especially at the lower price point.
@@MightyEmperor Great frikkin comment, Your Majesty. (I'm being jokey but not sarcastic. Good points here. And if they DO bring that line back during RotJ anniversary then they could sneak in some more obscure characters too, from across films. Thanx!)
3.75 will always be my favorite for sure
For Star wars yes! I prefer the smaller figures more than the 6" Black Series line. Their more fun due to vehicles and playsets
It is true
I gotta say your comments are why I talk so much on your channel. I've spoken on random toy channels here and there, but seldom has the host responded. Those that do are much more likely to get my participation in comments, likes and whatnot. What strikes me is that the first video I responded to was months old because the algorithm worked against me finding the channel in a timely matter. A host who responds to a comment on a six month old video? It blew my mind.
I think it is very important to have two way communication. And topic suggestions are always welcomed!
Correction fortnite currently have realsed 6 bulidable playsets and around 8 vehicles but no carry case so yes figures are the main part of line but other stuff also
True and good point
I do miss a good letters column. I pored over those as a kid, even hoping to return to the news rack to finish one in a comic I wouldn't be able to buy, if the maternal unit had finished the grocery shopping before I'd finished reading.
Thanks for so much nostalgia, Scott. It hits just right. ;)
So under rated
That kind of blew my mind when I first heard 3.75 GI Joe and Star Wars were made to sell vehicles, but it makes sense. It would be cool to do a video on toys like Mighty Max!
I need to find a good angle. Any suggestions.
@@spectorcreative1872 well even star wars and DC did the flip open head mini playsets, that could be a good place to start since you have worked on both brands. I honestly would love to see what a company like NECA would do with that style of toy!
Wow, this all makes perfect sense. In 1980 my friends and I were THRILLED with the "Black Hole" figures; their multiple points felt like a massive improvement over the stiff-seeming Kenner fig's. We started making up new Star Wars characters just to bring 'em all into our adventures! When the similar GI Joes premiered the next year (was it '81 or '82?), I felt like I was in on a new wave of precision toy-making. MOTUs were almost a step back in that regard.
I digress. Thanks for another installment in a long line of infotaining toy vids!
Yup it all comes full circle
Great video as always! Thanks for sharing! I was kinda surprised there wasn't any mention about the Fischer Price Adventure People toyline from the 70's.
Oh i will get to them!
Interesting insights as usual....really miss the Marvel Universe line. We really got a good range of characters at a lower price point to the Marvel Legends line.
WE did indeed.
Great topic covered in this video Scott 👏😎👍 love these industry Insights
Glad to hear! Share the video if you can!
@@spectorcreative1872 Never! Sharing is caring, and I'm selfish when it comes to stuff that I actually like 😆😂😂
Just teasing 🍟🍟🍟
thankyou. learning a lot about toys from your videos
Glad ti hear it! any suggestions for topics always welcome
I imagine the meeting at Kenner being like: "I want them to be this big", "how big sir?", "like Microman", "uh OK".
Quite right
"Total, absolute coincidence… Your Honor. I swear."
Seriously. Microman. Don’t speak Japanese, ok, Adventure People
I just wrote a whole paragraph and you got the point across in one sentence! damn you :D
@@machineman6498 Weren't the early prototypes for the Star Wars figures made from Adventure People?
Bandai's non premium shodo kamen rider line retails approx 5 dollars per box for a 4" figure, with about 14 poa, accessories (multiple hands./weapon/stand), and a peice of candy. Would like to see more products like this.
Nice
Your videos are always fun and outstanding and educational as well. 😃
Right up my nerdy alley. 😆
Well thank you! Any suggestions for topics very much welcome
I was introduced to Micronauts before Star Wars figures were available. I can still remember posing my Space Glider and Acroyear on my Star Wars figure stand while waiting for my Early Bird figures to arrive.
While I LOVED my Star Wars figures when I go them, I always felt a little 'cheated' somehow by the detail and articulation compared to Micronauts, but just accepted that figures were always going to be that way.
Later on, when I started seeing the Black Hole and Buck Rogers figures, and the Micronauts Aliens line, I once again fell in love with the greater detail and articulation of them. That primed me for the GI Joe line when it hit. Holy cow, I can remember how excited and happy me and my friends were about them. I don't think I bought another Star Wars figure until I was an adult collector in the 90s.
The MOTU phenomenon was a difficult one as well. They were cool, but out of scale for what I was playing with and they had so little articulation. I was given a number of MOTU figures as a kid, but never took to them like Star Wars or GI Joe. I also kind of blamed MOTU for muddying the waters when it came to action figures, as they took a lot of attention and resources away from the better articulated 3.75" figures.
Such a great line
Great video Scott. I used 3 3/4 for my scale. After measuring as many playsets as I could and box sizes I upscaled my playset so that 2 special 5 inch characters could fit. I’m glad I did bc it made the set more grand all the while staying within my perimeters of box size. Another reason 3 3/4 scale is better is bc as a kid I could sneak my gi joes into church and school. They fit in a pocket or jacket more undetectable.
It does allow the most world building
I would love if you made a video about how the OPEC oil crisis in the 70s also affected the move of toys from 12” to 3 3/4”. I was so used to Six Million Dollar Man 12” large scale and when I got a 3 3/4” Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi around my 11th birthday in 1978 it really surprised me they hadn’t done this before…
2nd that. The cost of oil really seems like urban myth and would love to see some true calculations from the 70s. Like Joe going from 12 inch to super joe 8 wasn’t because Mego was popular?
I"ll add that to the list!
Great info, sir. Cheers.
Glad you enjoyed!
How about the BraveStarr line from Mattel, could you do a story on them ?
I"ll put it on the topic card
@@spectorcreative1872 Seconding that request. Interested why they went with a bigger scale than MOTU.
Do you have any insight on why ~1/24 lines such as MASK, Dino riders, etc. that pushed the vehicle first play model even further is so dead? So much cool stuff was done in that scale, but it then it just stopped.
I do indeed. Hasbro deliberately keeps MASK off the shelf to avoid competition with other brands
@Spector Creative M.A.S.K. can easily be the bridge between Transformers and G.I.Joe in their shared universe dream. It doesn't have to *compete* with their other brands when it could be incorporated into them.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Welcome!
The story of Mark coming up with the scale based off his hand is a nice myth but just a myth. 3 3/4th figures had already been around before Star Wars. The Fisher Price Adventure People was a 5 POA 3 3/4th figure vehicle line that was doing well 2 years before Star Wars. It was doing so well that they used the Adventure People as the prototypes of the Star Wars figures.
Yeah but didn't that get confirmed by the people who were actually in that meeting? They were interviewed for the Star Wars episode of The Toys That Made Us. However, I do recall that it was Bernard Loomis who made that hand scale approximation. I could be wrong, though. I need to watch that episode again.
@@iampoch01 I've seen that episode too and I think you're right about it. But there's no way he could have come up with the scale when it was already being used years before and they even used the Adventure People as the prototypes for the coming Star Wars line. I think it's a case where the guys memories are playing tricks on him and now the story has become a myth in the story of the toy line.
and Matchbox make Mobile Action Command (MAC) in 7POA 3 3/4 in 1976
Yes they had but he still used this as his scale. He has confirmed it multiple times in interviews &c...
@@luiszuniga2859 I just learned about those MAC figures last year and it's a shame that I never saw them as a kid because the vehicles would have been perfect for my Micronauts and GI Joes.
Never argued with that, even when i collected Mega Bloks Pyrates merch it was awesome to see these small lego sized pirates interacting with amazing detailed ships and playsets, definitely an undeniable charm, yeah it's more of a construction play compared to action figure but the feeling is similar i can say that.
Well said
That vintage Spiderman at the beginning. Totally had that figure. The nostalgia....
Oh such a sweet sweet Spidey
I grew up with vintage 5 POA Star Wars. In 1995 when Modern Star Wars came back I was excited for the comeback. Today I collect the 3.75” VC and vintage. If the 3.75 Star Wars 5 POA comes back I’ll be glad to collect those again. Some figures such as Stormtroopers work really well as 5 POA figures. The Rogue One Stormtroopers are a really good example in my opinion.
Oh I agree
07:39 The MASK item in the background would suggest it was the eighties :-)
Ha!
JESUS. I forgot about letter columns… I used to read those. Specter blowing my mind as usual.
I loved 3.75 and 5POA figures because I grew up with them. That’s why I jumped into the current Marvel Retro Kenner-style despite the fact that I don’t really collect modern Marvel stuff. That 3.75 scale remains my favorite though I collect other lines in different sizes. The vehicles and play sets were also great but the figures were always the mainstay of these lines. I’m enjoying the Retro Mandalorian line as well.
I do too. But I want more classic trilogy figures
Always, great vid- interesting info provided in an entertaining way.
I was hoping you could comment on the evolution of this form factor WRT how and why we started seeing this form factor adding in more articulation over the years (I’m especially thinking especially with the GI Joe brand)
I’ll add that to the list
I remember asking my mom in the 1970s why Star Wars figures were so much smaller than Mego figures. She replied that the price of plastic had skyrocketed the same way that gas prices had at that time. By 1979, sugar prices jumped, and candy doubled in price as a result.
That and needing to fit in vehicles!
@@spectorcreative1872 I'm pretty sure sugar, being a crystalline powder, will fit fine in any vehicle.
In the 70s, the 1st 3.75" figures I had were Adventure People, which were pretty neat when you're 4-6 years old (I loved the news van with TV camera), but I was way more impressed when Micronauts came out-- I could pose them like my 12" GI Joe! (and some were even diecast!) Then the Star Wars figures came out, & god knows I had enough of them, I was still disappointed that they weren't more articulated like Micronauts... Not that I could articulate it (doh) at the time, but this was a primary reason for my dropping them when the 80s Joes came out... Between that & ewoks, Star Wars figures became like "little kid" toys to me (sorry all)... GI Joes were just "cooler"... By the time more articulation came to Star Wars figures, I was already way out of the franchise... To this day I'm still not a fan of 5POA, & cringe when I see these "retro-style" figures on the shelves... 😅
I recall those!
I inherited an Adventure People set. My GI Joes had a good van to drive while undercover, as well as a kayak and motorcycle.
Don't forget about MASK! That was another vehicle-centric toy line with even smaller figures--even though they also had knee articulation.
Oh yes. That line is one of the best
@@spectorcreative1872 couldn't agree more!
I sometimes rail against 5 POA figures as relics of the past (and the success of the Super7 ReAction stuff still mystifies me sometimes), but then I remember getting joy out of vintage Transformers that had a whopping 2 points of articulation and any argument I have falls on its face.
Relics, but for a reason
The letter pages in Savage Dragon are always great.
Never disapoints
Greatly informative as always! You touch on it here how the figures are made but I've always been curious about the manufacturing process of action figures from start to finish. You've talked about tooling and paint apps before, and now a little about the assembly process.. but would you be able to do a video or series of videos that walks through standard production of a 6" fig (like what's the deal with the plastic inlay trays, how are they made?)
I"ll add that to the list!
I think FP Adventure People are deeply under-estimated. They are really well-engineered, both from a play and business perspective. FP has really cornered the preschool market, and AP were designed to be the toy kids would play with as they exited preschool, but weren't yet coordinated enough for Joes, etc.
The amount of tooling re-use really made them a business value, and the universal hand-grip meant almost every figure could use accessories from any playset. It's hard to under-estimate this, as a lot of other lines really didn't put enough effort into testing that.
Kenner added the foot pegs, though I'm not sure if they were the first ones to think this up. It did add a lot of value to the figures for playsets/vehicles. But I'm not sure if they had time, in the rush to get product to market, to really internalize how well AP were made, despite using them as a starting point for the SW line.
Oh they are!
Does the lack of price difference between a super articulated 3.75 and 6” apply to the vehicles as well? Like in theory, would a scaled down version of the black series snowspeeder only be a 10/15 bucks cheaper?
Yes...less plastic
Funny you mention the 6" scaled snowspeeder. I recall about a year ago getting a couple of those vehicles and a couple of the 3.75" x-wing for $18.99 each during a one day sale at gamestop.
To your initial question, I think package size and weight play a factor as well. How many units can be fit/shipped to a store in a comparably sized shipment, for how much, and what's the profit margin for comparably sized shipments when sold.
While I'd initially think a $10-$15 difference in price for a 6" vs 3.75" vehicle seems on the low side, checking prices for those vehicles on amazon, best buy, pulse shows a price difference of about $125 for black series 6" scale snow speeder and about $100 for the vintage collection x-wing.
Yes, but price value also plays a big part
Scott, do you remember Hasbro's M.A.S.K. or Tyco's Dino-Riders? Both those toy series had smaller figures with few points of articulation than the 1/18 scale 3.75 in figures popular today. I think the scale was a little taller than Lego Mini-figures. I always wondered why that scale never really caught on. It seems like a no-brainer: the figures are smaller, so larger vehicles and playsets can be made (almost true to scale). I think in the 90s, Hasbro and Playmates tried it again with GI Joe Sigma Six and Exosquad, but that is the last time I saw that scale on shelves.
What do you think of the M.A.S.K. or Dino-Rider scale, and do you think that it works well the vehicle/playset play?
It was due to price value
Excellent video Scott!
I had an idea for a topic of a video in light of the fallout from the debate with Retroblasting. One of the fair( I think) criticisms I’ve seen in regards to your channel and perspective has been that you offer a lot of structural knowledge and insight into the toy industry while addressing fans frustrations and some of the misinformation that causes. I think it would be interesting to watch a video where you talk about potential ( key word potential, pie in the sky, in a perfect world, if Scott ran the toy companies) solutions that could address these problems. I know this is obviously a complex issue but given your background I would be curious to hear your “what if: the toy industry met fans expectations “ episode.
Just a thought, keep up the great videos!
Love it! I'll add it to the list
@@spectorcreative1872 I’m looking forward to that one! Thanks Scott!
This video was really enlightening about several things. While I was aware of how Star Wars was envisioned as a vehicle line and not a figure line at first, I think a lot of toy collectors believe most of the rising costs of action figures was due to the price of plastic and the amount of deco in addition to labor costs. Even you Scott have said in your MOTU Classics videos that you and your team making decisions on figures like Rattlor where you were over budget and had to make the call to either lose his armor or the deco on his legs and you said you didn't want to do that. I assume you meant the LARGEST driver of a figures cost is the labor or something to that effect.
I also think that as far as POA for this scale goes (which is my favorite scale btw), nobody has gotten it perfect, but the closest to perfect so far was G.I.Joe ARAH. Yes, the O-Rings wearing out were troublesome, but with elbows, knees, and the swivel biceps that were introduced very early on, those figures were perfectly posable, but without becoming the mini-statues we have today were you put the figure in a pose, add a stand since it'll fall over if you don't, and put it on a shelf behind a glass case and just look at it.
That is very true
Scott, another reminder, a video on lead soldiers figurines. Because, as lead, lasted up until the Eaglemoss DC and Marvel collections.
And now Jada Nano
In all honesty, I think 5 POA is the way to go for figures actually intended for play. As much as I enjoy hyper-articulated/posable figures as a collector, they just tend not to be robust if a kid is actually going to be banging the figures around. The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is the 3.75" GI Joe line from the 80's, which somehow managed to accomplish both.
It does make vehicles and playsets easier
Love the 5POA figures. Especially Chap Mei's excellent details on their figures.
Me too
This is exactly why Funko/Super 7 are becoming so popular with their 'Reaction Figures' lines. You cannot help but feel nostalgic just looking at them. And how else would Han, Teela, Zira and Willow Rosenberg hang out together ? ;)
Vey much so!
@@spectorcreative1872 I may have missed it, but have you already made a video about the 'Reaction Figures' ? ;)
I'll always love the 3 3/4 inch figures or even 5 inch(MOTU) because of the vehicles and playsets. I wish MOTU classics would've released their figures in the 5 inch so we could've had more vehicles.
Me too
@@spectorcreative1872 Er, you also wish MOTU Classics were a 5" line? If so, since you were the brand manager, why wasn't it?
A shout out to the underappreciated Last Jedi and Solo 5POA figures. Absolutely incredible. We need the original 96 in this style on vintage cards.
I would crowbar Super Powers in, but they're 7POA...
@Donnie J Rio It's a shame, because they look great
We do indeed
Anyway - big fan. Love the videos. Thank you for all you do!
And thanks for stopping by. Topic suggestions always welcome
I really love Boss Fight Studio for incorporating such good articulation at 3 3/4” scale… and the figures are $25 minimum.
They do amazing work
I'm never quite sure if I believd that whole 'held apart my fingers' story - it seems a little seredipidous to me that he did that and just so happened to get a figure size that was the same as great selling lines on the market at the time like Micronauts, Comic Action Heroes and Adventure People. I suppose he could have done this and then found that he just so happened to make a size that was roughly the same as 3 3/4 and use that scale?
Well he has mentioned this in multiple interviews but I am always for facts and additional info!
@@spectorcreative1872 and that's where some of my never quite sure comes from, because either he's REALLY comitted to this one lie or it did, in some way, happen.
Very interesting to hear that Kenner originally designed the toys to sell vehicles. It really shows in the design going into an X wing vs the figures. Come to think of it, with Micronauts we only had a few figures. The same figure would end up driving multiple different vehicles. And going from Micronauts to zombie pose Star Wars was tough. Even 5 joint Adventure People had some life molded into their arms. Han Solo was a one off with his bent arm. How I miss my fragile, fragile Time Travelers. And I also call BS on the “Make them this big” statement. Might have said it but it means Adventure People scale.
Really puts the original line in new light
I really commend the stat wars mission fleet line, as they seem to be trying to rekindle the "toy vehicle that can fit in a kid's hand, with an accessory figure" that M.A.S.K. did for some kids in the 80s.
The mission fleet vehicles didn't have a lot of assembly out of the box (unlike a mega construx or lego set), and typically had some gimmick, like a firing weapon as well. Figures in between 2inches and 3inches gave me M.A.S.K. nostalgia.
Oh yes!
No mention of Fisher Price Adventure People at all in this history? While we've all heard the story of "I want them to be this big," it seems a little too coincidental that they were accidentally the same scale as the extant Adventure People line.
Oh we will get to them
The FORTNITE lines actually have more vehicles and playsets than maybe any licensed property right now?
I little off subject:
The other day I was chatting with a good friend and during the conversation, we each confessed that for some reason MOTU Origins figures makes us want to play with them the same way we did as kids, while our other collections don't. (I primarily collect 3.75 Star Wars while he primarily collects G1 looking Transformers)
I've been wondering about why this is. The conclusion that I'm currently at is that the MOTU figures feel good and solid to hold. They feel like they want to be played with. Where as my Star Wars Vintage Collection figures, as much as I love them, feel very fragile. They feel like they want to be displayed rather than played with, but the 5poa figures don't have this problem. They feel more sturdy.
Anyway, I was just assuming that this would be at least part of the reasoning. But maybe it wasn't.
Oh yes. And designed that way. I note this more in an upcoming Barbie video (no for real)
I'd still argue that Star Wars was always about the WORLD, not just the figures, not just the vehicles, not just the beasts, not just the playsets - each element was equally important. It's obvious the characters were the most popular, but I would never in a million years call figures accessories to the vehicles. The vehicles are always accessories to the figures - they are the heroes driving or piloting them and sitting inside. It gives the figures a new action to "do" or display in - likewise with the playsets. I think this is exactly why TVC's popularity is finally skyrocketing again, because with Hasbro bringing in playsets to the line (FINALLY!), the display options are increasing and so is the toy photography. Now it feels like the world building of Kenner again....
It was but not to Kenner
Thanks for the video. Would you be able to (if you haven’t already and I just missed it) do a video on the Mattel “Justice League Action” toy line? I really liked the figures and vehicles, but I think it may have ended prematurely due to the show not being picked up for another season by Cartoon Network. Would have loved to see more villains in it. The vehicles were cool too. They had the 4.5 inch main line (I think it was around 4 1/2 inches anyway) and then the mini figures and the big/large figures as well. Thanks!
I'll add it to the list!
@@spectorcreative1872 Wow! Thanks so much! Another one if you get to it would be the Mattel "The Batman" line. I know the designs were divisive, but I thought the toys looked great!
They started calling them "mini action figures," because the large size figures came out later. I distinctly remember the change.
But never the main item!
Time to learn some Toy History from Uncle Scott in his creepy Basement of Wonders!
Not just creepy, very creepy
How much assembly is done by hand versus machine these days? How many hands really touch a figure before it gets sealed in package - and obviously that will differ based on size and parts count? Maybe you covered the assembly process in another video already?
Almost ALL assembly is by hand hence labor costs
I’ve learned a lot through your videos. - Now I don’t like that 6 inch TBS figures our priced about $10 more than the 3 3/4 inch TBS figures, since the labor and manufacturing cost are the same. A fair price increase should be $3 or $6 even.
- The Disneyland Neighbor
Alas, labor increases
To me, Mobile Action Command (MAC Matchbox) and Action Jack (Star Toys) has the best of two worlds in 7 POA 3 3/4
Nice examples!
Is it knees and elbows? Those sound cool and I'm gonna look them up!
I need to dig some out. MAC Men seemed much smaller.
@@machineman6498 3 1/4, my wrong
I loved MAC figures and vehicles. I had quite a few. I wish there was a modern version if them. Someone should bring them back for nostalgias sake .
When Marauder Task Force 1/18 figures first came out the had a MAC vibe to me.
I like to see a video on how many different 3inch toy lines there were in the 70s compared to now. I think super7 is the only one doing 3 inch and Hasbro .
I find it hard to believe Hasbro would abandon the 3.75" scale for both Star Wars and GI Joe.
Despite cost being very close (Vintage Collection vs Black Series), kids still want the accessories ie vehicles. And it's always going to be cheaper to do the vehicles to fit smaller scale figures and retailers it seems like are stocking less and less large toys if they're over $100. I dont have children, but i do have nephews, and I would never buy them the expensive Marvel Legends or Black Series figures, because they will eventually beat them up, lose their accessories and throw them away for the next toy they get on their birthdays or christmas.
Dont remember if it was last year or two years ago I found a Star Wars line of figures, Galaxy of Adventures, that were sold in plastic tubes. The figures looked just like the Vintage Collection, very detailed, at least the first few waves, then the figures shifted to more animated style, but they were only 5POA. Point is those were very cool, and very affordable. I ended up getting the Darth Vader cause I didnt have a classic looking detailed Vader in 3.75" scale. Shoulda gotten the rest Han, Chewy, Leia and Jedi Luke. Those would have been a great mid level toy to give to a kid and for Hasbro to keep making. Not so cheap, but not as expensive as the full fledged collector line like the Vintage Collection.
It is due to price value with 6 »
5 POA works best for me because the more articulation you get in the 3 3/4 line, they seem more fragile. As a kid, I had a Big Jim, and bent his head upwards and it broke off. They just seem more fragile and less likely to be played with, more likely to be posed and displayed.
Very much s
I always liked the 3.75 inch action figures to be 5 POA because those figs are my first ones in my collection (Star Wars POTF, Star Wars vintage, Super Powers, GI Joe, Final Faction). Plus, I always display them on my shelf like they were "waiting for the bus to arrive" poses. He he.
Yes nostalgia plays a big part in the appeal
Super Powers was not 3.75", and neither Super Powers nor G.I.Joe RAH were 5POA.
I would love a Real Ghostbusters 3,75" line! To carry them in the pocket! 🌝🙂
A good reason to use this scale
Oh *hell* yeah. Never thought of that for some reason.
Why do you think we’re seeing more and more retro lines coming up? Hasbro/Kenner’s retro Mandalorian line for example.
I the sense that they are less expensive to produce
I'm in a bit of a quandry here. Even as a kid, I preferred the GI Joe articulation, as it allowed the Joes to hold a rifle properly instead of like a pistol which was what happened with the Star Wars figures. However, I also recognize the realities of the situation. Not every kid was like me, and no kid will ever use all of those POAs during play. That being said, I do think that the 5 POA model would be better served with ball joints connecting the arms to the torso, instead of the swivel joint (a 5+ POA model, so to speak). That might help soldiers hold rifles better, and swordsmen grip their blades with both hands. But I'm no professional, so what do I know?
Everything! Consumers are the best judges of product and what works and what does not
Hey! If you're interested in letter sections in comics I recommend the current Thor run by Donny Cates. The letters are answered by his ravens and are a hoot. Also when Saga picks back up their letter column is great. I switched from reading in in trade form to monthly issues in part because the quality of the letters was so good.
I do miss letters columns.
Oh I so need to check that out!
3 3/4 is my favorite scale cause of the options veicles, i dont think that star wars did best, to me g i joe did best
If only vehicles were still available
Someone probably already said this but I think the Galoob Lone Ranger line technically has 7POA.
Technically right is the best kind of right
I like the 3.75 inch figures, they have a more nostalgic feel. I have two versions of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends “Iron Man”, but I prefer the smaller 3.75 version.
Very much so
The Fortnite line DOES have vehicles now but you'll mainly find them at Target for the most part.
For the most part...
The building materials should count as playsets in some cases and they had that command post nodule or whatever too.
I’ve always wondered why the legs on more figures didn’t bend at the knee? It seems to me that’s something you’d want in a vehicle based line, since the figures would fit in seats better.
Some modern stuff seems almost too articulated, I’ve had 12 in figures that can be floppy at times because they have too many POA to stand up. Equally, sometimes I wonder why there are so many POA on figures that are clearly going to break: the EQG mini dolls I collected could have been just as adorable with 5 POA while being more durable (way to many kids with them seem to have lost the feet! Sometimes the used toy aisle is a terrifying place…). Though with the lithe limbs and big heads, I’m not sure how much it really would have helped.
I would if there isn’t a “sweet spot” of POA above five but less than super articulated, like seven or nine? IIRC that is what the GI Joe’s from the 80s did.
Of course, the more POA the less the figure is going to resemble the sculpt. Too many and everyone looks like Frankenstein!
Cost basically. The more articulation the higher the cost in labor
Only problem with 3 3/4 was that the Super Heroes weren't in 3 3/4 until much much later. I was collecting for 20 years or so before 3.75 Super Heroes. Maybe not that long as I don't know when DC Unlimited started. But even then, that was just one of the big 2. If the Super Heroes had been the same size to slug it out with Star Wars and Joe's I would have had a collection of 3.75. And I actually started late, despite being in the Comic Book store business since 1984, I didn't start Action Figure collecting until 1994 when I had kids. And Star Wars started in 77 or 1978. No telling what my collection would be up to now.
Very much so
It is a travesty that Super Powers, which was also made by Kenner, was not 3.75". I suppose they picked a larger size to support the action gimmicks, but I would have preferred no gimmicks anyway.
Yes, I actually started with Super Powers. I was manager, and eventually owner, of Comic Book stores from 1984 to 2008. I didn't start collecting until 1994 when my son was 4. Despite the line ending in 1992 my local Toys R' Us had a ton of Super Powers and even some leftover Secret Wars figures. Because I was working in Comics stores, my kids wanted Super Heroes not Star Wars or Joe's. And that's how it started for me.
Pulsar = Most likely one of the first reasons why I had a 23 year long glorious career on the fringes of medicine.
Nice!
I just picked up a newer Skeletor. I'd say 75% of the old school MOTU media could be re-enacted pretty damn close. I'm contemplating selling of some of the ho-hum Motu I'm back in the day to make room for some diorama action.
Well he is pretty bad ass
Action Fleet! Now that’s an epic line, some are super expensive now as well. If any Star Wars line needs to return its 3.75 and Action Fleet/Micro Machines. The Power Of The Force I… that’s good that is.
It was!
@@spectorcreative1872 I have a few of them, but there’s tons of rare vehicles.
What's you're opinion on why almost all of the Kenner jedi figures came with staffs/poles instead of guns? I think that was a factor in SW decline (besides the juggernaut of gi joe) because I didnt play with those figures nearly as much. Any alien could be a bounty hunter if he had a gun.
Luke had a gun with every figure. The only one with a staff was Bib Fortuna the Imperial Dig and some skiff guards if I recall
@@spectorcreative1872 19 of the 31 released jedi figures didnt come with a gun.
What is the 80's GI joe considered seeing how you can bend arms ,.legs and waste turns?
82 Joe's are 12 poa, 83 Joe's 14 poa, and 85 Joe's 15 poa. It was more easily summarized with Swivel Arm Battle Grip or Super Articulation.
It is 3 3/4 for sure
Have you worked for Hasbro? Do you have their ear? How can you possibly speak about why Hasbro makes figures with 5 poa? Another great video! Love all the insider info.
I do have friends and colleague who work there and we "chat" from time to time
@@spectorcreative1872 Look at mister popularity here with his friends! For real though tell them to make more 6" compatible vehicles. OldEmceemoney says so.
For some reason...the only 5POA figures I have and ever bothered to buy were 3.75" 'Rogue One' figures. I cant explain it but for that line it worked! Would i buy 5poa on another line?...no!
Interesting rules!
I'm primarily a 3.75" 5POA collector because I find the Star Wars Vintage collection and black series too expensive. For me it's about the toy-hunt and collecting experience more so than the quality. With the cheaper lines manufacturers tend to produce more figures as well. I was very disappointed when Hasbro dropped the 5POA Star Wars line. I've not bought any new figures but just concentrate on collecting the older figures. This will keep me busy for a while.
You are not alone in that
3 3/4 is King and always will be! On another note... did the livestream with RB ever happen?
Yup. See Geek Lives channel
What is the best action figure stand for 3.75 inch figures
I like the one's Brian's Toys sells. Small black and round
Man I love Mission Fleet! Oddly enough they have wrist articulation and a ball joint in the head. It almost feels like articulation overkill for that scale.
It was such a fun line
My first action figures in the late 80s TNG 7PoA figures and the DC Comics Super Heroes 7PoA. Then Playmates came out with figures that were, for the longest 12 PoA. I counted to make sure. I never liked Star Wars figures, really, until Episode III when the figures had more points of articulation. Then it was off to the races. When they went back down to 5 I was very disappointed. I, personally, prefer more posable figures.
It sounds like a fun collecting time!
5 poa will come back eventually, just look at how pricey things are becoming just for your toddlers to smash against each other. Adults are growing old and dying, but there will always be toddlers
Like all things flows and ebbs
Except @ the ReAction price...
Adventure People figures and vehicles started the 3 3/4 scale. Before STAR WARS. Before the Dark Times.
Oh yes, that needs to be covered too
So why were GIJoe and Stat wars figures the same price when articulation is a major price factor? I remember 2.97 at Toys R us in early eighties. JOES had harder plastic, more paint ops and more articulation, it seems they would have cost more than Star Wars.
Star Wars were a licensed property, GI Joe was a toy line first. I assume Hasbro had better margins on their product than Kenner did, since Papa George didn't need his pound of flesh.
They did, but no royalty
Is this Scott N.(formerly of mattel)?
G.I.Joe RAH figures are the sweet spot of size and articulation for me. 5POA is not enough, and I don't need the hyper-articulation of Star Wars Vintage Series figures. Too much articulation makes them too expensive, less sturdy, and harder to play with. Why won't Hasbro go back to that (whether with or without O-rings)?
Very much so
Because that's all you need 👌 Looking through the comments so far it's clear I'm in the minority. As a child I hated the over articulated Black Hole and Action Force figures. The gangly, scrawny buggers were a pain in the backside, I wanted tough figures that could be quickly put into position when playing.
And well spoken