[MESH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snowflakian

Recently, it's a mix leaning mostly on not. Back in the 90s they did a lot though.

The general consensus from kids back then was they favored the super suit heroes though. It's more fun to play as spider-man or batman than say peter parker or bruce wayne, but in many cases, having both does help too.

DCIH did some mixed. And Hasbro will get to some eventually too. Part of the problem is also the massive amount of heroes to cover. But having a Peter Parker figure, or Bruce Wayne, or Clark Kent does work with the imagination of kids. They do like having that aspect of being able to go back and forth when they play, like Peter stumbling on a crime and having to suit up as spider-man, or Bruce in his mansion or at a gala and needing to suit up as Batman or even the imagery of Clark running to a changing room to go save the day as superman. Or even Tony Stark tinkering with his armor. Some of the best figures I remember as a kid were the Bruce Wayne to Batman figures that had removable costumes. Kenner had some great ones for the Keaton Batman films and the animated series. Though as a counterpoint, the Toy Biz original Tony Stark/Ironman kind of sucked. Though they got a better one out for his 90s animated series.

So for some it's great. For others, it's kind of moot. The fantastic 4 more or less live in their costumes. Steve Rogers doesn't do many missions out of costume or have that "need to change" moments etc. Dr. Fate and Dr. Strange, most of their powers come from the costume. Etc. So it's kind of a character by character thing and when you deal with a license like Marvel or DC, sometimes you don't have the room for those right away. The instances even in the 80s and 90s when we did get those, was because they were dedicated lines to that lone hero. Batman's solo toy line. Superman's solo toy lines, even Spider-man's solo toy line.

I do expect we will see a Peter Parker figure sooner or later though. The obligatory Ben Reilly from that too. And hopefully someday a Miles Morales figure too.

And both Mattel and Hasbro have dabbled in it a little. We do have several plainclothes Logans, both comic and movie among others. But in most instances, the recognition factor comes from the costumes not the civilian identity.

Im releifed im not the only one, ohew :P

This is what im refering to - the ability to change from your "everyman" character to your hero self is what makes heroes so what shall i say ... organic?

Think of RPGs for example, the main element that plays deep within the mind of the player is the fact that you start off as an ordinary everyman - undergod and slowly start to build up - similar to the hero mytholgy of the ancient greeks.

Now in terms of action figures - it would be great to produce cash cows (batman , superman, spiderman) characters with their dual identity - I realise DCC is somewhat aware of that - in their recent productions they released the batman Arkham collection where its like 5 batman and one bruce wayne figure.

Yes - I agree that the mass audience are not interested but for big time fans and maybe few collectors - the demand exists - I dont mind paying a few bucks extra just to get the "human side" of my favorite superhero.

A real example from my life would be , the DC direct Secret Identity Clark Kent to Superman figure released in 2002 or 2006.

Old toy companies used to produce alot of these human to hero production figures I remember buying almost most of them:

1- Toybiz - Peter Parker interchangable clothes to Spiderman (the PVC sucked because it can wear out after alot of use - plus its hard to change from to spierman, thus I just keep him in human form and imagine he changes with another spidey figure)


2- Kenner - Bruce Wayne to Batman (Great figure, except that the mask and the hands look really bulky - but as a kid imagination got that covered :P - PVC got hard after ten years and literaly broke down - bad Rubber quality I guess )

3- Superman Returns - Clark Kent to Superman ( really nice adaptation of the Superman returns movie character - the problem is that changing from to superman is exhausting because the cloth can get damaged as well after multi use.)


Anyway sorry for ranting, Im just glad that Im sharing my experiences with other action figure lovers - through my life I always thought I was the only person who is into action figures - not to mention my community finds it awkward so I had to hide it :P