Last year we began an anthropological study focused on the evolutionary changes visible within the species parumplasticus populus (little plastic people). Over the last several months I undertook to reexamine the fossil record. The findings range from predictable to surprising. Whereas today’s parumplasticus populus is more sophisticated in many ways, its ancestors maintain the genetic “nostalgic variation” advantage.

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As the decade comes to a close, it’s time to reflect upon this bizarre hobby of collecting tiny plastic men. This past decade saw a renaissance of sorts in the toy collecting hobby, with the increased focus on adult collector-only lines, and a rebirth of many of the 1980s properties we cherished as kids. We saw old favorite lines continued, some in varied forms (Star Wars, Transformers, McFarlane, DC Direct, WWE), new favorite lines begin (Marvel Legends, Minimates, LOTR, JLU, DCUC, Hellboy, Hot Toys), and some end too early (MOTU, Street Fighter, Muppet Show, Sigma 6, Indiana Jones). And some were even resurrected (G.I.Joe, TMNT, MOTU, Ghostbusters).

We all have our likes, dislikes, characters we love, companies we hate, that one beloved character that finally was produced, or the ones that never saw the light of day. But regardless, we are all passionate about this hobby. Passionate…and opinionated. Now, as we all know, collectors can be quite the opinionated group. Especially when it comes to “top ten” lists.

So below, in my own flawed personal opinion, are the Top 10 action figures from 2000 through 2009. Just in time for the ending of the 2000s? 00s? Zeros? Anyway, feel free to read and gaze in bewilderment with my choices. With all the amazing figures to be released in the past decade, it was difficult to narrow down the choices, and I’m sure I have left off more than a few excellent figures. As a disclaimer, I’m a huge DC and Marvel fan, and I don’t collect Star Wars or any McFarlane lines. Other toy lines, like Transformers, Minimates, and Hot Toys, for example, I only follow and purchase certain items. And to be fair, the following list is in no particular order, and is my own opinion, so feel free to share your comments below or on the forum (link at the end of the article).

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I’ve remarked before in these entries that I believe we’re living in the Golden Age of Action Figures, and for me, there’s no better evidence than this past decade. Now, because we’re all geeks at heart, and passionate ones, we always quibble, and a great many of us moan, about the shortcomings of our favorite properties finally getting their due in figure form. Some of these grumbles are justified, especially when the item comes from a mega company with a team of full time scientists concocting these things in their labs. But in my mind, nine times out of ten, I’m willing to overlook the failings, to just stand back and bask in the glory of what’s come to fruition.

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 I’ve been reading articles at Newsarama.com  about how the Avengers has been turned into a franchise.  It hit me this morning.  As more of a DC fan than Marvel, why has DC not turned the Justice League into a franchise?
 
Sure, there was JLA Classified, but that folded a few years back without even a whimper.  The last time the Justice League can truly be said to be a franchise was back in the late 80′s and early 90′s.  We had 3 monthly and 1 quarterly Justice League titles.  In this day when Green Lantern supports two books, Flash has two books coming, and the Justice Society has two books, it is a shame that the Justice League only has one.

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Recently I wrote a blog about the old AD&D toy line. In the post I included a 25 year old Christmas photo that showed some of those toys under the tree. It got me thinking about how many cherished childhood playthings I actually received all those momentous December 25ths. We didn’t grow up in the lap of luxury and Mom didn’t often buy us toys on random occasions. How familiar the refrain: "Wait until Christmas!" Mom held true to her word and never once disappointed!

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 I was on my way to lunch and suddenly in front of me was huge poster of a toy I did not know was coming.  There on the entrance to Burger King was a giant picture of Captain America from the Super Hero Squad.  Apparently, this had completely slipped under my radar.  The big deal about this is that not only do I collect super-hero toys of all types, but I also eat at Burger King about every other day.  I ran in and looked at the Kids Meal display.  They had Captain America and Silver Surfer on the shelf.

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We must always remember what happened on this day at Pearl Harbor 68 years ago. The passing of time has not dulled the memories of those who endured the attack, which ushered the United States into World War II. For the United States, the war would last for three years and nine months more, until the Japanese surrendered in September of 1945.

In the wake of the attack, 16 Medals of Honor, 51 Navy Crosses, 53 Silver Crosses, four Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one Distinguished Flying Cross, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three Bronze Stars were awarded to the American servicemen who distinguished themselves in combat at Pearl Harbor.

Remembering is an act of reverence, for learning from the past. Let’s always remember Pearl Harbor, its brave men and women and the sacrifices they made that day.

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Found a fun little item over at Amazon this morning. Despite the title of the blog, it wasn’t a toy. In Amazon’s music download store they have an abundance of music that is free to download. I’m having fun checking that page each day as you never know what you’ll find each morning. Now the song I’m really here to talk about isn’t one of those 25 (at least not yet, there are still 18 songs left) but it is free and I found it linked from one of the other song’s pages. The song is called “Toy Packaging” (as if the blog title didn’t give that away…) by Sara Groves. It’s not too Christmas-y but it’s fun and I’m sure that everyone reading this will recognize a bit of themselves in the main character trying to get her kids’ toys out of all the blisters and twist-ties. When you get through with that download, take a look around the free section. I’ve found some surprisingly “known” music lurking there and discovered several artists that I’ve become a fan of. Hope the song gives you a chuckle like it did me!

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For anyone who is a regular visitor to AFI, I’m sure it’s no surprise to learn that the licensing and approval process for action figures is not an exact science. It’s usually fraught with delays, dozens of people who need to have everything run past them, misunderstandings, too many departments missing each other’s information (or lack thereof), and, eventually, changes asked for by the actual talent the figures are based on.  All things considered, we’ve been very fortunate at Bif Bang Pow! in all of our approval dealings, but for every license, every now and then there’s some craziness that stops us in our tracks. Allow me to elaborate.

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Sweet, a week late…punctuality is overrated. I wrote this last week and posted on facebook, but I wanted to share here too.Thanksgiving may be over, but the sentiment is always relevant.

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This Thanksgiving Day, it may be all-too-easy to dwell on the negative thoughts and feelings, and all the struggles of the past year. But the best part about Thanksgiving, is it gives each and every one of us the chance to take one day to set aside all the troubles. Despite our own personal difficulties, we all have the opportunity to count our blessings today, no matter how seemingly small and inconsequential.

Whether we are surrounded by a loud houseful relatives, or celebrating the day quietly at home or working, we all are loved by our friends and family. Focus on the unity and togetherness.

The overwhelming majority of us have dinner this day, and there are enough compassionate people in our communities who care enough to ensure that no one needs to go hungry today.

We will go to bed tonight without worry that a bomb could be dropped on the roof over our heads. And there is a roof underneath which, for most, it’s warm and dry. Some people can’t say the same.

And due to the valiant sacrifices of our fellow man, we have the freedom to think and say what we want, within moderation of course. The toughest decisions for many are not life and death, but what kind of action figure to buy.

On the things that matter most – our basic needs for food, health, freedom, safety, friendship and family – are pretty good, for the great masses, compared to most everyplace else.

One’s sense of how lucky one is can be a relative thing. Some years we just have to look harder than others to find something to celebrate, but it’s there. May we find satisfaction in the simpler things today, and count our blessings, while hoping for a better tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

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Based upon the feedback from my prior blog, I’ve done some thinking.  What I’ve realized is that once I got started writing, I tried to put too many ideas in the blog which were not necessarily a good fit together.

Click here to visit the referenced blog.

 
1. Saving money.  In this economy, we all need to save money.  Anniversary sales, like the one I attended are a good place to do this.  That topic, followed by what I bought, and the prices I paid, would have made a fine blog.  Since that time, I’ve picked up an odd PVC statue of a GL Guardian glued to a GL base for $1.99.
 
2. DcDirect vs. Mattel DCUC.  In these days when money is tight, and the cost of the figures is about the same, who gets my money?  DcDirect usually gets mine.  Why?  a) I can find them easily.  I just go to my comic store on a regular stop for comics every few weeks and there they are.  b) I do not care that all of my figures do not fit together exactly in style.  Why is this OK for me?  Because my display area is broken up into fairly small sections which only allow 4 to 8 characters to stand together.  And not all people look the same in the real world either.  DcDirect figures often have unique sculpts which makes them stand out more.  Yes, my Shazam from Hasbro’s 6" line looks a little cartoony.  To me, that makes him fit into my grouping of Justice League International heroes even better.

This is a typical display in my living room.

 
3. My big gripe about Mattel is that I cannot find anything new DC related at retail.  I want to be able to visit a store on the way home and find some figure that I want for my collection.  Mattel cannot seem to do that.  People are finding DCUC wave 10, and talking about waves 13 and beyond on line.  But I have not seen anything past wave 7 at retail.  That is why I finally decided to buy the DcDirect Mr. Terrific even though I like the representation of his T-spheres in the Mattel version better.  JLU has also been so absent at retail that I no longer even bother to stop and look for it although I could easily stop at 2 different Targets on my way home each night.  Matty.com is ok, but it’s not the same.
 
4. Wally West Flash.  I was really waiting to see what the costume change for Wally would be.  DC Comics had said that his costume would be revised.  To be honest, I got tired of waiting.  And I realized that Kyle Rayner’s costume keeps changing.  I had neither a Barry Allen or Wally West Flash in my collection.  I went to the sale, bought the other 2 (Terrific and GeoForce), left, got in my car, got back out of my car, went back in the store and bought the Wally West Flash figure.  The 7$ price tag was too much to pass up.  As you probably know, the revised costume for Wally was revealed about a week later.  Maybe Mattel too was waiting to see what his new costume would be.
 
5. GeoForce.  To me, GeoForce is an example of that fairly basic, generic super-hero costume that could easily be done by Mattel without a lot of new real sculpting on the body.  Especially in his current design.  This one could have gone either way.  DcDirect just got there first.  As one of the respondents to my prior blog pointed out, Mattel has gotten there first with a bunch of other characters.  I’m stoked about their upcoming Iron figure.
 
I need to add that I’ve been doing this collecting thing for a while.  I have a bunch – say 35 or so – DcDirect figures.  After paying 15$ on average for them, I cannot justify buying another 6" figure of the same character and putting one of them ‘away’ or selling it for half of what I paid.  That includes many of the big names.  I also gave up being a completist long ago.  It is just too expensive.  At $12 to $15, I pick and choose.  Besides, I could never compete with Larfleeze.  So it is the previously unmade characters in this scale (or the ones I missed the first time around) from both companies that I am most interested in.

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