OSF Member Introductions . . .

Toucans In The Wild wrote:

Xavion2004 wrote:Do you have figmas in your collection, Toucans?

I do! Got a few, with intention of getting more  Suzumiya Haruhi, Hololive (preordered), Fate, Berserk, Persona, Heavily Armed High School Girls ()

That’s awesome!  They did a great job on the Suzumiya cast.   I have most of them except for some of the variants that are dressed up in different outfits (witch, cheerleader, maid, etc.).  I don’t watch a lot of anime, but Suzumiya is probably my favorite.

I also have all of the Fate/Stay Night and Fate Zero figures as well.  I just pick and choose on the Fate Grand Order stuff.  Any time the subject of new Figma reveals comes up, you’ll hear me bitch about not getting an illya, Caster, or Berserker.  

welcome Toucans In The Wild, looking forward too seeing your stuff!

Welcome Toucans! Nice of you to introduce yourself and welcome aboard. Looking forward to seeing you around!

Hello,

I'm brand new posting on the forum, even though I've been browsing it for a while.
I'm from Italy, and I'm also quite new in collecting 1/6 scale action figures. For the time being, I've got three (Jiaou) "macho" male dolls (two suntan and one regular), and two (TBLeague) female dolls (with big bosom, one suntan and one pale). I'm also expecting a fourth (Jiaou) "lean" male doll, which is bound to arrive in August.

I've definitely got a lot to learn about this fantastic world, but I'm sure I will collect lots of information here, and, in the future, to help you out, too.

Taiheiyou wrote:Hello,

I'm brand new posting on the forum, even though I've been browsing it for a while.
I'm from Italy, and I'm also quite new in collecting 1/6 scale action figures. For the time being, I've got three (Jiaou) "macho" male dolls (two suntan and one regular), and two (TBLeague) female dolls (with big bosom, one suntan and one pale). I'm also expecting a fourth (Jiaou) "lean" male doll, which is bound to arrive in August.

I've definitely got a lot to learn about this fantastic world, but I'm sure I will collect lots of information here, and, in the future, to help you out, too.

Welcome Taiheiyou! Nice of you to check in.
I'm sure you'll find this to be a very joyous hobby, as I'm sure you're aware already. Do you have anything in mind for your bodies or are you still looking for inspiration?

Welcome aboard, Taiheiyou.

Diana wrote:
Welcome Taiheiyou! Nice of you to check in.
I'm sure you'll find this to be a very joyous hobby, as I'm sure you're aware already. Do you have anything in mind for your bodies or are you still looking for inspiration?

Thanks for your warm welcome Diana!
I've got some ideas for my bodies, but I'm sure I'll also find more inspiration in the forum

Stryker2011 wrote:Welcome aboard, Taiheiyou.

Thanks!

Hi, I just found this place. As I just found out about 1/6 figures recently. One could say I have a neck for picking up the most expensive hobbies.

It's hard to tell, which is the most expensive hobby of mine, as I'm into
RC Trucks, Lego, and now 1/6 figures.

Technically RC trucks are the most expensive, as you can easily spend $1000 before you have a basic working model. But I was always able to spread out new purchases as far as years. It's the same with Legos I go on a shopping spree once a year buy a few things then I don't even look at new stuff for months.

Not with figures however. I keep checking my favored shops at least once a week to see what's new. And the desire is often too big to pass on things.

And it's not even like I'm buying everything that catches my eye, if I did that I'd be broke already. Or more broke rather.

I'm still figuring things out, and early on I bought a bunch of separate items instead of full figures, and now I ended up with a bunch of figures with no shoes. One can get all kinds of clothes for figures but footwear is almost non-existent.

A big problem for me is that I'm located in Eastern Europe, so the abundant selection in the US is not relevant to me. Also living standards are much worse here, so are the salaries so this stuff is doubly expensive to me. So I'm always on the lookout for bargains. Unfortunately sideshow / hot toys figures are almost always above my pain threshold price wise. So they'd have to be something extraordinary to spend that much on a figure. Like the Wonder Woman Golden Armor Deluxe figure which I have on order right now.

OK, enough rambling, I could go on forever.

Good luck overcoming these challenges but hang in there. After you get yourself a handful of absolute must have characters, you could probably switch to making more custom ones, picking up headsculpts and accessories you like, and using them on separate (and hopefully cheaper) bodies.

Welcome! I'm sure you'll really like it here!

Welcome

m76 wrote:
A big problem for me is that I'm located in Eastern Europe, so the abundant selection in the US is not relevant to me. Also living standards are much worse here, so are the salaries so this stuff is doubly expensive to me. So I'm always on the lookout for bargains. Unfortunately sideshow / hot toys figures are almost always above my pain threshold price wise. So they'd have to be something extraordinary to spend that much on a figure. Like the Wonder Woman Golden Armor Deluxe figure which I have on order right now.

For shopping in the EU, https://www.machinegun-figures.com/ is a nice place. Although if you want the newest figure fast, they're not the best place. They are several months (up to a year) behind most sellers in getting their stuff. Plusside is that they often have stuff that's hard to find elsewhere.

They're located in France.

TravelGuide wrote:Welcome  

m76 wrote:
A big problem for me is that I'm located in Eastern Europe, so the abundant selection in the US is not relevant to me. Also living standards are much worse here, so are the salaries so this stuff is doubly expensive to me. So I'm always on the lookout for bargains. Unfortunately sideshow / hot toys figures are almost always above my pain threshold price wise. So they'd have to be something extraordinary to spend that much on a figure. Like the Wonder Woman Golden Armor Deluxe figure which I have on order right now.

For shopping in the EU, https://www.machinegun-figures.com/ is a nice place. Although if you want the newest figure fast, they're not the best place. They are several months (up to a year) behind most sellers in getting their stuff. Plusside is that they often have stuff that's hard to find elsewhere.

They're located in France.

Yeah, I've seen machinegun figures in the retailer list here, quickly checked them out, and they have some good stuff I'd want to buy, but I was quickly dissuaded from ordering from them.

1. They don't accept paypal payments, and I'm skittish about giving out my card info to new sites, as I've been burnt previously.
   
2. They are peddling some additional insurance fee for shipments, which if you don't pay, you stand to loose your money if the package is lost, as they are not going to compensate you at all without this insurance.
   
3. And finally but most egregiously, they charge shipping on a per item basis instead of a per order / package basis. Want to order two figures at once to save on shipping? Well not here, as with two figures in your cart the shipping costs are calculated based on the order value. Which is utterly ridiculous, especially if insurance is not even included in the shipping. Every other EU seller I used so far charged a flat shipping fee / one package no matter how many figures I ordered. And they didn't even try to scam me with some "insurance".  Sounds almost like an extortion fee. Pay up or else your package might get lost.
   

m76 wrote:

TravelGuide wrote:Welcome  

m76 wrote:
A big problem for me is that I'm located in Eastern Europe, so the abundant selection in the US is not relevant to me. Also living standards are much worse here, so are the salaries so this stuff is doubly expensive to me. So I'm always on the lookout for bargains. Unfortunately sideshow / hot toys figures are almost always above my pain threshold price wise. So they'd have to be something extraordinary to spend that much on a figure. Like the Wonder Woman Golden Armor Deluxe figure which I have on order right now.

For shopping in the EU, https://www.machinegun-figures.com/ is a nice place. Although if you want the newest figure fast, they're not the best place. They are several months (up to a year) behind most sellers in getting their stuff. Plusside is that they often have stuff that's hard to find elsewhere.

They're located in France.

Yeah, I've seen machinegun figures in the retailer list here, quickly checked them out, and they have some good stuff I'd want to buy, but I was quickly dissuaded from ordering from them.

1. They don't accept paypal payments, and I'm skittish about giving out my card info to new sites, as I've been burnt previously.
   
2. They are peddling some additional insurance fee for shipments, which if you don't pay, you stand to loose your money if the package is lost, as they are not going to compensate you at all without this insurance.
   
3. And finally but most egregiously, they charge shipping on a per item basis instead of a per order / package basis. Want to order two figures at once to save on shipping? Well not here, as with two figures in your cart the shipping costs are calculated based on the order value. Which is utterly ridiculous, especially if insurance is not even included in the shipping. Every other EU seller I used so far charged a flat shipping fee / one package no matter how many figures I ordered. And they didn't even try to scam me with some "insurance".  Sounds almost like an extortion fee. Pay up or else your package might get lost.
   

I've ordered several times from them and haven't had any issues. AFAIK the rate was depending on the sixe and weight of the pqckage, they offer various options, but all with tracking, the rate was not excessive when ordering multiple items.

I trust them.

TravelGuide wrote:
I've ordered several times from them and haven't had any issues. AFAIK the rate was depending on the sixe and weight of the pqckage, they offer various options, but all with tracking, the rate was not excessive when ordering multiple items.

I trust them.

Well, I'm just telling you what I've seen. Shipping suddenly jumped from €25 to more than double when I put a second figure in my cart. And the insurance fee also doubled. The only place that gouges me like that on shipping is amazon, which I avoid whenever possible.

The card thing is not about trust, I may trust the retailer, but they surely don't have the same level of security as paypal or other prominent payment processors.
I'm not accusing any of the sites, it's only that unbeknown to them someone can hack their database and steal the payment info.

As I've said my card was compromised before like this, when I was less weary of using my card at lesser online retailers, and about €1500 was lifted off of my credit card fraudulently. It was sheer luck that my bank caught it as suspicious activity and I was able to get a chargeback, only loosing the currency conversion fee, which was not negligible either.

m76 wrote:

TravelGuide wrote:
I've ordered several times from them and haven't had any issues. AFAIK the rate was depending on the sixe and weight of the pqckage, they offer various options, but all with tracking, the rate was not excessive when ordering multiple items.

I trust them.

Well, I'm just telling you what I've seen. Shipping suddenly jumped from €25 to more than double when I put a second figure in my cart. And the insurance fee also doubled. The only place that gouges me like that on shipping is amazon, which I avoid whenever possible.

The card thing is not about trust, I may trust the retailer, but they surely don't have the same level of security as paypal or other prominent payment processors.
I'm not accusing any of the sites, it's only that unbeknown to them someone can hack their database and steal the payment info.

As I've said my card was compromised before like this, when  I was less weary of using my card at lesser online retailers, and about €1500 was lifted off of my credit card fraudulently. It was sheer luck that my bank caught it as suspicious activity and I was able to get a chargeback, only loosing the currency conversion fee, which was not negligible either.

That's weird, because shipping was about €10-20 when I ordered with them, depending on the size of the order (the largest was on order with Poptoys Tomoe Gozen, her horse, two other figures and some miscellaneous stuff, so that was a large package).

Shipping is calculated temporality, until you choose the shipping method. IMX is the cheapest shipping method you can pick, then comes DPD and DPD charged by weight, not bulky of the item. You then also have the option to get it shipped to a pickup point of your choice thats aslo rather cheap.

Insurance is entirely optional and is similar to what Ebay does, but shipping with DPD is normally insured from the get go if I am not mistaken.

As for the PayPal thing: They do use PayPal, but there is currently a dispute going on between them, so PayPal is not available until that is solved, meaning that you can either use Bank transfer (if you have online Banking that isnt a big issue). Credit Card (I just placed an order via Visa Card without any issues) or the other options listed.

By the way, you can E-Mail them your concerns directly, they will reply to them, I did so about the PayPal thing and they promptly answered.

TravelGuide wrote:
That's weird, because shipping was about €10-20 when I ordered with them, depending on the size of the order (the largest was on order with Poptoys Tomoe Gozen, her horse, two other figures and some miscellaneous stuff, so that was a large package).

Then it is probably that I'm living in the "wrong" place. I just ordered a bunch of stuff from LCDN in Belgium and they only charged €22 for shipping with dpd. machinegun tried to bill me €55 shipping on two low end figures.

ZeroDelta wrote:
As for the PayPal thing: They do use PayPal, but there is currently a dispute going on between them, so PayPal is not available until that is solved, meaning that you can either use Bank transfer (if you have online Banking that isnt a big issue). Credit Card (I just placed an order via Visa Card without any issues) or the other options listed.

By the way, you can E-Mail them your concerns directly, they will reply to them, I did so about the PayPal thing and they promptly answered.

I'm certainly not giving my card info to a site that emails me back my password in plaintext and doesn't even require activating the account.

I did send them a message, 3 days ago, I got no reply thus far.

I do not see how activating your account has anything to do with it, but I placed almost 30 orders at that store so far and never had any problems. The last time I placed my order via Credit Card and that was fine as well.

You can ask anyone here or over at OSF, they will all tell you that Machinegun Figures is a reliable, save and secure seller that is in business for ages and that people rarely if ever had issues with them and if you do not trust veteran board members that have been dealing with them for years, then I dont know what else to tell you.

Yep. Machinegun has been around a long time. And though shipping to here in the states can be high, they have had stuff that I needed that others didn’t. Never had a problem with them at all.

ZeroDelta wrote:I do not see how activating your account has anything to do with it, but I placed almost 30 orders at that store so far and never had any problems. The last time I placed my order via Credit Card and that was fine as well.

You can ask anyone here or over at OSF, they will all tell you that Machinegun Figures is a reliable, save and secure seller that is in business for ages and that people rarely if ever had issues with them and if you do not trust veteran board members that have been dealing with them for years, then I dont know what else to tell you.

I explained it already, did you miss that part? It's not about trusting the seller, it's about trusting their security measures. No activation + plaintext passwords are a giant red flag. I'm glad you've had no issues with them.
I didn't have an issue either with the site my card info was stolen from info until I did.

But it is academic anyway due to the shipping cost. Saying they don't want me to order from them without telling me they don't want me to order from them.

Hello all. It all start with getting into anime. I then started drawing and making characters. From there I got a 1:12 drawing figure and it was off to the races. Then Phicen entered my life and TBleague for posing teaching myself figure drawing. Then creating characters and another Phicen and headed for doing a graphic novel and another Phicen. Along the way I picked other figures but Phicen/TBLEAGUE won out.

Well from there it got me into 3D printing. Then I created back stories and worlds. Into the abyss I go. What! Dioramas by now my wife knows I've lost it,. The photography is coming back and bam head on collision. I'm just really starting this phase.

Getting into to anime in my mid 40's led me to this wonderful madness in my 50's and the saga continues.

I don't really think of it as collecting though it probably is. The figures I have are 3 of 4 characters
I created. I'm working on the fourth and will eventually have the 4th in place. Hmm then each of the girls has a side character. Well between stories and fashion photo sessions of the the ladies is the endless path I find myself on. I just grew taller and have more responsibilities but never grew up. A kid now forever and always...

With that hi all.

HELLO and welcome! I say, ANIME IS LIFE!

Welcome aboard.

avalonai2 wrote:I just grew taller and have more responsibilities but never grew up. A kid now forever and always....

Sounds like the plan I've been following... although I didn't realize it was a plan, per se, at the time!

Welcome to the forum! Hope to see some of your characters and dioramas soon!

Welcome to osf!

Welcome avalonai2! I think many have arrived here with similar stories, including myself, though on a different timeline.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome, avalonai2!

Hi from New Zealand

While quietly minding my own mid-life crisis, without enough dosh for a Morgan, I have stumbled across the action figure world.  How can I have missed this…….    

I’ve been meandering in the resin BJD world for a while, with leanings towards elves and fantasy folk, so this is a bit of a sideways jump. I enjoy attempting various crafts, diorama and sewing etc for 1:12, 1:6 and 1:4, so this will be a great excuse to add to my list of far too many projects and not enough time.

First TBLeague has landed….  

Look forward to finding more great stuff around this forum, it’s always great to know there are more of “us” out there!