Action Figure Height (updated with Part II)

Part I

Part II in Post 14 below.

The issue of precise or relative scale has come up from time to time. Although our focus is on sixth-scale figures, even when these reproduce their subject faithfully, they can vary in height, sometimes dramatically. In other cases, companies have been known to make figures a certain size (e.g., 12 inches), without much attention to the proper scale. Not that it would provide any kind of comprehensive answers, but I thought I would compare a number of figures to illustrate this variation -- they were selected for being unusually tall or short, with some others thrown in because they were readily available.



The Ewok (or I should say this Ewok, Wicket), is the shortest, at about 15 cm (5.9 inches) to the top of the scalp (add 0.5 cm to the tip of the ears).

The HT Jawa is next, at about 20 cm (7.9 in) without the hood (add 1.5 cm to the tip of the hood).

The custom Gamora (on TBLeague's S25B body) is about 26.75 cm (10.5 in). Actress Zoe Saldana is actually 5 ft 7 in, which translates to 28.3 cm (11.16 in) in sixth scale. The custom body matches the HT female body from the original set in height, but both are too short.

The custom Endor Leia (on TBLeague's S25 body) is about 28 cm (11 in), with boots. Actress Carrie Fisher was actually 5 ft 1 in, which translates to 25.8 cm (10.16 in) in sixth scale (but without boots). The custom body matches the HT female body from the original set in height.

The random hoplite (on TBLeague's M33 body) is about 29.5 cm (11.6 in).

The Roman eques ("Dato") is about 30.5 cm (12 in), with boots but without the helmet, or 37 cm (14.5 in) with the helmet, crest, and plume.

Star-Lord is about 31 cm (12.2 in), with boots. Actor Chris Pratt is actually 6 ft 2 in, which translates to 31.3 cm (12.33 in) in sixth scale (but without boots). The figure is too short.

The custom Michael Jordan (on TBLeague's M36B body) is about 33.75 cm (13.3 in). The real Michael Jordan is actually 6 ft 6 in, which translates to 33.02 cm (13 in) in sixth scale. The figure is a little too tall.

Chewbacca is about 36 cm (14.2 in).

Groot, affectionately known as "Tree," is about 40 cm (15.7 in) to the highest tip on the head.

Thanos, the Mad Titan, is about 42.5 cm (16.7 in), with boots but without the helmet, or add 1 cm to the top of the helmet.

Hope this has been of some interest.

#comparison #height #bodies #statistics #hottoys #phicen #tbleague #haoyu

Nice comparison, thanks for doing that. I thought you didn’t have the Leia/Wicket set? Or is “The Ewok” something other than HT?

Stryker2011 wrote:Nice comparison, thanks for doing that. I thought you didn’t have the Leia/Wicket set? Or is “The Ewok” something other than HT?

Thank you and welcome. I don't have the set, although at this point I might as well have gotten it, since I picked up so many of the pieces. My main interest by far was the "Death Star Trooper" helmet. Then I saw why you got your extra Leia, and wanted to do the same. Then I picked up her outfit (or most of it). Then I picked up the Ewok... mostly so that Stormtroopers and Scouts can do mean things to that evil critter... So it was all parted out, but it added up to most of the set in the end. In fact all of the HT stuff you see in the comparison except for Star-Lord (version 2), is (partly) reconstituted from parted-out parts -- and Groot is a knockoff.

Interesting subject. Scale is even more of a problem when other items in the shot aren't the same scale. For example, the brick background looks like it is closer to 1:12 scale.

shazzdan wrote:Interesting subject. Scale is even more of a problem when other items in the shot aren't the same scale. For example, the brick background looks like it is closer to 1:12 scale.

The bricks are only slightly undersized for a smallish brick type for resolution and perspective.

This is a great subject and it can be frustrating when different companies have their own metrics for what their height and proportions are. It's even worse when the same company has different measurements ratios for the same line. The threezero mulder and scully from Xfiles comes to mind, but hot toys does this as well, especially the disparity in their female to males often. Also, iron man grows with each subsequent release!

csyeung wrote:This is a great subject and it can be frustrating when different companies have their own metrics for what their height and proportions are. It's even worse when the same company has different measurements ratios for the same line. The threezero mulder and scully from Xfiles comes to mind, but hot toys does this as well, especially the disparity in their female to males often. Also, iron man grows with each subsequent release!

Thank you. I have noticed how Sideshow had, at least for a while, a 12-inch standard for figures (so its Scout Trooper is taller than a Hot Toys Stormtrooper, etc). And I remember when VTS goofed up by making its Furiosa substantially shorter and more petite than its Mad Max, although in fact the actors and characters were not that disparate on screen. Can you go into more detail about Threezero's Mulder and Scully? I picked up some of the parts, but not the entire sets or bodies.

oh for Mulder and scully, Mulder is fairly similar to most 1/6 scale figures and in truth I think by themselves they both look ok in terms of who they represent, but threezero chose to use a smaller female body. Perhaps of convenience of what's available. I would say it's similar to Daenerys body i think which is tiny. I think Gillian Anderson is shorter than David Duchovny in real life, but they also proportionately shrunk Scully's head to match the body so next to each other they look like they are from different lines. Here's a pic from the net.

csyeung wrote:oh for Mulder and scully, Mulder is fairly similar to most 1/6 scale figures and in truth I think by themselves they both look ok in terms of who they represent, but threezero chose to use a smaller female body. Perhaps of convenience of what's available. I would say it's similar to Daenerys body i think which is tiny. I think Gillian Anderson is shorter than David Duchovny in real life, but they also proportionately shrunk Scully's head to match the body so next to each other they look like they are from different lines. ...

Interesting. The actual height difference is not too far off, but the difference in head size is problematic. Here is a publicity shot of the two of them next to each other. Their heads are definitely similar in size, unlike what we see with the figures.

That's a cool line up, height differences between brands is something that I don't notice until the cuffs of the long sleeved uniform are on the elbow of the figure.

That ewok looks like a high end plush, hows the articulation on that little pest?

Theboo-bomb wrote:That's a cool line up, height differences between brands is something that I don't notice until the cuffs of the long sleeved uniform are on the elbow of the figure.

That ewok looks like a high end plush, hows the articulation on that little pest?

Thank you. That's quite a difference you describe. Surely an exaggeration, but point taken.

The Ewok is slightly better than I expected. With some futzing you can get the hair to look more natural and improve the appearance. He is quite well articulated -- neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, thighs, knees, ankles. But because of the globular belly, there is no waist articulation, and the legs cannot really go up/forward at the thighs, making it pretty much impossible to sit properly. I took a few quick photos, below...

Now that’s funny, and probably a LOT more realistic as to the outcome of the the fight between the Ewoks and trained professional soldiers.

Stryker2011 wrote:Now that’s funny, and probably a LOT more realistic as to the outcome of the the fight between the Ewoks and trained professional soldiers.

Thank you, I thought so too! And sometimes a man just needs a beer. Not to mention, scouts should not allow minors to drink...

Part II

I realized I forgot another smallish sixth-scale figure, so I put together another line-up:



Rocket Raccoon, affectionately known as Rabbit, is 15.75 cm (6.2 in) to the top of the scalp, or 16 cm (6.3 in) to the tips of the ears.

HT's ROTJ Stromtrooper is 29.75 cm (11.7 in), with boots and helmet.

Sideshow's Scout Trooper is 30.5 cm (12 in), with boots and helmet.

Woo Toys' "Fat Viking" Thor (on a World Box AT018 body) is 30.5 cm (12 in), with crocs, or 30 cm (11.8 in) without them. Actor Chris Hemsworth is 6 ft 3 in (190.5 cm), which translates to 31.75 cm (12.5 in) in sixth scale. The figure is too short.

The custom Imperial Naval Guard ("Death Star Trooper," on a TBLeague M31 body) is 32 cm (12.6 in) with boots and helmet. See HERE.

HT's Drax the Destroyer is 32.25 cm (12.7 in), with boots. Actor Dave Bautista is 6 ft 7 in (198.12 cm), which translates to 33.02 cm (13 in) in sixth scale. The figure is too short.

This topic is fascinating to me and part of why I am so blasted particular with my custom projects. I want to be faithful as best I can, but they don't like making it easy!

For example, with my custom Kasumi figure from DOA the obvious problem is height. At a listed height of 5'2.25", she is a tiny individual. Makes "1/6th scale" a freakin hard thing to justify when the TBL figures are as tall as they are.

Which is why I took the time and figured out what scale she would end up being if done on a TBL body that was as faithful as possible to proportions. Funny enough, I lucked the heck out with the s07c/s09c bodies as they, when scaled properly, fit her almost exact (waist is off, and she is within about a 1/16th of an inch in height).

What she ended up being was 1:5 and 13/16ths scale. For use, that is multiplying everything that is 1:1 by .1720. That puts her at 274-278mm with head sculpt depending on where she is measured (scalps and hair styles are weird I have come to learn), which puts her at 5'2.7" on the low end, and 5'3.62" on the high end. Or within margin of error. That is with the s07c, which we talked about in the other thread.

An interesting side note to this is that when attempting to sculpt my own head for her (man that crashed and burned for the time being) I took notes through photoshop and character models for things like distance between the eyes, hight of the lips, depth of the nose and so on. The head sculpt she actually has? Fits that nearly to the letter, but in that 1:5 and 13/16th scale.

If she was in 1/6th then she'd hit 263.41mm (26.34cm) at the top of the head, a full cm shorter! In 1/5th she'd be 316.23mm (31.62cm), on par with the male bodies!

TL:DR I am very picky, but I can spend hours just sitting in front of a computer with photoshop and dozens of reference images open figuring things out with scale. It really just depends on how picky we want to be with certain characters I suppose, though if I ever find a Leia in 1/6th that is taller than a Chewbacca in 1/6th I will be both upset and laughing.

https://flic.kr/p/2jDmiDv I am going to put this here in case anyone may be interested in have a neat, quick reference guide to fractions and their mm counterparts, either for general use, scaling custom accessories, or if they want to figure out where a figure is actually in the height department and points in-between.

MeMyself&I wrote:https://flic.kr/p/2jDmiDv I am going to put this here in case anyone may be interested in have a neat, quick reference guide to fractions and their mm counterparts, either for general use, scaling custom accessories, or if they want to figure out where a figure is actually in the height department and points in-between.

Thanks. We US folks are lazy when it comes to metric.

Stryker2011 wrote:

MeMyself&I wrote:https://flic.kr/p/2jDmiDv I am going to put this here in case anyone may be interested in have a neat, quick reference guide to fractions and their mm counterparts, either for general use, scaling custom accessories, or if they want to figure out where a figure is actually in the height department and points in-between.

Thanks. We US folks are lazy when it comes to metric.

Ha. I was as well in school, but I got over it as I started getting into LEGO vehicles and MOCs. Now I hate the US/Imperial system. Lol

Sorry to necro this thread, but has anyone the HT Appleseed Alpha Briareos Hecatonecles figure for size comparison? Is he as tall as the first time HT did him? I am just wondering about that for awhile now.

Sorry, ZeroDelta, I don't have this figure and don't know either way.

Great Thread, thanks for showing. I always thought HT made the Thanos Body with the already existed Hulk one. But he is bigger ? Wow, what a monster

Ephiane wrote:Great Thread, thanks for showing. I always thought HT made the Thanos Body with the already existed Hulk one. But he is bigger ? Wow, what a monster

I don't actually know how the new HT Thanos compares to the Hulks, but you can see him next to our knockoff Groot.

Marvelous figures! you really do have a wonderful selection!

BAMComix wrote:Marvelous figures! you really do have a wonderful selection!

Thank you very much. I was trying to cover the extremes and throw in a few average ones for comparison.

So, what started this discussion was me asking a member if they knew which TB League body is closest to Hot Toys TYPICAL female body, in particular any of the Harley Quinns or recent Black widows. I'm not only concerned with height but build as well. I was told with no quantification an S25B. I took some measurements on the height. Height on the TB League 24A &25B are good. Just wondering about the build, mostly concerned with thighs. I'm hoping for a thinner than Hot Toys in the thighs replacement for my Harley Quinn Arkham Knight. BTW, those who have or will have this fig, do be very careful with her arms. They break easy. The engineering inside the silicone is not well thought out. The arm breaks off below the shoulder where the plastic shoulder joint is attached to the metal arm "bone". Two weak rivets that transition the shoulder joint to the arm should have been screws instead. Aside from the engineering, the paint peels off the silicone arms. For now I was lucky enough to pop 2 replacement arms on her from A TruType female body so I CAN display her until properly dealt with. Thank you all.