Have or do you share your 1/6 hobby with friends and family?

The way I share the hobby is through photography, the internet and the production of comics which I post on forums such as this one a bit, and Action Man Mobile Operations (AMMO) a lot, as well as Flickr.  A big difference in the membership AMMO and all the other forums, is the willingness of members to jointly write and produce comics, or sometimes just created images and text in answer to each other's posts.  I have found this to be essentially unique to AMMO and as in all matters, I blame the creator, Dal. We all blame Dal.

As I have explained elsewhere, I view this as a form of guys (and sometimes gals) getting together to play with our action figures just as we did when we were kids, except instead of playing with the kid next door or down the street, modern electronics technology allows us to do it with very grown up kids hundreds, even thousands of miles away from us.  This is wonderful as it opens the door to playing many more kids than we did when we really were kids, and as pretty much all of us have much larger budgets and therefore collections than when we were kids, and the range and quality of the figures and accessories available today blows away what existed when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. Consequently, we get exposed to the different collections, styles, likes and kitbashes of many, many people which in turn might influence us in what we do next.  

I do share some of my photos and comics with my "non-internet" friends...the ones I know will enjoy them, but other than that, pretty much everyone I REALLY share this hobby with is on the net. Let's face it....though the selection of products in now enormous compared to the glory days of GI Joe, when you transition from a mass marketed toy advertised on TV to a very specialized hobby, and as you go up in age, the percentage of people buying these things goes down steadily.

I would also add that I am virtually impossible to tease and completely unafraid what anyone might say about my hobby.

I'm reminded now that in only one instance--a woman I went to elementary school and high school with but have not seen since--who did not understand my collection, believe it or not, took offense at it because she thought it was sexist and disturbing. She was referring to photos I had posted in Facebook albums like this one. She even insisted I take them down, though she respected my military service.

Valley of Strange Occurances_20A by Gary Menten, on Flickr

I calmly explained that the photos had nothing whatsoever to do with my military service but were self expression of a post apocalyptic fantasy-comic book world. Moreover I explained, I failed to see what she could take offense at for seeing what are essentially skimpily dressed dolls, not real people when it was perfectly okay for little girls to play with skimpily dressed Barbie dolls; when real women could bee seen walking down the streets of Montreal dressed just as skimpily on any warm summer day, and while the real Rhodesian Army often dressed in very similar fashion in field operations during their civil war and showed her photographic proof that what I was saying was the truth.

Now those photos were all of men, dressed very much like in the photo above except for the boots...they preferred either shorter boots or running shoes, and I asked her if she was offended by those photos. Sensing I believe, the logical trap I'd set for her, she answered that she was offended, though i could seen no logical reason to be since there was no sexual context to those images, it's simply how that particular army liked to dress due to the hot climate of that country.

My conclusion of course was that she was far less offended by the photos then she was shocked that a male friend in his 50's would collect and photograph action figures representing beautiful women...That this was something disturbing about me. I did not take the photos down, and while we are still FB friends, we have not had much contact since. Some people are just incapable of grasping the hobby.

I think it is crazy that some things like collecting stamps or minerals, railroad etc. is social acceptable or even good but other things like figures create weird reactions? - probably because of the connection to children dolls. Even though most of them are super museum style or perfect for creativity outlets (bashing, comics, photography etc).
And even if you would literally collect children stuff, why would it bother anyone? stamps or anything else all have the same purpose in collecting: None, just the enjoyment of the collector.  

But the future looks bright imo with more and more of the boomer and younger generations still buying lego sets for themselves (like Ovy mentioned: we will never grow up) and playing video games until forever, I think it will be more and more common to have all the coolest free time enjoyments.



As for the photos and sexist or present war stuff etc: Do they know how many crazy artsy/horror/war movies exists and how many players love counterstrike?

Valiarde wrote:I think it is crazy that some things like collecting stamps or minerals, railroad etc. is social acceptable or even good but other things like figures create weird reactions? - probably because of the connection to children dolls. Even though most of them are super museum style or perfect for creativity outlets (bashing, comics, photography etc).
And even if you would literally collect children stuff, why would it bother anyone? stamps or anything else all have the same purpose in collecting: None, just the enjoyment of the collector.  

But the future looks bright imo with more and more of the boomer and younger generations still buying lego sets for themselves (like Ovy mentioned: we will never grow up) and playing video games until forever, I think it will be more and more common to have all the coolest free time enjoyments.



As for the photos and sexist or present war stuff etc: Do they know how many crazy artsy/horror/war movies exists and how many players love counterstrike?

There are actually some people who collect vintage children's dolls. Stief bears in decent condition are worth a mint on the toy collector's market, and somehow that's socially acceptable, as is buying and trading MIB Barbies...if you are a woman.

I think that the reversal of interest that we experience as we grow older is something that many people don't get. It's completely normal for eight or ten year-old boys to hold no interest in women and therefore have only male action figures just as it is for little girls to have only female dolls. In adulthood however, we tend to take a greater interest in the opposite sex, so why wouldn't it be normal for adult males to have female action figures representing adult women and adult women in their collections and adult women to have male action figures representing macho guys in theirs? I think there are a lot of people who just can't get past that.

I guess men playing with dolls still is not that much socially acceptable.

I have shared a bit of my hobby with two of my coworkers. One passed me on her bike when I was taking pictures of Lexi not far from where I live. She said (while passing me): "Hey TG...What are you doing?" (I was crouching on my knees taking pictures). This was during my 5 month sabbitical/holiday last summer. Since she had already offered me to stop by at her during that, I did so after I finished my shoot. Turns out she hadn't really seen Lexi clearly. When I showed her Lexi, she started laughing (in a positive way). I showed her some pics of her as well. She seemed positive/accepting (although she also remarked: "ah, well, not strange to take someone with you on holiday,"  referring to me being single).

Earlier this year I showed another (also female) co-worker some pictures, since she asked what I'm doing in my free time (she already knew my other hobbies: cycling and modelrailroads). She thought the pictures were really good, but also remarked "don't you need a girlfriend", which wasn't the first time she hinted out that. Uh, that's not why I was showing them. I didn't get a negative vibe from her either.

Neither mentioned it afterwards. The first got another job in january.

The only person in my “real life” who ever made any sort of disparaging comment was my buddy who passed away in December 2019, when he first saw some of my collection about 5 years ago, he stared at them for awhile, then looked at me and said: “You and I have very different priorities.” And that was it — nothing too bad, but I never brought it up around him again. Granted he was in his early 70s, so maybe that had something to do with it...

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly twenty years since the first time I answered this question on a message board. :lol

The short answer is that my wife, my (now) adult children, and my in-laws are ambivalent towards my collecting habits. They don’t support it per se, but they don’t discourage it either. In general, I think as long as you have your priorities straight, you’re not going to get a lot of flack over how you chose to spend your spare time and change.

Having said that, after having my figures on display initially (including my 1/6 CyGirls) back in 2001, I decided to take them down a couple of years later. I could personally care less what other people think, but I had my wife and three kids to consider as well. Although I don’t think it was ever really an issue when I did have a display, I didn’t want my wife and kids having to field questions about why I collect “dolls”. Over time, I realized that I didn’t miss maintaining a display.

I do think it’s a lot more “accepted” now than it was 20 years ago, because “nerd culture” has gone mainstream thanks to the Big Bang Theory, Marvel Studios, San Diego Comic Con, etc. I also think it helps that our hobby appeals to a broad age range from teenagers to people in their 50s and beyond.

I tend to favor female characters and figures, but then I’ve adored women my whole life. Really, the biggest struggle I have with this hobby is internally. I love the female form, yet I don’t like the idea of objectifying women, so a figure like the TBLeague Vampirella, be it the 1/6 version or the 1/12 version (which I own) is really pushing it. At the end of the day, I just have to trust my own judgment when it comes to what I think is and isn’t appropriate, just as every other collector has to do.

Eh, I don't bother. I find online communities like these to be sufficient for interacting with people who share the same hobbies. Artistic projects like these aren't really group activities to begin with.

ThePhotogsBlog wrote:The way I share the hobby is through photography, the internet and the production of comics which I post on forums such as this one a bit, and Action Man Mobile Operations (AMMO) a lot, as well as Flickr.  A big difference in the membership AMMO and all the other forums, is the willingness of members to jointly write and produce comics, or sometimes just created images and text in answer to each other's posts.  I have found this to be essentially unique to AMMO and as in all matters, I blame the creator, Dal. We all blame Dal.

I'm used to it now

Wow, really interesting topic.  Such a fascinating look into everyone's real life experiences with this hobby.  I have to say, I've been really lucky with how positive mine have been.  It might have a lot to do with the fact that my whole life has been a bit fringe, so I think I only really have relationships with the kinds of people that would be accepting and usually interested in this hobby.  All of my friends growing up have been this weird intersection of punks and geeks.  It was this combination of music (big concerts, local shows, and constantly searching for new music), comic collecting, table top games, video games, movies (especially horror movies) and anime.  Tons of my friends were in bands, but also big geeks.  Guys in hardcore bands who were also fanatic Star Wars figure collectors.  In college I pretty much feel in with similar crowds. I only really made friends with people who wanted to do similar things, so I never really had very "normal" friends.  We want to anime conventions, horror conventions, or would spend days toy shopping in NYC during the day and going to concerts at night.  Everyone I knew seemed to be a collector of some sort, or in general a hobbyist, that it was sorta the norm.  So while not everyone shared my exact hobby, collecting and customizing 1/6 figures never seemed weird when I was surrounded by horror fans who were buying horror figures as part of their collection, guys who collected, painted, and played Warhammer, or any other artist friends who just see it as another creative pursuit.

My parents and family are extremely supportive.  My parents love art in general, and I've actually given my mom a couple of original pieces, a shadowbox room, and a birdcage with greenery, lights and a swing in it, both with custom volks dolls.  I gave my stepfather one of the Hot Toys Mars Attacks figures years back (he's a huge Mars Attacks fan), and it's proudly displayed with his collection.  A lot of the guys I work with are toy collectors too, and some also do some amazing custom work.  It was really fun when we hired a young guy in the finance department a few years back, and watching him fall down the toy collecting rabbit hole.  My partner of 20+ years has a huge Living Dead Doll collection, a number of Japanese Gothic Lolita dolls, and our house is full of antique oddities and taxidermy (all ethically sourced), so the toy collection fits right in (although we occasionally butt heads on the finer details.  That Iron Man figure should go in a different area of the house than the vintage medical equipment).  

A few years ago, a good friend of mine, an incredible painter and tattoo artist, insisted I display my work, and we did a small 2 week showing together at a gallery out in PA, with 2 cases of House of Seasons and Radio Kings figures.  I had printed a few House of Seasons art books, and almost everyone I knew came out opening night to support.  

This hobby is such a huge part of my life, so I've been incredibly lucky for all the support I've had from everyone over the years.

Anyone connected to me in real life knows my love for toys and games and piano because I've always been a very open person. If I like something, I don't let "social opinions" bother me since I'm more of a "Live and Let Live" kind of guy.

When I was a kid, I also didn't care whether a toy was for boys or girls. I saw the fun in both of them if they were really good. For example, although majority of my toys were boy oriented, like those old DC Super Powers, little Star Wars, GI Joes, He-Man, Thundercats, Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, I also didn't have a problem playing around with those girly toys like She-Ra or Rainbowbrite, or those little mini people that came with little home furnitures, bathtubs, and even toilets lol! To me, toys are toys. I didn't really like 1/6 Barbie back then since they're "normal people" to me and not superheroes or monsters, but someone gifted me a Ken and Barbie set so I still ended up loving them. I'm pretty sure they're still in my old home, kept safely in a box.

As a kid, I've always wanted "realistic" toys because back then, a lot of them didn't even look like the characters from the source material. The good looking ones were usually statues, and I don't like statues since you can't move them around.

Toys took a backseat when videogames became my focus from my younger days up to my 30s, but I rediscovered my love for toys because of Godzilla back in 2014. I've always wanted a Godzilla toy that was good and I was amazed by the technology that we have now when I discovered Monsterarts. After that, I discovered one after another that pretty much all of my beloved toys from the past have modernized versions that are way better looking and way more posable! That's when I tried looking for realistic toys.

I discovered Phicen at that time. I saw the S02 model and she was so beautiful and I couldn't believe that she was seamless except for the hands and head! That was the kind of toy that I've always wanted as a kid! "Almost like a real human being!" I said. I decided to get one for my birthday and when she arrived, I was so impressed and shocked at how lifelike it was to play around with her and take pictures! Ever since then, I've been a fan of Phicen and followed them to their current TBLeague identity.

It was fun kitbashing Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Lee and then showing them off to some friends who are martial arts fans! They certainly loved them and they decided to go buy and build one themselves as well. I guess that's their introduction to the world of modern day toys.



At a previous company I worked for, I had this very cool friend who's like a mom to me. When I mentioned to her that one of my loves is taking pictures of toys, she got interested. She's a huge fan of Harrison Ford, she said she's always had a crush on him lol! So I gave her Han Solo as a goodbye gift when my contract ended with the company. Apparently, her son's also a toy fan so her son and I had fun sharing pictures and stuff as well!

You know when I was a kid, our school usually sent us on field trips to historical places. In most of them, they have historical 1/6 toys of people! I always wanted to know where they got those because they're so realistic and they looked so much fun to play around with. Nowadays, we can easily get headsculpts of people from Abraham Lincoln to Hitler and they're all so realistic!

One of my favorite characters is Mr. Bean! Look how astonished he looks at the gas prices!



I think one of the joys in 1/6 scale stuff is when you buy the body and a head, you can give them their own backstories and personalities. I like giving them careers as well for fun!



And they can also just do random modeling!



There's really no reason for me to keep my joy of toys hidden. It's just as valid as any hobby or passion in this world.

Those were some fun photos, Adeno. I remember your Bruce Lee vs Arnie fight. And that story was newsworthy indeed, Dara did well.

I love the pics, Adeno, especially Dara.

Dara is a great example of what I was trying to say in my previous post but didn’t do a very good job of articulating. I would be just as happy with Dara as a half naked barbarian girl or 4/5 naked vampire girl. It’s the femininity that I love. The skimpiness of the outfits doesn’t really factor into it. Complete figures of barbarians and Vampires are just easier to find, especially in 1/12.