Five Points of Apathy

Another Toy Fair has come and gone, and fanboys everywhere are figuring how much blood they will need to sell in 2013 to get all of the action figures, playsets, and vehicle that were unveiled in New York last weekend.  And while there were some really neat reveals, I noticed a trend that seems to be picking up steam, and one that is disappointing to say the least.

More and more companies seem to be rolling out action figure lines that feature figures with only five points of articulation, at the neck, shoulders, and hips.  I know this is done to help keep the price of figures down amidst the rising cost of materials and manufacturing, but it just kills the desirability of these figures for me and other collectors.  This trend begun in 2011 with the Green Lantern movie line, which was just plain awful, and has continued into the Iron Man 3 line, the Star Wars line, and in the GI Joe line, the upcoming Max Steel line, and shows no sign of stopping.   

"Oillll can."

It’s with the GI Joe line that I have the biggest issue with figures with limited articulation.  Beginning with the Retaliation line all figures included with vehicles have 5 POA, which is too bad, because a lot of the figures would have made great additions to my collection; instead they are thrown into my custom fodder bin and not given a 2^nd look.  One of my favorite features of GI Joe figures, 12-inch and 3 ¾ inch, has always been the incredible articulation the figures had, in fact it’s why I dumped Star Wars figures for GI Joe figures in 1982.  Looking at the Cobra Commander that came with the Retaliation HISS Tank just makes me sad.

Cool design, crappy posability

Perhaps the biggest abomination with 5 POA are the 12” figures of the Spider-Man, GI Joe, Star Wars, and Iron Man 3 lines.  Yeah, they’re cheap ($13), but look at them, what can you do with these?  Put them on a shelf?  Use that as a weapon?  Ugh!  I am stunned that figure being made today can’t even come close to matching a figure that was created almost 50 years ago for play value.

Which one looks cooler?

I know the companies say this is used to keep costs down, but right now an Assembler Iron Man 3 costs the same as a GI Joe Retaliation figure, so what gives?  And how long will it be before the 5 POA is replaced with figures in static “Action” poses?  Yes, it really seems like the days of the mult-poseable action figure are numbered, and soon they will be shuffling off into the sunset.