Action Figures!
January 6, 2018 1:50 PM Subscribe
Hotkenobi, a Japanese photographer, has fun with action figures.
Spidey in the chill of spring
Mr. Vader loses his hat
Wonder Woman takes a picture
Spidey & Wolverine like beer
Superman & Batman like beer
Hulk like beer
Spidey says don't litter!
Batman vs. Bruce Lee
There's even a mini Captain America & Iron Man saga:
Cap & Tony sometimes fight
Sometimes they dance
Sometimes they're tender
Sometimes they hunt Pokemon
Sometimes Cap gets jealous
But they always work it out
Spidey in the chill of spring
Mr. Vader loses his hat
Wonder Woman takes a picture
Spidey & Wolverine like beer
Superman & Batman like beer
Hulk like beer
Spidey says don't litter!
Batman vs. Bruce Lee
There's even a mini Captain America & Iron Man saga:
Cap & Tony sometimes fight
Sometimes they dance
Sometimes they're tender
Sometimes they hunt Pokemon
Sometimes Cap gets jealous
But they always work it out
Delightful, but the Tony/Steve noogie just is just going to launch the shippers again... As it already has... :sigh:
posted by Samizdata at 2:50 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Samizdata at 2:50 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I have some of these very expensive, highly articulated models and unfortunately it turns out posing them is totally an art unto itself. I would love to learn to even mimic poses and movement with them.
posted by J.R. Hartley at 3:28 PM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by J.R. Hartley at 3:28 PM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
These are amazing! I feel like it would be better to link to individual pictures on Instagram instead of Imgur re-uploads, though, in theory
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:42 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:42 PM on January 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Where do people get these dolls? Do they really have such a range of facial expressions (open mouth, etc) and articulated hands and everything else? There's a guy on Instagram who does amazing things with Star Wars figures and the photographer in me is really dying to know how much is done in the room and how much is photoshop.
posted by nevercalm at 4:21 PM on January 6, 2018
posted by nevercalm at 4:21 PM on January 6, 2018
These are so lovely. These are the types of photos that (if they are licensed for free use) I love to use in presentations that require slides.
posted by johnxlibris at 4:58 PM on January 6, 2018
posted by johnxlibris at 4:58 PM on January 6, 2018
I rewatched Rogue One last week and dammit K2SO and Jyn made my lower lip tremble a little.
posted by xthlc at 5:57 PM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by xthlc at 5:57 PM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Bruce Lee vs Batman has actually happened.
posted by eye of newt at 7:31 PM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by eye of newt at 7:31 PM on January 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
So clever and so well done.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:26 PM on January 6, 2018
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:26 PM on January 6, 2018
Related(?), and previously After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark Hogancamp built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populated the town he dubbed "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and created life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helped Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds from the attack.
posted by Homer42 at 12:55 AM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Homer42 at 12:55 AM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
Where do people get these dolls?
I think many are made in Japan, and various shops export them - e.g. this
Bruce Lee Figma-brand doll, via this "bruce lee" key word seach at an exporter called Amiami.
Skimming, there are recommendations and faqs in the sidebar of reddit's /r/AnimeFigures/. There may be additional United States-distributed dolls discussed in /r/ActionFigures/ as well.
Also directly from amazon.co.jp, rakuten, or ebay if you know your way around them. Your local comic book store can supply some, according to this random post by the massive and omnipresent diamond comics distributor.
There's also the US and Japanese garage kit hobby - where people cast their own stuff in resin.
Often tickling their own creative itch with art and craft that has nothing to do with media properties.
Along with set-dressing props and clothing.
------------------------------------
There's a mostly separate community, largely girls and women I think, who are into Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD) -pixiv, deviant art gallery, /r/BJD. I think they tend to do more individualized one-off figures and wardrobe, much of it yaoi/shonen-ai and so on. Or at least the aesthetic from shoujo manga and anime. I suspect there's often a lot more crafting and it's not just an extension of media consumption habits. The big conventions where the hobbyists meet up are probably amazing.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:06 AM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
I think many are made in Japan, and various shops export them - e.g. this
Bruce Lee Figma-brand doll, via this "bruce lee" key word seach at an exporter called Amiami.
Skimming, there are recommendations and faqs in the sidebar of reddit's /r/AnimeFigures/. There may be additional United States-distributed dolls discussed in /r/ActionFigures/ as well.
Also directly from amazon.co.jp, rakuten, or ebay if you know your way around them. Your local comic book store can supply some, according to this random post by the massive and omnipresent diamond comics distributor.
There's also the US and Japanese garage kit hobby - where people cast their own stuff in resin.
Often tickling their own creative itch with art and craft that has nothing to do with media properties.
Along with set-dressing props and clothing.
------------------------------------
There's a mostly separate community, largely girls and women I think, who are into Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD) -pixiv, deviant art gallery, /r/BJD. I think they tend to do more individualized one-off figures and wardrobe, much of it yaoi/shonen-ai and so on. Or at least the aesthetic from shoujo manga and anime. I suspect there's often a lot more crafting and it's not just an extension of media consumption habits. The big conventions where the hobbyists meet up are probably amazing.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:06 AM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]
There's a whole community of people who take precisely posed pctures called ACBA (Articulated Comic Book Art) that does amazing work. Rarely do ACBA entries have the sense of humor that HotKenobi is blessed with, but the quality and composition is often similarly breathtaking. Their diorama work is off the chain as well.
I justify my collection of 20 or so figures by meaning to submit stuff to ACBA but I never seem to quite get around to it.
posted by davelog at 3:42 AM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
I justify my collection of 20 or so figures by meaning to submit stuff to ACBA but I never seem to quite get around to it.
posted by davelog at 3:42 AM on January 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'm thinking #35 was maybe a set up shot for frame #10. Clenched fingers, head angle, etc.
This stuff is just amazing. Look busy, indeed.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 7:20 AM on January 7, 2018
This stuff is just amazing. Look busy, indeed.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 7:20 AM on January 7, 2018
This reminds me of the all-time Flickr classic, Thor Rolls a Joint.
posted by vibrotronica at 10:23 AM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by vibrotronica at 10:23 AM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
nevercalm: Where do people get these dolls?
The ones in the main linked gallery seem to mostly be S.H. Figuarts, which are made by Bandai, a major Japanese manufacturer. They tend to be $50 and up, depending on scale and complexity. These can be bought at comic book stores sometimes, or online with some of the suggested Web sites above. To that list, I would add bigbadtoystore.com and entertainmentearth.com, which are American-based Web sites. The Figuarts line encompasses major Japanese story brands like Super Sentai (Power Rangers) and One Piece, but also has expanded in the past few years to include Marvel heroes and Star Wars. A hallmark of S.H. Figuarts figures are multiple hands, numerous accessories and sometimes multiple heads.
I did see one Spidey and one Wolverine that were Marvel Legends figures made by the American company Hasbro. These are pretty much always $20 and can be bought at Target, Toys'r'Us and other American big box stores. In the past few years, Hasbro has increased the complexity of these figures, possibly to keep American collectors interested in the face of competition from Bandai. So, some of the Marvel Legends have come with multiple hands and heads.
I have the Marvel Legends Spidey in the pics - this toy would have absolutely blown me away when I was a 10-year-old kid just getting into Marvel comics. It's really hard to resist getting tens or even hundreds of these things, but so far I've done okay just sticking with a small collection of them to fiddle with when I have a few spare moments.
posted by Slothrop at 11:09 AM on January 7, 2018
The ones in the main linked gallery seem to mostly be S.H. Figuarts, which are made by Bandai, a major Japanese manufacturer. They tend to be $50 and up, depending on scale and complexity. These can be bought at comic book stores sometimes, or online with some of the suggested Web sites above. To that list, I would add bigbadtoystore.com and entertainmentearth.com, which are American-based Web sites. The Figuarts line encompasses major Japanese story brands like Super Sentai (Power Rangers) and One Piece, but also has expanded in the past few years to include Marvel heroes and Star Wars. A hallmark of S.H. Figuarts figures are multiple hands, numerous accessories and sometimes multiple heads.
I did see one Spidey and one Wolverine that were Marvel Legends figures made by the American company Hasbro. These are pretty much always $20 and can be bought at Target, Toys'r'Us and other American big box stores. In the past few years, Hasbro has increased the complexity of these figures, possibly to keep American collectors interested in the face of competition from Bandai. So, some of the Marvel Legends have come with multiple hands and heads.
I have the Marvel Legends Spidey in the pics - this toy would have absolutely blown me away when I was a 10-year-old kid just getting into Marvel comics. It's really hard to resist getting tens or even hundreds of these things, but so far I've done okay just sticking with a small collection of them to fiddle with when I have a few spare moments.
posted by Slothrop at 11:09 AM on January 7, 2018
Yes, there are Japanese companies that offer very detailed figurines of a staggering number of characters, some far from popular or current. I have one of Daimajin (or just Majin, as he was named in the dubbed US movies when I was a kid), character of a largely forgotten (in the US, at least) series of 50 year old kaiju movies. The attention to detail is wonderful. I cheaped out and bought a small, relatively simple one, but there were better versiosn available at the time that were even more impressive. And expensive.
I've wondered why US based and/or marketed action figures seemed so sorry in comparison. I think it might have been because they were created more for a price/market that accepted lower standards. However, I've seen some in the possession of my nephews that seem to indicate that they've upped their game a bit. I suspect modern manufacturing techniques and fan geekery in general provides for better and more diverse selection of kid-grade action figures. Less common seem to be the GI Joe knock offs of my childhood, with shoddily hand painted facial features. Even cheap figurines these days often have far better detailing, and seem to be produced with molds of superior finish and finer detail.
Oh, and absolutely, these pics are wonderful!
posted by 2N2222 at 11:29 AM on January 7, 2018
I've wondered why US based and/or marketed action figures seemed so sorry in comparison. I think it might have been because they were created more for a price/market that accepted lower standards. However, I've seen some in the possession of my nephews that seem to indicate that they've upped their game a bit. I suspect modern manufacturing techniques and fan geekery in general provides for better and more diverse selection of kid-grade action figures. Less common seem to be the GI Joe knock offs of my childhood, with shoddily hand painted facial features. Even cheap figurines these days often have far better detailing, and seem to be produced with molds of superior finish and finer detail.
Oh, and absolutely, these pics are wonderful!
posted by 2N2222 at 11:29 AM on January 7, 2018
« Older Why am I so lazy? | on un-writing Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by esker at 2:35 PM on January 6, 2018 [1 favorite]