Great Piece About the State of Modern Action Figures

[BlackKnight]

I dunno About today ..., But 3 to 4 Yrs ago Power Ranger MegaZords,.. the Ones that you Combine into the giant Robots,.. the Bigger ones, were going for Insane amounts of Money.... I bought the more so Affordible ones for my Son.

[Werewolf]

I'm certain I'll see Spawn figures become a collectible commodity eventually,

I sincerely doubt it.

Too heavily horded and overproduced. I never knew of any kids that bought them to play with. Only teens and adult collectors that horded the artifically "hot" figures and left them MOC. They were collectibles, not toys. There's no nostalgia or love for the characters.

Which is the exact opposite with 70 and 80s lines like Kenner Star Wars, Megos, GI JOE, Transformers and MOTU which people look back on with a genuine sense of affection.

Not to mention the quality of the Spawn toys are absolute garbage. I bought the Mctoys first series Monsters, Kiss and series one and two of Spawn. I bought one of each of the ones I wanted and opened them. They were carefully stored and adult owned. Every damn one of them fell apart. My Spawn collection has been in the landfill for a good ten years now.

The stuff is crap and I have zero love or nostagia for the Spawn toys or characters and I'm still kicking myself for buying the junk in the first place.

[starsky]

very well written piece! couldnt even give away my spawn junk!

[samurainoir]

Keep in mind MacFarlane isn't limited to Spawn. His sports figures are/were a big thing too for the Sports Memorabilia market, and ditto with his Musician lines and Movie Maniacs. Although I guess those were probably hoarded as well.

So if the figures are falling apart, does that mean the intact ones might have value once the rest of them have crumbled to pieces?

[Werewolf]

So if the figures are falling apart, does that mean the intact ones might have value once the rest of them have crumbled to pieces?

If you think that junk is going to be worth money. Knock yourself out.

Stock up, people are giving it away now. You just might want to be carefull when buying it though. A lot of it is already broken sealed on the card do to the abysmal qualty of McToys and you may find out the storage shed full of them you are amassing will all be broken the next time you check on them.

Also, think about what I said.

Does anyone even like the Spawn characters anymore? Do you know of anyone that looks back on the Spawn figures with any true affection or nostalgia for the characters like they do with something like GI JOE or MOTU? Do you know of anyone that has said "I sure do miss my Spawn toys. I think I will pay top dollar to replace them because the ones I had were such crap quality they all fell apart."

[samurainoir]

*shrug* People like what they like I guess. No accounting for tastes or standards.

I actually never really bought any MacFarlane figures back in the day, and right now I'm probably the lone figure picking through the garbage dump right now buying really cheap MacFarlane's that I like. Mostly Movie Maniacs like Freddy Krueger and Ash from Army of Darkness and a few neat Spawns... like Mandarin Spawn and the Dark Ages ones 'cause I love the Liam Sharp art that it's based on. I just picked up a Miracleman yesterday for really dirt cheap. The small dollar joy I get from them is pretty much proportional to the higher dollar price tag on my Mego happiness. They are essentially Nerd Hummels I guess.

Not really sure it's a fair assessment to ask if anyone has any nostalgia for Spawn in the here and now. It's kind of like asking someone whether or not they have nostalgia for Star Wars in 1986 isn't it? I remember walking past bins and bins of Power of the Force figures they were blowing out for pennies that I might be willing to sell my soul to own now MIP.

There is a generation of tween/teens out there right now that were kids while Spawn/MacFarlane toys were permanent fixtures in the toy aisles for the past decade. We can speculate whether or not they will be "worth" anything to these kids, but at the end of the day it's only the passage of time that will tell us whether they will want Spawn Toys or "classic" Gameboys.

[Werewolf]

We can speculate whether or not they will be "worth" anything to these kids, but at the end of the day it's only the passage of time that will tell us whether they will want Spawn Toys or "classic" Gameboys.

People collect classic Gameboys right now.

People love the Gameboys. Gameboys weren't bought to be horded or speculated on. Kids bought them because they liked them and played the hell out of the darn things. People have happy memories of that little green screen and all the fun they had with the Gameboy. It was a big part of their childhoods. Can you say that about Spawn?

[ctc]

>Do you know of anyone that looks back on the Spawn figures with any true affection or nostalgia

Not yet; but nostalgia isn't about the item itself, it's about the warm fuzzy feeling of the day. The item/character/comic encapsulates the warm fuzzies of childhood; and if you were a childhood speculator than that's your warm fuzzy. People WILL be nostalgic for Spawn toys. One day. Might take a little longer though. And I can see the toys becoming valuable again. It'll be a while 'cos the folks hoarding them will have to ditch them 'cos they don't have monetary value.

But that's still 10-15 years away.

Don C.

[Werewolf]

Not yet; but nostalgia isn't about the item itself,

Yes, it is.

People want the toys they played with as kids. They want to relive those happy memories. Women want their first Barbie and men want the GI JOEs they used to play with. Holding the toy you loved as a child gives you that warmth and nostalgia.

Who is going to want to rebuy Spawn in this 10 to 15 years? The horders and speculators that got burned on them the first time around are going to get the warm fuzzies over them all of a sudden and are going to want to rebuy them? I'm thinking, no.

There's no emotional connection. There's no love or bond with the characters or toys. People want to relive the happy times of childhood playing with their beloved toys. They are not going to want to relive getting burned on toys they bought just to speculate on.

[palitoy]

There's no emotional connection. There's no love or bond with the characters or toys. People want to relive the happy times of childhood playing with their beloved toys. They are not going to want to relive getting burned on toys they bought just to speculate on.

I think there is some, lots of kids bought Spawn stuff from my buddy's store, they were "collecting" them as much as I did with Star Wars figures.

In a way, I kind of envy ninties kids. When they decide to collect some pieces back from their childhood, it'll be dirt cheap and plentiful.

[Werewolf]

I think there is some, lots of kids bought Spawn stuff from my buddy's store, they were "collecting" them as much as I did with Star Wars figures.

But did they open and play with them like you did with your SW figures? If they did, I'd say they were in the minority. I really doubt Spawn was a big part of many people's childhood like SW was with the 70s kids or Transformers with the 80s kids.

In a way, I kind of envy ninties kids. When they decide to collect some pieces back from their childhood, it'll be dirt cheap and plentiful.

I totally agree with that.

The 90s action figures were so heavily mass produced and stored by the ton MOC that I cannot imagine them ever being scarce or really all that valuable. I just don't get how anyone can think they're are still sitting on a gold mine with Spawn figures.

[BlackKnight]

Spawn Figures and McFarlane Figures are cool..., And I will tell you why ...
Most Weaponry,.. and Hands ,.. and other things are in the 8 inch scale Mego Customizing formate,.. and they are Dirt Cheap .

BTW ..., not all Spawn Toys are completely Worthless , outside of that thought ...There's a few jems in the lines, just like any other figure line ..., Most the Angel female figures, or female figures in General can fetch up to 5 times the origional cost of themselves..., and then a figure here, or there also has some pull, and secondary Value. ... But most people don't have these.

[TrueDave]

There are only so many places you can put a 2 foot long Jabba the Hutt.

After Jar Jar and "Nuke the fridge" I can think of ONE place I would like to put a two foot long Jabba the Hutt.

I bought a few of the "made up" spawn guys. They just looked like neat creative characters. But after them breaking repeatily I got miffed and used a Toy Biz Hulk as hammer to them.
Hulk was definatley the strongest one there is.

Thing is between Spawn and Masters of the Universe. Spawn was never a big Media hit. Little kids werent allowed to buy the comic by thier moms, and there was never bedsheets, Lunchboxes, Popular Cartoons etc.

From disturbing characters ( dude with a weedwacker for a leg?) to pointy edges to fragile pieces they were never really aimed at kids past the first wave or two.

I dunno. I was into the realism for a bit but I like the older Playmates style figures. I like toys to look like toys.

[Jason73]

I'm wondering if the 12" GI Joes made in the 90's will hold any nostalgic value for anyone. I have too many of them and honestly they do nothing for me.

[Werewolf]

Spawn Figures and McFarlane Figures are cool..., And I will tell you why ...
Most Weaponry,.. and Hands ,.. and other things are in the 8 inch scale Mego Customizing formate,.. and they are Dirt Cheap .

Exactly, they are dirt cheap. Plus you are not buying them because you are nostalgic for the characters, you are buying them for parts.

Most the Angel female figures, or female figures in General can fetch up to 5 times the origional cost of themselves...,

But who collected those? Adults did. I honestly don't see the McToys women holding any kind of value. I don't see those same adults that collected those waxing nostalgic for bondage Wizard of Oz Dorothy or Pole Dancing Ms Claus or shelling out the big bucks for them 10 to 15 plus years from now as they're nearing retirement age.