Reader: You mean dolls?
D7ana: No, I mean action figures.
Reader: (Sighs) Same thing.
D7ana: Not really ... I can tell you four areas where my action figure collection differs from my doll collection.
Reader: (Shrugs)
1. Quantity
I have over 480 fashion dolls. That's a rough count because I have many "hybrid" dolls: Mattel heads on Spin Master Liv bodies, Mattel-Mattel swaps, Integrity playline heads on Integrity collector doll bodies, so on. I now have a count for my action figures: 95 intact. By "intact," I mean original heads with original bodies. That's a big difference. I have fewer action figures than I thought. And I call myself a collector of dolls AND action figures. Ha!
I have dolls from at least 50 different companies; I only have 17 companies represented for my action figures. I will list them here:
21st Century
Aoshima/Skynet
BBi (Blue Box Toys)
Character Options Ltd.
Dragon AND Dragon in Dream Corporation
Formative International Co., Ltd.
Hasbro
Hot Toys Limited
Jakks Pacific
M & C Toy Centre
Majestic Studios
Palisades
Playmates Toys Inc.
Revell GmbH& Co. KG
Sideshow Collectibles
Takara
ToyBiz
2. Gender [Im]balance
Want to guess how many of those 95 action figures are female? A whopping 18. Here's a screen shot of my Excel spreadsheet showing those 18 figures:
You've probably seen all of them. My female action figures. Well maybe not Princess Leia and the Bbi Perfect Body Hispanic. I don't think that they've made many online appearances. Here's a group photo showing some of them:
 |
| From left to right: Dragon Linh, Bbi Perfect Body African American, Hasbro Princess Leia, Character Options Martha Jones, Aoshima/Skynet Lady's Mission Kelly Jackson, Aoshima/Skynet Girl's Mission Mai, and Bbi Perfect Body Hispanic |
Before you shake your head in dismay, hear this: while I have not yet taken count of my dolls by gender, I can tell you I have way more female dolls than I do male dolls. Doll companies create far more female dolls than male dolls. My action figure buying began with "Old Joe" as a way to increase male figures in my Doll World. So the gender imbalance does not disturb me.
3. Race Breakdown
Curious about the race breakdown for my action figures? I was so I created a spreadsheet to see what I have. That the majority of my male action figures are White does not surprise me. I do not have statistics to support this claim, but I suspect that the majority of playscale action figures are White males. Raise my hands. I'm not fighting or arguing; just commenting. Finding ethnic figures is more fun because they are a little harder to find.
I was surprised to find that I had more Asian female action figures than White or Black. Hmmm ....
| Race | Male | Female | Both |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asian | 15 | 8 | 23 |
| Black | 19 | 3 | 22 |
| Hispanic | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Native American | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Unspecified | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| White | 39 | 5 | 44 |
| 77 | 18 | 95 |
4. Articulation
Usually, action figures have better articulation or pose-ability than fashion dolls. Action figures have more joints. From that list of 18 female action figures, only three have limited articulation: Hasbro's Princess Leia and Toy Biz's Storm and Xena. Those three figures could almost be considered NO-action figures. What about my male action figures? Are any of them limited posing-wise? Yes. Four: Hasbro's Basic Training Lamont A. Morris and The Defender; Jakks Pacific's Van Helsing and Chris Jericho. Usually, though, articulation puts the action in action figures.
In the photo below, I have a Mattel Harley Davidson Ken followed by a Dragon Ben Yahzee. The HD Ken is on a male poser body. The contrast is almost painful to view.
Reader: So you're telling me dolls and action figures are not the same?
D7ana: I suppose I am. Yes. They are not.
Reader: Well, I still think they're the same.
D7ana: (Sighs) Last I checked, we live in a free country. Think as you will.
