How it all began
I'm sure if you are an action figure collector already, then you can relate. However if your newly introduced to this hobby, you might be asking yourself 'where does this insanity come from!?" Well here's my story...
It all started for me about 4 years ago right around Christmas. I was living on my own in an apartment I was pretty proud of, with a job that paid pretty well (or so I thought at the time), and things were all good. Weekends were all about hangin' with the friends, and weeknights after work I would come home and burn off steam by loggin in a few hours online playing my absolute favorite computer game "Ranibow Six". (I still to this day can't think of any other game I've enjoyed playing more!)
Anyway, I remember going to the Vons grocery store across the street from where I was living to grab a six pack of Newcastle (so as to slightly elevate the gaming experience). =;^) As I walked in I noticed a center aisle display with Christmas toys for sale. Random items all batched together on the three shelves; plastic cars, stuffed animals, etc. Didn't think too much about it the first time I walked by. However, in the checkout line while standing there waiting for the flustered old lady to find a pen to write her check with and asking the cashier for the date and the amount 3 separate times!!! (sorry-little pet peeve there), I had time to glance over at that aisle display again and whalla! There were 4 boxes that caught my eye right off the bat. Upon closer inspection, my eyes completely lit up at the sight of those 12" Special Ops soldiers. Two of them looked almost exactly like a couple of characters in my game, and at $6.99 it was a done deal! I just had to have them!
Well time went by and I was really enjoying having a 1/6 scale commando on each side of my monitor to inspire me while waiting for the next game screen to load. I remember more than a few times that I would reposition them to match poses of screenshots I had taken of my avatar in the game. Those figures were my ultimate military genre of my ultimate computer game come to life! Suhweeeetness!
One day after a particularly gruesome virtual battle playing Rainbow, I started to wonder if there were any more of these figures out there. I remembered the name on the box..."Soldiers of the World". So I did a Yahoo search, and, whaddya know!? Target sold them! Guess where my first stop, first thing in the morning was? lol. Sure enough, they had a real nice selection, with a few that were particularly complemented with accessories and hardware, aka-firepower!! By the end of that month the count was up to 5.
Couple months went by, and again, it was a tough day of 'deathmatch' on the virtual battlefield that drove me to dive a little deeper into the 1/6th rabbit hole. Actually I think I was just getting sick of having my clock cleaned by 12 year old Rainbow Six hackers who made it impossible to play the game in any realistic tone whatsoever. So I did another Yahoo search, this time I was just curious to find out if anyone else out there collects these action figure things.
Well needless to say, my reference above to the Matrix was no mistake. Remember the moment in Matrix where Neo begins to feel the effects of "The Red Pill" and then becomes forever transformed from that point on?? Well that's about what the results of that search did to me! ha! The results of that search introduced me to the WORLD of 1/6 action figures. That was the day I learned of such groups as Flash Force, and One Sixth Warriors. Of the incredible e-shops like Monkey Depot and Good Stuff to Go. And from that point on - I was hooked!
Joining Flash Force was what really indoctrinated me into what this hobby is all about though. Shortly after my membership to the group posted, I had a very unexpected visit from the UPS man. One of the veteran members of the group, Tim Kano, sent me a fully stocked box of 1/6 accessories, weapons, gears, uniforms...just about anything I could think I was missing in my collection was covered in that box! At that point I knew the real deal - that this hobby is just as much about the friendships as it is about the figures. And at that point I knew undoubtedly I had found my hobby niche.
[Note: I have links to most of the sites I mentioned above at the ARCC main site, in the "Allies" section]
It all started for me about 4 years ago right around Christmas. I was living on my own in an apartment I was pretty proud of, with a job that paid pretty well (or so I thought at the time), and things were all good. Weekends were all about hangin' with the friends, and weeknights after work I would come home and burn off steam by loggin in a few hours online playing my absolute favorite computer game "Ranibow Six". (I still to this day can't think of any other game I've enjoyed playing more!)
Anyway, I remember going to the Vons grocery store across the street from where I was living to grab a six pack of Newcastle (so as to slightly elevate the gaming experience). =;^) As I walked in I noticed a center aisle display with Christmas toys for sale. Random items all batched together on the three shelves; plastic cars, stuffed animals, etc. Didn't think too much about it the first time I walked by. However, in the checkout line while standing there waiting for the flustered old lady to find a pen to write her check with and asking the cashier for the date and the amount 3 separate times!!! (sorry-little pet peeve there), I had time to glance over at that aisle display again and whalla! There were 4 boxes that caught my eye right off the bat. Upon closer inspection, my eyes completely lit up at the sight of those 12" Special Ops soldiers. Two of them looked almost exactly like a couple of characters in my game, and at $6.99 it was a done deal! I just had to have them!
Well time went by and I was really enjoying having a 1/6 scale commando on each side of my monitor to inspire me while waiting for the next game screen to load. I remember more than a few times that I would reposition them to match poses of screenshots I had taken of my avatar in the game. Those figures were my ultimate military genre of my ultimate computer game come to life! Suhweeeetness!
One day after a particularly gruesome virtual battle playing Rainbow, I started to wonder if there were any more of these figures out there. I remembered the name on the box..."Soldiers of the World". So I did a Yahoo search, and, whaddya know!? Target sold them! Guess where my first stop, first thing in the morning was? lol. Sure enough, they had a real nice selection, with a few that were particularly complemented with accessories and hardware, aka-firepower!! By the end of that month the count was up to 5.
Couple months went by, and again, it was a tough day of 'deathmatch' on the virtual battlefield that drove me to dive a little deeper into the 1/6th rabbit hole. Actually I think I was just getting sick of having my clock cleaned by 12 year old Rainbow Six hackers who made it impossible to play the game in any realistic tone whatsoever. So I did another Yahoo search, this time I was just curious to find out if anyone else out there collects these action figure things.
Well needless to say, my reference above to the Matrix was no mistake. Remember the moment in Matrix where Neo begins to feel the effects of "The Red Pill" and then becomes forever transformed from that point on?? Well that's about what the results of that search did to me! ha! The results of that search introduced me to the WORLD of 1/6 action figures. That was the day I learned of such groups as Flash Force, and One Sixth Warriors. Of the incredible e-shops like Monkey Depot and Good Stuff to Go. And from that point on - I was hooked!
Joining Flash Force was what really indoctrinated me into what this hobby is all about though. Shortly after my membership to the group posted, I had a very unexpected visit from the UPS man. One of the veteran members of the group, Tim Kano, sent me a fully stocked box of 1/6 accessories, weapons, gears, uniforms...just about anything I could think I was missing in my collection was covered in that box! At that point I knew the real deal - that this hobby is just as much about the friendships as it is about the figures. And at that point I knew undoubtedly I had found my hobby niche.
[Note: I have links to most of the sites I mentioned above at the ARCC main site, in the "Allies" section]
posted by Archangel 6 at 12:41 AM
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