Population Explosion.

I started with one figure in late 2018. Now its up to 16 and growing, with another figure on the way from Giantoy and even so, there are still several head sculpts in my parts boxes just waiting for bodies. My collection is small compared to many others on this site...perhaps most others here, but the lack of space to cram it all in is becoming a growing problem and will only get worse.

081521_0011 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

081521_0012 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

081521_0013 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

081521_0014 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

081521_0015 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

At some point or another, I'm gonna have to stop buying figures long enough that I can buy a proper display cabinet, assuming I can find a place to put it.

Such are the woes of the action figure addiction.....

Step One: move to a bigger house.

That was my plan, actually. But then... well, that's "family stuff" I need not go in to here and now. Suffice to say, the bigger house thing didn't happen.

(It had a bomb shelter in it! A genuine 1950s era bomb shelter!)

This is our first glimpse of Laura with her aviator shades and green gloves!

Interesting seeing the two Kamiko models side by side. The story scenes blend so seamlessly that, while I've known you have "two Kamikos," I do not think of them as such. She's definitely one character. And a character, period! I have two figs of a couple of my characters so I do not have to change costumes.

Late 2018 - so it's taken you three years to reach this point. That's only five or six figs a year, less than one every two months. That's not excessive... is it?  But yes, after a point (don't worry, you're not there yet), storage and display space begins to become an issue.

From what I have seen with other collectors on the AMMO forum, it appears that Phicen Families tend to keep growing until they reach the mid-twenties. Then the population growth levels out, and tends to slow considerably or stabilize at around thirty.

Of course, there are collectors on some of the other forums who appear to have bottomless pocketbooks and endless space who appear to purchase every new release and multiples of multiple figures. But those collectors are "figure collectors." For those like you and me and some of the rest of us, the "collection" grows as a corollary or side-effect of creating characters and crafting photo-stories.

I suppose we could take a lesson from the Calvin & Hobbes cartoonist: two main characters, plus occasional appearances by Mom and Dad, so four characters to create one of the most popular comic strips ever. Or Dennis the Menace: Dennis, Mom (Alice), Dad (Henry), Poor Ol' Mister Wilson, Mrs. Wilson, Margaret, and Ruff the Dog. Later on a girl named Gina made a few appearances. Eight characters for decades of stories.

Your all-female contingent has expanded to include a healthy number of males. That's a good sign. It means you won't end up with thirty-some females and then decide you need some guys.

Coincidentally, I was just now responding to a PM from another forum member and saying that I really need to curtail my purchases. I also mentioned heads; I have more heads than bodies, and I need to decide whether to leave it that way, or if I want to add just a few more bodies so that everyone is squared away. Logically, swapping heads allows the appearance of more characters while keeping the budget and the space considerations under control.

Logically.  

How many settings and dioramas have you constructed for use with your 16 figures? Is the set we see here your only "standing set," or are there others? How many are flat-packed away? How many more are in the works?

I have so many works-in-progress when it comes to sets that I've lost count. Yet, I almost always use two small, simple sets, slightly re-dressed, for nearly all my scenes.

Fascinating look at the collection.

House? I live in a small apartment, but don't you worry. If I lived in a house, no matter what the size, I would have found ways to fill it up. Frank Lloyd Wright believed people had to many things in there houses and that people should put only the things in his houses that he provided. Consequently, Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses all lacked closet space. What an ass he was, despite being fundamentally correct.

My previous shots of Laura however, do show those green gloves.

Laura_2 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

I got my first figure in the last days of December 2018, I believe. It's the body I now use for Michiko.

I have really enough K-Troop figures now that I don't need any more for my stories. In fact, some of them get very little air time as it is as Kamiko, Glynnis, Michiko and Laura, and lately Sir James have been sucking up most of the air in the room, so to speak. What I need is more bad guys. currently, K-Troop outnumbers them by a margin of 11 to 5, or better than two to one. I need one super-evil Blofeld like mastermind at the top of things; Erika is just too brain-damaged to be that person, though she is clearly an important lieutenant. The figure I that's on order and whose identity you already know will also be an important lieutenant, but I'm not yet sure about the mastermind. That makes sense as it makes sense to keep him or her as a mystery figure for a while. I do have ideas, however.

I have only one permanent set and it's the one in the photo. Not much of set really. I need to build more and better-looking, but again, space will be a problem. I do have a space to store a couple, but they will have to be sturdy enough to be moved around and stored with other stuff. I do not have the space to build anything like Dal's Ammo Arms set.

Right now, in addition to the head sculpts, I also have quite a lot of female clothing and some male clothing that are screaming at me for bodies to put into them. Some of them will be wastelanders. Others will be Stahltroop or their allies. One or two may be good-guy troopers to use as reinforcements when necessary....and if I ever find a head sculpt that looks remotely like me as a younger man, there may someday be a mini-me.

SCU_HQ wrote:

I also mentioned heads; I have more heads than bodies, and I need to decide whether to leave it that way, or if I want to add just a few more bodies

OR make more contest winning photos using just the head?
You have "form" you know!

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

 Frank Lloyd Wright believed people had to many things in there houses and that people should put only the things in his houses that he provided.  Consequently, Frank Lloyd Wright designed houses all lacked closet space.  What an ass he was, despite being fundamentally correct.

Frank Lloyd wright was an idiot!
Bragged about his wonderful use of cantilevering....("Falling Water") and the damn thing started to fall down and has now cost millions to prop up; designed an art gallery (Guggenheim,) with a sloping floor and sloping walls that paintings would not hang properly on; designed desert houses with canvas roofs as though it never rains at all in a desert and dust storms never happen; and his roofs weren't properly supported, most of his buildings leaked, he skimped on the concrete foundations making them too weak; he had absolutely no idea of future maintenance or upkeep; his buildings wasted heaps of energy and the drainage systems he designed were nothing short of disasters that backed up constantly or were completely inadequate for the task
And yet he has become an icon and lauded as a genius of 20th architecture?

Wright was nothing if not a scoundrel and a superb self-promoter. It's a good thing he never entered politics; he could have become president. As to Falling Water, you're bound to encounter problems when you design a house that size and of that complexity in three hours.

I do like your BOND (?).
What release is he and what sort of a body does he have?

The head sculpt is one I got from a Chinese dealer on e-bay. It fact it's the second one I got I got from the same dealer and first one was far too tanned in colour for my liking. The second one, sourced from the same dealer, whom I presume has more than one suppliers is lighter in skin tone and the plastic used in the sculpt seems harder. I guess it's luck of the draw when you order. The price is cheap though and the likeness to Connery in his early Bonds is quite good, I think.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/324325830470

The body is a World Box AT017, wich is nice and brawny like Connery was in his body building days before cinema, but ultimately top heavy, prone to tipping and having a limited range of motion in the arms owing to the musculature. Needless to say, I plan to replace it at some point.

I love group pics like this , the first is especially good . Your lighting is perfect too , not a shadow in sight .

Excellent group shots!!!

I'd say you still have a long way to go and really these figures are like jello -- and there's always room for jello.