May 2014 Interview - Gideon

NAME
Bruce Wayne. Kidding it's Clive

ONLINE NAME
Gideon or spudtrooper

LOCATION
sitting on the sofa. My house. Walsall in the black country.

FIRST FIGURE
The first I remember having was a blues and royals on the horse. I was about 5 or 6 and we visited my uncle. He had it on top of his TV and I was so overawed by it that he gave it to me! I still have the figure , the horse, and the basics of the outfit. The fragile bits didn't last the years Crying or Very sad

FAVOURITE FIGURE AS A KID
He was the sailor with gripper hands. I loved the beard I thought it made him look so cool. I still have him in his original outfit. I have 5 of my childhood VAM all in their original uniforms.

FAVOURITE FIGURE NOW
I'm addicted to the dynamic figures! I remember my first EE , a hybrid, and the eyes amazed me. I think that is the reason.

MOST DESIRED FIGURE
At the moment I'm after one of the AT girls from Europe. The Indian. Diana in France or shalaya? In Germany.

WHAT WILL I DO WITH MY COLLECTION
good question. I don't really know. I have no kids to leave it to so it may go to my nephew. If he's not interested it will be sold I guess.

WHAT DOES MY WIFE THINK OF THE COLLECTION?
I try not to think about this! She's OK with it. She let's me know when she thinks its taking up too much of the house lol she does support me having a hobby though and understands my addiction Wink . It's better than some other things I could be doing haha

DO I SET A BUDGET
I do. I buy and sell on eBay and only use my PayPal for the collection. If I don't have the funds in that I don't buy.

WORST FIGURE
for VAM I'd say the Intruder. I just don't get the idea behind it! He looks like a dumb caveman but is supposed to threaten the planet and the whole AM team?? The same goes for Dr X ... Very few of his figures match the idea that he is A megalomanic billionaire Genius

VIEWS ON 40TH
personally I welcomed the range. I understand peoples concerns about it but it got me back into the hobby and allowed me to get items I couldn't have before and complete sets. I do keep a record of when I use stuff though to avoid confusion. I'd have liked to have seen more. I didn't understand the sports releases though!

WORST ITEM
Difficult to say, I love all the stuff! I'm disappointed with the M1 iron tank. It looks great until you stand a figure next to it and find it is completely out of scale.

BEST THING ABOUT COLLECTING?
The best thing for me is the hunt! Searching for those elusive bits to complete a uniform or set.

WILL THE COLLECTION BE COLLECTABLE IN THE FUTURE?
interesting question. I think there will always be someone who is interested but today's kids don't seem to play with figures like I did when I was young. Its big at the moment because the generation that had AM as a kid are now middle aged and have the resources to collect and desire to recapture the past! Time will tell I guess.

WHAT WOULD I COLLECT IF I DIDNT COLLECT VAM?
I love history and have collected toy soldiers since I was a kid. I did fantasy tabletop wargaming for years. I even worked for Games Workshop for a few years as a manager. I've sold the bulk of my lead though to pay for VAM. I collect historical wargame figures now. I guess without VAM my wargaming would be a bigger interest.

WHAT OUTFIT SHOULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED?
I wish we had had the Japanese soldier in the UK. Also I would like to have seen an Italian soldier.

FAVOURITE SECTION OF AMMO?
I love it all! Lol if I had to choose I'd say the kitbash sections. I love to see peoples ideas and experiments. That's what I did as a kid mixing things up to create cool looks and that's what I like to do now.

WHY DO I LIKE AMMO?
Lots of reasons. It connects me to the hobby. Its somewhere to share my collection and see others, but the main thing I guess has to be the members, fellow collectors and nerds who have the same passion I do for the hobby.


Hope these are OK mate. I'll sort out some pics for you. You want pics of my collection? Or me ? Lol

great interview Clive !, many thanks for taking the time to do it for us   

A really great read mat e  

   ...many thanks for this brilliant interview

great read

Great, interview Clive great read, well done enjoyed this,

Some has the love the Intruder    

Great read spud! Nice to know more about you mate!

Great ready buddy,

thanks for this interview, Clive

great read , didn't know a sofa in Walsall could be comfy , iam originaly from the posh bit , Aldridge , Although most my family live in leamore ... do you remember Sherwood and miller in the arcades vam heaven as a kid

I'v just read your interview Gideon and I really liked it, thank's for letting us see into your Action Man world.

Great interview Gideon, very enjoyable read.

Great interview Clive. Ex-Games workshop huh? I've never worked for them but I was very into 40k until I rediscovered VAM.

enjoyed reading your interview Clive

Great interview and well thought out answers. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas.

Brian

Nice one Clive!

Sorry I missed this back in May... Great interview clive!