Action figures...

[lyssie]

I am reminded. I was going to do a long post, but I'm being distracted by RL femslash in my living room.

ANYWAy. There are three Elizabeth Swann three-inch figures. One of them is a repaint of the Dead Man's Chest Liz. The other two are taken from the movie. The repaint comes with a Captain Sparrow for her to lord it over, one of them comes with no pants and an arsenal, and one of them is a 'deluxe' figure with a shiny globe thing.

I'm not actually sure there's been a movie with a main female character that has garnered more than one figure.

To put this into perspective, the first Matrix movie came out in '99. There were five different Neos, a handful of Morpheuses and Agents, random other MEN. And not a single Trinity figure. I know, because I scoured the shelves looking desperately for her--and looked at the backs of all of the boys, trying to find one.

Female action figures, apparently, do not sell well. And yet, there are three Elizabeth Swanns.

That is just so fucking awesome, I'm not sure I can put it into words.

(Farscape actually did well by their girls. There's a Zhaan, a pirate!Zhaan, a Chiana and supposedly two Aeryns...)

*wanders off to play with her girls*

Comments

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

I think they resold Chiana with her coat, too. We've got two Chianas, same figure, but one has a coat and one doesn't. I hope there's two Aeryns, cause the one we have is mutating into Pilot, and I'd hate to think that's the only Aeryn figure out there.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

ooh. I shall have to watch for her, too, then.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

I must have pirate Zhaan. Oh, yes.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Dude. If I ever see another one, she is seriously yours.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

nope, it's true, chicks don't sell as well, at least not in lines that are actually meant to appeal to boys. That's why they're often the chase figures, so at least collectors then will buy them (see for example Spidey or Batman figures -- you've got to get to Super Arctic Webbing Action Spidey to get one MJ). But relatively few lines actually appeal to boys anymore (who are playing video games I'm told), and collectors are the main figure buyers now, so that's why there are more chick figures.

And just becuase I'm a snot *g* I'll point out that Leia and Padme have all had more than one figure for just one film, and across each of their trilogies, their totals are in double-digits. For slightly less crazy fandoms, Eowyn and Hermione have also had several figures, but off the top of my head I don't know how many for each film.

There ARE truly two Aeryns-- the non-mutating one is in PK uniform. It's very rare. I think I saw it at the Toy Vault booth at Comic Con way back when, because I have seen it live someplace. But I don't own one. :(

Speaking of weird chick figures, I have the bizarre aqua-uniform variant of Ivanova. For the longest time I never saw another one or read about it as a proper variant, so I thought it was a paint error, because ... aqua. WTF were they thinking?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but Star Wars figures have, except for the beginning, always been about the collectors. Just ask Steve Sansweet.

Hermione having multiples is awesome, given that the movies/books are supposed to appeal to girls, too. And there was at least one Galadriel figure. Not that she was easy to find.

And, honestly, Marvel has always been a bit above the curve (even if, for every female figure they've put out another Wolverine one), with tones of their girls. But then, Marvel also HAS tons of female characters. (who the hell decided X-23 needed a frickin' figure and not Domino, though? Sheesh.)

Yeah, the Aeryn is listed on the back of some of the other packages, so I imagine they did actually make her. She's just not... easy to find (then again, neither were the others, unless you happened to frequent a KB Toy Outlet, and even then, there were a plethora of D'Argos...)

And, dude, Aqua Ivanova sounds wrong.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

They did make a PK Aeryn. I bought one on eBay, a couple of years back.

[scarfman]

I'm not actually sure there's been a movie with a main female character that has garnered more than one figure.

When the Phantom Menace figures hit the stores just before the movie opened and there were Padmes and Queen Amidalas I remember thinking, "Wow, a Star Wars movie with more than one female speaking part."*

* When I say that there's always pedants who bring up Aunt Beru or Mon Mothma. They had four lines between them, folks, you know that's not what I mean.

[mtgat]

The Leias have already been mentioned (I still have two of my original Leias somewhere around here) but I'd like to throw in a good word for the Trek market, which has given me multiple Dr. Crushers to play with, including one with brushable hair. I had a friend in college who collected female action figures, and she told me about how rare they were, which is why I started picking them up when I noticed them.