Action Force and Valaverse

He’s teased an all black one coming and is doing two other vehicles. I think it might not have been a blockbuster success but also sold fairly well.

While I don’t see it discussed a lot, I do see it the background of photos on Instagram frequently.


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Fletch said:
And I think at the time all we had for vehicles was the VAMP? Hellcharger, Ramen Racer, ECTO-1, those all came later. Am I remembering that right? I'm sure there were non-AF collectors interested in a vehicle for their Punishers and such.

Now, I haven't seen a lot of good reviews about it since, so a sales slump after word of mouth spreads is very believable, but I can imagine a world where 10,000 people wanted the only 1/12 scale 4-seater car out there.
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HISS was out then too. I recall the comparison shots and people being like Vala's is bigger so better".
 
thewyldman said:
He’s teased an all black one coming and is doing two other vehicles. I think it might not have been a blockbuster success but also sold fairly well.

While I don’t see it discussed a lot, I do see it the background of photos on Instagram frequently.


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If he'd thrown the black one up first I might've gotten it. In the meantime I've cooled on it a lot though. Even with the front grill attachments and such it's still just to bland a base. I do think the SWARM air vehicle looks like a really cool wacky design, but I'm now just about out of room for 1/12 vehicles. Once my black chrome Ramen Racer comes in I could maybe justify one more, but I don't think it'll be that.
 
JakeEkiss said:
If he'd thrown the black one up first I might've gotten it. In the meantime I've cooled on it a lot though. Even with the front grill attachments and such it's still just to bland a base. I do think the SWARM air vehicle looks like a really cool wacky design, but I'm now just about out of room for 1/12 vehicles. Once my black chrome Ramen Racer comes in I could maybe justify one more, but I don't think it'll be that.
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Yeah black is still my preferred look.

I bought the gray one and I’m happy with it. Is it better or worse than Hasbro’s stuff? It’s on par but in like different ways. I prefer the larger size, but maybe wish it was 10% smaller. I think it could do more but it’s got alot of mass and I really like missile launcher attachment. I think the cheap plastic complaints are a bit overblown. It doesn’t feel like a Walmart or dollar tree toy and feels rather close to the stinger.

As someone that owns it and the roboskull, I think the roboskull has the better shelf presence but man is it scary to mess with because those wings are thin clear plastic. I had one wing break when trying to rotate it.


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thewyldman said:
Yeah black is still my preferred look.

I bought the gray one and I’m happy with it. Is it better or worse than Hasbro’s stuff? It’s on par but in like different ways. I prefer the larger size, but maybe wish it was 10% smaller. I think it could do more but it’s got alot of mass and I really like missile launcher attachment. I think the cheap plastic complaints are a bit overblown. It doesn’t feel like a Walmart or dollar tree toy and feels rather close to the stinger.

As someone that owns it and the roboskull, I think the roboskull has the better shelf presence but man is it scary to mess with because those wings are thin clear plastic. I had one wing break when trying to rotate it.


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Yeah, my Roboskull by far and away has some of the best shelf-presence of anything I own and I'm thoroughly happy with that purchase. I'm fairly delicate with my stuff so I haven't had any breakage so far. I'm still waiting for the 6" pilots to come in so I can recreate the "No shields, all guts" Tie Fighter poster that Cat Staggs did a while back.

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JakeEkiss said:
HISS was out then too. I recall the comparison shots and people being like Vala's is bigger so better".
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That's right. That was actually the nail in the coffin for me. I wasn't intro the Vanguard's mundane design, but I certainly didn't want something that made my HISS look weaker.
 
JakeEkiss said:
Honestly it seems just as if not more likely he's just losing money now. 10k seems like a lot of units, but its about 2/3 of what the Ecto-1 sold (at a noticeably higher price) and that feels about right as far as the full audience of this hobby goes. I would absolutely believe Bobby has an audience that could make a 10k run of that car sell out. I also absolutely believe he's the sort of guy who would think he hadn't hit the end of that audience when he had and would over-extend. Happens all the time. The hot-hand fallacy.
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And to your point, I know more than a few Valaverse or Vala/Joe agnostic collectors and I don't know anyone who picked one up. One of the major criticisms was you couldn't even see the dudes inside. So I do suspect the market was always limited even in our world.

Hell, for me even the HISS and Dragonfly feel the same way to me - big footprint, limited use for how I like to play and display.

Something I always allow for is that even when you get people on forums and comments or streams vocally talking about how they're going to support something, sure we know HasLabs do speak for themselves, but even individual figures, I think a lot of people come from a place of hype and then don't actually put the money down. That's from my life in sales and as a working creative. Window shoppers mean nothing.

So yeah, I pick up what you're putting down, just as my own consumer.
 
altcunningham said:
Something I always allow for is that even when you get people on forums and comments or streams vocally talking about how they're going to support something, sure we know HasLabs do speak for themselves, but even individual figures, I think a lot of people come from a place of hype and then don't actually put the money down. That's from my life in sales and as a working creative. Window shoppers mean nothing.
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So true. SO TRUE. God my days doing conventions of people saying "oh I like your stuff, I'll see the rest of artist alley and then come back to pick something up". Like, at best one in ten return. This is why I never really get upset with toy companies, especially smaller ones, doing the kickstarter model for big ticket stuff. You simply cannot rely on people who say they'll buy something. The only real measure is money in hand.
 
altcunningham said:
... One of the major criticisms was you couldn't even see the dudes inside. So I do suspect the market was always limited even in our world....
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I ran into that issue with the Stinger. The Stinger with the doors and very dark windshield seem less interesting than the Vamp with a visible driver and pony tailed redhead hanging over the side aiming a weapon. I used to like the doored Vamp variations in 3.75.
 
Hahahaha. What a fucking loser. To put it in terms a Trumpy dipshit like him would understand; Beta-male crybaby. Cope harder, Bob.
And I'm referencing both his comment about the Rumble Society vehicle as well as literally stealing Shart's figure concept just to prove he can (although, that's legit hilarious at the same time as being utterly cringe).

In other Bob the Clown news; I actually did watch his YT video about whether action figures can be made in the USA. Not gonna throw shade on a guy if I don't know what his actual words are, so I figured I should hear him out. The only time he was full of shit was in how hard he glazed for the working conditions in China. I don't believe for a second that he actually -believes- what he's saying. But it's not really relevant to the video's point about whether or not he, or anyone else, can manufacture collector action figures in the US.

Anyway, fucking hilarious to watch his comments section shit its pants between people that want to simp for Bob, actually know he's mostly correct, or who are so fucking Republican-brained that they just screeching about him being a liar and how he needs to make toys in the US or not make toys (and weird comments about child labour and slavery - something they have no problem with as long as 'China pays the tariffs' - I guess). Watching Bob squirm in this position he stuck himself into where a good chunk of his consumer base are right wing idiots but the right wing is currently intentionally making Bob himself look like a traitor? Love it. No notes.
 

Today’s DFW panel if anyone wants to watch it.

Yes, we’re getting street figures in his new line “Extras!.” Looks to be friendly for diorama and action figure photography people. At ~$25 these will be good for building up scenes and have to imagine that gym set he showed off is just pretooling for this line.

Biggest news is that he got the Splinter Cell license with first figure coming in 2026.

Otherwise we got two spinoff lines of Action Force announced today. The first is The Black which is a line of post apocalyptic/modern pirates. The second is Action Force 1944 which is a line of World War 2 figures.
 
Spectre Two said:
He really just announced his new "Extras" (aka: Street Humans) line.

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I don't collect any Joes or Valaverse, but I do collect Acid Rain World so I understand the appeal of military figures and building squads. But this... I just can't wrap my head around these designs or this business decision. What's the point? Who's this for? If I'm going to fill out a squad of figures so a shelf or diorama looks full, I still want figures that have fun, compelling designs. I'm not the guy who buys three-packs of generic ninjas or army guys or skeletons, but at least I can see the reasoning behind it. These figures just look like dads on their way to the store. Are collectors really so eager to create a diorama of Batman fist-fighting some random guys over a parking spot at Target?
 
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