Grave Considerations – Build A Figures

About a week ago, my wife and I were at a party, and a friend and I started talking about Marvel Legends figures. The conversation ranged all across the topic, from upcoming figures to the current pricing to what has to be one of the truly daunting conundrums of our times: the Build A Figure.


Build A Figure-type strategies go back a long time in this game, seemingly a hallmark of comic figure lines but also extending to 3.75” Star Wars lines as well, in the form of the Droid Factory pack ins from, I think, 2006. Either a great or terrible idea depending on your own assessment, the Build A Figure philosophy is rather simple: a wave of toys is composed of between five to seven individual figures, and each one comes packaged with a single piece, usually a limb, of an additional, slightly larger figure. This figure may be a physically larger character (like Thanos or the Anti-Monitor), or a character that otherwise probably wouldn’t be getting a figure, or a fan favorite or deep cut type character. The inclusion of the Build A Figure expands the size of the wave, technically, by one toy, and promotes a ‘buy the entire wave or case’ mentality among collectors. This is all well and good, and in truth, a number of the Build A Figure characters are very good looking, and are sometimes the part of comic figure waves that pique my interest the most.  

But, already laid out here is the downfall of the Build A Figure concept: in order to build the figure, you have to buy the entire wave. For this discussion, I am largely leaving the prices of individual toys out, because that honestly varies on your location and whether or not you buy in a real store, or even which online shop you patronize. But, just so that it doesn’t go unsaid, the cost of a Build A Figure is generally an entire case of $20 figures. Because that’s a complicated part of this topic, I’m just going to forego it, but not before I say that, for me personally, the cost of a Build A Figure is often an automatic reason to pass on it. I think a lot of them look great, and many of them are interesting characters or designs that, if sold on their own, I would almost certainly buy; but having to buy an entire case of figures sours me on the idea.

While the price is not my main focus, it is an unavoidable bump in the Build A Figure road when combined with my major issue with such a pack-in, and that being the contents of the actual wave. Even with the Droid Factory Star Wars lines, with figures at the time being around $8 each, so not the steep $20+ of a Marvel Legends-type figure, completing a pack-in figure required buying a complete wave. And, while practically every wave of action figures ever released contains at least one or two toys you really, really want, what about the other five, six or more figures in that wave? Sure, that Venom looks good, and you wouldn’t mind a classic costume Electro, but do you really want three slightly different Spidermen? Again in the case of Star Wars, I personally army build Imperial troopers, but I don’t need several Obi Wans, or all the background aliens from the bar in Attack of the Clones. In order to fill out a wave of six or seven figures, such inclusions often happen. So, we get countless Iron Men and Darth Vaders, young and old Obi Wan, Spidermen with different hands or articulation. All that, just for a leg for Rhino, or a torso for some made up droid designation who is basically just 3PO or R2 with a different paint job.

From the collector standpoint, the Build A Figure is a great concept, one that restores the joy of the hunt and feelings of exclusivity in the age of exclusive pieces often coming with wild price markups. While it is seriously dwindling these days, hunting for toys is a great past time, one that is full of excitement and legitimate feelings of victory when something great is found. I have these great memories from 2009, being at stores with my then-girlfriend/now-wife, looking for the yellow, red, green and blue Clone trooper officers, finding each one at a different place over the course of weeks. Once I’d gotten all four, I felt accomplished, like I had participated in collecting and the hobby the way it was meant to be participated in: stalking and capturing my prey. Man, it feels lame to talk about it like that. But it’s true. The BAF concept to some degree seeks to rekindle this type of experience, assuming I suppose, that one doesn’t just order an entire wave online.

In terms of fostering the hunt, I fully endorse the BAF concept. The ever increasing roster of online stores coupled with the ever DEcreasing distribution of toys at actual stores, means that hunting for toys in the wild is now more of a futile venture than anything else. Hell, here we are nearing the end of August, and I haven’t bought a toy in a store in months: at very least, not since June. There just hasn’t been ANYTHING in stores. If, and I think it’s a pretty large if, to be honest, BAFs bring people back to the hunt and its positives, then I think that’s great. Again though, why not just order a whole case, assure yourself of completing the BAF, and be done with it?

Still though, the main problem to me concerning BAFs is the notion that I will wind up with toys that I have no interest in. Sure, the secondary market is an option to unload some unwanted figures, and eBay always has auctions up for loose figures of these types. I’m sure that eBay is also a potential source of BAF pieces that people have no intention of ever using. 

BAF figures need to be cool and important enough characters that people are going to want to buy them, and yet they are a terrific avenue for getting out those figures of characters that probably wouldn’t sell that well on their own; those cursed ‘figures that fans would want, but casual toy buyers wouldn’t recognize.’  Ultimately, it comes down to who the BAF is, and what lengths you’re willing to go to in order to get it, either through buying a case or hunting down individual parts. It’s a fine concept, and is nonintrusive enough that even if you’re totally disinterested in the BAF, the worst that happens is you end up with a large arm or leg or other body part that gets tossed into your parts box . . . until you find out that, on eBay, people are paying $12 for that Rhino leg….