The POP-EXPOSE ‘Evolution of the 3&3/4 Figure’ by Train!
Story Courtesy of Serpentorslair contributor ‘Train‘!
In the late 1970’s the 3&3/4 in action figure was created by Kenner. Kenner designed and produced figures for a movie that changed merchandising forever, of course that would be Star Wars. The first line a lot of basic figures with straight arms and legs, and basic features that resembled the movie characters. Not 100% accurate, but back in the late 70’s very cool and if you were a child they were the best thing since sliced bread. Going into the 1980’s GI Joe was the next major toy line to feature the 3&3/4 inch figures. This time the figures had a little more articulation adding arms and legs that could be bent at the knee and elbow, and had a lot more pose ability and could be set up to be firing a gun, climbing a ladder, driving a vehicle, Etc…
Over the next decade or so the stiff armed Star Wars figures and the basic style GI Joe would reign the action figure world and very little change was made till the late 90’s. In 2007 Hasbro introduced the 25th style figure with great articulation and facial features. Over the next several years there would be awesomely articulated Star Wars and GI Joe figures, as well as the spread to many other comic and movie figures such as Marvel and DC Comics. If you are an action figure collector we are in the height of it all right now. Unfortunately the cost of having super poseable figures with awesome features drives the cost up, some figures are at all time highs and the lower costing ones such as some of the Star Wars lines are going back to a basic straight arm figure.
I was toddling around when the first 3&3/4 inch figures came around. Many of you may have already heard the story when I was 7 and my brothers and I received many of the 1982 GI Joe line for Christmas. Over the years GI Joe was my go to. I bought Shipwreck and Footloose with $5.00 that I got for my birthday. That was a time were there wasn’t a lot of collectors and as 7 year olds turned into 12 year olds many Joes made a rocket launch and plummeted to their demise.
So flash forward 33 years and some of the 3&3/4 inch figures are worth well beyond their original retail value. I mainly collect Star Wars and GI Joe, but I have some Avengers, DC, A-team, Hobbit, Star Trek, and a handful of other various figures. Some of my favorite figures include the Mos Eisley Cantina and Jabba’s Palace figures, plus I love some of the last highly articulated figures found at retail such as Low-light, Lifeline, and Sci-fi. I strayed away from the club exclusive figures do to the price and went back to collect some of the 80’s and 90’s Joes I never had. There was a lot of creativity and thought poured into those GI Joes and the workmanship still shines through on a lot of those figures. Star Wars has stayed strong on a collectors stand as well as with kids, marketing both standard figures aimed at a the young crowd and also a more articulated figure aimed toward a collector.
GI Joe and many of the other lines such as Marvel and DC are aimed more at collectors and seems they have moved to a different sized figure other then 3&3/4 inch to market toward kids. I’ve always enjoyed the 3&3/4 size and I hope especially that GI Joe will swing back to a retail type figure, but from this point on it looks like that is a long ways off and on the bright side for me I’ll work on buffing up my vintage collection of the 3&3/4 inch figures.
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