Not going to do a Year in Review; plenty of far more articulate people are doing those. Not going to do resolutions; I never manage to keep them and end up feeling like a failure. Instead, let's all breathe a sigh of relief that this dumpster fire we call 2019 is over in a few more hours. Truthfully, I don't hold out much hope that 2020 will be much of an improvement, given the last couple of years, but depending on how you count, it's a new decade, and people are trying to be optimistic for the next Roaring Twenties.
I have a milestone coming up in the middle of next year, and I'm hoping to make some life changes with that in mind. (Again, not calling them resolutions, since that never works out...) But looking at a half-century, and seeing that I could be doing things better, differently, more mindfully – that's a good thing, right?
It will be a balancing act between wants and needs, work and home, me and family, and I'd really like for me not to get the short end of the stick by sacrificing everything for everyone else. Easier said than done, with a disabled adult child at home, but I am not the sole caregiver.
I intend to finish Book Two of a series I'm writing, then go back and reread Book One and see if I need to make any changes to continuity, and the make edits to Two; first priority. Second, I want to construct the risers for my collection once and for all, which may mean going online and seeing about finding the materials for free (I'd rather not pay for scrap if I don't have to). Third, quit smoking – for good this time.
I'd also like to get a website up and running for this stuff, something a little easier to manage than a blog. I have so much information about female action figures, and no good place to put it. The blog format is not ideal.
Anyway... here's to surviving 2019. See you on the other side.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Why Are We Still Debating Fake Geek Girls?
This post was brought to you today by a Twitter thread by Seanan McGuire (who is one hell of an author, if you haven't read her books – she also writes as Mira Grant), read the whole thread here. She begins with this:
When Star Wars came out, our older brother took me and my little brother to see it. The boys in my class were really into the action figures and toys and stuff. I remember enjoying the movie, but I didn't have any of the toys. I played with some of those boys, and was fine being Leia (the lone important female character), and don't remember missing having lightsaber battles since she never got one. The girls in my class, my friends, and the neighbor girls who were a year ahead of me in school weren't interested in it, though, and I drifted between the boys who played Star Wars and the girls who dressed Barbies and rollerskated.
I remember the Community Center playing movies in the summer, old black and white monster movies like The Deadly Mantis, and insisting I be allowed to go see them. I remember Channel 3 having an Early Show program at 3pm that showed movies, and they had theme weeks, and I'd rush home from school to watch when there were Godzilla or Universal monster movies on that week. I don't remember any of my friends doing that with me.
I watched Wonder Woman, The Six-Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels, and The Incredible Hulk on TV when I could if there wasn't something else more interesting for my parents to watch. There was no shortage of heroic figures in my media consumption. I didn't have the toys to show it, though. (I honestly don't remember asking for dolls for WW, BW or the Angels, and I don't know that I would have received them. Not only did I grow up rural, I grew up working class – strictly blue collar. There might not've been extra money floating around for those toys even if I had wanted them.)
My first comic books other than the Archie digests from the grocery store were from a box I found at a garage sale and begged for. (And still have.) Among them were some Bugs Bunny titles, Spider-Man issues, and a couple of Where Monsters Dwell issues (Marie Severin cover art). They weren't mint when I talked her into letting me have them, and after kid-me read and reread them, they certainly aren't mint now, but I love them and they are awesome. But this, too, was a solitary thing. I have no recollection of sharing my joy of this with my other friends.
I was in 6th grade when I discovered Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. By then, I had already devoured the Trixie Belden mysteries. None of my friends seemed particularly interested in either series. (I'm still a little afraid to watch DuVernay's movie; the book was important enough to me that if the movie doesn't hold up to my girlish expectations it would be crushing... even though everyone says she did an amazing job.)
This is a long and winding way of saying my experience with female geekdom as a child was relatively painless. I was isolated and had no way to know what I was missing, outside of the toys I could see and didn't have. It was a little lonely and sometimes hurtful, but for the most part I think I was comfortable in my solitude.
Fast forward to adulthood. I managed to find another solitude-appreciating nerd in college, he's a bit more extroverted than I am, but we manage okay. I guess since I tend to avoid a lot of the social situations that could lead to my rejection, I haven't had many of the same "fake geek" bullshit experiences so many of my sisters have. The little RPGing I have done was done with a tight group of friends. When I played WoW, I was gamed with friends or alone because I didn't want to deal with the a-holes I knew were out there. Probably the worst I have experienced is the assumption that the action figures I'm buying are for a boyfriend/husband and not for me. That may be due to the fact that I carefully curated my experience to minimize exposure, knowing what lurked in the shadows; I made conscious decisions to limit myself to maximize personal enjoyment. (AND I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO DO THAT! We're clear on that right? Women everywhere have to avoid things they enjoy because men are openly hostile or harassingly "welcome.")
I don't want to take away from the lived experiences of the women I have seen getting harassed in real time online. Women driven from the internet, from Twitter, from gaming, whatever, because male geekdom found their mere presence unholy. The fact that my wounds are superficial in comparison, doesn't mean I deny the deeper wounds of others. (On the contrary, it makes me want to fight for them, protectively.)
Am I less of a geek because I have been unwilling to hang myself up as a target? No one who knows me would call me timid, but I don't enjoy being the butt of anyone's jokes (being the girl between two brothers will cure you of that right-quick). I just want to enjoy the media that makes me happy without people telling me I shouldn't like those things now, when I have all along, even if they're not telling me directly. Because honestly, when people are shitty to one of my sisters, that means they've been shitty to me. I always seem to be arriving too late to the scene to prevent it from happening, and maybe it's too big to "prevent" anyway – perhaps triage is all I can provide – but I'll be damned if it happens in my presence.
We don't have to earn our place to be here. We don't owe anyone anything. There are no dues to be paid, no entrance exams. And we've got
I am continually astonished by men who claim that the mere existence of women is political and "forcing social justice into fiction." I've been a geek girl since I was three years old and obsessed with Doctor Who, My Little Pony, and Vincent Price. – SMcGI grew up in a very small town in a rural farming community. Across the street from my house was a corn or bean field, depending on the crop rotation that year. Mice in the walls every fall when they harvested. My consolidated high school was around 400 students, the population of my hometown at the time was 550. Small.
When Star Wars came out, our older brother took me and my little brother to see it. The boys in my class were really into the action figures and toys and stuff. I remember enjoying the movie, but I didn't have any of the toys. I played with some of those boys, and was fine being Leia (the lone important female character), and don't remember missing having lightsaber battles since she never got one. The girls in my class, my friends, and the neighbor girls who were a year ahead of me in school weren't interested in it, though, and I drifted between the boys who played Star Wars and the girls who dressed Barbies and rollerskated.
I remember the Community Center playing movies in the summer, old black and white monster movies like The Deadly Mantis, and insisting I be allowed to go see them. I remember Channel 3 having an Early Show program at 3pm that showed movies, and they had theme weeks, and I'd rush home from school to watch when there were Godzilla or Universal monster movies on that week. I don't remember any of my friends doing that with me.
I watched Wonder Woman, The Six-Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angels, and The Incredible Hulk on TV when I could if there wasn't something else more interesting for my parents to watch. There was no shortage of heroic figures in my media consumption. I didn't have the toys to show it, though. (I honestly don't remember asking for dolls for WW, BW or the Angels, and I don't know that I would have received them. Not only did I grow up rural, I grew up working class – strictly blue collar. There might not've been extra money floating around for those toys even if I had wanted them.)
My first comic books other than the Archie digests from the grocery store were from a box I found at a garage sale and begged for. (And still have.) Among them were some Bugs Bunny titles, Spider-Man issues, and a couple of Where Monsters Dwell issues (Marie Severin cover art). They weren't mint when I talked her into letting me have them, and after kid-me read and reread them, they certainly aren't mint now, but I love them and they are awesome. But this, too, was a solitary thing. I have no recollection of sharing my joy of this with my other friends.
I was in 6th grade when I discovered Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. By then, I had already devoured the Trixie Belden mysteries. None of my friends seemed particularly interested in either series. (I'm still a little afraid to watch DuVernay's movie; the book was important enough to me that if the movie doesn't hold up to my girlish expectations it would be crushing... even though everyone says she did an amazing job.)
This is a long and winding way of saying my experience with female geekdom as a child was relatively painless. I was isolated and had no way to know what I was missing, outside of the toys I could see and didn't have. It was a little lonely and sometimes hurtful, but for the most part I think I was comfortable in my solitude.
Fast forward to adulthood. I managed to find another solitude-appreciating nerd in college, he's a bit more extroverted than I am, but we manage okay. I guess since I tend to avoid a lot of the social situations that could lead to my rejection, I haven't had many of the same "fake geek" bullshit experiences so many of my sisters have. The little RPGing I have done was done with a tight group of friends. When I played WoW, I was gamed with friends or alone because I didn't want to deal with the a-holes I knew were out there. Probably the worst I have experienced is the assumption that the action figures I'm buying are for a boyfriend/husband and not for me. That may be due to the fact that I carefully curated my experience to minimize exposure, knowing what lurked in the shadows; I made conscious decisions to limit myself to maximize personal enjoyment. (AND I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO DO THAT! We're clear on that right? Women everywhere have to avoid things they enjoy because men are openly hostile or harassingly "welcome.")
I don't want to take away from the lived experiences of the women I have seen getting harassed in real time online. Women driven from the internet, from Twitter, from gaming, whatever, because male geekdom found their mere presence unholy. The fact that my wounds are superficial in comparison, doesn't mean I deny the deeper wounds of others. (On the contrary, it makes me want to fight for them, protectively.)
Am I less of a geek because I have been unwilling to hang myself up as a target? No one who knows me would call me timid, but I don't enjoy being the butt of anyone's jokes (being the girl between two brothers will cure you of that right-quick). I just want to enjoy the media that makes me happy without people telling me I shouldn't like those things now, when I have all along, even if they're not telling me directly. Because honestly, when people are shitty to one of my sisters, that means they've been shitty to me. I always seem to be arriving too late to the scene to prevent it from happening, and maybe it's too big to "prevent" anyway – perhaps triage is all I can provide – but I'll be damned if it happens in my presence.
We don't have to earn our place to be here. We don't owe anyone anything. There are no dues to be paid, no entrance exams. And we've got
Friday, February 1, 2019
Black Action Figures: Just the Ladies (Almost)
There are not many black characters in pop culture. People of color (POC) are vastly underrepresented in the media we consume to entertain us. Certainly, there have been some inroads to inclusion, but there are still wide chasms to bridge. (And I won't even get into the pay gap; I am so not qualified to talk about that.)
Since today marks the first day of Black History Month, and the truly wonderful #28DaysOfBlackCosplay, it got me thinking about dearth of black action figures (that goes hand in hand with the lack of black characters), which made me wonder how many I had in my collection. Sadly, this won't take that long...
Okay, that's it for the ladies in my collection, even the ones I haven't unboxed yet. That was 32 female characters that are either black, are aliens played by black actors, or aliens that appear as black.
I have one dude displayed who's black. I don't typically display male figures, even if they come with the female ones, but Ty and Tandy are kinda literally codependent. They need each other, so they're displayed together.
So including my codependent guy, 33 black characters (more or less). That is pitifully small, when you consider my collection is edging up on 700.
If you love diverse media, support it. If you want to see diverse characters, demand them from the studios that create them. Hollywood saw, clearly, that a black superhero movie could succeed, beyond their dreams of avarice. Black Panther shattered records, and good for them! Let's see more of that, please!
For another resource, totally dedicated to this kind of thing exclusively, visit: Black Action Figures.
Since today marks the first day of Black History Month, and the truly wonderful #28DaysOfBlackCosplay, it got me thinking about dearth of black action figures (that goes hand in hand with the lack of black characters), which made me wonder how many I had in my collection. Sadly, this won't take that long...
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| Aveline de Grandpré: Assassin's Creed McFarlane, 2014 This was the first female playable assassin in the game. Some fanbois lost their shit because cooties. |
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| Domina: Spawn Reborn McFarlane, 2003 This is a repaint of an earlier figure that is white. The character in the comics also appears to be white. The repaint is one of McFarlane's many reissued, repainted figures for that cash cow. |
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| Fatality: Green Lantern Corps DC Direct, 2002 I debated including this one. She's an alien, not from Earth, but the way she's drawn and colored she looks like she could be black, and she dated black Green Lantern John Stewart (who also destroyed her planet; comics are complicated). |
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| Gamora – played by actor Zoe Saldana: Guardians of the Galaxy Hasbro, 2014 Saldana self-identifies as black, so here she is! Even if she is painted green... Misty Knight (Heroes for Hire) Hasbro, 2015 I have to kinda wonder if Knight's character (first app. 1975) was inspired by Pam Grier (Foxy Brown, et al.)... |
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| Garona Halforcen – played by actor Paula Patton: Warcraft (movie) Jakks Pacific, 2016 This was another one I wasn't sure to include or not. Patton's father is African-American, but I don't know how she, personally, identifies. I'm erring on the side of Barack Obama and including this figure. |
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| Guinan – played by actor/comedian Whoopi Goldberg Playmates, 1994 There were a few different versions of Guinan's character. This one is from Star Trek: Generations Basic Series. |
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| Jackie Joyner-Kersee: Starting Lineup/Timeless Legends Kenner, 1996 Florence Griffith-Joyner: Starting Lineup/Timeless Legends Kenner, 1996 These are both reasonable likenesses, but they're not "action figures." There is very little articulation, and what there is is pretty meaningless. They are basically small plastic statues, that have a tiny amount of movement. |
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| Lily [Sloane] – played by actor Alfre Woodard: Star Trek: First Contact Playmates, 1996 On the card, she is merely "Lily, Zephram Cochran's Assistant," but in one Star Trek source, she is DR. Lily Sloane. |
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| Maggie: Evolve Funko, 2015 I don't know anything about this game. The fandom wiki page says her surname is Lumumba. She looks pretty badass. |
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| Martha Jones – played by actor Freema Agyeman: Doctor Who Character Options, 2013 Martha was available singly and in box sets. The one above is from the Companion Box Set. |
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| Martia – played by Iman: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Playmates, 1995 This character is another alien, a Chameloid, so her attractive appearance portrayed by Iman is not her "true" form. But that's the action figure they made and how many people get to boast their own action figs, eh? (Plus I kinda love her character in the movie.) |
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| Michonne – played by Danai Gurira: The Walking Dead McFarlane, 2013 Michonne has a few different iterations of her character, this one is the TV Series 3 version. |
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| Monica Rambeau: A-Force Hasbro, 2017 This character has had a few different names in the comics, including Captain Marvel! Currently, we are set to meet her mother Maria "Photon" (Photon is one of her other aliases) Rambeau in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie. w00t! |
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| Nakia – played by actor Lupita Nyong'o: Black Panther Hasbro, 2017 This particular series of action figures was a Build-a-Figure for Okoye: buy the 5 required figures, and assemble the character played by Danai Gurira. There is a forthcoming Wave 2 of Black Panther figures than includes a Dora Milaje with three different heads. |
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| Niobe – played by actor Jada Pinkett Smith: The Matrix Reloaded McFarlane, 2003 I love the detail in this figure, it's a good likeness of both the actress and the character. I hate that the pose is baked in. There's not much *action* in this action figure. |
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| Onyx: Golden Girl and the Guardians of the Gemstones Galoob, 1984 This was a "knockoff" of the Mattel She-Ra line. Great figures with real metal shields. The metallic coating on their capes have an unfortunate tendency to shed with age, though. |
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| Patty Tolan – played by actor/comedian Leslie Jones: Ghostbusters Mattel, 2016 The figures are great, a little monochromatic, but faithfully rendered. The packaging was cheap as hell, though, and when I bought mine all the boxes in the store were crushed, every one of them. Not only cheap, but ugly. So Mattel didn't commit to the packaging, didn't commit to the lame-ass build-a-fig Rowan ghost that came with buying all four. Kinda like how a lot of people didn't commit to the movie, and how awesome it really was. |
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| Rue – played by Amandla Stenberg: The Hunger Games NECA, 2012 Another really nice rendering of a character. NECA generally does well with their figures. Rue doesn't have a whole lot of articulation, but she looks like her character. If you've read the books or seen the movies, having this one in your collection will just make you sad and angry a lot. |
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| Sasha (Williams) – played by Sonequa Martin-Green: The Walking Dead McFarlane, 2017 (Walgreens exclusive) This is an exclusive figure that was available only from Walgreens drug stores. Like most McFarlane figures, it's a good likeness of the actor. Incidentally, in order for an action figure to have a likeness of the actor, that person has to sign off on it. People have rights to whether their likeness is used (or NOT used), and if you see an action figure that looks nothing like the individual it portrays, it might be that person refused the use of their likeness. |
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| (Future) Shard: X-Men Toy Biz, 1997 I wasn't sure about including this character. According to her bio, Shard Bishop is the daughter of indigenous Australians. Some of these people refer to themselves as black, some don't. I honestly don't know how Marvel intends her to be perceived. |
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| Shonti: Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic Mattel, 1995 Fallon: Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders Hasbro/Kenner, 1995 Both of these figures came out about the same time, and were based on Magical Girl cartoon series. I have not seen either series, but the figures are cute. However, neither series caught on the way She-Ra did 10 years earlier. And neither had the popularity of Sailor Moon. |
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| Shuri – Letitia Wright: Black Panther (basic series) Hasbro, 2017 There are two versions of this character, one based on the movie and the actress, and one based on the comic book character that came in a Toys R Us exclusive 2-Pack with Klaw. I bought the 2-pack and returned it when I saw the one above, so she would be more harmonious with the other movie Black Panther figures. The one that comes in the 2-pack does look cool though, I have to admit. |
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| Stass Allie (foreground) – played by Lily Nyamwasa: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith Hasbro, 2005 Luminara Unduli (background) – played by Mary Oyaya: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith Hasbro, 2013 There are multiple versions of both these figures, but Luminara Unduli has more variations than Stass Allie. |
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| Storm: She-Force Series 2 Toy Biz, 1996 Until the batteries wear out (or corrode), the lightening bolt on her chest lights up. This same figure came in a silver chrome, silver paint, and white versions as well as the black. There have been many Storm figures. She's the one black superhero that pretty much everyone can think of even when you ask non-comic fans, along with Blade (probably). |
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| Lt. (Nyota) Uhura – played by Nichelle Nichols (and Zoe Saldana in the reboot): Star Trek Playmates, 1995 Uhura has several variations of her character. The one above is from the Classic Movie Series, from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I liked it because she wasn't wearing that stupid impractical miniskirt. |
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| Valkyrie – played by Tessa Thompson: Thor: Ragnarok Hasbro, 2017 This figure came in a two-pack with the short-haired Thor from Ragnarok. He's out of the frame here, but Tessa is dragging Chris in sparkly net I made from sacrificed fishnet tights. Worth it. |
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| Wanda II (Simmons): The Art of Spawn McFarlane, 2005 This is a non-articulated figure, but it's so pretty I couldn't resist. If you plan to get this one for yourself, something to be aware of: the candlesticks are a fairly soft plastic, and warp easily. Mine arrived looking half-melted. I might be able to use a hair dryer to straighten them, but I haven't tried. |
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| Zoë Washburne – played by Gina Torres: Firefly Funko, 2014 A good likeness of the actor. The Funko figures are sometimes hit and miss with their joints and swivels. This one was a bit of a miss for me. Her thigh swivels are kind of obnoxious, and her head barely moves because of the hair. |
I have one dude displayed who's black. I don't typically display male figures, even if they come with the female ones, but Ty and Tandy are kinda literally codependent. They need each other, so they're displayed together.
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| Cloak: Cloak and Dagger box set Toy Biz, 1997 This was a collector's set that came out way before the tv show. This pair has been in another 2-pack, and separately as 6-inch and 3 3/4-inch figures. |
If you love diverse media, support it. If you want to see diverse characters, demand them from the studios that create them. Hollywood saw, clearly, that a black superhero movie could succeed, beyond their dreams of avarice. Black Panther shattered records, and good for them! Let's see more of that, please!
For another resource, totally dedicated to this kind of thing exclusively, visit: Black Action Figures.
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