Welcome to Buy Action Figures

When action figures first came to the shelves of nearby dime stores and toyshops, no one thought of them as collectibles. In reality, they were nothing but a child’s toy, created for amusement of the imagination with not too much heed to artistic respects. Boys would take them to the dirt, grass, concrete and street corner and engage in imaginary battle. The action figures would take a beating and be tossed aside or in the rubbish when they were no longer needed. The ones that made it out unscathed today, however, are worth a glittering penny in the world of action figure collecting, especially if you have ones that are rare, hard to find or unique. Today, action figure collecting is a serious leisure- and past-time activity, and the act itself is as much an art as the action figures collected.

The first action figure to really hit it big in toy stores was G.I. Joe. Without this six-inch more-than-man, who knows when action figure obsession would have really taken off. However, with Joe it did! G.I. Joe hit the shelves in 1964 and became so popular because they were marketed towards boys; girls had Barbie and the like. Hasbro Brothers were onto something big when they captured the minds of America’s boys. These same boys have preempted the flame from simmering today. Call it nostalgia or a piece of the past, but today’s men (and boys alike) collect action figures, like G.I. Joe “A real American hero” and can pay hefty sums to do so.

Collecting action figures today involves a careful knowledge of what you’re getting in to. You don’t have to be a CEO to afford a piece of plastic past, however. Occasionally, action figures are dug up in mom’s or grandma’s attic or basement, so no price is paid save for foraging. With online auction sites like eBay, finding action figures like G.I. Joe becomes more manageable and doable, though you’ll be bidding against others who want the same figure as you. Another way to add a part of the past to your action figure collection is to go to toy shows, fairs and flea markets. Though you won’t pay garage sale prices, you’ll probably get a better deal than challenging hundreds of others for one figurine. (By the way, garage sales are a great place to look for action figures as well.)

Action figure collecting is not limited to G.I. Joe or military offshoots. Other popular action figures—comic book, cartoon, television and fantasy based—are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, Superman (et al), Transformers, He-Man, She-Ra, The Simpsons and even Star Wars. Every single action figure holds a certain untold truth to the past of American culture and the obsessions we have with not only collecting things, but of our regard to have heroes and villains in our everyday lives.

Rudolphe Topffer is credited with creating the first comics (strips) in the later 1820s. From this grew comic books and later action figures, though these started out in their own rights, neither one because of the other exactly. Action figure collecting, then, involves today a good amount of time to research and to get to know exactly what you’re looking for. Action figures can be worth thousands of dollars or not a penny. The only thing that should matter to the collector—those with a heart to collect—is that they have a piece of something worthy to their collection.

This site was developed to give you a little history about action figures and what is involved with it and more importantly provide you with a place that you can purchase your favorite figures.

We've listed numerous Action Figures on this site that you can buy such as Living Dead Dolls and Marvel Action Figures. Star Wars and Star Trek are popular as well are the Sideshow action figures. We've also listed an assortment of other action figures in our Action Figure Shop.