Why do we like 1:18?

[AJWW2]

Hey guys,

I thought everyone could post there thoughts on why we like 1:18 so much. Why do we prefer it over say, 1:32 or 1:6? I personally love it because it is right between 1:32 and 1:6. 1:6 is too expensive and 1:32 don't have points of articulation. Plus, 1:32 doesn't have many accessories. 1:18 is also highly customizable. So, finally, why do we like 1:18 over anything else?

 

[Wild weasel]

For me, I like 1/18 because the stuff has great detail yet isn't(wasn't) crazy expensive or excessively large. I build models, but with aftermarket stuff its easy to spend $300 on an 8 inch tank, whereas with 1/18 you know what you are getting into.

 

[PROVOST]

I grew up with Star Wars figures so that scale is what I have known for a long time.

Also whilst 1/6th stuff is really impressive,it's also way too expensive.

1:18th is a nice scale too IMHO.

 

[K-Tiger]

G.I. Joe.

 

[snakeling]

Star Wars brought the scale, Joe gave us the articulation. 1:18th is a good middle gound, not to big not to small.

 

[NSA]

Yeah it's the sweet spot between 1:32 and 1:6. You get the cool vehicles of 1:32, but the figure details of 1:6.

And it used to not break the bank.. though that is slowly changing..

 

[G.I.*EDDIE]

its the scale i grew up with, that simple...Super Friends, Star Wars, G.I.JOE, Crystar and others i'm sure...

now we have great figures in Joe, Marvel, SW, Bbi, etc etc

 

[Monkeywrench]

like others have said. It's what I grew up with. GI JOE was my first real toy I remember getting that I played with for more then 5 minutes

 

[Fled74]

like others have said. It's what I grew up with. GI JOE was my first real toy I remember getting that I played with for more then 5 minutes

Same.

 

[Beeavision]

Though I might of grown up playing with GI JOE's as a kid the main reason I collect this scale has more to do with its similarities with RC. The large scales used in RC aircraft is quite impressive but will set you back by a few grand. Not to mention the time and patience needed to build one from a kit. And the thought of flying one well.... lets just say I wasn't up for seeing my investment become ground meat. My very first knowledge of this scale came to me through ebay a few years back when looking for something totally unrelated when I suddenly stumbled upon a 1/6 scale AH-6 Little Bird up for auction. The price was right and so I went ahead and bought it. Or at least that's what the voices in my head told me to do at the time. Once it arrived I was imedately addicted from that point on. The purchase of the F-18 Hornet followed soon after. lol

 

[Beeavision]

Plus I needed something worth collecting to fill the large void in my man cave and well it certainly didn't take long to do the trick.

 

[lancelot]

GI Joe for starters, but I've also some to realize that 1/18 is the best scale for detailed pose-able figures and vehicles all in one scale. 1/32 figures aren't too great in articulation, and 1/6 scale vehicles are often take up too much space.

 

[loadedtomcat]

I like it because I like militaria, I'm fascinated with scale anything, and they're Joe sized.

 

[Oliverbox]

G.I. Joe.

This was it for me as well.
G.I. Joe pretty much sums up 50% of my playtime as a child.
If I wasn't inside, I was outside and we all had camo and toy guns and we were the Joes. We played sports - mostly pick-up games and backyard stuff, nothing really organized until I got to high school - and every now and then we'd get some toys like Batman or something... but in the end it was always back to G.I. Joe. I watched the cartoon everyday... I saw the reruns so often that I had nearly every line from every episode memorized.

For good or for ill, G.I. Joe shaped the way I see the world. It was a huge factor in my decision to do ROTC in college and join the Army, and it had a huge impact on my ideas of foreign policy, and even morality and fair play.

If the Joes had been any other scale, I would probably love that scale instead.

 

[Wild weasel]

This was it for me as well.
G.I. Joe pretty much sums up 50% of my playtime as a child.
If I wasn't inside, I was outside and we all had camo and toy guns and we were the Joes. We played sports - mostly pick-up games and backyard stuff, nothing really organized until I got to high school - and every now and then we'd get some toys like Batman or something... but in the end it was always back to G.I. Joe. I watched the cartoon everyday... I saw the reruns so often that I had nearly every line from every episode memorized.

For good or for ill, G.I. Joe shaped the way I see the world. It was a huge factor in my decision to do ROTC in college and join the Army, and it had a huge impact on my ideas of foreign policy, and even morality and fair play.

If the Joes had been any other scale, I would probably love that scale instead.

sounds like me, just I never had the oppertunity to see the reruns on TV until the hub started playing them

 

[Mandingo Rex]

Prior to the 25th Joe line, I would say that the pinnacle of action figures were the 1:18 ARAH Joes. It took the larger scale of the Marvel Legends to finally de-throne ARAH Joes as the best articulated figures, but they were nearly double the size!

Then the 25th series came along and shrank down the Legends line's articulation into the 4" world, retaining roughly 80% of the articulation at a much smaller scale. Sculpting has also improved ten-fold within the last 4 years.

I think now that POC has added the wrist joint, about all that is needed is a little better hip articulation, double elbows and a neck that can look up more realistically, and there can't be much more room for them to improve on articulation. They're pretty close as it is.

I've always loved the 1:18 scale because it's the best balance of detail and articulation while saving space.

 

[Rick]

For me it's about being able to tell a story in the form of a dio or series of.

The scale allows for great detail on a sizable piece whether it's a figure, vehicle or prop.

The articulation is the clincher though. It allows you to give personality to a figure and the scenarios become endless with endless poses and positions.

 

[SR_501]

G.I. Joe mostly, I do collect WWII stuff when I can find it with out selling my left nut.

 

[loadedtomcat]

I'll tell you what else I dig, the people. I think it has something to do with our interest in the hobby stemming from ARAH and being more or less in the same age range. Easily the best place to shoot the shit with people with similar interests; I chuck it up to mostly being children of the 80's. I'm a dude with multiple interests and hobbies but 1:18 collecting definitely has the best crowd.

I'm also into the 12" original style Joe and frequent the prominent board on the hobby. Most members are baby-boomers who for the most part seem to brush off ARAH and seem to have a near seething rejection on the cannon and storyline aspect because in their day they "used their imagination." Like the fact that his name is Joseph Colton and the Bulletman was killed by a Decepticon rapes them of their childhood. I think they think we played with our toys like kids do in the toy commercials, scripted almost. I get the sense that anything after Super Joe doesn't count and ARAH is GI Joe's equivalent to the prequel trilogy. I'm not sure they quite get how elitist they come off sometimes.

Pisses me off since its pretty much the only good board out there but I really don't fit in. It's like hanging out with my dad's friends over there. Old, exclusively tight knit, family-friendly hokey, and the only two mods are a husband and wife monopoly team. Hell, I'd probably lose my account just for posting this HERE.

1:18 scale gives me something durable of a reasonable size. I loved the fact that you could fit a Joe in your pocket and what BBi, 21C, and JSI have put out. It all brings back great memories, but realistically a 26 year old military officer with a wife should be spending his money on "better things." What keeps me coming back is the fact that there's a board where I can shoot the shit without any bullshit with you classy mother fuckers.

 

[Bravestarr]

I just finished hanging my Admiral "Jolly Roger" F-86 and 21st CT "Chinese Tiger Stripe" MIG 15.

The size of these birds serves as a reminder of how we can literally transform a bedroom (or in my case, the laundry room) into a miniature version of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum once we hang them up at the right angles and in decent numbers.

 

[Wild weasel]

And I also think the #1 reason why ALL of us here collect is 1/18...money. If we were all trillionaires I would guess that none of us would collect other than nostalgia maybe, because we'd just buy the real stuff. Why have a 1/18 army when you could have a real one. Same thing with 1/18 diecast collectors, I'm sure if they could buy all the real cars they wanted they wouldn't be into the diecatt ones either.

 

[Fled74]

And I also think the #1 reason why ALL of us here collect is 1/18...money. If we were all trillionaires I would guess that none of us would collect other than nostalgia maybe, because we'd just buy the real stuff. Why have a 1/18 army when you could have a real one. Same thing with 1/18 diecast collectors, I'm sure if they could buy all the real cars they wanted they wouldn't be into the diecatt ones either.

Hell yeah. The one thing that drove me away from 1/6 figures was the cost. I shudder to think how much I spent on the few figures I have. $80-$170 for a single boxed figure? How many 1/18 figures could I have bought with that money?

Social acceptance is another one. I happily show off my 1/18 and Joe collection, and people appreciate it, but 12-inch figures (even military ones) are often seen as glorified Ken and Barbie dolls. Yes, that's an ignorant and unjust comparison, but that's how the general public sees them.

 

[Mandingo Rex]

^ That's how most collectors view them, too.

 

[Wild weasel]

damn, $80-$170 for Ken rockin a Hitler Uniform, isn't that politically incorrect


But yeah, I agree, the 12in. figures are never taken seriously by others, whereas put out a flagg amd people respect it. It's odd but its the way it is.

 

[Ctrl_Z]

More room for more stuff. More possibilities for playsets and vehicles.

 

[Fled74]

damn, $80-$170 for Ken rockin a Hitler Uniform, isn't that politically incorrect


But yeah, I agree, the 12in. figures are never taken seriously by others, whereas put out a flagg amd people respect it. It's odd but its the way it is.

I wonder what "serious" collectors make of this: http://www.triadtoys.com/Archive/LOLA+12+INCH+FIGURE.html

 

[klausbrazil]

By the mid of the 1990s once I bought a Burago model of the 1931 Mercedes SSKL because I found it to be nice on a shelf. Some time later I travelled on business and when I came back my little son had used it for playing and by that had turned it into scrap. I bought another one, then a 1959 Chevrolet Eldorado Biarriz at that scale and it did not last long until about 20 cars models were my own. By that time I had made it clear to my son not to use them as toys. Now I thought that only cars on the shelf were boring and started looking for figures until I found some cheap Jurassic Park figures which I customized. After that the idea that people need housing crossed my mind and I started to make some buildings. Years later I found GI Joe vehicles on a kind of flee market. And so it went on and on. By the time I thought that scale 1:18 needs a lot of space I had already too big a collection to change scale. Today I have 295 die cast car models, about 200 very diverse vehicle models made of plastic, lots of animals from Dinos through modern farm cattle and - last but not least - approximately 2,800 figures (humans and all kind of ETs). And a wife who thinks I am hoarding toys and in fact never really grewed up.
That's my 1:18 history.

 

[snakeling]

Cadillac made the El Dorado Biarritz. But then its all GM.