As I've mentioned in other recent posts (sorry for the repetition), I'm just getting back into customizing after nearly 20 years. In an earlier post I marveled at what is available to customizers today that wasn't available when I was last active in the community. (Examples: better materials and articulation standards; high-quality boutique manufacturers; a huge library of basically compatible parts.) Since then, I've seen some of the areas where things are maybe not so good as they maybe were a few years back. (Examples: fodder is plentiful but priced high; many custom casters failed to meet demand and folded or went on indefinite hiatus; a general favoring in the marketplace of 1:12 over 1:18.)

So, I'm curious: what would you say is the state of the hobby circa April 2022? Has there never been a better time to be working in this scale as a customizer? Do you long for some long-passed golden age? To what degree have pandemic-era manufacturing and distribution issues disrupted the customizing community? Are we feeling optimistic for the future or dreading what's ahead?

Usually i would avoid a topic like this because, frankly, as much as i will always love , appreciate and financially support some aspects of the GI Joe I.P. (namely comics) i'd lost hope in GI Joe and in turn 1:18. Joe was the only 1/18th property that I had any emotional attachment to and thus *was* 1:18th to me. Lanard flirted with reigniting my 4'' scale customizing interest with their Corps Elite line but its absence from stores for years now has virtually killed any interest i had. The rest of the market i found mostly boring, repetitive, lacking in value (overpriced), lacking long term vision, unimaginative, difficult to obtain and flat out unappealing.

I'd moved on to other smaller world building friendly scales and didn't expect to return.

And then a 5 POA 1/18 line named Final Faction showed up being sold at $1 per figure. Sure...as someone that's been spoiled by ARAH level or better articulation 5 POA wouldn't cut it but......

the line boasts diverse *accessory packs* with both classic arms and sci fi influenced offerings and battle suits. The last time i recall seeing that type of product was at Walgreens over 30 years ago (ARAH accessory packs). The line boasts sci fi creatures and spring loaded mobile weapons platforms. The line boasts easily obtainable fodder figures that you can find locally. At $1.25 each.

So has there ever been a better time to be a 1/18th customizer? Yes....but not for *years* with regard to "new" product unless you consider over paying for figures a positive. And i realize some are comfortable with that but i'm not. I have no problem spending $80K on a specific personal vehicle, $40K on home renovations or $500+ on a 3d printer. I have a problem paying $35+ for one 4'' figure you can only obtain online (pre scalpers) or the 25th version of some 30yr old character for $20+ at walmart. I find it absolutely disrespectful as a customer and a creative person.

Final Faction really has breathed some new life into the 4'' scale for me. I'm actually buying non 3d printer related customizing supplies again. My dremel is getting used on 1/18 product again. Do I long for some long-passed golden age? Not any more. Am I feeling optimistic for the future of the scale? YES. I saw a picture of Final Faction crawlers (alien bug like creatures) along side an ARAH Battle Force 2000 Dodger figure recently and thought "We've been asking for something like this from Hasbro for decades now and a dollar tree toy line gave it to us." .

With regard to the degree pandemic-era manufacturing and distribution issues have disrupted the customizing community....well the only 18th line that i'd considered buying into outside of Joe was never available locally. The blame has been placed squarely on "the pandemic". That literally stopped me from consistently customizing in the 1/18th scale with off the shelf fodder for the last 2 years minimum.

However Dollar Trees Final Faction line has still showed up in stores despite the shipping issues other companies have had. Make of that what you will.

Honorable mention to Walmarts Adventure Force / Wheels line. For a non military 1:18th line it really did boast a fair amount of custom fodder if one were into that type of theme. Camping equipment. Land vehicles. Boats. Wildlife. Solid offerings.

I've seen those Final Faction toys in a few posts now, and while they're not my thing, I totally get how such a line would inspire your creativity and imagination. The character designs and brand storytelling are really top notch. You can feel the passion of the creatives behind the scenes. In an age when the big toy companies have so little interest in developing new IP, it seems like a minor miracle to have a mass-produced, readily available, and reasonably priced line of figures based on an original concept.

Thanks for sharing!

i've been here a bit, but that i my extent of activity in the community. i see so few people posting customs, commenting on customs, and just discussing customizing these days it is scary. i know a lot of members belong to multiple sites so get a better picture of the state of community. i looked at 3 forums before i joined jc. i picked jc because i really enjoyed the customs i was seeing. at that time i only wanted to belong here, and decided if someone wants to see my work they can come here. i might be weird that way. i'm not on social media and fear that is what is truly killing forums. everyone on there own little forum getting likes from people for likes in return.

i suggest if you are interested in customizing into the future jump in. do it for you and you'll always be happy. i've always seen it as art and make what i make for that feeling while i'm doing it. don't get me wrong it is GREAT to get a nod or praise from someone whose work i aspire to.

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I mean major retailers and toy manufacturers would have to sell 1/18 fodder. What is showing up at mass retail are spurts of waves of Fortnite, Star Wars Vintage collection, Spinmaster's DC lines, and the occasional Halo line. The hey day is past us as more and more lines move into the collector focused 6" scale, including GI Joe.

So places like Marauder Inc and Boss Fight get the bulk of my money to help me fulfill my customizing projects. While I love what all of the 6" lines are doing. It just isn't for me.

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*tries to recall the last 1/18 figure I bought in a physical store excluding Final Faction*

I may have bought a DC 4" figure 2 years ago at full retail price. I'm in the market but there's virtually no product appealing enough to buy in addition to there not being much of it.



It really isn't my thing either. I'm surprised at how I've gravitated towards the line as I do not find 5 poa acceptable. However combining better articulated cheap fodder figures with human FF parts in addition to the unique villains ....you've got a really nice old school *customizers* line. Bivouac customizing. Dremel, drill, super glue and paint customizing. If it weren't for the donor bodies from another line I'm augmenting the human figures with I wouldn't buy the Final Faction humans though.

..please delete

I totally get that. It's why I hung out here in the early-00s and why I came back. I poke around elsewhere, to see what's happening, but JoeCustoms still feels like my community, even if feels a bit like a ghost town these days.



It's funny. I've only just started to realize what I missed out on between 2008 and 2013. Granted, I was broke as could be during those years, so it's probably for the best that my attentions were elsewhere. I'm still a little bummed I missed out on 4" hey day, though. It's crazy to think how much product was out there.



Ah, the Bivouac!

It's an interesting time.

Joecustoms has been my only real home as a customizer... Joes or not (I was doing Figurerealm for awhile and Marvelous News had a decent custom community during the Hasbro Marvel Universe days)...and objectively, its pretty quiet here. But I do see on Facebook a lot of new people coming to 1/18 customs via Marauder, Boss Fight and Dime Novel Legends. I'm seeing more what we would call kitbashing and head swaps over full customs...but that's something.

I also think customizing in general is losing something with 3D printing becoming cheaper and more prevalent. People can literally just print what they want where we used to have to figure out things and use out of the box thinking and "this is as close as can be.."

I think that might be why I'm becoming more interested in trash-bashing and terrain and dios for 1/18.

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yes 3d printing is a double edged sword! i was saying the same thing back in my jeweler days. late twenty teens there was 3d wax printers that took the old world wax carvers skills and packaged them for the technically inclined. my boss had a cad program he used to design custom pieces. send the file to be printed in wax for us to cast or eventually printed, cast in metal, and delivered to us to finish. in the near future i suspect people will put there card in a kiosk at the mall and it will print them an xyz out of metal.

why would toy parts be any different. once the technology is cheap enough there would be no need for stock on hand for say a head caster/printer. no chemicals, bubbles, molds, expired resin, or long back logs. you pay they print and ship. we are probably in that time already, but i don't know enough to say for sure.

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We are.



All of this. FB groups are fairly active and large. Also i've noticed a lot of pricey kitbashing as well as opposed to old school customizing. Which is...ok. Ultimately it's about end user enjoyment.

Regarding trashbashing and dios....

I've actually debated for some time whether to print my diorama (pretty , low labor and detailed) vs using trash cardboard and pva glue. That''s an actual debate for me right now. I think many would laugh at that but it's really a debate about physical artistic effort vs digital artistic effort and which is really going to be more gratifying.

My two cents.

I love 1/18 customizing. It’s my go to scale. I’ll dabble in other stuff but at the end of the day it always comes back to 1/18. For a little while I thought I might be “done” with buying stuff. Prices are crazy for most Joe fodder and I have never been okay with the $30-35 a piece for a figure that just another figure in a different color. Don’t get me wrong I love BFS, Marauder, DNL etc. but there are people that complain that Hasbro reused parts to make a new figure then cheer when those companies do it. It’s just… weird.

And then Final Faction came out and wow. I go hunting every Friday with my daughter hoping to find the newest releases. It’s really sparked my creativity again. Plus for the price point I’m willing to try new techniques that I didn’t want to try on more expensive stuff.

As far as forums go, I have stopped posting on all forums but this one. Every time I think I’ll try another one I poke around and it’s a lot of negativity. I do post on my FB page and Instagram. I’ll share my FB posts with an ever shrinking number of other FB groups including the JC group. I’ve noticed that even those pages are getting less and less activity on them.

I wish JC was more active. I love all the interactive parts of JC; Secret Santa, Custom Box Shipping, custom swaps, and especially the awards. Those are the things that set JC apart from other sites. They really made it feel like a community. As those things disappear or get smaller and smaller it’s heart breaking.

As for 3D printing, I have 2 printers I haven’t set up yet. I’m making a workshop in my garage to set them up and I know they are going to change everything for me. They will open new avenues that don’t exist now. It is getting cheaper to print parts then to search for fodder, and I’m okay with that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Funny timing on this, the Joe Retro stuff shows up at BBTS.
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/search?B ... m_content=

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In another thread a while back I compared old-school customizing to film photography and development in the age of digital cameras and processing software. In general, I think the best artists/craftspeople have a solid foundation in the old techniques and enough familiarity with modern technology to know when to use the best tool for the job.



This, right here. I was really excited to get back into the hobby because of all the amazing, customization-ready 1:18 stuff out there. I was happy (maybe a little too happy) to drop some cash to get a sampling of what's available. Now that I've done that, I'm trying to figure out how to affordably engage with the hobby and a certain frustration is settling in. There's so much I feel like I could do with the Retro Collection Stalker/Grunt, but even those are $15-$18 a piece. Much of what's available is twice that. Considering the amount of 1:18 scale merchandise produced in the past 15 years, I'd hoped there were be a more generous (in supply and pricing) secondary market for fodder than I've found.



Right?! I was surprised when saw I this in my inbox this morning. Just when I was hoping we might see Walmart and Hasbro Pulse discounting these to clear out the remaining stock of a dead line, BBTS comes out there with pre-sales at a higher price? Do we think they bought Walmart's remaining stock or is this new production?

besides thrift stores and clearance i find most of my fodder on ebay. either in big lots to disperse price or strait from china. some over seas sellers i haunt.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Toys-Hobbies/2 ... =topop8688
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Toys-Hobbies/2 ... ake_topper
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Toys-Hobbies/2 ... moresource
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Toys-Hobbies/2 ... sn=k11mall
https://www.ebay.com/sch/sun_asia_toys/ ... 492.l71970
there are a ton more, and some just have the same product at different prices

hasbro also has an ebay store
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Action-Figures ... o-toy-shop

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