Boys and girls all over the world have played with different types of toys throughout the course of history. For boys it was usually the typical cliché of toy cars, trucks and toy guns; while stuffed animals or a toy tea set was the staple for girls. But for the most part, kids from all four corners of the globe, at one point in their lives have played with a toy that resembles a human figure. This could be an action figure of a boy’s favorite superhero or the dream dressed doll of a girl.
I guess this fascination on toys with human forms stems from the idea that these figures are usually the visual and physical representation of the character traits we aspire to have. Having said this, I believe this is the reason why for some individuals, this passion for figurines go way past childhood and is eventually carried over to adulthood in the form of collectible figures.
And to cater to the demands of this specific market segment, the number of specialty and novelty stores has slowly risen as time passed by. But there is one particular manufacturer of scaled collectible figures that have made a name for itself worldwide due to the life-likeness of the sculptures they create. So for aficionados of collectible action figures, I’d like to introduce to you Hong Kong’s Hot Toys.
Hot Toys Limited is a Hong-Kong based production house for designing, developing and creating high-end collectible merchandise to worldwide markets. It was established in the year 2000 with an initial focus on producing 1/6 scale military figures before eventually transitioning to the production of highly detailed figures of characters in various movie and media franchises. These include characters from a number of very popular Hollywood movies such as the Predator, the Avengers as well as the Batman and Superman franchise.
Here are some examples of the store’s most popular products.
Aside from the excellent craftsmanship and creativity of the makers of these figures, Hot Toys have also incorporated their own inventions to take the level of likeness and detail of their products a notch higher. Their patented Parallel Eyeball Rolling System (PERS) which uses a set of moving Eyeball system behind the face of the figure allows for a more realistic look from each character. On the other hand their Interchangeable Faces Technique (IFT) allows the figurine’s face to be changed in order to seemingly show an emotion.
Currently, Hot Toys has only 2 stores worldwide both of which are in Hong Kong but they do ship internationally and they also have several authorized distributors in different parts of the world. If you’re interested to get a Hot Toy figure for yourself, you may visit their website for more information.
So what do you think of Hot Toys’ action figures? Do tell us by leaving a comment below.