IAmElemental - Action Figures for Girls

Now that's a terrific idea! Like the video says, most female action figures are not made for females; they're made for weird losers like us. So why should we expect the figures to appeal to girls the way they appeal to boys? This project (which, by the time we found it today, was already about 300% funded with weeks to go) aims to fix that by designing new, more realistic women.

The toys are 4" scale, and yet price out to only about $10 apiece - the same thing you'd pay for a similarly sized toy you picked up off the shelf. And judging from the video, the designs look quite cracking! Bright colors, cool armor, more articulation than Mattel dares dream about... and a social conscience that isn't overbearing or self-congratulatory? What could be better!

The only downside is that you can't pick which of the Elementals you get when ordering individual ones - so work around that by getting the full set of seven!

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11 Responses to IAmElemental - Action Figures for Girls

  1. Ronnie says:

    Nice misrepresentation, bashing action figures of women characters and deliberatley picking the skimpy dressed ones and focusing on the BOOBIES and even using a FREAKING STATUE THAT WAS ONLY RELEASED IN COMIC SHOPS to forward their 'hurr durr lookit them boobies and hips' image of a collector. If that was not the start of their video, they MIGHT have gotten some of my money. As it is, that's made me dislike them personally enough to earn a veto.

    • yo go re says:

      You know, there's no shame in admitting they're right in pointing out there's a problem with most girl figures - you don't have to stop liking the ones you have, and you don't have to stop yourself from buying future ones. But what you can't do is pretend they haven't been optimized for the male gaze.

      Alternately, if their claim is so wrong, provide counter examples. They showed five figures to support their point: Ms. Marvel, Star Sapphire, Shadowcat, Power Girl and Black Widow. In thinking about it (super briefly, I admit), I can't come up with five figures that would disprove their thesis - possibly a Princess Leia or Padme, since those are based on real people and SW fans are sticklers for detail, but other than that? Off the top of my head, I can't think of examples of female figures that don't have inflated chests...

      • Soundwinder says:

        Part of that issue is that most figures we keep track of are based off of comic book characters, so they're working from designs of characters with comically inflated chests.

        And then we've got the whole "toymakers don't want to make figures of girls" issue leading to things like us never getting a Katara or Toph, which would've had modest busts.

        • yo go re says:

          Exactly: their point isn't "boobs are bad," just that the toys that DO get made are skewed a certain direction.

          And now I'm mad at Mattel all over again about the Avatar toys, so thanks for that, ya big jerky jerk-head!

      • Ronnie says:

        Chell, Arcee, Chromia (honestly any female Transformer), Any of the female Megaforce from Bandai/Figuarts power rangers, Mary Marvel, any woman in the Star Wars lines as your admitted. Also, three of those five are collector market, not retail and the statue is also deceptive because it's a statue for adult collectors only, not an action figure.

        They have earned some goodwill by actually admitting they were not intentionally going this direction [in a message to me in response to a similar callout] and I am probably going to grab one or two.

  2. yo go re says:

    The colors kind of remind me of some of the Four Horsemen's Outer Space Lords or whatever those are called - all the silver and bright oranges...

  3. Nightboomfer says:

    I may pick up 3 complete sets... 1 to play with, one to customize. Maybe another one for my Goddaughter.

  4. monkey boy says:

    I applaud their efforts, and while they're largely right, I think the actual designs they came up with are a tad basic. But best of luck to them.

  5. Flint Paper says:

    I just wish we could get some good female figures in the six-inch scale ... from anywhere, honestly, since Hasbro and Mattel don't seem to be interested. Or, at least, on the occasions they do deliver, they don't ship them. I would love to support this, but I can't do anything with the four-inch scale.

    • Flint Paper says:

      Okay, never mind; I just finished going through the site and the mention in the FAQ about how they want to expand into six-inch and update the articulation just got them a pledge from me.

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