I love toys. I love ripping open the package (and sometimes slicing my hand open on the sharp plastic edges because I am too eager), undoing the twist-ties that hold the figure in place, and finally breaking it free like a new butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Anyone who has been to my apartment can attest to that declaration of love. My boyfriend recently surprised me with a new Harley Quinn figure and when I opened it, we both realized we were about to embark on a long and painful journey together.
A few years back (2005, to be exact), Marvel introduced a series of figures called ‘Marvel Legends’. These weren’t ordinary action figures though; these were special. Each figure in the Marvel Legends series comes with a piece of an additional figure that is not available on its own. You assemble the figure yourself, thus making it a ‘Build A Figure,’ or ‘BAF’ in dork-speak. Figures such as Fin Fang Foom, Sentinel, Giant-Man, and others can only be found in this particular series. The cool thing about these figures, is that once assembled, they are to scale with the rest of the collection: Fin Fang Foom completely towers over the Fantastic Four, which is as it should be. He’s huge. DC Comics soon followed suit with their own version of BAF’s and offer classic figures such as Giganta and Kilowog in their various action figure collections.
