World Famous Comics: The DC Comics Action Figure Archive
The DC Comics Action Figure Archive
By: Scott Beatty Publisher: Chronicle Books Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Chronicle Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 208 Publication Date: January 20, 2008
Amazon.com: Amazon Best of the Month, January 2008: Looking for a one-stop tome chronicling every DC figure ever produced? In The DC Comics Action Figure Archive, 1,400 characters line the pages in 600 full-color photos with every release date, variant, and accessory included. Batman alone takes up 25 pages with Superman commanding 11 (and one tiny corner for Beppo the Supermonkey). You can pore through every page in A-to-Z fashion (Ace the Bat-Hound to Zauriel) or flip randomly throughout to land on welcome surprises like a pistol-packing Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy (DC Comics' only zombie action figure), Spider Jerusalem (whose accessories include a two-headed cat), and a red-and-black jump-suit clad fellow known as Elongated Man. The book serves as the ultimate wish list for fanboys while doubling as a rock-'em-sock-'em pop-culture-packed coffee table book. Shazam!--Brad Thomas Parsons
Product Description: For the legions that collect the immensely popular DC Comics action figures, we have good news: the official visual compendium of more than 1,400 characters has finally arrived. The DC Comics Action Figure Archive is the definitive reference for the serious enthusiast. Assembled by lead collector Scott Beatty and the experts at DC Comics, this sturdy hardcover features more than 600 full-color photographs and an easily navigable A-to-Z structure. Here, too, are previously impossible-to-find release dates, variants and "redecoes," as well as detailed information on action figure scales and articulation points. From Ace the Bat-Hound to Zauriel, with lots of Batman and Superman in-between, this collector's must-have guide doesn't miss a beat.
Beautiful action figure book Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1Z1QHAFVEUXZG This is a brief video that shows you a little bit about this cool book.
Too Many Batmen I'm not sure why I bought this - impulse I guess (darn your targeted marketing Amazon!) Do you really want to know how many stupid versions of Batman Kenner made? Some of the pages include information about the DC Universe, which is nice, but I think if it were a true archive, it would have images of the 300+ Batman toys made. If you are sometimes obsessive, don't look through the book! You'll see that many of the toys were sold exclusively to Target or marketed exclusively in other countries. If you can collect them all - invite us over to see! (And explain how you display them.)
Not Bad, Could Have Been Better This is a great book to casually leaf through but not entirely thorough. As far as I could tell the author has at least listed every DC figure made, but I personally would have liked pictures of every item. I know that sometimes may not be possible, but a book like this is likely to be used as a reference guide and photos of every item would have been more useful. Still, I liked it and if you collect this sort of figures you will enjoy this book.
NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING AN ARCHIVE ! Being born in the early 1960s,I have had lots of DC action figures growing up,this book does not come close to having all the DC action figures.Most of the figures covered in this book are from at best early 1990's.I'm definately thinking about sending this book back.If I could,I would have giving this book a negative 5 stars because of its title.Buy MEGO 8" SUPER-HEROES:WORLD'S GREATEST TOYS! this book brings back good memories.
Avoid this book - This DC Comics Action Figure Archive is the first purchase I have ever returned for a refund I have never written a negative review like this before, but I felt the need to because this book is just plain terrible. When my pre-ordered copy was finally delivered by Amazon last week I was thrilled to open it. What I saw bled all that joy away - terrible layouts of empty space with intermittant pages of jumbled images, no packaging listings, no detail about the line or the creation thereof, and incomplete and/or damaged loose figures shown as examples. Five minutes later I was thoroughly disappointed, and decided put it down and to sleep on it before picking it up again.
The next day's reading was even worse. The layout problems were visually uninteresting, but the research of this book and content thereof are absolutely lacking. The only packaged items in this book are not to be found between the covers, but rather hidden on them - if you remove the slipcover the front and back hardcovers show the only packaged items this book offers. Of the figures that are listed only a third of them offer images of any kind. Of the images offered the vast majority are either Batman or Superman figures, figures made after 1994, or both. With the images that are there, even for a single character like Batman, the images are often not to scale, and therefore do not offer a scale /size comparison that to me seemed like a virtual "gimme" in a book of this kind. The vast majority of the figures shown are shown in images are from one toy line - DC Direct. While this is a fine line that I own many of, there are dozens of lines that are ignored either in large part or entirely while it retains an undue focus on modern toy lines. Additionally, many of the figures shown have either incorrect accessories and body parts or both. This is hardly archival.
There is not a single figure listed before Captain Action (by IDEAL, not Mego! For goodness sake, you have a packaged example of the line on your front cover piece! How can you make this mistake?) and many lines are that come afterward are omitted either by choice or by ignorance. There is only a small block of text for each "listing", which gives only the manufacturer, the toy line, and the date of initial sale. While this information can be found on even the most rudimentary fan website some of the listings that are written here are either apocryphal (or at least wildly inaccurate). Some are listed as being produced for a different line or by a different manufacturer, and some that are overlooked in their entirety. These listing errors occur from the more obscure lines of the 1960's all the way to toys created in 2007 (The errors of the Justice League Unlimited line really frustrated me - all of the correct information can be found with a few clicks on the manufacturer's website).
To sum up: this book is visually uninteresting, poorly researched, heavily weighted towards Batman, Superman, and the DC Direct toy line, the listings are often inaccurate and/or incomplete, and images that are there are not satisfying. This book is in no way archival, unless the author chose to archive his personal collection (which would explain the undo weighting of the selected images offered herein). Save yourself the time and hassle of returning this book (as I have) and simply do not buy it in the first place.
Try instead Mego 8" Super-Heroes: World's Greatest Toys! by Benjamin Holcomb if you would like a great book on Super Hero Action Figures.
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