A Brief Tour Of My Action Figure Metropolis

OK, I think I've got my action figure metropolis sufficiently far along to provide more than just a single snapshot. I'm going to continue tweaking it around, but I think the general gist of it will remain. I've made some notes down below if you're interested.

This takes up a floor space in my basement a tad over 8 feet by 8 feet. There's an additional 2 feet between the back wall and where the city starts so that I can get to the circuit breaker in the corner. The skyline behind the whole thing is just a couple pieces of black matte board cut in a series of vaguely building-y shapes.

With the exception of the figures suspended from the ceiling, they are all simply balanced in place. I seem to have developed a knack for getting figures to stand on their own.

The playsets have been collected over a period of about 15 years. I recall getting the Wayne Manor set when I was interning at Kenner back in college, and the Enterprise bridge about a year later. Anything older than that was purchased via a secondary market long after the toy was discontinued. The single most expensive purchase was the Hall of Justice; it was given to me as a gift from Mom and Dad, but I'm fairly confident they paid over $100 for it.

Yes, you are seeing some licensing clashing there. That's largely the point. There are figures representing Marvel, DC, Hanna-Barbera, Bone, Firefly/Serenity, Scud, Muppets, pirates, Judge Dredd, Dr. Who, Battle of the Planets, Max Headroom, The Goon, Hellboy, Tomb Raider and probably some others I'm forgetting offhand.

Future enhancements:

• I actually wanted to make the Enterprise into a SHIELD Helicarrier. But as the only SHIELD figure I have is Nick Fury, that didn't seem to make much sense.
• I have a Ghost Rider figure as well, but I managed to snap his leg off while I was putting this together. It should be fixable; I've had to repair Blade, Baron Zemo and Green Lantern from essentially the same malady.
• Three of the four firemen's arms are actually broken at the shoulder and are currently just resting in place. I'll need to attempt to fix these, but it'll be a trickier issue than GR's leg.
• I've got several more pieces, sufficient to make a waterfront, but I've run out of room. Not sure if/when I'll be able to incorporate those at any point.

I could go on about all sorts of things relating back to this, but I'll spare you the intricacies for now. Feel free to ask questions in the comments here, though.

Related Items other media