Do female action figures really not sell?

P

PuckDat Make It Seven!

New member
You know, whenever I hear about a company not making action figures for the female characters of a show, I always hear the same thing, female action figures don't sell. But, it this really true? I remember when I was a kid, everyone wanted an April O'Neil action figure because she was so hard to find. Honestly, I've never actually seen any sales data that shows that boys don't buy female action figures. It's true that boys won't buy female action figures if they're just token female characters added to a show to increase female viewers, but if a female character is a good character and boys like the character why would they not want that characters figure? And if a kid wants to collect the whole cast of characters, they'd want the opportunity to collect the female figures too. So, what's the deal? Will we ever see female Naruto, Avatar, and One Piece toys?
 
Didn't they give Elisa Maza some crappy mecha armor in the Gargoyles toyline?

I remember seeing it in a commercial and thinking how cheap that was.
 
I never remembered caring when I was a kid. They just didn't have any females worth making into action figures when I was younger. Ooo! Though I did have a Ripley action figure to go with my matching Aliens toy. She even had a "flamethrower." Now there was some coolness right there. :cool:



Yeah, but on a side note, they also had a Demona action figure.
Anyways, here's a link to someone with a decent list of female action figures, with pictures.
 
When I was little I did prefer getting a male action figure, I don't recall ever wanting april yet I had more than a few dozen Raphaels...
So I guess its true somewhat.


There were some exceptions though, I always wanted a Rita Repulsa figure but instead I had to use a Mc Donalds happy meal Barbie as my Rita :o :yawn:

I also had Ellis(?) from Jurassic Park to have the female and to have a complete cast.
 
From what I can remember from being a kid, most boys just don't go for them, and that's who the toy lines are aimed at. And I think boys can't shake the subtle feeling playing with girl action figures brings on, that maybe action figures are "dolls" after all. And most of us are told not to play with dolls.

When I was a kid I remember trying to collect all of the Power Lords action figures. I really liked them, especially Drrench, since he had a dual function as a squirt gun and because his file card said he once froze the main bad guys wings.

http://www.virtualtoychest.com/powerlords/powerlords.html

It got to the point where we had all of the ones they had at K-Mart, except for the "girl." My mom was mystified why I wouldn't take it, even when she offered to buy it for me.

I also remember being impressed once to look through another kid's toybox and see that he had a Teela, from He-Man. Most kids didn't. When you're eight and the choice is between a girl doll and a guy with a metal jaw or real fur, it's a pretty easy choice. I could be wrong because this happened more than 20 years ago, but I think Teela came with a minicomic, so I was glad that he had her because that was the only way I got to read it.
 
It's really annoying, because female Power Rangers are really shortpacked, so sometimes you can see them once and never see them again. I NEVER saw the talking Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger.
 
Hmmm...well honestly, I never felt weird playing with the girl figures. I would certainly never refuse the chance to get an action figure for a show I liked as a kid. I mean, it's not like they had brushable hair or any other doll-like features. Though, you make a point about most girl figures in the 80s not being able to compare with the guys. Most guys would rather have a guy with a metal jaw than Tila. But, I think most kids would rather have an action figure of Toph than Sokka. I mean, Sokka sucks. I actually read a post on the tv.com forums where a mother wrote about how her son wanted a Toph figure since that was his favorite character, but they didn't have any so she had to dress up some other doll to look like Toph.
 
Way, way back in the old days we had a female GI Joe or two, Teela from He-Man, and April O'Neil from TMNT in the house. Never seemed weird or akward, me and my brother liked playing out things as they were on TV. Without them it wasn't "complete." But hey, maybe we kids of the 80's were an exception to the rule.
 
I have the Demona toy with me still, but for the most part I hardly have female toys. I think female action figures are for the Tom Boys. I never really liked dolls, but the only girly toys I got were cartoons like Sailor Moon action figures. Even when they do have female action figures they look really crappy. The Sailor Jupiter doll I got is so poorly made they hardly look like women let along accurate to the characters apperance.

I havn't gotten any action figures recently, but I'd say that if they were to make female action figures it'd have to be of a character I like, otherwise I don't get it.

I got a question though: would you say that those little figures that make of Anime girls in japan are like action figures? Like if they have the Sailor Moon girls and the girls from Dark Stalkers, so they are of action characters, evenough they don't really move around much and do action like stuff. It seems that those figures are more like a fetish collection rather then acaul play time stuff.
 
Power Lords didn't have a show. It had a comic book, which I didn't know about, and a fan club that I tried to join only to find out it had been discontinued. I was very disappointed. It is, seriously, the only fan club I've ever tried to join.
 
I got a Wonder Woman figure for Christmas one year along with a bunch of other DC Super Heroes characters. I also got April O'Neil and Janine from Ghostbusters to "complete the cast". It never seemed weird or out of place to me.
 
It was never "weird" or anything to me when I was little. I had action figures for Janine, Scarlett, Lady-Jaye and Baroness, April O'Neil, Teela and She-Ra, Ripley from the Aliens line, Ellie from Jurassic Park, and Amy from The A-Team. Being girls didn't mean I didn't want them. They were part of a show I liked, so that's why I wanted them.
 
What do all three licencees have in common? They're all MATTEL toys. And they've always had a bee in their bonnets about making female character action figures. Except for Justice Leage, I have never seen them make any girl figures. I was kinda ticked they never made (in their 2 line ups) a Mira figure from Buzz Lightyear. She finished off the crew, after all.

And as for One Piece toys? Well, if another toy company picks them up after the Funimation Dub catches on, yes. Maybe then we'll see Nami and Robin. But they didn't sell a single one of their overpriced pathetic excuses of plastic they call "Action Figures" and dumped the line.
 
My favorite characters on shows usually tend to be the girls (or sometimes the wives and mothers, if applicable), so I've never had a problem with purchasing female action figures. If it's a show I like with characters I like, then I want to buy them, regardless of gender.

In fact, what ticks me off is when toy companies deliberately don't make figures of the girls, regardless of how prominent or popular they are. I was cheesed off when the Captain Simian and Space Monkeys figure line featured no Shao Lin, and so I never purchased a single figure in that line. Same deal when the Bucky O'Hare line contained no Jenny, the Aldebaran Cat (my favorite crew member).

On a side-note: I'm REALLY surprised that the Avatar figure line has no Katara. I know she has legions of fans.
 
If they're 'detailed' enough and you're a guy, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't sell. I need something new to hang on my wall next to my Harley Quinn action figure (mint in box).
 
There are very few characters I look for as action figures. Every store I search have only males. Never a Ryoko, Aelta, Yumi, Raven or Starfire. However, there are male characters in the bargain bin.

I believe that there are an equal number of characters bought by the stores at any one time. The girl characters sell out first, and until the rest are sold, the store doesn't buy more. It's a fallacy of supply
 
I remember back when I was like 6 or so that the female figures were much harder to find. My mom hunted a few weeks for me an April ONeal. I usually had a hard time finding female GIJoes also. I doubt there were many of them in the case at shipment though.
Also I remember being mad because it took forever for them to make figures of the female characters off X-men the animated series.
 
I work at Target, and at times around the Toys section and have actually seen a few female action figures. There is actually a Dawn action figure for Pokemon (with Bunnery) to go with the figures for Ash and Brock with they're pokemon (though it is kind of sexist since there's only one Dawn figure and there's two for Ash and Brock). There was also a Gwen figure for Ben 10, and even some Zantanna, Supergirl and Wonderman figures with the Justice League Unlimited toys. Someone was even asking for an April O Niel action figure for the TMNT movie figures that they didn't have. Obviously though female action figures don't sell as much though since the executive mindset seems to think really only boys will want action figures for the most part, while girls will want dolls. And to be fair, High School Musical and Hannah Montanna dolls sell just as well/if not more then most of the Transformers or Star Wars action figures at my store. So while not a complete oddity it isn't likley you'll find many action figures of female characters around, which is kind of a shame really. Espically for stuff like Avatar where having the whole team instead of just having Aang and Sokka fight Zuko is sort of lame.
 
Back
Top