Search

Fan studies has discussed the action figure as a significant avenue of franchise and fan expression. However, there has been little discussion about the ways the action figure affects the fan once purchased and brought home. This article argues that Hasbro's Transformers toy affords the fan ways of being in the world that are unique to the physical play experience. The toy hails the fan in an immediate way, and the fan responds through haptic and auditory engagement. This article sutures theories of affect and embodiment found in fan studies to articulations of nonnormative positivism discussed by scholarship in disability studies. The article uses the methods of autoethnography and sensory ethnography to analyse the toy as a cultural and textual object. Such an analysis has broad potential to illuminate the fan's countercultural agency as they pick up and play with their toys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In what the author calls an autoethnography, he examines two aspects of his love of a favorite childhood toy: G.I. Joe. First, because the author is a contingent pacificist and this military figure--a fundamentally violent toy--played so important a role in his life, he now seeks to reconcile his aversion to (real life) violence with his enjoyment of G.I. Joe. Second, he explores how his experience as a Third Culture Kid (TCK)--born in the United States, but growing up in Africa--was affected by his enjoyment of G.I. Joe. He combines research, reflection, analysis, and narrative in an account of how his experiences with G.I. Joe may have been manifested in his creativity and how they provided a therapeutic catharsis following his exposure to actual violent conflict. Hopkins also argues for the future use of autoethnography in play studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fans of one-sixth scale action figures minimize the importance and worth of fashion and dolls in order to counter negative stereotypes that feminize fans in general, especially fans of toys resembling dolls. This apparent anti-fandom wards against further feminization due to fan practices incorporating feminized knowledge, skill and labour to clothe those toys. Previous scholarly analyses minimize or erase the multivalent roles of one-sixth scale action figures. However, this fandom uses both fashion and dolls to alter the roles of action figures, indicating that more complex interactions of fans and their supposed objects of anti-fandom are worth additional academic examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of toys by preservice art teachers to create stop-motion animation films. Topics discussed include the concept of prosumption, the creative method of appropriation, and the creative technique of recontextualization. The use of digital media to create the films, the concept of narrative disruption, and the use of parody in the creation of the films are also examined. The use of Barbie and Ken dolls, an Incredible Hulk action-figure, and a water gun in the films are also mentioned.

The action figure is a relatively recent invention, a product of the 1960s, urbanization and a gendered re-inscription of girls' dolls, making them suitable for masculine consumption and play. Yet despite the importance of the action figure in popular culture, both as a million dollar entertainment industry in their own right and as the basis for media convergence and filmic adaptation (as most recently confirmed with the box-office success of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen [2009] and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra [2009]), the action figure has rarely been analysed as a media text. This paper will engage in such an analysis, exploring the history and importance of the action figure in the broader socio-cultural context through a series of case studies of the key properties: G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe and Transformers. It will examine how narratives born of canny marketing decisions gave rise to some of the earliest examples of transmedia storytelling, how fandom supported such products well beyond their (quite literal) shelf-lives and how the cultural value of action figures has altered so that they are now desirable items for the adult collector as well as being playthings for children. In this way, I argue that the action figure is both symptomatic of modern commodity culture and indicative of the trends in media convergence. The story of toys is the story of everything ... if some bearded archeologist [sic] of the year 3000 wants to know what life was all about in the 20th century, all he has to do is dig up a toy box. James May, qtd in May (2009, 6) Someday, I'm gonna be 'xactly like you, 'til then I know just what I'll do: Barbie, beautiful Barbie, I'll make believe that I'm you. Television jingle, from debut Barbie advertisement, 1959, qtd in D'Amato (2009, 120) GI Joe, GI Joe, fighting man from head to toe! On the land, on the sea, in the air! Television jingle, from G.I. Joe advertisement, 1964, qtd in Walsh (2005, 199) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes my experiences teaching a course on Transmedia Entertainment and Storytelling at the University of Southern California, a course which sought to bridge across multiple media and methodologies, to integrate the perspectives of industry insiders, and to encourage students to apply what they learn to the challenge of 'pitching' a media franchise to a panel of creative practioners. The essay both shares the syllabus as a resource for other teachers and reflects on the challenges of teaching such cutting edge content. [Electronic Arts game designer] Neil Young talks about 'additive comprehension.' He cites the example of the director's cut of Blade Runner, where adding a small segment showing Deckard discovering an origami unicorn invited viewers to question whether Deckard might be a replicant: 'That changes your whole perception of the film, your perception of the ending ... The challenge for us, especially with the Lord of the Rings is how do we deliver that one piece of information that makes you look at the films differently?' Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an analysis on the American animated science fiction television series of the 1980s. It notes that scholars have ignored the plethora of animated media texts because an animated science fiction on television has itself been accused of being an innocent medium for children. For television scholars, most animated television programs were more than drawn half-hour commercials for video games and action figures covering the children's toy market in the 1980s.

The article discusses the public reaction to the Canadian Legends series of toys, a set of figurines based on prominent figures from Canadian history. According to the author, the toys can be seen as nationalist fetishes which demonstrate Canadians' desire for a stable and monolithic national identity . It is suggested that ironic criticism of the toys by media commentators only superficially critiques their oversimplified presentation of Canadian history while upholding the racial and gendered hierarchies that the toys leave unchallenged. Topics discussed include former Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, colonization, and the toys' creator, Andrew Nafekh, co-owner of Nafekh Technologies.

Risk-adverse producers and investors seek to capitalize on marketing by co-launching concepts through multiple media: the game, film, novel, animated movie, T-shirt, action figure, perfume, amusement park ride, and so on. In this article, I explore the relation between such media content and cross-media production. Furthermore, I critically discuss the implications for cultural theory and present a model of cross-media content transfer. The model shows what must be left behind in content–concept migrations across media, and presents the role and importance of games as a nexus in this exchange. I conclude that cross-media transfer happens relatively smoothly between forms that are alike, such as books and films, but less so between forms that have strong structural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracts are presented of articles in the Summer 2006 issue of the "Journal of Research in Childhood Education." Articles abstracted include "Educational Outcomes of Children Adopted From Eastern Europe, Now Ages 8-12," by Tirella, Chan and Miller, "Parent Socialization, Family Economic Well-Being, and Toddlers' Cognitive Development in Rural Paraguay," by Austin et al., and "Superhero Toys and Boys' Physically Active and Imaginative Play," by Parsons and Howe.

This paper is concerned with the re-imag(in)ing of the action figure in contemporary Hollywood cinema, employing The Matrix as a case study into hardwired hardbodies. I argue that the modern action body appropriates the design and capabilities of external technologies, such as the mobile phone, that have made mobility and the rapid transmission of information the definitive attributes for survival. In the separation of the digitalised new world order from its outdated past of clunky mechanics, this requires an evolution of the body to keep pace with technological innovation which has necessitated that it become remarkable and spectacular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the embodiment of the oppressive relationship between the U.S. consumer-citizen and Southeast Asia might look like, and how awareness of and experience from such a body might change the image of the U.S. military and the nation's self image as implicated in the interpretation of G. I. Joe's miniature body and the history of its development and production. G. I. Joe arrived in the social milieu of the Vietnam era before social and historical changes burst the childlike image of the fighting boys of the U.S. On the evening news, on the playgrounds, and in the backyards of the U.S., war took the shape of an episodic adventure that could be tallied in terms of body counts to determine the ultimate winner. This was the world into which Hasbro released G.I. Joe in 1964. The original doll was available in each of the four military branches: Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. When Hasbro originally produced the tweleve-inch version of G.I. Joe in 1964, no company had made a similar product. In order to prevent the doll from being copied, its face was marked with a scar. G.I. Joe fans have called his scar one of the most distinguishing wounds in history, and rightly so; not only does it serve to define the physical characteristics of the real American hero but it also embodies U.S. corporate expansion into East Asia in a face that prominently and symbolically represents the military. Imperial expansion into the East would mar the innocent visage of the U.S. soldier, the integrity of the U.S. military, and the stability of the U.S. American myth that the frontier brought ever-expanding freedom and democracy.

Discusses some of the war stories involving the U.S. Story of the U.S. invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983; Declaration of the combat operations in Iraq by U.S. President George W. Bush; Release of an action figure by Blue Box Toys; Commemoration of the visit to Richmond, Virginia by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad in April 1865.