Photo Challenge - Figure Scales
View spoilerNot sure if someone actually ever compiled all the data, but just a quick look through the search function (just my observations, take with a grain of salt):
browse.v4.php?c... 2005 had 47 prepainted figures in 1/6 scale, this might seem like a low amount, but back then in general way less figures were produced than nowadays. The franchises covered range from general audience to ecchi (where you could debate that ecchi stuff like Onegai Teacher, Pia Carrot etc. was still for general audiences as it was anime shown on regular TV).
browse.v4.php?c... 2006, now there is a boom to 145 figures in 1/6 scale. Lots of them from shows that were popular in this year: Mai HiME/Otome, Haruhi Suzumiya, Aria, Fate series, Dead or alive etc. I see a couple of actual 18+ figures in there.
2007 browse.v4.php?c... and 2008 browse.v4.php?c... wield similar results, where you could say that starting 2009 browse.v4.php?c... a loooot more of the figures are now ecchi (with at least a bra castoff or removable skirt) and more actual 18+ is coming in.
And then for 2010 browse.v4.php?c... and up, the majority starts to become 18+.
Again, disclaimer, just some quick observations. But if you or someone else is interested you could do actual counting of figures being all ages, ecchi and 18+ within this 1/6 category group. :)
Now when it comes to what you look up and sample size, I would say that for me, back from 2007-2012-ish were my busiest collecting years, where I also regularly bought figures a couple years old. I was/am also still mostly into shows from this era so I guess I just see them more.
I also should mention that sometimes manufacturers or releases in general are just way off, even back then. Take a look at this for example: PICTURE #3381976 . That HUGE Ink ITEM #3835 listed 1/7 scale at the front, who is KNEELING about the same height as my 1/8's and then behind her this supposed 1/6 ITEM #57566 who is definitely more like my 1/8's crouching down. Considering the small stature of the character her supposed 1/7 is definitely more like 1/6. And her joke of an officially listed 1/6 is just a 1/8... So yeah even if you would compile data you always have cases like this where figures turned out way smaller or bigger than expected and the actual manufacturer/database info is incorrect.
As for what changed 1/6's going more the NSFW/ecchi way:
- I would expect costs being a big factor. The hobby was getting more popular and people were buying more. To let people have more space and money left to cram more figures on a display: Going smaller made sense? Cheaper figures = selling more figures in a lot of situations.
- There was quite a big mainstream ecchi boom around the era we're talking about, with shows like Queen's Blade, Ikki Tousen etc. getting super popular and also a huge wave of NSFW Visual Novels getting SFW anime TV versions (with sometimes a bit of ecchi, depending on which show). Maybe not even specific for the 1/6 scale, but I feel like more figures going in the cast-off/ecchi direction became more common. Not sure if anyone ever did numbers though of releases each year of SFW vs ecchi vs hentai figures. I would imagine that in the 2005-2010 era the increase in ecchi was huge (and then hentai/18+ figures are just 1 step away from that). Figure quality also went up by a lot so cast offs and the like became available to mass produce easier.
About the bunnies making 1/4 more popular: Definitely. In the beginning of Freeing Bunnies they would also make a huge amount of the cast members as a set. Enticing people to get the whole group. Haruhi had 7 of their cast members as 1/4's and Lucky Star 8! That means you go quite into side-character and completionist territory for the people buying the ones further down the line. I haven't seen such huge sets in a long time for 1/4's, I feel like most franchises get their 1-2 main girls, some going to main 4. But 7 or 8?? But yeah I think Freeing found out that making other franchises their girls in the same scale, could mean they all look fitting as sets, making it again something that becomes easy to collect a lot of, as they display so nicely together even if you have characters from opposite types of franchises standing as 1/4 bunnies next to eachother. I do remember some other brands trying to get into 1/4, but I think they failed on 'collectability' like Freeing did.
Wooooo, wall of text haha.This is an amazing post! You honestly could have turned this into an article. I want to try to address all of your points so this might turn into an equally long wall of text lol.
The list of 1/6 scale in 2005 contains some very nice figures. This Misato one in particular is very cool: ITEM #3760 And to your point, they are character figures from shows, not nsfw stuff. I'd imagine if it was made today, that Misato would be 1/7.
The 2006 list is even better lol. Fate, Ninja Gaiden, DOA, a lot of good stuff. I added an additional search criteria to the list to show only cast off figures from that year (browse.v4.php?c...) and there are 19. There are actually some OC cast offs listed here, but a lot of them are characters from official sources. A lot of these castoffs are fairly tame by todays standards.
One thing that's interesting about looking at figures from this range (2005-2008 or so) is the huge variability in figure quality. I feel like now a lot of figures look sort of the same, but if you look at figures from these years, some look WAY better than others lol. Also, speaking of ecchi stuff, check out this Saber from 2007: ITEM #103 It's funny to see stuff like this, because of how the image of fate has changed. It seems like a lot of people don't know it's true origin. There is also an 18+ Saber here and there...
Interesting about 2009, I see your point. I've clicked on 3 figures at random, and all 3 of them have been 18+ figures lol! The figure quality has noticeably gone up too, there are some very nice figures in here. We're also seeing some popular names show up here, Yami from TLR, Holo, Yoko.. etc. I think that despite there being more 18+ stuff here, there is still plenty of common character goods this year.
I haven't been clicking on every single figure, but I did click on a bunch in 2010 and I this is the first Tony figure I've stumbled across: ITEM #18775 It honestly aged pretty well! Both this figure and it's variant have comments from this month; just Tony things I guess.
So while this is by no means a scientific thing, because not all castoffs are 18+ etc, here is the breakdown for the years you've included:
Just for fun, heres the last few years:
Hmm yeah, I see your point. The scale of that 1/7 does seem off. I sort of get the impression between this and some other posts in this thread that the scales are more a general size guideline, and not necessarily indicative of the character itself, sometimes.
I'd agree with that period of time being an ecchi boom (golden age maybe?). My all time favorite manga, To Love Ru, started in 2006 for excample. I think this combined with the increased quality of figures, as you mentioned, was probably a large factor in the general increase of all figures, and accordingly the increase of more "adult" stuff. I think it's worth calling out that the percentage of 18+ figures above actually didn't change much over the years; there was just more of everything being made.
That makes sense; Freeing definitely did kind of catch lightning in a bottle with the bunnies. Another one to your list of huge franchises is To Love Ru, I think every main girl has one now, and some also have a bare legged version. All the TLR bunnies: browse.v4.php?c... Look at them all!
Thank you for such a detailed reply! It was a lot of fun to read and go through the years of each figure.
browse.v4.php?c... 2005 had 47 prepainted figures in 1/6 scale, this might seem like a low amount, but back then in general way less figures were produced than nowadays. The franchises covered range from general audience to ecchi (where you could debate that ecchi stuff like Onegai Teacher, Pia Carrot etc. was still for general audiences as it was anime shown on regular TV).
browse.v4.php?c... 2006, now there is a boom to 145 figures in 1/6 scale. Lots of them from shows that were popular in this year: Mai HiME/Otome, Haruhi Suzumiya, Aria, Fate series, Dead or alive etc. I see a couple of actual 18+ figures in there.
2007 browse.v4.php?c... and 2008 browse.v4.php?c... wield similar results, where you could say that starting 2009 browse.v4.php?c... a loooot more of the figures are now ecchi (with at least a bra castoff or removable skirt) and more actual 18+ is coming in.
And then for 2010 browse.v4.php?c... and up, the majority starts to become 18+.
Again, disclaimer, just some quick observations. But if you or someone else is interested you could do actual counting of figures being all ages, ecchi and 18+ within this 1/6 category group. :)
Now when it comes to what you look up and sample size, I would say that for me, back from 2007-2012-ish were my busiest collecting years, where I also regularly bought figures a couple years old. I was/am also still mostly into shows from this era so I guess I just see them more.
I also should mention that sometimes manufacturers or releases in general are just way off, even back then. Take a look at this for example: PICTURE #3381976 . That HUGE Ink ITEM #3835 listed 1/7 scale at the front, who is KNEELING about the same height as my 1/8's and then behind her this supposed 1/6 ITEM #57566 who is definitely more like my 1/8's crouching down. Considering the small stature of the character her supposed 1/7 is definitely more like 1/6. And her joke of an officially listed 1/6 is just a 1/8... So yeah even if you would compile data you always have cases like this where figures turned out way smaller or bigger than expected and the actual manufacturer/database info is incorrect.
As for what changed 1/6's going more the NSFW/ecchi way:
- I would expect costs being a big factor. The hobby was getting more popular and people were buying more. To let people have more space and money left to cram more figures on a display: Going smaller made sense? Cheaper figures = selling more figures in a lot of situations.
- There was quite a big mainstream ecchi boom around the era we're talking about, with shows like Queen's Blade, Ikki Tousen etc. getting super popular and also a huge wave of NSFW Visual Novels getting SFW anime TV versions (with sometimes a bit of ecchi, depending on which show). Maybe not even specific for the 1/6 scale, but I feel like more figures going in the cast-off/ecchi direction became more common. Not sure if anyone ever did numbers though of releases each year of SFW vs ecchi vs hentai figures. I would imagine that in the 2005-2010 era the increase in ecchi was huge (and then hentai/18+ figures are just 1 step away from that). Figure quality also went up by a lot so cast offs and the like became available to mass produce easier.
About the bunnies making 1/4 more popular: Definitely. In the beginning of Freeing Bunnies they would also make a huge amount of the cast members as a set. Enticing people to get the whole group. Haruhi had 7 of their cast members as 1/4's and Lucky Star 8! That means you go quite into side-character and completionist territory for the people buying the ones further down the line. I haven't seen such huge sets in a long time for 1/4's, I feel like most franchises get their 1-2 main girls, some going to main 4. But 7 or 8?? But yeah I think Freeing found out that making other franchises their girls in the same scale, could mean they all look fitting as sets, making it again something that becomes easy to collect a lot of, as they display so nicely together even if you have characters from opposite types of franchises standing as 1/4 bunnies next to eachother. I do remember some other brands trying to get into 1/4, but I think they failed on 'collectability' like Freeing did.
Wooooo, wall of text haha.This is an amazing post! You honestly could have turned this into an article. I want to try to address all of your points so this might turn into an equally long wall of text lol.
The list of 1/6 scale in 2005 contains some very nice figures. This Misato one in particular is very cool: ITEM #3760 And to your point, they are character figures from shows, not nsfw stuff. I'd imagine if it was made today, that Misato would be 1/7.
The 2006 list is even better lol. Fate, Ninja Gaiden, DOA, a lot of good stuff. I added an additional search criteria to the list to show only cast off figures from that year (browse.v4.php?c...) and there are 19. There are actually some OC cast offs listed here, but a lot of them are characters from official sources. A lot of these castoffs are fairly tame by todays standards.
One thing that's interesting about looking at figures from this range (2005-2008 or so) is the huge variability in figure quality. I feel like now a lot of figures look sort of the same, but if you look at figures from these years, some look WAY better than others lol. Also, speaking of ecchi stuff, check out this Saber from 2007: ITEM #103 It's funny to see stuff like this, because of how the image of fate has changed. It seems like a lot of people don't know it's true origin. There is also an 18+ Saber here and there...
Interesting about 2009, I see your point. I've clicked on 3 figures at random, and all 3 of them have been 18+ figures lol! The figure quality has noticeably gone up too, there are some very nice figures in here. We're also seeing some popular names show up here, Yami from TLR, Holo, Yoko.. etc. I think that despite there being more 18+ stuff here, there is still plenty of common character goods this year.
I haven't been clicking on every single figure, but I did click on a bunch in 2010 and I this is the first Tony figure I've stumbled across: ITEM #18775 It honestly aged pretty well! Both this figure and it's variant have comments from this month; just Tony things I guess.
So while this is by no means a scientific thing, because not all castoffs are 18+ etc, here is the breakdown for the years you've included:
- 2005: 47 total, 3 castoff (6%), 18 18+ (38%)
- 2006: 145 total, 19 castoff (13%), 35 18+ (24%)
- 2007: 152 total, 25 castoff (16%), 32 18+ (21%)
- 2008: 144 total, 41 castoff (28%), 27 18+ (19%)
- 2009: 131 total, 46 castoff (35%), 30 18+ (23%)
- 2010: 172 total, 44 castoff (26%), 49 18+ (28%)
Just for fun, heres the last few years:
- 2019: 193 total, 73 castoff (38%), 57 18+ (30%)
- 2020: 144 total, 59 castoff (41%), 36 18+ (25%)
- 2021: 240 total, 74 castoff (31%), 59 18+ (25%)
- 2022: 309 total, 87 castoff (28%), 75 18+ (24%)
Hmm yeah, I see your point. The scale of that 1/7 does seem off. I sort of get the impression between this and some other posts in this thread that the scales are more a general size guideline, and not necessarily indicative of the character itself, sometimes.
I'd agree with that period of time being an ecchi boom (golden age maybe?). My all time favorite manga, To Love Ru, started in 2006 for excample. I think this combined with the increased quality of figures, as you mentioned, was probably a large factor in the general increase of all figures, and accordingly the increase of more "adult" stuff. I think it's worth calling out that the percentage of 18+ figures above actually didn't change much over the years; there was just more of everything being made.
That makes sense; Freeing definitely did kind of catch lightning in a bottle with the bunnies. Another one to your list of huge franchises is To Love Ru, I think every main girl has one now, and some also have a bare legged version. All the TLR bunnies: browse.v4.php?c... Look at them all!
Thank you for such a detailed reply! It was a lot of fun to read and go through the years of each figure.
View spoilerHaha, if you feel like it, we could combine my rambling with your data for an article about this. :)
As a side-subject: in general a lot less figures were off original characters and only as the amount of collectors and available figurines grew, did more original characters come in.
A lot of cast-offs back then were definitely tame, with most of them having sculpted in panties, even when the skirt would be removable. I also remember having some old cast-offs where the top came off, but there were no nipples!
And yeah definitely, with older figures quality is all over the place. My collection still mostly exists of older figures, and with a bunch of them it definitely shows, but there are also others that can almost keep up with what is released nowadays. My most favorite face on all of my figures is a 2007 release PICTURE #255816 .
And haha definitely, especially with stuff like animecore nowadays I am like...it's probably better these people don't know that whatever they are collecting from has literal sex scenes, haha.
Thanks for doing the numbers! It definitely shows a huge increase in ecchi and 18+ in the 1/6 scale. Although the increase is maybe a bit less extreme than I had expected.
Yeah, I don't know what exactly goes on with manufacturers, but I also regularly feel like they make a figure in a size that works for them and then afterwards be like "yeah that's about 1/8". :^) There are also stories out there of figures shrinking from prototype to manufacturing phase because of the use of molds.
I have also been talking with others about how the figure collecting golden age was probably something like 2005-2010 or 2007-2012 as the quality increased hugely those years while prices were still affordable. It was also the start of figures with multiple display options and other extras. But what you mentioned it was definitely also an ecchi golden age, where there came a lot more shows on the border between tv show and hentai, or tv shows with high amounts of fanservice pushing the limits of what is allowed on TV. To Love Ru fits in there as well, I did not realize they had gotten so many bunnies! And I think in general TLR is probably the most active 2000's anime/manga still getting multiple scaled figures a year. Seeing that must be a blessing and curse for you? :)
And thank you for looking at the numbers! I was interested but did not have time to look into them all. ^^''A collaboration sounds fun! I'll reach out to you in a PM in a little bit and we can talk more about it.
About there being less original characters, I agree with that. I've been a member of this site for half as long as you but even I remember that. Back when I first started buying figures, the connection between anime and figures was MUCH more prominent than it is now. I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of newer collectors have never watched anime or read manga. As you mentioned, animecore is basically this, I think? I feel like finding a single definition of what it evem means is difficult, but as far as I can tell it means people who like the anime style but don't watch anime.
Haha! That's funny about the nipple-less castoffs; I wonder if it was a manufacturing limitation where it was too difficult to sculpt that level of detail. About them being more tame, I think there is a general "lewdness inflation" in the industry. You see it in manga/anime too. At the end of the last volume of TLR Darkness, the author and mangaka both wrote a letter to the readers. I forget which one said it, but one of them mentioned that it became difficult to keep topping themselves because of too much "sexy inflation" or something like that lmao. I think figure makers (and collectors) go through the same thing.
Oh wow, I love PICTURE #255816 ! I haven't seen it before but I like it a lot. I'm a huge fan of maid themed figures.
No problem! Yeah the increase was less extreme than I thought it would be too. But like we said, maybe it's not as much of a numbers thing, but those figures which are cast off are more lewd than they used to be. So while there might be the same % of SFW/NSFW figures, the NSFW ones are more NSFW-ish now?
I could see that. The jump in quality must have been interesting to experience firsthand, for those that did. I would almost argue that quality has peaked now; at least for me. If somebody gave me two Alter figures, one from 5 years ago and one made today, I don't know that I'd be able to know which was made earlier. Yeah, so the ecchi explosion I actually do sort of remember lol. I think this also happened at the same time that slice of life shows became hugely popular.
Ah yeah, so strangely enough I actually only own a single To Love Ru figure, and its a nendoroid! The Yami nendoroid: ITEM #78606 I think its the only TLR nendo, but she's great. I was thinking recently that I should really buy some TLR figures; ITEM #1030346 and ITEM #1605305 are both on my wishlist and I'm keeping an eye on them.
You're welcome! It's been fun to think about.
As a side-subject: in general a lot less figures were off original characters and only as the amount of collectors and available figurines grew, did more original characters come in.
A lot of cast-offs back then were definitely tame, with most of them having sculpted in panties, even when the skirt would be removable. I also remember having some old cast-offs where the top came off, but there were no nipples!
And yeah definitely, with older figures quality is all over the place. My collection still mostly exists of older figures, and with a bunch of them it definitely shows, but there are also others that can almost keep up with what is released nowadays. My most favorite face on all of my figures is a 2007 release PICTURE #255816 .
And haha definitely, especially with stuff like animecore nowadays I am like...it's probably better these people don't know that whatever they are collecting from has literal sex scenes, haha.
Thanks for doing the numbers! It definitely shows a huge increase in ecchi and 18+ in the 1/6 scale. Although the increase is maybe a bit less extreme than I had expected.
Yeah, I don't know what exactly goes on with manufacturers, but I also regularly feel like they make a figure in a size that works for them and then afterwards be like "yeah that's about 1/8". :^) There are also stories out there of figures shrinking from prototype to manufacturing phase because of the use of molds.
I have also been talking with others about how the figure collecting golden age was probably something like 2005-2010 or 2007-2012 as the quality increased hugely those years while prices were still affordable. It was also the start of figures with multiple display options and other extras. But what you mentioned it was definitely also an ecchi golden age, where there came a lot more shows on the border between tv show and hentai, or tv shows with high amounts of fanservice pushing the limits of what is allowed on TV. To Love Ru fits in there as well, I did not realize they had gotten so many bunnies! And I think in general TLR is probably the most active 2000's anime/manga still getting multiple scaled figures a year. Seeing that must be a blessing and curse for you? :)
And thank you for looking at the numbers! I was interested but did not have time to look into them all. ^^''A collaboration sounds fun! I'll reach out to you in a PM in a little bit and we can talk more about it.
About there being less original characters, I agree with that. I've been a member of this site for half as long as you but even I remember that. Back when I first started buying figures, the connection between anime and figures was MUCH more prominent than it is now. I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of newer collectors have never watched anime or read manga. As you mentioned, animecore is basically this, I think? I feel like finding a single definition of what it evem means is difficult, but as far as I can tell it means people who like the anime style but don't watch anime.
Haha! That's funny about the nipple-less castoffs; I wonder if it was a manufacturing limitation where it was too difficult to sculpt that level of detail. About them being more tame, I think there is a general "lewdness inflation" in the industry. You see it in manga/anime too. At the end of the last volume of TLR Darkness, the author and mangaka both wrote a letter to the readers. I forget which one said it, but one of them mentioned that it became difficult to keep topping themselves because of too much "sexy inflation" or something like that lmao. I think figure makers (and collectors) go through the same thing.
Oh wow, I love PICTURE #255816 ! I haven't seen it before but I like it a lot. I'm a huge fan of maid themed figures.
No problem! Yeah the increase was less extreme than I thought it would be too. But like we said, maybe it's not as much of a numbers thing, but those figures which are cast off are more lewd than they used to be. So while there might be the same % of SFW/NSFW figures, the NSFW ones are more NSFW-ish now?
I could see that. The jump in quality must have been interesting to experience firsthand, for those that did. I would almost argue that quality has peaked now; at least for me. If somebody gave me two Alter figures, one from 5 years ago and one made today, I don't know that I'd be able to know which was made earlier. Yeah, so the ecchi explosion I actually do sort of remember lol. I think this also happened at the same time that slice of life shows became hugely popular.
Ah yeah, so strangely enough I actually only own a single To Love Ru figure, and its a nendoroid! The Yami nendoroid: ITEM #78606 I think its the only TLR nendo, but she's great. I was thinking recently that I should really buy some TLR figures; ITEM #1030346 and ITEM #1605305 are both on my wishlist and I'm keeping an eye on them.
You're welcome! It's been fun to think about.
I think this image belongs here. It shows the size comparison between a 1/2.5, 1/3, and 1/7
Source: PICTURE #3546592
Image credit to: UNIQUECRYSIS
Source: PICTURE #3546592
Image credit to: UNIQUECRYSIS
A great article on the topic that I saw today: BLOG #58564
Another interesting article on the topic: BLOG #59457
Some photos from the article are shown below. The blog and all images are credit to LINKEATBANANA
All the figures below are listed as 1/12, despite varying in size
Two figures of the same character, in the same figure line, vary in size
See the original blog for additional context and more images.
Some photos from the article are shown below. The blog and all images are credit to LINKEATBANANA
All the figures below are listed as 1/12, despite varying in size
Two figures of the same character, in the same figure line, vary in size
See the original blog for additional context and more images.
