There are few collectors' habits more boneheaded than "army building". When it comes to being looked down upon by the general populace, it's right up there with being a completionist or being a mint collector. Just like the compulsion to collect every toy in a line, or the need to keep things unopened in boxes, "normal" people just don't get how someone could need or want multiple copies of the same, exact toy.
But here I am with several dozen skeleton space warriors ready to go up against Batman.
Look down on us all you want, but consider this: it's really easy to buy something for a collector who army builds action figures.
You don't need to spend a whole lot of time searching for that one perfect toy that they don't already have. An army builder doesn't care if you give them something they already have!
Here's a quick look at some of the most recent army builder figures that have been released by toy companies. I've tried to include toys that are still available locally and not crazy expensive, but I'm bound to forget one or two things. If you have another suggestion, drop it in the comments for everyone.
So here we go...
ARTICULATED ICONS CLAN OF THE CRIMSON FURY NINJA (MSRP $39.99)
The Fwoosh is a website that I've followed since I first got back into toy collecting; that's over a decade now. A few years ago, they diversified a bit from toy news and reviews, and took a shot at their own action figure line called "The Feudal Series". Like Four Horsemen Studios' Mythic Legions, it was a series of highly articulated, finely sculpted action figures, but instead of mythology, the series was based on archetypes from feudal japan.
Their first wave of figures off their successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016 included multiple samurai and ninja characters, with a ton of unique accessories per figure. At the time, I backed the campaign in order to pick up the Solitaire (modern ninja) and the Deluxe Ninja (White) figures and kit-bash my way to a 1/12th scale Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. The majority of their Kickstarter samurai and martial artist figures are sold out, but they've since done a second, larger run of army buildable ninjas in various colors, each with enough accessories to make every member of your clan unique.
There are currently 6 different ninja clans available; the basic brown, purple, green, and grey fodder, and the two more expensive packs, the Dusk's Embrace (blue) and Crimson Fury (red). From their website, there's no real difference between the two price points, each having the same number of accessories, but the red and blue ninjas are more popular.
If you have a G.I. Joe or Marvel fanatic in your life, the red ninja is the way to go since it can stand in for either the rebel Arashikage Clan ninjas or the Hand ninjas respectively. The Arashikage is the group that trained both Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes in the G.I. Joe lore, and the Hand is just one of the many criminal organizations in the Marvel 616 universe that often come up against the X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, and a ton of other characters. You can also purchase the Arms/Hands/Wraps Pack of accessories to allow your special someone to further customize their ninja army.
G.I. JOE CLASSIFIED SERIES COBRA INFANTRY (MSRP $19.99)
At about half the price of Articulated Icons, you can also get one of the mass market G.I. Joe Classified figures. They also have a "Red Ninja" in their line up, but it's aesthetic is much more sci-fi/fantasy. Your mileage may vary, but I prefer the Fwoosh version. However, that's not to say that the G.I. Joe Classified line is not worth picking up. If your loved one hasn't gotten into it, now's the perfect time to do so. There are a lot of great figures already released, but the best one for army building is probably the Cobra Infantry figure.
Though the line has two other army-buildable Cobra soldier figures (the Cobra Trooper and Cobra Viper), both are exclusive to Target and very hard to come by. On eBay, the Trooper is going for $75 and up due to the rarity on shelves. However, the Cobra Infantry figure is essentially the same as the Trooper, but with a slightly different shade of blue, and an alternate set of accessories.
The figures in this line are just as poseable as any of the Hasbro Star Wars Black or Marvel Legends toys, and though the weapons are based on fictional Nerf guns, they work within the sci-fi world of G.I. Joe.
If your loved one has ever used the phrase, "... and knowing is half the battle." on you, then this makes a fine gift!
STAR WARS THE BLACK SERIES PHASE I CLONE TROOPER (MSRP $19.95)
Every Star Wars nut knows what a Stormtrooper looks like, and the ones that are slightly deeper into the lore know that the Clone Troopers are the army that evolved into the Empire's army. The Clone Troopers are literally clones of a man named Jango Fett who traded the right to use his DNA for a clone son of his own (whose armor recently appeared in the Mandolorian TV series). Under their armor, they all look alike, and that makes them perfect to army build!
Hasbro, in addition to having the Marvel, Transformers, and G.I. Joe licenses, also has the Star Wars IP. Their Star Wars Black Series figures are a line that I've been following for years now and they have only gotten better over time. The Phase 2 Clone Trooper is a figure from one of the more recent waves so it's relatively easy to find. Unlike some of the other variants with added paint applications to represent key Clone characters, it's not exclusive to any one store.
Unlike some of the other toys on this list, the design and accessories aren't the most flashy, but that iconic white and black armor and the familiar unwieldy rifle and blaster are still as eye-catching as ever. Get yourself a small unit of these behind a Jedi with some painted styrofoam hills in the background, and you can easily get a nice diorama going.
MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES A.I.M. TROOPER (MSRP $14.99)
MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES HYDRA TROOPER (MSRP $14.99)
MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES HELLFIRE CLUB GUARD (MSRP $14.99)
This entry is a triple-play only because they all fill a similar niche for Marvelites. If your guy or girl is a comic fan who follows S.H.I.E.L.D, they might know of M.O.D.O.K. and the scientists of A.I.M. who show up as villains in several Marvel titles. If they buy Captain America's books week-to-week, then they know of Hydra and the Red Skull's green-jeans troopers. And if you've got a Mutant sympathizer in your midst, then the Hellfire Club Guard is as familiar to them as the knee socks on Sebastian Shaw.
All three of these are budget figures were produced en masse by Hasbro Pulse's direct market customers specifically so that they could build up hordes of bad guys to provide a nice backdrop to displays of the marquee villains of the Marvel heroes, or to provide fodder for those said heroes to trounce in action toy photography. Though they are technically Hasbro Pulse exclusives, there were enough specialty stores that purchased them in bulk that the prices locally are still reasonable.
If you've got the money, there are previously released versions of the A.I.M. scientist and Hydra trooper with different colors and slightly varied sculpting and accessories, but these were inclusions regular Marvel Legends waves and are more expensive. There were also two separate 2-Packs that included the base figures packed in with a larger specialized soldier figure for each faction, but again, it was more expensive. For the hardcore collector, the options are open to making your bad guy forces more diverse, but these three Hasbro Pulse exclusives were made specifically to fill out empty backdrops. At five dollars less than the standard Marvel Universe figure, it's no wonder that there are fewer accessories, but it's still a pretty sweet deal.
POWER RANGERS LIGHTNING COLLECTION MIGHTY MORPHIN Z PUTTY (MSRP $19.99)
I'm not the biggest Power Rangers fan; the show started after I'd already moved to the "WTF is this sh*t?" stage and compared everything to the properties of my day (GEEWUN, BABY!). Having grown out of that phase, however, I can see the impact that the shows of the '90s have had on pop culture and I've grown to love the campiness of the Super Sentai genre and the wacky history behind Power Rangers itself.
The Hasbro Lightning Collection (yes, Disney owns Power Rangers as well, folks) is an action figure line that is on par with all the other 1/12th scale lines that I've mentioned above. Articulation, sculpt, accessories; Hasbro has been killing it over the past few years. If your special someone was able to jump aboard the Lightning Train early on and was lucky enough to collect the six members of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers squad, then getting them a commensurate sized army would be a sound move for you.
Though the line had a few other versions of these soldiers before (two separate 2-packs, one with the Green Ranger, and another with 2 Patrollers), The Z Puttys (Putties?) were supposed to be more powerful. If I recall correctly, they would explode when the heroes punched their Z logos. While this figure doesn't disintegrate on impact, it does come with some nice blast effects that help you pretend it does.
TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS WAR FOR CYBERTRON DELUXE CENTURION DRONE WEAPONIZER PACK (MSRP $29.99)
Transformers isn't really a line where there is a lot of army-building potential. There are some exceptions (like the Vehicons of Transformers Prime, or the Sharkticons of the '86 animated movie), but for the most part, the characters on the show were unique designs that didn't lend themselves well to this particular aspect of the hobby.
That kind of changed with the start of the NetFlix show, which apparently decided that to save money, they'd go ahead and use the same computer models and just re-color and re-name them to provide supporting characters and background robots to populate scenes in the world of Cybertron. It was the first time I'd seen one of the cartoons give an in-cartoon explanation for Hasbro's propensity to re-use toy molds! Back in the days of 2D hand-drawn animation, this would not have been possible, but with computer-generated tools available to the showrunners, making drones to fill out those backgrounds is relatively easy.
And thus, the "Weaponizers" figures were born and Hasbro went nuts releasing re-color after re-color. The fun thing about these was that they were "parts formers" that would break down into component pieces, which you could attach to other robots via the standard 5mm peg, giving added weapons and/or armor to those that lacked firepower.
The Deluxe Centurion Drone is one of those Weaponizers. Though it's another Hasbro Pulse exclusive, it was one that was also bought heavily by the secondary market so prices aren't that bad. It also came with a box of accessories for your other Transformers War For Cybertron toys, so getting 2 or 3 of the Drones means an entire armory for your Autobot or Decepticon allies!
VALAVERSE ACTION FORCE STEEL BRIGADE OR TROOPER FIGURES (MSRP $32.00)
This one's a little different from the others on this list as it's a Kickstarter campaign that hasn't yet shipped, but I felt that given the nature of the line, it fit in with this list perfectly.
"Action Force" was essentially the name of a 3.75" toyline in Europe released around the same time as "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" line in the US was hitting it big. It was manufactured by Palitoy in the US whereas the Joe line was made by Hasbro, but essentially they were the same design. Where Joe's had named characters, the Action Toy line was more defined by the nationality, specialty, and alliance.
In 2019, toy designer Bobby Vala bought the rights to the Action Force name and began a Kickstarter campaign for a new toyline in the 1/12 scale that matched other popular properties on toy shelves. These new "Valaverse" figures are well-detailed, military-inspired toys that like the old line came with accessories that are based on real-life weapons used by militaries around the world.
Most of the six core figures are named characters, but the Steel Brigade figure is one that is easily one that you could get multiples of and build out a squad. It's based on an old, mail-in G.I. Joe 3.75" figure from the original line that you could order with proofs of purchase, sending in your own name and getting a special file card with the figure that had you as the person under the helmet. In addition, there are 4 more army-builders in the first wave; 3 variations of the basic Action Force trooper (black, blue, and "urban camo") and a "Hive" bad guy trooper. You can also get add-on accessory/weapons packs to kit out your troopers as you see fit, or if you have other 1/12 scale guns (like the Maurader Gunrunners' weapons, those from G.I. Joe Classified figures or ones you find with the Chinese Chap Mei brand soldier lines), you can also use those with these toys as well.
According to the last live stream update on Nov 25, 2020, these should be shipping in April 2021, but if you've got a Joe fan in your life, getting him or her in on this pre-order is a good way to get them excited!
NECA TMNT 1990S MOVIE 7" FOOT SOLDIER BLADED WEAPONRY (MSRP $29.99)
NECA TMNT 1990 MOVIE 7" FOOT SOLDIER MELEE (MSRP $29.99)
NECA is one of those niche companies that is making action figures specifically for adult collectors and they are have been squeezing every drop out of the cartoon and movie intellectual properties they've got under their umbrella. I've been a fan of them for quite a while, and I love the variety of toys that they put out. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of those properties that they have been milking over the past few years.
Not only do they have TMNT toys for the more popular cartoon series as well as the original comic book art, but they also have a specific sub-line for the 1990 movie! The line includes all of the turtles, Splinter, and Shredder (regular and super), Casey Jones, as well as some others from the first two films.
But we're talking about army builders here, and NECA doesn't disappoint. You can buy either the Foot Soldier with bladed weapons or "melee" weapons (which means cudgels and clubs). Both sets have a nice assortment of hands and weaponry, which you can also give to your Turtles if you'd like. They are 7" so a little larger than the majority of figures on this list, but it's still a really nice size for your desktop display.
If your kris kringle is more of a cartoon guy, you can also get the purple foot soldiers from the show. Or if you're stinking rich, you could also try and army build the 1/4th scale version of the 90's Foot Soldiers.
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So that's my list. There are a lot of great lines out there that I've left out of this article, like the McFarlane DC Multiverse, but I've tried to limit this to available figures that I've had some experience with that fall into that army building category. Naturally, there will be a few that I've missed, but for that one person out there, struggling to get a gift for the person in their life who has everything, this should give you a good, solid starting point. If you have more questions, feel free to comment and ask the geeks!
Happy hunting!