"Every demented detail I could ask for has been rendered": On fan-made media and celebrating the affordances of the action figure

Abstract

Existing scholarship surrounding both the modern action figure and the YouTube toy unboxing video has framed discussion around media consumption, fostering community among fans, and toys as vaunted paratextuality of an existing media property. Rather than focusing on the toy's franchise fidelity, this article suggests that fans' appreciation of toys is rooted also in the physical properties of the toys themselves. Fans show this appreciation by producing video review coverage of their toys, demonstrating knowledge and audience literacy in this type of action figure media. In this way, the toy review is a particularly nimble example of toyesis where the toy inspires not only other media about its parent text but excitement about the toy as a ludic engagement. This article meditates on how the modern high-end collectible toy exceeds the mandated fidelity to source material, how the figure becomes a showcase for engineering innovation and physical appreciation, and the nature of the fan-created video review genre as a transformative outlet for fans and audiences even as it remains in dialogue with industry-backed mechanisms of engagement. This framing has implications for how scholars of fan studies and toy research approach the action figure as medium and cultural object.