Articulating the Action Figure : Essays on the Toys and Their Messages

Action figures are more than toys or collectibles--they are statements on race, gender, class, body positivity and more. This collection of nine new essays and one interview argues that action figures should be analyzed in the same light as books, movies, television shows and other media. Through an examination of the plastic bodies that fill our shelves and toy boxes, "Action Figure Studies" can inform the next generation of toys. Cover Table of Contents Preface Introduction. Posing the Question: An Action Figure Studies Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Action Figure: Part One (Daniel Yezbick) The (Re)Resurrection of Captain Action: Will Justice Be Done? (Thomas G. Endres) Plastic Military Mythology: Hypercommercialism and Hasbro’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (J. Richard Stevens) The Same Aisle: The Intersection of Resistance and Discipline in Brony Fandom, or, Friendship Is Mythological (Tracy L. Bealer) Selling Girl Power in the 1980s: She-Ra and the Gendered Dimensions of Action Figures (Keith Corson) “Seeing into the life of things”: Toy Story, The Lego Movie and the Wordsworthian Imagination (Geoff Klock) Get Your Freak On: The Monstrous Seduction in Mattel’s Monster High (Cathy Thomas) All Dolled Up: Monster High, Project MC2 and “Action” Figures (Christopher Bell) “Toys with brains”: Skylanders and the Growth of the Toys-to-Life Market (Kimberly A. Owczarski) Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Action Figure: Part Two (Daniel F. Yezbick) “I was always Wonder Woman”: An Interview with IAmElemental's Julie Kerwin (Jonathan Alexandratos) About the Contributors Index "This collection of nine new essays and one interview argues that action figures should be analyzed in the same light as books, movies, television shows and other media. Through an examination of the plastic bodies that fill our shelves and toy boxes, "action figure studies" can inform the next generation of toys"-- Provided by publisher