I've been on a big action figure binge lately. I've collected action figures for the better part of a decade. I've ALWAYS collected comic books, but I used to sneer at the people who bought 'little plastic people' just as much as I sneered at the baseball card collectors.

Then, Batman the Animated Series happened to me. When the BTAS action figures first cme out, I used to look at them in Walmart and think "gee, these sure are cool, but i'm not buying them, no way." Even when they made Catwoman.

Then, my ex, Dave, had a birthday. He liked the Batman figures a lot too. So, I decided to buy him some for his birthday. The floodgates opened. I obsessively tracked down every single BTAS figure ever made. The only one I never got was the Robin Dragster, which sells for $200 - $300 now cuz the factory burned down after the first batch of them were made. I think about buying one on eBay ever so often though...

Buying Batman made it okay to buy the X-Men. And the Fantastic Four weren't so removed from them. And Iron Man. And the Avengers. For a while, I dabbled in Star Wars, before finally realizing that I have always hated the Star Wars movies. They're crap. Always have been. Always will be.

When the short-lived Superman animated figures line came out, I hunted it down obsessively. I went to Toys R Us (TRU to those of us who are fanatics) every morning before work until I finally found the unopened case one morning. Ripped it open with my car keys and bought the entire first line of characters.

I used to go to Walmarts at 2 AM looking when I knew new Batman figures were coming out. The ex knew we always had to go to the toy department of any store we went into before any other shopping could commence. That's still true of me.

After moving to New Orleans, I was too poor to buy figures very much. The line I love now are DC Direct figures. Figures made of DC comic book characters by DC Comics. Today, I got Big Barda & Mr Miracle in the mail. Bought them on eBay.

The new Spiderman line rocks also though. He has an amazing number of points of articulation. Points of articulation... that another obsessive geeky term thing...

Anyways... if you didn't think I was kinda geeky before...