Posted by Chris on 10/08/24 at 07:05 AM
Category: Hobby Talk
Let me start off by saying that this is in no way meant to incite yet another scale war within the collecting community. I'll save that for another day. Kidding...maybe. No, this article is merely to explain my love for the 3.75" scale when it comes to Star Wars. Further it's to dispel a common misconception about fans of the 1:18 scale that I hear often repeated. It goes something like this:
You only like 3.75" because that's what you grew up with. Your nostalgia is tying you to a dated format. Modern collectors want 6" scale. Get with the times, boomer.
I collect many lines that are bigger than 1:18 scale such as MOTU Origins, Classic WWE Wrestlers, the recent Dungeons & Dragons line from the 80's cartoon, the McFarlane Batman '66 line, and absolutely most tellingly, G.I. Joe Classified. I collected the 3.75" G.I. Joe Real American Heroes line as a kid. If nostalgia were playing a role, I would rebuke the Classified line, but I don't. I love it, and the reason is simple. I'm a casual Classified collector. I have no desire to go deep on that line. I want my favorite characters from '82-'85. Those figures fit on two standard bookshelf shelves.
Star Wars is completely different, and there are two main reasons.
The Big Ships, Man
This is the primary reason. I love the ships. I always have ever since I was a kid. Getting the Kenner Millennium Falcon for my 6th birthday is an indelible memory for me. Even then I knew it was a special moment to take possession of that iconic beauty. I wasn't the same way with G.I. Joe. I absolutely loved that line. I was a completist with the figures for the four years that I was collecting, but I never really gravitated toward the big honking vehicles with that line. I never even got things like the W.H.A.L.E. I would rather have a H.I.S.S. and a F.A.N.G. Those are both things than can be done in 1:12 (and one was obviously done already).
It's completely different with Star Wars. I'm not interested in collecting any line unless I can get an AT-AT, Millennium Falcon, Sail Barge, Famba, Queen's Royal Starship, AT-TE, Turbo Tank, X-Wing, Y-Wing, other Y-Wing, etc., etc., etc. Those things are only plausible in the 3.75" scale. If I can't have them, I aint collecting it. Even things that are possible in 1:12, such as the Dewback, don't cut it because I'm not satisfied with just one, and multiples take up too much room. Speaking of which...
I Want It All, Man
How deep do I want to go with Star Wars? I want to go ba...wait. This site is family friendly. I'd better let the TV-14 Cleveland show explain it for me:
G.I. Joe: 2 modest shelves
Batman '66: 1 shelf
MOTU Origins and WWE: Share 1 shelf
Star Wars: Every other square inch of my office and I'm not even able to display everything I own
I'm greedy with how much of the Star Wars world I want to display at once. I want to display Cloud City, Hoth, the Cantina, Jabba's Palce, the Pit of Carkoon, Geonosis, the Crest, the QRS, the Emperor's arrival, so on and so forth, and I don't want to sacrifice anything. 3.75" is the scale that allows me to do this with detailed, fully articulated figures.
Wrap It Up, Man
Once again, nostalgia aint got nothin' to do with it. Even if I was born into the Playmates TMNT line with its larger scale, I would still need 3.75" for Star Wars to have any shot at collecting the way I want to collect. In some ways, it chose me.