Whereas accumulating articulates the course of of gathering objects, displaying offers a way to combine a toy assortment right into a home area and use that area for private expression and play. Nonetheless, the dynamic between artwork and play could seem at odds inside the apply of show. In response to Harry L. Rinker, “toys are supposed to be put into movement” and “displayed on a shelf, they’re in an unnatural state” – as such, his recommendation to toy collectors is to “resist the urge to deal with these childhood treasures as objets d’artwork” (1991, 103). This means that show is incompatible with play as a result of it hinders toy’s pure state of movement in favor of inventive ornamentation.
By means of my expertise as an motion determine collector, I’m inclined to counsel that the apply of displaying motion figures on a shelf is each an expression of artwork and play. To show an motion determine assortment is usually a type of inventive expression akin to hanging a portray on a wall. It requires a canvas (a shelf or unobstructed area) and a location that’s well-lit but additionally away from direct daylight to keep away from injury. There are a selection of choices for the way to pose motion figures on the canvas shelf, relying on the constraints of the area and the factors of articulation in the figures. As Heljakka and Harviainen acknowledge, “displaying toys is a extremely private act however the sharing of the outcomes of these manipulative and visible eventualities–whether or not organized based on measurement, colour, producer, or aesthetics—is taken into account rewarding” (2019, 358-59). Whereas the purpose is to admire the aesthetic presentation of materials composition and colour on a shelf, the course of requires bodily interplay with the materials design of the toy’s articulation that additionally constitutes a type of play.
There may be subsequently a dependent relationship between private selection, aesthetic type, materiality of type, and playful apply at the basis of show. Certainly, it’s actually by way of the act of show that I contemplate myself to meaningfully have interaction with toy accumulating. As an expression of play, my strategy to motion determine show is formed by a basic dedication to protect the notion of motion in the motion determine type. That is how this accumulating apply differs from MOC (mint on card) or MIB (mint in field) accumulating, which preserves the toy in its field. Maybe MOC accumulating is nearer to what Rinker describes as an ‘unnatural state’ for an object designed and manufactured for the objective of motion and motion; this strategy to accumulating may be very completely different to a display-focused expression of motion determine play and, whereas I admittedly wrestle to narrate with it, it displays the multiplicity of ways in which adults specific accumulating practices.
Action figures are usually not dolls. That’s the first precept of motion determine appreciation. They don’t seem to be dolls as a result of the capability for motion by way of factors of articulation (POA) is important to their type, perform, and enjoyment. Traditionally, there may be additionally a gendered distinction between the marketplace for motion figures and dolls (‘boys’ and ‘women,’ respectively), however as a girl who collects motion figures along with my husband, I don’t suppose gender or age holds up as a figuring out qualifier of the way to formally differentiate motion figures from dolls (for extra on the distinction between dolls and actions figures past gender or age, see Bainbridge 2010). The larger high quality and vary of motion in the POA of motion figures offers extra alternatives for poseability that accommodates spatial constraint and narrative signification: if a determine has extra vary of motion, then it’s attainable to discover a spread of dynamic poses that emulate the character’s talents, motion, and character relationships in tandem with the ‘private type’ of the collector-displayer. On this context, the motion determine type permits the course of of show to be each an expression of artwork and play.
