These action figures that I collect started out with GI Joe in the 70's.  GI Joe was the first figure to be 12 inches tall that were geared towards boys.  The creator these "dolls" got his idea from Barbie, and saw that if girls could have a articulated toy, why can't boys.  So the first 12-inch action figure was born.

    Since then, there have been several attempts at uniforms and incarnations of different 12-inch figures.  When GI Joe went away from their old "classic" style bodies to their more child friendly lines in the early 90's the hobby seemed to slow down.  When the first customizers of the hobby, like Combat Hero, Cotswold, and a few others, started produce custom pieces, the hobby seemed to pick up, but only for the few lucky enough to be able to afford these hand sewed limited pieces.

    At about the end of 1999, I became introduced to the world of 12 inch, or later known as 1/6-scale figures, by a company called 21st Century Toys.  Their more mainstream release was their modern day Navy Seal Soldier.  What caught my eye was the way the figures looked so real with the way they presented their ad in the various toy magazines.  Since then my collection has increased to nearly 210+ figures.  The hobby caters to many different genres from WWII, Vietnam, Korean, to modern day topics.  All most every different topic has been or could be made into a 1/6 scale collectible.  For instance, after the movie "Black Hawk Down” was released, many people tried to create soldiers based either on the movie or on the actual soldiers that were involved in the conflict in Somalia, and as you can see the picture to the left is a more recent custom soldier down by customizers in Hong Kong.