Click on the picture to see this Collection!! Name: Al Lew Location: San Francisco, California

1- What is it that you collect?
Marvel characters in the style of the old 5” Toybiz figures.

2- What was it that brought you to collecting? And what is that keeps you going?
Well I used to read (and damage) my brother Gil’s comic book collection, especially the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series. That was my first exposure to the characters of Marvel Universe. About 90% of my customs are based off entries from those handbooks. A further inspiration was the very cool 90’s X-Men cartoon. It was those early influences that inspired me to collect.

3- When did you start collecting?
Around 1993, when Toybiz really started improving the sculpting of their X-Men and Spiderman lines I just had to pick them up myself (my brother having abandoned comic and toy collecting by then). However, it wasn’t till much later (late 2002) that I started buying and customizing the rest of the Marvel Universe

4- Why (what you collect) example:Batman, Star Wars, Transformers, etc…?
I like the 5” scale Marvel figures for many reasons. From the Marvel cartoons of the 90’s, Toybiz made plenty of characters, major as well as obscure. But in some cases they left out a team member here and there, mostly female members. I saw some great custom figures done by the likes of Mattman from forums and sites such as Unncannyxmen.net or CustomCon, so I started customizing to fill out those gaps in the team rosters. I like these figures because is they are small enough to fit a whole army on the shelf and that they’re not too hard to paint/customize,

5- When did you start displaying them?
I started off displaying them on my bookshelf about 2 years ago but that didn’t work out because they kept falling off the shelves and I couldn’t get access to my books

6- How do you get your inspiration to organize and display your collection?
So, about a year ago, I bought a display case from IKEA that now holds all of my 5” figures quite nicely.

7- Do you have a favorite character(s) you collect?
Nah, even the second string heroes and b-grade villains are fair game to be added to my collection!

8- Which item in your collection would you say is your absolute favorite and why?
12” Talking Galactus, for many reasons: he’s a gift from my brother Herb, he towers over the 5” marvels and he can either play ominous music or say – “I HUNGER!”

11- What inspires you to purchase an item to add to your collection?
On occasion I will buy 5” Marvel customs from other customizers if they fit with the rest of my collection. I also buy figures from other lines if they have 5” compatible figures or accessories. For example, although the Marvel Legends line is in a 6” scale, the bases that come with each figure are perfect for displaying any figure. A lot of the “sidekick” accessories are also great for 5”, like the Doop figure (packed with Deadpool), Ogun (Brown Wolverine), Howard the Duck (Silver Surfer) or the Fantasticar or Blade’s Motorcycle

12- Customizing figures and statues has become very big, have you ever purchased a custom figure or statue and have you ever tried making one?
Oh yes most definitely on both counts, I started customizing around late 2002 and never stopped!

13- What do you think of the custom Craze?
I think customizing is just great; fans have more power to make the toys just the way the want. I’ve seen some work from other customizers that just blow me away and the customizing community is just very supportive of each other and you have outlets like CustomCon to show off your stuff. I wish toy companies can make all the characters that collectors demand but I can understand the reasons why that isn’t possible.

14- Where do you make most of your purchases from? ebay seems to be a favorite with collectors these days, are you an ebayholic?
Yeah most of my figure needs are met on Ebay, I try to buy mostly loose figures in lots to save $$$.

16- What is missing from your collection that you hope to one day acquire?
Well, there are a ton of Toybiz 5” figures that never made it past the prototype stage that are superbly sculpted, like Jean Grey and Cyclops from the cancelled X-Men Flying Fighters line that I would kill to add to my collection

17- What is the usual reaction when people see your collection?
At first they are amazed to see so many of them and they try to guess which are customs and which are actually Toybiz figures.

18- Do you attend conventions for some of your purchases? could you tell us about that?
I have been going to the Wondercon (originally held in Oakland but now here in San Francisco for the last couple of years) but not for toys, mostly for ½ price Trade Paperbacks. I did go to this year’s Transformers Botcon convention taking along my nephew and there was a booth selling tubs of loose action figures and accessories I was lucky to get quite a few missing pieces and I ended buying more of those than Transformers!

19- Most collectors today go on what they call a toy run, do you participate in that as well? And what are your favorite spots? Do you have a routine?
No, I used to do so back in college during lunch breaks. I’d head over to the nearby mall/Toys R Us but now I mostly buy loose figures off ebay for customizing or buy them from other online stores. The retail toy stores around here are usually picked pretty clean!

20- How do you decide what to take out of the package and what stays sealed?
5” scale figures and accessories are always ripped from the package, to display or customize, And I always open up any Transformers, even the older rarer toys since they’re so much fun to transform and to let my nephew play with them.

21- At what stage do you think your collection will be at 10 years from now, do you think you would have grown tired of it?
I don’t think I ever get tired of my collection it’s a lot of fun customizing, but I do have a definite end in sight, in a couple of years I should have done all the characters that I wanted to

22- What advice would you give someone who just started a collection?
This is going to sound contrary to the whole idea of collecting, but don’t give in to the completist mentality, you DON’T have to “collect them all!” Set a logical limit to your collection or you’ll always feel unsatisfied, frustrated or just run out of room for displaying! In my case, there are plenty of Marvel 5” figures made which I didn’t get, especially garish repaints or toyline specific costumes (like the endless Spider-Man and Wolverine figures). If you don’t like the way a figure was made, then customize it to your preference. Most of all have fun!