Customized action figures: Multi-dimensional fandom and fannish fiction

One-sixth scale action figure customization warrants more extensive cultural analysis, for three reasons. First, action figure fans express their interests in multiple fandoms simultaneously, thus enabling more multi-dimensional analyses within fan studies. This article defines and discusses the action figure fan practices of Mini-Me figures and photostories in order to illustrate fandom’s multi-dimensional nature. Secondly, action figures, especially Mini-Me figures, reveal new aspects to fans’ relationships with transitional objects. Finally, Mini-Me figures and photostory narratives offer a means to address a previously unstudied genre: fannish fiction. ‘Fannish fiction’ includes original narratives produced by fans incorporating frequently multi-dimensional genres, tropes, and so forth popular with fans. However, unlike fan fiction, fannish fiction is not defined by or dependent upon existing mass media texts, characters, narratives, or worlds. This discussion of action figure customization establishes the need both for further examination of this rich fandom, and also for similar examinations of other fandoms and fan practices as well.