Saga Toys!

When I visit a new area, I always research for local action figure hot spots. In St. Louis, MO, one of the those hot spots was Saga Toys!

Scroll below to see the figures available in its shelves!

Saga Toys is located in a more suburban area of St. Louis, MO. They have been opened for over 5 years and specialize in many types of action figures!

Inside are shelves of new/used and modern/vintage figure. The building looked like it used to be an old department store.

Of course with the store's title and font style, their largest selection of merchandise was of 3 3/4 Star Wars figures.

These were Hasbro's 2008 Indiana Jones figures that came out with the Crystal Skull movie's release. These are the best 3 3/4 Indy figures, being very close to the poseability and quality of 25th Anniversary G.I. Joes. I have kept mine, because they have aged very well, and Hasbro has no plans to make superior Indy figures in this scale.

I absolutely love the Karate Kid movies (barring the Hilary Swank and Jaden Smith ventures), and these 8-inch figures look awesome, but unfortunately they are made by Neca. Neca makes awesome looking figures, but their plastic quality does not play or age well at all.

These Valor vs Venom Joes were the iteration of 3 3/4 Joe that at retail when I was in grade school ('04-'05ish). Most of the character designs looked cool and the hero + villain dynamic was a great idea. I believe these were a little less than $10 at most stores when they came out. I still have all of mine, but these have lost much of their appeal after the release of the 25th Anniversary Joes in 2007.

The retro cardbacks are Hasbro's way of releasing reapp's of older Marvel Legends characters while saving money with less packaging and accessories. That being said, I still like these waves of Legends for their classic costumes, and luckily, I bought them before certain ones shot up on eBay.

In the 90's, toys were made for every action movie no matter how violently rated-R they were. One of those gory movies was 1997's Starship Troopers! I love this movie, but the figures produced aged about as well as milk in direct sunlight. Above was Johnny Rico's pilot love interest, Carmen Ibanez; the figure looks nothing like 90's Denise Richards. Some collectors thought the females of these movie lines would hold a decent monetary value; they were wrong.

Here was DC Universe Classics' first Build-A-Figure, Rex Mason, or as I call him, Metamorpho! The quality control of this line's earlier figures (about Wave 1-6), was hit and miss, but Mattel steadily improved upon them. A fellow collector once told me he thought this line was ageless. I think many collectors would agree considering the high prices of many of these in the secondary market!

My favorite part about Saga Toys was the display of the owner's custom figures and dioramas around the store! Here were custom 1/12 G.I. Joe Dreadnoks made primarily from wrestling figures!

Here were some various 1/18 scale Star Wars scenes. I like the snow constructed in the Wampa's lair!

I do not watch the Mandalorian much, but I know enough to recognize that this was his ship!

Behind the counter was a display of the Haslab Jabba's Barge! I love dioramas, especially those with lots of interesting miniatures to look at!

Of the lines I collect, unfortunately, there was not much at Saga Toys that I did not already own. I found this 3rd Generation Techno-Viper for $25 though!

Saga Toys is owned by a collector by the name of Rich. He and I share the opinion that 1/18 is the best scale for Star Wars dioramas because of the immense variety of vehicles available. Rich also believes in displaying collections as dioramas and told me about workshops he holds introducing collectors into diorama-making. If I was local to the St. Louis area, I would totally get involved! Saga Toys is definitely worth a revisit!

-Chuck