Attention all toy collectors, I'm excited to announce that our passion for action figures has reached a new level with its own holiday!
The man behind the movement. Who is he? ...How did this start?
Say hello to Randall Ham everyone. Randy is a huge DC fan just like me so we got along from the moment I met him on Twitter and he began telling me about 3/6/15 AFWD a.k.a. - Action Figure Work Day or "bring your action figure to work day." Yes, fellow collectors, you read that correctly. It's official with a press release plus hashtags, links and graphics to imbed the event throughout the toy collecting world.
- Just a quick idea gone EPIC -
Don't be surprised if this is the first your hearing of this though, it's less than a year old so you only missed one, and the next one is right around the corner! Are you excited yet?
The History
In February of 2014, Randy was having a rough week and was not thrilled with the idea of going into work at his local library. Drinking coffee in his kitchen, an idea popped in his head. Suddenly, he picked up his Raven Teen Titans variant and Instagram'd a pic of her next to a coffee mug with the caption, "White Raven senses I need a second cup of coffee." He then threw the figure in his bag and took it to work. Randy's work day went on with many more Instagram and Facebook pics of Raven doing office related things and even took a lunch break. Randy's zany idea got such an overwhelming response, he decided to do it again, and invite other people to do it as well. On Monday, March 3, 2014, he declared that Friday would be Take Your Action Figure To Work Day.
He then created a Facebook event, and shared it in several groups, invited friends, and asked them to invite more people. By Wednesday morning, he caught wind of his story online at the Detroit News channel's website. The next day, Free Comic Book Day, NECA Toys and Hastings Entertainment had picked the story up and MyFaceOnAFigure.com
started posting about it on their Facebook. By Thursday night, Randy was seeing tweets from as far away as New Zealand. By the end of the day, his hashtag was seen by 700,000 people on Twitter.
Taken from the highlights of last years event, George Takei acknowledges AFWD
It was at this point he realized He just might be on to something. Brainstorming with his partner, and a long time friend the trio decided that this should be an annual event. After that he hired a web designer and registered actionfigureworkday.com. He also set up various social media accounts plus invested his own money into graphics and branding. Now with growing interest and increasing involvement from websites and online forums, the event has come full circle with merchandise, refined acronyms and new hashtags.
Go Team / Action Figure Roll Call (from top): Michael Paul, Lennon George, Jason Colby, Patrick Gibbs, TJ Norris
Make it happen!
As citizens of the toy collecting community, let's make it our duty to spread the word and make it an international event! "The momentum has been terrific!" says Randy, so let's keep it going! ALL NERDS UNITE!! The team here at GoFigureNews.com and I, hope you and your friends celebrate this holiday with your favorite action figures from now on.
MAKE 3/6/15 THE COOLEST DAY OF THE YEAR!!!
TO PARTICIPATE:
Be sure to also send your #AFWD2015 pics to Michael Paul via Twitter: @theToyManMikeP/Twitter.com + Go Figure via Facebook!