Somehow I managed to remain completely unaware of this until this past weekend. I’d noticed the scarcity of updates on Action-Figure.com of late, and read Adrian Faulkner’s post about his plan to retire from the site and pass it on to others, but I didn’t know anything about the “Internet dramaz” he referred to.
Some of that drama was revealed last week in a blog post by Paul Nicholasi, a.k.a. Nomad. Nicholasi asserts that he had some sort of understanding with Faulkner that he would take over the site when Faulkner left, but then Faulkner turned around and sold the site to someone Nicholasi alleges Faulkner described as “a bit of an idiot, but he has money.”
You can read Nicholasi’s whole post to get the story, but here’s my first-read impression of what happened. Nicholasi mentions earlier in the post that at its peak, A-F “topped 3 million hits in a day” and “pushed through 40k in affiliate sales for Sideshow Toys.” That’s not chump change, and given that Faulkner had founded the site, I would guess–although I have no inside information here–that selling the site and getting some money out of it was a lot more appealing than just handing it over to Nicholasi, no matter how much work Nicholasi had done for the site over the years.
I can’t blame Faulkner for wanting to make some money off the site he founded. But all the stuff about “hacking” and “police investigations” and so forth casts a dark cloud of suspicion and negative impressions about the whole thing. It’s just ugly.
The sad truth is that Action-Figure.com hasn’t been a relevant force in action figure news for some time now, having been usurped by TNI and the various toyline-specific websites and blogs. Nicholasi’s plan to expand the site to other geek-related topics was ambitious, but given the strong competition in that market (IGN, UGO and Enewsi, just to name a few) it would have been a very tough road to hoe.
So what happens now? I have no idea. I hope Nicholasi lands at some other toy site and continues to provide his excellent brand of toy coverage. And I wish Adrian all the best with his family and health issues. But it’s a shame it had to end this way.
SHAZAM!
Those guys were both jerkholes. They lied to their readers, gypped people out of contest prizes, never spelled an article correctly, delivered wrong information, delivered their own idiotic conjecture as news, and were self-important assholes all around.
Especially Paul. Never has there been a douchier human being.
dayraven
they were a great site for quite a while, but i agree, they had stagnated recently. it does sound to me like adrian is being less than forward about his situation, but when health and family is concerned, he's entitled to his privacy. i'll continue to follow nomad elsewhere and hope things turn up for adrian. i doubt i'll be attending action-figure any more, but i'll at least take a look when the re-launch goes live.
JoshMiller
I used to check them daily. I haven't been there in years these days.
I guess in the end I don't care.
nerdbot
Thanks for the news; I was wondering what had happened to the site. I read Adrian’s cryptic post. And then, when I went back to read it again for hidden clues about what happened, the link to it sent me to a Russian porn site.
Sure, it hadn’t really been a useful news site for a while, but I continued to check it once in a while because I remembered how good it used to be. After the recent nuttiness there (unexpectedly being sent to porn), I deleted the bookmark, but wondered what happened.
At any rate, I wouldn’t have read Nomad’s blog post without seeing it here. So thanks for shedding some light on the situation.
While it had been going downhill for a while, it is still sad to see a site that had played a big part in growing the hobby fizzle out in such a way.
Newton Gimmick
He can write for my site, we pay in imaginary fun bucks!
I sympathize with both parties, but I’ve never gotten news from there anyway.
Paul
I’ve never relied on them for toy news, so no big loss for me either way.
DrNightmare
"The sad truth is that Action-Figure.com hasn’t been a relevant force in action figure news … been usurped by TNI and the various toyline-specific websites and blogs."
Oh Poe, I blame you for that site's downfall 🙁
😛
Dead Man Walking
When geeks fight it's the kids who lose.
americanhyena
'Tis true the site hasn't been relevant in some time, but it is a shame to hear it ended this way (I, for one, am inclined to believe Nomad's version of things).
I had been wondering what Faulkner's rather odd final post was referring to so thanks for at least clearing that up Poe.
Lastly…gotta love the guy commenting on the myspace blog that Faulkner should "f**k himself in the face." LOL.
Motorthing
As a Brit I can remember when this site was required reading for a toy-scene that didn't get much UK news through other sites – but now it's pointless and has been for a while. Sad but hey, it's only toys.