Well, well, well. Look who we have here? If it isn't Hoard World The Blog. Come crawling back to the blogosphere did we? Yes indeedy, Steve Macreadie.
Just like Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott and Dave Chapelle, sometimes they come back to their old shit.
Sometimes they shouldn't have. Sometimes it's alright. You can decide what this is for yourself. I'm not your real dad.
Once you've figured all that out, you can come with me on a journey to the magical world of instagram.....
Whilst googling myself yet again to see if anybody outside of instagram give a rat's fuck about Hoard World (Spoiler Alert: They don't), I came across a few articles.
Stuff like Oddee's 9 Awesome Action Figure Posing Accounts On Instagram from last year.
Or Forces of Geek's The Toy Photographers of Instagram article from 2014.
Or jdGONEMAD.net's 12 Creative Toy Photographers To Follow on Instagram from 2013 that's full of dead photo links.
And aside from a mention of Action Figure Fotos in the 2017 Oddee article, which is an account I actually already follow myself, I came to realise that there are a bunch of accounts on instagram that are not turning up in click bait Top 10 style lists about dolly photography.
I'm here to fucking fix that. (Oh, by the way, I work blue now. It's a long story and nobody cares. We're all mostly adults. Deal with it.)
So now, without further ado, and obviously not including yours truly because I mostly post videos these days on my own instagram (If you're not on IG, you can see a few unpopular YouTube channel compilations here and here of some of my video stuff), I give to you, in no specific order...
10 Toy Photography / Action Figure Photo Accounts to Follow on Instagram in 2018*.
10. @Kid_Grayskull
This fellow aussie takes some of the crispiest pics I have ever seen, is a member of the international ACBA (Articulated Comic Book Art) collective and has won awards and shit. You can see some of his behind the scenes videos to these pics on his YouTube channel.
9. @jr_doom
This Michigan-based toy photographer extraordinaire not only takes some glorious pics with amazing set-ups, he makes music and co-hosts The Action Toy Art podcast which just passed 150 episodes! And that's 150 more episodes of a podcast than I've ever done. God, I've missed italics.
8. @frolicingmind
Carol and her partner watched an increasingly rare instalment of Hoard World Live on Instagram late last year and have been on my radar ever since. They both seem lovely and have great taste in toys (and instagram live shows obviously) but Carol's pics particularly in regards to the creative use of camera angles, location, character choice and set-ups have literally blown my mind at times these last few months.
7. @warrior_evans
Casey is not only a combat veteran and college graduate but many of his toy pics have given me a case of The Vapours. Nobody is taking photos of Machine Robo / GoBots / Machine Men like he does. Or at least, that I've seen. And the rest of his shit is tight, son.
6. @intangibledandy
Eric is a Seattle based toy photographer who just takes beautiful pics. They're not always action shots and they're not always taken in outside locations but they all have a sense of reality to them. Like, we've just caught this one moment in time au naturale with these characters. And that's not easy to achieve.
5. @possessed_by_plastic
Another Aussie makes the list this time with Tasmania-based Juzzy. I don't know why I told you where he lives. Now you're one step closer to stealing all his wonderful toys. If and when Justin reads this, he will likely comment something like, "Thanks Twat!" Then I'll remind him that this list was in no particular order and not to get upset at being "beaten" numerically by whoever I think of next. But seriously folks, check out his mad photo styles or some shit. I particularly enjoy his fake movie posters.
4. @piercedcory
Cory knows I love him dearly. So he won't mind that he's number 4 on a list of no particular order. One of the biggest thrills I get in seeing some of his work is knowing that a handful of photos will include ex-Hoard World residents that I've sold him over the years. His stuff goes from strength to strength but something I have admired since I have first known him is his work with wildlife and action figures. I will never get tired of stormtroopers hanging out with a fucking chipmunk. Genius.
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| I mean, seriously. |
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| Yep! That Dan Ketch Ghost Rider Bike and Vengeance Figure used to live at my house! I'm such a fucking narcissist.  |
3. @keelo1027
Mike Koehler invented Cooking with Grimlock, motherfucker. And was nice enough to do a Hoard World / Cooking with Grimlock cross-over back in the day. I have it on good authority there may be another cross-over on the cards. Can't say too much. I almost sold him my Palisades Grover once when I was desperate for fast cash and then I got cold feet because I'm really good at the voice and love that phone booth prop. I'm a terrible business man and I deserve to be broke forever.
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| Classic. |
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| The Cooking With Grimlock / Hoard World cross-over! Well, all I did was say they should be cooking up Kowl. Keelo did the rest, really. |
2. @lights_camera_tentacles
Lights_camera_tentacles will likely change his name to another tentacle based variation by the time you read this. That's how he rolls. That's fine. I don't know if there's anybody taking better photos of Aliens on the internet and if there is, I haven't seen it. I also don't know how many people are doing 215 part sagas (and counting) about Marvel Superheroes fighting Xenomorphs in space. Get into it, mate.
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| If I wasn't already dead inside this photo would give me wood. |
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| I have never taken a photo this good. It's a shame I left that little tag bloke symbol in the bottom left hand corner of the frame but I'm too lazy to screenshot this again so you can eat it. |
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| Hey NECA! Hire this cunt! (Not the alien, dickhead. The Tentacles Man who shot it!) |
Joe "Motherfucking" Milone. Hailing from sunny downtown Clearwater, Florida, Joe is an all round nice guy with almost 30k followers who doesn't need my help. There's so many instagram accounts with amazing content and not enough followers or love. I see them often. It boggles my mind.
But then sometimes you see an account like Joe's and you go, "You know what, motherfucker? You actually deserve to have 29, 956 followers. I'm genuinely happy for you."
Not only are his photos imaginative and nice to look at but he's a consistent commenter and well-regarded friend to many in this community of 30 or so toy photographers worldwide. So, when I say this list is in no particular order, I'm changing my own rules for Joe Milone.
Let's all hear it for Joe. He's better than all of us. And actually engages with his audience.
You're legit No.1 of this or any other list.
I am going to be so angry if the other 9 people on this list unfollow me now. Or anybody who feels left out. Look, I follow every single person back unless they're spam or a cunt. I see as much as I can. I love so many of you and your content. I just can't do a TOP 4000 now can I? I'd get sore wrists.
Anyway, this post is specifically about toy photography only in order to be a better list in search engine results than those other piece of shit lists I googled a few hours back. (Although, they're on point with @Actionfigurefotos - I love that account!)
But I digress.
Let's hear it for JOE "MOTHERFUCKING" MILONE!!!
I'd like to add an honourable mention to Cantina Danny whose @TheSuperneumanns masterpiece in 2015/2016 and The Life of G. Rider in 2017 were absolutely brilliant, next-level works. BUT this is a list for ongoing accounts in 2018, so sorry Dan. You know you're good already!
And that's the end.
Wow. That was a lot of fun to type things on a keyboard as it came into my head whilst stealing other people's work for shitty blog content. We should do this again some time.
Hope you've been well.
Come and say hello to me on Instagram if you feel like it.
Or not. I don't give a shit. Whatevs.
yr pal,
HOARDAX.
These are truly great ideas in concerning blogging.
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