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Sports Figure / Action Figure Dictionary

What does MOMC Mean? Chase? What the Hell is a Clamshell?

ASV - Abbreviation for All-Star Vinyls, the sports figures made by Upper Deck.

Chase - An intentional variation of a figure released in a series. Read the article What is a Chase, Variant or Super Chase Figure? for more information.

Chase Variant - An unintentional variation of a chase figure. Read the article What is a Chase, Variant or Super Chase Figure? for more information.

Clamshell - The plastic package a McFarlane figure is sold in.

Completist - A masochistic individual who choses to build complete sets of figures. Typically these people are the owners of warehouses or large offices in New York (sorry Andy!) No one else would have the space to store that many figures!

Custom (or Customizer) - A sports figure that has been repainted or otherwise modified, making it a one-of-a-kind piece. The artist who creates a custom is a customizer. For more information about custom sports figures visit the Customizers section of this site.

Exclusive - A figure created for a special event, retailer, collector club or as a promotional item for giving away. Read the article What is a Chase, Variant or Super Chase Figure? for more information.

Minty - A strange way to describe a figure whose packaging is in mint condition. We have not yet been able to identify any figures that smell "minty," however, and believe a figure that did smell minty would probably not be considered "mint." Go figure.

MOMC - Mint On Mint Card. Frequently used acronym in the toy hobby to describe something that is in mint condition, with mint condition packaging. This is actually not an accurate acronym to use for Sports Picks because those figures are packaged in a plastic clamshell and not a card, but people use it anyway.

Opener - A collector who removes the figures from the box or clamshell, thus diminishing the resale value of the piece.

Repaint - A figure that was developed using the sculpt of a previously created figure rather than from a new sculpt for the purposes of controlling production costs. While some collectors bristle at the use of repaints they are a necessity to keep the products economically viable.

Scalper - A much maligned (and frequently for good reason) purchaser of sports figures who buys Sports Picks for the express purpose of selling them on Ebay. Every collector who has ever sold a figure on Ebay or traded a figure to someone based on its secondary market value rather than its retail price is technically a scalper. Most collectors will turn a figure for a profit if it fits their needs but their main purpose in buying figures is to collect them; that is what really separates them from someone with the scalper mentality.

SLU - Abbreviation for Starting Line-ups, the sports action figures produced by Hasbro.

SP - Abbreviation for Sports Picks, the sports action figures produced by McFarlane Toys.

Super Chase - In short, a chase of a chase. A chase is an intentional variation of a regular figure. Sometimes a company will issue an intentional variation of the chase in very limited quantities. This is called a super chase. Read the article What is a Chase, Variant or Super Chase Figure? for more information.

Surprise Figure - On occasion the company will include a player in the lineup that wasn’t announced at all. This is not a variation of a regular figure in the series; it is an entirely different, unannounced figure. This is called a surprise, or surprise chase figure. Read the article What is a Chase, Variant or Super Chase Figure? for more information.

TRU - Abbreviation for Toys R Us.

UD - Abbreviation for Upper Deck.

Variant - A variant is a different form of the regular figure due to an error in the manufacturing process or because of a decision to change something in the midst of production. Read the article What is a Chase, Variant or Super Chase Figure? for more information.

Vinyl Figure - A figure made out of a vinyl material and influenced by the urban vinyl art and collectible craze. For sports collectors vinyl figures refers to Upper Deck's All-Star Vinyls. Read the article What are urban vinyl figures? for more information.