Arthur was only six years old when he moved with his family from the UK to Hong Kong, where his father, a soldier in the British Army, was posted. Whilst overseas Arthur was introduced to GI Joe (its British counterpart, Action Man, had yet to debut in the UK). The toy was a revelation.

The author's love of action figures can be traced back to this moment. After graduating from art college and commencing a career in design and marketing, Arthur's early love of both action figures and plastic kits refused to diminish and he began to collect early examples of both, writing books about Airfix and 'TV generation' toys along the way.

An inveterate collector and co-founder with the later Peter Donaldson, 'the voice of Radio 4', of Collectingfriends.com, he secured a Guinness World Record for the Spitfix! model-making marathon. Arthur has also appeared on TV on programmes such as Collector's Lot and James May's Toy Stories.