This was a helluva year for me. Debilitating changes for my personal life and living situation, but also an avalanche of excellent robots, so that's nice. Hasbro continued doing amazing things with the Studio Series, and reminding us with Siege that simple can be good. Cyberverse started off as complete crap and gradually gained competence to the point where I'm genuinely looking forward to a lot of 2010's figures. And third parties went in opposite extremes, burying us in gargantuan skyscraping combiners and bite-size legends-class tidbits.
Also, I am cheating like crazy this year. I got too many good figures to not group several of them together at certain spots.
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20 G1 Vortex / G1 Brawl Color can really make a difference. I already had the RID Ruination versions of both these guys, but I stumbled across G1 Vortex at a comic shop and was legit surprised how much more I liked the original. An impressive transformation for the time and his size, with a very early use of ball-jointed shoulders. I got Brawl soon after. I love how heavy he is for a tinybot. Feels like a lead weight. And he's much more of a satisfying puzzle box to transform than I remember.
19 G1 Snapdragon After spending years and mucho dinero on Apeface, I was gobsmacked to have Snapdragon fall in my lap for 2/3rds the price. He is a sigh-in-bliss-gorgeous albino SR51 Blackbird, becoming a bizarre Godzilla and a charmingly oddball robot. Love the totally radical Decepticon colors. LOVE the copious late-80s ratchet joints. And I squealed with delight at discovering you can lift Krunk's faceplate to hide the robot eyes in dino mode! Even better, having Snapdragon makes me like his Horrorcon buddy even more. Some things just belong together.
18 Masterpiece Movie Camaro Bumblebee After the debacle of MPM Ironhide, I rethought buying ANY Movie Masterpieces. But a chance encounter at a steal of a price made me roll the dice on Bee. Very happy with the result. He's got kind of a shrunken head, but other than that he looks and poses great. MUCH more fun to transform than I ever expected. Nothing's too tight or loose or fragile. Plus some impressive compacting to hide what's normally car backpack kibble.
17 Studio Series Leader Jetfire & Voyager ROTF Optimus Prime Bizarrely enough, Jetfire also made my Top 10 Biggest TF Disappointments list this year. But that was before I modded the living hell out of him. With tabs that actually do their job, he's a breathtaking jet, and a robot with great presence. Optimus 32 is much more of an upgrade to the original SS Voyager. Lots of subtle engineering tweaks, and no more gappy chest windows. When they combine, this duo make a hefty, pointy godkiller that commands attention.
16 Cyberverse Warrior Deadlock / Cyberverse Warrior Drift / Cyberverse Warrior Jetfire / Cyberverse Spark Armor Ratchet They're all made of really sturdy white plastic, have red paint and blue chest windows, and are great fun to transform. Cyberverse really dug its way out of the grave this year. Jetfire's gimmick works flawlessly. I like the inverse-Clones thing Drift & Deadlock have with their duplicate vehicle modes and comPLETEly different transformations. Plus it's nice to see Ratchet get some love by not being yet another Ironhide retool.
15 Hero Hobby Tiny Magnus Probably a lot of 3rd party collectors forgot this guy existed. I did, until I picked him up on sale. He's seriously adorable though. The pudgiest, cutesy-wootsiest li'l car carrier that couldn't even fit a Micromaster. Then somehow his big ol' SD head transforms out of the cab and you get a robot who looks perfect for commanding an armada of Botbots. The face-swapping gimmick is lovely, but I always keep him in shoutytime.
14 Robots In Disguise Minicon Deployers Crazybolt & Hammer I could not for the life of me find one of this guy while RiD was a thing. Then all of a sudden there's a boatload of them for dirt cheap all over eBay. O.o Aside from the bemused delight of a big robot gila monster, whose gimmick is high-velocity vomiting his little chickenball partner, Crazybolt has one of the BADASSEST car modes of all time. A berserk caricature of a muscle car that screams bullying speed.
13 MakeToys Striker Noir This guy's articulation is insane. Sorcery-level transformation allows for incredibly expressive movement. One of the best ab-crunches I've ever seen. The head is SO good. All over him, there's inventive design work. I love how the cab window and tires crunch together to make the torso. This is a brilliantly creative figure from MakeToys, and makes me wish more 3rd party companies would go nuts like this.
12 Ocular Max Azalea / Fans Toys Hoodlum Bought them together and they're an inseparable pair. Not only do they go together as characters, and scale nicely, but they balance each other well. Azalea's easier and more fun to transform, while Hoodlum has that Fans Toys stand-up-and-take-notice presence to him. Both have excellent, accurate head sculpts. I couldn't love the car modes more. Azalea takes some liberties, but is a cuddly little soap bar. Hoodlum is EXACTLY how I've always wanted a toy of Hot Rod to look. A Mouth-wateringly yummy pair.
11 DX9 Montana DX9 continues to make my hands happy with strong plastic, snug tabs, nice hinges, and overall durability. They get closest to the feel of that 1987 Hasbro plastic. Montana is a lovely aerodynamic plank of car, and a lanky handsome bot. I enjoy a lot of moments in his transformation, especially rotating and sliding in the backpack with a satisfying 'kerchunk'. Another standout ab crunch on him too.
10 Fans Toys Roadking I don't know if I can sell enough kidneys to afford FT's full Menasor, but if all I get is this terrifying skyscraper of menace and might, I'll be happy. Compressing an entire semi truck into a robot is applause-worthy ballsiness. Vanishing the whole cab into the shins is bonkers, and gives him great standing stability. The backpack is either hate it or admite it. I'm the latter. Plus he's huge enough that the long transformation doesn't feel fiddly. Add in a Thanos-like expression of perfect mercilessness, and you have an audacious titan that was worth every penny of his considerable price.
09 Robots In Disguise Skid-Z Wandering aimlessly through TFWiki led me by chance to remembering that this guy existed. Bought him for a tenner and he absolutely charmed my socks off. He has so much personality for such a limited little toy! The delicious, icecreamy color scheme helps a lot. As does the supernova-bright tangerine light-piping. But it's that spot-on perfect Mirage noggin that does it. I actually bought him twice just to complete the two-piece gun he hides in his shins.
08 Keith's Fantasy Club Stratotanker This should not be on here. Material tolerances are all over the map. He feels like he's going to break every time I pick him up. And... and... I love him. I can't help it. Honestly, he may be the strongest 3rd party combiner in terms of having all three modes look pretty damn good. A superb truck (with detachable articulated cab!), a massive soaring jet, and in robot mode he coneys such a perfect oafish Decepticon bastard. Take my heart, you scoundrel.
07 Siege Battlemaster Smashdown Every year, some tiny cereal prize manages to beat out mortgage-your-house Masterpieces, and here we are again. Smashdown is the most fun it is possible to compress into two ounces of plastic. For starters, the utter lunacy of a battle hammer that turns into a goddam MINOTAUR!? How did this get made!? And he's so cute!! Stubby little limbs and yet another notable ab crunch. Plus, the joints and tabs are so perfectly snug, transforming him is like taking a bite out of a five star dessert.
06 Studio Series Dark Of The Moon Leader Megatron & Igor This has been a VERY good year for bigass evil trucks. DOTM Voyager Megatron wasn't terrible, but he was such a letdown. This was maybe the single most necessary Studio Series figure. And some people hated him. I get it. Thin plastic and an almost-entirely-hollow truck cab. But two-thirds of the vehicle mode gets sucked up into the FEET! How the SHIT!? Face-sculpt is perfect. Ditto the hunched, battered-but-still-deadly posture. And we finally get his enormous shotgun! Plus his inexplicable Quasimodo pal! Really love that the cape and chains were optional, so you can mix and match how you want him to look. Overall, I cherish this massive Mad Max madman.
05 Siege Voyager Springer I have loved Springer, and been disappointed in his toys, all the way back to being a wee tyke in 1987. Siege has finally given me what I've always wanted. My only gripe is wishing the swords could store underneath in car mode, but eh, I'll live. We have a flawless robot mode, topped with a perfect headsculpt. Great articulation on snug swivels. Unoffensive distribution of the Siege battle damage poop sprinkles. Then a gnarly, boxy Cybertronian car and copter; both of them just different enough to distinguish themselves. He knocked Ocular Max Saltus completely off the list, is what I'm saying.
04 MasterMind Creations Titanika I had given up hope of ever owning this figure. Then last summer I brought in three huge boxes of TFs to sell to my local collectibles store, and there she was. Traded everything for her without hesitation. Sweet Jesus. A zaftig juggernaut, transforming into a six-wheeled slab of pure purple murder. And despite the oddly-creaky plastic, she's a blast to transform. So much fun. The knuckle-balls rotating open to reveal fully-articulated hands was the cherry on the sundae.
03 Newage Manero / Newage Max / Iron Factory Shrike's Feather / Magic Square Fevernova / Mech Fans Heikew This was the year of the Legends class. Iron Factory had been going strong for a while, but then Magic Square started producing palm-sized delights, MechFans stopped plagiarizing long enough to dream up some original designs, and NewAge exploded out new models like crazy, showing us their Bumblebee was not a one-hit wonder. I have to give equal love to all these little joyfuls: Manero's incredible poseability and perfect car mode. Max's teensy chubby adorableness. Shrike's cute face and clever leg/landing gear automorph. Fevernova's genius reinterpretation of the standard Inferno head-and-ladder. And Heikew's refreshing, solid simplicity.
02 Siege Deluxe Mirage / Siege Deluxe Bluestreak Two figures that earned their shared silver medal for exactly opposite reasons. Both have fantastic-looking robot modes, obviously. Good articulation and no floppy bits. Mirage makes my jaw drop with an utterly nuts transformation we've never seen anywhere before. It takes a lot of chances, and some people hate the huge spoiler and fake chest. Worth it though, in my opinion. Then you have the Prowl mold, which does absolutely nothing unexpected. Yet the same old familiar steps are polished to a blinding shine. So buttery smooth, transformation is like gliding from one mode to the other. And the colors for this repaint complement each other incredibly well. Siege Mirage earns a place beside the equally-creative Classics incarnation, and Bluestreak has never looked better.
01 DX9 Carry There were themes that kept reoccurring in the best toys I bought this year, and all of them converged in Carry. Solid, durable plastic with good hinges, pegs, and joints. An all-in-one cab-and-trailer transformation. Inventive design with ballsy features that a lot of people complained about. Being disappointed as a kid, wishing for a toy that looked and could pose like the box art. This is the Rodimus my younger self wanted. And he is the Most Enjoyable Third Party Transformation Of Anything I Own. Got him near the beginning of the year and he always stayed close to my desk. The backpack may be an eyesore, but its hinges are seriously satisfying. Folding the back wheels into the lower legs is flat-out fucking heaven. Add in a cute little fun Targetmaster buddy, and I feel unworthy of so much greatness.
Some nice looking robots there. From the dinky dollar-store level to the cooler than thou ninja, they manage to make transformers that mostly look the way they should be. Except the Bay movies, still hate them. Even Springer looks cool. I think Striker is one of the best looking robots on the list. Hydraulic pistons, clear-case circuitry, now that looks like a super advanced alien robot. Rodomus looks more detailed, but I think someone gave him the wrong face. He looks like Prowl or Kup.
Some nice looking robots there. From the dinky dollar-store level to the cooler than thou ninja, the
He is supposed to look like the older version of Hot Rod. Though, yeah, DX9's aesthetic is usually simple and blocky, and that can mean the face sculpts too.
He is supposed to look like the older version of Hot Rod. Though, yeah, DX9's aesthetic is usually s
This year has been so damn good for TFs, good lord. Where could I even begin? My top 10 would likely have to be 10. Siege Astrotrain (I was let down by the TR space choo choo, but one that decided to eschew a "Cool" train and just go back to nineteen eighty four was a good choice, finally giving me the modern Astrotrain I want. Shame he's a head shorter than TR Blitzwing and Octane, though) 9. Cybertron Megatron (A figure I've wanted for ages, but could never grab either because it was incomplete, or people were asking way too much for it. Finally found one in a collector's store for an agreeable price and fully complete. My god, this figure is such fun, and a stark reminder of just how big the Leader class used to be) 8. SS DOTM Megatron (I loved DOTM's Megatron design. My favorite movie Megatron look mainly because it transforms into something. The original voyager was nice and all, but this is justice. I'm not too big on the actual cloth cloak, but it does lend itself for some real poses, and the transformation is surprisingly nice) 7. Newage Manero (Jazz is one of my favorite characters, so to have such a nice figure at the legends class makes me so giddy! The 3P Legends class wave is one that I'm happy about, since it's great figures at affordable prices) 6. Siege Jetfire (Jetfire has always been someone I've been indifferent on, but a figure that really captures his size and doesn't try and do an "In-between" with both show style and Macross style is always a good thing, since that's the primary reason why I've disliked so many other Jetfires in the past) 5. SS BB Optimus Prime (A beautiful hybrid of movie touches with classic Prime mixed in. I just love it so much. Looks great and doesn't feel like a cluttered mess like some other SS figures. Shame about the rear of the cab looking so gappy, otherwise he'd be higher) 4. Siege Springer (Everyone loves the other CHUG Springer, but I don't care about the IDW comics, so that design did nothing for me. This Springer, though, is everything I've wanted. Finally, a Springer that looks like the Springer I know, and feels great to mess with!) 3. MP Dinobot (Thank you, Chinese knock offs, for making an affordable version of this figure for me. Even while a knockoff, I think it's still pretty damn solid and one cool ass figure. The MP Beast Wars line gives me life, and I can't wait to get more...And for MP Megatron to also get a KO...) 2. Siege Optimus Prime (Literally feels like a mini masterpiece with a sillier truck mode. Damn, I love it..Technically, I got it for Christmas last year, but fuck the rules, I still love this little guy even a year later) 1. MP Ultra Magnus (Shoulders be damned, Magnus is one of my favorite characters in the franchise, and this figure I'm in love with!)
This year has been so damn good for TFs, good lord. Where could I even begin? My top 10 would likely
Very awesome list! Cybertron Megs is a dear favorite of mine too. sorry for taking so long to respond, but I've been on vacation with my Canadapals. Got Magic Square Transporter as one of my Christmas gifts, and he is a perfect mini MP Ultra Magnus. so kawaii!
Very awesome list! Cybertron Megs is a dear favorite of mine too. sorry for taking so long to respon
