Top 5 (+1) of 2015 : Unofficial Transforming Toys

January 11, 2016 Reply

It’s on to my second of the “top toys of 2015” lists, and perhaps the most difficult one for me to compile – the top 5 (plus one) of non Hasbro/TakaraTomy transforming toys that I acquired in 2015, or as they’re colloquially (but incorrectly) labelled online, “third party Transformers”.

It’s honestly a testament to how FANTASTIC the offerings have been this year that I had as much trouble as I did whittling down this list – there’s several toys that are NOT on here that were in fact VERY good toys that I’ve quite enjoyed. I especially feel upset that nothing made by FansToys this year ended up on my list – I quite liked how Soar and Grenadier turned out, for instance (Grenadier is AMAZING) but a bunch of late-in-the-year releases ended up drowning them out in awesomeness.

In fact, given how end-of-the-year-release centric my list is I feel kinda apologetic for neglecting those earlier toys and giving them shorter shrift, but they were just really really good.

Anyway, make like the Jumpman and race a gokart after the break!

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Top 5 (+ 1 ) of 2015: Transformers

January 5, 2016 Reply

2015 has now come to a close, and so it’s time to take a look back down memory lane and see just what I thought the best toys of the year were. And as a big Transformers collector, naturally I have enough Hasbro/TakaraTomy product to warrant a list of its own.

Overall, here’s the main limitations/rules I had when doing this list, up front:

  • The toy must have reached me in 2015. Items released in 2014 I didn’t get until 2015 are eligible, and 2015 items I didn’t get before Jan 1 2016 are ineligible and will be counted next year.
  • If it was all in the same box, it’s one toy.
  • If it’s a group unit, like a combiner, that was sold separately, it’s one toy BUT probably a toy with a focus on individual members in the group. Eg, 2014’s unofficial Transformers list had Feral Rex on it with a focus on Leo Dux, given the limbs were sold separately and the sum mode not completed until 2014.

But enough of semantics – onto the list after the jump! A top 5 count plus an honorable mention for that one toy that deserved to be recognized in some way but wasn’t able to steal itself a slot.

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ACTIONNNN!!!!! – Tekno’s Top 5 Action Figures of 2014

January 2, 2015 Reply

And it’s time for another series of top toy lists of 2014 – namely, a look at one of the secondary, all-encompassing things I tend to cherry pick from – action figures.

Odds are the descriptions will be a bit briefer than the Transformers lists, though I’m also drawing from a wider berth, including North American and Japanese figures. Read more [+]

(Third) Party Here In Agrabah – Tekno’s Top 5 Unofficial Transforming Toys of 2014

January 2, 2015 Reply

Continuing my lists of top toys of 2014, I’m now on to the next part – namely, the unlicensed unofficial “third party” transforming toys of which I am a big fan.

And of which I partook in picking up quite a few this year. Though having said that, there’s a number that looked awesome that I DIDN’T partake in picking up – you can blame price plus combiner fatigue for that. (And ironically, there’s more than one combiner-related thing on this list, having said that…)

Amusingly enough, there’s one other thing that keeps recurring on this list… namely, a good chunk of these were TFcon Toronto or Chicago-exclusive decoes. Though I suppose that only makes sense given how much I love that convention. Still, given there’s less stuff on my list, and that I’m finding this easier to pick winners for, it’s only gonna be top 5 from hereon out.

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Top 10 – Tekno’s Top Transformers of 2014

January 2, 2015 Reply

So happy new year to all as I use this way-too-rarely-used blog to actually write some original content!

In this case, it’s 2015, and I’m looking back on my top toys of 2014. And in the case of Transformers…. man. I was gonna just make it a top 5 list, but then when I started narrowing my finalists, I ended up with at least 17, making it REALLY hard to pare down.

And so I give you my top 10 Transformers, Hasbro or Takara, of 2014.

NOTE: Said list includes figures I’ve actually messed with in 2014. Given I haven’t had hands-on with Brainstorm/Arcee/Chromia or any Combiner Wars stuff, it necessarily can’t be in contention for this list.

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