ATT,

Whelp, another crap year in the books. I've given up hope that this virus will ever get under control and we can get back to normal. Fortunately for us, plastic robots from Cybertron are immune to the biological virus (but not to the supply chain side effects). It was another busy year for the franchise, lots of G1 homages throughout. This year marked a comprehensive tribute to the beast wars legacy. I personally am not a huge beast wars fan, so this was mostly a "meh" moment for me. The toy line also continued the homage of the world famous, Oscar nominated, 1986 animated thriller, producing some exquisite toys. There were also some Netflix toys that were released, along with a line called Buzzworthy Bumblebee, and even some Bayverse toys, shattered glass nonsense, a Titan Returns homage (those toys were that good), oh and a bunch of random exclusives. Overall, I think the toy line this year didn't know what it wanted to be. It was a massive melting pot of a number of concepts - all interesting and quality but lacking any cohesive theme. I think the toy line again took a small step backwards, continuing its very slow but steady decline from the Titans Return line. But honestly, we are still getting some of the most incredible toys we have ever seen. Overall, I'll give Hasbro an A- for the year.

Here is a reminder of the rules. All remain untouched except for #4. I finally found a replacement to tfu.info to settle the "I found my <toy name here> in Dec 2020" arguments. Props to Unicron.com. Their list is excellent, comprehensive and has pictures!
1.) No ties. You have to pick one (Feel free to name as many honorable mentions as you wish!)
2.) No molds. If you pick a mold that has been redeco'd a zillion times, you have to declare which of the redecos you are picking.
3.) No third party toys
4.) Released in 2021 per https://www2.unicron.com/2021-transformers.html
5.) Cost is a factor in selection. The more expensive, the more "awesome" the toy has to be to win.
6.) Hasbro Pulse or other Store exclusives are eligible, and toys are not decremented for lack of availability.

2021

There were several toys that I fell in love with this year. Here are a few honorable mentions in random order:

1.) Shattered Glass Jetfire: I hate shattered glass, and this is a total repaint. I also admittedly do not own this toy. But damn, that color scheme on Jetfire is so incredibly beautiful.

2.) The Ark - This is an odd, giant, expensive toy that we didn't really need. Wait, we'll we needed the Ark, but not a giant robot. This was a massive miss for Hasbro. The Ark should have transformed into a giant playset rather than a robot. Mainframe was pretty incredible (finally we get an official Teletran-One - why did that take so damn long). Also, WHERE IS HIS GUN?!

3.) Just about all of the Movie 86 toys. What a great line. So many great toys here.

4.) BW Kingdom Scorponock. I really like how they went a completely different direction than his original release (which was great but not screen accurate in the least). Somehow, they nailed the antiquated CGI with this toy.

5.) Wingfinger: This guy really scares the hell out of me, like I am not kidding. That head is haunting. I still can't get behind the idea of a skeleton transformer though. Can he fly without feathers? Where are his electronics? It creative though, so I will give him an honorable mention.

5.) Buzzworthy Bumblebee: I almost gave this toy the prize. He's incredible. It took almost 40 years to get a screen accurate Bumblebe Cybertronian mode toy, and the first ever energy conductors. Still not sure I am not making a mistake not giving him the prize, except Bumblebee...

6.) Golden Disc Collection Jackpot/Sights: I love this toy, primarily because he is a black 911. Of course, that is the wrong car for Jackpot, so he loses.

7.) Netflix Sparkless Bot: Transformers needs more of these random bots. The zombie story line is great, and his paint job haunts me to this day. Also helps that he is a great mold.

8.) Haslab Unicron: He finally came in, he's amazing, blah blah blah. THE definitive Transformers toy of all time, the no collection is complete without. Admit it, if you didn't buy him, you will regret it the rest of your life. At the end of the day, he was $700 so not a chance of winning. (Also, having a really hard time to find a place to put him, and I literally had to disassemble his box because it was too wide to fit through the entrance to the attic!)

So, that leaves us with what I believe was the best Transformer Toys of the year. Drum roll please...
<SPOILERS>

<SPOILERS>

86 Slag with Daniel Witwicky: Step 1, throw the Spike toy in the trash. Step 2, enjoy the best toy made in 2021. Two things do it for me. Most importantly the size. THIS is what a Dinobot should be, GIANT! We have been waiting for this for a long time. He is thick, bulky and imposing. Everything a Dinobot should be - a complete handful. He bests Grimlock mostly because we have had a ton of Grimlock toys, but this Slag is something special. Hasbro took a big risk putting a relatively obscure character in the Leader class size. I think it paid off. The other aspect about this toy that sells it for me is the G1 animation style. He's not overly complicated, but has enough detail to not look like a baby toy. I can't explain how excited I am to see the rest of the Dinobots next year. Well done, Hasbro!!

-Banzaitron (What say everyone else?)

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 6:52:00 PM UTC,
> ATT,
>
> Whelp, another crap year in the books. I've given up hope that this virus will ever get under control and we can get back to normal. Fortunately for us, plastic robots from Cybertron are immune to the biological virus (but not to the supply chain side effects). It was another busy year for the franchise, lots of G1 homages throughout. This year marked a comprehensive tribute to the beast wars legacy. I personally am not a huge beast wars fan, so this was mostly a "meh" moment for me. The toy line also continued the homage of the world famous, Oscar nominated, 1986 animated thriller, producing some exquisite toys. There were also some Netflix toys that were released, along with a line called Buzzworthy Bumblebee, and even some Bayverse toys, shattered glass nonsense, a Titan Returns homage (those toys were that good), oh and a bunch of random exclusives. Overall, I think the toy line this year didn't know what it wanted to be. It was a massive melting pot of a number of concepts - all interesting and quality but lacking any cohesive theme. I think the toy line again took a small step backwards, continuing its very slow but steady decline from the Titans Return line. But honestly, we are still getting some of the most incredible toys we have ever seen. Overall, I'll give Hasbro an A- for the year.
>
> Here is a reminder of the rules. All remain untouched except for #4. I finally found a replacement to tfu.info to settle the "I found my <toy name here> in Dec 2020" arguments. Props to Unicron.com. Their list is excellent, comprehensive and has pictures!
>
> 1.) No ties. You have to pick one (Feel free to name as many honorable mentions as you wish!)
> 2.) No molds. If you pick a mold that has been redeco'd a zillion times, you have to declare which of the redecos you are picking.
> 3.) No third party toys
> 4.) Released in 2021 per https://www2.unicron.com/2021-transformers.html
> 5.) Cost is a factor in selection. The more expensive, the more "awesome" the toy has to be to win.
> 6.) Hasbro Pulse or other Store exclusives are eligible, and toys are not decremented for lack of availability.
>
> 2021
>
> There were several toys that I fell in love with this year. Here are a few honorable mentions in random order:
>
> 1.) Shattered Glass Jetfire: I hate shattered glass, and this is a total repaint. I also admittedly do not own this toy. But damn, that color scheme on Jetfire is so incredibly beautiful.
>
> 2.) The Ark - This is an odd, giant, expensive toy that we didn't really need. Wait, we'll we needed the Ark, but not a giant robot. This was a massive miss for Hasbro. The Ark should have transformed into a giant playset rather than a robot. Mainframe was pretty incredible (finally we get an official Teletran-One - why did that take so damn long). Also, WHERE IS HIS GUN?!
>
> 3.) Just about all of the Movie 86 toys. What a great line. So many great toys here.
>
> 4.) BW Kingdom Scorponock. I really like how they went a completely different direction than his original release (which was great but not screen accurate in the least). Somehow, they nailed the antiquated CGI with this toy..
>
> 5.) Wingfinger: This guy really scares the hell out of me, like I am not kidding. That head is haunting. I still can't get behind the idea of a skeleton transformer though. Can he fly without feathers? Where are his electronics? It creative though, so I will give him an honorable mention.
>
> 5.) Buzzworthy Bumblebee: I almost gave this toy the prize. He's incredible. It took almost 40 years to get a screen accurate Bumblebe Cybertronian mode toy, and the first ever energy conductors. Still not sure I am not making a mistake not giving him the prize, except Bumblebee...
>
> 6.) Golden Disc Collection Jackpot/Sights: I love this toy, primarily because he is a black 911. Of course, that is the wrong car for Jackpot, so he loses.
>
> 7.) Netflix Sparkless Bot: Transformers needs more of these random bots. The zombie story line is great, and his paint job haunts me to this day. Also helps that he is a great mold.
>
> 8.) Haslab Unicron: He finally came in, he's amazing, blah blah blah. THE definitive Transformers toy of all time, the no collection is complete without. Admit it, if you didn't buy him, you will regret it the rest of your life. At the end of the day, he was $700 so not a chance of winning. (Also, having a really hard time to find a place to put him, and I literally had to disassemble his box because it was too wide to fit through the entrance to the attic!)
>
> So, that leaves us with what I believe was the best Transformer Toys of the year. Drum roll please...
> <SPOILERS>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> <SPOILERS>
>
> 86 Slag with Daniel Witwicky: Step 1, throw the Spike toy in the trash. Step 2, enjoy the best toy made in 2021. Two things do it for me. Most importantly the size. THIS is what a Dinobot should be, GIANT! We have been waiting for this for a long time. He is thick, bulky and imposing. Everything a Dinobot should be - a complete handful. He bests Grimlock mostly because we have had a ton of Grimlock toys, but this Slag is something special. Hasbro took a big risk putting a relatively obscure character in the Leader class size. I think it paid off. The other aspect about this toy that sells it for me is the G1 animation style. He's not overly complicated, but has enough detail to not look like a baby toy. I can't explain how excited I am to see the rest of the Dinobots next year. Well done, Hasbro!!
>
> -Banzaitron (What say everyone else?)

In this, our repeat Year of the Pandemic, the breadth and depth of official releases represented one of the few bright spots. From animation accurate releases of classic G1 for the old timers to the continuation of Cyberverse for the kids, from Core class entry level bots to Divorce class Planeteaters, 2021 had it all.

Honorable Mentions:

- Walmart-Exclusive Vintage Beast Wars Reissues:

In the year of the Beasts, what a joy to have the originals available again at retail for new collectors and old alike. The molds have lost none of their appeal - still durable, intuitive, and with poseability that nearly rivals any modern day release. The Kingdom beasts win on screen accuracy, but for everything else, make mine the originals.

- Generations Selects Ramjet

Beautiful and sleek, a fitting tribute to the OG Decepticon who battled Optimus himself at the start of each Generation 2 episode.

- Kingdom Galvatron

At long last, a king worthy of his name. After the innumerable Megatron recolors in RID/Unicron, the almost
but not quite Titans Return effort, and the abomination that was the Universe 2.0 release (so much promise squandered), Hasbro finally does right by the maniacal leader, with a toy redeco to boot.

- Fossilizers

Gimmicky? Sure. Absolutely without precedent in the canon? Definitely. Fun? You betcha. My favorite are the fan creations featuring dozens of the creatures in different combinations. Using our imaginations to create new play patterns - what a concept.

- Covert Agent Ravage

He exists. If only he had been a mass release instead of Tripredacus Agent.

- Unicron

For proving that Transformers fans will pony up for their favorites, and opening the door to more premium releases in the future.

And for my pick as Toy of the Year 2021...

Generations Selects G2 Megatron!

This was my Megatron, the leader from the comics and toyline when I was growing up, finally brought to life in all his garish 90’s glory. All the strengths of the Earthrise mold are accentuated here - that face, the transformation - while the weaknesses (the random flap, the sword cannon thing) don’t detract from what is a superb use of the underlying mold.

Of all the Siege/Earthrise Megatron recolors, and there have been many, this is far and away my favorite. With the various third party add-on kits continuing to be released, he may very well end up being one of my most expensive figures of the year too.

Happy New Year, and let’s hope that when it comes to the pandemic, 2022 is not just “2020, too.”

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 11:52:00 AM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Whelp, another crap year in the books. I've given up hope that this virus will ever get under control and we can get back to normal.

Yeah, I think what we're experiencing right now *is* the new normal. There's hope that eventually we'll develop some kind of herd immunity, and one day we'll all just get our annual COVID boosters the same time we get our flu shots. But, I guess we'll see. Or, at least, those of us who survive.

> Overall, I think the toy line this year didn't know what it wanted to be. It was a massive melting pot of a number of concepts - all interesting and quality but lacking any cohesive theme.

I think it was presented as a celebration of All Things Transformers, a theme I think we're going to see continue at least into Legacy. I do strongly suspect that there was some weird last-minute rejiggering with the toy assortment. Siege was very clearly "day before Arklaunch," Earthrise was very clearly "day after Arklaunch," so Kingdom should have been "Maximals defending the Ark during prehistory." Maybe somebody at Hasbro was worried that a whole toy line full of Maximals and Predacons wouldn't sell too well without some G1 characters in the mix. The rejiggering would also explain oddities like Scourge behind shunted into Studio Series even though his C.O.M.B.A.T./F.O.S.S.I.L. play pattern suggests he belongs in Kingdom.
> I think the toy line again took a small step backwards, continuing its very slow but steady decline from the Titans Return line.

I think we saw a real dip in quality with Power of the Primes, but Siege and Earthrise and Kingdom have been great. Kingdom isn't my favorite toy line ever (I'm sort of with you on the character selection... that's a lot of Beasties) but it's a solid offering.

> 3.) Just about all of the Movie 86 toys. What a great line. So many great toys here.

Yeah, it's been a stupendous product year if you're a Transformers: the Movie fan. And it looks like 2022 is going to have more of the same (Perceptor, Blaster, Insecticons, etc.)

> 5.) Wingfinger: This guy really scares the hell out of me, like I am not kidding. That head is haunting. I still can't get behind the idea of a skeleton transformer though. Can he fly without feathers? Where are his electronics?

He's powered by voodoo magic.

> 6.) Golden Disc Collection Jackpot/Sights: I love this toy, primarily because he is a black 911. Of course, that is the wrong car for Jackpot, so he loses.

I can't get over the molding error on his head. That's just sloppy.

> 86 Slag with Daniel Witwicky.

Truly an excellent choice. For me, he was one of the two semi-finalists. I'll post my write-up in a sec.

Zob (every year, I swear I'm never going out shopping right before the holiday, and every year I end up going shopping right before the holiday)

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 11:52:00 AM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

<snip>

As far as the toys who qualify, I believe the mainline list is as follows (we're all adult collectors here, so I assume nobody is going to pick a Rescue Bots toy or Cyberverse):

Abominus (Takara), Arcee (Kingdom), Airazor, Artfire, Autobot Ark, B-127, Blackarachnia, Blackarachnia (Worlds Collide), Blaster, Blast Master (Botropolis), Blurr (Studio Series), Blurr (Shattered Glass), Bumblebee (Buzzworthy), Bumblebee (Origin), Bumblebee (RotF Studio Series), Bumblebee (Worlds Collide), Caliburst (Sparkless), Cheetor, Cheetor (Netflix), Cheetor (Reissue), Cyclonus, Daniel Witwicky (Studio Series), Deep Cover, Deep Cover (Netflix), Deseeus Army Drone, Dino (Studio Series), Dinobot, Eject, Fangry, Fireguard, Fuzer (Botropolis), Galvatron, Gnaw (Studio Series), Goldbug (Shattered Glass), Grimlock (Beast Wars), Grimlock (Studio Series), Grindor (Studio Series), Highbrow (Retro), Hot Rod (Studio Series), Huffer, Inferno, Ironworks (Botropolis), Jackpot, Jazz (Studio Series), Jetfire (Shattered Glass), Jolt (RotF Studio Series), Kup (Studio Series), Mainframe, Megatron (Beast), Megatron (Core), Megatron (Beast Wars Reissue), Megatron (Netflix), Megatron (Shattered Glass), Mirage, Missile Master, Moonrock, Motorhead, Nemesis Primal, Nightstick, Optimus Primal, Optimus Primal (Netflix), Optimus Primal (Reissue), Optimus Prime (Core), Optimus Prime (Kingdom), Overair (Botropolis), Paleotrex, Pipes, Puffer, Ractonite, Ramjet (G2), Rattrap, Rattrap (Netflix), Rattrap (Reissue), Ravage (Agent), Ravage (Decepticons Forever), Ravage (RotF Studio Series), Red Alert, Rhinox, Roadburner, Road Rage, Road Ranger, Rodimus Prime, Runner (Micromaster Barricade), Scorponok (Beast Wars), Scourge (Studio Series), Shadow Panther, Sideswipe (Earth Mode), Sideswipe (RotF Studio Series), Sights, Singe (Sparkless), Silverbolt (Magnaboss), Skullcruncher (Retro), Slammer, Slug (Slag), Sparkless Bot, Sparkless Seeker, Spike Witwicky (Exo-Suit), Starscream (Core), Starscream (Shattered Glass), Starscream (Studio Series), Stingracer, Sweep, Terrorsaur, Thrust (Studio Series), Tigatron, Tigatron (Mutant), Tracks, Transmutate, Tricranius, T-Wrecks, Vertebreak, Volcanicus (Takara), Ultra Magnus (Earth Mode), Unicron (HasLab), Warpath, Waspinator, Weirdwolf (Retro), Wheelie, Wheeljack (Kingdom), Windstorm, Wingfinger, Wreck-Gar.

For the Collaborative Series, this year we got Autobot JP-93, Draculus, Ectotron v2, Tyrannocon Rex, and X-Spanse.

For Masterpiece, Takara sold the "Prenium Finish" version of movie Optimus Prime, and we were supposed to get Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp as well as Skids/Reboost.  As far as I know, Skywarp and Skids and Reboost are delayed until 2022.

I would say that of those toys, my favorites are the Ark, Blackarachnia, Blurr, Origins Bumblebee, Cyclonus, Dinobot, Fangry, Galvatron, Gnaw,
Grimlock (Leader-class), Hot Rod, Inferno, Jazz, Kup, Optimus Primal, Pipes, Rodimus Prime, Scourge, Slag, Tigatron, Tracks, Unicron, Warpath, and Wreck-Gar.  (Blaster looks amazing, but I haven't found him yet so I can't offer an informed opinion, and he was meant to be a 2022 product anyway.)

Honestly, it's been a great product year.  The focus on The Transformers: the Movie means we got a lot of great updates to the 1986 characters.  And they finally managed to dethrone the great Reveal the Shield Cyclonus with Kingdom Cyclonus, which is one of my all-time favorite toys of an all-time favorite character.

I love that we finally got a toy of the Ark, but the actual design is kind of lacking.  The wrong number of thrusters is a real turn-off, and the non-articulated guns feel cheap.

Unicron is great, but it's not worth $600.  Is he more fun than (counts on fingers) 23 Sharkticons?  No, he's not.  

The sheer number of Beast Wars updates blows me away.  Not all of them are improvements, though (Rhinox and Waspinator are pretty bad, and honestly nothing could have beat Generations Waspinator from 2014).  Blackarachnia is amazing, though.  Dinobot is such a difficult character to capture correctly, but they managed to give us a mini-Masterpiece for $30.  I think Optimus Primal is my favorite of the Beast Wars updates so far.  

And Studio Series has been incredible.  It's so hard to narrow down the list, because Wreck-Gar and Scourge and Jazz and Blurr are all just so good.  

But, honestly, what impresses me more than anything else is the gigantic Dinobots we got this year.  Grimlock and Slag are both so amazing.
They're finally, finally, the cartoon scale Dinobots I've been wanting since, like, forever.  

It's gotta be Grimlock.  He's large, intuitive and easy to transform, and unlike the PotP toy, he actually comes with his gun (not his sword, but technically he never carried it in the cartoon). He's large, screen-accurate, and did I mention he was LARGE? As a collector, I've suffered sticker shock before (SEE: Super7 TMNT Ultimates; SEE ALSO: NECA Ninja Turtles 2-packs), but I've never been so happy to spend $50 as I have been with the Grimster.

Zob (and, yes, can't wait for Sludge and Swoop and Snarl)

Reading over my Toy Of The Year 2020, I was somehow disappointed with Earthrise. I kept going back to the Siege toys for fiddling with, and generally although there was nothing objectively bad about Earthrise (other than Arcee, and Sunstreaker), it didn't hold up to the previous years efforts.

My Toy Of The Year was Dead Optimus. I stand by that. Nothing quite evoked the shitshow that was 2020 like a dead version of a beloved character.

2021 is moving away from the Seasons 1 and 2 cast, into the relatively fresher territory of BW and TF:TM, with a few holdovers and redecos. Of course, this also meant dragging out the Earthrise Arcee mold again, both as Arcee and as Lifeline... the mold still sucks, although I discovered that my Lifeline holds together way better and is merely bad, rather than a complete failure. But, one of the toys that remains on my desk for constant fiddling is Crosshairs, paired with Firedrive even though I have Pinpointer somewhere (the white really works better color-wise than the black and red, as it doesn't blend in, but also matches the trim). I really liked Siege. So, there's that. We haven't really surpassed Siege.

However, we also have some great toys with this toyline. I’m not sure there are any toys that have completely blown me away, and nothing that we need a half dozen versions of (even the beloved Siege Sideswipe might be overdone at this point) but there are a lot of really good toys that come close, and I’m hoping that at some point one will suddenly get the little spark of something extra that makes it jump from very good to beloved.

So, the first pass of contenders are: Cyclonus, who has gotten his best toy ever; Scourge, who has also gotten his best toy ever, and who has a really lovely cornflower blue that will doubtless end up being a tie-breaker if it comes to a tie; Galvatron, in all his purple glory, or all original toy color glory with stickers and the like; Gnaw, our roly-poly friend with all the teeth; and Inferno, who is an improved version of Grapple (now no breaking pegs), or his Targetmaster friend Artfire.

And now checking TFWiki to see who I missed that might be a contender:

Rodimus Prime is actually quite good, but I find his transformation a bit too complex, and kind of prefer the Power Of The Primes toy. I could absolutely see someone loving him more than any other, and if we didn't have Power Of The Primes, I might. I'm fickle that way. Also, his trailer doesn’t always want to stay closed, and on a Commander Class toy, we cannot accept that.

G2 Ramjet -- We do love G2, but holy shit is that Seeker mold over familiar at this point. Great mold, mind you, just wow am I tired of it. As time goes on and I gravitate to one copy of this mold, it might be G2 Ramjet (or G2 Sandstorm), but right now... nope.

Botropolis Rescue Mission -- Is this one toy, or many? Because as one toy, it is amazing. As a bunch of toys, it is less so. It is, however, basically a 2020 toy (and would have been a contender then)

Netflix Earthrise Soundwave -- but he transforms into a box. And I never saw the Core Class version of him, so that's right out.

Studio Series Hot Rod -- he's fine. I don't think he needs to be as complicated as he is, but he's fine. He's better than the Masterpiece toy, I'll grant him that, which should be great praise, and make him an exceptional candidate for Toy Of The Year based on value, but I'm just not digging what he has to offer. Perhaps it is that little yellow spot on his roof — it’s what keeps him from being a Masterpiece toy at retail prices (even though he is very small for a Voyager, he is a great deal compared to the Masterpiece)

Fangry, Optimus Primal, Bumblebee, and Blackarachnia -- ultra rare exclusive set with a lot of filler. Fangry is great, Nemesis Primal is meh, and Bumblebee and Blackarachnia are actively annoying.

Studio Series Wreck-Gar is undoubtedly the best Wreck-Gar we are ever going to get, and features the nipple cannons on ball joints, so he can spray his life-giving nourishments into anyone's mouth even if he isn't directly facing them. Unfortunately, he is also Wreck-Gar, a character that I find as annoying as everyone finds Wheelie.

(If the powers that be had decided to make Nemesis Primal a better color scheme, and packaged him with a matching redeco of Wreck-Gar, perhaps riding Wreck-Gar's motorcycle mode, and packaged diagonally to be doing a wheelie, that set would have made the list -- I'm a sucker for toys interacting)

We also have the big Dinobots starting up, but I keep having parts fall off.. I would rather they didn't include the little companions (Wheelie and Spike) and put that budget into improving the engineering. I think the Dinobots are actually the biggest disappointment of the year.

So, I forgot about as many decent contenders as I remembered, but honestly.... they were kind of forgettable for me.

I am disappointed that none of the beasts made the list, but they just haven't been great. They're fine, mostly, but nothing truly exceptional. I really want to like them more than I do, but the originals were so fun, and these have failed to capture that.

Ok, so back to the original contenders.

INFERNO is overbearingly red. And last year's mold, despite fixing the disqualifying flaw of last year's Grapple. But overbearingly red. It's a bit boring to have someone with basically just one color. Rejected on the basis of being monochromatic.

The monochromatic problem is fixed with Artfire -- rather beautifully fixed, in fact -- plus he has a Targetmaster, so he is inherently better. As an aside, I think they should have changed the color schemes of all the legacy Autobots who came back as Targetmasters -- just enough to add interest, but not enough to change who they are. Artfire really would make an excellent Targetmaster Inferno.

But, he's still basically last year's mold, even if he is missing his disqualifying flaw.

If Artfire was Targetmaster Inferno, rather than just another character who looked suspiciously like Inferno, he would probably feel like more of an essential toy. But, as it is, I don't know who Artfire is. If he has a personality, no one on TFWiki has recorded anything about it. His Targetmaster is just Nightstick, although presumably a different Nightstick.

So, inessential toy, and basically last year's mold. Artfire probably would have gotten the nod last year, but there are enough strong contenders this year that we don't have to resort to a remold/redeco/improvement of an old mold.

CYCLONUS is so lavender. His contrast color is a slightly different lavender, and then there's a slightly lavender sand color. I get it, it is entirely in keeping with the cartoon, but he's boring. Plus, he should have come with a Targetmaster. And some of the parts seem a bit thin for the metal pins, and I fear for his long-term survival, despite seeing no signs of problems now.

(I like my toys a bit chunkier, which feels more stable and solid, even if it isn’t any more durable in the end)

Other than the colors being so boring, he is great. I'm 95% certain he will be Zob's Toy Of The Year, and he won't be wrong -- just, you know, wrong.

I’m hoping Studio Series Armada or whatever gives a bit of contrast to the colors on this mold. This is a great mold dragged down by a boring color scheme.

Compatibility with Universe 2.0 Nightstick is really nice.

I like gaudy color schemes. If they did something silly like Cyclonus in Skywarp colors, representing a future where the influence of Unicron has been removed, I would buy it.

GNAW is adorable. Absolutely adorable. And has a great deco with many colors. And those teeth. He's not perfect, but any problems are basically nitpicking: viewed from the side and held up to the light, you can see a gap under his head where he isn't solid, and the feet tilts are a little severe. But he's great. And a little too short.

It's probably just a matter of being around Voyagers that make him feel too short, rather than just short.

Plus, we had Cyberverse Gnaw and Titans Return Gnaw, and although this is clearly the best Gnaw… in a few years, he might be my favorite of the year, but he doesn’t seem fresh.

SCOURGE is similarly amazing, and I love the extra wings that fold out. The way he can reveal his head in vehicle mode is super fun. And he has that cornflower blue.

I don't like his gun, or how it mounts asymmetrically. If there were posts on either side of the gun, so you could put two on (because we all know that we have many Scourges, and one could hold more weapons in flight mode...), or if the gun had a more central mount where it could be replaced with a Targetmaster, he would likely get the nod.

(Given how closely his vehicle mode resembles TR Astrotrain and Sentinel Prime, I long for an orange and red redeco as Sentinel Prime. I really like bright, gaudy color schemes)

Which brings us to the Toy Of The Year... GALVATRON.

Galvatron is PURPLE. Really, really purple. Overwhelmingly so. He is also way, way better than the Titans Return toy, which I loved, and more accurate than the Energon toy, which I also loved. But he's sort of dull looking, because he's so purple. I love purple. I love the color purple, I love “The Color Purple” and one of my favorite bands is Deep Purple, but this is too purple even for me.

(For a few years, I kept finding purple dress shirts in my size, which given that I have 37” arms is surprising. So, I wore purple every day… that was also too much purple)

He sat in the corner of my desk, loved but ignored, because he was unrelentingly purple.

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 10:52:00 AM UTC-8, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> ATT,
>
> Whelp, another crap year in the books. I've given up hope that this virus will ever get under control and we can get back to normal. Fortunately for us, plastic robots from Cybertron are immune to the biological virus (but not to the supply chain side effects). It was another busy year for the franchise, lots of G1 homages throughout. This year marked a comprehensive tribute to the beast wars legacy. I personally am not a huge beast wars fan, so this was mostly a "meh" moment for me. The toy line also continued the homage of the world famous, Oscar nominated, 1986 animated thriller, producing some exquisite toys. There were also some Netflix toys that were released, along with a line called Buzzworthy Bumblebee, and even some Bayverse toys, shattered glass nonsense, a Titan Returns homage (those toys were that good), oh and a bunch of random exclusives. Overall, I think the toy line this year didn't know what it wanted to be. It was a massive melting pot of a number of concepts - all interesting and quality but lacking any cohesive theme. I think the toy line again took a small step backwards, continuing its very slow but steady decline from the Titans Return line. But honestly, we are still getting some of the most incredible toys we have ever seen. Overall, I'll give Hasbro an A- for the year.

There are a couple of lines that have a cohesive focus, and then the main one that seems like a complete mish-mash. I'm disappointed that the Fossilizer/Weaponizer/Otherizer play pattern seems to have been ignored for the beast toys, but beasts with holes might have looked bad, so...

But, Transformers has been consistently great since Combiner Wars.

> Here is a reminder of the rules. All remain untouched except for #4. I finally found a replacement to tfu.info to settle the "I found my <toy name here> in Dec 2020" arguments. Props to Unicron.com. Their list is excellent, comprehensive and has pictures!

> 4.) Released in 2021 per https://www2.unicron.com/2021-transformers.html

There are errors on that list. It reports toys that haven't been released yet, like Black Zarak and Golden Disk Tigatron, as well as toys from the previous year, like the Studio Series Devastator Box Set (I know it was delivered in 2020, as we recently had a one year anniversary of my cat discovering how much she liked the box before I got around to opening it, and selecting it as her favorite perch... I am still waiting to open it). So, your efforts at avoiding annual border disputes is rejected.
> 2021
>
> There were several toys that I fell in love with this year. Here are a few honorable mentions in random order:
>
> 1.) Shattered Glass Jetfire: I hate shattered glass, and this is a total repaint. I also admittedly do not own this toy. But damn, that color scheme on Jetfire is so incredibly beautiful.

I was underwhelmed by the original mold -- he was big, but didn't dazzle enough. I should pull him out, see what I think now that the new toy impression has worn off.

> 2.) The Ark - This is an odd, giant, expensive toy that we didn't really need. Wait, we'll we needed the Ark, but not a giant robot. This was a massive miss for Hasbro. The Ark should have transformed into a giant playset rather than a robot. Mainframe was pretty incredible (finally we get an official Teletran-One - why did that take so damn long). Also, WHERE IS HIS GUN?!
>
> 3.) Just about all of the Movie 86 toys. What a great line. So many great toys here.
>
> 4.) BW Kingdom Scorponock. I really like how they went a completely different direction than his original release (which was great but not screen accurate in the least). Somehow, they nailed the antiquated CGI with this toy..
>
> 5.) Wingfinger: This guy really scares the hell out of me, like I am not kidding. That head is haunting. I still can't get behind the idea of a skeleton transformer though. Can he fly without feathers? Where are his electronics? It creative though, so I will give him an honorable mention.

I didn't love the fossilizers. I wanted to, but they didn't do it for me.

> 5.) Buzzworthy Bumblebee: I almost gave this toy the prize. He's incredible. It took almost 40 years to get a screen accurate Bumblebe Cybertronian mode toy, and the first ever energy conductors. Still not sure I am not making a mistake not giving him the prize, except Bumblebee...
>
> 6.) Golden Disc Collection Jackpot/Sights: I love this toy, primarily because he is a black 911. Of course, that is the wrong car for Jackpot, so he loses.

The clear plastic on my jazz has cracked, so I didn't splurge.

> 7.) Netflix Sparkless Bot: Transformers needs more of these random bots. The zombie story line is great, and his paint job haunts me to this day. Also helps that he is a great mold.

I like the Sparkless Speaker more, but Sparkless Car is quite good.

> 8.) Haslab Unicron: He finally came in, he's amazing, blah blah blah. THE definitive Transformers toy of all time, the no collection is complete without. Admit it, if you didn't buy him, you will regret it the rest of your life. At the end of the day, he was $700 so not a chance of winning. (Also, having a really hard time to find a place to put him, and I literally had to disassemble his box because it was too wide to fit through the entrance to the attic!)
>
> So, that leaves us with what I believe was the best Transformer Toys of the year. Drum roll please...
> <SPOILERS>
>
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> <SPOILERS>
>
> 86 Slag with Daniel Witwicky: Step 1, throw the Spike toy in the trash. Step 2, enjoy the best toy made in 2021. Two things do it for me. Most importantly the size. THIS is what a Dinobot should be, GIANT! We have been waiting for this for a long time. He is thick, bulky and imposing. Everything a Dinobot should be - a complete handful. He bests Grimlock mostly because we have had a ton of Grimlock toys, but this Slag is something special. Hasbro took a big risk putting a relatively obscure character in the Leader class size. I think it paid off. The other aspect about this toy that sells it for me is the G1 animation style. He's not overly complicated, but has enough detail to not look like a baby toy. I can't explain how excited I am to see the rest of the Dinobots next year. Well done, Hasbro!!

huh. I mean, if you love him, you love him, but huh.

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 3:00:00 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:

> I would say that of those toys, my favorites are the Ark, Blackarachnia, Blurr, Origins Bumblebee, Cyclonus, Dinobot, Fangry, Galvatron, Gnaw,
> Grimlock (Leader-class), Hot Rod, Inferno, Jazz, Kup, Optimus Primal, Pipes, Rodimus Prime, Scourge, Slag, Tigatron, Tracks, Unicron, Warpath, and Wreck-Gar. (Blaster looks amazing, but I haven't found him yet so I can't offer an informed opinion, and he was meant to be a 2022 product anyway.)
> Honestly, it's been a great product year. The focus on The Transformers: the Movie means we got a lot of great updates to the 1986 characters. And they finally managed to dethrone the great Reveal the Shield Cyclonus with Kingdom Cyclonus, which is one of my all-time favorite toys of an all-time favorite character.

I was positive that Cyclonus would be your choice, along with a long write up about the gun being the perfect shape and the paint on the gun being a nice balance of the cartoon flat color and the shiny silver that it was likely meant to represent... or something along those lines.
> I love that we finally got a toy of the Ark, but the actual design is kind of lacking. The wrong number of thrusters is a real turn-off, and the non-articulated guns feel cheap.

I don't mind the thrusters as much as you do, but he is missing something to make him fun and worth it rather than just big and a little cheap.

> Unicron is great, but it's not worth $600. Is he more fun than (counts on fingers) 23 Sharkticons? No, he's not.

Apparently, at some point I will regret not getting him for the rest of my life, but it hasn't happened yet.

> The sheer number of Beast Wars updates blows me away. Not all of them are improvements, though (Rhinox and Waspinator are pretty bad, and honestly nothing could have beat Generations Waspinator from 2014). Blackarachnia is amazing, though. Dinobot is such a difficult character to capture correctly, but they managed to give us a mini-Masterpiece for $30. I think Optimus Primal is my favorite of the Beast Wars updates so far.

Not sure I agree with the specific "best of bunch" but they are all not quite as much fun as the original. I will grant Dinobot/Grimlock the favorite of the bunch by virtue of not having broken due to GPS (yet... maybe they will find a way in the future) and being capable of being mounts for Sharkticons.

> And Studio Series has been incredible. It's so hard to narrow down the list, because Wreck-Gar and Scourge and Jazz and Blurr are all just so good.

And characters that are both classic and pretty fresh, as they haven't had a lot of updates recently, at least not on that quality level.

> But, honestly, what impresses me more than anything else is the gigantic Dinobots we got this year. Grimlock and Slag are both so amazing.
> They're finally, finally, the cartoon scale Dinobots I've been wanting since, like, forever.

huh. Does no one else have problems with parts popping off? If there were some metal pins to keep that from happening, I would love these a lot more.

> It's gotta be Grimlock. He's large, intuitive and easy to transform, and unlike the PotP toy, he actually comes with his gun (not his sword, but technically he never carried it in the cartoon). He's large, screen-accurate, and did I mention he was LARGE? As a collector, I've suffered sticker shock before (SEE: Super7 TMNT Ultimates; SEE ALSO: NECA Ninja Turtles 2-packs), but I've never been so happy to spend $50 as I have been with the Grimster.

I am baffled. I thought I knew you.

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 5:43:50 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> My Toy Of The Year was Dead Optimus. I stand by that. Nothing quite evoked the shitshow that was 2020 like a dead version of a beloved character.

Can't argue with logic like that. (I still wish he was "Dark Awakening" zombie Optimus, with a muted AKOM color scheme, and more cracks on his body, and a breakaway arm and perhaps a replacement head with his eyeball popping out. That would probably be my favorite toy ever.)
> I’m not sure there are any toys that have completely blown me away, and nothing that we need a half dozen versions of (even the beloved Siege Sideswipe might be overdone at this point)

I actually got Yellow Sideswipe just barely. I was feeling like I was missing a vital color in the Skittles assortment, and I found a loose, complete one on eBay for a good price. I don't really know what compelled me to buy it, but I own it now. The #FOMO is real, I guess.
> G2 Ramjet -- We do love G2, but holy shit is that Seeker mold over familiar at this point. Great mold, mind you, just wow am I tired of it. As time goes on and I gravitate to one copy of this mold, it might be G2 Ramjet (or G2 Sandstorm), but right now... nope.

What's funny is that it hasn't even been used as many times as the Deluxe-class Seeker mold from the beginning of the CHUG era. Now there was a workhorse of a toy design. With the Voyager versin, we got the six vital characters in short order, so at this point anything else we get is gravy. I wouldn't mind a G2 Starscream to go with my G2 Ramjet.

> Netflix Earthrise Soundwave -- but he transforms into a box. And I never saw the Core Class version of him, so that's right out.

The Core-class Soundwave is in plentiful supply where I live. Walmarts and Targets are positively swimming in them. You should get him. He's cute.

> Perhaps it is that little yellow spot on his roof

WE HATESSSS THE YELLOW SPOT. NASSSSTY YELLOW SPOT. *coughs up hairball*
> Studio Series Wreck-Gar is undoubtedly the best Wreck-Gar we are ever going to get, and features the nipple cannons on ball joints, so he can spray his life-giving nourishments into anyone's mouth even if he isn't directly facing them. Unfortunately, he is also Wreck-Gar, a character that I find as annoying as everyone finds Wheelie.

Wreck-Gar is supremely irritating as a character. But I love the toy based on the aesthetics and its adherence to his animation design. And he's a member of a larger cast, so he's a vital part of the whole. It would be awful if Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar was the best modern Wreck-Gar we ever got..
> We also have the big Dinobots starting up, but I keep having parts fall off. I would rather they didn't include the little companions (Wheelie and Spike) and put that budget into improving the engineering. I think the Dinobots are actually the biggest disappointment of the year.

Really? That does surprise me. I think I have Slag's horns pop off sometimes, but I'd rather they do that than break off. I don't recall having problems with other pieces coming off. But, I am getting forgetful in my old age.

> I am disappointed that none of the beasts made the list, but they just haven't been great.

A number of them are flawed. Cheetor's kind of a disappointment. I don't know what it is about that kid that's so hard to get right. But, no love for Optimus Primal? What's to dislike about Optimus Primal?

Maybe Tarantulas and/or Inferno will totally blow us all away next year. Who knows?

> I like gaudy color schemes. If they did something silly like Cyclonus in Skywarp colors, representing a future where the influence of Unicron has been removed, I would buy it.

Somebody on the message boards put together a Photoshop of Kingdom Cyclonus decked out in Armada Cyclonus colors. It's wacky.

> I suspect that this year, Toy Of The Year will be dominated by Galvatron, Scourge and Cyclonus.

They're each fantastic toys in their own right, and the fact that we've got the main Decepticon triumverate from 2005, all in the same year, is pretty damn incredible. I really, really like Galvatron a lot, but I don't think I could name him Toy of the Year. He had a very widespread shoulder assembly problem, for one. I was lucky enough to escape this. There are also a handful of little things I don't love about him. His robot feet are weird, for one. Also, his head isn't really the right shape. There's something wrong about the crest on his helmet. Also, I dislike the battle damaged paint on him. It seems unnecessary. I mean, this isn't Siege. (Reportedly, the Legacy package refresh is going to be missing the battle damage, and I guess I'm probably going to have to buy him. Which means I'll eventually own four Galvatrons, since I also pre-ordered the toy colors version and the translucent purple version.)

We've had sparse years where there wasn't really a true Toy of the Year, and I basically picked a toy by merit of being the one that sucked the least. But this year was an absolute embarrassment of riches, with lots of incredible offerings to choose from. So, I think that's a good sign.

Zob (now that I'm done working in the external trailers for this season, I guess it's probably time to chop all my hair off)

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 6:17:42 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I was positive that Cyclonus would be your choice, along with a long write up about the gun being the perfect shape and the paint on the gun being a nice balance of the cartoon flat color and the shiny silver that it was likely meant to represent... or something along those lines.

He's definitely a favorite of mine. No question of that. He might have even been my choice if they hadn't given us any Leader-class Dinobots this year. But, I've been yearning for gigantic Dinobots basically since 1985. They were depicted as these gigantic, lumbering monsters in the cartoon series, and yet the G1 toys were puny. So puny. Swoop is, like, the height of a G.I. Joe figure. So I've been dreaming about properly-scaled Dinobots for a really long time.

> Apparently, at some point I will regret not getting him for the rest of my life, but it hasn't happened yet.

I honestly think we might get a Titan-class Unicron some day. Only a few thousand people in the world got the HasLab Unicron, so definitely not every fan out there. A Titan version would be much more affordable, and if it was a retail release it would be much more widely available to consumers. I think it could happen. Hasbro will probably need to do the Nemesis next to get that out of their system, but after that, I think it's at least a possibility. And then they could do planet Cybertron as a follow-up, a heavy retooled version that transforms into Primus.

> And characters that are both classic and pretty fresh, as they haven't had a lot of updates recently, at least not on that quality level.

Yes, definitely. In the past, it was so much more rare when they'd take a stab at one of the 2005-era characters, and they got it wrong more often than not. But, realistically, I think we've gotten our definitive neo-G1 versions of Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Springer, Wreck-Gar, Rodimus Prime, Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge. Ultra Magnus could stand to be improved. Maybe as a Commander-class toy at some point in the future. And of course we still need a transformable Wheelie. It wouldn't kill them to take another stab at Arcee. But aside from that, if they never touched any of these characters again, I'd honestly be fine with that. (Masterpice is a different story, of course. I still want Masterpiece versions of all the above mentioned characters.)

> huh. Does no one else have problems with parts popping off? If there were some metal pins to keep that from happening, I would love these a lot more..

You have issues with both Slag and Grimlock falling apart? Something other than Slag's horns (which I will concede is a problem)? I may have to break my toys back out and re-examine them.

(I keep having to add new boxes to the storage room. My He-Man collection is exploding in a way I wasn't expecting it to, and my NECA Ninja Turtles collection is also expanding in ways I should have seen coming, but chose not to make any sort of long-term preparations. Also, I had this brilliant idea that I'd take all the boxes that I get into the most and put them in the big, metal shelving in the laundry room, so I didn't have to do through a closet and move 30 boxes every time I wanted to examine a Generations toy from 2014 or whatever. And then right afterwards, my wife decided we needed to start doing emergency food storage, because Utah was in a drought, so now there's all this bottled water stacked on the floor right in front of those shelves. Sigh.)

Zob (used to add metal pins to toys pretty frequently, but thankfully I haven't had to do that in a while now)

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 6:17:42 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
> It wouldn't kill them to take another stab at Arcee.

Even if it did, sacrifices have to be made. I’d be fine with it.

But aside from that, if they never touched any of these characters again,
I'd honestly be fine with that. (Masterpice is a different story, of
course. I still want Masterpiece versions of all the above mentioned
characters.)

I’m more impressed with Studio Series Hot Shot than the masterpiece, other
than that one ugly bit of yellow. I’m sure there are key differences that
you will rattle off, but the characters were off model enough in animation
that Studio Series Hot Rod is well within the range.

>
>> huh. Does no one else have problems with parts popping off? If there
>> were some metal pins to keep that from happening, I would love these a lot more.
>
> You have issues with both Slag and Grimlock falling apart? Something
> other than Slag's horns (which I will concede is a problem)? I may have
> to break my toys back out and re-examine them.

Side panels on Slag, and a robot foot on Grimlock. It’s not great.

I play with my toys more roughly than you play with yours — transforming
them back and forth idly while paying attention to something else, so it’s
likely doing something wrong, and then the parts bending slightly or
getting worn down from having popped out and been popped back in. So, more
like the wear and tear from a careful kid (not being chewed on, or blown up
with firecrackers) than a collector who admires them on shelves. But it’s
a toy, for children. It should handle that.

Zobovor <zmfts@aol.com> wrote:
> On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 5:43:50 PM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>

>> I’m not sure there are any toys that have completely blown me away, and
>> nothing that we need a half dozen versions of (even the beloved Siege
>> Sideswipe might be overdone at this point)
>
> I actually got Yellow Sideswipe just barely. I was feeling like I was
> missing a vital color in the Skittles assortment, and I found a loose,
> complete one on eBay for a good price. I don't really know what
> compelled me to buy it, but I own it now. The #FOMO is real, I guess.

We need green and purple. Possibly as Decepticons. Orange? Sure, why not.

>> G2 Ramjet -- We do love G2, but holy shit is that Seeker mold over
>> familiar at this point. Great mold, mind you, just wow am I tired of it.
>> As time goes on and I gravitate to one copy of this mold, it might be G2
>> Ramjet (or G2 Sandstorm), but right now... nope.
>
> What's funny is that it hasn't even been used as many times as the
> Deluxe-class Seeker mold from the beginning of the CHUG era. Now there
> was a workhorse of a toy design. With the Voyager versin, we got the six
> vital characters in short order, so at this point anything else we get is
> gravy. I wouldn't mind a G2 Starscream to go with my G2 Ramjet.

It’s the rapid succession, following the rapid succession of the Siege
Tetrajets. Space it out over a decade, and it would be the welcome return
of a familiar friend.

>> Studio Series Wreck-Gar is undoubtedly the best Wreck-Gar we are ever
>> going to get, and features the nipple cannons on ball joints, so he can
>> spray his life-giving nourishments into anyone's mouth even if he isn't
>> directly facing them. Unfortunately, he is also Wreck-Gar, a character
>> that I find as annoying as everyone finds Wheelie.
>
> Wreck-Gar is supremely irritating as a character. But I love the toy
> based on the aesthetics and its adherence to his animation design. And
> he's a member of a larger cast, so he's a vital part of the whole. It
> would be awful if Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar was the best modern Wreck-Gar we ever got.

Sometimes a random redeco can save a mold from being associated with a
character. 2007 Leader Nightwatch Optimus Prime is better for not kind-of
resembling the cgi model in a terrible movie, for instance. Even being no
one might be better than being Wreck-Gar.

>> I am disappointed that none of the beasts made the list, but they just
>> haven't been great.
>
> A number of them are flawed. Cheetor's kind of a disappointment. I
> don't know what it is about that kid that's so hard to get right. But,
> no love for Optimus Primal? What's to dislike about Optimus Primal?

Furry diaper. Gaps around the chest plate in robot mode. But mostly, just
not being as fun as the original.

> Maybe Tarantulas and/or Inferno will totally blow us all away next year. Who knows?

Inferno has a lot of opportunities for improvement.

>> I like gaudy color schemes. If they did something silly like Cyclonus in
>> Skywarp colors, representing a future where the influence of Unicron has
>> been removed, I would buy it.
>
> Somebody on the message boards put together a Photoshop of Kingdom
> Cyclonus decked out in Armada Cyclonus colors. It's wacky.

I saw it. I loved it. That’s the type of stuff I want to see rather than
Shattered Glass. I suppose “Shattered Glass” is easier to explain than
“Random Redecos That Shouldn’t Work And Often Don’t” as a subline.

>> I suspect that this year, Toy Of The Year will be dominated by
>> Galvatron, Scourge and Cyclonus.
>
> They're each fantastic toys in their own right, and the fact that we've
> got the main Decepticon triumverate from 2005, all in the same year, is
> pretty damn incredible. I really, really like Galvatron a lot, but I
> don't think I could name him Toy of the Year. He had a very widespread
> shoulder assembly problem, for one. I was lucky enough to escape this.
> There are also a handful of little things I don't love about him. His
> robot feet are weird, for one. Also, his head isn't really the right
> shape. There's something wrong about the crest on his helmet. Also, I
> dislike the battle damaged paint on him. It seems unnecessary. I mean,
> this isn't Siege. (Reportedly, the Legacy package refresh is going to be
> missing the battle damage, and I guess I'm probably going to have to buy
> him. Which means I'll eventually own four Galvatrons, since I also
> pre-ordered the toy colors version and the translucent purple version.)

If I didn’t know that my cartoon Galvatron had the shoulder problem, I
wouldn’t notice it. And the toy colors version has none of that.

You are buying the translucent one? Wow.

> We've had sparse years where there wasn't really a true Toy of the Year,
> and I basically picked a toy by merit of being the one that sucked the
> least. But this year was an absolute embarrassment of riches, with lots
> of incredible offerings to choose from. So, I think that's a good sign.

I’d say lots of very good, but no incredible. Perhaps I should have bought
Unicron after all. Or was it core class Soundwave.

> Zob (now that I'm done working in the external trailers for this season,
> I guess it's probably time to chop all my hair off)

And the ZZ Top beard, I assume.

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 5:00:00 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 11:52:00 AM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> <snip>
>
> As far as the toys who qualify, I believe the mainline list is as follows (we're all adult collectors here, so I assume nobody is going to pick a Rescue Bots toy or Cyberverse):
>
> Abominus (Takara), Arcee (Kingdom), Airazor, Artfire, Autobot Ark, B-127, Blackarachnia, Blackarachnia (Worlds Collide), Blaster, Blast Master (Botropolis), Blurr (Studio Series), Blurr (Shattered Glass), Bumblebee (Buzzworthy), Bumblebee (Origin), Bumblebee (RotF Studio Series), Bumblebee (Worlds Collide), Caliburst (Sparkless), Cheetor, Cheetor (Netflix), Cheetor (Reissue), Cyclonus, Daniel Witwicky (Studio Series), Deep Cover, Deep Cover (Netflix), Deseeus Army Drone, Dino (Studio Series), Dinobot, Eject, Fangry, Fireguard, Fuzer (Botropolis), Galvatron, Gnaw (Studio Series), Goldbug (Shattered Glass), Grimlock (Beast Wars), Grimlock (Studio Series), Grindor (Studio Series), Highbrow (Retro), Hot Rod (Studio Series), Huffer, Inferno, Ironworks (Botropolis), Jackpot, Jazz (Studio Series), Jetfire (Shattered Glass), Jolt (RotF Studio Series), Kup (Studio Series), Mainframe, Megatron (Beast), Megatron (Core), Megatron (Beast Wars Reissue), Megatron (Netflix), Megatron (Shattered Glass), Mirage, Missile Master, Moonrock, Motorhead, Nemesis Primal, Nightstick, Optimus Primal, Optimus Primal (Netflix), Optimus Primal (Reissue), Optimus Prime (Core), Optimus Prime (Kingdom), Overair (Botropolis), Paleotrex, Pipes, Puffer, Ractonite, Ramjet (G2), Rattrap, Rattrap (Netflix), Rattrap (Reissue), Ravage (Agent), Ravage (Decepticons Forever), Ravage (RotF Studio Series), Red Alert, Rhinox, Roadburner, Road Rage, Road Ranger, Rodimus Prime, Runner (Micromaster Barricade), Scorponok (Beast Wars), Scourge (Studio Series), Shadow Panther, Sideswipe (Earth Mode), Sideswipe (RotF Studio Series), Sights, Singe (Sparkless), Silverbolt (Magnaboss), Skullcruncher (Retro), Slammer, Slug (Slag), Sparkless Bot, Sparkless Seeker, Spike Witwicky (Exo-Suit), Starscream (Core), Starscream (Shattered Glass), Starscream (Studio Series), Stingracer, Sweep, Terrorsaur, Thrust (Studio Series), Tigatron, Tigatron (Mutant), Tracks, Transmutate, Tricranius, T-Wrecks, Vertebreak, Volcanicus (Takara), Ultra Magnus (Earth Mode), Unicron (HasLab), Warpath, Waspinator, Weirdwolf (Retro), Wheelie, Wheeljack (Kingdom), Windstorm, Wingfinger, Wreck-Gar.
>
Yikes, did you type all that?!

> Honestly, it's been a great product year. The focus on The Transformers: the Movie means we got a lot of great updates to the 1986 characters. And they finally managed to dethrone the great Reveal the Shield Cyclonus with Kingdom Cyclonus, which is one of my all-time favorite toys of an all-time favorite character.

Cyclonus would have been a great pick too. The engineering behind his multi-folded nose cone is great. Everything about this toy is greatness.

> Unicron is great, but it's not worth $600. Is he more fun than (counts on fingers) 23 Sharkticons? No, he's not.

Imagine paying the stratospheric ebay prices! People are actually paying THREE times that amount for him.

> But, honestly, what impresses me more than anything else is the gigantic Dinobots we got this year. Grimlock and Slag are both so amazing.
> They're finally, finally, the cartoon scale Dinobots I've been wanting since, like, forever.
>
> It's gotta be Grimlock. He's large, intuitive and easy to transform, and unlike the PotP toy, he actually comes with his gun (not his sword, but technically he never carried it in the cartoon). He's large, screen-accurate, and did I mention he was LARGE? As a collector, I've suffered sticker shock before (SEE: Super7 TMNT Ultimates; SEE ALSO: NECA Ninja Turtles 2-packs), but I've never been so happy to spend $50 as I have been with the Grimster.

You went with the King huh? Can't argue there.

-Banzaitron

On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 6:43:50 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Reading over my Toy Of The Year 2020, I was somehow disappointed with Earthrise. I kept going back to the Siege toys for fiddling with, and generally although there was nothing objectively bad about Earthrise (other than Arcee, and Sunstreaker), it didn't hold up to the previous years efforts.
>
> My Toy Of The Year was Dead Optimus. I stand by that. Nothing quite evoked the shitshow that was 2020 like a dead version of a beloved character.

This decision becomes more and more prescient as the years pile up.

> I really liked Siege. So, there's that. We haven't really surpassed Siege.

Siege was great. I personally think Titans Return was the pinnacle, but I get they overdid the whole removable head thingy. Some toys should just not be headmasters.

> So, the first pass of contenders are: Cyclonus, who has gotten his best toy ever; Scourge, who has also gotten his best toy ever, and who has a really lovely cornflower blue that will doubtless end up being a tie-breaker if it comes to a tie; Galvatron, in all his purple glory, or all original toy color glory with stickers and the like; Gnaw, our roly-poly friend with all the teeth; and Inferno, who is an improved version of Grapple (now no breaking pegs), or his Targetmaster friend Artfire.

I picked Grapple as my TOTY for 2020 and got widely panned over this peg issue. I've never had a problem with my Grapple. I must not fiddle with my toys as hard or as much as you guys. At some point, I will google what you guys are complaining about.

> Botropolis Rescue Mission -- Is this one toy, or many? Because as one toy, it is amazing. As a bunch of toys, it is less so. It is, however, basically a 2020 toy (and would have been a contender then)

I absolutely LOVE this set. I totally forgot about it. I kinda think of it as a mini countdown. You raise a good point on the rules around a "set". At first thought, it seems unfair to allow multiple toys to gang up on a single toy. However, since price is a factor, it's unlikely any set will rise to the top unless it is incredibly good. At the end of the day, there aren't really enough sets to produced each year.

> Fangry, Optimus Primal, Bumblebee, and Blackarachnia -- ultra rare exclusive set with a lot of filler. Fangry is great, Nemesis Primal is meh, and Bumblebee and Blackarachnia are actively annoying.

I skipped this set. I didn't want Fangry that bad, but I am sure I will grow to regret this decision. Oddly, Fangry was the last G1 toy I purchased to complete my G1 collection (I didn't collect all of the pretenders - I view them as second class G1 citizens)

>
> Studio Series Wreck-Gar is undoubtedly the best Wreck-Gar we are ever going to get, and features the nipple cannons on ball joints, so he can spray his life-giving nourishments into anyone's mouth even if he isn't directly facing them. Unfortunately, he is also Wreck-Gar, a character that I find as annoying as everyone finds Wheelie.

<Insert Austin Powers reference here>

>
> Which brings us to the Toy Of The Year... GALVATRON.
>
>
> Galvatron is PURPLE. Really, really purple. Overwhelmingly so. He is also way, way better than the Titans Return toy, which I loved, and more accurate than the Energon toy, which I also loved. But he's sort of dull looking, because he's so purple. I love purple. I love the color purple, I love “The Color Purple” and one of my favorite bands is Deep Purple, but this is too purple even for me.

A wonderful choice. I too love this toy. He is one of my favorite characters from the franchise that has been woefully ignored in the toyline. I love how heavy and well-made he feels. The matrix bling could go, but everything else about this toy is great. (All this purple talk and no mention of Prince?)

On Saturday, January 1, 2022 at 4:09:03 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> You are buying the translucent one? Wow.

I mostly want it for the little accessories that come with him. All the ships and mini-figures and such. There are like 16 of them, all told. Which is basically like spending three bucks a pop on the accessories and getting see-through Galvatron for free.

Zob (raised enough money to get my Super7 Party Wagon, just by selling stuff I already had sitting around)

On Sunday, January 2, 2022 at 8:14:47 AM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Yikes, did you type all that?!

It was my day off, and I had some time to kill...

Zob

Banzaitron ATT <banzaitron.att@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Friday, December 31, 2021 at 6:43:50 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> I picked Grapple as my TOTY for 2020 and got widely panned over this peg
> issue. I've never had a problem with my Grapple. I must not fiddle with
> my toys as hard or as much as you guys. At some point, I will google
> what you guys are complaining about.

I do seem to be harder on toys than other people. Just chased down an
errant bit of frill from Slag (connects to the shoulder) and discovered
that the tiny nub on the end of the strut needs to be shaved down, as the
force required to shift from backpack to tail position is greater than the
force required to pop the tail off.

>> Botropolis Rescue Mission -- Is this one toy, or many? Because as one
>> toy, it is amazing. As a bunch of toys, it is less so. It is, however,
>> basically a 2020 toy (and would have been a contender then)
>
> I absolutely LOVE this set. I totally forgot about it. I kinda think of
> it as a mini countdown. You raise a good point on the rules around a
> "set". At first thought, it seems unfair to allow multiple toys to gang
> up on a single toy. However, since price is a factor, it's unlikely any
> set will rise to the top unless it is incredibly good. At the end of the
> day, there aren't really enough sets to produced each year.

Combiner Wars was probably the only time where they didn’t release a set
with a stinker, or at least it was a needed stinker.

Not that this set has anything bad.

>>
>> Which brings us to the Toy Of The Year... GALVATRON.
>>
>>
>> Galvatron is PURPLE. Really, really purple. Overwhelmingly so. He is
>> also way, way better than the Titans Return toy, which I loved, and more
>> accurate than the Energon toy, which I also loved. But he's sort of dull
>> looking, because he's so purple. I love purple. I love the color purple,
>> I love “The Color Purple” and one of my favorite bands is Deep Purple,
>> but this is too purple even for me.
>
> A wonderful choice. I too love this toy. He is one of my favorite
> characters from the franchise that has been woefully ignored in the
> toyline. I love how heavy and well-made he feels. The matrix bling
> could go, but everything else about this toy is great. (All this purple
> talk and no mention of Prince?)

I somehow don’t love Prince. He’s fine, I suppose, but never quite spoke to
me. Some of the best music of a weak era of music. Feels overproduced and
plastic.

But, then there’s this shlubby guy doing a cover, and it makes me think I
should try the originals again.

https://youtu.be/ggEzHzmw2wg