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Toy of the Year 2007

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14 comments posted
Wow, I need to post more, or

Wow, I need to post more, or at least get off my duff and review some toys. Transformers taking over this site is a bit insulting.

I realize there are fans that are more casual and/or open minded than others, but when Transformers toys - movie ones no less - take up some of the top spots in a TOTY poll, something is not right.

Takara has some serious Votoms business going on, and the lack of a review of their stellar DMZ line is a failure on my part.

Here's to 2008 and the definate possibility of Mospeada toys competing against each other in several categories.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 17 January, 2008 - 19:25
I have to say,as someone who

I have to say,as someone who voted for Bumblebee,I think you got a lemon. Your experience with the figure (from your review) does not match up with mine at all. I realise different people have different opinions and so forth,but I was surprised at the quality of the toy,since after your review,I expected the worst. The paint is fine on my figure,and no parts have popped off either. Admittedly,it's a little off from the movie character,but scaling down that CGI model into a 10 dollar mass production toy is not going to happen without cutting corners. Just my two cents.

kidnicky's picture
Posted by kidnicky on 18 January, 2008 - 00:28
Ya know- I had exactly the

Ya know- I had exactly the same response when I saw people using up their one vote approving of the Deluxe Drive-Max Megazord... which I absolutely blasted in my review of it for CDX. And while it obviously did not make it into the top three spot in its TotY category ($25-50), I am absolutely flattened that people actually liked it more than they did some of the other masterpieces in the category!

And also, even though I read your Concept BB review, and I have become concerned about the things you mentioned in it, I am still planning on getting one, particularly the Movie Scenes version with the dark gray ABS instead of the standard black. And I agree with kidnicky's comment above, Atom- you may have gotten the short end of the stick. If more people had left comments contradicting your review, perhaps this would have become more obvious before now...? 'Cause, aside from a serious lack of paint apps (which all of the movie's line of toys have suffered from to a degree), I haven't heard that many bad comments elsewhere in more TF-oriented sites & blogs.
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 18 January, 2008 - 01:35
Quick 2007 TotY results comments

Is that DYRL SDF-1 really supposed to be a "toy"!? I don't think so! And, yeah- it was too fidgety for my tastes even though it looks fantastic. (Even though I don't own one, I got to handle a store-display once.) Same for my opinion of MP Megs. But that Mazinger-Z 1969 I think truly deserves it's first-place finish.

I would have been a lot more interested in that Leader-class OP if he had more related to his CG counterpart-

  • he had come with the retractable orange blade seen in the movie, instead of a flip around cannon which was originally hand-held, stored on his back, and seen only in a blur
  • the legs had been redesigned to move the wheels somewhere else

And yes, I know that even a Leader-class figure would not have been all that accurate transformation-wise, but I would have gotten him. I had many chances to grab one, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

What [still] surprises me was how well Ironhide did! When I voted for $25-50, it was a close run for me between Ironhide (which I, obviously, owned and had reviewed here!) and the VF-1S Strike Valkyrie. But, since I've loved the Valk longer than I've loved Ironhide, and knowing how fun Revoltechs are, I went with the Valk. (Am I vain for thinking that how I reviewed Ironhide somehow influenced the votes of people for him...? 'Cause if so, this is perhaps the best response I've gotten on ANY review I've done in four years!)


As for the losing selections:

Hey, I liked Payload even though he wasn't in the movie! What I said was that the toy was quirky at times!

Yeah- I'm not surprised the Shadow Crawler didn't get any lovin'. I wasn't all that pleased with it even though it had a nice aura to it. Ya just couldn't pose those legs real well, and that was a real let-down for what the line had become famous for. What surprises me is that the Claw Crusher got any votes at all; I was sure it wouldn't do all that good. Oh, well...

I can agree that most people don't like repaints; I'm not a fan of them either, and with rare exception do I get them. However, what made Final Battle Jazz bad wasn't that he was a 'repaint', but rather the overall design of the toy that was such a let-down. When I [finally] get the regular version of Jazz, I'll say the same thing. What I liked about FBJazz was that it wasn't just a straight repaint, and had more than a few significant remoulds that didn't affect the overall transforming abilities or features. I'm still not a fan of the toy, but I'm not gonna knock it off so easily just because it's considered a "repaint".
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 18 January, 2008 - 02:26
Yeah!

Well, sadly my beloved Ideon didn't take top honors, and since I likely will never own that Mazinger (all sold out!!?) I'm a bit sad. BUT, good choices for the most part.

I agree that the TF line is a bit over-represented, but I think it's mostly cultural. We can find TFs on the shelf at Target, while finding a store that carries anything Chogokin or VOTOMS is an unlikely proposition. And frankly, ordering through HLJ or the like is great, but less impulse and "toy-hunty" than just picking up something off the shelf and getting to play with it right away.

I'd love to see those VOTOMS reviews. I've been dreaming of some Scopedog action for a while.

-----
"Hey, uh...let's volt in."

Gigamach's picture
Posted by Gigamach on 18 January, 2008 - 12:02
Bring on the VOTOMS, duke...

...or anyone who has 'em!

I have a 1/12 Strong Bacchus, but that's about it.

I tend to agree that this poll has been rather lacking. Certainly if we had more even coverage of all the year's top toys, it would make sense. Or...simply open it to toys other Japanese/Japanese-related toys not reviewed here.

It's kinda tough for the head writers to pump out reviews of everything we want to...on time. Basically, we'd have to coordinate who's going to be covering what top toys...and make sure that those toys are bought and reviewed in a timely manner. I mean, I didn't even get a chance to review my own top picks for the '07 Holiday Buying Guide (except for the Fewture GM...which came out after the poll!). Seriously, I *really* want to do full coverage of those Soft Garage GR gokin! They're that good.


The other thing I wanted to comment on was the TF hate. Now, while I still have my old-school love for the 80's cartoon...and the real Transformers movie...I'm not a big fan of anything from Beast whatever-on. That said, I'm not going to close my mind to a good toy. Despite my opinion that the new movie was a steaming pile, I heard good things about Leader Prime and ended up picking one up. It's amazing. Very simple, very rugged, looks great, is well-articulated...hell, it even shoots a missile. I'm not even talking about it's measly $50 price tag--it's just a legitimately good toy.

On the other hand, I got to handle MP Megatron in person at Josh's place. Horrible. Anytime you really have to *worry* about just picking something up, it's a bad sign. Floppy. Clunky. Didn't remotely want to bother spending an hour transforming it. I'll stick with my G1 reissue.

Next, we have these squabbles about the concept BB and other cheapie movie toys. Come on, people. Toy of the Year?? Perhaps "Value" of the year. These can certainly be fun toys, no doubt...but regardless of their price, can they really compete with higher end toys?? For example, if concept BB cost the same as Leader Prime...or even MP Megatron, would people vote for it over those two? Or conversely, if Leader Prime and MP Megs cost $10 like BB, who would you vote for then? I think for next year, we should remove the price categories and do more genre-based categories...whether that means "domestic TotY" versus "Japanese TotY"...or something like "TF otY", "Chogokin otY", etc.

What I'm trying to say is that TotY shouldn't be about value. But at the same time, TotY shouldn't necessarily bar TFs just because they're TFs. It should just be about pure robot toy love (and monster toy love...and Star Wars toy love...and...).

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 18 January, 2008 - 14:42
I think it's sickening that

I think it's sickening that the EX-Gokin Mazinger won. Imo, there couldn't be a clearer example of everything that is wrong with this hobby. Someone takes a robot that's already been done to death, gives it muscles and skull face and tells you it's something new. Then you have to pay $300 to get it (and it's quality control issues). And people love it! The phrase "thank you sir, may I have another?" pops into my head...lol

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 18 January, 2008 - 15:34
Man... Transformers on TOTY's first place!?!?!?!!!

An Ironhide instead of a Revoltech? MP Megatron instead of... anything else not Transformer??? Please, Transformers should not even be allowed to participate... well, nah, that's too rash. Better said, MOST Transformers should not be allowed to participate. The Ex-Gokin Mazinger is cool and all, but I agree the Mighty Robot has been over-done. I think the Aoshima Shin Getter 2 should have topped it, if anything, for being a NEW figure...

Oh, well...

}D

The Mazinger Z's picture
Posted by The Mazinger Z on 18 January, 2008 - 15:50
When i buy these toys, the

When i buy these toys, the thing that attracts me is the aesthetic value rather than the line it came from. Whilst i stopped liking the TF line after the G2's came out, i have nothing against them...apart from the horrid M Bay mess. What i mean is even with this in mind, if the toy or model came out and looked the part and ticks all the boxes, i would buy it regardless.
I personally go for the expensive Jp stuff, as a collector but also because i feel they create the best designed stuff. However if the majority of folk feel all these movie TF's are worthy of voting for, then who are we to argue?! Different strokes for different folks!

truewanderer's picture
Posted by truewanderer on 19 January, 2008 - 06:22
Agreed...

Yup. Line doesn't matter to me either. It's all about ticking those boxes. And, yeah, it tends to be the purely Japanese stuff (i.e., non-TF) that succeeds in that...though for me, my particular boxes seem to be evolving such that only the vintage stuff (and glowies, of course!) seems to be able to tick them all.

Oh, and I got a helluva kick outta Nekrodave's post above! I think his reasons for not digging the Fewture EX Gokin line are perfectly legit. I was thinking about that earlier today and for me, I think the reason I love the GM design so much is simply that it reminds me of the design aesthetic behind Mazinkaiser...only taken to a higher level. ...And, man, did I love the Mazinkaiser anime!



By the way, one quick thing so we're all clear, we generally abbreviate Japan or Japanese with "Jp", not "Jap". I'll leave it to you to research why. Knowing is half the battle. ;)

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 19 January, 2008 - 18:25
Whoops sorry guys for any

Whoops sorry guys for any offence! Just give an ignorant englishman the benefit of the doubt this time! =(

truewanderer's picture
Posted by truewanderer on 20 January, 2008 - 16:51
No sweat, buddy!

:)

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Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 20 January, 2008 - 17:29
I am, of course, a die hard

I am, of course, a die hard TF fan. I love everything TF related. Well, almost everything. I enjoyed the movie, I am ashamed to say. And I do own quite a few movie toys. What can I say? They are cheap and fun, what else could a girl want? But I find the movie toys to be fare less superior than many other figures that could be in this listing.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

MINImusPrime00's picture
Posted by MINImusPrime00 on 31 January, 2008 - 13:45