Toys of 2008:The best, worst, and everything in between.
 

This year had a bunch of excellent releases, possibly more than last year. We have seen ups and downs, and some clear winners sometimes come out of nowhere. With that said, and with the end of the year approaching, which were the best figures in your opinion? Which were the worst? Which were neither but still worth mentioning?

The engineering by Hasbro and Takara continues to impress me on their Transformers lines. With the Transformers Animated line, they have broken the trend of toys based on animated series that lack articulation for fear of breaking the sculpt. The engineering devised is brilliant and works very well. Some of these toys are amazing, and retain full articulation. One typically wouldn't think that toys with such an animated style would feature extensive engineering features as well as good articulation. It is deceptive, the engineering is much more complex than what we see with the naked eye. Stand outs for this line include Shockwave, Prowl, deluxe Cybertronian mode Prime, Leader Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Blitzwing, and voyager Bulkhead.

The Universe line featured the return of Classics, which this time around featured more complexity and detail than the first figures from 2006. With the newest waves we come a step closer to completing the Autobot cast from IDW(I am a huge fan of the storyline for their TF comic). Standouts include Silverbolt, Treadbolt, Silverstreak, Ironhide, Sideswipe, and Onslaught.

Hasbro started adding back more articulation to their Marvel Legends figures, for example compare most of the Hulk BAF figures to most of the figures in the 2 packs. Could the "elbros/kneebros" be a thing of yesteryear come next year? We got great figures of overlooked characters such as Union Jack, the best Black Spiderman figure yet, and the best Tiger stripe Wolverine in the recent Target BAF RULK wave.

We also got an excellent Iron Man movie line, some of the best figures based on designs not even in the movie! I love when companies go creative and do this. For example the Stealth Striker Iron Man figure is my favorite movie Iron Man figure from the line so far, and it wasn't in the movie. No kneebros/elbros to be seen and the line was well received by collectors. Most of the Iron Man figures featured metallic paint and amounts of articulation typically seen during the Toybiz days of Marvel Legends.

Mattel let the 4H go all out on a movie line and the results are great. Movie Masters was definitely a line that most of us always wanted since Batman Begins, but did not get until this year. All of the figures feature excellent scupts, the standouts being the main villains; Joker and Scarecrow. With the release of the Batman Begins Batman and Scarecrow, my appetite has grown for League of Shadows Ninjas, a Ninja Bruce Wayne, and Ras Al Ghul/Ducard. The 4H can pull it off, all of us are itching to see what they make next year for Movie Masters.

Speaking of the 4H their DCUC line emerged this year and has been well received, but the distribution problems prevent most fans from enjoying the line. I myself have not even seen most figures from this line, only saw wave 2 once, same with 3. Lets hope that next year, all of us can find these easily, you can't enjoy what you can't readily find after all. I don't even think the local Walmarts in my area carry Wave 5, which is an exclusive to Walmart. Distribution problems aside, the figures are great, everyone was waiting for the time when the 4H would finally be able to make figures of characters outside of the worlds of Batman and Superman. The Batman from wave 1 is my favorite version too! Range of motion is great, as is the sculpt and colors selected.

Mattel entered the 3-3/4" scale market this year and has made decent figures in their Infinite Heroes line, however their competition is fierce, even if they had a huge media tie in, in the form of Sony's upcoming DC Universe MMORPG next year, will it be enough to boost competitive sales in the face of the likes of Hasbro's Marvel Universe toyline? Even the smaller companies, such as Mezco already have more articulation than Infinite Heroes figures in their Hellboy II line in the same scale. Infinite Heroes features a great character selection and the best thing that has been done has been the release of a ton of different characters in a short time span. The lack of articulation compared to competitive comic book based lines, such as Marvel Universe, keep many of us from going all out to collect these figures. Mattel might add more articulation next year, however will it be enough?

Mcfarlane Toys made fully articulated Halo figures this year, and won over many fans who had stopped collecting their toys when their approach had shifted to figures with minimal articulation years ago in favor of great sculpts. There was never any doubt that Mcfarlane could add great articulation without ruining a great sculpt, they proved this years ago with the 10th anniversary Spawn. After years of waiting, we finally saw a fully articulated Mcfarlane toys figure with their Halo line. They have succeeded in winning back many fans as well as the Halo fanbase. These figures are excellent and innnovative, much of the articulation is hidden and the universal hip joints on the Spartan soliders are so impressive. Without a doubt, these are much better than the Halo figures that Joyride had made a few years ago. It has gotten to a point where most fans stopped caring that this line was not 6" scale, a scale that many of us have stuck by consistently for many years. When you win over fans to the point where they no longer care, you know you've got a winner on your hands.

With the success of Halo figures, everyone is wondering if Mcfarlane will make Spawn figures that are just as articulated next year. With Mcfarlane taking a more active role in the comic recently and a shocking new storyline, I hope that fully articulated Spawn figures are in the works next year. It has been 6 years since a Spawn figure like that has seen release.

The G.I. Joe Modern Era line grew immensely this year. Bear in mind this line when started as the 25th anniversary line in 2007, was only meant to have 10 figures. Retailers for some reason have always been skeptical about G.I. Joe. The line quickly grew last year to the point that 5 waves were out before the end of the year, with the comic packs starting this year. We saw bigger vehicles such as the Conquest and Rattler return, as well as many smaller vehicles, such as the iconic Firebat and SHARC. I remember when Hasbro had a hiatus for Transformers Classics, and then brought it back after the movie. When it returned, it had more releases and is still continuing. I think the same may happen for G.I. Joe, as in when the movie is over, maybe we will get way more than we see now with regards to modern era stuff. As a fan that collected during the "new sculpt" years, I am impressed by the success of this line, and just how big it has grown from such a small start. Back during the "new sculpt" years, an indefinite hiatus actually did happen, and now? Now 3-3/4" is not going away, it is here to stay. Of all the years I have collected, one thing I have learned is that this scale is timeless. It simply cannot be killed. Star Wars eventually came back to retail. So did G.I. Joe. Marvel is now going 3-3/4". DC is there. Mezco is there. I don't see this stopping.

So perhaps 2008 can be seen as the year of 3-3/4" scale. Figures in this scale make great stocking stuffers, lend themselves well to vehicles and playsets, and are relatively cheap compared to their larger offerings, and as we have seen with the Wolverine prototype from a few weeks back; coming close to having almost as much articulation as their 6" counterparts.

On a sore note, the 1/18 realistic military toy genre has suffered. There wasn't much news this year, and not much releases compared to years past. With the changing ecomonic climate, more and more companies are enticed to move towards the smaller 1/32 scale. All is not lost however, BBI released a new mold BF-109 a few months back, which received excellent reviews, and out of nowhere we saw the announcement of a 1/18 scale F-14 Tomcat a few days ago.

Every Ninja Turtle fan who always wanted a super articulated Ninja Turtle figure got their wish when the 4H got to work on comic based figures. With awesome black and white variants, as well as upcoming in demand characters such as the Foot Ninja and Shredder, the Turtles have received great reviews and look awesome. NECA isn't stopping there however, they also have a Ninja Gaiden figure coming out, the first super articulated Hayabusa Ryu figure ever made!

This line has been a great year for action figures, and we have seen some ups and downs. However as good as this year was, I have a feeling our wallets will be utterly decimated next year, as a ton of great toys are coming out, just from movie based properties alone!

Discuss!