Hello and Welcome back.
While 2008 was an impressive year for the 1:18th scale, 2009 boosted up the ante for the scale. I think at this point its safe to say that 2009 just beats 2008 for impressive years.
I could simply run down the year like a reporter but honestly I find most times things like that are a waste of my and your time. Instead let me repeat what the purpose is here.
First and foremost, this list is my opinion, the list is called "Zed's Favorite" for a reason, it is my favorites of the last year. I am not claiming to be some toy guru who is wiser than the masses and dictates what is good or bad. I get no "freebees" and have no quota for each company to have certain numbers of figures from certain lines in the list. The fact is no one person can state that kind of opinion no matter how hard they try. I state what works for me. The first thing is that people will probably disagree with me, and that is cool, as long as no on tries to say what "My Favorite" should be (and on the internet people tend to do just that).
This is not as solid as a review or countdown, its me having fun with my collection and reminiscing over the past year and the ups and downs. This is a list of my favorite figures, the ones I went out of my way to find, the ones that made me think "I have to have that one" when they were previewed, the ones that just screamed at me and when I got them continued to give me a great deal of satisfaction. This is my opinions, thoughts, feelings and ideas about what has happened in 1:18th scale over the past year.
Now I said opinions, yep its very opinionated as are any reviews you read online or view in videos. Truth is any time you say "This is a good _____" or "This is a bad_____" its an opinion. The Federal Trade Commission has said a great deal this year about bloggers and free items they receive to act like "the average Joe" and say positive things about their products. Not me, I said last year and I reiterate that I am not some toy guru who claims to have secret knowledge nor does any company send me free products (wouldn't refuse them though ;-), but I would change my opinions either so the point is moot ).
Another point is I limited the list to figures I actually have been able to acquire (Thus BnB Big Show and MU Vision are not on the list). I am not affiliated with a news source nor do I receive "press" figures. Would like to, but nope I don't. Still the fact remains that I buy these toys and as such I only can claim to have first hand knowledge of the figures I have seen in hand. While I could do a least favorites list from those I have seen in the stores, I really felt that was counterproductive (besides I launch enough criticisms in this list to cover that as well). But it would also only be fair to look at figures I can actually look at. There is also a question of what I can afford (married with kids does cause one to be on a budget, thus I don't spend money acquiring toys I don't like, on purpose anyway). Also there is the idea that desire would make the figure rank higher, which makes sense when you think about it so why go there.
Last year I compiled the list by visiting various websites and attempting to check release dates. I quickly figured out that sometimes the dates are misleading cause a wave that was scheduled to be released at the beginning of the year got out at the end of the previous year ect. Thus the dates were actually a bit off. This year I knew I was going to do this so as the year progressed and new figures were released I would mark them down on my list. The list itself went through many changes and was not finalized until the year had passed (on Dec 31). After that if I acquired a figure from 2009 it just didn't make the list. Sorry I have to have a cut off point.
This year I extended the list to 40, truth is there was just too much great stuff this year. In fact I almost extended it to 50 this year. Also I decided to include army builders (although in the end very few made the list) because my exclusion of them last year really made no sense when I looked back at it.
I avoid repaints and rehashes (with some exceptions), The Saga Legends line is an important note here. The whole line is repaints and while I appreciate the chance to grab some figures I missed I felt it would be unfair to the new figures released this year.
Of course its the same relative format, a huge pick doctored in Photoshop and a write up of what I think of the figure, character, and how it relates to my little universe that I affectionately call "Toxie's 1:18th Universe" (Shameless plug) as well as to me. But as I found with last years list things come out I am not expecting, memories, ideas and even changing my mind once in a while. Still what this is about is a 30 something guy who still refuses to let go of his childhood and who also loves that part of his life and the reasons why he does. All set out into individual stories of individual outstanding figures that make this thing I call a hobby move forward.
At the end of all these descriptions I try my best to include the other reason I bought them. My creative focus has been to my comedic Diostory/Photo-novel/Photo-comic Toxie's 1:18th Universe. I decided that it might be insightful to people to see my thoughts on how these new figures and the characters themselves play into the universe as well as help with insights into why I might have purchased them. Half the time I see a figure and then come up with an idea to make it work in the Toxie world and thus buy it.
A few notes about last year's and this year's list (This is directed at toy companies) a major problem I had last year (and this year) was distribution. In fact if distro had been done a bit better I would guarantee the 20-30 figures would have been different indeed. Still what that means is some figs didn't make the list because I had to decide on a cut off point, the same rule applies here. So I am saying to Hasbro, Mattel, Playmates ect, that first off this segment is very popular (I welcome them all to look at the stats) and if you want to make an impressive showing you need to get your stuff out on time. I am sure you look on things like this like free advertising, so yeah you need to put your best foot forward cause I am old fashioned and still shop at the stores. Oh I occasionally shop online but not to the degree of many people, my primary gains with toys are defiantly from brink and mortar stores. Just wanted to throw that out there (not, that I am sure, any toy company is even reading, but it was the best and most non-insulting, non-whiney way I could think of to bitch about the problem).
Another note I think is important is the rising costs of action figures. Not complaining necessarily (OK I am, but still) but really this year caused me to scale back massively. I spent about the same as I did last year but I clearly got less for it (and there was much more out there this year). Also taking advantage of sales when they popped up was crucial to acquiring what I wanted. I went through the year with a spreadsheet of figures coming out and what I wanted out of them. Even then the task proved daunting as release dates were messed up, late, early and prices rose unexpectedly then everything would go to clearance before the line was ready to release the next wave.. Toy companies did not make it easy to be a fan this year.
First, if you are interested there are some figures that didn't quite make the list but are worthwhile all the same. Truth is I think I could have made this year's list a top 100 and not covered all of them. But there were some that almost made the list that I felt were worth mentioning.
So with all that out of the way lets begin: