Hello and welcome.
So what is this exactly, it is what it says, my favorite figures from the past year. Why am I doing this, to be honest I just thought it would be fun and it has been very much so. Some notes about this and my line of thought on what this list is.
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. 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).
Another point is I limited the list to figures I actually have been able to acquire. 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. 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 piece to cover that as well). But it would also only be fair to look at figures I can actually look at. Also there is the idea that desire would make the figure rank higher, which makes since when you think about it so why go there.
First I did check with various collecting sites on the release dates of the figures (yojoe.com, rebelscum.com ect). If there is an error it would most like be with one of those sites and I just copied the error. There is one figure in the top ten I feel this might effect is the only reason I mention it.
I avoid repaints and rehashes, 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.
One that might surprise people is that I left off Army Builders and Faceless Troops. To me it seemed odd to add those into the list since a lot of what made the figure onto the list was character. Also I quit Army Building a few years ago (at the time due to money, but now I can't justify buying more than one of the same trooper (unless maybe if given as a gift or something). Plus there are so many army builders out there now I felt it was distracting from the focus of this piece, primarily what a cool year for 1:18th scale action figures it has been. But if anyone is concerned about it I will include the list of my top ten favorite army builders below:
10. Clone Wars Super Battle Droid-Honestly the look of the droid is almost comedic, but that is why I liked it.
9. Manhunter-The Pre-Green Lanterns from the DC Infinites set, just a cool faceless robot
8. IG Lancer-I love the idea of this figure and the figure itself didn't disappoint.
7. Clone Trooper (327th star corps)-I am not much for clones, this one felt different due to the odd color
6. Russian Soldier-I needed a good generic Ruskie and this guy from the KOTCS line fit the job.
5. German Soldier with Bike-Love the soft goods jacket on this one, makes the figure.
4. Shadow Guard-The Force Unleashed version of the Royal Guards, great idea and looked new while being similar.
3. Battle Droid (Clone Wars)-Extra hip articulation made this figure stand out.
2. Cobra BATS-Cobra will not let Battle Droids out due them, a great update
1. Snow Serpents-While I liked the BATS, I loved the Snow Serpents, another great update.
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 and Scale Wars. 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.
So with all that out of the way lets begin: