What do you think were the best figures of the year?
Best figures of 2023?
- Thread starter Superomegaprime
- Start date
I'm too poor to experience Legacy Armada Prime yet, but I imagine that has to be hard to beat. They nailed it.
Commander Armada Prime the GOAT of 2023.
The one thing I got to experience this year is the Core Class Optimus Prime + Bumblebee set, and it's pretty good. It deserves recognition for delivering one of the most feature packed G1 style trailers we've ever gotten, including Masterpiece efforts, yet it's a Core Class toy you could give to kids. It's a toy that raised the bar for its particular niche.
Rescue Bots Chase gets an honorable mention, at the very least.
Most of the stuff listed here is still sitting in my To Be Reviewed pile (except Devcon, whose wave I never saw in the wild and I missed the window to order for less than 100% markup online), but the only thing to get a Strongly Recommended from me in 2023 was...Noah Diaz Exo-Suit.
---Dave
---Dave
Looking at the list of what came out this year I realize I didn't really buy all that much, but didn't really realize it because I bought a bunch in 2022 and kinda trickled out opening them (just opened Minerva earlier this month, for example... and still haven't unboxed Motormaster yet...) Most of what I did get was bigger guys, price constraints might be hitting the deluxes too much IMO.
Of those I did get, roughly in order of worst to best:
- Breakdown was meh (good robot, disappointing vehicle mold reuse, detachable spoiler is annoying)
- Cloudcover's a cool deco, but everyone already has their opinion on that seeker mold.
- Armada Megatron was alright.
- Origin Jazz was a pretty nice surprise, even if he is largely a shellformer with faux chest.
- Tarn is awesome.
- Armada Optimus Prime is awesome, as everyone says.
Deathsaurus and SS86 Magnus are still in the TBD pile but I'm hoping they'll be up there with Armada Prime.
Of those I did get, roughly in order of worst to best:
- Breakdown was meh (good robot, disappointing vehicle mold reuse, detachable spoiler is annoying)
- Cloudcover's a cool deco, but everyone already has their opinion on that seeker mold.
- Armada Megatron was alright.
- Origin Jazz was a pretty nice surprise, even if he is largely a shellformer with faux chest.
- Tarn is awesome.
- Armada Optimus Prime is awesome, as everyone says.
Deathsaurus and SS86 Magnus are still in the TBD pile but I'm hoping they'll be up there with Armada Prime.
I don’t know, I kind of feel like it’s being a bit cheaty to label the large, $100+ figures as “best of the year” given that, for that price, THEY SHOULD BE!
I’ve gotten a pile of stuff this year, but haven’t been able to really get into much. But I will say the Beast Alliance Battlemasters and Weaponizers are among my “hidden gems” for the year. The Battlemasters have brought some variety to the “weapon bot” idea, and the Weaponizers, not being burdened to accommodate any major gimmicks, have turned out to be just nice toys. Could have used a little more deco, but generally nice for size/price.
Finally got around to opening “Ultimate” Optimus Primal from TaKara, and I think that’ll be something overlooked. Big, solid, lots of ports, lots of gimmicks….it really evokes the kind of mainline stuff we used to get “back in the day”. While everyone is fawning over Studio Series, with its complexities and accessories to offset its smaller size; I’m over here with this one sporting Battlemasters, Fossilizers, Weaponizers (and soon, Rock chunks), pop out blasters, shooting cannons AND the ability to actually have a movie accurate faceplate.
I think Ultimate Primal might be a top pick for me, since I’m getting a LOT more enjoyment out of it than I think I would from the Studio Series.
I’ve gotten a pile of stuff this year, but haven’t been able to really get into much. But I will say the Beast Alliance Battlemasters and Weaponizers are among my “hidden gems” for the year. The Battlemasters have brought some variety to the “weapon bot” idea, and the Weaponizers, not being burdened to accommodate any major gimmicks, have turned out to be just nice toys. Could have used a little more deco, but generally nice for size/price.
Finally got around to opening “Ultimate” Optimus Primal from TaKara, and I think that’ll be something overlooked. Big, solid, lots of ports, lots of gimmicks….it really evokes the kind of mainline stuff we used to get “back in the day”. While everyone is fawning over Studio Series, with its complexities and accessories to offset its smaller size; I’m over here with this one sporting Battlemasters, Fossilizers, Weaponizers (and soon, Rock chunks), pop out blasters, shooting cannons AND the ability to actually have a movie accurate faceplate.
I think Ultimate Primal might be a top pick for me, since I’m getting a LOT more enjoyment out of it than I think I would from the Studio Series.
Of the dozen-ish Transformers I bought this year (not counting Thundertron, who's still in my PoL), I'd give it to TM2 Megatron. But I'm biased because dragon. Second place probably going to Tarn.
Devcon was my favorite figure of the year.
Well, we finally got a good Armada Prime other than Bendy Prime, so I am going to give it to him this year with Tarn, SS Ultra Magnus, Shrapnel, and Menasor ringing out my top five.
The original Armada Prime was good too.
The worst I can say about the original is that the auto-transforming trailer gimmick worked maybe three times before the electronics completely failed. I would rather do it manually anyway, but those electronics weren't free.
I could be off a bit on offical release dates, but:
Armada Prime
Deathsaurus
Meansor (I got him complete in 23)
Aramda Starscream
SS Dinobots (Snarl and Sludge at least, not sure when I got the others)
Armada Prime
Deathsaurus
Meansor (I got him complete in 23)
Aramda Starscream
SS Dinobots (Snarl and Sludge at least, not sure when I got the others)
I was never a guy who "needed" Leader class Dinobots. The pre-WFC Voyager size was fine, gets the idea of power and mass across, doesn't take up too much space, better price.
But I am very impressed with the Studio Series 86 dinos. The WFC onward internal line scale makes them seem enjoyably, fittingly massive in both modes. This is one of the reasons I tend to prefer them smaller, because it gets hard to display everyone together without some looking incongruous. (The scaling thing where most Autobots are waist high to Optimus Prime has always put me off, like they're his children instead of his team.)
But by themselves individually and as a team with their fellow dinos, it's so satisfying. I just regret that if they go and make the other G2 dinos I may not be able to get them all (maybe just Snarl and Slag) because of the collective space consumption/demand.
And I'm very happy that they did Snarl despite his blink-and-you-miss-it participation in the movie (of course they could have just assigned him somewhere else if they had to), and that he turned out so well. His stumpy wedge of a dino head, the broad gold tail halves on the shoulders, the great execution of spiky potato dino mode. All I could ask for is some clear pieces like POTP did, but I'm digging it as is. Even with the inconsistent gold and yellow, because the yellow is a nice shade that's distributed enough that the mismatch isn't a dealbreaker.
But I am very impressed with the Studio Series 86 dinos. The WFC onward internal line scale makes them seem enjoyably, fittingly massive in both modes. This is one of the reasons I tend to prefer them smaller, because it gets hard to display everyone together without some looking incongruous. (The scaling thing where most Autobots are waist high to Optimus Prime has always put me off, like they're his children instead of his team.)
But by themselves individually and as a team with their fellow dinos, it's so satisfying. I just regret that if they go and make the other G2 dinos I may not be able to get them all (maybe just Snarl and Slag) because of the collective space consumption/demand.
And I'm very happy that they did Snarl despite his blink-and-you-miss-it participation in the movie (of course they could have just assigned him somewhere else if they had to), and that he turned out so well. His stumpy wedge of a dino head, the broad gold tail halves on the shoulders, the great execution of spiky potato dino mode. All I could ask for is some clear pieces like POTP did, but I'm digging it as is. Even with the inconsistent gold and yellow, because the yellow is a nice shade that's distributed enough that the mismatch isn't a dealbreaker.