As is traditional, with the arrival of the New Year we have taken a moment to look back on the last year and gather some thoughts on our favorite new toy releases of 2012. 2012 was a mixed bag of a year for Transformers, with highs including the excellent comics from IDW and the Fall of Cybertron game from High Moon Studios. Transformers Prime continued with its divisive second season and as it turns out the toy line was equally divisive from the moment it launched early in 2012.
Then along came a spider. And by that we mean Transformers Prime Airachnid, who receives this special (dis)honorable mention.
On the other side, the Generations line returned to shelves featuring Transformers Fall of Cybertron based designs and while this too proved divisive – with many bewailing the measures taken to reduce costs, and other celebrating the fact that we got so many of these toys in the first place, not least our first true five member combiner in years, and our first update to Shockwave since the Shockblasts of the mid 2000s. The Collector-focused Masterpiece series also continued to impress, with the new Masterpiece Optimus Prime being released in the US to much collector acclaim and Takara-Tomy also continuing to expand the line with releases such as Red Alert and Sideswipe.
With that little retrospective of the year said and done, join us as our staff reflect on their favorite Transformers toys of 2012.
0ptimusMin0r
Dark Energon Wheeljack (SLICER) gets the icing on the CAKE for 2012!! Incredible/ Limited/ only $15.99 price!
KA
Oh wow that guy REALLY like vehicons
Superquad7
TFW's Staff Top Toy Picks of 2012 – Transformers News – TFW2005
grymg
Anyone have the link to 2011 and 2010's tfw2005 editor's picks? Clearly I have missed out by just focusing on MP's and G1's.
*edit nevermind found them!
Lumpy
Hot Spot, Runamuck and Runabout all made my top 10 list, but didn't quite make the cut at the end of the day. They're great figures though.
G1Jetfire
Looking at invoices from 2012, I'm ashamed to see that the the only Transformers I bought were repaints. There was the Botcon Set, the extra Botcon Figures like SG Drift and SG Kick-Over and SG Optimus Prime, I also bought The reisues of Soundblaster and Twincast. I also have the TFCC Freebie Runamuck and TFCC Over-Run. The last one I received was GDO Hot Spot. Million Publishing Artfire went into my POL on Dec 26, but I am waiting for another figure to be released before shipping out the POL. I skipped the MPs because of the size reduction. Plus there were a lot of great 3rd Party figures that came out. If I had to pick a favorite it would be TFCC Runamuck and Over-Run would be second; followed by SG Kick-Over, SG Treadshot and GDO Hot Spot.
edit: I forgot the SG Junkions. Those are pretty sweet too.
Lumpy
Indeed. My list didn't have Masterpiece Optimus Prime on it until the day after Christmas, and I got Sideswipe after the first, so I'm not really counting him either.
Prime Optimus and Bulkhead could've made the list, but I've had them for awhile now and forgot they're just now available at TRU. I had a really good time creating this list, and narrowing down my original list from 10 or 11 to what I chose. Can't wait until next years list now, excited to see what we get in 2013.
Deefuzz
Another thing I want to mention because some people seem to not quite get what we are doing here. These lists are based on OUR PERSONAL experiences with the brand in 2012. Meaning we weren't going to pick something for our lists that we didn't actually get.
Why wasn't Jet Vehicon on my list? Because I don't own one, so I'm not going to comment on it. Same with MP Lambor..I don't own him. MP Alert, haven't had the chance to open him up prior to making my list, so it wouldn't be fair to add him. My personal top 5 is just that: the 5 Transformers products that I liked best out of what I bought that was released this calendar year. Sorry that the standard Vehicon didn't make it, it's a fine deluxe but I prefer the other 5 I did put on my list over a troop builder with no character whatsoever.
Thanks for reading!
JoeHavok
I have to vote for all of the new Masterpiece releases, and a runner up to San Diego Comic Cons Fall of Cybertron Bruticus. If the retail version had more game accurate colors this would have been my top choice. I hope we see more combiners in 2013.
Sol Fury
Precisely. This isn't the oscars or some sort of big time event (though I'm glad people care about our opinions, don't get me wrong). We're just fans sharing our opinion of what we enjoyed of the 2012 releases. Some of you questioned things like FoC Bruticus (sold as a giftset on two of his releases), FE Voyagers (grey area, but they did get a proper release again in 2012) and other stuff, but really, it's not deadly serious. We did it all for fun.
I was actually torn on my choice. For my 2012 ended with me getting a new version of one of my favourite characters… so nearly went with him. Perhaps next year?
menasor73ct
I take anyone serious as a collector wether they pick vehicon or even airachnid as the best lol,it's just a opinion
But the main reason for my top pick is we in America got a mp prime on our shelves with a trailer! And that is something I would never take for granted
A deluxe figure no matter how cool is not going to match up in my book
Liege Prime
I think it would be ok to include the FE Voyagers considering they weren't available in the United States until 2012. I think FE Prime and Bulkhead deserve honorable mentions but I wouldn't say they top MP-10.
Rijie78
Thank god there's clearly no danger of my being taken seriously as a collector or Transformers fan. Best news I've had so far this year.
MP-10 was a great new version of Convoy (much as I still like MP-01 as well); wasn't that fussed initially, but really impressed once I picked one up. Not so in agreement with the MP-12 love, just found it a little underwhelming – but generally interested in this new approach to MPs by TT, looking forward to where they go with it in 2013.
GogDog
None of those came out in 2012…
uranimusprime
Am I the only one who has a special place in his heart for DOTM Skyhammer?
FE Optimus & Bulkhead
General Tekno
I was just going to say – Vehicon won't be hard to get for the next 5 years, anyway. By all accounts, he's all over the place in the US, but that's not what will make him come down in price…
…it's the fact that he's a really fantastic toy that happens to be a TROOPBUILDER. Which means that a lot of collectors, aka the demographic that'll be putting old stuff they don't want anymore on eBay/sales threads down the road, will buy multiples, and down the road sell off some of their extras.
(Heck – I have a crapton of Vehicons, myself, and I can imagine myself selling a few of them off down the road. I'm already mulling over cutting down my Vehicon General order quantity to just a couple.)
Given there was the initial rush of people to buy any Vehicon they could get, and in numbers in many cases, I don't think the figure will be worth that much down the road due to collector saturation. It's a great toy, but the fact that it's a great toy that makes for a great armybuilder is a mark against it down the road, especially since it eventually got ample distribution.
webz
Please don't cry, as that is not my intent, but Vehicon is NOT selling out all over the world. In my area, he is shelf-warming like crazy. I can go into Target, Walmart, TRU, and a handful of other stores and there are at LEAST a dozen sitting on the pegs… I almost bought the first three I saw on shelves. Glad I didn't because of the flooding of the market that figure now has. Meanwhile I've only seen 1 Airachnid, 1 Voyager Bulkhead, and 1 Ultra Magnus…
As for my favorite that I purchased in 2012, that honor would have to go to MP10 as well. As one of two Transformers I've purchased (the other being MP Thundercracker) I must say that the value versus dollar ratio for MP10 is exponential, if you got him at the original $99 price point. By himself, Prime is well worth the typical $70 price point of a Hasbro released Masterpiece, but you add in the HUGE yet sturdy trailer, roller, weapons, Spike, and the artistic way Prime is packaged, and you have hands down one of the most jaw-dropping pieces of art in toy collecting history.
jiidee
What ho good chap! How is the new year treating you? Well I should hope?
In the spirit of brotherly compassion and goodwill to all something or others I thought I should bring to your attention that you seem to ambulating around with your shoes untied. I would heartily recommend that you rectify this post haste! Especially in light of the fact that you seem to be ankle deep in toys me ol' china!
I would ever so hate for you to give yourself a nasty knock tripping over your madballs.
Oh wait. Too late.
GogDog
This is something we do for fun every year. We share our OPINIONS on OUR favorite figures of the year.
It's cool if you want to participate in the discussion. But to take something meant to be fun, and sit here and tell someone how crappy their opinions are, and that because their opinion on their favorite doesn't match some preconceived list that you claim is fact and those people can't be taken seriously…
This type of thought is poisonous and literally ruins the enjoyment of those around you. Either relax, take part, and join in the discussion respectfully to those around you, or choose not to participate at all. That doesn't just go for this thread. That's for the entire forum.