Right now, TFC...they are pumping out the combiners, and that's what got me back into TFs...

Perfect Effect is 2nd place at the moment...their Reflector and Arcee are things of beauty

MT only has one combiner out and only one thing I even like (Giant) so they are 3rd...

Igears seekers are awesome along with the van twins...

FP doesn't have any combiners of their own yet (fixing up Hasbros doesn't count to me)...I think the only thing of theirs I care about is the Insecticons...(once Menasor is out, this group will move WAY up!)


Ask in again in year and we'll see how things are...

 

It's a close thing for me between FP and Maketoys. I think they lost alot of votes to in favour of FP. It's a shame, would be nice to have a different version of the poll that allowed people to vote for more than 1 choice as these results do not seem to give an accurate reflection of peoples views.

 

Fansproject. Cheap, good quality, and the pace of their announcements are good.

Maketoys is second place. Pretty much FP tier except their stuff seem a bit more expensive.

Perfect Effect is good but some of their stuff is fragile and the paint apps can be shoddy. Also absurdly expensive. PE Arcee is $100 and you can get Assaulter, who's way bigger with more more die-cast and three modes for the same price.

iGear is meh. Only stuff I care much about is their minibots line. They take too long to release stuff after they tease it.

TFC is ok but I think Hercules is inferior to Giant in multiple ways and they choose shitty color schemes.

I haven't bought anything from MMC so I can't really comment. HOS stuff isn't for me.

 

MMC, for giving us toys that no-one else would, taking risks that paid off, and the leap in quality they've undertaken.

 

I have two: FP and MT, but I voted for FP. They have the best designs, IMO.

 

fp, the amount of them i have outnumbers anyone else, lol. but really like tfcs work as well. mmc is getting there, but not sold on the hos stuff yet

 

Fansproject is first. Headrobots is second for me.

 

I absolutely cannot decide between Fansproject and Maketoys. I own more FP stuff...but Maketoys hasn't been around as long, and so far I love everything they've made. Battle Tanker was awesome, Giant is amazing (still considering trading/selling my yellow for a green though...), and I'm really amped for Mobine.

MMC is close behind - I appreciate the fact that they went for the Hearts of Steel line, but other than Cyclops those didn't really appeal to me (I'd buy a Megatron if they ever make one, that's about it). I'm very excited about notSixshot, though.

ABE: Headrobots has not appealed to me much in the past, but Drone looks great...and I still have my Mindwipe waiting for Darksol.

 

This is actually a hard choice, which is wonderful because it shows just how much awesome work is going on now.

Right now, Fansproject still holds the top spot, but that's because my bent is mostly Classics-themed stuff, and they've got the most experience scratching that itch, and the sheer volume of their products gives them an edge. But each company has been making strides in their own niches.

Maketoys, the relative newcomer, came out of the gate HARD, one with a Fansproject-worthy add-on set in Battle Tanker, and then pulling off the VERY difficult feat of a large-scale Devastator, going head-to-head with the more established TFC and making the Devastator choice a tough one for a lot of fans. Their Mobine release is looking tremendously awesome, and is eprfectly timed with the Takara United re-releases of PCC.

TFC themselves, who tackled the Devastator problem first, and are unmatched in sheer SCALE. Hercules is an unparallelled beast, and TFC seems quite happy to continue. Their take on Superion seems to push the bar even higher, and there are even rumors of a Predaking in the works.

Toyworld, who bucked the trend of starting with accessories and/or upgrade kits, and went straight to a full, Voyager-scale figure, and really knocked it out of the park. They took on Megatron, of all characters, and got him RIGHT. Now they're digging into the Throttlebots, and actually making them cool.

I don't own any MMC figures, but that's just due to not really having the place in my budget for Hearts of Steel stuff. But it's painfully tempting. They've made the niche their own, grabbed onto the Hearts of Steel concept and run with it.

PerfectEffect has mostly stuck with the smaller figures, but their Motobot Arcee/Chromia was an excellent first release. Their stuff is still a bit more fragile than I like, but it's the tradeoff for the ridiculous level of detailing they put into each figure.

And there are still so many others still grinding out accessories, finding that one upgrade no one thought of and now I can't live without.

So, to ALL the 3Ps out there... I salute you. And my wallet would like you all to die in a fire.

 

Even if they haven't created large transforming figures yet, Headrobots should be on this list ahead of BTS Toys. They're much more likely to garner actual votes anyways, given the quality of their stuff.

I'm surprised at this stage that Perfect Effect hasn't received any votes yet. Their stuff is expensive given its size, but I've liked their designs.

 

Took the words right out of my mouth.

 

FP for me but that is no suprise.

MMC is a very strong 2nd because they fulfilled my dream of an HoS line from when I first stumbled upon the comic. They need to make more and faster.  

 

Gotta go with FP, but PE is a close second. Of course I'm a fan and customer of quite a few of them.

 

At the moment i own figures from FP, PE and MMC. While i do not doubt that FP will probably be the one group ill have the most figures of by the end, I have to say MMC has impressed me with their Airborne Squadron. Right now for me the top 3 are
1. MMC
2. FP
3. PE

 

iGear's been hitting homeruns lately (love their Mini Warriors line, their weapon/head upgrade kits, MP Coneheads, PP05 van bros. and PP01 Faith Leader). FansProject gets high marks, of course, for their quality to price ratio, bringing us Crossfire (Bruticus, Insections), City Commander, Warbot Defender/Steelcore/Assaulter. TFC, I dig their (Raged) Hercules and Iron Army sets.

Hard to choose, but since I own more iGear stuff than anything else, I'll go with them (even if their customer service is notoriously lacking, I personally never had any issue with them).

 

This is a really good poll question and a tough call.

I'm going with TFC for the simple reason that in Herc, they produced my personal favorite 3rd party toy and one that filled a great need (at the time) in a large-scaled articulated Devastator.

Props to all the companies though as they've all produced some real winners.

 

Being a movie toy collector, my favorite is Fans Want It...

 

Maketoys. Aside their minibot fiasco, they're the best. Giant is PERFECT while Herc is a wobbly mess. It brings a smile on my face everytime I combine Giant and hear the combiner connections clicking. Battle Tanker is pretty good too. Can't wait for Computron and I really hope they tackle other combiners and set themselves as the best combiner maker out there.

And Toyworld. Hegemon is so great, I had to buy two. TOP quality, right types of plastic at the right places, sturdy and stable. I can't wait for the Throttlebot combiner, Grindrod looks AWESOME and just shows how skilled their designers are.

As for the rest:

FP is becoming annoyingly overrated by fans. Never bothered with the Cliffjumper kit because it was stupid and overpriced. I have 5 City Commander armors. They're great, but they're just that - armors. Protector is a mess. Defender is a mess. The ninja Insecticons are a mess. Aerialbot appendage kit is a mess. Munitioner and Explorer are GREAT and a big improvement over Defender as stand alone figures. I can't stop hearing good things about Steelcore but meh, not for my tastes. I'm just waiting for Assaulter, the bug trio recolor and Menasor to change my mind about FP being the top one.

PE. I love their Reflector. Despite being tiny, they're awesome little fucks. I just pre-ordered the retooled version. I'm very disappointed with their bikes though. Wasn't expecing them to be parts-forming like that (yes Reflector is a parts-former, but at least they actually transform into cubes in a very funny and clever way while the bikes look like a mess without the add-ons) and in my case, lots of QC issues with the pink one. Never cared for their other stuff.

TFC could improve their designs. So far it's been all about articulated boxes with energon combiner ports.

MMC is great, but I'm not into HOS crap so it means nothing to me. Their other stuff is taking forever to show up, and I don't like the designs. It's too busy.

iGear already stopped making copies, now all they need is a ruler. Somebody has to tell them that Brawn was a midget and Cosmos was bigger than him.

 

This wasn't easy as I love at least one figure from each 3pp, even BTS, and in truth Hercules is my favorite 3p figure ATM; however, I asked myself if there was only one in the world, who would I want it to be? And for their pioneering efforts, for their sculpts, for their attempts at new characters, for the triple changers and Menasor---for Blesser and the insecticons, it's Fansproject. I love Fansproject.

 

wow, harder to pick than I thought. I love FP and everything they've done/are doing, but TFC has amazing combiners, iGear has amazing Minibots, PE's Reflector and Arcee are pretty perfect...


Went with FP, as I just realized I have 7 of the things they've done, out of i believe 10ish. (not counting repaints)