The best...Walgreens exclusive Brainstorm, he is perfect in my book. Solid figure, tight joints, great colors and paint, and easily better than the Blurr he is remolded from. I just picked up Alpha Trion, and so far I'm loving his lion and bot modes, feels solid, and it's nice to have a beast mode, and this is coming from someone who dislikes beast modes. That sword is great too. Triggerhappy is easily the best Decepticon this year thus far, he is also near perfect in his homage of G1 Triggerhappy.

The Worst....Galvatron! A favorite character of mine, one of my top five Decepticons. Between what feels like the cheapest plastic I have ever felt on a Hasbro Transformer, the cannon he can't hold up because of his shoulder and most importantly his awful mask gimmick. That mask gimmick would be enough to sink him by itself...it's a piece of awful engineering that leaves you scratching your head as to how they released it like that, who thought this even looked passable??? Besides that, my only other complaint is about Highbrow and his awful Titanmaster connection, simply put he could be a bobble head, also his guns slide right out of his hands, very disappointing. I honestly came close to returning both of them, however I figured they would both get trashed by the the store.

 

Best: MP Inferno
Worst: FT Mercenary (not really a "worst" per say but it's definitely the less amazing of the ones I got this year).

 

but, but Blurr looks exactly like Blurr (especially if you popped for the Legends version), and Brainstorm, while working better then i'd argue he had any right too as a Blurr remold, does look nice in robot mode, doesn't really look like Brainstorm historically has (to skinny, cockpit sits too high), or much at all like Brainstorm in vehicle mode... I mean, i like him and he's right here on my desk at work, i'd just never call him better then Legends Blurr (who might be the best deluxe in years IMHO, but i haven't found Triggerhappy yet)

 

Thats how much I like Brainstorm, he is better (to me at least) than the character his mold is designed to be, lol. Honestly I think its the paint that kills Blurr for me, that and I really think he needs a faction symbol somewhere more obvious than just his shield. Now I will admit, if I had Legends Blurr, my opinion would likely be different, as he looks fantastic from all if the photos I've seen.

 

LOL, yeah, TR Blurr was pretty shameful in the deco department.

funny thing is, while i generally objectively think Generations Brainstorm is better the TR, i "like" TR BS better.
...if they'd just made his nose guns removable...

 

I still go with TR WG Brainstorm, as I love him so much, but have to say that those 4 guys are on the list.

 

Best?

I can't choose just one.

However, I can definitely say that the good outnumbered the bad, but, there were a couple of regrets:

 

Worst: CW Bruticus... only because he was always just a placeholder that would be sold off when I got the UW version. CW Sky Reign, equally.

Best: FansProject Dinobots... all 4 released thus far. They are THE appropriately Voyager Classics-styled Dinobots for my shelf.

 

I just got one and...[George Takei voice]oh my[/George Takei voice]. What a nice bot.

 

Best: if 3rd parties are allowed, voyager MP10, if not, Cw devastator.
Worst: dunno, maybe victorion? Haven't been properly disappointed with anything this year, and it's been my most prolific tf buying year ever.

 

I have to throw Galvatron in the "worst" pile, and again because of the mind-destroying POS mask. A $25 official figure with ankle rockers should be an automatic winner, but the fact you can't turn his head is insanely annoying.

Worst 3P was me going against my own will and buying a XTB Windcharger. Didn't last 1/3 of the transformation without breaking.

Best official goes to Legends Blurr. The mold is as perfect as you can get for the original price - smooth transformation, looks amazing, and pulls off just about any pose you could want.

Best 3P for me this year has been Despotron. He has the "cartoon" but not necessarily "cartoon-accurate" look that I like, and he can pull off some amazing poses.

 

I concur with everyone that is saying Walgreens Brainstorm. I don't regret paying the online premium one bit, as his QC and paint job are easily the best of any figure I've bought this year. I'm also surprisingly in love with Combiner Wars Computron. And not just because of the 33% Amazon discount.

Worst... well, I can't say I truly disliked any transformer I bought in 2016, but my Wave 2 Titans Return Voyagers have the worst QC by a mile. Between Alpha Trion's paws that keep coming off, the excess plastic I had to cut off of his cockpit tabs just so I could snap the two halves of the lion together, and Astrotrain's broken knee ratchet, I don't think I've had worse luck since I started collecting three years ago. It's a shame, cause otherwise I like both of them a lot.

 

Best: MP 32 Optimus Primal. A great figure to kick off Beast Wars MP. Looks amazing in both modes.

Worst: TR Scourge, got him to finish off my classics Trio of Unicron Heralds. I just think he is a weak figure. Pretty much a legends figure with a headmaster gimmick.

 

I'm sticking with officals here...
Best: Tie - TR Brainstorm and Hardhead
Worst: Tie - TR Bonecrusher and CW Rook

 

Best: MP Primal.

A little expensive but as my first experience with MP it's a fantastic one.

Worst: TR Weirdwolf

I love the figure but the breakage issue is pretty harsh. I took the first one back because it disintegrated out of the package, and my second survived for a long time until the hinge eventually broke. Thankfully it broke in a way that it still works...because otherwise I wouldn't be getting a new one. Sigh.

 

Quick addition to best:

 

Still waiting for inferno and tfc ironshell, but as of now best is a tie between tfc bigbite, MO1 commander, primal and lg fortress....

I guess mp thrust was the worst, just cbf fixing its floppiness.

 

I like the Titans Return TFs, but the quality of plastic in the last couple of years from the official Hasbro range has been really weak, thin and really quite fragile. So, for me, anything from the official range has been amongst my worst. Some of the Titan Master scale vehicles/monster partners in "weapon mode" have a slightly different size to the 5mm as indicated, so they do not really fit into other TFs hands. I already had to replace Crashbash and Scourge, because the weapon handle on one and the hand on the other disappeared when I went to remove the weapon mode of Crashbash from Scourges hand, and I had to get a replacement of Hardhead, as I sneezed once while I was in the middle of transforming him, and all in the underbelly clips snapped, making it impossible to transform him into tank mode.

 

I'd say the best is Walgreens Brainstorm. Really good color scheme, good transformation, and looks great in both modes with no major flaws (sorry Triggerhappy, your arm cannons getting in the way of your elbow articulation bumps you off). So much so I used my second Brainstorm as custom fodder to turn him into a Decepticon tentatively called 'Bonestorm' (currently he's using Clobber as a head)

The worst has to be Twinferno. He is a piece of crap brick that was only bought to add to the Dragon Collection.

 

Best Official figure-Takara MP-7 Thundercracker. I can't believe that I finally got him. Hands down the best looking vehicle mode of any MP that I own. Gorgeous.

Best 3rd Party figure-Maketoys Despotron. If MP-36 wasn't happening I'd be perfectly happy with this guy. Not getting rid of him when MP-36 hits either.

Worst figure-Universe Tankor(Octane) WTF was I thinking? Bought him at the Calgary Comic Expo this year only because I have G1 Octane, I should have got Generations Sky Shadow instead.  

Honourable Mentions to Cloud 9 Quakeblast, UW Computron and Lynxmaster, MP Inferno and Laserwave.

Dishonourable Mention to Omnigonix Spinout for being designed so well and being manufactured so badly.