A quick refresher...

2012 was the year of Hercules Vs Giant.
2013 was the year Fans Toys hit the scene with fan favourite MMC Hexatron taking second place to the game-changing Quakewave.
2014 was the year where MMC finally took the coveted top spot with Toy of the Year in Feral Rex and Company of the Year, narrowly beating out Scoria for Toy of the Year. Unique Toys took most improved, and Warbotron took newcomer of the year.
2015 was a busy year, with MMC narrowly missing out on company of the year to Fans Toys by just two votes. With MMC Spartan, UT Ordin and XTB Apollyon winning in their respective categories.
2016 was the year that Maketoys finally got the top spot beating out Fans Toys with their wide variety of styles, but with Fans Toys Stomp winning overall toy of the year.

The voting for overall 3P Toy of 2017 closes on 9th January based on the ten most nominated toys, but we can still look at the winners of each Toy category based on nominations, and the Company winners based on the write-in results.

Can FT get toy of the year again? Can Maketoys hold on to the top spot? Let's take a look.

(But first; Disclaimer: Thank you to everyone who voted in all of the polls. TFW is nothing without it's members, and your voices on the 3P thread do get seen and heard by the majority of 3P companies. These are your choices and are presented here based on your nominations. Please do not attack the choices as being "wrong", biased, or in any way of my choosing, they are all correct as they are subjective.)

Third Party Toy of the Year results

3P MP style Category



1) Fans Toys Phoenix (Jetfire / Skyfire)
2) Fans Toys Sovereign (Galvatron)
3) Maketoys Downbeat (Jazz)
4) Fans Toys Grinder (Grimlock)
5) Maketoys Galaxy Meteor

Okay, so clearly Fans Toys wiped the floor in this category, but it's heartening to see Make Toys getting in there too. There is perhaps an argument to be made for Jazz being a fill-in until a Takara or Fans Toys, but Galaxy Meteor making the list shows the MP market is not JUST for G1 characters.

31 different figures were nominated for this category, buy far the most popular of the nomination categories.

3P CHUG style Category



1) MMC Kultur (Tarn)
2) Maketoys Thunder Erebus (PM Prime)
3) MMC Tyrantron (IDW Megs)
3) Maketoys Striker Noir (Black CD Prime)
5) MMC Calidus (including Asterisk and SG colours)

CHUG Nominations dropped off from last year with many members declining to nominate in this category, however those that enjoy their CHUG style / non MP toys sure do love their MMC and MT. The Reformatted subline continues to be hugely popular and the Cross Dimension line from MT did very well with only one new mold. This all reads very similar to last year.


3P Citybot / Combiner Category



1) Fans Toys Terminus Giganticus (Omega Supreme)
2) TFC Poseidon (Piranacon)
3) Transformmission Havoc (Menasor)
4) Fans Hobby Power Baser (PM Prime)

Always potentially a confusing category, there is an argument to be made that all the figures listed above are also intended to hit with the MP line (unlike previous years where some of the combiners have split the line between MP and CHUG, and some of the City Bots being scaled to smaller figures like Utopia or Devil Stinger).
Even though Terminus Giganticus is clearly intended for the FT MP line, no-one can argue he is a giant toy. He clearly won this category by some way and was the most nominated toy overall this year.

No fifth place as no other Giant toy got above ten nominations, never mind the twenty I look for to make the top five. A shame that big ass toys like PX Apocalypse (hugelt ambitious) and Maketoys Devil Stinger (a repaint at least) failed to garner more votes. Also interesting to note how Combiners aren't the 3P defining vote stealers of previous years.

3P Legends / Small Scale Category



1) Iron Factory Bridge Watcher (Shockwave)
2) Mech Planet Hot Soldiers Soundtrack + repaints (Soundwave)
3) Iron Factory Wings of Tyrant Red (Starscream)
4) DX9 Rager (Grimlock)
5) Iron Factory War Giant A (Bruticus parts)

So Iron Factory continue to dominate, and DX9 are also doing very well despite a lot of their stuff being stolen, upscaled and released much cheaper by Mech Toy Fans. There's much more choice in this category than previous years as well, with Generation Toy and Mech Planet getting in on the action. I also feel Boltrunner and Blazedash perhaps stole a few votes from each other despite being sold together.


OVERALL 3P Figure of the Year

FANS TOYS PHOENIX

Beating out MMC Kultur by a comfortable margin, Phoenix wins Toy of the Year. It's actually heartening that all of the top spots weren't dominated by MP style figures as it shows there is demand for a variety of styles, but that's besides the point... WELL DONE FANS TOYS!

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/attachments/phoenix-jpg.27889147/

3P Company of the Year Results

Most Improved Company of the Year

1) DX9



This was not even close, DX9 claimed almost 4 times more votes than any other company, doing very well with Richtofen as well as their smaller figures. Well done guys!

2) Maketoys

Last years best company was the second most improved, perhaps this bodes well for company of the year.

3) XTB / KFC

Combining the votes for both as a lot of people wrote the companies in together, curiously these guys are both winners of this category in previous years despite fairing poorly in the Best Company category.

Best Newcomer

1) Fans Hobby



Again, by a long way, Fans Hobby clearly win this category with more nominations than any other toy or company in any of the categories, and the undisputed most highly regarded Newcomer of any year since I started doing these polls. And I can see why, what a stunning debut year with all three Monsterbots, Archenemy, Gun Fighter II, and Power Baser! Great stuff, out of nowhere, and lots of votes in the next category too, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

2) Zeta Toys

Maybe I spoke too soon, and combiners haven't had their day in the sun quite yet. Zeta have done very well and I'm sure they will do very well in the completed combiner category in 2018. Big things coming in the future I'm sure.

3) Open and Play

Good toys and a nice entry level price point, nice to see their attempt to create a niche has worked and they've gained recognition. Big Spring and Big Cannon are both worthy releases from any company, never mind in their first year.


3P Company of the Year

In reverse order...

3) Fans Hobby. How's that for a debut year? Stunning.

2) Last years winner Maketoys gets a huge chunk of nominations, meaning...



1) ... FANS TOYS get COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2017. Don't call it a comeback, they almost won in 2016 and the margins between MT and FT are razor thin.

And who can be shocked by this? Last year I predicted the following:

"Already 2017 is shaping up to be a strong one with Fans Toy's output especially looking strong with Grinder, Phoenix, Sovereign and Biggus Dickus Terminus Giganticus on the way, who knows if a few of these releases would have changed this year's Top Company results? Will they all make it out next year? I'm going out on a limb and saying Fans Toys won't get all of these out in 2017."

How wrong was I? All this and more, including Koot, Spindrift and Apache! Fair play, and well deserved. I'm sure it's just a question of which of their toys will win Overall 3P Toy of the Year on the 9th when the polls close. What a year for FT!!!


Shockers and 2018 Predictions

Where was MMC in the company of the year results? In fifth place after Iron Factory.
Where was Badcube in any of the categories?
Why no love for PX Apocalypse?
Why don't more people love Spark Toys Spartacus as much as I do?

I think we can answer the third one as Apocalypse was expensive, a niche game release, and had to contend with a big and very mainstream affordable Hasbro TR G1 Trypticon.
I was shocked to see MMC drop so far off the map as this was a company who has won Toy of the Year and Company of the Year in previous TFW polls. I guess that while their Reformatted line is still a huge success, their Ocular Max line has failed to engage with the fans in the way that FT have managed to. Should they fight harder in the MP line, or just concentrate on what they're best at with Reformatted (and finish the DJD while they're at it)?

I think we'll see more Mech Planet Hot Soldiers on the list though I doubt they'll beat out the IF Tarn combiner. I think FT will continue to dominate the MP scene, and I hope to see some really exciting releases from Maketoys Cross Dimension line. I also think KFC's Darkwing and Dreadwing / Buster and Hydra have a real chance to make an impact.

Thanks for reading. Massive thanks to Maz of TFSquareOne, Sixo, and Google for the non-watermarked image of Bridge Watcher which I'm pretty sure is Kuma Style so full credit to those wonderful chaps.

- C Z Hazard is part of the team behind Mayhem Mekanics, as a freelance writer - having written profiles, stories, and comics for more than half a dozen 3P companies under a variety of guises – he crafts the universe of the Unrustable Bastards.
He's done the 3P year in Review for a few years now, and has three novels and a short story offering available on Amazon Kindle.

 

Pictures to be added over the next 30 minutes, I just didn't want to lose everything I'd written and the poll while I source images.

 

Again I can only vote based on what I have.
But still I feel Kultur is superior in accuracy compared to the canon-arms of Sovereign that make me wonder whether I should get him or wait to see what Takara does.
Phoenix looks great, but he's just so damn big.

 

I have all 3 and I am not sure why people like Kultur so much. Hasbro level engineering (note I say engineering not build quality), and an inaccurate alt mode. Did you read the results above in full? MMC has fallen off the pedestal so much because all they do now is super simple transformation and tons of repaint. Glad people are noticing that.

 

I love sovereign the most out of all the figures I bought in 2017.

FT should dominate company, MP, and combiners award for the next decade.

 

Yup, only just waiting to complete the djd... Then I'm done with MMC until they fix their reuse/recolor practice where bots are sacrificed for the sake of saving money/mold cost

 

lol, price might play a part but you can't really be surprised by this... voting is primarily a popularity contest , and MP beats WFC/FOC everyday of the week...

 

This is democracy, people nominated the choices and now it's a vote.

Peru Kills got 24 nomination points, if you don't like it you have to blame EVERYONE else, or yourself for not lobbying hard enough.

I also love Apocalypse, but against Terminus Giganticus it had no chance as people have cleared wanted a high quality G1 cartoon / MP style representation of Omega Supreme (and it was more expensive than Apocalypse too so they hardly went for that as it was the cheap option).

Still, strenuously object away.

 

Ignore the guy. He's talking about biased, but you should see his comments in all PX threads. I think he is a PX representative or something. The big bots category are very well represented in the figure of the year poll i.e. 3 of them, and 2 of them are more expensive than PX Apocalypse, so how can they be "cheap".

 

I think MMC has fallen mainly because so many of their reformatted line this year have sacrificed accuracy for the ability to get multiple characters from one mold.
I don't see what's wrong with Kulturs altmode accuracy though. Maybe I'm too easily pleased on that account.
His simple transformation doesn't bother me, especially since it makes him a less finicky toy than past Reformatted toys like The fembots, the Spartan mold or Serapichus whatever.
MMC has always been put on that pedestal without actually deserving imo.
Their designs always had a lot of issues that where largely ignored in their haydays.
In fact Kultur and their Kaon are their only products I am really happy with.

 

Not surprised to see Havoc doing well, my pick of the bunch too

 

Of those listed, I have only three: Maketoys Downbeat, Fanstoys Grinder and Maketoys Galaxy Meteor. Of these three, Downbeat is to me very easily the least well done. He may look the part albeit it a bit plain (he really needs labels), but I don't like transforming him and I'm not too fond of posing him.

But choosing between Galaxy Meteor and Grinder is hard. Grinder feels more solid, more quality and looks more impressive. But Galaxy Meteor is much more fun, more interesting and poses so much better. It would be a very hard choice choosing between those two.

But I'm pretty sure Galaxy Meteor is of those figures listed, the figure I have and rate highest.


However, of all the figures listed, I think Fanstoys PHOENIX is the best.

I think that even though the articulation in the legs/feet is a bit limited, he does everything he should do. A Masterpiece Skyfire in the same vein as the MP line once was and how I like it: the animation model complemented with details from an actual jet for a nice dose of realism. I would so love to own him, but sadly he's too big for my collection: there's not a single shelf he would fit on and he doesn't belong with the planetformers or cityformers. But outside of size, he does everything exactly like he should do.

 

I've loved MMC as this year I think their designs have nailed the out of the box pick up and play sweet spot (compared to say Carnifex's shoulders which still frustrate the fuck out of me). I've not had to look at the instructions once this year, and some of the toys have even been packaged in alt. mode which is something I really enjoy.
Mostly I like the fact they give us something unique with their large CHUGgy style of IDW guys, I personally haven't gotten much from the MP or 3P line the last year or two but I know I'm in the minority on that.

 

Photo links aren't working and it won't let me edit the first post, so dumping here and hope I can make it work somehow.

 

Excellent work Sid!!

Of course, it pains me to not see MakeToys Meteor and Contactshot get the votes to make the final poll but I get to do my own list, so it's quite easy for me to express my feelings in my way and not come here with the sort of mindless, idiotic "BAD LIST" attitude that plagues the community and fandom.

Now, do I go Sovereign, Phoenix, Thunder Erebus or Galaxy Meteor....

All the best
Maz

 

Thanks for putting the annual poll together, CZ!

Great to see Galaxy Meteor getting recognition, a non-G1 MP! And leagues better than their G1 barely "MP" formerly-Howling Meteor. Collectors noticed that Galaxy looked like a product that got a lot more love from MT during its creation, while Howling seemed more like an afterthought and didn't match the style of their previous MTRM figures like Despotron that were more Hasui-style than toon design.

A good reminder that CHUG is not yet on an ascendancy course despite some very good releases this year. MP scale still has another year or two of product runway before it peters out. Season Two combiners will be big in 2018, as will Season Three figures.

That is interesting and Apocalypse is worthy of some recognition. I did hear PX thought Apoc did not do as good as they hoped overall, so perhaps not as many collectors actually buy FoC/WfC designs despite those that do being a passionate lot.

I am surprised DX9's WiP Seekers didn't make the list as they are quite nice representations of G1 seekers in mini form. The real story here, imho, is that Mech Planet came out of nowhere to release incredibly low-priced, original design (as in, not KOs) Legends scale figures that actually weren't bad at all. At less than $15 per, it's kind of hard to say no. Well done to them, indeed!

Literally the only way KFC can make a "most improved" category.   Sorry, have to poke fun at them as they still release junk from time to time. Perhaps questionable "improvement".  

Mega congrats to DX9 and well deserved! They've put out better quality, better designed products in the past year and actually put out quite a few products to boot! To improve quality and design while also keeping a decent release schedule is quite an achievement.

Both well deserved. I don't own a single toy from either but have come close to buying from both, and impressed with their products as relative newcomers (even though ZT has some TW employees, they had to reform the rest of a company around them).

All reasonably well deserved. Certainly three solid choices and hopefully a wake-up call to some former winners who didn't even place or show this year, to get their stuff together.

About where it belongs because they can't seem to get their act together with the Ocular Max line. They also had a few mis-steps in the Reformatted line, and they continued a disappointing pattern of giving more paint apps to the lesser-known mold of their mold-share figures (like Titanika and Dicamus, and their Whirl and its clone), leaving fans of the primary characters a bit let down to get rather plain finishes on the arguably more important characters.

They released hardly any products this year and about half were re-releases with very high prices. Meh.

Best guess: Low sales volume means fewer customers to vote for it.

Not surprising at all to those of us who bought Ocular Max figures last year or who were disappointed at their cheaping out on the paint apps on some of the more popular figures, which is a trend that started back in 2016, iirc. Regarding OcMax, they have some good designs and generally good materials, but the engineering on some joints and transformation bits leaves parts liable to break during transformation, and their QC on things like joint tolerances and missing trim pieces seals their fate. They should shape it up, rather than abandon it, though. We are getting some gems out of the Ocular Max line like Jaguar, that no one else is doing. And competition keeps Fans Toys on their toes.

KFC could rise to be among the top companies by delivering competitive products if they use better materials/finishes, engineer sufficiently robust joints, and keep a closer eye on QC.
MakeToys has CHUG on lock with the CD line and they haven't even released a number of popular characters (Seekers, etc) so they have opportunity for a great 2018 as well. Hope they also do more in the Galaxy Meteor branch of ReMastered. Their G1 ReMastered products have fallen off into overly-plain toon designs with some glaring issues in articulation or engineering, so if anything, maybe give that line a break next year and come back when you can deliver more Hasui-like designs like Despotron that more people want.
imho, Fans Toys shouldn't win next year unless they match their performance this year, which means a host of major releases and hopefully that includes a reworked Hot Rod mold, Arcee, improvements on the SixShot Hydra mold, Blurr, and maybe a Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus. From what dalianjj's said, they aren't sure they will get all of those out in 2018, but they set the bar high this past year with large figures like FT-10 and FT-20 and a host of other releases so their biggest competitor may in one sense be themselves.  

 

Here's the math, all the tally charts for the different nominations which I painstakingly spent hours logging and counting as I've done the last few years (rather than clogging the 3P discussions with 7 different polls.

 

Great poll, but IMO, MT Contact Shot needs to be on here.

 

Again, if more people had nominated it, it would be. I didn't pick these arbitrarily, you as a community did.

 

Where's the "potato" option?