POTP Nemesis Prime was definitely one of my favorites this year. Battletrap and Punch/Counterpunch were also awesome and spent a lot of time at my desk this year too, and after I added some paint to Hun-Gurr to make Abominus more toon accurate, the POTP Terrorcons group were a lot of fun for me as well. At least on the Transformers side of things 2018 was a good year for me!

 

For me it's between SS Leader Class Blackout or MP41 BW Dinobot.

 

2018?

I was VERY selective about my purchases. I picked up all five dinobots and all five terrorcons.  I was very pleased to add those to the cabinet. 

 

I loved Power of the Primes but have to be selective with Seige, because I just don't have the space or money to keep going like I have been since Thrilling 30th. Plus, our exposure to Seige around here is a bit limited - the Deluxes, Battlemasters and Micromasters showed up before Thanksgiving '18, but the rest are awaiting store resets, at least from what I am told.

Anyway, my fave of last year was finally completeing Generations Terrorcon teams and Abominus(es).



Runners up: PotP Optimus Prime, Seige Cog, Seige Skytread/ Flywheels, PotP Punch-Counterpunch, Prime Wars Blastoff, PotP Battletrap, PotP Outback, and Slash and the PotP Dinobots/ Volcanicus.

 

Battletrap isn't perfect, but still awesome.

 

Glad to see Blackout there, he’s truly a breathtaking figure worth the wait

 

He's on my list and would've taken the top spot but Magnus took it for finally giving me what I wanted in an official Magnus toy since childhood.

 

If you do, let me know what you think.

 

?

 

But how... Siege: Ultra Magnus wasn't even released yet in 2018...

 

(I'm counting Siege stuff as 2019)

Runners up:
SS Starscream MV1
SS Grimlock
MP Dinobot
POTP Tailgate
POTP Rodimus Prime
POTP Rippersnapper

And best of 2018, in all objective quality and not anything to do with nostalgia or personal bias:

  POTP Slag  

 

Looking at everybody's picks, I realise how personal everybody's toys of the year are. I'm the same, its no longer about how great the toy is as Hasbro has hit some awesome high water marks lately that even the lesser toys are fairly awesome enough. I too find that the reasons for my 2018 favourites are context.

#3 - Studio Series Grimlock

This incredible toy is a bombardment of 2 things I really like that a lot of others don't. I really liked Grimlock's bayverse design because I thought it was the perfect way to bring the character to the big screen, a cool powerful dinobot that won't look cartoony in real life. I also really liked Pretenders Grimlock when I was a kid for some weird reason and his robot mode reminds me of that pretender shell only now done right. This toy puts all the other movie Grimlock toys to shame, produces 2 t-rex heads through simple transformation and wears a mantlepiece paint job we never dared to expect from Hasbro. I hug SS Grimlock when I go to sleep at night.

#2 - Walmart Reissue Hot Rod

He's shelf warming but that's the way I like it. Seeing Hot Rods on retail shelves again, what a dream come true. Unlike a lot of fans who blame him for Prime's death, little kid me walked away from the 1986 movie thinking that Hot Rod is the coolest Transformer, ever. I never got his toy when I was a kid, and I am more than ecstatic that I can make up for that now. Yes, he was reissued multiple times but never like this. Here he is in all his time-traveled G1 box glory, stacked high and wide on shelves in a store you can walk into. Opening up a G1 box to "The Touch" a G1 Hot Rod in my hands without paying vintage bay prices is such a joyous new memory for me as a collector.

#1 Power of the Primes Volcanicus & Slash

Yeah okay, you're thinking gawd awful proportions but really Volcanicus doesn't care what you're thinking. He's the most powerful attack team the Autobots beg to save their asses now finally combined into an Official Dinobot Combiner. You think he's too small but he doesn't have the time to think you're too small before he crushes your bones into powder under this Official Dinobot Combiner feet. Its not good enough for me to go out of my friggin' mind holding a full CHUG Dinobot team complete with completely G1 stylings between my unworthy arms, but these 5 Dinobots combine into an Official Dinobot Combiner, like I always suspected they could and would ever since I was a kid. Wait, there's more! Volcanicus comes with a scout sidekick female velociraptor in the same G1 stylings and which my daughter absolutely adores? VOLCANICUS (now with Slash accessory), TOY OF THE YEAR 2018.

 

Happy to see all the MP Dinobot love. 

 

I passed on so much stuff this year, really bought very few retail figures. And too many that I did buy, like POTP Nemesis Prime and SDCC Throne of the Primes, and an embarrassing number of Takara Legends, are still MISB. (An addiction within an addiction, that, buying toys but not opening them.) MP-42 Cordon was one figure I could not pass on, though, and didn't even try to resist opening, and he does not disappoint. He gets my vote for official figure of the year.

 

Siege Optimus Prime is the absolute winner for me, because it’s literally everything I ever wanted out of a CHUG Voyager Optimus. The detailed sculpting, the intricate transformation, the extreme posability, the accessories, they absolutely smashed the ball out of the park with him and I couldn’t be happier.

Runners up:

POTP Grimlock
Siege Megatron
POTP Dreadwind
POTP Rippersnapper
POTP Punch/Counterpunch

While not released in 2018 I also got my hands on TLK Scorn after lots of patience, and loose joints aside he does not disappoint either. I haven’t invested in any Studio Series figures yet however, but it’s good to see so much acclaim for them. Need to pick up Grimlock eventually and keep praying for Sentinel Prime.

 

Yeah, these were all obvious choices. Oddly enough, my favorite figures from this year are the two that seem to be the most love it/hate it - Studio Series Camaro Bumblebee and Power of the Primes Grimlock. Then again, I didn't get any figures from Siege.

 

I was insinuating that Battletrap winning the favorite poll must have been an inside job given how highly that figure was received by a number of the staff while being simultaneously panned by a number of us commoners.

 

Wow. Amazon Prime Wars Punch/Counterpunch made alot of the runner up lists.

 

2018 is the year that I started collecting transformers. I still have few, but I have tasted a little of everything, from the simplicity of CW planes to the panel flipness of Studio Series voyagers. I have been surprised by all the ways transformation can work and how intuitive the toys can be in my hands. I have decided on some from 2018 to comment:

POTP Slash wins in the fidget toy category and best of the year.
Inferno wins in customizing potential (actually I have Hot Spot, but they work the same).
Cyberverse megatron wins in the Absolute Unit category.
POTP Starscream wins in most surface covered by stickers.

 

An inside job? What kind of operation do you think we’re running here?