Great to see some picks for Jhiaxus, fantastic figure.

Along with Motormaster, Dragstrip, Sludge, Cosmos and Bomburst all eligible for pick of the year in my mind.

I even like Kickback a lot. Yes he's simple however I've never held that against a figure. Looks perfect in both modes and I can't wait to see all the Insecticons together if they keep up this direction.

If I have to pick one, I think Motormaster takes it. Probably the most "played" with figure and deservedly so.

Bring on 2023 and hopefully some Firecons, Sureshot, Backstreet and Slapdash  

 

I\'ve aquired a multitude of figures over this year, but there are some clear standouts. I absolutely love buzzworthy kup for some reason. I have both of the kup decos. I also got ss skipjack, ss Optimus, and ss bb starscream. The best figure I\'ve got this year however is Lego Optimus prime (especially modified). It\'s a crossover of my two favorite toy brands, and with modification is absolutely incredible

 

I think the lack of any Masterpiece entries on the list this year is a reflection on how good the quality of Hasbro's main line in 2022 is.

 

The HISS tank? Seriously?? That thing looked like the biggest piece of shit ever. But hey! I can't argue with someone else's opinion! Glad someone enjoyed it.

 

Or that the only MP releases were two repaints, trailbreaker who I assume no one making this list has in hand yet, and two trainbots.

So I'm not sure it says much of anything other than haslab didn't disappoint.

 

2022 was underwhelming honestly. Every other figure came with some kind of bullshit, and the price hikes really got out of hand. I think I posted that laughing JJJ gif more times than I bought a TF this year....

Still, SS Brawn and the Fallen were pretty neat. One managed to get a convincing alien vehicle mode out of a design with no hint at a vehicle mode, and the other engineered the shit out of a silly double-arms design. Honorable mention to SS Galvatron for doing its damnedest to make that outright impossible transformation work.

 

I need to get my hands on that Tarn and Bluestreak. Gave up on Cosmos though, cost to damn much.

 

Haha it surprised me too  

 

I like to see that the various picks have a good amount of variety, as well as some common themes when the runners-up get factored in. Some years it seems like everyone hits the same 2 or 3 toys, and others are like a random scatter.

I think my Top 2022 pick would be Legacy TM2 Dragon Megatron. He's this beefy tower of demonic red angry wingspan that I find equally fun to look at and handle in either mode, without the annoyances that kept me from enjoying Kingdom T-Rex Megs.

Runners-up:
Haslab Victory Saber - worth the price of admission IMO, Lots to look at from a display standpoint, and lots to do from a toy standpoint.
Legacy Tarantulas - Very faithful and well made on nearly all counts
Legacy Jhiaxus - Scores points for its "OMG they actually did it" G2 Yaniger art accuracy, and for being a genuinely good figure too.
Legacy Inferno - Makes up for its shortcomings by being 50 pounds of personality in a 10 pound carapace.
Velocitron Cosmos - Just a fine, fun, no-frills toy marred by its shortpacked scalper bait status.
Buzzworthy Silverstreak - It's a special thing when a repaint makes me love a mold i was pretty lukewarm toward 3+ times previously.

 

Nice list. This really makes me want to pick up Jhiaxus despite having no attachment to the character beyond knowing he was a big villain in Dark Cybertron (which I just bought the IDW Collection consisting of, RIP IDW license). I’m also excited to open Motormaster, he was a Christmas present to myself that I haven’t gotten around to opening yet.

 

Yeah, although last year Blaster and Perceptor were in the same boat. Those are 2022 releases that a small handful of people got at the end of 2021 and neither figure made a single list even as an honerable mention. So next year people may forget that Tarn is a 2023 figure.

 

I've also seen HISS Tank on worst of the year lists, too. It takes all kinds I guess.

 

I broadly agree with most of the picks. The figure I was most surprised by this year was Motormaster. I've never been a fan of the Scramble City "put five lackluster figures together to make one big-ish lackluster figure and then wonder why you bothered" gimmick, but Menasor's "stick these respectable figures and Dead End to an awesome figure to make an intimidating level boss looking figure" really spoke to me. Seeing Drag Strip split in half as the arm is unfolded was my biggest "ooo, ahh" Transformers moment of the year.

The other ones I loved were Jhiaxus, Cosmos, Blitzwing, Holiday Optimus Prime, Galaxy Shuttle and Victory Saber. I wouldn't go so far as to say Crankcase will be remembered as a classic, but he does have a lot of personality and I now love him like a brother.

 

I usually disagree with a lot of the yearly picks on here, but I think you guys did a solid job this time.

I can't comment on starsaber, hiss megatron, tarn or lego prime since I don't own them but the rest of the picks were solid.

I'm going with legacy blackzarak for mine. yeah yeah he's a repaint but I thought he did the mold better justice than scorp, and I've never owned a BZ before so it checked all the boxes for me.

good year all around for tfs though, not too many official stinkers this year.

 

I agree 100% on this. I pre-ordered Tarn as it looks like an interesting action figure that is worth that price to me. With the caveat that I could probably get most/some of my money back via ebay if I think it's not worthy of display.

I wonder where they calculate the compromises here. I think they know a lot of the Legacy is going to be bought by collectors who will display these only in robot mode. And the kids who get them more for interactive play are less concerned with things like properly hidden hands in alt modes. (Unless you are a kid like I was! I hated that kind of thing! ᕕ༼•̀︿•́༽ᕗ )

I do think the Cyclonus, by contrast, deserves all the praise for specifically the proper engineering it has. For 30 bucks! It has a robot mode that looks great on a shelf. If only it had more posable hands, and avoided certain QC issues, I would argue it is colloquially a mini-masterpiece.

Funny enough, if they made Tarn's hands removable, and allowed you to hide them in a hollow bit of the tank, like a G1 Optimus Prime, the fans would cry "Partsforming!" And reviewers would knock off points for that reason. I wonder if designers even had that in mind.

I don't like partsforming. But just leaving them out there seems somehow worse.

 

Still a damn good year. There were some sure thunkers, but a lot of great figures and repaints happened.

My pick is either Inferno or Override. 2 great Voyagers, very simple and fun to transform with some neat tricks here and there, incredibly accurate, accessories are good, easily the best versions for those 2 characters, etc.