Disclaimer: First off, before we get started, 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. Remember, the end results presented here are the end result of almost a months worth of polling. These are your choices and are presented here because of that. Please do not attack the choices as being "wrong", biased, or in any way of my choosing.

I always like to start these things off with a very quick recap, as we've been doing this for a few years we can show a bit of legacy.
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.

So what was 2016 like? Fractured is the answer. In the nominations it seemed that there was a real divide between MP style collectors and the rest, with an awful amount of company vs company fighting (this year saw the battle of Infernos, Megatrons, another Reflector, Trailbreakers, Devastators, Dinobots etc...), teaser land-grabbing, confusion over what was released which year, and which companies were newcomers. But hey, we got there in the end!
But amoung all that fractured landscape, there were some phenomenal figures released, with 68 different figures nominated by you guys, and 29 different companies getting recognition in one form or another in the polls.
Thanks for all your feedback, nominations, and votes. Here we go...


Third Party Toy of the Year results.


This year we split 3P Toy of the Year into four sub-categories. CHUG style, Giant / Combiners, Small / Legends Scale, as well as the always popular MP style. The top results from each were then put to a Battle Royale public vote. Lets see the winners of each category.


3P MP Style Category

1) Fans Toys Stomp
2) Maketoys Despotron
3) Fans Toys Willis



FT Stomp was huge this year, a clear stand out from the rest. Given how well Scoria and Sever have done in the last two years, is this any surprise? FT have themselves a winner with the DiBots series, can they keep this momentum after the line is completed with Grinder?
It's interesting to see MT Master Series Despotron rank so highly, considering last year XTB Apollyon won the MP vote. I wonder how many people replaced Apollyon, and will we see this repeated next year with Takara's official V2 of MP Megatron?

Other worthy contenders were Badcube Sunsurge - who possibly missed out my being released late 2015 and missing last years voting stage, Gigapower Grassor, and KFC's offerings Simba and Crash Hog did very well too – will this be reflecting in the company rankings I wonder? Read on.

3P CHUG Style Category

1) MMC Carnifex
2) Maketoys Cross Dimension Striker Manus
3) Maketoys Cross Dimension Rioter Despotron



Nothing else came close to Carnifex this year during the nominations stage, it was a super popular release, no doubt being bought and voted on by the same people who pushed the awesome Spartan up to Best “other figure” last year.

Amazing to see the two debut offerings from a new toyline and aesthetic do so well, I guess there is always room for more Prime and Megatrons, so nice work Maketoys!

The rest of the votes were very split, with no real stand outs, but it's nice to see people voting for FP Dai Z and Trianix and the Planet X FOC style offerings.

3P Citybot / Combiner Category

Replacing the “Combiner” category by incorporating Citybots, these expensive toys are usually very popular with collectors, with both Giant and Feral Rex winning toy of the year in previous years.

1) Maketoys Pandinus
2) Toyworld Constructor
3) Generation Toy Gravity Builder



Pandinus was a huge stand-out toy this year and was reflected in the nominations, but it seems the Devastator Wars of 2012 are not over, with Toyworld and Generation Toy getting involved with two very impressive figures, even in a world where most everyone bought official CW Devy last year.
The Dinobot combiners haven't fared so well as people predicted, the so called “War of the Dinobot combiners” amounting to little more than a pub garden shove and shout, with last years Toyworld Dinobots and this years Shuraking getting very few nominations or votes. Other completed combiners including FP Saurus (just getting completed very late in the year) and Maketoys Guardia proved popular as well. I'm guessing next year will see TFC do very well in this category with Poseidon.

3P Legends / Small Scale Category

Possibly the most confusing category, so this might need to be more defined next year, however, it's clear that Iron Factory are dominating this category and making it their own, with 15 different figures released in 2016.

1) Iron Factory Lord Scorpion
2) Master Made Apollo
3) Iron Factory Ashura Knights



And Lord Scorpion took the win.
Master Made have been ticking over nicely with their Super Deform style figures. Given the scale of these toys, they definitely fit into this category in my book, and it's nice to see a different style this well received.

DX9 placed fourth with their impressive Hulkie combiner, showing that there is room for Devastators in every scale, and Maketoys Rear-End received several votes too. XTB received many votes in this category, but their Boost and Arkose are clearly intended to slot into MP collections and I carried their few votes over to that category.


OVERALL 3P FIGURE OF THE YEAR 2016

So we took those top nominations and took it to the public, and the winner was:



Fans Toys Stomp, by quite some margin. This very quickly became a two horse race, with only Carnifex offering any real challenge.


Okay, lets take a look at the companies.


Most Improved Company of the Year 2016

KFC



Following on from the success of XTB last year, sister company KFC took the Most Improved Company this year. With MP parallels such as Simba feeling like an official quality release, and the Crash Hog Junkion line both faring well, as well as Opticlones winning the Reflector wars for many people – no easy feat considering they were up against Maketoys and Fans Toys! It's nice to see the quality of the toys live up to the ambition of Cassy Sark's designs, given how popular his MMC released designs are. It's especially nice to see given the reputation of this companies QC in previous years, but if we've learned anything with 3P companies it's that things always change!

Toyworld, TFC, Maketoys and XTB did very well in this category. Curiously, previous Company of the Year winner and contender Fans Toys also received votes in this category. I guess some people really liked Stomp.


Newcomer of the Year

Spark Toys



This vote is always tricky, with companies coming and going all the time, turning out to be sister companies (like Ocular Max, Mech iDeas etc...). Spark Toys won the vote, with their arguably MP quality, MP scaled, War Within styled Alpha Pack. Well done for trying something new, and getting it right out of the gate.

Generation Toys got the second most votes, with the extra visibility with their completed combiner and MP sized modern styled J4ZZ figure, however they also ranked second last year. Still new to us all apparently, as I voted for them too. Strangely they received barely any votes in the most improved category, which is probably where they belonged.
Transformission placed 3rd, as you can always count on Combiners to bring attention.

So, this is the big one...

Company of the Year 2016

So the nominations this year bought it down to Maketoys, 2014 winner Mastermind Creations, and reigning champion of 2015 Fans Toys.

We took this to the public with a vote, and I can announce this years 3P Company of the Year is...



MAKETOYS.

Well done to Maketoys for truly offering something for all collectors, by offering Masterpiece style, Citybots, Combiners, minibots and an all new aesthetic and subset to collect with their hyper stylised Cross Dimension. Amazing work, and all of the figures have been great quality throughout.



There was a time when we'd consider ourselves very lucky to have one company operating at this level, to have MMC, Fans Toys, Maketoys and many others offering us so many quality toys, no-one could argue that we've had another very special year.

Iron Factory we're a clear fourth on the write-ins which is amazing for such a niche series and it shows the dedication of their fans - most of whom are super hardcore, followed by KFC in fifth place.


Runner Up

Fans Toys



A stunning year for last years winner, and with Stomp winning 3P Toy of the Year in the public vote, they can't be too upset. Perhaps only offering figures in that one, fixed, MP style - their very strength - has counted against them to a small degree this year?

Other honorable mentions

Where was Badcube this year? Disappointing given the quality of Sunsurge (or Rubik's Sunstreaker as it's sometimes known). It may seem with the addition of Ocular Max to the MP style scene, Badcube is being more irrelevant? Are the Trailbreaker wars over before they've begun?



Perfect Effect only had one figure released, a repaint of their Leo Convoy as Xerxes which looked very smart, but continued their heavy success with their mainstream accessible Combiner Wars add-on kits, making them arguably the king of add-ons for another year.
Unique Toys and DX9 both did okay last year with Best Combined figure and Best Newcomer respectively, but this failed to evolve into anything bigger this year. A shame, seeing as Carry was my personal favourite item in 2015. DX9 are competing in a crowded MP market, and in the Iron Factory dominated legend-scale marketplace albeit with Earth mode rather than Cybertronian mode figures.


Predictions for 2017

Already 2017 is shaping up to be a strong one. With MMC's Kultur, Maketoys Contact Shot very anticipated, and 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.
I expect to see even more in-fighting, especially with the six or so Springer analogues we're expecting, and I think we'll see certain figures cancelled before release (does anyone want or need KFC Dante at this point?)
Ultimately, more than ever before, I think 2017 will be the year people decide whether 3rd Party are just offering Masterpiece stand-ins or if they're straight up competitors to Takara, we've seen signs of this with people liquidating various Infernos from their collections, and we have reason to expect several 3P Megatron's being sold off to make way for the official V2 of Megatron.
But that doesn't mean it's doom and gloom, as we've seen with the success of Maketoys, Iron Factory, and Spark Toy's debut, there is room for 3rd Party to return to it's roots with new ideas and styles that Hastak might never approach, filling in gaps, or offering replacements where official toys have been less than optimal.
Ultimately, 3rd Party makes Takara and Hasbro bring their A game, which makes 3rd Party have to step up, and so on. All of which helps make transforming toys across the whole spectrum better for all of us. And isn't that the point?

Please feel free to leave your thoughts about the results, and predictions for 2017 below.

Thanks for reading. Massive thanks to Maz of TFSquareOne and Boastful Manfish of Drinking About Robots for the amazing photos.

- 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, he continues to write about his collecting on his blog and the Kapow blog, where he is relieved he doesn't have to write in the third-person.

 

Biggus Dickus Teminus Giganticus!?

    

 

That was supposed to be B̶i̶g̶g̶u̶s̶ ̶D̶i̶c̶k̶u̶s̶ but I forgot to import the strike through text. Whoops. Ah well, it's probably funnier as it is.

 

Wonderful work Sid, and thank you for taking the time and effort to bring this superb write up to us. It's such a nice way to look back on the year.

All the best
Maz

 

Good catch. Thanks.

 

I make that mistake all the time. I usually call them all fanswhateverthingy

 

Fantastic read. Only surprise is that Master Made Omega Supreme lost to Iron Factory Scorponok, but i guess the IF Scorp was cheaper and more accessible and none SD, thus more crowd. The rest all makes sense to me, all good contenders, nothing weird like DX9 Appolyon winning.

2017 Predictions?

For MP, i think FT Omega Supreme or FT Skyfire. Unless Someone pulls out a fantastic MP style Arcee.

For CHUG, no idea, remains to see how MMC Megatron / Tarn do, and what Maketoys does with their new line as they may surprise us again.

For Legends, no idea what Master Made has planned (i dont think their Scorponok will win), but Iron Factory has a very very strong (but very expensive) lineup with Shockwave / Starscream / Combaticons-Bruticus / Sixshot (which should beat DX9 next combiner i think)

 

Im surprised Willies got a 3rd place with all its issues..
As far as 2017 goes if anyone can beat Masterpiece Omega Supreme and Skyfire it can only mean that i will need to sell my organs

 

Outstanding review for 2016!

 

Looking back at last year's predictions.

Sunsurge did okay in this years votes, probably boosted by the more recent memory of Blaze, also proving the power of both the 1984 Ark Crew and Diaclone recolours to pull in the fans, but shame DX9 didn't do more this year  

MMC did fight back hard with some amazing releases, but this couldn't see them reclaim the first spot and actually they slipped to third. My prediction about Maketoys being a contender came good, which was awesome. We still don't seem burned out on Dinobots or Devys though.

And yeah, 3P toys have had to really fight back, as Takara and Hasbro have both been great this year. It looks like we'll have to wait for next year to see to what degree 3P toys can hold their own against official MPs, but recent prices on Apollyon, Hellfire and Backdraft suggest that in some collector's heads, 3P MP figures are just placeholders for the "real thing", but lets be honest, Pepsi still do very well for themselves. And Quakewave and Wrestle aren't leaving my collection anytime.

 

Willis only came third in the MP nominations, when it came to the votes for overall toy of the year it dropped much lower.

 

Willis is one of my favorites, and definitely amongst my top 3 of the year. Even with the hard transformation, the look and feel in both modes, once transformation is done, is just fantastic.

 

The look in both modes is incredible,getting there isnt fun but having to fix stuff with glue and epoxy putty really hurts the figure when it comes to toy of the year votes..AND IT SHOULD

 

My thoughts exactly, I was very surprised when I saw it up there.

 

Good stuff! What a year!

Thoughts while reading through it:

So Toyworld Contructor was the best Combiner, that's cool. Even with its flaws, it truly is the most impressive Devastator available. Suggestion: Separating the Citybots from Combiners would be a good idea for next year, as I'm sure there are quite a few Pandinus voters who would have also liked to have a say in what the best Combiner was in 2016.

I don't know if most 3P collectors really did buy CW Devy. Pretty sure a lot didn't because it was so underwhelming, out of scale with everything, limited in details, paint, and articulation, and there was already news of some better 3P alternatives on the horizon at the time. I'd take Gravity Builder or Constructor over the CW kids' toy version of Devastator in a heartbeat. Seems many others did as well.

That's a demonstration of how strong the loyal fanbase element can be when a company that releases some real disappointments this year, including some of their most recent releases, still gets votes for something like Most Improved. Likewise, plenty of people voted for "Best Company" based on one stellar figure that a company released (and that is true of MMC as much as FansToys - and don't get me wrong, I like both of those companies), rather than how the company actually did overall with its entire 2016 line-up. At least there are enough thoughtful voters out there that MakeToys won what they deserved for actually doing what a company should do to earn Best Company, which is demonstrating the ability to not only deliver products to market, but to increase the breadth of their offerings with new lines, across multiple scales, maintained good quality, and even listened to feedback along the way. No one else came close in 2016 to their level of performance.

imho, they're struggling with similar issues as Fans Toys, because both of them have been delivering a lot of mediocre products. In Fans Toys' case, they have a couple excellent figures in between the mediocre releases, and some collectors only seem to remember the standouts or for unknown reasons will excuse the other not-so-great releases. In Badcube's case, they seem to be perpetually second string as far as design and quality. Their Evil Bug Corps was maybe the one standout release they had in the past that they haven't managed to live up to yet or surpass with their 2016 products.

Definitely not. Neither MMC or BC has delivered a completely satisfactory Trailbreaker. We could use a third option, even Takara if they could pull off something that actually looks decent unlike their ugly disproportioned Ironhide. In the meantime, we may see some people with MMC Trailbreaker but Badcube Hoist if they dig the BC alt-mode design or headsculpt more. But I think the 3P Trailbreakers are a good example of MP stand-ins rather than definitive versions.

--------

Regarding Willis: I picked up Gundog recently and absolutely love it. Possibly my favorite MP carbot acquisition this year, and I picked up quite a few. I have trouble imagining Willis being so much better? I watched a lot of video reviews and I can see where it might appeal based on a couple design decisions that differentiate it from Gundog, so people looking for a certain aesthetic in their G1 collection would choose it based on that, but as far as an actual figure that's fun to handle and pose, Gundog is pretty darn awesome.  

 

I think if anything is going to hurt 3p next year, it's going to be over saturation of MP scale figs and the increase in pricing. As for dominant companies, I can't see it changing next year, MMC, MT and FT will likely take most the accolades I predict.

 

Great article @CZ Hazard. Thanks for taking the time to put this and the polls together. Top work that man.

 

Maybe, but when i look at my top toys i bought in 2016, well, Willis is amongst my top 3, and I was actually debating myself if i wanted to give # 1 to it or Stomp. I did not have to use epoxy or glue for transformation. Bot mode alone and alt mode look so good, and great to handle. The problem is indeed transformation, and it is a pain, and it seems some have suffered during this period, so i see your point of not being # 1, just that when i look at the rest i got in 2016, it is in my top 3.

 

Next you'll be arguing that Apollyon should not win either. If you got one, perhaps you've gotten a good copy but plenty of people didn't.

The point is: "High school is never over". These kinds of contest are usually just based on looks. This is also why Bobby Skullface is my fav reviewer. His final criteria is usually: "does it stand and look good on the shelf?"

 

I want your copy of Willis. I didn't even dare to transform mine for fear of having loose ankles which would just annoy me to death.