LINK TO RESULTS AND WRITE UP

Okay, I was wondering where the annual poll was this year, so I reached out to CZ Hazard, who has run these for the last 8 years, to find out if he was going to do it again. Unfortunately, he told me he rarely buys 3rd party now and doesn't really follow the main players anymore so doesn't feel as though he's the right guy to do it any longer. I asked him if I can pick it up and give it a go this year, and he's good with that. Obviously if I make a real hash of it, please let me know and I'll let someone else have a go next year. So, it's a little later than previous years, but I'll try to get things wrapped up by mid-January...ish

I'm aware that there has been a similar thread, but why break tradition, and if a mod could sticky this, that would be great.

So, we're following the exact same format as last year. Here's last year's results for a refresher of what came out in 2019:
Third Party Year in Review 2019

We're following last years format identically, check the link above for last years results. Next bit is important; your First place will be scored 3 points, Second Place will be scored 2 points and Third Place will be scored with 1 point, so it's important to rank your nominations this year.

I will tally the votes and get the polls open on 22nd January <Edited> (or thereabouts) so we can vote for Toy of the Year, so get your nominations in early - this means you get to fiddle with your new Christmas toys and get your votes in.
Company of the Year will just be decided on the write-in votes, so make it count. If you only have one or two to vote for in a category, that's fine, just write those in. I'll try and get the write-up finished with all results on the 24th/25th <Edited> January (ish, real life dependent).

In terms of nominations, it can get difficult as there can be crossover and confusion as to what is intended for what scale, but write-in your vote as best you can and we'll go with majority rules. It's an imperfect system for an increasingly imperfect world.

I'm trusting you all to remember what came out this year because I don't follow everything.

Remember you can edit your choices right up until Jan 22nd <Edited> so if someone points out a toy that you think is this year was actually last year, you can go back and fix it rather than losing your nomination.

Here are the four categories for Toy of the Year:
MP style - means of a scale and aesthetic intended to fit in with the existing Has/Tak line.
CHUG style - means a modern or new take on existing characters across the Deluxe - Leader class scale. I include all Cross Dimension and Reformatted here.
Giant Toy - means finished Combiner or Citybot
Small scale - means Legend Scale such as Iron Factory and DX9 War in pocket, but not Minibots intended for use as MP representation

The Top Three from each will go into a public vote face-off to decide BEST 3P TOY OF THE YEAR!

The Categories for Company of the Year are the same as previous years, but you only get one vote for each so make it count.
Best Company of the Year
Most Improved Company
Best Newcomer

Feel free to write in honorable mentions, or even discussions and justifications, but everybody is correct with their subjective opinion, so be polite, and remember I have to go through and count all the votes so keep it easy to read at a glance.

Copy and paste the following and write in your answers.

This nomination and poll excludes simplified, complicated KOs and upscale KOs with and without modifications from existing Has/Tak molds.

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1)
2)
3)

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1)
2)
3)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1)
2)
3)

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1)
2)
3)

Best Company of 2020
1)

Most Improved Company of 2020
1)

Best Newcomer of 2020
1)

Edit 1: I know nothing about Legends, not even what came out. If any members out there can help out with looking at the nominations and making sure they're all valid, and potentially doing a little write-up on that category when the votes are tallied, please PM me.

Edit 2: Dates amended, as I've got a touch of the Covids.

 

It's gonna be either Thomas or Studio Cell.

MP
1. Studio Cell Core Star
2. Ocular Max Probus
3. Ocular Max Volatus

Chug
1. Tortor and Mors (tie)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1. Core Star
2. Assaultus (in combined mode)

Legends
didn't buy any

Best Company
MMC

Most Improved
No opinion, can't think of much that shook the game this year.

Best Newcomer
Cyber Factory (even though I don't have their stuff)
Aside from what I listed, I also bought Incursus and some older Reformatted figures this year.

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) UT Dragoon
2) CT Ferocious / Jiang Xing Winged Dragon
3) GCreations M Wrath

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) TFC Astaroth
2)
3)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) OM Assaultus
2) 1S Core Star
3)

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) Newage Scaramanga
2)
3)

Best Company of 2020
1) Ocular Max

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) XTB

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) CangToys

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
Zeta Cell
FT Thomas


Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
MMC tfcon Batman repaint (sorry I forgot his name)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
DX9 Menasor

Best Company of 2020
DX9/UT --- what an exist


Most Improved Company of 2020
XTB, I mean the pricing improved a lot, right?  

Best Newcomer of 2020
CangToys

Best KO:
BMB KO of MPM starscream

 

pretty sure ft thomas is gonna win. I just wish I got it.

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) FT Thomas
2) Studio Cell Core Star
3) Cang Toys Ferocious


Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) Studio Cell Core Star
2) MMC Assaultus
3)

Best Company of 2020
1) Fans Toys (for the amount of good figures released this year)

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) Edited - to say Fans Toys also because they increased their output so remarkably

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) Cang Toys

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1)Cell Core Star
2)MMC Assaultus
3)FT Thomas


Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) Cell CoreStar
2) MMC Assaultus
3)

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy

1)TE Rattrap
2)TE Blackaracnia

Best Company of 2020
1) MMC

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) MMC

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) Cell

 

Are we considering Cell to be a new comer? Maybe I was considering them as rehash of Zeta though I guess it's too complex to be sure

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) FT Thomas
2) Cell Core Star.
3) FT Sheridan

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Mnemo.
2) MMC Vexo Prominon
3) MMC Tortor

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) Cell Core Star
2) DX9 Stunticons
3)

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) Newage Scaramanga
2)
3)

Best Company of 2020
1) Fans Toys.

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) CangToys

 

Thomas. Need i say more?

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1)
2) TFC Nuclear Blast
3) FT Magnum

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) TFC Astaroth
2)
3)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) Core Star
2)
3)

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) Newage Scaramanga
2)
3)

Best Company of 2020
1) Newage

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) XTB

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) CangToys

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Probus
2) MMC Volatus
3)

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Vexo Prominion
2)
3)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) MMC Assaultus
2)
3)

Best Company of 2020
1) MMC

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) DX9 (They didn't have to finish what they started but they did, and maybe without getting paid for it.)

 

MP

1. Studio 01 Cell (Unicron)
2. Transform Element TE-03 Speed Star (Mirage)
3. FansToys FT-44 Thomas (Astrotrain)

Legends

1. Magic Square B-36 Doomsday (Megatron)
2. MFT MS-20 Iron Sky (Astrotrain)

 

I'm not great with the names or the year of release so I apologise if any of these are wrong. Best of luck with the survey!

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) Fanshobby Thunderclash

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Tortor
2) MMC Mors
3) MMC Chromedome and Rewind

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) Studio Cell Unicron

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
Shockingly I didn't buy any this year other than IF Cliffjumper which I really didn't like.

Best Company of 2020
1) for me it is MMC - the only 3P company putting out stuff I really want.

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) FansHobby (always been good, but this was the first year I bought any and looking forward to their Armada Prime)

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) Studio Cell I guess. But lets be honest it's just WeiJiang or someone we already know under another name, right?

Mostly I've really enjoyed Siege and Earthrise... sorry.

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) TE Optimus
2) FT Thomas
3) FT Magnum

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Mors
2) MMC Motif & Mnemo
3) MMC Volatus (Blastoff)

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) OM Assaultus
2) 1S Core Star
3)

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) Magic Square Doomsday (Megs)
2) Iron Factory Primal Commander (optimal optimus)
3) Newage Scaramanga

Best Company of 2020
1) Newage

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) XTB

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) CangToys

 

I didn't buy a lot this year. I'd rank my purchases like this.

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) Studio Cell
2) FT Dunerunner
3) FT Sheridan

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) Studio Cell



Best Company of 2020
1) TE (because they remind me of the good old days and unlike other major players these days they don't cause supply shortage or try to rip off their customers)
2) MMC

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) DX9 Capone (may not count as it was released in China and HK late 12/2019 but US shops and customers didn’t start getting until 2020)
2) Unique Toys Dragoon
3) DX9 Dragstrip

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Mnemo & Motif
2) Generation Toy Red Bull
3) Toy World Green Hornet

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) DX9 Atilla
2) MMC Assaultus
3) Studio Cell Unicron

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) Magic Square Soundwave
2) MFT Astrotrain
3) DX9 Orion Pax

Best Company of 2020
1) MMC

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) Toy World

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) Legendary Toys

Best Uncategorizable Toy of 2020
1) IVIIMEE VM-02 - This is the SD Last Knight Megatron. It came very close to being my overall TOTY.

2) Legendary Toys LT-01 - This is the small Bumblebee movie Optimus.

Both of these have MP engineering, sculpt and paint but are more of a “chug” size, although they are not any more “chug” than they are MP. Every year there are toys that don’t really fit into the parameters of these lists so it would be nice to have a “MISCELLANEOUS” category.

 

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) Iron Factory EX-42 HeatDeath (BW TM2 Megatron)
2) MechFansToys/Mechanic Studio MS-20/18 Iron Sky/Steel Ambition (Astrotrain)
3) Magic Square MS-B36 Doomsday (Megatron)

Best Company of 2020
1) Newage

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) MechFansToys/Mechanic Studio

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) CangToys

 

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC Chromedome and Rewind
2) MMC Vos
3) MMC Kaon

Best 3rd Party Small Scale / Legends toy of 2020
1) KO Newage Bee
2)
3)

Best Company of 2020
1) MMC
2) TE

Most Improved Company of 2020
1) XTransbot

 

Best MP Style 3P Toy of 2020
1) fans toys thomas
2) big fire bird toys nicee
3) civil warrior grant

Best CHUG style 3P Toy of 2020
1) MMC tortor
2) MMC moors
3) Planet X isidemous deathsaurus

Best 3rd Party Giant Toy of 2020
1) MMC assaultus
2) Studio cell
3

Best Company of 2020
1) fanstoys

Most Improved Company of 2020
1)MMC

Best Newcomer of 2020
1) Big fire bird