Points of Articulation
Toy of the Year
The ToY Awards started back in 1998, when I was just doing reviews on my own. Yes, there were other end-of-year awards around at the time, but most of them focussed primarily on "child safe" toys, handing out praise for educational content, safety in manufacturing, and encouraging non-violent play patterns.
How lame.
I wanted to honor the toys that older toy fans actually liked. ToyFare magazine had (and still has) a similar year-ender, but when I started, they were nothing but whores to Star Wars. Now they go out of their way to ignore McFarlane. Plus, they had a tendency to include toys to which they as a news outlet had access, but normal collectors did not;
things that they had received as samples, but weren't due on the shelf for a few months (they continue this practice to this day).
Thus, the ToYs were born. The ToYs are the voice of the real fan community, covering what's really the best of the best. What started out as one "best of" award has grown and expanded to include a few more categories, but still: they're all the best of the best. We've even inspired a few immitators (yes, guys, "TOTY" is such a clever acronym), but when you want the real toy of the year, you head for the Toy of the Year.
Here are a sampling of past years' winners:
- 1998
- ToY
- Trenchcoat Blade
- The toy that created the awards. Blade was just so much better than anything else released that year, raising the bar for the rest of the industry.
- 1999
- ToY
- Headless Horseman deluxe boxed set
- Innovative articulation, wonderful sculpt, and lots of detail work made this set top of the heap. Of course, that was before we knew about the Horseman's knee-rot.
- Best Line
- Tomb Raider
- A dead-on sculpt, well-designed packaging, and tons of cool accessories for a great price? Lara only missed the ToY title because I couldn't choose one set above the rest.
- Best Packaging
- Iron Giant
- A giant 3-D head poked out at the corner of these cards, which was enough to earn the Iron Giant the creation of a category it could call its own.
- 2000
- ToY
- Space Ghost
- He came out in January and fought off all comers for the rest of the year. Art Asylum's combo of sculpt and articulation won the day.
- Best Line
- World of Springfield
- Ah, the Simpsons. We finally get some cool figures of tv's best show, and they talk, too? Swank!
- Best Packaging
- X-Men
- That big red X in the corner of this distinct packaging doubled as a stand for the figure, so it served a purpose even for non-MOC collectors.
- 2001
- ToY
- Monev the Gale
- Bigass robot. Lots of articulation, lots of detail in the sculpt, and enough weight to put a hole in the wall. Excellent!
- Best Line
- Bionicle
- Build-your-own action figures from Lego, they were fun and affordable. An element of randomness gave them some great collectability, too.
- Best Packaging
- Lord of the Rings
- The die-cut packaging featured both the Fellowship and the Ring, as well as a map of Middle Earth.
- 2002
- ToY
- Sauron
- Giant, monstrous figure with enough detail to cross your eyes. Plus, it's got all the play features fans could have asked for.
- Best Line
- Spawn Series 22: The Viking Age
- McToys listened to their fans this year, giving this line of figures the articulation that had so long been lacking (even the female!). With many other companies nipping at their heels, McFarlane's team had to do even better, which means the fans win. Though as Poe pointed out in his Skullsplitter review, the historical portion may be less than accurate, at least it exists.
- Best Accessory
- Muppet Labs experiment table
- With real rubber straps and metal buckles, the table looks truly threatening. The wood is sculpted with real grain, and every little rivet on the stand can be seen clearly. The helmet fits on Beaker's head, ready to zap him at your whim.
- Best Packaging
- Bohrok
- A new shape that lets you re-create the Bohrok nests, as well as perfect storage for the assembled figures. Very cool.
- Worst of the Year
- McFarlane Toys
- What? How could we name McFarlane Toys the worst of the year? Simple: their decision to switch from blister packs to clamshells for all their figures. Those packages suck so long, so hard, and wicked hard. Worst thing that happened to toy fans in 2002. You should not need a tool to open your toys.
- 2003
- ToY
- Muppet Kitchen w/ Swedish Chef
- The impressive and wonderfully fun Swedish Kitchen playset is a landmark achievement from Palisades is. The popular Swedish Chef figure is fully articulated and perfectly sculpted right in his home, the kitchen, complete with all the utensils and ingrediants to cook up a storm. Less a playset and an actual living, breathing kitchen, everything in this playset works - the cupboards all open, the utensils all fit, it's a marvel. Gorgeous to look at and even more fun to play with, the Swedish Chef playset impressed collectors all over. Palisades outdid themselves - this is a once in a lifetime treat for Muppets fans and toy collectors alike.
- Best Line
- Emergency Forces
- There is just so much good about this line, from the McFarlane-quality sculpt and superb paint job to the great articulation (useful and hidden, all at once!) and sweet accessories. Looking at the Emergency Forces figures is almost like looking at a miniature human. The line harkens back to the original purpose of action figures - to provide kids with role models of people they could someday emulate. Along with EMTs and other emergency personnel (and I do wish there was an EMT in this line), firefighters are some of the only true heroes we have in this world. Soldiers, unfortunately, are largely mired by their surrounding political situation and the very nature of their jobs, which will most likely force them, at some point or another, to bring death to others. Firefighters just save lives. But there's also a kind of "boring," pedestrian nature about firefighters and toys, and what Plan B has done is to make firefighters and police toys with the kind of attitude and class that has characterized the action figure revolution of the last ten years. Along with the Four Horsemen, they're one of the best design groups working today. There was no way we could pick one above the rest (though the Structural Firefighter was edging up there), so the whole line wins.
- Best Accessory
- Rizzo's pizza box
- Like it says in the review, this thing is a marvel of toy design. The box opens and closes, the cheese is stringy and you can even remove a slice. The paint apps are tight and crisp. Palisades really did a marvelous job on this piece, showing the ingenuity and dedication that many other companies have overlooked or outgrown. The Muppet figures may be a dollar or two more expensive than they should be, but accessories like this show that Palisades is doing its best to give us a lot of value.
- Best Packaging
- Lego Star Wars Minis
- Because they know what McToys, ToyBiz and Palisades forgot: the point of a clamshell isn't to permanently entomb the toy; a clamshell is supposed to be resealable, so you can display your figures and still have a handy storage solution. A clamshell should snap closed, not be welded shut at the factory. The design of these clams is great, from the shape of the package to the graphics inside. Not only does the package look nice, but it's greatly functional, too.
- Worst of the Year
- Clerks Inaction Figures
- There was a lot of really bad stuff in the toy world this year, but nothing as bad as these terribly ill-conceived lumps of plastic that don't do anything but prove how very insulated Kevin Smith is behind his encompasing cadre of hardcore fanboys. Plus, Jay looks like a buttplug.
- 2004
- ToY
- Masterpiece Optimus Prime
- There really wasn't much question that Prime would win - even with his mighty price, there just wasn't anything that came close. Huge, heavy and fun to play with, this is the Prime we've all been waiting for since the mid-80s. The transformation is complex, but easy enough to master with one or two tries. He looks dead-on as a robot, and the truck is no disappointment, either. The accessories are awesome, and if you sprung for the Japanese import, you even got his trailer and a booklet detailing his history. Now that's a cool ToY.
- Best Line
- Street Fighter
-
SOTA's Street Fighter line is about the closest to the vision of a perfect action figure line ever seen. First, the sculpting is excellent - slightly cartoony, yet still realistic, with great musculature. Second, the paint apps are great. They nailed the flesh tone and added just the right touch of flatness to the paint, but the colors are still bright. Third, the figures have just the right amount of articulation. ML is often over-articulated, a line like Hellboy is perhaps a wee bit under-articulated, but SF is just right. Finally, the accessories are great. Multiple heads and hands are exactly what this line needed. And, despite a few distribution problems, SOTA got the figures out there.
- Best Accessory
- Jack the Ripper's base
- It's big! It's detailed! It's worth buying the figure just for this! They skimped on the paint apps, but you can use this with any figure you own.
- Best Packaging
- Star Wars Saga
- Beautiful and elegant card designs that do nothing but look really cool. Plus each figure has a photo backdrop of where they're "from." Best SW cards ever! And because Hasbro hasn't switched over to the HATED clamshells like everyone else has.
- Worst of the Year
- VanHelsing
- Reason? "VanHelsing." 'nuff said. See you in 2005.
- 2005
- ToY
- Sandman
- Sculpt, articulation, paint, playability and price, all in one figure? That's ToY material. Sandman isn't wildly better than the other nominees, but he brings everything together beautifully.
- Best Line
- Justice League Unlimited
- Because despite the constant re-releases of the big characters, they're burning through the ranks of the DC Universe even faster than DC Direct is.
- Best Accessory
- ML10 Sentinel
- It's big, it's detailed and it got people to buy figures they normally wouldn't - the real mark of a great accessory. The assembled piece is entirely in scale, and darn fun to play with.
- Best Packaging
- GIJoe Sigma 6
- Nice design that has a vaguely import/artistic feel to it, and the end caps turn into a footlocker to hold the accessories. That's awesome.
- Worst of the Year
- Various
- The worst thing this year wasn't something we got, but everything we didn't. More great lines failed, disappeared, went on hiatus or otherwise ended this year than any time in recent memory.
- 2006
- ToY
- Xetheus, Champion of Mynothecea
- More than just the sculpt and articulation, Xetheus represented a change in the toy industry. By taking orders from the fans instead of a company, the Four Horsemen made an exclusive figure that was actually worth the money you paid for it.
- Best Line
- DC Superheroes
- This line is a huge leap forward from the one that came before it. Mattel's Batman comic line was a joke and failed spectacularly - DCSH is almost on par with the best in the industry.
- Best Accessory
- Billy the Puppet (Saw)
- This little guy might have been the actual figure, with the killer as the accessory. Nobody bought the Saw figure in CC5 because of the bald guy - the puppet is what sold the set.
- Best Packaging
- Solomon Grundy
- A cool design that shows off the figure, plus there's an action feature in the box.
- Worst of the Year
- Fantastic Four Classics
- Series 1 had a terrible assortment of characters, and Series 2 never showed up in stores. This line might have been really good, if they'd made smarter choices.
- 2007
- ToY
- DCD First Appearance Blue Beetle
- The new Blue Beetle has a great design that translated very well to toy form, and tons of articulation to boot. The price was a bit higher than your average figure, but well worth it in this case.
- Best Line
- GIJoe 25th Anniversary Collection
- Whether in boxed sets or individually carded, these anniversary figures are a great value. They offer excellent sculpts, top-notch articulation and killer accessories, all sold affordably in beautifully designed packages. That's why this category even exists.
- Best Accessory
- Safe Deposit Box ("Crime Boss" Destro)
- Slide the cover back on this bank box, and you'll find gold bars and stacks of cash - just the kind of things that can be used by any number of figures. If anyone was on the fence about Destro, this accessory was enough to tip them in his favor.
- Best Packaging
- Legendary Heroes
- Bright, colorful packaging that looks good on the shelf and can be re-closed if you want to put your figure away again.
- Worst of the Year
- Distribution
- There were a ton of popular toys that just never seemed to show up, this year. DC Superheroes, Transformers, Star Wars... more often than not, if you went to the store, you came home empty-handed.
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