YEAR IN REVIEW: 2019 (VINTAGE EDITION)

I’ve been compiling “best of” lists of my favourite new toys from each year for a good while now, but it was only last year that I decided to do a similar thing by rounding up my top vintage purchases over the previous twelve months. It provided a welcome opportunity to re-examine some of the best stuff I’d picked up and was without doubt one of the most fun exercises of the year for me as a collector, so I’m thrilled to repeat the process this year!

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YEAR IN REVIEW: 2019

It’s that time of year again. You know, the bit when we all sit back and reflect on the last 12 months of collecting and try to pick out our favourite toys of the year. If you’re at all present in the Transformers online fandom then you’ll be immediately familiar with such lists, although the frequency doesn’t make me enjoy them any less. You see, I love looking back, evaluating and assessing what I picked up, and attempting to put it into some kind of meaningful order. In many ways it’s one of the bits of collecting I enjoy the most! The chance to reflect on another year gone by, not to mention re-evaluate the wonderful stuff that was amassed during that time, eh?

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YEAR IN REVIEW: 2018 (VINTAGE EDITION)

Regular readers will know that I have been on something of a voyage of vintage discovery recently. Despite having owned a fair portion of Generation 1 toys at one point or another in my time, I started to find my interest growing back towards this area of collecting rather significantly around the latter half of 2017. It's fair to say that 2018 was the really bumper year for me though - perhaps even a little more than initially intended! So, when it came time to put together my review of new toys from last year, it somehow seemed unfulfilling to lump in my old school discoveries with that list. Hence they have earned an entirely new list of their own!

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2018

I seem to find myself saying the same thing every time, but it really has been an incredible year. One thing I certainly appreciate about reflecting over the previous twelve months' collecting is the opportunity to acknowledge how lucky we are as collectors to live in an age with so much incredible product on offer to us. The fact that we frequently have to use budget and space as goalposts for what we're able to collect shows you the absolute wealth of quality options on offer, and it was certainly evident to me in the calibre that I found myself considering for this list. However, I was determined to give it a go, especially as many of you have noted that I've been on something of a sabbatical from blog entries of late.

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2017

I feel like every year just gets better and better. I said the same thing in my Review of 2016, but it really feels like there were some new boundaries pushed in the wonderful world of Transformers collecting in 2017. Just consider that the Masterpiece line continued at quite a pace, not only expanding its roster of Beast Wars figures with Cheetor, but now also branching out into more 2007 movie characters too, with both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee being released this year. That's to say nothing of some of the wonderful G1 releases that we received in the last twelve months, the most talked-about of which was definitely a new (and very much long-awaited) version of Megatron, which arrived to much fanfare.

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2016

In many ways 2016 was a massive year in terms of Transformers collecting. Not only did the official Masterpiece line ramp up its release schedule to a level previously unseen, but I also personally believe the general quality of those releases to be at an absolute high currently. Elsewhere, the third party scene also kicked into overdrive, with more new companies emerging to give us their own take on beloved characters, as well as more established outfits all seeking to up the quality of their labours. I've heard many fellow Transfans repeatedly mention that they believe we really never have had it so good in terms of this hobby, and I'm enormously tempted to agree myself. These really are golden times.

For me personally, 2016 was also a big year as it was the first full year of running my blog, which started in the second half of 2015. Last January I took my first proper stab at compiling a list of my favourite releases from the previous year, and so always had in mind to do the same again come the start of 2017. Well, perhaps a little later than expected, but now here it is!

YEAR IN REVIEW: 2015

2015 has been an amazing year for Transformers collecting, and it's without hyperbole that I can sit here and say that as of the end of the year, we've really never had it as good as we do right now. Not only have we seen some absolutely phenomenal figures released by both official and third party companies in the last twelve months, but there have also been some frankly astounding reveals of new products yet to come. The TakaraTomy Masterpiece line is now set to ramp up the release schedule like never before, and more and more 3P operators have teased us with their own take on Masterpiece-esque reveals.

Still, as exciting as all that is, now's a great time to take stock of the figures that have already been released. In a tradition followed by many Transformers collectors, I bring you my own list of favourite purchases of the last year (a top six, because, well... Sixo!) as well as highlighting some other figures such as my best retrospective purchases.