Six Years. Perhaps not as outwardly notable as the five year mark was, but an important one for me. When I started this site back in 2013, I mapped out a projected end date, which, at the time, was six years. That seemed so far off and lofty when I started, and I genuinely wasn’t sure I’d even make it that far into this thing. What I really didn’t expect, however, was to be this far from the potential finish line when I got here. At current count of my collection and current rate of reviewing, I’ve got at least another five years of material here. Now, whether I have another five years of writing in me…well, I’m not planning to give up the ghost any time soon, anyway.
Over the course of the last 365 days, I’ve written over 252,000 words about 452 figures, 5 vehicles, 2 playsets, and a not quite Nerf gun. That marks the least amount of review subjects I’ve had in a year, and the third highest word count…whatever that means. Guess I’m not getting to that brevity thing I was aiming for last year. Additionally, I had two lovely fill-ins from my Super Awesome Fiancé (with help from Cheyenne on one), plus 10 reviews from Tim for the Blaster in Question.
This year, the site’s views climbed up to a cumulative total of over 280,000, roughly 70,000 of those coming from just this year, my highest yearly stats to date. I also picked up 29 more followers, bringing the total to a whopping 198. I had 20 comments, excluding those made by yours truly.
“But what of the content of those reviews?” no one but me asks! Marvel Legends was force to be reckoned with this year, making up 116 of the reviews I wrote, almost a third of the total reviews. Star Wars trails behind at exactly half that number, making 58 of my reviews. The number three slot goes newcomer Transformers, with 28 reviews this year. I foresee that number growing. By virtue of being the primary manufacturer of all three of those, Hasbro takes the number one spot for manufacturers, with 202 reviews, more than half my total. Second place is a whopping 73 reviews behind, and not even in business anymore, because it’s Kenner with 29. DST remains in the top three with 26 reviews. As of today, I have reviewed 53.8% of my collection. Yay for progress.
I’d once again like to take a moment to acknowledge some of my favorite review subjects from the last year. I hope you all appreciate how hard I had to work for this entire list not to be composed of Hasbro products. Here’s my Top 5!
Though not quite inside my usual wheelhouse, LeanPlay, distributers of Halftoys here in the US contacted me to provide a review, and I honestly couldn’t have been happier. The T-Rex was just a fun little toy, and was good enough that I turned around and bought the full set of Dinos from them shortly after receiving my review sample. I enjoy the chance to be different from time to time.
Optimus and Bumblebee may have been the ones that got the ball rolling on me getting into Transformers, but Ultra Magnus was the one that officially sold me on it. He’s a ton of fun, and has become the standard I measure all of my other Transformers to.
You know what’s a great way of making you feel good about a review you’ve written? When the director of the movie the item’s based on re-tweets your review. Guillermo del Toro retweeting my Faun review put me on cloud 9, and elevated the reviewing experience on a figure I’d already really enjoyed reviewing. Additionally, buying this figure got me to finally sit down and watch Pan’s Labrynth, which I absolutely loved and am so glad I got around to seeing.
#2120: COMBAT JET SKYSTRIKER & ACE
My partnership with All Time Toys last year was a big deal for me, and its led to me getting to experience the toy world from a different side, as well as getting to mess with some cool stuff I otherwise might not get to. When All Time got in a monster collection of G.I. Joe over the summer, I got to be the one to go through and get them all into condition to be sold, and also got the opportunity to purchase quite a few great pieces for my collection. The Skystriker actually wasn’t one I bought for myself, but was instead purchased for me as a birthday present, and restoring it became my follow-up project after I finished processing the collection for All Time. It was a different experience from usual, but I really enjoyed it.
This guy showing up here shouldn’t be a huge surprise for people that read his review, where I flat out stated he was my favorite Legend of the year. This figure does pretty much everything right, and is the Nightcrawler I’ve wanted for pretty much two decades.
–HONORABLE MENTIONS–
I’ve got no attachment to Fortnite whatsoever, but Max directed me to this line when it first hit, and all I can say is that it’s a ton of fun. and Jazwares has really delivered their A-game, not just with the smaller-scale line, but with their larger line as well. The loot pinata was a cleverly designed way of getting the line started, and Rust Lord’s just a good figure.
Credit where credit is due. I’ve ragged on Mattel for 6 years about the quality of their DC product, but here, on the cusp of them losing the license, they actually stepped up their game a started delivering good product again. Ray was my first experience of this new Mattel, and I was very happy with him. I wish we’d been getting DC figures this good for a few years now, rather than having them all crammed into the last year.
Thanks again to all my faithful readers who have stuck by me through all my crazy ramblings, and thanks to all of those who have joined me along the way. I couldn’t do this without you guys! Here’s to another five years!
That’s pretty much it…
The Figure In Question 