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 January 1, 2001 |
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CURRENT RUMBLE |
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Toy of the Year 2000: Reader's Choice Darren 1.1.01 |
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The results are in. The votes have been tallied. The winner of the ToyboxDX Toy of the Year 2000 Reader's Choice is Bandai's Soul of Chogokin Grendizer.
The Soul of Chogokin toy line has always been a popular favorite amongst Toybox readers, and we feel this vote is evidence that the line still has very broad overall appeal in the collecting community. Further, Grendizer is a well known, classic hero robot, and is remembered by many westerners as one of the beloved Shogun Warriors characters. The strongest argument against this toy was that it is "yet another Soul of Chogokin toy" and not groundbreaking enough to warrant Toy of the Year. However, the ongoing popularity of the character and the SoC series of toys is clear. It's also worth considering that many enthusiasts feel a special sense of loyalty to the SoC line, which demonstrated toymaker Bandai's serious commitment to the retro craze. 
A strong second place position was battled between Yamato's YF-19 and Miracle House's Shin Getta One, both certainly groundbreaking toys, and popular favorites amongst focused groups. The YF-19, a product important to Macross fans, was the center of controversy this year as Toycom failed to secure the rights to market this toy within the United States, generating much anger and sympathy in the fan community. The YF-19 picked up a noticeable surge of votes late in the competition, resulting from a last-minute fan campaign. The Shin Getta One is often compared to the SoC series of toys, and set a new benchmark for diecast figure quality that rightfully gave Bandai some competition. Nonetheless, the Miracle House offering, and the Shin Getta One character, didn't quite inspire the necessary level of market penetration to upset Grendizer. The Reptilicus kaiju figure may be the real story of this vote. Given birth by Club Daikaiju, an American organization, the figure represents the strong voice of the western kaiju fan community, and was the source of a concentrated block of voting early on in the polling. Kaiju is often considered a second-class kind of toy collecting by the chogorati, but the vinylites made their power felt this day. Bandai's extensive and growing Mobile Suit in Action line of figures represents a great toy value in a market that has gotten inaccessibly expensive for some fans. While their commercial success is nothing short of a phenomenon, they apparently don't embody the properties of lavish excess usually found in Toy of the Year. Unifive's Daikyojin had all the right ingredients: a classic character, a well-executed toy, and a fantastic presentation. Yet, there was no bang. The Daikyojin character is not well known in the US, and didn't develop traction in the community. And while the Mach 5 is very well-known, the toy lacked fan inertia. It only collected a handful of votes ... but they considered the toy worthy enough to warrant the Toy of the Year title, and that's why we offer the Reader's Choice vote. What does the Reader's Choice Toy of the Year mean? It reflects the mindset and values of the community as a whole ... what we want on our shelves and what we ignore. Toy collecting and appreciating is a very personal thing -- we are, in fact, members of this community because we deviate from popular thinking -- but only by being aware of our colleagues' thoughts can we truly appreciate our own position in this fantasic hobby. 
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