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 December 28, 2000 |
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CURRENT RUMBLE |
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Toy of the Year 2000: Voters Speak! Hosted by the Rumble 12.28.00 |
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What was your pick for Toy of the Year 2000? We wanted to know who you voted for and why! You sent us your opinions, and we posted it here.
I would like to say that in my honest opinion the best toy of the year is- Kaiyodo/Toytribe Trigun seires Nicholas D. Wolfwood figure. The reason I say this is because the figure overall excels in both detail and display ability. Also, not to mention the loads of accessories that Wolfwood comes with!! 3 pairs of hands- One hand even has a cigarette!!, 2 handguns, portable confessional, 2 heads- one with sunglasses and one without, His Signature Cross Punisher- able to be used in Both Machine Gun and Rocket Launcher modes!! not only that but he also comes with a cloth tarp to wrap his Cross Punisher in!!! Just like in the Manga/Anime!!! also 2 sets of chains which are used to wrap around the tarp when used are included- these 2 sets of chains have signs and supporters linked to them to hold the tarp together. One of the chains comes with a "Traveling Chapel" sign and the other chain has a Cross insignia on it. Lastly a very detailed Cross Shaped Display stand with 2 cool little crosses which can post on the base is also included- The cool thing about this stand is the fact that it's heavy enough that it can support the figure to be displayed in almost any pose!!! All accessories are highly detailed. WolfWood figure has 22 points of articlation which allows him to be posed in all his cool badass pose with Cross Punisher and other Accessories. This is what I believe perhaps the Greatest Action Figure ever made so far!! I think that Kaiyodo is very underated when it comes to the world of detailed action figures. I think if things like Bandai xxIA series and other things which are not even as nice as Kaiyodo TRIGUN, Hokuto No Ken 200X and other things from Kaiyodo. Also Kaiyodo is trying many new techniques each year to improve not only detail but Playability of all of their Action figures.
I have to say that the YF-19 should get they toy of the year. Like TIME magazine's PERSON OF THE YEAR award, it should be awarded to the person with the most press, attention and impact, whether positive or negative. Well, the YF-19 kept us in suspense all year long. Would Toycom get the rights? Would we ever see the damn thing? And, yes, the toy was flawed at first, but we followed the development of this thing closer than the damn election. It had all the the qualities of a TOTY: Suspense (when is it coming out?), Intrigue (who owns the rights, and did toycom try to pull a fast one?), Action (trying to transform the thing!), and Love, for the toy itself. All the other nominees are worthy, but they're just toys. This one's a soap opera. Other toys may have been cooler looking, or better packaged, but none have the back story and attention that the YF-19 got.
I'm Andrea Stefanelli from Italy. I would to vote the Transformers 2000 line as the best toys line of the year.
My vote goes to Bandai's "...In Action!!" line, for which my adoration extends to all categories: Mobile Suit in Action, Super Robot in Action, Aura Battler in Action, Archie Bunker in Action, etc. etc. They get my vote over my beloved SOC Grandizer for one reason: the Fun Factor. I love the SOC Granny almost more than peanut butter itself, but it's a work of art more than a toy. I haven't even transformed it into Spacer mode -- ever! -- because of what others have said about chips and scratches resulting. If you have to be that careful, I can't really call it "Toy of the Year." Contrast the MSiAs -- great articulation, tons of weapons and extra hands to play around with, and wonderful attention to detail for such small figures. The SRiAs are equally cool, capturing the essence of each super robot perfectly. Yeah, they do tend to fall apart sometimes, but hey, you can put them back together! Plus you can use that ... um ... "feature" in battle dioramas! The ABiAs are great, too, with opening cockpits, fold-out wings, and an especially excellent paint job on the Billbine. They all get my vote -- you can set 'em up anywhere you want, knock 'em over and not worry about breakage, and pose 'em in any manner you want, including my favorite, the everybody-with-guns-on-each-other John Woo-style standoff! Gotta love a toy line like that.
There's no way that it'll win the popular vote because it's an obscure funky-horsey design, but that's part of the reason why the Uni-Five Daikyojin gets my vote: who'd ever think that such an obscure hero robot would return in such a quality package (Gyakutenoh, please...)? And I repeat, quality, quality, quality... Daikyo stands head and shoulders above the (ahem) overrated SOC line. Instead of Gren-pla, you get a fully completed toy that's actually sturdy enough to play with. Daikyo actually captures the feel, that je ne sais quoi, of old Takatokus and Popys-- something the SOCs have never accomplished. I'd also argue that Daikyo's closest rival in quality, the Miracle House Shin Getter, feels too "modern" of a toy. It's really just a glorified action figure, and its overall spawn-ness is somewhat disheartening... C'mon folks, Daikyojin transforms! It combines! It shoots eye-gouging missiles! You're NOT afraid to touch it! And the poseabilty-- the nifty articulated hands-- it's the disparate worlds of HCMs and Godaikins finally meeting after all these years. Old and new school combining into a beautiful new unity! And the icing on the cake? The return of the glorious window panel box.... aaaaaaah....
A lower-pantheon character. An impressive array of play combinations. Way more diecast than necessary. Old school inner window box. Firing missles. SOC style poseability, but even better production quality. If you thought it wasn't possible for a new toy to succesfully combine old-school charm and design with modern production techniques for poseability, the time has finally come for you to eat your words. I'm sorry, what was the question?
After I saw that it was nominated, my vote for TOTY was already decided: Club Daikaiju/M-1’s Reptilicus. Why? To me, the TOTY award should go to things that truly break new ground, like 1998’s Hobby Project Boss Borott and 1999’s Medicom Daigokin Mazinger-Z, and I feel that Reptilicus is true to this spirit. It’s a symbol of going where no one has gone before, to coin a phrase. One individual (an American individual, mind you) successfully secured his own character license and formed a manufacturing partnership with a highly-respected Japanese toy company, which to my knowledge has never been done without the rumblings of massive corporate machinery. And the popularity of this figure speaks for itself: Club Daikaiju and M-1 have been working furiously to keep pace with demand for this item in both America and Japan. Consider a vote for the big Danish lizard. Go Reptilicus, GO GREEN! (remember, you can change your vote...)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. The mech-head voted for a Super Robot. So sue me. For some odd reason I love the Shin Getta designs. All of 'em. They're hip, they're modern, they're sleek. And the Miracle House diecast is just a winnah by all counts. It's hefty. It's quality. And it's an unbelievable first effort by a company that's never done gokin before. So there ya go.
I am going with a conservative vote for the SOC Grendizer. The SOC line clearly is the leader in terms of creating a truly deluxe, display quality level chogokin that can rival the amount of detailed of plastic models. SOC GX-04 Grendizer suceeded in many levels. The robot itself composed of high die-cast content .. but more importantly was sculpted to very pleasing proportion with a high quality paint job. The amount of gimicks and accessory that comes with the package boggled the mind. It has endless posing possibilities for a collector and if you are so inclined, it is also a toy with lots of playability. Its key rivals, Shin Getta Robot and Daikyojin, both have their strength. However, it is clear to see that both products are modeled AFTER the SOC line. The Shin Getta has die-cast quality that rivals SOC Grendizer. (I would not agree that it has substantial quality though. At best it is on par or a bit better.) However, it has substantially fewer accessories and gimicks. The Daikyojin surely have tons of gimicks and accessories but I do think that the SOC Grendizer has much better quality. In closing, I would submit that SOC GX-04 really captured the "soul" of a 70 super robot show that many of us grew up with.
I'd like to enter the Transformers-Car Robots into the mix. I've only got a few, but the engineering is excellent and the toys are meant to be played with. In fact, I recently had two ~8 year olds over and they had a blast playing with them. I also felt confident that they wouldn't/couldn't break them. (And if they did... I could buy another one! The greatest part is they are a line that's being produced right now!) Super Fire Convoy is amazing. It's valk/ TF Jetfire quality. Gigatron has incredible posibility and Six transformations (At least four of which are not contrived.) They have the playability (is that a word?) of Beast wars, the detail of Macross, and the legacy of Transformers Generation 1.
For me, chosing between Shin Getta and Daikyojin was a tough call. Granted, Daikyojin is a much stronger toy than Miracle House's miracle, and comes with many more accessories, but the Cho Shin Gokin line represents one of the things I like the most about Japanese toys: quality. And he is THICK with quality, showing off some of the best joints I've ever seen in toys. I'm not a materials nazi, but the diecast content of the toy is intoxicating and hedonistic. Cho Shin Gokin also gives Bandai's SOC line strong competition, and that can't hurt.
I never thought I'd live to see the day when the words "1/55 Valkyrie" and "mint on card" appeared in the same sentence, but lo and behold, it came to pass, like a lesser-known sign of the apocalypse. Or the second coming (though lord knows this is more like a third or fourth coming, what with all of the other boots of this particular toy-design out there.) What I like best about this particular piece is the gentle slide into total dissipation. While previous illegal incarnations of the Valkyrie featured a modicum of metal, and thence at least a half-hearted attempt at packaging, all bets are off with THIS puppy. Did I win it? No, thank God. But thanks to Fantasia Toyz for making my year, and feast your eyes upon THE SINGLE GREATEST TOY OF 2000. WHO (or what) will win ToyboxDX Toy of the Year 2000? You don't have long to wait! Polls for the popular vote are closed, and the results are being tallied, writing a new chapter in the noble and dignified annals of Japanese toy fetishism. 
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