It’s finally here! My top ten 3rd Party Transformers toys of 2014. This took a while to compile as well as waiting for some things from last year to come in recently, but it’s here! First I’d like to go over a few things before getting started.
1.)These are just my personal opinions: You’re not going to agree with all of this list… hell, you might not agree with any of it! I invite you to share your opinions in the comments, but be civil!
2.)I’m only compiling the list from products I own or have owned: As much as I’d love to put some things on here that I have really good feelings about from word of mouth and pictures, it’s not a fair assessment. I get a lot of stuff, but definitely not everything. So if there are some things you have and think they should be on the list, there’s a good chance that you’re right but I simply don’t have it to judge!
Now onto the list!
10.) Terminus Hexatron Continuum Edition: 2013 brought on Mastermind Creations’ foray into their “Reformatted” series with Hexatron. The homage to SixShot wowed everyone with it’s great mixture of size, aesthetics, and quality. In 2014 they listened to feedback and raised the bar even higher with a much more G1 toy inspired version of this. It shows that they know how to make a good thing even better.
9.) Fansproject’s Lost Exo Realm Series: 2014 got off to a bit of a rough start for Fansproject’s series homaging the Dinobots. An exclusive version of Columpio was released at TFCon Canada 2014 with immediate complaints about joint issues and the like with the retail release following suit. However, at TFCon Chicago later in the year, the exclusive version of Cubrar showed many improvements over the first and making their line potentially a “definitive” set of dinobots for “classics” Transformers collectors.
8.) Rise of the minis: The same year that brought collectors some amazing big figures like Feral Rex and Utopia, companies like IronFactory and DX9 have went and given us just about equally impressive homages at what would be about equivalent to the Hasbro “legends” scale of transformers. Good as standalones, but absolutely amazing if you’re using them to compliment your combiners and city bots.
Author’s note: If you start collecting these figures, do yourself a favor and get the Takara THS-02 Hybrid convoy. It’s the equivalent of a Masterpiece Transformers figure but at this scale and one of the best overall Optimus Prime toys ever made.
7.) Unique Toys Troll: As much as this figure represents the first of their “Ordin” homage to Abominus, more than anything Troll shows Unique Toys’ commitment to the fandom and improving with each release. This and Alberich (released Jan. of 2015) are night and day from their first attempt with Warlord.
6.)Fansproject Revolver, RiftShot, and Recoiler: Early 2014 brought new things for Fansproject’s Warbot series with Revolver Core. This homage to Roadbuster really shines with a great aesthetic and size on top of great weapons options. Add to that, he was also the next in line of their core bots (SteelCore being the first) meaning that the main body is actually an exo-suit of sorts controlled by a smaller figure (who’s actually revolver) by transforming and pegging onto his back. A few months later, RiftShot and Recoiler were released. These redecos sharing the Revolver mold not only looked great but packed extras to make a “powered up” Revolver! Effective marketing in terms of incentives for people to buy the other two.
5.) MakeToys Quantron: MakeToys brings its third combiner (Could be considered “second” as the first two were just palette swaps of the same figures) with this slick homage to Quantron. It was amazing to see this brought to life with MakeToys’ super-robot-esque stylings. The standout figures like Metal Storm and Blindfire seem to get their limelight shadowed by more poorly received figures like Ceritas and Overheat which stinks because the two aforementioned figures are incredible. The combined mode is impresses with fixes released by MakeToys (free of charge) to fix points that were finicky. The multiple uses of the back cannon are fantastic as well.
4.) Perfect Effect Warden/Guardian: 2014 started fantastically with Perfect Effect’s strongest release to-date. A picture-perfect likeness to the IDW representation of Fort Max and the best quality I’ve ever seen on a 3rd Party Transformer made this an easy contender for 2014’s top spot. However, the alt. modes are lacking and that really takes it a peg down from figures that feel more “complete” in terms of being pleasing in all modes, regardless of its superior quality.
3.) Warbotron’s WB-01 A,B, and C: Warbotron has probably the strongest showing I’ve ever seen from a “new” Third Party Transformers company with the first three in their homage to Bruticus. Heavy Noisy, Air Burst, and Sly Strike all have a great mix of size, aesthetic, and quality. There’s so much personality in them that I wouldn’t fault a single person for buying a separate set to display as individuals. If the combined mode is equal to the sum of its parts, then it’s going to be a strong contender for the toy of 2015.
2.) Mastermind Creations’ Feral Rex: Although it was only the final two bots of the set that came out in 2014, the completion of their homage to Predaking was a sight to behold. An imposing size and majestic aesthetic are something that you put on a shelf and catch yourself just losing time staring at. Unfortunately, the quality that the individual pieces were noted for didn’t carry over to its combined form. Plagued with limited poseability and joints not strong enough to hold those poses consistently, the combined mode came so close but so far away from being the best overall 3rd Party set of toys ever made.
1.) MakeToys Utopia: The start of the “City Bots” series brought on the best mixture of size and quality that I’d personally ever seen during my time of collecting Transformers. At around 15″ it’s significantly smaller than the Hasbo/Takara Metroplex offering, but where it shines is the quality and poseability. Strong, thick plastic and ratchet joints so strong that they make the figure SHAKE give you confidence balancing it with the poseability previously only seen up to figures around half of it’s size. Toss in two awesome alt. modes with plenty of accessories to accent them and you’ve got probably the finest third Party Transformers toy I’ve ever even seen let alone owned.
