The year 2016 is done, but the toy-hype from it isn’t! Taking a look at some of my favorite THIRD PARTY Transformers from the year.
Note: These are my personal favorites and only reflect my personal opinion. Also, I can only list products that I’ve had the opportunity to either own or handle for an extended period of time, so odds are that there will be products that readers feel should be on here that I just plain never got the opportunity to handle. So, I appreciate your feedback and want to read your thoughts but whether you agree or disagree, please be respectful. Thanks.
Also, if you click the names of the products, it will send you to the review for it in case you aren’t familiar with anything listed.
10.) MakeToys Battle Sentinel: MakeToys released yet another addition to their “Battle Tanker” series, and this was an updated version of the original Battle Tanker using an updated “Gento” core robot. The updated look and larger size gave the Tanker character a much better shelf presence than before.
9.) Fansproject Severo (Deluxe Edition:) My favorite of the Fansproject Lost-Exo-Realm series so far, this “Grimlock” homage kicks a whole lot of ass. It’s big, beefy, poseable, and the deluxe version in particular comes jam-packed with weapons and even a throne for just twenty dollars more than the bare-bones regular version.
8.) Iron Factory’s Lord Scorpion: Iron Factory knocked it out of the park with their biggest figure to-date. It’s big, heavy, and poseable. Even at it’s smaller scaling, they still managed to incorporate the headmaster gimmick from the “Scorponok” character which it homages. They definitely stepped up their game with this one.
7.) MakeToys’ Guardia: This year saw the release of Vulcan (their homage to “Defensor”) and thus the completion of their Gaurdia combiner figure which is an homage to the Transformer “Defensor” combiner. It’s a really imposing take and looks great on top of being poseable as all get out. The interchangeable limbs with their Quantron (“Computron”) combiner is also a nice added feature.
6.) Fansproject Dai-Z: As stated in the review, this piece is a beautiful culmination of a lot of what Fansproject has done design and engineering wise over the years with their Warbot and Parallax toylines. It’s damned good.
5.) MakeToys Re:Master Despotron: MakeToys came out on top of the War of the Masterpiece-scaled Megatron homages this year with this incredible piece. It’s definitely not slavish to the cartoon design, but gives a very beefy and imposing take that not only looks great, but looks great WITH official Masterpiece releases like MP-10 Optimus Prime.
4.) DX9 Gewalt: Dx9 flexed its muscle and just plain showed off with this super clean, chunky, high-quality homage to “Blitzwing.” The coloring and general “style” are great and they pulled off the triple-changing pretty darned well. For Third-Party Masterpiece-scaled collectors this is one I’d definitely recommend.
3.) MakeToys’ Cross-Dimension Striker Manus and Rioter Despotron: MakeToys’ Cross-Dimension toyline is the hottest thing going for Third-Party Classics-scaled collectors. They took an extremely smart approach with releasing their homages to “Optimus Prime” and “Megatron” first and now that they’ve got us all reeled-in with these ultra-poseable, original-styled homages they can start releasing more of this universe’s cast which I can’t wait for.
2.) Maketoys’ Pandinus: MakeToys went not only big but HUGE with the latest in their citybot series with this mean homage to “Scorponok.” They managed to beef up one of the most beefy and imposing Transformers characters in general and on top of that, this piece is extremely high in quality and offers the poseability and balance of a 6″ classed figure. They went above and beyond with this piece and the efforts paid off.
1.) Master Made’s SDT-03 Apollo: Master Made further showed that they are the number one third-party company in terms of design and build company with this homage to “Omega Supreme.” Featuring a weighty amount of diecast, high poseability, and even a gigantic hammer that turns into a bow, and canon, etc., this SD (Super-Deformed) styled piece really doesn’t even feel like a Transformers toy, but rather a more high-end collectible like a Bandai Chogokin or Sen-ti-nel product. They even released a “Statue Series” kit with an alternate head for those who wanted more normal proportions and tubing to give it a more G1 feel. Master Made can’t be touched at this point.
