Year In Review 2015

[tarot]

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a good holiday whatever you celebrate and a good new year (A day early but eh) so it that time of the year where we review our Marvel Legends addict...... I mean obsessi....... I mean plastic Cra.....oh feck it. we are Plastic Junkies and proud of it.

 

2015 was a good year for us Marvel fans. in this year alone we have gotten, around 68 figure (including BAFs), 6 waves, 5 exclusive box set across 5 different stores including the first online store exclusive. that alot of money spent. if all figure cost near 20 each that is over 1360 (dollar or euro whatever). I don't think any have been awful, some have only meh just cause we have them already (AOU versions) while the rest have been good.

 

Most of the bafs have been acceptable, some really not needed (for me at least I didn't need a Hulkbuster or Ultron mostly cause Im a comic collecter),of these waves.

 

and then the remakes, my god, has hasbro really out done themselves. I know someone in this forum is absolutely against remakes, but hasbro has done figure much better. seeing the figure next to the new one.

 

Some statistics(there or around

• 24/69 have been new character
• 16/68 have been female
• 16/68 have been villians

Now let get to what you have to say is the best of 2015. It will be split into a number of parts. most are obvious and don't need a explanation other have a small info on it.

(note do not include the latest Spider-man / Absorbing man wave as it is only just been release and many people haven't counted)

 

Categories:

• Best Male figure (not your best figure of the year, basically the runner up)
• Best Female Figure
• Best Villain Figure
• Best BAF
• Best Remake
• Best Accessories (this inlcudes guns, swords, and interchangable parts)
• Best Series (not an exclusive)
• Best Exclusive set (including SDCC, EE and other retailars)
• Worst figure of the year (that right. what figure you really didn't like.)
• Best Figure of the Year (Male, Female, Villian, BAF anything as long as they are not in the above figure section)

 

 

[tarot]

for me:

• Best Male figure- Kraven The Hunter - while there have been some good figure this year Kraven just stand out to me for the level of detail it uses
• Best Female Figure- Misty Knight - new obscure character, with a level of detail (metal hand!) she stand out as been a total bad ass character.
• Best Villain Figure - Bulldozer - this was obvious. not only do we complete the wrecking crew, but this figure is epic/
• Best BAF- Hulkbuster - Yes I said I didn't really collect Movie figures, but there is no denying that this is a brilliant figure
• Best Remake- Scarlet Witch - I spent over a 100 euroes to get her first time and it was the most ugliest figure ever. But then hasbro release there version and the TB one went into storage faster then a dog eat meat.
• Best Accessories- Chameleons Heads. this again was obvious. these head display the characters unique powers and give people the chance to get 3 new characters. (also lead to the Chameleon being the most sort after figure cause of people multi-buying)
• Best Series - Rhino Wave. this was a fantastic wave with some realy obscure character and some awesome new additions.
• Best Exclusive set - Entertainment Earth's Guardians of the Galaxy - yes the the SDCC gave us some really sort after characters, this EE et gave us the 5 comic book member of one team in one set.
• Worst figure of the year- Superior Venom - while I have to problem with the actual figure (it good) but the shear fact that it was even included is a real insult being that he has had only 2 to 3 issues. if hasbro wanted to include another Symbiote, they could have included Hybrid, Scream and her siblings or Toxin.
• Best Figure of the Year - Magik - no contest. Well no there is some contest. but this figure stand ahead of other just in detail, accessories and inclusion.

[damprime]

I pretty much agree. I've completed or working on completing each wave except for Thanos. I just cherry picked it. Valkyrie would've been my favorite female except for the fact she's too big even for an Asgardian female. She should've been on a base around the size of the males. She's only 6'3 not 7'. Other than that, I think she's beautiful. But Scarlet Witch is definitely the best remake and I love Misty and Captain Marvel. So you see I'm torn when it comes to the ladies. I can't say who's my favorite figure but I'm down with your others.

[greenlucario]

Awesome idea, like your picks Tarot

 

• Best Male figure: Ant-Man/Eric O'Grady/Black Ant

I always loved this version of Ant-Man during Irredeemable, and Secret Avengers and even though it's not Eric and it's a robot doppelganger, I can't help but really enjoy the costume. The colors are great, the head sculpt is great, and the funky orange paint really pops. The articulation helps a lot too, as the Pizza Spidey body might not be good enough for Spider characters but for an average character like Eric it really makes it seem like there's more articulation.

 

• Best Female Figure: Spider-Girl

Let me preface this by explaining I do not think the body mold is good, and the figure has a lot of flaws, but I'm a huge fan of the character and so I can not only live with but largely overlook these flaws. I never thought I'd see the day that a Spider-Girl ML figure was made, and then when the Arana figure showed up not long ago I was disappointed but still hopeful that one day May would also have a figure. I can still hardly believe that it has finally come to pass, she's even near the top of my top ten figures of the year.

 

• Best Villain Figure: Dormammu

Man did I pay for not being able to go to SDCC in the form of Dormammu and his exclusive box-mates. But it was worth it for the Dread Lord alone. He's so awesome with the different overlays, translucent plastics, and the killer head sculpt, he really stands out amongst his similar BAF sized brethren.

 

• Best BAF: Odin

I'll just say that 2015 was not a year where I enjoyed many of the BAFs, from a (seemingly) too small Thanos, to a Hobgoblin whose design was great but character was terrible, to a movie Ultron, an unnecessary remake of Rhino, and a Hulkbuster that was not nearly as good as its Select cousin (which fits better in scale with ML comic figures anyways), nothing really to write home about in the BAF department (unless you count exclusives Groot and Dormammu). Odin was the only BAF I actually wanted more than the figures that made up the wave. The Allfather filled a much needed spot as one of two new BAF characters, and was one of only a few Asgardian offerings.

 

• Best Remake: Scarlet Witch

I initially debated over this one and almost gave it to Spider-Woman until I looked twice at both and as great as Spider-Woman is, Scarlet Witch just has a little something extra. I've got to agree on this one, the first time Scarlet Witch came out I spent a lot of money on her, and she was awful. When I got the brand new one, the old one went away quickly and was not missed, the energy effects brought what was a really great figure up to a whole new level.

 

• Best Accessories: Spider-Man hands (Pizza Spidey/Scarlet Spider)

What Hasbro did wrong for a long time, unarticulated hands, how they fixed it, lots of awesome swappable hands, which was such a great idea that should be used for more characters than just Spidey. While I loved the Chameleon heads this to me is something revolutionary for the newer MLs and clearly Hasbro understands how much we love the swappable hands, looking at some of the new and upcoming figures.

 

• Best Series: Rhino Wave

Hands down a great selection, while I think it wasn't a great Spider-Man wave it did so much right that the only fault I can give it is too many non-Spidey characters. Chameleon was of course the most anticipated figure, for me anyways, and he fills a much needed spot in the Spider-Man rogues gallery, Kraven, Ghost Rider, and Scarlet Spider round out a great wave of figures many of whom were firsts or much needed remakes.

 

• Best Exclusive set: GotG box set

Gamora and Groot were sorely needed and with a few mods Drax turned out to be a much needed figure too. I could take or leave the Rocket and Star-Lord re-dos but I'm glad for those that missed out on the first Star-Lord.

 

• Worst figure of the year: Thanos/Rhino

It might be cheating to list two of them, but after a lot of debating I couldn't decide which one for me was the biggest disappointment. These two had some stiff competition from the long armed, odd head sculpt Hawkeye and the obscurity that is Superior Venom but in the end these two won out simply because they were not able to beat out their previous incarnations and every time I lay eyes on them I wonder why I bothered to build them. No matter what anyone says about the scale being accurate on Thanos he still comes across as too small, both vertically, and from a bulk standpoint. Recently re-reading the Thanos mini-series from the early '00s and the Thanos Imperative, where the Titan is shown as bulky and in the case of the latter much bigger it's clear to me that this one doesn't cut it when the Select is available. As for Rhino, just ugh. The head sculpts were just plain bad, the crazy coked out classic one is probably the worst thing on my shelf next to the mess faced Spidey Classics Morbius, and the modern one just doesn't seem right. All I heard about Thanos was how much people were sick of others complaining about his height, well if Thanos was good for his proper scaling, than Rhino is a failure based on scaling alone. Rhino is a big guy, but he's neither that wide, nor that tall compared to other characters. Now maybe Hasbro conveniently sculpted the body with another figure in mind and like Star-Lord and the AIM Soldier, Rhino just came first, but it's too big. Yes, it's better in scale than the atrociously large Select version, but it's still not good enough. And then there's the comparison to the Fearsome Foes Rhino from Toy Biz in '05/'06. When older figures are still better than the remakes it makes no sense to even remake them, and when comparing the two it's obvious that Rhino by Toy Biz will still outlast Rhino by Hasbro. Lastly the loose ab-crunch on both of these BAFs continues to hurt the two figures especially the super wobbly Rhino.

• Best Figure of the Year: Ghost Rider

I think this one has earned its spot here for me. I hated the idea of a new GR figure, especially one that wasn't a modern one. I'm a huge GR fan and I didn't see the need for a Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider that didn't mirror Aaron's run from '07 or something similar. But when I finally got the figure I was eating my words, or thoughts, whichever. The head sculpt is superb, the best GR head sculpt ever, the body choice, excellent, the only drawbacks, lack of chain and motorcycle...but I fixed that with an older GR's chain and the movie bike from way back. As one of my favorite characters this clearly was the figure I'd been needing, but never realized just how much.

[nieman257]

Best Male - Ghost Rider

Best Female Figure - Captain Marvel (It was either her or Misty but I can't find a non-cockeye Misty) Best Villain Figure - Bulldozer

Best BAF - Hulkbuster

Best Remake - Scarlet Witch

Best Accessories - Pizza Spidey accessories. The only thing that would've enhanced even more was if it came with webs

Best Series - Rhino Wave, even though I really don't like the actual rhino figure

Best Exclusive set - Guardians of the Galaxy (slightly edges out Book of Vishanti)

Worst figure of the year - Hawkeye (he has 2 different arm lengths and there's no excuse for that) Best Figure of the Year - Dormammu - it's everything we've always wanted.