The Toy Report: 2011
Being the annual recap of the best toys I bought in the past year.
I was all fixed to post my blah-blah about my new favourite thing ever, when I realized that I’d omitted the customary year-end toy survey, for which the internet is certainly not crying out, but which allows a sense of order to me. And so here they are - the best of my collection, 2011:
#1: Thor - Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series, #146
Surprising no one, the big monkey hits the top of the list. Actually I think it was actually on December 31, 2010 that pictures of this started trickling down from Hong Kong, and I was fairly well certain it would be my year-end fave - I even started a piggy bank for it. Yeah: for general toyly awesomeness and turning me into an 8-year-old with a piggy bank again, Thor wins.
Photo by Michael Crawford.
#2: Itty Bitty Loki - Diamond Select Toys Marvel Mini-Mates
He’s just so unbelievably cute. And, naturally, he goes quite well with Thor, especially if you want to pose a mini Devil Loki on Thor’s left shoulder have have Angel Odin on his right. (I actually did this.) Loki comes packed with his father, who is actually one of the worst toys of the year in that his head keeps popping off spontaneously - he’s clearly trying to jump to the Game of Thrones franchise - but little Loki is fairly well awesome.
Photo by Dan Curto
#3: Doctor Who Christmas Adventure Set (Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond in the TARDIS) - Underground Toys
I knew I was a lifelong on Doctor Who when I started buying the toys. Fairly sure this didn’t come out in 2011 but whatever, it was one of the best things I picked up this year - although I never did go so far as to crash-land it in my tub as originally promised. Turns out a TARDIS is a surprisingly good toybox anyway - I stuffed mine full of about forty action figures, with the Doctor and Amy leading the charge, and it sat quite happily on my desk till the house burned down, for which I remain suspicious of the Doctor’s tiny-winy sonic.
#4: Admiral Ackbar (The Vintage Collection) - Hasbro Star Wars action figure
Wouldn’t be a toy list without a Star Wars figure on it, and if you’re gonna own just one Admiral Ackbar this year, accept no substitutes. He comes on a vintage-tooled cardback and his Ackbar-stick is exactly the right size to swap it surreptitiously with the Doctor’s sonic to prevent further sonic-related mishaps. Also, my girlfriend bought the Admiral for me when I was having a rough day to remind me to stay out of traps, so basically I love him. (And her.)
Photo by Dan Curto.
#5: Green Lantern - Mattel Movie Masters
One of the reasons I was initially so bullish on the Green Lantern movie was the toys - when images of these guys started popping out of the toy fairs and comic cons, I foresaw a bright, Star Warsy future for the GL film. Well, we all know how that turned out. And the toys, too, turned out surprisingly weak-ass from a design perspective - aside from Hal here, pretty much none of them stand up, owing to flaws inherent to the creature design. Still, Hal was fun. For a little while.
Photo by Dan Curto
The Best Toy I Didn’t Buy: Christopher Reeve Superman - Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series, #152
I’m fairly well addicted to Hot Toys, which is why I generally think it’s a good thing they cost so much, because if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to reach my bed. As a rule, I only buy one, mayyyyybe two, per year, and in 2011, it was Thor, and no regrets. But boy howdy, what a piece of craftwork this is:
Photo by Michael Crawford.
