Your top 3 Third party toys of 2012.

[Lord_Zed]

With so many Third party releases in 2012, I thought I'd see what people's favourites were. They must have been released last year though.

Here are mine.

1. Giant 61: I couldn't think of anyway this guy could not be number one for me. He's a perfectly executed combiner who's components all work as independent toys. And on the quality scale he's just about up there with Fans Project.

2. Hegemon: This guy came from no where and blew me away. Sure he has a few flaws, but he's an amazingly good first entry for Toyworld, and possibly the best likeness of G1 animated series Megatron I've seen.

3. Motobot RC: In the heavily contested third place spot I chose Motobot. Like the two above this toy impressed me far more than I had expected. With articulation on par with a proper action figure, and integrated accessories galore she represents a major step up from Perfect Effects previous releases.

Honorable mentions for Assaulter and Weapons Specialists, FP delivered another solid Warbot toy, while Igear showed they do have what it takes to make their own third party toys without nicking molds. However they both took forever to be released, so therefore Motobot edged them out for me

Looking forward to seeing what all these guys come up with this year.

[KalEl]

Toys I Own:

1. FansProject Steelcore:
One of the first third party original IP releases and a more that well done figure by fansproject.



2. TFC Toys Hercules (completed):
The bad boy that started off the 3rd party combiner arms race. Plus its just damn awesome.

Haven't done a proper shot of herc :P


3. Fansproject Assaulter:
A triple changer and epic proportions and some die-cast as well a fantastic evoloution the their defender release.



Honourable mentions (don't own them):
-MMC Cyclops: For taking the game to leader proportions
-MMC Seekers: Engineering to a point. (see what i did there)
-FansProject Function X (chromedome): Bringing back the headmasters! (This is actually on its way)

[kup]

I can only speak for toys that I own.

For me:


1. Maketoys Green Giant: I could not agree more with Zed. This toy is probably the best executed combiner I have ever seen. Some of the individual bots have their flaws but it does not at all take away from how great this toy has been designed and executed as a whole. The plastic quality is also superb and in the same league as an FP toy.



2. Toyworld Hegemon: Again, I am in total agreement with Lord_Zed. Hegemon was what seemed like a cool toy made by an unknown company which several of us took a chance with. I am so glad we did! When the toy was released, it's style and design blew us away and totally surprised us as we weren't sure what we would get. He has his flaws like not being made of the same premium plastics as FP Warbots and Maketoys releases but it could be argued that this allows him to fit in better with official toys.



3. Fansproject Warbot Assaulter: Another solid Warbot with an impressive built quality and design. Although like other Warbots, his style and sci-fi design may not be for everyone, it was fine for me. I had high expectations for this toy and Fansprojects met them in every way and even exceeded in some like the super nicely sculpted/painted red cartoon face that helps completely redefine the uniqueness of the alternate 'cartoon' robot mode and adds a lot of character to the toy.



Honorable mentions:

MMC Screecher - A Close 'No3'


Toy World Grind Rod


MMC Cyclops


Edit: Added pics like KalEl as it helps to illustrate how awesome this year has been for 3rd parties.

[liegeprime]

I don't have much but as like kup I can only vouch for the ones I have

1) Green Giant

2) Cassetrons - not graphy, not dial, not zaur, not noizu

3) reserved actually for warbot assaulter - still not in hand so for now I place wst not sixshot since ihave this on hand...

Coming close is not a figure but rather an add on armour for RTS G2 prime

[kup]

I don't have much but as like kup I can only vouch for the ones I have

1) Green Giant

2) Cassetrons - not graphy, not dial, not zaur, not noizu

3) reserved actually for warbot assaulter - still not in hand so for now I place wst not sixshot since ihave this on hand...

Coming close is not a figure but rather an add on armour for RTS G2 prime

Not sure if Cassetrons qualify as 3rd party since they are replicas of very rare but official Takara molds.

[Trent]

1) Green Giant - such a high level of awesomeness, how could it not get no.1

2) FP SteelCore

3) FP Assaulter

SC and Assaulter are pretty much equal 2nd for me. The thing that pushed SteelCore up was the fact he is an original character.

Honorable Mentions go to: PE Motobot, TW Grind Rod and MMC Screecher.

[Sam]

I only bought one third party toy in 2012. So it's gotta be Maketoys Giant 61 !!

[SuspectimusPrime]

Only going with what I have on hand at the moment:

1. Grind Rod - I think with this design, Toyworld has produced a toy that meets my standard of what a modern Hasbro toy should be in terms of cartoon/comic accuracy, intuitive transformation, good proportions, durability and playability (although you would only ever catch me transforming or posing him carefully, joint by joint to minimise ball-joint wear, or rolling him backwards and forwards a few times to mimic a car driving ). Really takes a lot to get in front of the others for a combiners-nutter like me (although it shall be interesting to see how the rest of the series will rank once the 6th member of the not-Throttlebots come out ).


2. Green Giant - Agree with all of the above

*Just realised that I haven't taken any good photos of this guy..*

3. FP Causuality Battle Gaia - A bit of an older release, but it took be quite some time to track down all the components. Did not come across any material to suggest if this was the official intention of FP when designing Warcry and Flameblast, but I really enjoy this configuration -- which came at a high patience-cost in tracking down the 2007 Movie unreleased Target exclusive Energon-repainted scouts Reverb and Gunbarrel.


Honourable mentions:
* Steel Core would be next, a great original design that slots itself into the universe so well. However as a toy, I really do wish they made a place to store his translucent blade in alt mode.
* Assaulter/Function X-1 still in POL, Armoured Battalion unopened, Hegemon still on wish list

[kup]

I agree on Grindrod being something that should be cost effective enough for Hasbro to be able to make themselves. Unfortunately they are either so gutted of creativity or unmotivated that they no longer can.

[Paulbot]

2. Green Giant - Agree with all of the above

All these good comments about Green Giant have made me consider it, I'm in a "spend-money-feel-good" mode at the moment, but this comparision pic gives me a little pause. It's only a bit bigger than a Cybertron Combiner? I thought it was bigger than that.