This year has been a great year for fans and collectors as not only some old lines continue, but fans were treated to some brand new collectibles this year. We’ve compiled a list of our Top 10 favorites.
Jada Toys Metals Die Cast Figures
Ever since Scott Neitlich showed off some Metals Die Cast figures at PowerCon in June 2016, we knew that demand would increase on these highly detailed collectibles. Die Cast figures are becoming increasingly popular this year as other companies including Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts TMNT figures have brought this to shelves. The Jada Toys collection consists of Marvel, Ghostbusters, WWE, The Walking Dead, Suicide Squad, and other franchises and has the potential to grow even beyond that because the style is simply very good. Pop! Vinyls started out the same way, but these are made with better material over plastic and vinyl, and for a shelf price of $9.99-$12.99 on average, they are definitely doing something right. Jada Toys has proven themselves this year and you can bet that these die cast figures will simply skyrocket out of control in the years to come. We expect these to replace anything else in a similar style in popularity and demand over the years, simply because the style is more accurate to the characters, plus better material.
You can purchase Metals Die Cast figures on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore and Amazon.com.
Hasbro Marvel Legends 6″ Figures
Marvel Legends was started by Toybiz in 2002 (although Spider-Man Classics was also in this style that had debut in 2000), and picked up by Hasbro in 2007, the line has been continuing on full steam with even more customers, more new releases over the years, and better sculpting as time went on. In 2016, Hasbro offered some excellent releases including the X-Men wave, San Diego Comic-Con 2016 The Raft Marvel Legends, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man Infinite Series with Sandman, plus a wide range of store exclusives that for the most part weren’t always easy to find for most. If 2016 has shown us anything, is that Marvel Legends will continue on despite being already one of the oldest running toy lines in the same or similar style of all time. At this rate, there will be more Marvel Legends 6″ figures well into the upcoming 2020 decade.
You can purchase Marvel Legends figures at Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore and Amazon.com.
Diamond Select Toys Ghostbusters Select 7″ Figures
The rooftop diorama has been coming together nicely this year as DST released released more waves of their Ghostbusters Select line. This line is based on the 1984 film and each figure includes a piece of the rooftop diorama as seen at the end of the film when the Ghostbusters fight Gozer. This year, fans were given the first ever Janine Melnitz, along with fan favorites such as Slimer, variants of the Ghostbusters including Marshmallow mess Ray and Peter, and more. With more figures coming next year including the Taxi Cab Driver, Librarian ghost, and more this is one line that you do not want to miss out on.
You can purchase the newest waves and more on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore, and Amazon.com.
Jakks Pacific Big Figs
Big Figs have been becoming more and more popular this year as Jakks includes many new additions to the line from The Force Awakens, Rogue One, DC Comics, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, World of Warcraft, and other franchises. Given that the line measures 18″ and up on average, and for a retail price of $19.99 and up, there is a ton of value in each figure. Even better is that the sculpting and quality keeps improving.
Order your Big Figs now on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore and Amazon.com.
Hasbro Transformers Titans Return
Hasbro’s Titans Return line is inspired from the Transformers Generation One toy line of the 1980’s, and is a continuation of the Combiner Wars line. This year, Hasbro offered some great updates to the Transformers brand, including some characters for the core collector that won’t be known to most fans. This years offerings include Fortress Maximus, Skylynx, G1 and G2 Combaticons, Sixshot (shown above) Alpha Trion, Weirdwolf, among many others. Fans of the classic Transformers cartoon and toy line have been in for a real treat lately, and we hope to see this line continue for a few more years.
You can Order these figures on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore and Amazon.com.
Hasbro Star Wars The Black Series 6″ Figures
The Black Series continued on this year with both 3 3/4″ and 6″ figure offerings. Among the many 6″ figures being released this year, our personal two more favorite releases are just starting to be found now, which include Sabine, and Darth Revan (shown above). While we haven’t been as excited about the movie lines, Hasbro does find ways to include the comic and animated figures that look incredible. Hopefully, we’ll have these two in hand soon for a review.
Order your figures now on Entertainment Earth, BigBadToyStore and Amazon.com.
Playmates Toys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 5″ Figures
Playmates Toys have been doing a great job on their 5″ animated line and even were able to finally offer a human Karai figure, Armaddon, and their upcoming Super Shredder figure that is coming Target as an Exclusive in December. One thing we would like to see from the company in the future are characters like Pigeon Pete (even though he’s no longer with the Mighty Mutanimals), Jack Kurtzman, as well as a new April O’Neil figure. This year has definitely been a great time to be a Turtles fan, as Playmates also offered 6″ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/WWE figures exclusive to Wal-Mart, as we exclusively announced back at San Diego Comic-Con 2016 with our meeting with Playmates Toys (also exclusive news coverage available nowhere else). These figures, among the 5″ figures, should be on your radar right now.
Order your figures now on Amazon.com.
Mattel: ThunderCats Classics Third-Earth 6″ Figures
When you can make ThunderCats figures that look like this, you know you are definitely doing something right. The Four Horsemen continue to astonish and amaze us with their ability to sculpt any character and make them as show-accorate or even an update to the vintage toy with their artistic talents. Mattel’s engineer’s also get credit as well as the Mattycollector brand team for their continued efforts.
Unfortunately, this ThunderCats line will end in December and the license is tied up in Mattel’s hands at the moment. Super 7 has expressed interest about continuing this line, but it has everything to do with licensing issues right now, and at least for the moment, this line is on hiatus starting in January, with the possibility to forever being cancelled.
You can read our review of Lion-O for our overall thoughts, with Mumm-Ra’s review coming later this month.
Lion-O can be purchased on Amazon.com and eBay.com.
Mattel: Masters of the Universe Classics
Since Mattel obtained the Filmation rights for Masters of the Universe Classics, they have made characters into figures that we never thought they would get to do considering that some of them, like Lizard Man, were obscure and there may not have been enough fan interest. Thankfully, year after year the fans subscribed and these characters, along with the vintage line, were made into plastic form. What was missing over the years were Filmation versions of core characters like He-Man, Skeletor, Beast Man, Trap Jaw, Evil Lyn, and others. Thankfully, Mattel offered these this year and they are some of the best takes on the characters to-date. With everything ending in December from Mattel, Super 7 will continue the Masters of the Universe brand including the Filmation line.
You can read our reviews of He-Man and Skeletor for our thoughts on the figures.
You can purchase these figures on BigBadToyStore, Amazon.com and eBay.com.
NECA Toys Ultimate 7″ Figures
When it comes to a realistic high-end style of sculpting for a very low price, NECA Toys has the competition beat out. While some of these figures are reissues, they are also given articulated legs, and include pieces that were made up of several figures from the past. Some great additions to the line this year have been the horror themed figures (along with the Ultimate Predator figure shown above), including Jason Voorhees, Ash Williams, and Freddy Krueger. From the sound of it, NECA will be continuing this line into 2017 with Chucky, and we’re hoping other characters like Hellraiser.
Pre-Orders are available now on Entertainment Earth and BigBadToyStore.