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My Top 10 Official toys of 2025
Damn what a year for silly robots that turn into vehicles. Age of the Primes has been a really solid and refreshing group and we had some really good stuff form studio series and assorted other lines as well.
Honorable mention, to a couple things I didn't get but would really love to. Metal Cardbot really took the scene by storm this year and I would love to get some of them but imports and all that. Similar story to takara's new line wild king which is so ******** fun looking, I really hope they import that. Lastly a brief shout to the Superion gang who all look quite fun but I honestly hate g1 colours on superion so I'm holding out for a sick tacky g2 redeco in the future.
And on the note of Superion team, a brief shout to Vortex who is really fun and has me very excited for Bruticus. imo Bruticus is shaping up to be a top tier set, but as a stand alone limb Vortex didn't quite make the cut.
Anyway, I'll just cut the bullshit and say my absolute favourite official release this year was for sure Haslab Omega Prime.
any mention of this figure of course comes with the giant asterisk of the massive qc issues that tons of people ended up suffering and the huge delays that hasbro took (and in some cases is still taking) in fixing that issue. But all that aside god damn what a set. It's everything. It's stunning, it's huge, it's solid, it's got all that glorious chrome, just a fully realized childhood love upgraded into modern day high end toy design with all the articulation I could ask for. How could any other official release stand a chance when this bomb dropped right at the start of the year
Number 2: Masterpiece Rattrap
speaking of beloved childhood faves recreated into high end collectibles, I'm truly living my best toy loving loser life. Rattrap is a strong contender for the best character from beast wars which is saying a lot and this toy is such a stunning realization of his on screen appearance in plastic and also a delightfully refreshing and simple transformation for the mp line after Rhinox and others. Huge love to this garbage eating wise cracker.
Number 3: AOTP Megatronus (The Fallen)
Age of the Primes has been a really fun mixed bag of designs, continuing the trend from legacy and pulling in figures from across the various continuities of transformers history. I really have loved the titular primes especially, and the best of them all by a country mile has been Megatronus. Hes so huge and thick and 3edgy5me in the best way. the presence of this dude on a shelf is unmatched and the flames beat so much a**. Just a delightful toy.
Number 4: AOTP Sky Byte
Man what a year for RiD 2001 kids. Sky Byte is just an absolute gem of a toy, hes so solid and lovingly detailed and articulated. They did such an amazing job of taking all the wild design of the original toy and making them work so much better than the original. It's just an absolute master class in updating, I can't tell you how much I giggled like an idiot when i first got this thing open. And the way that they gave the shark mode neck articulation is so ******** fun and charming. My god I hope they do this in transmetal cybershark colours soon.
Number 5: Classics (2007) G1 Soundwave
Soundwave is my favourite g1 character and I've always wanted to get some version of his adorable g1 toy. This version in particular has always appealed to me due to his absolutely whimsical box with the huge pop out cardboard version of his toy with the window displaying his two best cassettes in nice poses. I'm so glad to finally experience this toy first hand in all its rickety glory and especially for the steal of a price I found it for, always love sniping an ebay listing that has zero bids and getting a figure for less than half its usual going price.
Number 6: KO Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime
I waffled on whether to count this in the official or unofficial list because this is the ko version with some upgraded molding and a whole tray of fun extras, but I think the base mold itself is still an official product so its going here. And god damn what a prime. People often call the some of the generations line the budget masterpiece line these days and nobody does that nickname justice like 86 Prime. Hes a stunning realization of the g1 cartoon character in toy form with all the joints you'll ever need and a complex but fun transformation into a great truck mode. And all the little details that the ko adds like improving the thighs and the truck bed really sell it for me. Hes just sooo much fun to play with and pose, I'll take this over the mess of mp 44 any day.
Number 7: Generations Retro Gears
Coming out of absolutely nowhere to completely dazzle my pants off was retro gears, a toy styled redeco of the legacy gears figure who i had completely written off as just another boring g1 cartoon toy. But my god, I bought this thing on a whim because he looked charming on the shelf in his retro toy packaging and bright cheery colours and he absolutely stole my heart. Hes so bouncy and fun and poseable and has so much charisma with this beep boop 80s robot face. Best deluxe of the year.
Number 8: Earthspark Soundwave
I really enjoy a lot of the Earthspark original characters but I thought for sure we'd never see a proper toy of this absolute banger of a Soundwave redesign. I had resigned myself to his cute little flip changer and then out of absolutely nowhere came this stunning deluxe. Even though the series was thought dead and every store had long since clearanced out all the toys from the show, a handful of targets exclusively on the east coast just randomly started selling them??? I knew that this thing was a now or never figure and jumped on the very first ebay listing I saw. And boy howdy, looking at the listings now I do not regret that choice. This is such an awesome design for the character and the way it transforms is so cool and unique (I really hope that Cosmos figure sees the light of day).
Number 9: AOTP Red Alert
I wasn't quite sure whether to give this spot to Red Alert or Prima Prime, but Megatronus has the primes covered and Red Alert is such a solid and charming figure. That cherry red robo cop light piping is to die for and he perfectly captures the chonky bliss of the unicron trilogy in his update to a modern figure in a way that so many others from that era haven't. My copy does suffer from some absurdly stiff arm joints but otherwise hes got it all. That Flatline recolour is looking real sexy too.
Number 10: Assorted Blokees
Kind of a mix here for the 10th slot, it's going to Blokees in general. This company came out of nowhere with a fire hose like deluge of transformers themed mini model kits that have taken the fandom by storm, and for good reason. Solid plastic, delightful aesthetics, a wide range of characters. They expanded into different sizes, different eras of the series, done alt modes and combiners. it just keeps going and they somehow seem to be getting more detailed and articulated as they go. I do feel that they do their best work with the little guys though. TF One Soundwave is great but the Action Edition Soundwave ended up pretty rickety. If you haven't tried them yet though, chances are one of your faves has gotten a little version in one of their lines and its well worth getting some play time with these, they are delightful.
So that's that for official releases, thank you so much if you read this and I hope you had a good year and that the next one treats you kindly.
Hello Gaia, I'm Tatsu, thanks for taking a look at my profile!
[January 1, 2026]: Toys Section Updated with 2025 Top 10
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