Toy Lines I Have Loved, 2010 Edition

Here's what I think went well in 2010.

BATTLE BEASTS
Huge potential, big letdown-- Diamond Select only tooled up the Crocodile man and released it in 3 (soon to be 4) colors. It's a wonderful design and if Diamond Select did more of these, I'd buy them all. Within reason. If it gets to 300 all bets are off.

OUTER SPACE MEN
The Four Horsemen did a bang-up job on these. So far, there have been four figures released in four colors each-- it's a bit excessive, but I picked 'em all up. They're good. I'd suggest buying a few of these if I were you.

STAR WARS
A lot of stuff came out but it doesn't feel like it. Three waves of new movie figures is pretty pathetic, really... four, if you're feeling generous and count the delayed, exclusive Expanded Universe wave. Maybe we're going to see it wrap up soon? Hahahahahha. Ha. Seriously though, 2011 needs to step the hell up.

G.I. JOE
Went from "meh" to "wow!" The basic figures are wonderful, and the vehicles aren't bad. The Pursuit of Cobra Beach Head may be one of the finest G.I. Joe figures ever made, plus we saw a lot of hard-to-find exclusive show up on closeout. You really can't go wrong with that. I got most of these, minus a few vehicles. Just found wave 3 today and it will kick your ass.

TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS
So good it's obscene-- 13 figures since June, 5 of which are from a new video game, and the rest include fan-requested characters who have no business having toys. Thunderwing? Straxus/Darkmount? Drift? Wow. And there's more on the way! I bought all of these.

TRANSFORMERS (Gold Boxes)
A mix of movie, classics, and all-new characters with tons of toys. I bought several, and I admire Hasbro's ability to mix in what essentially amount to new, classic characters.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS
About as good as you can expect. It's weird, you've got a line where every figure is essentially perfect, it's hard to really talk about too much.

SPIDER-MAN (kids)
Wow, this is a WONDERFUL line if you skip about half of it. The basic Spider-Man is great, as are the Green Goblin, Venom, and Carnage figures. Nicely done.

IRON MAN 2
Another line where you should skip most of it. But the good stuff? Excellent. All the comic toys were wonderful, like Silver Centurion Iron Man, the original Vietnam-based armor, and Iron Monger were delightful. Well done.

MARVEL UNIVERSE
This year we got Ghost Rider, Iron Patriot, World War Hulk (which I still need to buy despite having seen 3 or 4 times), and a smattering of other good figures. It feels like another slow-drip release line, but hey, they made some great stuff here.

POP HEROES
Funko started a line of vinyl figures which are basically Hello Kitty meets Mighty Muggs meets Batman. I've got one on my desk and I want to get the Gremlins one and the as-of-yet- unannounced licenses too. More on that later.