TOP 10 of 2023

The Spiral was just a joke, hence the obnoxious Dwight as Jim gif 🙂 .   The cut off or start period always comes up.   Dorkside's closure left me scrambling for X-Men.  I had a Spiral from the UK and Canada before the end of '22.  I didn't bother to place a new preorder wth anyone else that late in the game.

For my list, I'm going to do something a little different and include only my favorite 10 characters that got made for the first time ever in the line. Any re-do's or updates are disqualified from my list. I counted 52 total characters this year got that made in the Legends line for the very first time, one for each week in the year - and I'm absolutely thrilled with that (even if they weren't all good figures). Here are my 10 favorites:

Aunt May (would have preferred comic to animated though, of course - but she had been my #1 most wanted figure in the line for years, seriously)

Monet St. Croix / M

Kid Omega / Quentin Quire

Chamber

Karnak

Corsair

Moondragon

Valeria Richards

Totally Awesome Hulk (Amadeus Cho / Brawn)

Clea

Honorable mentions to Namorita and Ch'od. The Ch'od BAF wave was easily my favorite wave of the year. Love my X-Men, especially previously unmade characters!

Crazy year where I didn't get to enjoy the figures I got as much as I'd like to, so this is actually a good way to look back at which ones I need to revisit. My top ten in no particular order:

• Bearded Daredevil
• Clea
• Cosmo
• Hawkeye update
• Mockingbird 
• Marvel Boy
• Karnak
• Banshee
• Chamber
• Talos

My top ten is entirely made up of either from my annual top ten wishlist or remakes of favorite characters previously only on aging bucks that weren't fun as fun. It's actually amazing how many of my top wants this year hit.

Runners up: MCU Bruce Banner was so long overdue (I could swap him and human Talos for most-wanted MCU), the Black Widow update is IMO the best designed figure of the year but I was actually really happy with the motorcycle one already, and Mania is the figure I knew nothing about when I bought her and the toy itself made me want to learn about the character! One of those happens every year. The updates to Commander Rogers and BuckyCap were outstanding, too. 

In no particular order...

01. Spiral

02. Black Widow (Avengers 60th Anniversary)

03. Blob

04. Ronan The Accuser

05. Corsair

06. Captain America (Bucky Barnes)

07. Wolverine (X-Men '97)

08. Spider-Punk (Across the Spider-Verse)

09. Amazing Spider-Man (No Way Home)

10. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (No Way Home)

my top ten:

Spiral

Black Widow

Banshee (UXM 275)

Psylocke (UXM 275)

Gambit (UXM 275)

Mojo

Blob

Longshot

Dazzler

Monet

Such a fantastic year for me. Really hard to narrow it down with all the fun Avengers figures which could all make the list. But my personal favorites:

Iron Man— Extremis Armor

Iron Man— Mark 1

Iron Man— Heroes Return

Wonder Man

Destroyer Armor

Black Widow

Detroit Steel

Ultron— Quantumania wave

Ronan the Accuser 

Green Goblin- No Way Home

Black Widow

Destroyer

Spiral

Clea

Karnak

Ronan the Accuser

Drax the Destroyer

Corsair

Yondu

Star-Lord (classic comic)

Honorable Mention #1: Moondragon's head sculpt. If they had done the classic costume with the same head sculpt she would have easily been my #1.

Honorable Mention #2: Everything about classic Monic Rambeau except for the billowy arm sleeves/wings. They could have executed that better, which would have put her in my Top 10.

Honorable Mention #3: Everything about Hawkeye except the mis-matching color fabric piece.

If I'm wrong about some of the figures on my list being 2023 releases, sorry.

Top 10 in no particular order:

Spider-Man 90s Animated Series (Walmart)

Blob

Black Widow (Target)

Destroyer

Stryfe

Pretty Boy

Banshee (UXM 275)

Ronan

Spiral (amazing figure but quality of plastic embarrassingly poor)

Peter Parker 90s Animated Series

Honorable Mentions:

Baron Von Strucker, Bucky Cap, Hulk (grey) from two-pack.

In no particular order:

1. Bishop

2. MVC War Machine

3. Amazing Spider-Man

4. Moondragon

5. Deluxe Green Goblin

6. Monet St. Croix

7. Blade

8. Totally Awesome Hulk

9. Kingpin

10. Banshee

I forgot Marvel vs Capcom War Machine was this year. I love that figure! The colors are so cool. 

Did I buy ten this year? I'm not sure. Don't think I bought ten that came out this year at least. Regardless here's my faves of the year.

1. Mania. Maybe she doesn't deserve it, but I'm thrilled she exists and is still a fun figure regardless.

2. Deluxe NWH Green Goblin. Just a boot swivel away from nigh perfection, honestly. Even without, he gets by quite nicely.

3. Pulsecon Deadpool. Loved the last '90s DP, love this one even more.

4. Animated Doc Ock. Really good, might've gone even higher if not for his ridiculously soft shoulders. Looks and poses really well otherwise.

5. First Appearance Iron Man. So much more poseable than I expected a figure of this design to be, they knocked it outta the park

If I can manage to get him before the new year, NWH Ock is sure to rank high on here too.

No Way Home Green Goblin

‘90s Infinity Watch Drax

Blob

‘90s Animated Series Doc Ock

Spiral

Banshee

Extremis Iron Man

Eric Masterson Thor

Destroyer

Avengers 60th Black Widow

I dunno that I have 10 per se so I'm just listing the ones I liked from the last year.

Wolverine 97

Blob

Mojo

Banshee

Blade (despite his faults, I wanted this character)

Target Black Widow (probably the best figure for the year I'd say, or at least tied with Banshee)

Chamber (just by virtue of them doing him as well as they did, even though he's mostly a statue)

Animated Doc Ock looked great but I don't collect much Spidey but he looked fantastic

Spiral (small helmet, but just by virtue of her engineering I have to give credit)

275 Gambit, 275 Psylocke and 275 Jubilee, just for the heads and now having training suit bodies to farm for customs/part swaps.

Is Stryfe from 2023 because I was really happy to finally get him, and Apocalypse finally on a card.

Binary from Walgreens was great for $7.99 I can't complain and was an overall decent representation of the character for what it was.

I don't know why I love Top Ten list but I do so here are mine heavily slanted to classic looks:

60th Black Widow-Figure of the year IMHO

60th Hawkeye

'97 Wolverine

Classic Luke Cage

Astonishing Ant Man

Egg Head

Baron Von Strucker

Classic 70's/80's Wonder Man

Mockingbird from WCA 5 pack

'97 Magneto

The list might be different if I had been able to buy everything I wanted but unfortunately budget restraints....

Just got my last two legends of the year. This was not the best year for Legends objectively. 

My Subjective Top 10 + 5 Released and Purchased in 2023  and kept for my collection.

Single Release:

1. Spiral

2. Iron man MK1

3. Blade

4. Star-Lord

5. Yondu

6. Longshot

7. Avalanche

8. Clea

9. Baron von Strucker

10. Corsair

11. Deluxe: Blob

12. BAF: Puff Adder

13. Muti-pack: X Villains (Stand out: Pretty Boy)

14. Wild Card: Hawkey x Skycycle

15. Honorable Mention: Ronan (not really Deluxe) 

Bonus:  Wrecker (Favorite Retired Legend Purchased)

I appreciated filling out some of the shelves, but I'm REALLY hoping to finish some teams in 2024.