Right, here goes. I'll have a crack at my list to get the ball rolling... Spoilers, it's been a bit of a year for 3p offerings for me

This list is pretty fluid too. It's pretty hard to put things in order but I am fairly confident these are definitely my top ten for the year...
Honourable mention first! As I'd mentioned I haven't really been too tempted by hasbro's offerings this year. But I'm pretty sure this fella is my favourite main line release for the year. Its pretty much the only one I've kept anyway!

10) MMC Carnifex
If this fella had come out this year rather than me just picking it up this year it'd be far higher up the list... He's a big lad, cool alt modes, and his bot mode is a superb representation of one of the great villains from the pre-reboot IDW run (in my opinion anyway!)

9) MMC Stray SG
Another MMC Reformatted figure to make the list this year. This is my first version of this mould having not really knowing about this line when the white version released. Anyway. Looks pretty good in red, and the deadpool inspired head it came with is pretty cool

8 ) Gigapower Gaudenter
Call it curiosity that got me to grab a couple of the Gigapower dinos... I'm more than happy with the Fanstoys offerings but managed to snag this at a pretty reasonable price and I'm happy I did. Quite a hefty heavy bot, full of die-cast and loaded with accessories. You really don't lose either way if you're in the market for MP scale dinos, both companies options have a lot to offer

7) Xtransbots Stunticons
I decided to group these fellas together because to be fair it's hard to pick a favourite out of the lot, they're all pretty neat figures in their own right. As far as MP scale stunticons go these ones really appeal to me as in both modes they really scale properly with their autobot counterparts. But yeah, they all pull off both modes well, and full of poseability and articulation. And they're pretty reasonably priced to boot which always helps.

6) FansToys FT-29T Quietus
Considering I didn't get the normal version of this until early this year I could easily have both versions of this fella in my top 10, I like it that much. I've got one displayed as movie/season 3 Cyclonus and one kitted out in the IDW inspired samurai-esque gear. I'm not too concerned with the whole which colour scheme is more accurate shenanigans I've seen discussed elsewhere, he's just a good bot, sleek as all hell alt mode, and feels like a premium figure should. Good heft, nice paint nice poseability. Plus there's the fact he's one of my favourite IDW characters... I could go on and on

5) Transform Element Prime
This guy is my Prime. It's relegated Mp-10 back to storage, which in its own right is still a very good figure but TE-01 just pulls off the toon/masterpiece look to me better. Granted there may be a debatably better option out there now for some but for a quarter of the price this fella really knocks it out of the park. Really good shelf presence, quite a clever transformation in a explode the figure and put it back together kinda way, nice heft, good poseability and just generally really looks the part! If there were one minor complaint it would be the lack of paint on the red parts but really this is barely noticeable on the shelf.

4) FansToys FT-16M Sovereign
When I heard that there was a chance that there was a reissue of this fella in the works I was pretty excited as I wasn't really too invested in the masterpiece scale game when the original and original reissue were released. Luckily enough I managed to snag one from Tfs-express in the minute or so preorders were live, and was even luckier not to be one who's preorder was cancelled due to oversubscription. Since it has arrived anyway its pretty quickly become one of my favourite parts of my collection. I feel like I keep saying the same things about a lot of the figures on this list but he's got fantastic shelf presence, really good heft, nice poseability, and to be honest that metallic blurple pain on him really pops in hand. Just a beautiful figure

3) Planet X Kadmos
Another one I had been really looking forward to since its reveal. IDW Star Saber was one I was really hoping would get a decent figure released for it one day (one more affordable than the Flame Toys offering at least!) I think my enjoyment of the character definitely helps push this guy so far up the list but is still a pretty great figure in its own right. Great poseability, nice paint, nice die-cast... And a pretty cool alt mode to boot. I'm looking forward to seeing more of their victory leo bot and how the two might look combined... My only real complaint though is the hip joints aren't as tight as they could be. And not sure how well they'll hold up when and if I ever get to combining him. Still for now I think he's pretty great

2) FansToys FT-31A Roadking
This is where the witchcraft happens. Really impressive engineering to get a bot this size to transform into a truck & trailer unit that's only a shade smaller than MP-10. And the backpack is neither that big or noticeable for mine. All the usual Fanstoys tropes are there, sculpt, heft, poseability. Nice paint too, there's not a ton of it compared to some figures but what is there is really nice and well executed. Just a genuinely good all round figure!

1) MMC Ocular Max Saltus
And number one goes to.... This guy! To me it's a pretty impressive feat to have a triple changer that pulls off all 3 modes pretty well, and still have such a clean looking bot mode that doesn't seem to sacrifice much if anything in the way of articulation or poseablility. It's one of those figures I always seem to go back to and mess around with. It doesn't hurt that he's both a movie character and a wrecker in my opinion either... My figure of the year



And just a quick top 10 group shot of them all together! Cheers for reading/looking

