The Poppies Awards for Best of 2015!

Best Overall Company: There are a lot of companies doing work in the collectibles market, some specializing in a particular scale, some in a particular item (bust, figure, statue), and some producing a wide range of goodies across all makes and models. Picking just one can be a tough task, and I know I always spend a lot of time considering this award. Interestingly enough, the judges and the people matched up this year scary close, right down to the percentages.

The third place winner is Hasbro, with 12% of the vote. In the People's Picks, they took third with 9% of the vote, and that's pretty consistent.  While they still have their ups and downs, I think everyone is psyched over the new film and the products we've seen so far.

In second is my pick for favorite - NECA. They did best with me (since I picked them number one), slightly better with the People, where they took second with 20% of the vote, and only slightly worse with the Judges, where they received 13% of the vote and the silver medal.  They had an amazing year in 2015, and I'm looking forward to another great year in 2016.

And the winner is...drum roll...Hot Toys. They were more dominate with the People's votes though, where they grabbed 39% of the vote. Here, they took first with a very respectable 33%. Lots of companies are gunning for them, and I expect to see both NECA and Mezco vying for this award next year, but it's going to take a Herculean effort to unseat the dominant force in high end collectibles today.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	NECA	Hot Toys	Star Ace
People's Picks	Hot Toys	NECA	Hasbro
Poppies	Hot Toys	NECA	Hasbro

Best Overall Line - High End: While it's rare for my picks to line up too closely with any of the other results - I tend to walk to the beat of my own drummer, which is a nice way of saying I'm weird - the Poppies and People's Picks often do.  That's super obvious again with the matching results for this category. The difference - the winner wasn't nearly as dominate.

Third place goes to the new kid on the block, the One:12 Collective line up from Mezco. They took 12% of the vote, and a solid bronze.  If they can produce at the level of quality we've seen so far with their Star Trek, Batman vs. Superman, and Marvel licenses, (not to mention the Universal Monsters, which I'm partial too), they will be a very strong contender to take this spot away from the more traditional sixth scale properties. 

Hot Toys takes over after that, but it was neck and neck for two of their lines. Getting 27% of the vote is their overall Marvel line up.  We should see figures based on a several different movies this year, from Ant-Man to Civil War to Doctor Strange. The Marvel license will certainly remain strong for them, but even with all that fire power, I don't know if it will be enough to pass the winner next year.

That winner, with 28% of the vote, is Hot Toys Star Wars line. It beat out the Marvel series by the tiniest of margins, but I suspect that with the volume of product getting released in 2016 based on both the old films and the new, this gap will widen next year.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	One:12 Collective	Star Ace Harry Potter	1966 Batman Tweeterhead
People's Picks	Hot Toys Star Wars	Hot Toys Marvel	One:12 Collective
Poppies	Hot Toys Star Wars	Hot Toys Marvel	One:12 Collective

Best Overall Line - Low End: The streak continues with the third award, as the People's Picks and the Poppies line up in perfect formation.

Taking third with 13% of the vote is the amazing Alien(s) line up from NECA.  Thanks to overall top quality work, the line had nominees in just about every applicable character. Will they win one?  Read on to find out!

Getting 14% of the vote is Hasbro's 6" Star Wars Black series. Once upon a time, this series was supposed to have a very limited number of releases, with only a few characters each year.  With the release of the new film and the new found interest in the 1/12th scale across the industry, it looks like the series will be expanding quite a bit in 2016.

The winner snagged 17% of the vote, and there was complete agreement with this one across all three awards. The big winner is the DC Collectibles animated Batman series, thanks to their amazing translation of the old cartoons into plastic idols. I'm not a completist on a lot of lines any more, but this is one that is well worth it.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	DC Animated Batman	Marvel Legends	Star Wars Black
People's Picks	DC Animated Batman	Star Wars Black	Aliens
Poppies	DC Animated Batman	Star Wars Black	Aliens

Eddie Wires Award: It took four categories to get there, but we suddenly have a MAJOR divergence between the awards voters. Even though I didn't vote for the winner, I have to say I think the Judges got it right. Remember, this category honors an amazing final paint job, an application that takes a statue, bust, or figure to the next level.

Third place took 11% of the vote, the exact same percentage as third place People's Picks third place finisher. But it wasn't even close to the same figure - this time, it's the beautiful Hulkbuster ArtFX statue from Kotobukiya.  I have to say, that's one pretty paint job.

The second place winner snagged 23% of the votes - the 1/4 scale Iron Man MK43. Here's an Iron Man that can go toe to toe with any high end statue in this scale without fear, thanks to a stellar paint job.

The winner took a solid 28% of the votes to grab first - the beautiful Marylin Monroe. Homina, homina, howwa...while the sculpt is clearly fantastic, it's really the paint work that sets the final production statue well above the rest of the market. Ms. Monroe deserved this sort of collectible, as do her fans.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Whiplash MKII	Marylin Monroe	Hulkbuster ArtFX
People's Picks	Iron Man MK43	Marylin Monroe	Whiplash MKII
Poppies	Marylin Monroe	Iron Man MK43	Hulkbuster ArtFX

Best Male Figure - 1/4 scale and Up: If you're dying to know, no, NECA did not win this category. They did better however than they did with the People's Picks.

The took third again, this time with 8% of the votes going to their Chris Reeve Superman. Lots of us remember the actor and the movie very fondly, and NECA has done a great job paying both proper respect. 

Second place was highly unusual three way tie. NECA did get in here with their Batman Returns Penguin, and the Hot Toys 1/4 scale Iron Man MK43 also had 12% of the vote. A dark horse in the race, the Hasbro Transformers Generations Devastator, also got 12% to share in this second place spot.

With that many figures getting so much of the vote, there was no way any single one was going to take down the big winner. With 38% of the vote, Boba Fett from Hot Toys took home the gold.  I just received mine, and I'm going to be replacing my Sideshow Premium Format statue on the shelf with this guy, which is quite the honor if you know me.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Batman Returns Penguin	Boba Fett	Battle Buddy Vader
People's Picks	Boba Fett	Iron Man MK43	Batman Returns Penguin
Poppies	Boba Fett	BR Penguin/Iron Man MK43/Devastator	Chris Reeve Superman

Best Male Figure - 12" - 17": It's pretty rare for me to be outright shocked by the results of any one category.  It helps that by the time I get to tallying the Poppies, I've already completed the People's Picks, and while there's always a little variation, the one is often a pretty good indicator of the other.

And that was pretty much true for 2015, at least until I got to this category.  And my mind was blown.

But let's start with the third place spot, where no surprise existed. He shipped pretty late in the year, but 11% of the voters went for Darth Vader as their favorite. Sideshow actually won this category last year with their own version of Vader, so I was slightly surprised by his lower showing. But you can easily rack it up to 'been there done that', always a dangerous syndrome.

Coming in second with 17% of the vote is another Hot Toys Star Wars ANH release: Tatooine Luke Skywalker. The People also selected both Luke and Vader, although the placement was swapped.

And then we get to first, where we had a tie.  Now, a tie might not seem like a big deal, since I never mind it with second and third place finishes, and we always get a few.  But I personally feel that each category in the Poppies should have one winner and one winner only, and I think the winners prefer not to share as well.  It's never actually been a problem before that I remember - while second and third place spots have had plenty of ties, I don't recall a tie for first in recent years.

There's another reason this particularly matters this year. I'm working on the possibility of presenting these awards to the winners at SDCC this summer as a panel, Academy Award style, with some of the judges doing the presenting.  I still have to get it approved by the fine folks running the con, but it looks promising, and I think it would be a ton of fun. Of course, this also works better if there's one winner in each category.

And so the judges and I had to scramble at the last minute and come up with a way to break a tie that seemed fair and unbiased.  It was suggested I could do something similar to the Senate, and as grand poobah simply cast my vote to break the tie.  Another suggestion was to flip a coin, with the reasoning that if it was good enough for Iowa it was good enough for us. Various other ideas were floated, but the majority consensus was to put the two 'winners' back up for a vote by all judges. Each of the two figures had taken 19% of the vote, and the theory was that now without any other choices on a ballot, the other 62% of the judges could weight in as well.

The two finalists were the Hot Toys Battle Damaged Robocop with the Murphy portrait, and Sideshow's Deadpool. As I said, each got 19% of the vote. I put the two contestants back out to the judging panel for final consideration, and the result was...

...in a tight race, winning 53% to 47%...it's Robocop! Clearly Deadpool got some serious love, and I have no doubt it's a combination of Sideshow's work and the current popularity of the character, but Hot Toys battle damaged Robocop was the final winner in the vote off. A well deserved win too, with a lot of tough competition in 2015!

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Chewbacca	Murphy BD Robocop	Ned Stark
People's Picks	Murphy BD Robocop	Tatooine Luke	ANH Vader
Poppies	Murphy BD Robocop	Deadpool/Tatooine Luke	ANH Vader

Best Male Figure - 5" - 11": Another big surprise here, but I think there will be a large faction of collectors who are very happy with the results.

Third place was won with 10% of the vote. Hasbro's First Order Stormtrooper, from the 6" Black Series, takes the bronze thanks to the excellent translation of the new trooper design.

Surprisingly, at least to me, both NECA and DC Collectibles got shut out of this category by the Poppies judges. Taking the silver is the One:12 Collective DKR Batman, a favorite of both the voters in the People's Picks and yours truly. He grabbed 12% of the vote with the Poppies Judges, and I suspect that a figure in the One:12 Collective will be vying for top honors again next year.

And now for the surprise.  I always get complaints that lines in this scale from Japanese manufacturers like Tamashii Nations or S.H. Figuarts are robbed, and deserve more kudos.  I do think they are under represented, and I've been working over the last couple years to get a broader range of judges on the panel, resulting in a broader range of figures on the ballot. This year, smaller companies like these had nominees in a number of categories, and it's probably no surprise to their fans that the Ronin Boba Fett from the Star Wars Movie Realization line by Tamashii Nations is a winner!  The series is Far East Meets Star Wars, and it's been extremely popular with collectors. It's nice to see the industry judges have also noticed and are giving it the big thumbs up.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	One:12 DKR Batman	Chris Reeve Superman	Animated Joker
People's Picks	One:12 DKR Batman	Chris Reeve Superman	FO Stormtrooper
Poppies	Ronin Boba Fett	One:12 DKR Batman	FO Stormtrooper

Best Male Figure - Under 5": The results were very, very tight in this category for 2015. I suspect things are going to get worse before they get better with this scale, at least in terms of quantity. It will be interesting to see if the 6 - 7" scale dominates at Toy Fair next week, or if we start to see a swing back to the smaller figures.

Even with fewer choices, the judges found three that were certainly worthy. With 12% of the vote, the First Order Snowtrooper figure grabbed third. While the Poppies judges weren't quite as keen on him as the People, they did appreciate the tiny beauty enough to award him third place.

Second place is a two way tie, with both Sherlock from Underground Toys and the Cultist from Warpo taking 13% of the vote. That's particularly fun because neither of these are what you'd call mainstream, so it's great to see them getting that kind of love from the judges.

Pulling in front with a mere 1% lead over the second place contenders is the G.I. Joe Gung-Ho figure from Hasbro. We didn't see a lot of Joe product in 2015, but what we did get was damn nice, and it's great to see the line manage to pull the win here.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Korg	Cultist	Carl
People's Picks	FO Snowtrooper	Rick Grimes	Gung-Ho
Poppies	Gung-Ho	Sherlock/Cultist	FO Snowtrooper

Best Female Figure over 11": Before we get to the winners and losers of the next three categories, I want to take a moment to address a recent hot button, clickbait, issue. With the 2015 release of films like Avengers 2 and Force Awakens, a large number of people who never paid any attention to toys or action figures before in their life suddenly realized that women heroes (and villains) were seriously under represented on the pegs. They are absolutely right, but they are also about 10 years behind the curve. It's nice that they've noticed, but the industry has already been improving for years, and the choices available to the collector - or kid - at the local store or online retailer are exponentially better than what they once were.  I recently cleaned up and reformatted (for better mobile reading) the results of the very first Poppies from 2007. There were so few potential female action figure choices that year that we only had ONE category for the entire genre.  All sizes, scales and types competed against each other, because that was the only way to make a female figure category viable.  Here we are, nine years later, and we had plenty of rock solid, high quality choices across three different scales, not to mention great female choices in statues and busts.

This change isn't occurring because someone ranted on Facebook and then moved on to their next social justice cause of the day. Hasbro and Mattel aren't making this happen - they are benefiting from the right changes in society that are happening way up stream. More women are in critical decision making roles in Hollywood; more actresses are being given lead roles in action and adventure movies; and more parents are unconsciously accepting that it's okay for little Billy to play with a girl action figure, or that it's okay for little Suzy to play with action figures at all. Real cultural change like this happens through evolution, and blaming Hasbro and Mattel is a waste of time and effort.  Sure, they could have made more female action figures ten years ago, and they could have gone out of business trying to sell something society wasn't yet ready for. The good news is we're getting there - the bad news is we still have a way to go.

Which is a long winded intro into our first category of lovely ladies. There were plenty of great choices in this scale for 2015, but just like with the guys, traditional sixth scale designs took the top three spots.

Sadly, my favorite pick only managed to make it to the bronze level.  Star Ace Hermione grabbed 15% of the vote for a third place finish, and it's nice to know at least that many of the dear judges agreed with me.

Second place is a surprise to me, simply because there were so many complaints when she first hit. Perhaps time has softened some of the perception, as is often the case with sixth scale. The Hot Toys Gamora received a solid 20% of the vote, and is a terrific example of the greater number of kick ass women characters on screen.

Once again this year, for the third time in a row, the big winner is...Black Widow!  There was no contest either as she snagged 40% of the vote. She's lovely no doubt, but what I think is most interesting about the entire line up of female winners in this scale - they all have rooted hair.  I'd say the technique is definitely improving, and it appears its time has come.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Hermione	Black Widow	Hit Girl
People's Picks	Black Widow	Hermione	Gamora
Poppies	Black Widow	Gamora	Hermione

Best Female Figure - 5" - 11": This was another very tight race, with a number of female figures getting votes.  When you have a tight race, you get ties, and we did get one for third place in this category.

Two figures received 11% of the vote: Rey, from the Hasbro 6" Star Wars Black series, and Roxy Rocket from the DC Animated line. Rey didn't really shine til later shipments when she arrived with an improved paint job, but Roxy was sweet right out of the gate. Coming with her own rocket didn't hurt, either.

Second place went to a familiar name: Captain Phasma. She took 17% of the vote for a solid second place finish, much like her situation in the movie.  I'm sure we'll see a first place attitude come next film, and I also suspect she'll make a run for another Poppies next year.

The winner here, as with the People's Picks, is Ripley from the terrific Aliens line by NECA. With 24% of the vote, she edged out all the competition in a tight field this year.  Pair her with the Power Loader and an Alien Queen, and you have one fine Aliens set up.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Roxy Rocket	Maria Hill	Ripley
People's Picks	Ripley	Captain Phasma	Rey
Poppies	Ripley	Captain Phasma	Rey

Best Female Figure - Under 5": While there were fewer choices in this scale than the previous two, that's largely due to the overall industry move away from the smaller sizes last year.

A nice surprise was a third place win for the Card Captor Sakura, the Figma figure from Max Factory.  She took 14% of the vote, and 14% of the judge's hearts.

Coming in second with 20% of the vote was the Hasbro Captain Phasma.  Poor girl took second in two categories, so she might be feeling a little like 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride', but I'm betting that some of the planned releases of the character - including the Hot Toys version - will feature big in the awards next year.

It wasn't as close here as in the People's Picks, but Ashoka Tano won it again, this time with 23% of the vote. No coin toss was necessary.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Captain Phasma	Shanna	Carol
People's Picks	Ashoka Tano	Captain Phasma	Carol
Poppies	Ashoka Tano	Captain Phasma	Card Captor Sakura

Best BAF: I don't recall a four way tie before, but that's what we had in this category for third place.  Considering there weren't that many nominees overall, it shows how diverse the group was and how spread the vote was.

Getting 7% of the vote was Thanos, Rhino, Allfather, and Defenser, enough to garner the bronze. That means six of the nine nominees received enough votes to get in the top three. I'd feel pretty bad if I were left out, but even then it was close.

All it took to slip by the pack was 8% of the vote, and that extra 1% gave Ultron the silver. The character was my favorite aspect of Avengers 2, so it's nice to see him getting some love.

The winner crushed the puny competition with 53% of the vote.  It wasn't even close, and the Marvel Legends Hulkbuster left the rest of the pack to fight for the scraps. Between his size, his excellent articulation, and his terrific paint job, there really was no other possible outcome.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Hulkbuster	Hobgoblin	Ultron
People's Picks	Hulkbuster	Rhino	Thanos
Poppies	Hulkbuster	Ultron	Thanos/Rhino/Allfather/Defenser

Best Play Set or Vehicle: This category had a lot of interest this year, with very few voters abstaining. In fact, it garnered more attention than even the Best Male 12 - 17", which is always a big category. The three winners match the People's Picks, but the order shifted around.

In third place, with 12% of the vote, is the Aliens Power Loader. I'm really impressed with the work NECA has been doing, especially in the 6 - 7" horror arena.  The Power Loader is the kind of vehicle that can cause a fan to go back and buy all the previous figures, just to complete the set.

Barely edging by with 16% of the vote was the TIE Fighter from the 6" Black series by Hasbro. Considering the size and price tag, this Star Wars vehicle seemed to sell quite well, at least in my neck of the woods.  Let's hope that means we'll see more vehicles for this scale in the future.

While the animated Batmobile from DC Collectibles won, it was no landslide. Squeaking by with 17% of the vote, my favorite vehicle of the year grabbed gold in a tough and competitive 2015 field of toys. I swear it was those cool lights...

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Animated Batmobile	TIE Fighter	Power Loader
People's Picks	Animated Batmobile	Power Loader	TIE Fighter
Poppies	Animated Batmobile	TIE Fighter	Power Loader

Best Statue: This was another category where the results were hotly contested, and the vote was spread over a pretty wide variety of statues.

There was a tie for third between the 1989 Batman Premium Format Statue, which I really liked, and the huge Sentinel maquette, both from Sideshow. The each received just 7% of the vote - shows how spread out things were.

Second place was a surprise, but mostly because she hadn't registered in the People's Picks at all.  But this time around the DC Bombshells Hawkgirl grabbed 9% of the vote and a sweet silver. She's one of my favorites in that entire series so far, and DC Collectibles finished out the year with a couple more very nice additions to the line up.

The winner took the top spot in this competitive group with 15% of the vote, the lowest amount to win a title in the competition this year, I believe.  You'll get no argument out of me though, because the Blitzway Marylin Monroe certainly deserves the honor. That's two winning awards for the same collectible, a rarity in itself!

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	66 Catwoman	Marylin Monroe	Black Widow
People's Picks	Marylin Monroe	89 Batman PF	Smaug
Poppies	Marylin Monroe	Bombshells Hawkgirl	89 Batman PF

Best Bust: I was surprised by the results of the People's Picks in this category, and I was once again surprised by the votes of the Poppies judges.  But being surprised is often a very good thing, as was the case in both these instances.

I love what Diamond Select is doing with the DC animated characters and properties, and their various busts and statues have been a nice change of pace.  Their sweet Harley Quinn bust grabbed 14% of the vote to get the third place spot.

Another 18% of the vote went to our second place finisher - Smaug from Weta. This is a Smaug bust, not the Smaug statue although I can understand your confusion. Both were terrific, and this large bust was much deserving.

And the winner is an even bigger bust - the 1:1 scale Akuma from Pop Culture Shock. Life size busts are always impressive, if for no other reason than their sheer mass, but PCS has been producing some amazing collectibles in this style for the last couple years. Video game fans have been drooling over these, and sharing that sweetness with the rest of the collectible world only seems right.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Smaug	DKR Batman	Akuma
People's Picks	Harley Quinn	DKR Batman	Smaug
Poppies	Akuma	Smaug	Harley Quinn

Best Designer/Vinyl: With the sort of variety there was in the nominees, it's no surprise there's quite a bit of variety in the winners too.

In third is the oh so cute Four Horsies of the Pocalypse from Bigshot Toyworks, who received 11% of the vote.  This was a Kickstarter funded project, and we are seeing more and more super creative and well done figures get produced this way.

Getting 17% of the vote was enough for the MOTUSCLE to take second! Super7 worked with Mattel to combine old school MUSCLE with Masters of the Universe, and the results were a big hit with fans of both.

While the second and third place finishers were completely different on every version of the awards, the winner was not.  The gold goes to Bruce the Shark from Jaws by Funko, who won with a solid 23% of the vote. While their ReAction line has had its ups and downs, Bruce (in both normal and bloody format) was clearly a big winner (literally) for them.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	Bruce, Jaws	Abominable Snowcone	Mr. Pumfrey
People's Picks	Bruce, Jaws	Touma Tony Stark	Hulkbuster Cosbaby
Poppies	Bruce, Jaws	MOTUSCLE	Four Horsies

Best Prop Replica: You can't be a card carrying fanboy (or girl) without a few prop replicas proudly displayed around the house.  The top three for 2015 would all make perfect additions.

With 11% of the vote, the uber cool HALO Master Chief motorcycle helmet took third. How cool is this thing? It's not only a great looking 1:1 scale replica, it's a certified helmet you can wear on the road! That's just such a cool idea...

Did I say three winners? There's actually four, thanks to a two way tie for second place. Each getting 14% of the vote is the efx Captain America shield and the FX Kylo Ren lightsaber. These were popular with buyers too, selling out at most retailers quite quickly.

The big winner is the unusual, fun, and unique USA Today Back to the Future special edition cover. It's rare to get a replica for a couple bucks, even rarer to find one at any local grocery store or Walgreens. They did a really nice job with this one, and it's the perfect edition to your BTTF collection. BTW, it took 16% of the votes.

Award	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Captain Toy	USA Today BTTF	HALO Helmet	Kylo Ren's Lightsaber
People's Picks	Kylo Ren's Lightsaber	Arkham Origins Batman Cowl	eFX Captain America Shield
Poppies	USA Today BTTF	eFX Captain America Shield	HALO Helmet