I know what you're thinking - what the Hell are the Poppies?  Other than a flower, obviously.  Last summer as I was pondering the ominous yearly task of putting together both my favorites figures, busts and statues of the year, AND putting together the People's Choice voting process for readers to select, I started thinking that perhaps we needed something more.  Or at least, different.

Other industries have 'industry' awards, like the Oscar, or the Woody.  The pop culture collectibles industry has nothing of that sort, and instead, each website and magazine dedicated to the topic does their own picks, or their readers picks.  But wouldn't it be interesting to see the picks from the actual people inside the industry?

And so were born the 'Poppies'.  Get it?  Pop culture?  Yea, but Oscar has an even lamer origin.  Jeff Parker was nice enough to whip up a nifty logo for me, and it was off to figure out how to pull it off.

I talked with dozens of folks over the summer inside the industry to see if it was an idea that could work, and I received all kinds of positive response.  For the inaugural year, I decided to select 100 judges from five categories - the Companies themselves, the various Artists (sculptors, painters, etc) that work on the collectibles, the Retailers that sell the products, the Websites that report on the products, and a group of vocal and well known Collectors that buy the product.  On top of that, I wanted to ensure that it had an International flavor, with these judges coming from all around the globe.

I'm happy to say that this stage was very successful.  There are 90 current judges covering these five areas, and you can see who they are with a short bio (unless they requested to remain anonymous) right here.  This number may grow by two or three more in the next week, as I'm still waiting on a couple late bios, but these 90 are locked and loaded.

Not only do they represent fairly evenly all five categories, but the have a great International flavor, with judges from Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America.  They come from companies big and small, retailers both online and brick and mortar, and websites both specific and general.  All of this should add up to some very interesting results.

The Poppies process will work like this - I've sent out a call for nominations to the judges.  They'll be working over the next couple weeks to get back to me their nominations for products in one of ten Best Of categories: Best Overall Company, Best Overall Line, Best Figure (male or female) 18" and larger, Best Figure (male or female) 12 - 18", Best Male Figure under 12", Best Female Figure any size, Best Statue, Best Mini-bust, Best Vinyl/Designer figure, and Best Misc.  Yes, at this point we're only doing 'bests' like most other industry awards, but if we do decide some year in the future to do worst, I'm sure we'll call them the Poopies.

Once the nomination process is complete, probably around December 20th, I'll get to work going through them, breaking ties, and putting together the ten top nominations in each category.  The Judges will then come back and cast their final vote, with the top vote getter winning the prize.  And what's their prize?  Why, the privilege to say they won a Poppie of course!

I'll keep everyone appraised as to how things are going, and once I have the nominations put together, I'll let readers see the list so they know what made it into the top ten.  Obviously, what Judges vote on individually will remain anonymous (in fact, I've set up this process so even I won't know what a specific individual actually nominates or votes for), but I think it's important you see the interim steps.

So take a few minutes and review the list of judges, and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop me a line. If you feel you would be a good judge in the coming years, drop me a line as well, as I plan on this industry award program to be a yearly on-going ritual, and each year it will be important to bring in fresh blood.  Thanks!