It's our fifth year already, and this time around we have judges from 5 different categories - Companies, Websites, Collectors, Retailers, and Artists.  The final list includes a total of 139 people.  They come from all aspects of the industry - large companies to small, general websites to niche, online to print, contract artists to customizers, and fans of just about every major license.  I'm also happy to say that there's a global influence, with judges from North America, Asia, Australia and Europe.

And so without further ado, here's the folks that will be selecting the winners of the 2011 Poppies: 

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Companies:

In this category of judges, the companies are represented by 34 different judges.  The companies represented range from one guy operations to multi-billion dollar organizations, from mass market to specialty market, with headquarters around the world.

- Georg Brewer is an award-winning creative leader with extensive experience creating growth opportunities for the world’s most popular entertainment brands across multiple product platforms. As the former Vice President of Design and Product Development at DC Comcs - Warner Bros. Entertainment Georg has worked with iconic global brands such as Superman, Batman and Mad Magazine. While at DC he helped to create the most successful high-end collectibles business in the specialty market, DC Direct, while also managing the Design and Graphic Novel collections business units. Under the name, The Brewing Factor,y Georg is doing everything from illustration and character design to toy and premium production and development to franchise management and and business development.

- Joshua Izzo has been leaping around the toy, licensed brand and entertainment industries for over a decade.  Joshua has had the pleasure of hanging his proverbial hat in the hallowed halls of such industry giants as Topps Trading Cards, 4Kids Entertainment and Hasbro.  During his career Joshua has manufactured trading cards and magazines, sold and bought some of the biggest brand licenses in the world and helped create over 150 kids cartoons.   Joshua is currently the Director of Licensing for Capcom Entertainment, Inc. and is responsible for the entirety of the licensed toy and publishing landscape.  Joshua has also been going to the local comic book store every week for close to 25 years, and has an ever-expanding toy collection that threatens almost every inch of his home.  Joshua's wife is extremely patient and forgiving about his mania....

- Scott Tipton serves as design consultant and copywriter for Toynami, where he's worked on product lines like ROBOTECH, VOLTRON, THE HERCULOIDS, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, and FUTURAMA, as well at the company's CINEMAQUETTE line. Scott also writes a variety of comics for IDW Publishing, including such series as STAR TREK: THE BURDEN OF KNOWLEDGE, ILLYRIA: HAUNTED, KHAN: RULING IN HELL, and the upcoming STAR TREK: INFESTATION.  His book, COMIC BOOKS 101: THE HISTORY, METHODS AND MADNESS, was published by Impact Books and is currently in bookstores. He has a startlingly large toy collection, but in this crowd it's probably about average.

- Scott Neitlich is a Marketing Manager for several of Mattel's most prominent collector lines including DC Universe, Master of the Universe, Ghostbusters, Mattycollector.com and the upcoming Green Lantern film. A lifelong toy fan himself, Scott began his career in advertising but quickly followed his heart to the toy business to help start up MattyCollector.com and heading up Mattel's convention and fan relations presence.

- Jim Wampler is the Director of Sales for Quantum Mechanix, Inc. He's been a toy collector and fan for longer than he wants to remember and has 20 + years experience working in the toy and hobby industries.

- Howard Chan - the Founder and CEO of Hot Toys Limited, is a Hong Kong based entrepreneur and a creative director for Hot Toys Ltd. Howard has been an enthusiast of collectible figures since his childhood and turned his passion into a successful career. He initially started his business by producing 1/6th scale military action figures. In view of the popularity of the military action figure series at that time, Howard attained a great success and further expanded his product scope by specializing in 1/6th scale popular movie character and world-renowned celebrity collectibles. 

- Ken Lilly is currently a freelance illustrator, writer, product photographer, graphic designer and product designer under the company name Creatus Maximus. He was formerly the Director of Product Development for The MVP Collection, a company created in 2009 producing NFL Mini Busts, Statues and other sports merchandise, and was also the VP/Director of Product Development for Palisades Toys, where Ken was the creative force behind many product lines including Invader Zim, Resident Evil and the very popular figures and playsets based on Jim Henson's The Muppet Show. Prior to that he was one of the Product Managers for the long defunct toy company ReSaurus, working on classic toy lines like Duke Nukem, Quake, Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog, and the much-anticipated but sadly canceled Badlands and Magic the Gathering action figures and playsets.

Currently the main focus of his life is writing about his family on the blog called Blogzilly, where he chronicles the condition of his youngest son, who has suffered through a period of catastrophic epilepsy called Infantile Spasms, brought on by a very rare Grade II Oligoastrocytoma Brain Tumor and subsequent Temporal Lobectomy, as well as a diagnosis of PDD-NOS, a developmental delay placing him on the Autism Spectrum. While Blogzilly sometimes strays into discussions about movies, TV, toys/collectibles, video games and other such wackiness (which are, essentially, coping mechanisms as much as anything else) much of Kenneth's blog is about his family and their difficult journey through the world of Special Needs. The changes and fears, the victories and defeats, the dreams, the lessons, the stumbles and most importantly, the hopes. Full emotional disclosure. Warts and all.

- Zach Oat is Marketing Supervisor at Diamond Select Toys, and before that he was the editor of ToyFare magazine for a bunch of years. He is also the co-author of Pop Sculpture: How to Create Your Own Action Figures and Collectible Statues, a book about sculpting techniques he wrote with pros Tim Bruckner and Ruben Procopio. He loves Minimates, Megos and C.O.P.S., and in his spare time he likes to draw. You can check out some of his artwork on the LAW Blog.

- Amanda Burns is the Asst. Brand Manager, Marketing at Bandai America, who is now working on breathing life into the all NEW ThunderCats toy line.  A child of the 80s dream job - ThunderCats Hooooo!

- Ashly Powell is the Senior Manager of Product Development at Gentle Giant Studios. Before landing on the west coast she worked for DC Direct/DC Comics making Batman and Superman action figures, and before that, she found her real love and passion of urban vinyl while working for Kidrobot in New York City.  Slogan: "I Love Vinyl" (and marshmallow peeps!)

- The Phrenologist: This anonymous judge has worked in some area of the toy industry for over a decade.  He oversaw all action figures for what was once the largest toy specialty retailer in the US and Mexico.  He has handled contests, press releases and public relations for several toy companies.  As a writer his work has appeared in Fangoria, Baby Boomer, Omni, Psychology Today, Playboy, ASB Magazine, Time Out New York, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and numerous other publications.  He is the author of two books currently available on Amazon (and at a bookstore near you!) has just finished a book on the artwork of imprisoned artist Michael Lee Ford, and is working on a new book about Halloween in New York City.  He believes that the MAC Rescue Center (aka MAC Mountain) is one of the greatest toys that ever was, and misses old fashioned toy commercials of the 70's.

- Damien Glonek is product manager at Mezco Toyz and co-creator of Living Dead Dolls.  He is a horror movie junkie and collects everything dealing with horror, please find him a bigger house to hold his collection.

- Mike is the owner of Peril Unlimited, a toy maker, horror movie, and comic book fan, and works for the local fire department.

- Mark Weber survived a year of job hunting and Daddy Day Care to return to McFarlane Toys this March, with the expanded role of Sports Product/Brand Manager. His new role includes everything he used to do for McFarlane, now mixed in with coordinating the day-to-day progress of the SportsPicks and PlayMakers lines with the factories in China, and pitching Stadium Giveaway items to professional sports teams. He made the massive error of promising his 4-year-old son a new Matchbox car for every twenty seed pods he helped pick up from under the bottle tree in the front yard, and ended up walking out of Fry's with 19 new vehicles two hours later. His G.I. Joe collection just celebrated its 28th birthday, and his brand-new office is protected by Masterpiece Grimlock and Dr. Doom.  

- Terry Scott is a senior vice president at Hasbro. His responsibilities include management of global creative services, which includes the packaging team, and creative director for Cake Mix Studios which is Hasbro's internal IP creative engine and video production team. Terry's team is responsible for all packaging graphic design for both boys and girls toy lines including; Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe, Spider-man and other Marvel lines, My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop, Nerf, Playskool, Easy Bake Oven and many more Hasbro core brands. He's a lifelong action figure collector of Transformers, Thundercats and the Thunderbirds.

- Randy Falk is the Director of Product Development for NECA. He manages the development and production for all of NECA's action figures. He is also an obsessive completist when it comes to his toy collection especially 3 3/4" Star Wars and the classic MEGO Super-Heroes.

- Brant Bridges is the Operations Manager at Sideshow Collectibles, providing support to the creative services and production management teams, and assisting with the product marketing and forecasting. He's a sucker for all things Lego and Star Wars, but has a weakness for great sculpts from any property.

- Between volunteering as a crash test pilot for NASA and serving 10+ years in the toy industry, Deihl Betz is about as tough as they come. He currently resides in Chicago, IL enjoying his gig as Sales Director at MGA Entertainment.  Over the years, Deihl has also spent time with McFarlane Toys, Play Along Toys, and Art Asylum.  Deihl's Wii Fit age is 192.

- Steve Forde’s first word was "Batman". His affection for art, design, monsters, and heroes lead to launching Go Hero, an independent toy & entertainment company at the forefront of the vanguard movement in designer collectibles. Since 2001, Steve has been doing justice to justice doers with original designs, cutting edge collaborations, and classic licenses to create exciting several “first ever” products. His award winning works have been featured in Sci-fi Channel, Giant Robot, Juxtapoz, MTV, Low Rider, Wizard Publications, as well as in film, TV, commercials, books, and countless online media outlets. In 2011, look for Bat Boy, the return to vinyl, and new 1:6 scale offerings such from Buck Rogers, The Shadow, Doc Savage and more.

- Jason Lenzi is the founder and CEO of Bif Bang Pow! Toys. Jason lives and works in Los Angeles, as a freelance writer/producer for television, and as a voice over artist for television and radio. He's currently in the midst of writing and producing on his fourth season of ABC's 'WIPEOUT'. He started Bif Bang Pow! over five years ago, and in that time has released action figures and bobble heads for 'The Big Lebowski', the 1980 movie version of 'Flash Gordon' (with figures art directed by Alex Ross), Showtime Networks' hit series 'Dexter' and 'Californication' , CBS' 'The Twilight Zone', CBS Films' 'Beastly', HBO's 'Eastbound and Down' and Cartoon Network's 'The Venture Brothers', ABC's 'LOST', and Scott Ian of Anthrax. He is a Leo, loves toys, movies, mod culture and The Beatles. This is his third year voting on the Poppies, and he hopes to win in every category. Even the ones Bif Bang Pow! doesn't qualify for.

- Dan Lujan is Kotobukiya's Director of Media Operations within the US. No stranger to the hobby, Dan is an avid collector of toys, busts and statues.

- Adam Van Wickler grew up during the heyday of action figures. Star Wars, GI Joe, He-man, Thundercats, Transformers, Super Powers, Secret Wars, Mego.  You name the line and Adam had at least a few figures from it. His mother still likes to tell people that Adam was potty trained with the promise of a new Star Wars action figure each time he went like a big boy. To this day he still expects a new action figure each time he goes like a big boy.

Adam has been involved professionally in the toy industry since 2001 and is lucky enough to have worked on many of the toy lines that he grew up playing with.

Adam is gainfully employed by Gentle Giant Studios. Working as an Account Manager in their External Prototyping division, he works with various clients throughout the prototyping process. Overseeing concept artwork, sculpting, molding/casting, painting, and working directly with licensors to gain approvals are among his day to day tasks.

Be sure to check out www.gentlegiantstudios.com and Adam's personal site www.playing-with-myself.com for more!

- Bob Fulkerson: his journey into the toy/collectibles industry began as young boy with a Kenner Han Solo Blaster and has only gotten worse from there. He started as a Collector then a Collectibles Dealer and now an Account Rep/Janitor with Quantummechanix, Inc.   Where will it end when they peel that Blaster from his cold dead hands.

- Kevin Fryk is the go-to guy/Ops Man for the DIY operation at Triad Toys. Driven by a desire to experiment and create, Kevin has a hand in all aspects of the company from prototyping, packaging design, production management, customer service and everything in between.  He still had a fondness for the simpler days of Ninja Turtles and button mashers at the arcade. The X-Men Animated Series rocked his world.

- Antonio Barranco is the founder, owner and president of GEEK TOYS, a new collectible figure company which will be launching the "Seven Deadly Sins" in January 2011. He has been an action figure collector for over ten years. His private collection has around 1,000 figures, most of which are 7 inch film characters. However, his favourite figure is actually six years old, 40 inches tall and is called A.Barranco Jr. (his son of course!).

- Frank Supiot is the Director of Licensing for the acclaimed toy boutique and design firm SUPER7, responsible for managing properties from film, comics, and music, as well as overseeing many aspects of the toy production.  Frank is a veteran of the toy industry with over thirteen years experience (some of spent working in Japan) and is a lifelong collector.

- Joe Amaro has been involved in the toy industry in some way or another for over 10 years, from making custom figures for ToyFare magazine, puppets for Robot Chicken and sculpts for various TV shows and Feature Films. He's also worked with most major toy companies and design studios like the Four Horsemen Toy Studio and Rudy Obrero Illustrations, Inc.

- Jeff Trojan has re-joined Playmates Toys Inc. as Vice President, Boys Brands.  In this position, Jeff will create integrated marketing programs in support of a new line of action figures, playsets and accessories based on Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CG-animated TV series launching fall 2012 on Nickelodeon and NickToons.

Prior to re-joining Playmates Toys, Mr. Trojan was most recently Vice President, Business Development at DC Comics where he was responsible for the day-to-day management and marketplace expansion of DC Comics’ DC Direct business activities.  Before joining DC Comics, Mr. Trojan was Vice President of Marketing at Play Along where he led the strategic direction for the LIMA award-winning Care Bears brand as well as The Lord of the Rings, The Cat in the Hat, Teletubbies and Cabbage Patch Kids.  During his first tour with Playmates Toys, Trojan served as Vice President of Boys’ Toys where he guided several award-winning action figure lines, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, Tomb Raider, Skelton Warrior, Exosquad and The Simpsons.

-  Other Company Judges include Joseph Reiter (Symbiote Studios), Ryan Mansour (Warner Brothers), Jim Fletcher (DC Direct), Craig (ZICA Toys), Jason Schiemeyer (Cast-A-Way Toys), and Alain Trembley (Integrity Toys).

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Media:

Where would our hobby and the industry be without the many websites and magazines out there that report the news, promote the collectibles, and provide the social networks for our geek selves.  The judges in this category represent websites and print publications that cover every aspect of the industry, from niche licenses and products to general themes and news.  There are 48 judges from a wide variety of outlets, some of which I'm sure you'll recognize.

- D. Martin Myatt is the Creative Director for Cool Toy Review, and photographer/editor at Rebelscum. For more than a decade, he has been contributing to the toy collecting community through numerous media outlets and has been a contributing editor and photographer covering Star Wars collectibles for Rebelscum since 2000. Myatt's Cool Toy Review continues to grow in content and popularity. Moving into its fifth year, CTR's Action Figure Photo Archive is still second to none.

- Jason "Poe Ghostal" Clarke is the writer and editor of Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation. In addition to running his own site since 2007, he has written for ToyFare magazine and websites such as Topless Robot, IGN and OAFE.net. His greatest toy loves include Masters of the Universe, Hellboy and all things Batman. Poe lives in haunted New England and has an unhealthy fascination with the film Road House.

- Brian Slivka has been covering the designer toy industry for 5 years.  It started with a few Happy Meal toys and a dream.  But that just lead to eating thousands of unnecessary calories and waking up from the dream 30 pounds heavier.  Plastic and Plush started up over 3 years ago, and it continues to deliver daily news and reviews from the designer toy and limited edition toy worlds.

- Nerdlocker was originally a blog for one guy to talk about all the nerdy things he loved. In 2010 the site made a huge change and started producing a weekly webisode to further explore all things nerdy. Since then the brand has gone international and nerds everywhere check Nerdlocker.com for news on toys, comic books, movies, video games, gadgets, etc. It truly is a place for your inner nerd. And of course everyone involved in Nerdlocker is a nerdy kid at heart so we are honored to be asked to give our opinions on the best toys.

- Mark Picirilli is the admin and webmaster of several large collecting websites, including Yodasnews.com, GentleGiantCollectors.com, HaloCollectors.com, CollectAvatar.com, 12inchcollector.com and many more. He has been involved in the collecting online community for over 13 years and is also the Philadelphia Action Figures and Sci-Fi Entertainment Examiner for Examiner.com.

- Jason "Slick McFavorite" Spiller is owner of Slick McFavorite Toys, LLC and along with his amazing wife, hosts the action figure podcast, Open Your Toys Cast. OYTC is the official podcast of OpenYourToys.com, the site dedicated to the four greatest action figure franchises of the 80's and all time: Star Wars, Transformers, G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe. Aside from his ridiculous 10,000+ piece collection and the standard set of geeky interests (gaming, comics, movies and tech), Slick enjoys all things Colorado. Seasonally he camps, dirt bikes and snowboards, while year round he plays basketball and practices Tae Kwon Do.

- Adam Pawlus Adam Pawlus has been writing about toys online since 1995.  A former contributor to ToyFare Magazine, several web sites, and other publications, his currently best known for his daily "Figure of the Day" and weekly "Q&A" columns at Galactic Hunter.  He maintains a general toy news blog and a second "Figure of the Day" feature at 16bit.com, and his day job is the merchandiser/Toy Evangelist for Entertainment Earth.

- Erin Snyder started collecting toys about a decade ago, when he realized action figures wouldn’t stop following him home from Toys R Us. He has a number of blogs and websites, including Toy Remix and The Clearance Bin, both of which are dedicated to toy collecting, customizing, and display. He’s also written several novels and short story collections, including a dark fantasy about the greatest toymaker of all, Santa Claus.

- Jess C. Horsley, like Luke Skywalker, grew up on a farm and dreamt of escaping his small-town life to travel other worlds. After enlisting in the USMC as an infantryman, he realized this dream. A decorated combat veteran, Horsley continues to escape the monotony of a routine life as the managing editor of Figures.com, where he's free to play with toys and actually gets paid to do so.

- Daniel "Julius Marx" Pickett is the co-creator/co-owner of Action Figure Insider, a toy news site with a focus on the creators and process of making pop culture collectibles.  He has been writing about toys for just under 10 years and has been collecting his whole life.  He also consults with many companies on projects, hosts panel discussions at conventions, and answers questions from readers all over the world.  Action Figure Insider has recently been featured on Wired.com, G4's "Attack of the Show", and USA Today's "Pop Candy" blog.

- Jeremy Wilcox (aka blueduck37) is the administrator for the Simpsons Collector Sector web community, the largest Simpsons collecting website on the net.  His collection was recently featured in Time Out New York magazine, making his mother very proud.

- Raised on diet of Marvel comics and Micronaut toys, Iok is the webmaster at That Figures, a toy blog covering everything from vinyl art toys to collectible mini-figures, cult TV and genre movies. His favorite toy lines include GI Joe, Henshin Cyborg, Microman and Marvel Universe.

- Matt MacNabb is the Owner/Editor of the *Legion Fan Network*, which
includes Legions of Gotham, Toy Legion, Ghostbusters Collector, Pixar Collector and DVD Legion. A driving force in the collecting community for over six years, Legions of Gotham has taken leaps and bounds to break down the barriers between the industry and the collectors. Their coverage focuses on Batman collecting and animation. Matt is a lifelong Batman fan and toy collector, with well over 5,000 pieces in his personal collection.

- Jack Muramatsu - Founder and editor of Vinyl Pulse, the premiere news site providing coverage of designer vinyl toys.  After opening countless toys over the past four years, he's got a strange gleam in his eye -- one too many sniffs of vinyl fumes. He's living the dream of blogging full-time about toys and loving every minute of it from sunny Pasadena, California.

- Ron Mirasol became a life-long fan of toys when he got a G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu Grip as a birthday present decades ago - thanks Mom! Today, he is the publisher of ActionFigurePics.com and the Fwoosh Network, which includes TheFwoosh.com, TheShortBox.com, and TheCoinSlot.com. He still gets upset when an action figure can't hold its accessories properly, and is completely devastated when their fingers break off.

- Chris Holoka, a Poppies Judge from the very beginning, is the designer of Star Wars sites as Rebelscum.com, TheForce.net, and ToshiStation.com.

- Jeff Saylor - Editor of www.Figures.com. Artist, writer and admitted toy addict, his passion for pop culture collectibles dates back to a Micronaut/Star Wars/Shogun Warrior laced childhood. If not online, Jeff can be found playing video games, painting or rearranging his extensive toy collection. Currently trying to find more space for his growing army of robots and Aliens... 

- Pete Svab is the Director of Marketing & Promotions for ACME Archives in Burbank, CA.  He is also the co-owner of GalacticBinder.com, the largest Star Wars themed directory on the internet.

- Khalil Quotap aka Kastor is a toy and comic collector who runs the website Kastor's Korner with Bill Sencio.  On the website, Khalil mixes toy reviews with the joys and frustrations of collecting, along with convention coverage, custom reviews, and comic related projects. Along with monthly interviews with Hasbro and Mattel, Khalil also eagerly awaits the return of the best cartoon property ever, Thundercats. 

- David Yeh is a product of the 80's, raised on true gems such as G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-man, and yes, even M.U.S.C.L.E.  David had outgrown toys until the 1995 release of Star Wars lured him back for more.  Since then, he has gotten hooked on dozens of other toy lines as well.  David has written for mwctoys.com, galactichunter.com, Geek Monthly and currently writes toy reviews for Figures.com and Yojoe.com.

- Paul Rudolph is a seasoned collector, former writer of TheRobotsPajamas.com. He also is the founder of the Toys for Tots supporting contest Geeks
For Tots. His work has also appeared in ToyFare, WizardUniverse.com, and the geek blogs GreatWhiteSnark.com and PoeGhostal.com.

- Bradley "Crazyjaco" Jacobs is a co-founder, admin, and contributor for Powet.TV, a site dedicated to bringing high-quality web programming on pop culture subjects to a new level. Crazy is probably best known for his regular video series called PowetToys, a segment where he gets to show off the latest and greatest toys he has encountered  in an information-rich format all his own. As an avid collector of many lines (Transformers, Marvel Legends, Marvel Minimates, MOTU and the Four Horsemen's Fantastic Exclusive project to name just a few), Crazy decided he wanted to give back to a fandom that he had so actively been a participant. Thus, the launch of Powet.TV and PowetToys, its first regular feature.

- Eric Resnick is a long time collector and has been writing about the industry for many years. After working as a features writer and collectible reviewer for Toy Shop Magazine their untimely demise, Eric and a Cadre of collectors and pop culture fiends launched You Bent My Wookie, a site that blends collectibles news and reviews with entertainment news, exclusive interviews and the sexiest geeks on the net.

- Miracle Man is a co-founder of YouBentMyWookie, a quirky pop culture site that blends collectible news, reviews, entertainment and viral web sensations. Having always been interested in comics, collectibles and the geek culture, MM discovered the toy hobby during its heydays when NECA didn’t exist, McFalrane Toys was untouchable and Toybiz introduced the concept of "super articulation."

- Eric "measle" Lind: Works in the glamourous and sexy world of IT by day to fund his various movie, game, comic and toy collecting addictions, and then money allowing, buy food, pay the mortgage, etc.  Eric is a cofounder of the sorta new pop-culture website Criticalmess.net.  Criticalmess is a pop-culture community that affords any and all members the ability to contribute site content, submit reviews, commentaries, rants or raves, or just hang in the forum, it exists as a vehicle for the fans to be heard and/or use as a creative outlet.

- Daniel Lynch, aka NoisyDvL5, is the site editor for ItsAllTrue.Net. He's a product of the 80s toy explosion and has collected toys for as longas he can remember. It's been twenty-five years and he still finds himself excited for the next DC Classic, Joe, MOTU figure, Marvel figure, or Transformer. Up until recently, he's been content to peruse various toy forums and interact with other fans. This year, he gathered up a ring of fellow collectors and started ItsAllTrue.Net, a toy blog that strives to  inject some fun into the serious world of toy collecting.

- Engineererd (John V.) has been collecting Star Wars figures since the original 12 came out.  To appear to his wife that he's doing something with his varied collection, he posts reviews, action figure comics, and other related items on his website, TV and Film Toys.

- Scott Anderson immigrated from the USA to Australia at the age of 21, and took with him nothing but a suitcase of clothes and love of comic books and action figures. After years of not being able to afford to indulge in the hobby, he got back into collecting in 2003, and launched his blog, Action Figure Blues in 2006. AFB shortly spawned a forum which hosts an active group of collectors and comic readers across the globe. Now based in Melbourne, Australia, Scott collects action figure lines like Marvel Universe, DC Universe Classics and Hot Toys and statues from companies such as Bowen Designs, DC Direct, Kotobukiya and Sideshow Collectibles. Action Figure Blues is mainly Scott's vehicle for trying to justify his collection to his wife as something other than obsessive compulsive hoarding. To date, this has proven only moderately successful.

- Toy Break is hosted and produced by the owners of October Toys, George & Ayleen Gaspar. Toy Break is a weekly internet show featuring reviews and news about toys including designer vinyl, plush, action figures, collectibles, events, how-tos, interviews, and more! Both lifelong toy collectors, George has been working in the toy industry since 1996 and Ayleen since 2004. Ayleen also works with Ben Goretsky to coordinate the annual toy, art, and apparel show, Designer Con in Pasadena, CA.

- Matthew created his site, Toynormous.com, as a way to gain access into the 2010 Canadian Toy Fair.  Surprisingly, it worked.  Since then, with the help of his friend, TF Baxter, he's continued to type away about toys and toy related topics.

- Lemonjuice Mcgee spends his days flip-flopping between drowning his sorrows and reviewing action figures. Apparently, the two go hand-in-hand as LJ is now the current toy reviewer/news-getter-guy for MTV Geek! While dealing with a newly-acquired crippling addiction to Glyos figures; he still does his pathetic best to also keep up his original toy blog: Lemonjuice McGee's Hobotastic Toy Reviews. Sadly, he may have to seek professional help on the matter... if only society were kind enough to care.

- Newton Gimmick is a longtime toy fan who was baptized in a love of GI Joe, Ninja Turtles, Pro-Wrestling and Godzilla toys as a youth. Now that he's "all grown up", Newt enjoys reviewing toys, movies and general pop culture goodness at InfiniteHollywood.com as well as a position as head columnist and editor at TNAWrestlingNews.com. His current favorite lines include Character Options Doctor Who, Jakks Pacific TNA iMPACT and Kaiyodo's Revoltech. Newton continues to build his empire, one toy at a time and hopes to continue to provide insight and analysis from a common man perspective on the various toys that are available now or have been forgotten into the labyrinth of time.

- Jason Devall has been involved in the world on on-line toy reviews for 7 years. Starting with the gang at figures.com, he went on to co-create the hit weekly on-line toy show, That New Toy Smell and PopCultureNetwork.com with co-creator and co-host "Pixel" Dan Eardley. He is currently an Executive Producer for ToyWorldOrder.com and is still cranking out all-new video toy reviews, including reviews of the new Bandai Thundercats line for Thundercatslair.org!

- Adam Bernstein is a self-proclaimed film, comic book, and pop culture aficionado whose appreciation of the mediums led to his creating GeekRest.com, a website devoted to the culture. His love affair with comics began when, at age 11, he first started helping out at the 2nd largest comic book store in Manhattan in the early 90s. Twenty years and 30+ comic book boxes later, his love for the medium and the accompanying culture remains as strong as ever. 

- Eric Marbach entered the fanboys universe at the earliest age with Marvel and DC comic books. He's been a long time moderator in one of the most famous toy communites in France before launching his own blog, Plastik Atomik. He currently owns one of the most important toy collections in France with a very wide variety of action figures from a large selection of toy companies. His collection counts at the moment more than 7 000 pieces and it grows every week. He's also been making his name in the French customizers community, mostly with Marvel characters. He's expending his work at the moment in the Transformers universe.

- Justin Gammon has two defining passions: creating design work and searching out new members for his ever-growing family of not-so-normal toys. He puts his art smarts to the task to pay the bills, directing creative projects for national-level clients with Brains on Fire. While off the clock, he mans the helm of WeirdoToys.com - the home for odd, ugly and neglected toys. When he has a rare break to daydream, Justin spends time plotting out his next move to combine his two loves, art and toys, into an army of original weirdo creations.

- Other Media Judges include Chris Pranger (Tomopop), Dan Messer (Vault from It's All True) Frank Patz (Enternal Collector), Philip Reed (Battle Grip), Sohaib Awan (from Fictional Frontiers), WB Collectibles (WB Collectibles), Pete Shorney (Dr Who Toy Review), Jess, Nightmare Spain (Nightmare Spain), and John Charles.

- and there is 1 anonymous media judge.

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Artists:

You can't produce amazing products without designers, fabricators, sculptors, painters and other artisans.  These judges come from that side of the business.  Many are freelancers, but some work for specific companies. Others are well known and respected customizers, who do commission work for individuals, magazines and others. There are 15 judges in this category:

- Chris Lauria is a toy designer and illustrator specializing in concept development and product design.  He has worked in the toy industry for over 20 years, and formed his own design company, Chris Lauria Design, LLC. in 2001.  He has worked with many of the leading toy manufacturers including Fisher Price, Hasbro, Spin Master, Playmates Toys, Jakks Pacific, Wild Planet, Crayola, Toy Biz, Basic Fun and Tomy. Chris continues to work on boys toys as well as girls toys in many of the different toy categories.

    In 1999 Chris created the presentation art for Playmates Toys pitch to Fox that helped land them the Simpsons toy license. From that point he designed almost every playset for the very successful World of Springfield toy line (approximately 40 sets total).  He has also designed numerous collectibles for The Bradford Exchange including over a dozen Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween Village pieces, and all of their Star Wars Galactic Village sets.  You can view samples of Chris' design work at his website.

- Cason Pillod - Not satisfied with the limited options available at retail, Cason Pilliod has been crafting his own toys since he was a child.  His passion for toys merges with his background as a theatrical prop designer, allowing him to find unique customizing solutions, which he shares with the ever-growing customizing community via Inanimate Objects.

- Jonathan Matthews has been working for a decade sculpting collectibles. He's done work for Palisades, Graphitti, Plan B Toys, and other unmentionables. He's currently on contract with DC Direct. To see some of his sculpts check out his website.

- Currently a Project Designer on the Mattel WWE line, Derek Handy has been maintaing the collector WWE lines and making occasional appearances on WWE.com for past three years. Previously he was Senior Manager of Product Development at Gentle Giant Studios, where he worked for 8 years. There he gained a wide depth of knowledge working on thousands of projects, including development and production of everything from Pre-school toys to high end bronze. Fresh out of college, Derek worked for LEGO on the now disavowed Galidor project. Apparently it was more fun to work on than to play with.

- Joe Dunaway has been a painter of resin model kits for over 15 years, and is also an avid toy collector.  He loves his aliens and monsters, but also enjoys any figure that's well sculpted.  Check out his work at his site, ModelZone.

- Timothy Miller - Growing up with a love of movies, Tim pursued a career in animatronics design upon completing a Bachelors of Science in Biology. After five years with a small effects company in Northern California, he launched out as a freelance sculptor, quickly landing McFarlane Design Group as a key client, providing portrait sculpts for the prolific toy manufacturer. Currently, Tim sculpts for Sideshow Collectibles' Adam Hughes designed line of Comiquettes, as well as numerous other ongoing projects with Sideshow and Bowen Designs. Tim lives with his wife, Rebekah, and their spoiled bulldog, Turkish, in picturesque Colorado Springs.

- Matt 'Iron-Cow' Cauley, probably best known for his custom action figure work, formed Iron-Cow Prod. LLC to better serve his illustration, animation, design, and toy production clients. In addition to being a featured contributer to ToyFare Magazine, there are over 50 ICP-designed DC Direct, Battlestar Galactica and Marvel Comics Minimate action figures currently on sale. His artwork is exhibited and published worldwide and he is currently hard at work developing a line of t-shirts for Macys featuring his illustrations. Matt's illustration, broadcast, fine art, and toy design portfolios can be seen at the official Iron-Cow Prod.

- Jean St. Jean is a musician turned sculptor, who began his career in a small upstate NY toy sculpting studio doing mostly preschool toys and dolls. Five years later he joined McFarlane where he spent almost 7 years helping them develop their hyper realistic style, the last 4 years as Sculpting Supervisor. In 2004, he left McFarlane to start his own company, Jean St. Jean Studios offering sculpting, painting and prototyping services working on such licenses as Diamonds Select’s Stargate SG-1, SG Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica lines, Mezco’s Cinema of Fear, DC Direct’s World of Warcraft and Ame-Comi and Amoktime’s Killer Klowns and Day of the Dead lines.

His current projects have been the Lion-o and Mumm-Ra for Mezco’s  Mega scale THundercats line, the Munsters 7” Select line and various Universal monsters for DST including the Metaluna Mutant and Phantom of the Opera as wellcontributions to the Marvel Select  figure series. He is also working on his 29th mini-bust for DC Direct including Heroes of the DCU, Blackest Night and various movie properties.

- Julian "Anthony" Osario is an accomplished Airbrush Artist, Muralist and sculptor for more than 12 years, live and work in Rhode Island. Have worked as a Freelance artist  and prototype  painter for several companies including Hasbro Toy Company.

Anthony was exclusively delegated to paint the prototype of Cloverfield limited edition action figure. While at Hasbro, he created standard patterns (decals) for Transformers main character (Optimus Prime), airbrushed and hand-painted an extensive variety of product brands including: Playskool, Cloverfield, Disney, Dora the Explorer, Fantastic four, G.I.Joe, Ghost Rider, Iron Man, Littliest Petshops, Marvel, Mr Potato Head, Nerf, Nickelodeon, Play-Doh, Spider-Man, Star-Wars, The Hulk, Winnie the Pooh, Transformers, Nerf Guns and more.

Worked painting scaled sets, characters and backgrounds for TJ Bearytales story books. Besides Bikes & Helmets, Anthony has done paintings for galleries, oversized Sculptures and signs for Six Flags, Toys R’ Us, M&Ms World London, Campbell’s Stadium, The Pilli’s Stadium, Tonka, The Hustler night Club in Manhattan, Paul Newman’s Water Park, as well as murals and backdrops for the World Trade Center in Boston and other places throughout the United States. Most of the bikes airbrushed have been awarded as the Best Custom Paint bikes, an indicator of the quality of his work.

- Tony Robles of TonyzCustomz.com and Admin/Co-Founder of ProCustomizers.com. Tony is a customizing extraordinaire that specializes in made to order customs for private clients as well as professional work. Professional work includes Shocker Toys stand creation for Comic-Con in 2008 and Designer Mallow's and Indy Spotlight mock up work in 2009.

- Kat Sapene has been a prototype painter for the toy industry since 1999. Kat has painted everything from Disney characters to monsters, from action figures to statues and busts. She was head painter at Sota toys for a number of years before deciding to try work as a freelancer. She now runs her own studio, WAK! Toys, with the help of her cat who dutifully wears a tie to work everyday.

- Jim McPherson has worked primarily in Film Character Design, Visual Development, Sculpture, and Modeling. His early interests include comic books, puppetry, and animation, but character sculpture became primary. In the Makeup and Special Effects Industry, Jim has worked with Rick Baker's Cinovation Studios on Gremlins 2, the Nutty Professor, Matinee, Men in Black, and Planet of the Apes. Rick's philosophy of sculptural character design has been a huge influence in Jim's work. The opportunity to design characters under his tutelage was an educational experience that cannot be matched. In the Animation, Toy and Statue arena, Jim sculpted and modeled characters for Chris Bailey's Major Damage and sculpted characters for Rob Minkoff's Stuart Little; toys based on the designs of John Kricfalusi and for Tracy Lee's "Electric Tiki" maquette line.  In the Visual Development Department at Walt Disney Feature Animation, Jim modeled and bluebrinted new characters for films in development. Highlights of his work in the digital realm include digitally sculpted characters in the Fight Club Game, and Sega's Golden Axe. Jim currently 3D Art Director at Gentle Giant Digital. He works closely with Film Directors on Character design. At Gentle Giant, he has done Character Visual Development on Alice in Wonderland and a long list of unreleased or 'in development' films. He also continues to digitally model characters for CG animated films, videogames, maquettes, and toys. (with Adam Van Wickler and Ashly Powell.) A recent notable project is the Batman Black and White, David Mazzucchelli Statue done for DC Direct. More information at www.jimmcpherson.com.

- Jeremy Sung is President and Head Designer of Spy Monkey Creations Inc.  A long time toy collector and customizer, Jeremy founded Spy Monkey Creations in 1999 to provide collectors with hand made accessories to ehance their action figure collections. Spy Monkey is working towards it's first wave of factory produced items slated for 2012I

- Other Artist Judges include Hugo Dourado, Brian Dooley, Alex Davis, and Tim Bruckner.

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Retailers:

Without retailers to sell the stuff, there'd be a whole lot less to buy.  In fact, that's one of the current issues for the industry, as fewer and fewer retailers carry the figures, statues and busts we love.  These 16 judges represent some of the best known specialty and mass market retailers, from small to large.

- Thomas Gaul is the owner of the CornerStoreComics and AmazingToyz online retail stores, as well as the CSC Comic Shop and Collectibles Showroom located in Anaheim, California.  He became a slave to the plastic back in 1977 (at age 7) when he purchased his first Kenner Star Wars figure (Han Solo/Fat Head/ 12-back) for $2.29 at the local department store.

- Marc Bowker is the owner of AlterEgoComics.com and the Alter Ego Comics retail store in Lima, Ohio.  A fan of action figures, comic books and related collectibles since the late 1970s, Marc started Alter Ego Comics in 2003.  His personal collection ranges from Mini-Mates to Premium Format Figures, with a focus on Star Trek: TOS and Indiana Jones collectibles.

- Russell Kay and Jason Forkos, are the owners of krazykingsoftoys.com, an up-and-comer which has been around since August of 2008. Russell Kay, also known in the majority of the toy community as KingRandor for many years, has done several reviews for action figures for mwctoys.com, and was responsible for the original Suncoast Area Report, back in the day. Russell was first introduced to the world of action figures back in 1985, receiving the MASK Jackhammer as a present for his 3rd birthday- and he's been hooked ever since.

- Rick Whitelock is the owner of New Force Comics and Collectibles, and has been a collector of action figures and comics since the mid-1970's, as well as a retailer and wholeseller of both since 1995.  Collectors of Star Trek or World of Springfield figures will certainly recognize Rick, as he has been a huge factor in the online success of both lines.

- Lee Ward opened The Good The Bad and The Robots in November 2009 with a business partner and has enjoyed every minute of offering a personal service and chatting to collectors.Although he am based in the UK, my European wings are spreading. 

He started collecting Star Wars figures in 1980 followed by Action Force, Transformers, Thundercats and He-man. (He really wishes he still had them). He took an interest in statues approx 8 years ago but is more of a fan of 1:6th these days. He is also a semi pro magician and has a real passion for magic.

- Andrew McIntire is the Senior Director of Retail Operations for Things From Another World. He has been a comic and toy enthusiast since he was a boy, and spent much of his youth taking Transformers and G.I. Joe figures apart, then kit-bashing them back together in exciting, new, mutated forms. To his great pride (and his wife's great embarrassment) he boasts that he owns enough classic Star Wars figures, vehicles, and play sets to stage reenactments of almost every pivotal scene from the original trilogy--an endeavor which his long-suffering wife has asked he not indulge in when company's over. She holds on to the hope that he may one day listen.

- Jeff B. is co-founder of Urban Collector and a passionate collector of LOTR, Star Wars and DC collectibles.

- Michael Shah is the owner of on-line retailer, Mikes Comics N Stuff, an on-line retail store that specializes in Doctor Who, DC action figures, and whatever else catches Mike's eyes.  An avid and life-long comic book collector - he still has his first comic book he bought off the newsstand, Avengers #158, buried somewhere in his collection - he finally decided to take his 30 years of comic book and action figure collecting knowledge and pursue his dream of opening a comic book related collectible business.

- Edward Couturier - Founder & CEO of Movie Replicas Direct. He has always had a love for science fiction and horror. Favorite movie monster is Dracula. Favorite Sci-Fi Movie is the Matrix. MRD was a childhood dream he started in officially started in August of 2007.

- Troy Emmi is the owner of Fanboy Collectibles. He has been collecting comic books all of his life. Like most young collectors, he started with action figures. This would eventually lead to statues and mini-busts, of which Star Wars and comic book related fill the majority of his collection. Over the past few years he has also began acquiring original pages of comic book art and commissions by a varied number or artists. Now with a retail and online store he gets to spend his days dealing with fellow collectors.

- Dat Ma has been the Buyer at Entertainment Earth, Inc. for the past 5.5 years.  

- Steven Loney is the founder and CEO of Toynk.com. Toynk is a toy, collectible and costume company specializing in licensed pop culture related products. Toynk markets/distributes its product library worldwide through various retail and wholesale channels. Toynk is also involved in the creation, development, and manufacturing of similar licensed and non-licensed products through its subsidiary company, Locoape, LLC and Incogneato, LLC. Toynk's primary warehouse is based in Bensenville, IL. Toynk also has a warehouse in Adelaide, Australia.

- Other Retailer Judges include Adam Stinson (Capstone Comics), and Michael Richards (Razor's Edge).

- and there is 1 additional retailer judge that wishes to remain Anonymous.

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Collectors:

In the end, it's the buyers that decide what gets made and what doesn't.  They vote with the money in their wallet, and smart companies and retailers listen.  I selected 25 collectors that I feel are opinionated, respected, and experienced.  Some are collectors of very specific lines, while others buy just about anything, but they all know the industry well.

- Michael S. Miller is the Editor in Chief of Toledo Free Press. He has been a toy collector since 1977, a year which will ring a bell with many who were affected by the force unleashed that year. Michael has written about pop culture and collecting for more than 40 publications coast to coast. His next published work is a chapter in "Gotham City 14 Miles," a new book about the impact on the 1966 Batman TV show.

- Willie Goldman is an LA based screenwriter and television producer, and also the co-creator and co-executive producer of Ace of Cakes, currently entering its tenth season on Food Network.  After starting his career at NBC in Burbank, he moved to Warner Bros. Television where he worked on the Emmy-winning drama ER for seven seasons.  In addition to selling and developing a handful of television pilots recently, he is currently seeing his feature film screenplay The Last Good Kiss (hopefully) enter pre-production.  Goldman has also worked and written for Master Replicas, Sideshow Collectibles, and Sony Computer Entertainment, and consulted with several studios and licensors on several projects including various home video and video game projects.  He also maintains the website, alienscollection.com, and is the author of The NY Times bestseller, Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes.

- John Bonavita is the author of the very successful action figure guide book, Mego Action Figure Toys (currently in its third edition by Schiffer Publishing). John is a early pioneer in action figure collecting and was instrumental in organizing collectors and spreading hard to find action figure information during the decades leading up to the advent of the Internet.  His early 1980s fan-produced action figure photo guide books are still used today by thousands of Mego, GI Joe and Captain Action collectors world wide.

- From 1977 to 1989, Action Figure Insider blogger Jason Chirevas' parents bought him action figures to play with. Since 1993, he's collected action figures, this time with his own money and everything. A lot happened between.

- Jeff Parker aka Wookster, is a freelance illustrator and designer whose work has graced everything from BBC television titles through to a burlesque fetish artist’s logo (you should have seen the perks!). Though it has to be said toy collecting and reviewing seem to be taking up more and more of his time. He’s interested in all areas of pop culture and collects anything and everything, with a special penchant for high-end 1/6 scale, especially if it’s from the ALIEN series of movies. He also has a soft spot for Bettie Page memorabilia, Guinness (the drink, not the book of records!) and kicking back with a good DVD (new ones are increasingly hard to find you know!).

- Mark G. Meyer - "The Tekwych" is owner and editor of Go! Figure.  he is a figure collector and industry historian believing that knowledge of the toy industry's history and an understanding of the manufacturing process can make one a better collector.  While Japanese robots and Microman make up the bulk of his collection, almost every format and scale can be found some where on his shelves.

- Joranthalus spends a lot of time on various toy message boards while pretending to work.  A full-time Network Engineer, part-time Musician, and a pop culture junkie with a multitude of obsessions that include the classic Universal Monsters, pre-80's B-movies, cigars, running and obviously collecting toys.

- JediJones (Eric S.) is a programmer/analyst by day and an action figure collector by morning, noon, night, and later night. He began collecting when his mom bought him Kenner's original Han Solo in 1982 and he hasn't stopped since. His favorite toy lines of the way too many he collects include Hasbro's classic and modern Star Wars and G.I. Joe lines, Playmates' Simpsons World of Springfield, 6" Marvel Legends and DC Universe, and movie tie-ins from the smaller companies like Mezco's King Kong and NECA's Ghostbusters. Good sculpting is more important to him than high posability and he believes accessories such as vehicles and playsets are what have truly set the great action figure lines apart from the rest.

- Guy Klender - A Los Angeles based toy collector, he moved to California ten years ago and brought my love of toys to the sunny state. IHelucked out with a collectors show or a major show, i.e. SDCC nearly every week so the lust for toys is easy to nourish. He started years back with the new STAR WARS line and it all grew from there. He gained recognition as a toy collector with the film STARWOIDS that made for a fun time at shows with the occasional autograph and he did receive a fan letter as well. He moved on to the higher end products and Sideshow Collectibles sees his bank statement nearly as often as he does. He loves finding the rarity or the obscure toy that he may not have known of but for some reason must have. It's a wacky life sure but he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world….except for a 12 back vinyl caped Jawa perhaps.

- Chip Cataldo burst on the local New York internet collecting scene in 1984, Usenet's in 1991 (post #13 on rec.toys.misc), helped found The Star Wars Collector's Archive in 1994, and launched The Bruce Timm Artwork Archive in 1996. He has been in Bruce Timm's office, gotten drunk with Pinky & The Brain, and had a private conversation with Chuck Jones...all within 24 hours. He's even bummed around Toy Fair with Jason Geyer the Toy Otter multiple times.  He currently collects DC Universe Classics, Justice League Unlimited, and carded Super Powers.

- Monte Williams lives and teaches in Lahore, Pakistan, where the armed guards who stand watch in his driveway furrow their brows in polite bafflement whenever he poses and photographs action figures in his yard.

- Kevin Olmsted works in television. He writes, produces and edits promotions for news as well as creating graphic design and animation. He has a small independent production company that allows him to do more creative, non-news related art and design.

On the side he builds models, primarily those of sci-fi/horror nature. He collects baseball cards - specifically those with retro-style designs - and select non-sports trading cards. When it comes to figures, he collects things in 3 basic scales - 12", 4" and tiny.

While he buys both 1/6th and 1/18th, it's small/tiny scale is really what empties his wallet. Dunnys, Cosbabys, Lego, Character Building and loads of designer blind-box figures. He samples everything, usually even if he knows it's going to be crap he regret. He also collects a lot of DIY vinyl toys.

- Josh Long: Computer Technology Teacher/Avid Collector. Josh has collecting something in some form for as long as he can remember. When he was a kid, he was very big into sports cards of all the major sports but one athlete in particular. That athlete was Michael Jordan. During his playing career he hit nearly 2,000 different cards filling multiple books and shelves so they could all be displayed. After he retired the second time, Josh decided to take a break from collecting but he didn't know what he would find that he was so into.

In 2003, just about the time Return Of The King was going to be hitting the big screen, he found a little site called Sideshow Collectibles. Josh saw all the various statues from the movies and kicked himself for not having found them sooner. He didn't waste any time getting into it though going back and getting several that he had missed and getting his Pre-Orders for ones that where still to come.

At one point, Josh was very close to having all the Sideshow Weta statues but have since cut back on that to balance his collection out. However, he has replaced that with several items from Sideshow's Lord Of The Rings lines, The Dead, Indiana Jones, Masters of the Universe Classics, G.I. Joe and Star Wars. He has also ventured off into buying some pieces from Hot Toys and Medicom with the great products they've been producing. 

Josh runs a collectibles blog called The Pulse, as well as YouTube video reviews. In April of 2011 he  joined the staff of The One Ring.Net and has been writing the collecting column there called, "Collecting the Precious". With this article he coversmuch of the comings and goings of collectibles that deal with Middle-Earth.

- Greg Sepelak has been doing dorky things most of his life, usually involving robots beating the everloving crap out of each other. He's penned and co-penned over two dozen official strategy guides for video games from series like MegaMan, Kingdom Hearts, Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Incredibles. Over the last several years, he and his writing partner Trent Troop has been writing for the official conventions and fan clubs for Transformers and G.I. Joe, from comic issues and prose stories to character bios and informational articles. His artwork has also featured on several convention-exclusive Transformers toy bio cards.

For chuckles, Greg keeps himself amused by amassing a whole lot of Transformers, with a decent amount of Star Wars action figures, modifying said toys with extra paint, and helping maintain and take photographs for TF Wiki, one of the most expansive Transformers informational resources online.

- Jason Jerde (TCM Hitchhiker) is a professional toy photographer who has been collecting toys since 1986, giving me nearly 25 years of experience and knowledge in the hobby (or should that read obsession?). I collect vintage and modern toys of all scales and styles from many different properties, as well as both loose and/or MOC/MIB, depending on the line. 

- Lonnie Cummins (aka lcummins) has been an avid collector of all things "pop culture" for the last 35+ years! He started with comic books, non-sports trading cards and monsters, and now collects everything from 1/6th scale figures to high-end statues and life-size busts! His favorite line of collecting is centered around the Universal Monsters... after all, he was a "monster kid" of the late 60's and early 70's, reading Famous Monsters of Filmland, building Aurora monster models and watching monster and horror movies on late night TV. Having never "grown up", Lonnie enjoys horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres, and has been an animation fan since the age of 5, sitting in front of the TV on Saturday mornings watching the Bugs Bunny show. His love of animation has carried him into the world of anime where he currently resides most of the time, when not watching the Discovery Channel or Science Channel. The first "action figure" he ever owned, was the original 1/6th scale G.I. Joes from the early 1960's... which he still owns!

- Curtis (aka. lilwingman) is owner/admin of The Harry Potter Collector's Guide, and specifically, among other things, a big Gentle Giant collector. "Being a collector and student means sometimes I miss a really cool piece.  But most times, I get the piece and just skip eating for the week.  It's all about priorities.

- John Morey aka "Ridureyu" has been a toy collector for years, really starting when he received his first pack of M.U.S.C.L.E.s on his fourth birthday.  He founded the first American site based on Kinnikuman, which became Little Rubber Guys under different ownership.  He specializes in obscure or small-scale toys, and as a former editor and amateur historian, he uses the skills from his history degree to discover and share a little extra info about any toy he reviews.

- Gillian Mann: The Nuclear-Reactions.com Pop Culture contingent were an
international vaudeville and comedy act of the early 21st century best
known for their numerous short articles. Their hallmark was physical
talk-backs and extreme interviews. They are commonly known by their
first names: "Gillian, Eric, and Rod" and screen names "StrayCatBlues,
Measle, and Rod Keith," among other lineups. They first started and
still are "CriticalMess.net".

- Eric Stettemeier has been an avid toy collector for his entire life. Starting with Weebles and Little People, working his way through Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Tron, Go-Bots, Transformers and countless others during the Golden Age of Toy Collecting (aka the nineteen eighties) all the way to the Legos and Batmen of today. Eric runs the oft insightful and always delightful toy blog Toyriffic (link if you wish Toyriffic.blogspot.com) and still finds joy in toys old and new, constantly seeking out new acquisitions and toy knowledge at every toy store, toy aisle and flea market in town.

- Other Collector Judges include Steven Ledyard (Geek Design), Mike Kaplowitz (The Fight Nerd), Adrian Faulkner, Travis, and Mike Kelley.

And there you have the 139 judges for 2012!  I'll be looking to expand this group of judges in 2012, so if you or a colleague are interested, please drop me an email.