AFJ’S TOY COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2017

Like my favorite baseball broadcaster of all time, Gary Cohen says when my New York Mets rarely get a win, “Put it in the books!” And that’s what we can now say now about 2017, a fantastic year for toys. However, at our AFJ EAST year-end summit last week, we quickly realized that we were going to have to make several TOP 10 LISTS—one for the under $100 (seen here) crowd with lots of honorable mentions, one TOP 10 LIST for the crowd looking to spend upwards of $150 to $300+ per figure (seen here), and of course 2017’s TOY COMPANY OF THE YEAR. So enough exposition, let’s just dig right into our lists that we fully admit were super tough to make because there was so much awesome product in 2017 for Junkies of all ages. Enjoy! - JK

Editor's Note: This was one of the last articles Jarrett had started writing. I took it upon myself to finish out his "TOY COMPANY OF THE YEAR". - Robert Trate, Editorial Director

When it came to the discussion of "TOY COMPANY OF THE YEAR" at the East Coast Summit of MJ Ortiz (The Key Master Junkie), Robert Trate (The Jedi Junkie), Evan Liss (The Noob), and Jarrett (The Head Junkie in Charge), we came to only one conclusion, Mezco Toyz. No other toy company had us checking out their Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis for updates on their One:12 Collective releases. Mezco Toyz has established itself as truly a company for the collector and their releases reflect that. We've been sharing what Mezco has to offer on a weekly basis and their displays at every Con always warrant multiple pictures.

For me, personally, I was blown away by their Thor: Ragnarok releases. I am not the biggest Thor fan, but their rendition of Thor and the Hulk made me want their One: 12s more than anything else I had seen in a long time.

Below you will find a mad assortment of Jarrett Kruse's favorite Mezco One:12 Collective choices for the year. Jarrett even did a video review of their Deadpool SDCC Exclusive! - RT

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Clik here to view. TOY COMPANY OF THE YEAR 2017 - MEZCO TOYZ

MEZCO ONE:12 COLLECTIVE THOR: RAGNAROK GLADIATOR HULK ACTION FIGURE

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Clik here to view. ONE: 12 COLLECTIVE HULK - THOR: RAGNAROK
The ONE:12 COLLECTIVE meets HULK’s best MCU look ever? Sign this Junkie up! Although a solid $45 extra than a normal ONE:12 COLLECTIVE figure from MEZCO, this is like the Mercedes SL of Mez’s flagship line. Since Banner’s size is so outlandish in the third THOR film, I feel like MEZCO made the right call in scaling their GLADIATOR HULK way up so that the display friendly line of figures will all fall in line with Bruce Banner’s has overactive gamma rays. The big green guy is equipped with over 28 points of articulation built on a specially designed ONE:12 COLLECTIVE body and comes equipped with the spiked battle axe and war maul and a crested helmet that is permanently affixed to his second head. - JK

MEZCO ONE:12 DEADPOOL SDCC17 EXCLUSIVE

Salutations Junkies! I figured my birthday was a good time to show the Junkies what myself, MJ Ortiz, Robert Trate, Ross Gallo, and producer Josh Turchetta have been working on. My face is all splotchy and uneven bc they made me trim my beard fast and I screwed up, having to shave the whole thing. Fully grown back in though. Here is the first AFJ LIVE REVIEW featuring the MEZCO ONE:12 DEADPOOL SDCC 2017 EXCLUSIVE (the video above). - JK

MEZCO PREVIEWS EXCLUSIVE ONE:12 COLLECTIVE STEALTH DEATHSTROKE

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To me, and this is just my opinion, seeing DEATHSTROKE at the end of JUSTICE LEAGUE was the best part of the movie. But that is just me gang! Still, I am psyched to get my mitts on this new PREVIEWS EXCLUSIVE from MEZCO's ONE:12 COLLECTIVE. It comes with more extras than most kids Christmas lists and includes over 30 points of articulation, hand-painted authentic detailing, interchangeable hands, armored collars, shoulder pads, chest armor, a machine & handgun and other accessories. Slade Wilson never looked so bada$$! Oh, and let's not forget about the sniper rifle, sheath & sword, maskless head with eye-patch and grenade launcher. - JK

MEZCO LIVING DEAD DOLLS IT 1990 PENNYWISE
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Clik here to view.MEZCO's LIVING DEAD DOLLS have haunted me for years and I avoided seeing the new IT reboot in theaters because I had not fully recovered from Tim Curry's 1990 interpretation. So when I saw this in the MEZCO display at SDCC, I did a double take and got the heck out of there. This is going to be a major seller and is already Pre-Sold Out but I say always sign up for in-stock alerts for those that back out of purchasing because they are as terrified as me.- JK

PREVIEW EXCLUSIVE RED SON SUPERMAN
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A PREVIEWS Exclusive! Mezco's One:12 Collective brings three of the DC Universe's greatest characters to life in their fan-favorite 1:12 scale format! Choose from the crimson archer, Arsenal; SHAZAM's deadly foe Black Adam; or the alternate reality Red Son Superman! Each figure features intricate tailored costuming, over 30 points of articulation, character-specific accessories (including multiple pairs of variant hands), a character-specific display base and collector's tin! - JK

MEZCO ONE:12 COLLECTIVE JUSTICE LEAGUE TACTICAL SUIT BATMAN

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Clik here to view. Mezco_toyz_Batman_One_12
MEZCO had another banner year in 2017, quietly leading an army of Junkies to set their alarm clocks once or twice a month to have a shot to purchase one of their coveted pre-orders. For any costume that I did not like on the silver screen, MEZCO managed to make their ONE:12 interpretation irresistible to Junkies. I was adamant that the Tactical Suit Batman in JUSTICE LEAGUE looked too similar to WATCHMEN’s “The Nite Owl,” then I saw this figure and as if under a trance, placed my order with zero hesitation. This one is going to be hot and comes with more extras than can fill a Batcave! - JK