3B's Toy Hive

Hello all! And welcome to 3BTH's year-end "Best of" review for 2011. I know content's been light around here lately and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get this list done in time, but technically it's still 2011, so I'm right on time!

Anyway, I've been working on this list in one form or another for the last month, but I decided to take a cue from my action figure-blogging peers, Lemonjuice McGee and Novelty, and pick one figure from each of the lines I collect. In some cases (like Transformers) I've distilled the various lines into one and in other cases (like Mattel's WWE lines), I've picked a figure from each series. So without further ado, come see what impressed me the most over the past twelve months!

The glory days of tag team wrestling in the WWE are arguably behind us. Most teams nowadays do little more than serve as filler for Battle Royales and opening card matches. It seems that if two Superstars are popular enough as a team, they are promptly split up and repackaged as "singles" competitors. But thanks to Mattel's WWE Legends line, we can recreate some of the most iconic tag matches in wrestling history and that includes their latest tag team two-pack, the Rockers!

Toys R Us may be clogging their WWE Elite pegs with WrestleMania 27 figures, but it seems the holiday rush has cleared enough space at my local Walmart for them to start stocking series 11 and that means a new CM Punk figure! This updated Punk brings a few new items to the table, so let's see what he has to offer and find out if he's worth adding to your collection!

Didn't get your fill of TransFormers toys this past Summer with the release of the Dark of the Moon toys? Well, you're in luck because Hasbro is about to unleash an all-new line based on the (fairly) new TransFormers: Prime animated series (not to be confused with the previous animated series TransFormers Animated). The main line should be hitting toy shelves in the U.S. very soon, but in anticipation of it's arrival, Hasbro released this box set as a New York Comic Convention exclusive, which was later available on their webstore. Let's take a look if you haven't already and see what the set has to offer.

December is at-hand and for many of us that means Christmas time and the gift-giving holidays. Unfortunately, that's not true for everyone and for too many children in the United States, Christmas won't be coming this year. As toy collectors, it's sometimes easy to forget the simple joy a toy can bring, especially when you purchase them regularly. I feel it's important to remember the great feeling you, hopefully, had when you woke up Christmas (or whatever your traditional gift day is) morning and open up your new toys.

I urge everyone who can to take a moment to click over to Geeks for Tots and find out more about donating toys or money to help bring holiday cheer into the lives of children who may not otherwise receive any. It's easy and even a small contribution will help.

Happy holidays,

3B