2013 Toy Animal Figure of the Year - preface....

STS Forum for the first time will promote the figure of the year!
We'll first split it in 7 categories: Wildlife, woodland, prehistoric, farm, sealife, horses and dogs.
Later, the winner of these categories, will be voted in a poll to find the 2013 animal figure of the year.
We'll start choosing figures for three first categories on 19th January:
- Wildlife (max. 10 choices)
- Woodland (max. 5 choices)
- Farm (max. 5 choices)
- Prehistoric (max 5 choices)
Members will choose during 7 days a maximum of 5 figures to woodland, prehistoric and farm categories and a maximum of 10 figures for wildlife category.

At 26th January, we will start polls for the first 4 categories with a maximum of 10 figures with the biggest number of choices.
These 4 polls will run for a week in single vote mode and obviously the most voted in each category will be the animal figure of the year of the respective category.

At the same day (26th) we'll start the choices to remaining 3 categories:
- Horses (max. 5 choices)
- Sealife, (max. 5 choices)
- Dogs (max. 5 choices)

Choices will run again during 7 days and at 2nd February, we'll start new 3 polls with the most choosed figures of these categories.
The most voted of any poll will join the other 3 most voted of previous polls and all 7 figures will participate in a final poll to determine the 2013 toy animal figure of the year.

The last poll will start at 12th February and run until 16th.
The winning figure will be considered officially the 2013 Toy Animal Figure of the Year and STS community will find a way to perpetuate this consagration with the company who released it.

We are not using adjectives as the best, favorite or any other because it depends of any collector perception. We only want to be fair to what is the general perception of our community that proudly joins very young collectors with some already with a "respectable" age. Just vote in what gives you joy!
The only thing we ask is to everyone try to be fair, choosing according with the figure without thinking in the brand marked on it, also, we don't have to collect them to make our choices, we only have to like them.
We'll provide links to lists with pictures of 2013 releases to all categories to turn easier our choices.
All 2013 releases are eligible, even if they're not in these lists and as long as they are toy animal replicas. The only remark is that figures that only differ in painting will be considered as a single one.
A wide participation turns the initiative more interesting and if it works, we'll repeat next year.  

Any doubt or suggestion just feel free and enjoy!

This is going to be exciting! I need to think about my choices

I know my favourite - the wild ass      

widukind wrote:

I know my favourite - the wild ass      

The wild ass is a 2014 model Andreas... We are talking about the 2013 Toy animal figure   

GREAT IDEA   

       
What do I like best ???  

( I am thinking,  AUCH !  Unususal exersize !!!   )

The Mojo gaur, of course, and ......no ! I have to think some more          

Hmm, interesting....
Don't know the 2013 releases that well, so the photos come in handy

Cool. My only suggestion: since farmlife is split in 3 categories (farm, dogs, horses) and wildlife is split only in 2 (wildlife and sealife) then I think that the top 3 animals in wildlife shoud be eligible for the final vote, since wildlife animals are also far most produced! So the winners in 5 categories (farm, dogs, horses, sealife, prehistoric) plus top 3 in wildlife, so 8 figurines in the final vote.

I'm looking forward to this   

I think I understand what Bojan is saying.
Wildlife is a very very large group.
(For me however, sealife is another very large group.)
But horses and dogs are only one specific animal.

My suggestion would be:
Dogs should be included in farm life. Therefor farmlife gets 10 votes just like wildlife.
But horses can be their own catagory since a lot of members here only collect horses.
But maybe the votes should be more constrict, (it's just one group of animals), and give them only 5 votes.

Just suggestions Roger!  
I love this idea and I can't wait to cast votes!     

Kikimalou wrote:

widukind wrote:

I know my favourite - the wild ass      

The wild ass is a 2014 model Andreas... We are talking about the 2013 Toy animal figure   

     

But it is a CollectA again - the Saola      A very good mofel and a phantastic and very unusual specie     

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions!
These categories were built according with the way we collect and the way brands organize their series. We often have dogs and horses apart from Farm animals. The problem here is really Wildlife, the natural would to split like brands do, sealife, wildlife and woodland.
The result would be 3 for wildlife and 3 to farm. But it is almost impossible to find the border between woodland and wild life.
Bojan's idea is interesting and I am tempted to agree, the only thing I don't like is that the 2nd or 3rd place on wildlife will have the chance of being the best figure of all. How can a figure be the best of all if it hasn't won its own category?
I also think Simone's idea turns everything more balanced and fair but we will loose the chance of choosing the best dog of the year, maybe it is useless once probably there is no many people collecting them.
We have some time, could it work to create a woodland category with European and North American Animals grouped and all other remaining in Wildlife: Africa, Asia, Australia, South American and Polar?

Roger wrote:

could it work to create a woodland category with European and North American Animals grouped and all other remaining in Wildlife: Africa, Asia, Australia, South American and Polar?  

That might be a good idea. I know it's quite common for companies to distinguish between Woodland Wild Animals and more "exotic" animals. But for our purposes, if we're going to divide that group, I think it makes more sense to divide things as you suggest Roger: have a North American/European Category on the one hand and a African/Asian/Australian/Polar Category on the other. With everything divided along those lines, if there is an imbalance, we could put the South American animals in whatever category is the smallest.

Just a thought. In any case, I'm fine with keeping Wildlife as one category or splitting it into two. Whatever everyone prefers.

Regarding Dogs, I realize that it's a very small category, but it doesn't seem ridiculous to keep it. I could go either way. Alternatively, we could have a 'Pets' category instead of just 'Dogs'. It might include more animals than just the dogs.

by the way, I'm with Andreas: The Saola is probably among my top three. I love it. Another tippy-top favorite of mine from 2013 is the Papo Carnotaurus (sometimes called the 'Carnosaurius' by stores -- is that a mistake that Papo made? How did that happen? Bizarre.)

I just read this, and sort of like to split the wildlife between Europe/North America and others.

Scott, the Arctic belongs to the first group, - remember that Greenland is Danish and therefore also Europe, - and Alaska belongs to North America   

How about making it simple: Each member writes maximum 10 best figurines of the 2013 and the one with the most votes will be the figurine of the year?

bojan wrote:

How about making it simple: Each member writes maximum 10 best figurines of the 2013 and the one with the most votes will be the figurine of the year?

I think that is a great idea   

Alternative a 1st, 2nd and 3rd price....or top-10 ?

Are japanese brands also allowed?  

Since we cannot find a better and definitive formula, we'll start only monday instead of today. I'll update the introduction. If a consensus is not achieved, we keep it as it is now and use our experience to next year election. :)
Andreas, Japanese or any other figures are allowed, as long as they are 2013 releases.

bojan wrote:

How about making it simple: Each member writes maximum 10 best figurines of the 2013 and the one with the most votes will be the figurine of the year?

Much better idea, that system was used earlier with a success...

skysthelimit wrote:

bojan wrote:

How about making it simple: Each member writes maximum 10 best figurines of the 2013 and the one with the most votes will be the figurine of the year?

Much better idea, that system was used earlier with a success...

We used it to choose a species to Mojo release and made a poll.   
But what does it mean? We just abandon the categories? No horse or prehistoric figure of the year?
We just made 10 choices of what we want and count it without any poll and the most voted is the figure of the year?

Animal Figure of the Year, not FigureS of the year   

skysthelimit wrote:

Animal Figure of the Year, not FigureS of the year   

We started with categories once there are mmebers that only collect certain group of animals. I am not a horses collector but if I was, I would love to have a topic to discuss the best horse of the year without mixing them with other animal figures. I think that is a way to think in all community preventing that some group of animals keep completly forgoten. If we mix them all at once, sealife will get completely abandoned.
Also, category winners will have only a symbolic meaning keeping the main focus on the winner of all categories. :)

Roger wrote:

I am not a horses collector but if I was, I would love to have a topic to discuss the best horse of the year without mixing them with other animal figures.

I don't see the problem... Just name the categories, whoever is interested should write up to 10 suggestions in each categorie, animal with biggest number of suggestions wins that categorie

Roger wrote:

Since we cannot find a better and definitive formula, we'll start only monday instead of today. I'll update the introduction. If a consensus is not achieved, we keep it as it is now and use our experience to next year election. :)
Andreas, Japanese or any other figures are allowed, as long as they are 2013 releases.

Thank you    

After discussing with Roger, we decided to add a Woodland category.    we also decided to begin this Sunday because it is easier for us   

And now, let's fun begin