STL's Soapbox

2020 was quite the year and I wasn't going to do one of these but alas, a morning later and some lovely convos and look backs, I figured I'd try and do a quick one at the least. Firstly, thank you to everyone who's supported me on Instagram or Twitter. We almost hit 500K likes and that's mindblowing. I appreciate everyone that's reached out to me and thanked me for my stuff. Some of the loveliest moments this year were people who contacted me who told me how my content was something that brought them joy amidst everything going on. More than the content creation process, i think the most satisfying part is when people tell me how my work has touched their lives. 

I'm also deeply indebted to some friends in this wonderful community who have supported and encouraged me throughout 2020. You may have noticed some skill improvements in 2020 and a lot of that is due to the great supportive community we have here. It's a wonderful community that fosters creativity and I know one of the things I love in my routine is scrolling through my feed to see what everyone's cooked up. A personal milestone for me this year was also I took my all time record number of photos in 2020. I cleared 7,000 photos and that's no mean feat! As most of you know, I take mainly outdoor toy photos so when we had our hard lockdown for 3 months, I didn't think this was going to be a big year. But to end the year with over 7,000 photos is mindboggling! On the health/cancer front, things were generally better and I’m strongest I've been in two years. Things aren’t the same as before but still given the alternative outcome, I’m happy and just have to learn to accept my body’s not going to be the same as before. As a TF and toy collector, I also felt this was an amazing year. The mainline toys (Earthrise and Studio Series) haven't been this good in years and I'm really happy for all the G1 collectors now who have a nice alternative to the masterpiece line at a fraction of the increasingly exorbitant cost. The third party scene saw some phenenomal releases like Civil War General Grant and Generation Toys Red Bull. We even got a repaint of GCreation Prowl into Smokescreen (Gimme Blueeyyy!). The legends size class saw all sort of great releases from Iron Factory, NewAge and Magic Square. And the non-transforming offerings were phenomenal across 3A and Flame Toys. And my boy Cliffjumper got some cracking releases too! With these sort of releases, it was easy in hindsight to see how I could take so many photos in 2020! You probably also saw more non-TF toy photography from me too and a lot of that was a combination of the wonderful toy photography community on Instagram and me consuming a lot more TV due to the pandemic. Comics were a long love that continued when I gave up TFs as a kid and carried on until I started collecting TFs again. So snapping Marvel Legends and Mezco figures were a delight! But I also discovered Star Wars through Clone Wars and Rebels, the first part of that franchise I ever really cared about! And that's resulted in SWs toys so expect more pictures in the new year!

But it's not just about new toys. Like last year, I also revisited some old toys and gave them long overdue love.  Be it Generation Toys Jet Bomber Megatron, RiD Quillfire, Botcon Optimus Primal or Star Wars TFs. I'm glad many of you enjoyed them as much as I did! I've included in this post my top personal photos of the year. I'm also happy with my top nine as ultimately chosen by you guys as it reflects my page's preferences for neo-G1 toys but the more personal choices reflect some that I remember igniting a certain emotion in me and the memory of place and time those photos spark in me is strong. I’ll also shortly post a video of some of my favourite toy photos for 2020. Keep an eye out for it! Lastly, thank you again to everyone for your support and/or your great content. I'm grateful for this creative part of the collecting community and I'll continue trying to contribute to it and bring that warm fuzzy feeling that you all give me! Thanks for 2020, all the best to everyone in 2021!