Toy Polloi Annual 2024 Review (2023)

26 January, 2024 timchuma 0 Comments 1 category

The first off the rank for the Fusion Retro Annuals and as I enjoyed it last year I decided to go with the Toy Polloi Annual first. As with last year these seem to be a collection of articles that have been written especially for the annual with the author also contributing to the FUSION annual with some different articles. I have not really gotten around to watching any of the author’s videos as yet but I am still subscribed and follow their socials.

My complaints about the format seem to have been improved as soon as I got reading glasses and I flew through it at that point. There were some copies of other annuals available as A4 but it is the same content only blown up to A4 and that doubles the cost of shipping.

The toys are still interesting and similar to the ones I remember from Australia as we got the stuff from Europe but much later. There are some more obscure ones that never made it out of the UK I had not heard about.

In terms of the toys I actually remember having I do still have the photo of myself wearing a Stackhat and holding Optimus Prime and do remember having the M.A.S.K toys. Even back then I knew that show was specifically made to sell toys. The less said about the episode “The Sacred Rock” the better. Toys were only for Christmas and birthdays at our house but I had my birthday a month before Christmas so it was not much of a problem. For some reason my brother got the Decepticons and I was always Autobots. Cut to 2023 Christmas and my nephews and nieces got the Bumblebee remote control car.

As a photographer I enjoyed all the photos of the toys and the way they were laid out in the book and not just the same sort of photo every time. I did do photos of all the annuals when they arrived and it is a lot more difficult than you would think but much improved with a bounce flash it seems. There are whole social media accounts based around photography of toys so it is quite a specialised thing.

It was good to see another opinion on why the author was generally against 3D printing parts as they liked actually making it. You would think 3D printing was the be all and end all the way people bang on about it.

Also some pushback about the arguments on social media groups about collecting and the “right” way to do it. There is no really right way to do anything, do it however you want. When money gets involved everyone goes funny about it especially with some of the rarer pieces. Retro game collecting has overheated the market in similar ways.

Overall I did enjoy reading the annual and even rationed reading it during my lunch break so I would not rush through it and then it would be finished. Annual means you read it for most of the year I would think.

Recommended to people who collect retro toys or even if you have a passing interest int pop culture stuff and want to know more about toy collecting.

Book details:

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Wilkins

Editor: Alan Hammerton

Content: Toy Polloi

Layout: Ben Honebone & Alan Hammerton

Cover Artist: Moko-Yo

Cover Portrait: Tokyo Toy Banzai

Spot the Difference: Tim Lattie

Proof Reader: Paul Morrison

Publisher: Fusion Retro Books

Year Published: 2023