The Best of 2016 Awards

As 2016 runs to a close, it's time for me to look back at the "Geeky Side" of the year and consider what I found the best the things I watched, heard, build etc etc... during the past 12 months.

So in a yearly tradition, the "week of closure" has begun on this little corner of the internet, as well as looking forward to 2017.

And in today's post, it is time for the "awards" of the memorable things of 2016, without any celebrity deaths in this overview of the year.

Best Movie

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, hands down.  This movie takes us back to the magical world of J.K. Rowling, but it doesn`t center around some meddling kids / pubering teenagers stories, but instead on some more adult setting.  It was a visual spectacle, had good humour, and generally was just great fun to watch with the whole family.

Best Series

War and Peace, the miniseries produced by BBC, based on the famous book by Leo Tolstoy.  It aired in the beginning of the year, and for me personally, it wasn`t topped over the year.  Even though Westworld did get close, it just didn`t have the grandeur and the drama of this work.

Best Performance

Again one from early in the year that wasn`t topped for my part, this goes to Ray Stevenson for his role as Blackbeard Edward Teach in the Black Sails series.  He brings a lot of charisma to this vicious sea-dog, and the moment he was introduced into the series with the three brothers entering his cabin is a classic for me.  Oddly enough, Travis Fimmel, of whom I ain`t much a fan comes a good runner up.  But dis is mainly due to his fantastic "Who wants to be King" scene in the second half of the Vikings season 4 start a few weeks ago.

Best Book

A true classic for this one I fear, with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  Being about 150 years old, I finally read this masterpiece of Victorian horror, and was amazed by the immense differences of the book versus about every way we see and "know" the story... or thought we did.

Best Lego set

A big suprise here perhaps, but I actually have a Lego Star Wars build on this one.  The tiny Millenium Falcon that came with a Lego Magazine, as I was really amazed by the techniques they used to represent the vessel in such a small scale.

Best Toy

Pacific Rim's Cherno Alpha from NECA, which was actually one of only two toys I bought in the year, the other being a Matchbox Thunderbird 3.  And the fact I could grab this at Comic Con Gent for 10 euro was a big huzzaah moment.

Best Anime

Schwarzesmarken, a spin-off from the Muv-Luv mecha series.  It handles with some very "adult" themes for a mecha, including underage prostitution, brainwashing, and some serious political "fucked up-ness".  The series takes place behind the Iron Curtain in 1983, with the Stasi controlling and trying to influencing an east german government from the inside, while being threatened by alien annihilation on the outside.  Add in a child assassin, and you know this isn`t for the young ones amongst us.

Best Game

Until yesterday, I had Lego Jurassic World listed here for it's humour and fun.  Then I got my Mini NES for christmas which has amongst others the old 8-bit versions of Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc etc on it, so yeah, that truly is a great thing for an old geezer like me.  I grew up on those games, and now I`m old and experienced enough to actually play them decently hehehe.

Best Music

What else could this be then the return of the Pokemon song!

Best Trade

I managed to exchange my Marvel Helicarrier, who was I admit a bit of a mis buy for myself, with the Queen Anne's Revenge.  They both go about the same value as used complete on BrickLink, but the sailing ship looks far better (for me) on my shelves, paired with my Pearl.

Best Convention

I did a LOT of events the past year, both pure Lego related as well as the comic conventions, so I had a lot to choose from.  But in the end, I`m going with Comic Con Gent.  We have been present from the start with BeLUG, it has a great and relaxed atmosphere, and this year, it even had a burlesque Vulcan dancer ;-)

Greatest Disappointment

I wanted to put Killjoys second season here initially, but I guess I`m going to go with the Lego Marvel Avengers videogame on the PS Vita.  It just isn`t that much fun, and in order to platinum it (which I still need to do), you`re more busy playing racing minigames then something else.

Special Mention

Sometimes, you just have that thing that stays with you for some reason, and for me in 2016 it`s a celebrity, being Paul McGann.  A great actor, who also played Doctor Who in the movie from the 80s (he was the 8th Doctor), he was a guest at FACTS Autumn.  I had a custom minifigure ordered especially for signing, and he was truly amazed he existed in Lego.  He muttered something tongue in cheekish about "ha, see Capaldi"  and wanted a Selfie with his minifig alter ego :-D

Well, that`s my totally personal selection for the past year.  I hope there might be one or two hidden gems in there you didn`t think off, or wanted to watch but weren`t sure if you should.