YiR (Part 3 FINALLY!)

Honorable mentions:

For television, Smallville has been exciting since the season premier, and the reruns for the last few weeks have me on edge to see what happens next. Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming has become one of the highlights of my week. Top notch Anime, the reruns of some of the most comically brilliant shows to ever get cancelled, and excellent originals, there isn't a night that disappoints. That's about all I watch outside of Nick@Nite.

Video Games-Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga on the GBA didn't disappoint, neither did any of the GBA Castlevania series (though some have been around a few years.) GTA: Vice City made a huge splash, causing controversy and selling tons of units, on top of being one of the best games, EVER. Nintendo upset the gaming community with another solid entry into the greatest game series of all time, The Legend of Zeld: The Wind Waker, apparently cel shading is indeed the way of the future, whether some like it or not. DBZ: Budokai 2 was a solid fighter, which should please any fan of the show. Speaking of fighters, Soul Calibur II came in three different versions, one for each major console, with the GameCube's and XBox's outselling the PS2's.

Toys- The Marvel Legends line was completely solid, even if they've resorted to incredibly-hard-to-find chase figures to keep fanboys interested. Marvel Select tried to capitalize on DC Directs success by releasing highly detailed versions of their characters. Miniature figures hit huge with a slew of Mini Mates based on tons of licensed properties. The there was Kevin Smith's in joke for the toy crowd, his Clerks Inaction Figures, which are just plastic statues. McFarlane Toys had plenty of excellent lines this year, the Alien/Predator toys didn't disappoint, for Ahhhhnold fans there was the T3 line, also the Matrix Toys hit big, and were twice as enjoyable as the films, and for old school Spawn fans there was the Classic Covers series (Which kicks much ass.) Then there was the 80's revivals, TMNT, He-Man, and the Transformers of course, and two of the three were better than any of their previous lines. The Transformers, of course, don't touch the originals, which is why we now have original Generation One re-releases, which makes me happy!

That about wraps it up, at least as far as all the things I spent money on this year!