As we approach year-end and head into the holiday season next week, Kidscreen’s writers are looking back on the shows, movies and products that brought them the most joy in 2023.
Ultraman (Tsubaraya Productions)
Ultraman has become a guilty pleasure of mine this year that encapsulates everything I loved about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as a kid. To boil it down, the main character transforms into Ultraman whenever a massive kaiju threat appears in Japan, using a mix of wrestling moves and martial arts to destroy it. I love that Tsubaraya continues to use practical effects in its productions, building entirely new monster suits and miniature cities from scratch, just to destroy them in a fiery blast at the end of each episode.
The company has made a lot of strides this year to expand the reach of its long-running Ultraman franchise in North America, from developing a new CG-animated series with Netflix (Ultraman: Rising), to simulcasting Japanese broadcasts of the live-action series’ (Ultraman Blazar) new eps on its official YouTube channel.
I even got to meet a shrunk-down Ultraman at this year’s Fan Expo in Toronto (pictured).

Transformers (Image Comics)
Earlier this year, Hasbro inked a deal with Image Comics’s Skybound imprint to launch a shared universe of comics featuring Transformers, G.I. Joe called Void Rivals. The new Transformers series from the creative team of Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer is only three issues in, but I’m already hooked and want to collect more.
The story picks up with the Autobots and Decepticons awakening from their crash landing on Earth, and the characters’ personalities feel more fleshed out than they’ve ever been before. The Decepticons are downright barbaric, while the Autobots—Optimus Prime especially—will do anything to save the human lives around them. I can’t wait to see how Skybound builds up the wider Energon Universe.
Void Rivals is a fun, yet mysterious sci-fi adventure that’s building up larger threats for the Autobots to encounter in the future, while the upcoming Duke and Cobra Commander titles look to fill in the human perspective of the growing conflict. It’s been exciting to see these new books getting snapped up at my local comic shop every Wednesday, and I just always hope that I’m able to show up before they sell out.

Godzilla (Hiya Toys)
Christmas came early this year when my friend gifted me with a new big green lizard. I’ve been collecting Godzilla figures from Bandai Namco and NECA for nearly a decade now, but China’s Hiya Toys has seriously impressed me with their Exquisite Basic series.
The toy pictured above is based on Godzilla’s appearance in Legendary’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and the screen accuracy is near-perfect, from the spiky dorsal plates, to the paint apps that highlight all the varied textures of the monster’s skin. In particular, I love how the company used rubber parts to recreate Godzilla’s thick neck so there are no gaps in the sculpt.

Pop! Yourself (Funko)
Funko offered me the chance last month to try out their Pop! Yourself customization service and create a Pop! vinyl figure in my likeness. I used the opportunity to honor the memory of my father, who passed away in 2019 after a nearly eight-year-long battle with cancer.
When I got the figure, I laughed with my mom at how Funko’s team had given Pops a laptop as his “accessory.” It triggered a lot of memories of him asking me for tech support on a daily basis because he was terrible at learning how to use anything with an attached keyboard. If there’s something he’d be happy about, though, it’s that I’ll never be able to confirm if they recreated his signature bald spot—because this one-of-kind figure will stay in its box forever.