Transformers Featured In Mensa's Bracket Challenge

Pick your champion
How do you pick 64 toys when there are thousands to choose from? It wasn’t easy — we excluded board games of all types — but we think we came up with a collection of worthy competitors that represent every facet of the plaything kingdom. There are four regions — Timeless, Pre-1950, 1950-1980, and 1981 to Present. Each region is made up of 16 toys, seeded 1 through 16, based on the strength of their resumes. In the first round, the top seed from a given category will face off against the 16th seed from the same region; the second seed will challenge the 15th seed, and so on.

After that, the challengers are in your hands. All winners are chosen by YOU, the readers and, for the first time, the general public. Why should we have all the fun, right? Examine the full bracket and a synopsis of each toy on the following pages.

Voting criteria: In short, there are no criteria. What makes the greatest toy? If you opened up the Millennium Falcon on Christmas morning when you were 6, that likely ranks very highly for you. Feel free to be objective, weighing longevity, cost and number of units sold. We also encourage you to vote for the Teddy Bear simply because you still have your childhood friend sitting on your bed right now, some 40 years later.

Voting Schedule: First round voting begins on October 15. At that time, you’ll have the chance to vote in any and all first-round matchups. Second-round voting will begin on October 22. Round 3 will begin on October 29, and so on. You may vote for the winner of a match only once, so choose wisely. Voting for the Finals begins on November 19. The last toy standing will be announced in the January issue of the magazine and online.

Screw ups: Part of the fun is the discussion, so sound off to http://www.twitter.com/mensabulletin or Bulletin Letters, and let us know what we left out, what toy was seeded too low (or high), etc. If you hosted a selection party, created bracket pools with your coworkers, or made voting a family event (all of which happened last year), we want to hear that, too. Send in your photos of completed brackets or selection parties. We’ll post them to Facebook and Twitter.

Share the fun: You can vote only once per matchup, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to convince other people to vote your way. Track the fun on Facebook and Twitter. Forward our posts and tweets to get your friends in on the action.

Ready? We are too! The 2012 Mensa Bracket Challenge has begun!

Credit(s): paladin6