Today's a special day here on Tomopop. It marks the site's birthday, of course! Hard to believe that it's been four years already ... it was only yesterday that it felt like we were rounding up our first articles and wondering just what this little site might turn into one day.

The last year has been busy, turbulent at times, and the site today looks different than it did just last year. There's new forums, new faces and new companies showing up on our front page. In the past year, Tomopop has posted just over 4,400 news posts, reviews, features, contests, etc.; traveling far and wide to bring you event coverage. It's a lot of work when you think about it (almost a third of Tomopop's total posts ever came in 2011), but I can say that it's been worth it, for sure!

For the upcoming year, we plan to keep bringing you all the news you love, as well as trying to improve coverage in areas where we haven't been doing as well (Western figures, I'm looking at you). There will be more awesome contests, more features, interviews and reviews, and other ideas we're tinkering with right now.

But most importantly, all of what we do is meaningless without you, the readers. You've helped to keep us growing and make us one of the largest toy and collectibles sites on the entire Internet, and for that, we are forever grateful. Thank you for your feedback, your comments, your participation in the forums, community blogs, contests and more. You are what makes this site work — the Tomopop community — and we hope to bring you an awesome 2012!

[Header image via Pixiv]