Diamond Comics Distributors announced today that Diamond Select Toys ranked first among all collectable toy manufacturers in sales to the comic book specialty market for the year 2012.  The ranking was based on toy sales to over 3,500 comic book shops and specialty stores serviced by DCD, primarily in North America. DST’s strong year was driven by successful product lines for several prominent licenses, including The Walking Dead, Marvel’s The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Comics, Knight Rider, Universal Monsters and The Munsters.

The Marvel Select action figure line saw some of its most popular releases ever in 2012, including characters based on Marvel’s The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man, the year’s #1 and #6 top-grossing movies, respectively. Citing their sculpting and articulation, many fan sites are calling DST’s film-based Spider-Man and Hulk figures two of the best action figures of 2012. Both films also received lines of Minimates mini-figures, and DST’s collectible busts of the Amazing Spider-Man characters have been praised for their detail and accuracy.

A line of Minimates based on the comic book The Walking Dead got off to a strong start in 2012, with Series 1 selling out at comic shops nationwide, alongside a vinyl bank based on one of the book’s many zombies. Electronic vehicles and Minimate vehicles for Knight Rider and The Munsters performed well for DST, and their new assortments of Munsters Select and Universal Monsters Select action figures have been embraced by both old and new fans.

Diamond Select Toys has already begun work on products surrounding the new Iron Man, Thor and Wolverine films as well as the new Tomb Raider video game. There’s also the 50th series of Marvel Minimates and the line of electronic Star Trek ships role play items and relaunching of the Star Trek Minimates line later in the year.