Transformers for Transformers sake

So I'm sure I've asked this question before, however I couldn't find the thread to resurrect it.

It seems poignant to bring up again now with the influx of new toys and merch thanks to Earthspark and RotB.

Do you just buy stuff because it's Transformers, or do you have some kind of formula?

It's a thing I see quite a bit over the years whenever there's new media or a new line... AEC, Prime, Cyberverse, the various movies. People buy up all the toys and then a year or two after the show loses it's hype, go to sell their collection on boards or ebay. Only to then go out and buy all the new stuff that comes with the next subline.

Personally I limit my buying to characters I care about, however I have spread out with how good the generations figures have been. However even then, especially now with "Legacy", I'm primarily sticking to the G1&2 based figures.

I'm more than happy to double dip on characters I really like, either literally double dipping with multiples of the same figure, or continuing to get various iterations of that character as they come out over time. However by doing that, I have very little regrets and am always happy to hang onto my purchases.

I'm curious, because sometimes it seems that people are just buying up whatever transforms. For example, I have no want to buy figures from a movie I haven't seen yet. Especially the characters that are either new, or don't resemble any previous version in any way, yet plenty of people are out there collecting them. Same could be said for Earthspark figures. The whole line at this stage seems like a skip to me, even with watching the show. That said, a nice Skullcruncher or Insecticon figures could tempt me otherwise.

The flipside is non-transforming toys or "merch". There have been amazing versions of your favourite characters, that just happen to not transform, ignored or lambasted, left behind, even though they would look amazing displayed on one's shelf, which let's be honest, is how most of our figures are left at the moment. I'd say I have just as much non-transforming stuff as transforming stuff at this stage.

As far as merch is concerned, I've pulled right back. I no longer get the "evergreen" stuff. It's strict G1 here, however I love it when good G1 merch comes out. There just doesn't seem to be much of it when you compare it to other cartoon properties. Not sure if that's a Hasbro thing, or if it's non-viable to manufacturers because fans skip this stuff due to the no-transform / no-buy, mantra across the fandom?

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Originally Posted by KELPIE

Do you just buy stuff because it's Transformers, or do you have some kind of formula?

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I have A Plan (may even be Cunning); I definitely don't just buy it because it has that label on it. And when I buy it, I intend to keep it, forever. I don't understand the mindset of selling things (although I have benefited greatly from it, here on this site :)), and especially not, as seems to happen, buying knowing full-well that you'll very likely flog the things presently.

So, with HasTak toys, I'm acquiring All Teh Toyz, which isn't quite so "all" as it sounds :p. Basically, when I decided to start buying them in 2019 (thanks Siege Starscream), I realised that now, unlike when I was a child, I could have them all - I can afford them (adult, well-paid, financially secure, plenty of discretionary spending possible), and I have the opportunity to purchase them (no longer relying on what pitiful stock turned up at a handful of shops in my rural locale, thanks to the internet). I looked into what was being made, and had been made, and realised that my childhood dream of ticking off all the boxes on those wonderful little catalogues could probably actually be done - and so that's the plan: buy all of the toys, in modern form, from those 1984-1989 catalogues, less the ones I simply don't want at all (pretenders and micromasters ticked me off even back then - I don't think I could have, at the age of 12, articulated precisely what it was that was ticking me off, but the important part was that it did).

I am currently 41 toys away from my goal (213 toys in total), and it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that those remaining 41 might get a modern toy within the next couple of years (in fact, due to leaks of store inventory listings I know that a bunch are definitely coming this year and next). And for anyone wondering, no, it isn't just buying for the sake of ticking a box; I wanted, and still want, every single one of them.

I'm posting this as a second entry because there's some strange bug with the forum that prevents me from posting it in one entry - I get a 403 you do not have access to that resource error when I try...



Other than that, I will evaluate stuff on the basis of whether or not it interests me. JG1 toys do so; Beast Wars and modern movie stuff very much do not. When I discovered Animated, I watched the show, bought the DVDs, and put together a collection of Animated toys. Legacy Animated-universe Prowl looks nice, but I don't see the point to buying it myself because I have both of the original Animated Prowls.

I have a shelf of modern Diaclone/pre-TF re-makes, all in alt mode because the vehicles look cool. From Velocitron I bought Crasher (is in the modern comics, no longer simply a Go-Bot), but not Shadowstrip (because it's just a re-coloured Dragstrip with a new name to avoid confusion with retail purchasers). I skipped the two Huffer and Pipes repaints from last year's Golden Disk line, as they're just a modern version of a manufactuing error and a Go-Bot, so not of any interest.

I very much enjoyed Cyberverse, and found the deluxes fascinating, so bought them (and a handful of less deluxe toys that seemed good enough, or at least interesting enough, such as the very first ever Rack'n'Ruin), and the same thing has happened with Earthspark - am very much enjoying the cartoon, and the deluxe toys are rather enjoyable.

I shrugged off the micromaster modulators; they were linked to the original toys that I disliked, and I found the modern toys to be insufficiently interesting.

I entirely missed the Unicron Trilogy at the time. Having now seen Legend of Microns and part of Super Link, and seeing the new Armada toys, I'll be putting to gether a shelf of the on-screen cast for Legend of Microns; the toys look nice and the ones I have are fun to play with. But I doubt I'll be getting any Super Link versions - the designs actively turn me off.

So, to summarise - yes, there's a formula, and no, I don't buy for the sake of buying - it has to grab me somehow, and a lot does not.

My (loose) formula:

1: Do I like it/like the look of it? Yes/No. If No, then Don't Buy.

2: Can I afford it? It's mostly been No for the past few years (being an English as a Foreign Language teacher during Covid times sort of sucked), now it's mostly Yes but I still prefer to buy loose and used. But there's still a Cost factor - it's a lot easier to justify a Scout or a Deluxe class figure than it is a Titan, for example. Especially since I also collect a few other things, so that Transformer I'm only mildly interested in could be, say, a Figma I like the look of or one of the the Number 57 Manhunter model kits I just found out about recently.

3: Is it a character I don't have yet, is it a particular personal favourite character, and/or can I repurpose it as a different character in my collection? I generally try to have just one version of each character in my collection, and also to have different molds to a large extent. It's a loose rule but I find that having 'clone' characters like the Sweeps or Seekers using different molds from different series makes for a more interesting collection for me, as does having characters who were originally remolds of each other as different figures from different lines, e.g. a Thrilling 30 Trailbreaker and an Earthrise Hoist. There are exceptions for favourite or major characters, and there's nothing wrong with getting a cool-looking toy and using it as an updated version of an old Micromaster or whatever, but still...I don't have the space or the budget for collecting entire different lines of the same characters over and over again.

4: As part of the above, do I have a version of the mold already? As a general rule, if I've already got a version of a mold, unless it's an extensive remold then I'll try and get whatever character is being remolded as a something with a different engineering or transformation scheme. Part of the fun of Transformers for me is the engineering and design, and I'd rather have different puzzles to play with than the same ones repeated where possible.

It's not a strict system and definitely isn't for everyone, but I find this approach helps stop the collection from getting out of hand while providing maximum interest and variety for me. Every now and then a character gets an upgrade but for the most part if I'm buying a figure then it's one I like the design of and the collection has stayed reasonably constant over the years.

If I likes it I buys it. :)

I did admittedly go through an "addiction" phase in 2003-04 where I was buying a lot of stuff just for the sake of buying it rather than because I genuinely wanted it. Snapped out of it by 2005. But yeah, I generally look at buying toys that I would regret if I missed them. If not, then I don't.

Just one example, I'm skipping Legacy Skyquake. Nothing necessarily wrong with that toy per se, but it's just not my jam. Ditto Titan Class Cybertron Metroplex and Commander Class Armada Optimus Prime, which looks like an amazing figure, but it's just not one that appeals to me personally. These are toys that I'll likely enjoy for a few weeks or months and then get sick of them and look at selling them. So best to just not buy them in the first place.

I aim to buy for keeps, not to maintain a revolving door.

No particular rhyme or reason for me. Does it look cool? Is it something exciting? Is it an interesting toy (if a new character). I'm feeling pretty in for all the Legacy Junkions because I am going through a few years of a loving Mad Max phase. About the only things I blindly buy are Head/Target/Power Masters or Cosmos.

No matter how much I might like it, I will totally skip it if it's not a Pre-G1, G1, G2 or BW character in a Generations line. So Legacy, SS86, and some of the Bumblebee stuff. Even then though, I'm selective. For instance, I don't buy new G1 characters like the Legacy Junkions and I don't buy non-TV show characters from BW.

Seeing Hasbro put more AEC and Aligned products out is a bit of a relief. I can skip so much stuff now.

That said if they ever break out the original Animated moulds and do reissues I'll be buying some of them to complete my Animated collection. I'm very close to having the full set of Animated figures on my shelf, but I'm not willing to hit up the secondary market for them.

I've been trying to develop a set of guiding principles rather than rules, particularly now that I am married and my financial choices / space choices are not my own anymore.

I think the best description is to say it's like a set of AFL goal posts - there are the 6 point goals - the "definites" and 1 point behinds - the "nice to haves". Although I'm only a couple of months into this process so the category definitions are blurry atm - moreso examples of what I have decided are not part of what I am getting.

Some things I have decided are out are

• the recent WFC Studio Series line - I got the WFC and FOC when they first came out and actually trying to work out how many are still relevant to my collection
• Earthspark (in general) - I got Cyberverse Deluxes and a few of the out of the ordinary releases (like Iaconus) but really find I'm not going back to them the way I do with the Generations stuff so trying to limit. Although I am tempted to support the new characters - Twitch / Thrash etc, but holding off on that atm as I don't want to go down a rabbit hole.
• Legacy adaptations of non-G1 figures - eg Animated Prowl and Prime Arcee - interesting figures, but I feel like the "G1 filter" actually removes some of what made the original concept interesting. I did get Prime Arcee, however she somewhat sits at the periphery of what I have decided I like and so I'm not quick to follow with Animated Prowl (although G1 versions of these characters are kinda in - Legacy Bulkhead and Legacy Knock-Out are both figures I like, and I'm feeling somewhat partial to Skyquake)
• Any Generations items after Armada - I don't feel like the new versions of Cybertron toys have really added anything that was lacking in Cybertron or Energon

Some things that I have decided are in my nice to haves

• Legacy Skyquake
• Core Dinobots
• Masterpiece
• Large Repaints - Omega Sentinel, Black Zarak
• Studio Series Rise of the Beasts - I'm trying to pursue the Terrorcons and new Autobots, but beasts are on the lower end until I actually see the movie

Some things that are in my definites

• Modern G1 (including Diaclone repaints)
• Modern BW

I think it was easier when Transformers was a single line - you knew what was in and what was out, and there was only one version of the line that you either embraced or didn't. Not everyone liked the Prime aesthetic, but it was the main line and the only thing going really. It seems like that with the advent of Cyberverse there became two Transformer teams - the "kid team" - looking after Cyberverse and was that mainstream generation of TFs (now Earthspark and the RotB movie) - and the "fan team" - looking after Generations and "shelf worthy" figures, which in many ways has diluted the essence of what is supposed to be a Transformer - is it the playable action figure, or is it the display piece.

I think I "just buy stuff because its Transformers". Every year for most of my life new Transformers have come out and I enjoy seeing and trying out the new ones that look good. Sometimes they disappoint and I look to sell them on, sometimes I know at a glance they aren't going to be for me and don't buy (most Cyberverse and Earthspark toys most recently, but also Beast Hunters years ago, or Transmetal IIs decades ago). Some times the collection priorities change, I wanted a Diaclone-repaints shelf but on reappraisal of shelf space decided I don't really need it. Some of my purchases of exclusives are get it while you can and decide later. My collection goals at the moment are: the 1985 catalogue line up from WFC/Legacy/86 lines (so close); the 1984/85 Autobot Cars in Masterpiece format (also so close); and then just my favourite figures from the other lines.

Regarding No-transform / no-buy, I think I'm still scarred by buying a non-transforming Matchbox Voltron back in the 80s and being so upset it was just a statue. There are some good looking non-transforming things out there, but knowing any of those robots on my shelf can transform is what makes them special to me, and more appealing than the very few action figures (Marvel Legends).

As I'm getting older I'm getting more discerning, but I focus on characters above all else. Certain characters I buy everything for, certain characters I'm more inclined to purchase, and then there's those who just strike me as cool, and they get a buy.

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Originally Posted by JJJ

I am currently 41 toys away from my goal (213 toys in total), and it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that those remaining 41 might get a modern toy within the next couple of years (in fact, due to leaks of store inventory listings I know that a bunch are definitely coming this year and next). And for anyone wondering, no, it isn't just buying for the sake of ticking a box; I wanted, and still want, every single one of them.

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That's a pretty good goal. I hope you succeed especially since it means a few as yet updated characters will need to be made :)

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Originally Posted by Ode to a Grasshopper

It's not a strict system and definitely isn't for everyone, but I find this approach helps stop the collection from getting out of hand while providing maximum interest and variety for me. Every now and then a character gets an upgrade but for the most part if I'm buying a figure then it's one I like the design of and the collection has stayed reasonably constant over the years.

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Good rules, especially the first 2. As with all rules though... they're made to be broken.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

If I likes it I buys it. :)

I did admittedly go through an "addiction" phase in 2003-04 where I was buying a lot of stuff just for the sake of buying it rather than because I genuinely wanted it. Snapped out of it by 2005. But yeah, I generally look at buying toys that I would regret if I missed them. If not, then I don't.

Just one example, I'm skipping Legacy Skyquake. Nothing necessarily wrong with that toy per se, but it's just not my jam. Ditto Titan Class Cybertron Metroplex and Commander Class Armada Optimus Prime, which looks like an amazing figure, but it's just not one that appeals to me personally. These are toys that I'll likely enjoy for a few weeks or months and then get sick of them and look at selling them. So best to just not buy them in the first place.

I aim to buy for keeps, not to maintain a revolving door.

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That's interesting Gok, from the outside it would appear as though you grab everything. I suppose there's no avoiding something looking good and then being disappointed after it's opened and fiddled with.

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

About the only things I blindly buy are Head/Target/Power Masters or Cosmos.

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That Cosmos.. man, what a punish. I'm hoping he gets a wider release. I love the '86 Minibots and Beachcomber is my insta-grab.

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

Seeing Hasbro put more AEC and Aligned products out is a bit of a relief. I can skip so much stuff now.

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Yeah man, I hear ya but am concerned. I'd love them to release a bunch of characters that haven't had updates yet and I'm worried the longer we wait the more likely they are to never get made. Give it another year or two and we'll likely start getting the '84 cast again in with more AEC :(

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Originally Posted by Seraphim Prime

I think it was easier when Transformers was a single line - you knew what was in and what was out, and there was only one version of the line that you either embraced or didn't. Not everyone liked the Prime aesthetic, but it was the main line and the only thing going really. It seems like that with the advent of Cyberverse there became two Transformer teams - the "kid team" - looking after Cyberverse and was that mainstream generation of TFs (now Earthspark and the RotB movie) - and the "fan team" - looking after Generations and "shelf worthy" figures, which in many ways has diluted the essence of what is supposed to be a Transformer - is it the playable action figure, or is it the display piece.

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I agree and disagree. I feel having one line created issues like Animated getting cancelled early because they needed to move on to the next line. Having multiple lines allow the lines to continue if financially viable.

That said, my Wife now has no idea what to get if she want's to surprise me... which line, which version of which character, it can get confusing for someone not in the know.

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

Regarding No-transform / no-buy, I think I'm still scarred by buying a non-transforming Matchbox Voltron back in the 80s and being so upset it was just a statue. There are some good looking non-transforming things out there, but knowing any of those robots on my shelf can transform is what makes them special to me, and more appealing than the very few action figures (Marvel Legends).

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I think it's very different comparing non-Transformer action figures to Transformer action figures. Other figures are really competing with each other. Transformer Action Figures offer a point of difference in either looking like source material, or not needing to sacrifice aesthetics or articulation due to transofmation... That said, there is certainly some done better than others aaand transformable figures sure are getting better and better.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

If I likes it I buys it. :)

I did admittedly go through an "addiction" phase in 2003-04 where I was buying a lot of stuff just for the sake of buying it rather than because I genuinely wanted it. Snapped out of it by 2005. But yeah, I generally look at buying toys that I would regret if I missed them. If not, then I don't.

Just one example, I'm skipping Legacy Skyquake. Nothing necessarily wrong with that toy per se, but it's just not my jam. Ditto Titan Class Cybertron Metroplex and Commander Class Armada Optimus Prime, which looks like an amazing figure, but it's just not one that appeals to me personally. These are toys that I'll likely enjoy for a few weeks or months and then get sick of them and look at selling them. So best to just not buy them in the first place.

I aim to buy for keeps, not to maintain a revolving door.

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I am similar in my approach... I have missed a number of the Legacy Evolutions as well... even with the Amazon sale on now, I am not going to pick them up.

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Originally Posted by KELPIE

I suppose there's no avoiding something looking good and then being disappointed after it's opened and fiddled with.

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As experienced collectors, I find that we're usually pretty good judges of what toys will appeal to us and which ones won't. It's not often that we're wrong.
But sometimes things will surprise me, either in a good or bad way.

e.g. I thought that I would enjoy the non-Studio Series ROTB Airazor toy, so I bought it. I didn't like it, so I sold it.

I like to think I have a formula, but the the truth is probably closer to "I buy what I like".
My interests are G1, BW, BM, RID 2001 and Armada, so any CHUG updates of those are welcome. I try to tune out any of the newer series like Animated, Prime and Earthspark.

The one rule I definitely have is that I will buy any Masterpiece or CHUG Diaclone deco they do.