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?