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.