It depends what you're looking for in a toy.

The movie toys generally have the most realistic alt modes of all three styles, and the most complex transformations. The robot modes generally look distinctly alien and pointy. This style is my preference for the whole package - I love transformers that have realistic alt modes, the general complexity, and alien aesthetic of the line. Some of the highlights are especially the non movie characters.

The animated toys are on the whole quite screen accurate to their designs. They're quite poseable and have bags of character due to the small touches on their robot mode (Swindle for example having a bolo tie and formal shoes/boots). Something that they share with the movie toys, that I find somewhat annoying, is the use of fake vehicle mode parts on the robot mode. Also somewhat of a weakness is that there are no non show character molds (Oil Slick is the only one that was designed as a non show character, but was then incorporated into the show).

The Classics and Universe figures are the best if you're trying to recapture G1. The alt modes sometimes aren't the best (Cyclonus, Dinobot) but they're generally good homages.