What rules do other people use when they catalouge their collections?

[Sharky]

There is always different way people count stuff for the most part i subscribe to the Sharky International Method of Counting.... i have lots and lots... other people may have just Lots or Lots more..(at the end of the day i don’t particularly care who has the bigger stick...i just enjoy looking at other collectors purdy collections) I don’t know an exact number count of my collection.

but in saying that I have always seen Headmasters powermaster, targetmasters, pretenders etc as one, as Nebulons shells etc in my eyes are an accessory needed to complete the figure.

metroplex scorponok and other bases i count as 1 just like the "masters" the included figures are accessories.

i count multiple figures as individuals as i am not counting characters. i own 6 G1 Optimus Primes therefore i have 6 figures.

I don’t count statues or merch like robot heroes/PVC, bottle caps or anything like that to me that is just merch and may have its own tally e.g 42 PVC figures......or 56 statues.....

i really think it doesnt matter how you count your collection as long as your happy with it people will always admire it.

[Trent]

Meh. Will never have enough to have these worries.

[SuspectimusPrime]

I agree with most of Goki's UCM as well, however if I ever get around to the mind numbing task of counting, I'd amend Article 1 , as I have a few unique CHMS KO's (Sunstorm and Decepticon Seeker Clones) and quite a few third party robots. These figures are all dear to me, and if it deserves a place on the Classics shelf, then it deserves a place in the count.

Meh. Will never have enough to have these worries.

That's what I thought too! But whenever non-TF friends ask, I do wish I had a straight off the top of my head number.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I agree with most of Goki's UCM as well, however if I ever get around to the mind numbing task of counting, I'd amend Article 1 , as I have a few unique CHMS KO's (Sunstorm and Decepticon Seeker Clones) and quite a few third party robots. These figures are all dear to me, and if it deserves a place on the Classics shelf, then it deserves a place in the count.

Yeah, I love my Quintesson Judge and Procecutor, if Hasbro wont make the figures we yearn for and someone else does we should be able to buy them and pop them in the count.

I live in fear of a fire, considering the hassle to get them cataloged, let alone replaced, a blaze would wipe out 28 years of love, sweat and bots The most RACV have said they would insure the collection for was for $10,000 which may replace a fraction of what I have, but so much is simply irriplaceable! Plus so, so much is no longer produced. Am having a kid and wanted to buy him his own Slumblebee and Softimus Prime and it was $90 the pair on ebay!!?!? Think I paid about $12 each in the shops 6 years ago

[LordCyrusOmega]

If the Actionmaster partners are just AI and don't count then it stands to reason that the Vehicons from Prime and the drones from Beast Machines who are also described as AI don't count.
I always read the Actionmaster partners bio as having personality so I think they count. Combiners with individual robot modes count individually but not their combined mode.
King posiedon (spelt right? probably not) from Masterforce was 4 drones and Turtler who combined so what does he count as?

[BigTransformerTrev]

I always read the Actionmaster partners bio as having personality so I think they count.

Yeah, thats pretty much the kind of thinking I've been using to catagorize my bots. Suppose it depends on the Action Master though.

*Push-Button (Mainframe's partner) definetly has a personality so I count him seperate.

*Jazz's turbo-board or Bumblebee's helicopter pack don't have personalities so I don't count them (actually come to think of it - I dont even have them lol)


I can understand Gok's point about the rules for collection comparison and discounting 3rd party products - especially if Hasbro has been involved in the discussion. Apparently Hasbro is giving strong consideration to banning all 3rd party products at Botcon next year! But as he and many of you have said, for our own personal collections, it's up to us

[theheretic]

It all seems really technical :-S Plushies count but mighty muggs don't? Only licensed items count too? Oh well. No pre transformers or go bots, even though the go bots where officially taken into the TF world as an alternate universe. Personally I feel as long as it transformers (and isnt a drone), licensed or not it counts, with the exception of cheap KO's.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Apparently Hasbro is giving strong consideration to banning all 3rd party products at Botcon next year! But as he and many of you have said, for our own personal collections, it's up to us

IIRC they banned them this year already.
I so want those Cassette-bot/con pillow cases.

[griffin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordCyrusOmega
I always read the Actionmaster partners bio as having personality so I think they count.

Yeah, thats pretty much the kind of thinking I've been using to catagorize my bots. Suppose it depends on the Action Master though.

*Push-Button (Mainframe's partner) definetly has a personality so I count him seperate.

*Jazz's turbo-board or Bumblebee's helicopter pack don't have personalities so I don't count them (actually come to think of it - I dont even have them lol)

That was my first counting method, but as the collection grew, there were too many contradictions... so eventually went with a method that went closer to how they were sold, or more accurately, how I'd buy them (or sell them).
Take the Actionmasters. At first I was counting their partners too (if they were sentient), but then I realised, if I had Treadshot & Catgut, would I sell them separately... or more importantly, would I buy Treadshot without Catgut. If I couldn't answer yes to those questions on anything in my collection, it couldn't count as a separate figure.
It did mean "losing" a couple hundred in my count, but since then, it has been easy to keep count.... to keep track of how many I get each year (to compare years or break records).

[GoktimusPrime]

Article01 is based on the 'legal' or 'technical' definition of a Transformer product would be any product manufactured and marketed by Hasbro or Takara(TOMY), or manufactured by another party but under licence from Hasbro or Takara(TOMY) and explicitly sold as part of Hasbro's/Takara(TOMY)'s Transformers franchise/brand.

That's not to say that third party or pre-Transformers etc. stuff isn't cool, but simply that these toys just aren't part of the official Transformers brand. I used to have a Macross Valkyrie VF-1S from the 1980s (preTF Jetfire). It was a cool toy - every bit as cool as Jetfire - but it's just not a Transformer. The UCM was devised for counting toys of the Transformers brand, not simply transforming robot toys. If we were to allow that, then people could start counting all their Macross Valkyries, Go-Bots etc. as part of their "Transformers" collection, which would skew the results when comparing them with other people who only collect Transformers.

Remember that the core purpose of the UCM was to allow for comparative results, especially for the purposes of the annual survey project. Outside of this context, you can amend the UCM or use an entirely different counting method to your heart's content. If you want to have a "Transforming Robot toy collection count" instead of just a "Transformers(TM)" collection count, then go for it. Unless you intend to compare your count with someone else's, it really doesn't matter how you count your toys. I personally like to make my collection count number comparable, so I use UCM. Unless someone is using the same counting method as you, no two collectors can really accurately compare their collection counts. Some collectors don't care (like Sharky ), and that's fine. I like to have a comparable collection count, so I use the UCM -- but that's me.