The Energon Pub

This is, very probably, a variation on a theme that has come up before both on the boards and during the Twincast Podcast - but I've been thinking about my own collection again,as I sort out what I want to keep and where I want it to go, and it made me wonder how other people see it.



With things such as impulse purchases, buyer's regret, completionism, stand-ins, debates over accuracy and so on, what is the underlying reason for anyone to be buying plastic action figures of robots that can be vehicles/animals and humanoids?

Do you rely on fiction to determine what you buy, or do you make up your own or even ignore any fiction altogether? Do you have a set goal you want to reach? Do you buy everything you can then skim the collection in time? Do you only go after one or two things because they look cool/fit in with a theme in your display area?

The question, I realise, can apply to any collecting habit, but being a Transformers fan, it made sense to pose it here first - and I'll start replying myself in the next post.

I am not entirely sure, is the short answer.

I've just counted the figures I currently have on display at my dad's place, in Italy (I currently live in the UK), and I have 50 in total, from movieverse, CHUG, Animated and Prime. Adding the ones visible in my flat in Norwich, I have maybe 60. Overall, probably less than 100, with almost half in boxes.

When I got back into collecting, I went a little overboard, and have been dialling it down since, selling figures, donating others, rearranging and distributing. But I haven't felt, in a long time, the real thrill of wanting a new toy in my hands.

Even during Auto Assembly, when I was fiddling with craggy's massive haul of robots, I enjoyed looking at them as a thing I never really wanted - I was happy enough with my one purchase of MP Ravage for the whole weekend!

In any case, I've noticed that for each shelf/theme/line, I only have what I consider to be the best representation of the character, and only for characters that somehow fit a sub-theme within that shelf. Example - Animated: initially, I wanted mostly Decepticons and Dinobots; then the Elite Guard figures appealed to me, so I thought, sure, why not. I realised that I wasn't really that big a fan after all, so I only kept three (Ultra Magnus, Voyager Optimus and Blurr). Decepticons are not the main cast, other than Shockwave, and Dinobots are still there.

Similarly for movieverse, I now have Leader Starscream, DotM Megatron and Shockwave, Guzzle, Hatchet, HA Jazz, Battle Blade Bumblebee, EM Optimus and the figure that made me come back, RotF Sideswipe.

(All of this can be seen in my collection thread.)

The comics, however, more than any other medium, are my big love for Transformers - and they seem to be dictating what I will buy in terms of toys. Windblade - an interpreter, in some sort of exile to a different but familiar culture, under the art of Sarah Stone - check.



Potentially Combiner Wars Prowl, after all the very nice development from John Barber, and the multitude of artists, from Andrew Griffith's bulky redesign, to Nick Roche's table-flipping jerk.



Also potentially MP Star Saber, because of the religious zealot in James Roberts' vision and Alex Milne's pencils.



But other than that - really not much else. I bought MP Soundwave because of IDW's RID 21-22, MP Ravage because of the same, plus *one panel* in the MTMTE Remain in Light arc. MP G2 Sideswipe, because it's so perfectly G2 comic it pains to grin that much.

And a lot of the money now goes towards more comics, more art and more questions about what I want to do with my beastformers and PCC adorkables.



So... what about others? Why do you collect?

Va'al wrote:This is, very probably, a variation on a theme that has come up before both on the boards and during the Twincast Podcast - but I've been thinking about my own collection again,as I sort out what I want to keep and where I want it to go, and it made me wonder how other people see it.

Why do you collect Transformers toys?

With things such as impulse purchases, buyer's regret, completionism, stand-ins, debates over accuracy and so on, what is the underlying reason for anyone to be buying plastic action figures of robots that can be vehicles/animals and humanoids?

Do you rely on fiction to determine what you buy, or do you make up your own or even ignore any fiction altogether? Do you have a set goal you want to reach? Do you buy everything you can then skim the collection in time? Do you only go after one or two things because they look cool/fit in with a theme in your display area?

The question, I realise, can apply to any collecting habit, but being a Transformers fan, it made sense to pose it here first - and I'll start replying myself in the next post.

They made a strong imprint on me waaaaaaaaaay bck during the G1 days. Never looked back since.

I collect whatever I like. If there's a toy I like, I'll pick it up. I really like a lot of the MP figures, and I'm just starting to get into some third party stuff. In the meantime, I'm happy with my selection of MP, Generations, Prime, Animated, FoC, and other miscellaneous toys. I don't have the largest collection but I do have what I like. I look forward to expanding it, though I'll never be a completionist.

I don't collect the comics per se... But I DO love reading them. I generally buy them on my tablet so I can read them anywhere.

Impulse buys... Generally if I buy a figure on impulse, it's one that I wanted to get anyway, and impulsively "pulled the trigger," so they don't bother me much! Interested to see everyone else's responses.

(pardon any typos. This was typed from my phone.)

fenrir72 wrote:They made a strong imprint on me waaaaaaaaaay bck during the G1 days. Never looked back since.

So is it the G1 fiction that spurs you on? Or your memory of the period?

Is it a type of nostalgia, a way of keeping alive the memory of what you enjoyed then, or something else?

ScoutBumblebee wrote:I collect whatever I like. If there's a toy I like, I'll pick it up. I really like a lot of the MP figures, and I'm just starting to get into some third party stuff. In the meantime, I'm happy with my selection of MP, Generations, Prime, Animated, FoC, and other miscellaneous toys.

But why those in particular? What is it in a figure that makes you like it to the point of spending money on it? With miscellaneous collections, it seems hard to pin down, no?


Another example: my PCC love, which is no secret. There is nothing, aesthetically, that makes them fit anywhere in my collection as it stands. But despite having them currently in a box due to books overtaking shelf-space, they are among the sections that I will never sell off. Despite space, despite their flaws, despite their dated gimmicks now that Combiner Wars is upon us.

It's a variety of things. For some, it may be that I like the character (Windblade is a good example for me, too.) For some, maybe I just like the aesthetic of the toy, and for others, it may be a highly enjoyable transformation. It's kind of funny, I guess it just comes down to, "I like that, for xyz reason. I'm buying it."

Heh, fair point.

Thought-experiment, though - if you were forced to resell some of them, which ones would you definitely keep? Would there be a set of criteria that applies to all, or a one-by-one case?

The G1 US Marvel comics made me a fan. I picked up issue #13, "Shooting Star," and have been a fan of G1 Megatron (and Megatron in general) ever since. I loved the stories and personalities invested in them, and when I started buying toys, I did so because I wanted those characters and personalities with me physically, not just some pieces of plastic sitting on my shelf. Given my initial like for G1 Megatron, I was not a fan of Optimus Prime at all. I became a fan when he acquired his Powermaster form in issue #42, "People Power," and became tougher in standing up to the Decepticons. He got my respect then, and thus I purchased my 1st 2 TFs ever, G1 Prowl and G1 Powermaster Prime. I no longer have Prowl, (broken in half) but I still have Powermaster Prime. And I will never call him God Ginrai, because I was raised on the comics, not the Japanese cartoons.

So to answer the question simply, the underlying reason for my toy collection was (and is) to have the characters whose universe I enjoy visiting even now here with me in physical form.

So a manifestation of the fictional universe portrayed in the comics, correct?

And does it still apply to the current lines and/or purchases?

Va'al wrote:So a manifestation of the fictional universe portrayed in the comics, correct?

Correct. I was born in 1982, and watched the original G1 cartoon when I was little, but I was too young to make any emotional investment in the characters so much so that I'd want the toys, and also we weren't "in the money" as the saying goes, so couldn't afford them anyway.

And does it still apply to the current lines and/or purchases?

No, it does not. I'm sad to say, I haven't seen a continuity with a good story worth emotionally investing in since Animated. That's the reason I have a lot of the Animated toys as well as the BotCon 2011 set, the only BotCon I've gone to. ReGeneration One got my hopes up, but it was clear about halfway through that Furman has long ago lost his touch and this was just a sad attempt at milking his former glory.

Any figures I still get (I still do buy some) are always representations of older characters, such as the MP line or, more recently, Generations Rhinox and Waspinator. The last "new" figure from a "new" continuity that I have purchased was AoE Galvatron, mostly because I really like how he looks in truck mode, and that is how he is displayed. Hopefully the next movie will give him a character worthy of the toy, but I doubt it.

That's a very interesting way of looking at it, actually.

I do enjoy how, with this type of franchise, you can get the same character show up in a variety of flavours, with different connotations and characteristics (generally speaking, though TFs tend to fall into patterns more often than not), therefore potentially appealing to different generations of collectors and fans.

Rhinox is a good point - I bought it not as much for the fiction behind the character, even though it was very well developed even in Beast Machines, but because I remember really liking the Beast Wars toy as a kid, and this one just looked better. The fact that it then also appeared in the IDWverse was a bonus, rather than an incentive.

Va'al wrote:I do enjoy how, with this type of franchise, you can get the same character show up in a variety of flavours, with different connotations and characteristics (generally speaking, though TFs tend to fall into patterns more often than not), therefore potentially appealing to different generations of collectors and fans.

There are 5 characters of whom I have bought the toy from almost every line: Optimus, Rodimus, Megatron, Grimlock, and Shockwave. I have more of these figures than any other figures combined, and it's due to the characters in the fiction, though having a toy looking badass (especially in Grimlock's and Shockwave's case) doesn't hurt.

Rhinox is a good point - I bought it not as much for the fiction behind the character, even though it was very well developed even in Beast Machines, but because I remember really liking the Beast Wars toy as a kid, and this one just looked better. The fact that it then also appeared in the IDWverse was a bonus, rather than an incentive.

For me, it's the exact opposite. I never had any Beast Wars toys, other than the original Primal and Megatron, and I bought both Generations Rhinox and Waspinator due to their characters in the series, especially their scene together where Rhinox blasts Waspinator into pieces with his Gatling guns. IIRC, they were also the only 2 characters to make it from beginning to end without changing physically. Now if we could get a Generations Beast Wars Inferno...

See, that's not something that I do intentionally.

There was another thread where I tried figuring out how many versions of the same character I have, and I think Optimus won in the end. Even though Soundwave is the character I prefer, fiction-wise, Optimus does tend to get a lot of plastic love.

It does give me the rule of not more than one version of the same character per line, though. Now that EMOP has arrived, I have boxed HftD Voyager OP.


Let's face it, you're so 2011.

Va'al wrote:See, that's not something that I do intentionally.

Neither do I, really. Those are just the characters I pay more attention to when the new toy line is revealed. I always think "OK, what will Optimus and Megatron look like? Will we get a Rodimus, Grimlock, and Shockwave?" Not every line has all 5, I don't think.

It does give me the rule of not more than one version of the same character per line, though.

I also have this rule. The only one ever to break it was deluxe DoTM Optimus. I have 3 versions of him, one that came with the trailer (thanks -Kanrabat-), the Lunar Fire version, which came with the big red gun which I promptly gave to my leader Class Sentinel Prime, and a Walmart-exclusive version which came with the gun/axe combo.

Let's face it, you're so 2011.

I was completely obsessed with Gobots, and then when I saw some of the Transformers line, I was completely hooked. It was later that I started to care about any of the fiction or lore. I still remember getting Optimus for christmas in 84 or 85. That memory is still clear as a bell even now. It was a huge deal to get that figure; he was expensive, and my parents didn't have much money then.

Great topic to explore Va'al. Before you read this, just note that a lot of it is written in my point of view as an 8-10 year old, and that I was that age in 1995 when Beast Wars came out:

At that age, I never understood why any child would ever buy a non transforming toy. I understood action figures, like Star Wars (though I wasnt into it much), but this was a time when toysrus and other toy shows would sell non posable dinosaurs and jungle animals. I guess you could play zoo with them. Or have your T-rex toy eat small Gi Joes. But come on, these animals and Dinosaurs (Megatron really impressed me as a child, it was nuts) can not only play in the zoo or munch on grocery store multicolored cowboys but they can also TRANSFORM INTO ACTION FIGURES. Why wouldnt you pick that better option to play it. Regardless of whether you preffer to keep it in a T-Rex mode, it's still 2 toys in 1. Think of the value. And plus, transforming them is another way to play with them. You can play with them in 3 ways: humanoid action figures fighting, beasts interacting amongst eachother or terrorising other action figures, or simply transforming them from one mode to the next.

As you will notice, I didnt use the word "robot" since I never got the robot aesthetic from beast wars. These were more like humanoid characters or beasts with human forms to them. Like a shape changer that just rearanged himself instead of actually morphing. I didnt really watch the show much, I just liked the toys.

I write this because, in truth, I still feel the same way now. Why car toys still sell is something I cannot understand. For the same amount, you can get your kid a car that becomes another figure. Dont think about it, just do it!
Although, as I mature, what I like best is the engineering behind these toys. I am so impressed that I can aquire them for the same price people buy star wars action figures. I love seeing the measures taken for a piece to mean something differently on a robot mode than on an alt mode. I love folding panels that help either beefing up something or making it sleeker. I really, really enjoy how simply gorgeous these toys are and fun. I mentioned there were 3 play patterns I saw as a child. Well, now that I am older, I dont feel like eanacting battles or making them fight one another, it's something I outgrew. But transforming them is still playing with them and it's something I find is fun for all ages, just like solving a puzzle. I love transforming without instructions. Those First Edition Prime figures were a real treat to discover that way.

PS: just to illustrate my point as an 8 year old

Which is better?



or





or

I only started collecting properly just over a year back when the wife and I went to Japan. I got lost looking in the multitude of toy stores there browsing the weird and wonderful. Whilst I was there I picked up the Takara FoC Combaticons, as I had just played the video games and loved the Combaticons from original TV series. It's why, even though he sucks compared to the new Combiner Wars line, FoC Bruticus holds a special place in my heart and I most likely won't replace him.

I then had the epiphany that I would start collecting and that my collection would be purely based on the idea that I want a full TF roster of all the characters from the G1 cartoon that I loved so much as a kid (and adult). I like collecting modern adaptations of them (mainly CHUG), and the odd Third Party that fits. I never got into Beast Wars, or anything that came after the G1 cartoon, including the Michael Bay films. Just not my cup of tea. However, I'm now into the IDW comics so, like Va'al, I'm finding myself influenced by that and picking up figures from the comics.

I knew nothing of characters like Jhiaxus and Waspinator previously, and even though they don't feature in the '80s series, I find myself compelled to make them a part of my collection as they appear in the comics. It's a weird amalgamation of 2 continuities, but at least the consistency exists in that IDW is a G1 reboot. It sounds weird, but I'm kind of collecting my own head-canon of characters and it's growing every time I'm introduced to a new one from the comics.

Why do I do it? Once I set my mind to something, I have to finish it. I'll keep going until I run out of characters to collect. Jesus, I'm making this sound like Pokemon now.

william-james88 wrote:Although, as I mature, what I like best is the engineering behind these toys. I am so impressed that I can acquire them for the same price people buy star wars action figures. I love seeing the measures taken for a piece to mean something differently on a robot mode than on an alt mode. I love folding panels that help either beefing up something or making it sleeker. I really, really enjoy how simply gorgeous these toys are and fun. I mentioned there were 3 play patterns I saw as a child. Well, now that I am older, I don't feel like enacting battles or making them fight one another, it's something I outgrew. But transforming them is still playing with them and it's something I find is fun for all ages, just like solving a puzzle. I love transforming without instructions. Those First Edition Prime figures were a real treat to discover that way.

Yes, indeed, another very good point! The engineering is something that draws me to the figures too, which is why EMOP has replaced BBOP on the shelf, for example (both very well done, but EMOP is just that much sleeker). Animated captured that sleekness perfectly, with either very little kibble, or atype of kibble that is part of the actual look of the character in the fiction that created them.

I have to say, while I do not have the PEWPEWPEW battles any more, I do like taking photos of figures in various poses, interactions, and even ran a photocomic for a while - which I will get back to, eventually - and I suppose that is a more non-kiddie way of playing with action figures.

It also helps in appreciating things like video and pictorial reviews of figures I will not purchase - being a big fan of visual and animated art, including comics, animation and photography, makes me appreciate the work that the photographer has done with the figures they own without provoking envy.

Syn_13 wrote:However, I'm now into the IDW comics so, like Va'al, I'm finding myself influenced by that and picking up figures from the comics.

I knew nothing of characters like Jhiaxus and Waspinator previously, and even though they don't feature in the '80s series, I find myself compelled to make them a part of my collection as they appear in the comics. It's a weird amalgamation of 2 continuities, but at least the consistency exists in that IDW is a G1 reboot. It sounds weird, but I'm kind of collecting my own head-canon of characters and it's growing every time I'm introduced to a new one from the comics.

Yep, the IDWverse has reignited the synthetic spark that was awkwardly struck by the Bayverse, for me in 2009. I find myself aligning characters more to their current IDW personalities or groupings, rather than others.

As for head-canon, or canon in general, it's not really a thing I follow. I admire continuity in fiction, but feel no need to impose that sort of order on the collection too.

I do have my own Nightmare Squad though..

Wow, what a question!
I think for me personally, I largely get figures because I see them as fun toys. If I think I'm going to enjoy transforming and posing a figure, chances are I'll (at least attempt to) pick it up.
That said, there are definitely some I choose to get for the character more so than the plastic itself- despite not being overly invested in the G1 comics or cartoon, being as they were before my time, there's a satisfaction in slowly filling out the ranks of "classics" characters on my shelf.
And then of course, there are a few impulse buys. Even if the figure itself is positively mediocre, I still enjoy opening one up for the first time, learning the ins and outs of how it transforms and so on. There have been times, for instance at comiccon on occasion, when I've resolved not to leave the place without getting something new! Though, like ScoutBumblebee mentions above, it tends to only be figures I already wanted to some extent anyway.
I think the thrill and discovery of something new is actually a pretty important factor, to the point that I've come close to being put off figures simply by watching too many reviews- it begins to feel like I've got it already!
So I guess there are actually quite a few different reasons- certainly more than I'd have thought before writing this

you seem like youre trying to get to the core of us va'al

my really deep answer:
watching the TF show and playing with the toys was a happy time. maybe one of the highlights of my childhood. i didnt have the greatest upbringing and have struggled with depression my whole adult life and i think collecting TF's is a way to "hold on" to those good times. (after a lot of work im quite stable and happy now by the way)

not so deep answer:
because theyre awesome! doesnt everyone have a little nostalgia bug creeping in their ear? not everyone collects things, but they must at least get excited when they see something they grew up with reborn or renewed for todays audiences.

what drew me into TF's as teen was BW and the suttle nods it had towards G1. i was all "OMG i remember that!". been a "collector" ever since.

Va'al wrote:It also helps in appreciating things like video and pictorial reviews of figures I will not purchase - being a big fan of visual and animated art, including comics, animation and photography, makes me appreciate the work that the photographer has done with the figures they own without provoking envy.

I fully agree with that. I also dont feel envy when its shown to me that way. I actually find Seibertron's photos very handy for finding poses I did not know I could do with my figures or how they should look in a specific mode.

shajaki wrote:you seem like youre trying to get to the core of us va'al

Part of the Sith in me.

(Yes, niche nerdy joke.)

my really deep answer:
watching the TF show and playing with the toys was a happy time. maybe one of the highlights of my childhood. i didnt have the greatest upbringing and have struggled with depression my whole adult life and i think collecting TF's is a way to "hold on" to those good times. (after a lot of work im quite stable and happy now by the way)

That's a great thing to hear, well done.

There is a correlation between some aspects of geek/nerd (I regard them as interchangeable) culture and some forms of non-neurotypical characteristics, though it keeps being offered as a derogatory aspect of fandoms. As far as I'm aware, and in my own experience, fandoms can be just as extreme as any other deep attachment to something, in all belief systems and prized possessions - and at the same time, be extremely helpful to relate to other people who share those beliefs and passions, even in the case of otherwise social or personal difficulties.

ArmadaPrime wrote:Wow, what a question!
I think for me personally, I largely get figures because I see them as fun toys. If I think I'm going to enjoy transforming and posing a figure, chances are I'll (at least attempt to) pick it up.

Yes! Poses are a great incentive to pick up a figure from the shelf, be it your own or a shop's (online or in person). But wouldn't you say that this applies to all action figures?

Why is it Transformers specifically, what is it in the aesthetic gain - not the cognitive one we experience in the puzzle-transformation - but the tactile, visual pleasure of shape-shifting robots over, say, a car by its own or a humanoid figure by itself?

Because consumeristic society has brainwashed me into hording cheap, useless materialistic hunks of plastic that'll eventually spend millenia in a landfill, never breaking down and returning to mother nature, after a brief tenure crowding my flimsy shelves.


Because I like 'interactive' things and robots/aliens/non-humans, and Transformers are both. Plus the sheer variety of alt modes is awesome; I wouldn't be anywhere near as interested if they were literally all cars or jets. And Kre-O (which is more of what I'm collecting these days) has the extra bonus of being easily customized.
The fact that a decent range of articulation is standard is also a nice bonus.

What I buy and who I like as characters tends to be two completely different things, oddly enough. Swerve is a far more interesting character than any of the Insecticons, yet I'll eagerly snap up the bugs and leave poor Swerve on the shelves. For whatever reason, my definition of "cool character design" never seems to match up with the writers'... but as someone who's favorite animal as a kid was the vulture, I've kinda grown used to that.


That, and I'm really trying not to buy every little thing that even vaguely catches my interest. I always ask myself "would I still like this if it wasn't for the bio?"

Noideaforaname wrote:Because consumeristic society has brainwashed me into hording cheap, useless materialistic hunks of plastic that'll eventually spend millenia in a landfill, never breaking down and returning to mother nature, after a brief tenure crowding my flimsy shelves.

Heh.

Accurately enough, this has been troubling me too. I try my best in regards to environmental issues, but still end up buying comics, books and.. lumps of solidified, refined dead dinosaur bones shaped like robots (makes it sound better, really).

I do think, actually, that this has become one of the reasons for the increase in control over my collecting habits, limiting it to things I really really *really* want. As you say:

That, and I'm really trying not to buy every little thing that even vaguely catches my interest. I always ask myself "would I still like this if it wasn't for the bio?"

..is a good question to ask. And that's where the fiction kicks in for me, be it the comic/film/cartoon or my own idea of the character.