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I started collecting back in '07 with Classics, although it may have been close to '08, because it wasn't easy finding them in stores. I never had many TF as a kid because my parents didn't have a ton of money to spend on toys.
Classics led me to Henkei... Around that time, I started buying two of quite a few figures... Later I sold a lot of the opened ones but held on to everything that was still MISP.
Fansproject turned me onto City Commander, and after that, I did buy a handful of 3P's.

When the '07 movie came out, I went a bit crazy... I didn't buy everything, but I bought a whole lot... I'm sure I had over 75% of that line. After figuring out I wasn't even a huge fan, I sold all of those. Unfortunately my cravings were reignited with the Animated line. I was one who liked the aesthetic. Bought a ton of those... Then sold almost all of them. I only have a couple left.

Universe and Generations had me back at it, although I slowed down and only bought what I really liked, based on character as well as appearance.
My love of combiners had me absolutely stoked about CW and UW... Even bought a handful of add-on kits (which those taller feet really help the overall look of a combiner's proportions).
Of course, all of that was a decent chunk of money.
It was during that time that I decided I would commit to only buying figures I was really stoked about... Anything that I felt 'meh' about I would pass on, unless I was able to find it on a great sale. Even then, a lot of times I could pass.
I get buyer's remorse really really easily. Not to mention, with a kid, there's plenty of other stuff to buy. Hell, there's other stuff I want to buy...

I've always focused my collection on G1... And for what feels like a while now, I've even scaled-back to where I'm mainly focusing on Decepticon characters. But even with that limitation, I don't think I bought one PotP figure... I'm still even surprised I never bought Predaking... I just wan't stoked about how he looked.

And that's really what tops my "want criteria" now-- appearance and likeness.
Which is the main reason I have MP Soundwave, Megatron (newer version), and Shockwave.

Yeah, space is a bit of an issue for me, including the fact that I don't want TF all over the place.
I'm going to move in the next 6-9 months, and if anything, I'll display even less.
Right now my spare bedroom is a display case in itself... Between Lego, Funko, Neca Aliens, and TF, it's literally 9 shelves of just stuff. Sure, my kid and I are cool with it now, but we'll scale it down even more in our new house.

Probably even more than space, I'm finding it more and more difficult to justify large portions of $$$ on these toys.
It doesn't matter to me what costs of manufacturing are at present; I'm not dropping $21 on a scout-class-sized figure like ER Cliffjumper.

And there's something really nice about having such a limited scope for collecting...
Really the only "issue" are times where I have to have patience in waiting for figures to be released... But in the grand scheme, this whole thing of collecting is such a privilege and "icing" type of thing. I enjoy it for what it is and how I do it.

I didn't have many as a kid, same reasons (too expensive), but I did have grandparents that spoiled me, so i did have a couple of the "BIGS" like Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus. Just after I graduated form Highschool, I was feeling nostalgic, and was attending conventions prior to the Internet becoming what it is now. In the brief "lull" between G2 and BW, I found myself starting to build a serious collection since now I was an adult with money, or so I thought . It built up, ,mostly original series, with some BW, RiD, and Armada sprinkled in until 2007 when i had to sell it all to support my then expanding family.

I swore Id never go back, but as my son grew I gave him a couple random toys here and there ( some animated, some movie, mostly lower end stuff). T30 Metroplex was the first time I was really tempted to jump back in, but thinking it was a one-off I resisted. But CW pulled me back in full, and since 2016 I've been fully back into generations, with my son, loving the experience.

Somewhat amazed there are no lifers in this thread, or at least lifers circa 1984.

I have been in love with the very concept of Transformers since 1984. If Star Wars and G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero! were life changers, Transformers for whatever reason was the ultimate in that regard. From the initial Marvel Comics commercial to the toyline advertisements, Hasbro had a genius marketing campaign that cut right to the heart of me and kids all over the world just like me.

I've been collecting Transformers since the initial line, in 1984, starting with Soundwave. My mom was opposed to buying me a Megatron, and we had budgets, so it took a long time before I got an Optimus Prime...like 1988, but I had many others along the way - and along with the kids I played with in my neighborhood, virtually everything from 1984-1985. When I was a kid, though, I couldn't have everything with three sisters.

As adulthood set in, I started getting back into it around 1997 when I was in Pittsburgh, PA. I was able to get my hands on pretty much any G1 Transformer you could name, sometimes with the box or even unopened. This was right before the nostalgia wave hit. I amassed a dream collection of G1 Transformers including Fortress Maximus that was beyond anything I could have imagined as a kid. Being a broke college student, I ended up having to sell that collection, only to rebuild it to a lesser degree after that. Some of those pieces I still have, but they're boxed away and it's nothing spectacular.

2000 rolls around, and Car Robots comes out just as I return home from Pittsburgh with a shiny new high paying job. So, in 2000 I bought an entire collection (well, most of it anyway) of Car Robots over the mail, piece by piece. Then Hasbro released them (albeit less quality) in 2001, and I had the first opportunity to have a Robot Mode/ Alt Mode displayed collection, and I took it. Also, Heroes of Cybertron starting coming out (the Japanese blind ones in 2000) and the first repros started to hit. Personal opinion: Repros destroyed vintage Transformers collecting. Because I either had, or once owned 85% of American G1, I never had any interest in the old stuff being rehashed via reproduction, I always wanted new stuff based on current engineering. Yes. The old, classic characters, updated for modern audiences.

In 2002 I would get my wish with Transformers Classics. I got all the first run and started cherrypicking the second (I did not get Galvatron, and there were weird new characters I didn't buy although they were cool - Dropshot springs to mind, but he wasn't the only one) and subsequent runs, but I ended up with a pretty large CHUG collection by 2010.

Takara revealed MP-10 Convoy and introduced the idea of scale into the Masterpiece line and unlike the guy who's signature says "not caring about scale since 1984 - just like Hasbro", they had me at "scale". It had never been done before - not really. We could argue there is some sense of scale in CHUG, but not a direct mandate. I loved the idea of having a bunch of staggered figures on my shelf that approximated an appropriate look in terms of size, and I was looking to SAVE money, because I was buying 70% of whatever Hasbro was making for CHUG. Based on the release cycle of MAsterpiece at the time, one quarterly plus whatever convention figure, I determined I could spend less money on Transformers overall, and get a really nice (actually superb) collection to display by getting hero versions of my favorite characters. Pre-MP 20, you could get deals on Masterpiece figures, not paying full price for non-knockoff versions. So I did where I could, but this was well after I started collecting in earnest. However, like many of us, I can't do things halfway, so my Masterpiece collection got out of hand.

Backing up a bit, to finance my Masterpiece collection along with paying some bills that got behind, I sold off my CHUG, Car Robots and Beast Wars to make all that happen. I don't regret doing it. I was upgrading and being financially responsible even - however, Takara eventually started to outstrip the release cycle, and I was still the same Transformers addict I'd been since I was a kid, so it spiralled out of control. That's not to say I don't miss MANY of those toys I sold to get the Masterpiece figures.

I ended up selling about 60% of my Masterpiece figures a few years later, around MP-40's release to pay bills again, and of course, Generations was getting better and better over the years. I still kept up with what was coming out, and even bought a few along the way (Thrilling 30 Springer, CW Ultra Magnus, Titans Return Galvatron, PotP Optimus Prime and Jazz). I should mention I was buying Cyberverse version of Transformers prime and Robots in Disguise guys with the eventual intent on passing them to my son, but I never did. They're all sitting in a box. Should probably do something about that.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does my shelf, so when Hasbro announced WFC: Siege, stated they were going back to Cybertron, it was a trilogy, and they were going to scale the figures, I saw the opportunity to get a line with a finite release. Hasbro of course managed to put out 50+ figures for Siege alone and I bought almost all of them (of course). I'm trying to be a bit more selective with Earthrise, but - I'm really not. Now, I even have to buy some of them twice, because my 7 year old son wants them now, too. Fun times.

Yeah selecting between hobbies, buying personal needs and paying bills is a real hassle when you have to limit what you own or sell things just to meet ends.

I stick to manageable lines figures that i won't regret like voyager siege optimus prime. I don't keep them in boxes either so i avoiding expensive stuff like Masterpiece or importing is something that has to be factored in. Luckily i live in early 30's with parents but moving out might be a rough.

Counterpunch wrote:How have your habits with your collection evolved, especially with the line-wide changes of the past few years?

I grew up during the G1 era and have many of my original figures however come high school and Military service I fell out of it.

Enter the 2007 movie I fell back into it. Literally, fell into collecting again buying whatever I could afford and find. Movie figures, Classics, Holes in my G1 collection. I learned the name for my style was a completest and I continued this way through the Hunt for the Decepticons after the 2009 ROTF movie.

During ROTF they pumped out all kinds of repaints and re-decos of previous lines which didn’t fit the movie aesthetics in my opinion, especially in the scout class size which is the first of two times in my collecting I really stopped and kind of set a goal with collecting. I realized being a completest isn’t realistic (for me) as space isn’t infinite and it seemed like a waste of money in the overall grand scheme of things. How many Bumblebees do I really honestly need? How many Movie Primes before it becomes out of control. The fact that every movie Megatron had a different look didn’t help but I didn’t hate it. Every new release had a slightly different gimmick that trumped the previous. I shifted my collecting to the best version and run with it. To date I’ve settled on Battle blades Prime, Calibur Optimus, and Studio Series Prime but bailed on the rest and similar with all the other figures. If the transformer had a studio series release I’ve pretty much put the predecessor up for sale. One good representation of the figure. (helps with my other collections space wise like Star Wars, Mavel, NECA, Etc) If they had different looks in the movie I will entertain the idea of keeping multiple versions but it isn’t a deal breaker to only have one version if I feel the other isn’t as good (example SS Dropkick Helo mode I passed).

Classics was not much different but it took a while to realize. They did not have as many releases back then due to the movie figures so it took me longer to start being picky with this branch of transformers. So from the Classics 06-07 all the way through thrilling 30 at 30 I just kind of jumped on almost everything.

I think a lot of us fall into the trap of gimmicks with collecting. Same figure, different box art. (SW fans are falling into this now). Adding a comic book had me pick up a second Drag Strip and a Megatron I didn’t really want. Upsizing a figure that really doesn’t add anything other than being a size larger. Heck, I bought jungle bonecrusher just because of the BIO on the back of the box…..

With the Combiner Wars line came my second time I really stepped back and took stock in my collection and what Hasbro was doing every year. This was probably the best point for me in collecting both in my wallet and for my overall goals. I realized Hasbro consistently releases the same major figures time and again with each new line so I didn’t need to jump on every figure. Every Line they do has an Optimus, Megatron, Starscream, Bumblebee and a select few others consistently. So I started focusing on the lesser done figures knowing we probably won’t see them again anytime soon and really only grabbed the more premiere figure (Prime, Megs, Bee, SS, Etc…) if it really trumped the previous version. This made CW Prime, & CW seekers easy passes but CW Megs was in my opinion a great figure worth getting.

To date I am slowly right sizing my collection both Movie and CHUG line side by side.

One really good representation of the character is ideal for my collection. If the new figure doesn’t trump the current figure I have zero regrets passing on it.

I try not to get wrapped up in little gimmicks with a figure that honestly doesn’t improve the figure.

I do see an end to major collecting once this next series is over and then really only get a new figure if it is just greatly better but otherwise I am really looking forward to kind of just being satisfied and finished for the most part. Before CW I was getting 100% of the series, and since CW it’s been about 50-70% of the series. Getting to a place where I can say I really, only want 10-20% of an entire series would be great. I feel this next series after Earthrise will bring me to that point.

sol magnus wrote:Somewhat amazed there are no lifers in this thread, or at least lifers circa 1984.

Oh I've been around since day 1. I remember April 84, seeing the first animated commercial for the Marvel Comic. All the scuttlebutt on the Playground the next day (I was in 2nd grade), was - "Did you see Marvel is Copying GoBots" .

I've always been around. Just because I didn't purchase any toys from 2006-2016, doesn't mean I wasn't involved. I went to 2 Botcons during that time (2011 in Burbank and 2013 in San Diego), and was following the various animated series, comics, and the live-action films.

It's just that there has been a shift. since Prime went off the air, my interest in the successive animated series has dwindled, interest in the comics has died, and interest in
the toys has increased to fill the void the other 2 left.