I collect because quite frankly, nothing has ever had the impact that Transformers had on me...and for me, that's saying a lot. It's probably saying a lot for many of us that came up in the 80s. I have had extensive...extensive collections of Star Wars, G.I.Joe, M.A.S.K., Masters of the Universe, Inhumanoids, Air Raiders, Sky Commanders, Super Powers Collection, Secret Wars...I could go on. If it was out in the 80s I somehow got a hold of it...and lots of it. But when Transformers hit the scene, nothing was quite as desired as those loveable robots from Cybertron. In short, Hasbro's marketing was genius.
My current collecting is an evolutionary process. For me, I've had over the course of many years most of the G1 figures (many, two or three times over), I got into Beast Wars, had a significant number of those US and the Takara properties, Transformers 2000/RiD and something from pretty much every line outside of Energon (it was too kid-centric for me...so was RiD, but the toys...are glorious). Once the Classics line arrived, I jumped into that pretty seriously...I wasn't trying to be a completist, but I loved the updated Neo-G1 figures. G1 for...TODAY!! It has great appeal, like with IDW comics that has finally tapped into that full-bore with the cross marketing. Eventually, Takara released MP-10, and I resisted for a time, but once the line got some figures under it's belt (essentially, once MP-17 was announced) I decided I was going to collect Masterpiece.
Things have changed since my 20s and 30s. I had no kids, no wife and plenty of disposable income until my mid-30s. Now, I have less (for now) disposable income and 4 kids. To collect Masterpiece means to have to focus specifically on a certain thing. I simply cannot just go willy-nilly over the collecting world of Transformers. I have to get the most bang for the buck. Being 40 (41 next week) means I've transitioned to the point of true nostalgia...and true nostalgia means (for me) 1984-1988. But again, I've had all that stuff. So now, I've decided to get the "idealized" versions of those great, classic characters...how we wanted them to be when we were kids. I still like the Classics figures...I still have a couple left that I simply can't part with. But I have to focus. Setting aside the fact that I have a couple of figures I have to go back and get that are some of the most expensive figures available currently, I figure collecting Masterpiece will be "cheaper" over the long run than buying figure after figure from Classics/Generations even though I'm paying more per figure.
Anyway, it's pretty much nostalgia at this point.
![Very Happy :grin:](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I have a young son (2 next week), and I have collected all of the Transformers: Prime Cyberverse figures and will add the Robots in Disguise Legion Class figures to that for him...when he's old enough, which is probably about 4 years from now.
![Autobot :BOT:](./images/smilies/smiley-autobot.png)