Alright, serious answer.
After my last state to state move, I looked at a lot of what I had collected and felt an overwhelming burden radiating from it. Moving crate after crate x20 did a lot to make me see the mass of stuff I had.
I had to ask myself why I began, what drew me back in to the hobby.
The Armada Trilogy was a big deal. That and RiD were the things that sparked my imagination. They were the auto-include things. They would be kept.
Yet even there I found issues. I had bought the US and Japanese versions of almost everything in the Armada Trilogy. I like to see variation across time. The fact that I had two or three 18 gallon tubs of, lets be honest here, inferior US versions was a problem. I sold off what wasn't show accurate or wildly different.
Then I looked at the movie toys, of which I had a lot and said...I feel nothing about these. They were sold off entirely except for like...Voyager Ironhide and Longhaul. Instead of feeling sad about it, I felt a surge of cash that funded my purchases for the next six months.
Animated died an easy death and was sold.
Alternators died a very hard death. Though I've always kind of hated them, it took a huge effort to sell them. After a year and a few months, they all finally went.
(I actually sold my Beast Wars collection off about four years ago, but it was much the same as Alternators.)
G1 has been a point of difficulty for me. I love it, I had it as a kid, but there are times when I wonder if I want to continue collecting it. The problem for me is that right now I can enjoy several figures in place of one older figure for the price, so I continue to collect them, but very slowly.
So what do I still collect? Classics, Generations, whatever you like to call it. Creating a modern cast of G1 figures is the most fun thing I do with my figures. I've also really enjoyed collecting Prime as sort of a stylized line of figure. The new Masterpiece line has earned its title and I am all in for that.
So let's get down to it, what are my rules in this brave new collecting world?
1. G1 figures get bought 3-4 times a year when I find the right figures at the right prices in the right condition.
2. Movie toys are finished in my mind. It is a cash cow for Hasbro, but I have no connection to these characters and stories at all. They are impressive to see, but are otherwise disposable.
3. I do not buy junk toys for amusement. Legends are crap. Kreons are cute desk toys but they are not Transformers. Botshots are the same. This stuff is a distraction. Sure it costs only a few dollars, but when you've bought 50 of them, that's a lot of other stuff you could have bought.
4. I try to buy the Takara MP figures because they are usually better. The differences between the releases have become smaller over time, but they are still there. I have made a decision that MP figures will not be infringed upon by 3rd party stuff. No iGear seekers, no Quakewave, etc.
5. Classics is a place where I will pursue the best representation of a character regardless of cost or manufacturer. The point is to put together as good of a cast as I possibly can. Scale is a relative issue in all of this. When a character has multiple versions, I keep the best of them. Everything else gets sold.
6. Lastly, I am very skeptical of a lot of main line releases. I have a wait and see attitude that I never had before. Things like Beast Hunters get passed on until I know that the character is relevant and the toy is decent.
7. None of these rules apply if I feel like it.
That narrowed it down!
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