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I have been struggling with this though over the last couple of weeks.

First off, my favorite characters can almost all be summed up by Season 1. I have always had, and will always have a greater fondness for those figures.

My original collection was primarily just those, my favorited, and they looked damn nice on their display shelves. I could jsut sit there and stare at them, and they never disapointed.

As my collection had grown and grown and grown, it has become, I think, less enjoyable to me, as figures that I have just for completeness seem to detract from the ones I love. My shelves no longer look so good. I think the closest comparison I can make is this. There is a Ferrari in a parking lot. If you see it between all the other cars, it immediately jumps out at ya and just looks gorgeous. However, you see a parking lot full of Ferraris, and the first thought is WOW!! I think my collection has lost that wow factor as the wow figures have become diluted by the not so wows.

I think you must see where I am going with this. Well, for those of you wth OCD, maybe not.

So, I was wondering if anyone else has had similar thoughts.

I recently had the same thoughts. And I began to think the smaller the collection, the more pleasing to the eye it becomes.

For example, my favorite characters right are Batman, Daredevil, and Spidey. Fortunately, they've made some great figures of them. It would look cool if my shelf were just those 3. But now that I have dozens of figures, they get lost in the shuffle.

well the time you take to claen and assemble them takes less

The best collection is the one that YOU enjoy.

Due to lack of space I don't have much on display, but then i've seen pictures of other collections where a room has been filled from floor to ceiling with TF's, and frankly, it doesn't do much for me.

Sure my jaw drops at first but then I realise that they're just sitting there not really doing anything.

At least with my lack of space I move things around, differnet poses, heck, different lines all together. Things get played with every now and then.

It probably is better having a small collection which you can enjoy, yet it doesn't stop me from having so damn many I forget who I have.

I have somewhere around 200 now, ranging from brandspanking new and/or in perfect condition to chuffing acient and/or played to peices. I am pretty much reaching the maximum I can display without getting special furniture for em or putting a million shelves on the wall.

Yeah, Im starting to miss the days when I could fit my entrie collection on the board that now houses my classics, RMs and a couple of large G1s.

On the other hand, I must have at least half of cyb/gf, and there are very few of those that I would happily part with. Like any collector, I sometimes buy em cuase they're there, but as I've learnt more about tfs, Ive learnt to spot signs that I wont like a fig before I buy it, and I have never been a completeist anyway. At least three quarters of my collection are tfs that I actully wanted. and of the other quarter, only a handful are ones that I actully wish I hadnt bought.

Short of a disaster, I cant see my collection getting smaller, and as fustrating as it is to have to squeeze em all together, I know it wont stop me buying more.

I have a lot of figures, but don't display them all at once. It is just too much.

I have two glass display shelves that are pretty full right now, which means it is time to rotate my display again.

I like to pose mine in story related diorama scenes. Often battles.

About 10 years ago, I had a ridiculous sized toy collection...about six hundred TF's and well over a thousand Star Wars figs & vehicles. And while it was neat for a little while, it became such a chore (and a money pit) that I sold off everything.

When I finally got back in last fall, I decided to keep it small, and not be a completionist anymore. There are figures I wish I still had (Metroplex, Omega Supreme), figures I've replaced (Soundwave, the Dinobots) and figures I don't ever need to have again (Fort Max). I'm already teetering on 100 bots, and my office is starting to look cluttered, so I think I'm going to cull the herd again very soon.

The floor-to-ceiling toy rooms don't do anything for me anymore. I'd rather have a select few figures that I actually enjoy playing with, posing, or have a fond memory of, than have a bunch of statues standing in ranks that no one (including myself) can appreciate.

I am starting to feel my collection is getting a bit overboard.

I started a little over a month ago out of the blue. I hadn't had any for 13 years (age 14) when my mom tossed mine out because "i was too big for them and they were taking up room in the closet" (thanks mom! ). I have around 50 figures consisting of 3 original G1, all the classics, 6 unopened classics Magnus/Skywarp, 7 other unopened (my friend is sending me a starscream he found at a local walmart today), the 12" prime, 7 commemorative, hybrid ths 02 convoy, and like another 10 on the way. Not to mention I have 14 guitars on the wall and 3 amps. I spend waaaay too much on silly toys.

I am starting to agree. I used ot never get repaints and only got figures I really thought looked good. Now I just by everything and as soon as I get a figure, I open it, look at it, put it back in the box, wrap it with bubble wrap, and put it in storage. I personally see collecting by the mold (no repaints) or maybe focusing on a specific character is the way to go.

I used to collect everything; all molds, all repaints, you name it. The Transformer that finally broke me was BW Bonecrusher (I think that's his name), the buffalo guy. I bought that fig, got it home, ripped it open and was like..."I just bought a robot buffalo." His robot head is, what, four inches long and has the personality of a blow-up doll? I couldn't stand that guy. I looked at my collection and realized how many bots I had transformed one time, or worse, how many figures I didn't even like. The list of attrocious Star Wars figures would fill the page. Three months later, I was selling out.

So, I had to promise myself, when I got back in, to only get the figures I truly enjoyed. So far, so good. Almost. (looks very hard at Titanium Scourge)

GetterDragun wrote:I personally see collecting by the mold (no repaints) or maybe focusing on a specific character is the way to go.

That's pretty much the path I took half way through Energon. I had the whole "completionist" thing with Armada and was going the same way with Energon, but then they put out repaints like Energon Ironhide and I told myself that the mold sucked the first time around and repainting it won't make a difference.

So after that I adopted a mold completionist attitude. Unfortunately with Cybertron the damn repaints (Cannonball, Excillion) turned out to be as good as the first releases so I ended up getting nearly all of Cybertron in the end because I couldn't say no to the spiffy repaints.

Asderiphel wrote:I used to collect everything; all molds, all repaints, you name it. The Transformer that finally broke me was BW Bonecrusher (I think that's his name), the buffalo guy. I bought that fig, got it home, ripped it open and was like..."I just bought a robot buffalo." His robot head is, what, four inches long and has the personality of a blow-up doll? I couldn't stand that guy. I looked at my collection and realized how many bots I had transformed one time, or worse, how many figures I didn't even like. The list of attrocious Star Wars figures would fill the page. Three months later, I was selling out.

So, I had to promise myself, when I got back in, to only get the figures I truly enjoyed. So far, so good. Almost. (looks very hard at Titanium Scourge)

LOL, great post.

I agree. As jaw dropping as the wall to wall TFs is, I don't believe that that is for me. However, I am fast approaching that point, and I do not like it.

However, it is very hard to sell off figures that I have spent so much time locating, cleaning etc. I think I have come up with a good solid idea though.

G1, series 1-4. 5-7 are questionable.
Classics and figures from other lines htat "fit" with them.
Alts./BT/Kiss
MPs

Just remember, there can be a difference between how many you own and how many you display.

I have about 60 figures all up. that includes tiny things like micromasters, minibots and tiny KO combiners.
I've tried to collect only figures that I have a real interest in. Mostly G1 homages.
I display the tiny bots on my computer desk, and there are two shelves of a bookcase containing the others. One shelf for Autobots and one for Decepticons.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:Just remember, there can be a difference between how many you own and how many you display.

True, but I just don't fit in that camp anymore. I'm of the belief that you make room for the things you truly value, and the rest fall to the wayside. My collecting goal is to have a group of bots I like having on display all the time, and leave it at that.

There are some people who have cycles of displays, like an art gallery, and I think that is awesome (ahh, Transmetal month), but if there's a figure you own that never makes it out onto the shelf, it's a pretty good bet he needs a new home.

Burn wrote:The best collection is the one that YOU enjoy.

I completely agree. Large or small your collection can be a burdon or your pride and joy, but it is what you make it

Lapse Of Reason wrote:Just remember, there can be a difference between how many you own and how many you display.

Indeed. This tends to be where I fit in. I have somehwere over 500 figures....maybe over 600 by now I haven't counted in a while....but I think the trick it to set up smaller displays featuring the figures you think are really awsome, & some others that are just to display the vastenss of your collection(or store them untill you want to display them later, as an alternative). For example:

one shelf...I have all of the Cybertron leader key holders(Scourge, Override, Evac, & Metroplex).

On another shelf, my 10th ann BW figures, with a few others thrown in, such as TM Megs & Universe Deapthcharge.

On my big shelf, I have a vareity of figures including all of my Alternators, Robot Masters, & a spattering of Armada/Energon/Cybertron figures.

Sitting on my TV, Unicron & Primus,

& above that on the top shelf of my entertainment center, my 5 large Primes (all the MP versions minus MP4, PM Prime w/Apex, & Star COnvoy), MP Starscream, & then a boxed New years Convoy, Megs, & an E-hobby Orion Pax.

But yeah....lots of displays, but not a lot to any particular one, aside from the big shelf, & a lot of others are in plastic bins in my closet.

From time to time, though, I do kinda think of holding back & not getting so many, & trying to get only the figures I really want, but then a crapload of stuff comes out that I really, really want, & the cycle starts over again. Sigh.

I don't plan on selling any of them, though. I thought about doing that a few years ago, & just keeping the ones I really, really, really wanted....even had all the figures back in their boxes ready to sell on Ebay....but before I did, I came to my senses, removed them, & burned all the boxes, because I came to the realization that if I did get rid of them, I'd just want it later & spend that much more to get something I could have already had.

I love my toys. *sniff*

Ya, I have never really understood the completist mentality, or pocketbook.

I only buy the figures I like, unless they go on a sale or are for kitbashing into something else, that is my weak spot buying figures for things then ultimately never finishing them.

As far as G1, I am always cautious about buying fantastic pieces for price reasons and stick to the normal grade of figures I have the feeling that if things survived mint in the box or out this long I do not want to be the one that accidentally breaks it or opens it.

I got over the MIB craze way back when I was into Star Wars, that is a space waster.

Also, I have not finished stickereing my Computron to actually display him.

I bought a large flat entertainment center for a big screen that I use to display I have had bad experience with shelves and especially the wooden board and bracketed ones, with my thing I can cycle out figures into the lower drawers and still have a sizeable collection without it being junked up.

This pic for me, captures why I love The Transformers. I have it as my wallpaper at work and at home. I dont know. Sometimes I wonder if the rest of my collection is some version of OCD.

I do agree that the figures I love would never go "off" display.

Oh, and I must add WST to the keepers list. I love theose little buggers.

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I have a relatively small amount on display. A few Alts, 20th Prime, MP 03, Anime Galvatron, Micron Tidal Wave and 2 classics. I keep those guys out permanantly because I love them. Their molds and the characters. I don't have any repaints and I don't intend to get any. The only others I'm after is MP05 and classics/G1 Soundwave.

Saying that, I have quite a few BW guys and the odd G2 guy lurking in the cupboard. Occasionally, I'll get one out and start fiddling wiith him, leaving him out for a few days, but that makes too much of a crush on the shelf and they ultimately have to go back into storage. But I agree in that a smaller collection can look alot more impressive than a room full of stuff.

Well I HAD a smaller collection and used to buy only the figures I liked but somehow I'm deep in the throughes of plastic addiction and really try to finish sets now. I like to make displays of sets. Right now my favorite is the Classics with a few Cybertron and Energon figures mixed in to represent undone G1 characters.

I hated the movie characters but now looking at the figures I'm finding I may get one of the right scales to make a movie display.

its how it all starts, you only want to get just one, then one more...then another...