Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:TL;DR, Not into 99% of the Masterpiece figures, but 100% into Masterpiece Beast Wars Predacons.
Hey, man. Collecting has no rules. Only rules are the ones we give ourselves.
My rules on Masterpiece changed many times based on a few things. At first, I only wanted to get my favorite characters and the ones I had as a kid (as for some reason I just always like to get those figures in any line that I collect) - but when I say "had as a kid", it doesn't mean all of them - it means any of the ones my mom got me. AND those aren't my favorite characters in most cases. I got many of them over the years through buying and trading. Soundwave was my first ever, my mom bought him and is one of my favorites. Ultra Magnus is another. Others, like Trailbreaker, Bumblebee, Tracks, Inferno, Rodimus Prime and a few others are characters my mom bought, but they're not in my 'favorites' list.
In any event, the list would expand for whatever Takara was doing. I've always loved the Datsun 280zx and Prowl, and at that time you could get deals on Masterpiece figures so I got Silverstreak because I paid like 40 bucks for him from Alibaba. And he wasn't a KO. I got Smokescreen and Red Alert the same way. After a time, that went away. Then I sold off all of my Beast Wars/Car Robots/CHUG figures to finance a true Masterpiece collection, figuring I wouldn't need any other versions of those characters, and would eventually (but not this eventually - figured I would be done by now) have a complete 1984 cast at the rate they were going, but it stalled and they started making Optimus Primals. Wonderful figure, but not my target collectible. They had already begun the cartoon accuracy stuff as well as the + line and I was never overly concerned with screen accuracy and had all the base figures. I like the in-between accuracy better overall - mainly because you'd then have to mix them together. Anyway, the sale of my older Transformers that were all boxed up financed a lot of go backs, like Starscream and I got Skywarp, Thrust et all off of that money but I also got all the diaclones up to that point, too - and they were never really part of the equation. My collection was sprawling.
Then, I had some financial troubles and the figures were getting more expensive by the release and I had to sell off many of those to keep afloat. It saddened me, but hey - Siege was coming out, and I certainly wasn't about to stop collecting Transformers. I suppose at some point I will have to, but I don't know how to. I've been doing it for 60% of my life.
I'm rambling, but the rules change for the situation. I can tell you selling my Masterpiece figures hurt, and at one point I definitely planned to get them all back. I've modified that, now. I will get some of them back. If I keep my collection to 1984 and 'favorites' I would only need to purchase / repurchase about 10 figures. And even though the market for resale of Masterpiece figures now sucks, I can probably use some of the ones I got when I overreached but didn't sell towards those.
Anyway, do what you feel makes your collection yours.