When I had just started collecting I couldn't resist picking up the NECA Brain Gremlin figure (I love Gremlins 2). He's completely out of scale but utterly cool. He also has the privilege of carrying the Autobot Matrix of leadership.......
Star Wars Transformers (and later Star Wars miniatures) were my first toyline away from G1 that I started collecting but then I realised I was always being tempted by other figures and toys. I blame BBTS for this, you can see what other stuff is being released and so I got NECA's Stay Puft:
And also their TMNT figures. I don't have any particular loyalty to NECA (or in fact Hasbro) but they seem to make all the toys I'm interested in.
I decided therefore to try and some representative of all the characters I thought were cool from the various toylines I was (and had) been interested in.
I have a toy of pretty much every character of note from Transformers, I have a Stay Puft figure from Ghostbusters, the Ninja Turtles (not too bothered about other characters) and almost of all the Star Wars (film) characters and vehicles.
Computer games were a major part of my teenage years and I'm still rather fond of Sonic and Mario now so I picked up PVC versions of them (plus Luigi and Tails, etc). I have an almost complete set of Earthworm Jim figures from the early 90's and I've just picked up a Sub-Zero, Scorpion and Reptile figure from the relatively recent Shaolin Monks Mortal Kombat line. Those 4 games series were my favourite character wise (I've bought comics or watched cartoon series of all of them!).
I plan to get the Dragonzord and Tigerzord from Power Rangers (I guess I must have liked PR because of the similarity to a certain other robot based line.......), I have some rangers from the Micro Machines Power Rangers line which I reckon will work in scale with the Zords. There's supposed to be a Thundercats film in 2010 so there are sure to be figures released for that. I'll get that kidney on ebay now.......
I've been a fan of Marvel and DC (well Batman really) for ages as well so I spent some time looking for a line of figures to collect to get those characters. Miniatures was one option as they would fit in well with the Star Wars figures and indeed I got some Heroclix figures (available in both Marvel and DC flavours) but the quality of painting was terrible and not quite right anyway due to their bases.
Marvel Legends were another option, pretty much every character ever was represented but they just seemed a bit too large and expensive (I was a few years behind so ebay would have been pretty steep). I also considered figurines (the lead ones you get with a magazine) but they didn't seem toy like enough, a bit too serious for my taste.
Then the Marvel Universe figures were released, in the 3.75 scale, then I found out that there was also a DC Infinite Heroes line in the same scale. Perfect! I've been able to follow the lines from the start so have been able to get the figures at their retail price. It's been quite exciting following the news releases from SDCC and Comic Con, etc.
I'm being pretty strict with myself, so I'm only getting characters I'm familiar with (so basically any which have appeared in a film or have featured in any of the cartoons from the 90's). Hasbro are also doing a 3.75 scale line for the new Wolverine film which fits in with the Universe line. Most of the Universe figures are sitting in my pile of loot on BBTS but they weren't offering the individual figures from the Wolverine line so when I saw them in a shop yesterday I picked up Gambit and Deadpool. I'm not familiar with Deadpool but I figure he is appearing in a film and by all accounts sounds like a pretty cool character. Plus he has swords. (Transformers with swords are always a win as well.)
I opened Deadpool today and I'm pretty impressed; a nice level of detail. I wasn't so impressed with the actual Wolverine figures I saw - the traditional tan and brown costume one looks like he's constipated (I didn't make that observation myself but read it somewhere, but having looked at the figure I whole-heartedly agree) and the yellow and blue looks like it's lacking something. The X-Force Wolverine in the Universe line looks pretty sweet so when it gets an inevitable release in traditional colours I'll be picking it up.
Apparently there are going to be some exclusives where there's a normal sized figure with some super size character (Silver Surfer with Galactus for example), there's also supposed to be a Wolverine with Sentinel figure so that might be the best one to pick up.
I think that just about covers all the toylines I have/plan to get/want to get. My last thought is about scale; now admittedly as a Transformer collector this isn't too much of a concern but I have given it some thought and I reckon everything fits into 5 scale groups:
World's Smallest Transformers (this includes the various city bots such as Metroplex and Omega Supreme)
Rest of G1/Classics (pretty much all my transformers including the SWTF and Star Wars miniatures, I'd throw Stay Puft and the Power Ranger Zords in here as well.)
Masterpiece/Alternators (I don't actually have any of these (yet), but the 3.75 scale figures I think would work quite nicely, equally I don't have any GI Joe figures but Alts plus Joes would make for a good display. It would be quite nice if they released some Thundercats and Ghostbuster figures in this scale.)
Turtles/Computer Games Characters (6" scale, pretty much everything else I guess)
Gremlins (Brain Gremlin and Mohawk. It would be sweet if they released some of the others)
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