It’s been over a year since the bad thing happened. Time for a bit of reflection perhaps.
I simplified my collection so that G1 was no longer separate. I sold off lots of G1 figures except where the G1 figure is no the best (or only) version of that character. I bought Titan’s Return Fortress Maximus to do a cheeky bit of parts swapping to make my perfect version. I didn’t buy Black Shadow before because I assumed they do a Thunderwing version, so picked him up. I got Legends Greatshot as I never had one before and there was no reason not to (bit of a Victory theme going on). I got Quickswitch as well to complete a trio (should be a foursome).
I realise that this is now the third iteration of my collection - G1 being the first, Classics, Universe and Generations (and third party) the second. And the Prime Wars and WFC trilogies the third. I don’t think I want there to be a fourth.
I picked up Super Megatron and Cloud Rodimus for my Lost Light shelf. I decided to start collecting the Diaclone repaints of the various original car bots. So in terms of new characters, it wasn’t too crazy but the biggest decision of all was to start collecting doubles of season 1 and 2 of G1 and Beast Wars plus leaders. I hope to be able to display them as they used to look in the catalogues. I got black Ironhide - Deseeus Army drone (I’m going to call him ‘Armorhide’.)
Finally, last but not least, I replaced almost all of my ‘84 - ‘86 Generations figures. That was amazing, the new figures are amazing. But, I think the replacement would have happened anyway. New replacements include Ultra Magnus and Hot Rod.
I decided what my Masterpiece collection should be, Optimus Prime, Megatron and Bumblebee. As G1 toy accurate as possible. I spent more on Megatron than any other figure ever.
I gave my Grimlock and Ravage shelf a bit of attention as well, a rare third party figure in the shape of a cassette - Mastermind Creation's Ravage. And I bought Studio Series Grimlocks, one from Age of Extinction and two from the '86 movie.
Marvel Legends has been fairly consistent for me, I bought the Strong Guy wave in one go which was a first. I decided to build collections of the (cartoon) Masters of Evil and the Sinister 6. I decided to build a Lego Iron Man armoury, quite possibly the best desk toy ever. I now want to have a (Lego/Mega Bloks) New York theme for my desk with Turtles, Ghostbusters and Marvel. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have Avengers Tower, the Baxter Building and X-Men mansion in Lego form. Wait a minute.....
I embraced 6” Star Wars and assembled a Clone Wars lineup (not that one). I bought the main prequel and sequel characters in Lego form. I decided to get my favourite vehicles in some form (Lego or 3.75” depending on availability), Jedi Interceptors and the Tigershark deco Republic Gunship. I'm on the look out for an AT-TE. Black Series Mace Windu, General Grievous and Asajj Ventress finally turned up.
Super 7 are going well, but slowly with the Turtles and Thundercats licenses. I decided to also collect Mumm-Ra and the mutants as I had several as a child. And in one of most expensive per gram purchases, I got a Mega Bloks Splinter (it did come with a Technodrome though). I also bought Zordon, pretty rubbish but fun.
So my collection has gone through several further iterations, Transformers is looking even more amazing now - I didn't realise I was compromising before. A few lines I'm done with or very almost done with and I've realised that my building block toys will be my permanent desk toys, that is where attention is now.
Putting this all together: I collect the ‘main’ characters in mini form (Lego, etc), ‘favourite/main’ as 6” figures and then I’m a bit more completist in 3.75”. Transformers even follows this - WST as minis, Masterpiece are equivalent to 6” and Generations are like 3.75”. Of course, the next question is, what constitutes a main character?
