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Re: Too many TF toy lines? Which do you collect?
Which line(s) do you collect? and why that/those over the other lines?
Mostly the mainline stuff (I started in earnest a couple years ago with Power of the Primes and some holdover Titans Return/Combiner Wars stuff. And have continued with the WFC stuff). I have a smattering of mid-00s anime stuff and some original G1 holdovers and reissues, but for now it's pretty much entirely the core CHUG-type lines.
I have a Masterpiece Optimus that was the original one released in the west, but I haven't kept up on Masterpiece since then simply because it's way too expensive especially considering so many would potentially require importing from Japan and whatnot.
Huge collection or carefully curated selection?
With PotP it was basically complete. But since then I've done my best to more carefully curate it, avoiding buying repeats of characters that I'm happy with in the version I already have and not getting too sucked into repaints and special editions. Like with Siege I got the Refraktor 3-pack because of the camera stuff, but I have no interest in scrapface or most of the other WFC Netflix bots out so far. I imagine as we move along I might become even more selective towards intriguing characters or really cool designs.
The biggest reason besides cost (it's shocking to sit back and consider that collecting a whole single CHUG line at retail can cost a couple thousand dollars) is limited space. Right now I have a single broad shelf that I display my stuff on, which means that I either can cram everything together in tight, orderly lines standing shoulder-to-shoulder to see most of what I have, or I can rotate in and out smaller sets of figures more dynamically laid out and keep the rest in storage bins. And the problem gets worse the more stuff I buy given that my display space doesn't grow to match.
Also I'm helped by the fact that I don't have much interest in the other wide-release lines. Cyberverse doesn't appeal to me and while there are a couple of fun Botbots characters I might like, distribution is so borked up that I've never seen them and don't much care anymore.
If you collect multiple lines does it ever get overwhelming?
I don't collect multiple lines simultaneously, but now being on my 3rd-5th CHUG line in the last few years it is starting to dawn on me how ridiculous it's going to get within a couple of years if my collection keeps expanding at the rate it has since about 2017/2018 when I got back into collecting full-time
Have you ever stopped collecting a line as a result?
Not stopped outright, but with each successive line I feel like I have less of a drive to collect it to completion for the above reasons
Do you feel the market is over-saturated with all these options?
From the perspective of someone who might feel compelled to go after all the varied lines, yeah it's probably a lot more daunting.
Personally I feel like even each single line ends up being over-saturated. I look at the distribution problems that happen at the end of each line as stores segue into the next and stop paying attention to the previous one. The 4th and 5th waves always feel like they end up far too hard to find and have led to situations where I had to pay a premium on PotP Novastar or have failed to find Singe and Rung from Siege (or hadn't seen the likes of Rumble/Ratbat or Direct-Hit/Powerpunch until the last couple months)
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