Canadian Transformers News and Discussion Forum

[OldOfflineMan]

I agree with many of the posters here. It's never ending and all of us have limited funds, so it's impossible to have everything. I knew when I started collecting that it would be challenging (wife, kids, mortgage, kids' tuition, RRSP, RESP, TFSA, rainy day stash, etc.). So I had to clearly define what I hoped to accomplish with my collection and how I should accomplish it given the limited resource (funds and space).

Similar to the other posters, my objectives for my collection were to:
1) Relieve my childhood fantasy of having toys of my favourite Transformers characters that I can actually pose and move.
2) Able to share my joy of Transformers with my kids (currently 3 and 6 years old), should they show any interest.

The above means that any figure making the collection would:
1) Be of a character I have emotional attachment to,
2) Be played with at some point,
3) Run the risk of being lost/broken,
4) Encourage intellectual property holders to create more of what I like,
5) Significantly add to my enjoyment of the collection as a whole.

So from the above criteria:
- No multiple versions of the same figure,
- No MP grade figures,
- No 3rd party or KO,
- No MISB figures (no point if I'm going to play with them),
- No figures that have only 2 forms (get more mileage out of each figure),
- No buying figures just for the sake of completing a set or that everyone else says it's a good buy (I do fall for this once in a while, but am disciplined enough to immediately sell/return it),

Essentially, I'm limiting my collection largely to used CW Combiners, TR Multi-changers and POTP Combiner figures that I can buy off of members on this board, Kijiji, Ebay, or when Amazon is giving them away like this past Christmas.

I follow that criteria pretty much religiously though I have made two exceptions where I bought a used LG-EX God Ginrai (I'd cry if my kids lose/break it) and a used CW Megatron (only 2 forms, but can stand toe-to-toe with God Ginrai). I think it's understandable given I have so much emotional attachment to those two characters.

I keep a running tally on the money I spent on the collection and also regularly prune my collection to ensure everything in it meet the criteria I set. The collection will also naturally close if I no longer derive any enjoyment from it.

For the rest, I'm like the other posters where I look at pictures of collections and day-dream about having something like that.

TLDR: I suggest you decide what you want your collection to accomplish, set a strategy on how to grow and maintain your collection within the available resources and religiously follow that strategy. That way, I think your collection would grow and naturally come to a close once it's no longer accomplishing what you want it to do.