Collection Counting

[crimbot]

I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but I'm wondering what people generally count for collection number.
Do you count headmasters as 2? Or Fortress Maximus as 3? (Fort Max, Cerebros, Spike) or 1? Or even 4? (Fort Max, Cerebros, Spike, Cog). In that case does metroplex count as 3? (Metroplex, Sixgun, Scamper)
Do Duocons count as 1 or 2? I robot, but 2 seperate vehicles.
Do you count Targetmasters? ie: Scoop, Tracer and Holepunch, or just Scoop?
What about 3rd party stuff? Any of it?
How about Power Core Combiners? Drones?

Found this video reviewing some definitions, although I'm not sure what his source is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSBbzZWZofU

For example, my collcting practices so far:
I have been counting headmasters as one robot. (My thinging is that the robot isn't complete without it's head)
I have been couting duocons as 1.
I've been counting targetmasters as 1. ( not sure about this one.... as I do count minicons as singles...)
I have been counting scamper but not sixgun.
I count 3rd party figures as 1. (Explorer, Flameblast)
I don't count add ons. ( City Commander, Battle Tanker)
I count Minicons as single robots, so a PCC basic pack is 2 robots.
I do not count drones, so PCC 5 packs are also counted as 2.



So what are your counting practices?

[RedOktobre]

I consider Mincons, Target Masters, Head Masters, and so forth as "accessories". In other words, I consider Minicons and Target Masters no different from guns, swords, or MechTech weapons.

To me, accessories are "extensions" to the "main" (or "principal") Transformer figure.

So, I don't "double count" them.

[justprime]

count them all as one even breastmasters and powermasters such as overlord all the extra bits are part of the whole

[Scrapper6]

I have always been a man of thorough counting practices.

Autobots and Decepticons that include a transforming partner to me are double the fun, and double the toy.

Therefore, my counting practices is as follows.

Single Release Figures are 1.
Figures with a Mini-Con/Headmaster/Targetmaster/Etc... are 2. (Or more depending on how many partners they have.)
City Bots with other transforming robots I have never owned before, however I would probably count every individually named character as 1 toy.
Micromaster/Mini-Con teams count as how ever many are in the teams and not just 1 toy. (Unlike how Shmax counts them.)
Action Masters with named partners count as 2, Action Masters like Jazz or Bumblebee who come with a transforming flight pack or something count as 1.
Everything that is meant to be a toy, including non-transforming items like PVCs, Robot Heroes and 3'' Titaniums count as 1.
Everything that isn't a toy, books, comics, miscellaneous brand items like my G1 Skywarp Pencil which I got from Pristine Comics before it closed down as a freebie item, count towards my Miscellaneous Collection Total, not my Toy Collection Total.

Using this method of counting may seem illogical to some, as it trumps up your collection total in a way, I mean according to Shmax.com my collection total is only 700+ figures and things. But according to my private total using my own counting method it's closer to 1000, 72 or 71 more figures and I'll hit the 1000 mark.

I am OCD when it comes to Toy Collecting and any Collecting in general. I prefer having accurate counts with all my totals. Even if it means counting things you normally wouldn't.

For example, until I can find a loose Skyhopper and the rest of his accessories for his base, the base itself counts as part of my collection.

This total also includes all 3rd party items, including City Commander and Unicron.coms old Beast Machines Accessories Kit.

The only items I do not consider part of the total, ironically enough, are the Human Alliance Basic Human Partners. I'm not entire sure why, but I did not include them as part of my total. Despite being named characters. Perhaps I'll change that at a later date, but for now they don't count towards my Total.

And boy did I take an awful long time to explain myself. lol

[Shockwave 75]

Basically if the combined mode, or head/gun/engine is supposed to be a separate character I count it separately.

Example: 5 Aerialbots + Superion = 6

Lord Zarak + Scorponok + Fasttrack = 3

[Protoman]

To make my life easier at knowing how much I have on a general level, I just note how many Transformers toys exist and just take away what I am missing to get the final #, but in that process stuff like Minicon multipacks, packed in figures, and so on get included

But I would not include a "Master" head, brain breast, gun or whatever as an extra figure. Ditto for Cityformers and they kin.

[Ozrein]

I have 2 counts. 1 is how I would count my collection, the other is by the "Ultimate Counting Method" as described a few years ago on a few TF sites.

My method differs from the "UCM" in that I count the *masters of any kind (head, target, etc) as their own figure, basically going by if they have a name and both a robot & an Alt mode they add to the count. The "UCM" sees these figures as accessories to the main bot, the only ones I can kind of see their point on are the headmasters since the main bot needs a head to be complete.

I do agree with the "UCM" in regards to gestalts where only the team members are counted and not the gestalt figure itself, so the constructions count as 6 and the scramble city groups count as 5. (you can't have a gestalt without the component figures so it doesn't make much sense that the gestalt would be an additional figure counted. Even if you have 2 sets to have one set in gestalt form in your display and one set as the individual components, it still works out that you end up having 2 sets of 5 figures (or how ever many form the team) and not a team of 5 plus 1 gestalt)

Also as per the "UCM": Minicons count as their own bot since they are separate characters and Duocons only count as 1 (it just so happens their Alt mode is 2 separate vehicles similar to Sky Lynx).

A point that I partially agree with are the citybot partners. While the "UCM" says the partner figures are to be counted as 1 figure with their citybot main figure (Metroplex, Sixgun & Scamper are considered 1 figure), I feel figures like Scamper and Full-Tilt would count as separate figures since they have their own separate robot and Alt modes, whereas figures like Sixgun and Brunt would not be separate figures since they are more a collection of parts made up from the citybot's accessories.

My counting method differs from the "UCM" in regards to non-official TFs (3rd party figures), I count them but the "UCM" does not (which I find reasonable in an "official" count but not for my own personal collection count). (in this regard I should actually have 3 counts including a 3rd count that includes the way I would count them along with the parts of the "UCM" that I agree with.)

Then the Action masters and Robot heroes and the like count as single figures, I think, I really dont have any of these minds of figures so I never paid much attention to the "official" counting method for them.

That's all the rules I can remember at the moment.

[rid]

My rule is simple: How was the toy packaged? When I buy a toy, 1 package = 1 toy. So Fort Max = 1 toy. Exceptions to the rule are gift packages (Devastator,etc) or repack (various Prime+Megatron repacks) and stuff like costco packs. These are repacks of the original toys so I count the original packaging.

[Gaetznes]

Bases like Metroplex would be 1.
Duocons are 2.
Combiners are broken down to their individual figures from G1 to PCC. PCC Minicons don't count as 1
PM,HM,TM are all individually 1. ex: a HM is just an accessory.

[Nullray]

Originally Posted by rid

My rule is simple: How was the toy packaged? When I buy a toy, 1 package = 1 toy. So Fort Max = 1 toy. Exceptions to the rule are gift packages (Devastator,etc) or repack (various Prime+Megatron repacks) and stuff like costco packs. These are repacks of the original toys so I count the original packaging.

I agree with this. If a bot is 100% complete as intended to originally be then that is one toy. If you consider the different personas of add-ons accessories to be individual bots is fine for display purposes but from a collectible point of view whatever MISB original released format is. That to me is considered one item.