Namely, like did you buy a rather weak transformer figure because of the character or a cool-ass toy with rather lame a character?

I can't really name any going at that range... well, at most I could say Breakdown GTS, if he wasn't such a neat toy too. But I bought him 'cos he's an old man, and old men are always funny to have around XD

 

I bought Classics Astrotrain basically because I needed more Decepticons, and I bought Cybertron Skywarp because he was Skywarp, turned into a jet, and I also needed more Decepticons at the time.

 

I thought Armada Leader Prime sucked, but I bought him because he was Prime.

I bought masterpiece green scream because I thought the toy was awesome, even though I really felt he wasn't Starscream, but a different seeker.

 

i buy a TF toy on its own merits, i NEVER buy for any other reason eg character, faction balance, series that makes no sense to me atall.

I am guilty of some positive discrimination though, there are countless fantastic toys available of every description but i only own toys from a few toy lines, TF being one of them. I have to limit myself though as im prone to going off on an expensive tangent.

 

I'm the same; I buy a toy for the toy. If I bought 'em for the characters, I wouldn't have many AEC figs at all, since I never really got into the fiction, and none of the characters I did encounter made any impression. If the toy's cool, I'll get it, if not, it stays on the shelf.

 

I more or less always buy them because of the toy, but sometimes the character speeds up the decision a little  

 

I bought Vector Prime, despite never watching an entire episode of Cybertron or knowing much about the character. The Alt mode is really innovative for a TF, and his poseability is top notch. I didnt really care that even a monkey could transform him in 5 seconds.

Oh and G1 Shockwave. It's a decent toy, but I got him because of his personality in the Dreamwave comics. In the cartoon he was a weak geek.

 

me with some lines I am a completionist like RID and classics (and the upcoming universe classics 2.0) Armada Energon and cybertron I picked and chose based on the toy not the character in the cartoon since I thought those cartoons were weak. I love the animated cartoon but not real keen on the figures so far but I figure to buy both modes of prime and megatron because their prime and megatron and blitzwing because he is a triple changer. The movie line I only collected who was in the film.

 

I do this sometimes. The Cybertron Seekers come to mind... it's a pretty weak mold, but I bought them because they are Seekers.

Energon Shockblast is another. I would probably have passed on this sub-standard mold if it weren't the spitting image of Shockwave.

I ALMOST fell for Nike Sports Label "Marine Convoy" (despite the fact that I loathe those shoeformers and Nike) because he is a white Prime/Magnus (which I collect). But I stepped back and thought about that one a bit, and saw reason.

As for "despite a character"... well, I guess most of the AEC toys would fall under that description. I could never stomach any of those Unicron Trilogy shows, but some great toys came out of them. So I got the toys despite having zero interest in their source material.

 

I bought FAB Frenzy, despite the fact that I really don't care for FABs, because it was the only decent (transforming) representation of him. It turning out to be a fairly good toy was just a bonus.

I don't really have a "despite a character" pick...

 

I actually preferred a lot of the AEC toys because I didn't know about the characters. With most of the TF series, I've enjoyed them because of the fiction; however, with AEC I've been able to craft my own universe using these molds precisely because I don't have any character associations with the toys.

I'm loving the animated series so far (and anxiously awaiting the toys), but I'm hoping we'll have a few 'non-show' toys that I can view as more of a blank slate.

 

Waspinator & Tarantulus (non-Transmetal) - out of stores by the time I discovered their characters, and ended up importing and paying a premium for it. Nothing really for or against the toys themselves (though the later 10th anniversary repaints look way better), but I probably wouldn't have bothered if I wasn't enomored with their characters on TV.

 

I've never seen an episode of Cybertron. I've seen parts of episodes, and it honestly looks godawful. I have no idea what the story is supposed to be. But I got a Primus toy simply because it was just so cool to have a toy of Cybertron that has a robot mode.

 

QFT. The voice acting was bad and I just cant get into 3D animation.

 

Energon Megatron. This is when I first got into collecting. I knew very little about the new TF series and could careless for it but I always wanted a Galvatron toy and G1 didn't do it for me, such an ugly figure but Energon Megatron was great. Then due to my luck on the net I see there was a Energon Galvatron.

 

Ever seen the Dinobot toy? Yeah.

 

I usually buy a toy based on it's coolness regardless of its cartoon character. For example, I dont care much for TF Animated, but the starscream toy looks pretty cool. I also have an extensive Tracks collection as I love corvettes.

 

Alt. Smokescreen, could careless for the char. but I always liked that Subaru WRX STi

Dinobot was my 1st BW toy and well only, I never got into BW until a year ago but I always liked Dinobot.

 

Can't say that about TFs; if i want it, i want it until i get it.
I admit that i bought a gundam fig (G Gundam series, i believe) b/c i wanted all the fighters.
man, that was a butt ugly, fugly MF of a fig. i swore i wouldn't buy him and i did for extreme discount at wal-mart. and my friends have ragged me for it since.

 

It has happened to me with the Cybertron and Energon molds, I hate the charachters, but some molds look great.