I don't really have any personal rules about collecting; if it's cool, I'll (sometimes) do a little research on it beforehand, like a Lego set.

It's been a while since I've done something like that, though, since I knew I was pretty much going all-in on Combiner Wars (sans Sky Reign).

But when I started buying Animated a couple months ago, I did a lot of researching on each figure, since I'm not the BIGGEST fan of it like I know a lot of people are. Like Jetfire & Jetstorm. I didn't really know if I wanted them, and went to a bunch of places looking at reviews & decided I would, but only for a certain price; I didn't really want 'em for over their retail price, which I got lucky and got them NIB for like, $22.

But yeah, if I'm unsure about something, I usually just look at a bunch of reviews first.

And this isn't really a rule I follow NOW, but I used to refuse to buy used/loose stuff, but when I started buying Animated, I realized that I would end up paying way more for some stuff (like MISB Blurr for like $50), so I just got over myself and went ebayin' for most of it. Managed to save a good amount of money on a lot of figures (I actually paid 99 cents for Animated Ratchet)

 

I'm glad that my question lead to a side conversation about how aweful those new DC figures are.

 

My rules: onscreen characters only, don't go broke, buy the best (most articulated/best scale) version possible of any given character.

 

Riddler87's personal toy collecting rules are actually pretty much what I do.   I don't like spending too much on toys (importing included) and I actually only have one redeco along with its original - and both were sent to me as gifts.

That being said, even though I've only bought a couple Combiner Wars things, that line really does test ones rules for redecos/remolds. We've come a long way from "Wow they actually made a new head on this redeco, that's pretty cool"

 

Venksta made me genuinely consider it. I don't even have the toy.

I really like that combiner. I really like when combiners are unified. Damn, I might have to shell out too damn much for this set. But if they pull another Leo Prime with mushy tiny heads. I'm so done with TFCC.

I'm sure he'll be great on his own, which is MY rule for add ons (I'm done spending more money trying to fix toys I didn't/wouldn't like in the first place) My wishlist? Someone, maybe Perfect Effect since they're into that right now, makes a hand foot set with claw fingers, and include one or more thematic claw or harpoon weapons for Sea Clamp to replace the big dumb gun because his alt already has a big dumb gun built in.

 

Twiggy

Hey Seth,

Not sure if you are aware of this or not but Twiggy's voice was done by Mel Blanc. It would be great if he was around to do more voices, especially for Transformers.

Noj

 

Vangelus I totally agree with your critique of MP Ironhide.

The front bumper issue irks me to no end. I think the designers could have gotten rid of it, but decided not to. My only guess is that they feared dividing the bumper up into thirds when showing it to the Nissan people? Maybe they felt they would not like it that way?

The treads would have won some big nostalgia points with me as well.

 

I try to keep an internal size-to-price ratio in mind when I by. So ~6 inch toys should be 15-20, anything smaller should be cheaper and anything bigger should be more. I try to keep it under 50 though.

This all means that my third party participation thus far has consisted of pulling up TFSource and salivating through the proverbial window. I'm pretty close to convincing myself that Iron Factory Windblade is worth the 15 extra dollars though.

 

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is, indeed, a very good game. It has two highly likable lead characters (neither of whom have been ruined in subsequent games yet) and London is really nicely realized. I think the only way you'll be disappointed is if you expect all AC games after Black Flag to have a sailing component.

 

You guy's need a 3rd member on the B team. The duo just isn't as existing as 3 host.

 

Whitecastle, how the hell do you forget about Whitecastle?

 

This is what happens to me every time I see a third party toy: Oh cool a third party Galvatron, I would pay like $80 to $100 for that. Then I go to the toy's and it is listed at like $160. Than I just go nope and move on with my day.

 

Its so slow out there for official transformers.

Toyfair 2016 cant come soon enough.

I love listening to your big event podcasts.

 

I don't have a spending limit, but I have other rules in place to limit my spending indirectly.

The first is that I try and collect as closr to altmode scale as I can with transformers.

This means I get cars and trucks in deluxe/scout size, motorcycles in legends/legion size, semi's and tanks voyager, jets and helicopters Voyager/Ultra + etc. It's a pretty simple squint test. Non-earth/future altmodes are exempt since they can be whatever. So I have FOC Bruticus with upgrades since a cybertronian spaceship can be the same size as a cybertronian jeep, and I have Maketoys Computron since future cycles and personal flying vehicles can be whatever size.

But combined with my rule about only one representation of a character (across the different iterations) it does cut down on what I pick up. So I have one Arcee, and she's the generations deluxe, I have one Starcream (Conair) etc.

My third rule is that I only buy one version of a mold. So each of my seekers are a different mold, and they are all atleast voyager sized, I have different molds representing prowl, smokescreen, and bluestreak.

These rules slow down my buying so I didn't complete a full roster in the first year I started collecting, and let me enjoy the variety the different toy lines offer.

I think the only exception I have to the mold rules are Skyquake, Dreadwing, and Megaplex. Although I bought Megaplex and the other 2 were gifts, so that's my loophole.

I also like that these rules have been a bit enabled by the combiner wars figures that came out recently, I love that Hasbro's defensor has a legends Groove, and I'm modding Blade's cockpit to give him the illusion of a smaller helicopter.

 

I used to have rules. I am slowly going back to having rules. I try to buy the best version of a character and stop there. If I need to upgrade, then I will. I am leaving out third party stuff for now, it helps on the wallet. There was a time when I bought everything, but I have stopped that. I also try to just buy G1 characters or characters who are now considered comic G1-esq, like Drift and Windblade.

 

On the topic of flirting with robots in Fallout 4, I can't wait until Vangelus learns about Curie

 

is anybody having a issue with itunes when trying to view some of the episodes from early january?