God I want to get tons of the no name characters to army build, but my lack of funds get in the way. I have decided to to get 3 of each no name characters in my army builds.

 

Whenever I troop-build (though not transformers) I find at least 3 to be the best for a start.

 

My limit is three.

 

With the Vehicons, I have no limit. I'll keep buying them whenever I come across them.

But with Sweeps, my limit is 7. Just so it'll match the dialogue from Call of the Primitives: "Sweeps 6 and 7 coming in for a strike!"

 

When I collected main line I had multiples of Generations Sweeps and RTS Junkions with add on parts. Now if I see them at the store I might pick up a few for my boys. For me quality on the main line releases have dropped and the prices keep going up. For me its not worth it any more.

Now a days I only troop build G1 Insecticons, Scourge, and Gnaw. If they ever got Masterpiece releases I would troop build them.

 

I've never been into army building. I've never needed more than 1 of a Stormtrooper, Cobra Trooper, etc. The only time I'll buy extras of a figure is if it's one of my favorite figures and the price is right. At one point in the late 90's/early 2000's, I think I had more than 10 vintage Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker figures because I kept finding them at yard sales, thrift shops, flea markets, etc. for cheap.

 

I generally have not gone in on army building myself. Not out of any objection to it, I just always feel like getting something new to me would be more fun than another of something I have, even if money's not an issue. Although money can still be a factor - the one case recently where I honestly would have done some army building was the Seacons, but the price on them made it not worth it for me.

For me at least, a big part of toys is enjoy the unique parts and quirks to them. I like to handle mine a lot, nothing says in a static display on a shelf for long. This is partly why I can never keep interest in regular action figures. To me, they all just end up being the same human form. At least with transforming toys you get a nearly-new experience each time.

I personally haven't really done any army-building unless there was some sort of ability to combine/customize them. So I have multiples of some of the WfC Weaponsizers/Modulators, for example. Even for Siege Reflector, I like to configure the gun and shield differently on the 3 of them.

Although to be fair, stuff like Seekers and the like might as well be army-builders, even if they have unique decos/personalities. So I've definitely gone in on army-building in that sense.

 

Siege Reflector is a good example where army building would be justified since the 3 combine together and are the same color in the cartoon. But I still couldn't bring myself to do it. I bought the vintage toy color version just so I could have them in 3 different paint decos. I even replaced the middle one with the regular purple release just so there would be even more of a difference between them.

 

As far as why I would and do, it's because battlefields look weird if everyone is a primary color dream machine. If the majority of the narrative were like rescue bots or Animated and they were emergency personnel, I wouldn't mind my shelf looking like a spilled mix of skittles and m&m's.
That being said, there's always the choice to flat out ignore the characters and just buy as many as you want of a toy you find good, flex your imagination muscles. "Optimus who? Nah, the three red trucks I got here are Tom, Rick, and Larry."

 

would you only want a single storm trooper on a star wars shelf? Some generics lend themselves well to troop building, granted 30 would be a bit much, but 3 makes up a decent group

 

To supplement my post...3 to 5 is a good number I find.. so you can do stuff like this.. depends on the figure of course.

 

Whoa Johnny, did you back the wrong horse!!

Since Titans Return began, we've gotten updates of several Transformers army builders:

Sharkticons
Bailiffs
Quintesson Judge
The 3 Insecticons
Allicons
Two versions of Scourge
Upcoming Cyclonus
Refractor
Crashface
10th anniversary Vehicon
Fasttrack
The Seacon limbs
Cindersaur
Sunstreaker
Cordon
Spinout
Centurion
Paradron
Impactor

Seekers though I wish Hot Link had his Botcon colour scheme to use him as an Air Warrior.
It's a shame we didn't get an Overcharge repaint of Titans Return Blitzwing.

Nice to see I'm not the only one who thought Demolisher would make a good army builder especially with the repaints.

After seeing the variety of Seekers in Bumblebee, I like to bulk up the Siege guys with the Voyager Seekers from Armada and Cybertron.

I have 3 Scrap Metals.
A variety of Sweeps: 3 x Titans Return, 1 x G1, 1 x CHUG and 1 x Titanium

Seekers:

Siege Starscream
Thundercracker
Acid Storm
Nova Storm
Ion Storm
Red Wing
Hot Link
Armada Starscream
Thundercracker
Skywarp
Collector's Club Ramjet
Cybertron burgundy Starscream repurposed as Thrust
Chug repaint of Cybertron Starscream as Dirge

I'm really hoping the Earthrise Seeker mold doesn't mean we won't get more Siege Seeker repaints.

 

I wonder if Megatron ever felt he went overboard on the troop building?

 

If you have enough imagination, any figure can be troop builder. What's better than one Metroplex? How about an entire army of Metroplexes!

 

@RKillian You dismiss some of my suggestions because they come after the movie or aren't G1.

They're all official Canon.

 

That's what IDW did with the Metrotitans. I agree you can imagine any figure as an army builder, personally I prefer to go by the official stories.

 

The Seacons were clones in Masterforce and Sunstreaker and his repaints were cloned in IDW, to correct a few of your corrections. It may not have been in the G1 cartoon but everything on that list is an armybuilder.

 

Focus should not be on the number of troops, but on the quality of troops. -- old cybertronian proverb that Megatron probably ignored.

Though given G1 Megatron had that robosmasher that fried omega supreme's noggin, it's reasonable to presume the smasher's quirks are why the majority of his troops are incompetent and disloyal as they are.

 

I haven’t done any troop building yet in TF. I have five reflectors, but those are the reflector camera 3 pack, the animated colors one and scrapface.

I’m considering getting a couple extra Alicon’s, but I really don’t know how much I would display them.
I will probably buy a couple of Sweeps if Hasbro releases a stand-alone version with a different head and no pink nails.

the only troops I have bought multiples of is the hellfire goon. I love that Hasbro offers those up a little cheaper. I plan to eventually get multiple storm troopers and maybe some B.A.T.s when they get released.