Legends, Masterpiece, or Mainline figures? I have such a hard time choosing one to collect I have all three but it’s hard to commit to one
I say go Legends. The way Hasbro is shrinking all the size classes, Deluxe will be effectively Legends class in a few years anyway.
Main line. The past 4 years have been by far the best time to be a mainline collector, ever. And Hasbro is rumored to be doing a re-releases of figures from ER and Siege this year and next that saw limited distribution because of covid or exclusives.
More info required. Is money or space an issue? If money is an issue go mainline If space is an issue go legends If neither is an issue go MP And since you have all three, you probably have an idea which figures bring you the most enjoyment, so go with that I say Me personally, I get whatever tickles my fancy and to hell with scale. Like my transformers, I don't like keeping myself in a box
If by those choices you mean strictly Hasbro/Takara, then I vote none of the above. If not for the 3P options, I would have been effectively out of this hobby several years ago.
Legends are always fun. They don't take up as much room so you can collect a lot, and they tend to not be as pricy as the bigger ones.
Depends on what you're going for. To display, to play with, what esthetics that you prefer if it's the robot or the alt that matters more to you (or both), scale that you prefer (the question if the scale is linked to the robot or the alt mode or both), and so on. Legends are great for what they are, but it's a very limited selection for the characters available, expensive for many, depending on which 3rd party you go with, and they don't all scale well together if you mix it up. Masterpiece: can be fragile, more about display, complex transformation, later ones are more about the cartoonish look, and expensive. Supposed to be scaled. Mainline: massive selection, scale is selective across the lines, is technically the "cheaper" choice, older figures are either cheap when used, but some are a bit crazy expensive or hard to find. Latest figures tend to need 3rd party kits to make them complete adding to price, but end up being the most versatile due to the sheer number of version of characters and such. There's also 3rd party and KOs that can add options to all three types, so that's another factor. If I would be at the start of my collecting years, I personally would consider legend IF the price wouldn't be as crazy as it can be for some of them, just because I like smaller figures to fiddle with and just overall easier to build around that (doing bases, using other lines items that can mix well with the size), BUT at the same time, the mainline has so much selection to go with and so many versions of so many characters that you can find just about anything that pulls at you. So depends on your goals, I have to say mainline is the better choice for selection, price, playability, and so on, but again, it comes down to the goal of what you are aiming for.
I've recently switched over exclusively to mainline. It's less expensive than MP and offers far more options than legends.
With a few notable exceptions (and the Beast Wars cast) I've found the mainline toys have disappointed me since Siege. I don't find them as interesting, as well-made, or as nice-feeling. I've recently abandoned it, at least for now, and moved over to Legends - mainly Hasbro Core Class and Legends of Cybertron, Unique Toys Palm Collection, and Iron Factory. I'm having a great time. Most of the toys are just fun, and Iron Factory have a consistent aesthetic that I find interesting and appealing - something I haven't had since Siege ended. Which toys make you feel that little surge inside when you look at them on your shelf or pick them up and play with them? They're the ones you should collect.
Legends/legacy/whatever has been going on for basically a decade now (I'd even lump studio series in with it), so if you're looking to collect long term, that's one you could keep your focus on for presumably a while, and it's not much more expensive than the mainline (compared to masterpiece). Masterpiece is nice, but it's also big and expensive, and releases on a more limited basis. Mainline changes (often wildly) every few years, so you might find yourself not wanting to collect the next thing that comes along (though sitting out a year or few of new product isn't the worst thing for a collector).
Legends is a different scale entirely than Legacy and Studio Series. I wouldn’t categorize them together.
You're not wrong, but if we're not talking about legends in the sense of "updates of older/retro figures to modern toy standards" and are instead limiting ourselves to specifically the Legends line, then Id say go for the main line, since there hasn't been a Legends figure since 2018.
Masterpiece or 3P Legends depending on your available space. You'll probably get less figures due to the cost but they are higher in quality.
I went 3P legends because it was the only place that I consistently got what I wanted. I still buy decent mainline figures but I went from buying doubles of most MPs to buying one every couple of years. Edit: However, I will clarify that "what I want" is mostly pre-movie G1 without faux parts or shellforming if that makes a difference.
Well, I opted-out earlier in the thread if all we’re discussing is officially branded figures. And I was assuming “legends” was referring to the scale, not the marketing line. Regardless, Hasbro (across all lines) just doesn’t offer the quality I want, and Takara no longer designs to my aesthetic preferences. All I’ve been buying for the past year is 3P legends, and there’s plenty of activity and aesthetic options there. Magic Square has the toon style covered, Newage deals heavily in a “hybrid” aesthetic akin to Hasui MPs (with sub-trims focusing on toon, toy, and comic variants), and Iron Factory mixes things up with nods to IDW and its own samurai-themed line. There’s plenty to keep a collector busy. Unfortunately, Hasbro’s “Core” figures just don’t meet par. I find them very disappointing.
Just get what you want. Does just one line appeal to you more overall? Go for that. Do different ones from different lines appeal to you? Mix and match. Personally I’ve pretty much just stuck with the main line the last few years with MP/ 3rd party releases here and there. I don’t buy nearly as much as I used to. Legends scale doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest so I can’t really have an informed opinion on those. Some of them look cool but very overpriced for what they are IMO.
They're so disjointed for such a small selection. I have three - Megatron, Optimus, and Soundwave. I actually like Megatron. Optimus is a little too greebly and has those chintzy wheels that small toys often get saddled with. Soundwave looks good but he's another figure where they just gave up and his feet stick out. There are others that I was interested in when they were announced but the reveals have taken care of that. The Dinobots look positively awful and I can't even say it's only because of the shoehorned combiner gimmick. Still, I think the small selection is a huge hurdle. Hasbro loves to release very small selections and give up. If they do something stupid with one or two figures, that's half of the year's releases and they might get a second year at most. If they had released maybe a dozen together, maybe I'd find enough to like that I'd stick with that size class. But that leads into there just being too many size classes or too few figures between them in my opinion.
