Takara makes a pretty good effort to keep it's audience pleased with highly collectible reissues and repaints. I know people love Hot Wheels, and don't get between a Starwars fan and their Lava Vaders.

What other brands have a strong following? Are there other toys as collectiible as TF's out there? Are TF fans the most dedicated out of them all?

If you do collect something else, do you follow it as closely as you do TF's?



Sorry for all the Q's, but I'm just extremely curious

 

3 3/4" G.I. Joe I collect and it has a rabbid following

 

any major brand boys toy line made before 1990 tends to hold more value, as less are on the collecters market.

myself, i am a fan of model making.

 

LEGO has an enormous following beyond the recommended age group.

 

masters of the universe has one, but since that toyline has never really sustained more than like 3 or 4 years of straight product, it's got nowhere near the fanbase of most of the hasbro lines.

 

halo figures and marvel minimates for me but i don't follow them as much as transformers

 

Yup, my GF is very much into legos, and I have a bit of the star wars legos myself.

I think I even spent $120 on various lego stuff for her for x-mas. She will be 25 in a month and is in grad school to be a teacher, and she just loves the legos.

I may have to get her the rest of the Vikings line for her birthday and our anniversary a month later.

 

Marvel Legends for me. And from what I can tell it has a pretty good sized fan base.

 

Macross toys have a decent following... Yamato makes some excellent Macross toys...

 

There is a good chunk of MacFarlane collectors out there too.

I do wonder about Star Wars. I know this is splitting hairs, but I suspect most of them are fans of the films, not the toys. They buy the toys to have representations of what's in the films - without the films, I doubt they would continue to but the toys forever.

Lines like Lego or Barbie, and I'd argue even Joes and TFs, the toys come first for the collectors, and TV shows or movies are more looked upon as part of the merchandising of the toyline.

 

Hotwheels collectors are evil. I could go on for pages. I've seen grown men (40+) get into fist fights over them. I've seen grown men take them out of the hands of children, whom they are inteded for. HW collectors are evil. Unfortunately, USED to be one. Got tired of the BS, and the way store employees act towards HW collectors. In my local stores, they have soiled the rep of all toy collectors. My WM wion't help anyone with anything now.

For me it's, in order, TFs, Motu, MLs, and a few odd things.

 

Bandai's Soul of chogokin line has a pretty good fan base. I dont have any b/c the prices are too steep for me, but it seems to me alot of collectors prefer Bandai Japan's stuff

 

The VOTC SW is the only 3 3/4 figs I will continue to get ( except the last few POTF2 figs I miss) but other then that I like the Kotobukia SW soft vinyl kits ,Im also temted to start with Sideshows 12 inch figs from LOTR and their 12 icnh SW jedi order line as I love both LOTR and jedis( Keeps fingers crossed for a Plo Koon soon )

other then that I guy the occasianally McFarlane stuff and PRed stuff that interest me.

 

I collect:

Starcom, need 2 vehicles
NEO-MOTU
Star Wars, prequel era. Send in the clones...
DC Direct, Challenge of the Superfriends characters mainly. YAY new Grundy coming!!
Visionaries, only need 1 part and I am done.

other random single figures from lots of stuff. Scarlet Spider, Blade, Mysterio, Angel, Halloween, Jason, Iron Maiden, etc....

 

Other than TFs, the only toys I collect are Stikfas...not sure what kind of fan-base those have, though.

 

Zoids, Gundam, hell, if its a robot and it looks cool I'm likely to buy it.

 

Nothing matches the gundam fanbase. there are multiple magazines printed just about gundam merchandise, and the custom work people do to their model kits. Gundam fans are also known to be quite violent at times, its not rare to see a UC fan and a Seed fan attacking each other either verbally or physically. The gundam series sells so well, that in japan there are tons of stores that make a killing selling ONLY Gundam toys and model kits.

 

Violent huh? I'd probably start a riot if I told em the only Gundam series I like are G Gundam and SD Gundam Force. XD

 

My brother is a very keen Gundam collector. He also collects Tomica/Matchbox/Hotwheels cars. And yes, he can be rough. Though our arguments over TF/Gundam have never turned violent...yet. The fact that he lives in other country helps a bit.

 

Other major lines that I collect:

Lord of the Rings (LOTR) had a pretty strong following for a long time, though with the end of the line, it's diminished greatly.

DC Direct (DCD) has a pretty strong following, with a lot of dedicated collectors.

Marvel Legends (ML), as mentioned, has a strong following as well.

Web Diver has almost no following.

Diagander, well, I think I'm one of about 3 people I think in North America who collects them.