How have you collecting habits changed in recent years?

[Haywire]

I wanted to start a discussion of how members buying and collecting habits have changed in recent years. Do you still shop brick and mortar, or mostly online? Do you still even collect figures, or focus on artwork and fiction?

Personally, I work in retail, and I made a commitment several years ago to buy as much as I could at physical stores. Even through Covid, Ive been able to mask up and shop a few local stores. And, with a few exceptions, either my wife or I have seen every figure on my radar at least once. (Earthrise Runabout, Runamuck, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker eluded me, though I did see a Fasttrack once, and I have yet to see a Road Rage in a Target store.) The biggest change for me has been that now, if I think I might want a figure, I buy it when I see it, because there is no guarantee I will see one again. Even just a couple years ago, there were must-buy figures and wait-for-clearance ones. Now, with few exceptions, that just isnt the case.

What has changed in your collecting habits?

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I used to buy a lot in stores. My finances declined around 2013 so turned to buying odds and ends on eBay once in a while instead of any active collecting. Several purchases in a row were... questionable. I wasn't going out of my way to collect bad toys on purpose but that's the pattern that emerged. Eventually I decided to play along with it and make fun of myself buy buying a Titanium Megatron. I ended up with a QC freak with stiff joints. I actually wanted to experience the badness but some force in the universe thought it would be funnier if I didn't.

Now I seek out bad toys on purpose and I'm getting trolled with tight joints every time. Why can't I experience the badness?

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

I've been buying less and less in recent years. The constant fixation on a small repeating core cast, poor distribution (long before COVID), and a general feeling of lower quality for higher costs has cooled me off on the hobby. I still look when I happen to be in Target or Walmart, but it's more out of habit than anything.

 

[Dekafox]

I've mostly switched to preorders, but I've been slowly stepping off. WFC did put out some great versions of a lot of characters but for some of them I already had a "good enough" version of the character, or I simply wasn't interested in it. At this point outside dark horse late G1 characters, I've got most of what I need or want.

 

[Platypus Prime]

I've been getting a lot less, partially because I have so MUCH and in many cases I don't see the new stuff as an upgrade. Also, my nephew who lives next door to me has become much MORE interested in Transformers, and he's buying some of his own. By letting him borrow from my stuff while picking and choosing his own, we avoid a lot of repetition and waste, considering he will eventually get my stuff too. I have brought in some more non-robots than I normally would, like the Emperor's throne and Zartan from Pulsecon, or Godzilla stuff, but even with that my toy spending is way down. Given the uncertainty I've been largely focusing on house/car stuff. I need those more.

 

[Noip]

I prefer to buy in an actual store, and most things do show up eventually, but not all by any means.

 

[lastmaximal]

Over the last few years I've slowed down a lot with international purchases/trades because post prices have gotten prohibitive, especially with volume now being a factor as much as weight. Fortunately local specialty stores have really stepped up in terms of bringing stuff in where regular retail can't or won't, so that's been sufficient for a while.

In the last 22 months I've of course all but dropped in-store purchases and shifted to mainly preorders and online gets from specialty stores and mainstream retail (which has stepped up surprisingly well actually -- nice to see they CAN do it when it's their best or only option).

And to be honest it feels great to not have to be schlepping around so much. Part of me misses the specialness of sighting something early or first, seeing a long-awaited thing on shelves and quickly buying it and gleefully racing out of there. But I'm happy for that to just be on special occasions in the future. The
commute and travel involved were just terrible, and the local world being forced to shift to online purchases and simple delivery was such a huge gift.

Collectionwise, between WFC and Studio Series I can probably review how the older lines stand in my collection -- and start pruning (one thing holding me back is the question of dura ility for some of the new stuff). I can probably slow down with Legacy on, because some of the stuff doesn't grab me; we're reaching a point when the aesthetic and engineering change doesn't really live up to or outdo the originals.

 

[Platypus Prime]

One thing that's sort of set me back a bit, I admit, is gas prices. I don't live too close to any store, so the old 'pop out to see what's there' now costs as much as a figure or two, on the low end. I just can't keep that up. It was easier to do it when there was a Target right next to where I was working and I passed it going back and forth between that workplace and my apartment, with a Wal-mart three miles in the other direction. But with the entire local being different now, fuel is a major bite, especially since there's no guarantee that after spending the fuel there's anything to find. Even if I paid an extra five bucks or so in shipping, I'd still come out ahead having a figure delivered instead of hunting for them.

 

[Echowarrior]

I prefer to make my purchases at brick and mortar retail, but I've long resigned myself to having to preorder online and hope for the best.

 

[Telly]

I've been buying less and less in recent years. The constant fixation on a small repeating core cast, poor distribution (long before COVID), and a general feeling of lower quality for higher costs has cooled me off on the hobby. I still look when I happen to be in Target or Walmart, but it's more out of habit than anything.

pretty much my answer too. tired of buying the same character over and over and over again until i get the "best" one. forcing myself to just STOP has been great. no longer chasing yet another ratchet or prowl. focusing my collection on just getting characters that appeared in the original show has also helped (sure thats a lot of toys still, but nowhere near what it could be)

 

[Sciflyer]

Admittedly, I don't experience quite as much joy these days as I once did in receiving the things that I preorder or find in stores. Some of that is to do with what others have mentioned: the same core group of characters ad nauseum, spotty distribution, etc. Some of it is the recent culture of needing to be in a very specific place - or places - at a very specific time just to have a crack at preordering something. But the most significant factor is that I have aged and just hit a personal wall with what I am now interested in getting, and what I am willing to do to get it.

When thinking back on collecting highlights from recent years, I am reminded of how excited I was when characters that we had never gotten modern updates of - or U.S. toys of at all - were announced and released. I am thinking specifically of things like T30/Legends Arcee, Nightbird, Overlord, many of the Headmasters, Commander Class Jetfire, etc. HasLab Unicron was very cool to support and get, and I am looking forward to Victory Saber as well. Lately, I tend to focus more on characters that haven't been done to death, or ones that I feel really stand out from a previous version (an example of what I mean would be the recent SS86 Jazz).

Ultimately though, I feel like there is still a lot about collecting Transformers toys to like. I am 45 now and have basically loved these things since I was 8 years old. As an adult collector, my priorities have shifted but I foresee continuing on in some form or fashion for as long as it remains fun.

 

[Daith]

I've been preordering Online more often thanks to having an easier time with finances. But if I see them in store before my preorder processes I might still pick it up and cancel the pre-order. That said it's been less Transformers as it's getting to the point that I'm buying them just to buy them and that's never a good habit. Either I have the characters they have been putting out in an already sufficient version or it's a character I have no connection or desire for. It's been very pick and choose since the start of the WFC trilogy. Kingdom was mostly regulated to mainly the new Beast molds with a few new takes like Optimus and Galvatron. I did back StarSaber as a cool Transformer in his own right.

Though my problem now has focused on other lines. Marvel Legends in the last few years catered to my 90's X-men and Spider-man craze a little too well and even now I'm drifting into other Marvel branches. Star Wars I've contained mainly to non movie Black Series characters with a few exceptions. Joe is getting frustrating so I'm about ready to skip out on that branch of fandom all together.... But that new Storm Shadow and Spirit look so good. And Lightning Collection has had me buying up Ranger stuff but now that MMPR and Zeo is coming close to being fully represented on the Ranger Side I'm not sure how much further I'm going to go. I kinda want to finish SPD but I really need to just cut a couple lines completely and Rangers would be the easiest

But Lately I had a bit of a Prop Craze what with Blacks Series putting out so many Mando Helmets, and some Lightsabers that were hard to pass up. And Maybe tad too much into Power Rangers too as I got the new Lightning Collection White Ranger Helmet, Dragon Dagger and went back and got the Bandai Legacy Saba. But I'm also Backing the Haslab Proton Pack too since it's been a childhood dream to have my own GB set up.

But really the short answer is "My Name is Daith and I have a toy problem"

 

[Shattered Trousers]

I've definitely changed the way I approach collecting due to being in hard lockdown for 267 days of this year.
The hobby changes a lot when all the stores that stock toys are closed and you're not allowed to leave your home.


Over the past eighteen months I've made a habit of pre-ordering mainline Transformers I know I want from BBTS, on the assumption they won't make it to Australian retail. Most of Earthrise past wave 2 was a no-show and Kingdom is shaping up to be the same, so having those pre-orders locked in with a retailer I trust has been invaluable.
The shipping cost is a lot at once, when I ship my pile of loot, but it's not so bad to pay once every so often.


On that subject, I've learned to accept paying whatever shipping to Australia ends up costing, even if it doubles the price of a toy. I still try to buy from Asia, where postage to Australia is free or only a couple of dollars, but in the case of exclusives I really, really want I've learned to swallow my reservations and just pay the $20 or $30.


The biggest change I've noticed to my collecting is I've been looking back fondly at Robots in Disguise 2015 and I've been picking up toys I missed out on or passed on when they were new.
Getting the Japanese versions instead of the American versions has made filling gaps much more rewarding because of how different the paint applications are.

Recently I've gotten all of the Transformers Adventure Prime of Micron Hyper Surge characters (Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Starscream and God Optimus Prime) because, even though they are large and simple to transform, the paint applications on the Japanese releases are utterly gorgeous!
And the Weaponizer Mini-Cons included, with their metallic paint and transparent blue parts, are so much nicer than the cheap-looking Hasbro ones I saw in store. I think they're awesome!

Also, because I've really liked the larger, super-well-painted car modes, I've picked up Transformers Adventure Big Drift and Big Steeljaw. Both are toys I remember the Hasbro versions being available in stores, but I couldn't justify buying them because they just didn't look very good to me. The Japanese releases have wonderful paint applications which really elevate the toys in my eyes.


The last change in my collecting is my becoming totally obsessed with 3D printed upgrade accessories.
I was already interested in upgrades, ever since discovering articulated hands and feet for Combiner Wars toys, but the availability of 3D printing has thrown the gates wide and allowed for countless excellent upgrades.

Thanks to most eBay sellers and TFSafari offering free shipping I find upgrades alarmingly easy to splurge on. I need to keep myself in check by always asking myself "does this upgrade improve the toy in a meaningful way?" or else I would probably order every single upgrade available for every toy I own.


Now that I'm finally out of lockdown I have found it difficult to venture out again.
I used to enjoy traveling around, investigating toy stores near and far, but now I find it difficult to want to leave my house.
The desire must be like a muscle that hasn't seen exercise in a long time, I'll need to force myself out to enjoy traveling and toy hunting again.

~L~

 

[Rhinox]

Once upon a time I was a completionist. That ship sailed quite a few series ago.
I don't buy every mold like I used to. I realized how much I don't care for the live action movie aesthetic so I typically avoid those molds now. They're just not for me.

I avoid most studio series, look for characters I like and molds that look like fun.

 

[Superomegaprime]

I kind of slowed down on buying and becoming a bit more picky, I haven't really invested in any third party figures, mostly because they tend to be MP size thus on the larger size or its legends scale figures, but they just don't really interst me, so the only major change would be buying upgrade for a lot of figures, because its the so called means of saving money on Hasbro/takara part that leaves a lot of gaps in the figures and have no use aside from bug me!

 

[Tripredacus]

Basically a full stop since TRU closed.

 

[LiamA]

After buying almost every figure in the Titans lines I pretty much stopped buying figures.

 

[The Predaking]

I have switched to buying everything online. Pre-ordering during the pandemic has been the only way I have got a lot of these awesome figures this in the last 18 months. If that means paying a few extra bucks to BBTS so I don't have to hunt stores everyday, then I am fine with that.

 

[Stepwise]

I've been pretty choosy for the last several years. Not a lot in the way of impulse buys, and I was really focusing on getting versions of characters I liked - if I didn't have a connection to that character from one of the cartoons or the comics, I didn't buy it.

I really like Studio Series Hot Rod and Earthrise Optimus, and there are toys coming up on the rumored/leaked lists that I'm really looking forward to, like Pointblank and Blaster, but I'm getting more interested in toys that don't look exactly like they stepped off the screen, too. I liked the crew I picked up from Combiner Wars (Ironhide, Prowl, Smokescreen, Hound, and Skylynx...and then Mirage, when I didn't like how Hound didn't match...) I also started digging through and looking at 3rd party toys, just because they looked cool.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

When I first got back into collecting in 2001, I was a completionist; get one of EVERYTHING. I even bought Brave Maximus off of Ebay. (Literally within arms reach of me right now, ha!). I did the same with Armada (there might have been a figure or two I missed, but I don't think so.) but Energon broke me. Just wasn't interested enough in the figures. I didn't come back around until 2007 when Classics and the Movie were a thing. Again I got all of the movie figures and all of the classics figures. Even went back and started getting Energon and Cybertron figures that could fill roles in my Classics collection. But I basically fell out of collecting after that point, only grabbing a rare figure here and there like Universe Octane.

I forget why I got back into collecting, it was around the time of Titans Return, and I started filling out my collection again, but this time I only get figures that I either like the character of, or that I think are cool. No more completionism and I'm so much better off for it.

With RiD and Armada I mostly did local stores, with the movie and classics I think I started transitioning to buying mostly online, and at this point there's only one store in my entire town that sells toys and they have a terrible and outdated selection of Transformers, so I basically have to buy everything online now.