How complete is complete?

[jeffafa]

I did some hardcore "playing" this weekend, really just making room for some new additions on the shelves. But I realized that out of all the toy lines I have collected over the years, I do not have a single complete collection. To name a few:

The Revoltech TFs, I passed on UM making it incomplete.

Alternators, I stopped after Mirage.

Masterpiece, I passed on SE Grimlock and all the clear versions.

 

So I guess I am nowhere near a completionist, but can anyone say they have a complete line?

Also, except for the Omnicons, my G1 1984 collection is complete. I have no real plans to get the Omnicons (I couldnt care less about them) so is it reasonable for me to say my 1984 collection is complete? Since I have what I want from that year, I think that "my" collection is complete.

 

Bottom line - Does having what you want from a particular line make your collection complete, or do you need to have every toy from the line to be technically complete?

[Lord_Onslaught]

The only complete lines I have are Classics, Generations, and the Universe Dinobots depending on how you count them.

For me its no big deal if you don't have a by product complete line. I only buy the figures that I like and once I have done that, to me the line is complete.

While there are others who will by every single figure from a line, just to be a true completist I guess.

[Tripredacus]

Well a completionist is never really complete, obviously since new stuff is always coming out. There are only a few cases where there was a complete collection, but even then these were only from specific countries. No one can ever have a complete collection, even those in that boat are still far off.

 

In the card-collecting hobby, collectors won't count 1/1s as being required to having a complete collection. So in this case, that may relate to campaign items or Lucky Draws. Otherwise you basically need everything.

 

But if you don't want to collect everything, you shouldn't use the term completionist. If you don't aspire to have every single piece of Transformers in your collection, you're just a different kind of collector and that's fine too.

[KFGatri]

I did some hardcore "playing" this weekend, really just making room for some new additions on the shelves. But I realized that out of all the toy lines I have collected over the years, I do not have a single complete collection. To name a few:

The Revoltech TFs, I passed on UM making it incomplete.

Alternators, I stopped after Mirage.

Masterpiece, I passed on SE Grimlock and all the clear versions.

 

So I guess I am nowhere near a completionist, but can anyone say they have a complete line?

Also, except for the Omnicons, my G1 1984 collection is complete. I have no real plans to get the Omnicons (I couldnt care less about them) so is it reasonable for me to say my 1984 collection is complete? Since I have what I want from that year, I think that "my" collection is complete.

 

Bottom line - Does having what you want from a particular line make your collection complete, or do you need to have every toy from the line to be technically complete?

 

It's complete when I say it's complete. :tfgrin When I have all the figures I want from a line, it's complete for me, and that's all that matters. With all the silly stealth/recon/burning justice/nemesis redecos that come out these days, being a completist would be ridiculously expensive.

[Goktimus Prime]

I think you meant Omnibots instead of Omnicons. ;) They're 1985 btw, not 84 ;)

 

Complete is really absolute complete -- there are some people who are absolute completists who not only get every toy in a series, but all the variants too! For me, I'm happy to just have one version of each toy in a series, and I'd call it complete.

 

My G1 collection is approx. 86% complete. By this I'm NOT including variants and I'm only counting everything that was released in Hasbro markets from 1984-1993. I don't count Takara G1 because I didn't live in Japan during 1984-93 so I have no intention on completing a Japanese G1 collection. I have a few Japanese G1 toys which I happened to get because the opportunity presented itself to me to get some figures at fairly cheapish prices (you know me, I hate paying above original retail price). But most of my Japanese G1 toys are actually reissues.

 

Okay, lesse...

 

G1:

* 1984 = complete

* 1985 = almost complete. I'm missing Ransack. (the Deluxe Insecticons were never released in Australia) I'm also missing Time Warrior -- I did get it in 1985 but I gave it to my cousin who's since LOST it! I'm also missing the Mazda Type Mini-Spy.

* 1986 = complete

* 1987 = missing Targetmaster Blurr, Scourge and Cyclonus -- all of which never came out in Australia (neither did Hot Rod or Kup, but I have the reissues)

... after that I have 55 figures that I'm missing between 1988-1993, a lot of which are Micromasters and Action Masters (can you blame me for not completing the Action Masters? They suck!)

I'm actually only missing one 1992 Transformer, and that's the Autobot Rescue Force "Leozack."

Current G1 count: 551-561 (I have 10 "G1.5" TFs) - not bad for someone who doesn't use eBay, eh? ;)

 

G2:

I only have 41 G2 Transformers... so I'm missing heaps from G2.

 

Beast Wars: - not including Convention exclusive figures and again only look at Hasbro market and again not counting variants separately:

* 1996: Happy Meal toys (I don't think they came out here)

* 1997: Missing the Microverse toys (don't think they came out here) and Lazorbeak.

* 1998: complete!

* 1999: complete!

* 2000: Missing Icebird and Soundwave which were never released in Australia. A friend of mine recently picked up Soundwave from a fair... I was with him at the time, the toy broke as soon as he handled it! GPS FTL!

* 2001: complete! - not hard, it's just Tripredacus Agent... although he was never released in Australia either.

Current BW Count: 131

 

Machine Wars: Complete!

 

Beast Machines:

* 2000: Missing Che (and I don't care! :P). Also missing Primal Prime, Sonic Attack Jet, T-Wrecks and Magmatron. The first two were never released in Australia and the latter two were, but I wasn't interested (cos I already have the originals for both moulds - Magmatron is nearly identical to BWN Magmatron too).

* 2001: Hasbro Australia skipped the entire Battle For The Spark line! Grr!! I did import a few of them, so I'm missing Battle Unicorn, Hammerstrike, Rapticon and Terranotron (although if those Dinobots were released here I probably would have skipped them :P)

Current BM Count: 39

 

Car Robot/RiD:

More or less complete, save several repaints.

Current CR/RiD Count: 56

 

Universe 1.0:

I skipped MOST of this line, since they were mostly just crappy repaints of moulds I already have.

Current Universe count: 9

 

Armada/Energon/Cybertron:

Got most moulds, but skipped a lot of the repaints.

Current AEC Count: 258

 

Binaltech/Alt: I have at least one version of each mould except Rumble.

Current BT/ALT Count: 24

 

Classics:

Got all the original moulds. Skipped most figures that are repaints of pre-existing moulds that I already have.

 

Universe 2.0:

Same as with Classics, although I got the Henkei version of several figures -- but they're pretty much just Japanese variants really. ;)

Some of the Mini-Con 10 packs were never released in Australia.

 

Reveal The Shield:

Got most figures except for Legends Optimus Prime, Legends Prowl & repaints ('cept Bumblebee cos I found him cheap & the "Battle In Space" 2 pack - again, found it cheap and I wanted to comic book... boy was that a let down) -- don't have Frumble yet.

Classics/Universe/RTS Count: 84

 

Movieverse:

I've skipped a LOT of figures just cos there's just so much shit^stuff out there. I've been very selective - only getting the screen characters (and even then trying to minimise how many different versions of each character I have) and any non-screen characters that might take my fancy.

Count: 143

 

Animated:

Skipped most Legends and Activators. Got at least 1 version of each mould from Deluxe or above. Didn't get Cybertron Mode Ratchet (never came out here).

Count: 44

 

Masterpiece:

Skipped Ultra Magnus (even though Hasbro did release him here and he was quite reasonably priced -- just didn't interest me). I have one version of all other MP characters except for Starscream (I have the Takara and Hasbro versions).

Count: 8

 

I can't be bothered working out how complete other lines are, but as far as other series are concerned I have:

Choro Q TFs: 1

Animorphs: 7

PlaySkool TFs (various series): 11

Smallest TFs: 6

KISS Play: 5

Robot Masters: 11

Timelines: 11

Star Wars/Crossovers: 28

Marvel/Crossovers: 2

Titanium Series: 9

Plushies: 2

Music Label: 3

Disney Label: 1

Device Label: 1

Alternity: 4

Power Core Combiners: 20

[Lord_Onslaught]

Well a completionist is never really complete, obviously since new stuff is always coming out. There are only a few cases where there was a complete collection, but even then these were only from specific countries. No one can ever have a complete collection, even those in that boat are still far off.

 

In the card-collecting hobby, collectors won't count 1/1s as being required to having a complete collection. So in this case, that may relate to campaign items or Lucky Draws. Otherwise you basically need everything.

 

But if you don't want to collect everything, you shouldn't use the term completionist. If you don't aspire to have every single piece of Transformers in your collection, you're just a different kind of collector and that's fine too.

 

Nah, I'm with KFGatri on this, I'm a completist, because I only buy what I want from the line and thats it, so to me the line is complete

 

and gok, try to stay on topic for once

[jeffafa]

I think you meant Omnibots instead of Omnicons. ;) They're 1985 btw, not 84 ;)

 

 

Ha! I care so little about them I dont know their name. lol

I use this site for TF reference - http://www.toybin.org/ - mostly because tfwiki is blocked by my office firewall. But they say they were 84. I guess it doesnt matter since I wont be buying them.

[Breaker]

Did anyone else just zone out?

 

Anyways, for lack of reading what anyone else has said, I agree with Tripredacus and KFGatri.

 

Can you imagine someone trying to complete McFarlane's Spawn collection? Not while The Heap exists. Theres are 282,031,250 variants of that toy.

[Optics]

If I were to buy everything from a line, it might not feel complete to me. Sometimes they might leave a character out. Like when Play Arts was making Final Fantasy 7 characters, they never made the whole team. NECA with their SF4 characters.

 

To me complete just depends:

 

Leaders: Classics Optimus Prime, Hot Rod/Rodimus, and Ultra Magnus

 

Rivals: MP Prime and MP Megatron

Every Cloud Strife and/or Sephiroth from Play Arts (same scale)

 

BW (3) Primals and (3) Megatrons

 

Animated Elite Guard: Magnus, Sentinel, and Jazz

 

All members of a team:

Combiners

Cybertron Defense Team: Hot Shot, Red Alert, Scattershot

Power Ranger teams

Noble Team (Halo Reach - Play Arts Kai)

Gundam teams or all the mobile suits that a pilot has used

[Goktimus Prime]

Here's food for thought: WHY are some people completists? Is it really that fun to collect every single variant of every single toy? Or is it like some form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? (seriously)

 

Because for me I would like to complete my Hasbro G1 collection because I've already completed a lot of it anyway from 1984-93. My Hasbro G1 collection is 86% complete... so to make a complete collection I just gotta hunt down the remaining 14%. Having said that, there are some super-rare Hasbro G1 toys which I may NEVER find, and I can accept that. Stuff like Hasbro Overlord (it'd be cheaper and easier for me to obtain a Takara Overlord) and the Action Master Elites are just super rare to find, and if I did find them they'd go for stupid prices that I probably wouldn't want to pay. So really, if I complete say 90-95% of Hasbro G1, I'd be pretty happy. I don't have an overwhelming drive to collect 100% of G1. And even then, I'm a very PASSIVE collector of G1 -- only doing so if I happen to come across a G1 toy I need at a price I want... usually from other collectors on boards or that I meet in real life or at collector fairs. If I wanted to actively hunt down G1, I'd open an eBay account -- but as most of you know, I don't have eBay. So my G1 collecting is very much passive opportunism.

 

I have NO intention of completing Takara G1 because I never grew up with it. Simple as that. And again, it's the rule of passive opportunism -- I do have some Japanese G1s which I just got because the opportunity presented itself to me.

 

In actuality, I just buy toys that I like. I just happen to like a LOT of stuff. With G1, I really loved it so I ended up collecting almost all of it. So now I'm at the stage where my G1 collection is nearly complete, so I might as well try to complete it as best I can... but I probably won't ever get 100%... I know some people who consider their G1 collections complete when they've finished Hasbro 1984-91! I'd be happy with that - cos most of the really rare stuff that I don't care about too much are in the 1992-93 range anyway. Although I really would like to complete the 1992 Constructicons and get the Autobot Rescue Force Jet because I only need 2 more Constructicons and that "Leozak" jet to complete those sets anyway. :P I probably won't ever get Pyro/Spark... I see him around at fairs and conventions, but at RIDICULOUS prices... and odds are the gold plastic would crumble after I purchased it anyway. Screw that. The same with Beast Wars... my BW collection is nearly complete only because I liked most of what came out and got it.

 

I don't really sit down and consciously think, "I must collect them all!" -- I did kinda get like that with Armada, even buying all those stupid Powerlinx repaints - and giving them to my TF collecting girlfriend at the time... after we broke up it dawned on me that I was going OCD on collecting all those pointless repaints in an attempt to become a completist. So I snapped out of it and went back to focusing on collecting what I like. :)

 

I just happen to like a lot. :D But with the movieverse lines I've had to cut back a lot because there's just SO many different versions of the same character which I really don't like collecting. I try NOT to collect too many Bumblebees and Optimus Primes, but in spite of that I still have a lot of freakin' movie Bumblebees and Optimus Primes (sigh). But there are people out there with WAY more Bumblebees and Optimus Primes than I do.