Anything that has it's own proper name from the company counts as a figure to me (w/ the exception of the combined gestalts, ie 6 Constructicons that form Devastaor =/= 7 bots total as Goki said above).

 

-I count all mincons seperately.

-I count all duplicates of characters/figures seperately b/c they are part of my collection (ie I have 9 Warpaths, and I count them 9x).

-I count varients and recolors seperately (ie I have the original Cheetor and the Fox Kids "rerelease," those count as 2 bots. Also, if you have the original Cheetor, one w/ red eyes and one w/ blue I think it was, those count as 2 bots also).

 

That is my take on counting. But, you can feel free to count your collection any way you damn well please. That is the beauty of a hobby, you can do anything you want to w/ it.

It must suck to be that Outback retentive.

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No, it's actually part of the fun.

It must suck to be that Outback retentive.

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being a burocrat has its advantages

Rastaban... same Rastaban from PDF?

 

IRT:

 

I could Minicons, Nebulons/Micros and Action Master partners as individual toys when loose. For example:

 

Armada Street Speed Team loose = 3 toys

Armada Street Speed Team carded = 1 toy

 

The same goes for any assortment of packaged toys that include more than 1 actual toy.

 

I also count decoys as individual toys, however things like candy toys it depends greatly on whether or not they are better classified as an artifact rather than a toy. For example, the Wheeljack stamp set or Megatron pencil toppers aren't toys, they are artifacts.

 

edit to add: I do not count Pretender shells as being separate toys.

For me it's very simple. If the figure has been or at some point could be packaged separately it counts as one.

 

There for Nebulons and Pretender shells don't count, they are accessories.

Yet minicon since they've been packaged apart from larger figures count.

*counts pvcs, repaints, doubles, partners and even statues* :redface

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Don't Feel Bad Galvasean, I Do The Same :wave

 

 

CJ

 

 

:tfdance

Nebulans and Action Master Partners do not count because from a toy PoV, they accessorise another Transformer. They don't have intrinsic play value on their own as Transformers. For example, you would not be able to play with Vanguard or Monzo on their own as Transformers if you didn't have their main Transformer components. On the other hand, if you have an Action Master who is missing their partner or vehicle, you can still play with them independently as Transformer toys - so they still have value in that context.

 

Mini-Cons do count, because they are individual Transformers and they have independent play value as such. Like gestalt members, even though Mini-Cons can attach with other TFs, they still retain intrinsic independent play value, unlike say, half a Duocon.

 

Mini-Con teams are counted the same way as Micromasters, according the number of individual Mini-Cons.

 

That is my take on counting. But, you can feel free to count your collection any way you damn well please. That is the beauty of a hobby, you can do anything you want to w/ it.

 

Indeed, but it makes such statistics useless if we are to effectively gather comparative data. There's little value in two fans saying that they have 200 Transformers, if these fans have very different takes on classifying counting Transformers.

 

Systems of classification are always arbitrary by nature. But in order to achieve integrity in comparative statistics, we need to agree on a set of classification protocols.

 

The protocols have I have cited were postulated during a survey last July conducted across five TF forums, including TFans (although it was before I joined, the survey here would've been conducted by Axaday - I asked him to do the survey for me on some American-based forums - Axaday would've also stated that only N.American residents could participate in his surveys).

 

For anyone who cares, here are the results from that survey...

 

OzFormers mean = 500

They Are Among Us mean = 352

Average Collection Size, Australia = 415

 

AllSpark mean = 316

Transfandom mean = 133

TFans mean = 350

Average Collection Size, North America = 313

 

Average Collection Size, Australia & N. America = 364 Transformers

That's why for comparissoning, it's easier to have some kind of listing with the filled in fields can only be recognized items. Similar to the IGN games collection list. Then let the list do the counting by a set ruleset.

The problem with that is that it's difficult to make a truly comprehensive listing, unless you base it off some modern form of the old CTLP... not even Tony Fitz's TFU.info is a complete listing... it's missing several legitimate Transformers.

 

We basically need to have an agreed convention of classification that fans stick to.

 

What you're suggesting is possible, but the online checklist would have to be created and maintained by a very dedicated and knowledgeable fan, like Rob Jung (who no longer maintains his CTLP).

 

I suppose I could try, but I know nothing of Java scripting... :P

i count nebulons as seperate tfs. though they are neccisary for the main bot. target masters count seperately as they don't stop the main bot/con from operating normally. headmasters are different however because they are neccisary for bot mode. however by doing this if you have say scorponok but no zarak you still have one tf