My Collection

I've briefly dabbled with a couple of online checklists for this sort of purpose but, frankly, find operating and updating them tedious. The easiest thing, from my point of view, would be to simply list everything I own here, for the sake of posterity... or something.

I should emphasise that I've never intended to own complete sets of any particular toyline - as a general rule, I only ever buy the figures I really want - so what I'm calling 'completed sets' are simply the toylines from which I don't (currently) intend to make any more purchases.

So, as I complete writing up groups of my collection, I'll batch together the links and add them in here for convenience.

Collectors' Boxed Sets

Events & TransFormers Collectors' Club
Since I take collecting pretty seriously - or did, when I first got back into collecting in the mid-2000s - it was inevitable that I'd try to acquire at least some of the special boxed sets that are produced to entice the Collector. There are a few that I'd consider 'must have', but a surprising number - from BotCon, at least - that just didn't light my candle at all. While I've sought out individual BotCon figures quite regularly, I bought less than half of the BotCon sets Fun Publications created, and only a scattering of sets from other shows.
BotCon/Collectors' Club Sets (Fun Pub) Other
Dawn of Futures Past (BotCon 2006) Shadow Striker Roulette (OTFCC 2003)
Games of Deception (BotCon 2007) Dreadwing Smokejumper (TTS 2010)
Timelines Seacons (TFCC 2008) TF Prime First Edition Arcee (NYCC 2011)
The Stunti-Con Job (BotCon 2011) Combiner Hunters (SDCC 2015)
Machine Wars: Termination (BotCon 2013) MMC R-08Q Feral & Nero Queen (TFN 2016)

Arcee, Leinad & Ultra Magnus (HasCon 2017)

TransFormers Collectors' Club Exclusives

Timelines Individual Figures
While the Club's individual boxed exclusives got off to a rocky start, with Astrotrain delayed almost until (the first) Airazor was due, they also sent out 'Members Incentive' toys to their subscribers. These started out small - Energon gestalt limbs - but moved straight on to Deluxe-equivalents once their first gestalt - Nexus Prime/Maximus - was completed by 2009's Heatwave. While I seem to recall that some other members weren't too impressed by these figures I felt, as an international member, that it was quite generous of the club to send out 'free' figures... and, some years, I was more impressed by these freebies than the Club's premium boxed exclusives.
Skyfall Landquake
Airazor (DoFP) Astrotrain
Breakaway Topspin
Nightbeat Heatwave
Dion Over-Run (Runabout)
Cheetor Runamuck
Side Burn Rampage
Depth Charge Cobra Stealth B.A.T.s & Old Snake
Trans-Mutate Ramjet
Lio Convoy

Subscription Service
With the success of the G.I. Joe Collectors' Club's Subscription Service, Fun Publications decided to introduce this winning formula to the TransFormers Collectors' Club. This was a system by which you could buy a 'subscription' to premium set of exclusive toys, mailed out individually over the course of several months, or run the risk of losing out on the handful you might actually be interested or invested in, when the remaining stock was put up into the Club shop. I only bought into Series 1.0 and 4.0, but sought out two or three figures from each of the remaining years. Since most of sets were quite contentious, the secondary market tended to suffice, even though I probably ended up paying over the odds for some... Later sets became more ambitious, in theory, and even started adding bonus figures only available to those who subscribed to the full set. The final set emerged after the Club closed, but the Timelines branding had already been dropped in the penultimate set, which was branded as Combiner Wars instead.
Series 1.0/Timelines (2013)
Circuit Breakdown
Jackpot Scourge
Ultra Mammoth Slipstream
Series 4.0/Combiner Wars (2016)
Bluestreak Bludgeon
Impactor Grabuge
Needlenose
Spinister
Windsweeper
Thunder Mayhem

G1 & Adjacent Continuities

Masterpiece
Along with Binaltech, the Masterpiece line - and most specifically, MP01 Convoy - is most responsible for getting me back into collecting TransFormers toys. The original figure, 12 inches of awesome transforming action figure, built - like the G1 toys - with a decent amout of die-cast metal, is still a pretty impressive figure. What really sold it to me, though, was that it was first and foremost a contemporary reworking of the G1 toy, with a subtle nod to the G1 cartoon. As Masterpiece figures edged further in the direction of animation accuracy, my interest waned... so it's highly unlikely I'll get any more (unless Takara Tomy re-release Sunstreaker with the head and shin parts they gave Cordon and Spin-Out, which may convince me to acquire not just that, but Sideswipe as well)
MP01 Convoy MP03 Starscream
Grimlock MP05 Megatron
Rodimus Prime Skywarp
Optimus Prime (V2) Thundercracker
MP26 Road Rage Soundwave & Cassettes

Alternators, Binaltech, Etc.
For me, Binaltech was probably the most exciting TransFormers toyline, since it returned to the G1 ideal of real-world vehicles, continuing the G1 story in a sort of 'alternate future history' framework. Vehicle forms were now fully licensed, and additionally delivered semi-realistic vehicle interiors, including seats, dashboards, steering wheels, gear sticks and hand brakes, along with rubber tyres and, for most of the figures, 'steering' on the front wheels. A couple got spring-loaded suspension instead, like MP01, but virtually all of them had some interesting features one would normally find only on scale model cars. The robots themselves could be somewhat disappointing - their articulation awkward and limited even by contemporary standards, let alone now - and many figures were plagued by loose joints that didn't play well with the extensive use of die cast metal... but the presentation was vastly superior to Hasbro's Alternators in almost every case. Alternators, for me, was just a means of more cheaply filling out the range, where I wasn't so invested in a particular model, until it started including figures that never appeared in Binaltech. Asterisk was a somewhat disappointing and short-lived spin-off... and I suppose the less said about Kiss Players, the better.
BT01 Smokescreen BT05 Dead End
BT02 Lambor BT09 Swindle
BT03 Streak BT13 Laserwave
BT04 Hound BT17 Black Convoy
BT06 Tracks AT11 Battle Ravage
BT08 Meister AT24 Rumble
BT10 Grimlock AT24 Nemesis Prime
BT12 Overdrive AT26 Ravage (Jaguar)
BT14 Wheeljack
BT16 Skids
BT20 Argent Meister
AT18 Sunstreaker
AT21 Optimus Prime
BTA03 Broadblast
KP Hot Rodimus

TransFormers: Combiner Wars / Unite Warriors
After years of avoiding combiners, then delivering the watered-down experience of Power Core Combiners, Hasbro and Takara Tomy finally got it right with Combiner Wars. The line featured Deluxe class limb-bots, Voyager class torso-bots and a cleverly-conceived yet poorly executed use of weapon accessories as both hands and feet on the gestalts, as well as interaction with some of the smaller toys as either armour or weapons for the gestalts. Plenty of play value thanks to excellent poseability on all the toys, regardless of size... though the combined forms could be a bit wobbly. Due to some odd choices on Hasbro's part (and the fact that I already owned FansProjects' Intimidator), I ended up with only a couple of individual Decepticon figures...
Air Raid Bruticus (Unite Warriors set)
Alpha Bravo Grand Galvatron (Unite Warriors set)
Blades Megatron
Firefly Shockwave
First Aid
Groove (Deluxe class)
Groove (Legends class)
Hot Spot (& Defensor)
Rook
Silverbolt (& Superion)
Sky Lynx (& custom Sky Reign)
Skydive
Streetwise

TransFormers: Titans Return (inc. TransFormers Legends)
Combiner Wars was great, but Titans Return - and Takara Tomy's continuation of their Legends line - was a very mixed bag. Its reboot of the old HeadMaster gimmick wasn't integrated into the toyline as completely as it had been back in Generation 1, but the individual toys tended to be excellent.
HasCon Arcee & Leinad w/ Ultra Magnus Apeface
Blurr Tokyo Toy Show 2017 Black Convoy
Brawn Krok & Gatorface
Broadside & Blunderbuss Octane & Murk
Cosmos Overboard
Godbomber Overlord & Dreadnaut
Hot Rod & Firedrive Scourge & Fracas
TargetMaster Kup (Chear) & Recoil Sharkticon & Sweep
Super Ginrai Sixshot & Revolver
Windblade & Scorchfire Triggerhappy & Blowpipe
TargetMaster Windblade Weirdwolf & Monxo

TransFormers: Power of the Primes
By this point, Hasbro had agreed a 'Unification of World Brands' with Takara Tomy, which effectively brought Legends to an end and forced them to release toys in exactly the same form (packaging included) as their American counterparts. Worse still, the final chapter of the Prime Wars Trilogy presented little more than retreads of Combiner Wars and Titans Return rather than any true innovation. Individual toys were great, but the line as a whole was a disappointment.
Prime Masters (Cloudburst & Micronus, Metalhawk & Vector Prime, Skullgrin & Leige Maximo,
Landmine & Alpha Trion, Submarauder & Alchemist Prime, Octopunch & Solus Prime,
Bludgeon & Quintus Prime, Bomb-Burst & Megatronus)
Elita-1 Battletrap (Battleslash & Roadtrap)
Moonracer Darkwing
Novastar Dreadwind
Evolution Optimus Prime Evolution Nemesis Prime
Punch-Counterpunch & Prima Prime Evolution Rodimus Unicronus
Evolution Rodimus Prime

War for Cybertron: Siege
All hopes of something new in the toyline were cruelly dashed when Hasbro announced War for Cybertron as, essentially, just another G1 reboot. The concept sounded promising - returning to the early days of the Cybertronian civil war - but Siege indicated a disastrous misstep in that marketing. All the toys were covered with battle damage paint applications which, aside from looking terrible, would tend to indicate a war in full swing. More importantly, few of the vehicle designs took any real risks so, while the Autobots largely ended up looking like terrestrial concept cars, the Decepticons largely looked like nondescript boxes embellished with wings or weapons. The Weaponiser concept, random as it seemed at the time, unexpectedly turned out to be one of the better elements of the line, while the MicroMasters and undersized so-called Leader class figures seemed to have developed from one of my own nightmare scenarios about Hasbro's future handling of the toyline. Rarely have I been so disappointed with a new TransFormers toyline... But worse was yet to come... And I'm not even talking about the appalling Netflix series.
Sixgun Brunt
Skytread
Soundwave (& Spy Patrol 1)
Spy Patrol 2

War for Cybertron: Earthrise
...Because, while Siege was almost something new, but disappointing and underachieving in the wake of the almost decade-old War for Cybertron videogames, Earthrise was nothing more than a cyncial reboot of Hasbro's own 15+ year old Classics line. A continuation of Classics/Generations might have been acceptable if it brought new toys of G1 characters who hadn't already appeared, or whose original toys were considered sub-par... but it was just another recycling job. Recycled Classics Seekers/Coneheads, upscaled with barely any improvements to their engineering; amateurish and ugly remakes whose lazy engineering paled in comparison to their predecessors; ill-considered holdovers from Siege that barely improved upon the G1 toys they were based upon; random additions from the 1986 animated movie, seemingly crossing over with the newly debuted Studio Series '86 line. Earthrise felt like a dumping ground of ideas no-one had yet been able to shoehorn into any other line. And where the toyline appeared to suggest a chapter of the story actually set on Earth, the Netflix series, when it eventually emerged, appeared to simply carry on and conclude the narrative of Siege, throwing in random characters simply because they were in the toyline, while omitting many others, and acting as little more than a bridge to the concluding chapter.
Cliffjumper
Optimus Prime

Aligned Continuities

War for Cybertron (Game)
Probably one of the more disappointingly short-lived toylines, with some rather poor entries and far too many repaints. Nevertheless, WfC did a decent job of representing characters from the videogame, and overall looked far better than the wider range of Fall of Cybertron toys that later made it to the shelves. The main problem with both these lines was that there was clearly no real planning behind them. The WfC wave covered the most obvious characters as Deluxe class figures, but then Soundwave was re-made as a Voyager class figure in the FoC line, to make use of the awful 'data disc' minions and their impact-based, spring-loaded auto-transform gimmick. FoC also introduced the first contemporary combiner toy, in the form of an ugly, misbegotten attempt at Bruticus. I've not played any of the games, since the my PCs are habitually underpowered and the last console I bought was a Wii (on which the games were basically on-the-rails shooters)
Optimus Prime Megatron
Bumblebee Soundwave

TransFormers Prime/Beast Hunters/Arms Micron/TF Go!
The TV show TransFormers Prime turned out to be just about the best bit of TransFormers media ever created - occasionally dark and gritty, but with lighthearted moments, without going overboard on the human angle. Without irony, the robots themselves were at their most human, with the PTSD-suffering Arcee being the standout character in my opinion, her partnership with Jack Darby driving her character arc every bit as much as her animosity toward Airachnid, and the loss of Cliffjumper in the very first episode. Not since Beast Machines has an on-screen Megatron been so single-minded, powerful and threatening, and the show's take on Starscream - constantly scheming, loyal only to himself unless outgunned - was possibly the first time the character has been portrayed as even remotely competent. While I found the final season's switch into Beast Hunters utterly incongruous and had no interest in the majority of the remolded Autobots or beastformer Decepticons, the main toyline and its spin-offs from Takara Tomy were quite compelling.
Arcee Airachnid
Beast Hunters Arcee Arms Micron War Breakdown
First Edition Arcee Dreadwing
First Edition Bulkhead Knock Out
Bumblebee Beast Hunters Knock Out
Ultimate Opponents Bumblebee Megatron
Cliffjumper Rumble
Arms Micron Ironhide TF Go! Hunter Shockwave
Optimus Prime Skyquake
Beast Hunters Prowl Arms Micron Skywarp
Ratchet Soundwave
Sergeant Kup Beast Hunters Soundwave
Beast Hunters Smokescreen TF Go! Hunter Soundwave
Ultra Magnus Starscream
Wheeljack Dark Energon Starscream

First Edition Starscream

Ultimate Opponents Starscream

Arms Micron Thundercracker

Vehicon

Arms Micron Jet Vehicon

Beast Hunters Ace Vehicon

Beast Hunters Jet Vehicon

Arms Micron Stunt Wildrider

Robots in Disguise (2015)/TransFormers Adventure
I tried watching Robots in Disguise - ostensibly the follow-up to TransFormers Prime - but couldn't get into it. The art style started to grow on me eventually, but the look of the human characters never quite fitted with the robots. Story-wise, there was supposed to be another 'character growth' arc, centred on Bumblebee, but it never seemed to get anywhere, and his bickering team just kept bickering... It was a shame, because Strongarm could have been a fun character. The biggest disappointment for me was that some of the most imaginative Decepticons from the show either had terrible toys or no toys at all... All of them were horribly simplified and gappy, but at least some of Takara Tomy's versions had better paint jobs...
Drift Origin Mode & Jazz Battle Mode
Joint Struggle: Sideswipe & Stepper
Optimus Prime & Gravity (Adv) Bisk
Sideswipe Fracture
Strongarm (Adv) Ground Vehicon General (Adv)
Strongarm & Sawtooth Paralon
Windblade Soundwave
Windblade (Adv) Thermidor
Thunderhoof

The Unicron Trilogy

TransFormers: Armada / Micron Legend
A toyline I was initially quite disparaging of due to the simple, clumsy, frequently ugly construction of many of the toys and the fact that its focus on obtaining all the Mini-Cons/Microns was a thinly disguised Pokémon rip-off, I nevertheless ended up buying - and enjoying - a handful of the toys, including two Japanese versions, one a 5000-piece limited edition, mail-away figure. Admittedly, this collection isn't really 'complete' because I have yet to write about any of the myriad Mini-Con and Micron sets I own (some of which were limited editions)... but I'm still not sure how I'm going to go about them, or if I should separate them from the Energon/Superlink versions...
Unicron & Dead End
Jetfire & Comettor Megatron & Leader-1
Laserbeak TV Magazine Scourge & Sweep
Super Base Optimus Prime & Sparkplug Skywarp & Thunderclash
Overload & Rollout Starscream & Grid
Powerlinx Red Alert & Longarm Thundercracker & Zapmaster
Tidal Wave & Ramjet

Individual Movie Toylines

TransFormers
The original movie's toyline required - and, for the time, delivered - a quantum leap in toy engineering. While just about everything was vastly improved by the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen toyline, what Hasbro/Takara Tomy delivered for the first movie was nothing short of stunning, particularly when one considers that they only had access to two-dimensional pre-production concept art rather than any finished CGI. In retrospect, some of the toys may seem overly simplistic and underachieving - and, certainly, the Leader class toys were all overburdened by the 'electronic lights and sounds' features that were requisite at the time - but the 'Automorph' gimmick, basic and glitchy though it was, was a mind-blowing milestone in the toy franchise. The small cast of (robot) characters was bolstered by toys developed from both unused concept art and robots created for the tie-in videogame... as well as several repaints of toys from previous, non-movie toylines, to mixed effect.
War of the Waves 2-pack (Air Raid vs. Storm Surge, Universe branded)
Arcee Barricade
Arcee (G1 Colour) Blackout
Arcee Black Version Bonecrusher
Arcee (Scout class) Brawl
Bumblebee ('76 Camaro) Dropkick
Bumblebee (Concept Camaro) Frenzy (Fast Action Battler)
Cliffjumper Fracture (KO)
Elita-1 (Scout class) Hardtop
Ironhide Megatron
Jazz Payload
Jazz (G1 Colour) Scorponok
Final Battle Jazz Deep Space Starscream
Landmine Stockade
Longarm Thundercracker
Optimus Prime Wreckage
Ratchet
Rescue Ratchet
Signal Flare
Strongarm

TransFormers 2 - Revenge of the Fallen
While RotF's position as the worst movie in the franchise was eventually usurped by Age of Extinction and The Last Knight (take your pick, I hope I never see TLK), its toyline was - and to a degree, remains - the pinnacle of TransFormers toylines. Previously unparalleled screen accuracy, the intriguing and (generally) well-handled Mech Alive gimmick, and an extended range of toys under the sub-brands 'Hunt for the Decepticons' and 'N.E.S.T. Global Alliance' brought toys of original new characters not seen in the movie, some paying homage to Generation 1, but all conveniently maintaining Hasbro's trademarks.
Back Road Brawl 2-pack (Hoist & G1 colour Mixmaster)
Arcee Bludgeon
Bumblebee Breakdown
Battle Blade Bumblebee Dead End
Battle Ops Bumblebee Demolishor
Brawn Devastator (Legends Constructicons set)
Breakaway Dirt Boss
Chromia Hailstorm
Elita-1 Megatron
Evac The Fallen
Fallback Mixmaster
Highbrow Payload
Hubcap Rampage
Jetfire Ravage (Legends)
Jolt Ravage (Deluxe)
Mudflap Sideways
Nightbeat Skystalker
Optimus Prime Skywarp
Sideswipe Soundwave
Sidearm Sideswipe Starscream (Voyager)
Skids Starscream (Leader)
Strafe Terradive
Swerve Wheelie
Tomahawk

TransFormers 3 - Dark of the Moon
Easily my favourite film of the 'Witwicky Saga' because it so very nearly had a coherent plot, Dark of the Moon had a disappointingly small toyline, with several figures never seeing the light of day outside of Japan due to Hasbro cancelling the line being prematurely. The toys had become smaller and, in some cases, less complex than those of previous lines, but most were packaged with 'Mechtech' weapons featuring geared, spring-loaded action. Its biggest failing, though, was undoubtedly having no Leader class toy of the the newly redesigned Megatron.
Nitro Bumblebee Crankcase
Dino Hatchet
Ironhide (Voyager) Megatron
Ironhide (Leader) Shockwave
Jolt Darkside Soundwave
Sentinel Prime Thundercracker
Skyhammer
Armour Topspin
Que

TransFormers 4 - Age of Extinction
And from my favourite to my least favourite (though only because I never bothered to see The Last Knight), Age of Extinction was an incoherent mess of too many ideas with not enough thought to tie them together. International travel, Dinobots, robot designs that couldn't possibly be turned into effective toys, and way too many new human characters of little or no consequence. The toyline was even smaller than that of the previous movie - almost as if Hasbro had lost confidence in the movie brand, or were trying to distance themselves from it - with very few highlights.
Bumblebee Evolution 2-pack Lockdown
High Octane Bumblebee
Crosshairs
Drift
Hound
Evasion Mode Optimus Prime

TransFormers 5 - The Last Knight
While I've yet to see the whole movie, I feel like I've seen enough of it in clips on YouTube to know that it's every bit the incoherent mess that Age of Extinction was, or perhaps worse. By all accounts, some interesting stuff ended up on the cutting room floor (not least Cogman demonstrating his HeadMaster function), while the toyline was the smallest and most underachieving movie line to date. Granted, it's possible Hasbro wanted to hold some stuff back for Studio Series, but what little they released under TLK branding really wasn't that good. The best figures have come from Third Parties, in the form of either upscaled reworkings of Hasbro's molds, or wholly new figures at approximately Masterpiece scale.
Cogman Barricade
Hot Rod Berserker
Optimus Prime Megatron
Nitro

Standalone Continuities

Alternity
Loosely associated with Binaltech via its bonkers storyline, Alternity carried on the pattern of licensed vehicle modes and die-cast metal parts, but at Takara Tomy's original preferred scale for Binaltech. Disappointing in the end, as the engineering was a little too ambitious for the size and materials, and because there were far too many repaints of a small number of figures, but an interesting diversion nonetheless.
Bumblebee Megatron
Cliffjumper Skywarp
Convoy Starscream
Thundercracker

Street Fighter II x TransFormers
Clearly the fever-dream of a Capcom fan at Takara Tomy or a TransFormers fan at Capcom, this bonkers crossover line appeared suddenly and with little fanfare, and appears to be limited to four characters across two twin packs - two Voyager class repaints in one, two Deluxes in the other - made out of Titans Return/TF Legends repaints.
Arcee [Chun Li] Megatron [Vega]
Convoy [Ryu]
Hot Rodimus [Ken]

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