Do you have any rules that you use to guide your collection?

[Battle Ram Man]

When I first encountered MOTUC (back in 2012), my plan was to just pick up a few characters that I thought looked cool. I grabbed Leech, Skeletor, and then Demo Man just to get the Alcala head. I got a hold of the first vintage mini comic, and I decided I'd recreate the cover, so I picked up Beast Man, MAA and He-Man as well. Then I picked up Grayskullman as a kind of stand in for the castle.

And of course, it all spiraled out of control from there. Anyway, my rules for collecting (rules to keep the collection looking coherent and to limit the number of figures) is this:

All vintage MOTU characters from waves 1-4 (1982-1985), excluding variants
Main representatives from each vintage MOTU faction (Snake Men, Horde, Evil Warriors, Heroic Warriors).This would include the first wave of Snake men, even though they're from 1986. Also Sorceress and Randor, since they appeared before 1985.
All MOTU vehicles and playsets
Anything based on Alcala's artwork or Mark Taylor concepts.
Cherry picking a few misc filmation


Anyone else have these kinds of self-imposed rules?

[Crespo]

My rules:
No giants except Granamyr. (Matty's giants are too small and underarticulated.)
I had a no Nepthu rule, but I received him as a present.
Anything else is fair game...

[Battle Armoured]

No "rules" to really speak of, apart from no bad guys near my CG display. I always have the Heroic ones defending it.

[Eterni-or]

When I first encountered MOTUC (back in 2012), my plan was to just pick up a few characters that I thought looked cool. I grabbed Leech, Skeletor, and then Demo Man just to get the Alcala head. I got a hold of the first vintage mini comic, and I decided I'd recreate the cover, so I picked up Beast Man, MAA and He-Man as well. Then I picked up Grayskullman as a kind of stand in for the castle.

And of course, it all spiraled out of control from there. Anyway, my rules for collecting (rules to keep the collection looking coherent and to limit the number of figures) is this:

All vintage MOTU characters from waves 1-4 (1982-1985), excluding variants
Main representatives from each vintage MOTU faction (Snake Men, Horde, Evil Warriors, Heroic Warriors).This would include the first wave of Snake men, even though they're from 1986. Also Sorceress and Randor, since they appeared before 1985.
All MOTU vehicles and playsets
Anything based on Alcala's artwork or Mark Taylor concepts.
Cherry picking a few misc filmation


Anyone else have these kinds of self-imposed rules?

My rules are so similar to yours!

Series 1-4, Randor and Sorceress plus vehicles and mini comics/vintage art are all included.

I am even okayish with the FFM for example because of the vintage artwork on the models.

I also got the Snake Men because they're a major faction. However if i had to trim the collection they'd be first to go.

[Battle Ram Man]

My rules are so similar to yours!

Series 1-4, Randor and Sorceress plus vehicles and mini comics/vintage art are all included.

I am even okayish with the FFM for example because of the vintage artwork on the models.

I also got the Snake Men because they're a major faction. However if i had to trim the collection they'd be first to go.

Awesome, I thought I was the only one!

Initially I didn't care about the Snake Men, but I really dig them lately. It'd be hard for me to let them go.

I forgot, I have one other exception. Anyone who would make a good vehicle driver is kosher too. So I have Dawg-o-Tor, Palace Guards, and Sky High.

I'm just about out of characters to collect. I just need Randor, Spikor, Blue Mer-Man and Roboto. Oh and Oo-Lar. We'll see if my resolve holds out once those are bought.

[barrasco]

Yes!

No figures.

[Robarr The Morbid]

No real rules to speak of, I doubt I'd adhere to any if I made them, BUT: no POP (except She-Ra, 'cuz she's He-Man's sister), no movie figures, absolutely NO NA stuff (although I might maybe make an exception for Optikk should I find him), and very little Filmation stuff. A lot of those figures just look plain goofy to me. I'm mainly interested in the vintage style figures, vehicles and playsets. I still keep hoping for a Snake Mountain. Call me a dreamer.

[zombihamma]

For me it's the 8 back and then anything else that looks cool , any thing filmation or pop I sell or customise

[Mechanizor]

I don't have any fixed rules either, however I'm not really a POP or Filmation fan, so I'm planning to sell or trade most of them except for the ones that I like a lot (like most of the Horde females).

My main aim from this line was to collect most of the Vintage line including (Playsets and Vehicles), and everything 200X related, but Mr. Nutlich ****ed it up with his agenda and forced me somehow to lose a lot of money on figures and items I cared less for, and hopefully I'd retain some of that money back when I start selling those units on the secondary market.

[Guest]

When I originally started collecting MOTUC, I did have a rule. I was only going to buy characters I wanted that had never seen a figure in 200X (such as Marzo and Evil Seed), however I began to love so many of the releases, I just jumped in and went along for the ride. I still have 3 rules regarding MOTUC:

1. Never sub. I will not let a toy company (with the worst customer service I have ever seen in my life) dictate to me what I have to buy as their troll faced brand manager drops bread crumbs and snarky posts online. Its my money. _______ you Digital River.

2. I will not purchase or support any of said troll brand manager's duds. Anything that was cooked up from Troll McNutleech's inner circle of sycophants, that didn't previously exist (and was awesome) in MOTU media, is not for me. Robot Chicken themed releases? Vomit. Maybe some fans want MOTU to reek of juvenile crap and filth, and that's fine. They can have it, and choke on it.

3. I will not purchase figures to 'save' the line, no matter how hard the cry-hards, cry. If the line was doomed to fail, its not my responsibility to carry the load so that McNutlleech and his kool-aid drinkers feel success.

So far, I love my collection, and the few decent people I've had the pleasure of doing business with.

[Battle Ram Man]

So my wife has been ill for a couple of weeks (not seriously, just enough so that she's had no energy). I've been doing all the cooking and most of the cleaning. To thank me she bought me a Mosquitor and a Spikor, which arrived today!

Per my collecting rules, this completes my bad guys collection. All I'm missing now are Oo-Lar, Roboto and King Randor. Feels good!

:hemanrocks:

[_RZ_]

If they didn't have a figure in the vintage, NA, POP, or 200x line, then I want them. I tend to stay away from anything not minicomics or new, never made characters. The only faction I am "completist" on is the Evil Warriors. Guys like He-Ro, Vikor, and FFM are why I collect MOTUC. Although I am starting to want to complete the Horde at this point. I collect lots of different lines and live in an apartment- in order to keep both a Castle Grayskull AND a wife, lines have to be drawn.

I also try not to pay over retail for any figure. If I score a figure for less than retail, I'll make the difference from original price my "war chest" for the more expensive figures I missed like Shadow Weaver. I make it a point to only ever pay full price if it is something I really, really want. I wait at least 2 months after something comes out before I pull the trigger. Patience means I often score stuff for way less than retail. This makes paying extra for the more expensive guys not such a big deal. I scored Adora for $5 so that makes the $10 extra I paid for Fisto not an issue. Palace guards were only $10 so that gave me extra to score Two Bad, etc.

[MegaGearMax]

I pretty much draw the line at joke characters like Mo-Larr or Standar. I would have not gotten any vanity figures either like Spector or Sir Laser-Lot if they were not in the sub.

Otherwise, I have everyone.

[Matthew L. Martin]

Rules? More like 'general principles'. I have a very limited budget for this kind of thing, so:

--Go for sales if at all possible. He-Man, Skeletor, Man-at-Arms, Faker, Tytus and Megator were all acquired during Matty's annual sales.
--I don't like mixing and matching characters from various lines within a faction/timeframe, especially since I have a complete US vintage MotU collection and a good chunk of 200X, so 'fill in the gaps' characters like Marlena don't appeal unless I can get a good deal and/or fill in the rest of a subset. I pretty much use Classics for vintage PoG--He-Ro and Eldor, the Giants, and King Hiss (to give He-Ro his archenemy). Other Snake Men are on the list for when my financial situation improves, with the possibility of filling in Movie and New Adventures at some point. This is not a hard and fast rule; I'm giving serious thought to the Snake Armor He-Man/Battle Armor King Hssss two pack, largely because Snake Armor He-Man is so expensive and 200X King Hssss such a weak figure.
--Nostalgia and affection for particular characters is also a key point. Thunder Punch He-Man, Dragon Blaster Skeletor and Hordak were pretty much pure nostalgia purposes to get my favorite variants and team leaders from my favorite year of the line, and Faker has always been a favorite. I keep looking for a reasonably priced Scare Glow for similar reasons.
--New characters don't really register unless they can be repurposed in my own headcanon. I'm really interested in the Great Black Wizard because I think he makes a better PoG Keldor (from the hints we've gotten) than the actual Keldor figure. Similarly, I've started browsing for a Horde Prime because I've finally figured out how he works as Horde Supreme in my 200X continuation.

[Vahn]

My rules are pretty simple:

If it looks good, keep it; if it doesn't, sell it.

There are two sort of gray areas: if it almost looks good or has flaws that I think I can fix, I will keep it and fix it. Alternatively: if it might be useful for a custom I have planned, I'll keep it.

[Captain Atkin]

No rules when it comes to collecting the figures, per say. If a figure doesn't look good to me, I either customize them to fix them to my liking, or stick them in the far back of the shelf. I keep Mighty Spector and Sir Laser-Lot in a shoe box.

[Mechanizor]

I keep Mighty Spector and Sir Laser-Lot in a shoe box.

In a shoe box only? I didn't know that you are such a civilized gentleman Captain, I thought they'd make a good target practice for you!