Grave Considerations: Upgrading the Collection

Previously on Child Sized Coffin:

                “But now, what does my complete G1 Menasor really mean, seeing as right over there is a modern-age Menasor, and its G2 horror of a paintjob version in my closet? G1 Predaking is among the best of the G1 toys, both as a combiner and as individual members. But what does it really mean, seeing as all five Ares figures are posed on my desk at this very moment? What do I do with my G1 Quake, now that I have a newer, better version, and the original just sits in a plastic box?”  “What Shall We Do With Widows?” Sept. 22, 2017

That previous statement was made in the context of my having found a Titans Return Quake, and reaching an understanding that a G1 Quake may no longer be necessary. I’ve gotten back to thinking about this topic the last few months, largely framed by my thoughts of combining TFC Toys Poseidon for the first time during July. 

I began thinking about how many sets of G1 Seacons I own. The original, naturally. The Beast Wars II God Neptune repaints. The TFCC “Classicsverse” boxed set. Do I really need three sets? Probably not; maybe I should sell one. Months ago I got the full Warbotron Bruticus  set, and that got me thinking about how necessary Combiner Wars Bruticus is in my collection. (It’s not at all. It was an easy decision. –mr) So, since I’d gone all in on Warbotron Bruticus now, I added Combiner Wars Bruticus to my box of things to list on eBay, as well as two sets of Seacons. At the end of August, I bought FansProject Intimidator, so Combiner Wars Menasor went up on eBay. I also picked up MakeToys Despotron, which puts my Masterpiece MP-05 Megatron in jeopardy, and my summer amassing of the MakeToys Seekers means I’m rethinking the places that Masterpiece Thundercracker and Skywarp, the originals from the MP-03 Starscream mold, have on my shelves.  

I upgraded my collections’ modern age Bruticus. If there was a problem with this, it was that recently, a modern age Bruticus was released, and I owned it. So I decided that I was going to sell it off. I didn’t even have any reservations about this, and that may be the part I find odd. When I bought the Warbotron figures I needed, my brain just said, “whelp, that’s that for Combiner Wars Bruticus.” A few years ago, this exchange would not have taken place in my mind. I would have just had multiple Bruticus’ in my collection, all competing for space. When we were living in a smaller space, I would have just set myself to stuffing an official Bruticus deeper somewhere in the large closet that housed my collection. Now, I have essentially an entire room for my collection, and I’m like, “I need to get rid of some of this stuff.” Wild.

I recently began selling off a number of old G1 figures, mostly ones that have gotten updates in recent official toy lines, and a lot of my more recent versions of figures that have Third Party counterparts that I own. It’s not like I’ve decided that I only need one version of any given character; it’s more that I’ve decided it’s time to take one of those hard looks at my collection and figure out what is no longer necessary or wanted. The existence of so many good Third Party pieces just sorta makes this easier, as if a 3P replacement exists and I either own it or plan on owning it, I am just making substitutions. Combiner Wars Bruticus is fine; it’s a good, modern set of Combaticons. It looks good, it’s well engineered, it’s all-around fine. But I found one that’s better. That’s all.

I’m pretty sure this has made it onto the Coffin before, but the mere existence of Third Party products is apparently still a terribly contentious issue. I think that I am finished with trying to argue the merits of them to those that find them abominable, so that’s not what I’m getting into here. The existence of Third Party figures gives collectors options, and that’s something that we should always love. It’s no secret, I was totally in love with Combiner Wars. Less so initially with Titans Return, but in honesty, I don’t think there were too many figures in that line that I purchased that I wound up not really enjoying. But during that time, I also got into the 3P scene, and realized that there was no contest, and so focused my collecting there. I haven’t purchased an official Hasbro Transformer in months, and have only purchased two in the last calendar year. I have not seen anything that has made me regret this decision.

So it is with my upgrading. My once massive and complete Combiner Wars collection has dwindled to only a few pieces: Sky Lynx, Cyclonus, the Protectobots (because I am not invested in them enough to spend for a 3P replacement, although, maybe one day), Platinum Lio Kaiser, Unite Warriors Grand Galvatron and Megatronia, figures like the Leader class Megatrons and Ultra Magnus. I cannot truly say that such a liquidation bothers me, as I have replaced the lost pieces with ones better.

I think an issue is brewing however, when it comes to the Third Party Masterpiece-scale figures. Several months ago I got MakeToys’ Meteor, their Masterpiece style Starscream. I’d read some things about that figure prior to buying it, and it seems like every third review says that Meteor is so good that it could take the place of either of the official Masterpiece Starscreams. A Coffin article on that figure is on the way, but I do have to say that I could see replacing official Takara Masterpiece Seekers with this mold, and would not anticipate any regret or diminished collection value. I would not use Meteor as an excuse to sell any of my MP Starscreams, since I love the character so much, but let’s just say that MP-6 Skywarp and MP-7 Thundercracker have been relegated to the bottom shelf in the Masterpiece detolf, and are about to be positioned behind a bunch of other MPs as I rearrange that detolf, and that may be the first signal that they’re going to be on the way to eBay when the winter eBay listings start being assembled. It’s not intended as a slight against them as figures, but a testament to the better nature of their MakeToys versions. The addition of MakeToys Despotron last month has put MP-05 Megatron in a similarly precarious position.

If there is any kind of lesson in this article, I would have to say that I have learned something about collecting, or have altered my outlook on the hobby. In years past, I had a general view of collecting as being a process of amassing pieces, and so my collection was generally focused on growth. More recently, over the past three or so years, I’ve found that my collecting has refocused on value instead. Many years ago, Combiner Wars Bruticus and G1 Bruticus and Warbotron Bruticus would have all held down places in my collection, because my goal was number based. Now, I seem pretty firmly positioned in a place where I value actual value over quantity, and since Warbotron Bruticus is the best version available to me, Combiner Wars Bruticus was no longer necessary. The same can generally be said of the G1 figures still in my possession: Titans Return provided me with new versions of Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher and Mindwipe, so my originals no longer felt necessary, but mostly superfluous. For most of my collecting life, I would just put older or outclassed pieces away in storage, and then sit and bask in the knowledge that I had them. But that no longer seems to be the case.