I grew up int he 90s so my era of Transformers is
Beast Wars, yet I still collect the
Masterpiece Transformers line which mostly represents characters from the 80s animated series, which I'm too young to have any nostalgia for. Great figures all around, and the key characters transcend a single generation too, even though these particular figures are meant to represent the original incarnations. Thankfully, Beast Wars is starting to get some much needed representation in the Masterpiece line.
I own almost all of the
Mega Man X figures from Bandai's D-Arts line, even though my experience with the game series is limited. I played the hell out of, and cherished Mega Man Xtreme on the Gameboy Color as a kid, and became completely obsessed with the characters at the time. It wasn't until much later did I actually have the means to play the original Mega Man X.
I bought a few of the
Revoltech Patlabor figures many years ago when they first came out because I thought they looked super cool, although I have never seen the anime.
This was the first Macross figure I ever bought, and I wasn't familiar with the anime at all at the time. It's actually what inspired me to check out the anime, i didn't even know that it was the main protagonists Valkyrie when I first bought it!
Nowadays, I don't really do this anymore. I need to be at least somewhat invested, or have a purpose to what I buy. For example, I'm collecting any Figma and SH Figuarts figures to represent the cast of Super Smash Bros. I haven't played Fire Emblem Awakening or Fates, but I have Lucina and will be getting Corrin. I picked Figma Snake before I had even played Metal Gear (I've since played MGS 1-3, love em). I will also probably pick up SHF Ryu even though I don't play Street Fighter.
I've also been collecting Hot Toys Iron Man figures for the last few years, but I wouldn't call myself the biggest fan of the character or the movies. I only like about half of the Marvel movies that Tony Stark has appeared in, but the figures are some of the best that I've ever owned and they look incredible.
Collect what makes you happy, and if you're not interested in property, perhaps use that figure as launchpad to checking it out. You might end up loving that figure even more once you get familiar with the source material.
