TRANSFORMERS Collection Catalog

The CLASS field in this template has ninety entries. That is not excess. That is the minimum required to meaningfully organize a Transformers collection that spans Masterpiece Takara, third-party Fans Toys, G1 Japanese Takara originals, Beast Wars Metals, Diaclone, and a handful of Unique Toys PEs sitting in the to-sell pile. A collector who cannot distinguish MPT from MPH or G1J from G1N is working blind in a secondary market where those distinctions represent price differences of $50 to $400 per figure.

The Cost of an Unindexed Shelf

When a collection exceeds sixty pieces without a formal catalog, three things happen. First, you buy duplicates — usually of figures you acquired years ago that have migrated to storage bins and fallen out of mental inventory. The second purchase feels like a deal until you open the bin in December. Second, you misjudge what you've actually spent. The Fans Toys Quakewave that felt like a $280 impulse buy sits alongside nine other third-party pieces whose individual prices you no longer recall. The aggregate becomes abstract. Third, when you decide to sell, you have no documented purchase prices, no condition records, and no photos — so you either under-price or spend two hours re-photographing pieces for a listing.

The dual currency fields — PRICE (CAD, purchase) and SOLD (CAD, resale) — close the buy/sell loop on every individual record. After six months of selling off underperformers, you can calculate exact realized gains and losses per piece rather than relying on impressionistic accounting. A BadCube Brawny that cost $180 and sold for $140 is a known loss. A G1 Japanese Ironhide in G condition that cost $85 and sold for $310 is documented profit. Both matter for how you allocate future purchases.

The Records Built Around a Single Figure

Photograph support is split across five dedicated image fields: FIGURE (packaged or display context), ROBOT-MODE, ALT-MODE, ACCESSORIES, and MISC. This separation reflects how Transformers are actually evaluated — robot mode kibble, alt-mode shell fit and panel alignment, and accessory completeness are three independent quality dimensions that a single catch-all photo field collapses into noise.

For a Fans Toys FT-04 Scoria, the alt-mode field captures whether the tail section aligns flush with the fuselage — a known QC variable across production runs that affects resale value. The accessories field documents whether the two included sword handles are both present and uncracked. The robot-mode field shows whether the chest-mounted Dino head sits flush without the gap that affects early run units. These are the details a serious buyer will ask about. Having them pre-photographed and field-separated means you can answer in thirty seconds.

The CLASS multichoice field permits multiple selections per figure, which matters for third-party items that span categories — a Perfect Effect upgrade kit (KIT) for a Studio Series figure (STS) needs both codes to be findable under either classification scheme.

Pulling the Sale Candidate Under Time Pressure

A thread on the collector forum goes up: someone is looking for a nice MPT-style Soundwave, preferably with cassette accessories. You have three pieces in the MPT class. Two are core to the shelf — not for sale. One is a purchase you made opportunistically and have been lukewarm on since.

You filter: CLASS = MPT, check the SOLD field — empty, so it's unsold. Open the record. Robot-mode photo shows tight panel fit. Accessories photo shows all four cassettes present. Notes field says "minor paint rub on left forearm, otherwise excellent." PRICE was $380. Current market rate for a complete MPT-05 in this condition is $420 to $450.

You respond to the thread with the condition note already drafted. The accessories photo goes into the DM the moment they ask.