The exception to your rule.
 

So this may not be everyone across the board but as a marvel universe collector my personal preference is only to pick up figures of characters I know and love.
I know we have some guys who are all about collecting them all, and that is fine and dandy but I also know there are more of you like me who only get the characters you read/grew up with.
That stated, I found an exception to my rule just last week and it was quite unexpected.

I was at Target searching for the new wave when I stumbled upon apocalypse! I immediately snagged him as yes I love the X men figures.
Behind him however I spotted a world war hulk.
Now hulk is an ok guy, he's really one of those characters for marvel that's popular and has been there for quite the long haul but I dont know something about him really fails to grab at me.
I had seen pictures online of this figure, I had seen some reviews (fxfranz had a great one in particular) and had ultimately decided against picking him up.

Something about seeing him on the pegs, a figure I had never spotted before that day.. and actually holding it in my hands however made me WANT to purchase him.
To be honest, I am quite glad that I did because this figure is amazing! The articulation, the detail in the paint and the sculpt.. the accessories (oh GOD the accessories..) it's just a premium package for MU.

So my question to Toyark is, which figures in this line of toys has thus far become YOUR exception to the rule? Who was so good that even though you resolved NOT to buy them upon seeing them you had no choice?

I never really had a strict rule to collecting MU. I just want the X-Men figures (as everone else does, apparently). But I do have some Iron Men, Black Widow, Punisher, Black Ronin, Red Hulk, and Constrictor. All of these were impulse buys just seeing them and possible custom fodder. But I guess the one that I had predetermined I'd get that wasn't X-Men was Ghost Rider.

I started about three months ago with only wanting to collect enough to make a Avengers and Dark Avengers team. But after seeing the ones I have already purchased made me just want to collect them all. (detailing, articulation, and accessories) I now am only missing about 5 of the figures to complete the single card collection. (not including variants) The old Giant pack wal-mart exclusives. I am just now waiting for the 2011 wave to come out to Houston. I have no regrets making the decision to start collecting them, all thanks to the Dark Spider-Man (Venom) and Dark Wolverine (Daken) Comic 2 pack. :)

I collected from the first week they were released. It's the first series of figures I had my hand in from day 1 and loved every minute of it. However, I started only grabbing people I liked as well. I passed on punisher and black panther originally for example. But as you see your collection grow and those figures are out there, you see them again and want them. I knew I was hooked when I sen constrictor (someone i have no connection to at all) and picked him up along with Thanos the first and only time I'd spotted that series in store. Now I own every single carded figure they've released and loads of rares and variants too! I'm hooked! Happily. :)

the ENTIRE IM2 line.

My 'rules' are to only get characters who've appeared in something I've seen or read, who also belong to one of my teams (Avengers, X-men, Defenders, etc).

Punisher is an exception since he's just a lone wolf but too cool to not get.

Black Bolt (if he ever gets a release) will also be an exception - I don't really know anything about him but I like the idea of getting all of the Illuminati.

To be fair mate i hate and love the MU figures:

I LOVE em because of exactly what you said,i didnt want ANY but iv ended up with:

Winter soldier (bought for parts but loved the figure)
Ghost rider (bought for parts but loved the figure)
Juggernaut (HATED him in the comic books...yet was blown away by how cool the figure was)

And on my must get list are:
WW Hulk
Cable
Apocalypse
Cyclops
Warpath
Black costume Spidey

And the reason i hate em??

Because they keep blowing me away with how great they are....and i HAVE TO KEEP BUYING THE DAMN THINGS!!!

Thor line when i first saw it and laughed! Told myself never would i collect it. Kept seeing it and finally they went on sale so i picked all but the light up Thor and i must say they look great even better after seeing the movie i cant wait for wave 2!

I'm the same type of collector as you with the picking and choosing. If I don't know the character, I don't buy them. And mine is actually WW Hulk too. I just got him last week after passing on him a handful of times. I have the regular MU Hulk, and I only want one rep of each of my characters, so I kept skipping him to stick to my rule.. and the traditional Hulk doesn't wear Viking gear. I ran into him again last week and couldn't resist... and thank god I couldn't. I agree on the awesomeness too. I think he really might be the best fig they've done so far.

I mostly only collect things that are Iron Man related. Don't get to many other characters, but if it's Avengers related (especially Cap and Thor) then it's likely I'll eventually cave and grab them. I'll also only by figures of characters that were in the comics or the movies, not repaints with random colors

GIJoe is my thing, so I'm not new to 1/18th figs.

I started out with my favorite MU characters, Panther and Cap.

Then every X-Men/mutant related character.

Then every Cap or Panther related character (Avengers).

Then every Avenger and Shield related character.

"Wow, the MU Galactus is awesome."

Dammit, I might as well buy them all.

The IM2 line. I'm not even a big IM fan, but I can't help buying the different comic armors that IM wore through the years.

The bulk of my collection is Iron man driven, so I try to snag ever armour available in the MU line, the Iron man 2 line is a diff story, I got all the notebles like iron monger, hulk buster, titanium man, crimson dynamo, etc... but there seems to be 20-30 figures I really don't care about. even at half price I still don't feel compelled to buy them. I was that way about the thor figures 2 until I got a giftcard to walmart and bought near the entire 1st wave, I still don't really like them but they're better then my first critiques. I started collecting MU since the day they launched... I used to work at Homehardware and ordered 2 cases of these in so I could buy what I wanted. I would love it if I had the $$ to order online and be a completist and army builder galore, but just not there, any figures I see that I currently don't have in stores I try to buy if I can, I stick away from the Spiderman figures, but venom was my exception... he's so bad as and kinda surprised MU hasn't made him yet, I would say variants is my expection.. I try not to get caught up getting all 2-3 versions of this figure... especially the pricey ones like vision,warpath, archangel, which I have non of.. 1 of each is fine for me, if I spot the variant I may pick it up but not at scalper prices online.

Bucky. Up until a few years ago I was like "Bucky? Man %&*$ Bucky!). Then Ed Brubaker writes him into becoming one of the best Captain Americas.

So I bought him. Not a bad figure. Cool to display next to 1st Appearance Cap

I didn't really have any rules for MU, but I had decided I wouldn't buy any Thor figures after getting sucked into the IM2. In terms of plastic crack addiction, War Machine was my gateway drug to the IM2 line.

But I went ahead and bought Loki. Still want one with a helmet, but I'm glad I got the first one too.

I have always stuck to just getting one of a figure, then along came Multiple Man, he has always been one of my favs, and his name just screams, MORE THAN ONE!!!!

I told myself no IM2 figures but totally caved on that comic series War machine.. he is just so amazing.

I don't know if you're still interested, but I've got a loose Loki looking for a good home.

I would be, but I'm not in a position to BST anything at the moment. Maybe in a couple of weeks, but not right now. Thanks for the offer, though.

Apocalypse and carnage (from the Spidey line, but still).
I always thought Apocalypse was a contrived villian- and goofy as hell with that big froggy mouth...he looked like a mean clown.
...but then he was shown in the comics fighting in ancient Egypt against the Brood invasion and against the Eternals five hundred years back and I started to like him...and then the Mu figure pics were so fantastic so I ordered him from BBTS and was blown away by the figure's coolness and size!

Then there's Carnage- a character I HATED before the current Carnage mniseries (starring Iron Man and Spidey!)- the insan art in the comic made geting the figure a must and I lucked into one at target- glad I bought him too- nicely scaled against venom and a great contrast to the assembled horder of MU villains!