Wow series 2 had 20 variations.... Damn..
Yeah, my take on that from being around the line from the beginning is that series 1 was so successful and wasn't overdone (at that time) that vendors thought the next series would be a sure thing. At this point in time the initial series 1 sets were selling for $30+ with the Onell blue set going for upwards of $50.
So, many more retailers supported series 2 from the start and many of the new ones picked their color and had it done up in series 1 as well. Series 2 had perceived issues with the voting and the characters just didn't hit consumers as well as series 1. And, all of a sudden the market was flooded with a TON of offerings of both series 2 and new series 1 colors. Some initial supporters threw in the towel trying to keep up with series 1 and not LOVING series 2.
Series 3 suffered mainly because many retailers were still holding a lot of series 2 inventory, so it didn't get the retailer support. Now, this series 4 has a chance to be a new beginning and series 5 seems like it's shaping up to be very solid.
I've got a bunch of series 1 colors and APs, but the only series 2 stuff I got initially was LRG green and LRG metallic purple and the flesh from kickstarter. I then picked up the Luke's exclusive gold in series 1 and 2 as that's a cool color. And, Cry-Borg is my favorite from that series so I then picked up the army green set and pink AP Cry-Borg from rufus. With series 3 I got a flesh set from the kickstarter and then just LRG green.
With series 4 I honestly would love to see more colors come to market and I'm interested in this line again. Series 2 I wasn't that crazy about and bought the sets I did more to support certain vendors and show support for the overall line. I defintely want to see lots of colors for series 5 when we get there, too.
My favorite color other than LRG green is the AP orange the series 1 artists picked after selling through their pink APs. I would love to see the individual artists make more effort to do fun things and create interest in their characters and APs and maybe we could get to the point of having AP orange for other series! Who doesn't want an orange pumpkin?