Again...fantastically helpful responses from people...a brilliant forum. I will definitely look around and to tell the truth I have looked at the Toneboosters because of this thread...hadn't heard of them. 
I know everyone will have their effects of choice, and for most of you this is because they work for you, you have taken the time to learn them well and they do what you want them to do. That is the next step for me...to carefully pick some plugins that I will use generically across my music, stick with them until I know them inside out and apply them properly in the mix, instead of always half-trying out loads of toys and their presets.
Thanks again for all the good advice.
 

bitflipper
(bapu, was that too strong? I'm trying to moderate my vitriol toward Waves for the sake of forum civility.)

I don't even like using the Waves freebie I got.  I hate when companies make me jump through hoops for registration and make it an ongoing process .  Waves had the advantage of being the first big name plugin maker and have rode that advantage for years.  There are too many companies making products as good or better.  Fabfilter, Softube and Sound Toys  come to mind on the high end. meldaproduction plugins are phenomenal with the one consistent knock being the GUI if one needs to nitpick.  If offered both for free, I would take melda's total bundle over waves because I would know I would have a world class product and not have to worry about my registration not being recognized in the middle of a project.