Vintage Vader was one of my favorites as a kid too. Wore him out to the point that he couldn't stand anymore, and like Scott said, lost the saber, the cape, the paint...
Got a replacement in '83, and just loathed the vinyl cape at that point. New Vader ditched the 70's vinyl for a more modern cloth cape by stealing Squid Head's. The brown worked for me since Jedi Luke had a brown robe too.
As far as ultimate Vader goes, I think as long as we have the current state of cloth robes I will never be satisfied with Vader in the same way I am with a VOTC Han or Chewie. The cloth is always too bulky, too smooth, and too "shimmery" for me to be supremely satisfied. We need to get to a state of a nicely pliable, yet molded and detailed plastic/PVC version of the robes...something I have no idea if it will ever be possible.
Until then...I guess the 30AC version is my go-to, even though I only bought it at the time for the Ben Kenobi robe accessory.