What I'm really asking (after some self-clarification) is this:

There are new figures released all the time or sold here or at DAZ that require the base figure of another model - like V4, Michael, or whatever.

So the question is if I actually need those original characters in order to make use of the "new" character that requires those older base characters as a base, OR can I use the morphing products from DAZ that morph Genesis or Genesis 2 into the older versions, and then work from there.

My guess is that I need the original characters because when I've inadvertently tried to apply a character to a base I didn't have (hit the buy button without reading the full description), I get the error message that I don't have the required base character. As such, I don't guess the newer model "know" that the V4 character (as an example) is really just a Genesis morph, and the new character wouldn't load.

I just want to know for sure.